The Vanishing Corpse

One hour before Zhang Chen woke up on the second day of the trip.

Er Wa was holding a bowl of clear soup noodles with only a few green vegetable leaves, eating it with a helpless expression.

"Sigh, no, no, how can people live like this without meat? I've decided that after I finish eating, I'll go into the woods to find some livestock. Maybe there will be unexpected gains."

Er Wa reluctantly swallowed the noodles in the bowl, put down his chopsticks, and went straight to the second floor. Before long, he appeared in the first-floor lobby, a military knife at his waist, wearing camouflage, and climbing shoes on his feet.

"Is anyone going hunting?" Er Wa suddenly shouted at everyone in the lobby.

The girls from the first high school couldn't help but chuckle at his attire. They thought no one would respond, as even Tan Fei was keeping his distance.

"Second Brother, let's go. The two of us will improve everyone's diet." It was Hong Yi, a slender young man from the first high school, who spoke.

These two had only met last night while drinking, along with the tall guy Gong Yuanwu.

"Brother Yi, I knew you were loyal. Let's go, the two of us should be enough." Second Brother was overjoyed to have someone respond.

"Wait a minute, I'll go ask Brother Wu if he wants to go. Brother Wu got into a key high school through sports." After speaking, the slender young man walked towards Gong Yuanwu, who was sitting at the innermost part of the sofa.

"Brother Wu, let's go hunting. Eating only vegetables is making me miserable. It would be great to catch a few rabbits."

"No, I don't want to go," Gong Yuanwu replied in a low voice.

"Brother Wu, what's wrong today? You're usually the first one to volunteer for this kind of thing," Hong Yi asked doubtfully.

This time, Gong Yuanwu didn't respond at all. Seeing this, Hong Yi had no choice but to wave at Er Wa, making a very helpless expression.

"It's okay, it'll just be the two of us. We'll show them our skills then." Er Wa excitedly rubbed his hands together and pulled Hong Yi out of the villa.

After the two entered the woods, Hong Yi looked at the Swiss Army knife on Er Wa's waist and suddenly said, "Second Brother, you're the only one with a weapon, and it's a short one. Our hunting efficiency will be very low like this. Why don't I modify it? My family has been carpenters for three generations."

"Oh? That impressive? Then you do it." Er Wa trusted his new friend completely and handed over the Swiss Army knife.

Upon receiving it, Hong Yi climbed up a thick tree beside him. With a "crack," a slender branch fell from above Er Wa's head.

Not long after, another branch of similar length fell. Then, Hong Yi slowly climbed down the tree, picked up a branch from the ground, and began to sharpen it with the Swiss Army knife in his hand.

"Second Brother, where did you buy this knife? It's really good quality," Hong Yi said as he easily handled the branch in his hand, first removing the branches outside the main trunk, then sharpening the entire main trunk into a cylindrical shape, with a very sharp tip.

"Here you go." Hong Yi grabbed the sharpened wooden spear and threw it directly to Er Wa.

"Holy crap, your craftsmanship is amazing!" Er Wa grabbed the wooden spear. It looked flawless, and there were even several grooves carved into the grip to increase friction, preventing it from slipping.

"Why is this wood a bit red?" Er Wa noticed some red inside the wooden spear.

Soon, the second wooden spear was finished. Hong Yi returned the military knife to Er Wa.

"When I went up to cut the branches earlier, the sap that flowed out was green with red, didn't you know? Maybe the chlorophyll mutated," Hong Yi said, not very concerned.

"Your knife is good, otherwise I couldn't have done such a good job."

"I just bought it online, I didn't expect it to be a genuine one." Er Wa had bought it for very little money during an online sale and didn't expect it to be such a good knife. He also forgot about the red branches.

"Let's go, our success rate will be much higher this way," Hong Yi said.

Er Wa nodded, and the two walked towards the depths of the forest. Er Wa still made marks on the trees every few steps, but they didn't know there was nothing in this forest.

After about half an hour of walking, they hadn't encountered anything, and their moods gradually became restless.

"Brother Yi, there's something wrong with this forest, right? How can there be no animals at all? We haven't even heard a bird chirp along the way."

"You're right, there really isn't a single bird. Didn't Brother Xin get injured by a bear last time?"

"Rustle~~" Just as the two were hesitating whether to continue forward, they heard the sound of leaves rustling from their right.

"Haha, we have prey." Both of them were still a bit nervous. If they encountered a bear, it would be troublesome.

The two slowly approached the source of the sound, and gradually saw the appearance of what was making the noise...

After Zhang Chen finished his noodles, he walked out of the lobby and first looked around for Wang Yizhi. After all, the house wasn't safe. Yesterday, after killing the Mirror ghost, only the dance studio on the first floor was relatively safe, but now, in everyone's impression, that dance studio was the most dangerous.

When Zhang Chen went to the kitchen to find Wang Yizhi earlier, he was very nervous, but fortunately, after entering the kitchen, he didn't find anything.

"Have you seen where those two girls from our class went?" Zhang Chen asked Jia Xin, who was sitting on the sofa.

"They went fishing, I think. You should keep an eye on them and don't let them go swimming."

Zhang Chen tilted his head and looked at the backyard of the house. Sure enough, the two girls were fishing there, and Tan Fei was also there. With a thought, the two Blood Beetles that were staying in Wang Yizhi's bedroom flew out of the second-floor window, circled the house, and flew to the grass beside Wang Yizhi and the others, hiding themselves.

"That's Gong Yuanwu from your class, right? I remember he wasn't this reclusive."

"Yes, it's better to be careful. If there's anything unusual, I'll act immediately." Jia Xin seemed to have already sensed that Gong Yuanwu, sitting in the corner, was problematic.

"What do you think about Er Wa from our class and Hong Yi from your class going hunting together?"

"It's not a problem. We'll just wait for them to come back."

"What about the other people in your class? If they go into those rooms, it would be bad if something happened like it did to Shen Qiutian, right?"

"Don't worry, the three girls are all in the dance studio. Qiutian is teaching the other two to dance."

Zhang Chen immediately felt that Jia Xin's status in their class was definitely beyond his imagination. The entire class seemed to obey him alone.

"They're back." At this moment, Jia Xin pointed outside the door and said.

Zhang Chen rushed out. If anything happened to Er Wa, he would be in trouble, as he was the one who brought Er Wa here.

Zhang Chen ran out the door and saw Er Wa holding a blood-stained wooden spear, with a lot of blood on his body as well. Behind Er Wa, Hong Yi from the first high school also walked out, his hands covered in blood.

Moreover, both of them had vacant eyes, as if something major had happened.

Zhang Chen first used Telekinesis to scan both of their bodies. He found that Er Wa had a blood-soaked bite mark on his left arm, and Hong Yi had a bite mark on his right foot. Other than that, there were no major injuries. At the same time, he didn't sense any unusual aura, so he strode over and asked Er Wa, "Er Wa, weren't you going hunting? What happened?" Zhang Chen knew there was nothing in the forest, so what was going on with these two covered in blood and injured?

Er Wa continued to stare ahead with vacant eyes, walking step by step, as if he hadn't seen Zhang Chen or heard him speak.

Jia Xin walked over and pointed two fingers at Hong Yi's left shoulder blade. Hong Yi, who had been staring blankly, suddenly came to his senses, looked at Jia Xin, and showed a look of fear. At the same time, he pointed a finger at Er Wa's shoulder blade. However, Er Wa only stopped walking and showed no other expression.

"Brother Xin, what do we do? We killed someone, we killed someone," Hong Yi said, grabbing Jia Xin's arm.

"Let's go inside and sit down to explain," Jia Xin said, helping them into the villa.

To prevent others from knowing, Zhang Chen and his group of four went to the dining room and closed the door.

"Tell me what happened. Don't be afraid."

"We went hunting today..." Er Wa, who had been silent, finally spoke. He recounted the events of the morning and how they found nothing in the woods.

"Then, when we saw there was nothing, we were about to head back. Unexpectedly, we heard the sound of leaves rustling nearby. We thought it was prey, but we were also afraid it might be a bear, so we approached slowly."

"When we got closer to the source of the sound, we saw an old woman with white hair kneeling in front of a tree, seemingly searching for something under the roots. Hong Yi and I thought she was lost and wanted to ask her."

At this point, Er Wa's eyes were filled with regret and fear.

"As a result, I slowly walked over and placed my hand on the old woman's shoulder, wanting to ask her. Unexpectedly, she suddenly turned her head, her mouth full of blood and raw meat. And on the ground she was digging through, there was a half-body child."

"Before I could react, the old woman pounced on me and bit down hard on my left arm. If I hadn't used this wooden spear to block, she probably would have bitten off a chunk of my flesh."

"I kicked the old woman in the abdomen, sending her flying. However, she continued to advance towards both of us, as if she couldn't hear anything we said."

"We had no choice. While resisting, we accidentally thrust the wooden spear into her body. She fell to the ground, bleeding profusely. We thought she was dead and turned to leave in a panic. Unexpectedly, as Hong Yi was walking behind, the old woman on the ground grabbed his right foot and bit down."

"Due to the pain, Hong Yi directly thrust the wooden spear into the old woman's body again, but she still wouldn't let go. So, we kept thrusting the wooden spear into her body until she could no longer move."

After Er Wa finished speaking, he seemed completely devastated and fell silent, lowering his head.

Zhang Chen frowned after listening, then slowly said, "Er Wa, you're fine. That was self-defense, and you won't get into trouble." Zhang Chen actually knew that their actions were excessive self-defense.

"How about this, take us to where the old woman's body is. We'll handle it a bit. With such a large forest, and this being the border of the provincial region, as long as we bury it, there won't be much of a problem."

These were the only solutions Zhang Chen could think of.

"Are you coming, Jia Xin?"

"Of course."

Then the four of them left the room. However, before they went out, Gong Yuanwu, who was sitting in the corner, gave them a slight smile, which made Zhang Chen feel a bit uneasy. He didn't pay it much mind, as there were two Blood Beetles by Wang Yizhi's side.

The four of them, following the marks Er Wa had carved on the trees, walked for about 20 minutes in the forest and finally reached the scene.

"It's under the third tree ahead," Er Wa said, pointing forward.

Zhang Chen and Jia Xin walked over step by step, but in front of them, apart from a pile of disturbed leaves, the body Er Wa had mentioned was nowhere to be found.

At this moment, Er Wa and Hong Yi also walked up. Seeing the scene before them, they immediately knelt on the ground and said, "I remember it clearly, it's definitely here. It's impossible, impossible." Er Wa frantically dug through the fallen leaves on the ground with his hands.

Suddenly, Zhang Chen remembered Gong Yuanwu's smile when they left. He was startled and shouted, "Jia Xin, you stay here. I'm going back to the villa."

"I really hope this isn't a diversion!" Zhang Chen quickly moved towards the villa...

ps: Everyone can leave more comments in the discussion area. Any shortcomings in this article can be pointed out, and Ah Fei will work hard to improve it.