Chapter 135: Breaking Out of the Egg

Shirley Yang was also looking down at her leg, a half-human, half-insect monster infant, its lower limbs retaining insect characteristics, no legs, like a mollusk, clinging to her leg and wailing loudly, that crying voice hoarse as if it were not human at all, even the "night owl" calls we heard in the jungle at night sounded more pleasant than this.

Probably due to the suddenness, Shirley Yang froze, the half-insect monster infant's crying abruptly stopped, its mouth splitting into four pieces toward the four diagonal directions, each piece's interior covered with backward sawtooth-shaped barbs, like insect mouthparts, this split seemed to divide the infant's entire head into four pieces, wobbling as if it wanted to bite Shirley Yang's leg.

I saw clearly, Shirley Yang frozen and not dodging, though I held miai in hand, the distance was too close to dare fire randomly, fearing the "Chicago Typewriter" would unleash a storm of bullets that would sweep Shirley Yang's leg away, in desperation I reversed the gunstock and struck at the half-insect, half-human monster infant.

As the gunstock was about to smash the monster infant's head, it suddenly turned its head, its mouth split into four pieces firmly biting the miai gunstock, the hard wood of the gunstock bitten until it creaked, black liquid trickled from the corner of its mouth, seemingly containing poison.

I gained those precious few seconds, Shirley Yang finally regained her composure from the shock of the half-human, half-insect alien infant, let out a soft cry, trying to pull her leg free from the monster infant's embrace, I simultaneously pulled the gun body back, the monster infant's insect-like mouth full of barbs, bitten onto the gunstock and could not be shaken off, along with its body, I dragged it from Shirley Yang's leg.

I feared any delay would let the monster infant crawl up miai to bite my arm, so I swung the gunstock upward, Pangzi saw clearly, had already grabbed the entrenching tool, shouted: "Damn, let's see the real thing!" The entrenching tool in his hand brought a gale, swinging at the monster infant I had flung into midair with the gunstock.

It connected squarely in midair, like hitting a baseball, a loud clang as the steel shovel smashed flesh, bone, and meat, the half-human, half-insect monster infant like a kicked burst ball, shot straight from midair into the "Gourd Cave" rock wall, then with a "bang" it struck and burst its brains, the translucent red rock wall where it hit looked like a dye shop opened, red, green, yellow, black juices flowing down the wall.

I praised: "Well hit. Damn satisfying." Looking down at my miai submachine gun's gunstock, still embedded with several barbs from the insect's mouthparts, I couldn't help but curse: "Such hard teeth, grew teeth before weaning, truly a damned freak." I looked around, wanting to see where it crawled out from.

Who knew the monster infant fallen on the ground was not yet dead, it rolled a few times, suddenly lifted its bloody, blurred head and let out a piercing, exhausted wail, this cry shrill to the extreme, making people agitated, I fired a single shot, blasting the monster infant's head into meat mush and bone fragments, after the bullet, only an empty hollow skull remained, it tilted sideways and lay limp on the ground, utterly dead.

One wave not settled, another rose, we hadn't figured out where that suddenly appearing monster infant came from, the entire huge cave suddenly went completely dark, the cold light reflected from the floating female corpse in the river vanished instantly, the vast cave left only the light from our mountaineering helmets.

All around came the rustling of countless white bodies, the noise of colliding rubble, infantile wails piercing the heart, I instantly understood: those hatched from the female corpses, they had begun to detach from the mother body at some unknown time, we had focused all attention on the copper box holding the "Zhelong Mountain" artifact, failing to notice immediately, now discovering it was already too late, they seemed to have crawled everywhere, unknowingly forming an encirclement.

Shirley Yang lit a cold firework, held it high, likely out of female instinct, she seemed afraid of these half-insect, half-human monster infants, the hand holding the cold firework trembled slightly, light and shadow in the cave swayed, only countless crawling monster infants seen, layered and packed together, all splitting their mouths into four pieces, moving very swiftly, circling us, seemingly treating these three living people as their first feast since birth, merely deterred by the cold firework's light, still hesitating slightly, only needing the light to dim for them to swarm forward, our two miai, one six-shot pistol, plus a single-shot "Sword Might," basically unable to resist, we must quickly carve a blood path to break out.

We three stood back-to-back, relying on each other, waiting for those "gu infants" to show a slight opening, then act, rush out in one go, their bodies contain gu poison transformed from the dead's resentment, even a light touch is enough to be fatal.

I held the gun in one hand and the "Wolf Eye" flashlight in the other, shining the beam toward the dark where the monster infants crowded, wanting to see their specific traits, but they seemed to fear strong light, instantly scattering, a few even crawled straight up the smooth cave wall, I secretly wondered, how like a gecko? Then I shone on the dead infant on the ground, discovering their bellies and forelimbs all had suckers, one body possessing both human and insect traits.

Pangzi shouted: "These worm brats fear flashlight light, we just charge out!"

Shirley Yang said to me and Pangzi: "No, they just haven't adapted, not truly fleeing far, just avoiding direct light, won't easily retreat, recklessly charging out only creates a head-on clash, they are too numerous, we don't even have thirty percent chance."

These monster infants have not emerged for a thousand years in those "dead drift" mothers, why now suddenly come out? Isn't this cutting off the gu poison's source in the valley? Did we unknowingly trigger some ritual? Thinking, I hurried to find the three artifacts taken from the copper box: the three-legged monster toad from the Toad Palace, the Three Piles Mountain God's bones, and the cyan jade fetus in the pottery jar—could these artifacts be the culprits causing the "gu eggs" to leave the mother body?

But not far from us, those Yi people's "artifacts" were covered by monster infants, chaos everywhere in the cave, no trace discernible, in the dark the infants' wails grew louder, it seems no special opportunity will come, cannot delay waiting for change, now only to grit our teeth and force a breakthrough outward.

I reminded Pangzi to take out the "butane injector" from his backpack, now no point in holding back, this is "burning the eyebrows," attend to the immediate, give it a "burn the connected camps," we'll rush in the chaos toward the Gourd Mouth direction, once out of the cave, we'll have terrain advantage, no longer fear these guys.

Just as we were about to act, Shirley Yang said: "We beat that giant insect badly, that half-human, half-insect monster infant suddenly detached from the mother body. Possibly because the cave lacks the red mist that lets them stay asleep, unrelated to the three artifacts, but we must destroy those artifacts, especially the three-legged blue toad in the Toad Palace. That toad's material is a rare meteorite with blue hip-ketone gel ions, buried underground kilometers can emit interfering ions upward, without it, the two large meteorites at the valley mouth will lose function, otherwise more of my planes will crash here."

No time for us to deliberate, the ravenous "gu infants" already couldn't wait, completely ignoring the flashlight's strong light, pressing ever closer, gradually shrinking the encirclement, those artifacts scattered in the cave's inner side, we want to force a breakthrough outward, can't afford to destroy them, besides our only reliance, the "butane injector," can only be used three short times, hard to replenish, once used up, trapped in heavy siege, consequences unimaginable, better to rush out first, then think of a way.

I shouted to Pangzi and Shirley Yang: "Shoulder to shoulder, rush out!" At this moment a "gu infant's" monster mouth already bit toward me, Shirley Yang kicked up, struck its temple, instantly kicked it away, simultaneously raised the "Diamond Umbrella," blocking the entanglement of several "gu infants" behind.

Pangzi busily held the "butane bottle" nozzle, aimed forward and sprayed, dozens of "gu infants" immediately engulfed in flames from the butane ignition, became fireballs, struggling and screaming, instantly turned to charcoal, this was our first use of the "butane injector," never imagining such device would have such astonishing power, even rocks burned along.

Pangzi fired twice, amid the horrid screams of monster infants burned by intense flames, me, Shirley Yang, and Pangzi took advantage of the chaos to break out from a weak point, all-out sprint, on the undulating rocks, one step high one low, ran a distance, only heard rear equipment noises loud, my heart urgent, silently thought bad, came too fast, this caught up, and hearing the sound distance already not far, running like this won't work.

Along the water's edge we ran a few more steps, then no road left, the "Gourd Cave" terrain began to constrict, seems we're nearing the Gourd Mouth, the rock wall curvature suddenly increased, becoming extremely steep, wanting to continue forward, only option is to swim out, not far a semicircular bright light should be the exit, this water surface wide, due to the narrow cave mouth, water flow not rapid, at our fastest speed to swim across, less than halfway we'll be overtaken by a swarm of gu infants.

The three of us already ran until panting, hearts thumping like a point, I pointed at that bright patch: "That's the exit, you two swim out first, I'll hold here a moment, otherwise we'll fumble in water, die for sure, you needn't worry, I have my own way to escape."

Pangzi jerked open the bolt: "What kind of fart idea do you have, I see who else would argue with me, if staying I stay, old man truly doesn't believe it, eighty-year-old mother fears child not grown?" Speaking he was about to push me and Shirley Yang into the water.

Shirley Yang shoved Pangzi's hand aside, went into his backpack to get explosives: "Quickly set up several rings of detonation cord, just to block them a bit, then we'll have time to escape."

I and Pangzi understood, now no delay, seizing every second we untied the detonation cord from the fine iron wire bundle, haphazardly laid on the ground, I heard the monster infants' wolf-howl-like tragic cries, from far to near, though the cave was pitch black, from the wails I judged they were already near, I kept urging Pangzi: "Hurry up, hurry up."

While Pangzi was laying all the detonation cord in the cave, Shirley Yang had already opened the equipment pack's airbag valve, the three of us dared not linger a moment, amid the death-like cries, we all jumped into the water, holding the airbag, hands and feet paddling, swimming toward the cave mouth.

In my hurry I didn't forget to look back, only see that countless human-or-insect monster infants had already followed like maggots in bone to the water's edge, the first detonation cord just exploded, though this rope-like explosive power is weak, yet enough to temporarily slow their relentless pursuit, Pangzi had set five layers of detonation cord, by our speed we can outrun them before they catch up, drill out of the Gourd Cave.

These gu infants' vitality is as tenacious as cockroaches, not smashed to pulp they can't be killed, and look at their mouths full of barbs and black juice, poison must be extremely vicious, worse is their numbers too many to cope, only option is first to escape this "Gourd Cave" death trap, then seek escape strategy outside.

While I swam with all my strength, I pondered how to deal with them afterward, suddenly felt my body sink, legs as if grabbed by several incredibly strong claws, not only hard to keep swimming forward, my body was actually pulled rapidly down toward the dark water bottom.

Since I was at the rear of the airbag, Pangzi and Shirley Yang were respectively in front left and right, so they didn't notice my predicament, my foot suddenly grabbed, sudden occurrence, my heart panicked, my hand holding the inflated airbag didn't hold firm, hastily reached to grab, but due to the airbag's forward speed with the water current being fast, this 0.01 second deviation meant I couldn't grab, only my fingernail caught a point, I wanted to call out to Shirley Yang and Pangzi, but the cold river water had already submerged my nose.