Its sheer height reached fifteen or sixteen meters, its lower half supported by eight crab legs encased in hard shells. The inner edges of these legs were as sharp as blades, each one scoring deep, several-inch grooves into the ground as it dragged, clearly lethally keen.

The upper torso was that of an impossibly obese woman, her skin a uniform grayish-black, with two massive "coconuts" dangling almost to her navel.

Most bizarre were its great pincers; each bifurcation was the size of a Dongfeng truck's cab, bristling with black, sharp cones, looking as if they could crush a man with casual ease.

No wonder the corpses of Feng Ze and the others we’d seen earlier looked like they’d been put through a meat grinder—this thing was truly terrifying.

After emerging from the earth, the Crab God let out a long, upward-straining roar, sounding utterly frenzied.

In stark contrast, the praying mantis whose front claw had been severed earlier crouched nearby like a frightened puppy, not daring to move, merely trembling.

After its bellow, the Crab God glanced sideways at the mantis, raised a massive crab leg high, and then, with no apparent effort, brought it down with a sharp crack onto the mantis’s head, piercing straight through its body.

Seeing this scene sent a chill down both my and *’s spines.

This creature before us was utterly savage.

My handgun was nearly out of bullets now, and even if they were plentiful, they wouldn't be enough against this thing; I suspected even bringing up a cannon would be useless.

Thankfully, we weren't facing this monster alone.

Just as we were consumed by shock, the young girl beside us let out a sharp cry, shouting, "Go!"

Before we could even turn our heads, a dark shape shot past us, leaping over ten meters high, rushing straight toward the Crab God.

The Crab God let out a screech of "Ah!" as the Kunlong King, significantly smaller than itself, slammed into it, knocking it to the ground.

The fall of such a colossal monster sent up a massive plume of dust that nearly unbalanced both * and me.

The girl in white then said from the side, "Quickly! The Kunlong King won't hold out long. You two go save that fatty!"

She said this without any intention of following us, instead continuing to shake the delicate silver bell in her hand as she walked toward the square, arched doorway.

Though we didn't know her purpose, * and I had no time to worry about that now. We skirted the edge of the two battling monsters and spotted Da Xiong lying prone not far away on the ground.

A cold dread gripped * and me; we feared he might be dead.

But as we rushed over, Da Xiong suddenly sat up from the ground.

We hurried to help him up, demanding to know how he was.

Da Xiong’s face was practically crumpled into a bun shape; touching his stomach, he mumbled, "I don't know! That damned Yun Shousi injected me in the stomach and then ran, saying the ritual had reached its final moments!"

Before we could ask anything else, Da Xiong scrambled up from the ground, urging, "Forget that! We have to hurry and stop the old man..."

With that, he pushed and shoved us forward.

and I couldn't stop him, so we could only follow him as we sprinted toward the depths of the plaza.

Da Xiong was clearly unwell and trailed behind.

I looked back and asked him, "Are you really okay? Does anything feel wrong?"

Da Xiong shook his head, clutching his stomach and saying nothing.

turned back too, asking him, "Are you feeling feverish or thirsty, needing water or anything?"

Da Xiong shook his head again, his face so tightly wrinkled it looked like a mess, sporting an expression of impatience.

Seeing his look, I said to *, "Something isn't right. What if the injection was designed to turn him into a meat bun?"

shot me a look, clearly chiding me for having the energy to joke at a time like this.

I insisted that I was actually serious, feeling quite wronged.

was momentarily speechless, then seemed to ponder—if Mu Yun could invent a crab monster, perhaps turning someone into a bun held a certain degree of plausibility—and turned back to ask Da Xiong, "When you breathe out, do you smell anything like steamed bun filling?"

Da Xiong was almost frantic by now, opening his mouth to curse.

But before he could speak, his eyeballs suddenly rolled back, and he pitched forward onto the ground in a spectacular face-plant.

and I were startled and quickly stopped to help him.

It took us Herculean effort to turn Da Xiong, who was sprawled on the ground.

Then we saw that his face wasn't wrinkled like a bun; instead, every vein on his face had bulged, making him look covered in extra wrinkles in the darkness—it was horrifying.

"No, those aren't just bulging veins. Look at the color of those veins—they're green!" pointed toward Da Xiong's face.

I looked, and indeed, as he said, the veins were as thick as caterpillars, writhing incessantly, seeming desperate to bore their way out of Da Xiong's skin.

Seeing this, my heart plummeted. Tears streamed down my face instantly, and I choked out, "Fatty, how do you feel?"

Da Xiong gritted his teeth, sweat pouring from the pain, his hand still clutching his stomach, spitting out intermittently, "My stomach... is going... to explode... Get... get away."

As he said this, we realized his stomach, already distended like a drum, had doubled in size again.

His stretched skin now showed stretch marks, like those of a pregnant woman, looking ready to burst with the prick of a needle.

I admit, my legs went weak; I was close to wetting myself.

My dearest brother, Da Xiong, even though he had tricked me before, if he truly died now, I would never recover in this lifetime.

Seeing my face turn deathly pale, * nudged me and shone his flashlight onto Da Xiong's stomach, saying, "Look quickly! He's probably not dead yet, the spikes are starting to grow—it's a mutation."

I wiped my tears and looked at his abdomen. I saw a single green spike slowly emerging from his skin, and then other points began to push out needles, all green, growing longer and longer.

But unlike my own experience, every spike that emerged from Da Xiong's belly caused the surrounding skin to ooze thick amounts of blood.

I finally understood and had to clamp a hand over my mouth, feeling dizzy, nearly gasping for breath.

saw my distressed expression and quickly pulled me back, asking what was wrong.

When I turned to him, * jumped back in fright.

I knew my eyes must have been bloodshot from sheer grief, making my complexion look horrifying.

"It's too tragic... this... too tragic..." My tears flowed down my face. After a few choked moments, I managed to tell *, "Do you remember the statue we saw in the underground forest? The one of the pregnant woman with spikes growing from her stomach..."

Upon hearing this, *’s entire face dropped, and he pointed at Da Xiong’s stomach, saying, "Are you saying that kind of green-spiked Ghost Realm is trying to break out of Da Xiong's belly?"

I didn't answer * because Da Xiong was intermittently crying out, "Quickly... get me... peanuts... I can't—"

I understood what Da Xiong meant: he wanted us to put him out of his misery with a bullet.

Looking at his agonizing state, I closed my eyes, telling *, "Shoot him! Shoot this damned fatty!"

"Wait!" Just then, the girl's voice suddenly drifted from a distance.

We turned back to see a dark shape hopping and bounding toward us from the way we came.

A few seconds later, a gigantic toad landed heavily beside us with a massive leap.

After a cloud of dust settled, the girl in white climbed down from the Kunlong King; a green snake was coiled around her wrist.

"This is!" Looking at the green snake in the girl's hand, I felt it was utterly unbelievable.

The girl shook her head helplessly, saying, "Now is not the time for explanations! Saving him is what matters!"

The reason I was so shocked was that I had seen the green snake coiled on the girl's wrist before.

Its three eyes on its head were utterly unique in the world.

Yes, this was the Azure Serpent Witness, a Gu worm from the ancient Miao Jiang sorcery, tamed by my cousin.

This meant the girl before me was none other than my cousin, Nie Qilan.

Although I suspected this was the case, I still couldn't quite accept that this girl was my cousin.

Because judging by her speech, mannerisms, and her ability to control stick figures, headless warriors, and the Kunlong King, this was definitely the work of a master of Gu arts.

And while my cousin was the daughter of a Miao witch, she was still young and spent most of her time in school—how could she have learned these Gu techniques?

Although I didn't know much about sorcery, my second aunt had told me that to form such a close bond with a king-level Gu worm like the Kunlong King required keeping it constantly by one's side, nurturing it slowly over more than a decade...