Chapter 81
Chapter 81
Whoosh-the flames surged up.
In that scorching underground space, the stench of burning flesh instantly spread across the stone platform.
All over the ground, the Fei Yi thrashed wildly in the smell of burning Toad Venom, rolling in tangled clumps into the flames and the magma.
The Painted Lacquer Coffin lay silently in the fire. The colored lacquer painted across its surface curled and lifted at the edges as it burned, gradually charring away.
Han Lie took a step back and hurled the last pouch of Fire Oil on him toward the Coffin.
The flames exploded upward.
Han Lie was far too close. The fire licked across the right side of his face.
He could hear the sound of his own cheek being burned.
He drew in the faintest hiss of breath, then immediately clenched his teeth.
When Qin Ying asked him what had happened, he answered hoarsely, “Nothing.”
But in the very next instant, a muffled bang came from the Hanba Corpse’s Coffin amid the flames.
The Ring-Pommel Saber Han Lie had used to pin down the Coffin lid sprang free with a metallic clang.
A thick black arm veined with gold abruptly flung the Painted Lacquer Coffin open.
The true form of the Hanba Corpse inside was revealed.
Occupying the divine platform in this strange and wondrous place, the corpse in the Coffin had long since lost any human shape.
The body that had been laid naked into the Coffin had transformed into a humanoid monstrosity nearly twice Han Lie’s height.
Gold veins crawled across skin as black as ink. Only the tiniest patch on the backs of its feet had yet to be covered; everywhere else was densely webbed in gold.
The day those golden veins covered it completely would be the day the Hanba Corpse matured and emerged from the Coffin.
The Coffin, made to fit a human body, no longer suited it. To hide inside, the Hanba Corpse had been forced to lie on its side with its limbs bent, leaving many of its bones warped and mutated.
Bathed in fire, the Hanba Corpse flexed its fingers, letting out crisp pops of bone.
Forced to emerge ahead of time, it suddenly opened its eyes and turned its head to look at Han Lie. The golden pupils unique to the Sand People were murky and clouded.
Then, with one deformed hand braced against the side, it peeled itself out of the Coffin like a creature shedding its shell.
Its twisted limbs, compressed and misshapen from the Coffin, resembled those of a stick insect. Using both hands and feet, it crawled through the flames toward Han Lie.
As it crawled, it let out a hideous, unearthly roar.
No one would simply stand in place and wait to die. Han Lie leaped down from the stone platform.
Fei Yi were everywhere here. Driven mad by the Toad Venom, the monstrous snakes attacked one another at random.
The moment Han Lie jumped down from the platform, he was bitten several times.
As if he felt nothing, he tore off a Fei Yi whose venomous fangs were sunk deep into his upper arm, flung it away, and ran in the direction his saber had been knocked.
On the high platform, the Hanba Corpse that had emerged before maturity threw back its head and let out a long howl in the raging flames.
Having left the Coffin in a panic, the Hanba Corpse scrambled and rolled about wildly, getting even more Fire Oil on itself before it burned and tumbled off the stone platform.
Seeing that the Fei Yi covering the ground would not obey its commands, the half-charred Hanba Corpse looked toward Han Lie, and a humanlike hatred flashed through its golden pupils.
Its throat trembled, releasing one bizarre cry after another.
From the distance came the sound of beating wings. The last surviving flocks of Yong Birds deep within the mountain range answered the Hanba Corpse’s summons and came flying in swarms.
Han Lie rolled on the spot, dodging a sharp beak aimed at the back of his head. He snatched up the scalding-hot Ring-Pommel Saber and swept it backward.
In midair, he cleaved a Yong Bird diagonally in two.
Han Lie rose and looked back, only to see the four-eyed, double-pupiled Yong Birds clustering around the deformed Hanba Corpse, which could not stand on its own.
A sky full of black feathers swept over the magma, all of them eyeing him like prey.
Just as Han Lie’s heart hammered wildly in his chest, a rapid clatter of claws striking the ground suddenly came from the distant Stone Path.
Amid waves of barking, packs of Hou surged toward them like rolling flames.
At their head was none other than that Shamate Hou with a slanted tuft of white fur across the middle of its forehead.
Hou fed on fire and had no fear of the magma’s heat.
Light-bodied and extremely fast, they could race dashingly across the half-solidified lava.
All things nourished and restrained one another; each had its own rules for survival.
The Hou had always stayed on the outer perimeter to devour flames. They never meddled by setting foot in this underground white-stone plaza.
Now, with them gathering here in such an abnormal fashion, even the flight paths of the Yong Bird filling the air went chaotic for an instant.
Han Lie had just cut down a Yong Bird and was still wondering what was going on when Qin Ying, who had been silent for a long time, said, “These puppies are allies.”
“Retreat with them. Fuzhu will meet you outside.”
Qin Ying had not been quiet because she was simply watching from the sidelines.
After the Shamate Hou submitted, she had not even had time to name her new puppy before putting it back into the box along with Fuzhu.
After the Shamate Hou crashed to the ground foaming at the mouth, it took a while to recover, then immediately summoned its subordinates to this cafeteria where they fed on fire.
The Hou pack worked in pairs, tearing into the swooping Yong Bird in a tangled melee.
Hearing Qin Ying’s words, Han Lie froze for only an instant.
Then he looked toward the leading king of the Hou. Man and beast met each other’s eyes across the flames, and an understanding instantly clicked into place.
“Hanba Corpse!”
Han Lie pointed at the Hanba Corpse surrounded by the Yong Bird flock.
The Shamate Hou did not break stride. Its fluffy red fur blazed like fire, the tuft of white hair hanging over its forehead whipping wildly as it answered, “Woof!”
One man and one beast charged at the Hanba Corpse, one in front and one behind.
At the Shamate Hou’s side were nine huge guards, who followed it and plunged into the flames.
Their mouths opened and closed, actually tearing the fire apart and swallowing it like cotton candy.
In an instant, red fur and black feathers were locked in slaughter across the plaza.
The Yong Bird guarding the Hanba Corpse’s flanks were overwhelmed, and two figures closed in at the same time.
As the Hanba Corpse retreated half a step, the Shamate Hou pounced onto its back and bit down on its left shoulder.
Meanwhile, the Ring-Pommel Saber in Han Lie’s hand chopped into the right side of its neck.
The Hanba Corpse’s blackened skin was extremely tough. That bite and slash only broke the surface.
But after Han Lie and the Hou met each other’s eyes for an instant, they both wrenched outward in opposite directions.
Amid the Hanba Corpse’s roar, rough as a rusted throat, a gash was torn open from the right side of its neck all the way to the cervical bone.
Han Lie yanked his saber free and brought it down again. The scalding blade struck the Hanba Corpse’s neck bone with a clang.
A crack split through the bone, and a fracture appeared in Han Lie’s saber as well.
Han Lie’s badly burned hands split open at the webbing between thumb and forefinger, blood pouring out in streams.
The Hanba Corpse flailed its arms wildly, and one claw raked across Han Lie’s bare chest.
The leather cord around his neck, from which the Wooden Bead hung, snapped at once. The red mark branded in the center of his chest was torn open too.
As if time had slowed, the Wooden Bead flew through the air, and from the torn red brand welled a drop of blood like crushed red berry.
The Wooden Bead fell into the ashes, and flames immediately surged up around it.
A strange woody fragrance filled the underground space in an instant.
Within the flames, half the leather cord on the Wooden Bead turned to ash.
But… that Wooden Bead, passed down through the Han family for who knew how many generations, actually trembled faintly and slowly sprouted a tiny, delicate shoot.
The tender shoot swayed in the raging flames.
Whether it was the Hanba Corpse, the Yong Bird filling the sky, or the Red-furred Hou, all of them froze in place.
Han Lie tightly gripped his broken saber, and the sound of his own heartbeat reached his ears.
A pulse that made all living things recoil suddenly echoed through the hollow underground space.
The massive thing that had been bound in chains at the center of the plaza like a dead object abruptly stirred.
The thick layer of volcanic ash covering its body split apart in great sheets, revealing the dull-scaled, long-dead Monstrous Beast beneath: a creature with a human head and a serpent’s body.