Chu He wrapped his robe tightly around himself and stood in front of the large glass mirror in the bathroom, sighing. Zhou Hui came over, yawning and swaying, and kissed him on the neck before starting to brush his teeth.
He was bare-chested, the lines of his strong muscles having a powerful beauty under the light. His abs and V-lines extended perfectly down into his low-rise underwear. His hair was stylishly spiky, and his nose was so straight it was reflective. His face was so handsome that even a morning-after photo with sleep in his eyes could be used directly as a cover for a fashion magazine.
Chu He looked at his own pale, tired, and sickly face in the mirror, then looked at him, and suddenly felt a very strange feeling.
“What’s wrong?” Zhou Hui asked drowsily.
Chu He didn’t answer at first. He poured a glass of warm water and drank half of it before saying thoughtfully, “I was thinking… if someone saw us like this, how much would they think I paid to keep you?”
Zhou Hui burst out laughing. “Darling, anyone would think you were being kept by a domineering CEO like me.” After saying that, he probably felt that his arrogant aura was off the charts and proudly shook his head at the mirror, which was splattered with toothpaste foam.
“…” Chu He suddenly felt like he had f*cked the zoo, thinking, I really shouldn’t have challenged the thickness of his skin. How could I be so mouthy… He sighed and pointed out the window. “Time’s up. You should take down the barrier.”
Zhou Hui said nonchalantly, “It’s not even dawn yet.”
Indeed, it should have been dawning in H-City in the summer morning, but the sky outside was still dark, with layers of black clouds piled up, not even a sliver of moonlight, looking like the middle of the night.
Chu He crossed his arms and leaned against the glass counter, his eyelashes slightly squinted, his scrutinizing gaze staring down at Zhou Hui from under his hair. Just then, Zhou Hui spat out his mouthwash and turned his head to see his expression, and immediately laughed. “Darling, your expression is so hot… Do you remember? Back then, when you descended into the Sea of Blood as the King of Phoenix and saved thousands of demonic souls, you had this same look…”
Chu He asked in confusion, “You were there too? How come you weren’t saved?”
Zhou Hui washed his face, blindly searching for a towel with his eyes closed. After a long while, he finally laughed. “…I was jerking off at the time.”
Chu He: “…”
Zhou Hui hummed a little tune and called for room service, instructing them to just leave it at the door and not bring it in. Who knew that after a while, the doorbell would ring, and not only ring, but ring persistently. Zhou Hui was originally smugly applying hair gel, but the ringing made him anxious. He went to open the door and asked, “Didn’t I tell you to… Old Six?”
Li Hu stood at the door, pushing a food cart with one hand and slapping a file on Zhou Hui’s face with the other, saying coldly, “Tianqi Construction is your property.”
“…” Zhou Hui hurriedly caught the file and looked down. It was an approval report for a certain construction plan marked “Zhou Yi.” His spirits immediately lifted, and he smiled amiably. “Hi dear, do you want some breakfast, dear? Don’t mind if I take the food cart, this one’s on me, 88, dear!” He then reached out to close the door.
Li Hu desperately held the door. “You bastard! You intentionally sold that land to the Japanese. That building isn’t a residential building at all, it’s clearly…”
“What is it?”
Li Hu and Zhou Hui both shut up at the same time and looked up to see Chu He standing in the living room, barefoot in a white bathrobe, holding a glass of water, with one eyebrow slightly raised.
Both of their expressions stiffened at the same time. They exchanged a look in a flash of lightning—Li Hu’s face clearly said, “Something has obviously happened at the Earth-born Fetus’s location, what do we do?” Zhou Hui’s expression, on the other hand, was very straightforward: “I don’t know. Who told you to bring this up in front of my wife!”
“What about the Japanese?” Chu He asked with great interest. “If you don’t talk, I’m going to think you two slept together and Old Six got pregnant.”
Both of them shivered at the same time. Zhou Hui reacted faster and immediately pointed to the sky to swear his loyalty. “Wife, you be the judge! To me, this fox is just my little sister-in-law! No, even more sister-in-law than a sister-in-law!—We were just talking about how I started a construction company in the two years you were away. Let’s go to the bank today and hand over my private savings to you…”
Boom!
A bright flash of lightning suddenly streaked across the sky outside the window, followed by a deafening clap of thunder, interrupting Zhou Hui’s speech.
Zhou Hui was shocked. “…It’s just hiding a little private money, is it necessary to be struck by lightning?!”
The corner of Chu He’s mouth twitched slightly. He turned and ran to the window. Just then, another clap of thunder came, like a winding long dragon descending from the sky, drawing a dazzling S-arc in the sky, and then struck heavily towards the suburbs!
—Boom!
At that moment, Li Hu’s phone rang. The sudden shrill ring startled everyone. The screen clearly showed it was Mayor Huang. Just as Li Hu reached for it, Chu He snatched it away and answered, “Hello?”
“President… President Chu? I f*ck your immortal ancestors, where have you been for the past two days!” There was thunder and lightning on Mayor Huang’s end, but his hoarse roar could still be heard. “Come to the suburban construction site quickly! Something’s happened, the Earth-born Fetus’s location has collapsed into a sinkhole!”
“…Earth-born Fetus?”
“Hurry up and come over, we’re about to organize people to go down and rescue!” Mayor Huang said sharply. “Also, your red car is parked by the sinkhole. Your brother might be trapped down there!”
At the same time, forty meters underground.
Zhang Shun couldn’t remember how many times he had fallen. He lay on the ground, his knee hitting a sharp rock, and blood flowed down his leg, but the pain had been completely numbed by the repeated falls.
The Japanese behind him were cursing and about to beat him, but were stopped by Yan Lanyu. He pulled him up and said coldly in Japanese, “Be careful yourself.”
This crevice became wider as they went down. At first, they had to squeeze through sideways, but later, they could walk with their arms swinging. But even so, the ruggedness of the path and the sharp and strange rocks on both sides were indescribable. Not only Zhang Shun, but even the Japanese subordinates behind him fell many times. One of them had his forehead cut by a protruding rock when turning a corner, and blood flowed all over his face.
Aida had long since taken off his gray suit jacket. He panted heavily and asked, “How much further?”
They came to another turn, but it was blocked by collapsed rubble. Yan Lanyu pulled out a short knife from his back pocket and pried open a few large stones with force, barely clearing a passage two chi square.
“We’re here,” the young man coughed a few times in the flying dust and was the first to duck into it.
Zhang Shun was the second to follow without a choice. He looked up at the space inside and was immediately stunned.
This was not a naturally formed underground cave. The walls and floor had strong signs of artificial carving. Several Japanese lit up cold flames, and they could see that the surrounding stone walls were covered with dense patterns. Because of the long-term water seepage, some of them had already rotted, emitting an indescribable smell.
What was terrifying was that these patterns continued to extend along the stone walls into the distance. Several people turned on their wolf-eye flashlights, and they could vaguely see that this cave was as big as a football field!
“Look!” a Japanese suddenly shouted. “There’s something carved on the ground too!”
Zhang Shun didn’t understand Japanese, but seeing everyone looking down, he also looked down at his feet. He saw that the stone floor was indeed carved with the same patterns as the walls. After all, Second Young Master Zhang had a master’s degree from a top foreign university, and his eyes were quite sharp after doing many experiments. He slowly saw that these patterns were all repetitive sections of text, but they were intertwined hand in hand and foot in foot, like some kind of strange and twisted pattern.
“Second Young Master Lanyu,” these Japanese subordinates were still quite wary of Yan Lanyu. One of them asked very respectfully, “What kind of talisman is this? What is it prohibiting?”
Yan Lanyu held the flashlight and stared straight at the ground under his feet. After a long while, he slowly recited a very strange and archaic syllable, saying, “This is the Great Prohibition Curse. It’s a section of Sanskrit.”
“Sanskrit?”
“Mm, these talismans are all repetitive, saying only one thing.”
He took a deep breath. For some reason, Zhang Shun felt that he seemed to have smiled, but that smile was very strange. “There is something in this place that was once punished by heaven. There are a total of 9,999,000 Great Prohibition Curses here, all repeating this one sentence.”
Zhang Shun looked at his expression and couldn’t help but shiver.
Not only him, but the other Japanese men also got goosebumps at the same time. The person who had just asked was immediately surprised. “But here—this place is so big, and all the stone walls and ground are carved with this one sentence. Who could have done it? And why—”
“It means that something is sealed here, and this thing is very fierce. It can’t be suppressed without 9,999,000 Great Prohibition Curses.” Yan Lanyu paused and looked around. “As for who carved it, it should be the person who built this place back then. Carving scriptures is different from copying them. Not just anyone can come and carve them, especially a high monk with profound cultivation who can use the Great Prohibition Curse. There are probably not many of them in the world, so the dense cave of prohibition curses should have been carved by one person, one stroke at a time.”
Everyone was so shocked they couldn’t speak. A few people reacted and immediately took out their phones to take pictures for their records.
Aida shone his flashlight around. He was probably a little agitated by the dense talismans everywhere he looked, so he asked loudly, “Then what about the thing inside? What about the Earth-born Fetus?”
Yan Lanyu showed that strange smile again and said, “It’s above your head.”
Aida looked up, and the flashlight reflexively shone upwards. Everyone retreated several steps at the same time.
—On the empty ceiling of the cave, a coffin suddenly appeared.
It was the coffin they had just buried. It had been dragged to the bottom by something, and it had been opened. The corpse was sitting cross-legged on the coffin lid, one hand holding a knife in its chest, the other pointing east.
Even though Zhang Shun was used to these supernatural things, seeing a corpse sitting on his head and pointing east was a very chilling thing. His mind immediately went blank with a buzz, and he got goosebumps all over his body, but his eyes involuntarily followed the smiling corpse’s hand to look in that direction—
He saw a person hanging there.
It was the person he had seen in Li Hu’s mirror image.
He was about three or four meters above the ground, his hands tied, his head naturally lowered, and his long hair hung down with it. He was wearing a robe from an unknown era, and it was unclear if it had already rotted. The robe was densely covered with countless talismans written in blood, all identical to the Great Prohibition Curses on the stone walls and ground.
They shone their wolf-eye flashlights on him, trembling. At first, no one made a sound. After a moment, a Japanese man let out a sigh of admiration. “Truly… so beautiful…”
Indeed, this person’s face had a stunning beauty that transcended gender. In such a gloomy and terrifying underground, it could make people involuntarily forget all fear. Zhang Shun had experienced this heart-stopping feeling in the mirror image, but now seeing it face to face, he knew how real that shock was.
—But after looking for a while, another feeling gradually surfaced in his heart.
This person was not his brother.
Yes, he became more and more clearly aware that this person was unlikely to be his brother, because from this person’s face, he slowly saw another thing—
—Evil.
Zhang Shun thought he was mistaken. He blinked hard, but the indescribable evil and coldness became clearer and clearer on that person’s face.
Second Young Master Zhang’s limited vocabulary could not describe this strange feeling. This face was obviously very beautiful, and it was not an exaggeration to say that it was a work of art from heaven, but from the corners of his eyebrows and eyes, from every pore, it exuded a chilling evil. Zhang Shun had seen promotional images of villainous demon kings in online games, some with blood-red eyes and ferocious faces, which were also quite scary, but they were simply incomparable to this gloomy, evil feeling that pierced straight to your heart.
Zhang Shun had only seen a similar feeling on another person’s face—the Demon Lord Fan Luo.
He subconsciously took half a step back.
“Why isn’t it an embryo?” At this time, a Japanese man also found something was wrong, but unlike Zhang Shun, he seemed completely unaware of the evil on the Earth-born Fetus’s face. “The Qing Dynasty notes clearly say that Earth-born Fetuses are all in the form of fetuses. The few infants that have already come out of the womb are already top-grade treasures of heaven and earth. Why is this one an adult?”
Another subordinate retorted, “Earth-born Fetuses are rare in the first place. It’s hard to say what they’re like. Maybe this one has already grown up?”
While the few people were still arguing, Zhang Shun was already sweating profusely. He stared intently at the face full of evil and ferocity, thinking, Whatever it is, please don’t let this Earth-born Fetus down. Just let it continue to be suppressed by ninety million prohibition curses. This face is too damn scary…
“Earth-born Fetuses can become adults,” just as the few Japanese were arguing animatedly, Yan Lanyu, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up.
As soon as he spoke, everyone stopped arguing and closed their mouths to listen to him. It seemed that although the Japanese man named Aida would beat and scold him, these ordinary Japanese subordinates were very, very wary of the Onmyoji. Not a single one of them showed any emotion other than respect.
“Earth-born Fetuses cannot be born for ten thousand years while gestating in the dragon veins under mountains and ice caps because they survive only on the feng shui and precious qi of nature and lack the nourishment of human presence. In the last century, however, many infants were found among the Earth-born Fetuses discovered in Xinjiang, Northeast China, and other places. Among them was a female infant, hidden deep in a mountain cave, about three zhang tall, with complete facial features and fetal hair, and a lifelike face. Local legends say that one can even hear a baby crying late at night, which is because of the sparse human population there that provides nourishment.”
“You mean H-City is densely populated, so the Earth-born Fetus grew faster?” Aida said in disbelief.
But Yan Lanyu’s expression was very calm. “It is indeed possible.”
Aida was still hesitating, but Yan Lanyu said, “If you want to take it down, you’d better be quick. We’re running out of time.”
Everyone was startled. He shone his flashlight around the grotto. Just now, although the stone walls were severely permeated by groundwater, there were at least some dry places. But now, not only were all the walls soaked, but in some places, the water was even gushing down along the carved patterns.
“It’s starting to rain heavily above. The groundwater will soon flood in,” the young Onmyoji paused and added, “Besides, we made a lot of noise coming down. The people who were supposed to be lured here may have already been lured here…”
The subordinates couldn’t help but be horrified, and a few of them whispered reminders, “Mr. Aida!”
Aida seemed to still be hesitating—fierce and cunning people were generally also cautious. But since they had already come down, there was really no way to just turn back. Not to mention anything else, without the Earth-born Fetus, they would never be able to leave H-City under Zhou Hui’s nose.
“You go and get the Earth-born Fetus down,” Aida pointed at Yan Lanyu, then pointed at two subordinates. “You go and build him a ladder!”
Neither of the two subordinates objected. They walked to the feet of the hanging Earth-born Fetus, and Yan Lanyu nimbly climbed up their shoulders. The other few people set up something similar to a pulley on the ground, which should have been the equipment prepared in advance to drag the Earth-born Fetus to the ground—obviously, they had overestimated the size of this Earth-born Fetus. Judging from this formation, a stretcher would have been enough.
Aida stared at Yan Lanyu. He saw him standing next to the Earth-born Fetus, his face almost pressed against its ear. He took out a short knife from his waist with his backhand, and seemed to be measuring how to cut the seal that was holding it up.
—An indescribable sense of foreboding suddenly seized Aida’s heart.
Aida was experienced and ruthless, otherwise he would not have been able to reach this position in the esoteric sect. He rarely had such uneasy premonitions, but every time they appeared, something big would happen, and every time something big happened, at least half of the people would die.
Aida’s eyelids twitched wildly. He almost subconsciously took a deep breath. “Wait!”
Everyone looked at him, and he suddenly turned to Yan Lanyu. “Don’t release it yet! Wait—”
Yan Lanyu stared at him and smiled very strangely. “It’s too late.”
With that, his hand rose and the knife fell. With a thud, the Earth-born Fetus fell heavily to the ground!
At that moment, even the blood in Aida’s entire body turned cold. The grotto was suddenly so quiet that everyone could clearly hear their own heartbeat.
However, a full dozen seconds, even a minute passed, and nothing happened.
“Mr…. Mr. Aida…” a subordinate asked tremblingly. “Are you alright? Are you…”
Only then did Aida feel that the root of his tongue was numb. He swallowed and the voice that came out was almost hoarse. “No, I’m fine.”
Everyone looked at each other. Someone tentatively wanted to ask something, but was immediately stopped by a look from their companion. While they were at this impasse, the gurgling sound of the groundwater flooding in from outside had become louder and louder. A few of the braver ones went over to look at the Earth-born Fetus. Seeing that it had fallen to the ground and seemed to be of no danger, they turned to move the pulley.
At that moment, someone suddenly stood up and asked in confusion, “Did you guys hear something?”
“No.”
“Hear what?”
Everyone fell silent, and only the sound of groundwater seeping in remained in the grotto. However, just a few seconds later, someone else suddenly cried out in surprise, “Laughter, laughter… It’s laughter! Someone is laughing!”
Zhang Shun was close to that person and instantly got goosebumps and shivered. Then, a faint and sinister laugh sounded from behind his head!
“Ahhh!”
“Someone is really laughing!”
“What’s that sound?!”
As the crowd was in turmoil, a subordinate suddenly fell to the ground, pointing at the Earth-born Fetus as if he had seen a ghost, his voice trembling. “—It’s it! It’s the Earth-born Fetus! It’s laughing!”
In an instant, everyone turned to look. The Earth-born Fetus moved, then moved again. A few seconds later, it slowly and straightly sat up.
When Zhang Shun saw its beautiful face, his mind immediately went “buzz!”.
It was laughing loudly, the corners of its mouth almost splitting to its ears. The sight was very familiar, exactly like the seven smiling corpses!
“…” It seemed to have said something, then grabbed the Japanese man who had fallen to the ground and couldn’t get up. With the speed of lightning, it opened its mouth and ripped a piece of flesh from his neck!
With a tearing sound, everyone’s expression changed drastically. The man who was being eaten had blood gushing from his carotid artery, and he let out a scream in the pool of blood. “Help! Help! Save me—”
Aida didn’t even think and raised his gun and shot! Bang bang bang! All the bullets hit the Earth-born Fetus, and the next second, they all bounced back with the shell casings with a clatter!
The Earth-born Fetus seemed completely oblivious to the bullets. After swallowing the flesh and blood whole, it lowered its head and tore off another large piece, chewed it, and swallowed it skin and all. The scene was so bloody that Zhang Shun’s entire stomach instantly rose to his throat. He saw that a few of the more timid Japanese had already thrown up, but more of them grabbed daggers, short knives, and other things and rushed up.
“Don’t go!” Aida couldn’t stop them in time. He watched with wide eyes as the Earth-born Fetus showed no reaction to the cold weapons that struck its body. It casually threw aside the subordinate who was only breathing out and not in, then stood up, and casually grabbed another person, biting his throat with a crack!
“Get back!” Aida said in a fit of rage. “That’s not an Earth-born Fetus! That’s a heaven-and-earth terror!”
His subordinates hesitated for half a second. Seeing that the two captured companions were definitely not going to be saved, they all ran out for their lives. However, the chaotic process of dumplings being dropped into a mud puddle only lasted for a few short seconds. Then, the Earth-born Fetus’s figure flickered and appeared out of thin air, blocking the stone door leading out.
It was still smiling. Although this smile was much more normal, the extreme beauty and the soaring evil aura mixed together, making it particularly twisted and horrifying.
Everyone nervously backed away. Aida’s hand, holding the gun, was trembling so much it could go off at any moment. “What… what on earth is this thing?!”
The Earth-born Fetus looked at him, then suddenly used a blood-stained hand to tuck its long hair behind its ear, tilted its head, and sinisterly recited something.
Its voice was so hoarse that it would probably take some time for the paralysis of the throat muscles caused by not speaking for many years to disappear. No one could hear clearly what it was reciting. But soon, the Earth-born Fetus repeated it, and this time it was clearer. Everyone heard it say a complete sentence, “Do you… want to know?”
—It could actually speak human language!
Everyone was stunned. The situation suddenly became particularly absurd.
“You guys… fed me too many poisonous things…” The Earth-born Fetus’s voice was hoarse from not speaking for many years, but one could tell that it seemed very happy. It said slowly, one word at a time, “Don’t you understand yet? You… were sent down by my father.”
Before anyone could react, it moved its head, and its neck bones made a crisp cracking sound. “After so many years, you finally… gave me normal food.”
At the same time, on the ground.
A black Maybach came to a stop with a hiss in the water at the entrance of the construction site. In the heavy rain, the yellow and black police tape was washed all over the ground, and the police, wrapped in thick raincoats, were drenched like drowned rats. Mayor Huang was roaring at several leaders of the municipal police bureau. When he saw the car arrive, he immediately pushed his secretary and others aside and, without even an umbrella, ran over under the lashing rain. “President… President Chu!”
Zhou Hui got out of the car with a smile, blocked Mayor Huang with one hand, and asked kindly, “What’s the matter, Old Huang?”
Zhou Hui was still wearing his ridiculously expensive motorcycle leather jacket. He took off his sunglasses with style, and his kind and loving gaze made Mayor Huang shiver. He trembled and said, “I… I’m looking for President Chu…”
Chu He got out of the car from the other side, his face as grim as water. “Where’s my brother?”
But Zhou Hui ignored him and grabbed Mayor Huang to lecture him. “Look at you, you’re such a big weasel. All you know how to do is open your mouth and call for President Chu. Isn’t that embarrassing? Do you really think President Chu is your mother? What did I say before I left? If the seventh corpse appears, you have to move the city. Did you take my words as a passing wind? If you want President Chu to be your mother, you should at least call me ‘Dad’…”
Chu He reached out and forcefully pulled Mayor Huang over. “Have you organized people to go down? Have you seen Zhang Shun?”
Before Mayor Huang could react, Zhou Hui reached out and pulled Chu He over, his posture extremely forceful. “Is your brother a three-year-old child? He doesn’t know how to drink milk without you?!”
Chu He’s face looked like he was really holding back—Mayor Huang on the side felt that this President Chu, who never showed his emotions, had really reached the limit of his endurance.
“You deliberately led the people from the esoteric sect down there,” he said through gritted teeth, his voice hoarse. “You clearly knew that Maha was already like this, and you still dared to feed him blood food. Are you trying to attract a few more heavenly thunders for him?”
Zhou Hui’s response was to roll his eyes unsparingly. “Oh, so you know everything now. Weren’t you just pretending to be innocent and asking me what was down there? What big-tailed wolf are you pretending to be?”
The two of them looked at each other. Chu He didn’t know if it was because of the cold or because he was too angry, but his hands, stuck in his pants pockets, were trembling very slightly and unnoticeably. And Zhou Hui was humming a little tune, with the expression of a rogue who had already f*cked you and now you were his, what could you do about it.
Li Hu sighed on the side, changing into flat shoes while muttering, “What a classic act…”
Mayor Huang was at a loss, looking at one and then the other—for some reason, he suddenly felt that there was a particularly strange atmosphere between these two people.
Clearly, the last time they met, they were at odds with each other, with undercurrents of hostility, one testing, the other defending, and every word seemed to hide countless hidden meanings. But now, a very strange sense of confrontation had suddenly arisen.
It was the kind of feeling that only very close people would have, where they were hostile to each other, but at the same time, they were united against outsiders, and no one could interrupt between them.
“Excuse… excuse me for interrupting,” Mayor Huang raised his hand tremblingly and asked, “Down… down there, did the Earth-born Fetus… give birth? We are now organizing a search and rescue team to go down. Is… is that okay?”
Zhou Hui and Chu He turned to look at him at the same time.
Poor Mayor Huang’s mouth was twitching so much it was about to go stiff. He heard Chu He say in a low voice, “I’m going down too.” With that, he walked towards the huge crack in the ground in the rain without even an umbrella.
Zhou Hui rolled his eyes as if he had known this would happen and put his arm around Mayor Huang’s plump shoulder. “Old Huang, prepare for me. I’m going down to save people myself… What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
This rogue sighed and shrugged politely. “Let me introduce you. The thing making trouble down there is called Maha. He’s my unfilial eldest son who’s already dead… Otherwise, you think I’d go down? You really think I’m noble and lead by example?”
