Chapter 562 - 357: Farmed Humans (Part 2)

Chapter 562: Chapter 357: Farmed Humans (Part 2)

At the end of the stairs was a closed, black iron door.

He walked up and pressed a protrusion on the edge of the door.

GRIND—

The iron door slid open to both sides.

A foul stench—a mix of blood, acrid piss, and various other indescribable, putrid smells—wafted out on a faint breeze, washing over them.

The extreme stench made the four of them instinctively cover their mouths and noses.

The Insect Master, seemingly long accustomed to it, descended slowly with his hands behind his back.

They passed through a narrow, oppressive, winding stone staircase, descending over a hundred steps before a space opened up below, one that was nearly a thousand square meters in size.

The entire space was incredibly dim. A single passageway ran down the middle, flanked on both sides by small prison cells partitioned by stone and wooden bars. A few glowing ore deposits on the walls flickered with faint light.

CREAK—

A wooden door was pushed open, and the two human youths were carelessly thrown inside.

Then, the surroundings plunged into a desperate darkness, filled with pairs of eyes that glinted with an uncanny light from all corners of the cell.

After the Insect Master left, the prison fell silent.

Time passed quietly.

Suddenly, a heavy breathing sound broke the pitch-black silence.

Along with the ragged breaths, the loud sounds of colliding limbs rose and fell.

"No, please don’t!!"

At the same time, a woman’s anguished wails echoed through the dark.

Hearing this chaotic mix of sounds, the two boys couldn’t help but exchange a glance and look toward the source.

But the scene unfolding before them made their faces freeze.

Two figures, one large and one small, sometimes merged, sometimes separated, their movements accompanied by heavy, pained grunts that reached the boys’ ears.

The two of them vaguely understood what was happening up ahead.

Fifteen minutes later, the commotion gradually subsided, but a faint female voice continued to echo throughout the prison.

"Help... help..."

They both had human forms.

One was a male-looking figure, completely naked. Its sallow yellow skin was covered in fist-sized, dark-brown pustules. Its cheeks were rotted beyond recognition, and its eyes were nothing but a pair of pitch-black holes.

The ends of its limbs were not human fingers, but insect-like appendages.

Below its waist, a blood-streaked object, jutting skyward, was particularly conspicuous.

The other was a... woman.

The woman’s figure was obese, her sagging fat spilling like liquid as she lay on her back on the filthy ground, her face a mask of agony.

Beneath her, foul-smelling filth pooled.

Most of her body was identical to a human’s, except for her cheeks, from which dense masses of white worms were crawling in and out.

"Save me, save me..."

The woman’s eyes were slightly open, and two streams of clear tears trickled down her obese cheeks.

Even as she wept, sobbing and whimpering, her trembling hands—as plump as pig’s trotters—unstoppably reached for the fist-sized Insect Eggs beside her.

It was clear she was trying to resist, but her body’s instincts were stronger, compelling her to pick up an Insect Egg, open her mouth wide, and ravenously devour the unknown egg, which reeked of a thick, fishy stench.

Below her waist, a foul mixture of white and red fluids dripped and flowed, yet even that couldn’t stop her voracious desire to eat.

"This..."

When the two boys saw this, they couldn’t help but gasp and cover their faces, trying to suppress the shock rising in their hearts.

He could clearly see human sadness, pain, and despair in the woman’s eyes.

"Are they... people... or insects?" one of them asked, his voice trembling.

No one answered him.

Before the two boys could figure out what was going on, a skin-crawling rustling sound echoed from the darkness once more.

At the end of the passageway, an ugly, human-height creature with a human face and a centipede’s body scuttled forward on hundreds of legs, slowly making its way to the boys’ cell.

It stared at the two violently trembling boys, let out a soft chuckle, and reached out with a sharp appendage to flick the switch on the wooden door.

CLICK—

The door opened.

The centipede monster whipped its long tail and crawled into the cell.

Feeling the rush of air getting closer, the boy squeezed his eyes shut and roared in a trembling, tear-choked voice, "Ah Ming, it’s all my fault! I shouldn’t have suggested we travel to Shan State... If we hadn’t gone, this never would have happened..."

"Mmph... mmph..."

The only reply was a pained whimper.

He couldn’t help but open his eyes.

His companion had, at some point, been grabbed by the jaw by the centipede monster, his face forced upward.

Thumb-sized Insect Eggs were being forcibly shoved into his companion’s mouth.

"...Mmph."

The boy called Ah Ming had his pupils involuntarily dilate, his bloodshot eyes shimmering with despair.

Two streams of clear tears slowly trickled from the corners of his eyes.

He stared at his friend, his face a mask of despair, his throat bobbing uncontrollably.

Seeing this, the boy’s sanity finally snapped. He charged wildly at the centipede monster that was force-feeding his friend, repeatedly trying to ram it with his body.

However, it was all useless.

The creature merely scoffed, then casually swatted him away.

THUD!

He flew backward like a broken kite, slammed hard against the wall, and fell heavily to the ground.

The boy spat out a mouthful of blood and roared at the ceiling like a madman:

"Somebody save us!"

"System! Panel! Appear, damn it!!"

The moment his voice fell,

a flash of blood-red light suddenly streaked through the dim dungeon.

SPLT!!

The blood-red light sliced through the darkness.

In an instant, the centipede monster that had been force-feeding Ah Ming was reduced to a pile of severed limbs, silenced forever.

A chubby, winged silkworm suddenly appeared, hovering in front of the boy.

The boy’s eyes widened. He stared at the silkworm in disbelief, his voice trembling. "Are... are you my Goldfinger?"

"Gumi?"

The All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm tilted its head.

’Goldfinger?’

’I think I’ve heard that somewhere before.’

’Isn’t that the thing Egg Pancake Gege is always messing with on his tablet?’

’Whatever. I should save this little guy first.’

It puffed up its cheeks and spat forward.

An endless stream of silk shot out, wrapping around the two boys’ bodies and flying them outside.

"Brother Silkworm, Brother Silkworm! I have other companions nearby, can you save them?"

The boy, with only his head sticking out of the silk cocoon, looked pleadingly at the All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm.

"Gu?"

The All-Encompassing Spiritual Silkworm waved its short claws, pointing to the surroundings as if to ask, ’Are you talking about them?’

The boy followed its gesture and looked.

Under the crimson glow, a dilapidated complex of buildings was revealed, littered with the stinking corpses of Insect-man monsters.

Dozens of silkworms, identical to the fat one before him, were flying in from all directions. Beneath each of them, wrapped in silk, were one or more humans who looked just like him!

The dense swarm of chubby silkworms converged in midair, forming a spectacular, crimson sea of silk.

"This... is incredible... Who in the world saved us? Are they the enemies of these monsters?"

The boy’s pupils dilated as he stared blankly at the sky filled with red light and silkworm silhouettes.

Filled with intense curiosity, he watched as the swarm of silkworms carried them through one narrow crack after another.

Whenever they encountered ferocious-looking, insect-faced monsters blocking their path, the fat silkworms would simply spit out a few strands of what looked like red silk, piercing straight through the enemies.

After a series of alternating light and dark flashes...

The familiar language of Xia Country suddenly reached his ears.

Hearing his familiar mother tongue, the boy couldn’t help but look toward the source of the sound.

He then saw a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

A young man with the features of someone from Xia Country stood atop a ferocious, imposing, crimson Giant Dragon. Starlight swirled around his body, making him look like a god.

...

「At the entrance to the Fragment Continent.」

"Hm? They’re here."

Han Ning, who was talking with Bobo Man, lifted his gaze slightly.

From the dense network of cracks covering the rock walls on both sides, one chubby, adorable-looking silkworm after another suddenly emerged.

In front of Han Ning, they wove a large, soft net out of blood-red silk.

One by one, human-shaped figures, tightly wrapped in silk, were placed onto the large net.