parentshiftbook Chapter 79 Dragon and Snake Swap Backbone!
Chapter 79 Dragon and Snake Swap Backbone!
Chapter 79 Dragon and Snake Swap Backbone!
By the time Su Ye left the cave, the rain had subsided.
The only sound in the forest was the soft murmur of water. The leaves were chilled by the night wind, and the wet mud clung to the soles of my shoes, making a slight rustling sound with every step. The city lights in the distance were whitened by the rain and mist, as if viewed through a layer of old glass.
Su Ye had already erased most of his own traces from it. As an extraordinary person hidden in an ordinary life, he did not want his current pace of exploring the extraordinary to be disturbed.
Today's actions were twofold: firstly, because they had offended Su Chen, thus touching Su Ye's sore spot; and secondly, because the Xuanjing Society was too vicious, deserving of everyone's wrath. Now, they had followed this lead to the Xuanjing Society's base and were able to wipe them out completely.
Su Ye erased his own traces. He was focused on becoming extraordinary and had his own path to follow, and he did not want to be disturbed.
When Su Ye returned to his residence, it was almost dawn.
Only a small nightlight was on in the living room, casting a warm yellow light on the edge of the sofa. Su Chen was still asleep on the sofa, covered with a blanket, with half of his face buried in a cushion, fast asleep.
Su Ye stood in the entryway and watched him for a while.
This brat is really exhausted. He awakened his inner vision under extreme conditions, but he never expected that his younger brother would be such an extraordinary genius.
Su Ye took off his raincoat, cleaned himself up quickly, and then went to the bathroom to wash his face.
Cold water splashed on his face. He looked up and saw himself in the mirror, his eyes still showing a hint of coldness.
Tonight, I went out and killed dozens of people. Although they were all heinous criminals, it still had some impact on Su Ye.
As he activated his Water-based Golden Core, his spiritual energy gently swept across his brow, gradually suppressing the shadow and violence within him. His heartbeat slowly stabilized, his breathing returned to calm, and the contours of his face in the mirror gradually softened.
Back in his room, Su Ye closed the door, lay down on the bed, but couldn't fall asleep.
The soft, steady sound of rain outside the window brought him a sense of extraordinary peace.
Su Ye took out the book "Dragon and Snake Swap" from his pocket. The cover of the ancient book was damp and the corners were badly worn, but it had a heavy feel to it.
He turned to the first page.
"The spine transforms into a dragon and snake, the power penetrates to the very tip—the great dragon shakes its armor, the long snake coils its body, all bones erupt simultaneously, flesh and bone resound together—"
The language is simple and archaic, with a certain sophistication.
Su Ye read two lines, but his eyebrows slowly rose.
This thing is a product of ancient martial arts.
He had previously considered whether to learn the path to extraordinary martial arts from some ancient martial arts classics. The wisdom of the ancients is very precious, and many things cannot be completely replaced by modern medicine. However, he had never had the opportunity to come into contact with truly useful classics. And those ancient martial arts, along with the anti-fraud storm that swept the internet a few years ago, have now disappeared without a trace.
Unexpectedly, this nighttime intrusion into the Xuanjing Society resulted in finding a book.
He continued scrolling down.
The so-called "dragon and snake changing spine" is based on the spine. When exerting force, the power starts from the soles of the feet, travels along the calves, knees, and spinal cord, enters the waist and back, and then is sent to the extremities through the thoracic vertebrae, scapula, elbows, and wrists. The book calls it "the great dragon shaking its armor" or "the long snake coiling its body".
As Su Ye read on, his mind automatically switched to a different set of medical terminology.
The plantar fascia, gastrocnemius muscle, quadriceps femoris muscle group, erector spinae muscle group and scapular stability, the "dragon" in ancient books, when applied to the body, is a power chain composed of bones, fascia, muscles and nerve reflexes. Once this chain is opened, the power can be transmitted from the ground to the fingertips, with much less loss in the middle.
nice one.
But as he looked further down, Su Ye felt something was amiss.
This book, "The Dragon and the Snake Swap Backbone," has a noticeable sense of discontinuity.
The first half resembles ancient martial arts, discussing body techniques, energy pathways, skeletal structure, and the explosive power of manifest energy. Although the language is obscure, the framework is quite complete. However, in the second half, there are suddenly some descriptions of the external appearance of the spine. That part of the text is more vivid and more dangerous, as if someone took an ancient martial art as a foundation and forcibly incorporated a kind of external appearance of the spine, trying to make the ancient martial art and the external appearance work together to create a truly deadly technique.
Su Ye's eyes flickered slightly.
The boy he rescued from the Xuanjing Society had his external features located at the spine. He recalled the dark lines on the boy's back, lying along the spinous process and paravertebral fascia, like a dragon or snake that had not yet truly awakened.
"There's a powerful figure behind them," Su Ye whispered.
The boy's demeanor was unusual, and now it seems he has quite a background. Someone has revitalized ancient martial arts and, with the help of the boy's appearance, revised this book, "Dragon and Snake Swaps the Spine."
The more Su Ye looked, the brighter his eyes became.
This thing is so useful to him.
His "Flicking Flower" technique is derived from Li Yuefeng's "inch-force" external form. It is exquisite, concealed, and adept at penetrating force to injure people, but it is not yet mature. In many aspects, he relies on his physical strength and mental perception to make up for it. "Dragon and Snake Swap Spine" has a mature framework. "Flicking Flower" is more focused on internal force and hidden force, while "Dragon and Snake Swap Spine" is more focused on visible force and emphasizes the harmony of bone and flesh, which can be launched in one go.
It's just a pity that something is still missing.
"It's still not perfect enough."
Su Ye closed the book, thought for a moment, and then took out his phone to start searching for information.
It can only be said that online searches will throw any relevant words at you, such as "three days to change your spine" or "seven days to become a dragon." Su Ye glanced at it and closed it.
Finally, he found a similar source in a very obscure local chronicle and an old martial arts forum post.
The Transformation of the Dragon and the Snake.
A niche ancient martial art.
There is a successor, but no specific address.
"If I could find out where they live, I would have to pay them a visit."
Although it was late at night, Su Ye was completely engrossed in this book with its altered spine.
He got up and moved the things in the room that he could knock over to the side. The rented room was not big. He stood between the bed and the desk, his toes just avoiding the slippers on the floor.
Following the instructions in the book, he placed his feet on the ground, bent his knees slightly, and gradually straightened his spine.
At first, it was just ordinary standing meditation. Soon, Su Ye used his mental power to see his body. He felt the pressure on the soles of his feet, made subtle adjustments to his ankle joints, coordinated his knees and hips, and felt his lumbar fascia like a bow being slowly drawn. The power climbed up his spine, his thoracic vertebrae were pulled one by one, his shoulder blades gently sank, and an invisible, powerful force surged up.
Crack!
A series of faint, sharp popping sounds came from deep within the spine. The sound was very soft, yet extremely crisp, like a string of firecrackers exploding inside the flesh and bone.
Su Ye's eyes lit up.
Come again.
His feet sank, and his entire spine suddenly tensed up. At that moment, the muscles in his back contracted layer by layer from his lumbosacral region to his shoulders and neck. The fascia conduction was as if a straight line had been opened up. His lungs trembled slightly, and his heart beat more powerfully.
Crackling sounds!
This time, the sounds were even more frequent, and the water glass on the bedside table shook, causing a thin ripple to spread across the half-full glass of cold water inside.
Su Ye immediately stopped practicing, worried about disturbing the neighbors. However, the Dragon-Snake Spinal Transformation gave him a huge surprise.
The next morning.
Su Chen slowly woke up. When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a familiar section of the ceiling, and then he realized that he was lying on his older brother's sofa.
Su Chen's expression changed slightly.
He actually slept through the night, which means he was really exhausted. But his brother's house did give him a sense of security. After sleeping, his mental state improved a lot. His left hand still hurt, but he felt warm inside, as if a small patch of spring was hidden near his liver, slowly repairing those minor injuries.
The sound of a kettle boiling came from the kitchen. Su Ye came out with a cup of hot water and glanced at him.
"woke up?"
Su Chen immediately sat up, his hair a mess as if it had been blown by the wind all night. He asked somewhat embarrassedly, "You're awake, bro, what time is it?"
"Around seven o'clock."
Su Chen's expression changed.
"Oh no, I have class this morning. I'd better go now, or I'll be late. You have to go to work too, right?"
"Um."
Su Ye looked at Su Chen, whose expression had changed drastically, and couldn't help but find it amusing. He seemed to be thinking of his past self, when he thought being late for school was a huge deal.
Su Ye tossed him a bag of bread and a packet of fresh soy milk.
"Eat on the way."
Su Chen caught it, feeling a warmth in his heart.
"knew!"
He put on his shoes, slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of the room. Click, he closed the door, and the cold air in the hallway rushed in. Su Chen rubbed his face, and just as he took out his phone, his aunt's messages started scrolling across the screen.
The news caused a sensation.
Dozens of unread messages, from group chats, private messages, and a barrage of messages from a few acquaintances in that extraordinary little circle.
"Su Chen! Something terrible has happened in Jiangcheng!"
"Is he awake? Check the messages!"
"The Xuanjing Society is gone!"
"I don't know which powerful figure they offended, but overnight, dozens of members, including a high-ranking member in white robes, were completely wiped out!"
"This malignant tumor in Jiangcheng has been completely eradicated!"
Su Chen abruptly stopped at the top of the stairs.
"What?"
He gasped softly.
He slept one night and found out that such a big thing had happened in Jiangcheng?
He had just fought against the Xuanjing Society and knew just how terrifying they were. One black-robed man had almost killed him in an abandoned construction site on a rainy night. Dozens of black-robed men, as well as white-robed men, all died overnight.
Su Chen stared at the screen, a chill inexplicably creeping down his spine.
Who is the big shot who made this move?
Meanwhile, Su Ye had already packed his things and gone to work.
He changed into his ordinary coat, picked up his bag, and went downstairs, blending into the morning rush hour crowd. Steam rose from the breakfast shop entrance, and fried dough sticks were freshly made. A bus pulled into the station with a long screech. The morning in Jiangcheng was as busy as ever. Regardless of the undercurrents, the lives of ordinary people continued.
As for the Xuanjing Society incident, Su Ye was unaware that his impulsive act of standing up for his younger brother in a fit of rage had caused a sensation throughout Jiangcheng.
For Jiangcheng, the Xuanjing Society has always been a thorn in their side, an evil organization that sends chills down the spines of many who know the truth.
The Xuanjing Society's main purpose is to collect information on external figures. Its methods are cruel and bloody, and many people resent it but dare not provoke it, for fear of being targeted and dying without a complete corpse one day.
The shock caused by the fact that it was completely uprooted overnight is unimaginable.
When Su Chen arrived at the school, the morning classes had not yet started.
The road outside the teaching building was still wet, and raindrops clung to the sycamore leaves. Several students hurriedly ran into the building with their books in their arms. As soon as Su Chen reached the bottom of the building, he was surrounded by several familiar faces.
"Brother Chen!"
A bespectacled boy lowered his voice, clearly indicating that they had already gathered together. There were also a few people from outside the university, but their faces were now filled with barely suppressed excitement.
"The Xuanjing Society is gone! This thorn in our side has finally been removed!"
Another person chimed in quickly: "Overnight! I heard that the man in the white robe is a ruthless master of the Inner Realm, someone like that could crush us like an ant."
Su Chen gasped.
People whose internal organs are undergoing proper evolution, and whose internal structures are beginning to evolve—were all killed?
He subconsciously touched his liver area, which remained warm. He seemed to have awakened his inner vision when he was on the verge of death last night, but he hadn't yet figured out what his inner vision was, and was somewhat confused for a moment.
"It's best to keep a low profile in Jiangcheng these days." The bespectacled boy looked around and lowered his voice, "Xuanjing Society usually hides itself so well and does so many bad things. Now they've offended someone we can't afford to offend."
"It was probably another organization that did it." Someone nearby frowned. "So many people from the Xuanjing Society were wiped out overnight. They must have been too arrogant and offended another powerful organization, which wiped them out in one fell swoop. I wonder what will happen next."
"Who cares? Let them die."
A girl said coldly, "These bastards who have done so many bad things should be dead."
They all fell silent for a moment.
Su Chen thought of the little girl from last night, and then of the observation of the external appearance that Xuan Jinghui had mentioned, which was mixed with so much bloodshed. The shock in his heart slowly subsided.
"Um.
""
He put his phone away.
"I have to go to class."
"Brother Chen, are you alright?" The boy with glasses looked at him. "Why do you seem distracted?"
"fine."
Su Chen waved his hand, slung his bag over his shoulder, and entered the teaching building.
In the corridor, some students were memorizing vocabulary words, while others were eating steamed buns as they walked. The warm smell of soy milk mingled with the damp rain, creating an atmosphere so ordinary it felt almost surreal.
Su Chen walked to the corner of the stairs, paused for a moment, and then took out his phone to contact his superior in the military.
The other party replied shortly after the message was sent.
"The body from the Xuanjing Society has been retrieved, and the one you reported last night has also been confirmed. We'll settle the account with you here."
Su Chen felt a sense of relief upon seeing the word "settlement".
Two hundred thousand yuan.
He can help his older brother share some of the burden.
But the news of the complete annihilation of the Xuanjing Society was still weighing on his mind. He hesitated for a few seconds and then asked a question indirectly.
"Senior, who exactly was behind the attack in the south of the city last night?"
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and this time the reply was much slower.
"Let's not talk about this anymore."
Su Chen's heart tightened.
The other party sent another message: "We are also very puzzled at the moment, and the more we investigate, the more alarmed we become. Based on our on-site investigation and the traces left behind, it is possible that only one person destroyed the Xuanjing Society."
Su Chen's fingers paused.
A person?
"Are you sure it was done by one person?" he couldn't help but ask.
The other party quickly confirmed: "Yes, it's incredible, isn't it? We examined the deaths of those Xuanjing Society members, including the white-robed one. There were only signs of one person's actions at the scene, which is why it's so terrifying."
Su Chen slowly tightened his grip on the phone.
One man single-handedly stormed through the Xuanjing Society's stronghold, even killing the White-Robed Inner Jing Orthodox inside.
He looked up at the end of the corridor. The sky outside the window was overcast. The city of Jiangcheng after the rain looked as if it had just been washed, wet, bright, and quiet. It was breathtaking.
My phone vibrated again.
The other party sent a final message: "Jiangcheng is a place where hidden talents abound. You're a promising young man. Keep a low profile in your daily life; there are some people you can't afford to offend."
Su Chen remained silent for a long time before replying with a single word.
"Um.
""
After the turmoil at the Xuanjing Society, Su Ye's life returned to normal.
The fourth consultation room remained lukewarm. People would register every day, and others would stand at the door, see the young doctor's face, hesitate for a couple of seconds, and then turn to ask the nurse if there were any expert appointments left. Su Ye was quite calm about this, and continued to see patients as usual. If there were patients, he would see them; if not, he would just space out or ponder something extraordinary.
Su Ye has been preoccupied with the book "Dragon and Snake Swaps Backbone" for the past few days.
Before dawn, he went to an open space near his residence. The place used to be a small basketball court, but the hoops were crooked and the cement ground was cracked with fine grass growing in the cracks. It had rained a little last night, so the air was humid.
Su Ye stood in the center of the open space, his feet firmly planted on the ground.
He didn't rush to move. He first focused his mental energy on himself, applied pressure to the soles of his feet, slightly bent his knees and hips, lowered his pelvis, and gradually tightened his thoracolumbar fascia. Starting from the coccyx, his spine seemed to be awakened segment by segment. His erector spinae muscles stretched along both sides of the vertebrae, his shoulder blades sank slightly, and his arms hung down naturally.
"Dragon and Snake Changing Spine" explains the power of strength.
The power originates from the ground, flows through the spine, and penetrates to the extremities.
Su Ye slowly inhaled, his chest expanded, and he suppressed the golden energy deep in his lungs, leaving only the pure power of his physical body. The next moment, his feet shook.
Crackling sounds!
A series of cracking sounds erupted from deep within his spine. Su Ye's back tensed instantly, his entire spine trembling like a dragon shaking its armor plates. Layer upon layer of back muscles transmitted the power, which surged through his shoulder blades, elbows, and wrists to his fist. With a single punch, the air was blasted with a muffled boom, the water on the ground in front of him exploded violently, water droplets splashed out, and the fine grass in the cracks bent backward in unison. The force of the punch grazed the crooked basketball hoop, causing the metal frame to sway slightly and creak.
Su Ye withdrew his fist and stood still.
He didn't throw a second punch. He felt a noticeable soreness on both sides of his spine, as if the deep muscles in his lower back had been twisted, and there was a slight burning pain at the junction of his chest and waist.
He shook his head helplessly.
"Without the blessing of external appearance, this Dragon-Snake Spinal Transformation cannot be used many times, as it puts too much strain on the body."
This was after he had completed a second marrow cleansing. If it were a normal person, forcibly following the instructions in this book, their spine would probably be damaged on the spot. At best, it would result in tearing of the paravertebral muscles, and at worst, vertebral dislocation, nerve compression, and the person would end up in the orthopedics department.
"This is definitely a very powerful technique." Su Ye looked down at his fist. "It combines the framework of ancient martial arts with external forms, making it extremely powerful. It's just a pity that it's not perfect yet, and many of the powers are sluggish when they are flowing."
Ancient martial arts truly is a path.
Su Ye felt like he had opened a new door. Ancient martial arts and medical skills were not as far apart as he had imagined. They shared the same origin, both being the development and research of the human body.
He couldn't remember which book he had read a sentence in.
The best doctors regulate life, the worst cure disease; the best martial arts nourish the body, the worst kill.
If he were to practice "Dragon and Snake Spinal Transformation" as a physical strengthening technique first and develop it gradually, it might be able to fill a gap in his physical system. Unfortunately, he has not yet come into contact with the external appearance of the spine, nor has he read the real ancient martial arts book "Dragon and Snake Transformation".
Make bricks without straw.
Su Ye finished his practice, rubbed his lower back, but his mind started to wander.
Back then in the cave, the facial features on the boy's back were actually quite worthy of study. However, under those circumstances, if he had actually pressed the boy back onto the iron bed and carefully examined his spine, fascia, and facial features, even if the boy had a strong mentality, he would probably have been scared into some kind of trouble.
Just as Xuan Jinghui was about to skin him alive, he turned around and began to conduct a detailed examination, observing his appearance. It all sounded like another version of a pervert.
Su Ye chuckled and suppressed the thought for the time being.
But the matter of the Xuanjing Society ultimately added a sense of urgency to his heart.
The Xuanjing Society in Jiangcheng is just a small outpost. If there are white-robed figures and those at the Marrow Cleansing level in such a small outpost, where is the real headquarters of the Xuanjing Society?
Su Ye has really offended the Xuanjing Society this time. Fortunately, he handled it very cleanly, leaving no one alive. It will be difficult for them to directly target him in the short term, but this peace will not last long.
Su Chen has already reached the extraordinary level, awakened his inner vision, and mastered his outer appearance. His future path is destined to be anything but peaceful. Su Chen is his younger brother whom he watched grow up, and the future will not be tranquil. Su Ye must become stronger.
Get stronger.
This idea became clearer and clearer in Su Ye's mind.
He returned to his residence, took a shower, changed his clothes, and sat down at his computer to access the hospital's database.
Along his journey, many extraordinary individuals he encountered initially appeared to be suffering from illness. For example, Zhu Ming's nascent water-based golden core was mistaken for kidney stones, and Li Yuefeng's inch-force external appearance...
As a doctor, Su Ye has access to many extraordinary cases that are only discovered after the fact. These cases are brought to the hospital by patients, then screened through routine diagnoses. Those that are not understood are classified as difficult cases, those whose symptoms have subsided are misdiagnosed, and those whose patients never come back are left quietly in the database.
Su Ye began searching.
Keywords ranged from "abnormal calcification," "no clear organic lesion," and "recurring pain" to "inconsistent imaging" and "short-term muscle strength changes," and medical records were screened out one by one.
A 32-year-old truck driver had been experiencing recurring chest tightness. A CT scan of his lungs showed fine, high-density textures in the lower lobe of his right lung, resembling metallic powder deposits. However, his blood routine tests, inflammatory markers, and occupational exposure history did not match up. The patient had only visited once and had not returned for a follow-up visit after receiving the scans.
There was also an elderly woman in her sixties who experienced recurring burning sensations in the tips of her fingers and dark, wood-grain-like lines appearing under her nails. She was diagnosed with orthopedics...
The rheumatology and immunology department couldn't find a clear result, and the medical record ended with "follow-up recommended," followed by nothing.
What happened to them afterward? Did they successfully transform and become extraordinary, or were they tormented by evolution and eventually die in some unknown night?
Su Ye continued reading.
Suddenly, a medical record made him stop in his tracks.
The patient, Liu Xiao, male, 21 years old.
Chief complaint: Repeatedly smelling a putrid odor for three weeks, accompanied by cold skin and insomnia at night.
The examination results were strange. The cranial MRI showed no obvious abnormalities, and the nasal endoscopy showed no lesions. However, the patient described the odor as "like it was coming out of the bones, and it was very smelly." At the same time, his blood routine showed a slight increase in white blood cells. The dermatology record also mentioned that the patient had irregular gray-black patches on his back and forearms, which were cool to the touch.
The last sentence in the medical record is: The patient refused further examination and left the hospital on his own.
The registered address is in the neighboring small town.
Unit 3, Room 402, No. 17 Songhuai Lane, Laoqiao District, Qingwu City.
Su Ye looked at the address and a slight thought crossed his mind.
After becoming a full-time employee, he was finally able to squeeze out some time off from his shifts. For the next few days, he went to work and practiced his martial arts as usual, circulating his breathing techniques daily, and his physique was slowly improving. However, the third marrow cleansing was still a long way off, and he didn't know when his next breakthrough would come.
On his day off, Su Ye put on his backpack and went out as soon as it was light.
Qingwu City is not far from Jiangcheng. It takes just over half an hour by high-speed rail and then a bus transfer. It was almost noon when he found Songhuai Lane.
This is an old residential area. The exterior walls of the buildings are gray from being soaked by rainwater, and moss grows at the base of the walls. Electrical wires are strung between the buildings, looking like haphazardly sewn stitches. The stairwells are covered with small posters: unlocking doors, unclogging drains, and recycling old appliances. The edges of the posters are rolled up and covered in dust.
The alley was damp. On the first floor, a family was cooking lunch. The smell of cooking oil and mildew mingled together, and the puddles on the ground reflected a small patch of gloomy sky.
As soon as Su Ye entered the residential area, he saw an aunt carrying a shopping basket coming out of the building.
He stepped forward and asked, "Auntie, excuse me, does Liu Xiao live here?"
The aunt stopped and looked him up and down.
"You mean that kid Liu Xiao?" She thought for a moment, then frowned. "I don't know. I haven't seen him for a month or so. I almost forgot about him. What happened? Did that kid get into trouble?"
Su Ye quickly shook his head: "No, I'm his friend, I just came to see him."
The aunt breathed a sigh of relief, but was still a little puzzled: "Friend, why don't you go up and take a look? It's the third unit, the fourth floor, the one on the left. That kid doesn't talk to people much usually. He kept saying there was a bad smell in the building a while ago, but we didn't smell anything. If you don't have anything to do, come and let me know. That kid is quite a worry."
She muttered to herself, "Young people are so strange."
Su Ye thanked her and went upstairs in the direction she pointed.
The stairwell was narrow and poorly lit. The walls were bulging in patches, and the handrails felt sticky to the touch. On each floor, you could smell different odors: food, dampness, old wood, and a faint smell of decay.
Upon reaching the fourth floor, the smell became noticeably stronger.
Su Ye stood in front of room 402 and knocked on the door.
dong dong.
no respond.
He knocked twice more, and only the motion-activated light in the hallway hummed and turned on, casting a pale white light on the doorplate.
Su Ye frowned slightly, his senses spreading out and probing through the crack in the door. The next moment, his expression changed slightly.
There's something inside.
There was also a strong sense of death.
Su Ye raised his hand and pressed down on the door lock, exerting force with his five fingers, and snapped the lock cylinder in half.
The moment the door opened, a stench hit us.
The stench, like a lump of hot, wet mud, rushed into his nostrils. Su Ye frowned. He had smelled necrotic tissue in the hospital and seen festering wounds in the emergency room, but none of them smelled as bad as the one before him. It was a mixture of sour gastric juices, rotting flesh, and an indescribable muddy odor.
The room was dark, with the curtains drawn tightly. The living room was piled with takeout boxes, mineral water bottles, and several bags of blackened garbage. There were drag marks on the floor, and a sticky, dark liquid had dried in the tile grout. It didn't look like anyone had lived there.
Su Ye walked in. He had already guessed what was going on, but when his mental energy covered everything in the room and everything became clear, his expression still darkened.
There is a huge creature in the bedroom.
They can no longer be called human.
The thing huddled by the bed, taking up almost half the room. Its skin and bulging flesh were intertwined, like a ruined mountain of flesh. The bed frame had long since collapsed, and there were large patches of gray and black marks on the corner of the wall. The green ivy on the windowsill had withered, leaving only a few limp vines.
"Who?"
A deep, hoarse voice came from the bedroom, as if the throat was stuffed with damp sand.
Su Ye stood in the center of the living room, remained silent for a moment, and then sighed softly.
"The failed evolution of spleen earth".
The shadow in the bedroom moved, and the next moment, the mountain of flesh slowly emerged.
The living room was dimly lit, with only a sliver of white light from the motion-activated hallway light outside the door shining in. When it shone on him, Su Ye finally saw Liu Xiao's current appearance clearly.
His hair had fallen out completely, his scalp was covered with swollen granulation tissue, his original facial features were distorted, his eyes were sunken in the swollen flesh, the whites of his eyes were bloodshot, but his pupils still showed signs of pain.
His neck had almost disappeared, his shoulders and chest and abdomen were connected as one piece, his skin was stretched and shiny, and in some places it had broken open, revealing grayish-red proliferating tissue. There were thick blood vessels between the flesh, which bulged with each breath, as if they were about to burst.
With each step he took, bits of rotting flesh from his body, mixed with muddy debris, fell to the ground, and the stench emanated from these things.
Su Ye looked at him, and his heart sank.
This was the situation he least wanted to see, but everything before him confirmed his suspicions. Some of those who left behind difficult medical records at the hospital and never came back for follow-up examinations had probably reached this point.
Evolution flows throughout the world; the successful wield power, while the unsuccessful are swallowed up by it.
The most fundamental difference between humans and animals is that humans possess wisdom. Humans can find direction from their own changes, try to guide, record, and correct, thus becoming truly extraordinary.
However, without guidance, once a person goes in the wrong direction, their body will evolve erratically, just like an animal.
Swallow.
proliferation.
distortion.
Ultimately, it drags people down with it.
As a doctor, Su Ye least wanted to see this kind of thing happen. He once predicted that the future would be an era of chaos, and now it seems that his prediction was not unfounded.
Liu Xiao stared at him, the flesh between his chest and abdomen heaving violently. The atmosphere in the room began to become dangerous. The earthy aura was turbid, heavy, and damp, carrying a violent rage after losing control, making the floor creak slightly.
Su Ye did not act immediately.
"I think we can sit down and talk."
His voice was calm and gentle as he tried to persuade the monster before him.
"I am a doctor at Jiangcheng No. 1 Hospital. Your family should have taken you to Jiangcheng No. 1 People's Hospital. I saw your medical records there, which is why I came here."
Liu Xiao's eyes twitched.
Su Ye continued, "Perhaps I can help you."
The room was silent for a few seconds.
Liu Xiao took a step forward, and this movement caused the muscles on his face to be pulled even more, his expression a mixture of anger and pain. The remaining blood vessels on his forehead and neck bulged, and granulation tissue was wriggling under his skin.
"No one can save me—" his voice trembled. "The world has abandoned me."
Su Ye looked at him.
That can no longer be considered an evolution of the inner landscape; it's an internal landscape distortion. The spleen, originally meant to bear flesh and blood, stabilize the body, and transport nutrients, has completely lost control of the earth element within Liu Xiao's body. It's absorbing and multiplying wildly, pulling muscles, fat, fascia, and skin all in the same wrong direction.
His body was like a culture medium that had lost its boundaries; it was still alive, yet it was also decaying.
"Liu Xiao," Su Ye said, "as long as you can still understand me, there's still a chance."
Liu Xiao suddenly let out a low roar.
The sound was extremely suppressed, like a long-accumulated pain finally tearing open a wound. The next moment, his right hand suddenly swelled up, the skin of his arm cracked open, and a large amount of grayish-red fleshy buds gushed out from the crack, instantly forming a thick, fleshy tentacle. The surface of the tentacle was still covered with mucus and bits of flesh, and it suddenly lashed out at Su Ye.
Su Ye tapped his foot, and his figure instantly retreated.
boom!
The tentacle slammed onto the living room floor, shattering the tiles instantly. The entire building shook, and the faint sound of something falling could be heard from upstairs. Someone next door exclaimed in surprise.
Su Ye's face immediately turned ugly.
"This is a residential building."
He looked at Liu Xiao, his tone turning serious.
"There are many neighbors around. The aunt downstairs just now remembered you and said you hadn't left the house for more than a month. I can tell that they must have taken good care of you before."
Liu Xiao was breathing heavily, his fleshy tentacles dragging on the ground, leaving wet trails.
Su Ye took half a step forward.
"If you start a fight here now, they will get hurt, the whole building might collapse, and you are destroying everything you've ever lived."
Liu Xiao let out a low roar, a roar filled with anger, resentment, and a sense of despair trapped within his body.
His flesh swelled and throbbed, his tentacles twitched a few times, and deep scratches were scraped into the wall. The motion-activated lights in the hallway went out, and the room became even darker in an instant, with only a faint light leaking in from the broken door, illuminating his bloodshot eyes.
for a long time.
He fell silent.
Then, Liu Xiao suddenly turned around, his massive body crashing into the wall on the other side of the bedroom.
boom!
A large hole was suddenly torn open in the old wall, and cement, bricks, and dust exploded together. Sunlight streamed in through the gap, making the dust dance all over the room.
Liu Xiao smashed through the wall and roughly climbed down the outside of the building, rushing towards the back of the community, where there was a sparse, overgrown forest where few people usually went.
Su Ye stood in front of the broken hole in the wall, watching the mountain of flesh disappear into the distance, and couldn't help but curse under his breath.
"What a hassle."
He never imagined that the spleen's abnormality would be so terrifying. Liu Xiao had completely multiplied into a horrible sarcoma monster, with volatile emotions and difficulty in self-control. The spleen and stomach are responsible for digestion and transformation, and are deeply connected to emotions. Once out of control, even anger and pain would become fuel for the body to continue its abnormality.
Su Ye exhaled, his gaze slowly settling.
"The fact that they are unwilling to lay a hand on me here shows that they still retain some humanity."
"He's still human."
"That makes things easier."
He stepped to the edge of the hole in the wall. The wind outside blew in dust, and the sunlight shone on him, casting a long shadow. Dust was still falling from the edge of the broken wall. People downstairs shouted in panic, and heavy crashing sounds came from the withered woods in the distance.
Su Ye stood in the light, his shadow swaying gently.
The next moment, he leaped out.