Carnivore (Thirteen) Village History

Allen's head lay stranded in the mucus, his thin layer of facial skin looking like floating grease.

The moment the sunlight shone in, his living characteristics vanished along with the sarcoma, turning him into a pile of lifeless dead meat.

He had no final words, no groans, and did not even reveal an expression of resentment; he only stared upward with wide eyes, like a sunflower chasing the light, as if trying to reflect the sun into his pupils.

Yang Yundong walked over silently, bent down, and placed his rough, calloused hand over the young man's face, gently closing the glazed eyes.

Without a eulogy or mourning, he stood in silence for a moment before turning his head to look at the tattooed woman leaning against the doorframe.

This woman, who had always been somewhat of a loner, had also failed to resist eating a few mouthfuls of the mucus earlier; at this moment, the right side of her face was in a semi-solid state, dripping with flesh-colored slime.

Noticing Yang Yundong's gaze, the tattooed woman raised a hand to cover the abnormality on her right cheek and shouted exaggeratedly, "It's nothing, just a small injury! It'll be gone once we leave the instance!"

Indeed, injuries sustained within an instance would not carry over to reality. But could she really hold on until the instance ended?

Qi Si saw that the mutation on the tattooed woman's face was spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye; by now, half of her neck was also beginning to drip with mucus. She looked like a melting candle, constantly shedding tears of wax.

At the latest, she would be completely melted by tomorrow, yet there were still four days left until the instance concluded...

Qi Si deliberated and said, "From the Village Chief's words, we can infer that eating the God Meat results in being tainted by sin, while consuming that mucus brings retribution ahead of schedule. He also said that worshipping at the ancestral hall can atone for sins... It seems we need to change our itinerary."

Yang Yundong took off his coat, turned, and walked into the main room. He wrapped the puddle of white gel on the bed—which was no different from the God Meat—inside the coat, tied it into a bundle, and turned to toss the whole thing into Zhang Licai's arms.

He scanned the remaining players and made arrangements: "Zhang Licai, Zhao Feng, and Chang Xu go to the Village History Museum. Zhu Ling and I will take Yin Lina to the ancestral hall."

Yin Lina was the tattooed woman's name; she had only mentioned it casually during her self-introduction at the very beginning, yet Yang Yundong had actually remembered it.

Yang Yundong's arrangement was easy to understand; splitting up was theoretically the best plan. Otherwise, if they encountered another situation like the one at the Village Chief's house, the probability of the entire team being wiped out was high.

As for the ancestral hall, it was a crucial location involving the instance's atonement mechanism and carried the risk of encountering Granny Su, making it fraught with danger. It was most appropriate for two veteran players who had entered the instance three times to lead the exploration.

If both veterans were lost, it would also convey a message to the other players: stop dreaming about the ancestral hall, wash up and go to sleep; whether you survive the next few days depends on your luck.

In any case, the supply of God Meat was sufficient; for the remaining days, the players could simply huddle in Granny Su's residence and wait for death.

Well, waiting for death in the literal sense.

Zhu Ling looked hesitant: "There might be information about the feng shui layout of Su Village in the Village History Museum. I want to go and see if I can find any clues. Besides, if there are any ghosts lurking there, I can respond in time if I'm present."

Her attitude was within expectations. Qi Si gave Zhao Feng a timely wink, and the latter hurriedly volunteered: "I'll go to the ancestral hall instead."

The ancestral hall likely held key clues and required one of his own people to keep an eye on things; Zhao Feng was a useful pair of eyes. If something went wrong, he wouldn't need to worry about the safety of Yang Yundong and the tattooed woman; he could simply sacrifice their lives and retreat if he saw the situation turning sour.

Qi Si believed that in order to join the Sariel Guild, Zhao Feng would give it his all.

It was just a pity he didn't know what kind of expression Zhao Feng would make when he found out everything was a lie.

Qi Si smiled with curved eyes, which, in Zhao Feng's view, clearly conveyed a sense of encouragement.

Zhao Feng knew that most large guilds required a "letter of introduction" written in blood, and one had to be willing to lose the bait to catch the fish. He gritted his teeth and walked a few steps to Yang Yundong's side.

Yang Yundong didn't say much. He signaled with his eyes for Zhao Feng to carry the tattooed woman, then held his broadsword horizontally and led the way, stepping through the mucus covering the floor as he exited the Village Chief's house.

After the three figures disappeared from the doorway, Zhu Ling drew the dagger from her waist, smiled stiffly, and looked back at Qi Si and Zhang Licai: "Follow me. If you encounter danger, ask for help in time. I will try my best to ensure your safety."

She walked toward the door, and Zhang Licai, carrying the bundle given by Yang Yundong, followed closely behind.

Qi Si said a smiling "Many thanks" and trailed far behind.

The three of them stepped onto the muddy road, following the direction indicated by the map.

The potholed dirt road wound its way through dilapidated houses, with withered weeds growing crookedly on both sides, almost encroaching upon the path.

The road was not easy to walk, but fortunately, the Village Chief's house was not far from the Village History Museum. After walking for another five minutes, they arrived in front of a large house with windows facing the road, which allowed for excellent light.

The windows of the house were not covered with paper; although they were covered in dust, one could still see the desks and documents inside through the aged glass.

The low wooden door belonging to the building was wide open, as if inviting people to enter.

Qi Si followed the two in front, crossed the threshold of the main entrance, and was covered in a cloud of dust that rushed toward them. He choked and coughed, and in the process of gasping, more dust entered his throat, making it itch uncomfortably.

He quickly reacted, covering his mouth and nose with his hand, which barely stopped the coughing.

The Village History Museum consisted of only one room, and the furnishings inside were clear at a glance. They did not encounter any ghosts or death traps, so searching for clues was not difficult.

Having been left untouched for so long, spiderwebs had sealed off the past, and while messy papers remained on the dust-covered tables, they were destined to decay with the passage of time.

Qi Si walked to the table, where a yellowed household registration book lay. One page was folded, and it opened right to that spot.

That page contained the names "Granny Su" and "Su Xi," marked with dates of death—they were the same day.

Qi Si raised his eyelids and made a judgment: "Granny Su and A-Xi died before the incident in Su Village. It is very likely they never even ate the God Meat."

Zhang Licai only saw Qi Si aimlessly flipping through the book in his hand and couldn't help but ask: "Buddy, how do you know that?"

"I tested Granny Su on the first day. She had bruises on her arms, likely from falling from a height; the lividity was purple, which shows the body had been left in a cold place for a long time after death."

"Moreover, before the page for her and A-Xi, the villagers' times of death were scattered; there was no large-scale collective death event. Do you think a major event like a god's judgment would only result in such a sporadic loss of life?"

Qi Si's fingertips slid across the dates of birth and death, and he suddenly flipped over a thick stack of pages, revealing a blank space at the back of the book.

He curled the corners of his mouth and said with a smile: "The records at the back have indeed stopped... After all, once they eat the God Meat and become like the Village Chief, it's hard to judge whether they are dead or alive."

Zhu Ling also leaned in, smiling with realization: "Because Granny Su and A-Xi didn't eat the God Meat and didn't die from being tainted by sin, they were able to maintain their human form and walk in the sunlight."

Hearing the word "sin," Qi Si narrowed his eyes.

No, something was wrong.

If Granny Su had no Sin, why would she paste the couplet "Year after year of vegetarianism to dissolve Sin" on her door?

If she had died long ago, why would she be linked to the God Meat? And after being asked about the legend of the God Meat, why would she recount that blood-soaked past?

It was as if someone had pre-programmed instructions, teaching her to say exactly that...

Qi Si thought back to the initial clues; that unsettling story was like a misplaced puzzle piece, disrupting the entire deduction process that should have proceeded smoothly, twisting it into a knot...

Who exactly brought the dead Granny Su and A-Xi back to the world of the living?

In the background of this instance, was there truly only one god?

Zhu Ling clearly did not have so many thoughts; she picked up the village history book scattered in the dust and carefully opened it.

The first few pages of the village history book had been torn out, so it did not mention what happened before the famine, making it impossible to infer the origin of the famine.

This disaster seemed entirely like a natural calamity, snatched from the air by some god-like existence and cast upon this land, impossible to investigate in detail, impossible to avoid.

Zhu Ling turned the village history book to a page where the text was barely legible and began to read carefully.

Seeing a certain record, she frowned slightly and began to recite the words aloud in a low voice.

The past of Su Village revealed the tip of an iceberg.

At the beginning of that great famine, everything seemed no different from previous years.

From time to time, the old, the weak, women, and children starved to death in the fields; from time to time, buried corpses were dug up. The springs and ponds dried up, the bark and grass roots were dug clean, as if the earth itself were dying along with the village.

In the face of survival, all the veneer of modesty and courtesy was stripped away; naked human nature and the instinct to survive surged like brambles and thorns, and fighting, beating, and killing sprouted across this land.

The moral norms established by man were all discarded, and in the chaos, one tragedy after another became commonplace.

Granny Su died before the god descended; blinded by hunger, she threw her grandson A-Xi into the pot, and upon realizing what she had done, she jumped into a well and fell to her death.

The day after she died, before her body could be buried, the body of the god fell into the village.