Human Worm

Pale light rose from time to time and flew into Xu Chunliang's body. His attribute points quietly increased.

Xu Chunliang held Li Baiyi and pressed silently onward, killing an eerie creature with every step.

A bright pearl lit up between Li Baiyi's brows. Tears welled in his eyes, and he wore a deeply aggrieved expression as he flew along with the saber's movements.

The Eerie Tiger Saber consisted of three moves. Xu Chunliang performed the full set fifteen times in succession and took dozens of steps before finally spotting a seated Buddha statue at the head of the bridge.

Unlike the Buddha with a house centipede's head that Xu Chunliang had imagined, a golden Buddha statue as tall as a small mountain sat at the end of the stone bridge.

He sat cross-legged on a golden lotus stone pedestal, wearing a golden kasaya and a five-Buddha crown. His long earlobes reached his shoulders, and his chest and belly were bare. His smiling face looked exceedingly joyful.

Xu Chunliang put the dizzy Li Baiyi down and reached out to steady him by the arm. Together, they looked up at the Buddha statue before them.

"This Buddha looks kind and serene, with quite the air of an Immortal and Buddha." The pearl between Li Baiyi's brows gradually dimmed and receded, becoming a glowing lotus-seed-shaped speck. He gazed at the great Buddha before the bridge and murmured to himself.

"Yes. Let's hope his virtue matches his face." Xu Chunliang put a hand on the wooden saber at his waist and stepped forward.

Only when they reached the Buddha did they see how enormous he was. Standing side by side, the two men were no larger than his thumb.

Li Baiyi reached out and touched the giant Buddha's toe, then used his hand to compare its height with his own. He couldn't help saying, "Brother-in-law, if this Buddha statue suddenly came to life, do you think one stomp would flatten the two of us into..."

Xu Chunliang grabbed Li Baiyi and quickly retreated. Sure enough, the giant Buddha lowered his enormous head, his face still smiling as he stared at them eerily.

It didn't lift its enormous foot and stomp at them as Xu Chunliang had imagined. It merely bent over and smiled at them, its gaze exceedingly strange.

Xu Chunliang pulled Li Baiyi slowly backward, for he had noticed that the smile on the Buddha's face was growing wider. His smile was strange: the flesh of his face lifted first, then tugged the corners of his mouth upward in an utterly passive fashion,

creating the impression of a smile. It was as though every cell in the skin and flesh of his face were an independent individual with thoughts of its own, yet all were acting under one powerful command.

There was an eerie lack of coordination. Xu Chunliang seemed to see the same extreme awkwardness and lack of coordination he had felt at a school sports meet in his previous life, when, under their teacher's direction, they had clumsily formed the words "Welcome, leaders, to inspect our school" in a group formation.

Even Li Baiyi noticed something was different. Gripping his sword, he retreated and said softly, "Do you feel it too? This Buddha..."

Before he could finish, they were astonished to see the Buddha change.

It began to collapse like a giant Lego sculpture after someone had pulled out its most critical load-bearing piece.

Its smooth golden skin began to churn and come apart, turning into ghastly white... flesh.

Xu Chunliang's eyes widened involuntarily.

It was an enormous white mass of flesh, fully thirty meters tall, covered in white, maggot-like flesh worms. Each one was the size of an adult.

Each of those worms had a kind and benevolent face.

There were men and women, old and young. Xu Chunliang looked over them and saw some familiar faces.

Brother Dao, Brother Axe, the swordswoman in green...

The faces of those who had died in the Ruin Realm had all appeared on the white worms.

White smoke spurted from the gaps between them, turning into white mucus that enveloped them.

"Brother Xu, come join us~"

"Young Master Li... let's become Buddhas together..."

A clamor of voices rose, turning into a buzzing that filled heaven and earth and assailed their eardrums.

Before Xu Chunliang could react, the flesh worms peeled off the mountain of flesh like falling snow and dropped to the ground.

The instant they landed, two rows of human arms sprouted from their sides like a house centipede's legs. Ten hands on each side pressed against the ground, turning them into fat, terrifying Human Worms with worm bodies, human faces, and human hands. Roaring, they crawled toward Xu Chunliang and Li Baiyi at breakneck speed.

"We'll fight our way out!" Xu Chunliang said calmly.

"All right!"

"If we die, we die together. If we live, we live together, mmph..."

"No!" Li Baiyi cried as Xu Chunliang grabbed him by the ankle once again.

Twice in a row.

As his face slammed into the flesh worms again and again, Li Baiyi sank deep into a peculiar state of self-doubt.

Was I a sword in my previous life?

Impossible! He's clearly using me as a hammer...

Xu Chunliang charged and killed in every direction, but when he realized that no matter how many Human Worms he killed, no more white light entered his body to become attribute points, he understood at once.

These Human Worms were not independent life-forms.

They were dead.

Facing the Human Worms crawling toward them in overwhelming numbers, Xu Chunliang looked up at the frame standing behind them. He had identified his enemy.

And so he ran toward the frame.

Splat!

His foot came down hard, planting itself on the face of a handsome worm.

Using it as a springboard, he leaped high into the air and charged toward the space behind the worms.

But there were too many Human Worms swarming from every direction, and Xu Chunliang was instantly buried beneath their white bodies...

Xu Chunliang died.

The instant he rolled back, Xu Chunliang saw the flesh worms hit the ground, turn into Human Worms, and pounce toward them.

He pulled Li Baiyi quickly back onto the stone bridge. Watching several Human Worms crowd onto the bridge while many more fell into the black river and were instantly devoured by the terrifying existence in the water, Xu Chunliang said softly:

"Baiyi, these Human Worms are only appendages. There's no end to them. You have the pearl protecting you, so you can move freely. I'll find a way to get you in front of that Buddha. See if you can find a way to deal with him."

"All right! Don't worry, Brother-in-law. With us brothers working as one, we can definitely... fuck!"

A hat trick!

Li Baiyi had been grabbed by the foot again.

Against the overwhelming Human Worms attacking without fear of death, no amount of calculation or repetition could solve the problem. Xu Chunliang could only swing Li Baiyi in wide arcs,

charging madly through the ranks of Human Worms.

To kill them more efficiently, Xu Chunliang unhesitatingly spent all 168 attribute points he had gained from killing those human house centipedes on Naihe Bridge on his skill.

And so Xu Chunliang's status panel refreshed once more.

Name: Xu Chunliang

Age: 16

Attribute points: 0

Level: Star Transformation Grade+ (attribute points required to upgrade: 200)

Skill: Eerie Tiger Saber: Eerie Tiger Descends the Mountain, Eerie Tiger Howls at the Heavens, Eerie Tiger Splits the Earth (proficient)

Hidden skill: Kiss of Death (cannot be actively controlled; unleashed at random; probability: unknown)

Remaining rollbacks: unlimited

Current rollback point: Human Worm

So when Xu Chunliang swung Li Baiyi and charged into the swarm of Human Worms, cutting them down like grass, Li Baiyi had a particularly strange feeling.

How come I seem to have gotten stronger?