Li Bai’s shock quickly turned to delight. “Can…can you?”

“What’s not to like? Just tell me where to hit him!”

Yao Shunyu’s manner as he hefted the stone was incredibly practiced, his gaze filled with determination, as if he were born for this moment.

“Hit any exposed part of his body, anywhere is fine, preferably draw some blood!” Li Bai hissed in a low voice. With Yao Shunyu’s miraculous stone-throwing skills, they would turn the tables today.

As long as blood was drawn, revealing the qi of a living person, Li Maochun’s painstakingly acted charade of a living funeral would be broken.

The rest they wouldn't need to do themselves, they could leave it to the Zhusheng Niangniang (Childbirth Goddess).

After the four incense sticks offered to the ghosts were destroyed by the flying stones, the scene had already changed. The Zhusheng Niangniang, who had been walking towards Yao Shunyu and Li Bai, stopped. The enormous head covered by the red veil turned stiffly, little by little, as if re-assessing her target.

Of course, Li Bai wasn’t the only one shocked by Yao Shunyu's stone throwing. Dozens of meters away, Li Maochun was also dumbfounded. His face turned pale, especially when he saw Yao Shunyu holding a stone, gesturing up and down in his direction, as if aiming.

With a "whoosh," Yao Shunyu released the stone. It seemed to have eyes, spinning in the air as it flew towards Li Maochun.

At the critical moment, Li Maochun twisted his neck sharply to the right. The stone slammed into the ground beside him. Although he narrowly avoided the hit, he was still covered in cold sweat.

Seeing this, Li Bai couldn’t help but feel anxious. “Damn it, he dodged!”

The Zhusheng Niangniang was much closer to them than to Li Maochun. If the Zhusheng Niangniang took a few more steps towards them, there would be no hope of survival tonight. The desolate graveyard behind them was also a dead end.

Having dodged Yao Shunyu’s stone, Li Maochun gradually regained his composure. As long as he was careful not to be hit by the flying stones, he still had a chance to win today. Besides, he didn’t believe Yao Shunyu could throw so accurately every time.

Thinking of this, Li Maochun gave Yao Shunyu and Li Bai a mocking smile. But the next second, his smile froze on his face.

He saw Yao Shunyu frantically picking up three or four stones at once. This time, he didn't even aim, throwing them one after another in rapid succession.

"Whoosh—"

Li Maochun ducked his head. A jagged stone landed just in front of him. But before he could feel relieved, another one flew towards his face. Li Maochun gritted his teeth and actually stretched out his right hand to block it.

Although it hurt, he actually caught the stone with his hand and wasn't injured.

"Hehe—" Li Maochun breathed a sigh of relief.

But then, with a muffled "thump," Li Maochun felt his entire head buzzing, as if he had been hit by a meteor. A stone slightly smaller than an egg hit him squarely on the forehead, and blood instantly flowed out.

That wasn’t all. Li Bai wasn’t idle either, quickly helping Yao Shunyu collect more than a dozen stones of suitable size. Yao Shunyu picked them up and threw them.

In just a few dozen seconds, Li Maochun’s body suffered four blows, and another one hit Li Maochun’s mouth squarely, breaking several of his front teeth.

"Dodge?" Yao Shunyu stamped his foot and threw another stone with resentment. "I’ll let you dodge!"

Li Maochun lay weakly in the pit, his head and face covered in blood. The Zhusheng Niangniang also smelled the blood and turned around, walking towards Li Maochun at an extremely fast pace.

Seeing this, Li Bai finally breathed a sigh of relief. They had won. They could continue to live.

And they had also eliminated a second-generation Deep Crimson infiltrator.

The Zhusheng Niangniang, with her grotesque gait, arrived in front of Li Maochun, who was barely alive. Then, she stretched out her dark green giant hand and pulled him out of the pit.

Under the suppression of absolute strength, Li Maochun’s last struggle seemed particularly weak. He tried desperately to beat the giant hand with his own, uttering vague, incoherent roars, but it was all in vain.

The next moment, a shocking scene appeared. The Zhusheng Niangniang’s huge head tilted slightly forward. Suddenly, a fleshy tube thicker than a gasoline hose spewed out from under the veil, like a giant tentacle, and plunged into Li Maochun’s mouth, which was wide open from roaring. It kept drilling further and further in.

This scene made Yao Shunyu and Li Bai’s faces turn pale, and chills ran up their spines. If they had been the ones to lose today, this scene, like a form of torture, would be happening to them. It would be a lie to say they weren't afraid.

The two couldn’t help but slowly squat down, as if this would reduce their presence.

But that wasn’t the end of it. An even more horrifying scene appeared. Along the disgusting flesh tube made of blood vessels and membranes, things were constantly being injected into Li Maochun’s body. These things were still wriggling in the tube, clearly living creatures.

And Li Maochun, as the recipient, seemed to be undergoing extreme pain. His originally sluggish body trembled violently, and his eyes bulged out to an exaggerated extent, making one worry whether they would fall out.

Staring intently at the Zhusheng Niangniang’s direction, Li Bai gripped the dirt on the ground tightly, his voice trembling. “It…it’s laying eggs. So that’s how Blackwater Village reproduces. The Zhusheng Niangniang is actually such a monster…”

Zhusheng Niangniang, the four words were completely literal. It was completely different from the so-called Guanyin (Goddess of Mercy) who bestows children worshipped in temples.

“Parasitic wasps,” Yao Shunyu said hesitantly after a pause. “I remember there’s a kind of wasp in Africa. They’re very large and harmless to humans, but they’ll catch other insects and then lay their eggs inside the other insects’ bodies. That way, when the wasp eggs hatch, they can directly devour the host’s body, eat their internal organs, and eventually the larvae will emerge from the host’s corpse after absorbing enough nutrients.”

The scene before them was exactly like that of the so-called parasitic wasps. Watching Li Maochun’s body gradually swell up, Li Bai’s disgust for the Zhusheng Niangniang reached its peak.

Of course, there was also fear. After all, whoever was targeted by this monster would suffer the same fate.

Soon, the Zhusheng Niangniang completed the ritual. And indeed, as Yao Shunyu and Li Bai had thought, the Zhusheng Niangniang didn’t intend to kill Li Maochun. After all, he was the food it prepared for its offspring.

But the Zhusheng Niangniang didn’t let the unconscious Li Maochun go either. She grabbed Li Maochun with her giant hand, and then moved her huge, bloated body, swaying, step by step, towards the depths of the night.

It wasn’t until the Zhusheng Niangniang’s back completely disappeared that Yao Shunyu and Li Bai finally dared to breathe deeply. At this moment, their legs were a little weak. But fortunately, they had survived after all.