Human Pupa

“What… what the hell is this thing?!”

Lu Qiancha fought back the nausea rising in her stomach, her spiritual sense locked firmly on the bizarre, squirming swarm of worms as she continued to investigate.

She watched as the fresh, delicious flesh of the huge peach was rapidly devoured, leaving only the turbid, translucent, gelatinous substance condensed from the worms’ secretions inside.

Just then, the Village Chief’s withered throat squeezed out a few words.

“Er Zhuang, you few, distribute the peaches. Let everyone properly partake in the Mountain God’s grace.”

“Yes.”

Several men below immediately complied and strode forward, distributing the peaches from the offering table to every person.

The moment the villagers received the peaches, it was as if they had gone mad.

Their eyes bulged, saliva streamed from their mouths, and they scrambled to shove the peaches into their mouths with all their might.

The sounds of rough biting and greedy swallowing instantly replaced the dead silence.

Their gluttonous posture was as if they were not fighting over fruit, but over the last straw of survival.

A peach, also exuding a sweet fragrance, was placed in the hands of Lu Qiancha and Shangguan Yunzhu.

The feel of it in their hands was no different from a normal peach.

Their fingertips touched, their gazes met—in each other’s eyes was a clear and unmistakable horror and revulsion.

“You two, female immortals…”

The Village Chief dragged out his words in a strange, slick, and long drawl, his head twisting at an inhuman angle, staring straight at the untouched peaches in their hands.

“This sacred peach is the supreme grace bestowed by the great Mountain God. Why… are you two not partaking?”

“They seem to be turning on us. What should we do?”

Shangguan Yunzhu’s voice was like a taut string as she transmitted the message to Lu Qiancha.

Lu Qiancha’s eyes instantly turned to ice, her judgment made in a flash of lightning.

“To catch a thief, first catch the king. We’ll control the Village Chief first.”

“Alright!”

Before her words had faded.

Shangguan Yunzhu’s figure erupted like a clap of thunder.

“Clang—!”

A clear sword cry cut through the air.

A crimson sword aura, like a raging dragon unsheathed, shot straight towards the Village Chief, carrying with it a burst of fiery sparks.

However, just as it was about to pierce him, the sword aura trembled violently and suddenly transformed into a surging, scorching, formless wave of air.

Boom—!!

The Village Chief’s withered body was sent flying like a kite with a broken string.

He slammed heavily into the rough stone wall of the Mountain God temple.

Shattered stones rained down.

Lu Qiancha’s mouth twitched at the sight.

‘With that kind of force, was she trying to capture him, or kill him…’

Without much thought, Lu Qiancha executed a movement technique, twisting and turning, her figure flashing like a ghostly blue phantom and arriving in an instant.

The immortal-binding rope in her paw flashed with a golden light—

Hiss.

A sudden change occurred.

Under the Village Chief’s tattered clothes, which had been smashed to pieces, the originally withered and dark skin, as if doused in boiling oil, instantly turned as red as a branding iron.

An extremely dangerous, swelling sensation erupted from within.

‘Not good, he’s going to self-destruct?!’

The alarm bells in Lu Qiancha’s heart screamed wildly!

The cube in her paw hummed.

Beams of light converged in an instant—her paw shadow clenched fiercely.

“Swish!”

With a soft sound, only a rippling purple spatial vortex was left in her original spot.

Lu Qiancha’s figure had already disappeared.

Shangguan Yunzhu had also retreated at the same time, the crimson flame sword qi already condensed around her body, vigilantly locked on the terrifying, inhuman form on the ground—

Bang!!

Amidst a dull, thunderous explosion.

The Village Chief’s red, swollen body, like a giant pustule filled with filth, instantly burst apart.

Voom—

Countless black and yellow, palm-sized, bizarre flying insects, dotted with fluorescent green spots, exploded like a splash of ink.

Accompanied by a nauseating, sweet and fishy stench of decay and a rain of mangled limbs and pulp, they instantly transformed into an overwhelming, filthy cloud of insects.

The hissing of their wings was deafening.

Lu Qiancha’s figure quietly appeared on a large boulder on the mountaintop, her cold gaze piercing through the churning cloud of insects.

“Tsk,” a cold smile curved her lips.

“They’re using people as cocoons?”

Having witnessed this bizarre birth in person, combined with the fruit-eating strange insects from before, the brainwashed villagers… a startling chain of clues instantly connected in Lu Qiancha’s mind.

How this so-called “Peach Blossom Spring” operated…

At this moment, she already understood seventy to eighty percent of it.

But now was not the time to think about these things.

Lu Qiancha’s gaze was like lightning, locked on the swarm of insects that blotted out the sun below.

Without hesitation, a stream of light flashed in her paw, and she had already retrieved a bottle of suspicious-looking, turbid, milky-white liquid from her storage bag.

This bottle of potion was a special insecticide developed by Lu Qiancha in the summer, when she couldn’t stand the buzzing of mosquitoes anymore.

Its toxicity was average, not even guaranteed to kill a Qi Refining realm cultivator, its main selling point being that it was eco-friendly.

But it had a unique skill—

A cunning smile appeared on Lu Qiancha’s lips as she vigorously shook the potion bottle.

The turbid liquid inside instantly bubbled up with dense bubbles.

“Take this!”

She released her paw, and the potion bottle flew in a perfect parabola, plummeting straight into the surging sea of insects below.

“Bang—crash!”

The potion bottle exploded precisely on the ground.

At the same time—

Boom!

A thick, pungent, ghastly white smoke, like volcanic ash, instantly rose and spread.

It was as if the entire mountain had been crudely wrapped in a turbid white belt.

In an instant, it had swallowed up the entire cloud of flying insects.

“Buzz… buzz buzz buzz…”

The effect was immediate and remarkable.

The swarm of insects, which had been ferocious and noisy just a moment ago, was instantly as if it had been hit with a paralyzing spell.

The dense swarm of insects twitched, spun, and rolled crazily.

Like a black rain, they fell from the sky in a collective crash, pattering down without any resistance.

In the blink of an eye, they had formed a thick layer in the smoke-covered area, their life and death unknown.

“Mmm…”

Lu Qiancha stood on the mountaintop and nodded in satisfaction.

‘Hmm, although its power is weak, its area of effect is large, and its duration is maxed out.’

‘Apart from being easily attached to food and causing diarrhea, it has no shortcomings.’

Recalling back then…

This potion had not only failed to repel mosquitoes, but by some strange twist of fate… it had rendered all the mountain spring water, wild fruits, and sun-dried spiritual grains within a one-li radius of Tianquan Peak with its exclusive taste.

Her master had been so angry that she had almost pulled her ears off…

But at this moment—

Looking at the completely paralyzed cloud of insects below.

Lu Qiancha’s blue eyes sparkled with satisfaction.

Its moment of glory, though late, had arrived.

The battle situation was gratifying.

Looking at the swarm of insects that had ceased its attack in the white mist below, Lu Qiancha’s heart lifted, and she was just about to press her advantage and throw a few more bottles of special potion to completely clear the field—

But just then, the unexpected happened.

Rumble rumble rumble—

The mountain rock beneath her feet suddenly trembled violently.

It was as if a sleeping earth dragon had been awakened.

A huge crack instantly burst open less than ten zhang in front of her.

Shattered rocks flew, and waves of earth churned.

A colossal monster, accompanied by a nauseating, rotten, earthy stench, broke through the deeply buried earth and shot into the sky.

Its shape was like a giant moth, its body as large as half a house.

Its entire body was covered in a crimson carapace.

Its mouthparts were even more ferocious and terrifying, covered in layers upon layers of sharp, white teeth, each one glinting with a fatal, cold light.