Chapter Twenty-Five: Self-Salvation

  My eyebrows were tightly furrowed, the pillar was invaded by a tapeworm, and later it was twisted off its neck by an oni, even the tapeworm inside its body was pulled out all at once, dead to the point of no return. But damn it, this little guy "came back to life"!

  The pillar's mouth was constantly spewing out black poisonous blood, the rainwater beating his face pale, and his clothes had already formed a thick scab of blood, looking dirty. Ugh... The pillar opened its tongueless bloody maw and spat out a mess of internal organs, I incredulously saw that among the scattered debris on the ground were mixed several small tapeworm larvae, twisting their bodies back and forth on the deck with the rainwater.

  Xu Lai and others were so frightened that their faces turned pale, struggling to move the iron cage. Zhu Zi took heavy steps one by one, swaying in the strong wind as if he would be blown away at any moment.

  "Damn it, don't come over!" Just as the iron cage was about to slide in front of the pillar, Nie Kun shouted loudly. He was a ruthless and cunning master, and in his haste, he took off his belt, gritted his teeth, and fiercely whipped it at the pillar.

  Crash...... The pillar struck back and fell.

  Nie Kun didn't have time to feel proud, and only saw the pillar's body violently convulsing. Under our incredulous gaze, its butt first lifted up, and as it continued to lift higher and higher, its toes and head touched the ground, forming an isosceles triangle with a longer base.

  I immediately realized that something was wrong and shouted at Nie Kun and others: "Be careful, he's going to explode!" In fact, I didn't need to remind him. Nie Kun had already been scared out of his wits when the belt was pulled down. Seeing this strange scene, he quickly led Xu Lai and three others to move towards the edge with all their might. The four big men stretched out their feet from the gap at the bottom of the cage, making a great effort on the slippery deck, slowly approaching me in a slow pace of advancing three steps and retreating two steps. Looking at their serious faces, I actually laughed unknowingly.

  "Oh God, the things below are getting closer." Sherlock looked at the eerie pillar one moment and then gazed down at the floating corpses crawling up from the ship's side, in a state of panic, frantically drawing crosses on his chest, his fingertips almost piercing through his skin.

  Several breaths later, a violent tearing sound of leather echoed. The pillar's body, with its buttocks as the center, ripped open! Almost at the same time, a nauseating stench to the extreme rushed into the nose.

  A large number of small, white, plump earthworms poured out from the pillar's body in a hurry, entwining with each other in clumps. Even I, who have a strong psychological quality, couldn't help but vomit at this scene. The earthworms had obviously spawned inside the pillar and had grown to such a size in less than a day!

  "Don't let these things get into your bodies, or you'll end up like that brother who had his butt explode!" I hastily reminded everyone in a loud voice. As soon as Nie Kun and the others heard my words, their speed increased by twofold.

  The eels were pouring out in large numbers, and at first they didn't know which direction to go. But soon they discovered us and swam towards us like they had found new prey. Luckily for us, these eels didn't have bones, so they couldn't move very fast on the tilted deck. Taking advantage of these precious few minutes, Nie Kun and his men finally made it to the edge of my cage, panting heavily. Before they could even catch their breath, they took one glance at the scene below the ship and cursed loudly. With insects chasing from behind and floating corpses in front, they decided to face the sea and end their lives by jumping into the water.

  The situation has reached a critical point.

  "Ah, this beast bit me!" Xu Lai Can cried out in pain. He looked down and saw the pangolin crouched at the edge of the cage. Enraged, he shouted: "When a person is in dire straits, even a beast wants to bully me!" As he spoke, he raised his foot to stomp it.

  "Stop, stop!" I changed color and hastily blocked. But how could the angry Xu Lai show mercy to a beast, let alone the small head of the Green Gang who always thought himself superior, now only this little animal can be used to vent his anger.

  In the blink of an eye, Xu Lai's large cowboy boots came crashing down with great force. The big fool didn't try to escape, but instead curled up into a ball to protect himself. I quickly turned my head away, unable to bear the sight of the big fool's miserable state, and silently mourned his misfortune in my heart.

  I only heard a loud, mournful cry that seemed to shake the heavens. But wait, something's off about the voice. In an instant, I was shocked to discover that Xu Lai had fallen into the cage in agony, clutching his right foot and wailing incessantly.

  A ten-centimeter-long metal-colored nail pierced through Xu Lai's sole, and fresh blood seeped out. "Ah, it hurts so much!" Xu Lai's body trembled with pain, his eyes filled with venom as he glared at Da Ba.

  I immediately turned my gaze to the armadillo, and saw its small body slowly opening up, stretching out a long tongue to lick my feet, its sharp head looking around cautiously, looking completely harmless. "Am I seeing things? Just now, for an instant, this armadillo grew a thorn on its back?" Sherlock exclaimed in surprise.

  At that moment when Xu Lai stepped on it, the scales on the dragon bone of the coiled bus conditionally reflected and erected a root of inverted thorns from the middle of the Lin Jia, which made Xu Lai unprepared, and the sharp inverted thorns directly pierced into his sole.

  I unbelievably patted the big bar's head, and looked at the small hill again. The latter was affectionately rubbing against my legs like a kitten, obediently. It turned out that these two were so formidable, really, you can't judge a pangolin by its appearance.

  "Could it be the Sword King Pangolin? A creature said to have been extinct for ages!" Nie Kun seemed to know the origins of Da Ba and Xiao Qiu, as he examined Xu Lai's wound, stroking his chin, staring at Da Ba with a thoughtful expression: "Ordinary pangolins don't have teeth, but the Sword King Pangolin does, and they're extremely sharp, because it's a carnivore that feeds on reptiles. The reverse hooks on its back are like those of bees, used as defensive weapons."

  "Without its stinger, will it die?" I had previously heard that bees can't survive after stinging people, and I don't know if the big bee would be the same.

  "It's impossible, I've heard that the adult Sword King's mountain tortoise has three reverse spines, which are updated once every cycle. Without the reverse spines, they will grow out immediately." Nie Kun's eyes were filled with greed: "These two are absolutely top-notch things, eating the soup made from them can detoxify!"

  "My ancestors, stop chatting and help me pull out this broken arrow. The pain is killing me!" Xu Lai cursed incessantly, the veins on his forehead throbbing violently. Nie Kun was furious: "What's with all the shouting? Even if we pull it out, what then? We're all going to die soon, can't you just be a bit more calm?"

  "Nie Kun, it's not you who was stabbed, of course you can talk without feeling pain!" Xu Lai wasn't one to take insults lying down and immediately shot back. I looked at the cold glint of the inverted thorn on Xu Lai's wound and suddenly my eyes lit up. Silently thinking to myself how slow-witted I was, I hastily smiled slyly at Xu Lai and said: "Heh heh heh, Xu Lai, I can pull out the thorn, let me do it."

  Xu Lai stretched out his foot, wearing a large shoe, and slowly extended it in front of me, like a shy little girl. I didn't dare to argue with him, so I quickly grabbed his foot and pinched the thorns. Xu Lai saw that I was smiling mischievously, and his heart felt empty: "Forget it, forget it, I won't pull it out! No, ah, ah, ah!"

  "One, two, three!" I shouted loudly, using all my strength to grip one end of the hook, gritting my teeth and quickly pulling out the barb along with its root. Suddenly, a blood arrow shot out from the sole of my foot with a "whooshing" sound.

  "Great, great, the curvature of this hook is just right for sliding lock core!" I stared at the hook with uncontrollable excitement, as if I had obtained a treasure. Looking at Xu Lai again, he was lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth and screaming like a pig being slaughtered, before passing out from pain, "Brother, sacrificing for the party and country, Chiang Kai-shek will not forget you." I thought to myself that this guy was really pathetic.

  With the tool in hand, I felt a great sense of relief and hurried to unlock it. Sherlock and Nie Kong had already given up their last struggle, but when they saw my action, they suddenly became excited and tears welled up in their eyes: "You damn well still have this trick up your sleeve, I love you to death!"

  "Nobody disturb me!" I roared at them without any courtesy, the lock of this broken cage was harder to open than I expected, and I had to concentrate my mind. The two were not angry at all when I scolded them, and they immediately retreated to one side, taking me as their last straw.

  One minute passed quickly, but there was still no progress in my hands. The thorns were too sharp and fine, making it difficult to exert force, and the water inside the hole kept slipping.

  "Hurry up, Inspector Lestrade!" Sherlock patted me on the back.

  "Don't rush, what's Chiang Kai-shek's verbalism? Give me five more minutes!" I replied impatiently, glancing around to see that the snake group was still at a certain distance from us. Moreover, it might be the deterrent of the pangolin tribe, and the snakes seemed to have great reservations about Da Ba and Xiao Qiu, slowing down their crawling speed significantly.

  Sherlock had a "my mom is dead" expression and was almost in tears: "We can give you five minutes, but this brother is a bit of a wild card."

  I followed Sherlock's indication and looked towards the railing of the deck, and suddenly my face turned green.

  All I saw was a bloated corpse that had crawled out of the water, silently leaning against our cage, its head swollen like a giant pumpkin. Its arms were reaching for us along the bars of the cage, and I felt a chill run down my spine, my hand trembling as I nearly dropped the lifesaving harpoon.

  "Hold on for three minutes, at most three minutes, brothers must hold on for me!" I swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and to be honest, whether we could succeed or not, even I myself didn't know.

  "If you can't handle it in three minutes, I'll crush your egg!" Nie Kun spat out saliva, put the two baskets together, aimed at the floating corpse and kicked one arm flying. He was shocked: "Damn, it's really crispy!"

  But the rotting flesh and stagnant blood that flew out quickly fell on Nie Kun's body in the midst of the strong wind and rain, and a layer of blisters of varying sizes appeared on his chest skin at a visible speed. This scared Nie Kun out of his wits: "This thing has corpse poison, ah, it's so itchy!"

  "Don't scratch, or it'll rot!" Sherlock immediately stopped Nie Kong's action and shouted: "Don't let these things get too close to your body! The strong wind and rain can blow away most of the corpse poison."

  As they spoke, three more floating corpses floated up, and Nie Kun immediately dispatched two of his men to kick awake Xu Lai, who was foaming at the mouth and had passed out. The latter, upon seeing the situation before him, fainted again in a sorry state.

  "Trash!" Nie Kun scornfully despised Xu Lai, and then kicked him awake. Suddenly, he had an epiphany and came up with a brilliant idea.

  Apart from the five big men I thought, they quickly opened their belts, took off their trousers, and were left with only one large underpants covering their vital parts. Several people swung their belts like perverts, acting together in a frenzy, striking the floating corpse with a belt, regardless of how much harm it caused, immediately retreating two meters away. Four middle-aged men plus a blonde-haired foreigner jumped over like big monkeys, swinging their belts again and jumping back, having a great time.

  Seeing them like this, I knew in my heart that if the work on hand didn't speed up a bit, this belt would probably land on my back.