Wang Ya grabbed the Azure Scale Monster and started peeling off its dense scales—they were too inconvenient for eating.
The pain from having its scales ripped off made the Azure Scale Monster howl. It struggled desperately, fighting even harder. Giant stone pillars and the floor in the hall cracked everywhere from the impacts.
Huang Qi stood at the other end of the hall, “watching” the fight between Wang Ya and the Azure Scale Monster, her face pale as a sheet.
Zhang Qingshui had already calculated the Nine Palaces Positions and was activating the door mechanism.
Old Tang sat on the ground, his face as white as paper. Seeing the azure and crimson shadows flashing and colliding, shaking the entire hall to the brink of collapse, all he could shout was “Fuck!” Then he yelled again, “Little Zhang, hurry up! This hall’s about to come down! Need my help? This Flower Demon possession is too fierce! I’d bet this Flower Demon is a thousand-year-old one!”
Suddenly, Zhang Qingshui heard an ear-piercing ghost screech in the air. Her hand trembled as she moved the stone slab with carvings on the stone door, and she asked in alarm, “What’s happening?” Turning back, she saw a massive boom from the hall behind her, like a giant stone crashing down, shaking the ground violently. She nearly lost her footing. Knowing the urgency, she ignored what was behind her and quickly positioned the final stone slab. Then she heard the mechanism inside the door shifting. She pushed hard on the stone door, but it wouldn’t budge. She shouted, “Old Tang, come help!”
Huang Qi raised her hands to cover her ears, turned her face away in disgust, too nauseated to watch any longer. If she kept looking, she feared she’d vomit.
Old Tang reached Zhang Qingshui’s side and said, “So disgusting!” He gathered his strength and pushed the stone door with all his might!
The stone door slowly opened, and a cool breeze wafted in, carrying the scent of roasted meat. Due to the nauseating scene he’d just witnessed, Old Tang’s mind involuntarily pictured something awful. He bent over, clutching the door, and puked violently.
Huang Qi smelled the barbecue aroma from outside and puked too!
Zhang Qingshui shoved the door, now open enough for one person to squeeze through sideways, and shouted, “Go, now!” She waved her hand and retracted the Azure Vine. Without the vine’s protection, a vomit-inducing stench of rotting corpses hit her. It was so foul that Zhang Qingshui clamped her mouth shut and held her breath, her stomach convulsing on the verge of rebellion. She suppressed the nausea fiercely, held her breath, and hurried to Huang Qi’s side. Ignoring that Huang Qi had just puked, she grabbed her and dashed for the stone door!
Boom—
Rumble—
Giant stones kept crashing down in the hall, more and more, shaking the ground like an earthquake.
Zhang Qingshui yelled, “Move!”
Old Tang staggered to the door and squeezed through the narrow gap.
Huang Qi was shoved and pushed by Zhang Qingshui to the door and squeezed out too. She called, “Wang Ya’s still inside—she seems out of her mind right now.”
Zhang Qingshui shouted, “She won’t die!” As she spoke, she inhaled, and the nauseating corpse stench overwhelmed her. She bent over and puked. Midway through, the ground shook harder; stone pillars in the hall began tilting and falling. Then she was yanked out through the passage. As she squeezed out the door, fresh wind hit her face, but the stench grew thicker. A figure swiftly squeezed through the gap behind her, the intense corpse odor emanating from it. Thinking it was a ghost, Zhang Qingshui bolted three or four meters away, gripped her Azure Vine tightly, and watched the shadow tensely.
The shadow looked up at her, then turned and dove back through the door gap.
Huang Qi shouted, “Wang Ya, come back! It’s collapsing inside!”
The ground shook even more violently, nearly knocking the three off their feet. Even bricks from the passage ceiling rained down.
Old Tang yelled, “Run!” He grabbed Huang Qi’s wrist and dragged her outward.
Huang Qi cried, “Martial Uncle, Wang Ya’s still in there…” Before she finished, one side of the stone door collapsed with a roar. A pile of rocks tumbled out, half-blocking the door. The rumbling from the hall intensified, the ground quaking harder. Old Tang dragged Huang Qi out of the seven-to-eight-meter passage. A grassy, earthy scent mixed with the sound of rushing water greeted them.
Zhang Qingshui hurried after Huang Qi and shone her flashlight back into the passage. The beam caught a disheveled, ghost-like figure bursting from the collapsed half-door gap. It rolled nimbly on the ground and stumbled toward her amid the nauseating corpse stench! Zhang Qingshui swung her Azure Vine to wrap it up.
Huang Qi suddenly turned back and yelled, “Wang Ya!” She stepped forward a few paces, then stopped. “So stinky!”
The feel through Zhang Qingshui’s hand told her it was human, not ghost. Knowing it was Wang Ya, she retracted the Azure Vine.
Wang Ya stumbled over, the overpowering stench forcing the three to hold their breaths.
Suddenly, Zhang Qingshui saw the passage behind Wang Ya collapsing. She shouted, “Wang Ya, run! The passage is caving!” Even their footing had rocks rolling down. Zhang Qingshui flashed her light around and discovered they stood at the edge of a cliff. Before them was a stone bridge clogged with dense roots. Shining upward, she couldn’t see the top.
Old Tang suddenly grabbed Zhang Qingshui and Huang Qi and rushed forward. Stinking Wang Ya leaped onto the bridge too. Violent tremors shook behind them like rolling thunder, endless falling rocks smashing the passage. Even the bridge trembled and cracked, stone slabs dropping.
The four ran for their lives!
Old Tang swung his Tang Dao to hack the roots blocking the bridge, trying to clear a path, but they were too tough—even his full swing didn’t sever them.
The bridge began collapsing—first chunks of giant stones, then the whole thing. Terrified, the four clung desperately to the roots to avoid plummeting into the dark abyss.
Zhang Qingshui gripped the roots tightly. She wrapped Green Vine around her waist and Huang Qi’s too, planting her toes on the knotted roots for stability. Unable to hold her breath any longer, she inhaled deeply—and her lungs filled with Wang Ya’s corpse stench. Unable to endure it, Zhang Qingshui muttered, “Wang Ya, did you eat a corpse? You reek!”
Huang Qi struggled to say, “Qing Jie, don’t talk about it, I… urp!”
Old Tang said, “Little Zhang, please stop. Not smelling it is a blessing!”
Wang Ya angrily shouted, “Shut up, you ungrateful lot!” Her voice lacked its usual arrogant vigor; it sounded weak and breathless. “Huang Qi, I’ll remember you! I lent you the ancient bronze coin to protect yourself, and you ditched it on the ground and ran! If I lend you anything again, my name isn’t Wang!” As her words fell, vomiting sounds echoed from the darkness where Wang Ya was. Then an indescribable, unparalleled stench wafted from her direction. The three who smelled it instantly puked too.
Zhang Qingshui puked until she nearly brought up bile and stomach acid! At that moment, she truly suspected Wang Ya had eaten a corpse!
—
She didn’t eat *a* corpse. She ate several