Chapter 453 - 434: Mission Complete
In the secret chamber.
Lu Ping tried to move his eyeballs. The edge of his vision swept over the ugly, tumor-like egg that had already cracked open.
Lu Ping remembered now. The feeling of that eight-legged face-hugger clinging to his face, the slime covering its body, and the intense foreign sensation and suffocation from the tube it had forced down his throat.
And to prevent the "players" from causing trouble, Lin Qingfeng had intentionally added a Spiritual Energy poison gas. The effects were immediate. Not only did it render a person immobile, but as long as one hadn’t broken through to the Nascent Soul Realm, even their Spiritual Power would be completely sealed, making resistance impossible.
Lu Ping sighed internally.
’The Guixi Sect may be a demonic sect, but could they at least work on their hospitality? Next time you do something like this, can’t you at least provide a pillow? Even if the sect is short on funds—okay, I can’t see any signs of the sect being short on funds. But at least give me a straw mat! Something like you’d find in a thatched hut would have been fine. Ugh, I’m so tired.’
The thought hadn’t even fully formed when a strange sensation arose from deep within his chest cavity.
As a Cultivator, looking inward at one’s own body was a basic skill. Lu Ping quickly focused his mind and probed inward, his consciousness passing through flesh and blood, deep into his organs.
However, the meridians and organs that were usually clear to him were now indistinct.
He could only vaguely sense a foreign object lodged between his heart and lungs.
An absurd thought struck Lu Ping’s mind.
He recalled Miss Su’s instructions in the Transmission Hall and the hints on the mission jade slip.
Warm it with your body, nurture it with your mind and soul...
Experience the entire moment of a new life breaking from its shell, and finally, breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly...
Comprehend the weight and true meaning of life...
The corner of Lu Ping’s eye twitched.
’So that’s what "warm it with your body" meant. Did they shove it directly inside me, using me as a human furnace to warm it?’
’As for "experiencing a new life breaking from its shell"...’ He glanced down at his chest, already able to imagine the magnificent scene of it "breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly."
The image was too horrifying to contemplate.
He was certainly feeling the "weight of life" firsthand. It was crushing him so hard he could barely breathe.
This wasn’t "becoming a butterfly." This was sacrificing himself to be the "butterfly’s" nursery, while he himself was the cocoon, fated to be devoured completely.
’The way this demonic sect’s minds work is truly something else.’
Just as Lu Ping was internally ranting, a sharp gasp came from the secret chamber next door.
Wang was also paralyzed on the floor, the expression on his face having shifted from initial fury and cursing to pure terror.
He too had looked inward and seen the "uninvited guest" inside his body.
’They... they’re using us as human furnaces!’
’I knew it! I knew these bastards had no good intentions! What crap about love and life—it’s all a damn lie! They’re using us as fertilizer to feed these demonic things!’
His eyes darted around frantically, his gaze sweeping despairingly across the empty secret chamber.
’It’s over. It’s all over. To think I’d fall for such a ridiculous mission. If I’d known, I should have just left with those two hundred-plus people! Then again, defying a master’s order and leaving the mountain means death too. Don’t these sects have any conscience?! Oh, Celestial Dao, can’t you just strike down all the sects in the world with lightning!’
「Just then.」
"URGH—!"
A blood-curdling scream, so shrill it was distorted, erupted from one of the secret chambers.
Then, the sound stopped abruptly.
The secret chambers fell silent once more. Lu Ping’s pupils contracted slightly.
’Danger! It’s here!!!’
And in the chamber next to him, Wang was even more terrified.
’That scream just now... it sounded like the Loose Cultivator (undercover agent) who was behind me in line for the mission!’
’What happened to him? Is he dead? Did he just... die? Or did he just pass out?’
"SQUELCH... SQUELCH..."
The sound of chewing drifted from the chamber where the scream had originated, devouring what little sanity they had left.
That "new life" was "breaking out of its cocoon to become a butterfly."
One by one, everyone began to feel the thing in their own chest begin to stir.
’No... don’t...’
Saliva dribbled from the corner of Wang’s mouth.
"AH—!"
SPURT!
A bulge suddenly protruded from the front of his robes, and a jet of blood shot out, dyeing the gray stone slab red.
Wang’s eyes widened as his gaze slowly drifted downward.
Right in the center of his chest, a rib had been snapped clean in two, the broken end piercing through his skin.
A small, shuttle-shaped head covered in dark red slime was squeezing out of the opening.
It was out.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Accompanied by a piercing, tearing pain, the monster broke completely free from Wang’s body, dragging fragments of internal organs with it.
It landed on Wang’s body and immediately began to sink its teeth into the torn flesh of its host’s chest, taking its first meal.
"AAAAH!"
Wang’s body convulsed violently. The poison gas prevented him from even passing out, forcing him to remain conscious as he felt his own flesh being devoured, his life force rapidly draining away through the ever-widening hole in his chest.
In his eyes, the monster’s form was reflected.
’This design... why does it look so familiar?’
He remembered!
𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
’It’s that xenomorphic-type demon beast!’
’The "wife" that was bestowed upon the Guixi Sect disciple, Wang Xiedi!’
The truth came to the surface.
’They... this group of spies and opportunists who had tried so hard to stay behind... were nothing but consumables used to breed combat pets for the sect’s disciples!’
’But why did they let those other 200-plus people go? It makes no sense! I don’t get it, I don’t get it at all!’
"Hkk... hkk..."
Thick gouts of bloody foam frothed from Wang’s mouth. He wanted to laugh—laugh at his own foolishness, laugh at the absurdity and cruelty of the Guixi Sect.
Meanwhile, in the other secret chambers, the same tragedy was unfolding one after another.
"AAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
"Help... help me..."
A symphony of rising and falling screams, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh and blood, filled the air.
One of the "genius" undercover agents watched the monster burrow out of his chest, his mind flooding with regret.
’What test! What devotion! What "no destruction, no construction"!’
’It’s all bullshit!’
’This is a complete and utter scam! A breeding farm that uses living people as disposable incubators! But why were only they chosen to be the furnaces for hatching these monsters?’
’But what’s the difference between them and those 200-plus villagers?’
The "genius" thought hard. What was the reason they were chosen?
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind.
’Could it be because they were more outstanding? More capable? It must be! Are we going to die because of our own excellence?’
He watched the small monster perched on his body, gnawing on fragments of his heart. The intense pain made his vision go black, but the poison gas kept his consciousness firmly locked within his body.
「Now, it was Lu Ping’s turn.」
The pain began, centered right in the middle of his chest.
He let out a muffled groan, his body arching involuntarily as veins bulged on his forehead.
The *Great Dream Leisure Scripture* seemed to sense its host’s crisis and began to circulate on its own. A cooling sensation tried to suppress the pain, but to little effect.
He could clearly feel his sternum groaning, the muscles under his skin being torn apart by an immense force. A sharp, hard object was pressing against his chest from the inside, again and again.
"Cough..." Lu Ping coughed up a mouthful of blood, and his vision began to blur.
’I’m done for.’
That single thought echoed in his mind.
’I haven’t even returned to Qinghe Town, haven’t found the truth behind my parents’ disappearance, haven’t figured out what the deal is with that talking, white-furred monkey... and I’m going to die here so ignominiously, as a monster’s first meal?’
’This is hardly a peaceful way to go.’
’Why couldn’t Master have just let me be a slacker disciple at the Celestial Furnace Sect? Why did Master have to make me wade into these muddy waters?’
Just as his consciousness was about to fade, with a soft ripping sound, the alien larva parasitizing his body finally burst from his chest.
"AH—!"
The pain surged over him and then receded like the tide, leaving only endless weakness and a biting chill.
Lu Ping struggled to open his eyes and looked at the small alien creature perched on his chest.
It seemed to have inherited Lu Ping’s laziness, casually nibbling at his flesh and sipping his blood.
Then, it lifted its head and shook it, as if in disgust.
Lu Ping: "..."
’Hey, what’s with that look? You mean eating me is some kind of hardship for you? After parasitizing my body for so long, you come out and complain that the food’s no good?’
Just as Lu Ping thought the little thing was about to feast on him, it seemed to hear some kind of sound.
It was a summons that only their species could hear.
Heeding the summons, it scuttled on its two small legs toward an inconspicuous vent in the corner of the wall, pitter-pattering away. In the blink of an eye, it scurried inside and vanished.
It wasn’t just in Lu Ping’s chamber.
In all the secret chambers, the newly hatched alien larvae, after taking a few bites of their hosts’ flesh to replenish their initial energy, all abandoned the sumptuous buffet before them and quickly departed through the pre-installed vents.
The secret chambers were left in a state of carnage, with only a few "containers" remaining, each with a gaping hole in their chest.
"..."
The undercover agents, Lu Ping included, were all stunned.
’They ran away?’
’Just like that, they ran away?’
A sense of absurdity washed over everyone.
’What the hell!’
’Aren’t we even worthy of being your emergency rations?!’
Air wheezed from the hole in Wang’s chest, and blood and bubbles gurgled out. He stared at the empty chamber, only one thought remaining in his mind.
’I... I don’t even count as a full meal?’
This was a monstrous humiliation!
They would rather have been killed outright. At least that would have been a quick death, far better than this slow wait for their inevitable demise!
Blood was still pouring from their chests, their body heat rapidly dissipating. The shadow of death was closing in from all sides.
Their bodies were slowly growing cold. All they could do was watch and feel.
Lu Ping also felt a wave of despair. He tried to summon his strength to seal the wound, but his body still wouldn’t obey.
The bleeding wouldn’t stop.
’Your son has been unfilial. I’m afraid... I really won’t be coming back.’
He stared at the dim Everlasting Lamp on the chamber ceiling as his consciousness gradually sank into darkness.
Just then, the mission jade slip that each person carried suddenly emitted a burst of white light.
[Mission: Help incubate a new life (egg-like object). Complete.]
[Distributing reward...]