Chapter 76: The Shadow in the Cave (Part 3)

Chapter 76: The Shadow in the Cave, Part 3

When they saw the state of the wound, both men were shocked!

At first glance, Zhang Sanlu shivered involuntarily. He noticed several centipede-like limbs protruding from Zhang Mancheng’s wound, but these were not the black, hardened limbs they had seen earlier. Instead, they were pale and tender, as if newly grown and unarmored.

“That centipede burrowed into the wound?!”

Zhang Mancheng was startled, immediately channeling his energy into his hand to pull at them. He gave a hard tug, causing the wound to gape a little wider, and the flesh inside seemed entwined with those limbs.

A chill ran down Zhang Sanlu’s spine. He couldn’t tell if these limbs were simply stuck to the wound or if they had actually sprouted from within. Either way, the sight was deeply unsettling, stirring a powerful and uncontrollable urge to rip out those limbs, flesh and all.

But from the look on Zhang Mancheng’s face, any movement of the limbs caused intense pain, deeper and more excruciating than an ordinary wound. If the limbs had been forced into the gash while rolling on the ground after falling, such a state might be conceivable. Yet Zhang Mancheng was now gritting his teeth, trying to yank out the flesh-colored limbs even as blood and tissue turned inside out, but the limbs wouldn’t budge—as if they were truly growing from inside him.

“What the hell is this thing?!”

Zhang Sanlu swallowed hard. The sight of the wound made his skin crawl; those limbs seemed almost alive. If such things were truly growing in his own wound, the thought of them creeping through his blood vessels and organs, breeding countless worms inside his body, made him want to hack off the entire wound immediately.

Suddenly, Zhang Sanlu recalled the corpses outside the cave—bodies crawling with these centipedes. If someone were to die and have their skull opened, only to find it writhing with insects and limbs, what a horrifying and bizarre sight that would be.

“Take a deep breath and calm down. Let me handle it,” Zhang Sanlu said, seeing Zhang Mancheng’s growing agitation and forcing himself to remain composed for both their sakes. “Do you have a knife or dagger? I’ll cut it out for you.”

He took the short dagger Zhang Mancheng handed over, sterilized it in the torch’s outer flame to both disinfect and heat it, then let Zhang Mancheng lie back against the rock wall. Handing him the torch to hold, Zhang Sanlu sat down heavily on his shoulder.

“Should I find a place to set the torch? It’ll be hard for you to hold it like that,” Zhang Mancheng began to say, but before he could finish, a sharp pain shot through his side.

“Damn it, that hurts! You could have warned me!” Zhang Mancheng cried out.

“This way you’re distracted, aren’t you?” Zhang Sanlu replied. Even with only one hand, his movements were swift; in just a few breaths, he had cut away the affected flesh and released Zhang Mancheng’s arm.

Blood flowed from Zhang Mancheng’s wound, but the limbs were gone. Zhang Sanlu brought the dagger close to the torchlight to examine it; on the blade clung a small piece of flesh entwined with limb-like structures. The limbs and flesh were almost inseparable.

Under the flickering flame, Zhang Sanlu could clearly see that the limbs truly seemed to grow out from within the flesh, piercing through the outer layers. Whether it was a trick of the light or a spasm, he thought he saw one of the limbs twitch.

“It really looks like it was growing inside, just like those bodies at the cave entrance,” Zhang Mancheng said, his face pale.

A strange expression flickered across Zhang Sanlu’s face. Suddenly, he used his thumb to slice open his own index finger, letting blood drip onto the piece of flesh with the limbs. As soon as the droplets touched the limbs, they writhed rapidly away, as if desperately avoiding the blood.

“That’s odd, aren’t these things supposed to crave blood?”

He then placed the limb-infested flesh near Zhang Mancheng’s bleeding side. After a few moments, the limbs stirred faintly, slowly reaching toward the area where blood was thickest.

“These things really do feed on blood?” Zhang Mancheng instinctively shrank back.

“They’re extremely sensitive to blood. If we hadn’t cut them out in time, you might have ended up like those corpses outside, crawling with worms. But why didn’t they go for my blood?” Zhang Sanlu wondered aloud. He then held the limb over the torch; with a sharp hiss, it blackened, curled up, and was quickly burned to ash.

“At least they’re still afraid of fire.”

“Why don’t they go for your blood, but feed on mine...?” Zhang Mancheng’s face became puzzled, deep in thought. Suddenly his expression grew serious. “Brother, to tell you the truth, don’t let anyone else know about this peculiarity in your blood. Otherwise, your blood might not stay yours for long!”

“You mean my blood is special?”

“I don’t know the details, but it’s always wise to be cautious with others,” Zhang Mancheng warned. “I never expected you’d have such a constitution—were you born with it, or did it develop later?”

“I’m not sure myself.” As Zhang Sanlu answered, he reheated the dagger in the fire and pressed it to Zhang Mancheng’s wound with a sharp sizzle, tending to the injury.

Grimacing, Zhang Mancheng helped wrap the wound with strips of cloth.

“If you hadn’t spotted that thing, by the time I checked the wound outside, it might have already built a nest in me,” he said, shuddering at the thought.

“So, should we keep going?”

“Of course! That thing only ran after I gave it a beating. If it were truly formidable, it wouldn’t have attacked so sneakily. We have to finish it off and settle the score,” Zhang Mancheng replied through gritted teeth.

Still gripping the torch tightly, Zhang Mancheng took the lead once more. The flames flickered with their footsteps, casting elongated shadows. The cave air was damp and chilling, each breath seeming to freeze in their nostrils. Their footsteps echoed in the cavern, forming a strange rhythm.

Zhang Mancheng moved forward cautiously, sweeping his gaze through the torchlight for any sign of danger or clues. The light danced across the rock walls, illuminating grotesque formations in fits and starts, as if the stones themselves breathed with the flame’s rhythm.

“We have to be careful,” Zhang Mancheng whispered, his voice echoing through the cave. “Who knows where that thing is hiding? It could jump out from any corner. This time, I’ll show it no mercy.”

They pressed on, the passage narrowing and sloping downward, the oppressive weight of stone from all sides making each breath feel heavier.

The torchlight began to dim. Zhang Sanlu paused, producing a spare flask of lamp oil from his chest. He carefully soaked the torch, reigniting it so that the flame burned brighter than before.

“We have to conserve our torches,” he reminded Zhang Mancheng. “Who knows how deep this place goes, or how much farther we have to walk.”