He Xi felt he really must have been exhausted.
The moment his body touched the communal bed in the village chief's house, laid with clean blankets, heavy drowsiness swept over him in waves, almost swallowing him whole at once.
He had originally forced himself to stay awake, intending to wait until midnight and see with his own eyes how the contract from the demon took effect.
But his exhaustion had clearly beaten out his curiosity.
When assigning sleeping spots, Captain Hulk had, for once, exercised the absolute authority he rarely used as captain—
He had firmly rejected Belt's request to sleep beside him.
He Xi silently gave the captain a thumbs-up in his heart.
After all, nobody wanted to endure the snores of a "human pile driver" lying beside them when they desperately needed rest after a hard-fought battle.
The room was spacious, with one of the larger communal beds in the village.
Their positions were roughly as follows, from left to right:
Hulk—He Xi—Zoya—Laila-----------Belt.
Except for Belt, who had been "exiled" to the far end, everyone was about a meter apart, maintaining a basic degree of personal space.
Considering that Captain Hulk had also eaten quite a lot of "musk-flavored" roast wild boar that evening, He Xi instinctively chose a spot closer to Zoya.
Somewhere in his subconscious, he felt it might be "safer" on that side.
Before sinking completely into sleep, he took one last look at the glowing orb in his mind and equipped the [Bloodline Solidification] trait, replacing [Savage Charge], which he wouldn't need for the time being.
Once he had done that, he turned his back on the figure still wearing a black mask and almost immediately drifted off to sleep.
Who knew how much time had passed?
In his sleep, He Xi unconsciously