Chapter 33

Listening to the receding sound of the motorcycle, Qi Wu’s body began to disintegrate.

One by one, thick, hideous tentacles writhed like vipers. They could not wait for the splits in Qi Wu’s skin to widen enough to accommodate their girth; they impatiently tore through his thin, useless human flesh and burst forth. These tentacles, once as soft and delicate as a human tongue, were now covered in knotted, cord-like muscles that bulged and rolled beneath their translucent skin with every movement.

"Sizzle..."

The sound of flesh and fascia being torn asunder echoed from Qi Wu’s body, yet he had completely dissolved into a massive, blood-red, grotesque cluster of tentacles. Each tentacle was now covered in deformed, nauseating mouthparts. They were as dense as the suckers on an octopus tentacle, yet arranged in a chaotic, disordered fashion. Lacking lips, beneath the flesh-toned slits lay rows of fine, sharp teeth.

"He is mine."

Qi Wu let out a piercing shriek and lunged at the Head-Toting Woman, who was writhing like a giant insect.

He swiftly coiled around the woman’s boneless arms, the teeth inside his mouthparts snapping out to gnaw at her flesh. Blood erupted from the monster’s body—but it was followed by the heads that had seemingly lost all signs of life.

When the Head-Toting Woman released her grip, they tumbled down like rubber balls. But at that very moment, fresh red granulation tissue began to sprout from their rotting eye sockets, ear canals, and the jagged stumps of their necks. Like cockroach nymphs scattering after an egg case is accidentally crushed, the granulation tissue quickly grew into small, agile, deformed limbs. Carrying their heads, they scrambled through the gaps in Qi Wu’s tentacles, using teeth and claws to launch a counterattack.

Blood splattered everywhere; severed limbs littered the ground. The battle between Qi Wu and the Head-Toting Woman quickly turned this small area into a living hell.

"Ahhhhh—damn you—damn you—"

With half of her body devoured, the Head-Toting Woman let out a hoarse howl of fury. She stretched her arms, clinging to every twisting, deforming tentacle, her fingernails gouging at the eyes and mouths sprouting from Qi Wu’s limbs. Blood mixed with mucus surged out, corroding her fingertips into blackened, withered bone.

The girl on the woman’s chest began to cry immediately.

"It hurts! It hurts, waaaaah!"

At the same time, the man’s head on the other side of the girl revealed a look of agonizing struggle.

"Don't do this, child... don't hurt us..."

The man’s lips parted, and thick, black blood trickled from his clouded eyes.

"We just like him," he whispered incessantly, staring at the no-longer-human Qi Wu. "We want to be with him, be with him, be with him. We like him so much, he smells so good..."

"You should understand, shouldn't you? You are just like us."

"He smells so good, hiss, he really smells so good. I’m so hungry, I want to eat that child, I want to merge with him just like this, I want him to be a part of us forever."

As he spoke, the man made strange, wheezing gasps.

Qi Wu paused for a fleeting second, then responded to the man with an even more vicious assault.

"He is mine."

Countless mouths across Qi Wu’s body roared in unison.

"Get lost—"

With a surge of rage, Qi Wu bit off half of the man’s face, his mouthparts grinding the bones hidden within the loose, corpse-like flesh into shards. The man’s gentle, elegant mask shattered instantly. Something abnormally ugly and deformed poured out from the dark, putrid cavity behind the man’s head.

It was the essence of the Head-Toting Woman. Granulation tissue, eyeballs, insect-like body segments, and constantly writhing, twisting tentacles—and, of course, those dangerously sharp spines. They surged toward Qi Wu simultaneously, crushing him, decomposing him. As Qi Wu devoured the Head-Toting Woman, her highly toxic body was likewise eroding Qi Wu’s original form.

As time passed, the disparity in their size became apparent—compared to the Head-Toting Woman, Qi Wu had eaten far too little to maintain his own image.

Far too little.

At one moment, several of Qi Wu’s primary tentacles were bitten by the "heads" detached from the woman. His skin instantly turned soft and viscous, emitting a rotting stench before peeling away from the underlying muscle. To prevent the biological toxins from spreading further, Qi Wu was forced to bite down on the roots of those tentacles and tear them from his own body.

The scent of blood in the air grew intensely thick. The excruciating pain blurred Qi Wu’s consciousness, and the monster’s violent instincts began to gain the upper hand. If this continued, he might never be able to return to his human state...

There was no proof, but deep down, Qi Wu felt that ominous premonition.

And at that very moment... he suddenly heard a distant, roaring sound.

It was a sound that absolutely should not have been heard here, at this time.

It was the roar of a motorcycle.

Xie Xishu had returned.

The boy stood up from the back seat, his hands gripping the shoulders of Xiao Tianming, who was driving. His back was slightly arched. Massive bundles were strapped to his waist and legs, looking exceptionally bulky, though it was unclear what was stuffed inside.

The moment he saw the figures on the motorcycle, Qi Wu’s form swelled suddenly.

It was almost an instinctive reaction.

He wanted to use his own body to block the Head-Toting Woman’s nauseating, viscous gaze, though such an attempt was entirely futile. Realizing Xie Xishu had returned, the Head-Toting Woman burst into crazed laughter.

"He’s back, he’s back, he’s back—"

She arched her back, saliva dripping, and rushed toward Xie Xishu, almost completely ignoring Qi Wu.

Qi Wu roared, and countless tentacles shot out, coiling around the better part of her body and crushing it.

"Xiao Tianming—"

At the same time, several tentacles swayed toward the motorcycle, fine eyes rolling within the mouthparts, staring with venomous hatred at Xiao Tianming, who was driving. The extreme rage in the monster’s tone was enough to shred Xiao Tianming into pieces like a physical blade.

"This has nothing to do with me, ahhhhh—"

As they sped along, Xiao Tianming shouted in despair the moment he locked eyes with Qi Wu’s face, which no longer held any human form.

"I was forced!"

He was on the verge of tears.

"Focus."

Before Xiao Tianming could finish, he felt the familiar, icy touch of a blade against his waist. It was the tip of Xie Xishu’s knife.

Though he looked beautiful, delicate, and fragile—the absolute model student invited to speak on stage by the principal every week—the fierce, ruthless aura currently hidden behind Xie Xishu’s lowered eyes looked strangely similar to Qi Wu’s.

"Drive closer."

He glanced briefly at the stalemate unfolding before them, his expression darkening.

When Xiao Tianming heard his command, tears actually welled up in his eyes.

Qi Wu and the Head-Toting Woman were just a short distance away, but as the battle reached its white-hot peak, both had revealed terrifying forms never seen before. If the scene were filmed, it would likely be banned from domestic release for being overly graphic.

Yet Xie Xishu was asking him... asking him to drive closer?

Xiao Tianming’s entire face twitched. "Drive closer? If I get any closer, I’ll be driving right into the monster’s mouth! We’ll both be finished then! You madman!"

Before he could finish his rant, Xiao Tianming felt the knife tip jab his waist again.

"Drive to the side of that monster," Xie Xishu commanded, with abnormal calmness.

"...Fuck!"

Xiao Tianming cursed as he twisted the throttle, charging forward despite the gaze of the Head-Toting Woman’s countless eyes.

"So fragrant..."

The Head-Toting Woman had become exceptionally agitated since Xie Xishu appeared. She even seemed distracted while fighting Qi Wu—upon seeing Xie Xishu draw near, she completely disregarded Qi Wu’s biting, willing to have the better part of her body shredded into pulp by Qi Wu’s tentacles, just to get her hands on Xie Xishu.

As the rotting heads drew closer, Xiao Tianming’s screams grew louder.

At that moment, Xie Xishu raised his hand and threw a glass bottle at the Head-Toting Woman.

"Clink—"

The object was grabbed by countless soft, pale arms, only to be crushed to pieces by the Head-Toting Woman in the ensuing scramble.

The dark brown liquid inside the bottle instantly spilled, drenching the monster’s entire body. However, for a monster of such formidable strength, the liquid had almost no destructive effect.

For a moment, the Head-Toting Woman even looked slightly confused. In contrast, Xie Xishu was clearly not surprised by this. Without waiting for the monster to react, he pulled new bottles from the bundles at his waist, throwing them at her one after another.

Besides the stench of corpses and the thick smell of blood, a pungent odor of gasoline gradually filled the air.

During this time, the two were, of course, chased relentlessly by the writhing creature. Perhaps because the crisis of survival was imminent, it completely ignited Xiao Tianming’s will to live; his motorcycle-evading skills reached the level of a circus performer.

Of course, Xie Xishu was never truly caught by the Head-Toting Woman in the end, and the real reason was Qi Wu.

Qi Wu seemed to sense Xie Xishu’s intentions; he ignored everything else, his tentacles pinning the headless woman down with lethal force. Drenching blood sprayed out, and for a moment, it felt as though a man-made rain of blood was falling.

"I can't—I really can't do this anymore—"

Finally, as Xie Xishu’s bundles were emptied, Xiao Tianming looked completely broken.

"The ground is this slippery; if we go any closer, one turn and both we and the bike will be sent flying."

After another narrow escape, Xiao Tianming drove the bike further away, gasping for air as he cried out to Xie Xishu.

Xie Xishu turned his head and looked silently at the Head-Toting Woman: the monster’s body was now covered in mottled gasoline, and through constant pursuit and friction, the liquid had coalesced into a vast, dark stain beneath her.