Chapter 130: Main Text Chapter 132 Fetal Movement

Main Text Chapter 132 Fetal Movement

The half-fossilized "Huo's immortal worm" vomited out everything in its stomach. After a few mournful cries, its raised head fell heavily again; its strength was completely exhausted, it curled up and remained motionless.

Pangzi had just been drenched head‑to‑face in the corpse‑worms' and giant worm's gastric juices, and had barely avoided being smashed by that large cabinet; though still shaken, he forgot the four words 'touch gold, send wealth' and immediately stepped forward, wiping the foul yellow slime from his face with one hand while muttering to himself: 'Damn, they almost smashed Pang Ye into a meat patty… After surviving a great disaster there must be blessings, but I don't know what this big chest is meant to hold—how did that giant worm swallow it into its belly?'

I also found it strange; in my life, this encounter is the most unbelievable. Following Shirley Yang behind Pangzi, we all stared at the box that had lain inside the worm's belly for thousands of years, and countless questions arose in my mind. Perhaps the box truly is what Shirley Yang said—like the Western legend's 'Pandora's Magic Box', which was also hidden in a fire dragon's belly, containing an enormous secret and countless demons and monsters.

Pangzi could wait no longer; he used his ice axe to drag the several female corpses piled near the chest to one side, clearing a space around the chest, preparing to open it and see if there were any valuable goods inside.

I saw that each female corpse hooked by Pangzi's ice axe was pitch‑black, utterly unlike the 'floaters' drifting in the water; curiosity stirred, I put on gloves and pulled one corpse from the heap—it felt extremely heavy in my hands. Though the saying goes 'dead heavy, dead heavy', a freshly dead body is indeed heavy, but these underwater female corpses should have been dead for over two thousand years—how could they still be so heavy? With such weight, they would hardly float even in water.

The female corpse was stark naked; even if it had clothing, it would likely have rotted away in the water. Its features were intact, but it looked extraordinarily ferocious and ugly, as if its expression were frozen at the moment of death; the skin had almost changed quality, black not like that of East Asians but more like African black, bearing no resemblance to the beautiful naked corpses I and Pangzi had imagined. There was not the slightest similarity—this corpse only evokes the ugliness and cruelty of death.

I found the corpse's skin highly unusual; gloved, I touched it and felt it hard and slick—not merely some change that would cause this, but after soaking in the cold water for about two thousand years it had not rotted at all.

Shirley Yang asked from the side: 'The corpse's body is very strange—how is it? Any discoveries?'

I shook my head: I could see nothing particular; the corpse's surface flesh had become extremely hard, somewhat like amber, possibly also petrified, but exactly how such a hard membrane formed is hard to determine at once.

Shirley Yang said: 'Although some of the corpse's appearance and outline are still visible, its surface seems wrapped in a layer of black translucent substance, making it hard to see clearly; however, from the corpse's external features we can see varied heights and builds—all are young women. First we can confirm, this is not a stone‑made figurine.' Worried there might be poison on the corpse, she spoke while wearing rubber gloves, examining the corpse's fine details.

Seeing us turning over the female corpses that had come out of the giant worm instead of helping him open that strange copper chest, Pangzi loudly complained, saying I lacked strategic vision—those corpses were worth only a few coins, better to ignore them; opening the copper chest is the real business.

I said to Pangzi: 'What's the rush, damn it? You eat a meal bite by bite, fight a battle one by one. We haven't even entered the Xian King's Tomb yet and already run into all these strange things; we must examine each one thoroughly. Only when we know ourselves and the enemy can we win a hundred battles without loss, lest we lose our lives in the worm valley below. That big copper chest is the oddest—will opening it bring fortune or misfortune? Disaster is unpredictable. Let us first clarify the details of these female corpses underground before opening it; that's not too late. Do you really think the chest will grow legs and run away?'

Seeing no one to help him, Pangzi found the large square copper chest tightly sealed and, unable to open it by himself, grudgingly went to the underground water's edge, found a spot without any 'floaters', and washed the foul‑smelling giant worm gastric juices off his body.

I then stopped paying attention to Pangzi and busied myself investigating the pile of female corpses stacked like a small hill. Shirley Yang and I found them ever more astonishing, our shock growing—these women's deaths and the post‑mortem states they displayed were utterly terrifying.

The female corpses' arms and legs were bent backward beneath them, joints completely broken; the limbs clung at an inconceivable angle to an olive‑shaped translucent object behind them, resembling a huge worm cocoon. Viewed from outside it had several layers: an outer layer of transparent worm silk, an inner hard shell, both very thin and transparent yet extremely hard.

The entire body of each female corpse—including the limbs and the cocoon‑like object clutched behind—was enveloped in a layer of brown‑black translucent substance, like a huge piece of amber.

The surface of this black‑translucent hard membrane was etched with layer upon layer of secret sigils, identical to those on the 'Dragon Scale Demon Armor' and on the markings of the water basin in the Stone Tablet Shop. This is the ancient incantation used in worm‑craft to seal the dead's vengeful spirits, which can be transformed via other channels into a terrible poison. Carefully observing, we saw at the base of the cocoon‑shaped object countless tiny holes, too many to count—honeycomb‑like round perforations that probably lead deep into the cocoon, as if for the worms to lay eggs; yet on those densely packed round holes, like a beehive, there was a strong suction. Shirley Yang touched it with her hand and felt that suction‑cup‑like pull, quickly withdrawing her hand.

Shirley Yang switched on the 'Wolf's Eye' flashlight and shone its beam on the cocoon‑like object; instantly a black shadow appeared inside, its shape resembling an unborn fetus, faintly quivering.

Now cleaned of his grime, Pangzi came over, got a good look, and repeatedly exclaimed to Shirley Yang: 'Ah… how is there a big shrimp‑like thing in there?'

Shirley Yang said to Pangzi: 'Do you want to eat shrimp? I think it looks more like a borer inside a worm egg.' She swung her entrenchment knife, making a cut on the outer shell of the corpse and the cocoon, hoping to pierce it and see what lay within, but the black translucent outer membrane was so tough that even the sharp blade of the entrenchment knife only left a shallow scratch—she couldn't cut through it.

Pangzi said, 'Look at me—when it comes to strength, I'm no braggart like the Sui‑Tang era strongman Li Yuanba with his iron‑clad arms; that's all I am.' He then swung his entrenchment shovel and brought it down hard. His force was considerable, and indeed he chopped a large gash in the formerly translucent hard membrane.

Inside, the writhing object became visible through the breach. I stepped forward to help, intending to work with Pangzi to pry the crack in the black hard membrane wider and extract what lay inside. But as soon as my hand touched the cocoon‑like object, we turned it over—the female corpse lying face down suddenly lunged forward like a fish just hauled ashore that isn't dead yet. With astonishing strength, that single lunge sent it flying more than half a meter away.

Less than a centimeter away lay the bottomless underground water of the Gourd Cave. I and Pangzi shouted at the same time, 'Where are you running to?' and thrust our two ice axes forward, hooking the corpse firmly. The corpse was extremely heavy; it took great effort to pull it back.

Pangzi cursed: 'It's all those little dead spirits inside causing trouble—watch Pang Ye deal with him.' He then grabbed his entrenchment shovel, thrust it through the rupture in the membrane, and mashed the fetus‑shaped moving thing inside into a pulp, from which streamed a foul, ink‑green liquid that reeked ten times worse than the giant worm's gastric juices; I had never smelled anything more nauseating in my life, and the three of us hastily clamped our gas masks over our faces.

Looking at the black mass that Pangzi's entrenchment shovel had chopped into mincemeat, it was utterly dead; where the blade had chopped it apart, the tissue was fatty white with pinkish streaks of blood—what is this? Although its shape resembled an unborn fetus, it lacked any human outline, and no ordinary pregnant woman could carry a fetus this large.

Seeing this, I suddenly recalled that in ancient Warring States times there was a punishment called the 'Cauldron Drop', specifically used to deal with pregnant female criminals. In that feudal society, of course there was no talk of humanitarian treatment for prisoners; the execution proceeded only after the pregnant woman had reached eight months gestation, when she was stripped naked, her limbs bound to a wooden frame, smeared all over with salt‑nitrate, and placed in the bustling market where a stone roller was rolled over her body, causing the blood, viscera and fetus to pour out together until exhausted; the populace commonly called it the 'Fish‑Like', but for those with a prominent … (illegible) stomach, crowds flocked to watch, and after the punishment every face turned ashen, none failing to lament its cruelty.

This means that a pregnant female criminal is kept until she is exactly eight months pregnant, then executed (the 'great out'). At execution, she is stripped naked, bound to a wooden frame, placed upside‑down in the very centre of a crossroads, and two water buffaloes are driven to pull a small stone roller; the roller must not be too large or heavy, lest it kill her prematurely— the standard is not to break any bones. beforehand the criminal's body is coated with salt‑nitrate and 'ma ya' analgesic drugs, dosed so that she will not be tortured to death.

Once everything was ready, two water buffaloes were led, pulling a specially made stone roller—our roller is narrow, rolling back and forth over the criminal's body, pressing out intestines, stomach, heart, liver, lungs, and the fetus within, which all spurt from both sides; of course the heart vessels are severed, and the criminal is done, but by law the roller must continue until no blood flows from either end before it is finished. Spectators watching the spectacle saw the woman gradually compressed into a human skin; they could not bear to watch, lamenting the strictness of royal law and silently vowing to themselves to henceforth obey the law.

Of course, for women who violated feminine morals, consorted with adulterers, or murdered their husbands—though ancient standards for female virtue were strict and chastity and morality were highly valued—such offenses still did not merit this level of punishment; only women who had committed earth‑shaking great deeds and happened to be pregnant could possibly experience it. According to historical records, those who suffered this great punishment are few in number throughout history; this cruel punishment, though widespread in Chinese history, was gradually abolished in the Tang dynasty, leaving only its name, and thereafter was never inflicted on criminals again.

After thinking for a while, I told Shirley Yang and Pangzi: 'It seems this thing is neither a big shrimp nor a fetus; it resembles more the hornet nests we saw earlier on the animated figurines—a large hornet pupa.'

Pangzi shook his head in disbelief: 'How could a hornet's pupa be this big? And this thing has considerable strength, firmly attached to the female corpse's back—I'm not alarmist; I clearly see it as a monstrous fetus born of a dead person.'

Shirley Yang carefully used her entrenchment knife to pull apart the white meat that had turned into a mush, and at the tip of this large white meat pupa she found it connected to the corpse's lower body, together with a petrified purple combined vehicle (placenta) and also an umbilical cord.

Not only were there an umbilical cord and placenta, but the white‑meat figurine's body was curled, bowed into an arc—large head, slender feet—its lowest end straight‑inserted into the corpse's lower body, possibly reaching all the way into the uterus; this situation could not be clearer.

I and Pangzi held up a flashlight to illuminate her; seeing this, we both felt our hearts pound and exclaimed in unison: 'Surely it's a monstrous fetus!'

Although Shirley Yang is well‑traveled and knowledgeable, she could not help but feel nauseated by the red‑and‑white conspicuous monstrous fetus; she ran to the water's edge, removed her gas mask, and retched twice, then told me and Pangzi: 'This is absolutely not a human fetus; it is a gu‑egg.'