Chapter 94: Infant Corpse

I was at the back of the group. Just one glance at He Yu’s reaction after seeing what was inside the coffin, and I knew something was seriously wrong. He had spent a full twenty minutes earlier with a waterlogged corpse without so much as flinching, but now he was sucking in a sharp breath.

That told me whatever was in this coffin might be beyond what I could handle.

But I had already walked over. The moment I peeked inside, my stomach turned violently.

What lay in the coffin was something that could barely be described as human. If we hadn’t seen the tiny footprints earlier and confirmed it was an infant, I would never have associated this thing with a baby.

Its entire body was submerged and twisted in the green burial fluid. Lu A’yao had mentioned earlier that the other coffin held a baby that hadn’t reached full term, but I suspected this one hadn’t even fully developed. I only saw two naturally formed arms curled beneath its body. There were no naturally grown legs.

Why do I stress “naturally grown”? Because this corpse had been implanted with two additional sets of limbs—arms and legs. These extra limbs were unnaturally long and thin, and had to be folded just to fit into the coffin and its outer casing. The whole thing looked like some grotesque, oversized worm.

As soon as the coffin was opened, a stench wafted out. The smell hit me hard, and I couldn’t hold it in—I staggered to the wall and threw up.

When I finished, I realized that while the others were clearly disturbed, they were holding it together better than I was. Lu A’yao handed me a bottle of water so I could rinse my mouth.

He Yu had somehow found a piece of cloth to cover his nose and mouth. Standing by the coffin, he drew the long mountain-splitting knife from his back and used the flat of the blade to flip the corpse over in the green liquid.

“What kind of twisted ritual is this? So many legs it’s making me want to puke. A human centipede?” he muttered, using the blade to lift one of the implanted legs.

The leg had clearly been soaking in the fluid for far too long—it was bloated and pale. With one flick, He Yu snapped it clean off. The slick limb slipped from the blade and hit the ground with a wet slap.

The smell intensified. He Yu gagged a few times. “Shit! This is messed up. Old Lu, you’ve seen a lot—ever come across anything like this?”

I rinsed my mouth several more times, but the stench lingered around me, even stronger than what was coming from the coffin.

I looked at the leg He Yu had tossed to the floor and suddenly felt something was off. “It doesn’t really look like a centipede,” I said. “Why do I feel like… that’s an adult’s leg?”

Chen Canghai was closest to the limb. He crouched down and nudged it with his knife. After examining it, he turned to Lu A’yao and started signing something.

I focused on watching his hand gestures, but then he suddenly froze mid-sign. Lu A’yao noticed his expression shift and quickly turned to look at me. That’s when I realized something was wrong—the way they were looking at me was strange.

I touched my face. “What? Is there something on me?”

He Yu turned at my words, and the moment he saw me, his expression twisted into horror. The three of them were staring at me, but what unsettled me the most was that they weren’t looking at me—they were staring at something behind me.

At the same time, the nauseating stench hit me again, even stronger than before. It felt like it was coming from right behind my neck, as if something was pressed up against my back. My legs started to tremble. I realized—there was something crouched behind me.

“Lower your head,” He Yu mouthed silently, eyes wide as he gestured frantically for me to duck.

Lu A’yao had already moved within two steps of me. On the other side, Chen Canghai slowly pulled back the bolt on his gun.

I lowered my head and caught sight of my shadow under the firelight. It looked disturbingly off. I could clearly see a flat, round head behind me, almost pressed against my back. A figure was half-crouched on me.

Cold sweat poured down my back. My legs were weak, but I knew I couldn’t collapse now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lu A’yao draw his soft whip and signal to me. I understood, and started counting down in my head: “Three, two, one.”

The moment I reached “one,” I suddenly ducked my head and leaned back, slamming my back hard against the stone wall behind me. The pressure on my back vanished. Something tumbled off me and hit the ground.

A piercing, ear-splitting wail erupted right by my ear, nearly deafening me.

Lu A’yao didn’t even check on me. His whip cracked past the back of my head, but the thing was too fast. He only managed to catch one of its legs. The creature was incredibly strong—it yanked the whip and launched itself across the stone wall, darting over our heads.

“It’s the infant corpse! Goddamn it! Kill it!” He Yu shouted, racking his gun and opening fire. Bullets tore through the air, chasing the black blur and leaving rows of holes in the stone.

Chen Canghai’s black powder gun exploded with a thunderous bang, hitting one of the creature’s legs. A splash of black fluid burst out, spraying across the floor. Sparks from the gunfire lit up the entire cave.

Spent casings flew toward my face. Several ricocheted bullets grazed my skin. I dove for cover, rolling to the stone wall near the coffin, where Chen Canghai was.

His black powder gun was slow to reload, but every shot counted.

I yelled at He Yu, “Can you stop spraying bullets everywhere?! If you don’t kill that thing, you’re gonna kill me!”

“Shit! It’s too fast! Cease fire! I can’t see it anymore!” He Yu said, lowering his gun slightly.

The cave fell silent once more.

Chen Canghai only pulled the bolt back on his gun, then lowered the barrel to point at the ground. I glanced over at Lu A’yao—his whip was already back in his hand. He lifted it for a look, then tossed it aside. The whip had snapped, its surface marked with bite marks. Whatever that thing was, its teeth were sharp enough to chew clean through his Soft Whip.

He Yu slung his gun over his shoulder and swept the area with his torch. All that remained was a large pool of black blood and the severed leg that Chen Canghai had shot off—no corpse in sight.

“Pah! Damn thing ran fast. Even with all our firepower, we couldn’t take it down. There’s something off about it,” He Yu spat on the ground. “Better hope I don’t run into it again.”

He stepped up to the infant corpse’s coffin and fired a few rounds into the head of the other silent baby corpse inside. Green fluid splattered out. He jerked his chin toward me and said, “Better safe than sorry. If another one of those pops out, we’re screwed.”

I wanted to take a closer look at the pool of black blood, but just as I moved, my foot hit a rock. I stumbled back half a step, and the moment my foot came down, I heard a sharp crack. My heart sank. Shit.

The next second, I heard the grinding of gears from the stone wall behind the coffin and its outer casing. The semicircular platform where the coffin sat suddenly began to rotate backward. He Yu was flung off instantly. Chen Canghai, closest to the stone wall, was pulled behind the rotating door. Lu A’yao reacted first, lunging toward me with an outstretched hand.

But we were too far apart. He missed. I cried out as the rotating door shoved me backward. As I was pulled through, the last thought that flashed through my mind was: I let my guard down! Damn it, I’ve been in this cave for so long and never thought to check—there was a hollow space behind that wall!

Behind it was a crumbling stone platform. I landed hard on the ground, dizzy from the impact of the rotating door. Then I heard the sound of stones falling nearby. I turned my head and saw Chen Canghai dangling off the edge, both hands gripping the side of the platform. Below him yawned a bottomless abyss.

I didn’t hesitate. Gritting my teeth through the pain, I scrambled to my feet and sprinted forward, diving toward him just as the edge began to crumble. I grabbed hold of him with all my strength, just in time.