Mist Monster!

By the time Zhou Chen returned home, the sky had already darkened. As if nothing had happened, he walked into his room and shut the door.

Sitting on the bed, he poured all the money he had taken from the bodies today onto the bedding. It amounted to a little over one tael of silver. Those Greenhide hooligans spent whatever money they got on food, drink, and fun, so they did not carry much extra cash.

Still, it was enough to support his cultivation for quite a while. After all, he only needed the cheapest Black Meat.

Speaking of Black Meat, Zhou Chen took out the three kinds of cooked Black Meat and placed them on the table.

"Let's start with Eye Meat."

Zhou Chen bit into the blackish chunk of meat in his hand. Its texture was much like ordinary boiled meat. It smelled fragrant upon entering his mouth, though a faint fishy taste followed afterward. It was still acceptable.

A pound of Eye Meat only yielded six or seven taels after cooking. Now that he had become a Martial Warrior, his appetite had greatly increased, and he finished it in no time.

Soon afterward, Zhou Chen felt an extremely faint tingling sensation coming from his stomach.

Wisps of black vapor appeared out of thin air, spiraling down above the incense burner. The gray-white incense root inside the burner actually began to grow again at an incredibly slow pace.

Zhou Chen observed closely from the side.

"One pound of Eye Meat can probably add one percent. Next, I'll try the other two kinds..."

While Zhou Chen was engrossed in his experiments, Zhang Ying's home was lively at the same time.

"I only gave him two pounds of meat! My little brother is practicing martial arts. As his elder sister, can't I feel sorry for him and give him some meat?!"

Zhang Ying slammed an iron basin onto the stove with a bang, making the bowls and chopsticks on the cutting board tremble.

Sun Yang sat bare-chested at the table, his face dark red from the sun, with marks still on his back from tying up goods during the day. Hearing this, he snapped angrily, "You make two pounds of meat sound so easy. How many cartloads do I have to haul under the blazing sun to earn that back? How many pounds of meat do you have to sell from your stall to make that much? The eldest is about to start school—brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, which one of those doesn't cost money? You're just so generous."

At those words, Zhang Ying's movements paused. She fell silent for a moment, swept up a handful of loose hair from her temple, then said impatiently, "Just this once, all right?"

"There won't be a next time."

Sun Yang's face was stern. "Anyway, from what I can see, your brother won't make anything of his martial arts training. Don't count on him amounting to anything!"

"Who's counting on that?" Zhang Ying suddenly raised her head, her voice rising several notches. "I gave my brother meat because I never wanted anything in return from him!"

Sun Yang choked on her words. His mouth opened and closed, and after a long while, he merely snorted. "Fine, fine, you're always right. I can't be bothered to argue with you!"

For a while, the air fell silent.

Zhang Ying suddenly stood and walked toward Sun Yang. "The children just fell asleep. Keep your voice down."

"What are you doing?" Sun Yang glared at her.

"There's fire in my heart. I need to let it out!"

Zhang Ying snorted, grabbed Sun Yang by the ear, and dragged him toward the bedroom.

"Ah, ow, ow—go easy!"

Inside the room, Zhou Chen rubbed his overstuffed belly and grinned. After testing them, Eye Meat had the best effect. After eating the other two kinds of Black Meat, the incense root had not even grown one percent.

From now on, he only needed to buy Eye Meat.

Even after eating himself so full, Zhou Chen did not idle around. He began practicing the Coiling Python Stance Technique. Only after running through it once did the bloated feeling in his stomach subside.

Just as he was about to begin a second round, Zhou Tian's voice came from outside the door.

"Go to sleep quickly. Don't forget to brace the table and chairs against the door. No matter what you hear tonight, don't open it. That brother and sister next door—some people said they did not starve to death at all. Last night, someone called their names from outside. They answered once, and when morning came, they were dead."

"Got it!"

Zhou Chen answered, then frowned slightly. "Calling their names? Answering once meant death? That's a little too absurd!"

He engraved those words firmly in his mind. After his father left, he got up and locked the door. Just then, he heard his mother speaking after his father had returned to the room next door.

"Do you think Chen can make it? It's so difficult. I don't feel confident after hearing all this."

"I don't think the odds are high either... But as his father, no matter what, I fought desperately to earn him a chance to try. Even if he fails, he won't blame his father for being incapable."

"Don't worry, Father, Mother! In three months, I will definitely become a Martial Warrior!"

Zhou Chen silently answered in his heart. He would not let his parents down.

Other people needed to look at their innate bones and their comprehension to practice martial arts, but he did not! He had a cheat!

Thinking of that, Zhou Chen let out a long breath and raised his eyes toward the outside. Through a gap in the window, he saw the sun in the sky slowly close—as though a gigantic eye were shutting.

There was no lingering sunset glow, no clouds painted in ten thousand hues. That golden "pupil" merely narrowed bit by bit before disappearing completely, leaving behind thick darkness without a single star.

That was right. This world had no such thing as a sunset.

The sun was truly like an eye. When it closed, night fell.

Very soon, pitch-black mist surged over like a curtain blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

Fortunately, the Outer City's walls blocked it. Only very faint Black Mist seeped in, and Mist Monsters rarely entered.

Moreover, Martial Warriors from the Night Patrol Bureau patrolled the Outer City. Yet Zhou Chen knew clearly that if they encountered a truly powerful Mist Monster, those patrolling Martial Warriors would only flee far away rather than risk their lives.

For that little silver, it was not worth it.

In all these years, Zhou Chen had never seen what a Mist Monster looked like. He had been rather curious about them.

Today's martial arts training had exhausted him, and he soon closed his eyes.

But before he had slept long, he heard someone calling him from outside in his drowsiness.

"Zhou Chen! Zhou Chen!!! You're still sleeping?"

The voice was very familiar, carrying an urgent tone.

"The boss is here. He wants you in the office!"

Zhou Chen opened his eyes.

He froze.

He was actually sitting in an office. A woman in a black-stockinged short skirt was swaying before him. Wasn't this the boss's flirtatious secretary?

"Work? Go to the office?"

Zhou Chen stood up instinctively, staggered forward in a fog, and reached out to push open the office door.

The instant his fingertips touched the doorknob, his lower abdomen suddenly blazed hot. A torrent of scorching blood-and-vitality power surged to the top of his head like red-hot molten iron. With a hiss, the dream shattered.

Zhou Chen abruptly opened his eyes. To his horror, he found that he did not know when he had sat up. His body leaned halfway forward, one hand already reaching toward the bedroom door bolt. With just a little more force, the door would be pushed open.

If he truly opened that door... what would be waiting for him outside?

At that thought, Zhou Chen abruptly turned his head toward the window.

Something was in the gap outside the window!

It was an eye!

That eye was pressed against the window crack, staring directly at him from the darkness. It was utterly bizarre!

One person and one "eye" stared at each other through that narrow window gap for no more than a breath.

Then the eye blinked. A writhing sound immediately came from outside the window crack, like a huge mass of wet, slippery flesh dragging itself across the wall as it slowly moved away.

"What was that thing? A Mist Monster? Could that have been a Mist Monster?!"

Zhou Chen's heart pounded wildly. Cold sweat ran down the groove of his spine, leaving him chilled to the bone. "Holy shit! Holy shit! Holy shit!!!"

He swore that this was the closest he had ever come to death!

Sitting on the bed, he silently circulated his blood and vitality once.

His blood and vitality were abundant, his yang energy vigorous, and the unease in his heart gradually subsided.

"This is truly strange," he muttered. "In the past, you might not see even one case of a Mist Monster hurting someone in five or six years, yet I actually ran into one now. If I had not practiced martial arts, if my blood and vitality had not been full and vigorous enough to break through that monster's lure, I probably would have fallen into its trap tonight."

He turned the oil lamp's wick up a little.

For some reason, he always had a strange feeling that something major was about to happen soon.

"No matter what, I need to hurry and improve my strength. Whatever I face in the future, I need the power to protect myself."

Zhou Chen yawned, checked the doors and windows, then glanced at his father, mother, and younger sister. They were all sleeping deeply. Only after confirming that everything was firmly barricaded by tables and chairs did he sink back into sleep.

Mist Monsters feared light. As long as he kept the oil lamp lit and did not go outside of his own accord, he should be fine.

The next morning, near the Zhou Household in Qingtian District.

"Have you heard? Zhang Mingfei is dead, along with four of his lackeys. Their deaths were miserable!"

"Good riddance! Scum like him should have been taken in long ago! I wonder which hero made the move!"

"Keep your voice down! Zhang Mingfei was said to have ties to the Clear River Gang. Be careful of the Clear River Gang taking revenge!"

Throughout Qingtian District, people discussed it heatedly, all applauding in delight and praising the hero who had acted!