PD -Chapter 40 The Monster’s Tragedy

After being persuaded by the young laborer, the woman in the qipao abandoned her thoughts of suicide. She even felt fortunate that she had met him that day and that he had stopped her momentary impulse. A sense of gratitude naturally arose within her.

Moreover, the young laborer’s words—“Being alive is the greatest thing in this world”—took root deep in her heart.

Through inquiries, she learned that the laborer worked in the mine. The two gradually became close. Sometimes the young man would stay at the mansion, and together they would gaze at the moon and stars. The woman even began making plans to sell the estate and leave with him, starting a new life elsewhere.

However, what she never expected was that after that night, the young laborer never came again…

Or rather, he never came again in the form of a young man.

The following night, torrential rain poured from the sky. Suddenly, the mine collapsed, burying all the dozens of laborers working inside.

In those days, there was no rescue effort to speak of—not even anyone in charge willing to do anything. By the time the woman learned of the disaster, the mine entrance had already been almost completely buried beneath mud and debris.

She spent money trying to hire people to dig them out, but nothing came of it.

The woman was heartbroken, yet she never forgot the young man’s words:

“Being alive is the greatest thing in this world.”

One year passed. Then two. Then three.

Every year during Qingming Festival, she would visit the collapsed mine and spend time beneath the stars and moon with the young laborer who had been buried alive within.

Then, during the fourth Qingming Festival, she discovered that something had dug open the entrance to the mine.

When she peered inside, a blue-green figure suddenly burst out.

It was a hideous monster with a blue face and protruding fangs.

The creature pinned her to the ground and opened its massive jaws, preparing to bite off her head.

Yet the moment it saw her face, it abruptly retreated back into the mine, as though it had seen something it desperately did not wish to see.

Terrified, the woman ran home.

But soon a thought surfaced in her mind:

The young laborer wasn’t dead!

She immediately returned to the mine and followed the traces into its depths.

Inside, she discovered that most of the tunnels that had once collapsed had somehow been excavated again. The ground and walls were covered in claw marks left by the monster.

At the deepest part of the mine, the creature was curled up in a corner.

Its blue-green body leaned against a pile of human skeletons.

Above its head hung countless dried human limbs, swaying gently like strips of cured meat.

Yet despite the horrifying and grotesque scene, the woman felt no fear at all.

Because all of her attention was fixed on the monster itself.

The creature appeared to be asleep.

And draped over its body was a tattered cotton coat she recognized instantly.

It was the young laborer’s coat.

The only thick piece of clothing he had ever owned to keep himself warm.

Unable to hold back any longer, she burst into tears.

The monster awoke immediately.

Yet when it saw her face, it did not become enraged. Instead, it shrank into itself, desperately trying to hide inside the old coat.

When the woman threw herself forward and embraced it regardless of everything else, the monster actually whimpered softly in her arms like a lost puppy.

And so, under the cover of darkness, she secretly brought the monster back to her mansion and hid it in the basement.

From that day onward, the woman gained a notorious reputation throughout the surrounding villages as the “Widow Who Hunted Handsome Men.”

Every young man who secretly visited her mansion ultimately ended up in the monster’s stomach.

Standing before the mine entrance, I felt as though time itself had frozen.

Everything I had just witnessed had been transmitted directly into my consciousness by the qipao-clad yin spirit through her spiritual aura.

She was trying to use her own memories and emotions to earn my sympathy, hoping I would spare the monster that had once been the young laborer.

The vision had contained far too much of her own will and emotions. My mind had been affected as well, and for a moment my feelings seemed synchronized with hers.

I sympathized deeply with their suffering.

But in the end, I still could not let them go.

They had taken too many innocent lives.

No matter how they had become what they were today, neither of them could be allowed to remain in this world.

Before I could make a move, another flare suddenly shot from Li Zi’s signal gun.

Bang!

The tracer round struck the monster directly.

Half of its body had already been engulfed in flames, and now the entire creature erupted into a blazing inferno.

“No!”

The qipao spirit let out a savage scream and struggled desperately against the Spirit-Subduing Ruler, trying to break free and seek revenge on Li Zi.

I sighed.

There was no longer any reason to hesitate.

Extending my right hand, which burned with Demon-Scorching Flames, I grabbed the spirit by the head.

In an instant, her figure evaporated completely, turning into a wisp of black smoke.

At the same time, the monster stopped struggling.

A similar strand of black smoke escaped from its burning body and drifted slowly into the air.

Seizing the opportunity, I immediately drew the diagram of the Divine Refinement Art in midair and struck it toward the two streams of smoke as they merged together.

Golden light instantly enveloped them.

Moments later, they were refined into two Spirit-Origin Pills, which I stored inside my brocade pouch.

Only after everything was finished did I finally let out a sigh of relief.

I tucked the pouch back into my pocket and went to check on Li Zi and the others.

Li Zi’s clothes were torn, but he appeared unharmed.

The worst off was Monkey.

A vicious claw mark stretched across his chest, flesh split open and bloodied. It looked terrifying.

Fortunately, after examining him, I found his breathing steady.

He had merely fallen unconscious.

The three of us supported him and hurried away, returning to the villa.

After getting into the car, we drove him to the nearest hospital, where his wounds were cleaned and bandaged.

“Bro,” Li Zi asked, “what exactly was that monster? When it dragged me into the cave, I saw piles of human skeletons everywhere. No idea how many people it must’ve eaten.”

I thought for a moment before slowly recounting the memories the qipao spirit had shown me.

“Back then, many of the laborers in that mining disaster probably didn’t die immediately. They were trapped deep underground…”

I sighed.

“The collapsed mine still allowed water to seep in through cracks. But there was no food.”

I could almost picture the horrifying scene beneath the earth.

The trapped laborers, desperate to survive, had been forced to feed on the bodies of their dead companions.

When the corpses were finally consumed, they turned on one another.

Cannibalism became the only way to stay alive.

“Being alive is the greatest thing in this world.”

I suspected that this simple belief had sustained the frail young laborer until he became the last survivor within the mine.

But by then…

He could no longer truly be called human.

“Human beings stand above all living creatures. Within us exists a mysterious power unlike that of other animals.”

I paused before continuing.

“Feeding on human flesh for years was probably what caused his mutation.”

“He gained terrifying power through consuming people.”

“But he never possessed the corresponding mind or ability required to control that power.”

“In the end, that power devoured his original nature…”

“And he was completely transformed into a man-eating monster.”