Flesh

"So, it's just a few little bugs."

An Chen closed his eyes and sensed the signal sent by the Flesh Servant from afar.

"Perfect. I need to find more flesh too..."

An Chen murmured to himself, feeling the flesh within his body being depleted once more. His brow furrowed.

During the days since he had joined the caravan, he had to split off some flesh every night to monitor the activity behind them. Combined with the Flesh Servant he had sent out today, the flesh he had absorbed from the Shadow Demon Wolf's corpse was nearly exhausted.

An Chen lay in the tent, closing his eyes and pretending to rest.

A moment later, his entire body melted into the shadow beneath him. In his place, the figure from earlier, nearly identical in appearance to An Chen, surfaced again.

An Chen ran down the pitch-black road. He no longer looked like the lean old man from before.

Instead, he had returned to his original appearance, though he was a few centimeters shorter than before, a change that was almost impossible to notice.

Soon, An Chen noticed that the dust and gravel on the road were slowly moving toward the same spot.

He stopped, only to find that even his hair and the loose threads on his clothes were faintly lifting, pointing toward that location ahead.

An Chen's heart stirred. His body melted into a mass of flesh, burrowed deep underground, and swiftly swam forward.

Before long, An Chen felt a faint pulling force, its source not far ahead.

He sped up, then re-formed behind a Great Tree and stared forward.

Several muscular men stood in a circle ahead. At the center was an Altar, upon which rested a faintly glowing Shitou.

Around the Altar, the ground trembled slightly, and the Bloodstones