A Pleasant Exchange with the Lizardman

"Can we have a chat?"

The crimson pathways in Feng Buzhi's right arm converged once more. His fist struck the Lizardman's abdomen, leaving behind a charred fist mark.

After using that strange power to attack twice in succession, Feng Buzhi felt as though the strangeness within his body had run dry. He could only continue beating him with his ordinary body.

Yet even after dozens of blows, the Lizardman showed no sign of answering. He merely kept hissing and trying to resist.

Could it be that this Lizardman was unlike the Goat-headed Man from before and could not understand human speech?

Feng Buzhi withdrew his bloodstained fist and gave one final warning. "If you are smart enough, you should know how to answer. Persisting like this will only make you suffer for nothing. I'll ask one last time—can you answer some of my questions?"

Just as Feng Buzhi thought the Lizardman would continue struggling desperately, something suddenly changed in its eyes.

The Lizardman glared furiously at the human who had beaten him again and again. "I, Broken Fang, am very smart!"

Feng Buzhi froze slightly and looked the Lizardman up and down.

It seemed this Lizardman had some problems with his intelligence.

Feng Buzhi looked up at the words and map in the sky. Though he did not like bullying fools, he had no time to find another foreign race to interrogate.

With that in mind, Feng Buzhi said, "Since you are so smart, you must be able to answer all my questions, right?"

Seeing the doubt in the human's eyes, Broken Fang felt his cleverness had been insulted and shouted, "Of course! No matter what you ask, I can answer it. The elder said I am very smart."

Feng Buzhi said, "I do not know much about the Abyss. Not long ago, I killed a Goat-headed Man. I wanted to strip the clothes from his body, but I discovered that all his clothes disappeared after he died. Do you know why?"

Feng Buzhi had not held out much hope, considering that the Lizardman, like him, was not wearing any clothes.

Yet the Lizardman quickly answered, "Because those clothes were not real. Our bodies in the Abyss are essentially projections condensed here by our souls with the Abyss's power. Those clothes are merely false things condensed through the soul."

Recalling the teachings of the village elder, the Lizardman continued, "Not only clothes—some weapons can also be condensed."

As he spoke, the Lizardman extended both hands forward and bared his teeth in a fierce grimace.

He wanted to condense a spear in his hands, but even after straining with all his might, he could not grasp the trick. His hands remained empty.

Meanwhile, after listening to the Lizardman's words, Feng Buzhi quickly condensed a coin in his hand, followed by a banknote.

In some ways, creating objects like this resembled his transformation into the two-headed, four-armed form, except it was much simpler.

The only drawback was that the consumption was rather high. Depending on his familiarity with the condensed object, its complexity, and its weight, the process imposed varying burdens on his will and spirit.

The simpler an object's craftsmanship, the lighter its weight, and the more familiar he was with it, the smaller the burden. Conversely, the burden would be greater.

For example, the coin in his hand was one he had picked up near the town a few days ago. Since he often played with it in his hand and was very familiar with it, the consumption required to condense it was negligible.

By comparison, the other banknote was a banknote from his previous life that he had imagined out of thin air. It consumed dozens of times more than the coin, roughly equivalent to the burden of transforming into his two-headed, four-armed form once.

With his current spirit and will, he could create at most around a hundred of them.

As he pondered, clothes had already condensed over Feng Buzhi's body: the same blue tracksuit and a pair of white sneakers. A silver-patterned axe also appeared in his hand—the very axe he had frequently used these past few days.

The only difference was that, due to the excessive consumption, he did not create that intricately crafted music player and its headphones.

All in all, he was quite familiar with this set of clothes, so it did not consume much. Only the silver axe, due to its considerable weight, consumed roughly the mental strength of three banknotes. Everything else combined consumed only one banknote.

Seeing the clothes form on Feng Buzhi's body, the Lizardman revealed a shocked expression, feeling that his intelligence had been utterly crushed.

He stared blankly at his own hands, unable to understand why this human could so easily condense a set of clothes while he himself could never condense a spear.

[Current participating beings: 975384]

Feng Buzhi glanced at the sky, then quickly continued his questioning. "The matter of clothing has been resolved. Can you tell me what you understand about the Abyss?"

Perhaps because his attention remained fixed on how to condense a spear, Broken Fang answered quickly this time, though somewhat absentmindedly.

Feng Buzhi did not mind and simply continued asking questions without pause.

The Lizardman's language ability was clearly inferior to that of the Mottled Goatman from before, but their descriptions of the Abyss were somewhat similar, especially that phrase: "In the Endless Abyss, you can obtain everything you desire."

The Abyss was a place filled with treasures and opportunities. It contained countless layers and regions, as well as many dangerous strange things.

Generally speaking, death in the Abyss would not have much effect on reality. At most, it would cause mental exhaustion and weakness, from which one could recover after a few days or over a dozen days. But if one died after suffering too much strange contamination, reality could also be affected to some extent, and one might even die as a result.

Normally, the layers of the Abyss were isolated from one another. The stronger one was, the deeper the layer one could enter.

Beings who had just fused with strangeness and had yet to enter the first rank would appear in the Abyss's initial layer, the Fallen Plains.

Once they entered the first rank, they would enter the deeper Thorn Hell.

The same applied to the second rank, third rank, fourth rank... Once their strength improved, the next time they entered the Endless Abyss, they would naturally appear in a deeper layer.

Of course, that was only the usual situation.

There were hidden passages between the different layers of the Abyss. If one could find a passage leading to a deeper layer, one could directly complete a Promotion under the Abyss's blessing.

For instance, although he had only just fused with strangeness, as long as he found the path to Thorn Hell and reached Thorn Hell, he could enter the first rank because of it.

It would not be an immediate Promotion, but it generally would not take more than three days.

From the Lizardman's eyes, Feng Buzhi saw his yearning. It seemed this Lizardman very much wanted to increase his strength through a shortcut.

Feng Buzhi had no such intention. In his view, taking such shortcuts would undoubtedly leave one's foundation unstable.

[Current participating beings: 900234]

Feng Buzhi looked up at the sky.

Though this Lizardman appeared able to reveal more information, he no longer had time. According to the map's markings, this place would soon be flooded by the Corrosion Swamp.

And during the earlier beating, he had already broken one of the Lizardman's legs. The Lizardman clearly could not follow him onward.

After asking Broken Fang one final question about his location in reality, Feng Buzhi said, "I have already noted your location. Though you beast attacked me at first, I rather like your personality. If I get the chance, I will take you as my mount.

"All right, the Corrosion Swamp will soon submerge this place. You have trouble moving, so you will certainly die then.

"So I might as well kill you myself. You can even provide me with some kill points."

The Lizardman stared blankly and doubtfully at the human before him. The human had just said too much at once, and he could not process it in time.

Then he saw the human swing an axe down at him, and everything came to an abrupt end...