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“Heart Infestors?”

Ye Qing blanched when he saw the worms, however. He stomped the ground and sent the worms flying with a powerful gust of Burning Wind, but not only did they climb back to their feet, it was as if his astral qi had done no damage to them at all; the astral qi that could melt metal and annihilate rocks as easily as breathing.

“There’s no mistake!” Ye Qing’s expression turned severe. The Heart Infestor was a Malice-class Stranger that was shaped like a caterpillar but possessed humanoid limbs. It could climb into a human’s body through their orifices and take root inside their heart. It could then pilot the victim like a puppet or lay a ton of eggs to eat them from the inside out.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the roasted chestnuts Ugly Monk, Zhou Xi and the rest of the Pacification Sentinels ate must contain the Heart Infestor. That was how Granny Xiong was controlling them.

The Heart Infestor looked fragile, but in reality it was the complete opposite. Unbelievably tough, they were like mini body-tempering warriors that were near immune to fire, water, weapons and strength.

He couldn’t use his full strength to wipe out the Heart Infestors because the pot was keeping him pinned. If the Heart Infestors managed to slip inside his body, then he would die. That was probably the ideal outcome Granny Xiong was striving toward.

A second before the Heart Infestors would reach him again, Ye Qing abruptly stopped resisting and allowed the pot to pull him into the sky.

“Kekeke…”

In the shadows, Granny Xiong let out a delighted cackle. It was because Ye Qing was dead as soon as he entered the pot.

The pot was called the Roasted Chestnut Pot, and it was quite the unique Hatred-class Strange Artifact. It was said that the Roasted Chestnut Pot was created by an artificer who loved eating roasted chestnuts like nothing else and so created many corresponding Strange Artifacts as a result.

For example, he had created a Braised Chestnut Chicken Pot that could instantly create a braised chestnut chicken dish just by placing a chicken and a plate of chestnuts into the pot, a Pork Ribs With Chestnut Hot Pot that could create a pork ribs with chestnut hotpot dish, a Chestnut Porridge Bowl that could create a chestnut porridge dish and so on.

The guy had created an entire series of cooking Strange Artifacts just to cook chestnuts, and the Roasted Chestnut Pot was one of them. In fact, the Roasted Chestnut Pot was one of the more better designed Strange Artifacts of the series because roasted chestnuts were the artificer’s favorite food.

Unlike the other Strange Artifacts, the Roasted Chestnut Pot didn’t need any raw ingredients to create the dish. It could convert anything with origin qi in it including living beings into roasted chestnuts. For convenience sake, he also gave the Roasted Chestnut Pot the ability to draw in and capture any creature that fit the criteria. He also imbued it with a massive number of potent binding runes and restrictions probably to prevent the target from resisting.

Not only that, the greater the amount of origin qi iit absorbed, the sweeter and more delicious the roasted chestnuts it produced.

Despite some of the more disturbing features of the Roasted Chestnut Pot, the artificer didn’t actually mean any harm. He just wanted to be able to eat his favorite food anytime, anywhere.

It was the opposite for Granny Xiong, however. The roasted chestnuts were a means, not an end.

To be fair, the Roasted Chestnut Pot was surprisingly good at killing people. It was as easy as making a potful of roasted chestnuts.

The reason she hadn’t shown herself until was very simple. One, she wanted Cao Xiaoting and Shangguan Wuqing to exhaust Ye Qing as much as possible. Two, she wanted Ye Qing to kill them both because as he said, the reward the Way of Taiping offered was just enough for one person. Even one extra person was too much, much less two. She would have taken them out herself if Ye Qing hadn’t done her dirty work for her.

Someone might think that she was too callous, but callousness was how you survived in the jianghu. Everyone was narrow-minded before the promise of great riches.

Granny Xiong’s smile grew wider as Ye Qing flew closer and closer to the Roasted Chestnut Pot. However, Ye Qing was smiling as well. When he was about three inches away from the opening, Ye Qing abruptly sucked in a deep breath and channeled his power. His bones popped, and his vigor surged. The change was so sudden and explosive that the space within several meters of him collapsed inch by inch.

The next moment, Ye Qing ripped himself free from the Roasted Chestnut Pot’s restriction and punched it in the side. The Strange Artifact let out a resonant clang before turning into a star in the sky.

Granny Xiong’s energies were tied to the Roasted Chestnut Pot as she was wielding it. As a result, the sudden attack didn’t just send the pot flying, but also hurt her to a certain extent. She let out a muffled groan as blood spilled through her lips, and her aura fell into disorder.

“Found you.”

Ye Qing had been keeping his spirit out to keep track of any sudden fluctuations. He identified Granny Xiong’s location as soon as her aura fluctuated erratically and threw a mighty punch from above like a god laying judgment upon the sinner.

Entire swathes of space collapsed as the fist force flew straight toward Granny Xiong. The old woman let out another muffled groan as her knees were driven into the ground, and her bones were snapping like twigs.

“ARGH!” Granny Xiong screamed in pain. Most of her power came from the Roasted Chestnut Pot and the Heart Infestors. She herself wasn’t really strong at all. In a direct clash, she couldn’t even defeat Cao Xiaoting or Shangguan Wuqing, much less defend herself against the fist force that had sorely pressed the two warriors.

“Y-You can’t kill me! If you kill me, then your colleagues will die!” Granny Xiong shouted. She could tell that Ye Qing wanted her dead from the sheer amount of bloodthirst his fist force was exuding. “They’re still infested by my Heart Infestors! There is no one in the world who can save them if you kill me!”

“Ye Qing! Are you really going to let them die!?”

“No—”

But Ye Qing paid no heed to her pleas. He just kept getting closer and closer until his fist crushed her head like a watermelon.

As Granny Xiong’s headless body slowly fell to the ground, Ye Qing clasped his hands behind his back and said with a vicious smile, “That’s where you’re wrong. I can save them even without your ‘help’.”

Ye Qing let out a sigh of relief after killing Granny Xiong. The reason he killed her immediately and without hesitation was precisely because Granny Xiong had full control over the Heart Infestors. If he agreed to her demands or even showed the slightest bit of hesitation, he had no doubt that Granny Xiong would use their lives to threaten him, which also meant that he would be giving up the initiative.

Why compromise when he could get what he wanted without?

He wasn’t lying when he said he could save his colleagues without Granny Xiong’s help either. Ye Qing bent down over the dead woman’s body and ripped her heart out of her chest. Then, he pulled everyone to his side using the Blood Shadows before placing Granny Xiong’s heart at the center of the group.

Everyone’s flesh began squirming unnaturally almost as if there were worms wriggling under their skin.

Then, white, fat Heart Infestors crawled out of their mouths and crawled toward Granny Xiong’s heart. Even the Heart Infestors Ye Qing had sent flying earlier were moving rapidly toward her heart as well.

Not only did a Heart Infestor feed on human hearts, they usually lived in it as well. Since Granny Xiong was their caretaker, her heart must be far more attractive to the Heart Infestors than any other human heart. That was why he ripped out her heart to lure the Heart Infestors out into the open.

In fact, he was willing to bet that Granny Xiong’s plan was the same as his—excluding the part where he ripped her heart out, of course. She was just going to use her heart’s blood to draw them out slowly.

After the Heart Infestors were all gathered in one place, Ye Qing detonated Granny Xiong’s heart with his force. The worm Strangers immediately feasted on the pool of blood and gore.

Suddenly, the worm Strangers’ white skin took on a bluish black hue. A few seconds later, they abruptly fell still and died.

Ye Qing smiled. One Heart Infestor was already a massive threat, much less a whole host of them. If he ignored them, it was only a matter of time before they started a mini apocalypse.

A Heart Infestor was near immune to external forces, but they were incredibly fragile on the inside. Therefore, poison was one way to kill them. However, a Heart Infestor only fed on human hearts, and they normally sealed off their respiratory organs and esophagus when they weren’t eating. That was why he injected Granny Xiong’s heart with the Blue Demon Hand’s Hundred Poison and waited until the Heart Infestors were fully drawn out before shattering the heart. This ensured that every Heart Infestor would feed on the poisonous flesh and blood and kill themselves. The outcome was satisfactory to say the least.

Although the Heart Infestors had been drawn out of the Pacification Sentinels’ bodies, it would take a while yet before their power would fully dissipate. So, Ye Qing stayed by their side and waited patiently for them to awaken.

He didn’t notice that a round head was peeking out from where Cao Xiaoting and Shangguan Wuqing had died and sneaking glances at him, lips curled into a cunning smile.

“Now this is what I call a big haul! Last time, you stole most of my stuff at the Strange Market. It’s only right that I take what is yours, right? I, Tang Shi, am a believer of an eye for an eye after all.”

If Ye Qing was here, he might have recognized the guy as the stall owner who tried to ambush him only to lose almost everything back at the Strange Market.

Tang Shi’s palms moved so quickly across Cao Xiaoting’s body that they left behind a series of afterimages. When the afterimages vanished, Tang Shi was holding the swordsman’s Nature’s Shell, jade pendant, wallet, necklace, and even the golden tooth in his mouth.

The guy had literally stolen everything that was of value in the blink of an eye.

“Hehe…”

Tang Shi flicked his wrist, and the items vanished into thin air just like that. He would do the same thing to Shangguan Suqing and steal everything as well.

“Huh? Is this… Hong Xiu’s undergarments? My oh my, this Shangguan Wuqing normally acts like he’s too sad for companionship, but in reality he’s an undergarment thief, eh? What a scumbag, what a scumbag! Hehehe…”

Tang Shi said scornfully, but he carefully slipped the undergarments into his Nature’s Shell.

And how did he know it belonged to Hong Xiu of Red Candle Boat? If you must know the answer, then the answer is yes.