Stranger Danger

“What… What’s wrong?”

Six Fingers uttered through gritted teeth, his face contorting because he was beginning to itch inside his mouth and throat as well. “Just tell me already!”

“I think… I see wheat inside your wounds!” Pedant Earth said seriously.

“Wheat? What wheat?” Six Fingers forcibly ignored his itch for the moment and looked at one of the bloody scratch marks on his elbow. To his shock and horror, he saw wheats peeking out of the wound instead of flesh and blood.

The blood slowly drained away from Six Fingers’ face. He was so busy scratching his itch just now that he didn’t notice. Gritting his teeth, he ripped off an entire chunk of flesh from his right arm.

The wound did not bleed profusely as he imagined it would. It was because his blood had been replaced by wheat before he knew it.

“How… How could this be?”

Six Fingers’ eyes widened as he cut another wound on his left arm. Again, there was only wheat.

“How could this be?!”

Six Fingers ripped off his own shirt and looked down on himself. There was no mistake. Every wound he had left on his own body was slowly but surely filling up with wheat.

Yes, the wheat was growing inside his body by the second. As if alive, they were slowly but surely piercing through his skin and taking over his flesh and blood.

This was why he was itchy all over. The wheat was slowly taking over his flesh and scratching the insides of his body.

“Am I… Am I turning into a scarecrow?”

When Six Fingers looked into himself, he discovered in greater horror that it wasn’t just his outer flesh that had transformed into wheat. His internal organs, meridians and bodily points had transformed into wheat before he knew it as well.

“Why is this happening?!”

Panicking, Six Fingers hurriedly channeled his true qi to expel the anomaly only to realize that he couldn’t. After all, his insides had already been replaced with wheat. Forget channeling qi, it was a miracle that he was still alive.

Not giving up yet, Six Fingers produced all sorts of talismans and Strange Artifacts from his Nature’s Shell and tried to cure his condition with them. Unfortunately, nothing was working.

Pedant Earth hadn’t just been standing there and watching his companion transforming into a scarecrow, of course. He too was pulling all sorts of healing, blessing, exorcism, or protection pills, talismans and Strange Artifacts in hopes of treating Six Fingers, but once again, nothing was working.

Six Fingers and Pedant Earth might be lacking in the combat department, but they had decades of experience in dealing with Strangers, Anomalies, and unusual occurrences because of their occupation. Normally, treating an anomalous condition like this would fall right within their area of expertise. It was inevitable when their job entailed exploring and plundering all sorts of ancient cities and tombs, all crawling with things beyond one’s imagination. Otherwise, they would be dead a long, long time ago.

However, none of their methods were working right now. Not a single one.

“Save me, Pedant Earth! Save me!”

At first, Six Fingers was able to keep calm and do his best to treat his condition. But when he tried everything and discovered that he couldn’t even slow down the spread of the wheat, much less treat them, he finally lost his shit. He tried to reach out to Pedant Earth in his despair and panic but realized abruptly that his fingers—the fingers that were his pride and identity—had already turned into wheat. They were stiffer than they had ever been in his life.

In fact, his whole body was stiffer than they had ever been.

“I… I…”

Pedant Earth subconsciously backed away from Six Fingers. His face looked as white as a sheet.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to save Six Fingers. He had already tried everything, but nothing was working. He hadn’t seen any Stranger or felt any unusual presence either. Even with his vast wealth of knowledge and experience, he had no idea how or what he could do to save Six Fingers.

“Miss Shangguan…”

Pedant Earth looked to Shangguan Hongjin for health, but the woman cut him off before he could continue, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know anything that might save him either. In my opinion, the one and only thing you can do for your friend right now is to kill him and end his misery.”

“Miss…”

Pedant Earth thought that killing Six Fingers would be missing the point, but before he could say anything, Shangguan Hongjin added, “Never mind. It’s already too late.”

Pedant Earth turned to look at Six Fingers and saw wheat growing out of his neck, face, and skull.

“Ugh… save… me…”

At this point, Six Fingers could barely maintain his consciousness. The light in his eyes was fading, and his voice had become much quieter and raspy than before. Even as he was speaking, wheat was growing out of his mouth, nose, ears, and even eyeballs. It was horrifying to put it mildly.

A hint of pain and sorrow flickered in Pedant Earth’s eyes. Then, he produced a talisman and launched it at Six Fingers. As soon as the talisman made contact with the man’s body, it burst into flames and engulfed him in ferocious crimson flames that purified all evil.

He had worked together with Six Fingers for many years. While he could not say that he would die for the man, they were close enough that it pained him to have to kill him. However, it was worse to have to witness Six Fingers succumbing into pain and despair as he slowly but surely transformed into a scarecrow. As Shangguan Hongjin said, the only thing he could do to help his longtime companion now was to end his misery as soon as possible. That was why he ultimately steeled himself to do the worst.

On another note, he also suspected that Six Fingers’ transformation was caused by some sort of Stranger. He might not be able to locate it, but assuming that it was possessing Six Fingers right now, he could certainly try to expose it or better, burn it to death.

The talisman he used to burn Six Fingers was no ordinary attack talisman. Created from a blend of Nine Yang Cinnabar, nine-years-old cock blood, nine-years-old virgin boy piss, Nine Fire Sandpaper and other objects of supreme yang, the Nine Yang Talisman was one of the strongest talismans he could afford to purify evil and repel devilry.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as the flames had engulfed Six Fingers, it abruptly went out as if it was snuffed out by some sort of power. As if that wasn’t enough, Pedant Earth and Shangguan Hongjin discovered in shock that Six Fingers wasn’t burned in the slightest.

Logically speaking, wheat was extremely flammable and would catch on fire with the slightest spark, much less the Nine Yang Talisman, which was hot enough to melt even metal and stone like snow. In reality, the Nine Yang Talisman had failed to damage the wheat even a little. It was unusual to say the least.

A few breaths after the flame went out, Six Fingers fully transformed into a scarecrow. He had no heartbeat, no breathing, and no life force. If they hadn’t witnessed his transformation with their own eyes, they would have believed that he was a scarecrow from the beginning.

“Don’t you think that this scarecrow looks a little familiar?” Shangguan Hongjin said suddenly.

“What?” Pedant Earth jolted out of his shock and sorrow and asked instinctively.

Instead of clarifying her meaning, Shangguan Hongjin muttered to herself, “Scarecrow? Yes, a scarecrow.”

Pedant Earth frowned in confusion. Thankfully, Shangguan Hongjin did not keep him in suspense any longer and explained, “Do you remember the scarecrows we saw earlier? Don’t you think they look just like Six Fingers?”

“Scarecrow?”

Pedant Earth recalled the scarecrows they saw on the way as his expression slowly turned ugly. “Could it be…”

Pedant Earth didn’t finish his sentence, but Shangguan Hongjin could guess what he was trying to say. After all, she was thinking the exact same thing.

Could it be that the scarecrows they saw earlier used to be human like Six Fingers?

Was every scarecrow on this paddy field formerly a human?

Both warriors gradually turned pale when they possibility occurred to them.