Chapter 158: Bitten on the Ass by a Bug

If it could be hidden on the body without even Tang Long noticing, it meant that the creature could not possibly be very large.

When entering, Bao Hu should have had no problem at all!

Just now, when crossing the temple gate, walking into the sarira stupa, and then... when the giant boulders fell?

The sarira stupa!

Tang Long’s eyes narrowed sharply. If those stone pagodas were not enshrining sarira, but rather some strange bugs, then... they were in for a massive disaster!

"You can control humans, which means you are very smart. Now come out of my companion's body, and I will spare your life!" Tang Long stared at Bao Hu and said with absolute seriousness.

"Hehe!"

Bao Hu grinned, emitting an unspeakable, eerie vibe.

He lunged toward Tang Long. Tang Long twisted his feet and sidestepped, causing Bao Hu to lunge at empty air. When blocking Bao Hu's punch earlier, Tang Long had already noticed a problem: the opponent's striking force was immense, somewhat exceeding the limits of an ordinary person.

However, the strength felt stiff. Bao Hu was someone who had studied martial arts and practiced internal boxing, so his natural force shouldn't have been so rigid.

"You're all going to die, going to die, going to die!" Bao Hu turned back, the corners of his mouth upturned, his eyes lacking any focal point as he sneered sinisterly.

Tang Long frowned. When the other party lunged again, he raised his hand, swept him away, and sent him crashing to the ground.

"Hold him down!"

The four squad members shouted in acknowledgment and lunged forward.

They pinned Bao Hu to the ground, but... the four grown men simply couldn't keep him down. Team leader Bao Hu stood up stiffly, flicked his arms, and threw all four men away.

"What the hell!"

Tang Long planted his feet, bursting forward like a tiger freed from its cage. He kicked Bao Hu sharply in the lower abdomen, leaped upward, and drove both knees down onto the other man's shoulders, forcefully pressing him back to the ground.

He stared at the back of Bao Hu's head and frowned!

There was a bump the size of a palm, looking very much like a swelling, though not entirely obvious. If one didn't look closely, it would be hard to notice.

Hesitating for a moment, he reached out and applied some force, slapping the lump on the back of Bao Hu's head.

"Squeak!"

A piercing, shrill scream pierced into Tang Long's ears, making him instinctively frown.

"If you don't get out, I'll smash you to death!"

Tang Long looked at the thing clinging to Bao Hu's head and muttered softly. It wasn't very big, and it felt somewhat soft.

The reason he hadn't flattened it with a single slap was that it had some kind of organ inserted into Bao Hu's brain. Killing the creature was fine and dandy, but crippling Bao Hu in the process was another story.

It curled into a ball, exposing its soft legs and limbs along with a tiny head. It looked very much like a soft-shelled turtle, except turtles had shells, while this little creature's back was completely soft.

"Squeak!"

Its black, mung-bean-sized eyes cried out toward Tang Long.

"Squeak your ass!" Tang Long raised his hand and flicked the creature's slender, protruding head fiercely with a hard finger-flick.

With a snap, it was sent flying off Bao Hu's head!

Rustle!

After landing on the ground, it extended about twenty pairs of soft legs and scuttled rapidly toward a dark shadow to escape.

"Don't let that little thing get away!"

Tang Long released Bao Hu and shouted to the surrounding squad members.

The little creature was about the size of an adult's palm, equipped with numerous pairs of abdominal legs. When crawling, it moved with astonishing speed. If it flattened itself against the ground and traveled within the shadows, it was extremely difficult to spot. Tang Long hadn't even realized when it had climbed onto Bao Hu in the first place.

Illuminated by the high-intensity flashlight, the small black creature seemed somewhat panicked. The piercing 'squeak' sounded once more, as if someone was begging them to stop!

Among the team, those with weaker mental strength had already stopped, standing blankly in place before finally regaining their wits a moment later.

Mental control?

Tang Long recalled what Bao Hu had mentioned on the stone pillar—that there were bugs in the ancient divine temple capable of influencing human thoughts, muddying their minds and plunging them into hallucinations.

Without a doubt, this had to be that exact kind of bug!

"Everyone pay attention, don't let it affect you!"

Tang Long shouted to snap everyone back to their senses.

He retrieved from his back the short blade Bao Hu had given him after entering the mountain. Gripping the hilt, he focused his mental energy: "If you run again, I'm really going to kill you!"

The bug seemed frightened by Tang Long's voice. How could this human's voice possibly allow it to understand?

Talk about terrifying!

Turning its head back, its black, bean-sized eyes gazed at him pitifully.

"What are you looking at?"

Tang Long furrowed his brow slightly, maintaining a posture ready to throw his blade as he walked toward it, signaling the others to back away.

Its eyes were even smaller than a turtle's, yet remarkably lively, as if pondering the meaning of Tang Long's words.

"Do you have any accomplices?"

Tang Long asked. If it dared to make a move, he wouldn't mind pinning it to the stone with the short blade in his hand. This ability to communicate with animals was not limited to species; it felt akin to mental communication, very much like some sort of electrical wave exchange. If it weren't extraordinary, it wouldn't be dubbed 'the devil's ability'!

"Squeak squeak!"

"You're all going to die."

Tang Long rolled his eyes. The little thing actually knew how to make threats, a cold smirk playing at the corners of his mouth: "Whether we die or not is beside the point. What I can guarantee is that before we die, you'll be the first to be killed by us."

Squeak squeak?

It was probably trying to convey a plea for Tang Long to let it leave.

Tang Long didn't know what this creature was called, but he was certain that these organisms possessed exceptionally powerful brainwaves. They carried a special magnetic field on their bodies, enabling them to influence the human brain to a certain extent, inducing hallucinations or, put simply, being controlled by them.

Humans under their control would largely have their sense of pain blocked, artificially amplifying their own physical strength, though the drawback was that their bodies became quite rigid and stiff.

Rustle, rustle!

Tang Long's ears twitched as he heard the sound of numerous such creatures crawling about. He abruptly spun around to look behind him!

Not far away, a scalp-tingling scene unfolded: a dense, black-tide-like wave of bugs on the ground was surging forward rapidly. Although each individual was smaller than the one that had been clinging to Team Leader Bao Hu's head, their numbers were horrifyingly vast.

Damn it!

As Tang Long turned back, the throwing knife in his hand turned into a flash of lightning, pinning the retreating black creature firmly to the ground.

He had warned it that moving again meant death. Did it really think his words were empty promises?

Tang Long spun around, strode over to Bao Hu, bent down, hoisted him, and slung him over his shoulder once more. There was no helping it; playing the role of the uncle wasn't easy.

Was that cry of 'Little Martial Uncle' supposed to be for nothing?

"What the hell are you all staring in a daze for? Run!" When passing by Yang Wuchan, Tang Long didn't forget to deliver a kick to her plump, tight posterior.

"Run!"

What a bunch of fools!

The monstrous bugs rolling in like a wave behind them were staggering in number. If one got surrounded, even if they didn't bite you to death, they'd drown you.

Yang Wuchan followed closely behind Tang Long, running toward the slope while asking in sheer terror, "What, what are these things?"

Tang Long rolled his eyes. Even with a two-hundred-pound sturdy man slung over his shoulder, his speed remained completely unimpeded.

What kind of things were they? Who was she asking?

At any rate, they certainly weren't anything good, that much was certain.

"The path ahead is cut off!"

Suddenly, someone halted as loose gravel rolled down—another cliff edge.

Monstrous bugs behind, a cliff ahead—were they really going to bite the dust here?

"Look, there are ropes overhead!" Leopard Pattern shined the high-intensity flashlight upward and shouted.

Why ropes resembling pre-tied vines were hanging up above was a question no one had the luxury to ponder anymore, especially with the bugs right on their heels.

"Cross first!"

Tang Long didn't hesitate. With Bao Hu still on his shoulder, he leaped forward, grabbed a rope with one hand, leveraged the momentum to swing, and switched to another, moving like Tarzan. Spanning the twenty-odd meters across three ropes, he reached the opposite bank!

Only upon gripping the 'ropes' did he realize the texture felt somewhat off. These weren't ropes at all; they were clearly the exposed, hanging roots of some unknown plant.

After leaping across, he looked back. The other team members were swinging over using the roots one by one, save for Yang Wuchan, who stood there in a daze, holding her flashlight and staring blankly upward at something.

"You foolish woman!"

Tang Long set Bao Hu down. He knew all too well that last night wasn't just a simple game. Gritting his teeth, he leaped back, grabbed a vine, and swung back across.

"What are you staring at? The bugs are biting your backside!"

Returning to Yang Wuchan, Tang Long couldn't help but scold her.

Yang Wuchan lowered her head and looked at Tang Long pleadingly: "Yin soul wood!"

"What kind of nonsense is that?"

Tang Long glanced past Yang Wuchan. That swarm of monstrous bugs was now less than ten meters away, practically snapping at their heels.

"Beneath yin soul wood grows the return-to-sun grass! Legend has it that the 'return-to-sun grass' only grows right under the 'yin soul wood'!" Yang Wuchan said excitedly.

Tang Long followed her gaze upward and couldn't help but freeze in shock. Towering directly overhead was a massive tree, and those vines were trailing down from it entirely.

Recovering his senses, he raised his hand and delivered a fierce, resounding smack to her tight behind with a loud *thwack*.

"Ow!" Yang Wuchan shrieked in pain, glaring daggers at Tang Long as if ready to explode.

Tang Long grabbed her by the arm and spun her around: "Run!"

Yin soul wood or whatever soul wood it was—if you got bitten on the backside by those bugs behind you, forget yin soul wood; even meeting your ancestors wouldn't do you any good.

Once you kicked the bucket, nothing in this mortal world mattered anymore.

Tang Long scooped Yang Wuchan up by the waist and leaped forward. The bugs behind them were less than half a meter away!

He grabbed a tree vine and reached out to catch a second one, when... it snapped!

Tang Long and Yang Wuchan plunged straight down toward the abyss below.

Damn it!

Was he really going to be dragged to his death by this silly woman?

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Yang Wuchan shrieked in terror, tightly wrapping her arms around Tang Long. She never expected the two of them to... fall.

Accidents always arrived so abruptly, full of unforeseen twists.

For instance, neither Tang Long nor Yang Wuchan expected to fall, and having fallen, neither expected to survive the drop!

Mid-air, a net-like structure seemed to catch them!

"Are, are you okay?" Yang Wuchan asked in panic.

Tang Long rubbed his neck. With this woman landing directly on top of him, he was fine; there was no way she could have possibly been hurt.

"I'm fine. Though... you really need to lose some weight!" Tang Long said with helpless resignation.

A blush flushed across Yang Wuchan's face, and she shot him a fierce glare. Probably no woman on earth appreciated being told she was heavy!

"Get up, then!"

"I don't dare move!" Yang Wuchan didn't follow his instruction to get up.

Didn't dare move?

Using the high-intensity flashlight in Yang Wuchan's hand, Tang Long looked down and realized she was right not to move. The spot where they sat was suspended within a tree, with nothing but pitch-black emptiness beneath their feet, of unknown depth.

This tree was bizarre; its trunk resembled a woven net, or rather, it consisted entirely of intertwining vines without any distinct, angled branches.

"Is this what you called that 'yin soul wood'?" Tang Long asked with a frown as a thought struck him.

Yang Wuchan exclaimed excitedly, "Yes! This is yin soul wood! Legend says that yin soul wood and return-to-sun grass grow symbiotically. Wherever there is yin soul wood, you are bound to find return-to-sun grass!"

Tang Long looked upward. Pitch black without a single sliver of light, visibility was zero. Yang Wuchan had claimed the tree above was also yin soul wood, and now, after falling down, they had run into another one?

What did this imply? It meant yin soul wood wasn't particularly rare. Since there was so much of it, logically speaking, the so-called 'return-to-sun grass' shouldn't be scarce either!

"My dear miss, regardless of what kind of wood this is, shouldn't we figure out how to get out of here first?" Tang Long reminded her, knowing their current perch wasn't safe.

Judging by the time they had fallen, it was roughly fifty or sixty meters deep—not overwhelmingly deep, but certainly no small height either.