The Qi Family Gang (30)

Nan Yue's head throbbed as a loud buzzing echoed in her mind, and for a brief moment, she saw stars.

The blisters on her body instantly swelled to the size of eggs, pulsing translucently, while the small black dots in their centers seemed desperate to burst through.

She could feel her entire body boiling.

Or rather, the fish eggs inside her were boiling.

But soon, a faint black mist surged from her body, swirling around to envelop her.

She maintained her sanity, but she lost her hearing, and her vision grew dim, leaving only a faint speck of color to guide her direction.

That was Zhu Xi Ning's eye.

If not for Gu Xiang Kai's iron thorns pulling her back, the mere pressure from the water being sucked into the creature's open maw would have swallowed Nan Yue whole.

On the shore, Gu Xiang Kai's expression shifted as he was yanked toward the deep pool.

He twisted his waist, planted his feet firmly, and let out a fierce roar, just barely stabilizing himself.

In the next moment, two pairs of hands grabbed him. Zhu Xi Ning's collar was drenched in the blood from her gouged eye, which had blended into her crimson opera gown.

She and Jiang Siyan said nothing, both of them gripping the iron thorns with everything they had.

In this moment of crisis, Gu Xiang Kai had no energy to ensure the iron thorns didn't harm them; their hands were already shredded and bloodied.

But they seemed unable to feel the pain, and not a single person relaxed for even a second.

Thanks to the persistence of the three on the shore, Nan Yue managed to avoid being consumed by the torrent. The tongue-like fleshy strips grew longer and longer, twisting together in a dense mass as they reached for her.

Nan Yue could not see any of this; it felt as though she were back in the process of being slowly devoured by pollution.

But this time was different. She didn't feel the suffocating pressure or smell the nauseating rot.

She could perceive nothing, as if wrapped in a void of absolute darkness.

There were only two faint glimmers of light before her, emitting a weak red glow.

Normally, the moment a person loses their five senses, they lose their balance, and the fear in their heart triggers a physiological reaction.

However, Nan Yue suppressed her body's response with incredible willpower. She used her black mist to wrap the King’s Coin and struck it into the monster's gaping maw.

Nan Yue was completely blind now; Zhu Xi Ning's eye had been consumed by the pollution within her own body, so she had struck with the King’s Coin based purely on instinct.

Yet, with her level of control, she was certain she had lodged the King’s Coin deep into the monster's body.

The sensation of her body being about to burst like a water balloon began to fade until it vanished entirely.

The previously bulging skin on her arms smoothed out as the transformation within her body stopped.

Even the thick, jelly-like liquid surrounding her gradually turned back into the cold water of the pool.

She was semi-conscious. Having jumped into the deep pool for nearly three minutes and suffered a mental shock, she could no longer hold on.

In her daze, she felt herself floating toward the surface, moving fast and sudden.

Soon, she felt something like a warm mist envelop her. She coughed up a few mouthfuls of water and finally regained her breath.

"A-Nan!"

"A-Nan!"

Anxious voices grew from faint to loud, finally exploding in her ears.

She felt someone holding her, leaning against a warm and broad chest.

A soft hand gripped hers.

She could hear it.

She could feel it.

Finally, she could see it.

The three of them looked miserable. Seeing Nan Yue recover, Gu Xiang Kai let out a long sigh of relief, his body swaying before he sank to his knees on the ground.

Zhu Xi Ning's face was covered in blood, and the bloody socket in her eye was terrifying.

The person behind her seemed to bury his head into the crook of her neck, which felt warm and wet.

"It's okay. It's over now."

"Thanks for pulling me out. Otherwise, I would have drowned."

Nan Yue tried to make a joke, but hearing those words, the other three reacted as if they were suffering from trauma. Zhu Xi Ning almost crushed her hand.

As for Jiang Siyan, Nan Yue had no doubt that if she hadn't come up, he would have jumped in himself and chased after her even into that disgusting fleshy maw.

She patted Zhu Xi Ning's hand; the blisters on it were gradually shrinking.

She looked up at the sky and, for the first time since entering the mission, saw sunlight breaking through the clouds.

"The rain has stopped," Nan Yue murmured.

Gu Xiang Kai looked as if he had aged several years. "Yeah. It's almost over."

Zhu Xi Ning's eye couldn't be healed here; she would have to wait until they left this world to recover it.

Nan Yue's injuries from the mental shock, however, healed quickly.

Still, the four of them looked exceptionally battered.

By the time they returned to the village, the members of the Qi Family Gang had already left the stilt houses.

They were jumping and dancing in disbelief, singing and celebrating.

The blisters on their bodies had almost entirely disappeared, leaving no trace of their previous horrific appearance.

Having survived such a desperate situation, no one could believe their luck.

"A-Nan!"

"A-Nan and the others are back!"

The horsemen of the Qi Family Gang even pushed Jiang Haoyu and the others aside to surround Nan Yue's group.

"A-Nan, you guys are incredible!"

"Shaman Zhu, is your eye okay?"

"What did you encounter? What exactly was in that deep pool?"

"Dammit! A-Nan and the others are exhausted, and you're still crowding them! Don't you know our saviors need to rest?"

Headman Qi let out a fierce roar, causing the chattering horsemen to turn red with embarrassment and clear a path.

Headman Qi strode forward, showing no signs of the weakness he had felt after having the object removed from his chest earlier.

"Hahaha, good! You really saved everyone! Good!"

"That strike of mine wasn't for nothing."

"Rest for a bit, and then we'll move out."

Headman Qi turned to look around. The water in the rainforest was slowly receding. It wouldn't be long before they could leave this nightmare behind.

Nan Yue looked at Headman Qi. "Let's go. We don't need to rest."

Her voice was light and somewhat low. "I'm sure you all want to leave this place as soon as possible."

Headman Qi smiled. His suggestion to wait was for the sake of Nan Yue's group, but in truth, everyone had been dying to leave this hellhole.

"Pack your things! Move out!"

Following the headman's command, everyone joyfully went to pack what little they had left in the stilt houses, mostly just bedrolls and straw mats.

The vast majority of their equipment had been on the horses.

With the horses lost in the pool, they would have to walk out on their own two feet.

But no one complained. They had all escaped with their lives, and their faces were bright with smiles.

Nan Yue saw the horsemen carefully rolling up the remains of their companions, who had been reduced to nothing but human skin, in straw mats.

"Old partner, once we're out, I'll set up a grave for you and come back to share a drink!"

Their brothers had died in the Barren Mountain wilderness; naturally, the others would carry them out.

The group looked disheveled, their clothes filthy and torn, looking like beggars.

But everyone was singing and dancing as if it were the New Year.

Nan Yue's group walked at the very back. Since Zhu Xi Ning was missing an eye, Nan Yue stayed by her side the entire time.

"Zhu... Zhu Xi Ning, are you all right?"

Jiang Haoyu squeezed past Chi Yu and Yin Qian to check on Zhu Xi Ning.

She seemed to be in a lot of pain, as she spoke very little. She didn't look at them with her usual gentleness; instead, her gaze was somewhat cold.