Chapter 102: Sacrificing One’s Life
Amidst the wild laughter, Fang Xi’s body swayed, his facial features bouncing around like a pinball within the confines of his face. His laughter turned eerie, gradually morphing into a strange, beast-like roar.
Cheng Yao was shocked, suddenly realizing that Fang Xi was a patient closer to Zheng Yichao’s condition. The difference was that Zheng Yichao had ultimately lost control and become a creature driven solely by instinct, whereas Fang Xi...
“You bunch of maggots...” Fang Xi laughed as he uttered incoherent words, filled with contempt and a contradictory hatred. “A swarm of lowly crawlers, tiny creatures, so weak, all useless...” He kept cursing, his tone not harsh but deep and suffused with a menacing malice that forced Cheng Yao to step back.
“Why would your kind receive Father’s favor? Why did Father let you control us? Make us fulfill the wishes of a bunch of pests like you? Ha! Wishes, dreams... can such things even be called dreams?” Fang Xi’s crimson eyes scattered along the sides of his face, fixed intently on Cheng Yao. The pair of lips that once occupied the center of his face suddenly split apart, moving eerily upward and downward—not to open a gaping mouth, but like two pasted-on panels sliding to his forehead and chin. Then, from inside, they erupted, sprouting two curved ivory tusks. On these tusks bloomed countless compound eyes.
Fang Xi’s body began to transform. His voice came from deep within his abdomen. Insect mandibles pierced through his trench coat with a cracking sound: “You lowly creatures don’t understand Father’s greatness, don’t know our strength... You’ve never witnessed the truth of this world... You pests...”
His limbs elongated, fingernails rapidly growing into sharp claws. A long tail sprouted from his back, while his back unfolded insect-like butterfly wings alongside bird-like feathers. The two pairs of wings were enormous but seemed weightless, fluttering wildly in the fierce wind. The long tail bristled with sharp, spiky hairs that slammed into the ground, piercing the concrete beneath.
Cheng Yao’s scalp tingled.
He immediately overturned his previous assumptions.
Fang Xi was not merely a patient like Zheng Yichao.
What stood before him was no longer human.
He recalled Old Zhang’s three descriptions of Fang Xi.
“Where is Fang Xi?” Cheng Yao’s throat tightened.
The monster emitted a sinister cackling laugh, the voice echoing directly in Cheng Yao’s mind: “A little bug? Of course, I ate it—”
The voice dragged out maliciously.
At the same time, Cheng Yao felt a slight tremor beneath his feet.
He leapt into midair just as countless spikes erupted from below.
Something hurtled toward him.
Twisting in the air, Cheng Yao narrowly dodged the flying webbing, spinning his body to land on the riverside railing.
The spikes did not retract. The web descended like a living thing, entwining the spikes and corroding grooves into them.
Cheng Yao’s vision darkened.
The monster had swung its long tail and lunged before him. Its two pairs of enormous wings spread wide, blotting out the sky and rain—not delicate now, but solid barriers. The mandibles lashed out like whips. Its long arms and legs moved with lightning speed, twisting nimbly around Cheng Yao’s limbs.
Cheng Yao stomped hard, breaking the railing. His body dropped, then swiftly raised his hands, twisting the monster’s two arms. Using the force, he flipped his body, kicking the creature’s mandibles and legs away.
He felt the objects under his palms and soles were soft and boneless, like five elastic bands—resilient but impossible to leverage.
As his flipped body continued to fall, about to plunge into the turbulent river below, the monster’s spread wings suddenly sprouted countless arms, grasping for the falling Cheng Yao.
His pupils contracted; with both hands, he tugged the monster’s arms forward and wielded them like long whips.
What had been soft and boneless arms suddenly trembled.
Cheng Yao quickly withdrew his hands.
From those two arms emerged a pair of pincers, clicking open and shut.
Cheng Yao lost every point of leverage midair and fell faster.
He struck repeatedly with his hands, creating a blur of motion, pushing away the numerous hands reaching for him.
The air was filled with sharp snapping sounds—each limb struck by Cheng Yao suffered shattered tendons and broken bones.
This rapid exchange of offense and defense unfolded in an instant.
The storm raged on, the winds and rain masking their battle cries but not impairing their sight or hearing.
Cheng Yao noticed a faint sound beneath him.
Without looking down, his hearing alone constructed a mental image within a ten-meter radius—he realized the monster’s tail had emerged from the river.
The spiked tail split open, becoming a giant maw lined with sharp teeth. The creature bit at Cheng Yao’s legs.
---
Cheng Yao split his legs in midair, pressing his feet against the two halves of the giant maw, then bounced back, leaping into the river.
He could swim, but this was his first time entering the water since the doctor’s treatment.
He felt the difference immediately.
Naturally holding his breath, his lungs felt no discomfort. Opening his eyes, he could clearly see the flow of the dark river. His skin sensed the subtle shifts in the water’s surface from raindrops and the fierce wind stirring the river. He keenly grasped the rhythm of the tides, his body rising and falling like a small boat or a free fish, moving unhindered.
Splash!
The monster entered the water.
Cheng Yao didn’t blink. He no longer relied solely on vision, but what his eyes saw was still indispensable, every detail crystal clear.
The monster retracted its four wings, transforming them into fins. Its long tail became a massive fish tail, propelling its body like a torpedo toward Cheng Yao.
Cheng Yao kicked the water with his legs, clearly slower than the monster’s fins and tail. Suspended in the water, he stretched out his arms and grabbed the two tusks covered in compound eyes on the monster’s face.
The monster’s hard tentacle-like organs suddenly softened like jelly, slipping from Cheng Yao’s grip.
Cheng Yao flew backward through the water by inertia.
The monster flailed its limbs and lunged again.
Cheng Yao’s movements were lightning-fast. He grabbed the monster’s hands, spun underwater, and tied its arms into a knot. He then caught the monster’s legs brushing past and twisted them together, entwining them like a braid.
He didn’t believe this was enough to restrain such a bizarre creature.
After temporarily binding the monster’s limbs, Cheng Yao exerted force, rotated his body 180 degrees underwater, and slammed the tangled limbs downward. The monster’s body was swung up and crashed heavily onto the riverbed. He held on tightly, descending with the monster.
They had already drifted far from shore, to the river’s center, over ten meters deep, where mud had accumulated.
The monster’s impact stirred up a cloud of silt.
Cheng Yao squinted, unlike the monster, he didn’t settle on the riverbed but kicked his legs, swung his arms again, and lifted the monster.
He sensed the water currents shifting unnaturally. Releasing his grip, he threw the monster away, pushing off with his feet and moving sideways.
The giant fish tail swept past where he had floated, the rushing water shredding his clothes.
The monster flew three meters then stopped, its body trembling. The knotted limbs were forcibly unraveled into four flesh strips, growing amphibian-like webbing with hooked claws.
Its swimming speed increased. It charged at Cheng Yao again, claws slashing.
Cheng Yao dodged sideways, swung his hand to strike, feeling a hard object under his palm snap in two. It was a fold that trapped his palm within tough muscle. The muscle’s outer layer tore open, exposing curved rib-like bones that clasped Cheng Yao’s arm layer upon layer.
He struggled but couldn’t break free, feeling a tremendous pull on his arm.
The monster flicked its fish tail and surged toward the surface.
Cheng Yao braced his legs against the monster’s belly and kicked hard.
Whoosh—
Amid the storm, a faint sound accompanied the splash into the water, reaching both their ears.
Blood quickly fell into the river, vanishing from sight.
Cheng Yao landed heavily on the riverside promenade, clutching a bloodied hand.
Blood streamed down his hand, scattered by wind and washed by rain. The exposed white bone gradually was covered again by regrowing muscle and skin, restoring its original form.
The monster also reached the shore. Its fish tail, fins, and webbing reverted to terrestrial forms. The tusks hardened once more. Yet the compound eyes on the tusks and the two scattered eyes on its face glowed a deep crimson, resembling two dim, flickering flames.
Neither spoke.
Heavy breaths rumbled from the monster’s body. Its words didn’t come through its mouth but echoed directly in Cheng Yao’s mind: “Why... would Father favor such a lowly creature like you... a mere pest, trash, a monkey... a thing like you...”
Thick blood oozed suddenly from the two tusks.
“Father, why do you favor this bastard... I am your child! We are your children!” the monster howled to the sky, blood flowing from its tusks in torrents.
The blood pooled on the ground, unwashed by rain, gathering into a foul-smelling slime.
“I’ll kill you, I will kill you...” the monster ceased its howling, repeating the phrase incessantly, buzzing in Cheng Yao’s mind.
---
Its feet transformed into beast-like paws, stamping two prints on the ground. The body sprang toward Cheng Yao, wings spreading again, sprouting countless arms. In midair, these arms turned into massive serpents, mouths agape not with fangs but with fish-like fine teeth. The monster’s real hands morphed into pincers, encircling from both sides. Its long tail burrowed underground, emerging behind Cheng Yao to form a massive barrier, blocking his escape.
The monster unleashed unprecedented ferocity.
Cheng Yao crossed his arms before his chest, not intending to flee such a tight encirclement.
He didn’t believe the monster sought to kill him outright. Before and now, it only wanted to capture him.
Undoubtedly, the monster had not abandoned its plan to find the clinic and the doctor. It was convinced Cheng Yao was a special patient. His repeated comings and goings from the clinic proved it.
It intended to capture him to force the doctor out!
This was an opportunity.
Cheng Yao steeled himself for impact, secretly gathering strength, aiming for the monster’s head and torso.
Those were the vital points for most beings. Though uncertain against a shape-shifting monster, they were still worth a try. So far, the monster’s transformations hadn’t shifted the general locations of its head, abdomen, or limbs. Cheng Yao had felt unusual hardness in its abdomen when kicking earlier, suggesting its vital organs remained protected there.
The monster wouldn’t kill him outright, and he had no guarantee to finish it in one strike. If one failed, there’d be another.
Cheng Yao thought this way.
Before the pincers and serpentine jaws could reach him, a shadow descended from the sky.
Cheng Yao was startled, his face paling.
Before landing, the figure grabbed his hands and tossed him upward. She took the place Cheng Yao had been standing, her body defenseless as the pincers and jaws struck her slender form.
Cheng Yao flew into midair, eyes bloodshot, roaring fiercely. His body dropped rapidly as he threw a punch.
His fist struck the monster’s head, denting it deeply into its abdomen.
The monster recoiled in pain, releasing its jaws and pincers. Its tail wilted and contracted.
Cheng Yao landed heavily, immediately reaching out with both hands.
In his arms was a bloodied, battered body.
The monster shrank and retreated like muddy sludge, creating distance from Cheng Yao. Its sunken head slowly regenerated, wings and tail retracting into its body.
Splash!
Splash!
The monster’s newly grown head bore Fang Xi’s likeness. It spat blood, kneeling on the ground.
The person in Cheng Yao’s arms also coughed up blood.
“Sheng Sheng... Sheng Sheng!” Cheng Yao, back to the monster, trembled.
Half of Bai Xiao’s face was covered in her own blood, countless wounds marking her body. Yet she smiled faintly, seemingly relieved that Cheng Yao was unharmed.
“It was so hard... so hard to survive... I should never have gone home. If only I were still in Long City...” Tears streamed from Bai Xiao’s eyes; the smile faded like a wronged child’s. “Husband... husband... I don’t want to die... I want to be with you... I want to grow old with you... Husband, please save me, please save me...”
Bai Xiao reached out her bloodied hand, clutching Cheng Yao’s arm, her nails digging almost into his flesh.
Her eyes were wide open, filled with a desperate yearning for life.
Cheng Yao was at a loss. “I won’t let you die. I won’t let you die...” he muttered, instinctively activating the “things” inside him.
The biological agents the doctor had injected into him not only affected his body but were like parasitic living creatures themselves. The infant could inject these “things” into others, twisting their bodies; Cheng Yao could extract and absorb them from the infant; these “things” could even kill the “host” Fang Xi and replace him. Therefore, logically, he should be able to use these “things” to heal others.
Cheng Yao felt those “things” seep into Bai Xiao’s body but vanish like a stone dropped into the sea, having no effect.
Bai Xiao continued bleeding.
The torrential rain wasn’t enough to wash away all that bright red.