The moment he entered, he felt a bone-piercing chill wash over him, as though every pore were being eroded by it.
Qin Bo instinctively pulled his clothes tighter and gripped the vegetable cleaver in his hand—the one that was cracked yet still regarded as a treasured possession.
The dense fog was so thick that he could barely see his own hand in front of him.
Qin Bo could only rely on his vague sense of direction as he groped his way forward with utmost caution.
Strange sounds came from the surroundings every now and then, like someone sobbing under their breath, or perhaps letting out heavy sighs.
"Taoist Master?!"
"Hello? Is anyone... Is there a ghost here?"
Qin Bo shouted, trying to find that old Taoist.
"Wait, if I find that old Taoist, won't my head get snatched away too?"
"Forget it. I'll look for an anomaly myself first and replenish my lifespan!"
Qin Bo shook his head and stopped dwelling on it.
He knew full well that in this fog-shrouded, danger-ridden place, panic would only hasten his march toward destruction.
Yet after who knew how long, not a single anomaly appeared!
"Damn, did that old Taoist collect them all?"
"Or am I just not attractive enough?"
Qin Bo pondered for a while before understanding.
Since anomalies could devour a person's vital blood, why not use his vital blood as bait?
Once he decided to act, Qin Bo immediately struck a pose like a ferocious beast.
"Ancient Desolation Body Tempering Technique!"
Soon, the vital blood throughout his body began to roil, like flames being ignited. Waves of scorching heat surged through him.
A faint red glow rose over Qin Bo's skin.
The power of his vital blood turned into tangible mist, wisps spilling from his pores and spreading through the surroundings.
This dense scent of vital blood was like a beacon in the darkness, instantly shattering the calm of the foggy region.
A rustling sound came from not far away.
It sounded as if something was parting the fog and rapidly approaching Qin Bo's location.
Qin Bo's heart leaped with joy. He knew his plan had worked.
He tightened his grip on the cleaver, while pretending not to notice anything on the surface.
He continued circulating the Ancient Desolation Body Tempering Technique, constantly releasing an even richer force of vital blood.
Before long, an anomaly with a hunched figure, shaped like an old woman, slowly emerged from the fog.
Her skin was wrinkled and shriveled, like wind-dried tree bark.
Her eyes were murky, yet glimmered with greedy, ghostly light as they locked onto Qin Bo.
Her mouth made a hissing sound, as though she were swallowing saliva.
"Finally, someone who isn't afraid of death!"
Qin Bo thought to himself.
On the surface, however, he remained calm, pretending not to have noticed the anomaly's presence.
Unable to restrain her craving for vital blood, the old-woman anomaly attacked first.
Her figure flashed, and she lunged at Qin Bo like a specter.
Her withered hands transformed into claws and reached for Qin Bo's throat.
Qin Bo had been prepared. The instant the anomaly struck, he abruptly retreated.
The cleaver in his hand spun rapidly.
As it did, it sliced across his palm, coating the blade with demonic power.
A blade arc carrying a fierce gust of wind slashed toward the old woman.
"Gut Rip Belly Split!"
This was one of the more vicious moves in the Pig Slaughtering Saber Technique, combined with the berserk power awakened by the blood coating his body.
The blade arc flashed with blood-red light and shot straight toward the old-woman anomaly's abdomen at a tricky yet ferocious angle.
The old woman had just rushed over and had not yet had time to react fully.
Faced with this sudden, razor-sharp strike, she had no time to dodge.
With a screech, the blade arc pierced precisely into the old woman's abdomen.
Then, like a sharp pair of scissors, it tore her body upward from the abdomen.
The old woman let out a scream even more shrill than before, and a massive amount of black slime gushed from her body.
A thick, foul stench followed—so overpowering that it nearly made one faint.
Her body began to tremble violently. Her hands flailed wildly, trying to grab Qin Bo.
But Qin Bo would never give her that chance. After landing his attack, he immediately withdrew in a flying retreat.
As the blade arc ripped through her, the old woman's body gradually turned into black fragments that scattered into the air.
Only that nauseating stench remained, spreading through the surroundings.
[ Ding, slain Resentful-level anomaly ] [ Obtained 5 years of lifespan ]
"The first one!"
After killing it, Qin Bo repeated the same trick.
He continued rotating the body-tempering technique to stimulate the vital blood throughout his body while walking deeper inside.
As he ventured deeper into the fog, the temperature around him seemed to drop even further, while the mist grew denser and denser.
Qin Bo could feel more and more sinister eyes watching him from the darkness.
Yet those anomalies seemed wary of something and never launched an attack right away.
Suddenly, Qin Bo stepped on something soft and squishy.
His heart jolted, and he quickly leaped away. Looking down, he saw a lump of black flesh on the ground.
Several twisted eyes had grown from the lump of flesh, glaring viciously at him.
Before Qin Bo could react, the lump of flesh suddenly swelled.
Countless black tentacles extended from it and swept toward Qin Bo.
"What the hell is this thing?"
"It's not a ghost, and it's not a corpse either!"
Qin Bo brandished his cleaver, severing the approaching tentacles one by one.
But the tentacles seemed to possess lives of their own. The moment they were severed, they immediately grew back, and their numbers only increased.
Qin Bo realized he could not keep defending passively like this.
He fixed his gaze on the center of the lump of flesh, leaped into the air, poured all his strength into the cleaver, and stabbed down viciously.
"Pfft!"
The cleaver pierced into the lump of flesh. A stream of black fluid erupted, and the lump let out a shriek that made one's hair stand on end.
The tentacles instantly lost their vitality and collapsed onto the ground one after another.
However, before Qin Bo could breathe a sigh of relief, the lump of flesh suddenly began to tremble violently.
The black fluid rapidly converged, and in the blink of an eye, it reshaped itself into an even larger lump of flesh.
Even more eyes covered its surface, glowing with a ghostly green light and making it look even more sinister and terrifying.
Qin Bo's expression changed drastically.
"What the hell is this thing?!"
"I can't kill it as fast as it regenerates!"
"I refuse to believe I can't kill you!"
"Second Form, Bone Removal Flesh Stripping!"
After a brief pause, he immediately pounced forward.
The cleaver in his hand burst into a strange light, appearing especially dazzling within the fog.
As Qin Bo unleashed the move Bone Removal Flesh Stripping, the cleaver moved like an agile fish, slicing precisely into the immense body newly regenerated by the flesh anomaly.
Every swing sent great splashes of black fluid flying, while chunks of flesh were peeled away from the main body.
The flesh anomaly felt the pain and let out a string of sharp, chaotic cries.
Its ghostly green eyes were filled with fury and venom as it twisted its body madly.
It tried to fling Qin Bo off, while countless tentacles once again lashed and hammered toward him.
Qin Bo dodged left and right amid the dense barrage of tentacles. With the enhancement of the Ancient Desolation Body Tempering Technique, his movements were incredibly nimble, as elusive as a specter.
While evading the attacks, Qin Bo's cleaver never stopped.
He continued executing Bone Removal Flesh Stripping, and the flesh anomaly's enormous body gradually shrank beneath his assault.
But strangely, the chunks of flesh cut off and dropped to the ground did not remain still.
Instead, they began wriggling toward the flesh anomaly's main body as if alive, attempting to merge with it again.
Qin Bo noticed this and inwardly cried out that something was wrong.
If those chunks of flesh were allowed to reassemble, the flesh anomaly would probably recover completely—or even become stronger than before.
At once, he stopped hesitating. He circulated all the vital blood in his body, raised his power to its limit, and unleashed the third form of the Pig Slaughtering Saber Technique.
"Severed Head Soul Break!"
Before you continue