Chapter 91: The Evil God Descends, [Danger Level: ★★★★★★★]

Hiss~

Lu Yuan drew a sharp, cold breath.

Before coming up the mountain, he had inquired clearly in Mangniu Village.

The woman who threw herself into the well during the Guangxu era was pregnant with a child at the time of her death, but the baby was never born.

The so-called Mother-Child Malevolence, Mother-Child Malevolence... the child never even came into the world.

The image of the red-clothed evil spirit earlier, holding a swaddling cloth bundle, had always seemed off.

Lu Yuan had initially just thought it was some kind of mutation after the evil spirit took form.

Now it seemed, there were actually two coffins down the well, one large and one small.

This was strange.

Then placed the extracted fetus into a separate small coffin?

Hey!

If that's the case, you gotta say, the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family folks are pretty considerate!

Lu Yuan leaned over the well opening and shouted down:

"Then open the small one and take a look!"

"What's inside probably isn't the main Child Malevolence entity. Most likely it's some ritual tool left by the Liu Family, or the key mechanism of the entire evil ritual!"

As his words fell, Tan Jiji's voice from below immediately refused.

"No way! Absolutely not!"

His voice carried obvious fear.

"What if I open the lid and something jumps out and pounces on my face!"

"There's so little space down here at the bottom of the well, I'd have nowhere to hide!"

Hearing his cowardly tone, Lu Yuan curled his lip.

"Then tie the rope to the small coffin, and we'll pull it up."

Silence from the well for a moment.

Then Tan Jiji's voice came again:

"Then throw another rope down."

Huh?

Lu Yuan raised an eyebrow:

"Why?"

Tan Jiji's voice, tinged with a sob, shouted with righteous indignation:

"Are you stupid!"

"You want me to stay down here with a big coffin all by myself, without even a rope connecting me to you guys? I'm scared!"

Hearing this, the others couldn't help but curl their lips.

What happened to that tough-guy attitude from before!

How did it change so fast!

Wang Cheng'an, while untying a spare rope to throw down, muttered under his breath:

"So much trouble."

"Besides, if something really happens, with the coffin blocking the well opening, even tying ten ropes to you wouldn't pull you up."

His words weren't loud, but they clearly carried down.

Tan Jiji below instantly bristled, hopping mad with anger as he cursed:

"Hey!!!!"

"That's not what you said when you asked me to come down!"

...

Two hours later.

The four of them slumped against the edge of the dry well, panting heavily.

Getting the two coffins out of the well, without any pulley system, relying purely on brute strength, was truly a physical task that left Lu Yuan and the other two utterly exhausted.

Tan Jiji, on the other hand, was suffocating.

Later, when the oxygen ran low down the well, his fire starter even went out.

Scared Tan Jiji so much he wailed and cried like a frightened chicken, even more pitifully than the Evil Spirit had screamed earlier.

Now, lying quietly before them were two pitch-black coffins.

One large, one small.

The four didn't rush to act. Instead, they each sat cross-legged, regulating their breathing, recovering their strength, while simultaneously placing several Evil-Suppressing Talismans around the coffins as a precaution.

More than ten minutes later, everything was ready.

They stood up and gathered around the small coffin.

Xu Erxiao, holding a military shovel, found a gap in the coffin lid and, using all his strength, gave a mighty pry.

"Clang!"

The edge of the iron shovel wedged firmly into the rotten wood.

Lu Yuan judged in his heart that what was inside most likely wasn't the so-called Child Malevolence.

It was more likely some kind of sinister offering used to nourish the Mother Malevolence, or some medium for the evil ritual.

Of course, thinking about it now was useless.

The answer lay beneath this coffin lid.

Xu Erxiao gripped the shovel handle with both hands, muscles bulging, and pressed down with all his might.

Lu Yuan and Wang Cheng'an stood on either side of the coffin, talismans already pinched between their fingers.

Tan Jiji held up an Eight Trigrams bronze mirror, its surface aimed at the coffin gap, his expression tense.

Screeeech—

A grating, teeth-aching friction sound rang out as the rotten coffin lid was pried open a finger-width gap.

An indescribable stench instantly gushed forth!

It wasn't a simple corpse smell.

It was a complex odor mixed with thick blood, rancid grease, aged medicinal herbs, and some kind of cold, filthy substance.

As if the most foul things in the world had been concentrated together.

The smell was so pungent and acrid that even though the four were prepared and holding their breath, they still felt a foul air rush straight to their heads, stinging their eyes and churning their stomachs.

Hiss hiss...

Wisp after wisp of extremely faint, dark green smoke seeped from the gap.

Upon contact with the air, it emitted subtle corrosive sounds, giving off a strange smell of rust mixed with sulfur.

"Corpse Malevolence transforming into vapor! Be careful!"

Tan Jiji hissed a warning, activating the bronze mirror. Its brass light flared brightly, dispersing the green smoke.

Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed. He signaled Xu Erxiao to continue.

Thump!

Xu Erxiao kicked the military shovel. With a piercing shriek, the coffin lid was completely pried open and fell askew to the side.

The four immediately leaned in to look inside.

The sight within the coffin made all four of them feel a wave of physical revulsion.

The interior of the small coffin was lined with a thick layer of sticky, blackish-brown substance.

It looked like coagulated plasma mixed with some kind of grease and herb residue.

In the center of this filthy "mattress" lay curled an extremely small, malformed, unbearable-to-look-at fetal corpse.

Lu Yuan frowned and stepped forward for a closer look.

This??

There really is a child in here...

But this child...

First, Lu Yuan wasn't a medical student.

But as a high school student on Earth, he at least had studied biology.

One look told him this wasn't a child born from a normal birth.

It wasn't even fully developed. Looked to be only about four or five months along!

Was this the child the red-clothed woman was carrying when she threw herself into the well all those years ago?

Forcibly cut out from the corpse?!

Then...

Is this the Child Malevolence from the Mother-Child Malevolence?

Hmm...

Lu Yuan took another careful look.

There was malevolent energy, yes, but...

Not much. In fact, this amount of malevolent energy couldn't even coalesce into an ordinary Evil Spirit.

Let alone become the "Mother as auxiliary, Child as primary" main malevolence.

The four exchanged glances, seeing the same confusion in each other's eyes.

No one spoke.

The next second.

Thump!

Without hesitation, Xu Erxiao swung the military shovel in his hand again, forcefully embedding it into the gap of the large coffin!

With a dull thud, the lid of the large coffin was violently pried open.

Inside lay the true body of the red-clothed female corpse.

Completely different from the blurred, distorted image of the Evil Spirit's soul form earlier, the female corpse in the coffin was preserved with abnormal "completeness."

Which made it even more terrifying.

The female corpse's face was actually clearly discernible. Her skin was a deathly pale blue-white, utterly bloodless.

Yet it wasn't severely decomposed or shriveled. Instead, it had a bizarre sense of "fullness."

Her eyes were wide open, pupils cloudy, staring fixedly upward, her gaze frozen with endless resentment, pain, and despair.

The corners of her mouth were stiffly downturned, as if forming an eternal expression of weeping.

The female corpse's hands were folded over her abdomen, her ten fingernails black and sharp, deeply embedded in her own flesh.

Around her neck, wrists, and ankles were clear, deep purple ligature marks, obviously from some kind of rope being tied there long-term.

But what made Lu Yuan's pupils constrict the most were the three things on her body.

On her forehead, heart, and dantian, each was nailed with a slender, green-rusted copper nail.

The nails were covered in twisted talisman inscriptions.

Lu Yuan: "????????"

"!!!!!!!!!"

This??!!

Forehead, heart, dantian?!!!!

Ha??!!

The moment he saw these three copper nails, Lu Yuan's mind went blank.

He finally couldn't hold back.

His face was full of shock and horror!

This image instantly reminded him of...

Gu Qingwan!!

First, it must be explained: these three copper nails were completely different from the Yashèng coins pressed on Gu Qingwan's major acupoints!

Completely, utterly different!

But why did Lu Yuan still lose his composure so suddenly?

It was because the technique used to place these three copper nails was the same as the technique used to press the Yashèng coins on Gu Qingwan's major acupoints!!

How to explain it?

It's like a painting!

One painting depicts a dog, another depicts a fish, or perhaps mountains, rivers.

The contents of the paintings are completely different!

No common points at all!

But!

These paintings are ink wash paintings!

So, everyone knows, these are Chinese paintings!

The restraint on Gu Qingwan's body...

Has a connection to the Commanding Ghosts Liu Family?!

This thought struck Lu Yuan's mind like a thunderbolt, exploding with a roar.

He stood there, completely stunned.

Lu Yuan wasn't afraid; on the contrary, he felt a surge of wild joy.

This??

This is searching high and low without success, then stumbling upon it effortlessly!!!

At this moment, Tan Jiji, Xu Erxiao, and Wang Cheng'an, the three of them, completely unaware of the anomaly behind Lu Yuan, had their entire focus nailed to that large coffin, brows furrowed tightly.

Wang Cheng'an drew his wooden sword, probed into the coffin, and gently poked around the female corpse with the tip.

He touched here, prodded there, as if searching for some unknown mechanism.

Suddenly!

Wang Cheng'an's movements froze.

The next second, a strangled, strange cry erupted from his throat, and his whole body jerked backward violently!

"Ahhh my god!!!"

"Scared me to death!!!"

This piercing scream instantly shattered the already tense atmosphere!

It truly made Lu Yuan and the other two jump in fright!

He, along with Xu Erxiao and Tan Jiji, immediately turned.

They saw Wang Cheng'an slumped sitting a few steps away, face drained of color.

The wooden sword in his hand was trembling uncontrollably. He pointed at the large coffin, lips quivering as he looked at Lu Yuan.

"Lu... Lu... Brother Lu..."

Xu Erxiao took a swift step back, putting distance between himself and the coffin, shouting urgently at Wang Cheng'an:

"Eek!!!"

"Just say it!"

"What happened?!"

Lu Yuan's eyes turned cold. The ritual sword on his back instantly left its sheath.

In a swift stride, he rushed to the coffin's side. His gaze sharp as lightning, he locked onto the motionless red-clothed female corpse inside.

Without turning his head, he demanded in a low voice:

"What's wrong?!"

From Wang Cheng'an's pale lips, two words finally squeezed out.

"Bel... belly..."

Lu Yuan's eyes suddenly turned fierce.

He slightly adjusted the blade of his ritual sword, not recklessly slashing out in panic.

He steadied his breathing. His left hand formed the "Corpse-Suppressing Soul-Stabilizing Seal," an intangible energy pressing virtually towards the coffin opening. His right hand slowly extended the ritual sword horizontally.

The sword tip moved extremely lightly, extremely steadily.

It precisely aimed for the loose, sunken hem of the red clothing over the female corpse's abdomen.

The sword tip touched the rough, aged fabric, emitting an extremely faint "rustling" sound, particularly jarring in the deathly silence of the mountaintop.

Xu Erxiao and Tan Jiji held their breath, eyes almost popping out of their sockets, staring fixedly at Lu Yuan's sword tip and the unknown hidden beneath that piece of clothing.

The dark red fabric was slowly lifted by the sword tip.

Beneath the fabric was not the imagined withered, flat abdomen, nor was it rotting flesh.

What met their eyes was a huge, hideous longitudinal tear across the female corpse's abdomen!

That tear, like a cruel mouth, ripped from below her sternum all the way to her pubic bone, almost splitting the entire abdominal cavity open.

The flesh was curled back on both sides, the edges jagged and uneven, as if torn open by some blunt instrument or beast's claws while alive, not cut by a sharp blade.

The flesh around the wound was a dark red, almost black color, its texture like rotten cotton soaked in blood.

The most bizarre thing was, it hadn't rotted, nor had it healed.

As if some evil force had "fixed" it eternally in a horrific state between festering and "freshness."

And the most scalp-crawling, spine-chilling sight was inside this tear!

That cavity, which should have been hollow, did not expose blackened organs.

It was forcibly pulled together and stitched shut with dense, crisscrossing blood-red threads, using the roughest, most clumsy method!

This bloody, terrifying stitching wasn't to cover a hollow.

Through the inevitable gaps between those crude stitches, and the edges of the tear not completely covered by the red threads.

Lu Yuan and the other two saw clearly...

Inside, curled a "thing."

That thing was about the size of a two or three-year-old child!!!

But its form was a thousand, ten thousand times more bizarre and twisted than the undeveloped fetus in the small coffin, filled with inhuman terror.

Its entire body was a translucent blue-gray, skin thin as cicada wings, clearly revealing the tangled, wriggling network of dark-colored blood vessels beneath.

Its bald head was disproportionately large, facial features a blurred mass, only two bottomless black holes could be considered eyes.

A slit stretching to the ears served as a mouth.

Its abnormally long, thin limbs were twisted at unnatural angles, tightly hugging its knees in a fetal curl.

This thing... if it could still be called human...

Was crammed with an extremely repressed, yet explosive intensity into this "womb" that didn't belong to it.

It seemed... to be "breathing."

An extremely slight, yet rhythmic rise and fall made those stitched blood threads tremble slightly.

Even more terrifying than this sight was its "presence."

Even though it lay motionless, eyelids closed.

A cold, resentful, greedy, yet mixed with endless pain and madness evil consciousness.

Like a tangible icy tide, continuously seeped out from that stitched abdominal tear.

Just looking at it, Lu Yuan's ears rang with illusions.

It was a hellish symphony woven from countless infants' desperate cries, women's shrill wails, and some inhuman, wet sound of gnawing on flesh and bone.

This wasn't life at all!

Not even a fetal corpse like the one in the small coffin!

This was more like a horror...

A malevolent deity!!!

Artificially "cultivated" or "refined" within this female corpse's resentment-filled body, using countless grudges, Yin energy, evil arts, and some indescribable "materials"...

Lu Yuan's earlier guess was right!

Someone was indeed nurturing a malevolent deity!!

But he never expected...

This malevolent deity was nurtured in such a manner!!!

Using the red-clothed Evil Spirit as the mother body, her corpse's abdomen as the womb, to nourish this malevolent deity within!!!

In an instant, Lu Yuan understood everything.

He understood why there were two coffins!

The Commanding Ghosts Liu Family had brutally cut open the red-clothed Evil Spirit's belly!

They took out her own real child and placed it in the small coffin beside her.

Then used her hollowed-out belly to gestate their Liu Family's malevolent deity!!

Lu Yuan finally understood why, when the thunder technique killed the red-clothed Evil Spirit earlier, she showed a trace of relief!

Wrongfully killed, already the most tragic fate in the world!

After death, she couldn't even find peace. Her belly was hollowed out, forced to "gestate" the enemy's "child"!

And her own flesh and blood was right beside her, watching day and night, yet never to be embraced for eternity!

This pain, this resentment, made her even more pitiful and fierce.

And all the violence, all the ferocity she produced, became nourishment for that malevolent deity!

"Giggle giggle giggle giggle giggle~~~~"

Suddenly!!!

An extremely bizarre, terrifying child's sinister laughter abruptly rang out!!

The malevolent deity, without any warning, opened its eyes a tiny slit, the corners of its mouth curling into an unbelievably eerie, cunning smile.

At the same time, before Lu Yuan's eyes, a line of crimson, blood-red subtitles frantically jumped out!!

[Type: Malevolent Deity]

[Cultivation: Six Years]

[Weaknesses: Thunder, Lightning, The Power of Collective Prayer]

[Danger Level: ★★★★★★★]