Chapter 290: 286 Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad

The eerie sight left the two men pale; that black, amorphous thing could not be understood, and they could not imagine how such a creature had appeared. Those obsessed humans who were swallowed and then spat out by it had expressions that grew increasingly numb and hollow.

The "swallowing and spitting" motion of that black amorphous thing was not fast, like an old man eating chicken bones, chewing them over in his mouth, but in the end, it seemed to only swallow the humans' souls and then spit out the remaining Vessel. Incidentally, it injected a new "substance" into the Vessel; that substance filled the bodies of those who were spat out, and intense light burst forth from their eye sockets, illuminating the skin on their bodies until it was translucent.

"Your Xuanmi Group has a long history and knows the most. Do you know what this situation is, and what that thing is?" Fang Mu could not help but ask in a low voice. He focused his attention, trying to use his special eyes to see through to the True Form of that black amorphous thing, but he discovered it was only composed of a patch of black smoke, and from within it, eerie frog croaks would emit.

Xia Chen looked at the other person helplessly. "I'm also just a person who has lived for thirty-some years, right? And my energy is limited; there is a limit to the books I can read and the knowledge I can remember in this lifetime."

"I can't be very certain what this thing is either, but I feel it is a bit like a monster mentioned in a book I read, called a Ghost Essence."

"It is a creature without a fixed form, living mainly in dark and damp underground caves. They are often the subordinates of some Alien God or powerful Abnormal creature, liking to swallow the souls and wisdom of living beings and then control them. As the most numerous and also the most intelligent sentient beings on Earth, we humans are therefore the primary targets of Ghost Essence attacks. The more 'sentient wisdom' they swallow, the smarter, craftier, and stronger they become."

"No fixed form, can swallow the sentient wisdom of living beings, and then control... it really is very similar." Fang Mu observed the behavior of the black amorphous thing swallowing and spitting out humans, which indeed matched the image described in the book, and then asked, "Is there any way to deal with them?"

Xia Chen said in a low voice: "This kind of creature has no fixed form, and physical attacks are all ineffective, but it fears strong light and high heat, so using fire will do."

"What you say is very correct, but do we have fire on us?" Fang Mu's gaze swept over Xia Chen's body.

"I have a few signal flares; they should barely be usable. But such a large Ghost Essence far exceeds the ordinary Ghost Essence described in the book. I'm afraid that even if I fire a few shots, I won't be able to kill it; at most, I can drive it away," Xia Chen said, taking a signal gun from his belt.

After hearing this, Fang Mu pondered for a moment and said, "It seems we cannot launch a frontal attack; it can only serve as a means of self-defense."

Xia Chen nodded; he thought the same.

Watching as the Ghost Essence finished swallowing and spitting out everyone, those people who had been chanting prayers to it became like walking corpses, standing there silently, bearing those pairs of glowing blue eyes.

Following a strange, high-pitched cry from the Ghost Essence, the controlled humans swayed and paired up, facing each other. Then, they indifferently pulled daggers from their wide sleeves and slashed the other arms they had extended toward each other. In an instant, fresh blood surged, gurgling and flowing all over the ground.

Those controlled humans seemed unable to feel pain; their expressions did not change in the slightest, and their bodies had no hesitation. They sat down and used their hands, covered in their own blood, to graffiti on the ground.

Fang Mu and Xia Chen stood on high ground, happening to see the pattern they were depicting. It was a pattern of a giant toad-frog: a huge belly, covered in hair, with a head like a bat—extremely bizarre. This was undoubtedly the Toad God that Fang Mu knew.

The two of them felt a chill just watching the process of drawing the Toad God pattern. Fang Mu even felt it was drawn too realistically, as if the Toad God were truly about to jump out from within it.

During the drawing process, those people who were losing blood crazily fell one after another. In the end, only one woman remained, silently persisting, until she had finely drawn the last blister on the Toad God's back, at which point that woman's life also reached its end.

The Ghost Essence seemed very satisfied. It just let out another sharp whistle, and immediately after, those controlled humans collapsed like shoddy construction work; their flesh and blood disintegrated with a boom. They gathered together according to the outline of the Toad God pattern on the ground, flesh and blood aggregating and semi-reorganizing. As the Ghost Essence merged into the mass of flesh and blood, the unstable flesh-and-blood toad form composed of that flesh slowly stabilized, as if the Ghost Essence had bestowed a soul upon this mass of flesh.

"What the hell..." Xia Chen was shocked and terrified. He had never heard of such an eerie evil ritual, let alone that the Ghost Essence's ability to control people could reach the extent of making them disintegrate automatically, not to mention the extent of being able to fuse with the Ghost Essence.

The two watched that gradually forming Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad, holding their breath. Only after the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad let out a strange cry and hopped away into the deeper darkness did they finally begin to resume greedy breaths, and only after a long while did they bravely walk out of their hiding spot.

Fang Mu looked at Xia Chen, his silent gaze asking Xia Chen what to do next.

Xia Chen swallowed a mouthful of air and said to Fang Mu, "You want to find those Nail Hammers, right? Prioritize finding them."

Fang Mu sighed, "Unfortunately, I am not sure where the Nail Hammers are, but I guess they should be by the Toad God's side."

In his previous life, the Toad God kept and used the Nail Hammers; it stands to reason that in this era, she should also do the same.

Since the Toad God could realize that she was currently in a space-time cage created by the Master Who Transcends All Things, she would cycle along with the deeply cursed Fang Mu until Fang Mu found a way to lift or overcome the Curse. And since she believed that letting Fang Mu complete the ritual of opening the Seven Orifices would make it possible for her to escape the Curse, she should spare no effort to open her own Apertures.

However, Fang Mu had read the "Night Wanderer Notes"; he knew that the final result of being opened by the Nail Hammers was only a dead end. Even the legendary Emperor of the Center, Chaos, died because of opening his Apertures. How could he, an ordinary person, withstand the power brought by the Seven Orifices connecting to the divine? He was already exhausted just controlling his own Eye Aperture and Ear Aperture; how could he talk about opening other Apertures? He would die, and die very miserably.

Hearing Fang Mu's words, Xia Chen's heart trembled. The meaning of Fang Mu's words was to follow the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad that had just left, because it was possible to find the real Toad God.

With no other choice, Xia Chen and Fang Mu could only bite the bullet and walk toward the deeper depths.

Passing by the place where the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad was just born, the Toad God portrait drawn with human blood was still blooming vividly there, spreading a thick, bloody stench all around, dizzying one's head.

Xia Chen and Fang Mu picked up the lighting equipment left at the scene. Holding lit candlesticks, the two walked into the deep darkness, following the giant toad footprints left on the ground, slowly moving forward. In the deep and empty tunnel, the croaking of a toad-frog and the sound of bones being bitten and chewed, which made one's scalp tingle, came from time to time.

It seemed that the Flesh-and-Blood Giant Toad was eating.