Chapter 227: with translation of chapter title

The world spun.

No, that word is utterly inadequate to describe what Li Hu is feeling now.

His stomach felt as if it had been pulled out, stuffed into his head, then tossed together with his brains into a washing machine drum set to maximum spin. All sense of up, down, left, and right vanished; the only thing he could feel was falling, endlessly plummeting into a bottomless Abyss.

"Ah—!"

Zhang Mei's scream was right by his ear, yet it sounded as if filtered through a thick layer of water, distorted and distant.

Worse still was the omnipresent "scraping sensation".

It felt like countless invisible, barbed steel knives scraping his skin from all directions, digging into his flesh, and even frenziedly filing back and forth across his soul.

"Fuck! Where the hell is this?!" Li Hu wanted to curse, but as soon as he opened his mouth, what rushed in wasn't air but a bone-chilling energy that froze his very spirit, choking him so he couldn't utter a word.

He wanted to struggle, but his limbs flailed uselessly, like a drowning person.

Better to die—whether smashed to death or slapped by a monster—than this pathetic end… What's the difference from being tossed into a meat grinder? No, it's worse; at least a meat grinder gives a quick death.

Just as Li Hu felt he would be torn apart in the next second, a massive black shadow swooped down and engulfed them.

"Thud!"

A deafening, muffled boom—not an impact, but as if the entire chaotic space had been forcibly held still for an instant.

Li Hu felt himself slam into a warm, tenacious "wall," his falling momentum abruptly halted. Most of the bone-scraping energy storm was blocked outside by that "wall".

He blearily opened his eyes to find himself, Zhang Mei, and the two children all "pressed" beneath a huge shadow.

It was Old Master.

Or rather, it was the monster that had fully bestialized.

Its mountain-like body became at that moment the strongest cage, the safest haven, tightly shielding the four of them beneath its belly. The spatial turbulence and aberrant energy capable of shredding Golden Core cultivators slammed against its back, emitting a grating "hiss," yet could not penetrate in the slightest.

"Li Brother… my hand… my hand is rotting!" Zhang Mei cried out tearfully, breaking Li Hu's relief.

Li Hu looked down and saw the skin on the back of his hand blistering and peeling like melted wax, revealing strange blue veins beneath. It wasn't just his hand; he could feel his face itching and going numb, as if countless worms were burrowing under his skin.

The stray energy that had seeped in continued to corrode them!

"Don't be afraid! Old Master is protecting us!" Li Hu roared, not sure whether he was comforting Zhang Mei or bolstering himself.

He looked at the two children.

Wang Zhize's condition was relatively better; the Black Jade Slip in his arms emitted a thin, almost invisible black light, like a fragile eggshell barely wrapping him and his brother Wang Zhitao. That light was faint, and against the surrounding violent energy it seemed about to go out at any moment.

"Brother, how are you?" Wang Zhize's little face was pallid, but his eyes were unusually steady as he gripped his brother's hand tightly.

"Brother…" Wang Zhitao's voice trembled, his teeth chattering, "Cold… yet burning… I… I feel like I'm about to burst…"

Li Hu leaned in for a look, and his heart sank.

Wang Zhitao's whole body twitched abnormally; black currents like tiny snakes writhed under his skin. His body was instinctively, uncontrollably devouring the lethal aberrant energy around him!

Devouring Origin Tyrant Body!

This technique here is practically a death warrant! It can't tell tonic from poison; as long as it's energy, it gulps it all down!

"Zhitao! Stop quick! Don't cultivate!" Li Hu shouted anxiously.

"I… I didn't…" Wang Zhitao winced, curling into a ball, "It… it moves on its own… Brother, I… I can't control it…"

"Damn it!" Li Hu punched the ground, but only struck Wang Shan's tough flesh, jarring his own hand bones numb.

What to do?

Old Master was now just a beast, left only with protective instinct—no hope there. Zhang Mei was barely holding on, half her face already showing eerie scale patterns. Wang Zhitao was a ticking time bomb ready to explode. The only one who still seemed relatively normal, Wang Zhize, was merely relying on that Black Jade Slip to cling to life.

What is this? Jumping from one death trap into an even deadlier one?

"Roar—"

The beast above let out a low growl, seemingly sensing the pain of the "young ones" beneath it. Its massive body tightened again, compressing the sheltered space into something smaller and more airtight.

More aberrant energy was drawn to and devoured by its huge body. Li Hu could even see the ferocious bone spurs on its back thickening and twisting at a visible rate. It was using its own mutation to buy them a moment of peace.

"No, we can't go on like this!" Wang Zhize looked at his suffering brother, a flash of resolve in his eyes.

He ignored Li Hu's shout, instead deliberately releasing his grip on his brother's hand and, with effort, lifted the Black Jade Slip with both hands.

"Brother, what are you doing?!" Wang Zhitao jumped in fright.

"Grandpa left this to me; it's surely not just for me to hide in a shell!" Wang Zhize gritted his teeth, pouring the little bloodline power he had into the Black Jade Slip.

"Hum!"

The Black Jade Slip's black light flashed—no longer the passive defensive halo it had been.

A wholly different aura emanated from the slip—…a sense of command, of authority.

The surrounding violent energy trying to breach the shield, like meeting its nemesis or a sovereign, momentarily stalled.

"It works!" Li Hu's eyes lit up.

Wang Zhize didn't stop; his small frame trembled violently from overexertion, yet he kept his gaze locked on his brother, struggling to control with his will the "force" emanating from the Black Jade Slip.

"Go!"

He gave a low shout, and that thin layer of black light actively peeled away strands of rampant black energy from his brother Wang Zhitao's body.

Once those black currents left Wang Zhitao's body, they instantly became violently volatile, eager to explode—but the Black Jade Slip's "force" bound them like invisible reins.

"Brother! Learn from me! Don't let it in, push it out!" Wang Zhize shouted to his brother.

Wang Zhitao was on the brink of collapse; hearing his brother's voice felt like grasping the last straw. Seeing the strand of energy his brother had "pulled" out, an idea struck him, and he frantically drove his chaotic internal technique.

He stopped trying to suppress it and, imitating Wang Zhize, began to actively guide it!

"Get… out!"

Wang Zhitao let out a roar unbefitting a child; more black currents inside him, following this guidance, found an outlet and surged wildly outward!

For a moment, beneath the massive body of the beast Wang Shan, this tiny refuge staged a bizarre scene.

On one side, Wang Zhize held the Black Jade Slip, like an inept animal trainer, struggling to rein in the violent energy.

On the other, Wang Zhitao closed his eyes, his body like a bellows, desperately expelling the toxic energy he had sucked in.

The two brothers, one in charge of 'control', the other in charge of 'discharge', miraculously achieved a fragile and dangerous balance in this deadly place.

Li Hu and Zhang Mei stared in disbelief at all this, watching two children who hadn't even reached their waists, using a method they could not possibly comprehend, opposing this peril that could destroy everything.

Perhaps… the master's choice wasn't the craziest.

But… the only one?

Li Hu looked up at the massive black shadow that was silent as a mountain yet continually growing stronger, then glanced at the two children before him who were creating miracles, and an absurd thought sprang up uncontrollably.

This damned place, to them, is a dead end.

But for these three 'monsters' of the Wang Family…

Here, it seems like a cafeteria.