[Eye]

"I clearly dodged it, so why does it feel like all the bones in my chest have been shattered?" The woman coughed up several fragments of her internal organs, her face twisted in pain.

"One of this anomaly's rules: its weapon always inflicts injury on contact. Getting grazed by it is the same as taking a direct hit."

"That rule is shameless!" The woman pulled out a blood-red cube and ate it, then coughed up several more mouthfuls of organ fragments. After keeping herself alive, she shouted, "There's a suction force around it, so it's already hard to dodge. With a disgusting rule like that on top of it, there's no way we can kill it!"

"Then why aren't you leaving?!"

An Ying caught up to her in a few strides and shouted coldly.

The woman hurried to her feet and glanced back.

That single glance made her scalp crawl.

Of her four teammates, two had ashen faces and mouths as hollow as black holes. The anomaly had pulled out their tongues, along with flesh and intestines, spilling them all over the ground. They were still alive, struggling and flailing their limbs.

The other two had their facial features replaced by a pair of pitch-black eyes, their original features squeezed down to their necks. Smiles still lingered on their lips as they basked in the happiness brought on by the anomaly.

They had all triggered rules and were certain to die.

One could still escape after encountering the hammer-wielding anomaly, but the rules of spiritual anomalies that affected the mind gave no warning whatsoever. Many powerful owners of anomalous objects had died to those absolute rules.

The woman shuddered and, not daring to look back again, sped up and rushed forward. But the anomaly in the black dress had already noticed her gaze, and an utterly seductive voice drifted into her ear.

"Look at me..."

The sigh seemed close at hand. Warmth and a familiar fragrance entered her nose and went straight to her nerves. Her body relaxed involuntarily, and she slowly turned her head. In contrast, a bone-chilling cold rapidly crept up her back.

"Smack!"

Just as the enthralled woman was about to look back, An Ying stepped up and slapped her without mercy.

The slap did not wake her, but it forcibly turned her head away from the anomaly.

The instant her gaze was forcibly pulled away, the woman regained her senses for a very brief moment. But when the anomaly's voice sounded again, the whites of her eyes completely swallowed her pupils once more.

"Snap!"

An Ying pulled his hand back quickly, avoiding the woman's sudden bite.

He watched her lips turn bluish gray and saw her eyes roll back as she struggled with a pained expression. Then he glanced at the three anomalies following them and quickly made a decision.

This couldn't go on.

He opened the bamboo umbrella with one hand, electricity rippling along its pale green ribs and forcibly driving back the woman's transformation. Jolted awake by the shock, she quickly regained some life in her all-white eyes. She still couldn't control her body, however, and looked at An Ying pleadingly.

At that moment, her will to live broke through the weakened anomaly's rule.

An Ying watched the three anomalies approach, his expression frighteningly cold. "Close your eyes. Don't look at me."

He pressed a spot behind his ear, and a scalp-crawling sound of flesh tearing followed. The woman's heart trembled, and she instinctively closed her eyes.

A bottomless fissure suddenly tore open amid his soft, slightly curly white hair. The black-and-red fissure writhed, spitting out several slick tentacles covered in densely packed suckers.

Those tentacles were as thick as a person's thigh. Some crawled along An Ying's back, some twisted their pointed tips in the air, and several more lay across his head and cheeks, intertwining with his handsome face to create a strange, scalp-crawling beauty.

Several other tentacles tried to reach outside, but as soon as they extended beyond the umbrella, they quickly curled back as though burned.

The hammer-wielding anomaly sensed danger and slowed its approach.

"Be good." An Ying reached out and grasped the most disobedient tentacle, his expression cold. "I know you're hungry. There's food here. Eat."

As if it could see the anomaly, the tentacle twisted toward it. Wet, sticky sounds came from its suckers, and the next moment, white, bloodshot eyeballs were squeezed out, growing in dense, uneven clusters all over the tentacle.

[Eye] rules:

1. All living beings that look directly at [Eye] are controlled by [Eye], including its controller.

2. If the controller is controlled by [Eye], master and servant are reversed.

3. [Eye] cannot tolerate hunger. Once awakened, its desire to devour must be satisfied, or [Eye] will revive.

[Eye: Use me, become me.]

The eyeballs rolled around. Every living being they saw was forcibly brought to a halt at that moment. Only the anomaly in the black dress, whose rules likewise depended on sight, could still move its eyes.

In the clash between the two rules of the same nature, An Ying's had a slight edge.

An Ying slapped away a tentacle that was trying to sneak in front of him and catch him off guard, then gave the woman a shove. "Hurry and go!"

The woman instinctively opened her eyes and tried to look back, but forcibly stopped herself halfway through the turn. She quickly pulled out the withered foot of some creature and attached it to her right leg.

Flesh tore as a third leg emerged from her right leg. The woman screamed, and as if injected with chicken blood, her speed shot up, instantly putting distance between her and An Ying.

"Many thanks, big shot! I'll go on ahead so I don't get in your way!"

An Ying paid the woman no mind. He pushed off hard with both legs and landed lightly on a nearby light stand. The tentacles' gaze shifted with him, and the anomaly holding the hammer instantly regained the ability to move.

An Ying planned to deal with that anomaly first, but as their paths crossed, it brushed past him and ran after the woman.

"Hm?" An Ying froze, then glanced back at the other two anomalies, which were still rooted in place. He suddenly understood that he was not the hammer-wielding anomaly's primary target.

Anomalies generally attacked the target closest to them first, unless someone had triggered their rule and become their primary target.

How had the woman triggered it?

An Ying thought no further about it, nor did he pursue the hammer-wielding anomaly. Without hesitation, he turned and went over to the two anomalies that were still immobilized. Grabbing the unruly tentacle behind his head, he said coldly, "Eat."

The tentacle slowly crawled in front of the two immobilized anomalies, its eyeballs rolling around. An Ying closed his eyes and urged it coldly, "Hurry up. You only have one minute."

"Gurgle." The anomaly let out a series of aggrieved gurgles, but it didn't move slowly. A huge mouth suddenly split open at the tip of the tentacle and swallowed the enormous anomaly in the black dress from head to toe.

The other anomaly, whose tongue was several meters long, was harder for the tentacle to eat. It sucked in the tongue like a noodle before swallowing the bluish-green anomaly. After digesting it for about a minute, it finally writhed and let out a satisfied energy burp.

"Ptooey."

After eating, the tentacle didn't forget to spit out two playing cards before lazily retracting into An Ying's brain.

An Ying tied up the white hair the tentacles had mussed, then bent down and picked up the two cards. They were the five of hearts and the six of clubs, neither of particularly high rank.