Chapter 268: 264 Opening the Ear Orifice

Fang Mu covered his ears, huddled in a corner. The instant the Nail was driven into his ear canal, an intense pain was instantly triggered, hurting Fang Mu so much he wished he were dead, and he nearly fainted.

This kind of pain was something Fang Mu had never felt before; it wasn't just his body being injured, even his soul was trembling.

But strangely, Fang Mu clearly felt the Nail pierce through his ear, yet other than experiencing the pain, there were no signs of injury or bleeding, as if it were just his hallucination, and perhaps his cowardly self hadn't actually gone through with it at all, but his fragile and sensitive nerves had acted first, stopping his own actions...

No, that is not it.

Fang Mu recovered his strength and slowly pulled himself together; he was certain he had truly gone through with it.

Although he could not guarantee he was an absolutely high-quality male, he believed that at the very least, he was a man who could muster up drive at critical moments and act when it was time to act.

Removing his hand from the ear he had just pierced with the Nail Hammer, he clearly felt that something about this ear had become different.

Had his hearing become stronger? It seemed so, but it was far from being as simple as just having "wind-following ears."

He covered his other ear, which he hadn't pierced yet, closed his eyes, and let his hearing focus on the ear that had been pierced by the Nail Hammer; only then did Fang Mu discover more details.

Gu-gua... %#&*#@...

"It's the sound of talking!" Fang Mu was startled. He heard countless toads and frogs rapidly approaching, and at the same time, there were dark and obscure languages mixed into the croaking; the frequency of the sounds seemed very low, but to him, they were exceptionally clear.

That was a language of another system, but in terms of pronunciation and tone, it was actually subtly similar to the dialect of Wenya Tun in the Guinan region.

"This Nail Hammer can grant me superhuman hearing; besides hearing faint sounds from afar, I can now hear sound waves beyond or below the range of human hearing," Fang Mu guessed to himself.

There was not much time left for him to make decisions and think. He looked at the Nail Hammer in his hand, his eyes turning fierce, and gritting his teeth, he smashed it down toward his other ear.

Soon, a shrill, miserable scream echoed through the dark cave again.

Only this time, Fang Mu was not broken in spirit by the pain. After piercing it through, he immediately pulled out the Nail, then gritted his teeth and stumbled toward a certain direction in the cave.

The place he was heading toward had no croaking of toads or strange whispers, which meant there were no "pursuers" in that direction for the time being.

While struggling forward, Fang Mu forced himself to adapt to his two reinforced ears as quickly as possible. He now felt he could hear too many sounds and he couldn't filter them yet; at this moment, he was like someone staying in a soundproofed small room, forced to endure noise exceeding the limits of human endurance, feeling so uncomfortable that it caused physiological distress, nausea, and the urge to vomit, with tears, snot, and saliva flowing out uncontrollably.

Faster! Faster! Fang Mu roared internally, commanding himself.

In less than two minutes, Fang Mu heard heavy and rapid footsteps coming from behind, shaking with every step. Although his eyes could not see through the darkness, his ears received the sounds made by every part of the pursuer's body with every movement; those sounds filled in an image in his mind, forming a humanoid silhouette.

The limbs were extremely developed, the hands and feet were webbed, and the vocal organs in the neck were quite large and elastic, allowing them to expand and contract freely like air sacs.

This was not a human! Absolutely not a human!

They were the Abnormal offspring born from the union of humans and the Toad God as recorded in local legends; they were frog-men with a humanoid appearance, possessing power far exceeding that of humans, and had once killed the fierce beasts and invaders of this land.

And he, now, was also identified as an invader!

Fear can sometimes make people lose their minds, but sometimes it can also stimulate potential.

Under intense emotion, the nerves throughout Fang Mu's body reached a high level of operational efficiency, and his mind became very focused. His hearing, which had been somewhat out of control, began to gradually come under control at this moment, and this process of mastering control was not slow.

Gua!

Just as a huge figure lunged at him from behind, Fang Mu's ears heard the sound of the frog-man exerting force to jump beforehand. His body made a judgment a step ahead, actually dodging the pounce that was as fierce as a tiger descending a mountain.

Fang Mu felt a gust of wind brush past his ears and cursed under his breath. As his super-hearing came under control, the symptoms of physical discomfort also vanished. He ran faster, hearing the sounds of jumping that could split mountains and crack rocks coming from behind, and he ran wildly, dodging in a disheveled state.

"Damn!" Fang Mu turned a corner and ran into the darkness, but suddenly he hurriedly slammed on the brakes.

He heard the sound of gravel rolling into an abyss. Although he couldn't see it now, he heard that there was an abyss ahead, with demonic wailing sounds formed by the wind coming from the abyss.

Fang Mu decisively chose to change direction; he could not turn back, he could only find another way.

He pricked up his ears to listen carefully and heard the sound of empty wind under a nearby wall. It should be a natural hollow, not big, and he would have to crawl in, but for someone not tall or sturdy like him, it was just right to squeeze in.

Crawling into the hole, there was a lot of gravel inside the hollow. Some stones pierced into Fang Mu's flesh like Nails, but Fang Mu, whose spirit was extremely "excited" now, could barely feel any pain. He just felt something stabbing into the flesh of his arm, but none of that mattered now; it didn't matter if he bled, what mattered was getting away from those terrifying monsters.

Gua——

Perhaps the frog-man discovered that its body was too bulky to squeeze in like Fang Mu, so it could only watch Fang Mu escape, roaring in fury at the entrance of the hole.

"Damn it, can't chase me in here, can you?" Fang Mu noticed this, turned his head to curse excitedly, and then crawled faster.

He didn't know how long he had been crawling; Fang Mu only heard that the croaking behind him was already very, very far away. He was safe for the time being.

The moment his mind relaxed, the pain of his skin being torn all over his body swept through Fang Mu's brain like ten thousand ants biting his body. Fang Mu gritted his teeth in pain; although he was a bit disheveled, the pain of mere superficial wounds could not compare to the excruciating pain of piercing his ear orifices earlier. He could endure it.

Fang Mu gritted his teeth and crawled forward, feeling that the hole ahead was becoming narrower and narrower. The space he had to move in became less and less, and later on, he couldn't even stop to rest casually, because once he rested, his body might never find a point to exert force again.

He suddenly felt a bit worried that he would get stuck in some section ahead. If that happened, he would likely face two cruel ways to die.

Either get stuck there and die of hunger or die from difficulty breathing, or before dying of hunger or difficulty breathing, be found by the toads spread out below and watch helplessly as he was bitten to death and poisoned to death by the toads alive.

Thinking of this, Fang Mu's emotions began to become unsettled again.

Fortunately, after crawling forward for another stretch, Fang Mu discovered that the passage was slowly becoming wider again, and he seemed to be getting closer and closer to the exit.