Chapter 1334: The Disasters of the Streets

The buildings weren’t normal though. One house had fire burning on the inside. Another was overflowing with icy mist. A third was choking with deadly poisons. The fourth one was crawling with insects. The fifth house was covered in sharp spikes. The sixth house’s walls were covered in nails...

Just the same, the maze-like streets looked ordinary from the outside, but the people treading them all looked like they were walking on thin ice. It was as if they were walking on a single-plank bridge or a tightrope between cliffs. One misstep, and they would fall into the abyss and die.

The travelers themselves looked neither human nor ghastly either. They drank iron water, ate charcoal, and wore iron clothing...

As Ye Qing stepped deeper into the city, he began to feel all sorts of sensations such as hunger, fatigue, weakness, cold, hot, pain, irritation, fear and more. Not only that, they were only growing stronger over time.

It wasn’t just a mental or spiritual feeling. It was not a hallucination he could shake off so long as he gritted his teeth and soldiered on either. It was his body telling him that he truly needed to satisfy the needs that created these feelings—eat to satisfy his hunger, drink to sate his thirst, sleep to alleviate his fatigue, wear clothes to keep warm etc—or he would die.

However, there was no food, no water, no bed, and no clothing in Void Stomach City. The people could only eat charcoal to satisfy their hunger, drink iron water to sate their thirst, sleep in buildings to alleviate their fatigue, wear iron clothes to block the cold, and skin themselves to resist the heat...

“Hmm? This street is...”

Suddenly, Ye Qing sensed something and looked at his feet. As if on cue, the pedestrians suddenly started screaming uncontrollably. It was because their shoes had suddenly caught on fire and crumbled into ash in just the blink of an eye. As if the street was red hot metal, their bare feet sizzled against its surface, and large chunks of flesh were ripped off every time they took a step.

Everyone on this street started screaming in pain. However, the pedestrians on another street were perfectly fine. Noticing this, the pedestrians ran toward the other streets as quickly as they could.

“Senior, the street is going to get so hot that it can kill eventually, so we should head to the other streets as well.”

Since Ye Qing and Papersmith did not move, the three-eyed man forced himself to stay still even though the heat was killing the bottom of his feet as well.

“Mm. Let’s go.”

Ye Qing cast the three-eyed man a look. His skin was thick enough that this level of heat could not burn him at all, but seeing the pained look on the three-eyed man’s face, he nodded and acquiesced to the request.

“Thank you, young master...”

The trio weren’t far away from another street. It took them just a few breaths to reach it.

However, this short duration was enough for the street to become three times hotter than before. Ye Qing saw with his own eyes some unfortunate soul standing too far away from a neighboring street and so completely lost the flesh and blood on their feet before they were able to make it to safety. Worse, they collapsed on the floor after their flesh had burned into ash, and their bones made direct contact with the street. Massive columns of smoke rose into the sky, and the aroma of burnt flesh permeated the air as they sizzled like steaks.

“Aaaargh! It hurts! Save me!”

The overwhelming rush of pain prevented them from saving themselves in any way. They could only roll on instinct and flail impotently. However, they were only worsening their situation with every roll, ripping off massive chunks of flesh and blood with every useless struggle. In just the span of a few breaths, not one part of their body was intact. They looked like melting skeletons.

The worst part was that their deaths weren’t immediate. They could only struggle and scream hopelessly.

No one reacted to the victims’ cries of help. On the contrary, they were all watching with a look of schadenfreude on their face. Ye Qing even noticed a couple of people staring at the barbecued flesh on the floor and swallowing profusely.

He did not doubt that these people would rush forward and devour the chunks of flesh if not for the fact that doing so would subject them to the same fate.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“What is going on with this street, Yang Bo?”

Ye Qing withdrew his gaze and looked at the three-eyed man. That was his name.

“The streets of Void Stomach City may look normal at first glance, senior, but they are not. Sometimes, they become boiling hot like the street we just left. Sometimes, they become yin cold. Sometimes, they are covered in thorns and brambles. Sometimes, they make you feel as heavy as mountains. Sometimes, they are filled with corruption that dyes a person’s heart black. Sometimes, they are beset by wind and rain that literally eat away at one’s flesh and bones...”

Yang Bo gulped audibly as he recounted what he knew, “In summary, these streets are hellish and ghastly. They tormented people and occasionally took lives with their unpredictable, deadly disasters. You must be careful, seniors.”

“Why is this street fine?” Ye Qing asked another question.

“Each street is independent and separate from each other. Different streets produce different disasters.”

Yang Bo explained, “Some streets may be covered in flames, but some may be drowning in snow. Some streets are strewn with all sorts of dangers, but some streets are perfectly safe. It’s impossible to say or predict.”

“I see!” Ye Qing exclaimed in realization. Now he understood why everyone was treading on thin ice. “Anyway, let’s go. A disaster’s about to strike this street.”

“What?” Yang Bo was caught off guard by the remark, but he hurriedly followed Ye Qing and Papersmith when he saw them moving toward another street.

As soon as they reached the other street, a mist suddenly engulfed the street they were on.

The mist was faint and incredibly thin. Only those who were watching closely would notice it. Since almost everyone on the street was busy enjoying the show of sizzling men, they did not notice the mist seeping into their bodies through their nose, their mouths, and their pores.

A few breaths later, some people started scratching themselves as if they were feeling itchy. As if the gesture itself was infectious, more and more people began scratching themselves as well.

Slowly, the victims began scratching harder and more violently. They ripped through skin and tore through flesh.

“Agh... it’s so itchy...”

“I’m so itchy...”

“It’s unbearable...”

It was as if everyone had gone insane. They scratched anywhere and everywhere, and some people even went so far as to rip off their clothes and began rubbing themselves against the floor or the walls. It wasn’t long before everyone was bleeding and mutilated.

“I think that’s the Itch Mist, young master!” Papersmith remarked after observing for a moment.

Ye Qing shook his head. “The Itch Mist? That’s bad.”

A Phenomenon-class Stranger, the Itch Mist was an airborne mist that inflicted unbearable itchiness upon any living thing it touched.

The Itch Mist did not possess a tangible form and so could not be killed or destroyed. However, the solution to it was pretty simple: Water. One simply needed to get themselves completely wet to cure themselves of the itchiness.

If this was outside, it would be a most simple thing to solve. One simply needed to jump into a river, a lake, or even a jar of water to cure themselves.

However, this was the Void Stomach City. There were no rivers, no lake, and no water. The only body of liquid that existed in this place was molten iron, and they could hardly jump into that.

So, they could only scratch themselves as much as possible; use pain to numb or alleviate the itch that felt worse than death itself.