Carnivore (22) Blood River

Outside the Ancestral Hall, Zhang Licai tossed the wooden bucket aside as if avoiding a venomous snake, then hurriedly turned and jogged a few paces away, putting distance between himself and the grim scene behind him.

Ever since morning, he had felt an unsettling vibe from this Ancestral Hall, as if countless eyes were glaring at him from the shadows. If not for his fear of the ghosts that emerged at night, he would never have wanted to make another trip here.

Zhou Yilin didn't seem particularly frightened; she simply followed along with a small, compliant gait, maintaining a distance of two steps—neither too close nor too far—from Zhang Licai.

The girl had stopped sobbing, though her eyes remained rimmed with red, making her look exceptionally pitiful. "Brother Zhang, how are we going to deal with Chang Xu?"

Zhang Licai froze, his pace slowing as he struggled to understand the girl's train of thought. "Why would we need to deal with him?"

"I just have a feeling he isn't a good person. Working with someone like Zhao Feng, and letting him kill Brother Yang..." Zhou Yilin said, choosing her words carefully. "Besides, there are more death points ahead. Who knows if he'll stab us in the back?"

You're no saint yourself, are you? Don't end up fooling yourself with your own act...

Zhang Licai muttered to himself, blinking twice. "Surely not? Didn't Chang Xu say he had obtained key clues?"

"How could he possibly have key clues? He's lying to you..." Zhou Yilin turned her face away, looking toward Granny Su's house. "This is a novice pool; there shouldn't be so many twists and turns..."

Hearing the girl put it that way, Zhang Licai began to feel uncertain.

He looked up at the darkening sky, unable to make sense of it all after a long moment, so he changed the subject. "Let's not think about this for now. Whatever happens, we'll talk about it when we get back."

Zhou Yilin pouted, let out a pitiful "mm," and ultimately said nothing more.

West of Su Village, gray-white mist stained the deepening twilight, blending into a surreal, grayish-purple hue. Amidst the obscurity, night slowly encroached upon every corner of the world, filling the gaps between houses, driving away the fading mist, and shrouding the earth in its place.

There was no moon in the night sky, and the road beneath his feet seemed to merge with the night, sharing the same impenetrable blackness.

Qi Si stood steadily in place, his eyes gradually adapting to the darkness as time passed.

Or rather, a faint light began to glow within the darkness.

He saw that in the dilapidated houses on both sides of the road, which had been pitch black, tiny spots of ghostly green light flickered in the window cavities like will-o'-the-wisps.

Shuffling footsteps echoed one after another in the silence, followed by the sound of doors being pushed open in succession.

From the doorways, figures of varying heights and builds emerged, swaying and trembling. Some carried hoes, others bore shoulder poles; at a glance, they looked no different from farmers heading out to work during the harvest season.

Villagers. Villagers who only came out at night. Qi Si made his judgment, his mind automatically retrieving relevant information, including the descriptions of the villagers he had obtained from Yang Yundong.

These villagers, who only appeared at night, were all draped in black cloaks, blending almost perfectly into the night.

They carried farm tools in one hand and lanterns in the other, their faces fixed in expressions of peaceful satisfaction that appeared incredibly eerie under the circumstances.

Qi Si, standing in the middle of the road while dragging Zhu Ling, looked completely out of place and glaringly conspicuous, quickly becoming the focus of attention.

"Meat, give us meat..."

"We want meat..."

Clusters of figures swarmed in from all directions, moving like walking corpses, chanting the same monotonous phrases.

Qi Si retreated step by step while dragging Zhu Ling, stopping only when he reached a thinner part of the crowd. Without hesitation, he shoved the still-unconscious Zhu Ling into the midst of the villagers.

Zhu Ling wasn't heavy, but Qi Si used a clever bit of leverage, knocking two villagers over with the force of the shove.

The movements of all the villagers visibly stalled for a heartbeat, clearly not having expected such a development.

But ghosts lacked the capacity for deep contemplation; two seconds later, the villagers began to move again. The two who had fallen scrambled up, swaying, and joined the others in splitting into two groups, surrounding Zhu Ling and Qi Si respectively.

Maintaining his composure, Qi Si recited, "You cannot kill a person to take their meat with your own hands. Under this Rule, what can you possibly do to me?"

The villagers slowed their movements upon hearing this; they were hesitant, conflicted.

Seeing this, Qi Si raised a hand and pointed vaguely at the collapsed Zhu Ling, smiling. "You should know that you can't do anything to me in the short term. Instead of wasting time here, you'd be better off working on that beauty. After all, I'm the only living person who knows that Rule..."

Whether they understood or not, the villagers surrounding him turned sluggishly and began to walk toward Zhu Ling. Their slow, deliberate steps and black robes made them look exactly like a pack of suspicious hyenas.

Qi Si brushed off his collar, which had been wrinkled from holding Zhu Ling, and walked straight into the depths of the West Village territory.

The corpse of the legendary god was kept in the west of the village.

The root of all this strangeness, the scarlet eyes in the depths of the Nightmare, the mysterious pull of his Identity Card... countless factors intertwined to outline this mysterious and bizarre corner.

Qi Si was very curious about what kind of existence that was.

The rhythmic thudding of the villagers' footsteps grew distant, leaving only the faint, ghostly whistling of the wind in his ears. Gradually, even the wind died away, leaving behind a stagnant, deathly silence, as if this moment had been forcibly carved out of the flow of time, no longer moving with the shifting stars.

The further he went, the darker it became, until he could barely see his own fingers, making it difficult to judge the direction of the road.

Qi Si collected his scattered thoughts and continued forward along his previous path.

One step, two steps, he counted over a hundred.

Without warning, light erupted in the pitch-black darkness.

The light was not intense; it was merely specks of gold floating and drifting in the air, swaying as they extended into a path of light.

Qi Si did not hesitate for a moment, lifting his feet to follow the light forward.

Specks of light merged into his body and then drifted away. His consciousness floated in an ocean of thought, momentarily communing with a deeper, more distant existence, only to be dragged back down by his heavy, physical body, triggering a dull echo from the earth.

His vision was suddenly filled with blinding light. Golden specks, fragments, and ribbons of silk floated and drifted in the air, as if submerged in the eddies of the sea.

Qi Si found himself standing beneath a giant golden tree, with gilded vines hanging from its branches, swaying without a breeze.

Beneath the tree was a golden river. As his gaze traced the current upstream, a blinding, blood-red hue struck his eyes.

A figure in a red robe reclined in the middle of the river, eyes half-closed and glowing with a scarlet hue—the same gaze that had once cast itself upon him from within a Nightmare, only to dissolve into a rain of blood the moment he looked back.

It was covered in wounds, its chest and abdomen reduced to nothing but stark white bone, looking much like a fish stranded on the shore, waiting to rot.

Yet, it remained profoundly sacred and solemn, brooking no mockery, no dispute, and no desecration.

The moment it entered his field of vision, a realization surfaced in the mind of Qi Si: It is a God.

The evil spirit on the Identity Card opened its scarlet eyes, its one intact half-face twisting into a bizarre smile.

Clusters of gray mist coalesced into pitch-black tentacles, rising and falling with the surge of thought.

[Warning! You are too close to a God-level NPC (Data Deleted)... Error! Danger!]

Descriptive knowledge bypassed the cognitive process, directly captured, absorbed, and understood by his consciousness.

Its blood flowed into a river...

Its influence persisted...

It was still capable of responding...

It felt as if ten thousand people were whispering in his ears—extreme sorrow, ecstasy, rage, indifference... contradictory emotions that did not belong to the subject washed over his consciousness, rushing through without leaving a trace.

Qi Si's face twisted into a hideous expression, his sanity bursting like bubbles inch by inch, while elusive, frantic thoughts surged and darted through his mind.

He did not know when he had begun to weep.

Fear reached its zenith, only to ignite an overwhelming sense of excitement and pleasure. Beneath the tear-streaked, mottled mess of his face, a massive grin emerged: "As you wish, I have come. Shouldn't we settle the matter of you disturbing my dreams the night before last?"

There was no response, not even the sound of the wind.

The God had been silent for a long time.

Qi Si's vision blurred and settled, colorful fragments spreading out before his eyes into a kaleidoscopic landscape.

He stepped on the withered leaves, listening to the "rustle" of the debris, and walked toward the corpse in the river.

At a certain moment, his shattered sanity flooded back into his mind, and he finally fished his disorganized thoughts out of the chaotic ocean.

He smiled, speaking to himself: "That deity disguised as the Black-Robed Taoist said you needed human flesh and blood to mend your body, yet he advised the villagers of Su Village to feed your meat to the tourists."

"I was confused at first; since we players have already mutated after eating your meat, how could our flesh and blood be of any use?"

"The contradiction in The Rules cannot be without reason, unless he was deceiving the villagers with his words."

Qi Si stopped two meters from the river, bracing his body to remain upright, and looked down from above at the corpse resting on the bank.

"No, he actually already gave the answer. 'It harbors the same malice toward all living things, and what it loves most is to induce humans to commit crimes and watch them struggle in the throes of their original sin.'"

"What you have always needed was never flesh and blood, but 'sin'—the 'sin' committed by ghosts and players revolving around the core mechanism of this dungeon."

Silence reigned.

The corpse of a God seemed no different from a human corpse, perhaps just better-looking, and seemingly more worthy of collection.

Thinking of its collection value, the smile on Qi Si's lips became a little more genuine.

He tilted his head, took two more steps forward, and crouched beside the exquisitely featured corpse.

Beneath the Golden Giant Tree, the black-haired youth took hold of the stark white hand resting against the backdrop of red and gold, his eyes curving into crescents:

"So, Lord Evil God, do you think the sin upon me is enough?"