Head

--Am I seriously in the world of Journey to the West? How did even Bajie show up here...

Despite these thoughts, Zhou You didn't make any move. He simply hung there upside down, remaining quiet... just like a real corpse.

The pig-headed monster didn't notice anything unusual.

It held its massive head high, sniffing around the pile of corpses, occasionally nudging the hanging remains and scrutinizing every inch of flesh with its eyes.

...It was as if a chef were carefully selecting the ingredients for the day.

Fortunately, Zhou You's physique was far from plump and succulent. After picking for a long time, the monster gave up on this piece, eventually hoisting a corpse that had been split in two and trudging out with a heavy, rhythmic thud.

--Only then did Zhou You have the leisure to observe his surroundings.

At first glance, this was a small room of about twenty square meters. There were no windows, only a few dim candles providing light. Seven or eight corpses hung neatly in the room, and Zhou You was one of them—though he wasn't quite dead yet.

The door to the room wasn't locked.

But in his current state, Zhou You couldn't make his way over there.

"So the main problem now is how to get down from this hook..."

Zhou You tilted his head back and tried to see if he could detach himself from the hook using only one hand, but a sharp pain immediately stopped him—due to the position in which he was hooked, unless he was ruthless enough to sacrifice his right hand, it was impossible to get down on his own.

--In a place where you're completely in the dark, losing a hand is basically the same as losing your life.

Thus, Zhou You scanned his surroundings again, hoping to find a handy tool or something he could use for leverage. Unfortunately, after searching for a long time, he still didn't see anything useful.

So, he turned his gaze back to the corpse hanging beside him that was staring with unclosed eyes.

--It looks like this is the only thing I can borrow.

"...Brother, my apologies."

Zhou You silently offered an apology, then arched his back slightly, took a deep breath, and exerted force with his lower body!

Driven by momentum, he swung forward on the hook. A tearing sensation followed, and an intense, excruciating pain shot from his hand, but Zhou You didn't even grunt. His body slammed directly into the corpse!

--Unfortunately, he missed by a hair.

Zhou You didn't lose heart. He gritted his teeth against the pain and gripped the hook on his right hand to prevent the wound from widening further. Then, he kicked his legs backward, hitting another corpse and increasing the amplitude of his swing!

After two or three attempts, he finally got close to the corpse in front. He wrapped his legs around it, locking tightly onto the other's waist.

Next, Zhou You caught his breath for a moment to recover his strength. Then, using the corpse as support, he pushed his legs and thrust his entire body upward.

At this point, he finally reached the height where he could touch the hook.

He grabbed his own pale right hand and, accompanied by a hair-raising grinding sound, forcibly pulled his palm off the hook!

By now, all his strength was spent.

Even so, Zhou You didn't let his body fall under the pull of gravity. Instead, he hugged the corpse and slid his body down bit by bit, finally landing on the dust-covered floor.

--From start to finish, he hadn't alerted anyone.

Only then did he let out a long sigh of relief. He wiped the beads of sweat from his face and spat on the ground.

"System, you're getting more and more outrageous. It's one thing to have the dungeon difficulty keep rising, but now you've even given me a half-crippled start..."

Despite his complaints, he struggled to take out the Yungu Ointment and applied it to the wound on his palm.

A sticky yet cooling sensation seeped into his body. The wound began to stop bleeding and knit together at a speed visible to the naked eye. While it wasn't a full recovery, at least he wouldn't lose the function of his limb entirely.

"This stuff is useful, but it's a pity I managed to swindle so little from that old woman." Looking at the few remaining tubes of ointment, Zhou You sighed softly, put them away, then crouched down and carefully walked to the door to peek outside.

There was no sign of the pig-headed monster outside, but the faint sound of a cleaver hitting a chopping block drifted over from the other side.

Zhou You could guess with his eyes closed who was making the noise and what they were chopping.

So, he moved toward the other side without hesitation.

The place he was in now seemed to be a cavern. The air was foul and thick, permeated with an inescapable musty odor. The tunnels hadn't been reinforced at all; the bare stone walls were exposed, with only torches on the walls providing dim light.

Soon, Zhou You groped his way to another stone chamber.

--Unfortunately, this wasn't an exit either.

Judging by its appearance, this place was much larger than the previous morgue. It seemed to be a cafeteria. A massive stone table sat in the center of the hall. It had no decorations, only large patches of grease and grime covering it, with bits of long-rotted leftovers in the crevices. A swarm of flies buzzed overhead, circling as if enjoying a feast.

It looked like a dining table with terrible hygiene, leaning straight toward the standards of Indian street food production.

But the problem was...

--Who keeps three severed heads on their dining table?

Zhou You looked over and saw three severed heads placed neatly at the end of the table—as if they were ordinary household ornaments.

Counting from the left, the first head was a young man with a hair bun, the second was a middle-aged man with a fierce expression, and the third was an elderly man with white hair.

And for some reason, although their ages were different, the sizes of the heads were very similar, and even their facial bone structures were nearly identical.

"Could it be that the owner of this house is a perfectionist, so obsessed with uniformity..."

Zhou You wasn't particularly moved—after all, he was used to such things from previous times—but just as he intended to take a closer look, the heavy footsteps suddenly rang out again behind him.

At the same time, the copper bell on his wrist began to vibrate rapidly!

--That monster is back!

He scanned the room in a hurry, found a cabinet door in the corner, and quickly squeezed himself inside.

Dozens of seconds later, footsteps entered the room; the thing didn't seem to notice anything unusual, simply set something down on the table, and walked back out.

Only then did Zhou You let out a sigh of relief, crawling out from the cabinet, and then he raised his eyes to look, immediately catching sight of something.

--It was a human corpse... roasted until it was glistening with oil, golden-brown and crispy.

A human corpse?