Chapter 476: Wait... What?

The soft flesh of the monster puppet was far more tender than its shell. How could it possibly withstand a barrage of long spikes and short stabs?

After two rapid volleys, it had at least fifty to sixty porcupine quills embedded in its body. It let out a series of guttural, bubbling cries and shrank back into its shell with a whoosh.

After all, the hard shell existed to protect the soft interior.

In other words, the harder the shell, the more fragile the flesh within.

And these porcupine quills all had barbs. There was no way it could pull them out on its own.

The porcupines of Mount Yulun, slaughtered more than half a year ago, had finally avenged themselves in spirit.

As for the venom from Zhu Erniang, it caused wounds to burn as though licked by raging flames. It was bad enough that the monster puppet was in unbearable pain. Blisters began swelling rapidly around each wound, every single one larger than a pig’s bladder.

Fifty to sixty wounds meant fifty to sixty enormous blisters.

If they were not lanced or removed in time, the spider venom would spread quickly through its body, numbing its nerves and weakening its muscles.

As the monster puppet screamed, movement stirred again inside the shell.

“There are people in the shell!” shouted He Lingchuan as he signaled the constables to take aim. He himself raised his sleeve arrow mechanism and fired at a shadow moving within.

Only then did the constables realize that there were actually figures moving inside the snail shell.

Two men with blades were frantically slashing at the blisters on the monster puppet’s body.

Out of nowhere, a skunk monster darted forward and leaped straight into the shell.

“Don’t go!” He Lingchuan lunged to grab its tail, but he was a moment too slow.

The men inside saw the flash of black and white and swung their blades without hesitation. The skunk monster moved with astonishing agility, slipping past the blades, and then its fluffy tail lifted—

From He Lingchuan’s point of view, he could clearly see a burst of yellow-green gas spray from its tail, nearly blasting directly into one swordsman’s face.

The men abandoned their attacks at once, clutching their throats and doubling over, vomiting violently.

That kind of reflex was impossible to suppress.

The skunk seized the moment and kicked off his back. One of the men lost his footing and rolled off the monster puppet’s back, crashing to the ground.

His companion rushed to rescue him.

He Lingchuan reacted instantly. Another sleeve arrow flew, blooming after piercing the man’s shoulder blade. With a sharp yank, He Lingchuan dragged him over before his comrades could intervene.

The fellow was dark and stout. Even as he was hauled in, he put up a fierce front, shouting and hacking wildly with his blade.

He Lingchuan casually severed the other party’s blade, then sent out a kick.

Two crisp cracks sounded as both of the other party’s legs were broken at once. The man screamed and collapsed.

The constables swarmed in to restrain him.

Having tasted success, the skunk monster grew bold. Ignoring its companions’ shouts, it tried to burrow deeper into the shell.

There were gaps inside, and it trusted its small frame to slip through.

It never expected the flesh in front of it to suddenly split open.

Before it could change direction, it plunged straight in.

The aberrant creature’s massive mouth had opened right there.

By the time the skunk realized, it was too late. The jaws closed silently, leaving not a sliver of space.

The stench it had released still lingered inside the shell. The aberrant creature must have been suffocated by it because it suddenly burst back out of its shell, limbs forming, and leaped high into the air.

This jump used every ounce of its strength. Despite the tremendous weight it carried, it soared over thirteen meters before slamming down hard.

A thunderous boom shook the ground. The earth sank by about a meter, and two of the trees anchoring the grappling line were wrenched completely over.

The aberrant creature was in agony and clearly trying to dive underground to recover.

The silk cord stretched tighter than the nerves of everyone present, as if it might snap at any second.

A faint light began glowing from the shell, a pale brown shimmer barely visible in the dark, yet enough to send a wave of dread through the crowd.

This thing still has more cards up its sleeves?

Is there a second transformation coming?

Before their eyes, the battered aberrant creature leaped again.

No one expected He Lingchuan to suddenly snatch a torch from someone nearby and charge forward at that exact moment.

Jiao Yu was startled. “What are you doing?!”

It pounced toward him, but was too slow to stop him.

He Lingchuan’s movement mirrored the skunk monster’s earlier dive, except he was even more agile. One swift step, then a leap, and he was shooting straight toward the opening of the snail shell.

Even midair, the aberrant creature saw him. It did not even need to dodge. All it had to do was open its mouth and wait.

That maw yawned like an endless abyss.

He Lingchuan was delivering himself straight into the maw of a frog.

Behind the creature’s head, a man crouched within the shell. The moment he saw what He Lingchuan was holding, he jolted and began frantically pounding on the creature and shouting, “Don’t eat him! Turn! Don’t eat him!”

Unfortunately, the aberrant creature was slow by nature. No matter how the man shouted, its mouth had no time to close.

He Lingchuan plunged in, clutching a black jar.

The lid was already off.

Entering the aberrant creature’s mouth was like stepping into a black hole. Total darkness swallowed him. The only light came from the torch in his hand.

Behind him, the daylight disappeared rapidly as the jaws closed.

At the exact instant the last glimmer of light vanished, He Lingchuan rammed the torch into the black jar with all his strength.

This kind of torch was soaked in special oil, and even heavy rain could not extinguish it.

A deafening explosion erupted, and the snail shell blew apart!

A violent blast of air shot from the open mouth of the shell, along with... other things.

Then came another explosion, and another. There were four explosions in total.

Everyone had instinctively ducked. The blinding flash from within the shell forced their eyes shut, and the explosions rang out one after another.

These were the charges He Lingchuan had planted earlier in the four corners of the herb warehouse, now ignited in a chain reaction.

The shell, once chestnut-red, turned transparent for a split second after the blast. The explosion’s light burst through unobstructed.

Jiao Yu reacted first. Fittingly assuming the role of a tider leading the charge, it sprinted toward the landing point. “Chase!”

Compared to the scale of the explosion and the blinding flash, they had been frighteningly close, yet none of them was knocked over.

In truth, they had only felt a fierce gust and the acrid sting of smoke.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The shell had absorbed most of the blast.

Within moments, they converged at the monster puppet’s crash site.

At Jiao Yu’s command, several constables searched the woods and found two men.

One had lost both legs.

The other had lost everything but his legs.

At the crater itself, the ground had been blasted into a deep pit. Soil radiated outward in a circular spray, evidence of the tremendous impact.

The shell sat at the center.

Strangely, it had not shattered. Its shape was largely intact, though several deep cracks marred its surface.

Its durability was staggering.

Xu Dayou asked Jiao Yu, “Lord, what now?”

Since the brave Lord Envoy had apparently perished, the highest authority present had become the tiger by default.

Before Jiao Yu could answer, a familiar voice sounded from behind, “Get men over here. Drag it out of the pit.”

Xu Dayou turned and felt his scalp prickle.

Walking toward them through the crowd was none other than the He Lingchuan.

He was whole and unharmed, and all of his limbs were intact.

If he’s standing there perfectly fine, then who had just leaped into the aberrant creature’s mouth with a jar of explosives?

Fortunately, Xu Dayou had served for twenty years and seen more than enough strange things. After the initial shock, he steadied himself.

The envoy must possess an extraordinary life-saving divine technique.

“Lord Envoy! Thank heavens you’re safe!”

He Lingchuan, however, was staring into the pit, his face grave. “Hurry and drag it—”

Before he could finish, the shell suddenly moved.

It began sinking again.

General Ling stared wide-eyed. “Wait... what?”

After such a violent explosion detonated directly inside its mouth, it still isn’t dead?

It didn’t look that durable!

More importantly, why had the grappling line gone slack?

He Lingchuan grabbed the rope end and pulled.

It was loose.

The hook had snapped!

It had likely blown apart in the final explosion, broken inside the shell itself.

No matter how masterfully crafted, it still had limits. After being yanked again and again, it had finally reached its breaking point.

General Ling roared and charged into the pit, lowering its horns to ram the other party.

The others jumped in too, trying to flip the shell over.

He Lingchuan even summoned the golden-armored copper man to block its descent.

However, the shell had embedded deeply into the earth when it landed. Its surface was slick and smooth, offering no proper grip, and the grappling hook was gone. There was simply nothing more they could do. They could only watch helplessly as it burrowed underground.

Ten breaths later, the very tip of the shell vanished.

It had successfully escaped.

General Ling churned the mud in fury. “Damn it! Damn it! We were this close!”

“It was burrowing slowly. It should be seriously injured,” He Lingchuan said, regret in his voice. “Besides, we still have spoils of war.”

The spoils of war he was referring to were none other than the two men who had been blasted out of the shell.

One was torn into pieces, and the constables had to gather his remains from all over the woods. At one point, someone even came back holding an eyeball. Still, they could not piece together a complete body.

The other lucky survivor lay unconscious, bleeding profusely.

Though his face was swollen like a pig’s head and covered in blood, He Lingchuan whistled softly, patted General Ling’s shoulder, and said, “Congratulations, the killer’s been caught!”

Xu Dayou and the others immediately cried out, “Wan Song! It’s Wan Song!”

Locals needed only a glance to recognize him. The fugitive murderer Wan Song.

General Ling’s eyes burned with hatred. It lowered its head instinctively, wanting to gore him on the spot.

But with constables watching, and with the man still valuable, it forced itself to stop, pawing furiously at the ground instead. “His life is mine!”

“Easy.” He Lingchuan examined Wan Song. His internal organs were severely damaged. Blood poured from him like a fountain. He was on the brink of death.

Left alone, he would be dead within a quarter of an hour.

Reluctantly, He Lingchuan shoved a life-preserving pill into his mouth and sealed several acupoints in his legs to slow the bleeding. Then he ordered the constables to carry him back to town for a physician to treat him immediately.

And thus ended the battle.

As if by coincidence, the thunderstorm ceased as well. The air was thick with the smell of wet earth.

Humans and monsters had originally been stationed to guard the warehouse, but they had fled in terror during the chaos. Now that the fighting was over, they trickled back in twos and threes.