The horse stables and military camp were no longer before him. Row after row of barracks had vanished, replaced by nothing but clusters of gray mist floating in front of his eyes.
Chen Mo grew wary and reached behind him. The haystack was still there.
Even if he had undergone Mortal Transformation and far more time had passed than he had estimated, it was impossible for such a thick fog to rise without leaving any trace.
Everything within sight was obscured. Apart from the gray-white mist and the haystack behind him, he could see nothing—not even the stable beside the haystack, which had vanished without a trace.
Even taking the most extreme possibility, if fog had risen, he had never heard of fog anywhere being gray.
Chen Mo waved a hand before him. Some of the mist shifted under the disturbance, but most of it remained utterly still.
He did not call out to anyone. In the military camp, going out at night or shouting loudly were both grave offenses.
If discovered, he would receive at least eighty strokes of the military rod. Unless someone bribed others to plead for him, it would be little different from a death sentence.
Chen Mo rested one hand on the haystack and reached with the other toward where the stable should have been.
Yet wherever his hand reached, there was nothing but gray mist.
Chen Mo drew two deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. Then he pinched himself hard, and a clear, unmistakable pain shot straight to his brain.
He truly could not figure out what had happened. It couldn't be that he had undergone Mortal Transformation and ended up mentally deranged, could it?
He swallowed, tore several strands of hay from the stack behind him, and quickly twisted them together.
Before long, a thin hay rope more than twenty feet long appeared in his hands. It was crude, but sufficient for use.
He had no idea what the gray mist before him was. Had the fog grown so thick that it concealed heaven and earth, or had some other change occurred?
If the haystack had not still been there, he might even have suspected that he had crossed into another world.
After all, if crossing worlds could happen once, there was every possibility it could happen a second time.
He tied one end of the hay rope to the stack and gripped the other end tightly as he cautiously probed forward.
If the distance had been too short before and he had simply failed to reach the stable, then this distance was definitely enough. As long as the stable still existed, he would certainly touch it.
Yet even after he could no longer see the haystack, with the rope stretched taut, everywhere he could reach was still a void.
Above and below, left and right, in every direction, there was nothing besides the gray mist.
Even the ground was nothing but gray mist. Chen Mo could stand on it, yet he could not touch a single grain of soil.
Within the gray mist, the ground beneath his feet was smooth, level, and solid, like refined steel tempered a thousand times.
Unwilling to give up, Chen Mo walked a full circle around the haystack, but he still touched nothing.
Apart from himself and the haystack, the entire military camp seemed to have been swallowed and drowned by the gray mist, leaving nothing behind.
Of course, there was another possibility: the camp was still there, while he and the haystack had entered a world of gray mist.
No matter which possibility was true, neither had any meaning for his current situation.
He had to find a way out of here. Otherwise, before long, he would have to consider surviving by eating hay.
"Woo-ha!" A sudden roar shattered the stillness of the gray-mist world.
The sound seemed to come from some kind of animal. It was shrill and hoarse, like two rough sheets of iron slowly scraping against each other, enough to make anyone's teeth ache.
Chen Mo followed the sound with his gaze and saw a short, thin, humanoid creature no taller than three feet, its mouth lined with sharp fangs.
No matter how he looked at it, the creature resembled a monkey.
There was only one difference: it had no fur.
It looked as though the monkey's hide had been ripped off alive, leaving its crimson, blood-streaked muscles exposed to the air. A single glance was enough to make his scalp prickle.
"Roar-ho!" The Blood Monkey let out a shrill scream, its two milky-white eyes rolling around.
Chen Mo slowly slid backward. The Blood Monkey before him was simply too strange and terrifying. Unless absolutely necessary, he did not want any contact with it.
But it twisted its head and stared fixedly at Chen Mo. In the next instant, it suddenly pounced at him.
The Blood Monkey moved with incredible speed, like a streak of bloody wind, carrying a rotten, fetid stench.
Chen Mo hurriedly raised both fists to block. To his surprise, the Blood Monkey possessed astonishing strength. Even after undergoing Mortal Transformation, he could only barely hold it at bay.
"Wuaa!" The Blood Monkey's first strike failed, and it shrieked again before leaping far away.
Chen Mo's brows drew tightly together as he looked at his trembling arms.
The Blood Monkey's entire body was hard as refined iron. Although his strength was not far behind its own, he was still made of mortal flesh.
If this continued, it would not take many exchanges before he died at the hands of this beast.
The Blood Monkey was extremely intelligent. It seemed to have noticed Chen Mo's weakness. Baring its teeth in warning, it kept circling him.
A wave of regret surged through Chen Mo. Ever since he had come to the military camp, life had been hard, but at least it had settled into a stable routine.
After growing accustomed to a peaceful life, he had never thought to carry a weapon with him this time.
If he had a blade on him now, he could at least fight this beast for a round.
But with nothing but his bare hands, it was far too difficult to defeat this Blood Monkey of flesh like bronze and bones like iron.
In truth, this could not be blamed on him. The situation he had encountered and the sight before him had far exceeded anything an ordinary person could anticipate.
He had never imagined or considered that something like this could suddenly happen.
If he managed to escape alive this time, Chen Mo made up his mind that from then on, he would keep a dagger tucked against his chest even while sleeping.
"Wuh-ha!" The Blood Monkey let out another shrill howl. Its back arched at an unnaturally twisted angle before it suddenly sprang forward, pouncing toward Chen Mo's lower body.
Chen Mo did not dodge. He kicked forward with all his strength, the impact numbing his left leg, and barely managed to stop the Blood Monkey.
But the Blood Monkey spread its arms and clung tightly to his thigh, baring its bloody maw as it prepared to bite.
Without the slightest hesitation, Chen Mo dropped to his knees and pinned the Blood Monkey beneath him, pressing his knee against the beast's chest and abdomen.
"Ha!" The Blood Monkey roared in fury. A foul, rotten stench mixed with a wind thick with the reek of blood blasted straight into Chen Mo's face.
It struggled with all its might, clawing and thrashing. Chen Mo ignored everything else, pinning the monkey's head down with one hand while repeatedly hammering its neck with the other fist.
The Blood Monkey's entire body was cast like refined iron. After only seven or eight punches, stark traces of blood appeared across Chen Mo's knuckles.
He continued gritting his teeth and pounding the Blood Monkey, one punch after another. Given the situation, one of them was bound to die.
Chen Mo did not want to die. Then the only choice was to send this beast to its death.
He did not know how many punches he had thrown with all his strength. Chen Mo only felt his arm go numb, while the Blood Monkey stopped struggling and gradually became a limp corpse.
Chen Mo gasped heavily and sat down on the ground, staring at the motionless Blood Monkey before him.
What happened next was beyond his expectations. The corpse before him began to dissipate like something undergoing apotheosis. In no more than an instant, it completely vanished like a wisp of smoke.
The only thing left behind was a fist-sized Bloodstone, rough on the surface and covered in ridges and furrows.
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