Chapter 14: Father
historical
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
It seemed like an eternity had passed from the moment Dayan screamed and Tiesi got his arm chopped off, but in reality, it happened within twenty to thirty seconds.
Hearing Tiesi’s warning, Third Brother woke up from feeling lost. The calmness on his face had long vanished as he looked at Dayan’s bloody corpse in the old house’s courtyard and the continuously struggling huge centipede that was tied together with the broken arm. He let out an odd scream and ran toward the entrance in a panic.
At that moment, the man with the face filled with paint, who had shown extreme unease since he entered Zhang family’s old house, got ahold of Third Brother. His expression was distorted as he clenched his teeth and said, “We can’t leave, this is witchcraft. If we don’t kill the person who cast the spell, we won’t be able to escape death no matter where we go in the world.”
“The Zhang family’s kid is just at the stove, the only way to end this is by killing him.”
“You’re crazy. Let go of me, let go. If you don’t let go of me, I’ll kill your entire family if I get out of here.”
“You’ve grown this old and you’ve been to different places. Where have you ever seen or heard of such a venomous worm?!”
“A worm that drills into human flesh, that’s bullet-proof and has black smoke coming out of its body. That’s a wizard worm. It’s witchcraft and it won’t stop until you’re dead. You won’t be able to live more than three days if you don’t kill the Zhang family’s kid.”
Third Brother was stunned when he heard that. He stopped his attempts to get away from him and looked at the huge centipede that he had only seen in sci-fi movies. His eyes unconsciously switched their focus to the empty kitchen on the south of the old house courtyard.
Tiesi, whose face was pale with from the bruises that he had sustained, had made his way to the outside of the kitchen within a few steps. He began kicking the door hard, alternating between both legs.
Third Brother’s facial expression changed when he saw that. He clenched his teeth as he hesitantly pulled the man with paint all over his face toward him and said, “No wonder you said nobody would care regardless of what we’re doing in this old house.”
“So this is no doubt a freaking living ghost house.” He then rushed toward the old house’s kitchen with him.
All of the doors in Zhang family’s old house were very firm. Even so, they were still just made from crude wood after all. The latches soon came loose, and the surface of the door began to crack and give way as the three men kicked and smashed the kitchen door desperately.
In the kitchen, Zhang Lisheng, who had driven the wizard worm to kill a person and chop off the arm from the intruder that seemed to be the strongest, saw cracks appearing on the wooden door that was guarding him. He moved all the pots and pans, wooden cabinets, and wooden frames to block the door from behind.
While doing so, he did not stop chanting as he attempted to drive Qing Hong away from the thin metal thread that he was still stuck in.
In the heat of the moment, he did not notice that the extremely negative emotions of fear, despair, and unknown hatred emanating from the three men outside of the door had become a kind of catalyst. Each time he chanted a passage of incantation, there would be the slightest hint of wizard power added into his flesh.
Although the increase was extremely small, many a little makes a mickle. As time went by, he had obtained the amount that was equivalent to a couple months of diligent cultivation without him realizing it.
Outside the kitchen door, Tiesi kicked the door with all his strength. Finally, with a final ‘dong’ sound, he managed to kick a big hole in the wooden door.
With that damage, soon, the kitchen door fell apart.
After they removed the obstacles, the three intruders fiercely kicked the pots and pans under their feet and dashed into the old house’s kitchen. However, they saw nothing and no one around them.
“The target has escaped from the window,” Tiesi said loudly. As they looked around in the dark, Tiesi, who was the calmest, had noticed the moonlight that was shining through the little window in the kitchen.
The tiny window was definitely inaccessible for adults, but it was no problem at all for a young man who was extraordinarily skinny and less than 160 centimeters tall to go in and out.
Indeed, Zhang Lisheng took a risk by opening the window and climbing out of the kitchen at the same time when the intruders broke the door and entered the kitchen.
Without hesitation, after leaping into the courtyard, he dashed toward the wizard worm that was stuck in the metal thread and spat two mouthfuls of blood in quick succession. He did not care about anyone else. All he wanted was to feed Qing Hong.
He then picked up the broken arm that was tied together with the wizard worm and began to tear it apart with all his strength. He did not bother about the flesh that was spurting everywhere.
Just as Zhang Lisheng attempted to release the wizard worm, the intruders ran out of the kitchen.
Under the moonlight, the young man that was tearing the arm apart, with blood all over his face, looked like the devil eating a raw human limb. Third Brother felt a numbness in his scalp. The madness that was caused by his fear and anger faded without him realizing it.
He pointed at Zhang Lisheng and shouted loudly, “The target is in the courtyard, it’s really him who did all these.”
“Tiesi quick, quickly kill him.” However, he did not approach further as he was shuddering slightly.
In reality, even without Third Brother’s instruction, Tiesi would have done that anyway. He had already begun to dash toward Zhang Lisheng after getting out of the kitchen. However, despite his best efforts, the wizard worm’s venom had spread to other parts of his body completely, although he had chopped off his arm to survive.
The strenuous activities had caused the venom to slowly attack him, and his speed, strength, and accuracy began to deteriorate.
Even so, Zhang Lisheng was still in extreme danger as Tiesi got closer to him. The difference between a skinny junior high student and an ex-special force, a professional and a violent criminal. These could not be made up with a healthy body and an extra arm.
Zhang Lisheng repeated his trick earlier with the jar of soup. He tossed the broken arm together with the wizard worm at Tiesi to fight for the opportunity to escape.
Knowing that he did not have much time left, Tiesi did not choose to dodge but to meet his broken arm that was hurtling toward him, tied together with the wizard worm, of which part of its head was already free of the thin metal thread’s bondage. He swung his switchblade hard toward Zhang Lisheng.
The tip of his switchblade reflected the moonlight and came down before Zhang Lisheng’s eyes like a slash of white light. A couple strands of black hair fell from the top of his head. If he had not stumbled from Dayan’s thick and slippery fresh blood under his feet when he was backing off, perhaps his head might have been slashed in half.
A blowing whistle was heard faintly in Zhang Lisheng’s ears as he dodged the tip of the switchblade.
Although his mind was calm, the hair all over his body involuntarily stood up when he realized how close he was to the switchblade in order to create a sound like that.
It was a moment of life and death. It might be too ridiculous if he was not focused on the after-effect of severe blood loss.
At this moment, Zhang Lisheng had an evil thought that came up within him—he spurted a bloody mist continuously for a while after biting the tip of his tongue.
Tiesi, who was covered in blood mist, shouted at the top of his lungs, “Come and stop him, Third Brother. I might not be able to take it anymore.”
“One swing of the blade, get a hold of him for a little while. He will definitely die if I have one more opportunity to swing my blade at him.”
Unfortunately, what he said at the moment had the opposite effect. Third Brother who knew very well how great Tiesi’s power was, ran madly toward the old house’s entrance after hearing what Tiesi said instead of stepping up and dashing to Zhang Lisheng.
The man who had a full face of paint next to Third Brother scolded him loudly when he saw Third Brother ditch the gang, “You call yourself a mafia boss? You’re just a coward.”
“F*ck your ancestors, you won’t be living beyond three days even if you run.”
He opened his arms wide and dashed toward Zhang Lisheng, his plan seemed to be holding this scary young man down so that Tiesi could work his switchblade on him.
However, just as he was dashing, the bloody mist that was covering Tiesi converged inward. Then, a loud sound from a worm was heard from the bloody mist, “Lliaooo”.
As the sound echoed out, the centipede that was left with its head and a small part of its body leaped out of nowhere and bit down hard on Tiesi’s neck. What happened was that Qing Hong had been urged by its master’s blood and had broken a big part of its body on its own will. It had finally given the biggest enemy a fatal attack.
Due to the wizard worm and its venom that was attacking both the inside and the outside, the powerful Tiesi fell onto the ground within a second and lost his life.
After killing the most powerful enemy, Qing Hong balanced itself on its remaining dozens of legs and scurried toward the intruder with a face full of paint that was dashing toward Zhang Lisheng.
Watching the bloody half wizard worm crawling toward him, the intruder, who initially had a malicious expression, collapsed.
After falling onto the ground due to fear and exhaustion, he cried hard and begged, “Mountain Worm, Mountain Worm, n-no, Father Lisheng, it’s your Brother Ermu. I’m Brother Ermu.
“Please spare my life, spare my life. I-I’m drunk, I was-was forced by them..”
“Brother Ermu, I’d figured that it’s you from your voice since the beginning.
“If it wasn’t for you, these foreigners might not have the audacity to steal from my house openly.”
“Since you’ve got the audacity to bring people into the Zhang family’s property, you should have the courage to lose your life too, am I right?” As he chanted an incantation, Zhang Lisheng did not plan to show mercy as he drove Qing Hong to drill into Ermu’s flesh.
Knowing that he would definitely die since the wizard worm had entered his body, Er Mu bore the intense pain and shrieked as he drew back the corners of his mouth, “Yes, you’re right. Father Lisheng, since I, He Qingmiao, entered the Zhang family’s door, it makes perfect sense that I die in your hands.
“All I hope i-is that you let go of my family since I was the one who brought you to meet your father for the very last time.
“I, He Qingmiao, will kowtow to you, kowtow to you..”
His body was trembling immensely as he spoke while proceeding to kowtow to Zhang Lisheng continuously.
“Since we’re from the same village, even if you don’t beg me, I can’t bring myself to kill an entire family. Go in peace.”
Hearing Zhang Lisheng’s promise, Ermu wore a smile of relief on his face and eventually died while maintaining his kneeling pose.
Three of the four men who broke into the Zhang family’s old house was dead. The only one who remained was Third Brother who had stiff movements and had been attempting to escape by removing the latches on the old house’s door for a long time but to no avail.
At that moment, Zhang Lisheng had actually reached the stage where he was burning out. He did not hesitate at all as he drove his wizard worm to crawl toward the last surviving intruder directly after killing Ermu.
As the venomous worm started eating into his body, Third Brother, who had been attempting to remove the latches clumsily, snapped out of his fear and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Friend, friend, you don’t have to be so cruel.
“I’m just here to make a small fortune, just to make a small fortune.. That’s all.
“I know I’ve made a mistake, I’m willing to get my life back with money. One million, two million. If that’s not enough, I’ll give you eight million, ten million. Just give me a number, give me a number..”