Wave Annihilation

"You don't even know what a Soul Lantern is... I really don't know how you survived out there."

"A Soul Lantern, as the name suggests, is a lamp lit with the most important part of a soul: lifespan. Soul Lanterns have many uses, such as maintaining sanity, dispelling low-level anomalies, and some anomalies even refine them into vile objects."

"However, the greatest use of a Soul Lantern is to protect the body from the [Night Chill Erosion]."

Saying this, Lord Han surveyed Fang Yue's legs, his brow furrowing.

"Your legs have already been affected by [Night Chill Erosion], but the erosion isn't severe. You should be able to recover by warming them near a Soul Fire."

"If it were like mine..."

Lord Han extended his hands with a bitter smile. A thin layer of frost covered them.

"...if it were severe like mine, then your time would be short."

Ah, this...

Fang Yue was a bit bewildered.

He instinctively looked down at his legs.

He touched them with his hand. They were ice-cold, as if they had just come out of a freezer, stiff and unresponsive. His sense of touch was greatly reduced, as if they had lost all feeling.

Fang Yue had previously thought his legs were just stiff from the cold weather.

Now he knew it was the erosion of [Night Chill Erosion].

He felt a chill of fear.

From Lord Han's words, if he had been any later, his ordinary body would have required amputation to survive, otherwise, it would have been a dead end.

Neither outcome was acceptable to Fang Yue.

Whether disabled or dead, either result would have rendered this character useless.

Fang Yue then asked a few more questions and learned that ordinary people generally wouldn't go out into the wilderness late at night. Even if they did, they had to carry a Soul Lantern for safety.

As for the village, they had a Soul Fire to warm the entire village, so they didn't need to worry too much.

Ordinary flames, however, could not burn in the dark.

This was also why Fang Yue had failed to make fire by friction earlier. It wasn't his lack of skill, but that in the darkness, besides Soul Fire, no other flame could be ignited.

"That's not right! I remember that little anomaly in the ruined temple used a small flame to brew poison..."

Fang Yue lowered his voice and briefly explained what happened in the ruined temple to Lord Han.

Lord Han's strength was unfathomable. Fang Yue was no match for him. If he wanted to kill an anomaly, it would be easy. He shouldn't be interested in Fang Yue's meager possessions.

"You killed an anomaly?!"

Lord Han's eyes widened. He stopped abruptly, looking at Fang Yue in shock.

"Yes, yes."

As he spoke, Fang Yue even took out the [Black Embers].

"It's real! Unbelievable, truly unbelievable! An ordinary person can achieve this, and you can move freely in the rain..."

The more Lord Han looked at Fang Yue, the more shocked he became.

But Lord Han was experienced and quickly suppressed the turmoil in his heart.

"Xiao Ye, try not to mention this to anyone else."

"Why?"

"Human hearts are unpredictable. The [Black Embers] produced by anomalies... are quite valuable. This item isn't of much use to people at my level, but it holds a fatal attraction for others. You'll understand later."

Fang Yue heard this and thought it made sense, so he quickly put it away.

After a pause, Lord Han continued, "As for the small flame you mentioned... that was likely also Soul Fire."

"People in our Gu Yue Village and the nearby villages have been disappearing frequently lately. We suspect they were taken by the [Index Finger Ghoul]. It extracts their lifespan and turns it into Soul Fire to concoct things."

"When the Soul Fire extinguished, it meant the little boy's lifespan had run out, and he should have been taken away by a soul reaper. But he chose another path..."

Fang Yue's heart stirred. "Ashes mixed with rice, no, I mean the [Black Embers] of the [Index Finger Ghoul]?"

"Yes, the little boy ate the [Black Embers]. Consuming [Black Embers] has a chance to turn one into an anomaly. He fought desperately and finally transformed from a dying person into an anomaly. He is no longer human. Anomalies that have just transformed are collectively called [Nascent Anomalies], and they are the weakest type of anomaly."

"Even so, for an ordinary person, they are absolutely invincible. Even a trained martial artist wouldn't be a match in a one-on-one fight."

So that's how it was.

Fang Yue suddenly understood.

Through their conversation, Fang Yue learned a lot of new things.

As they spoke, they were already nearing the village entrance. Lord Han called out, and the patrol team immediately lowered their guard. Dozens of pairs of eyes fixed on Fang Yue, filled with curiosity, hostility, and fear...

Just then, a loud shout suddenly came from behind Fang Yue.

"Hey!"

At this moment, the rain had lessened again, turning into a moderate downpour.

Fang Yue looked back in surprise and saw a man from the refugee crowd under the shed rushing out, using a corpse as a shield from the rain. Even so, the heavy rain was causing a large number of damage notifications to pop up on him.

-1 numbers popped out from him. The person also seized the opportunity and shouted, "Hey! Are you really a Player?"

Fang Yue scratched his head. "Yeah."

"Holy crap! It really is... Big Brother! Big Brother! My name is Shi Wuliao, please take me into the village, I'm begging you!"

The third young master of the dignified Shitian Group was humbly begging for help online.

But Shi Wuliao didn't care about losing face. He had finally found an opportunity to enter the village and didn't want to give it up.

The others also reacted at this time.

"It's not a ghoul, you should have said so earlier, you scared me to death!"

"Damn it! He really is a Player!"

"He said he was a Player earlier, you guys didn't believe him!"

"We were misled by that guy!"

"Damn it, we're all Players, why is the gap so big! Also, why can he move freely in the rain? I saw him losing health like crazy, where did he get so much HP?"

"Who knows, and is that the main point? The main point is... Brother! Brother ahead, take me with you! Take me too! I want to enter the village!"

"Right, right, and me! I have a connection with an alchemist in the village, he can teach me to identify herbs. Big Brother, let me into the village today, and I'll refine medicine to support Big Brother in the future!"

"Refining medicine is nothing, brother, take me! I'm a Lucky Gift Pack Player with the Innate Divine Strength talent! My Control is as high as 3 points, while others only have 1 point! Take me into the village, and you definitely won't lose out!"

Seeing the reactions of the others, Shi Wuliao's face darkened, and he roared.

"Enough!"

"You trash, you think you're worthy of fighting me for a spot in the village?"

"Innate Divine Strength? Refining medicine to support Big Brother? Bah! What are you guys?"

"Big Brother, remember my face! I'm telling you, I'm the late-game player!"

"What do you mean late-game? The late-game starts today, I won't log off for 24 hours! I mean what I say!"

"If Big Brother takes me into the village today, Big Brother will be my benefactor! If Big Brother ever needs help in the future, I'll go through fire and water for him without hesitation!"

Hiss--

Upon hearing this, everyone gasped.

24 hours online, challenging the limits of the human body? That's suicidal.