Western Sichuan was located in the northwest of China, it was known as Jiuli in ancient times. Mountains spread throughout the territory. Other than the capital, Chengdu, which was located in a mountain basin with fertile land and a long agricultural civilization, most of the other cities were built around the mountains. Usually, the suburbs were surrounded by mountains, it was a place where barbarians lived since ancient times.
Qu County of Hengze City in Western Sichuan was a small town that seemed to be in a primeval forest. It was developed from the Miaoyi mountain village in ancient times. Initially, the people were the poorest. However, in recent years, as China's economy took off and the people became rich, the exploration tourism was booming. Due to the fact that the area was blocked, the beautiful natural scenery that had never changed since ancient times gradually became rich.
It was late autumn and the weather was cold. The bright but not warm sunlight at noon shone on the stone road of Guawo Village in Damu Town, Qu County, casting shadows.
Dozens of teenagers who were around 16 or 17 years old, wearing half-new school uniforms, were walking on the stone road, following the shadows of the trees and leaves on the side of the road.
If they were born in a big city, teenagers at their age would have been studying day and night to endure endless pressure to get into a good university and have a good future.
The naughty ones had learned to fall in love, smoke, drink, and fight. Some of the more well-off ones had even become nightclub regulars.
However, in this remote mountain village that had become more impetuous due to the increasing number of travelers, the teenagers still appeared simple and unpretentious.
Unfortunately, being simple and unpretentious did not mean that they were kind and peaceful, especially since Guawo Village had been a place where Chinese and barbarians lived together since ancient times.
"Big Egg, I heard from my dad that the network base station is going to be built in our village soon. By then, we won't have to go all the way to town to surf the Internet anymore."
"Dream on! Wouldn't an Internet company be a fool to build a base station in such a remote place like ours?"
"Why can't they come to our village? We're a natural ecological tourism area approved by the province. There are donkeys all day long and our backpackers come to our village to look at the scenery. We're even sick of looking at foreigners. Now, there's even a foreign old man coming to give us lessons. Why can't we even use a network?"
"Look at you, you're so stupid. Our backpackers are all rich people. They use satellites to surf the Internet, why would they need to use a base station? Moreover, it makes our village look even more 'natural' without the Internet. Do you know what 'natural' means?
You, ah, you're just like the nickname your father gave you. You're a 'rough rock'. "
"Kid, you dare to scold me and call me Coarse Rock? I-I'll give you an eye blast right now."
On the stone road, a few rude and unreasonable youngsters started to argue as they talked. A square-faced youngster with a face as big as a melon and eyes as small as a broad bean was about to start a fight with his companions in the end, his face and neck flushed with anger.
However, the square-faced young man could not be blamed for being enraged. The Guawo villagers were mainly Miaowei people. The young man's name was Ge Pushi, and he was the real old surname of Black, White, and Red of the original three branches of the Miaowei tribe. Naturally, he knew that rough stones were loose like a beehive in the mountains. The stones that were hard to grow were always placed in the latrine pit.
His parents gave him such a name because they were afraid that the children would die young out of jealousy. They gave him a name that would make it easier for them to raise him. Of course, Ge Pushi felt ashamed when he grew up. However, he could not vent his anger on his father or mother. He could only beat them up whenever they called him that.
Ordinary students would feel guilty when they saw Ge Pushi's face and neck turning red when he was truly enraged. It would be fine if they just said a few words to appease him. However, Hejia Heiyu, who spoke rudely to Ge Pushi this time, was not a weakling. He rolled up his sleeves without showing any sign of weakness and went up to them while cursing like a fighting cock.
Seeing that Ge Pushi and Hejia Heiyu, who were usually mischievous, were about to fight, the well-behaved children who were on their way home from school had long moved aside. Not only did the duo's mischievous companions not stop them, they even started to laugh and cheer in unison.
"Stone, give him an eye blast! He'll only know how powerful you are when he sees the red!"
"Heiyu, haven't you heard of the old saying that the one who strikes first has the upper hand? The one who strikes first won't be at a disadvantage!"
Ge Pushi shouted loudly after being instigated by his friends. He threw a punch but to his surprise, the skinny Hejia Heiyu opposite him actually jumped down from the stone floor agilely and dodged his swift and violent attack. Not only that, he turned his body sideways and kicked Ge Pushi's buttocks.
Ge Pushi's punch did not hit his enemy. Instead, due to the force on his buttocks, he could not hold his hand back and punched an innocent young man who was walking towards him seven to eight steps away who did not know what was going on.
The innocent young man was skinny with high cheekbones that made his face look ugly. After being punched by Ge Pushi out of the blue, blood flowed out of his nose continuously. He was completely stunned.
"M-Mountain Worm? W-Why did I hit you?" Ge Pushi's expression turned grave right away when he saw the skinny young man's face that was covered in blood. He stuttered. However, his childish vanity that was unique to young people made him realize that he must not show any weakness now. For this reason, his tone became arrogant again as he said, "Why did you block my fist?
Are you with Heiyu? Hmph, you're blind! You deserve to be beaten up! "
When the skinny young man who was punched for no reason heard the square-faced young man's provocation, he snapped back to reality. Without saying anything, he wiped the nosebleed on his face and ran away at an extremely fast pace.
A buzz of discussion could be heard behind him. "Stone, Mountain Worm is nothing but his father is not a joke. You shouldn't be so tough, kid."
"This is the era where satellites are already in the sky. Do you really believe in those feudal superstitions? Go take a look at 'Walking into Science', there's no such thing as ghosts and gods." Although Ge Pushi was stubborn, there was an obvious hint of regret in his tone.
Others might not understand, but although he was young, he was a proper Old Miao. He knew very well how could the skinny young man named Zhang Lisheng, who dared to use the word 'worm' as his nickname in the barren land filled with jungles and poisonous insects, be an easy person to deal with.
The surname Zhang was one of the 27 Miaowei Chinese surnames, including Wu, Long, Zhao, Ou, Teng, Hu, and Xiang. Although it was not one of the three old Miaowei surnames, it had been passed down for more than a thousand years, especially among the Miaowei Chinese surnames. Legend had it that the Zhang family had possessed witchcraft orthodoxy since ancient times. Naturally, it was slightly different from other families. Due to this reason, travelers with the surname Zhang were especially popular in the Miao Village in Western Sichuan, and there were fewer disturbances.
Ge Pushi, who was on the slate, was filled with remorse. Zhang Lisheng, who had been punched by him, walked and ran without a care in the world. Soon, he came to an old house with an old mahogany door along the village road.
Guawo Village was located deep in the mountains, it was humid and moldy during the summer while the winter was cold and chilly. Therefore, the village used to be built with bamboo houses. Recently, the environment had become better, so they built imitation bamboo houses with tall cement pillars at the four corners of the foundation.
Such an old brick and stone house that had the ancient style of China's central plains gave people an unusual feeling just by looking at it.
The lock of the old house's door was a square lock made of brass. Zhang Lisheng dexterously opened the brass lock with the key hanging around his neck. After walking into the old house's courtyard, he used two heavy bolts to lock the wooden door tightly.
"I finally made it back 15 minutes ago." Zhang Lisheng, who did not stop along the way, panted a few times when he saw that the door was tightly locked. He mumbled in joy.
Zhang Lisheng's chanting sounded meaningless as the length and pitch changed rapidly without any pattern. However, it gave off a creepy sense of rhythm.
As the chanting became more and more urgent, an extremely thin bulge began to appear on the yellow ground in the old house's courtyard. It moved back and forth. By the time Zhang Lisheng's chanting stopped due to lack of energy, a black and red rope that was as thick as a thumb broke out of the ground. Like a living thing, it climbed onto the young man's body along his right leg.
Upon closer inspection, the rope turned out to be a giant centipede that was more than 50 centimeters long. The hard shell on its back was shining in black and red luster.
The centipede had a flat head and shiny black eyes that looked like black beans. There was spirituality in them while the two black fangs at the side of its lips looked ferocious. Soon, it climbed onto Zhang Lisheng's face.
"Blood! There's blood!" Zhang Lisheng saw the centipede rubbing against him gently under his nose. He did not show any fear at all. Instead, he grinned and whispered, "Eat it quickly! Don't waste it!"
As though it understood what the young man said, the giant centipede stopped being intimate with him. It curled its body into a U-shape and slowly moved down under his nose. All of Zhang Lisheng's blood that flowed out of his body disappeared even though it had dried up.
When the centipede began to eat the blood, the young man relaxed right away and sat on the ground.
However, not long after a smile appeared on his face, he felt dizzy. His throat was gagging but he could not spit anything out. After a while, his face was as pale as a dead man's.
Zhang Lisheng, who used to only feed the centipede a few drops of blood each time, finally understood how stupid his opportunistic method was. He was basically digging his own grave. However, what was done could not be undone. He could only pray that God would let him get through this disaster.
The more pain and fear Zhang Lisheng felt, the happier the poisonous bug that he was feeding with his flesh and blood was. The centipede that was eating the young man's blood began to emit a magnificent glimmer on its horribly curved body. Its head and tail swayed together, not caring about its owner's skinny body at all. Gradually, the flesh and blood on its owner's body sank at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye, turning into skin and bones.
Fortunately, when Zhang Lisheng's horrified and dumbfounded eyes were about to pop out, the centipede finally finished eating the blood that flowed out of his body and began to rub against the young man intimately in a leisurely manner, finally giving him a chance to catch his breath.
Zhang Lisheng laid on the ground powerlessly and slowly recovered a little of his vitality. His skinny body gradually expanded a little like an inflatable doll. Although he was still so skinny that he did not look like a human anymore, at least he was no longer as horrifying as a skeleton with skin.
Zhang Lisheng used all of his strength to pull the centipede off his face and threw it on the ground. He said in a hoarse voice, "Qing Hong, you almost killed me. You must listen to me after eating so much blood and energy this time. Don't let my father beat me up again, otherwise, I won't forgive you."
At the mention of his father, the young man recalled that he had not finished his homework in the morning. Without warning, he shuddered, as though the soreness and pain coming from his weak body was not so difficult to bear. Hastily, he began to chant the ancient incantation again. "Pst shh …"
The incantation resonated again and the centipede on the ground began to shake its slender body strangely. Thousands of slender legs crawled everywhere, but they did not move according to the young man's will.
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