Chapter 289: Flesh And Blood Giant Toad
The eerie scene made the two of them turn pale. The amorphous black thing was incomprehensible, and they couldn’t figure out how such a creature had appeared. After being swallowed and spat out by it, the possessed humans became even more numb and hollow-eyed.
The amorphous black thing’s “swallowing and spitting” motion was slow, like an elder gnawing on chicken bones, mashing it in its mouth. But in the end, it seemed to only swallow the human soul, then spit out the remaining shell. Along the way, it injected new “substance” into the shell. This substance filled the bodies of those spat out, and intense light burst from their eye sockets, illuminating their skin bags until they were transparent.
“Your Mysterious Group has a long history and knows the most. Do you know what this situation is and what that thing is?” Fang Mu couldn’t help but ask in a low voice. He concentrated his attention, trying to use his special eyes to see through the true form of the amorphous black thing, only to find that it was just a mass of black smoke, emitting eerie toad croaks from within.
Xia Chen glanced at him helplessly, “Am I also just a person who has lived for over thirty years? And my energy is limited. The knowledge I can read and remember in this lifetime also has its limits.
I’m not entirely sure what this thing is, but I think it’s a bit like a monster I read about in a book, called a ghost spirit.
It’s a creature without a fixed form, mainly living in dark and damp caves. They are often subordinates of some abnormal gods or powerful anomalies. They like to devour the souls and wisdom of living beings, and then control them. Humans, being the most numerous and intelligent sentient beings on Earth, are thus the main targets of ghost spirits’ attacks. The more ‘spirit and intellect’ they devour, the smarter, more cunning, and more powerful they become.”
“No fixed form, capable of devouring the spirit and intellect of living beings, and then controlling them… it does sound very similar.” Fang Mu observed the amorphous black thing swallowing and spitting out humans, which indeed fit the description in the book. He then asked, “Are there any methods to deal with them?”
Xia Chen said in a low voice, “This kind of creature has no fixed form, so physical attacks are completely ineffective. However, it fears strong light and high heat, so fire will do.”
“You are absolutely right, but do we have fire on us?” Fang Mu’s gaze swept over Xia Chen’s body.
“We have a few signal flares, which should be barely usable. But this ghost spirit is so large, far exceeding the ordinary ghost spirits described in the book. I’m afraid even if I use a few, I won’t be able to kill it completely, at most I can only drive it away.” Xia Chen took a signal gun from his belt and said.
Fang Mu pondered after hearing this and said, “Then we can’t attack head-on. It can only be used as a means of self-defense.”
Xia Chen nodded, he thought the same.
As the ghost spirit swallowed and spat out everyone, those who chanted incantations to it turned into walking dead, standing there silently with their eyes glowing blue.
After the ghost spirit let out a strange, high-pitched cry, the controlled humans, swaying, formed pairs and faced each other. Then, with a blank expression, they took out daggers from their wide sleeves and slashed each other’s extended arms. Instantly, blood gushed out and flowed onto the ground.
The controlled humans seemed to feel no pain, their expressions unchanged, and their bodies did not pause. They sat down and used their blood-stained hands to draw on the ground.
Fang Mu and Xia Chen stood on a high vantage point and happened to see the patterns they were drawing. It was a depiction of a giant toad frog, with a huge belly, covered in hair, and a head like a bat, extremely bizarre. This was undoubtedly the Toad God that Fang Mu recognized.
Just watching the process of painting the Toad God image sent chills down their spines. Fang Mu even felt that the painting was too realistic, as if the Toad God were about to leap out from it.
During the painting process, the people bleeding profusely collapsed one after another. In the end, only one woman persisted, silently. When she had meticulously drawn the last bulge on the Toad God’s back, her life also came to an end.
The ghost spirit seemed very satisfied. It let out another shrill cry, and then the controlled humans, like collapsing tofu-construction projects, had their flesh and blood disintegrate with a bang. They gathered according to the outline of the Toad God pattern on the ground, their flesh and blood merging and reassembling. As the ghost spirit burrowed into the mass of flesh and blood, the unstable flesh and blood toad frog form slowly stabilized, as if the ghost spirit had given soul to this mass of flesh and blood.
“What the heck…” Xia Chen was horrified. He had never heard of such an eerie evil ritual, nor did he know that the ghost spirit’s ability to control people could extend to them automatically disintegrating, let alone merging with the ghost spirit.
The two of them watched the flesh and blood giant toad gradually take shape, holding their breath. Only after the flesh and blood giant toad let out a strange cry and leaped into the deeper darkness did they finally begin to breathe greedily again. After a while, they bravely emerged from their cover.
Fang Mu glanced at Xia Chen, his silent gaze asking Xia Chen what to do next.
Xia Chen swallowed a gulp of air and said to Fang Mu, “Aren’t you looking for that nail hammer? Find it first.”
Fang Mu sighed, “Unfortunately, I’m not sure where the nail hammer is, but I suspect it’s near the Toad God.”
In his previous life, the Toad God kept and used the nail hammer. It was likely that it would do the same in this era.
Since the Toad God realized it was currently trapped in a space-time cage created by the Lord of All Things, it would cycle with the deeply cursed Fang Mu until Fang Mu found a method to break or overcome the curse. If it believed that allowing Fang Mu to complete the ritual of opening the seven orifices could free it from the curse, then it would undoubtedly spare no effort in opening its own orifices.
However, Fang Mu had seen the purple night tour scroll, and he knew that opening the orifices with the nail hammer would only lead to death. Even the legendary Emperor of the Center, Hundun, had died from opening his orifices. How could an ordinary person like him withstand the power of opening all seven orifices? He was already exhausted trying to control his eye and ear orifices, let alone opening other acupoints. Doing so would kill him, and it would be a very gruesome death.
Hearing Fang Mu’s words, Xia Chen’s heart trembled. Fang Mu’s meaning was to follow the flesh and blood giant toad that had just left, as there was a possibility of finding the real Toad God.
With no other options, Xia Chen and Fang Mu could only steel themselves and walk deeper into the darkness.
Passing by the place where the flesh and blood giant toad was born, the Toad God painting drawn with human blood was still vividly displayed there, spreading a thick scent of blood in all directions, making people dizzy.
Xia Chen and Fang Mu picked up the lighting equipment left at the scene. Holding lit candlesticks, they walked into the deeper darkness, following the giant toad footprints left on the ground. In the deep and silent tunnel, the croaking of toad frogs and the bone-crushing chewing sounds that made one’s scalp tingle could be heard intermittently.
It seemed that the flesh and blood giant toad was eating.
