Bearded Pirate

In the woodlands on the east side of the dilapidated town, Feng Buzhi continued to move forward.

As time passed, the side effects of breaking his Bodily Shackles had diminished somewhat, and he no longer stumbled.

However, his physical condition remained poor, so his pace was very slow.

Suddenly, Feng Buzhi stopped and looked toward a spot in the southeast, where the Mist was so thick it felt almost tangible.

To an ordinary person, the Mist initially gave a sense of sudden clarity upon entering, as if the fog outside the town would not obstruct one's vision, but one would realize this was not the case after venturing deeper.

The density of the Mist was not absolute; in some places it was thin, while in others it was dense.

Because there were no landmarks for reference, the forest within the Mist was like a massive labyrinth, and it was easy for people to lose their way in the fog.

Of the humans who had not returned after seven days of exploring the Mist, besides those killed by Goblins and other Monsters, many had simply lost their direction in the fog.

The Weird, low murmurs constantly lingered in the Mist. The more anxious and fearful people became, the louder the murmurs grew, until these lost humans eventually lost their lives in terror and unease—essentially being scared to death.

At this moment, Feng Buzhi discovered such a corpse. A man was squatting on the ground, his hands clutching his ears tightly, his expression panicked, his eyes hollow.

Feng Buzhi reached out to check the state of the body, only to find that as his fingers touched it, the corpse collapsed like a pile of building blocks.

Rotten flesh and decayed bones scattered, and some foul-smelling brown fluid flowed out. The man's clothes were still relatively intact, though they were now soaked in the fluid and rotting flesh.

"The decay of this body is highly abnormal. Firstly, the rate of decay is too fast; it is impossible for a person to decay to this state in seven days. Secondly, during the process of decay, there were no obvious changes to the exterior of the body until it was touched."

"Could it be that the Mist here has some kind of effect that accelerates decay?"

Feng Buzhi whispered softly. Upon seeing the putrefaction of the corpse, he felt his Reincarnated Memories stir once more. Unfortunately, that final push was still lacking, and he ultimately failed to cross the threshold.

Vaguely, he seemed to sense something.

Feng Buzhi continued to walk deeper into the Mist. He did not know how long he had been walking, but he was now very close to the location that had asked, "Do you want power?"

Then, as he walked, he seemed to trigger some kind of mechanism, and countless threads wrapped around his body.

The threads were neither living creatures nor dead bodies, so they did not trigger the sonar feedback of the murmurs.

These threads were sticky at first, but after a few breaths, they lost their stickiness, became tough, and contracted, binding Feng Buzhi's body tightly. Not long after, a Giant Spider the size of three meters arrived.

As the Giant Spider pulled on the threads, the bound Feng Buzhi was dragged along with it.

Feng Buzhi did not break his Bodily Shackles to escape; realizing the Giant Spider showed no signs of attacking him, he let it be.

Because, the moment he saw the Giant Spider, his Reincarnated Memories had begun to awaken.

And since he needed a certain amount of time to finish awakening, Feng Buzhi did not intend to interrupt his own process.

Just like that, Feng Buzhi was dragged by the Giant Spider to a rocky cave, where he saw two familiar existences.

One was the shadow he had frequently encountered while sitting in meditation over these past few days, and the other was the bearded man he had seen while scouting the town seven days ago.

Feng Buzhi still remembered that this bearded man carried a machete, and he had even briefly checked the material of the blade at the time.

However, after looking for a while, Feng Buzhi did not see the machete on the bearded man.

This bearded man was also bound by spider silk, and the threads wrapped around his body were much denser than those on him.

This was an innate habit of the spider; when it discovered a prey struggling violently in its web, the spider would add more silk until the prey could no longer struggle, at which point the spider would stop wrapping.

At this moment, the bearded man was bound tightly by the spider due to his struggling; the only parts he could move were his eyes and mouth.

In contrast, because Feng Buzhi was focused on his Reincarnated Memories, he had not struggled at all while being dragged by the silk, so there were far fewer threads wrapped around his body.

Of course, this was only relative; there was still plenty of spider silk on Feng Buzhi, enough that an ordinary person would be unable to break free.

"Damn beast, come and eat me! Come on! I don't want to live anyway!"

"Come on, bite me, you beast! Just hurry up and finish me off!!"

Discovering that the Giant Spider had dragged Feng Buzhi in, the bearded man began to curse.

However, the Giant Spider seemed to have no appetite at the moment and soon left the cave.

"Hey! How did you get caught? Are you the only one?"

"Hey! Are you mute?"

"Dead?"

The bearded man looked at Feng Buzhi but received no response. He couldn't even see the rise and fall of Feng Buzhi's chest from breathing.

It could only be said that Feng Buzhi's breathing was too calm.

The bearded man shifted his gaze. Near him and Feng Buzhi were the remains of several corpses, some human and some Goblin.

These corpses looked as if they had been drained dry and then crushed to pieces; they looked like a pile of fragments.

Clearly, this spider preferred to feed on living creatures and did not collect dead bodies.

This guy must be playing dead!

"I know you're still alive, stop playing dead!"

"I told you not to play dead with me!"

"Say something to me!!"

"Damn it!!"

"Ah!!!"

The bearded man let out an angry roar, yet Feng Buzhi remained motionless.

The cave gradually fell silent. Faintly, a barely audible, Weird sigh emerged in the cave—the shadow lingering in the cave had sighed once again.

The shadow looked at Feng Buzhi, then continued to gaze at the bound bearded man, its expression full of loss and sorrow.

After a while, the shadow spoke: "How could you be caught by it so easily? You are the human with the greatest talent in this town..."

The shadow's words transformed into Weird, low murmurs that lingered in the cave.

His words could not be heard by the bearded man, but instead made the bearded man mentally tense and irritable.

The bearded man roared angrily: "Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Damn it! Why did I end up in this hellhole!!!"

The bearded man's name was Pei Chao. Since he could remember, he had lived on a small island in the Caribbean Sea. Later, his parents died in an accident, and he muddled his way into becoming a pirate. Eventually, he became a small pirate leader with dozens of men under his command.

Piracy was, after all, a high-risk profession, especially as a pirate in the Caribbean Sea.

In fact, Pei Chao could not remember how he had died in his previous life. In his memory, he had just set sail that day, and then a very, very bright light appeared, and after that, he knew nothing at all...