After finishing off the Bear Demon, Li Hao noticed movement in the cave nearby.
When he sent his Divine Soul to investigate, he found seven survivors in tattered clothes, men and women alike, all around twenty to thirty years old. There were no children or elderly people.
Chains bound their hands and feet, with the other ends threaded through a hole in the middle of a large rock. Unless they could drag the rock along, they had no way to escape.
They seemed to have endured something horrific. All seven looked dazed, their faces steeped in terror. Some had already become vacant-eyed and numb.
Li Hao sighed inwardly, then controlled a stone to smash the iron chains and free them.
But although the chains on their hands and feet were gone, other chains seemed to bind them still.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the seven looked around blankly, remaining where they were without making any move to flee.
One of them seemed to remember something and began trembling, huddling on the ground. In a panic, they picked up the broken chains and wrapped them around their own hands and feet, pleading over and over:
"Don't eat me, don't eat me..."
Terror had already shattered their courage.
Li Hao fell silent for a moment. He was not accustomed to comforting people and thought it best to give them time to come to their senses. Meanwhile, he would use this opportunity to finish dealing with everything outside.
With a casual gesture, he used Object Manipulation to gather all the monsters' corpses together and build them into a high platform, stacking them squarely and neatly.
"Uncle Lin, your disciple is incompetent. These monsters are all I can offer to honor your heroic soul!"
Li Hao turned his hand over and took