Chapter 45
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More figuratively, this was a spinal whip.
Lou Yan touched his spine bone, and it was still there. It seemed that when he pulled the bone out, the bones inside his body quickly grew to replenish the missing bone.
Was this the beginning of his bone spikes growing?
Lou Yan pushed open the coffin lid, exerted force from his waist, and sat up directly from the coffin. He took the spinal whip and examined it in his hand.
The soft light of dawn spilled into the coffin, illuminating the spinal whip composed of bone segments, with rows of sharp bone spikes arranged neatly on both sides, emitting a dazzling and chilling light. Lou Yan’s fingers lightly touched the sharp bone spikes beside the bone segments, and his fingertips stung.
He lifted his hand to look, and there was already a wound quietly carved by the bone on his fingertip.
Lou Yan didn’t get angry but smiled instead, his lips curling slightly, “Good stuff.”
This spinal whip felt extremely familiar to Lou Yan. Lou Yan pondered for a moment. The anomaly and cold aura on the spinal whip, wasn’t it similar to Fu Xuezhou’s Tang blade?
Thinking of this, he grabbed the handle of the spinal whip, which was still round, and with a flick of his wrist, the spinal whip made a crisp bone-cracking sound as Lou Yan fiercely whipped it onto the red coffin.
With a hiss, where the red coffin was whipped, a black whip mark was left, as if scorched, emitting strands of white smoke.
The power of this spinal whip was no less than Fu Xuezhou’s Tang blade!
Lou Yan raised an eyebrow, a flash of surprise passing through, “Not bad.”
“When Fu Xuezhou died, I was still regretting that Tang blade,” Lou Yan’s eyes flashed, gently stroking the bone segments in the middle of the spinal whip, “I didn’t expect that in the blink of an eye, I would have my own weapon now. The only regret is that you didn’t appear earlier. If you had appeared earlier, I could have let you whip Fu Xuezhou a few times.”
Thinking of this, a hint of regret flashed in Lou Yan’s eyes.
The bone spikes in his palms were still devouring the red coffin. As the bone spikes greedily absorbed and devoured, the bright red color of the coffin gradually faded. When one minute was about to end, the color of the red coffin had turned into the natural color of wood.
Now, the red coffin had completely turned into an ordinary coffin.
With his mind slightly settled, when one minute was over, Lou Yan was about to leave the coffin, but he found that the bone spikes in the palm of his hand, which should have burrowed back into his skin, did not.
Lou Yan immediately frowned, staring at the bone spikes, wanting to retract them, but he found that he couldn’t retract the bone spikes.
What’s going on?
Lou Yan’s brow furrowed even deeper. He glanced at his mental power and found that apart from the ten points of mental power consumed to maintain the bone spikes for a minute, his current Mental power was continuously decreasing.
[Mental power 14/70]
[Mental power 13/70]
…
Lou Yan’s eyes darkened, and he moved his fingers, staring at the bone spikes in his palm, which were tinged with an ominous blood-red color like they were sated with blood. “The bone spikes are starting to revive…”
He couldn’t control the bone spikes anymore—
Lou Yan knew he had to quickly find a way to delay the revival of the anomaly in his body.
However, the most important thing now was how to make the bone spikes in his palm disappear and prevent his mental power from being depleted to zero.
[Mental power 12/70]
In the blink of an eye, there were only twelve points of Mental power left.
Lou Yan squinted slightly, his eyes filled with determination, tinged with a hint of redness. He glanced around and fixed his gaze on the spinal whip in front of him. After staring for a few seconds, Lou Yan reached out and took the spinal whip, attempting to cut off the bone spikes in his palm with the sharp bone spikes on the spinal whip.
The moment the spinal whip touched the bone spikes, a sharp pain shot through Lou Yan’s palm. He grunted, unable to suppress it, and bent over involuntarily, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.
Lou Yan gritted his teeth, a taste of blood rising in his throat. The pain felt like every bone in his body was being crushed bit by bit. The bone spikes had already fused with him, harming the bone spikes meant harming himself. But after enduring this pain, Lou Yan, even more resolute and without hesitation, continued to use the spinal whip to cut off the bone spikes in his palm.
As the pain came and went, soaking Lou Yan’s clothes with sweat, his eyes grew calmer, his movements faster. With a “bang”, the bone spikes in the palm of his hand were directly cut off and fell into the coffin.
Lou Yan immediately checked his Mental power.
[Mental power 6/70]
After a while, his Mental power no longer continued to decrease. Lou Yan knew that the crisis before him had temporarily been resolved.
Lou Yan looked at the deep crack in the center of his palm. This crack was supported by white bones in the middle. Even though the bone spikes had been cut off by Lou Yan, the crack showed no signs of closing.
He clenched his fist uncertainly, looking down at the bone spikes that had fallen into the coffin. After falling from his hand, the bone spikes had turned from white bones into black ashes.
A gust of wind blew, scattering the black ashes everywhere.
Lou Yan took a breath and finally had time to look around. After taking a quick look, he confirmed that he had returned to Liushu Village. However, he didn’t know where the coffin had drifted along the river to in Liushu Village.
Lou Yan picked up the spinal whip and jumped into the water. Before leaving, he used the spinal whip to break the coffin into two halves before swimming to the shore.
By now, it was already getting light.
Lou Yan didn’t know what time it was, but he estimated it was not yet five o’clock based on the light. Lou Yan quickly dried himself and prepared to go to the Liushi Forest to see if the mute little girl was still there.
After finding the direction, Lou Yan had taken only a few steps when he suddenly stopped. He looked down at the numerous footprints on the ground, furrowing his brows slightly, “How could there be so many footprints…”
A light drizzle fell, making the ground muddy, leaving clear footprints. Lou Yan squatted down and carefully examined the footprints for a while, finding that among these footprints, there were men, women, and children’s footprints.
The footprints were mottled, and many overlapped, indicating that many people had walked this road.
This was very strange.
Judging from the water accumulation in the footprints, these footprints were recently made. But it’s late at night, and it’s raining. Why would so many people be traveling at this time? And why would they be taking children with them?
There’s a problem…
Lou Yan stood up expressionlessly and walked briskly along these footprints. Soon, he saw the destination of these footprints—the ancestral hall of Liushu Village.
At this moment, the ancestral hall of Liushu Village had changed drastically from its previous solemn and classical appearance. The doors and windows were broken, tiles collapsed, and most importantly, there were countless bodies lying all around the village.
Lou Yan’s heart skipped a beat. He hurried over, and his keen ears already heard the mournful cries coming from the ancestral hall.
As he passed by these bodies outside the ancestral hall, Lou Yan immediately noticed the dense black spots on their bodies. Their eyes were wide open, mouths agape, each body expressing the same astonishment.
Are these all the anomalies in Liushu Village?
Lou Yan began to suspect that he hadn’t disappeared for a few hours but for several days. Could it be that it was already the second or third night? How did he feel like he had missed out on so much?
“Wawa Brother Li, I’m sorry…” Suddenly, Lou Yan heard the voice of Lu Haoxiu in the crying. Lou Yan’s eyelids twitched, and he hurried into the ancestral hall.
How could Lu Haoxiu and the others be here? Did something happen to Li Sanxin?
Upon entering the ancestral hall, a strong smell of blood hit him. There were severed limbs everywhere, and villagers silently weeping as they tidied up the bodies. Lou Yan hurriedly scanned the crowd but didn’t see Li Sanxin and the others. A familiar voice came from the left.
“Lou Yan?” Duan Zege’s voice was still as harsh and hoarse as ever. “You’re back?”
Lou Yan turned his head and saw Duan Zege covered in blood, calmly wiping the blood off his hands and face with a piece of cloth. Lou Yan furrowed his brow, “Where did the blood on you come from? Where are Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu? What happened here? Is Li Sanxin’s skin almost covering his whole body?”
Duan Zege calmly finished wiping his face. “Wait, don’t be so hasty.”
Lou Yan couldn’t help but curse and roll his eyes, saying impatiently, “How can I not be in a hurry? Where are they?”
“I know you’re anxious, but you really don’t need to be,” Duan Zege looked Lou Yan up and down, teasingly saying, “So, got what you wanted?”
Normally, Lou Yan wouldn’t mind sharing his joy of killing Fu Xuezhou with him. But at the moment, Lou Yan really didn’t have the mood to listen to his nonsense. He gritted his teeth, his brows furrowing, and asked slowly, “What’s going on?”
“Li Sanxin has merged with the anomaly,” Duan Zege no longer delayed and said directly, “He has fainted now because his mental power is exhausted from using the anomaly too much. Lu Haoxiu knocked him out to help him recover his mental power. He’s fine, and so is Lu Haoxiu. You really don’t need to worry. I stopped you just to let you be mentally prepared.”
“What anomaly did he merge with?” Lou Yan’s voice was cold, his fists clenched.
Duan Zege said, “A ghost baby.”
Lou Yan was stunned, frowning, “You encountered a ghost baby?”
Duan Zege explained the whole story, shrugged, and said, “There was no choice. The situation was urgent at the time. If it weren’t for Li Sanxin merging with the ghost baby and using its crying to stop the mutated villagers’ attack at the last moment, by the time you destroyed the red coffin, there would probably be only one-tenth of the people left alive here.”
Lou Yan pinched his brow, his damp hair dripping river water down his face. He sighed softly, “You did the right thing… The ghost baby indeed suits him. With Lu Haoxiu’s Void Grab, he might not have to experience the day when the ghost baby revives. Where are they? I’ll go see Li Sanxin.”
Looking at his tightly furrowed brow, Duan Zege suddenly asked inexplicably, “You’re very worried about Li Sanxin?”
Lou Yan found this question inexplicable. “Is it strange that I’m worried about him?”
Duan Zege clicked his tongue, his tone somewhat subtle, “Not strange. After all, you two grew up together, with no secrets between you. The feelings cultivated since childhood are not something that I and Lu Haoxiu can compare to.”
Lou Yan remained silent for a few seconds, his face darkening as he warned, “Mind your words.”
Duan Zege chuckled, turned around, and said, “Let’s go, I’ll take you to see your childhood sweetheart.”
Li Sanxin and Lu Haoxiu were placed in the innermost part of the ancestral hall. Lou Yan saw them at a glance. This was also the cleanest place in the entire ancestral hall, and the injured survivors were also placed here. Most of them were children with numb faces, silently shedding tears.
Lou Yan’s footsteps passed many bodies—some were normal villagers, some were anomalies disguised as humans. There were men, women, elderly people with only heads and limbs left, and babies who were so young they didn’t understand anything.
The cruelest scene of anomalies as a disaster was nakedly exposed in this small ancestral hall.
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