The horrors in the village!

For a moment, the five veteran players exchanged looks, and the air fell into a deathly awkward silence.

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior]'s mouth twitched violently. "So... we went so hard yesterday that we wrecked Newbie Village's ecosystem?"

"Pretty thoroughly, too." Ma Lou spread his hands. "Not just the monsters. I even picked every herb off the ground."

There were no monsters left outside for them to kill.

No monsters meant no energy to absorb, which meant the progress bar would be stuck right here!

Inside the statue, Lin En watched the scene, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

He had only thought about getting these players to grind like crazy, forgetting that this world was a real Wasteland.

There hadn't been many low-tier aberrations roaming the outskirts of the Black Forest to begin with. The two hundred-plus they had killed in their traps yesterday were already several years' worth of accumulated monsters in this area.

"What do we do now?"

Beside the traps, [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] scratched his head anxiously.

"Hundreds of thousands of people online are watching us! If this progress bar gets stuck here, not only will we lose our chance to show off, but the guys on the forums will probably roast us to death!"

"We can't just sit here and do nothing."

Ji Luo's gaze hardened as he turned toward the abandoned village southeast of the Church, shrouded in gray fog.

"Since we've already cleared out the outskirts of the Black Forest, there's only one option left if we want to keep filling the progress bar."

Ji Luo pointed toward the abandoned village. "Go there!"

Everyone looked where he was pointing and swallowed in unison.

That was where they had encountered the area's dominant monster, the Cave Stalker, which had come barreling at them as fast as a dump truck.

Although they had worked together last night to wear down that First-Tier Peak Elite Monster and kill it, who knew what other monsters were hiding in that damned village?

Ma Lou, in particular, had seen firsthand how terrifying the Lantern Night Terror deep inside the village was, with its immunity to physical attacks.

"Ji, are you sure we want to go looking for trouble?"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] rubbed the back of his head, as if he could still feel the excruciating pain of being killed in one hit yesterday.

"What else are we supposed to do? Stand here staring at each other?"

[Ji Luo] sighed and pointed at the Portal behind them, which had stopped moving altogether.

"Hundreds of thousands of eyes online are watching us. If we don't fill that progress bar today, won't we get torn to shreds when we go back to the forums?"

Jiahao adjusted the monocle he had just fashioned from ash and said solemnly, "High rewards often come with high risks. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Let's do it! Worst case, we lose ten Ash Coins!" Bossy Guy slapped his thigh. "We've got savings. What the hell are we afraid of?"

With everyone in agreement, the five-man squad set off for the abandoned village once again.

This time, since they had already cleared out the roaming mobs on the outskirts and the Cave Stalker guarding the entrance, the five of them met no obstacles and headed straight into the abandoned village.

But the farther they went, the more they felt an indescribable sense of oppression.

"The smell in this village... something's wrong."

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] sniffed. At that moment, the game's fully immersive sensory system had become a form of torture.

Besides the musty, earthy odor, an extremely strong, nauseating smell of blood had begun to permeate the air.

And that wasn't all. Strange runes daubed in dark red blood began to appear on the crumbling walls along both sides of the road.

Those runes seemed alive, writhing faintly in the dim shadows. Just one glance made their chests tighten.

"Shh! I hear something!"

Ma Lou, who was leading the way, suddenly made a hand signal for everyone to be quiet.

He immediately slipped into stealth mode, hugging the base of the wall like a boneless cat, his steps so light that he didn't even make a fallen leaf rustle.

With fluid movements, he slipped into an extremely narrow, dark alley.

Watching Ma Lou's outrageously professional stealth technique from behind, [Passing Pure-Love Warrior] couldn't help lowering his voice to mutter to [Ji Luo] beside him:

"Ji, what do you think Ma Lou actually does in real life?"

"With skills like that, if he doesn't have two or three burglary convictions under his belt, I'll eat my fucking spiked club raw!"

"Don't talk nonsense. Maybe he's just a helpful locksmith."

[Ji Luo] suppressed a laugh as well and led the others after him cautiously.

Following the smell of blood toward its strongest source, the five stopped outside a dilapidated priest's residence.

Ma Lou lay against a half-collapsed windowsill and poked half his head up to look inside. His pupils abruptly contracted.

He immediately waved behind him, signaling for everyone to come and look.

The others crowded over for a peek and sucked in sharp breaths.

Inside the spacious hall of the residence stood more than a dozen figures in dark red robes, their faces covered by pallid bone masks.

They had formed a circle and were performing an exceptionally brutal Flesh Sacrifice!

The statue that had originally stood in the center of the hall had been smashed. In its place was a ball of flesh built from countless severed limbs of humans and monsters.

A tall, red-robed figure at their head held a dripping bone blade aloft, fervently chanting an incantation that set their teeth on edge.

"Could they be Cultists?"

[Ji Luo]'s gaze sharpened as he immediately recalled the plea for help that had dropped yesterday.

Just then, the red-robed leader stopped chanting, turned to his followers, and growled, "Speed up the blood sacrifice! The great Lord of the Abyss will not allow any heretical deity to cling to life!"

"Your Excellency, about Fog Town..." one cultist asked respectfully.

"The Barrier of that false goddess in Fog Town, the Weeping Madonna, is about to shatter. Leave her be. She is destined to become nourishment for the Holy Lord's resurrection."

The red-robed leader sneered and pointed toward the Black Forest outside the village, his voice filled with fanaticism and contempt. "Our mission this time is to dispose of all the Wild Deities along the edge of the Black Forest while we're at it!"

"Wild Deities whose temples are practically falling apart, yet they still dream of claiming a share of this Wasteland?"

"The twelve great horrors under the Holy Lord have begun to awaken. With this sacrifice, we will summon the horror entity embodying the authority of 'Devouring,' forcibly tear apart that Wild Deity's Barrier, corrupt him completely, and bring him into the Holy Lord's ranks!"

The five hiding outside the window heard every word the red-robed leader said.

"Holy shit, these fuckers don't just want to attack Fog Town. They want to raid our home base too?"

[Passing Pure-Love Warrior] stared wide-eyed and cursed under his breath.

How could they possibly stand for that?

If the Lord of Ashes was corrupted, wouldn't they, his Ash Apostles, have their accounts deleted along with him?

This was a blood feud on par with cutting off their livelihood or killing their parents!

Just as everyone was seething with righteous indignation.

A horrifying sound of writhing flesh suddenly erupted from the altar in the center of the hall.

"Gurgle... gurgle..."

Only then did they notice that the bizarre, three-meter-tall mass of flesh in the center of the hall was constantly writhing!

Its surface was covered in dark red blood vessels. It looked more like an enormous, translucent [Flesh Cocoon]!

The cocoon pulsed powerfully on the altar like a gigantic heart.

Every beat gave off a terrifying pressure that sent their Sanity plummeting.

At the same time, a glaring blood-red warning panel popped up in the center of all five players' vision:

[Target locked: Hatching calamity entity, Flesh Fusion (second tier)!]

[Background: A projection of one of the twelve primordial calamities serving an indescribable ancient evil god. It embodies the evil god's authority of 'Devouring'!]

[Current status: Hatching...]