Death

But the next second, the Beastskin Book shattered like a broken mirror, dissolving into flecks of light that vanished on the spot.

Without the Clan Artifact, the Ash Fog surged in from every direction once more.

Lin Shan inwardly lamented the loss.

Just as Lin Shan was about to turn and leave-

With a soft whimper, the girl who should have been dead came back to life.

Startled, Lin Shan immediately turned his heart light into a spear, intending to deliver another fatal blow.

But just as the spearhead was about to pierce her forehead, Lin Shan abruptly stopped, leaving the pale-gold spear hovering between her brows.

The girl looked terrified, curling up and trembling like a bird startled by the twang of a bowstring.

Her eyes were no longer pitch-black, either. They had become clear, crystalline blue, filled with fear, as though Lin Shan were some vicious ghost.

Lin Shan was bewildered. Why did it feel as though she had become an entirely different person? Now it looked as if he were bullying a frail little girl.

The spearhead trembled between her brows as Lin Shan hesitated over whether to strike.

He nudged the spear forward. Before its tip touched her forehead, the radiance at its point had already cut the skin between her brows. Blood trickled down, mingling with her frightened tears as it slid to her chin and finally dripped onto the ground.

"Can you speak?"

In the end, Lin Shan did not strike.

"τσονυνπρονο," the girl said timidly.

Lin Shan pressed a hand to his forehead. As expected, they did not speak the same language.

"Why can't the whole world speak the Huaxia Language?"

Something was wrong with the girl's condition. Unable to understand what was happening, he did not dare get too close.

He took a hardened gray bun from his bag and tossed it to her from a distance.

The girl caught it clumsily, sniffed it, then took a bite without the slightest wariness. Unable to bite through it, she seemed rather bewildered.

She looked at Lin Shan with confusion in her eyes.

Her behavior told Lin Shan that she must have been pampered within her clan, the sort who only had to stretch out her arms to be dressed and open her mouth to be fed.

Now her entire race was gone, yet she was still alive.

More likely, however, only one branch of her people had vanished, with other members scattered across this world.

"Ah." Lin Shan sighed, ready to leave her alone and continue on his way.

Sympathy was one thing, but this world was simply that cruel. No one came to pity him whenever he walked the edge between life and death.

Seeing that Lin Shan was leaving, the girl panicked, her eyes brimming with terror.

The next second, she actually transformed into a blue-furred fox and followed a short distance behind him.

Lin Shan was astonished. Even the Cat Clan seemed unable to turn into cats. Why could this girl turn into a fox...?

Could she happen to possess a fallen physique and have taken a potion made from a Fallen fox?

But she had clearly been using supernatural power just now.

Unable to figure it out, Lin Shan stopped dwelling on it and picked up his pace. The blue fox followed steadily behind him.

He walked until evening, yet still had not left the enormous footprint crater. He had not even made it out of the Fox Clan's ruins.

The flat terrain remained unchanged, mangled flesh and blood everywhere. Lin Shan did not intend to travel at night. Some Fallen only appeared after dark and might not have been affected during the day.

He chose a spot at random, sat down, and took off his backpack to lean against it as a pillow.

Suddenly-

A blue fox-shaped blur flashed before his eyes. The blue fox was still following him tirelessly.

Lin Shan took another gray bun from his bag. Considering her size, he broke it in half and tossed her a piece.

The blue fox had followed him all this way without making another aggressive move, but Lin Shan remained vigilant. Several times, she had tried to approach, only for him to drive her away.

Seeing him throw the food, the blue fox leaped up and caught it in her mouth, then turned back into a little girl with the gray bun still held between her teeth.

Then her mouth worked, and she swallowed the bun in one gulp.

Watching her swallow the fist-sized piece whole, Lin Shan felt as though his own throat were about to burst. Her face turned deathly pale, yet her eyes remained calm throughout.

Only now, at this closer distance, did Lin Shan notice that burns had split the skin all over her body. Her scorched clothing had fused completely with her flesh.

Despite such severe injuries, the girl did not so much as furrow her brow. Her expression remained calm.

"This is too strange. What exactly is she? She can use the supernatural power only anomalies possess, and she can switch between human and fox forms."

Just then, the Parchment, which had remained silent all this time, suddenly offered another unsolicited warning.

Parchment: [Run!]

The lettering twisted, exuding an eerie air.

Lin Shan's hair stood on end. Without a second thought, he snatched his backpack off the ground and sprinted away.

Seeing Lin Shan run, the girl froze briefly, then turned into a fox and tried to follow at once. An instant later, she stopped again and looked behind her.

Space rippled like the surface of water.

A lavishly dressed middle-aged man stepped out. First, he glanced in Lin Shan's direction, his gaze passing through the Ash Fog and settling on him.

The next second-

An immensely powerful spiritual pressure surged toward Lin Shan from all directions.

Lin Shan tried to drive his heart light to block it, but he could not hold out for even a second.

Bang!

With a bang, the pressure burst Lin Shan apart. His limbs scattered in pieces, and his blood splashed more than ten meters away.

Only after confirming Lin Shan was dead did the man turn his gaze to the little girl.

"пнф,олёлникдё? (Are you all right? I rushed over when I saw something had gone wrong with the clan's fortune)," the middle-aged man asked.

At the sight of him, the girl immediately beamed, lively and mischievous. She looked nothing like she had when facing Lin Shan.

She replied, "суспт,хоспхунпопс. (I'm fine, but Blue Prosperity City's two centuries of foundations are gone. I finally got a chance to come out, only to run into something like this.)"

She continued, "ёзеБя,Бчщыэчшн. (I just saw a very interesting person. There was something familiar about his scent, so I played with him for a while.)"

The middle-aged man said indifferently, "еёчн. (I killed him.)"

"езБш. (All right.)" The girl's expression remained calm. She did not feel there was anything inappropriate about it.

Space rippled again. The two stepped into the mirrorlike space and disappeared.

Silence returned to their surroundings. Only the dismembered corpse scattered nearby told of what had just happened.

Just then-

The shattered limbs on the ground began to writhe. Blood, chunks of flesh, and fragments of bone squirmed and joined together, gradually restoring themselves.

An hour later-

Apart from his clothing, the person on the ground had been completely restored.

He had been pieced back together as before, if one ignored the seams.

Lin Shan's eyes snapped open, his gaze unfocused and bewildered. After a moment, he murmured in lingering terror, "I should have died just now, shouldn't I?"

Even now, he had yet to recover from the shock. What he had just experienced was too horrifying. That terrifying pressure had crushed his soul along with his body, truly shattering his soul and scattering his spirit.

The instant his body died, he had felt his soul leave it. But then his soul had also begun to break apart, and afterward, he had lost consciousness completely.

He took the spare clothes Huang Ying had prepared for him out of his backpack and put them on, thinking:

I can't believe even that didn't kill me. How did I come back to life?

The only unusual thing about him at present was his specter physique talent.

Does a specter physique possess the same undying, indestructible nature as anomalies?

Before he could think any further, his utterly weakened body caused him to pass out again.