I Have 10 Equipment Slots-Chapter 45 - 39: Who Says Cutting Open a Belly Has to Be Fatal?

Chapter 45: Chapter 39: Who Says Cutting Open a Belly Has to Be Fatal?

"Gentlemen... would you like some tofu?"

The owner of the tofu stand, a man in his thirties with a few gray hairs, greeted them with a hunched back and a face full of smiles.

As he spoke, he naturally shifted his body, blocking the woman beside him from view.

"Ahem."

Zhang Ning coughed lightly. He didn’t respond, instead nudging Gu Zheng with his shoulder.

"...Zhang, go back to the Government Office at once. Get Yan Tou and Xue," Gu Zheng whispered in Zhang Ning’s ear after taking a step back. "Tell them it’s an emergency. A dire one!"

Hmm?

Zhang Ning’s eyebrows shot up. "Alright. I’m on my way."

He didn’t ask what the emergency was. After a few days together, he knew Gu Zheng never joked around, especially about urgent matters.

He immediately hurried off toward the County Magistrate’s Office.

Gu Zheng turned back, clasped his fist to the tofu stand owner, and smiled. "My apologies for the disturbance, sir."

"Not at all, not at all. I’m just a humble tofu seller, hardly a ’sir’," Wang Gui replied nervously. "And you are... sir?"

"I’m a Physician. I noticed your wife’s pregnant belly seems a bit large, so I couldn’t help but stare," Gu Zheng said with a sincere expression. "May I ask, sir, how many months pregnant is your wife?"

’A Physician?’

Wang Gui was taken aback. Gu Zheng’s demeanor was indeed different from that of an ordinary person.

He recalled that the man had indeed been looking at his wife’s belly and nothing else, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Then, with a mix of nervousness and excitement, he answered, "So you’re a Physician! Well, my wife is only five months pregnant, but her belly is definitely bigger than most. We went to see a doctor who said everything’s fine, very healthy. Said it’s most likely a boy, a big, chubby one at that."

"It’s just that my wife, she’s a bit paranoid. She keeps saying the baby in her belly is getting heavier and heavier, and that she hears strange noises at night when she’s trying to sleep. Isn’t that ridiculous?"

"It’s a good thing you’re here, Physician. Could you take a look and see if our little boy is doing alright in there?"

As he spoke, Wang Gui invited Gu Zheng to come closer and examine his wife’s belly.

Gu Zheng raised a hand to politely decline and continued to ask Wang Gui about his wife’s condition since becoming pregnant, especially over the last two weeks.

He was told that the woman’s belly had indeed been growing larger day by day over the last two weeks! 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Hearing this, Gu Zheng’s heart sank.

As he frowned, Zhang Ning returned, and with him were Yan Hongxue and An Xiaoxue.

"Gu, what’s..."

"Things have gotten tricky."

Gu Zheng pulled Yan Hongxue aside and quietly told her what he had discovered.

After listening, a chill ran down Yan Hongxue’s spine. She was shocked and bewildered. "Gu, are you sure?"

"Ninety percent sure. I need you to confirm the last ten percent," Gu Zheng said, taking a deep breath. "You go inside with her, have her undress, and do a thorough examination. If it’s a Lizard Demon Egg, there will definitely be abnormalities in the skin tone of her abdomen, her aura, and the fetus’s heartbeat."

"Alright."

Yan Hongxue took a deep breath to calm herself.

Then, she motioned for An Xiaoxue to join her. They went into the shop behind the tofu stand, whispered a few words to the woman, and the three of them went inside, closing the door.

"What the..." Wang Gui watched, bewildered. "What’s going on?"

"It’s nothing. My companion is also a Physician, and her medical skills are even better than mine," Gu Zheng reassured him. "They’ve just gone inside to conduct a more thorough examination, just in case."

"Oh, oh, that’s good, that’s good." Wang Gui was half-convinced but still uneasy.

His intuition told him that things weren’t as simple as they seemed.

Zhang Ning’s face was tense. He wanted to question Gu Zheng but held back, afraid of agitating Wang Gui.

He had overheard the hushed conversation between Gu Zheng and Yan Hongxue.

’A Lizard Demon Egg?’

’The tofu vendor’s plump wife is carrying a Lizard Demon Egg in her womb?’

Zhang Ning sucked in a sharp breath.

He didn’t dare to think any further.

The more he thought about it, the more horrifying it became.

「A quarter of an hour later.」

Yan Hongxue and An Xiaoxue emerged from the house, their expressions incredibly grim.

They said nothing as they walked out, only nodding at Gu Zheng.

Gu Zheng’s fists clenched instantly.

’It’s confirmed!’

’The ’child’ in the woman’s belly is really a Lizard Demon Egg!’

The Lizard Demon Egg had devoured the original fetus and was using the womb as an incubator.

Wang Gui had just said that his wife’s appetite had been growing day by day for the past two weeks.

’Of course it was. A Demon Fiend cub is being born!’

The five Lizard Demons in the Zhao Mansion were merely the surface of the infestation.

The real disaster for Baishui County was the Lizard Demon Eggs that were still incubating!

’Heaven knows how many people the Lizard Demons have implanted their eggs into!’

For now, these Demon Eggs only threatened the people they were implanted in.

But once they hatched and burst out, everyone in the county would suffer!

Gu Zheng, Yan Hongxue, and their group weren’t going to stay in Baishui County for long, after all.

Under normal circumstances, they were planning to leave tomorrow morning.

If they left, the Lizard Demon Eggs could complete their incubation and burst out right after...

’Thankfully!’

’Thankfully, the tofu vendor’s wife came out to help today.’

’And thankfully, I was passing by and heard the abnormal heartbeat.’

’Otherwise...’

Now that the existence of the Lizard Demon Eggs was confirmed, the next step was to eliminate them.

However, the first problem they faced was just how many people in Baishui County had been implanted with Demon Eggs.

If Liu Baozi were still alive, he might have had the answer to that question.

But Liu Baozi and his men were all dead.

Now, the only way to confirm the number was for Gu Zheng’s group to find them one by one.

The primary targets were, naturally, pregnant women.

The secondary targets were overweight people.

Their bellies were large, and they were well-nourished.

The incubating Demon Eggs needed energy.

And so, everyone at the Baishui County Magistrate’s Office was mobilized to search for pregnant women, overweight people, and anyone whose appetite had suddenly increased in the last two weeks.

...

"What do we do after we find these people?"

Back at the Baishui County Magistrate’s Office, after the arrangements had been made, An Xiaoxue clutched her stomach and asked with a pale face, "The Demon Eggs are inside their bellies. To destroy them, we’ll have to at least take the Lizard Demon Eggs out, right? But if we cut open their stomachs, won’t the people implanted with the Demon Eggs all die?"

"Well..." Zhang Ning froze at her words and murmured, "That’s right. Destroying the Demon Eggs is easy, but what about the people?"

"What else can we do? Of course, they die together."

Chen Zhizhen, his face cold, snapped, "We don’t even need to take them out. Just burn them along with the person. It saves trouble and..."

"Chen Zhizhen! What are you saying?"

An Xiaoxue’s voice instantly rose to a sharp cry. "Burn them? That’s murder! And you wouldn’t just be killing one or two people, but dozens, even hundreds!"

"And cutting open their stomachs isn’t killing them?"

Chen Zhizhen’s face was also pale. His internal injuries made it hard for him to breathe, and he said between gasps, "If these people don’t die, are we supposed to let the entire city die instead?"

"I..." An Xiaoxue was speechless. She wanted to argue but didn’t know what to say.

Yan Hongxue was silent, her expression grim.

’They’ll die if we don’t operate, and they’ll die if we do.’

’This scheme of the Lizard Demons is too vicious.’

’No matter what we choose, a group of people will have to die...’

"Who says cutting open a stomach means they have to die?"