Grand Voyage : Surviving on a Ghost Ship-Chapter 217 - Successful containment

New Novel🪶

The tongue was the most flexible muscle in the human body. But when it belonged to the Gluttonous Maw, its flexibility defied all imagination.

A slick, lumpy tongue, glistening with saliva, coiled tightly around the forest sprite, from head to toe.

Its strenght was overwhelming; it dragged the forest sprite toward Yang Yi with irresistible force.

The sprite struggled desperately, but to no avail.

The saliva was dissolving its body, melting through the vines covering its skin, severing its link to the surrounding forest one strand at a time.

“No… no!!! How can there be a mouth on your stomach? Are you… are you a devourer too!?”

The forest sprite cried out in disbelief, thrashing violently.

But soon, realisation struck, and terror followed. Because a devourer couldn’t wield a sword, nor could it use magic, it possessed only a single instinct: hunger.

Then, as if a dreadful memory had surfaced, the forest sprite’s face twisted in horror. Its frantic struggle grew even wilder, limbs flailing like a drowning man’s.

“You… you’re a Corrupted One! No! I don’t want to be eaten!!”

But the tongue continued to pull, dragging the forest sprite closer and closer to the Gluttonous Maw.

The earlier Spear of the Forest had already been spat out, its shaft covered in deep bite marks.

The Gluttonous Maw revealed its true form: a disturbingly human-like mouth, its cracked lips bleeding freely. Inside, neat rows of white teeth gleamed wetly as saliva poured from the corners. It was savoring the scent, trembling with anticipation, hungry to devour.

And indeed, it was hungry.

Yang Yi could feel the sensations of the tongue, every sweet trace of flavor that lingered upon it, as though the captured sprite were a piece of candy.

He had learned how to control the Gluttonous Maw, so as long as he let it eat, it would obey him as naturally as his own limbs. But deny it food, and it would no longer heed his will.

The saliva continued to corrode the forest sprite’s vines. The more it resisted, the faster they snapped. Newly sprouting tendrils melted before they could even form because the saliva was no weaker than the stomach acid of a Gourmand Devourer.

At last, every vine broke. The sprite was dragged fully into the Gluttonous Maw.

The mouth chewed twice, crunch, crunch, then its teeth clamped shut. It rippled and squirmed, as if savouring the taste, stirring it around with its tongue before swallowing.

“Delicious~”

A voice echoed, deep, coarse, yet unmistakably Yang Yi’s, but he hadn’t spoken; his facial mouth hadn’t moved at all.

The voice came from the Gluttonous Maw.

“This mouth can talk!?” Yang Yi muttered in surprise.

The mouth sealed tightly, keeping the forest sprite trapped within, digesting it slowly.

Inside, the creature still wasn’t dead, it thrashed and screamed in terror.

“Let me out! Don’t eat me! Don’t— aaahhh!!!”

But Yang Yi had no intention of letting it go. He couldn’t risk another escape. Besides, it was the only way he’d found to contain the forest sprite.

The special containment vessel he’d used before wasn’t sturdy enough, so he had replaced it… with the mouth on his abdomen.

“Damn it!! You’ll never digest me! Never… never!!!”

Inside Yang Yi’s belly, the forest sprite went berserk, thrashing and destroying everything it could.

It felt as if he’d eaten spoiled meat, his stomach churned violently.

Several vines even pierced through his abdomen, tearing out blackened fragments before retracting again.

A half-melted hand tried to crawl out of one of the holes, but the tongue from within caught it and yanked it back inside.

Then came a series of grotesque movements, the mouth churning, teeth grinding, until the sounds inside gradually faded away.

Yang Yi’s body shrank slightly as the wolf-like transformation faded, though he still looked round and bloated.

He tore free from the motionless vines and fell onto a split branch below.

The forest, severed from the forest sprite’s will, had fallen completely silent, no longer launching any attacks.

The weapon Broken Iron was absorbed into the blackened, worm-like ring.

Yang Yi pulled out a vial of ultra-concentrated stomach acid and downed it. The liquid slid into his gut, and from within came a series of agonised screams, though much fainter than before.

After three bottles in succession, the sounds in his belly finally ceased.

He stopped moving and began checking his condition.

After swallowing the forest sprite, he had grown absurdly fat, round as a ball, even fatter than after eating the Fruit of Bounty.

The devourer’s enhancement had reached its limit: a +4 boost to all physical attributes.

But because of his bloated form, his Agility suffered so badly that the bonus was practically nullified. His body continued to swell, especially his stomach, which bulged like a drum.

Yet Yang Yi felt no fullness, no heaviness, no sense of a bloated belly. That sensation seemed to have vanished entirely.

“Damn!”

He realised he couldn’t completely digest or absorb the Fruit of Bounty he had consumed.

Worse, he could feel it growing inside him.

If he let it keep expanding, he would explode, just like the obese woman from the Banquet, the one who had burst apart into chunks of “delicacies” before she could finish digesting them.

He had to act fast before it was too late.

“Come on! Just puke some of it out!”

Yang Yi tried to force the Gluttonous Maw to open and vomit out the half-digested mass, just as he had done after leaving the Banquet, spewing out a flood of food.

But once something went in… it never wanted to come out.

This time, the Gluttonous Maw had learned its lesson. It clenched its teeth tight and refused to spit out even a morsel. No matter how much Yang Yi pried at it, it wouldn’t budge, it was determined to keep the Fruit of Bounty all to itself.

“Damn it!” 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Yang Yi struggled, clawing at the mouth until its lips nearly tore, but it still wouldn’t open.

He even tried gagging himself, but all it got him was dry heaves, nothing came out.

The contents of his stomach were locked down, guarded by the Gluttonous Maw like a dragon hoarding treasure. After starving for so long, it had finally eaten something… and now it refused to let go.

Yang Yi had no choice but to think of another plan.

Maybe… cut it open.

A throwing knife appeared in his hand.

But the Gluttonous Maw seemed to sense his intent. Suddenly it opened wide, and its tongue shot out like lightning, snatching the blade from his hand and swallowing it whole.

“You damned mouth! I’ll tear you apart!”

Yang Yi roared in fury, wrestling with the mouth on his belly.

But he was far too fat, his limbs stubby and slow, his flexibility gone. Against the dexterous tongue, he didn’t stand a chance.

After losing three knives to that thieving tongue, Yang Yi finally realised he was outmatched. Even if he used Broken Iron, the Gluttonous Maw would probably try to seize it too.

And that was far too risky, one wrong move and he could slice his belly open, freeing the Fruit of Bounty inside.

After thinking for several long seconds, Yang Yi made up his mind: he would sew the mouth shut.

Once it was stitched closed, maybe it would finally behave.

He could still hold it closed with his hands, that much, at least, he could manage.

But first, he needed to regroup with Suna.

As he prepared to move, her earlier words echoed in his mind.

“Mixing sea salt with stomach acid improves digestion and absorption of exotic substances.”

So he pulled out a giant sea-salt grenade, unscrewed the cap, and began guzzling mouthfuls of sea salt while sprinting toward the Nightmare Star.

His Body Reinforcement spell had worn off several minutes ago, but his vision remained clear, his Third Eye lasted longer than before, likely a side effect of his boosted stats.

Pulling down his blindfold, Yang Yi barreled through the forest, his heavy body snapping tree trunks as he went, like a massive, bouncing ball of flesh with arms and legs.

Even his Penitent Armour bulged to the point of bursting.

Thank you for reading! We hope you’re enjoying the story at iNoveltranslation.com :)

There’s now a Patreon, so feel free to check it out! You can read up to 12 chapters in advance!! :D

Please give the novel a rating and a review on novelbuddy. It will help the website and also help people find this novel!