The Eerie Village

Chi Li entered the cellar from the entrance. A flight of steps led down into the dim underground, where an utterly abnormal darkness seeped from the depths. The farther down he went, the stronger the sickly sweet stench became.

Suddenly, an even denser, tangible darkness surged up from below. It was an Aberrant Form over two meters tall, broader even than two heavily muscled adults. Rather than knot-like patches, its body was covered in strips of black flesh that had grown from it like tentacles, dragging and twitching across the ground as it moved.

The moment Chi Li saw what it looked like, his heart jolted.

The Aberrant Form had not tasted the food it wanted. When it turned around, it was hit by an intense beam of light, and it charged at Chi Li in a rage.

The Aberrant Form was chewing on a pair of scissors in its mouthparts. Chi Li had casually picked them up while passing through a room earlier and tossed them down the stairs. He then lightly stepped back several paces, retreating to the cellar entrance, and switched on the light he carried.

After barely two seconds—just long enough to make out the thing's appearance—Chi Li immediately turned off the light.

When the Aberrant Form chased Chi Li out of the cellar, its oppressive fishy, rusty stench immediately spread through the air. Only then did Chi Li see its full form clearly.

It looked more like a Mermaid than any Aberrant Form Chi Li had seen before. It had a "fish tail," while its upper body still largely retained a human shape. Yet its entire body was covered in dense, hair-like tentacles as thick as fingers. Had Chi Li not seen those black strips clearly in the flashlight beam earlier, it would have looked