Chapter 9: 8. Jiangshi

8. Jiangshi

Li Xiamei's ghastly pale belly was like a balloon blown to its absolute limit, like a drumhead stretched taut, every line of skin texture pulled wide open!

At that moment, on that belly skin stretched paper-thin, a human face suddenly bulged out.

It let out a fierce, piercing shriek and abruptly burst through that thin layer of belly skin!

Seaweed-like long hair poured out in thick tangles from Li Xiamei's ruptured belly; beneath the veil of hair, a melon-shaped face bristling with fangs appeared and disappeared, its grey-white eyes fixed in a vacant stare on Zhou Chang!

Li Xiamei!

The grotesque, absurd feeling that had been building inside Zhou Chang reached its absolute peak at this instant—indescribable!

What had burst out of Li Xiamei's belly was Li Xiamei herself!

Li Xiamei had given birth to Li Xiamei!

According to the rumors, Li Xiamei, who had adopted three daughters, had pinned her hopes on bearing a son for her husband "Old Feng" to carry on the Feng family line. But the fetus growing inside her had long since died. Unwilling to accept reality, she obtained a prescription from the "Ghost Physician" and began using the internal organs of living people as her medicine primer, taking it daily, hoping to bring the dead fetus back to life in her womb.

Yet now, the fetus inside her belly—nourished on who knows how many living people's organs by Li Xiamei—turned out to be Li Xiamei herself!

Li Xiamei's head writhed, slowly poking out through the slit in the belly.

Its shoulders followed, gradually emerging from within as well.

Though its movements at this moment were extremely slow, the sense of danger churning in Zhou Chang's heart surged up like a violent tide!

Li Xiamei opened her great mouth full of fangs and let out a laugh like a night owl's!

"Ya—hahahahaha!"

Its body "newly born" from within the belly emerged even faster!

Zhou Chang's mind and spirit began to tremble; thoughts upon thoughts, like a cacophony of human voices, nearly drowned out his sanity!

The transparent silk threads he had deliberately guided to coil around his legs now seemed stained, patch after patch turning mottled and filthy, then transforming into wisps of incense ash that fluttered down from his body!

"Why is this happening?"

"In reality, blades and swords cannot kill the demons of the mind, yet I clearly used threads from the mind to sever Li Xiamei's neck!"

"It should be dead!"

"Yet it's still alive!"

"This method is wrong!

Is there still a way? Is there any other way?"

All manner of thoughts churned up into Zhou Chang's mind, and the pain, like being struck by an iron awl, intensified along with them!

The world in his eyes trembled even more violently; Li Xiamei in the dark forest became row upon row, column upon column of overlapping afterimages, filling his entire field of vision!

By this point, Zhou Chang, who felt as though he were standing in a bustling, noisy plaza, suddenly fell quiet on his own.

He sifted through those jumbled, disordered thoughts, piecing them together, reassembling them into a complete chain.

Certain things Zhou Sanji had said earlier were re-examined by Zhou Chang: "Do you know? As long as we're still breathing, still moving, that Li Xiamei can sniff us out, hear our sounds, and chase us down..."

"Is that so?" Zhou Chang tilted his face up, looking at the Li Xiamei who was growing arms out of the belly of her old body.

The faintly white, transparent silk threads on his body, which had been scattering away like incense ash, instantly halted their tendency to be further stained; only the scale of the transparent silk threads had shrunk far too much compared to before. Thread by thread, Zhou Chang gathered them back, and now they could only cover his two arms.

He stood in place, silent and still.

The bride in phoenix coronet and colorful ceremonial robes had, at some unknown moment, quietly come to stand beside Zhou Chang.

A sheet of yellow paper was pasted over her face, and beneath that yellow paper, that charming, passionate human face was nowhere to be seen.

Behind her stood a thin-shelled coffin, and on either side of the coffin stood two "people" whose five viscera and six bowels were gone, whose skin and clothing seemed made of paper.

When the wind blew, the paper people rustled loudly.

Beneath the covering of yellow paper, Bai Xiue's face was full of tears, her eyelashes trembling faintly.

"Lady—"

Zhou Chang suddenly turned his head back, looked at the delicate, frail bride before him, and called out in a hoarse voice.

He did not know her name and could only address her by the identity they had agreed upon in that earlier play.

"Lady! Give me a hand!"

"Help me!"

He called out softly, then suddenly reached out and pinched the sheet of yellow paper covering Bai Xiue's face. He had not used much force, yet that sheet of yellow paper peeled off from Bai Xiue's face.

The Bai Xiue beneath the yellow paper abruptly opened her eyes and saw Zhou Chang, his face deathly pale, holding a crumpled sheet of yellow paper in his hand!

In that instant when the paper face was torn from her forehead, she felt as though the sky had brightened for a moment!

Bai Xiue pressed her lips tightly together. Summoning the greatest courage she could muster, she truly reached out and supported the swaying Zhou Chang—this tall man pressed nearly the entire weight of his body onto her. A cold aura, along with that body, seeped into Bai Xiue, chilling her until she trembled slightly.

She raised her pale face and saw Zhou Chang's profile: "I-I how do I help-help you?"

"Help me over to it."

Zhou Chang raised his right arm, pointing at the Li Xiamei who had both hands poking out of her belly.

Bai Xiue turned her head and saw the terrifying figure with half its body emerging from the belly of the headless corpse; her lovely features twisted with fear: "... Alright."

Hearing her reply, Zhou Chang tilted his head and glanced at Bai Xiue.

Bai Xiue supported him with all her might; her body became Zhou Chang's crutch.

She noticed Zhou Chang's gaze and trembled even harder: "You-you-you... I-I-I will—will I die?"

Her voice carried a sobbing tone, but she did not stop walking; instead, she continued to support Zhou Chang as they moved toward the Li Xiamei with half her body poking out of the belly.

"Even if we die, at least the three of us die together, and we can keep each other company." Zhou Chang spoke with a smile, his gaze drifting as he watched the breath seeping from Zhou Sanji's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose grow gradually thinner.

Zhou Chang looked at the slight rise and fall of his back and knew he was not dead yet.

"Th-then... that's fine too..." A few words fell from Bai Xiue's lips. She suddenly grew much calmer, and her body stopped trembling.

She supported Zhou Chang as they walked right up to Li Xiamei—

The Li Xiamei, who had half her body poking out of the ruptured belly, suddenly swung the sharp blade in her hand!

Swish!

Zhou Chang pushed Bai Xiue away; with no external force to support his body, he instantly knelt before Li Xiamei's headless torso, facing directly the newly grown head of Li Xiamei!

He suddenly spread his arms, ten fingers wrapped in transparent threads, and tightly gripped the incoming dagger!

Crack!

His fingers, like iron pincers, clamped down hard on the pressing dagger!

The terrifying power attached to that dagger defied ordinary reasoning, beyond quantification; it was enough to slice Zhou Chang in two in an instant!

But Zhou Chang, enduring the agony of his brain being gouged out, desperately mobilized every single transparent thread; those threads, seemingly weak, instead ensnared the dagger—clumps of thread ends, as if guided by steel needles, burst forth from the blade, pulling Li Xiamei's arm and snapping it back instantly!

The tip of the dagger pierced into Li Xiamei's forehead!

Its wild hair exploded outward, and it shrieked even more wildly, emerging from its belly with even greater speed!

Clearly, that dagger had already pierced through its brow!

"No one can stop breathing temporarily without making any sound, yet still have a heartbeat; no one can completely cover the scent of their own body—these scents, no matter how concealed, are like torches in the dark night to a dog's nose!

Humans cannot compare to dogs!

Since one cannot avoid making sounds or spreading scents, then I must trouble you—

As long as you cannot smell the scent of the living, nor hear the sounds of the living—"

Zhou Chang gazed at the grotesque, terrifying melon-shaped face before him; his hands held Li Xiamei's face as if holding the smile of a lover—

Dense, tiny, pale-white transparent threads detached from that dagger, fluttering down and stabbing deep into Li Xiamei's eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, stitching shut its eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, and stitching both its hands onto its face!

The threads stitched round after round, every stitch extremely tight and powerful!

The agitated Li Xiamei suddenly fell silent.

The final thread stitched once around Li Xiamei's lips.

Li Xiamei, with both hands covering her face, a dagger stuck in her head, and her lower body still connected to the belly of her old body, suddenly rose as wisp after wisp of illusory, colorful qi, drifting into the forest and vanishing without a trace.

The dark night gradually brightened, and the cold wind ceased.

Zhou Chang, utterly exhausted, collapsed unconscious on the ground.

Bai Xiue stood behind Zhou Chang, fear still unvanished on her pale, delicate small face.

At this moment, ripples swayed across her right cheek like water, and another charming, affectionate face emerged from the ripples, gradually covering her right half of the face.

The beautiful face smiled, looking at the fallen Zhou Chang, lost in thought.

Not far away, Zhou Sanji suddenly shivered and came to his senses.

In the pitch-black mist, a bamboo-fence courtyard appeared faintly.

Beneath the thatched-roof gatehouse of the small courtyard, the black lacquered courtyard door, pasted with a 'Fu' character, stood open; inside the yard, three or five rooms, with rammed-earth walls and thatched roofs, were quite simple.

Li Xiamei walked into the courtyard, pushed open the door, and entered the main hall.

Its hands, previously stitched to its face by transparent threads, now hung by its sides; the dagger stuck in its forehead had vanished without a trace.

Inside the main room, the light was dim.

On the black-yellow walls, vaguely hanging were several long garments.

A fire basin sat in the empty space at the center of the room, with orange flames leaping within the basin.

That firelight made the room appear even more gloomy.

Li Xiamei grabbed a bamboo pole from behind the door and took down one of the long garments hanging on a side wall—the so-called long garments on the wall were actually sheets of tanned, blackened human skin.

Li Xiamei first 'slipped' both hands into the human skin, then stepped both feet into it, and finally put on the face skin—

The long crack on the back of the human skin began to heal silently.

The abdomen of the human skin, which suddenly bulged outward, was pressed flat by Li Xiamei's hands.

Moments later, Li Xiamei had transformed into a slightly plump middle-aged woman; 'she' wore a blue coarse-cloth outfit, covered by a leather apron, knelt on a straw mat behind the fire basin, and spoke in a low voice: "Husband, this time we failed to keep that 'Jian corpse'...

A rootless soul has taken residence in that Jian corpse...

He possesses some unexplained methods..."

Li Xiamei, speaking fearfully in a low voice, grabbed stacks of black paper money from the side and threw them into the fire basin.

The black paper money was swallowed by the flames, rising as illusory, colorful mist.

That mist floated, winding around the spirit tablet nailed to the wall directly opposite the door.

The spirit shrine stood only one chi above the ground; inside, the characters on the tablet were faintly visible: Sheng Leng Hei Chang Feng Si Shen Jing Tan Wei.

"Third Daughter... Third Daughter was originally helping me, but she later changed her mind and temporarily hid herself within the body of that girl with the Lotus Fetus Child fate...

She has always been someone with her own ideas; although adopted by me, her roots lie with the Cai Bao Tianwang in the Secret Treasury Domain.

Although she did not help later, at least she left a token..."

Li Xiamei raised her wrist—a strand of black hair was wrapped around it.

This was the strand of hair exchanged between Zhou Chang and Bai Xiue when they made their oath; now it had become the token 'Third Daughter' left for it, according to Li Xiamei!

"Third Daughter said that the foreign soul, able to reside in a Jian corpse cultivated for seven days, is already extraordinary; moreover, he hides other secret methods, so she wants to try to uncover the secrets hidden by that living soul before killing him.

In a few days, I will also go to Qingyi Town to work as a butcher and keep watch over that Jian corpse.

Once Third Daughter finishes her business, we will kill that living soul together and bring the Jian corpse back.

It will not delay matters..."

Li Xiamei finished speaking and stole a glance at the spirit shrine one chi above the ground.

Colorful, five-colored, seemingly real yet illusory 'thought-qi' wound around the tablet in the shrine; at this moment, it suddenly gathered into a blurry human face!

That human face suddenly opened pitch-black eyes and stared at Li Xiamei!

The sheets of human skin hanging on the walls on both sides all stared at Li Xiamei with wide eyes; they spoke in turn, their voices a mixture of old, young, male, and female, echoing in the main room: "Third Daughter is restless even in the Secret Treasury Domain!

Watch her closely!"

The Ji Corpse was entrusted to me here by the Treasury Heaven King; if you lose it, you can only be 'dissolved'!

In a few days, I will let the Eldest Daughter, the Second Daughter, and you go to Green Robe together!