Slaughtering Pigs and Killing Fish

Another Mountain God Temple!

Surprises always appear so inadvertently; when you need them, they are nowhere to be found, but when you don't, they pop right up.

Zhu Jiusi let out a snort. He was just about to move closer for a look.

A streak of white light leaped up behind him, and the next moment, the great sun vaulted into the center of the sky. The world brightened in an instant.

A scroll unfurled.

The Moon appeared once again.

"Good morning! Young Path Seekers, are you awake? We meet again!"

The Moon was a circle fatter than yesterday. He hopped and skipped across the scroll, looking thoroughly pleased with himself.

"Although we met yesterday, please allow me to make a grand self-introduction! I am the Moon of the 66th Dao-Seeking District of the Immortal Seeking Realm in Journey Survival, and my name is Fourth Day!"

A chorus of ellipses followed.

Sparrow: "...You're really calling yourself Fourth Day? Tomorrow will be Fifth Day?"

The Moon naturally did not answer him, but instead shouted excitedly: "The novice protection period is over!

The rankings are being calculated in full swing. Do you want to take this opportunity to engage in a fierce secret realm competition? You all do? As expected, my subjects are fearless! Then let's set off, destination: Valley of the Dead!"

"Friendly reminder: for the first secret realm trial, everyone must participate! Everyone, it is either life or death! Either you get a crown upon your head, or you get dirt piled upon your grave. Charge!"

Once the Moon finished speaking, he struck a pose with his crescent tips arched upward and dashed away, disappearing into the distance.

Then, the landscape ahead of the road changed; a valley had appeared on the path that was originally an endless, straight road.

From the mouth of the valley came the sound of cuckoo birds calling.

Zhu Jiusi increased his caution by thirty percent.

"Graveyard riot" and "Valley of the Dead"—these two terms actually revealed quite a lot. It was just that the novices of Journey Survival didn't understand them.

In a place as desolate as this, there were only two possibilities.

Either it was a remote mountain gully with no powerful zombies—since the population was limited.

Or it was a former battlefield, where the zombies would be strong enough to drive one to despair.

Since this was only the first dungeon of the opening, it should be the former.

Zhu Jiusi no longer hesitated; he trotted toward the valley while keeping his guard up.

The moment he plunged into the valley, the world spun, and the scenery before him seemed to twist into a vortex.

Everything returned to normal, and his ears were filled with the clamor of voices and the crackling of flames.

"Second Brother's wife, stoke the fire higher. This pig looks thick-skinned; we'll need boiling water to scrape the hair off later!"

"Third Brother's wife, keep an eye on your brat. That fish is for the ancestor sacrifice; if you dare damage a single scale, I'll skin you alive!"

"Eldest Brother's wife, send someone to the village entrance to see when the mage will arrive!"

Zhu Jiusi shook his head, his vision finally clearing. He saw that his four hooves were bound to a low table.

A wave of heat washed over him; a large pot was boiling water nearby, and from his angle, he could see oil slicks floating on the surface.

A role-playing dungeon!

This type of dungeon came with a pre-assigned identity, which was extremely restrictive.

Zhu Jiusi looked left and right, seeing a water vat not far ahead. Inside the vat, a large red carp looked around with a startled expression, and there was text floating above its head.

Rain Seeker!

A Path Seeker; to not hide one's name upon entering a dungeon—how young!

Beside that was a pig cage, and inside the cage was a man, slapping the bars.

"Let me out! Do you know who my woman is?"

That person also had text above his head: Monkey Has Iron Rod.

Outside the cage, a one-eyed man sharpening a knife glanced at the man in the cage with a pale, milky eye.

"Bragging about your mistress? In this poor mountain gully, what use is a mistress?"

As he spoke, he ground the butcher knife with a shhh-shhh sound until it gleamed. He muttered to himself: "Slaughter the pig, butcher the fish, sacrifice to the Mountain Lord—that should hold off those filthy things. If that doesn't work..."

His one eye flicked toward the man in the cage again. The implication was clear: if that didn't work, he would kill a living person for a human sacrifice!

Zhu Jiusi remained silent.

In this kind of role-playing dungeon, the dungeon prompts would only appear after one broke through the initial entry dilemma.

But combining the few words from the villagers, Zhu Jiusi could guess most of it.

The village was plagued by zombies, and they were going to perform a sacrifice to appease the infestation.

Very unfortunately, Zhu Jiusi was the sacrifice.

Besides the three of them, there was also a black dog hanging nearby; judging by its shifty eyes, it was likely another Path Seeker.

But the name was hidden; it was impossible to tell who it was.

The black dog must have entered earlier than Zhu Jiusi, as it seemed to have been awake for quite some time.

Having already assessed its situation, it slowly lowered its head, appearing to have resigned itself to fate.

Yet, the moment the villagers looked away, it suddenly bit through its ropes, leaped forward to tackle a man, and knocked over a brazier to create chaos. Taking advantage of the confusion, it stepped on the man's body, vaulted over the courtyard wall, and fled into the distance as if its life depended on it.

As it ran, it snarled, "You want to lock me up? Sooner or later, I'll bite off the manhood of every descendant in this village!"

The Demon Cultivator Path Seeker had not yet refined the horizontal bone in its throat, so what came out was a beastly roar that only those who were also Path Seekers could understand.

The wild dog scrambled desperately, but suddenly, the twang of a bowstring rang out, followed immediately by the wild dog's miserable howl.

An arrow pierced its chest, pinning it to the ground. The wild dog shrieked and struggled, but it could not pull its body free from the shaft; it was clear it would not survive for long.

Just as expected!

It was exactly as he thought—how could a grand secret realm dungeon allow someone to escape so easily?

Breaking the ropes wasn't the point; the real challenge was how to evade the pursuit of the villagers.

There was definitely more than one hunter here; even if all the Path Seekers present fled at once, they wouldn't be able to get away!

One could only win through wit!

Zhu Jiusi knew almost instinctively what had to be done—three years of Journey Survival had not been in vain.

He immediately opened private chats with Monkey Has Iron Rod and Rain Seeker, messaging both at the same time.

Master of Cloud Stack Cave: "Do you want to live?"

Monkey Has Iron Rod: "Eh? Is the one about to be slaughtered the Master of Cloud Stack Cave?"

Rain Seeker: "I understand. What do you need me to do?"

Since the chat group hadn't been opened yet, multi-person chatting was very inconvenient.

Man in the Cage and Fish in the Vat both had their eyes light up as they looked at the wild boar waiting to be slaughtered on the low table.

"Act!" Zhu Jiusi replied.

The man and the fish listened quietly, but then the sound of firecrackers and the clashing of gongs and drums drifted in from afar.

"Village Chief! Uncle Qiao! The mage is here!"

Someone roared, and the one-eyed pig butcher, who had been sharpening his blade, slammed his knife into the low table, wiped his hands on his apron, and hopped away excitedly.

He was only five feet tall, perhaps five-foot-three, and a cripple at that, yet he looked as happy as a foolish child.

Glancing around, everyone in the small courtyard was distracted by the shouting outside; no one was paying attention to this spot.

Zhu Jiusi clamped his jaws onto the butcher knife and rubbed it back and forth against the hemp rope binding his four hooves.

Snap! With a crisp sound, the rope binding his front hooves was sawed through.

The voices outside were already returning, but while they had been jubilant when they ran off, their footsteps were heavy on the way back, and sighs could be heard from afar.

"Village Chief, this mage is a fraud; he's been bitten by a zombie himself, he's useless to the village!"

The crowd drew closer.

Zhu Jiusi arched his body with all his might to saw through the ropes on his hind legs, drool flowing uncontrollably from his mouth due to the intensity of his efforts. Just as the group re-entered the courtyard, a crisp snap signaled the rope breaking.

Zhu Jiusi flipped and struggled, rolling off the low table to the ground before leaping up, howling as he charged at the people.

The villagers who had just entered the courtyard were terrified at the sight of the wild boar with its towering tusks.

"Wu the Third, Wu the Fourth, Wu family! Shoot him down!" the Village Chief shouted.

Immediately, seven or eight bowstrings twanged from outside.

There really was more than one hunter!

One by one, they drew their bows and aimed their arrows at Zhu Jiusi.