Remnants of the Dead

Lu Li did not know what role the witch played in all of this, but he was certain it was not simple. That fleshy organism could rapidly enhance one's strength, but beyond the known side effects of physical mutation, personality alteration, and photophobia, what hidden traps the witch had laid within it remained entirely unknown. Therefore, Lu Li would never succumb to his body's instincts to consume those things. What concerned Lu Li now was how to bring that mass of fleshy organism back.

That mass was nearly half the size of the room and clung tightly to the walls. With Lu Li's current means, even if he deployed all his shadows, he could not take much of it, yet the witch's requirement was to bring it back.

Returning to that section of the passage, the space had narrowed further; the organism's growth rate was still quite rapid, provided there was a sufficient supply of food. The shadows behind Lu Li surged, emerging from the ground to pierce into the fleshy organism and search slowly.

According to the diary, this thing shouldn't have been this large at the beginning, otherwise, a meatball the size of half a room would have been discovered long ago, Lu Li thought. The shadow tentacles continuously probed and rummaged within the organism, and black-red blood constantly overflowed from the wounds, making the place look just like hell.

"Found it..." Lu Li stepped closer. The tentacles tore open that section of the fleshy organism on the ground, revealing an inverted "heart" that was constantly squirming. Countless tiny black threads connected it to the surrounding flesh. As these black threads were severed by the shadows, the "heart" bloomed like a flower or a lingzhi mushroom. This was not a "heart" at all, but a curled-up flower bud.

Without the support of this lingzhi, the surrounding fleshy organism began to wither at a speed visible to the naked eye, releasing gas as it did so. Lu Li caught a faint whiff of the scent, and a sense of hunger rose from within his heart, as if every cell in his body were leaping, pleading, and urging him to consume those rapidly drying remains.

Lu Li immediately blocked his breathing and every pore on his body. The shadow tentacles pulled the lingzhi out of the pit in the ground and held it securely. Lu Li hurried away from the place. As the lingzhi moved further away, the fleshy organism withered even faster. Black-red blood flowed out, gathered together, and began to condense and deform, slowly taking on a human shape. Kneeling amidst the withered waste, this humanoid monster made of blood let out a roar of resentment.

Death is not the end, and a corpse is not merely a pile of rotting meat; various things dwell within it. If a corpse is not handled properly, strange occurrences easily follow. Ordinary people who show disrespect to the dead often invite bad luck, though it may not be serious, but certain actions can trigger mutations in the corpse.

For instance, in folklore, if a cat jumps over a corpse, it is prone to reanimation; this is because the things dwelling within the corpse react to the cat. These Ghouls fed corpses to that lingzhi, generating a large amount of fleshy organism. While most of it was converted into nutrients for the organism's growth, some of the dwelling entities were not decomposed or digested. Whether one calls these things debris or lingering resentment, they were, in essence, emotions originating from the dead.

If the fleshy organism remained active, these things could only wait quietly for them to dissipate. But once the organism lost its vitality and the lingzhi was taken away, the unwillingness of the dead and the resentment of being used as food would gather, seeking a vessel to form a strange monster.

"Destroy it, destroy it, destroy it..." The monster muttered this phrase in a strange tone. As it took a step forward, it collapsed into a puddle of blood, only to condense again. This time, it lacked even a human shape, becoming a mass of amorphous black-red soft tissue, constantly squirming as it moved forward.

Walking through the passage, Lu Li stopped in his tracks. The extremely pure malice behind him was quite obvious. With his current soul quality, his legendary sixth sense had become increasingly sharp; he could now clearly feel something approaching from behind, carrying malice.

After a slight pause, Lu Li activated a skill, and a Shadow Assassin was summoned: "You stay here to intercept and prevent anything from passing..."

The Shadow Assassin knelt on one knee, lowered its head to accept the order, then turned and merged into the darkness, waiting silently to fulfill the mission its master had bestowed upon it. The Shadow Assassin was essentially composed of Lu Li's shadow. Due to the modules within the skill, it shed many of the limitations of Lu Li's own shadow. For instance, Lu Li's shadow could normally only extend ten meters from his body, but after being formed by the skill, the Shadow Assassin was no longer restricted by distance. However, if Lu Li were too far away, his will could not be transmitted in time, and the Shadow Assassin would only rigidly execute its last command.

Leaving the Shadow Assassin to block the path, Lu Li accelerated his pace toward the exit. Based on the information obtained earlier, those Ghouls feared light, and perhaps the source of this Ghoul infestation shared the same weakness. To be safe, Lu Li wrapped the lingzhi in his shadow.

Exiting the cave, as the light intensity changed, the shadow Lu Li could manifest outside his body rapidly diminished. Despite the obstruction of the leaves, only a basketball-sized portion of shadow remained, tightly wrapping the lingzhi as it followed Lu Li.

At the same time, Lu Li vaguely sensed that the Shadow Assassin had begun to engage with something. A few minutes later, Lu Li felt the shadow that composed the Shadow Assassin return to his side, indicating that the Shadow Assassin had been destroyed.

"That was quite good. After all, an assassin unit is not a frontline combat unit. If I can solve the issue of shadow quantity in the future, I must diversify my unit types and develop units for various situations." Lu Li silently began planning the future upgrade path for his skills. He already had an assassin type, though it needed constant optimization. In the future, he would need frontline tank/assault units, long-range attack units, close-quarters combat units, flying units, and so on.

Lu Li currently had all three skill slots filled: one was the Tranquility Meditation Method derived from enhancing his mental power, another was the unit summoning skill for the Shadow Assassin, and the last slot could only be considered half a skill—Lu Li had simply combined the remaining two modules to form the final half-skill: Touch of Fear.

I will need to refine this skill after this dungeon, Lu Li thought, though his pace did not slow. He followed the path he had come by, returning quickly. Back in the Ghoul cave, the monster was continuously drawing the dark green blood from the Ghoul corpses, becoming even more chaotic and terrifying itself...