Immortality begins in Goose City

Chapter 29 The Strange Infant

"Chirp chirp chirp—!"

A piercing, indescribable scream erupted from the flames.

The sound was sharp and piercing, filled with extreme pain and madness, making people's scalps tingle and their hearts tremble with fear!

The monster rolled, struggled, and thrashed wildly in the flames!

Its black fur immediately curled and charred, and its flesh sizzled and smelled burnt under the high temperature.

But the wire in the fishing net has now become a cage that binds it!

No matter how much it struggles, it cannot break free from these burning shackles!

Zhang Hu and Zhao Long fell to the ground, their arms burned, but they clung tightly to the edge of the fishing net.

The servants rushed forward and held down the edge of the fishing net to prevent the monster from rolling out of it with the fire.

The flames roared, illuminating the surroundings and reflecting the screaming faces of the crowd.

The piercing screams lasted for more than ten breaths before gradually fading, eventually turning into powerless convulsions and crackling sounds of burning.

The monster stopped struggling.

Hu Laosan then cautiously stepped forward, carrying a pottery jar in his hand.

He splashed the dark red, foul-smelling black dog blood from the jar onto the monster, then grabbed a handful of glutinous rice and sprinkled it on top.

The glutinous rice fell onto the charred corpse and ashes, making a faint sizzling sound and emitting a few wisps of thin black smoke.

After doing all this, Hu Laosan finally breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead: "It should be... alright now."

"Thump..."

Only then did Zhang Hu, Zhao Long, and the servant, who had been holding the fishing net tightly with their nerves taut, collapse onto the ground as if all their strength had been drained, panting heavily, their faces filled with the lingering fear and exhaustion of surviving a disaster.

The series of battles, luring the enemy, netting, and fire attacks that just happened, though brief, were extremely dangerous and exhausted their mind and strength.

Huang Shujian slowly exhaled a breath of foul air, which smelled of blood.

A piercing pain shot through his chest wound, and blood dripped down his abdomen.

"Young Master!"

Xiuer rushed over, her voice trembling with tears. Her little face was deathly pale with fright, and tears streamed down her face like a broken string of pearls.

She frantically pulled a relatively clean handkerchief from her bosom and tore off the hem of her inner garment, intending to bandage Huang Shujian, but her hands trembled violently when she saw the bloody wound.

"Don't panic."

Huang Shujian's voice was a little hoarse. He took the strip of cloth from Xiu'er's hand, pressed it tightly against the wound, and then skillfully wrapped it around several times with the torn strip of cloth, tied a knot, and temporarily stopped the bleeding.

As he moved, he glanced down.

The newly added wound cuts diagonally across the abdomen from below the right rib, with the skin and flesh rolled back, revealing the bone.

Coincidentally, its upper end connects directly to the old, centipede-like scar on his left chest, as if it were an even more grotesque extension.

After treating his wounds, Huang Shujian, supported by Xiu'er, slowly walked to the monster.

The flames had died down, and the torchlight shone through.

Finally, the monster's true form was completely revealed to everyone.

"hiss--"

After seeing it clearly, everyone involuntarily gasped, their scalps tingling!

Although the monster was curled up and twisted, its general outline could still be discerned.

This was not at all the mountain spirits, monsters, or mutated beasts they had imagined.

That... was clearly a humanoid figure the size of a baby!

Its body was covered with thick, coarse black fur, most of which was now charred.

Its body is extremely deformed, with an abnormally thin torso, but topped with a disproportionately large head.

Its limbs were short and twisted, like withered branches, but its hands and feet were unusually large, especially its ten fingers, which, although burned and charred, still showed an unusual length and sharp curve...

It was this claw that just shattered Huang Shujian's knife.

What's most unsettling is its face.

Although his face was burned beyond recognition by the flames, and his skin was charred and blistered, the outline of his facial features could still be vaguely discerned.

Those features... bore a striking resemblance to the previous simpleton, A Bao!

Ah Bao's face was simple and honest, but the strange baby's face revealed an indescribable ferocity and distortion.

"This...this could be...?"

Hu Laosan leaned closer and looked at it carefully again and again, his face showing extreme shock, and his voice even changed tone.

"Is he that idiot Abao's...brother?!"

"Younger brother?" Everyone was taken aback.

"That's right!" Old Hu San pointed at the strange baby and explained in a hurried tone.

"These two are very likely twins!"

"While in the womb, this...this freak may have been underdeveloped, or perhaps it was unconsciously devoured by another."

"Children born under these circumstances are mostly deformed and do not survive."

"Judging from this, this strange baby... may not have been born completely independently!"

"It has always...always been parasitizing Abao's body!"

"Abao's unusually large size and hollow abdomen were likely designed to house it!"

"The two share one body, or rather, Abao's body has become the nest and shell of this strange infant!"

"As a result, A Bao's internal organs were squeezed, and his brain became stupid, leaving only an empty shell and instincts."

"And this strange infant is hiding inside A Bao's body, manipulating A Bao's enormous body to move around."

Hu Laosan shook his head and muttered, "But this kind of abnormal symbiosis goes against the laws of nature, and it shouldn't last long at all."

"I really don't know how they... managed to survive for so many years..."

His words sent a chill down everyone's spine and filled them with sorrow.

Just then, the charred, monstrous infant suddenly twitched very weakly.

Its charred chest rose and fell slightly, almost imperceptibly, emitting a hissing sound like a bellows leaking air.

One of its eyes was burned out, and the other eye was just a charred slit, yet it seemed to be turning, looking at the onlookers, or perhaps just twitching unconsciously.

It was enduring the extreme pain of being burned alive, yet it couldn't even die immediately, and could only slowly exhaust its last bit of life in this boundless agony.

Huang Shujian frowned as he watched this scene.

He had little pity in his heart.

This strange infant is cruel and possesses unpredictable speed and strength. If it weren't for prior arrangements and the combined efforts of everyone, they would be the ones dying today.

Being kind to the enemy is cruel to yourself.

He pulled out the Mauser pistol from the holster on his lower back.

The cold muzzle of the gun slowly pointed at the center of the monstrous infant's forehead.

The strange baby seemed to sense something, and with its only remaining slits in its eyes, it tried desperately to turn towards the muzzle of the gun.

"Bang!"

A gunshot, not too loud, echoed through the silent tomb.

Smoke billowed from the muzzle of the gun.

The remains of the monstrous infant twitched one last time before returning to complete stillness.

The slit in that eye was frozen in time forever.

Almost simultaneously with the sound of gunfire.

A faint yet clear, warm current, with a strange, cool sensation within it, seemed to appear out of nowhere, emerging from the corpse of the strange infant and, as if drawn by something, silently surging towards Huang Shujian, who was standing nearby.

This warm current is invisible and intangible, and no one else notices it.

But Huang Shujian clearly sensed it!

Immediately afterwards—

hum!

A slight jolt ran through his mind.

The deep blue, semi-transparent virtual panel appeared automatically and uncontrollably, clearly displayed deep within his consciousness.

The information on the panel seems to have changed.