Stranger Danger

"You're too humble, Joyless. They are both great ideas," Old Man Profound Firmament said.

Obviously, there were many obstacles standing in the way of Ye Qing's ideas. However, it was still better than to have no plan or direction at all.

"I'm glad to hear that." Ye Qing smiled. "If you both believe my ideas are viable, then I believe our next priority is to sound out this place and check if there are any dangers. We should also confirm the body parts that reach into the Rakshasa Kingdom's domain so as to facilitate the execution of our plan in the future."

"Very well. We shall do as you say, Joyless." Both Old Man Profound Firmament and Dan Xiazi replied without thinking.

It was because Ye Qing's words make a lot of sense. There was just nothing to refute.

"Which way should we go then?"

Old Man Profound Firmament and Danxia Zi subconsciously looked at Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou. Before they knew it, they were looking to the duo for instructions.

"According to my observations, we are probably in the corpse's abdomen right now."

Ye Qing glanced left and right and pointed in a certain direction. "I believe this is where the upper body of the corpse lies. Its inner organs and brain should be down here as well."

"If there is anywhere in this corpse that may be considered dangerous, then it would probably be the inner organs and the brain. So, I suggest that we check this direction first."

"Makes sense. Let's go!" Old Man Profound Firmament nodded in agreement.

Although he did not know how Ye Qing was able to tell that they were in the abdomen area—did he identify this from observing those random masses of flesh, blood and bones? Just how?—he did not ask him about it. After all, it would make him seem ignorant and incompetent.

Besides, it wasn't like he had any better idea. He might as well just go with Ye Qing's suggestion.

Danxia Zi also nodded without a word.

Naturally, Feng Qingyou had no problems with Ye Qing's plan.

Having obtained everyone's consent, Ye Qing began moving the Ghost Dragon Boat down the path he chose.

So, how did he know where they were currently located? He "saw" it, of course.

Although his demonic thought was greatly weakened and suppressed by the tainted and warped energies in the area, it was still better than most others' perception.

Besides, he used the Yin Yang Spell Eyes to see through the unreal and strange just now. It allowed him to see some things he wasn't able to see before and arrive at a plausible conclusion.

After moving forward for about half a teatime, a strange mountain appeared before their eyes.

The mountain was shaped like a circular pillar, but twisting and meandering. Parts of it were meandering forward like a snake, entangled with one another, bent or crooked, leveling or sloping... actually, it was more like a dragon or a serpent than a mountain.

Of course, the object only looked like a mountain. It wasn't actually a mountain. After all, it was completely composed of flesh and blood.

Just like the flesh, blood and bone they saw before, the clump before them was mostly rotten as well. Some parts had completely collapsed or decayed as well.

Strangely, the center of the mountain of flesh and blood seemed empty. Through it—specifically the decayed and collapsed areas—one could see a massive, deep, dark hole. What looked like strange demonic fire and terrible, twisted aura could be vaguely seen flowing within it.

"That's... the intestines, isn't it?"

Old Man Profound Firmament said softly after observing for a moment.

"It's definitely the intestines." Ye Qing confirmed. "We simply need to trace it to make it to the inner organs and the brain."

This was what he saw with the Yin Yang Spell Eyes earlier.

"There's something inside the intestines!" Feng Qingyou suddenly spoke up.

As soon as she finished, the others saw what looked like a shadow lurking in one of the decayed holes.

Ye Qing slowly maneuvered the Ghost Dragon Boat closer to get a better look. Thanks to the weak light of the demonic fire, they finally identified the shadows as fat, white maggots.

That's right. Maggots.

The maggots looked both strange and monstrous. They were also stupidly big. About a hundred meters thick and a thousand meters long, they were covered in twisted, bizarre patterns and burning with tainted demonic fire.

Even worse, the maggots had human faces. Their eyes were as narrow and tiny as broad beans, and their cheeks were rosy red. White and plump, they looked like they were smiling, crying, or neither. It was actually pretty amusing.

Most of all, there wasn't just one, two, or three maggots. There were countless.

The maggots all looked more or less the same in terms of shape and size. Their faces though? They were identical.

Individually, the strange face looked rather amusing. But hundreds of them being squished together in one place? That was just scary.

"I've never seen such a maggot before. It's awfully ugly!"

Old Man Profound Firmament could not help but comment after seeing this.

As if on cue, the maggots abruptly turned their heads and stared straight in their direction. It would seem that they could hear them.

"Oho? They could hear us?" Old Man Profound Firmament lifted an eyebrow and taunted them, "I'm just being truthful though. Don't like it? Come bite me!"

He hadn't even finished when the maggots rushed out of the hole in a hurry and pounced toward them.

The maggots weren't just crawling out of the hole they were looking at. They were crawling out of every decayed or collapsed hole.

It was a maggot flood! "Heavens, they can't take a joke..." Old Man Profound Firmament hurriedly said, "Let's go, Joyless! Quickly!"

His warning was unnecessary. Ye Qing was already moving the Ghost Dragon Boat away from the maggot flood.

That said, these maggots moved the same way a normal maggot did: crawling. Therefore, it wasn't very fast at all. That said, the intestine they were travelling along was incredibly massive, and there were literally more maggots than they could count. Naturally, not even the Ghost Dragon Boat could avoid them all.

Before long, the space in front of the Ghost Dragon Boat was covered in crawling maggots. Once they got close, they opened their mouths—revealing razor sharp teeth—and spat out pitch black mucus.

The mucus was extremely dirty and smelly beyond imagination. Just catching a whiff was enough to contort Ye Qing's face and make him feel like throwing up.

The good news was that it did not elicit any other adverse reaction. The bad news was that it was unbelievably, horrifically smelly.

It was so smelly he was pondering about the meaning of life before he knew it.

He swore it was the smelliest smell he had ever smelled in his life. He never wanted to smell it ever again.

"Don't smell it! It stinks!"

Ye Qing hurriedly sealed off his sense of smell and cried out in warning.

But of course, he was too late. Feng Qingyou, Old Man Profound Firmament and Danxia Zi were already wearing the exact same expression and pondering about the meaning of life just like him.

Ye Qing shook his head and fired off a ray of profound light, isolating the stench. At the same time, it evaporated the streams of mucus and annihilated the maggots when they came into contact with it.