Volume One: The Soul-Enticing Gourd and the Soul Igniting Lantern Chapter 95: The Eerie Map

In the little bamboo hut, water splashed, incense drifted, and a lingering song seemed to hang in the air without end.

Li Hetang and Min Wenhua stared, drenched in embarrassed sweat, toward the corner of the hut.

There, in full view, Xiao Yulou—the shameless wretch—was covered head to toe in clean white foam, scrubbing himself with a bath ball in the merriest of moods.

And Gu Mo, long since passed out cold, had already been washed spotless by Xiao Yulou and was now propped to one side. Even the furball, the gluttonous little scoundrel, had been given a wash and stuffed back into Gu Mo’s pocket.

Strangely enough, the purple-black bruising on Gu Mo’s body had actually faded considerably.

At Xiao Yulou’s feet, there were even all manner of washing and grooming items laid out neatly.

Shampoo, body wash, a bath ball, scented soap, and even a brand-new scrub cloth. The bottle of body wash was actually Lux.

A grown man using a bath ball was going a bit too far. It made Xiao Yulou look as though he had some peculiar fetish.

In an instant, Li Hetang came to himself and jabbed a finger at Xiao Yulou’s nose, cursing red-faced in fury.

“You filthy bastard, can you fucking show a little restraint? Do you really think this place is your own home?”

The moment the words left his mouth, Li Hetang realized something was off.

“And where the hell did you even get the body wash?”

At this, Xiao Yulou merely tilted his head and looked at him.

“I’m a man of the Dao. Is it strange for me to keep a bottle of body wash in my robe’s storage space?”

Li Hetang was nearly choked to death by rage.

“You—”

Min Wenhua, beside him, reached out to stop him, then asked curiously, “Hetang, what is body wash?”

Only then did Li Hetang remember.

Min Wenhua had been captured in the Pit of Gods and Demons many years ago. It was perfectly normal for him not to know these toiletries.

Turning back, Li Hetang’s tone softened at once.

“Well... it’s something you use for bathing...”

He scratched his head awkwardly, then looked into Min Wenhua’s eyes and said sincerely, “Brother Cat, to tell you the truth, it’s already the year 202*. You’ve been trapped in the Pit of Gods and Demons for more than thirty years.”

At that, Min Wenhua froze, struggling to accept the reality.

“What... thirty years? How does it feel to me like only seven or eight have passed?”

For the next half hour, Li Hetang wore an awkward smile as he explained how the outside world had changed beyond recognition.

Naturally, he also spoke of his own unusual career and of things like the “otherworldly.”

Min Wenhua listened to these shocking tales without much surprise.

Instead, the iron-willed man remained calm to a degree that felt almost unnatural.

“Back when I was in the Night Owl Special Forces, I’d already heard rumors about the 749 Subsidiary Company. I never thought those stories were actually true.”

Li Hetang nodded slightly at this.

“Brother Cat, Night Owl is the elite among special forces. It’s one in a thousand. If you perform well there, you may have a chance to enter the 749 Subsidiary Company.”

Having said that, Li Hetang showed no arrogance or concealment before this old senior.

Afterward, Min Wenhua stared blankly at the flickering candlelight before him, lost in thought and muttering to himself.

“So that means I’m nearly sixty now?”

Hearing that, Li Hetang placed a hand on Min Wenhua’s shoulder and comforted him softly.

“Brother Cat... don’t get too worked up. These are the undeniable facts...”

Even as he said it, a trace of pity rose in Li Hetang’s heart.

“The Pit of Gods and Demons is under the control of earth-binding masters in both time and space. It’s practically a hidden paradise.”

After a long while, Min Wenhua gradually came to himself and continued asking Li Hetang about the outside world.

For a time, this iron-willed man was like a hungry infant, greedily absorbing every scrap of information.

After a long while, Min Wenhua looked with clear envy at the gear on Li Hetang’s person.

Soldiers naturally have great interest in new weapons. Firearms and ammunition are, for a soldier, almost a second life.

At that, Li Hetang respectfully offered up his spare dagger to this old senior.

When Min Wenhua took the blade and lightly scraped a finger along its sharp edge, he looked just like a child who had received a new toy.

At that moment, fresh from his bath and fragrant all over, Xiao Yulou had already dressed Gu Mo and sat down beside Li Hetang.

“Why don’t you two take a bath as well and feel a bit better?”

Li Hetang drew a deep breath and finally yielded to reality.

After all this time, they had been either fleeing or on the road to fleeing.

Their whole bodies ached, and being filthy and foul-smelling was a plain fact.

Given such an opportunity, Li Hetang was naturally not going to miss it.

When Min Wenhua stripped off the ant armor and the clothing beneath it, the powerful, gleaming mass of his muscles made both Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang envious beyond measure.

The few horrifying wounds of mortal danger on Min Wenhua’s chest made the battle-hardened Li Hetang suck in a sharp breath.

If those injuries had been on Li Hetang, he would have died seven or eight times over.

Yet on Min Wenhua’s broad back there wasn’t even a scratch.

For a hardened soldier, having an injury on one’s back was a great shame.

Seeing this, Li Hetang instantly developed a deep and genuine respect for this senior.

After Li Hetang finished bathing, the three of them sat together and chatted casually. Naturally, Xiao Yulou also produced drinks, snacks, and cigarettes from the sleeve of his robe.

Seeing these long-missed supplies, Min Wenhua’s eyes immediately lit up.

Still, this iron-blooded man did not gorge himself. Instead, he even kept part of it in his pocket.

Xiao Yulou understood at once what he meant.

The shameless Daoist smiled lightly and said, “Brother Wenhua, I still have several boxes of snacks here. Eat your fill. Once I return with you to your resting place, I’ll bring them out then.”

Min Wenhua only gave an honest, good-natured smile to mask his embarrassment.

Li Hetang, at his side, promptly changed the subject. “Brother Cat, you really never saw that woman I told you about?”

Min Wenhua only shook his head.

At that, Li Hetang’s heart tightened. But the lack of any news about Codename O was not necessarily a bad thing—perhaps Codename O was still alive.

Xiao Yulou smiled faintly at the yellow candle on the table.

“Brother Wenhua, if I’m not mistaken, this is beeswax?”

Min Wenhua smiled and nodded.

“In fact, you’ve already been quite lucky. You only ran into giant ants, spiders, aphids, and mantises—you haven’t met centipedes or bees yet!”

At this, Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang both felt their rear ends clench and their whole bodies tremble, nearly frightened senseless.

“What? There are other insects here too!”

Min Wenhua smiled faintly and went on.

“Insects are actually not that hard to deal with. As long as you carry a powder made from wormwood, most of them will keep away. The real killers in this forest are the plants.”

At that, images flashed through Li Hetang’s mind of towering man-eating flowers, pitcher plants, and even all sorts of bizarre greenery.

Then Min Wenhua looked at Gu Mo, still unconscious off to one side, and asked, “What’s the story with that young man? He fought the giant spider like a madman, and even after taking such a heavy blow, he was still able to live.”

Having said that, Xiao Yulou explained some of Gu Mo’s circumstances.

When Min Wenhua heard of the extreme yin fate, he still found it hard to believe all those unfathomable things of the underworld.

“With that young man’s physical condition, who knows—he may yet carve out an entirely different world for himself.”

...

After a brief exchange, the four of them rode the bamboo basket back to the surface.

Thereafter, Min Wenhua, acting as guide, looked back at Li Hetang and Xiao Yulou and quietly reminded them, “You two stay close. There are traps everywhere in this jungle that I set myself.”

Hearing that, Li Hetang obediently nodded.

Thus the three of them advanced in a long, single-file line, heading out of the jungle...

After walking for several minutes, Li Hetang, who was in the middle, continued asking while looking at Min Wenhua’s broad back.

“Brother Cat... I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while. What did you coat your spear with? How did it one-shot that giant spider?”

At this, Min Wenhua held the spear’s wooden tip up before Li Hetang’s eyes.

“At the edge of this forest lies a tropical rainforest. In that rainforest there’s a strange plant similar to a blowpipe tree. The juice of its green fruit contains a neurotoxin—just one drop can drop an elephant.”

He looked into Li Hetang’s eyes and smiled.

“If you’re interested, I’ll show you later.”

Li Hetang broke into delighted laughter at once.

With that neurotoxin enhancing his compound bow, Li Hetang’s combat power would rise dramatically.

And so the three of them walked far into the darkness, until a small patch of light appeared before them...

As their footsteps drew closer, the temperature around them rose abruptly beneath that field of brilliance.

Seeing sunlight again made Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang feel a great deal more comfortable.

Before their eyes spread a vast expanse of lush rainforest vegetation.

A breeze passed through, and the stifling heat made the three walking men somewhat uneasy.

The moment Xiao Yulou set foot in this rainforest, he suddenly shuddered all over. It seemed this shameless, ragged Daoist had already sensed something.

“Limitless Heavenly Honored One!”

At this, the two in front turned around and asked in curiosity, “Does Daoist Xiao find something wrong?”

Xiao Yulou’s expression grew grave as he formed a Daoist hand sign and silently calculated.

After the time it takes to smoke a cigarette, he lifted his eyes to the two men before him and said, “You two, this place is very different from the ‘microscopic forest’ we just left. I sense a completely opposite kind of barrier here!”

At that, Min Wenhua looked at this Daoist in a new light.

“That’s right. There aren’t any insects nearly that large in this rainforest. But it’s still full of peril.”

Li Hetang nodded silently. As an ace soldier of the 749 Subsidiary Company, he had naturally carried out missions in all kinds of environments.

Xiao Yulou, however, looked solemnly back toward the microscopic world behind them.

“Limitless Heavenly Honored One!”

Once more he formed a Daoist hand sign and recited the phrase, then pointed toward the two different environments.

“Have either of you noticed that there’s something wrong with the border between these two places?”

Hearing this, Li Hetang squatted down, pinched some soil in his hand, and compared it.

“Right! How can a forest and a rainforest be connected like this? These are clearly two completely different landforms!”

Xiao Yulou flicked his sleeve and then looked into Min Wenhua’s eyes.

“Brother Wenhua, have you explored any other areas?”

At this, Min Wenhua used the pointed spear in his hand to draw on the ground.

Xiao Yulou also crouched down at once to study the map he had drawn in the dirt.

Soon enough, Min Wenhua pointed to seven or eight regions on the ground and explained them one by one.

“This little dot is where we are now. The microscopic forest before this doesn’t have much to say. Other than the insects being huge, it was still fairly safe.”

At that, Xiao Yulou’s expression darkened at once.

Fairly safe?

Those black ants more than twenty meters long and the absurdly huge giant spiders had nearly cost the lives of all three of them. Not to mention the six-winged blade mantis that had not even joined the fight yet.

If they ran into bees and centipedes of the same scale, the three of them together probably still wouldn’t be able to win.

And yet, in Min Wenhua’s mouth, that was still considered fairly safe?

Without missing a beat, Min Wenhua pointed to the border between the two landforms and said, “Next, we’ll have to cross a vast stretch of rainforest to get back to the cave where I’ve been hiding.”

There he paused deliberately, then glanced at the expressions of Xiao Yulou and Li Hetang before continuing.

“This rainforest is basically no different from the Amazon. So all the dangers one would expect are here, all of them.”

Li Hetang frowned tightly and nodded in silence. Xiao Yulou beside him, however, took it completely in stride.

Then Min Wenhua pointed to a house-shaped mark on the map and said, “This is the cave where I’m living now. Because supplies are scarce, I had no choice but to explore the surroundings and gather what I could.”

With that, he pointed to the two regions around the cave.

“The two areas right next to the cave are a little strange. To the east is an entire desert, and to the south is the ocean!”

Hearing these absurd descriptions, Xiao Yulou became even more curious.

Which eminent master was the earth-binding practitioner behind the creation of the Pit of Gods and Demons?

And for what purpose?

Yet the vast rainforest before them remained, in the end, a troublesome obstacle...