Chapter 32: Do Not Look Back

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

He secretly clicked his tongue in disdain; 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" brats. Every time he saw those two kids with long trails of snot, he felt how incredibly stupid he had been back then. This Three-Corpse Insect hadn't done its homework well; it didn't know that "those who abandon me cannot be kept in the days of yesterday."

Just then, the hull of the ship suddenly jolted, as if some heavy monster had climbed aboard. Immediately after, shouts of alarm and screams from the soldiers erupted from behind, along with the curses of the sand bandits and the symphony of blades being drawn from their scabbards.

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

The closest scream rang out right behind He Lingchuan. He seemed to have spoken with this soldier earlier.

Then the monster charged straight toward this spot, its heavy footsteps sounding as if they were stomping directly on people's hearts.

Was this a trick used by the Three-Corpse Insect to lure him into turning his head?

But if it were real, by standing still like this, he would likely become a snack for the monster. This was the Panlong Desert, a place where numerous exotic beasts roamed; who could guarantee that one or two hadn't taken the opportunity to climb onto the ship to eat people? It was getting closer! This heavy sense of oppression made the hair on the back of He Lingchuan's neck stand on end.

He hurriedly 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 appearing somewhat ferocious, yet his gaze was hollow. He Lingchuan found this expression very unfamiliar; he didn't know what his father had heard.

Relying solely on eye contact, how could both sides understand each other's intentions? But with the Three-Corpse Insect in front of them, no one dared to open their mouths.

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

This gesture was rare for a dignified Prefect to make, yet 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 creature's heavy breathing, but the next second, it vanished.

Only the wailing of the wind remained in his ears.

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

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

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

However, the greatest weakness of this method was that one could not easily turn their head! There were three life-fires around a person's upper body that could protect the heart and mind, rejecting the invasion of external evils. But if you turned your head while being targeted by a Three-Corpse Insect, the life-fires would immediately weaken, and you would no longer be able to hide from it.

This was not an invention unique to Sun Fuping, but a method recorded in the notes of a sorcerer from the Xianyou Kingdom. Your greatest understanding of yourself usually comes from 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; a traveler would hear someone calling them from behind, and by turning their head inadvertently, they would weaken their life-lamps, allowing evil spirits to invade.

When He Lingchuan first received the small pill, his heart had stirred. The Xianyou Kingdom had been destroyed for a hundred years, so the notes of a sorcerer from that time must have been hard to obtain; furthermore, Heart-Rotting 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-Dulling Powder—how much effort would that take?

Had the Grand Marshal and State Preceptor Sun really only started preparing to explore the Panlong ruins half a year ago?

Of course, this thought only flashed by, and He Lingchuan did not 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-rimmed eyes, brimming with tears? As the words left his mouth, this personal 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 lamps immediately dimmed.

The Three-Corpse Insect prowling nearby, like a shark that had caught the scent of blood, whipped its tail and drilled into his ears and nose!

The personal guard's gaze immediately went vacant.

Seeing his eldest son’s face change drastically as he stared behind him, the veins on He Chunhua’s neck immediately bulged; clearly, he had used great effort to suppress the instinct to turn around.

He did not turn his head, but instead lunged forward two steps.

This was truly a model of successful self-rescue, because the personal guard had suddenly drawn the long blade at his waist and aimed a "cleaving the western mountain" strike at the back of He Chunhua’s head! The two had only been four feet apart, and his 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 and lunged into the personal guard's embrace, taking both the man and the blade.

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

He Chunhua escaped death, panting heavily, and suddenly stared ahead, saying: "Chuan'er, turn around slowly; I'm going to deal with these puppets."

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

Once a person died, the Three-Corpse Insect could no longer stay and had 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 would not falter and would not be blown out by his own movement.

The ship, however, was already in chaos.

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

Once possessed, they recognized no kin and hacked at anyone they saw.

In just these few moments, chaos erupted on the ship; four or five people were wounded, and one unlucky soul had half his head sliced off directly.

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

If a person constantly reminded themselves not to turn their head, their agility would inevitably be greatly compromised. He Chunhua felt as stiff as a zombie, his movements to chase the person a beat too slow; he really couldn't get around this bastard.

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

It entered the front and exited the back, bursting into a spray of blood.

(End of chapter)