Wuu... wuu... wuu!
Soft sobs drifted to Qin Ran on the night wind. At once, one mental check after another appeared across his vision.
The monsters gnawing on corpses nearby scattered and fled the instant the sobbing began.
Some escaped successfully.
Most, however, merely ran in circles where they stood.
Clearly, those monsters had failed the mental checks.
Then?
A phantom draped in a tattered cloak slowly emerged from the darkness, cradling an infant skeleton in its arms. The sobbing came from beneath its hood.
As it walked, the infant skeleton swayed from side to side, producing creaking sounds.
When it passed a corpse-eating monster, the creature—roughly the size of a calf, black all over, resembling a Jackal, with spines covering its back—immediately let out a whimper.
Then, translucent mist glowing faintly white rose from the monster's body and slipped into the infant skeleton's nostrils.
Blue-green soul flames lit up deep within the infant skeleton's eye sockets.
They flickered.
Like a mouth chewing.
Splat!
The monster staggered and fell, instantly losing all breath. Its entire body turned into a puddle of sludge that gave off a thick, fishy stench.
After that?
There were no exceptions.
Every monster met the same fate.
After dozens of puddles of sludge had appeared on the ground, the phantom holding the infant skeleton was still not satisfied.
Its sobbing grew louder and louder.
The soul flames on the infant skeleton grew brighter, like torches in the pitch-black darkness.
They were searching for more appetizing food.
Likewise, other things were searching for the same prey.
From the shadows, Qin Ran looked up at the sky to his left, then inconspicuously glanced at the ground where the phantom stood.
The next moment—
Whoosh!
A violent wind rose. From the dark sky, a black shadow completely blended into