Immediately afterward, it opened its huge mouth and took a fierce inhale at Chen Aniu's nose and mouth.
"Urgh..."
Chen Aniu's entire body jerked in his sleep.
He suddenly opened his eyes, both hands clamped tightly around his own throat, his eyes rolling white as painful gurgling sounds came from his throat.
He wanted to struggle. He wanted to scream.
But that suction was like a pump, directly draining the essence, energy, and spirit from his body without end.
In barely a dozen breaths, Chen Aniu's previously sturdy body rapidly shriveled like a deflated ball.
In the end, he became a skin-and-bones mummy.
After finishing all that, Green Snake let out a satisfied burp, twisted its body, and slithered back up along the roof beam, vanishing into the dark ceiling.
The entire process happened incredibly quickly.
Before the people of Douluo outside the Sky Screen could even react, Chen Aniu had already breathed his last.
Then, the image on the Sky Screen faded again, and several large lines of text slowly appeared.
[Participant: Chen Aniu (Heaven Dou Empire, ordinary blacksmith)] [Current Status: Dead] [Cause of Death: While sleeping soundly in a ruined house, he was drained of his essence, energy, and spirit by an Essence-Sucking Snake Demon hidden within the village.]
Looking at the death notice on the Sky Screen, all of Douluo Continent fell silent once more.
For a moment, chills ran through everyone's hearts.
If Wang Xiu had died because he arrogantly ran into the darkness outside,
then Chen Aniu's death utterly shattered the last trace of luck in everyone's hearts.
Hiding inside the glowing barrier was useless!
Even in a village that looked safe, man-eating demons were hiding atop the roof beams!
Was this a higher-dimensional world?
It was simply deadly at every turn!
On Shrek Academy's training ground.
Dai Mubai swallowed, feeling his back already drenched in cold sweat.
"This is way too sinister..."
"You can guard against the black fog outside, but not the venomous snake inside the house. This place simply doesn't let people live."
Tang San's expression had also grown solemn to the extreme.
He prided himself on being an expert in poison and had studied all kinds of venomous snakes.
But the Green Snake on the Sky Screen, which could directly suck a person dry from afar, had completely exceeded his understanding.
That was not an ordinary poisonous creature at all, but some kind of demon he had never even heard of.
Just as everyone was still shaken with lingering fear.
Yu Xiaogang suddenly let out a long breath.
He raised a hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and the stiffness on his face seemed to ease somewhat.
"Everyone, don't be afraid!"
Yu Xiaogang suddenly turned around, his voice even louder than before.
"Did you see that?"
"That was merely a snake-type soul beast that feeds on human flesh and blood! This proves that my theory is correct!"
"This so-called Tales of Herding Gods world is not some higher-dimensional space at all. There are villages here, and there are snake-type soul beasts as well. In essence, it is no different from our Star Dou Forest!"
At this point, Yu Xiaogang regained that confident look of someone surveying the world.
"Chen Aniu died because he had no Soul Power at all. He was an ordinary person."
"If it were one of us from Shrek, as long as we released our Martial Souls beforehand and stayed alert, how could a mere snake-type soul beast possibly succeed in a sneak attack?"
"So, this place really isn't all that remarkable!"
Yu Xiaogang's words rang with conviction and seemed rather reasonable.
Even Ma Hongjun and Oscar beside him could not help nodding, feeling much more at ease.
Only Tang San frowned slightly.
He always felt that his teacher had made that world seem far too simple.
The blood-red words on the Sky Screen faded bit by bit until they vanished completely.
Everyone on Douluo Continent was still immersed in the lingering palpitations.
Although Yu Xiaogang's words had given them some verbal comfort, how could the feeling of facing unknown horrors possibly fade so easily?
On Shrek Academy's training ground, Tang San gently exhaled a breath of stale air, his brows slightly furrowed.
He always felt that the Great Ruins were not that simple.
If even within the barrier of glowing stone statues, even on the roof beams above where people slept, there were deadly demons lurking, then where in this place could possibly be safe?
Just as everyone was lost in their own thoughts, the scene flashed, and the third Sky Screen lit up completely.
This time, the person appearing before everyone was Liu Dao, a veteran member of a hunting party on the outskirts of Star Dou Forest and a level thirty-five battle Soul Elder.
Completely unlike the first two, the moment Liu Dao's scene appeared, the surroundings were brightly lit.
The sun hung high in the sky, piercing through the dense leaves and scattering large patches of golden light.
Clearly, the terrifying night where he was had already passed, and daytime had arrived in the Great Ruins.
Seeing the bright sunlight, everyone on Douluo Continent unconsciously let out a sigh of relief.
The nights of the Great Ruins were far too oppressive. Being able to see daylight now at least made them feel more secure.
Liu Dao had landed in a vast primeval forest.
The environment here was absurdly enormous.
Any random tree was thick enough that more than a dozen people could barely wrap their arms around it. Its bark was covered in thick moss, while its giant crown shot straight into the clouds, with no top in sight.
The wild grass on the ground was equally lush, nearly half the height of an adult.
As an old hunter who had made his living on the outskirts of Star Dou Forest for years, Liu Dao appeared extremely experienced.
He did not shout in alarm like Wang Xiu, nor did he run around like a headless fly.
In the scene, he crouched behind the thick root of a large tree, his vigilant gaze sweeping the surroundings as he even kept his breathing low.
"Martial Soul, possess."
Liu Dao gave a low shout.
His Martial Soul was an Iron-Armored Pig. One white and two yellow Soul Rings slowly rose beneath his feet.
A layer of grayish-brown hardened tissue immediately appeared across his skin, greatly increasing his defense.
Seeing his steady and cautious actions, the people of Douluo Continent all nodded in approval.
"This Liu Dao is worthy of being an old hunter. He is far more vigilant than that arrogant Soul Emperor from Spirit Hall," Dai Mubai commented softly from the side, arms folded.
Liu Dao pressed close to the tree roots and carefully moved forward under the cover of the tall grass.
After walking only a short distance, he suddenly stopped, his ears pricking up as though he were listening carefully to something.
At that moment, a dull sound came from the Sky Screen.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The sound had a rhythm to it, as though some enormous heavy object were striking a wooden board, or someone were forcefully chopping meat.
Each time the sound rang out, the soil beneath Liu Dao's feet trembled faintly.
The people of Douluo Continent also held their breaths, staring without blinking at the Sky Screen, afraid of missing even the slightest detail.
Everyone was curious what sort of thing could make such sounds in broad daylight within a Great Ruins filled with monsters.
Liu Dao slowed his breathing, lay prone in the grass, and inched toward the source of the sound.
After crawling forward for roughly a dozen meters, the view ahead suddenly opened up.
There was a broad river there, its waters rushing endlessly and spraying foam.
And on a flat, massive bluestone along the riverbank stood a figure.
At the first sight of that person, both Liu Dao within the Sky Screen and the people of Douluo outside it were all stunned.
It was a man.
His upper body was incredibly burly, his muscles bulging in solid masses. His bronze skin was covered in crisscrossing, terrifying scars.
He held two broad-backed Butcher Knives in his hands and was frantically chopping a huge slab of meat on a chopping block.
What made everyone's scalps tingle was that this man had no lower body at all!
Below his waist was nothing but empty space. The wound was smooth, as though some sharp blade had severed him cleanly in a single stroke.
Yet he floated so strangely in midair, the two Butcher Knives in his hands whirling so tightly that not even water could pass through. Amid the flashing blade light, even his meat-cutting movements carried a flowing beauty.
"Th-this is still a person?" Ma Hongjun gaped, his jaw nearly dropping to the ground.
A cripple with no legs could still hover in midair so energetically while chopping meat?
But the attention of top experts such as Bibi Dong was not on that crippled man at all.
Their gazes were all drawn to the thing beside the man's chopping block.
That was not ordinary meat at all!
Beside the chopping block on the massive bluestone lay the head of a strange beast as large as a small hill.
A metallic-sheened horn grew from its head, and black scales the size of palms covered both sides of its face.
Even after being severed, the head still emitted a terrifying pressure that made every Soul Master's heart pound.
With just one glance, Bibi Dong clenched her fists, her expression changing drastically.
She could sense it clearly. The aura emitted in life by the monster being chopped apart like an ordinary meat pig was absolutely no weaker than the two hundred-thousand-year soul beasts deep within Star Dou Forest.
It might even have been stronger!
And now, this terrifying existence that could have swept across Douluo Continent was being casually chopped into minced meat like offal?
Within the Sky Screen, Liu Dao had clearly sensed that pressure as well.
His legs went weak with fear. He lay flat in the grass, not daring to breathe loudly, afraid that if he made even the slightest sound, the legless Butcher would casually split him in two with a single strike.
At that moment, however, a burst of cheerful footsteps came from the small forest behind the massive bluestone.
"Grandpa Butcher, is breakfast ready? Grandpa Village Chief said he's hungry."
Accompanied by a clear child's voice, a boy who looked to be around ten years old bounced out of the forest wearing a rough short coat made of animal hide.
The boy walked up beside the bluestone, looked at the pile of freshly chopped meat, and sniffed.
Then, beneath the horrified gazes of countless people across Douluo Continent.
The boy, who looked around ten years old, stretched out one fair little hand and directly grabbed a strange beast's thigh several times thicker than his entire body.
Like he was carrying a freshly plucked chick, he lightly hoisted that massive thigh onto his slender shoulder.
"Grandpa Butcher, I'm taking this leg back to roast," the boy said with a grin, revealing a row of white teeth. He looked innocent and harmless.
Butcher did not even raise his head, remaining focused on chopping the meat.
He merely waved the bloodstained Butcher Knife in his hand casually through the air, as though swatting away flies.
"Go on, go on. Remember to save Blind Man a bite when you roast it. He worked hard keeping watch last night."
Along with Butcher's casual words and that offhand slash.
A transparent blade aura, nearly invisible to the naked eye, instantly tore through the air.
The next second, a towering mountain several thousand meters from the riverbank suddenly erupted with an earthshaking boom.
That mountain peak, which soared into the clouds, was sliced flat in one clean stroke.
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