Chapter 129

Pangzi poked the giant monster worm's body several times with his gun barrel: "Just now it was as hard as steel plate, bullets couldn't pierce it, but now it's as soft as a caterpillar, seemingly not quite dead yet. I say we don't bother asking questions, just shove some explosives into its mouth and send this thing to the western heavens to vent our anger."

Shirley Yang said: "It's not that simple. With our equipment, we absolutely cannot kill it completely right now. Fortunately, it poses no threat anymore. This is a worm with a rare ring-shaped neural structure similar to that of the Sun Goddess Snail. Besides altering the oxygen content in the air, it's hard to find a way to kill it."

The ancestors of this worm can be traced back to hundreds of millions of years ago in the "Cambrian Period," when invertebrates originated. At that time, aside from insects, other animals were still in a low evolutionary stage. Thanks to its tenacious vitality, the worm's original form survived countless species extinctions and persisted until tens of millions of years ago in the Triassic Period, gradually evolving into the largest worm-like creature in history.

Unlike common organisms with central nervous systems and dendritic nerves, organisms with ring-shaped neural tissue and compound cellular structures are extremely rare—only two have appeared so far. The first is the mysterious creature "Sun Goddess Snail" from hundreds of millions of years ago. Its existence predates human understanding, leaving only fragments. It lacks a neural center, meaning its body and nerves are separate. After bodily tissue necrosis, the ring-shaped nerves continue to exist. Moreover, the Sun Goddess Snail is hermaphroditic: it needs no mating, and new life replaces its dead external body. Though this trait limits its numbers, as long as the environment allows, its ring-shaped nerves and net-like cellular structure will endlessly reproduce within its shell.

The "Heteromorph Long Worm" is formally named "Ho's Immortal Worm," named in honor of the British biologist who discovered its fossils. This unique organism with reticular nerves lies between invertebrates and semi-vertebrates and possesses a protective shell similar to the Sun Goddess Snail. Its hard outer shell is formed by internal secretions. In nature, it has no natural enemies unless wholly swallowed and digested by gastric juices; otherwise, as long as part of its nerve net remains, it can survive. Its final extinction, like that of giant insects, was due to abrupt changes in atmospheric oxygen levels.

Shirley Yang said: "One thing is very strange—the overlap and conflict between archaeology and biology. Scholars studying ancient Egyptian civilization believe the sacred scarab appearing in pharaonic insignia is the divine insect, whose original form is this Heteromorph Long Worm, so they disagree with biologists who claim this giant hard-shell worm went extinct at the end of the Triassic. They argue that at least during ancient Egyptian times, such giant insects still existed, and this debate continues endlessly."

During that era, all animals worldwide were enormous. This relates to the flora and geological structure of the time. High oxygen levels caused unlimited insect growth. Currently discovered Triassic mosquito fossils suggest wingspans exceeding one hundred centimeters.

Insects respire via tracheae, but oxygen diffusion into tissues slows with body size. When insects exceed a certain length, atmospheric oxygen cannot meet their demands. This objective factor is also the primary reason limiting insect size and causing the extinction of giant insects.

The rock layer structure of our current "Gourd Cave" is highly distinctive—a kind of archaic metamorphic rock. Everywhere we see reddish semi-transparent crystals and abundant ancient fossil forests, all products of the Triassic. Through fossils formed at a certain moment in ancient times, we can tell that at that instant, volcanic lava and mudflows that engulfed everything nearly simultaneously covered this forest, followed by rapid cooling after high heat.

Ground gas expansion formed the unique terrain of the "Gourd Cave." Part of this "Heteromorph Long Worm"'s body was submerged by lava and mudflow. The lava hadn't time to melt its hard, heavy shell before being extinguished by the ensuing mudflow. Thus, part of the worm's body fused with the cave and can no longer be separated. Ancient Yi people living near "Shield Dragon Mountain" may have worshipped this terrifying "Ho's Immortal Worm" as a mountain god.

I don't know how many generations this "Heteromorph Long Worm" has reproduced in its shell, but its respiratory system has somehow adapted to current atmospheric oxygen levels—perhaps due to the cave's unique structure, or perhaps because of some special plant or food here.

Thinking of food, we suddenly recalled the countless "drifting corpses" in the water. We had wanted to leave immediately, but now it seems necessary to investigate further, as this giant worm likely has a major connection to the "Xian King's Tomb."

Why does this "Heteromorph Long Worm" wear a golden mask shaped like the Xian King's priest? Why is it artificially clad in dragon-scale demon armor? Is it the source of the poisonous mist near the "Insect Valley"* close to the king's tomb?

I shared all my hypotheses with Shirley Yang, but our understanding of "corpse poison technique" remains very limited. We only know it is one of the three great evil arts of the ancient southern seas: by transforming the resentment of the dead into invisible poison, the more tragic the death, the stronger the toxin.

The monster's shell was originally red, continuously emitting red mist from within, which we initially mistook for poison. Later we found that as the worm's body endured continuous blows, the red gas gradually faded. After we blasted its head apart with explosives, the red mist completely dissipated, and the creature lost all resistance. Its internal poison mist must be related to its long-term consumption of waterborne "drifting corpses."

Based on this, perhaps a part of this giant worm's body connects to a certain point above the "Insect Valley." Given its traits, the worm's body is nearly a hundred meters long—unsurprising, especially with the valley's extremely low-lying terrain allowing even plant roots to penetrate. Possibly, the worm swallowing floating corpses from the water causes the resentment of tens of thousands of female corpses to pass through its body, transforming into the pervasive white "corpse mist" in the valley, sealing the sole entrance to the "Xian King's Tomb."

The "Human Skin Map" records that the "corpse mist" surrounding the "Xian King's Tomb" exists in a ring. This may be due to the mapmaker's ignorance. Our on-site survey shows such a valley terrain cannot support a ring of toxic mist—sheer cliffs on both sides and rear, with only a sliver of sky above. As long as the mist blocks the valley road, no other path can enter the "Xian King's Tomb."

At this moment, Shirley Yang noticed that the bronze dragon-scale armor plates on the worm's exterior bore many inscriptions, severely worn. Only a small part remains visible, but they are bizarre and unrecognizable. We suddenly recalled seeing similar symbols in the "Stele Shop"—on that large vat containing a corpse, sunk into the pool with chains. The vat bore these symbols; at the time, Professor Sun said they were a long-lost "corpse poison technique" talisman called the "Soul-Stabbing Charm," used to seal souls—a vicious evil art. This indicates this layer of bronze demon armor serves the same purpose as the copper skin wrapped around that water vat.

It seems our guess was correct: this custom-made dragon-scale demon armor, combined with the golden mask incorporating the Xian King's six demon beasts, was installed on this giant worm via some "corpse poison technique" ritual. Those people truly adapted to local conditions, utilizing every available resource—though not for righteous ends, but solely to practice this harmful sorcery. Alas, the Xian King still sought immortality and Dao validation.

Before the "Xian King's Tomb" was built, this mountain god old man only ate large toads and spiny frogs from the water. Since those creatures contained poison glands, the giant worm also became toxic. After the Xian King discovered this place, he used ancient Yi methods to drain its toxicity, then arbitrarily soaked and prepared it, leaving the worm half-dead, turning it into the source of the valley's poison mist guarding the tomb. Endless dead resentment repeatedly transforms through its body—no wonder it cries so miserably. Looking at it this way, it's rather pitiful, just like those human silkworms—both are sacrifices of the "Xian King's Tomb."

If this reasoning holds, the vast number of female corpses in the water were placed there to produce "corpse mist." But over these two thousand years, at the worm's consumption rate, even the entire Han Dynasty population couldn't fill today's count. We must retrieve a "drifting corpse" from the water for analysis and find a way to break this valley barrier—perhaps it'll help us escape.

Pangzi feared I and Shirley Yang would propose leaving immediately, as he still intended to collect the scattered gold fragments on the ground and the parts on the worm's head—quite a haul, not to be wasted. Seeing us gathered around the worm, he frantically grabbed an engineer's shovel to dig the gold from the rotting worm head.

I was focused on using the ice axe with Shirley Yang to fish out "drifting corpses" by the water, unaware of what Pangzi was doing. Suddenly I heard him shout in alarm behind us. We turned quickly to see the already blasted worm's head suddenly lift up, its mouthparts completely shattered. At that moment, the mouth inside had, at some point, swollen to several times its previous size, emitting continuous "gurgle" sounds.

I thought this guy was too tough—still making such a big move after being blown apart like this, but is it truly immortal? I hastily grabbed the "Chicago Typewriter," ready to unload another burst, but saw it wasn't preparing to attack us. Looking at its state… it seemed to want to vomit.

Just as I thought that, before I could warn Pangzi to dodge, I saw the giant worm's mouth open wide—wah-lah, wah-lah—and vomit a huge pile of female corpses: the very "drifting corpses" it had swallowed from the water. Now they'd turned blackish-brown, lost their surface cold green sheen, and were coated with various sticky liquids—red, green, yellow—all splattering onto Pangzi. I was about seven or eight meters away, yet the stench nearly made me faint.

I immediately hooked Pangzi's carrying bag with my ice axe, and together with Shirley Yang, we heaved him out of the corpse pile. Fortunately, the toxic "corpse mist" had been drained into the valley. These liquids should be gastric juices or similar; though possibly acidic, washing them off immediately renders even residual contact harmless.

The giant "Ho's Immortal Worm" seemed badly beaten by us—once it started vomiting, it couldn't stop. After expelling over a hundred black female corpses, it let out another violent "gurgle" sound, this time clearly in pain, and vomited a huge square object that hit the ground heavily. Its surface oozed fluid, studded with many protruding copper nail caps—appearing to be a bronze box, or perhaps a large bronze coffin.

I was astonished—never expecting it to still have such a large item inside. Fortunately, I'd pulled Pangzi back in time, or else he'd have been crushed into a skinny figure. Shirley Yang and I exchanged a glance; she, too, looked doubtful: "This is exactly like the Western legend of the box hidden in an ancient dragon's belly—Pandora's Magic Box."