Chapter 636: White Worm

Bones were embedded in the walls on either side. I hunched over as I walked between them, my mind swirling with stray thoughts.

Normally, piled corpses would rot and reek, giving off a pungent, nauseating odor. But as I walked through the cave, a faint, bloody fragrance drifted past my nose.

It was a strange scent, hard to describe. It smelled like a medicinal broth brewed from living creatures. Even though it clearly emanated from dead bodies, it carried the aura of life.

Breathing it into my lungs made my brain hyperactive. Veins bulged on my arms, and my mental state grew unsteady.

I carefully circulated the Profound Truth Mental Method and the Yin-Yang Ghost Art to ward off the corpse qi, making every step forward a struggle.

"Daoist master Wan, what happens if corpse qi enters a person's body?" Fearing my defenses were inadequate and the corpse qi might exploit a gap, I found a moment to ask the livestream. Unfortunately, Daoist master Wan was nowhere to be seen, and I couldn't spot any of his comments.

Daoist master Wan was extremely elusive, so there was nothing I could do. At critical moments, I still had to rely on myself.

At the end of the passage were nine cave tunnels. I didn't know where the other eight led, nor what was hidden inside them.

According to my guess, there might be a Suspended Coffin placed inside each of these nine tunnels, but eight of them would be fake, leaving only one real coffin.

Eight fakes and one real. This mix of illusion and reality made it impossible to figure out.

Of course, this was just my guess. Right now, I simply didn't have the ability or the time to verify it. The ghost girl had tried everything to lead me here, so there had to be a reason. My primary task now was to find out what that reason was.

The tunnel the ghost girl and I had entered was narrow at the mouth and wider further in. The floor, walls, and ceiling were covered everywhere in White Fur, making for an incredibly creepy sight.

After walking forward four or five meters, the ghost girl stopped. She pointed at the coffin, made a grimace, and then pointed toward the exit.

Such an abstract pantomime left me clueless even after watching her repeat it several times. "What do you mean? Is there a ghost in the coffin? Are you asking me to let it out?"

The ghost girl didn't tell me if I guessed right or wrong. She just kept repeating that same set of actions, leaving me quite speechless.

"Human lives are at stake here; there's no room for carelessness. Don't screw me over!" I could only make out two points from her gestures: she wanted me to go to the Suspended Coffin, and a clue to escaping was hidden there.

Stepping forward, I turned my head only to see the ghost girl standing in place, completely motionless. She didn't even turn around, leaving me with only the sight of her back.

'Why do I feel like she's afraid?' The ghost girl's form was unstable. Eroded by the corpse qi, she appeared translucent and fleeting.

"Hey, if you really can't hold on, just head out," I called to her. She actually understood my words this time and left without looking back.

I was left all alone in the tunnel. The corpse qi coiled around me like dark, venomous snakes slithering by my side.

The further in I went, the heavier the corpse qi became. I felt uncomfortable all over. The hair that my true qi couldn't protect grew dry and dull. What disturbed me even more was the thick corpse qi condensing at my hair roots into black dewdrops, trying to seep into my body through the acupoints on the top of my head.

A strange sensation spread across my scalp. Having no better options at this moment, I could only speed up.

Circulating two mental methods simultaneously took a massive toll on my mind. Coupled with a night of rushing about in fear, I felt like I was nearing my limit.

It was as if a string had been pulled taut in my brain, ready to snap at any moment.

As I walked, I frequently glanced at my phone screen, waiting for Daoist master Wan's reply. He was knowledgeable and experienced; he ought to know the secret of this Suspended Coffin.

The walls inside the cave were no longer just white. Thread-like worms had grown outward, resembling a layer of squirming white hair that made for a deeply unsettling sight.

'I wonder if anything bad will happen if this White Fur touches my body.' I covered my exposed skin with my clothes, readjusted my mask, and slowly walked into the deepest part of the cave.

The White Fur grew denser, obscuring my vision. It was different from what I had imagined; it coiled around my body but didn't actually block my path forward.

It seemed to have no interest in the living, acting as though it were only effective against corpses.

After walking several meters through the White Fur, I felt my body suddenly grow lighter as I took another step. Opening my eyes, I was astonished to find that all the White Fur on the walls had completely vanished.

"This..." Looking back, the dividing line on the walls was starkly clear, with my current position serving as the exact boundary.

Behind me, the White Fur surged like an incoming flood, yet in front of me lay an eerie calm.

"What's going on? Why did the White Fur suddenly disappear?" I took two steps forward and turned to look at the wall. It was very strange—simply a bizarre spectacle.

Within three meters of the Suspended Coffin, not a single strand of White Fur appeared. The surroundings were just ordinary soil, though perhaps because the corpse qi was too dense, the dirt here presented a blue-black hue. I tried digging a few times with a rock but couldn't make a dent. The entire patch of ground felt as though it were fused into one solid piece.

I stood there, utterly baffled.

At the end of the tunnel where the Suspended Coffin was stored, the space was three meters long, three meters wide, and three meters high. The coffin was hoisted in mid-air by several dragon poles, touching neither the ceiling above nor the ground below as it hung right in the center.

With the coffin at the center, not a single strand of White Fur existed in its immediate vicinity.

"This isn't right. The White Fur doesn't seem to have been spawned by the Suspended Coffin; rather, it looks like someone deliberately planted it around the coffin."

The scene before me differed from what I had imagined. According to my initial deduction, the Uncorrupted Bone was refined by the mastermind, and the white thread worms in the walls were a byproduct of cultivating the Uncorrupted Bone.

Following that logic, the closer one got to the Suspended Coffin, the lusher the White Fur should be.

But in reality, not a single strand of White Fur dared to come within three meters of the Suspended Coffin.

'Just now, when I passed through the tunnel, I noticed the White Fur wasn't very interested in the living. It seems this stuff is primarily used to target corpses. Why would the mastermind plant White Fur all around the Suspended Coffin? Could they be trying to use the White Fur's suppressive effect on corpses to deal with whatever is inside the coffin?' My train of thought shifted in an instant. I stood beside the coffin, hesitating, and subconsciously glanced at my phone screen.

As my gaze swept over it, my eyes lit up. I discovered that Daoist master Wan had reappeared in the livestream.

Daoist master Wan: "Strange, how bizarre. I just felt a premonition and observed the night stars, only to find the baleful star among the Seven Mansions of the North shining brightly. This is not a good omen."

I had been wondering why Daoist master Wan hadn't shown up, but who would have thought he had actually gone off to stargaze? "Daoist master Wan, my eyebrows are practically on fire here, and you still have the mood to stargaze?"

Daoist master Wan: "Kid, don't go treating a kind heart as a donkey's lungs. I originally wanted to divine your fortune to help you pursue good luck and avoid disaster, but who knew your fate would be so obscured that I couldn't calculate it? Left with no choice, and right as the constellations shifted, I tried to help you out indirectly."

"Then what did you deduce, Daoist master?"

"Jiao, Kang, Kui, Lou, Niu, Gui, and Xing; when they meet, there will be the sound of weeping for three years. An Uncorrupted Bone is an omen of great disaster. The birth of this evil creature guarantees the baleful star will shine brilliantly. Once the baleful star shines, as its power waxes, yours wanes. I shouldn't need to tell you how you'll end up, kid."

His fortune-telling had failed, and through his stargazing, Daoist master Wan had only brought me another piece of bad news. A bitter smile surfaced on my face; I was starting to admire my own resilience. "Daoist master Wan, I don't believe in fate, so stop stargazing for a moment. Take a look—what is this?"

I aimed my phone camera at the wall, showing the side covered in White Fur and the other side made of normal soil.

With limited time, I kept it brief and shared my deduction with the livestream viewers: "The White Fur is meant to deal with corpses. If so, the relationship between the Uncorrupted Bone and the mastermind is very delicate. It's possible that the unique feng shui here naturally nurtured an Uncorrupted Bone, which the mastermind then found. Wanting to control it, they laid an inescapable net in the hospital. There's another possibility: the Uncorrupted Bone was indeed refined by the mastermind, but it later slipped out of the corpse refiner's control, forcing them to plant the White Fur to restrict it."

Hearing my words, many livestream viewers in the chat also felt it made sense. After a good while, I finally saw Daoist master Wan's comment. It was just a short, single line.

"Do you know what this White Fur of yours actually is?"

The Daoist master's words carried a very solemn tone. I couldn't help but reply, "I've seen similar bugs in the medical college before. At the time, that Doctor called this thing a Thread-Pulling Gu."

Daoist master Wan: "A Thread-Pulling Gu? That's quite descriptive, but it isn't its true name. This is the White Worm, one of the Three Corpses and Nine Worms. It dwells in the earth where insects breed, growing without limit. It can pierce through human organs, hollowing them into nests and cavities without the victim even noticing."

"White Worm? Doesn't that name sound a bit too casual?" I stared at the screen, questioning Daoist master Wan's words for the first time.

Daoist master Wan: "Absolutely do not underestimate the Three Corpses and Nine Worms just because of their names. Any single one of these worms contains disaster and plague; they are known as great calamities by cultivators. The nine worms are the Efu, Hui, White, Rou, Fei, Wei, Ge, Chi, and Qiang Worms. Among them, the White Worm is also known as the womb-passing fate-knowing worm. It belongs to the same ilk as flying corpses, clinging to grain qi and flowing essence. If born with a living person, it makes them speak without faith, despise virtuous paths, and ally with evil. If born with a corpse, it can burrow into the earth and take form, growing whiskers and claws, craving the taste of flesh and blood, draining the essence of yang spirits, and bringing disaster upon the world!"

Hearing Daoist master Wan say this, I looked at the densely packed White Fur on the walls and suddenly found it incredibly creepy. To think I had actually wormed my way out from being surrounded by these things just now. And what was even more terrifying was that I would have to squeeze my way back through them later.

"That doesn't make sense. If these worms are also effective against the living, why didn't they attack me?"

My question stumped Daoist master Wan as well. He gave a vague answer, simply saying, "Perhaps you have something on you that the White Worms are afraid of, so they don't dare approach."

"Something they're afraid of?" I stood frozen for a second as a thought flashed through my mind like lightning.

They were afraid of the Plum Blossom Gu!

My eyes lit up. I had just figured out a crucial detail.

The Live Show knew I had the Plum Blossom Gu inside me, and when the examiner gave me the hint, they specifically emphasized why everything in the hospital was white.

Combining these two facts, I faintly understood the answer to that hint.

Why was everything in the hospital white? Because the walls of the entire hospital might be infested with White Worms, and the key to breaking this deadlock lay entirely with these bugs!