"C-can I stay behind?" Zhou Yilin, huddled in a corner of the courtyard, suddenly spoke in a timid voice. "I could stay here and search the main house while Granny Su is away..."
"Sis, if you don't go, where are we supposed to get the God Meat?" Zhang Licai tried to persuade her. "Even if the rest of us agree to go, if something happens, we might not be able to get your share."
Zhou Yilin raised a hand and wiped at her eyes haphazardly, her voice choked with sobs. "I really don't dare go outside... You don't have to worry about me. Can't you just let me stay here?"
Zhao Feng was almost at the door. Irritably, he raked a hand through his hair, then turned and spat on the ground. "Damn it, all you do is cry all day. Who the hell's going to indulge you? Go die in a corner!"
Zhou Yilin flinched at his shout and bit her lip, not daring to say anything else.
"If you don't want to go, stay here. Don't wander around." Yang Yundong made the call. Ignoring the girl's sobbing, he adjusted the Pu Saber on his back and pushed open the door.
The distant landscape was completely swallowed by rolling fog, as though veiled beneath layer upon layer of white gauze.
The roads in West Village were shrouded in mist. The swirling haze made it impossible to see the layout, clearly making it unsuitable to explore during the day.
Following the group to the Village Chief's House seemed like their only choice.
In the courtyard, Zhou Yilin continued to wipe away her tears with single-minded focus, apparently oblivious to the others' assessing gazes.
At this point, no one cared if someone fell behind. The players filed out of the courtyard and stepped into the dawn.
A gust of wind blew, and the gate behind them slammed shut with a bang, just as tightly as it had been when they arrived.
Zhang Licai, the most timid among them, shuddered and nearly jumped.
Fortunately, the strange wind stopped after blowing for just a moment. Yang Yundong led the way with steady strides, putting everyone at ease.
The seven players followed the map's directions toward the Village Chief's House, their formation loose and scattered.
Splitting up might have been the best approach, but no one wanted to entrust their hopes of survival to someone else's kindness. The players understood each other without a word: when it came to something like God Meat, which concerned their very lives, it was better to get it themselves.
The village roads twisted and turned. Dust billowed from the unpaved ground; perhaps it hadn't rained in days. The wild grass along the roadside was dry and pale, devoid of life.
The crooked, dilapidated houses on either side were crammed together in haphazard clusters, like piles of rubbish tossed together.
Black, hollow windows were set into the walls. Large patches of yellowed plaster had peeled away, collecting on the dark ground like old scabs and nourishing carrion fungi in the shadows.
After walking a little farther and circling a pond, they reached the spot marked on the map as the Village Chief's House.
The village chief's residence was a little larger than Granny Su's, but just as decrepit. Most of the paint had peeled off the outer walls, exposing the dull brickwork beneath.
The roof tiles were in terrible shape. Perhaps startled by their footsteps, they suddenly began sliding down with a clatter. For an instant, Qi Si felt as if the residence had come alive, silently watching the players approach, waiting for them to walk into its trap.
Beneath the tiles, the mottled front door was locked. It sat slightly askew, just out of the morning sunlight and lost in shadow, evoking a chilling feeling.
Zhu Ling frowned and took a few steps on either side of the entrance. "It faces south with its back to the north, close to water and shaded. This house has terrible feng shui. Even the most incompetent feng shui master wouldn't choose a site like this."
Qi Si knew nothing about feng shui. He'd glanced at it a few times in passing, but had never been interested. He walked straight to the gate and examined the lock. It was a common mechanical lock. Rust had spread around the keyhole, but it could still be opened.
So he simply nudged Yang Yundong, who was about to kick the door in, aside, pulled a wire from his wristband, and slipped it into the keyhole. After a couple of quick twists, the lock clicked open and fell to the ground. Even Yang Yundong's gaze grew a little more inscrutable.
Qi Si stepped back and ushered Yang Yundong in front of him. "Brother Yang, after you."
Yang Yundong gave a slight nod and pushed the door open.
The other players saw that the door was open and followed a few steps behind. Only after seeing Yang Yundong, who had gone in first, encounter no danger did they dare to peer inside and cross the threshold.
The residence seemed to have been empty for a long time. The huge black canopy overhead, meant to block the sun, hung loosely. Strangely, it still blocked the light well, casting a vast shadow over the entire courtyard. Frost-white weeds grew wildly through cracks in the ground, dotted with strange dewdrops as densely packed as eyes.
The low buildings on either side had long since collapsed, leaving broken bricks scattered everywhere. They crunched underfoot. Only the main house, directly opposite the entrance, remained intact. Its windows had all been covered with paper, making it impossible to see inside.
Yang Yundong gripped the Pu Saber and walked toward the main house, step by step.
Qi Si held a blade between two fingers and followed close behind, approaching the main house.
"Fuck!" Allen suddenly shouted from the middle of the group. Everyone stopped in their tracks and turned toward the sound.
Allen wiped his face with one hand, then held up his right hand, which was smeared with some unknown substance. "What is this? Something just dripped on my face. It's all sticky."
"Could you be any jumpier? Trying to scare the hell out of us?" the Tattooed Woman complained, but she still moved closer to take a look. "No idea. Looks like snot."
From where he stood, Qi Si could see a blob of flesh-colored slime on Allen's hand. It had the greasy texture of fat, but also looked like ground meat scraped from a living creature. Now it was slowly writhing and flowing as if alive.
The sticky mess made him deeply uncomfortable. It was less terrifying than disgusting, and for no apparent reason, it reminded Qi Si of the strange changes to his skin after he had eaten God Meat the night before.
Allen suddenly convulsed, as if caught in a nightmare. He stared fixedly at the slime on his hand, a look of fascination slowly spreading across his face.
"Mmm, smells so good," he murmured. Then he abruptly raised his hand to his mouth and stuck out his tongue to lick the back of it, as if it were some rare delicacy.
Anyone could tell that something was wrong with him. Zhao Feng, who stood closest, reacted first and slapped him across the face. Even so, Allen's tongue still touched a few drops of slime.
His eyes flickered between lucidity and haze. He guarded his hand like a dog with a bone, tongue out, poised to lick it again.
"What the hell's gotten into you?" Zhao Feng cursed, slapping him several more times. The sharp cracks rang out in the silence.
The blows dazed Allen, and his eyes finally cleared. The muscles in his cheek spasmed violently. His right shoulder jerked, flinging the slime onto the ground.
The slime hit the ground as if it had found something to cling to. Thin, dense tentacles sprouted from beneath it, and it slowly crawled into the shadows.
Finally realizing what he had just licked, Allen bent over and retched, then shouted, "Oh, God! What the hell is this?"
No one could answer him. Qi Si looked up at the canopy stretched across the roof and suddenly realized that the lack of light inside the courtyard wasn't due to the thickness of the canopy. Rather, another layer of slime had been spread across the thin fabric to block out the light.
The other players also looked up. At some point, several holes had appeared in the canopy, and blobs of flesh-colored slime were dripping through them. Fortunately, they fell slowly enough for the players to dodge before getting hit.
But the slime continued moving after it landed, gradually joining together across the ground. It was easy to imagine that in less than five minutes, there would be nowhere left to stand in the courtyard.
Worse still, the rich aroma drifted through the air in wisps, stirring the players' senses and appetites. Allen wasn't the only one affected; Zhang Licai and the Tattooed Woman also looked ravenous.
"Move it! Grab the God Meat and get out!"
Yang Yundong kicked open the main house door, holding the Pu Saber across his body. But his steps stopped dead at the threshold, and he even instinctively took half a step back.
A gigantic flesh tumor lay sprawled across the bed in the center of the main room, as tall as a person and half as wide. Slime streamed over its surface like melted candle wax, while blood-red, vein-like streaks twitched in and out like breathing.
The slime flowed from the flesh onto the bed, then cascaded over its edges and dripped to the floor. It became countless streams winding across the ground, crawling up the doorposts like ivy and spreading onto the canopy overhead.
The slime the players had seen earlier was clearly an extension of the flesh tumor's body!
A powerful meaty aroma exploded outward, filling the air around them.
Qi Si swallowed and saw a blurry, aged face embedded in the top of the tumor. Its nose and mouth had blended into the flowing slime, leaving only two eyes staring fixedly at the doorway.
It kept repeating its muttered words, somewhere between ventriloquism and a groan: "We killed the God. We are guilty... Go to the Ancestral Hall and worship, to atone..."
"You ate the God. You're guilty too... If you eat me, you'll all suffer the consequences..."
This thing had to be the village chief.
Qi Si raised a hand to press his temples, trying to commit the village chief's muttering to memory. His reason told him it was an important clue.
But everything before his eyes was hazy. His thoughts swirled in utter confusion, and the specific words sank into the sea of his mind without a trace.
A powerful thought suddenly rose within him: the village chief's flesh had to taste delicious. So delicious. He wanted to take a bite...
Before you continue