Chapter 76: The Stomach
Wen Leyang exerted all his strength to shout out a phrase, which he immediately regretted.
He could imagine: Tears streaming down his four grandfathers’ cheeks as they trembled and asked the brothers Bushuo and Buzuo on their return to the Wen clan, “Did Leyang…Leyang leave behind any last words…”
Wen Buzuo wiping his tears away, raised his head and said in a sonorous and forceful voice, “Yes, he did! He said: Help me!”
Just as Wen Leyang pondered about what he should say next, his body jolted and he started tumbling downwards. He could use the Faulty Punch to s.h.i.+ft his muscles in midair and change the direction his body is heading. Yet, he was no bird, he could only try as hard as possible to adjust his body to descend feet first instead of head first. As he was tumbling downwards, he swiftly took out ‘You’ve Got Me’ and held it in his mouth.
The bug could not understand what was happening. It spun around Wen Leyang’s tongue twice and started examining his teeth. It raised one of its steel stings every once in a while and thumped around in between his two front teeth.
Thud.
To Wen Leyang’s surprise, he fell onto a soft and dry place akin to a desert. As his feet touched the ground, his body immediately sank into the ground. Surrounding him was a stretch of extremely fine and light sand. The sand was like air and he had no way to bear his weight on it. As he sank into the ground, the grains of sand immediately started to writhe in a ghastly manner and rapidly rubbed against his body and his clothes. Instantly, Wen Leyang’s thick jeans vanished.
Before Wen Leyang could realise that the fine sand is actually the gastric juice of the sitting toad, his body gave a vigorous s.h.i.+ver as layers and layers of tremendous strength started flowing towards him.
In the darkness, the stretch of blackish-yellow colored fine sand thinned down into trickles of fine sand that were indistinguishable by the naked eyes. The trickles of fine sand surrounded him and rubbed onto his each and every pore, he could feel tremendous pressure emerging from all directions and began wrapping tightly around his body.
The pressure contained strong poison!
This giant frog was an earth-burrowing monster. Hence, its skills and monster power were in fact only of an ordinary level. Other than crus.h.i.+ng a person to death with its weight, it could only use its tongue to hunt for its prey. However, it could still drive a normal-level cultivator to frustration as it was tough, having skin akin to bronze and bones akin to iron, and it had two conjuration abilities, which were it’s burrowing ability and the eye-and-ear s.h.i.+elding ability. The element of earth restricted the element of water. The black sand within the giant frog’s stomach contained a type of domineering poison known as the Poison of Earth, which would be able to rot away one’s soul and corrode through one’s bones. If Wen Xiaoyi was around, she would tell Wen Leyang that there was an account of this in the Life Trademark’s chronicles. Some powerful cultivator from the Wen’s clan once tried to capture this species of monster to use its stomach to refine the Poison of Earth. However, he did not return from his trip. Thus, it was clear that there was a vast difference between the sitting toad and a bullfrog.
Similar to the situation in the courtyard of the Temple of Great Mercy, where Wen Leyang’s few grandfathers were held captive, all the pores on his entire body suddenly went out of control as the strong poison invaded him. It was as if withered leaves receiving raindrops after a long antic.i.p.ation. All his pores rapidly opened up in a soundless cheer!
The Poison of Earth that had nowhere to enter felt like the das.h.i.+ng billows that suddenly found its way out. The poison surged and flowed into Wen Leyang’s every pore!
Wen Leyang’s soul utterly ascended into heaven. Previously, when he absorbed Fourth Elder Wen’s Poison of Wind, even though the poison was also a domineering poison, it was not comparable in terms of both quality and quant.i.ty to the Poison of Earth in the sitting toad’s stomach. Both poisons were of total different intensities.
Heavy!
Wen Leyang could only feel this sensation. As the strong poison surged through his body and entangled itself madly with the Poison of Life and Death in his body, it transformed into an utterly unbearable weight. His bones felt so heavy that it felt as if it was peeling away from his flesh, while his flesh felt so heavy that it was as if it would strip away from his bones and tendons.
Wen Leyang’s body could not move even a little. He could only hear loud crashes and bangs. The darkness before his eyes was eventually covered by the color of blood. He finally understood that, ever since he walked out of the Red Leaves Forest, he had transformed into a huge cup that was used for cupping therapy. As long as his body was invaded by any poison, his body would absorb the poison without a doubt.
Even though Wen Leyang was virtuous and sincere, he was determined to look for his ancestor Wen Lazi after his death to consult him on the theory of this phenomenon of him turning into a cup used for cupping therapy.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. The strong poison contained in the fine sand was rapidly absorbed by Wen Leyang. In a flash, all the stomach sand congealed into a rigid solid ma.s.s. At that moment, his body had sunk into the ground up to his chest. He looked absent-minded as his eyes were left wide open. He was similar to a mud sculpture that sank into the cement. Suddenly, the image of a pressure cooker flashed through his mind…
Meanwhile, the sitting toad was motionless as well due to its indigestion. It sat on the ground without making a move.
At the same instance, all h.e.l.l broke loose in the Miao stockade village.
The skinny lad first muttered some incantations that shortly turned into a pressing curse. Yet, the giant toad was like a mud tire. It maintained its position and would not budge an inch. The wicked witch from the Mo family clenched and grinded her teeth in anxiety. She was preparing to speak when the sound of wind and thunder broke out on top of her head abruptly. The golden small inverted bell that could be seen in the sky eventually turned into a large bell and appeared with a loud bang. A million rays of Buddha’s Light erupted on top of the giant toad’s head. The two wicked person simultaneously cried out in agony as their bodies spun in the air and then slammed hard onto the ground.
The wicked witch gave out a sorrowful cry as she fell to the ground. As her body was still tied up by the Death Trademark’s iron silk wire, her charming figure was slashed into ground meat by the razor-sharp wire. She died tragically on the spot.
The skinny lad fell onto the ground. Fresh blood was spurting madly out of his mouth. He struggled repeatedly to stand up but failed. The fat monk Shui Jing roared in laughter as he kept his treasured weapon and leaped forward to pull the skinny lad up. He stared at the skinny lad with his small eyes as he shouted, “Spit out my brother Wen!”
Ji Fei chimed in from aside, “And return the Taoist elder’s flying sword!”
The skinny lad could only spit out blood at that moment. He glanced at the fat monk reluctantly. There was only helplessness in his expression as he replied, “If Xiu Er can move now, will I still be beaten down by you?”
“Xiu Er?” The fat monk stared at the giant toad before himself and he had gooseb.u.mps all over his body.
The brothers Bushuo and Buzuo could not care about the skinny lad anymore. They bawled and squalled as they leaped before the giant toad and scattered Wen clan’s strong poison towards it. Nonetheless, the toad did not budge. Even as their sharp knives stabbed forward, the toad would not budge. Wen Bushuo cursed in rage. He clenched his dagger horizontally in between his teeth and with agile movements, he clambered up from the side of the giant toad and dashed towards the direction of the toad’s mouth!
The giant toad’s mouth was sealed tightly. No matter how hard the three-inch nail tried, he could not find a seam in between its lips.
Wen Buzuo ran back to the skinny lad and stretched out his arm to give the skinny lad a loud slap. “Spit out Wen Leyang!”
The skinny lad shook his head helplessly but did not speak. Suddenly, he gave out a sharp, shrill cry. A strand of vein, akin to the veins of a withered leaf, rapidly spread outwards on his face. Wherever the ‘leaf vein’ pa.s.ses through, the moisture on that portion of skin drained rapidly. It was visible to the naked eye that his skin was withering. The thickest part of the ‘leaf vein’ was slowly crawling towards the corner of the skinny lad’s eye.
Wen Buzuo really lost his temper this time. He came in last in his Art of Poison skills in the Death Trademark. However, in the eyes of the boundless universe, his skills were still considered unique. While his three-inch nail brother was an expert in the Poison of Water, Wen Buzuo refined in the Poison of Wood: Sulphur.
The skinny lad was in so much pain that he writhed and leaped around desperately, like a catfish with its tail chopped off, in the hands of the fat monk Shui Jing. His forehead was dotted with sweat as big as peas. Nevertheless, he firmly clenched on his teeth and refused to beg for forgiveness.
Suddenly, the fat monk let out a scream. He shook his hands and tossed the skinny lad onto the ground. Wen Buzuo’s ‘Sulphur’ had flowed from the skinny lad’s body onto his hands.
The fat monk stomped his feet while he cursed in rage. “b.a.s.t.a.r.d, can’t you differentiate the good person from the bad, why would you even poison me!”
Wen Buzuo’s expression lost its usual cheekiness. His gaze was more ferocious than a rattlesnake. He stared firmly at the fat monk Shui Jing and said, “Not only do I not give a d.a.m.n. If anything were to happen to Wen Leyang, I will poison your entire family to death and poison every person that know you monks!”
Wen Buzuo appeared surly as he vented all his frustration onto the fat monk.
Ji Fei secretly took a huge step to the side so he could stand further away from the fat monk. He rolled his eyeb.a.l.l.s around for a few times and he ran over to help Ah Dan to take care of Mumu.
The Three-Inch Nail Wen Bushuo could not pry open the toad’s mouth. He leaped back to the ground. Appearing steadier than his brother, he said, “The effort to rescue Wen Leyang still depends on him!” He walked over and patted a few times on the skinny lad’s body. The ferocious-looking ‘Sulphur’ that was spreading in all directions immediately turned lighter and gradually vanished. However, the withered skin and flesh did not recover.
Wen Buzuo took a deep breath and tried to regain his composure. He said to the fat monk, “We will rescue Wen Leyang first. I will definitely get even with you one day!” Whilst saying that he held out his arm and shook the fat monk’s hand. The ‘leaf vein’ that was crawling on the back of the fat monk’s hand immediately curled up, regressed and retracted back into Wen Buzuo’s hand.
On the other side, Ah Dan who was as agitated as an ant on a hot pan suddenly gave out a cheer. Mumu had just woken up. Her beautiful big eyes slowly explored her surroundings. Finally, realising what had happened, she chuckled while she sat up and pointed towards the sitting toad not too far away and asked Ah Dan, “Which one of you had such great capability to tame it?”
Ah Dan stretched out a fingertip and stuffed his finger into his mouth, gesturing in the manner of chewing on a carrot.
Mumu’s eyes were filled with both surprise and joy, “Wen Leyang? Where is he now then?”
Ah Dan stretched out his finger and pointed towards the giant toad, then patted on his stomach, making the crisp sound of ‘pat pat’…