Chapter 16: The Cocooned Woman

“!!!!”

The group had been on guard against the dozens of corpses from the very beginning. Now, seeing this, they were all struck with alarm.

Before they had time to think, those nearest the corpses—each a first-rate master long renowned throughout the martial world—reacted almost instinctively.

Lao Qifeng silently gathered his inner force, readying the technique “The Dragon Battles in the Wilderness.”

The other masters likewise raised their weapons and summoned their full strength, intending to destroy the insects together with the corpses before the creatures had time to crawl out.

Just as they were about to strike, a figure suddenly appeared before them and waved a hand.

“Everyone, wait,” said Li Miao.

The others were momentarily blocked and their attacks slowed by an instant. Then they saw that after raising their heads, the corpses made no further movement, and so they lowered their weapons.

“Master Liu, step down from the platform first,” Li Miao said to the leader of the Kongtong Sect.

The Kongtong Sect Leader obediently withdrew the foot he had placed on the platform.

As soon as he stepped down, the heads of the corpses slowly drooped again.

“Hero Li, what is this?” Lao Qifeng asked.

Li Miao did not answer him at once. He walked forward, seized one corpse by the face, and lifted its head, examining it carefully from side to side.

Then, under the horrified gazes of the others, he extended two fingers into one of the holes in the corpse’s face and pinched out an insect that let out a hissing cry.

Everyone felt the hair on their bodies stand on end. Several of those with little experience in the martial world felt their stomachs churn and nearly vomited.

“Oh. These things are called Chrysalis Maidens,” Li Miao said indifferently after studying it for a while.

He closed his hand around the insect and rubbed it a few times. It became a mass of powder, which he casually scattered onto the ground.

“Chrysalis… Chrysalis Maidens?” Lao Qifeng asked.

“Yes. In truth, they are much the same as the soldiers, wives, and concubines buried alongside great figures when they die. They serve both as guardians of the tomb and as living sacrifices to those great personages,” Li Miao replied.

“Girls of thirteen or fourteen are chosen. The flesh bearing their features is stripped away, and while they are still alive, all manner of gu-insects are ‘raised’ inside their bodies. Their lives are sustained day after day with medicinal decoctions.”

“Deprived of all five senses, they are left to experience in detail the agony of those insects building nests within them, hunting, and gnawing at their flesh. After three years, those who die are deemed insufficiently ‘devout’ to the Miao King. Those who remain alive become fully qualified Chrysalis Maidens.”

For years, in order to help Little Four, Li Miao had been gathering knowledge of witchcraft and gu sorcery. He had come across the origin of the Chrysalis Maidens by chance. Its cruelty and strangeness had made a deep impression on him.

At present, however, he gave no details. Even this brief explanation was almost more than those present could bear.

“Such… such cruelty…” Yin Minjun murmured.

Li Miao turned and glanced at her. “That is not even the worst of it.”

“Once the Chrysalis Maidens have been completed, the burial sacrifice begins.”

“These girls, deprived of all five senses, are made to kneel before the Miao King’s coffin, and the tomb is sealed.”

“After they are chosen, someone tells them that this is a ritual to bring the Miao King back to life. So long as they are sufficiently devout, the Miao King will awaken amid their prayers, restore their senses, and bestow blessings upon them and their families.”

“And so, in that empty tomb, the Chrysalis Maidens endure the agony of a thousand blades tearing through their bodies while silently praying in their hearts.”

“Deprived of their five senses, they do not know how much time has passed. They do not know whether the companions around them are still alive, nor how many holes the gu-insects have torn through their bodies. All that remains is false hope and endless suffering.”

“Until they die.”

Li Miao’s calm voice echoed through the vast hall, yet for a time no one answered.

Everyone present had witnessed life and death before. But killing a person was usually a matter of one clean blow to the head; they had never seen such an inhuman atrocity. For a while, they could only sit in stunned silence, unable to speak.

After a long moment, Lao Qifeng was the first to regain his composure.

“Hero Li, then why did those corpses raise their heads? I examined them earlier. Corpse oil has already congealed on all of them. They should all be dead.”

“They are dead, but the gu-insects within their bodies were selected through secret methods,” Li Miao explained.

“There are many varieties. Within these corpses, they formed a system in which they could devour one another and sustain themselves through endless cycles. In a state of suspended death, they can survive for more than a century.”

“There should be mechanisms built into the platform holding the coffin. The moment someone steps onto it, it releases some kind of substance, awakening the gu-insects inside the corpses and making the bodies move.”

“If Master Liu had stepped fully onto it just now, all those insects would have awakened at once, burst through the corpses, and attacked every living thing. After going a hundred years without food, I imagine they are extremely hungry.”

“And if you had attacked the corpses just now, unless you could have crushed every one of them in a single instant, the scent released by the shattered insects and corpses would have awakened all the gu-insects in the other bodies as well.”

Hearing this, the others realized that they had just walked past the gates of death. A chill ran through them.

Gu sorcery was indeed strange and impossible to guard against. A single gu-insect had already claimed the life of a second-rate master. If the insects within these dozens of corpses all escaped, no one could say how many of those present would survive.

Yet there was no retreat. The hall was completely empty. If they did not investigate the coffin, how could they find any clue to an escape route?

Li Miao merely smiled.

“The Miao border is cut off from the Central Plains. The martial world knows nothing of gu sorcery, and gu sorcery knows nothing of how to defend against martial arts.”

He paused.

“So why not simply avoid stepping onto the platform?”

With that, Li Miao sprang straight upward, rising nearly ten feet into the air. Then, like a falling leaf drifting on the wind, he floated down and landed atop the coffin suspended by iron chains.

“Elder Yin, lend me your sword,” Li Miao said.

At his words, Yin Minjun removed her sword and tossed it to him.

Li Miao caught it and drew the blade.

Pretending to exert his full strength, he brought the sword down and severed one of the iron chains binding the coffin.

“Catch the chain. Don’t let it fall onto the platform,” Li Miao said.

With a flick of the blade, he sent the chain flying to one side.

Lao Qifeng stepped forward and caught it. He glanced at the severed end and was inwardly startled.

The chain was made of links as thick as two fingers, yet Li Miao had severed it with a single stroke.

That swordsmanship was likely approaching the pinnacle. It seemed that his claims of possessing only ordinary hard-body training had been mere concealment. With that one display of swordsmanship alone, he was already Lao Qifeng’s equal.

What Lao Qifeng did not know was that Li Miao had devoted more thought to controlling the force behind that stroke than to the swordplay itself.

Pretending to be at Lao Qifeng’s level was, in truth, no easy task for Li Miao.

Clang!

Clang!

Clang!

Before long, the iron chains binding the coffin fell one after another. Lao Qifeng caught them and set them aside.

Li Miao also timely adopted the appearance of someone short of breath. After regulating his breathing for a moment, he reached up and lifted the coffin lid.

“Hm?” he murmured in surprise.

“How is it?” Lao Qifeng asked anxiously.

“Empty,” Li Miao replied.

End of chapter.