Volume Three – The Fox Spirit's Tomb Chapter Fourteen – Digging One's Own Grave

The moment the words left my mouth, I suddenly jolted awake. Ghost Market, fire attack—thinking of these, I exclaimed, “Insect Mastery! That’s it! How could I have forgotten this?”

Li Kun looked at me with confusion and asked, “Old Liu, do you have a plan now?”

I turned to him and said, “Old Li, have you forgotten what my identity was in the Ghost Market?”

Li Kun replied, “Of course not, you’re the young master of the Ghost Market.”

Just as he spoke, a realization struck him. “Right, you’re also the young master of the Thousand Poison Pavilion! You’re not unfamiliar with the Insect Mastery technique. Didn’t that Poison Taoist give us a little bamboo flute? I lost mine, but he said it could control poisonous insects, snakes, and ants. Did you bring yours? Try it now.”

Before Li Kun finished, I reached into my pocket and, sure enough, found a long string. The moment I felt it, a surge of joy welled up inside me. I swiftly pulled the string out.

At the end of the string was the small bamboo flute the Poison Taoist had given me that day—a simplified version of the Thousand Poison Pavilion’s insect command. Yet, I held little hope. The Poison Taoist had said it could only temporarily restrain the movements of poisonous insects and snakes, not control them. But if that was enough, it would suffice.

Now, I couldn’t help but smile wryly. Forget killing this Japanese onmyoji; just surviving and escaping would be a victory.

The man, noticing me pull out the small bamboo flute, furrowed his brow slightly, thinking to himself, Could these two be fools? What’s so special about a broken bamboo flute? Could it be some kind of insect repellent? With a faint smile, he resumed playing the flute in his hands.

I quietly said to Li Kun beside me, “Old Li, go upstairs quickly and bring Gao Feng and the others down. If this thing works, we run immediately.”

Li Kun nodded, and I stepped closer to the man, not far from him, and said, “How about we make a bet?”

The man was momentarily stunned but then showed interest. In broken Chinese, he said, “Oh? A bet? What do you want to bet? How long you can last? If so, don’t get your hopes up—you won’t last a minute, and if you do, I’ll admit defeat.”

His words made me laugh inwardly. I hadn’t even said what the bet was, and he’d already decided—only one minute.

I smiled slightly and said, “Yes, let’s bet on how long I can last. Let’s not settle for your one minute. If I last five minutes, you release us. Do you dare?”

The man sneered, “Looks like you’ve already decided how you’ll die. I see your companions coming down now with the two girls. If you really last five minutes, you four can leave safely. But I have one condition.”

I asked, “Oh? What is it?”

As he spoke, I thought to myself, I don’t care what your condition is. If I get out, I’ll have someone set this rotten place ablaze, then let you taste the agony of being devoured by a thousand insects.

The man said, “If you truly last, I’ll let you go. But you must promise not to reveal anything about this place. If you do, I’ll have the poisonous insects eat you alive in your sleep—and the same goes for your three friends.”

I nodded. “That’s easy.”

He continued, “But this only applies if you last five minutes. Otherwise, you’ll be dead—along with your companions.”

With that, he put the flute back to his lips and slowly began to play again.

By this time, Gao Feng and Tian Tian had awakened. Li Kun carefully helped the two women down. At the sight of the tens of thousands of poisonous insects and snakes outside, even Tian Tian, a trained professional, couldn’t help but gasp. Gao Feng was so frightened he fainted again.

I looked around at the dense swarm of venomous creatures crawling on the ground, my scalp tingling. I wondered how the Poison Taoist could live among these every day. Fortunately, I hadn’t agreed to be his direct disciple, or I’d have to deal with these creatures daily.

I took a deep breath, placed the black cord around my neck, and raised the simplified insect command flute. Then, I began to play.

I had expected the sound to be at least somewhat like the Poison Taoist’s insect command, but to my surprise, the tone was shrill and grating—completely unlike his. Compared to his, mine was worlds apart.

Hearing me play, Tian Tian and Li Kun rolled their eyes and covered their ears.

The man’s brow furrowed deeply as he listened to my dreadful flute playing—his frown nearly sharp enough to kill a mosquito. Yet, his mouth and hands never stopped; he kept playing his own flute.

As I played, I carefully observed the poisonous insects and snakes just a few meters away. Under my grating notes, they all froze, neither advancing nor retreating, as if repelled by an unbearable noise and unwilling to come any closer.

Realizing the insects halted because my playing was so unpleasant, I felt a pang of irritation. I had thought the Poison Taoist meant the flute could restrain the creatures’ movement, but it was actually the sound’s unpleasantness that stopped them.

The man’s eyes widened with shock. He had never expected his insects to disobey him and halt like this.

He lowered his flute, looked up at me, and asked, “What is that thing? Why won’t my insects obey me?”

Seeing him put down his flute, I quickly stopped playing the bamboo flute. I couldn’t stand the awful sound any longer; it was piercing and intolerable. If I kept going, I felt I might vomit.

Li Kun and Tian Tian both sighed in relief when I finally put the flute down, then exchanged a glance and smiled.

I rubbed my ear and said, “You wouldn’t understand. Your insect mastery is probably learned from someone no better. I never studied it, yet I can hold your insects firmly. If someone who truly understood insect mastery were here, your insects probably wouldn’t obey you at all.”

Hearing this seemed to trigger something in the man. Muttering repeatedly in Japanese, he suddenly began to scream madly. But as he raged, two enormous centipedes near him stirred and slowly moved toward him.

Seeing two monstrous centipedes over two meters long with fierce eyes crawl toward the man, my heart jumped. These two clearly weren’t under his control. While he played his flute to command the insects, the two centipedes remained still behind him, like guardians watching over the smaller ones.

Excited, I watched as Li Kun and Tian Tian also stepped forward, eager to witness the unfolding drama. The man lost his footing, stumbled, and fell face-first to the ground, still muttering.

After a moment, realizing we likely didn’t understand Japanese, he sat up and angrily tossed the flute aside.

His eyes glinted with madness as he glared at me and said sternly, “You must be lying. I studied insect mastery with my master for thirty years to reach this level. How could you possibly restrain my poisonous insects? I don’t believe it—I don’t!”

He glanced around, spotting his flute lying over two meters away. He tried to stand and retrieve it to continue confronting me.

But before he could rise, Li Kun, Tian Tian, and I smiled knowingly, our gazes fixed behind him.

The man noticed our mocking looks and turned toward us. When he looked at me, I smiled and pointed behind him.

He slowly turned his head back—and at that moment, the two giant centipedes stood upright behind him. Before he could react, both extended their sharp forelegs and plunged them deep into his chest.

The centipedes’ legs pierced through him like spears with a soft pop. The man let out a scream, then fell silent.

The centipedes pressed harder, splitting his body in two. They then opened their massive jaws and swallowed his corpse whole.