Chapter 223: Chapter 152: Great Snake
"Bullshit! How can you grow new flesh when it’s all frostbitten? You think your flesh is like hair, growing back on command?"
Zheng Xiu snapped. But just as the words left his mouth, his gaze fell to where Ruchen was pointing, and he was instantly stunned!
On the gruesome wounds on Ruchen’s calves, which looked as if they’d been smashed by a blunt object, slivers of blood-red, new flesh were visibly creeping over the bruised, purple areas. If Ruchen hadn’t pointed it out, Zheng Xiu would have thought his legs were rotting and infested with maggots.
As Zheng Xiu stared in astonishment, Ruchen sheepishly rubbed his head and began to explain how his legs were growing back.
He had carried Zheng Xiu on his back, climbing for thirteen days and nights. His boots had been worn through by the rugged mountain path, so he simply continued climbing barefoot.
By the eighth day, his feet were mangled beyond recognition, ruined by frostbite.
When he finally made it to the cave where they had eaten the snake stew, Ruchen looked at his two battered legs. He knew how terrible frostbite was, and with no knife on hand, he had planned to use a rock to brutally smash off his ruined legs to save his life.
But after only two strikes, the pain was unbearable. He couldn’t bring himself to be so ruthless and had to give up, deciding to leave his fate to Heaven and let be what would be.
After settling Zheng Xiu down in the cave, Ruchen waited for him to wake up, all the while waiting for death himself.
Death never came. Instead, just yesterday, he was overjoyed to discover new flesh growing on his necrotic legs. He had exclaimed in delight that frostbitten limbs could actually regrow flesh and was thankful his fear of pain had stopped him from smashing them off.
The reason Ruchen had kept his legs hidden from Zheng Xiu was twofold: first, he didn’t want to worry him, and second, he was ashamed that his fear of pain had stopped him from performing the heroic act of sacrificing his own limbs, so he was too embarrassed to bring it up himself.
After hearing about Ruchen’s leg-smashing ordeal, Zheng Xiu, who had initially been quite moved, was now utterly dumbfounded, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.
He stared at the fresh flesh on Ruchen’s legs, which was clearly wriggling.
’Is this how Humans grow new flesh?’
’Something seems very wrong here!’
Exasperated, Zheng Xiu had a sudden realization a moment later. Ruchen wasn’t a normal Human at all. Perhaps it was because Zheng Xiu had been constantly using one Big Move after another on their journey that Ruchen seemed so unremarkable by comparison. Zheng Xiu had almost forgotten—Ruchen was an Innate Mystic, a Mystic of the [Ascetic Monk] Path!
Perhaps Ruchen, by carrying Zheng Xiu up the mountain and subjecting himself to torment and injury, had unintentionally fulfilled the requirements for advancing on the [Ascetic Monk] Path, causing him to go deeper into the Path without even realizing it.
No wonder Ye Weiyang’s Upper Four was always calling Feng Bei a monster.
Innate Mystics, to a certain extent, were different from ordinary Humans. They were practically monsters.
Zheng Xiu inspected Ruchen’s legs more closely and discovered new flesh growing beneath the dead skin. He gave it a firm rub, and the rotten flesh flaked away like crumbled tofu. One rub, a layer came off. Another rub, and another layer peeled away.
"Brother! Stop! If you keep rubbing, the pain will kill this Little Monk!"
Seeing that the Mighty Man was getting into it, Ruchen wailed and begged for mercy.
HISS—
Just as the two were horsing around, having already finished two pots of snake meat while the third had yet to be cooked, the scent of the stew still lingered throughout the entire cave.
A terrifying tremor suddenly shook the depths of the cave, making Zheng Xiu freeze.
The Monk and the Mighty Man stared at each other.
The Monk asked uncertainly, "An avalanche?"
Zheng Xiu stared straight into the winding, twisting darkness of the bottomless cave.
’For some reason, the more I look at it, the more this cave looks like it was burrowed out by some kind of giant serpent.’
’But... could a snake that big really exist in this world?’
Something soon answered Zheng Xiu’s question.
BOOM!
With a tremendous crash, the stone walls of the cave suddenly cracked open. A black shadow shot out from the depths, kicking up a nauseatingly foul wind and moving with lightning speed.
Two glowing red, vertical pupils shot toward them through the darkness, like a speeding truck.
It was... a ridiculously huge serpent!
"Run!"
Zheng Xiu’s face fell. He grabbed Ruchen by the leg and bolted for the entrance.
「The next second.」
The serpent’s mouth gaped open, swallowing everything in the cave—Zheng Xiu, Ruchen, the bubbling pot of snake stew, the fire, the scroll—devouring it all in one gulp.
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