Sanity Points Depleted

A short while later, Huishi wrapped the food he had received through alms in a cloth bundle, slung it over his back, and left the house.

After that, no one else ever left the house.

Sitting on the Nightmare Battle Cloud, Chen Fan drifted to the center of the village and spotted a village supermarket ahead.

As everyone knew, village supermarkets were generally well stocked, unlike convenience stores in big cities, which had plenty of variety but limited quantities.

A village supermarket had just about everything, from cigarettes, alcohol, candy, and tea to rice, flour, grain, and cooking oil.

The survivors following Chen Fan also spotted the supermarket.

They all grew excited.

The supplies in a single supermarket could sometimes equal what they might scavenge from a hundred houses.

After all, not every household had food stored away.

And there was also the problem of food spoiling because it had not been stored properly.

Some people eyed the supermarket hungrily and started forward.

Someone beside one of them pulled him back and warned in a low voice, "Do you have a death wish? Can't you see he's got his eye on this place?"

The man grumbled back under his breath, "Damn it, the supermarket's so big. Is he really going to claim the whole thing? That's way too overbearing! He can have the meat, but surely we can have a sip of soup!"

"Then why don't you go over and try? See if he'll let you in."

"Uh... how about we go together?"

"I'm not going."

"If you're not going, then neither am I."

Chen Fan ignored the discussion behind him and had the yin souls push the door open and rush into the supermarket.

Seeing that Chen Fan had no intention of letting anyone else in, some of the survivors behind him could no longer sit still.

An old woman stepped forward and said, "Young man, look at all the supplies in the supermarket. You can't take them all by yourself. Why don't you let us go in and take a little too? I have a little grandson waiting for food, you know?"

Chen Fan glanced at her and said coldly, "Aren't there still houses nearby that haven't been searched?"

The old woman said angrily, "What can we find in those? Let me ask you, does this supermarket belong to you? What right do you have to stop us from going in?

"I don't care. As a transcendent in the convoy, you have a responsibility to make sure we can scavenge enough supplies. Let us in, now!"

The moment the old woman finished speaking, a monster's roar suddenly came from inside the supermarket, along with the sounds of things being overturned and crashing down.

At the same time, a thin figure rushed out of the supermarket.

The figure was completely naked, about 1.5 meters tall, with deathly pale skin.

Its body consisted of only two legs, a torso, and a head. It had no arms.

Above its legs, a huge gash had been cut into the monster's belly. Nearly its entire chest and abdomen had been split open vertically, exposing the bloody flesh within.

On the monster's head above its torso, only bloody holes remained where its facial features should have been.

It had no hair or eyebrows.

The monster was smooth all over and did not even have any sexual characteristics.

The monster twisted as it rushed out of the supermarket.

It threw its head back and let out a roar.

There was no telling whether the roar came from the opening in its chest and abdomen or the bloody hole that served as its mouth.

The monster's sudden appearance terrified the survivors.

They all fled in a panic.

They wished their parents had given them two extra legs. All they wanted now was to get away from the supermarket; not one of them wanted to go inside anymore.

Zhao Xing was among the survivors, and his face grew tense when he saw the monster.

He covered his sister as they hurried back.

"Zhao Xin, run!"

He knew perfectly well that, with his strobe flashlight marksmanship, he stood no chance against a monster that looked so terrifying and did not even have eyeballs.

The old woman who had berated Chen Fan was slow on her feet and fell behind. She was scared out of her wits.

She hurriedly shouted to Chen Fan, "Young man, as a transcendent in the convoy, it's your responsibility to protect us. Hurry up and stop it!"

Just then, the monster began attacking Chen Fan.

Its whole body shook violently, and a torrent of blackish-red tainted blood suddenly sprayed from the opening in its chest and abdomen.

The blood sprayed far and hard like a high-pressure water cannon, heading straight for Chen Fan.

Naturally, Chen Fan could not stay where he was and wait.

He steered the Nightmare Battle Cloud in an arc and vanished from the spot.

Seeing this, the monster kept spraying blood and began turning its body, pursuing Chen Fan with the jet.

As luck would have it, Chen Fan's evasive path on the Nightmare Battle Cloud took him past the old woman.

Chen Fan was fast and passed by in a flash.

The old woman was not so lucky. She was drenched from head to toe in the tainted blood.

A moment later, she let out a miserable scream.

The tainted blood corroded her entire body, sending up white smoke.

Within seconds, her whole body had been reduced to a puddle of mangled flesh by the blood.

Chen Fan guaranteed that he absolutely had not done it on purpose.

After spraying blood for a while, the monster finally stopped.

Chen Fan immediately struck, summoning the Spirit Refining Sword.

He sent the sword flying and slashed at the monster.

The Spirit Refining Sword cleaved the monster in two from top to bottom.

It was only a first-tier monster and was no match for the mid-grade Spirit Refining Sword.

Chen Fan took the monster's soul into the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and put its corpse in the black coffin.

The reason he did not refine it into Origin Artifact Materials was that he wanted to see what it would be like refined into a zombie.

If it could still spray blood, he would have another kind of zombie capable of ranged attacks.

"Since your chest and belly are split open and you're humanoid, I'll call you the Ripper Monster."

After giving the monster a simple name, Chen Fan rode the Nightmare Battle Cloud into the supermarket.

Inside, several yin souls were fighting another monster.

That monster looked like a malformed creature made by fusing several people together.

It had eight legs, but they all shared a single body, four arms, and two heads.

It was quite strong. It had knocked over several shelves and even cracked the walls.

Its four arms held weapons such as stone spears and stone lances.

But against the yin souls, which specialized in attacking souls, it was completely countered.

By the time Chen Fan entered, the yin souls had already killed the monster, and it crashed to the floor.

After naming it the "Eight-Legged Monster," Chen Fan summoned the Ten Thousand Souls Banner and the black coffin as usual to clean up.

Then he waved his hand, sweeping a large quantity of the supermarket's supplies into his storage bag.

He even put some shelves straight in with their contents.

He had enough space anyway, so he might as well pack it all. What if he needed it someday?

By his preliminary estimate, there were several hundred jin of flour, several hundred jin of rice, dozens of cases of instant noodles, dozens of cases of drinks, and plenty of candy, snacks, Snickers bars, and everyday goods.

After dealing with the monsters and scavenging the supermarket, Chen Fan continued on to search the next place.

This time, Wang Bing had predicted they would only stop for an hour and a half.

With limited time, he had to hurry and scavenge as much as he could.

Some survivors who were still shaken saw that Chen Fan had successfully dealt with the monsters and followed him again.

This time, however, they deliberately stayed farther back, not daring to get too close.

Others thought Chen Fan did not care whether they lived or died, so they chose to stay away from him and scavenge on their own in another direction.

Little did they know that Chen Fan could have used the Nightmare Battle Cloud to conceal his presence and fly away just then.

Of course, Chen Fan was not that kindhearted either.

He had stayed partly because he had judged that the monster was not very dangerous, and partly for its materials.

After all, whether Weirds or monsters, they were treasures from head to toe as far as he was concerned.

Their flesh and blood, remains, corpses, and souls alike.

He had so many artifacts that there was bound to be one suited to you.

For the rest of the time, he found only a few scattered supplies in the houses.

Things like potatoes in cellars and pickled cabbage in large jars were better than nothing.

The agreed departure time was approaching.

Some of the survivors behind him had already gone back, and Chen Fan no longer lingered in the village either.

He activated the Nightmare Battle Cloud and became a black afterimage, shooting out of the village.

He had drifted slowly on his way into the village, but leaving took only an instant.

After landing, he put away the Nightmare Battle Cloud. Seeing that Qian Lei was still with the group, he asked, "How is it? Is everyone here?"

Worry showed on Qian Lei's face. "Everyone from the Fairness Convoy is out, but something happened to Boxing Bro. Sister Li from our side still hasn't come back."

Chen Fan looked toward the depths of the village and frowned.

Surely Li Yuanyuan isn't that weak? Why hasn't she come back yet?

"What happened to the Fairness Convoy?" Chen Fan asked instead.

Qian Lei said, "That boxer, Shen Li-I heard he was attacked by a Shadow Weird and his sanity points dropped to zero. He's gone mad. But it seems their people knocked him out. They said he'd be fine after some sleep."

Chen Fan asked, puzzled, "What sanity points?"

Qian Lei hurriedly explained, "Oh, it means he suffered mental damage."

Then, somewhat curious, he asked, "Captain, were you born in the nineties? It feels like there's a lot of internet slang you don't understand."

Chen Fan's face darkened. "I just don't like surfing the internet, that's all."

Surprise showed in Qian Lei's eyes. "That's such an ancient phrase. Confirmed."

"..."

Seeing the unfriendly look on Chen Fan's face, Qian Lei hurriedly looked elsewhere.

His expression changed drastically, and he pointed toward the village and shouted, "Sister Yuanyuan is back, but there seems to be something following her..."

Chen Fan turned to look.

Well, would you look at that. Li Yuanyuan was running in front, followed by three Eight-Legged Monsters and four Ripper Monsters.

Li Yuanyuan was not putting much effort into running, either. Every couple of steps, she turned back and exchanged a few blows with them.

Her Eighteen Dragon-Subduing Palms whipped up a fierce wind.

She also kept shouting, "Just you wait! I'll take your whole bunch down by myself today!"