Chapter 40
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In the blink of an eye, time reversed to just before the whirlpool at the bottom of the river.
At this moment, Fu Xuezhou had just wrapped his silver hair around the red coffin and was about to escape the vortex’s attraction with Lou Yan.
Lou Yan’s body suddenly heated up, the river water felt icy cold, and the alternating hot and cold sensations were painful. But Lou Yan didn’t care about that at all at the moment. He revealed a big smile, and bone spikes suddenly protruded from his skin, sharp and pointed.
Lou Yan grabbed the silver hair, and with a sudden force, he cut off the segment of silver hair held by Fu Xuezhou.
Fu Xuezhou’s figure was instantly pushed back by the vortex, his expression changing drastically. His usual calmness was shattered for the first time, revealing a look of surprise and shock.
Lou Yan reached out and pushed against Fu Xuezhou’s chest, smiling ambiguously as he pushed him towards the center of the whirlpool. Fu Xuezhou blinked and was pushed into the center of the vortex by him.
The powerful suction continuously pulled Fu Xuezhou towards the anomaly’s gaping mouth. All of this happened within a short three seconds. After cutting off the silver hair, the bone spikes retracted back into Lou Yan’s skin.
The appearance of the bone spikes was too short, lasting only about a second. Lou Yan realized that he could still maintain his sanity and understood that his mental strength was still above 5 points. He pulled himself away from the vortex by gripping the silver hair tied to the red coffin and turned to watch Fu Xuezhou being swallowed by the anomaly.
Fu Xuezhou stared intensely at Lou Yan, his expression terrifyingly blank. His silver hair danced around, but it was also stirred up by the vortex, swirling wildly and uncontrollably. The anomaly’s mouth widened further and further, and the murky river water, mixed with water plants and silt, surged into the mouth along with Fu Xuezhou’s distorted figure.
Under Fu Xuezhou’s gaze, Lou Yan, as if finding the situation not exciting enough, chuckled and pulled out the blood-stained metal watch from his pocket. With a light flick, he tossed it down. The metal watch passed through the water flow and landed on the ground, getting rolled under the dirty sand.
Lou Yan shrugged, his smile unabated.
The meaning was expressed very clearly:
“You didn’t want me to lose, but I lost it anyway. Moreover, it’s because of you, you despicable scoundrel.”
Fu Xuezhou’s expression grew even darker.
Lou Yan’s face flushed with a hint of blue, his eyes bloodshot. Half of it was due to excitement, and half was due to suffocation from lack of oxygen. The river water stung his eyes. Lou Yan was running out of oxygen, suffocation spreading throughout his body, causing headaches, dizziness, chest tightness, and weakness in his limbs.
Lou Yan’s mind was blank, but he still stared fixedly at Fu Xuezhou without blinking.
He wanted to witness Fu Xuezhou’s end with his own eyes.
The anomaly emitted incomprehensible murmurs and began to close its huge, foul-smelling mouth.
Lou Yan’s heartbeat accelerated, as if he had taken some kind of drug. Staring at the anomaly for a long time caused Lou Yan’s mental strength to continuously decrease. The suffocation in his body and the contamination in his mind gave Lou Yan a feeling of being at the intersection of life and death.
Thump, thump, everything around him turned into darkness, with only the sound of his heartbeat growing louder.
Bones wriggled under Lou Yan’s skin, throbbing rhythmically. From his hands, arms, shoulders, neck… bones emerged everywhere, trying to burst out from his flesh. If there were others here, they would probably think that a live snake was wriggling under Lou Yan’s skin.
Lou Yan’s eyes gradually turned red, and just as Fu Xuezhou’s figure was completely swallowed by the anomaly’s belly, Lou Yan’s emotions surged. His heart experienced a momentary suffocation, and at that moment, his eyes were suddenly covered with a layer of blood. The blood flowed from the corners of his eyes, instantly dispersed by the river water.
And the world before Lou Yan’s eyes suddenly turned red.
In this red, dim, and turbid underwater world, Lou Yan saw a different scene from before.
Countless black chains, as thick as infant arms, came from all directions, wrapping around Fu Xuezhou. These chains, it was unclear where they originated from, nor how many there were, but they covered every direction and angle.
“Clang, clang.”
The heavy chains collided with each other, emitting a sinister, heavy sound.
With the remaining rationality, Lou Yan sluggishly pondered, what were these chains…?
But this scene flashed by in an instant, and Fu Xuezhou’s figure disappeared completely. Lou Yan suddenly woke up, no longer hesitating, and pulled the silver hair with his last bit of clarity and strength to swim to the side of the red coffin. Gasping for breath, he opened the lid of the red coffin and laid inside.
The water inside the red coffin gushed out, and Lou Yan breathed heavily, his chest heaving violently, the blue color on his face gradually fading. His clothes stuck to his body, and he was extremely disheveled. He had almost suffocated to death.
Mud clung to his hands and face, his muscles twitched all over, and his lungs ached from prolonged suffocation, causing Lou Yan to curl up in pain. But Lou Yan couldn’t help but laugh, followed by a few violent coughs.
“Finally, finally…” Lou Yan couldn’t describe what he felt. Was it the joy of revenge? Excitement? All of it, along with some disbelief. Did he really kill Fu Xuezhou? Was Fu Xuezhou really dead?
Lou Yan was afraid that the greater his hope, the greater the disappointment would be, but he couldn’t help but think that it would be good if Fu Xuezhou was really dead.
Was the opportunity Duan Zege said about “getting what one wished for” referring to this?
Does that mean Fu Xuezhou is really dead?
Lou Yan laughed heartily, his slightly curled black hair scattered messily behind his head. He muttered to himself, “It’s good if he’s dead, it’s good if he’s dead…”
He alternated between laughter and a blank expression, hatred and satisfaction mingling in his eyes. Before killing Fu Xuezhou, Lou Yan was extremely excited, but after apparently killing Fu Xuezhou, Lou Yan’s emotions quickly calmed down after the initial excitement. Perhaps intense emotions always made people exhausted, especially after experiencing a life-and-death crisis. Lou Yan felt somewhat lazy, unable to exert any strength in his entire body.
But his mind was in turmoil, thinking about everything and nothing. Thinking about it, Lou Yan couldn’t help but think of Fu Xuezhou’s final expression before dying.
He couldn’t help but sneer, his lips curling upward. “Such a terrifying expression, as if he wanted to kill me… It’s not pleasant to be betrayed by someone else, isn’t it, Fu Xuezhou?”
“When I was betrayed by you, I felt the same way.”
I died because of your betrayal, you died because of my betrayal.
We’re even now.
Lou Yan wiped away the dirt from his face, feeling pleased. “I died in a fire, and Fu Xuezhou died in the water. Although it’s a pity that Fu Xuezhou didn’t experience being burned to death in a fire, drowning is also good. Fu Xuezhou died as he deserved.”
After the water in the coffin subsided, it suddenly started to sway. Lou Yan stopped moving instantly, sensing that the red coffin was starting to float upwards.
Lou Yan intuitively felt that when the red coffin floated completely to the surface, perhaps they would return to the river in Liushu Village.
Therefore, although the swaying of the red coffin, which seemed to sink at any moment, was frightening, Lou Yan remained calm. He balanced his body, tried to adapt to the swaying motion to avoid being dizzy, closed his eyes, cleared his mind, and began to recuperate.
…
After a while, Lou Yan cursed, rubbing his hair irritably. Countless scenes of Fu Xuezhou being bound by chains kept flashing through his mind.
What were those chains? Why were they wrapped around Fu Xuezhou?
Why could he suddenly see such a strange scene?
Could it be that he saw it wrong?
Lou Yan thought for a moment and checked his mental strength.
【Talent: Lou Yan】
【Awakened Ability: Crisis Perception】
【Current Mental Power: 25/70】
Hmm?
How did his mental power suddenly increase by 20?
Lou Yan was stunned for a moment, then suddenly rubbed his eyes in confusion, wondering, “Could it be that the red world I just saw wasn’t an illusion?”
His eyes, could it be that they awakened another anomaly power?
He had speculated before that integrating anomaly powers could increase his mental strength, and now this point was confirmed. So it was the awakening of another strange anomaly that caused his mental power to increase… This made sense.
If we subtract the sudden increase of 20 mental strength, then he would only have 5 points left. He was almost about to fall into the “frenzy state” that Duan Zege mentioned.
Thinking of this, Lou Yan couldn’t help but feel fortunate. Fortunately, Fu Xuezhou died early, and he didn’t continue to watch that anomaly.
Amidst various thoughts, in the murky river water, the red coffin slowly floated upwards. And in the willow forest on the other side, Duan Zege and the others had just solved a life-threatening crisis.
“Is this the ghost baby?” Watching the thing in Duan Zege’s arms kicking and struggling, Li Sanxin wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked solemnly, “Was the crying sound that almost made us kill our own people made by it?”
Duan Zege also had sweat all over his face, his body emitting heat, and he tightly held the ghost baby without moving. “Yes.”
Lu Haoxiu walked over from a safe area with Little Yu in his arms, carefully pressing Little Yu’s head against his shoulder to prevent her from seeing anything scary. Lu Haoxiu curiously glanced into Duan Zeg’es arms and said truthfully, “This ghost baby… doesn’t seem too strong?”
“It’s still young. If left to grow, its strength will become more and more terrifying,” Duan Zege struggled to suppress the ghost baby and quickly asked Li Sanxin for help, “This ghost baby probably crawled out of the host’s body before it fully recovered, so its strength will only be weaker.”
Li Sanxin also took off his coat and wrapped another layer of clothes around the ghost baby. “Wow, this little thing is quite strong!”
Duan Zege blocked the ghost baby’s mouth as soon as he caught it, not afraid of it making another seductive sound. He frowned as he looked at the skin revealed after Li Sanxin took off his coat. “Li Sanxin, the strange skin on your body seems to be growing faster.”
Li Sanxin was stunned by the news, and looked down at his body, only to find that the skin on both arms had turned into pale, lifeless dead skin.
“D*mn it.” Li Sanxin cursed lowly, took off his shirt to reveal his entire upper body, and saw that the strange skin had grown to his waist. His waist was mottled with spots of brown and white skin, looking like vitiligo.
Lu Haoxiu took a cold breath, incredulous, “Obviously, before we left, only one arm’s skin grew!”
“It’s probably because we’ve been in the range of the ghost baby’s strange power all along,” Duan Zege pondered, “With the enhancement of the anomaly power, this piece of skin grew so fast.”
After speaking, Duan Zege looked at the ghost baby in his arms and then looked up and down at Li Sanxin, sincerely asking, “Brother Sanxin, do you mind having an extra child in your belly?”
Li Sanxin: ???
…What nonsense are you talking about?
The author has something to say:
Li Sanxin: Do you want to hear what you’re saying?
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