Heavenly Calamity — The Belly of the Earth Dragon
1,226 words
Amidst the chaotic battlefield, as Li Huowang struggled to understand what the freed Dragon Vein intended to do, he saw it shout frantically at the surrounding melee.
"Run! All of you, run! This is a trap! The Fa Sect used the Dragon Vein as bait to catch you all in one net!"
As the words fell, a deafening, earth-shaking roar came from nowhere, and the ground began to tremble violently.
The clearing in the center of Cloud Marsh shook the most intensely. The entire fortress—or rather, the entire ground—seemed to come alive.
Destroying the Dragon Vein had been a ruse all along. The Fa Sect hadn't just wanted to destroy the Dragon Vein; they had wanted to use its destruction as a pretext to wipe out the Supervisory Heavenly Office in one fell swoop!
And then, the sky suddenly went dark. The Heavenly Calamity had arrived.
When Li Huowang felt a gaze from the heavens lock onto him, a cold bead of sweat slid down his cheek. He knew they were in deep trouble.
He had assumed that no matter how many experts the Fa Sect sent, they would be no match for the three Siming-level officials and the top masters of the Supervisory Heavenly Office.
Even if there was an ambush, he still thought he could extract himself and Miao Miao without issue. But no one had anticipated that Yuer Shen would take direct action!!
This wasn't a Fa Sect conspiracy. This was Yuer Shen's scheme! He would stop at nothing to remove the obstacles to his descent.
Li Huowang knew that Yuer Shen still couldn't descend yet... but that didn't mean the entity couldn't make other moves. If it was personally setting an ambush, then what followed would be nothing but huge trouble.
"Go! Miao Miao, get back!" Peng Longteng suddenly appeared beside Li Huowang and, with one hand, hurled him towards the distant marsh.
A bone-chilling crane cry echoed from the far sky. The dry ground of Cloud Marsh trembled even more violently.
Suddenly, stone-pillar-like fangs rose from the surrounding mud, blocking Li Huowang's path mid-air. Before he could change direction, giant spikes erupted around the entire fortress.
These spikes interlocked. With a violent tremor, they snapped shut. A mouth the size of a mountain directly swallowed the fortress at the center of Cloud Marsh.
As everything plunged into darkness, the chaos around them instantly fell silent.
Then Xuanpin raised a hand, dragging a miniature sun into existence to illuminate their surroundings. The crowd erupted. Both sides of the battle forgot their fight, scattering in all directions.
The panic on their faces was unmistakable. Clearly, the Fa Sect's own people hadn't been told this was a trap.
With things already at this point, Li Huowang could only force himself to stay calm. He walked over to Xuanpin and asked, "What method did Yuer Shen use? What are we in the belly of now?"
Xuanpin answered succinctly. "An Earth Dragon."
"What? Earth Dragons are real?" Li Huowang's pupils shrank to pinpricks. He had always assumed that 'the Earth Dragon turning over' was just a folk name for an earthquake. He never imagined the thing was actually real!
The dim surroundings began to tremble slowly. Clearly, the Earth Dragon had started to burrow into the earth, sinking deeper and deeper. If they didn't find a way out soon, they never would!
With that thought, Li Huowang immediately turned and strode towards the wall, intending to dig a hole out of this so-called Earth Dragon, even if he had to tear it open.
He quickly reached the edge and pressed his hand against the iron-hard wall. The wall began to soften under his control, melting into a large gap.
It was hard, but malleable. Just as he was about to continue, something unexpected happened. He felt an itch on his body. Reaching into the wound on his abdomen, he pulled out a few wriggling green worms.
Staring at them, Li Huowang suddenly remembered the human statues he had seen in Cloud Marsh.
"Dad, there are so many worms in your belly! And more are coming. I'll throw them all out."
Li Sui's tentacles kept flicking the worms away from Li Huowang's stomach. But when he saw worms squirming just beneath the smooth surface of her tentacles' skin, his heart dropped.
The Earth Dragon was digesting them. Not just the people—it was digesting Li Sui too.
And what made his expression turn even uglier was that this digestion wasn't happening solely inside their bodies. It was happening on the outside as well.
"Aaahh!" Lyu Xiucai's scream rang out. When Li Huowang turned, he saw various twisted entities wrapped in black smoke pouring out of the man's own shadow.
Inside this Earth Dragon's belly, everyone's shadow had become a door that could not be closed, endlessly summoning all kinds of evil spirits.
These entities were not particularly strong—about the level of the Wandering Lord—but they were infinite in number. No matter how many were killed, more kept coming.
"Xuanpin! Do something!" Li Huowang shouted at the Great Liang Siming beside him.
"I'm sorry, but I can't. I had already escaped before the Earth Dragon even opened its mouth. The one beside you is just my illusion." As he spoke, Xuanpin's body began to dissolve.
"What did you say!?" Li Huowang stared at him in disbelief.
"A wily rabbit has three burrows. Since I came to Hou Shu to rescue the Dragon Vein, I naturally prepared contingencies. What, don't tell me you didn't leave a back-up plan?"
Li Huowang shoved his hand deep into his own belly and pulled out a palm-sized piece of human skin that no one else had noticed, gritting his teeth. Of course he had prepared a contingency.
While traveling, he had secretly peeled off two layers of his own skin and made two life-preserving talismanic artifacts—one for himself, one for Miao Miao. But his back-up was utterly useless in this situation!!
He swept his gaze around rapidly. He saw that besides Xuanpin, the Hou Shu Heavenly Office's altar master had also fled. Many others had gotten out too.
The only small mercy was that the Siqi Siming, Zheng Boqiao, hadn't managed to escape. His face was ashen as he stared at his surroundings, seemingly calculating something. The back-up he had prepared apparently hadn't worked either.
"No matter. Wait a moment. The me on the outside is definitely thinking of a way to get you out. Don't doubt that I would abandon you. The two Dragon Veins are still in here, after all."
"Wait?! Do you think we have time for that?!" Li Huowang slashed an incoming entity away with his sword, pointing at the chaos around him.
In that brief span, the endless stream of evil spirits had already made their surroundings crowded. Several of the weaker cultivators had already fallen to the internal worms and the onslaught of entities. The situation had become critical.
"Don't panic. The me outside will figure something out. Besides, you won't die so easily." With those final words, Xuanpin's body completely melted away.
Just then, Li Sui's voice rang out in Li Huowang's mind. For the first time, her voice carried fear and terror.
"Dad... there are so many worms in my belly too. They're eating my flesh. Dad... am I going to die?"