Chapter 283: The Handsomest Man in the Mountains

The exit was a full hundred zhang above the water surface; when Xu Yuan descended halfway, he heard the angry snarls of wild boars coming from above the passage.

Plop!

Xu Yuan smashed into the river.

But before entering the water, Xu Yuan had already released Pi Long, and slipped entirely inside it.

Splash splash…

Pi Long stretched its body in the water, swaying its head and tail, looking utterly at ease.

From above the cave mouth, the wild boar's roar echoed faintly again: "Go fetch that thing for me!"

Immediately afterward, one after another giant rat was shoved into the passage by the boar, sliding all the way down.

The instant Pi Long hit the water, Xu Yuan saw the pale monsters surging up from the river.

All four limbs paddling, they moved through the water like arrows.

Their horrific mouths opened wide, rushing forward to tear and bite.

"So my earlier guess was right."

"Whenever something falls down, these monsters assume it's food for them."

Xu Yuan manipulated Pi Long, whipping its tail to smash three monsters flat.

The monsters were startled, halting abruptly in the water.

They had no eyes, and it was unclear how they perceived the outside world.

Xu Yuan was satisfied—Pi Long's power was immense; this single strike was even stronger than the "Ten-Zhang Human Skin"!

But Xu the Lord did not continue attacking; instead, he sank deeper, heading toward the riverbed to escape.

At that moment, the giant rats from the upper passage tumbled into the water.

Plop!

Plop!

Plop!

The sounds of splashing followed one after another.

More monsters gathered, instinctively rushing forward to bite at once.

The giant rats, today's Fu Daxiong, swam and fought the monsters simultaneously.

But they were not as formidable as Pi Long—they couldn't stun the monsters with a single blow.

The river water soon turned foul with vast patches of blood.

Xu Yuan lurked beneath the surface, drifting downstream.

Whenever monsters spotted him and lunged, he struck them down with a single tail swipe.

Behind him, the water became a chaotic battlefield.

The giant rats were ferocious; none of the monsters could stand against them for a single round.

But the monsters were too numerous, and the giant rats' swimming ability paled in comparison.

The river's surface churned wildly with chaos.

Xu Yuan reached the cave mouth—the iron bars stood before him.

Each bar was as thick as an arm, with gaps only five fingers wide; the monsters could not squeeze through.

Every iron bar was covered in gnaw marks.

Xu Yuan manipulated Pi Long to gently touch the iron pillars.

"Just ordinary iron bars—no other enchantments attached."

"So these can trap all those aberrations inside the cave…"

"Those aberrations are numerous, yet their strength is truly mediocre—why did the Ancient Corpse Wang Fei keep them?"

Xu Yuan quietly released his sword pellet, circling it around the iron bars and slicing them clean through.

He severed three bars in succession, carving an opening wide enough to slip through.

Pi Long darted out swiftly.

Two aberrations immediately followed behind, squeezing through.

Pi Long whipped its tail, flattening only their heads.

The corpses slowly sank to the riverbed.

Xu Yuan reattached the severed iron bars, reconnecting them with his Fu Zhong Huo.

Doing this underwater was troublesome; Xu Yuan worked hard for a long while.

If his Rank Dan Xiu level hadn't already reached Sixth Stream, he couldn't have rejoined them.

The moment he released the fire, the river water extinguished it.

Then Xu Yuan manipulated Pi Long to dive down, seize a dead aberration in its mouth, and then swing its tail, drifting downstream with the current.

This underground river was extremely long, winding and twisting.

Along the way, several caverns appeared; Xu Yuan took the opportunity to surface for air.

After an unknown length of time, Xu Yuan suddenly felt himself swept into a much larger river.

He slowly rose to the surface and realized he had finally emerged from the underground river.

This Dahe River surged through the mountains, its cliffs carved like knife cuts and axe strikes; a troop of two-headed ghost-faced monkeys shrieked as they scrambled across the cliffs.

Xu Yuan swam to shore and climbed out at a shallow beach.

Because he had remained inside Pi Long the entire time, his body stayed dry; after emerging, he looked around in confusion, unaware of his location.

But Xu Yuan dared not linger.

He had broken through the bars and followed the underground river here—those giant rats and wild boars could do the same.

Xu Yuan still wore his mud mask, tucked away the Skin Dragon, hoisted the strange corpse, and fled swiftly.

After sprinting dozens of li through the mountains, Xu Yuan finally found a cave to stop.

He tossed the strange corpse onto the ground and released his Sword Pearl to slit it open.

Xu Yuan was deeply curious: what purpose did the Ancient Corpse Wang Fei have in raising these things?

They were weak in power, but numerous in quantity.

Feeding them was extremely troublesome.

With so many monsters, food could only be slid down through that narrow passage.

Each feeding required at least the amount of ten oxen.

Xu Yuan carefully examined the monster but found nothing suspicious.

This thing not only resembled a human in appearance, but also possessed the same five viscera and six bowels as a human.

And Xu Yuan discovered two sets of systems between the monster's legs!

In short… this thing could be either male or female!

"Can they reproduce on their own? No wonder there are so many monsters in the cave."

As he muttered to himself, Xu Yuan suddenly noticed the monster's flattened head.

After thinking for a moment, he used his Sword Pearl to cut open the head as well.

"Strange…"

Inside the monster's head were two brains.

And the two brains grew separately in two distinct cranial cavities!

The monster's body size was about the same as an ordinary human's.

But its head was much larger.

The cranial cavity was divided into two layers by a horizontal bone.

The upper layer was larger; the lower one was only the size of a walnut, and the brain inside it was even smaller.

Of course, the upper layer housed a much larger brain.

Xu Yuan grew even more puzzled: "What use is this…?"

Shaking his head, Xu Yuan left the monster's corpse behind, exited the cave, climbed to the mountain peak, and activated "Wang Ming" to survey the surroundings.

Below, at the foot of the mountain, a group of demonic "lives" rose in thin threads, black as ink.

Xu Yuan crept toward that direction.

It was a nest of aphids.

Each one was a zhang tall!

Plump and bloated.

The ground around was littered with white bones—human and beast alike.

Unfortunately, these demons had extremely low intelligence; upon seeing Xu Yuan, they shrieked and charged together.

With the attitude of "either I eat you, or you eat me."

Xu Yuan fled swiftly; the fat aphids couldn't catch him.

He found another demon—a "Stitch-Body Ghost."

Its own body was tattered, so it constantly sought to repair itself.

When it captured another soul, it would tear it apart and sew the pieces onto itself.

But its body had too many holes, and its sewing skills were terrible—sew one spot, and another would split open.

It was forever on the path of self-mending.

This thing could communicate, but its entire body was covered in other people's mouths; whenever it spoke, all the mouths chimed in, clamoring so loudly nothing could be learned.

Xu Yuan abandoned it and ran.

On the fifth attempt, Xu Yuan finally found a group of "Corpse Sparrows" in a forest.

These were the zombie version of sparrows.

A large flock lived together, having just pecked at a wild ox.

Clearly unsatisfied, they landed back in the woods and chirped noisily:

"Tasteless, tasteless!"

"The meat's too dry, the bones too hard."

"The marrow's too greasy—I don't like it."

"Humans taste better. I heard today's Wild Boar Liao is getting married, throwing a funeral feast—let's go see if we're lucky enough to eat a live human."

"I doubt it. Wang Fei won't have it."

"What's Wang Fei thinking? Wild Boar Liao is the handsomest in this mountain! If she won't marry him, does she plan to marry a living human?"

(End of Chapter)