Chapter 00033: The Purple Gold Toads
# The Purple-Gold Toads
Chapter 33
Novel: After the Immortals Disappeared
Chapter 33: The Purple-Gold Toads
He Lingchuan's roar echoed across the deck: "Kill them! Don't hold back!"
They couldn't turn back or retreat, but that didn't mean they were bound hand and foot.
Why were they just standing there like spectators? Was this the time to worry about camaraderie?
The group had been momentarily stunned, but his shout snapped them back to reality.
Gritting their teeth, they raised their blades and axes against their possessed comrades.
At a time like this, their own lives were the priority.
Brotherhood would have to wait.
Soon, all the puppets were slain, and the Three Corpses Worms that had possessed them were forced out before they could fully settle into their new hosts.
By then, the walnut boat had already passed through the city gates and was navigating through the ruins of the old city, moving through patches of light and shadow.
Some of the Three Corpses Worms managed to slip back into the shadows, but the last few were exposed to the sunlight as they were forced out.
Under the intense light, these shadowy figures dissipated into nothingness.
Without a physical body to protect them, the sun's true fire was their bane.
The city wasn't large, and its buildings were sparse.
The walnut boat soon left all the city walls behind, once again gliding through the dunes.
Under the protection of the sunlight, everyone took a moment to catch their breath and finally turned their heads freely.
Nian Songyu's voice came from another boat, reminding everyone: "Throw the corpses overboard to lighten the load! We need to speed up."
Night was falling, and they had to move quickly.
The bodies strewn across the deck had once been comrades-in-arms.
The survivors remained silent for a while before gathering the food, water, and weapons from the corpses.
Supplies were precious and couldn't be wasted.
He Lingchuan walked over to He Chunhua's personal guard, who had died with his eyes wide open, and gently closed them.
He Chunhua sighed.
"His name was Zhao Shaogang. He's been with me for five years and handled many tasks for me."
"I know. I remember," He Lingchuan said, pursing his lips.
He took out the last bag of flatbread, the last flask of water, and a simple silver hairpin from Zhao Shaogang's body.
This was the man he had personally killed.
"This hairpin is..."
He Chunhua began, about to reminisce, but He Lingchuan cut him off.
"The dead are like extinguished lamps. There's no point in dwelling on it. His family will receive generous compensation."
Every living person had a story, but so what? They were all earning a living by risking their lives.
He Chunhua fell silent and patted his son's shoulder.
"You're right."
At a time like this, self-pity was useless.
He held up a broken comb in his left hand.
"I always thought the resentment on this comb could repel those ghostly things. Turns out, it's useless."
This comb was the source of all their troubles, yet in the desert, it seemed utterly worthless.
He Chunhua was deeply disappointed.
He Lingchuan glanced at it guiltily.
"Maybe we're not using it correctly?" The bone necklace around his neck was also a "token," perhaps the most important one, but no one else knew about it.
Then again, the pendant had never shown any special abilities.
Was the triggering condition not met?
He pushed the corpse overboard.
Below seemed to be a large pool, its edges lined with black stones, though it was now dry.
Sand burials had always been a tradition in Blackwater City and the Coiling Dragon Desert.
Listening to the thud of the body hitting the ground and looking at the bloodstains on his arm—left from killing and searching the corpse—He Lingchuan felt a heaviness in his heart.
Strictly speaking, this was the first time he had killed someone since becoming He Lingchuan, and it was his father's personal guard.
He had known Zhao Shaogang, chatted with him, and shared laughs.
The situation had been urgent, leaving no room for hesitation.
Now that things had calmed down, He Lingchuan felt a pang of guilt.
"Are you okay?" He Chunhua asked, noticing his son's lowered head.
"Just a bit seasick," He Lingchuan replied, taking a swig from his water flask to suppress the unease.
Killing a fellow human was different from slaughtering chickens or dogs.
He was surprised he hadn't leaned over the side of the boat to vomit.
Since coming to this world, his heart seemed to have hardened.
What was subtly influencing him?
Over on the other boat, Situ Han was also packing up, his eyes red.
One of the sand bandits had been possessed, and he had personally killed him.
This man had robbed and pillaged with him, gotten drunk together just days ago, and even slept side by side.
Now, with his body still warm, he had been thrown overboard.
And everyone knew that such incidents would be frequent on this journey.
This was just the beginning.
He Lingchuan took a few deep breaths to calm himself, then leaned closer to He Chunhua.
"The State Preceptor's boat has the fewest casualties."
They had thrown the fewest corpses overboard.
"There's no such thing as fairness in this world," He Chunhua replied.
When a person was possessed by a Three Corpses Worm, they became a puppet.
Aside from the ancient Coiling Dragon City, no one had a quick solution.
It was said that by the later stages of the allied siege, the Xianyou Kingdom had developed several methods to expel the worms, but they were time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly.
At best, only twenty percent of those treated would survive, and the process took three to five days.
The Three Corpses Worms originally lurked within the human body.
The first step for a cultivator to achieve enlightenment was to eliminate their own Three Corpses Worms.
Expelling them through other means was no easy task.
Moreover, the possessed puppets would go berserk.
Who would willingly submit to treatment?
Thus, Nian Songyu and the other decision-makers had agreed early on that anyone on the boat possessed by a Three Corpses Worm would be dealt with swiftly and decisively, leaving no loose ends.
Every possessed person would become a burden.
They simply couldn't afford to wait or save them.
He Chunhua shook his head, pushing aside these troubling thoughts, and patted his son's shoulder.
"Thanks to your quick action earlier, several lives were saved. By the way, when did your throwing knives become so accurate?"
That earlier throw had grazed his shoulder, its precision remarkable.
His once-useless son had saved his life and helped quell the chaos.
He had truly grown.
He Chunhua felt a deep sense of relief.
"Accuracy? Uh..."
He Lingchuan scratched his head awkwardly.
"Just now, I guess. It was a desperate situation."
He Chunhua: "..."
---
Perhaps He Lingchuan's words had been prophetic.
While the other two boats remained unscathed, the State Preceptor's walnut boat was visited by uninvited guests—two enormous Purple-Gold Toads.
These creatures were mutated monsters, resembling giant toads a hundred times larger than normal.
Their method of attack was to shoot out their tongues like arrows, grabbing prey and swallowing them whole.
The toads leaped from the dunes, their massive bodies nearly capsizing the walnut boat upon landing.
The galloping earth dragons pulling the boat were nearly brought to a halt, struggling to move forward.
Just as ordinary toads catch flying insects, these toads hunted humans.
They even used their forelimbs to help shove their prey into their mouths, swallowing them whole without chewing.
When threatened, the warts on their bodies would burst, releasing a purple-gold poisonous mist.
Anyone who inhaled it would feel dizzy, foam at the mouth, and collapse within moments.
This was how they earned their name.
Fortunately, the Purple-Gold Toads ate slowly, taking their time to chew each victim.
This gave the State Preceptor and his men ample time to deal with them.
The He father and son, on another boat, were too far away to help.
All they could do was watch the spectacle unfold.
(End of Chapter)