Chapter 241
Chapter 241
“Uh…”
Han Lie’s expression went blank for a moment when he saw the thing behind the door.
He had only ever heard rumors of the Earth Womb. He had never seen one with his own eyes.
Who would have thought an Earth Womb would look so… mature and virile?
Beside him, Qin Ying watched the “baby” kicking and screaming beyond the door. After studying it closely, she said, “Its range of movement seems limited.”
“Or is it too shy to leave home?”
Han Lie said, “Until an Earth Womb fully takes shape, it rarely strays far from its cradle.”
Qin Ying looked up again. Overhead, the flock of crows was still locked in battle with the swarm of bats.
Jinbao tirelessly shielded the area within two paces of them with lightning.
One drop, then another, of blood as red as agate fell onto her face.
She had no idea whether it was crow’s blood or something else.
“The crows are charging this way.”
She peered through the doorway and saw countless bats circling the hulking infant.
Rather than attacking the Earth Womb as they had Xie Shao, they appeared to be protecting it.
Han Lie said, “In a land steeped in the baleful aura of war, the earth veins may gestate an infant.”
“Once fully grown, its cry rings like a struck chime, and mountains and rivers within a hundred li tremble.”
“Stone splits and earth crumbles wherever it passes. Its appearance heralds an Earth Ulcer.”
“Earth Ulcer?”
Neither Xie Shao, who often read the Classic of Mountains and Seas, nor Qin Ying, who had recently crammed the Classic of Mountains and Seas, had ever encountered any record of the Earth Womb.
But they both seized on the key word.
An ulcer, taken literally, was a large, pus-filled swelling beneath the skin.
But when the word was applied to the earth itself, it sounded deeply ominous.
“The land will fester and rot,” Han Lie explained with a frown as he looked around for a suitable weapon.
“I’ve only heard others speak of it. According to rumor, a great plague erupts wherever the land decays. Black spots break out on humans and livestock, and their entire bodies rot away before they die.”
A chill ran down Qin Ying’s spine. She could not help asking, “How do we kill it?”
She had a strong murderous streak. Her first instinct was to destroy this Earth Womb just as they had destroyed the Hanba.
Whether it was lightning or Wangcai’s flames did not matter. Kill it first, ask questions later.
Xie Shao hunched over, panting heavily. He ripped off both sleeves, and his hands immediately began to swell as coarse black fur sprouted all over him.
While Jinbao held off the bats and crows overhead and the Earth Womb started bawling again, Xie Shao bent down and violently twisted his injured ankle several times.
After wrenching the broken, displaced bones back into alignment, he rose with his weight on one foot.
Perhaps Qin Ying and Xie Shao looked too grim, because Han Lie reassured them, “There’s no need to worry just yet.”
“The Earth Womb hasn’t fully formed.”
“Once it reaches maturity, black scales resembling festering lesions will grow over its lower abdomen. This one, for now…”
He had only meant to explain, but then something occurred to him, and he added, “Ah Ying, you don’t have to look.”
Unfortunately, his warning came far too late.
Qin Ying had already looked at the abdomen of the Earth Womb as it lay there kicking with its legs splayed. She immediately squeezed her eyes shut as though the sight physically hurt.
“Then should we attack?” As she spoke, Qin Ying offered Han Lie the short sword Di Shang had transformed into.
The short sword twisted and bent like a piece of jelly, making its refusal perfectly clear: it wasn’t going.
Xie Shao’s leg bone was healing at a tremendous rate, and cold sweat streamed through his black bristles from the pain. When he saw this, he stared at Qin Ying in astonishment.
What kind of high-tech gadget was that? Some new weapon from the bureau?
Di Shang refused to serve as Han Lie’s weapon, and Qin Ying had no intention of forcing it. More importantly, with Xie Shao standing right there, she could hardly coax it openly.
Han Lie was neither annoyed nor particular. He simply ripped a cast-iron spike from the nearby railing.
Xie Shao’s eyelids twitched wildly.
Just who in the world were these two?
Holding the cast-iron spike in a reverse grip, Han Lie said, “I’ll go. Brother Xie, please protect Ah Ying.”
The implication in his words sounded wrong, as if he meant to fight the creature alone. Xie Shao hurriedly warned, “Don’t do anything reckless.”
“Just give me a moment. I recover quickly. My leg bone will be healed soon.”
Qin Ying said nothing, but her hand had already moved to the Zheng Serum hidden close to her body. If worse came to worst, she would make Jinbao grow larger and scour the entire area with lightning.
Perhaps the murderous intent radiating from all three of them was too intense. The hulking Earth Womb bawling behind the door finally clamped its legs together as a flicker of fear stirred within it.
Its gaping mouth slowly closed, revealing neat rows of adult teeth stained yellow. Then its throat vibrated.
The muffled sound was neither crying nor laughter. It resembled someone trying to clear phlegm from their throat.
The bats, which until now had battled the crows in complete silence, suddenly erupted into a deafening cacophony.
It sounded like hundreds upon thousands of long fingernails accidentally scraping across blackboards, or claws raking over frosted glass.
Every hair on Qin Ying’s body stood on end, and a violent shudder ran through her.
Jinbao cried out in midair. The noise had clearly affected it too.
Xie Shao had it worst. After his transformation, he had grown a pair of huge ears with exceptionally sharp hearing. He immediately clapped his hands over them and screamed.
Qin Ying saw dark-red blood seeping between his fingers.
Han Lie’s face turned ashen, but he did not appear to have suffered much damage.
“The Earth Womb is trying to escape.”
Before Han Lie had even finished speaking, he was already moving.
Cast-iron spike in hand, he charged straight at the Earth Womb.
Qin Ying forced herself to endure the noise and followed a step behind.
Xie Shao could no longer hear anything and fell to the rear, but he charged after them all the same.
The Earth Womb crawled on its hands like an infant, but it had so many arms that it moved with astonishing speed. With every step, the bluestone slabs beneath it shattered into rubble.
In the blink of an eye, it scrambled deeper into the Hu Family estate.
Countless bats clogged the path, filling the air with their foul stench.
Jinbao did its best. Every bolt of lightning electrocuted swathes of the crows and bats blocking their way, but it was so small that it could only clear them so quickly.
The three were slowed by the swarm and fell far behind the Earth Womb.
All they could do was watch through the dense mass of bats as it scuttled around the corner with a rapid series of cracks.
“It’s heading for the rear courtyard.” Qin Ying swung her blade. She could no longer spare any thought for technique or stance and simply hacked apart whatever stood in her way.
By the time they followed its trail into the rear courtyard, they saw the Earth Womb crawling headfirst into the wide Bagua Well.
Something drifted faintly from the well. Whether it was the wind or something else, it sounded almost like a person humming a song.