[Soul-Shaking Ancient Village] Village Massacre
When Si Yehan climbed over the wall into the first home, it was unusually quiet both inside and out. Not a sound could be heard.
Scattered raindrops fell from the eaves as Si Yehan looked at the darkness reflected in the broken window. He raised the knife in his hand and stabbed it into the center of the wooden door before him, breaking the bolt behind it.
He kicked the door open. Si Yehan saw no one, so they were presumably hiding beside the door. He strode straight into the room, and the next instant, a fierce gust howled as a figure lunged out of the darkness.
His face was contorted with rage, and his eyes were bloodshot! He was a middle-aged man, and he swung a brick at Si Yehan.
Si Yehan had anticipated this and easily dodged the blow. The middle-aged man roared, "You bastard! You're the son of a bitch who smashed my doors and windows earlier!"
Si Yehan answered the man's anger with his knife. The middle-aged man was burly and strong, but now he was utterly powerless to fight back.
Si Yehan stabbed him in the lung, then struck him three times in succession with his left fist. Blood spurted from the middle-aged man's mouth and nose as he fell backward, his head thrown back. Si Yehan then stabbed him in the forehead and slashed straight down, splitting his face in two. The instant his skin tore open, blood gushed out like a fountain!
Si Yehan kicked the corpse into a puddle outside the door, then turned his gaze to three people huddled tightly in a corner. A middle-aged woman was trembling all over, clutching two children in her arms.
One side of the middle-aged man's face stared at the woman and her children, blood flowing from it, making it look particularly horrifying. The other side had peeled away and hung against the ground.
Tears welled up in the middle-aged woman's eyes. She desperately mouthed a plea for Si Yehan to spare her and her children, using her body and hands to cover the children's ears and eyes tightly.
A smile appeared on Si Yehan's face. He nodded, then pointed outside with his left hand, gesturing for the woman to take her children and leave.
The moment Si Yehan turned sideways, the hatred in the middle-aged woman's eyes surged out like a rising tide!
She pushed the children out of her arms, picked up a stool with nails still in it, and swung it at Si Yehan. Tears streamed from her eyes, and a vicious, exultant smile spread across her face, only to freeze there the next instant.
"A stupid pig like you actually thought you could turn the tables and kill me." A mocking smile appeared on Si Yehan's cold face, and then...
Holding the knife in his right hand, he plunged it straight into the middle-aged woman's neck. His left hand smashed into her shoulder blade, jarring the stool from her grasp.
The woman clutched her neck. When Si Yehan pulled out the knife, he cut off four of her fingers in the process. The middle-aged woman let out a piglike shriek, and her screams made the two children she had borne break into high-pitched cries.
The sound was pleasing to the ear. Si Yehan put away his knife, stepped forward, and grabbed the two children, smashing them against the nails. Their heads burst open, splattering blood and brain matter across the floor.
At the point of death, the middle-aged woman saw the scene and glared with wide-open eyes. Her face was filled with sinister hatred, turning ashen as veins bulged across her body. When she let go, a wheezing gurgle sounded, and her hands fell limply into the pool of blood.
Si Yehan looked at the four corpses lying neatly on the ground, his smile broadening and his heart filled with delight. Then he turned and left for his next destination.
The second household had three males and four females, spanning three generations: grandfather, father, and grandchildren.
The third household had one man and five women, a father and his daughters.
The fourth household had one man and one woman, a father and his daughter.
The house-to-house slaughter continued until dusk. Even while saving time, Si Yehan had only just managed to kill everyone in the more than twenty households.
During this time, he also went back and checked some of the earlier houses, and sure enough, he found a few survivors clinging to life who had slipped through the net. He killed them all as well.
By now, there was not a single living soul left in Wang Family Village besides him.
Si Yehan stood in the twilight, his white shirt spotless and his sleeves rolled up. There were a few traces of blood on his wrists, so he found a pool and washed them clean.
Though he had expended quite a bit of energy, he was genuinely delighted. Next, he could devote himself fully to facing the instance in the most efficient state possible.
After retrieving his black trench coat, Si Yehan found some tools for starting a fire and made his way back to the three-story building alone, through the village's silence and the water pooled along the road.
Various thoughts surfaced in his mind. He now understood all the original killing rules, though he could not rule out the emergence of new ones. By a conservative estimate, there would be two ghosts tonight. Whether they could enter dreams to kill was still unknown.
The person behind it all might have died at a ghost's hands long ago. And would Han Shu outside choose to pursue the matter to the end because of its members' deaths?
Though he had enjoyed his killing spree in the instance, he no longer had any room for trial and error, and there were still some issues outside.
Had the gains outweighed the losses?
Of course they had. The pleasure he had gained from killing had filled his heart to a great extent. Even if he died in the instance now, he had nothing to regret. It was only a pity that he could no longer create calamity with his own hands and slaughter living beings.
Si Yehan showed nothing on his face. The storage room on the third floor was no longer of use to him, so when he returned, he headed straight there. After arranging the scene, he gazed at the ritual objects in the room for a moment, then started a great fire without the slightest hesitation. The flames drove away the darkness and consumed everything!
Si Yehan retreated to the stairs and watched the flames spew forth before him with an almost languid air. For an instant, the orange-red firelight lent a touch of brutality to his cold, handsome face. It vanished in a flash, as though it had been an illusion.
His trench coat had long since dried. He murmured, "If I don't die tonight, tomorrow I'll plunge the entire village into an endless sea of fire and turn it into a desolate ruin. I'm quite interested in the Ghost Control Zhang Kui and Shen Jing mentioned. I wonder if it can take my fighting prowess a step further. Perhaps I could reach the realm of the so-called earthly immortals of myth."
Si Yehan's voice was calm, betraying neither joy nor anger. Seeing that the fire was starting to spread outward, he pushed the door shut and turned to leave.
He went out again and searched for some food. After eating a simple meal to stave off hunger, he returned to his room and sat quietly with his eyes closed. He looked like a master who stood aloof from the world, unmoved by anything around him.
As time passed, night gradually fell, and faint threads of bloody light began to appear in the sky. Si Yehan had already fallen asleep sitting cross-legged, and the past reappeared in his dreams.
In the distance, white clouds drifted as flames shot high and smoke billowed. A factory had exploded on the outskirts of the city.
At the time, Si Yehan had not yet seen the sight of screaming humans dying, their flesh and blood mangled, and could not summon the slightest interest in anything.
The young Si Yehan stood among a bustling crowd by the roadside, his ears filled with a chaotic jumble of sounds. His face, however, was calm, and he looked drowsy. An old butler in a suit and tie accompanied him.
The old butler's face had long since faded in his memory, but now it became clear again in his dream.
Si Yehan watched his younger self from a third-person perspective.
People were walking normally along the road when the sound of a car speeding toward them suddenly rang out!