Chapter 33: The Bug of Death

  "What does 'the hearts of two old threes' mean?" I asked in surprise. "Is there a Yang Cangcang?"

  Fu Ma frowned and said: "Guan Guan didn't hear it, Lao San's heart voice is very strange, he seems to have become two people."

  "Could it be that Won't Grow Old Three has also been soul-split?" I exclaimed in shock.

  Karamay made a silencing gesture, and we quickly quieted down, perked up our ears to listen to the situation in the cave. Inside, there were faint rustling sounds, like someone was speaking in a low voice, or maybe it was just the wind blowing through the leaves of trees.

  "Go in and take a look." Karamay said quietly, pointing at the entrance of the cave.

  Xiao Lao looked at Director Zheng's body with some sadness and said, "What about Old Zheng?"

  Karamay sighed: "It can only be abandoned like this, we can't even protect ourselves now."

  The four of us walked towards the deeper cave entrance, before we left, I turned back to look at Director Zheng, sighing with emotion, only hoping that my grandfather would be safe and sound.

  This doesn't seem right, Director Zheng's corpse suddenly opened its eyes, I was so scared that I broke out in a cold sweat and let out a loud cry. Karamay turned around and asked: "What's wrong?"

  I stammered: "He... he opened his eyes."

  Xiao Lao hastily gathered around Director Zheng's side, looked for a long time and said: "Jun Yang's friend, Old Zheng's complexion is calm, there are no signs of corpse change, how can he open his eyes? Moreover, there is also this '镇尸驻颜符' (a symbol to stabilize the corpse and maintain its appearance)."

  Karamay said somewhat impatiently: "Alright, stop scaring yourself, saving people is urgent."

  We didn't understand Director Zheng, and walked towards the cave. After a while, Kelamayi suddenly waved his hand and said: "Turn off the flashlight."

  I was still wondering how we could walk with the flashlight turned off, but when it suddenly went dark in the cave, I saw a blue glow shining in front of us. We quietly walked towards the blue light, and I couldn't help but let out a sigh of amazement.

  The cave around me turned into a sea of blue, as if I was in an ocean aquarium. Upon closer inspection, I felt something was off. The blue ocean seemed to be made up of small crystals densely packed together. I touched one of the crystals with my hand and found it had a sticky membrane on its surface, inside which was blue water. A blue insect about the size of an earthworm emerged from the water and wriggled around on the ground.

  I suddenly got goosebumps, it turned out that these blue crystals were the eggs of some kind of insect, and this entire cave was full of insects. What a huge insect it must be to lay so many eggs!

  As soon as the horse entered this cave, it kept looking around, and suddenly it shouted: "A Long is over there!" Following the direction of its finger, Lao San and Yang Cangcang were both wrapped in a larger blue crystal. Under their feet was a pile of white bones that could not be distinguished as human or animal. Above them were densely packed insect eggs, which were all very large. Those insects were all swimming frantically towards Lao San's direction, but had not yet hatched from the eggs.

  Xiao Lao shouted: "This is bad, it seems to be the Death Worm. It's preparing to feed Arong and Cangcang to its larvae. We must hurry up and rescue them."

  Xiao Lao was about to rush forward when Fu Ma stopped him: "Wait, Xiao Lao, take a closer look at what's wrong with Ah Long?"

  After listening to Ma's words, I carefully sized up Lao San and suddenly discovered that there was something on his head that resembled a butterfly's antennae. Yang Can-can seemed to be fine, but Xiao Zhang's mouth was agape: "It's bad, Ah Long has already been assimilated, if we don't save him now it'll be too late."

  Fu Ma said: "I've already heard that Ah Long has two voices, the one who is desperately resisting, be careful not to get caught and hurt, otherwise we'll also be assimilated."

  The four of us rushed over, I used a dagger to cut open the crystal that contained the two of them, and the **inside immediately flowed out all over the ground. Fu Ma and I helped them out, Xiao Lao came over to take a look, pressed down on Yang Can's abdomen, she spat out a mouthful of water, and slowly woke up.

  We saw several of them burst into tears: "How come you're just coming now? How's Ah Long?"

  Xiao Lao also pressed down on Lao San's belly, but Lao San remained in a coma, without any signs of improvement. After repeating this several times with the same result, Xiao Lao sighed and said: "Cang Cang has the protection of the Xuan tribe's bloodline and hasn't been assimilated, but Lao San's situation is not looking good."

  Yang Cangcang suddenly shouted: "Right! There is a gut with eyes in this cave, everyone be careful."

  As I raised my head, I was startled. A pair of eyes as big as a human head were staring at us from the dark, using the faint blue light, I realized how apt Yang Cangcang's metaphor was. The insect was probably about two meters long, its whole body dark red, segmented, with fluffy hair all over, and it had a thickness similar to an adult man's leg. It didn't have a head, but only had a big eye on the front, rolling around and staring at us, it was simply like a intestine that grew eyes.

  "This bug is really disgusting." I shuddered all over.

  Yang Cangcang said angrily: "It's this dead intestine that has made us like this, watch me slaughter it." As she spoke, Yang Cangcang was about to rush over, but Xiao Lao hastily stopped her.

  "Don't be impulsive, this insect is called the Death Bug. Don't look at its big eyes, it's actually blind, but its eyes can spray toxic liquid, which has super strong corrosiveness, none of us can withstand it, don't provoke it." Xiao Lao said while continuing to press on Lao San's abdomen.

  "Are these its eggs? They don't look like it, and why are the larvae blue?" I asked in puzzlement.

  Karamay said: "It doesn't look very normal, frogs and tadpoles don't look like that, I think the array spirit should be that insect."

  Just then, Lao San suddenly opened his eyes, and Xiao Lao excitedly said: "He's awake! He's awake!" But soon discovered something was wrong. Lao San's eyes were all white, and Fu Ma loudly shouted: "Quickly move aside, it's not Ah Long."

  Lao San directly pulled out a machete from behind his back and swung it towards us. Xiao Lao didn't have time to dodge and was slashed, with blood splashing onto the insect eggs on the wall. The larvae burst forth like a pot exploding, while the large intestine in the back continued to rotate its eyes non-stop.

  "Ah Long has been controlled by that insect." Xiao Lao said breathlessly.

  Lao San's knife skills were incredibly fast, like he was crazy, ferociously chopping towards us with every move being a fatal blow. His mouth kept making "squeaking" noises, Yang Cangcang shouted at him for half the day but he didn't wake up, and the horn on his head became even more prominent. Kelamayi continued to use her retractable rod to block his knife: "This won't do, Junyang, I'll block Along, you go kill that insect."

  I shuddered all over: "Me to kill?" I thought I misheard, Yang Cangcang from behind hugged Lao San and shouted at me: "Let you go then go, the descendant of the Phoenix cannot be so cowardly."

  When Yang Cangcang said that, my masculine temperament immediately rose up. I couldn't let a little girl look down on me. With the dagger in hand, I took a swig of wine and walked towards the Death Bug. Xiao Lao shouted from the side: "Junyang, be careful of its poisonous liquid in its eyes."

  I crept up quietly, and the insect seemed to sense something was amiss, raised its body in alarm. Before I could even get close, it turned its eyes on me and spat out a yellow liquid. I hastily dodged to the side, and the spot where I had just been standing was corroded by the yellow liquid, forming a hole. My whole body shuddered at once, seizing the opportunity, I swiftly ran behind the insect's back and stabbed it fiercely. The insect let out an ear-piercing screech in pain, and swept me with its tail, sending me crashing heavily against the wall, my entire body feeling like it had been torn apart.

  That insect was stabbed by me, and Lao San's control seemed to weaken a lot. Lao San's movements were somewhat slow, and Karamay took the opportunity to punch Lao San's belly fiercely. Lao San spat out a blue crystal from his mouth, and Fu immediately stepped on it and killed the insect inside. Lao San suddenly convulsed violently, and fell to the ground.

  That worm seemed to have some kind of connection with Lao San's belly, and when Lao San regained consciousness, the worm became furious and pounced on me again. I dragged my aching body to the side, but the worm had anticipated where I would go and tripped me up with its tail once more. I fell flat on my face, hurting my front teeth, and the things in my backpack scattered all over the ground, including the wine bottle which spilled everywhere.

  The worm slowly crawled towards me with a smug expression, its venomous liquid accumulating in its mouth, ready to strike. Lao San had woken up and shouted at me, "Second Brother, quickly get out of the way!" They all looked serious, wanting to rush over to help but it was too late, I had no strength left, closed my eyes and waited for the worm's venom to corrode me away.

  Who would have thought that after half a day of silence, I opened my eyes to take a look, and that worm was writhing on the ground like a hemp rope. I was stunned for a moment, and then took another careful look and understood - this worm was actually afraid of liquor, its body had been splashed with the liquor I spilled on the ground and it was in agony, rolling around on the ground.

  Opportunity came, I don't know where the strength came from, and I rushed to its big eyes, stabbed it fiercely with a dagger. The insect struggled for a few times and fell straight to the ground. They stared at me in shock, and after a while, they came back to their senses and applauded thunderously.

  Old Three covered his belly and said: "Second Brother, okay, you've got some skills."

  My mind was still wandering on the edge of life and death, and I hadn't recovered yet. Yang Cangcang hurried over to support me and said: "Junyang, are you stupid? That big intestine is already dead, you're too fierce."

  "I calmly raised my head and said, 'That's necessary,'"

  The blue crystals around the cave began to slowly dissipate, and a stone gate opened on the wall. Lao San shouted excitedly: "This water formation was broken just like that? I haven't even used my strength yet!"

  Yang Cangcang hummed and ignored him, helping me pick up the scattered items on the ground. When she saw the box that I had brought back from the boat earlier, she asked: "Where did this box come from?"

  "I brought it back from the sunken ship just now," I replied.

  That box was just dipped in a bit of poisonous liquid from the Death Worm, and it's already damaged. Yang Cangcang took a look and said: "It seems to be a diary inside."