Black Thing

"Haha, we're here! This place doesn't seem very well-off, but this rural atmosphere is pretty nice." Tan Fei shouted excitedly, and everyone was drawn in by the simple, earthy feeling of the place.

The car drove along an extremely narrow concrete road through the countryside. Sparse rural houses stood on either side, scattered across the land. Yet it was nearly one in the afternoon, and there was not a single person working in the fields. Every household had its doors tightly shut, even their curtains drawn.

"Could they all be taking an afternoon nap?" Zhang Chen found the scene rather strange as well.

"Ah!" Wang Yizhi and Dai Xu suddenly cried out as they looked out the window.

Following their gaze, the group saw that a small pond by the roadside was actually filled with white bones. Looking more carefully, they realized that the bones came in different sizes. The larger skulls had horns, while the smaller ones seemed to belong to cats or dogs. Still, there were simply too many bones. They had completely filled the nearly four-meter-long pond.

"It's fine. They're just the remains of cows and dogs." Once Zhang Chen said that, everyone came to their senses.

"Why are there so many animal bones? Could there be some kind of epidemic?" Zhang Chen was somewhat worried about that. Still, their destination probably was not in this village. If anything happened, they could just demand to leave immediately.

As the car continued onward, several more ponds like the first one appeared by the roadside. This truly made Zhang Chen restless. He looked at the people from First High School behind them. They were just as tense, their eyes filled with unease. Only that guy sat there as though nothing had happened.

"Driver, how much farther is our destination?" Zhang Chen suddenly asked.

"We'll be there not long after we leave the village," the driver replied.

Hearing that they would be leaving the village, Zhang Chen relaxed a little.

Sure enough, less than five minutes later, the car drove out of the village. A vast forest stretched out before them. Then the car stopped.

"We're here? Where's the villa?" the First High School students began asking.

"The people over there told me to bring you here. It should be nearby," the driver said as he turned around.

"Driver, leave us your number. If anything comes up, we can contact you," Zhang Chen said with a smile.

"Sure, but the company only paid me to bring you here. I don't think I'm responsible for picking you up on the way back," the driver said.

"If we need you to pick us up, we'll pay you ourselves."

"Mm, all right. Remember my number." After the older driver gave Zhang Chen his phone number, everyone got out of the car. The First High School students got out as well.

"Where are the people from the travel company? Why aren't they here to receive us? At the very least, there should be a tour guide," said a curly-haired girl from First High School, her hands on her hips.

"The First High School students don't seem to know anything either. It looks like none of us knows much about this company. Since we're already here, we should find the villa first. The villa in the brochure seemed to have plenty of trees around it, so it should be somewhere in this forest," Zhang Chen said after thinking it over.

The forest before them stretched as far as the eye could see. It covered a huge area, and even the shortest trees were three meters tall. It was utterly out of place beside the village they had just left.

"Come over here." Er Wa, carrying his hiking backpack, seemed to have found something to their left.

Zhang Chen and the other three walked over first. After Jia Xin nodded, the six people from First High School followed.

Sure enough, a nearly moldy wooden sign had been nailed to a tree trunk with rusty iron nails. The writing on it was still quite clear.

"Auguste Rodin Private Property. Trespassers Enter at Their Own Risk!"

"Haha, this Rodin guy must have been the villa's previous owner. The travel company must have taken it over now. Let's head inside. The villa should be in there. This is nice too—it feels like an adventure." Er Wa proudly pulled out his Swiss Army knife and was the first to enter the forest.

Wang Yizhi looked at Zhang Chen, then linked her arm through his and walked in with him. The forest was rather large. Even though it was broad daylight, she was still a little scared.

Dai Xu had no choice but to follow Tan Fei into the forest. Naturally, the First High School students followed behind them as well.

Er Wa led the way. Every minute, he used his knife to make a mark on a tree. Before anyone could ask, he muttered to himself, "Marking the way."

The forest was deathly quiet. A large forest in summer should have been full of birds or cicadas, yet after walking for nearly ten minutes, they had not heard a single chirp or buzz. They had not even seen any snakes, rats, or other creatures the girls found so frightening.

If one word had to describe this forest, it was "dead."

Suddenly, Zhang Chen turned and stared into the woods to his left. He stopped walking and said to Wang Yizhi, "Yi Zhi, you and Dai Xu stick together. I need to check something out. I'll catch up with you soon."

"Be careful. Don't get lost," Wang Yizhi said. After walking for so long without anything happening, she was no longer very afraid.

Zhang Chen nodded, then walked over to the First High School group behind them and said something to Jia Xin.

"Jia Xin, let's go take a look over there. We can meet up with them later. I think I saw something." Zhang Chen smiled and pointed toward the woods on the left.

"I think I saw something too. Let's go." Jia Xin agreed immediately. The other First High School students found his reaction very strange. In their eyes, this was nothing like Jia Xin's usual behavior.

The two of them left the group.

Zhang Chen had not actually wanted to go, and even if he did, he had not wanted to bring Jia Xin along. However, Jia Xin seemed to have noticed what he had done on the bus. To avoid any misunderstanding, it would be better to clear things up sooner rather than later.

More importantly, ever since entering the forest, Zhang Chen had sensed an extremely disgusting presence. It did not seem to come from any particular place; every tree gave off that feeling. That was probably why no animals lived in this forest.

Moreover, Zhang Chen had clearly sensed and seen a massive black object some distance away just now, but it had vanished in an instant. The aura it gave off was about as dangerous as the one in Xie Wen's basement.

That was why Zhang Chen had decided to bring Jia Xin along. First, if there really was danger, an extra helper would be useful. At the very least, they were on the same side for now, and their chances would be better if they fought together. Second, if this could improve their relationship even a little, there would be much less trouble over the next seven days.

"I'll make the first move later. If I get trapped, you have to support me immediately." The two had walked for a while without speaking when Jia Xin suddenly spoke up. His tone was extremely serious, completely different from before.

Zhang Chen nodded to show that he agreed. In truth, he did not understand why Jia Xin trusted him. After all, he had not revealed his strength at all.

The two arrived at the place where the black object had appeared. Endless forest still surrounded them, and Wang Yizhi's group had long since disappeared from view.

"I'll draw it out. You hide in a tree first," Jia Xin said.

Zhang Chen did not refuse. If Jia Xin had a way to lure that thing out, so much the better. Zhang Chen hated ghosts that fought hit-and-run battles the most.

Zhang Chen stepped onto a tree trunk and leapt several times in succession, reaching the highest branch.

After seeing Zhang Chen climb up, Jia Xin took a Straw Doll from his backpack. He bit his index finger and dripped blood onto it, then pulled out a yellow talisman paper from somewhere. After sticking it onto the doll's head and chanting a few words under his breath, he buried the doll beneath the pile of leaves at his feet.

After finishing all that, Jia Xin did not climb a tree. Instead, he moved behind a large tree three meters away and concealed himself. A few minutes later, Zhang Chen suddenly felt the trunk tremble.

Not far away, a massive humanoid monster over three meters tall approached them. It wore butcher's clothing, and its face, body, and hands were covered in iron nails. Its face seemed to have been stitched together by something. It had no eyes, no nose, only a circular, jagged mouth. It dragged a huge shovel stained with blood as it walked toward them.

The monster reached the place where the Straw Doll was buried, looked around, and began digging with its massive shovel.

Since the Straw Doll had been buried shallowly, the monster dug it out with a single scoop and grabbed it in its hand.

Suddenly, the talisman paper on the Straw Doll's head floated down on its own and stuck to the monster's hand. Flames immediately soared into the air, and the monster's left hand was burned directly into cooked flesh.

"Ah~~~~~~" The monster let out a strange shriek and looked everywhere for whoever had ambushed it. At that moment, Jia Xin was behind a tree not far behind it.

Zhang Chen's attention was not focused on the monster, but on Jia Xin. He wanted to see how strong the guy was. Sure enough, when the black monster started walking in the opposite direction, Jia Xin flashed out from hiding and shot toward it, his toes barely touching the ground as he moved with incredible speed.

"Qinggong?" Zhang Chen was stunned. This was something out of a movie. Jia Xin had not actually flown, but with only the tips of his feet touching the ground, he moved so fast that Zhang Chen would probably have needed to sprint at full speed to match him.

Jia Xin had already reached the monster's back. With a push from the ground, he leaped into the air and used two fingers like a sword, driving them directly into the monster's head.

"Pfft!" Black blood sprayed from the monster's forehead. Jia Xin's finger strike had actually pierced straight through its skull.

After landing, Jia Xin's expression suddenly changed drastically. The black monster, despite having its forehead pierced through, seemed completely unaffected. It turned around, lifted a thick leg, and kicked at Jia Xin.

Jia Xin jumped up, dodging the kick while striking the monster more than ten times in rapid succession with his two fingers. Immediately, more than ten bloody holes appeared on the monster's body, black viscous blood flowing from its back.

"Still not dead?" Jia Xin said. The monster was unaffected. It directly grabbed Jia Xin, who was still suspended in midair, with its right hand. At the same time, a round, long red flesh worm suddenly extended from its circular mouth, as if it wanted to eat Jia Xin.

"Help!" Jia Xin panicked as he was caught and blurted it out.

Zhang Chen smiled. Both claws shot out as he dropped straight down from the tree toward the ghost creature's head. Facing the disgusting flesh worm, Jia Xin used the only movable finger on his left hand, his little finger, to pull out a white talisman paper from his waist and, using finger force, stuck it onto the monster's arm.

Just as the long flesh worm opened its mouth and tried to swallow Jia Xin, there was a slash, and the monster's head, along with the red flesh worm in its mouth, separated from its body and fell to the ground.

Boom! The arm gripping Jia Xin also broke into two pieces. Jia Xin and the severed forearm were blasted away together, while faint arcs of lightning flickered from the broken stump.

Even without its head and right arm, the monster could still move as though nothing had happened. Flesh and blood writhed around the wounds on its head and right arm, as if they were healing themselves.

"Use all your strength to hold it down. I'll finish it!" Seeing that things were going badly, Zhang Chen immediately shouted at Jia Xin, who had been blasted away.

Jia Xin looked at Zhang Chen. After seeing the determination in his eyes, he pulled a wooden wheel from his waist and placed it on the ground. He put his palm into the central indentation of the wheel and twisted it hard. At the same time, a pained expression appeared on his face.

In that instant, more than ten wooden stakes suddenly grew from the ground around the monster, locking it tightly in place. Yet the creature's strength was unimaginable. The moment it was restrained, two stakes were shaken apart, though two more immediately rose up to replace them.

"Hurry up and do it!" Jia Xin's palm in the wooden wheel was already covered in blood. He shouted at Zhang Chen in pain.

Zhang Chen drew in a breath. This thing was a full three meters tall. He did not know whether he could swallow it. He opened his mouth with all his strength, but even at its largest, it could only swallow half of the monster.

"Get bigger!" The veins on Zhang Chen's forehead bulged, and sweat dripped down.

A notification sounded:

Gluttonous Ghost main soul compatibility increased by 6%, reaching 41%.

His mouth suddenly became incomparably huge, swallowing the massive monster trapped among the stakes along with the stakes themselves...