Friendly Greeting

Fang Yue's stats were high, but the problem was... the Anomalies were too fast.

When he faced the Lesser Anomalies, he was basically just standing there, taking hits.

Later, after he'd managed to disengage and the Lesser Anomaly was confused, he seized the chance to unleash an assault and kill it. Otherwise, his survival would have been uncertain.

Calming himself down, Fang Yue pondered a question.

"What should I do now?"

This damn game didn't even have a tutorial... wait, it did. Those two Anomalies had certainly taught Fang Yue a harsh lesson.

But what kind of beginner's guide was that? If it weren't for luck, he would have died long ago!

Now, the only thing Fang Yue knew was that killing [Anomalies] increased his stats. He knew nothing else, completely in the dark.

After thinking calmly, Fang Yue first checked the ruined temple.

The temple wasn't large; he finished checking it in a few minutes.

A worn-out oil-paper umbrella.

Some firewood.

That was it.

He rubbed his hands together. Perhaps it was because the ruined temple had too many holes, letting in a lot of wind, but Fang Yue felt significantly colder.

"This can't go on. I should start a fire."

"But how do I start a fire?"

The answer was friction.

Especially the oil-paper umbrella, which would make excellent fuel.

He brought the firewood over and piled it up, placing the oil-paper umbrella nearby.

Fang Yue placed a piece of firewood on the ground and picked up another, intending to forcefully shave a point onto the end with his hands.

After killing the [Nascent Anomaly], Fang Yue's stats had increased slightly.

With a Control Power of 32, he crushed the firewood in his hand.

After trying a few more, he finally managed to produce something resembling a finished product.

It was still firewood, but the end was irregularly jagged, as if gnawed by rats. This was Fang Yue's masterpiece.

He placed his hands on his "masterpiece" and began to rub them together at high speed.

Crack.

The wood on the ground snapped in half.

Fang Yue tried a few more times, and finally, all the firewood turned into a pile of broken pieces of varying lengths.

He seemed to have no talent for this.

"That's weird. I saw people starting fires by friction on TV, and it looked so easy. Why isn't brute force working for me now?"

Fang Yue didn't give up. His gaze fell upon the pillar of the ruined temple; it was also made of wood.

"Brute force... works miracles?"

A dangerous thought crossed his mind, but he quickly suppressed it.

"Forget it, forget it. What if the temple collapses..."

He sighed and looked outside the ruined temple. The heavy rain seemed to have lessened slightly.

After a moment's thought, Fang Yue stood up and walked outside.

As soon as he stood up, his legs went numb, and he almost fell.

No, it wasn't just numbness; they felt stiff.

Stiff like frozen meat that had been kept in a freezer.

Fang Yue moved his legs around and the sensation gradually eased, but he clearly felt that the temperature in the ruined temple had dropped even further.

"I can't stay here any longer."

Fang Yue suspected that if he slept in the ruined temple tonight, he would freeze to death by morning.

Standing up, Fang Yue decided to scout the surroundings.

Leaving the ruined temple, Fang Yue naturally stepped into the downpour.

The next moment, his expression changed, and his body froze instantly.

Splash!

The heavy rain beat down on Fang Yue's body.

At the same time, numbers rapidly appeared on him.

-1!

-1!

-1!

-1!

-1!

Fang Yue: ???

He could still take damage from this? Fang Yue was a bit stunned.

Fortunately, Night's Breath was effective, his health dropping and rising quickly, fluctuating like a roller coaster.

Fang Yue checked. In the downpour, his health had dropped to just over 70 points, then surged back up to around 97 points under Night's Breath, before rapidly falling and recovering again.

Fang Yue quickly understood.

The downpour wasn't falling at a uniform rate, and the area he was exposed to varied.

Sometimes he took more damage, sometimes less, but it could all be recovered by Night's Breath. Still, his overall health was declining.

In just a short while, his health had only recovered to a maximum of about 88 points. Coupled with the roller-coaster-like fluctuations, Fang Yue felt a bit weak.

He took two steps back, retreating into the dilapidated temple.

His health immediately returned to 100 points.

"If I had something to block the rain for a bit, I could use my 'Breath Healing Technique' to explore outside."

Fang Yue looked at the old oil-paper umbrella he had thrown on the ground earlier, intending to use it as fuel.

Good thing I didn't burn it...

Fang Yue felt a bit fortunate.

He had originally planned to wait for the rain to stop before exploring outside.

But he hadn't even succeeded in starting a fire, and the dilapidated temple was freezing cold, so he had to find another way.

The oil-paper umbrella had a large hole in its canopy. Its surface was covered in greasy, black grime and emitted a strange, foul odor that was quite disgusting.

Opening the oil-paper umbrella and holding it above his head, Fang Yue stepped back into the downpour.

Splash, splash.

The heavy rain beat against the oil-paper umbrella. Through the hole, a lot of rainwater struck Fang Yue, instantly soaking him.

At the same time, Fang Yue's health began to drop rapidly.

-1!

-1!

-1!

But this rate of health loss was nothing compared to before. Night's Breath immediately restored it fully.

Relieved, Fang Yue walked out from the entrance of the dilapidated temple.

After not walking far, he saw a winding stone path leading downwards.

Fang Yue picked up a pebble. The pebbles on the ground were goose-white and very hard, he couldn't tell what kind of stone they were.

Beside the stone path stood a wooden sign.

Three large characters were written vertically on the sign—Ancient Moon Temple.

Next to Ancient Moon Temple, three smaller characters were written—Ancient Moon Village.

A village!

Fang Yue's spirits lifted as he looked down the stone path.

Unfortunately, it was pitch black below, and he couldn't see anything...

BOOM!

Thunder cracked, illuminating the path.

Fang Yue instantly saw clearly.

Following this stone path down the mountain, a short distance ahead, there was indeed a village.

However, the village seemed to have no fires lit, which was why it was so hard to see in the darkness.

The thunder passed, and darkness returned.

Fang Yue began to walk down the stone path.

On either side of the stone path were tall willow trees.

The willow leaves blocked some of the moonlight, making the surroundings eerily dark.

Walking down the stone path felt like walking into the darkness.

Fang Yue gritted his teeth and continued, feeling colder and colder, his legs feeling like lead.

Fang Yue finally realized something was wrong.

The increasing cold wasn't due to the dilapidated temple, but was a problem with himself.

My body is losing its warmth.

And for some reason, Fang Yue felt his feet were greasy.

He reached down to touch his feet, then raised his hand to look, and Fang Yue was stunned.

His right hand was covered in a greasy, black, viscous liquid.

Rumble!

Thunder struck again at that moment.

Fang Yue looked down and saw that from his knees down, everything was pitch black, completely covered in this unknown black slime.

As if agitated by the thunder, the black slime suddenly crawled rapidly up Fang Yue's legs. Startled, Fang Yue stomped his feet hard.

Stomp, stomp, stomp!

The stone path beneath his feet shattered directly, and the black slime was shaken off onto the ground, slowly wriggling to gather together again.

What the hell is this!

Fang Yue's face was grim. Ignoring the residual black slime on his feet, he took off running.

As he moved, the black slime was indeed flung off piece by piece.

However, the strong wind during his sprint directly broke his oil-paper umbrella.

This made Fang Yue feel depressed. He could only run for a while, hide under a tree to take shelter from the rain and recover, then run again.

Fortunately, the torrential rain gradually weakened.

When Fang Yue finally arrived in front of the village, head down and hurrying along.

The torrential rain had subsided to a heavy rain.

The village was an ordinary settlement.

It was surrounded by mud walls, which served as its boundary.

Outside the village entrance, there was a large shed.

The shed looked like a converted pigsty, somewhat crude, but still capable of sheltering from the wind and rain.

Inside the shed, a large group of people lay sprawled about, dressed in rags, sallow-faced and emaciated. They huddled around a small fire for warmth, shivering, seemingly all refugees.

Some were already fast asleep, completely at ease.

At the village entrance, a group of people could be seen holding unlit torches in their left hands and umbrellas in their right. Dressed in relatively decent clothing, they gathered at the village entrance, patrolling.

"Holy crap! Finally, some living people!"

Fang Yue's heart surged with excitement, and he immediately sprinted towards the village in the rain.

The patrolling villagers at the entrance also saw Fang Yue at this moment and were stunned into silence.

When they snapped back to reality, their faces instantly turned as pale as paper, filled with despair and terror.

They threw down their torches and scrambled to flee backward.

"Close the gate! Close the gate! Danger!"

"Danger!!"

"Rain-grade Anomaly! Rain-grade Anomaly!! Danger!!!"

"Danger! Lord Han! Lord Han!!"