He opened his pores to release the heat generated by excessive exertion, then moved his already-injured limbs. This was where he fell short of the Shadow Assassin. After all, he still had a human body, and no matter how much control he had over it, he couldn't escape its limits.
Lu Li felt the gains he had made this time. The release of emotions that had built up for so long left his mind completely clear. If he checked his status panel, his soul assessment would probably have increased. He had also gained a little more control over his body, to the point where he could even observe his genes to some extent. Of course, he could only observe them; doing so took an immense amount of energy.
After passing through this stretch of deep green, Lu Li regained his composure and grew curious about what the Witches had mentioned. Farther in, the monsters' living quarters were unmistakable. Despite their beastlike appearance, the area was organized into neat, clearly divided sections, although it smelled awful.
Ghouls had a different sense of smell from ordinary people, so they could tolerate the stench of decay. But they also had a degree of social organization. The bones by the cave entrance might have been placed there deliberately to mislead humans into thinking this was a beast's den and reduce the chance of discovery. After all, Ghouls were taboo in human society. If they were exposed, humans would likely hunt them down.
Beyond the living quarters, the cave narrowed considerably. The ground along this stretch bore plenty of fresh marks; the passage had probably been excavated only recently. With some curiosity, Lu Li continued onward.
As soon as he entered, he sensed something was wrong. The ground was soft, as if he were walking on jelly or chunks of meat. His feet sank in slightly, giving him an indescribably sickening feeling. Lu Li stomped hard and realized the stuff was alive.
He fully unleashed his brain to sense the information around him. Before long, he reached a conclusion: this entire stretch of cave was covered in a fleshy organism, and it was growing rapidly. In just a few hours, it would probably fill the cave and grow shut, then spread outside.
The shadow beneath his feet turned into a spike and pierced the fleshy organism underground. Dark red blood seeped out, and its appearance stirred Lu Li's appetite. It was like how a thirsty person wanted water or a hungry person wanted food: the human body automatically signaled what it needed. After the dark red blood appeared, Lu Li's body responded with a desire to eat it.
"So this is the monsters' cafeteria..." Lu Li crouched and dabbed a little of the dark red blood with his finger. He held it beneath his nose and sniffed. Some of the blood's vapors entered his body with his breath, and he sensed how his body changed after absorbing that tiny amount.
In just a second, the small amount he had inhaled was completely absorbed. Then Lu Li felt his physical attributes improve slightly. In fact, if his control hadn't just improved, he wouldn't have noticed the increase at all. Though the improvement was tiny, he had only absorbed a little through breathing. Estimating the size of the cave, Lu Li's unleashed brain quickly calculated that eating all the fleshy organisms here would raise his physical assessment from its original 1.52 to at least 2.52—an increase of roughly one point.
That would bring a qualitative leap in his physical abilities and truly make him nonhuman. If he unleashed his body's limits as well, he could probably crush even some monsters that specialized in hand-to-hand combat. But...
Lu Li split his shadow into two tentacles, sharpened their tips, and used them to tear open the fleshy organism. Dark red blood flowed out, revealing pale, repulsive chunks of flesh. More importantly, there was a partially digested human skull inside.
The Ghouls were feeding humans to this fleshy organism and raising it, then strengthening themselves by eating it. At this discovery, Lu Li's expression shifted. He returned to the Ghouls' living quarters and began rummaging through everything, searching for any records they might have left.
At last, in one of the bedrooms, he found a fairly new diary. Lu Li opened it to a page, and a dialogue box at the corner of his eye translated the contents:
"March 17. The plague is finally over. Every household lost someone, and they were buried forever in the cemetery behind the hill..."
"March 25. The gravedigger, Del, has started acting strangely. He was strange to begin with, but I still feel that something's wrong..."
"April 3. Someone reported Del for secretly digging up graves at night. The villagers, who had only just lost their loved ones, hanged him from the dead tree in front of the cemetery..."
"April 29. The village has become very strange. Quite a few people have stopped showing their faces. When I went to see them, they wouldn't even let me in. That fellow Hast even argued with me through the door, though his voice sounded a little strange..."
"May 6. Good heavens, what are they doing...? They're feeding the dead to that disgusting thing..."
"I'm sorry. I don't want to die, and I don't want to be fed to that lump of... I'm sorry..." The page was damp in this spot, with a few other stains as well.
"May 27. I haven't written in a while. After a month of eating it, my sense of taste and smell have changed. Today, I actually thought that thing was delicious. I feel like I'm dying—not physically, but spiritually. Another me is taking shape..."
"June 8. This is probably the last time I'll write. My hands have mutated, and I look strange now. I'm afraid of sunlight, and I can barely hold a pen. If I hadn't been exposed to sunlight today, I wouldn't have realized I'd already begun adapting to that way of life. The Witch found us and made a pact with us. Tomorrow, we're moving into the forest; otherwise, our mutations will soon be discovered... I understand. Today, I'm about to die. What remains alive will be a true Ghoul... Will's last words." The handwriting on this page was crooked and uneven.
Lu Li closed the diary. He had a general idea of what had happened. These monsters had clearly transformed only recently. Judging by the weather, it was no later than July, which meant their transformation from humans had taken just two or three months.
About three or four months ago, the village where these monsters lived had been struck by a plague, and many people had died. After they were buried in the cemetery, the fleshy organism appeared there. The gravedigger discovered it and realized what it could do, but he was hanged when he was caught preparing it as food. The fleshy organism then fell into the hands of several villagers.
Those villagers also discovered what the fleshy organism could do. They began using it in secret, forcing and threatening anyone who found out to join them. Eventually, a Witch got involved too and made some kind of pact with them. This Witch was probably the Witch.
Later, as their mutations became too obvious, they moved to this cave in the forest to avoid being discovered. They kept eating the fleshy organism until Lu Li killed them today.
"They really were cruel..." Thinking of the Witch's expression, Lu Li suddenly felt that she had played a far from simple role in all this. For instance, there was the plague, and the question of where the fleshy organism had come from...
Before you continue