Chapter 32

He Lingchuan naturally heard it too. He held his breath, eyes fixed on his nose, nose fixed on his heart, acting like an old monk in meditation regardless of what he heard, refusing to pay any heed. Seeing he had no reaction, the voice changed, sounding like a soft, sweet, and coquettish girl of sixteen or seventeen complaining of her feelings. As He Lingchuan listened, he felt more and more that it sounded like a girl he had a crush on when he was young.

He secretly scoffed; that soft girl had run off with a local rich kid before she even finished school, and within three years, she had given birth to two "rich third-generation" kids. Every time he saw those two kids with long snot running down their noses, he felt how incredibly stupid he had been back then. This Three-Corpse Insect hadn't done its homework; it didn't know that "the days that have abandoned me cannot be kept."

Just then, the boat suddenly jolted, as if some heavy monster had climbed onto it, followed by the soldiers' exclamations, screams, the sand bandits' curses, and the symphony of swords being drawn from their sheaths.

Fighting had broken out in the back, and the battle was intense.

The nearest scream sounded right behind He Lingchuan. He seemed to have spoken to this soldier earlier.

Then the monster charged straight toward them, its dull footsteps sounding as if they were stepping directly on people's hearts.

Was this a trick by the Three-Corpse Insects to lure him into looking back?

But if it were real, staying motionless like this would likely make him a snack for the monster. This was the Panlong Desert, a place where numerous exotic beasts roamed; who could guarantee that one or two wouldn't take the opportunity to climb onto the boat to eat people? It was getting closer! This heavy sense of oppression made the hair on He Lingchuan's back stand on end.

He quickly looked at He Chunhua; his father was facing him, so he should be able to see the situation behind him.

He Chunhua's facial muscles twitched slightly, his expression even looking a bit ferocious, but his eyes were vacant. He Lingchuan found this expression very unfamiliar; he didn't know what his father had heard.

Relying only on eye contact, how could they understand each other's intentions? But with the Three-Corpse Insects in front, no one dared to open their mouths.

Fortunately, He Chunhua suddenly snapped back to reality, looking straight at his eldest son, as if he had heard his inner voice, and suddenly winked his right eye at him.

This action was rare for a dignified Governor, but it instantly shattered the heavy, terrifying atmosphere. He Lingchuan let out a secret sigh of relief, his heart settling.

It was fake!

His father was trying to tell him that no matter what he heard, it was all fake!

Sure enough, the monster's footsteps rushed to the back of his head, and he could even hear the opponent's heavy breathing, but the next second, it vanished.

Only the sound of the wind remained in his ears.

The wisps of smoke around him also lost interest in him, shaking their heads as they drifted elsewhere.

He Lingchuan had passed the test, and he winked back at his father.

The small red pills everyone had taken earlier were the "Soul-Severing Powder" specially refined by State Preceptor Sun for this trip, with the main ingredient being the "Rot-Heart Grass" that grew in extremely yin places. After humans ingested it, they could not only see "unclean things" for a short time but also temporarily mask their living aura with their life-fire. As long as the Three-Corpse Insects didn't crawl into a person's nine orifices, they would just treat them as dead objects.

But the biggest weakness of this method was that one could not easily look back! A person has three life-fires around their upper body that can protect the heart and mind, refusing the invasion of external evil. But if you look back while being watched by a Three-Corpse Insect, the life-fire immediately weakens and can no longer deceive it.

This was not Sun Fuping's exclusive invention, but a method recorded in the notes of a sorcerer from the Xianyou Kingdom. The one who knows you best is usually your opponent; the Xianyou Kingdom and Panlong City had been at war for over thirty years, so they must have spent all day pondering ways to deal with the Three-Corpse Insects.

In fact, such things often happened in the wild forests and fields at night; if a traveler heard someone calling them from behind and looked back inadvertently, their life-lamp would weaken, allowing evil spirits to invade.

When He Lingchuan first received the small pill, his heart stirred. The Xianyou Kingdom had been destroyed for a hundred years, so the sorcerer's notes from that time must have been hard to obtain; besides, Rot-Heart Grass was a rare item, with harsh growth conditions, and it could not be cultivated or mass-produced. Just collecting the raw materials to refine three hundred portions of Soul-Severing Powder—how much effort would that take?

Had the Grand Marshal and the State Preceptor really only started preparing to explore the Panlong ruins six months ago?

Of course, this thought only flashed by, and He Lingchuan didn't dwell on it.

He saw that He Chunhua's expression had returned to its original composure, and the Three-Corpse Insects around him had scattered, showing that his father had also passed the test.

But as his gaze swept over the personal guards behind He Chunhua, he was suddenly startled: "Hey, don't..."

This person actually had red, tear-filled eyes? As soon as the words left his mouth, the guard turned his head.

He Lingchuan watched helplessly as the life-fire on his left shoulder went "poof" and extinguished.

The light of the other two flames instantly dimmed.

The Three-Corpse Insects hovering nearby, like sharks smelling blood, whipped their tails and burrowed into his ears and nose!

The guard's eyes instantly went vacant.

Seeing his eldest son's expression change drastically as he stared behind him, the veins on He Chunhua's neck bulged; clearly, he was using all his strength to resist the instinct to look back.

He didn't look back, but instead lunged forward two steps.

This was a perfect example of successful self-rescue, because the guard suddenly drew the long sword at his waist and aimed a powerful "Cleaving the Western Mountain" strike at the back of He Chunhua's head! The two were only four feet apart, and the guard's movements were fast, intending to treat his leader's head like a watermelon.

When the blade fell, it was less than two inches from He Chunhua's skull.

He Lingchuan brushed past his father, lunging into the guard's embrace, taking both the man and the sword down.

The guard's movements stopped instantly, a blade tip protruding from his back.

He Chunhua escaped death, took a few deep breaths, and suddenly stared ahead: "Chuan'er, turn around slowly; I'll go deal with these puppets."

He Lingchuan pushed the corpse away and saw a wisp of phantom emerge from the deceased's seven orifices, slipping back into the air, swimming unhurriedly.

Once a person dies, the Three-Corpse Insect can no longer stay, so it has to come out.

He kept his neck still, using the strength of his waist and legs to turn around slowly. This way, the life-fires on his shoulders wouldn't be disturbed or blown out by himself.

The boat, however, was already in chaos.

The guard was not an isolated case. Although they had been warned repeatedly beforehand, seven or eight people were still bewitched by the voices in their ears, blowing out their own life-lamps and being possessed by the Three-Corpse Insects.

Once possessed, they recognized no one and hacked at whoever they saw.

In just these few breaths, chaos erupted on the boat; four or five people were injured, and one unlucky soul had half his head sliced off.

He Chunhua went straight for the killer. This was a sand bandit who remained agile after being possessed by a Three-Corpse Insect; he didn't engage head-on but played hide-and-seek in the crowd, occasionally wounding one or two people.

If a person constantly reminds themselves not to turn their head, their agility is bound to be greatly reduced. He Chunhua felt as stiff as a zombie, his movements to chase the person three beats too slow; he really couldn't catch this grandson.

Just as he was about to unleash a spell, a dagger flew from behind, "whoosh," and nailed itself into the killer's right eye.

It went in the front and out the back, exploding into a spray of blood.

(End of chapter)