Chapter 62: The Parasitic Soft-Shelled Turtle

My heart skipped a beat instantly!
What the hell is going on here?
We hadn't made any movement just now! How did the hunting rifle suddenly fall over?
Old Chen narrowed his eyes in thought, got out of bed, walked over to the door, and was the first to pick up the fallen hunting rifle...
After testing the mechanism, he squinted and muttered, "This is utterly bizarre! It's not broken at all! How on earth did it suddenly..."
Before Old Chen could finish his sentence,
suddenly,
a loud crash echoed.
The opposite room's door was slammed open with a violent bang.
Then, a pitch-black figure of a monster lunged in from outside... and before Old Chen could react, he was directly knocked to the ground by this creature.
However, the instant Qi Lin and I saw this monster, we both drew a sharp gasp of cold air.
Because,
at the very moment we set eyes on this creature, we realized with absolute clarity...
It was none other than the grave-robbing companion of Qi Lin whom we had killed not long ago—the man who, in my dream last night, had claimed he would come back to find me.
Only, compared to how he looked last night, he had undergone an even more grotesque transformation now.
First, his head.
His head was now swollen to the size of a giant wok, and transparent, viscous fluids were oozing out from his nose and mouth.
Foul-smelling juices dripped from his body, though the leeches had vanished, presumably unable to endure the unbearable stench.
Furthermore, I could see that
beneath those stinking fluids, the majority of his flesh had already rotted away. Perhaps due to the freezing temperature outside, some of the juices on his body had even frozen into ice, making him resemble a giant wildman.
"Damn it, this is a genuine tomb-corpse!" Qi Lin muttered, staring in utter disbelief.
I remained silent, subconsciously swallowing a mouthful of saliva.
Crap!
This was getting completely absurd!
A guy we had thoroughly riddled with bullets and killed was now standing right in front of me again...
How on earth could anyone accept this, no matter from what angle?
A borrowed corpse returning to life? Or was he not dead to rights?
All sorts of chaotic thoughts began spinning through my head...
Right at that moment, the creature stepped into the room and immediately locked its gaze on me. Its turbid eyeballs rolled, and a sound resembling grinding bones scraped through the air.
"Lin... San... Qi!"
To be honest, saying I wasn't terrified in this situation would be an outright lie; I honestly felt like I was about to wet myself.
Yet, I quickly reached inside my coat, pulled out the automatic pistol, and took aim at it.
I couldn't help marveling in my heart: Oh, you great ancestors who invented firearms! You guys are absolute geniuses. As long as I have this thing in my hands, whatever ghosts, demons, or evil spirits are out there can just line up and stand at attention for me!
Trembling all over, likely from sheer adrenaline,
I gripped the firearm tightly with both hands, keeping my sights fixed on the monster...
"Lin... San... Qi."
The monster called out my name once more and began marching toward me with heavy strides. Gritting my teeth, I lined up my sights on its head, preparing to pull the trigger.
Just then, Old Chen scrambled back to his feet. Shaking his head and noticing that I was holding the automatic pistol, he quickly shouted, "San七, don't shoot!"
It was precisely those words that froze my finger just as it was about to squeeze the trigger.
That single phrase snapped me back to reality.
Right!
What time and place was this?
This was deep in the old mountain forests at night. If I fired a shot now, there was a good chance it would attract nocturnal predatory beasts roaming for food.
Seeing me halt, Old Chen let out a long breath of relief, then abruptly grabbed the hunting rifle lying nearby and smashed the butt of the gun straight into the head of the monster before me.
A dull thud echoed.
The monster's head was knocked crooked by nearly a hundred and eighty degrees.
Following that, Old Chen swung the rifle butt again, striking the creature squarely in the waist. Driven by momentum, the monster collapsed heavily to the ground.
Clatter, crash, bang!
A mess of items was scattered all over the floor.
Without a shred of fear, Old Chen drew the dagger from his waist and straddled the monster's body.
"Lin... San... Qi!" Even with Old Chen pinning it down, the monster kept its turbid eyes fixed on me, its voice raspy and hoarse.
Witnessing this, Old Chen let out a cold snort. "Hah, what a classic bully who preys on the weak! I was the one who killed you..."
Without further hesitation, Old Chen gripped the dagger with both hands and drove it violently down into the monster's skull.
With a sickening squelch,
fluids splattered wildly from the creature's head, releasing a suffocating stench that instantly filled the entire room.
It was so vile that it nearly made me throw up the meal I had just eaten earlier.
"Ugh!" Qi Lin gagged twice.
The urge rose up in me as well.
However, the words Old Chen spoke next made me instantly swallow the approaching vomit right back down.
"Sanqi, do you know why this damned thing is coming after you?" Old Chen turned his head, stained with grime, and spoke to me calmly.
I fought down the nausea after several heavy suppression attempts, then nodded. "I know!"
Old Chen narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why is that?"
"Because the gentle are taken advantage of, just as gentle horses are ridden by everyone! I acted too kind, so it thought I was an easy target..."
Old Chen nodded heavily. "Spot on! That's precisely the reason! Sometimes, ghosts are just like people—they always pick the softest persimmons to squeeze. I was the one who killed it, yet it came after you instead. That clearly shows..."
I quickly chimed in, "I'm that soft persimmon!"
"Right! So Sanqi, whenever you are out and about in the world in the future, being strong... is your protective talisman! The stronger you are, the less those people will dare to bully you!"
Hearing Old Chen say this, I hurriedly nodded. "Got it!"
Yet right at that moment, I stared at the fallen body of the monster and asked, "Old Chen, can this thing actually come back to life? Can the dead really be resurrected?"
"Resurrected my foot! This can only be considered... being parasitized. As for why this thing came after you, on one hand, it's indeed related to that man's lingering resentment, wanting to come make trouble for you; but on the other hand..."
At this point,
Old Chen abruptly yanked his dagger out from the monster's skull, sending another spray of fluids flying.
To my absolute shock, perched right on the tip of the blade in Old Chen's hand was a bug about the size of a fingernail.
The creature had eight legs, and the moment it emerged, its limbs began twitching frantically...
"What on earth is that?!" I widened my eyes in bafflement.
This was the first time I had ever laid eyes on such an insect. Its head and tail ended in sharp stingers, and its overall shape resembled a beetle, yet it was completely unlike any beetle I had ever seen.
Staring coldly at the creature, Old Chen uttered two words: "Parasitic carapace-turtle!"