After the Immortal Disappeared

Willow was furious. She slapped it hard across the face twice—with her gloves on, of course.

The Jindu Cub shrieked and struggled, but when would Willow ever go easy on it? She beat it until its nose and mouth bled, its face swelling up as if stung by a swarm of bees.

While she was teaching the little monster a lesson, Hee Lingchuan said to Door Panel, "I chopped off half its leg earlier. It’s only been a short while, and it’s already grown back."

And there wasn’t even a scar.

"This Underground Palace’s healing effect on it is too strong," Door Panel said. "We might as well kill it. Delays breed trouble."

"Haven’t you noticed the ’stomach’ is contracting faster?" Hee Lingchuan pointed at the Ghost Child. "The louder this thing screams, the more agitated the cavern... no, the ’Mother’ becomes."

"You’re saying this Underground Palace has emotions?" Door Panel was dumbfounded. "This mission is way too difficult. It really shouldn’t have been assigned to us Patrol Guards." ’Unless they paid us more,’ he thought.

A Patrol Guard’s usual duties were just fighting some Demons and patrolling the highlands. He had never encountered an Underground Palace this bizarre.

Hee Lingchuan started to say something but stopped himself. Instead, he said, "There might be two ways out. One, we kill the most powerful Jindu Cub. Its Magical Power will vanish, and maybe the Underground Palace will vanish too. Two... we get this ’stomach’ to vomit us out."

Everyone couldn’t help but shudder. Willow pointed at the injured team member and cried out, "Vomit us out? Even if that works, will we end up like him?"

Everyone here had experience being drunk and squatting by a wall. They knew all too well that what comes up isn’t just food, but also stomach acid and bile.

If they used that method to get out, they would be covered in it, wouldn’t they?

Hee Lingchuan spread his hands. ’What’s there to be afraid of? I’m a man who’s died four or five times. Am I really going to be scared of a little acid?’

Yes, he was just that kind of irresponsible captain.

Of course, no one would choose that path until they were truly desperate. Door Panel coughed. "I wonder how the other two teams are doing."

"At least one team hasn’t completed its mission. The strongest cub is still alive." This Underground Palace might very well be its creation. Hee Lingchuan said, "Its abilities will be a huge step up from the other premature ones. We need to be ready." With that, he walked over and swung his blade, slicing the monster into three large pieces from head to tail.

The Blade Aura of the Floating Life Blade wasn’t even visible, yet the cuts were already made. The Patrol Guard holding the little monster jumped in surprise.

Hee Lingchuan had seen how versatile these Ghost Children could be. Fearing it might survive even after being decapitated, he decided to cut it into several more pieces to completely extinguish any chance of life.

Since they had to prepare to face the final boss, there was no point in keeping this troublesome thing around.

The blade moved with an ethereal grace. The green blood from the wounds hadn’t even begun to spill out by the time he sheathed it and gave the body a gentle kick.

The others saw this and dodged out of the way, only to see the flesh and blood on the ground slowly wither away, soon revealing the white bones beneath.

About ten breaths later, the bones also dissolved, not leaving a single trace behind.

If not for their injured comrade still being there, it would be as if this Ghost Child had never existed at all.

Even Skinny found the place utterly disgusting. "Was it absorbed?"

Willow murmured, "This is a stomach, after all."

The Ghost Child was dead, so it was absorbed back into the Mother.

From whence it came, it returned, completing a full cycle.

But Hee Lingchuan and the others knew the danger this implied. A final boss that sucked away every last drop of nutrition from its own kind—how could it be anything less than monstrous?

Making use of the limited time they had, Willow bandaged the injured man’s hands and thrust his weapon back at him.

"It all comes down to this fight." Otherwise, none of them would make it out.

Relying on the other teams was clearly not an option now. Hee Lingchuan and his group made some preparations, then took a deep breath. He said to Door Panel, "Do it!"

Door Panel nodded, walked to the edge of the pit, and began hacking at the rock wall with all his might.

One strike, two strikes, three strikes...

The entire cavern began to tremble violently again, pained and furious, yet helpless against these tiny, parasite-like humans.

Vines and rock were smashed apart. Blood gushed out like a fountain, cascading into the pool below.

The two liquids mixed with a continuous HISS, sending up clouds of white mist. A foul stench immediately assaulted their nostrils.

Door Panel didn’t stop, continuing his great, sweeping swings.

He was determined to chisel out a stomach perforation.

This Underground Palace was the Jindu Cubs’ lair, connected to them by blood. Therefore, making the palace bleed and injuring it would, to a large extent, weaken the Ghost Children, causing their power to drain away continuously.

If this monster was as savage as they imagined, it would absolutely not tolerate this.

The acidic mist grew thicker. Hee Lingchuan and the others covered their mouths and noses with cloths but still felt a stinging in their eyes.

By now, Door Panel had struck fifty or sixty times, his axe blade caked with debris. The Underground Palace was bleeding rivers, in immense pain. The stomach wall contracted violently, but alas, it could do nothing about the humans inside this ulcer.

Door Panel suddenly said, "I think I’m about to break through the stomach wall."

Everyone’s spirits lifted at once. "Can we get through?"

"There’s light coming through." Door Panel was also invigorated. It seemed a third option had just appeared. "Let me try again."

Hee Lingchuan’s heart skipped a beat when he heard that:

’Light?’

’How could there be light on the other side of the stomach wall?’

Willow was also pleasantly surprised. "Could it be the other teams?"

Door Panel landed one last strike and wiped his face. "I’m through! I’ll make the opening bigger."

He hacked vertically and horizontally, truly carving out a large hole. Once the blood finished pouring out, they would be able to pass through.

Outside the opening, there seemed to be another passageway.

Willow asked in a low voice, "Who’s first?"

Skinny said loudly, "I’ll do it!"

He approached the opening but didn’t go through. Instead, he took a hazelnut from his pocket and tossed it out tentatively.

The hazelnut rolled onto the ground and suddenly transformed into Skinny.

Strictly speaking, it transformed into his illusion, but it was remarkably lifelike in the dim environment.

It walked out of the opening and even took a couple of steps before disappearing.

The thing had no attack power; its only purpose was to deceive the eye. If there was a monster lying in ambush on the other side, it should have attacked the "prey".

Door Panel immediately grabbed his shield, held it in front of him, and strode out of the hole.

Then, his voice came back. "It’s clear. Come on."

Skinny leaped through at once, followed by Willow, the new team member, and Hee Lingchuan. The last few picked up the pace, because the hole Door Panel had made was rapidly healing!

By the time Hee Lingchuan got through, one of his feet almost got trapped in the wall.

On the ground, they found a Fluorescent Grass Bundle.

The light Door Panel had seen earlier came from this.

Evidently, the other two teams had been here before. They must have encountered some mishap to have dropped the Fluorescent Grass Bundle.

But in any case, it was a joyous thing to leave that muscle-dissolving, bone-melting stomach, even if they didn’t know where this path led.

Just as Willow picked up the Fluorescent Grass Bundle, lights flashed ahead, and several figures rushed toward them.

SHING! SHING! Weapons were drawn, and both sides took up defensive stances.

But Door Panel breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, it’s you."

The other party was another Patrol Team, led by Fire Chief Xuu Chun.

Hee Lingchuan’s gaze swept past them. "Where are the rest of you?"

Including Xuu Chun, there were only four people in front of them.

He had come with a full team of ten.

Xuu Chun shook his head and said grimly, "They’re all gone."

Hee Lingchuan saw that the other three men’s eyes were darting about, constantly glancing around like startled birds. "The Jindu Cub you encountered—what was special about it?"

"It had an army of Bone Puppets."

Skinny thought he misheard. "What did you say?"

Xuu Chun said, "Monsters made of white bone and earth. Their numbers seemed endless, and they even had ranged units. They swarmed us during battle, which gave them a huge advantage in the narrow passageways."

"You only went through these kinds of passages? You didn’t enter any other areas?"

"We entered a stone cavern. It was much more spacious than this, symmetrical in shape, with a spiral passage on the left and right," another team member said. "The Bone Puppets emerged from there. We killed them batch after batch, but there was truly no end to them, so we could only retreat. We lost four people in the process. Later, the monster itself attacked and killed two more of us."

The ordeal was like a nightmare. The four of them were still shaken just thinking about it.

"What was this Ghost Child’s innate talent?"

All four fell silent. Xuu Chun gave a bitter smile. "We don’t know either."

Willow was blunt. "You lost six people and you couldn’t even get a clear look at its moves?"

"It was too fast." Xuu Chun knew he had failed in his duty this time. "I only know that the Bone Puppets would attach to its body, forming an exceptionally tough armor that I couldn’t cut through. We wounded it twice, but Bone Puppets just filled in the wounds. It seemed unkillable."

He had watched helplessly as the monster dragged his team members into the darkness. The feeling was unbearable.

Hee Lingchuan said, "If it had the complete advantage, why did it let you go?"

"We were about to be forced into a desperate situation when the Ghost Child suddenly stopped its attack, turned, and slipped away. The Bone Puppets followed it." They had come like the tide, and they receded like the tide. "We don’t know why either."

Then, they walked here and ran into Hee Lingchuan’s group.

"I’m afraid we’ll have to kill all the cubs to get out," Skinny said, explaining their group’s theory. When Xuu Chun heard the idea that this Underground Palace might be ’mimicking a body,’ an indescribable expression also crossed his face.

Willow suddenly threw a few tiny grass-like seeds onto the four of them. After observing for a few breaths, she said, "No color change."

These seeds were called Thief Mustard. They would change color upon contact with Demon Qi or Curse Arts. Willow was using them to test if the others were under the control of some Evil Technique.

This was one of the Patrol Guards’ standard procedures, so Xuu Chun and his men let her do it. Only then did he rub his wrist and say, "Let’s go. I see your team is still complete?" And only one person was injured.

"Just lucky. We didn’t run into a tough opponent. It seems these cubs don’t gather together; they each choose a spot to use as their home ground. Judging from the battle location you described, your team must have run into the most powerful Jindu Cub—the youngest one. The difficulty of taking it down is too high." Hee Lingchuan pointed to the healed rock wall. "Behind this wall is the stomach. The acid pool inside dissolves muscle and melts bone. It’s the Jindu Cub’s home turf. That thing could spit acid, and its wounds healed at an astonishing rate. Fortunately, it wasn’t very smart. It tried to kick us into the pool, failed, and we killed it instead."

The two groups exchanged information, checked their weapons and supplies, and then continued forward, holding the Fluorescent Grass Bundle and hoping to meet up with the third team.

However, the next ones they encountered were not their own.