Discovered

The hunched figure knelt there tremblingly, his clothes shaking slightly with the trembling, revealing an eerie emptiness.

Darkness enveloped the main hall, Yu Xing to squint to see what Granny Li was doing.

Granny Li pulled a knife out of her clothes.

"Do all the people here carry knives? It's obvious they're not honest and kind!" Yu Xing thought to himself, touching the rusty kitchen knife he had never thrown away, and condemned the villagers.

Granny Li, holding the knife, tremblingly lifted her clothes.

"..." Yu Xing leaned closer again, silently reminding herself: I'm not a voyeur, it's just because it's necessary...

He moved quietly, and the set of clothes the Witch Doctor had given him included a pair of black cloth shoes. The soles of the shoes touched the ground without making a sound.

He noticed this himself and began to doubt his previous good body control.

When he reached the side, the extremely panicked Granny Li still hadn't noticed him. From his angle, he could see Granny Li's protruding spine, her silvery-white and disheveled hair, a knife in one hand, and her other hand clutching the hem of her blouse. Beneath the hem...

Yu Xing's pupils contracted, and she almost made a sound.

Underneath Granny Li's clothes, there was practically no flesh; where her belly and lower abdomen should have been, only bare white bones remained.

It has no kidneys and no intestines.

The area above was covered by clothing, Yu Xing couldn't see it.

No wonder she looked so thin and her clothes were so loose; it turns out—there wasn't a normal, living person's body inside!

Is she even considered alive?

A gust of cold wind blew by, adding to the chill of the terrifying scene. Yu Xing remained motionless, her eyes wide open, watching intently as Granny Li made her next move.

Granny Li was searching within herself.

"Where's my meat? Where is there any meat left? I need to offer it to the Immortal Lord... I have to hurry..."

She grew increasingly anxious, her face contorted in a grimace. Finally, she seemed to find a sliver of flesh behind her spine and gleefully raised the knife.

"Ah--" The not-so-sharp knife cut back and forth where the flesh met the bone, and Granny Li screamed miserably. The skin on her face was trembling, and her eyes were about to pop out of their sockets. She looked like she was in excruciating pain.

"Ouch..." Yu Xing felt pain just looking at it. If other parts of her body were to disappear like this, wouldn't she be tearing herself to pieces?

The piece of meat was finally cut off, and Granny Li, completely ignoring the splattering blood, stood up, holding the bleeding, fist-sized piece of meat, and placed it like a precious treasure on the plate in front of the stone statue.

Then she knelt down again, kowtowing to the stone statue repeatedly, her forehead thudding against the ground, the sound echoing in the main hall, "Immortal Lord protect me, protect me from being taken away, Immortal Lord protect me..."

Yu Xing felt that the sound was echoing in the empty main hall, as if it were right next to his ear.

She kowtowed for almost a minute, her Granny Li a bloody mess. Even though the stone statue remained completely still and the meat in the plate was untouched, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and said to the air, "Thank you, Immortal Lord, thank you, Immortal Lord..."

Seeing that she was about to get up, Yu Xing shrank back and hid behind a piece of furniture to better conceal herself.

Granny Li's frail figure swayed as she left. Although she had two injuries, her emotions were much more stable than when she arrived. As if she had received some reassuring answer, she stepped out of the main hall with satisfaction.

Yu Xing waited quietly in the shadows until, more than ten minutes later, he was sure that Granny Li had really left, and then he stood up from behind the furniture.

He didn't know where these habits of his came from; his caution was perhaps a result of his past experiences.

Holding the kitchen knife in case of an emergency, Yu Xing walked to the stone statue and glanced at his feet.

His eyes had adapted to the darkness, and he could see things clearly even without lighting, if he looked carefully.

There was a small pool of blood at my feet.

The stone statue was no different from the daytime statue, with a plate of flesh and blood in front of it. It was shocking to see the strange behavior of the villagers— Granny Li was so decisive, it was clear that she was not the only one doing this.

She said that every household in the village has such a small statue, which means that at least on the matter of "how to worship", the villagers should be in agreement.

"Sigh... How can I put it... What kind of God Official would ask someone to offer flesh and blood as a sacrifice to seek protection? Obviously, only evil spirits would do that—" Yu Xing sighed for a moment, then suddenly paused.

A demon? Why does he seem so familiar with the concept of demons?

That's not the point. The point is that he now knows the village has some obvious terrorist tendencies, and the Witch Doctor's suggestion that he stay temporarily is probably just a way to keep him calm.

Yu Xing didn't believe the Witch Doctor had no ulterior motives towards him, so he kindly gave her clothes and found her a place to stay.

His existence is certainly useful to the Witch Doctor and the so-called Immortal Lord, but just from this offering of flesh and blood, you can tell that the Witch Doctor is no good, and the "Immortal Lord" is probably some evil spirit from who-knows-where.

So this is not a good thing for him.

This place is not safe to stay for long.

Yu Xing lowered her eyes, feeling an urge to leave under the cover of night. Since the Witch Doctor came from the town, it meant there must be a road leading to the town.

The concerns are about food on the road, getting around, and whether the Witch Doctor and her group, as well as the group that injured him at the beginning, will catch up.

Okay... there are so many problems.

One should not act impulsively, as it is easy to fail.

After some thought, Yu Xing abandoned the idea of leaving now. She glanced at the stone statue again, then turned to go back to her room.

He needs to figure out who this "Immortal Lord" really is, find a way to protect himself, and also figure out what the Witch Doctor is plotting against him.

Furthermore, he must determine the general direction of the town before setting off, lest he go in the wrong direction; his supplies will not allow him to make any wrong attempts.

In the darkness, only Yu Xing's breathing could be heard. He remained silent for a while, feeling as if he had started in hell with nothing.

Is this reasonable?

The only consolation was that his injury healed rather quickly, but for some reason, he subconsciously resisted this fact.

Yu Xing turned around and stepped towards the door of the main hall.

However, a bright light suddenly appeared in his sight.

Granny Li carried a kerosene lamp and leaned on a cane. Her wrinkled face bore a large, gruesome wound, but the blood had been wiped away, and she didn't look so disheveled.

But it's scary.

Yu Xing's breath caught in her throat for at least a moment.

"Mr. Shi Wei... I just wanted to check if you were sleeping well, but I found you weren't in your room." Granny Li used a completely unfamiliar form of address to Yu Xing. Her voice was hoarse from the screams she had just endured, making her words sound like the call of a wronged ghost.

Granny Li took two steps forward until the light illuminated Yu Xing's face. Fan Wei asked, "What are you doing here?"