Chapter 234 - 233: Chocolate Bean

Chapter 234: Chapter 233: Chocolate Bean

Ye Zheng grabbed Feng Ling’s waist pack and quickly yanked her out!

Feng Ling gasped for breath. The skin that had touched the mountain was completely red, as if covered in a rash, looking utterly bizarre.

Huangfu Miaomiao had completely given up, crying as she lay on the ground. "Don’t save me... Just stop..."

She felt she was doomed to die today. Even if Feng Ling was strong, she wouldn’t risk her own life to save her.

Then she remembered that the Feng Ling of today was different from before. She had many helpers now, and she herself was the most dispensable one.

Sorrow washed over Huangfu Miaomiao, and she cried even more heartbrokenly.

Ye Zheng, growing irritated, snapped, "Just chop the leg off! It’s not like you can’t live with one less leg!"

"Losing a leg is like losing a quarter of her body. Even if she survives, who knows how long it would take to recover." Feng Ling gently pressed her own red, hot skin. "I felt the tendons when I was in there. Cutting the flesh is useless. We have to sever the tendons to get her leg out."

Ye Zheng frowned. "This flesh is too thick. We can’t get to the tendons without cutting through the meat first."

"I’ll go in and cut them." Feng Ling extended two of her Teeth and Claws toward Ye Zheng. "Hold onto me, and don’t let go."

"No!" Ye Zheng gritted her teeth in anger. "This mountain is too damn strange! What if something happens to you?! If you die here, how am I supposed to find the Star Association and get revenge!"

Feng Ling just smiled at her words. "If you don’t even have the strength to hold onto me, you wouldn’t have the ability to get revenge even if you did find the Star Association."

Ye Zheng snarled, "Don’t try to use reverse psychology on me!"

She grabbed the limb Feng Ling extended, but a layer of skin had just been flayed from her hand, which was now covered in sticky blood. Feng Ling’s limb, coated in slick silver scales, was far too slippery to grip.

"I can’t get a grip like this!" Ye Zheng’s temper flared. "Have these two big teeth bite my hand! Then I’ll be able to grab them!"

Feng Ling shook her head. "No. If they bite through your palm, how are you going to fight rats next time?"

Ye Zheng said, "Then bite my leg! That’s fine, right? I have more than a dozen legs, so it won’t matter if a few get bitten off!"

Huangfu Miaomiao had been crying on the ground, but as she listened to the two of them exchange increasingly gory suggestions, she gradually forgot to cry.

Her face streaked with tears, she stared blankly at Feng Ling and Ye Zheng. "...Can’t you use a rope?" she asked.

Feng Ling and Ye Zheng both whipped their heads around to look at her.

"Ah, I forgot." Feng Ling tapped her forehead. "Little Skeleton has a professional-grade climbing rope in its backpack. It’s very sturdy."

Tears still in her eyes, Huangfu Miaomiao pulled the rope from a compartment in the backpack.

Feng Ling tied one end of the rope around her own waist and the other around Ye Zheng’s. "Count from one to five," she instructed, "then pull me out immediately."

Ye Zheng’s brow was tightly furrowed. "Got it."

Feng Ling tightened the rope one last time, held her breath, and plunged into the mountain of flesh, dagger in hand—

Her vision instantly went dark, and she felt a distinct, sluggish resistance against her body.

Although the flesh of this mountain was thick, it exuded a powerful suction force upon contact with living things, causing her body to sink deeper and deeper.

She was surrounded on all sides by sticky flesh, fascia, and cartilage.

The weakest layers of skin on Feng Ling’s face were the first to feel the stickiness. Then her scales began to soften. She heard strange sounds in her mind, as if countless people were murmuring:

"I don’t want to die, I want to live, I don’t want to die, I want to live, I don’t want to die..."

She felt a tug on the rope around her waist.

’Has it been five seconds already?’

’Does Ye Zheng even know how to count?’

Grumbling inwardly, Feng Ling reached out and fumbled through the flesh, grabbed a tendon as thick as a fist, and immediately sliced it!

But this wasn’t the only tendon attached to Huangfu Miaomiao’s left leg.

Many other tendons of varying thickness were attached to Huangfu Miaomiao’s leg, like the root system of a plant, siphoning away her Life Force.

The pull on Feng Ling’s waist grew stronger. Like an out-of-control shipwreck being forcibly dragged ashore, she was yanked out.

"AHHHHH!—"

The moment she was free, she heard Huangfu Miaomiao’s bloodcurdling scream.

’Did I hurt her when I cut the tendon?’

Feng Ling looked over in confusion, only to find Ye Zheng staring at her with the same terrified expression.

Confused, Feng Ling thought: ’Is there something on my face?’

She instinctively reached up to her face and felt a layer of soft, pulpy, bright red mush come away in her hand, much like overcooked bolognese sauce.

She looked down and saw that not only had the skin on her entire upper body been dissolved, but a thin layer of the underlying flesh was gone as well.

She now looked like a chocolate candy bean dropped into hot water: the outer shell had melted away, and the chocolate underneath was softening, ready to fall apart at the slightest touch.

Perhaps her appearance was simply too horrifying. Huangfu Miaomiao, completely breaking down, wailed, "I don’t want you to save me! Don’t save me! Just leave me alone! WAAAAAH..."

Snapping back to her senses, Ye Zheng couldn’t stand the noise and roared at Huangfu Miaomiao, "Stop crying! She’s not dead! What is there to cry about?!"

It wasn’t a lie. Although Feng Ling looked horrifying, it was really just a superficial wound with a large surface area—nothing compared to the times she’d had her heart and lungs ripped out.

Ye Zheng clenched her jaw and grabbed Huangfu Miaomiao’s arms, pulling with all her might. When she found she still couldn’t move her, she lost her temper again. "Why won’t she budge? Hey! You! Get over here and help!"

Feng Ling stood her ground, steadying her breath. "It’s no use pulling. There are still a few tendons attached inside. Let me recover a bit, and I’ll go back in to cut them."

After a pause, she murmured under her breath, "My recovery speed should be faster than its, right?"

"Dammit!" Ye Zheng was so angry she was practically fuming. She couldn’t stand waiting, couldn’t accept failure. Her volatile emotions were constantly overwhelming her reason, and hearing Feng Ling worry that her recovery was slower than the mountain’s made her finally snap.

Ye Zheng raised her two powerful Tiger Claws and slammed them viciously into the flesh, ripping out a huge chunk!

The sharp claws on her right arm plunged unceremoniously into the mass. Her long, pointed nails gouged at flesh, dug at bone, and tore violently at anything that felt like a tendon!

Flesh and blood flew everywhere. Huangfu Miaomiao shrieked in pain, crying her heart out.

The sound of her screaming only served to further agitate Ye Zheng, making her attacks even more ferocious! And then—

Just like Feng Ling, Ye Zheng was sucked into the flesh.

The rope around Feng Ling’s waist instantly went taut!

She gripped the rope with both hands, silently counted to five, and then rapidly backed away, pulling with all her might to drag the trapped Ye Zheng out!

More than half of Ye Zheng’s body had turned blood-red. Her eyelids were completely dissolved, leaving only her bloodshot eyes.

Ye Zheng roared, "I was so close! Just a little more and I would have cut all the tendons!"

"Alright, my turn. Pull me out in five seconds." Feng Ling’s arms tensed. Silver scales grew back out of her flesh, arranging themselves in a dense layer to protect her body. She then used a Bone Blade to clear a path and charged into the gash Ye Zheng had opened.

Huangfu Miaomiao was in so much pain she was seeing stars, her lips deathly pale.

She watched the two women take turns charging into the mountain, gradually becoming figures of pure blood, and didn’t know if what she felt was more gratitude or more terror.

’This is terrifying.’

’What are you two doing...?’

’Didn’t we agree to set a limit? Didn’t we agree that if it cost three limbs, you wouldn’t save me...?’

’Sigh... What is all this?!’