Chapter Fifty-Nine: One of Their Kind?

Zhuge Xuan bound my hands tightly together, leaving my arms completely immobilized.

I was anxious, but when I looked at Fatty, he still wore that strange expression. After watching him for a while, I felt his look carried a wealth of meaning; had we not been in this situation, I would have thought he was telling me a story with his eyes.

Next, Zhuge Xuan tied up Fatty as well. While I was focused on them, I glanced away and noticed that Professor Chen had turned his back to us, crouching gloomily at the edge of the firelight, busy with something.

"I'm finished. What are you doing over there?" Zhuge Xuan asked, brushing her hands off.

Professor Chen seemed to be hunched over, his hands moving as if he were tinkering with something.

Seeing that the professor did not answer, Zhuge Xuan watched him vigilantly and added, "Just how much longer do you expect us to wait?"

Only then did Professor Chen reply in a ghostly tone, "Very... soon, just a moment, uh..."

The moment I heard his voice, I knew something was wrong. By the end of his sentence, his tone had become incredibly deep and raspy, as if the sound wasn't coming from a throat at all.

Immediately after, we heard a sizzling, crackling sound coming from Professor Chen, like meat being fried, which made my scalp crawl.

Zhuge Xuan must have been terrified as well; she wanted to approach him but hesitated. After a long wait, we saw Professor Chen slowly peel something off his own face.

Because he was crouching with his back to us at the edge of the light, none of us could clearly see what he was holding. However, it appeared to be quite large and limp.

Then, Professor Chen slowly stood up from the ground.

"I once thought this body of Chen's would last fifty or sixty years. I didn't expect... it to be this soon..."

The sounds emitted by Professor Chen no longer resembled a human voice in the slightest. I cannot describe his tone; if I had to name it, it was a voice from the netherworld. I am certain that no one in the world, no matter what happened to their throat, could produce such a sound.

As he spoke, Professor Chen slowly turned around.

All three of us looked at his face at the same time, and instantly, we all gasped in horror.

Now, I finally understood what Professor Chen had been doing. He wasn't holding anything else; he was holding Professor Chen’s face.

The limp thing clutched in his hand was indeed a human face, complete with layers of muscle and fat. It was drenched in blood, yet the blood clung to the face like paste, refusing to drip down.

At this moment, what appeared on Professor Chen’s face was not normal bone structure. Instead, one blood-red pupil after another covered his skin. These densely packed eyes were crowded across his face, and it made me feel that if the skin on his neck were also peeled away, I would see even more.

Then, Professor Chen uttered a sentence that would haunt me with terror for the rest of my life.

"There is something... I would like to ask." Those red pupils swiveled incessantly on his face. "Can you tell me, exactly what do I look like?"

Zhuge Xuan, standing beside us, couldn't help but step back twice. In my panic, I thought: Girl, if you really kill Fatty and me, would you dare stand next to *that*?

Seeing that none of us spoke, the creature—now undeniably the Underworld Sovereign—began to laugh deeply. I don't know what it used to make that sound, but seeing its face, I had no courage left to observe it further.

Yet, the Underworld Sovereign slowly walked toward us. The closer it got, the further Zhuge Xuan retreated.

Suddenly, I saw its shadow on the ground, and what terrified me even more was that the shadow was shaped like a monster, completely different from its current physical form.

Thinking about how we had been having a serious conversation with this thing just moments ago, my heart spasmed uncontrollably.

Finally, the scene I dreaded most unfolded. It walked over and crouched before Fatty and me. Dozens of eyes began to scan our bodies. Fatty seemed completely stunned, while I caught a whiff of an incredibly strange fragrance.

"Fragrant, isn't it..."

The Underworld Sovereign said suddenly, its eyes fixed on me.

"Heh... I don't understand either why, in a place like an ancient tomb filled with the stench of decay, I should have this scent. Perhaps extremes really do meet..." It then slowly turned toward Fatty. "Don't you think?"

Fatty stared blankly at it, likely imagining his final fate.

I had no strength left to resist; I just watched this impossible scene in frozen silence.

After a long while, Fatty said in a low voice, "You intend to eat me?"

The Underworld Sovereign stood up. "You will know soon enough. Don't worry, it won't be painful. Although I will replace you, I will also inherit your memories. And with me inside your body, you will live much longer."

After saying this, it placed both hands on its own neck. Then, its fingers embedded themselves deep into its own flesh; the knuckles almost sank halfway in.

Although blood flowed, it remained too thick to drip away. Slowly, it pried open the skin of its neck and began to tear it toward both sides, a fissure spreading down its body.

Sure enough, I saw even more eyes, and at the same time, three things resembling human hands, covered in red eyeballs, extended from its stomach.

Those three hands also began to claw at the skin beneath its clothes. One can only imagine how horrifying that scene was.

Finally, the Underworld Sovereign stopped all movement. It placed its right hand on its forehead and ripped backward... I felt as though I couldn't breathe.

With that single motion, it had peeled off its entire skin.

In an instant, the clothes on its body slid to the ground, and the Underworld Sovereign stood completely revealed before my eyes.

Its physique was roughly human-shaped, but imagine a human with three hands growing from its stomach, tentacles hanging from its back, and a body covered in red eyeballs, with red viscous fluid flowing everywhere...

I couldn't bear to watch any longer and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Am I that terrifying?" The Underworld Sovereign placed all five of its hands in front of its head. "It is a pity that in this state, I cannot see anything... Once detached from the Nine Yin Root's body, I lost my sight, hearing, touch, and smell. What remains is a kind of illusion, as if I... am everything. Hehehe..."

I looked again; it had reached Fatty, and the thousands of pupils on its body were all fixed upon him. At the same time, I noticed that the eyeballs on its body seemed to begin to float slightly.

"You, what are you doing?" I asked in terror.

But just as the Underworld Sovereign had said, it couldn't hear a thing.

Fatty seemed to have lost the ability to resist; his mouth was slightly agape, and his usually sharp, shining eyes had turned into those of a dead fish.

The Underworld Sovereign could sense Fatty’s presence. It slightly raised the hand in the middle of its stomach, while the eyeballs on other parts of its body surged and crowded toward that hand.

"Finally, I don't have to worry about Chen's affairs anymore..."

As the Underworld Sovereign spoke, its elongating hand was almost touching Fatty’s face.

Just then, a voice came from behind me:

"You are wrong."

Hearing this, I couldn't help but turn my head, and at the same time, the figure behind me lunged at the Underworld Sovereign, knocking it two or three meters away.

Once the dust settled, I saw that the person was none other than Peanut.

Suddenly, I began to understand what Fatty’s earlier gaze had meant.

Damn it, was this entire thing a play performed by these three?

At this moment, Peanut was mounted on the Underworld Sovereign. Fatty shook his head: "Brother, did you really have to wait until life hung by a thread to show up?"

Peanut smiled but said nothing more.

Zhuge Xuan ran over and quickly untied the ropes binding Fatty and me. She had tied them tightly, yet they came undone with surprising ease.

"It is you..." the Underworld Sovereign’s deep voice echoed. "So you haven't left yet."

"Dealing with a monster as cunning as you requires some effort," Peanut said with a smile.

The Underworld Sovereign still couldn't hear what Peanut was saying, continuing to itself: "I understand. You are that person from the Chen family..." Suddenly, the thing laughed again. "Is it necessary to treat me this way? Could this possibly prove... that you are not of my kind?"

"You talk too much."

Hearing Peanut say this coldly, I noticed a scene that left me even more incredulous.