What Was It Like to See the Back of Your Own Head?

Two human centipedes coiled around the front and back of the stone bridge, surrounding the two men.

The mouths on the centipedes' human faces opened and closed, and their pale eyes shone with devout faith. Then a somewhat chaotic Buddhist chant emerged from their mouths...

"Tell me at length of a place without worry or suffering, that I may be reborn there, for I take no pleasure in the defiled and evil world of Jambudvipa. This defiled and evil world is filled with hells, hungry ghosts and beasts, and much evil gathers there. May I hear no evil voices and see no evil people in the future. Now, before the World-Honored One, I prostrate myself and beg to repent..."

The voices were noisy at first, then joined as one. Xu Chunliang looked at the human centipedes and saw blissful smiles spreading across their pitch-black, ghastly faces as they chanted. He could not help cursing inwardly, Lunatics.

Then he tightened his grip on the wooden saber and charged the centipede before him.

His saber flashed, and a web of fine cracks appeared on the wooden blade. A streak of Eerie Tiger Saber qi shot toward the centipede.

The dozens of human faces on the centipede continued chanting without pause. Its two-meter-long arms and legs moved together in a flurry, sending it speeding around the stone bridge and hanging beneath it, evading Xu Chunliang's saber qi. Then it flipped back up and rammed toward Xu Chunliang and Li Baiyi.

Instead of retreating, Xu Chunliang pressed forward. He turned the wooden saber in his hand and slashed at the human centipede again.

Bang!

The wooden saber struck the centipede, splitting it in two from the center of its forehead. At the same time, a tremendous force sent Xu Chunliang flying off the bridge.

As he hit the water, Xu Chunliang was surprised to see a luminous pearl appear on Li Baiyi's forehead when the human centipede behind them rammed into him,

Heart Sutra incantations poured constantly from the pearl, and a golden Buddhist light appeared, surrounding and protecting Li Baiyi.

The moment the human centipede touched it, the golden Buddhist light scorched it, and it fell into the deep water beneath the bridge in agony...

Splash!

Xu Chunliang fell into the water.

A cold, eerie, ominous aura enveloped him along with the river water, and mouths opened and bit into his body.

Countless strands of black hair surged up from the riverbed like water weeds, wrapping around Xu Chunliang's arms and thighs and dragging him toward the bottom.

Xu Chunliang slashed fiercely with his saber as he opened his eyes and looked around.

In the pitch-black water, countless humanoid monstrosities, centipedes and long snakes stitched together from human bodies opened their countless eyes. Like stars in the night sky, their eyes fixed on Xu Chunliang, their gazes flickering, eerie and elusive.

Even after falling into the water and being surrounded by countless monsters, Xu Chunliang still refused to give up. Clutching his wooden saber, he attacked again.

Squelch!

With one slash, he severed the hair wrapped around his hand...

At the bottom of the river, an enormous, murky monster opened its thirteen eyes all at once and watched Xu Chunliang curiously.

Then it moved...

Black silt churned on the riverbed, instantly turning the dark, clear water a murky black. The monster rose from the bottom and opened its enormous mouth. It lunged at Xu Chunliang.

On the stone bridge, Li Baiyi saw Xu Chunliang fall into the water. He drove the human centipede back with a slash of his sword, slapped himself hard, then laughed aloud:

"Life and death shall be my playthings! Terror is nothing but an epiphyllum blooming between life and death!"

With that, he leaped toward the dark, terrifying river!

"Brother-in-law, wait for me! I'm coming to save you!"

"Or die with you!"

A true man should face death unflinchingly; a true man should die alongside his friends!

Although he and Xu Chunliang had known each other for less than a day, he considered Xu Chunliang a good friend, a brother, and the husband his younger sister had never met!

He, Li Baiyi, would die alongside his brother. How glorious!

But when he fell into the river, he discovered that he could not find Xu Chunliang anywhere in the murky lake water...

"Brother-in-law..." Li Baiyi's eyes stung, and a manly tear rolled down his face.

Pain!

Pain!

Pain!

Xu Chunliang felt as though his body had been bitten to pieces.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw his own backside, hanging on a row of sharp teeth.

His upper body was hanging from a mass of black flesh, and his body reeked of decay.

"Am I...? Inside something's mouth?" Xu Chunliang understood, and stabbed his wooden saber viciously into the black flesh.

A mournful shriek came from the bottom of the river.

Xu Chunliang felt the world spin around him. Then he slammed headfirst into a row of sharp teeth, and his head was sliced in two.

Looking at the back of his head, covered in wet black hair, Xu Chunliang murmured to himself:

"So the back of my head is this round..."

Xu Chunliang died.

When Xu Chunliang opened his eyes again, he was standing on the stone bridge. Looking at the human centipede before him, he casually tucked the wooden saber into his belt.

"Brother-in-law, why are you putting away your weapon? Is that wooden saber no good?" Li Baiyi asked curiously.

Xu Chunliang nodded. "Yeah, this wooden saber is no good. Baiyi, let me borrow your... weapon. You don't mind, do you?"

Li Baiyi rolled his eyes, but still held out the Elegant Heart Sword to Xu Chunliang. "I don't mind... I already told you I'd give it to you, but you insisted I keep it. Here. The Elegant Heart Sword is sharp enough, so you can use it like a saber."

Xu Chunliang did not take the sword. Looking a little awkward, he said, "Baiyi, you misunderstood. I didn't mean borrowing your sword. I meant borrowing you to use as a weapon...,

"So we can both make it across this bridge alive, I have to use you even if you mind."

Three question marks appeared over Li Baiyi's head. "You said you wanted to use me as a weapon. I didn't misunderstand... Fuck!"

Before he could finish, he felt someone grab his ankle...

Xu Chunliang bent down and grabbed Li Baiyi by the ankle. Ignoring his furious curses, he swung him around like a great saber...

Since Buddhists were accustomed to making human bodies into weapons for killing, and Li Baiyi happened to have swallowed that pearl and obtained part of the Buddhist legacy,

Using him as a weapon might be their only choice for breaking through on the stone bridge.

Besides, he still remembered the glimpse he had just caught...

Eerie Tiger Descends the Mountain!

Xu Chunliang charged at the human centipede!

A pearl appeared at the center of Li Baiyi's forehead, Heart Sutra incantations pouring constantly from it. A Buddhist light appeared, surrounding and protecting Xu Chunliang.

Xu Chunliang swung Li Baiyi in a wide arc and smashed him viciously into the human centipede before him!

Bang!

Li Baiyi's face smashed into the human centipede's face. Both Li Baiyi and the centipede were stunned!

"Roar!"

As Xu Chunliang continued forward, human centipedes and long human snakes leaped one after another from the river, blocking his path,

But Xu Chunliang held Li Baiyi upside down, like a heavenly god descended to earth.

He had gone completely berserk!