Luo Feng's Nightmare

"Dead, they're all dead. Father, nineteen men, all dead!"

Outside Redwood Ridge, Luo Sheng walked into the cold, desolate cave, completely sealing the entrance first before walking over to the campfire and speaking to his father Luo Feng, who had collapsed onto the ground. His tone was full of panic and terror.

Luo Feng, who always appeared high-spirited in the eyes of outsiders, had now lost his left arm. Blood constantly gushed from the severed limb, and his aura had weakened to the extreme.

Hearing his younger son Luo Sheng's words, Luo Feng's feeble face also revealed a trace of panic, but he still gritted his teeth against the pain and said, "Don't panic. We aren't far from the camp anymore. That ghost can't find us and will leave soon."

Luo Feng could never have imagined that he, who had been riding the smooth waters of success over the past few years, would encounter such a massive upheaval tonight.

It was just an ordinary hunt, yet an encounter with a specter turned it into a nightmare.

That specter constantly replaced members of the Hunting Team, transforming into the faces they knew best to approach them with sneak attacks and pick them off one by one.

In less than half the night, twenty men of the Hunting Team had been utterly wiped out, with only his younger son Luo Sheng surviving.

He himself had been ambushed by a Hunting Team member transformed by the specter, losing his left arm and suffering several slash wounds on his body.

Not only him, but even his younger son Luo Sheng had just been ambushed by that specter and his right arm slashed open.

Luo Feng instinctively wanted to check his younger son's injuries, turning his head to look at his right arm.

Yet at this glance, his pupils abruptly contracted, and his expression instantly froze.

The right arm that his younger son had just had slashed open in an ambush before his very eyes was not only as good as new now, but not even a single wound or trace of injury could be seen on it.

Luo Feng realized something. He closed his eyes, his face instantly filled with profound grief.

As for Luo Sheng, who squatted before him, he obviously noticed the look he had just given. Seeing the painful expression surface on his face, the corners of Luo Sheng's mouth curved slightly, and the expression on his face instantly turned pitch-black and eerie.

"Found out, huh? The twenty-one of you took quite a bit of effort from me, and you almost managed to escape!"

Luo Feng opened his eyes, the pain on his face gradually transforming into terror.

The other party's voice sounded as though it were produced by wood chips rubbing together—hoarse, harsh, and bizarre, completely unlike his younger son Luo Sheng.

"Luo Sheng" retrieved a small knife from its bosom, aimed the blade at the stump of Luo Feng's severed arm, and slowly drove it in. Watching the blood spurt out at an even faster rate due to the widening wound, its smile grew increasingly twisted and sinister.

Excruciating pain traveled from his nerves straight to his mind. Luo Feng completely lost his past high-spirited demeanor, able only to wail and howl helplessly; no matter how much it hurt, he could make no resistance.

Watching the flesh on his arm being carved away slice by slice, the chalk-white bones of his shoulders and chest clearly exposed, his mind gradually collapsed, leaving only the desire for survival in his pupils.

"Spa... spare... hoh... spare... me..."

"I don't... want... to die, please... you, spa... re my life..."

The shrill wails seemed to provide "Luo Sheng" with even greater stimulation.

The speed of its knife-work grew faster and faster, completely ignoring Luo Feng's pleas for mercy.

Under the stimulation of intense pain and terror, Luo Feng's psychological defenses were finally completely shattered:

"I... can... help you... do things, bring people for you to kill."

The knife stopped.

The expression on "Luo Sheng"'s face suddenly turned vacant.

Then, an old man in black walked out from the shadows of the cave.

The old man held a ball of white thread in his left hand, walked up to Luo Feng, and then took the small knife from "Luo Sheng"'s hand.

From somewhere unknown, he produced a piece of half-meter-long wood, carving and drawing on it with the knife a few times, and immediately sculpted a lifelike arm.

The old man used that ball of white thread to sew the arm onto Luo Feng's body, and then gave it a light scratch. The arm unexpectedly changed color in an instant, matching Luo Feng's body perfectly, just like... just like... it had never been severed at all.

"Get up, your body is fine now. Ten days from now, you must bring a hundred people over as the price to buy your life. Bring your son back too; I will use him to monitor you. Don't play any tricks!"

Although he had clawed back his life, the price named by the old man failed to make a single trace of joy appear on Luo Feng's face. He could only kneel numbly on the ground and nod.

The old man left, and Luo Feng also left the cave.

Leaving alongside him was his younger son Luo Sheng, whose expression was vacant and who could scarcely be considered human anymore.

Luo Feng forcefully sustained his near-collapsing psyche and brought "Luo Sheng" back toward the camp, yet he dared not return directly to the camp, able only to circle endlessly around the outer perimeter.

Until he caught sight of his eldest son Luo Ming and his group, who had led a team out to search for them.

Without any hesitation, he launched a sudden, violent strike that blasted the "Luo Sheng" by his side into fragments, and then resolutely and savagely tore off his own wooden arm.

It was true that he, Luo Feng, was cowardly and clung to life, but to have him use the lives of ordinary people from his own camp to trade for his own path to survival was something he could never, ever do.

Furthermore, once a precedent like this was opened, it led to an endless abyss.

From then on, whenever the specter sought him out, he would have to send people over. In the long run, the entire Rogue Camp, including the entire periphery of Redwood Ridge, would be left with no humans surviving.

From the very moment he began equivocating with the specter, Luo Feng had already made up his mind.

Yet even though he knew his younger son had already been controlled by the specter, when he struck his body into pieces with his own hands, the immense grief, coupled with the psychological pressure generated while being tormented by the specter, converged and caused Luo Feng to suffer a complete mental breakdown.

After relaying a few words to his eldest son Luo Ming, he lapsed into a semi-demented state.

He frequently felt that that specter was always waiting for him outside the camp, and had even sneaked into the Rogue Camp, ready at any moment to carve away all the flesh and blood on his body piece by piece.

He also frequently saw the younger son he had shattered with his own hands crawling up from beneath the earth, crying and asking him why he had killed him.

Under the grip of intense terror and guilt, Luo Feng's psyche remained in a state of taut tension year after year.

For all these years, no matter for eating, drinking, or bodily functions, he hid inside his small wooden cabin, never stepping a foot outside and never communicating with anyone else.

Inside the small wooden cabin, Luo Feng, whose hair had already turned gray, lay on the bed with his right hand hanging down over the bedside, closing his eyes in peaceful sleep.

Suddenly, a blood-soaked hand abruptly reached out from under the bed and grabbed his right hand.

Luo Feng opened his eyes, turned his head to look toward the bedside, and his wits scared right out of him.

At the edge of the bed, Luo Sheng protruded half of a bloody head, looking at him with a ferocious expression full of hatred and venom:

"Father, Father, why did you kill me? Look at me, I can't even find a single piece of good flesh. Help me piece the corpse back together, Father..."

"Ah!!!"

With a piercing scream, Luo Feng abruptly sat up from the bed, looked all around his surroundings, and even checked under the bed. Confirming that, just like before, it was only a dream, the terror in his pupils gradually faded, returning to their previous scattered state.

"It was a dream, heh heh heh, it was a dream, heh heh heh heh..."

It was hard for a normal person to understand the mental pathways of someone who had lost their mind.

After sitting on the bed for quite a while, once his emotions completely calmed down, Luo Feng began to giggle and laugh foolishly again.

Then, laughing as he went, he started pointing and gesturing at the wall while quietly muttering under his breath:

"I just won't let you find me. The wood on my body is all gone, heh heh."

"You can't find me. You simply can't find me."

"Hahahaha, I just won't send anyone to you. Come and find me..."

Yet, two consecutive low voices carrying a hint of pleasure suddenly rang out inside the room, interrupting Luo Feng's soliloquy.

"Can't find you?"

"You've owed me this life-buying money for so many years, it's about time you paid up!"

Sitting on the bed, Luo Feng felt as though he had been struck by lightning when he heard this voice.

These chapters are not detached from the protagonist; everything serves the protagonist and the camp. During the new book period, things cannot be spread out all at once, which is a problem with my skill level. Please be a little more patient everyone, and thank you. Serial readership is steadily rising right now, thank you to all the big bosses. Still asking for all kinds of support—the second round is about to begin.