Chapter 157

This... this damn thing is actually a hand.

Yes, this thing crawling quickly toward me is indeed a strange hand, as long as a person's elbow, its five fingers have grown long, hard nails, the nails are black‑yellow in color, the skin on the hand is like old tree bark, wrinkled, especially at the end of the wrist, where it is covered with dense rootlets; if not examined closely, one might even mistake it for a humanoid monster tree.

This involuntarily reminded me of a scene from the human path in A Chinese Ghost Story, where Guorong brother entered a ruined temple, took a bath in a large tub, and suddenly a strange hand revealed a corner on the eaves. Then a liquid‑like mummy emerged from the eaves, its viscous fluid dripping drop by drop, seemingly even falling on my goddess Xiao Qian. That scene was truly disgusting.

The strange hand before my eyes is remarkably similar to the appearance of the hopping corpse in A Chinese Ghost Story.

However, the hopping corpse in the film is semi‑liquid, whereas the strange hand before my eyes is the color of an old tree and is completely solid.

Moreover, its speed is extreme; in the blink of an eye it had almost crawled from outside the door to right in front of me.

Without time to wonder what this thing was, I grabbed Xiao Changsheng and rolled, ending up in a corner of the ruined temple.

With a loud bang, in the weak light of the flashlight I saw the strange hand frozen where I had just been, its five fingers sunk deep into the floor.

Suddenly, it clenched its fist, fingers together, instantly flinging up a shower of stone chips, tearing open the thick lime floor to a depth of three cun.

Seeing those deep finger marks on the ground, a flash of terror involuntarily crossed my mind. What the hell is this thing? Its eerie arrival is terrifyingly strange.

"Uncle, it's coming, it's running toward us!" Xiao Changsheng hid in my arms and shouted in terror, while the strange hand that had flung away the stone chips unexpectedly reversed direction and crawled toward me and Xiao Changsheng again.

Its crawling manner is bizarre: although its five fingers are upright and it scurries quickly on the ground, the impression it gives is of a person walking upright, except that this 'person' has many more legs.

At this moment I was trapped in a dead end with no escape. Seeing the strange hand rushing toward me, I could only desperately press forward with the Huaguang Seal.

With a puff, an intensely hot sensation came from my hand; the seal struck the strange hand's index fingernail. As befitting one of the exclusive seals of the Great Emperor Huaguang, inheriting the domineering style of the Five Manifest Emperors, when it pressed onto the hand's nail, the nail instantly emitted green smoke and, faster than a thunderbolt, rapidly recoiled.

Watching the strange hand gradually disappear outside the door, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.

But just as I was secretly relieved, Xiao Changsheng suddenly cried out again: "Uncle, be careful, it's coming from your left."

At the same time, my spiritual sense seemed to detect a vicious energy surging from my left. In an instant, my instinctive reaction made me throw the seal held in my right hand, catch it with my left, and then slam it hard into the darkness ahead.

Indeed, although I could not see the strange hand's form, I certainly felt the seal's scorching aura and the tremendous force transmitted during the resistance.

"Uncle, it's coming from your right!"

"Ha" a loud shout, the seal went to the right.

"Uncle, it's now on your left side!"

"Ha"

"Uncle, it's under your feet!"

After half an hour, I had forgotten how many rounds I had fought the strange hand; even the joints in my wrist were faintly aching. Yet I still dared not be careless, holding the seal and carefully sensing the movements around me.

"Xiao Changsheng, where is it now?" I asked, holding the seal and kicking the air.

"Uncle..." Xiao Changsheng's voice suddenly trembled: "It... it is now on my head."

What? My heart tightened, I silently thought 'not good,' and lunged toward Xiao Changsheng's position. On that pillar, something seemed to be crawling down quickly toward Xiao Changsheng.

With a puff, this time it was not a clash between the seal and the strange hand; rather, while I was rolling while holding Xiao Changsheng, the strange hand slashed my back.

A burning sensation came from my back, making me feel as if scorched by fire, the pain unbearable.

At that very moment I suddenly went berserk, relying on feeling I leapt up in the darkness, shouted a loud command, and forcefully pressed the seal downward.

I didn't know where the strange hand was; I merely relied on feeling, hoping to use the seal to pin it down.

Fortunately, heaven still looked after me. As the seal came down, a rebound force immediately let me clearly feel that I had pressed it down.

The seal transmitted scorching heat; following this faint light I saw beneath the seal a gigantic withered hand. Its five fingers kept struggling, striving to fling off the Huaguang Seal placed upon it.

As it struggled, the pressure from its hand grew greater; finally I closed my eyes, tried not to think of the hand's disgusting form, and sat down heavily upon it. At the same time I gripped the seal tightly with both hands, clenched my teeth, and held the strange hand in a stalemate.

As our stalemate continued, the firelight on the seal grew brighter; the hand kept struggling and wailing, but under the seal's gradual suppression it had already fallen into a disadvantage.

If I could persist a little longer, this strange hand would be burned to death by the fire on the seal.

Thinking this, I involuntarily increased my force.

However, just as I gritted my teeth and exerted force again, I felt my hands and feet go weak, then my heart began to race faster and faster, a wave of dizziness swept over me, making me involuntarily want to collapse to the ground.

"This strange hand... is poisonous!" The moment that thought arose in my mind, the hand sprang up with vigor; had I not suppressed it in time, it truly would have escaped.

I am quite aware of this feeling in my body; it is a sign of poisoning. The strange hand's nails must carry strong poison, paralyzing my cerebral nerves.

I really want to sleep; even my vision is becoming increasingly blurry, the scene before me seeming to overlap continuously.

But I know I cannot sleep; not only that, I must hold on a while longer, at least I must wait for Xiao Changsheng to leave before I can release the seal.

"Xiao Changsheng, run quickly, don't worry about me, take the flashlight and flee." I clenched the seal tightly and shouted at Xiao Changsheng with my last ounce of strength.

I don't know where Xiao Changsheng is in the temple now. I can only summon my last strength to remind him., a buzzing sounded in my ears, and I could even feel a thick liquid flowing from my ears.

This is blood; my ears have already bled. This means the poison has rapidly spread through my body and is about to corrode my heart.

At this moment I lack a strong will to survive. The first thing that comes to mind is not how to escape from the strange hand's grasp; I merely want to exert all my strength to buy a little more time so that Xiao Changsheng can escape in time.

In my mind, the thought "Xiao Changsheng, hurry up, hurry up" keeps recurring; perhaps I have already shouted it out, but I can no longer distinguish reality from illusion.

Not long after, I felt I had no strength left to support myself; I closed my eyes, released my grip on the seal, and collapsed.

Perhaps I will have a long dream, a dream from which I will never wake; in that dream I might have a child as adorable as Xiao Changsheng, clinging to me, crying and fussing nonstop! All day long, whether there is something to do or not, he would noisily chatter in front of me, creating noise and denying me peace. I might deceive him with the lie that not eating rice will cause worms in his belly, or I might tell him that if he doesn't clean his bowl, his future wife will be covered in acne.

Perhaps I will continue those lies that have deceived generation after generation. Holding him, I will watch the withered tree before the door wither and sprout again, while I, sitting by a small bridge over flowing water among homes, will watch his playful self grow slowly. When the sunset falls, I will be old, and in my eyes and heart, both tears and laughter will be wholly his.

In my confusion, I seemed to have found the life I longed for; my heart was full of warmth.