"Vermilion binds evil... turbid yang breaks malice... thunder subdues demons..."
"Where did you learn all that?!"
The Hairy Savage's skin split inch by inch, exposing glossy black fur beneath the human hide.
Its body swelled rapidly, bursting through Granny's skin in an instant and scattering scraps of flesh and tissue!
The Hairy Savage now stood two and a half meters tall.
Its arms hung all the way to its knees, its sharp nails like ink-black daggers.
Its bell-sized eyes glowed an eerie green above a collapsed nose and a gaping mouth.
Mountain-Cleaving Blade in hand, Chen Mo studied the monster before him. It was in a truly wretched state.
A large patch of black fur on its head had been corroded away, and crimson blood seeped from its seven facial orifices, ruptured by the deafening noise earlier.
"Heh, heh, heh..."
The Hairy Savage let out a strange laugh, shrill and grating, as though countless voices had fused together.
"If I weren't about to advance to level two, you might really have finished me today!"
"I was going to keep you in my Weird Domain and savor you slowly to help me break through. Who would have thought..."
As the Hairy Savage spoke, it sized up the pair before it. Its green gaze happened to sweep over the blade glowing blue in Chen Mo's hand.
Chen Mo keenly caught that glance and began assessing the supernatural creature before him.
"Human, let's make a deal."
The Hairy Savage spoke first.
"Get lost now, and I'll pretend none of this happened. We'll stay out of each other's way. How about it?"
Chen Mo was certain the monster was injured-and badly at that...
"Chen Mo."
Hu Yaya looked toward Chen Mo, her whole body trembling slightly.
"Sure."
Chen Mo gave a cold laugh, seemingly agreeing to the Hairy Savage's proposal.
The Hairy Savage looked surprised, a flicker of sly delight crossing its eyes.
"Call me Dad a few times. If I like how it sounds, I'll let you off."
Make a deal with a supernatural creature? Do you think I'm an idiot?
At those words, the Hairy Savage's black fur bristled, undisguised hatred filling its eyes.
Just then, Redhead, who had been lingering by the doorway, finally came fully to his senses.
"A monster!"
"Give me back my brother!"
Redhead roared, picked up the axe from the ground, and hurled it straight at the Hairy Savage.
The instant the axe left his hand, Redhead ducked down, quickly skirted the Hairy Savage, and ran toward the gate.
He thought his plan was clever: pretend to avenge his brother when he was actually trying to escape...
The Hairy Savage never turned around. The axe struck its body and bounced off.
Ordinary people could not kill supernatural creatures...
With a casual swipe, it seized Redhead as he passed beside it.
Rip!
It tore one of Redhead's arms clean off at the shoulder.
"Aah!"
The scream rang throughout the village.
Hu Yaya's face went pale with fright, and she turned to flee.
Chen Mo grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Don't move. We can't outrun it!"
"It's waiting for us to run."
"That noise was so loud, Big Niu should have heard it. We can only gamble on him coming to investigate."
Hu Yaya looked at Redhead lying on the ground, his fate unknown, then at Chen Mo. Gritting her teeth, she raised her hand with its red cloth strip alongside his.
The two humans and the monster stood facing one another.
Beside them, the woodshed had already burned and collapsed, and the flames were now spreading into the main house.
As though it felt nothing, the Hairy Savage kept its glowing green eyes fixed on them.
It was wounded, and it feared the Mountain-Cleaving Blade in Chen Mo's hand.
Chen Mo glanced at the sky out of the corner of his eye.
The Hairy Savage's domain had already broken.
The sky was half-dark.
They had to escape the village before darkness fell completely!
Bang!
In the midst of that deathly silent standoff...
The dilapidated courtyard gate was kicked open.
It was Big Niu!
Chen Mo's gamble had paid off. Big Niu believed there were no powerful supernatural creatures in the village and had come to investigate!
Chen Mo had already prepared to use Hu Yaya as a shield and fight the Hairy Savage to the death. With Big Niu here, their chances were naturally much better.
Big Niu stood panting at the gate.
"You take forever just to fetch someone, and now you're screaming your heads off..."
Big Niu's words cut off abruptly.
Before him stood a black-furred monster holding an arm.
Big Niu froze...
The Hairy Savage froze too...
The next second, Big Niu's body rapidly swelled, expanding visibly. Two jet-black bull horns sprouted from his head, radiating earthy yellow Transcendent Power in the gathering night.
"Roar!"
Big Niu bellowed like a bull and charged straight at the Hairy Savage.
He now stood over two and a half meters tall, actually towering over the Hairy Savage!
Clearly stunned, the Hairy Savage reflexively threw the severed arm at Big Niu.
Big Niu neither dodged nor ducked. He sprinted, leaped, and unleashed a spinning flying kick.
"Stylish enough for you, bro?"
Big Niu's size-fifty-five foot slammed square into the Hairy Savage's face, drawing a howl of pain.
Carried by the momentum, the Hairy Savage reached out and grabbed Big Niu, pulling him down into the courtyard.
The two hulking figures rolled across the courtyard, locked in a brawl...
Redhead, who had been playing dead on the ground all this time, suddenly scrambled up and fled the courtyard...
"What do we do?"
Hu Yaya turned to Chen Mo.
Chen Mo sprang into motion, rushing toward another corner beside the woodshed.
There lay the sacks of potatoes and white flour he had carried out before setting the fire.
He hoisted a sack, ran to the gate, threw it into the dump truck's bed, and turned back for more.
Hu Yaya hesitated, then rushed over too. Struggling to shoulder half a sack of potatoes, she tossed it into the E300's trunk.
But she seemed unwilling to get any greedier. She started the car and shouted to Chen Mo.
"Hurry! It's getting dark!"
After loading two sacks, Chen Mo was just about to climb into the dump truck's driver's seat.
"Roar!"
A furious roar erupted from the courtyard. Chen Mo turned for another look.
He stopped.
Big Niu was now straddling the Hairy Savage, pinning both its arms firmly down, his horns piercing its chest.
The Hairy Savage struggled madly, its sharp claws gouging streaks across Big Niu's back.
Big Niu was a Sequence One Transcendent. Although the Hairy Savage was about to reach level two, their earlier assault had clearly wounded it badly. It was now completely outmatched by Big Niu, pinned down with no way to escape.
He's actually going to win!
The corpse of a supernatural creature almost at level two.
The materials on its body...
They should be valuable, right?
Fortune favors the bold!
Chen Mo's breath abruptly caught. Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the Mountain-Cleaving Blade and charged at the Hairy Savage pinned to the ground!
"Stop chopping! Any more and you'll turn it into minced meat!"
Big Niu's voice interrupted Chen Mo. The monster at his feet could not have been any deader.
Big Niu stood up, brushed the dust off himself, checked the sky, then looked deeper into the village.
Chen Mo slashed at the Hairy Savage's claw, blue light blooming from the blade's tip.
Only a thin scrap of bloody skin still connected the claw to its body.
Chen Mo grabbed the Hairy Savage's arm, ready to cut it off.
Suddenly, a gust of wind swept in from behind.
Chen Mo whipped his head around.
All he saw was a black-and-white blur.
"Someone's here!"
Chen Mo was yanked off balance and nearly fell.
Alerted by his warning, Big Niu looked back.
The moment he turned...
The Hairy Savage's corpse...
Was gone...
All that remained was a glossy black claw in Chen Mo's hand...
"Run! The things in the village are coming out!"
"You need to be alive to take anything!"
Big Niu's roar snapped Chen Mo out of his daze.
The two rushed out of the courtyard, jumped onto the dump truck, and sped toward the village outskirts.
The dump truck soon raced out of the village. Neither spoke, remaining silent the whole way, as though they had yet to recover from the shock.
Meanwhile, in a dark corner deep within the village...
A black-and-white donkey slowly lowered its head.
It licked the blood and bone fragments left on the ground.
Its hooves kept scraping together the scattered bits of flesh, pushing them toward its mouth.
"Smack, smack."
"Tsk, a little fatty, but it tastes pretty good."
"Just a bit too much fur. Prickles my mouth."
"A Variant about to reach level two. Now that's nourishing..."
"Heh, that kid with the blade was interesting. Greedy enough and ruthless enough. Just my kind of guy."
"I'll have him call me Dad sometime."
Before you continue