Chapter 439 — Dying in Another's Stead
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 2 of 4
" Shen Mu stood before the Heaven-Bearing Gate, continuing to borrow the power of the flood dragons and the Flood-Dragon King God to sustain the Soul-Drawing Pull, and said, "Rest easy, Grandfather Alchemist. I can hold out for days and nights yet!
" "It will not take that long. " The Alchemist brought out a honeycomb and said, "First I shall use soul-gnawing worms to join the mortal bodies to the primordial spirits; then I shall use poison to nourish the bodies, and the poison shall sever the spirits' ties to Fengdu and Youdu; then I shall raise substitute-life worms to die in our place.
" He tossed up the honeycomb, and it floated in the air and swiftly grew.
In each cell lay eggs of every size and seeds of every strangest kind; the worms within the milk-white eggs were all unlike one another. The Alchemist swiftly cultivated poisons and refined medicines, made the others swallow the worm eggs one by one, his techniques shifting beyond all prediction, slapping them upon the people's bodies — and once more the sound of heartbeats rose from within them. The Alchemist then swiftly covered every part of their bodies with silver needles.
The Deaf Elder eyed the worm eggs with some dread, and the Alchemist pinched his jaw and shoved them down into his belly.
The Deaf Elder's face went ashen.
The Alchemist swiftly dug pits and planted several seeds. After a moment the seeds sprouted, and from beneath the ground grew great swollen flower buds.
The great flowers spun, their petals unfurling as they turned outward.
"Everyone, into the flowers! " The others entered the flowers, and the Lame Elder said, "Quack doctor, what is this flower of yours?
It feels fleshy to the touch. " The Alchemist's face was frantic as he said, "These are no flowers — they are substitute worms. Do not move; let the substitute worms swallow you.
" "Substitute worms? " The others were briefly startled; then the great flowers suddenly contracted, their petals closing, wrapping the people within the flower chambers, binding them tight. Those flowers were indeed no flowers but a kind of uncanny worm. After swallowing the people, the buds began to twist and change, and little by little grew heads, limbs and bodies, in the very likeness of each of them.
Shen Mu and the others were stunned. The men those worms became were in no way different from the Kun King, the Alchemist and the rest — but what was uncanny was that these worms somehow bore the Alchemist's, the Kun King's and the others' auras, and even simulated their souls and primordial spirits, so nearly identical that none could tell the slightest difference!
More uncanny still, the bodies of "the Alchemist" and the rest aged at a flying pace: in an instant their hair was white, in the blink of an eye they passed from middle age to old age, and from old age into death. After a moment, "the Alchemist" and the others, one after another, exhausted their allotted years, fell to the ground and died, their breath gone, leaving only corpses upon the ground.
Shen Mu dispersed the Soul-Drawing Pull. Strange auras came surging from no one knew where; deep in time and space the darkness churned, and then lights kindled in the dark. A paper boat drifted near, and beneath its lantern an old man rose to his feet, took up his lantern and shone it over the corpses of "the Alchemist" and the others. From those corpses drifted their "souls", seemingly without any consciousness, woodenly following the old man's lamplight onto the paper boat. The paper boat turned about; the old underworld courier hung up the lantern; the boat sailed into the darkness, and the strange auras vanished. "Good — the underworld courier has been fooled!
" The Alchemist's voice came suddenly from beneath the ground; then the earth swelled and up out of it burst fleshy worm sacs, and from them the Alchemist, the Lame Elder and the others crawled out, their bodies slick with sticky fluid.