Chapter 687

Wuxiantian didn't know when exactly it started today—maybe after breakfast, maybe during a shouting match—but his body had felt unwell all day.

This discomfort manifested as waves of churning in his belly, nausea threatening to vomit.

"Are you alright?"

Dayang Fu wasn't large, so despite being an outsider, Wuxiantian had been assigned five teammates for patrol duty.

His teammates noticed how he paused after every few steps and asked with unusual concern.

That look—he'd seen it many times before, and often gave it to others himself.

It was a gaze of caution mixed with suspicion.

"I—I'm fine… puke! Puke! Puke!!"

The moment Wuxiantian opened his mouth, he vomited violently.

As if trying to empty his entire insides, once it started, he couldn't stop.

From vomit, to stomach acid, to blood!

As his teammates recoiled in terror, Wuxiantian knelt with his forehead pressed to the ground, back arched, tail raised high, face twisted in agonized retching.

When other guards rushed over, they saw the blood clots—and fragments of missing organs—wheezed out by Wuxiantian.

As if the organs inside his abdomen had rotted and been violently expelled.

That a Xiantian Realm cultivator could suffer this terrified everyone; they all fled toward the deeper parts of the mansion.

"L-Lady! Lady, something's happened!"

As they ran, they screamed.

Wuxiantian instinctively raised his hand, weakly whispering: "No… no… I can still hold on… I'm fine… I…"

Boom!!

Wuxiantian's belly suddenly exploded, tearing open a bloody hole.

Several white maggots, as thick as an arm, writhed on the ground, twisting, burrowing into the courtyard soil.

Wuxiantian stared dumbly at the bloody hole in his belly, pain and helplessness crashing over him—he lost consciousness completely.

Wuxiantian died without ever understanding when the ghost had infected him.

"Ghosts! Ghosts!"

"The ghost killed him!"

Everyone screamed in panic.

"Quick! Send for Master Ye!"

After the chaos, when Fang Yue and Yang Hongxia arrived, they saw only the corpse on the ground—and several deep holes in the arms.

Looking down the holes, it seemed the tunnels beneath were labyrinthine; those fat worm-ghosts were surely long gone.

"Master Ye, can you find a way to deal with these ghosts?"

Fang Yue shook his head slightly.

To deal with ghosts that burrow and flee underground, you either dig three feet deep, or flood the tunnels to force them out.

"Let's try flooding first. If that doesn't work, we dig. Ghosts that can kill Xiantian Realm cultivators lurking underground—I won't be able to cultivate in peace."

Oil, vinegar, water…

After pouring everything in with no reaction, Fang Yue's face darkened: "I'll guard here. Everyone else, start digging on the spot. If you find a ghost, shout for me immediately."

"Yes!"

Yang Hongxia opened her mouth to speak, then hesitated, finally saying: "Master Ye, shouldn't we report this to the Qing Si?"

"It's nighttime. The Qing Si themselves are tangled with… that ghost. They have no time for us. Besides, before the Martial Duel, I should avoid the Government as much as possible. If this gets exposed, it'll be trouble."

Fang Yue still carried the title of Rain-Level Expert under Dou Hongyi of the Qing Si—if he couldn't handle this small problem, he'd be exposed.

The mansion guards were all cultivators; digging wasn't hard for them.

While Fang Yue took out the Frozen Heart Method from his Water Droplet Crystal Ring and continued studying, the guards had already dug over a meter deep into the courtyard ground.

After a while longer of study, Yang Hongxia suddenly gripped his hand tightly, snapping Fang Yue's attention away from the book.

"Wha—"

Fang Yue had barely spoken when he noticed Yang Hongxia's face pale with terror, her pupils trembling, her body pressing hard against him—as if she'd seen something horrifying.

Fang Yue was about to follow her gaze when the head guard called out: "Master Ye, we've reached bedrock. No sign of the ghost."

The moment he finished speaking, Yang Hongxia's eyes widened in utter horror, squeezing desperately into Fang Yue's arms.

And the direction she stared—was the head guard bowing before them.

Fang Yue turned to look at the head guard—and his expression changed slightly.

Because he saw the head guard's occiput was completely hollow, as if eaten clean by worms—inside, a fat white worm coiled and slowly writhed.

Ghost… ghost?!

But earlier they'd said the worm that burrowed underground was as thick as an arm—this one was clearly much smaller… like a newborn fat worm-ghost!

"Head… Guard?"

Fang Yue kept his voice calm. The head guard lifted his head—as if still conscious.

That was worse than not lifting it. As he raised his head, Fang Yue saw a fat white worm crawling out of the head guard's left eye socket.

Half his face bore a tunnel-like path left by crawling worms, exposing hollow bone.

The fat white worm emerging from the socket writhed across his face.

As Fang Yue's expression shifted, he suddenly felt… his own face was itchy.

No… no way…

He frantically touched his face—and his pupils shrank, his face turned ashen.

Because… he felt a damp, soft, mollusk-like texture—and around it, grooves like worm-tunnels.

If there were a mirror at this moment, one would surely see a large white worm burrow out from his left cheek, its little head swaying left and right like a curious baby.

By the time Fang Yue grabbed at his own cheek and tore the white worm free along with flesh and blood.

As fresh blood gushed down, half of Fang Yue's face was laid bare like a disfigured ruin, parts of white bone and teeth exposed, hideous and terrifying.

"What…the hell is that thing!!"

Crushing this large white worm in his grip, the hole on Fang Yue's face was also rapidly regenerating flesh and blood with the help of 【Breath of Night】.

However, just as the wound was healing, two more large white worms poked their heads out from inside the cheek he was repairing, then quickly shrank back in.

Bizarre… a Symbiotic Type bizarre!

Bizarres come in many types.

The Symbiotic Type is an extremely special kind, somewhat similar to the Parasitic Type, yet also somewhat different.

Parasitic Type bizarres will parasitize themselves onto a host.

Symbiotic Type bizarres, on the other hand, coexist with the host.

They are far more concealed and extremely difficult to deal with, silently transforming the host over time, turning them into a suitable vessel.

The degree of how troublesome they are is so high that even martial artists one or two realms above, if not fully on guard, will fall victim.

Recommending a book "Ren Zai Dongjing Chou Ka Jiang Mo" by author: Huo Guo Fen Duo Jia Cu.

Synopsis: A system card-draw style, a mythological world where spiritual energy is reviving—others spend money, I spend my life.

(End of chapter)