Chapter 4: Thicket Village (4)

“Human flesh!” Li Yulin raised his voice. “Where am I supposed to get human flesh for you? Freshly cut?!”

The big man hefted the Big Bone Cleaver in his hand, and Li Yulin’s volume dropped again. He shrank back his neck and whispered to Yun Xueqing, “It looks like this village doesn’t welcome us. We should head back to that temple.”

Yun Xueqing showed no intention of leaving. He first glanced at the two big men, then began sizing up Li Yulin.

Li Yulin immediately felt a sense of crisis. He hugged his chest with both arms in a defensive posture. “Bro, we’re in this together—please don’t get any funny ideas about me!”

He was genuinely afraid that Yun Xueqing might have designs on him!

But that wasn’t what the other meant. Seeing the misunderstanding, he explained openly, “Do you think, with our two’s combat power, we have any chance of forcing our way in?”

He spoke candidly, right in front of the two big men. Li Yulin broke out in a cold sweat and braced himself to reply, “Eighty percent…”

“Eighty percent?”

“Eighty percent won’t cut it,” Li Yulin whispered. “If we don’t follow the rules of the Weird Domain, this bunch of monsters might go into Berserk Transformation.”

Once they berserked, low-tier Oracles like them couldn’t handle it.

Yun Xueqing nodded and began searching for a suitable tree branch, preparing for a forceful assault.

“Human flesh isn’t that hard to come by, is it?”

The two turned to look and saw Fu Wuxuan walking over.

He wore a white shirt and black slacks, one hand casually tucked into his suit pants pocket, his face still wrapped in bandages.

Li Yulin bristled instantly. “Don’t come any closer!”

He couldn’t sense this man’s Spirit Energy intensity, but based on feeling alone—this guy’s Spirit Energy was far above his own.

Letting such a dangerous figure get close would make them easy prey.

His survival instincts made him blurt out, “Don’t get any ideas about me! The guy next to me is tribute—he’s easier pickings!”

Receiving Yun Xueqing’s cool gaze, Li Yulin awkwardly added, “Of course, if you don’t target either of us, that’s the best outcome.”

“Compared to killing each other,” Fu Wuxuan sauntered over carelessly, bypassing Yun and Li and stopping in front of one of the gate-guarding big men, “I prefer settling things peacefully.”

He suddenly struck, wresting the Big Bone Cleaver from the big man’s hand with brute force, then cleaved straight down toward the top of the big man’s head!

Both of them were startled. Li Yulin hadn’t even seen how the man moved before the gate guard was split in two.

Guts and organs spilled across the ground, blood spraying everywhere. Fu Wuxuan somehow produced a black umbrella from nowhere, perfectly blocking the splatter. His snow-white shirt remained spotless.

Yun Xueqing reacted swiftly too, dodging in time. Only Li Yulin stood frozen, getting a few drops on him, but he had no time to fuss over such details. Instead, he cried out in shock, “Spatial Oracle!”

Oracles who could wield Spatial Oracles were exceedingly rare. The few known ones had all been conscripted by the authorities. What was this guy’s identity?!

“I don’t have any Oracle powers related to space,” Fu Wuxuan tapped the thumb ring on his index finger and tossed the bloodied black umbrella to the ground. “I just borrowed someone else’s for a bit.”

A-Rank and above Oracles could transfer part of their Oracle powers to objects, with the duration depending on the caster’s Spirit Energy strength.

The thumb ring on Fu Wuxuan’s hand had a high-tier Oracle’s Spatial Oracle imprinted on it, allowing brief storage of small items.

Yun Xueqing: “Storage Ring?”

Fu Wuxuan chuckled mockingly. “Before the apocalypse hit, you must’ve read a ton of cultivation novels.”

Seeing the two chatting amiably, Li Yulin figured they were probably allies. His taut nerves relaxed. “Now that one guard’s dead, what about…”

He sneaked a glance at the other gate-guarding big man.

Logically speaking, the man’s already sallow face took on an extra layer of pissed-off greenish-black. He was clearly furious but hadn’t berserked.

Fu Wuxuan pointed at the bloody mess on the ground and smiled faintly. “Is this enough? There’s more if not.”

His gaze slowly settled on the surviving big man.

The big man considered himself mostly stripped of humanity and reason, yet that look still filled him with fear.

Not seeing the infighting he’d hoped for, he wasn’t satisfied. He gritted his teeth and repeated the key phrase, “Human flesh! Fresh human flesh!”

Fu Wuxuan kept smiling, tilting his head innocently. “Wasn’t the one I just killed human? Or are you saying you’re not human?”

Those three words, “not human,” were like flipping a switch, unlocking some memory in the big man.

“Not human… I’m not human…”

The man’s body began to elongate, his vest bursting at the seams with ripping fabric. The gray on his face deepened, his originally muddy, wooden eyes overflowing with deathly pallor—now only whites remained.

It threw its head back, its skull flipping open like a clamshell phone, revealing a ring of sharp, dense teeth.

Three snake-like tongues writhed and twisted together, eager to taste human flesh!

Li Yulin shouted, “It’s berserked! Run!”

Yun Xueqing took a step back, only to see the man beside him grip the Big Bone Cleaver and charge straight at the berserking Weird, slashing down!

The rusty Big Bone Cleaver cleaved forward relentlessly. Suddenly, its blade gleamed with its former glory, wrapped in a faint blue light. It neatly bisected the berserked Weird!

Li Yulin’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Holy shit, epic-level big shot!”

He’d lost count of how many times he’d been shocked today. This bandage-wrapped weirdo made killing monsters look like chopping vegetables!

How insanely strong was his physical prowess?!

The person in question was utterly oblivious. He casually discarded the heavy cleaver with a disdainful tone. “Forgot to pop the umbrella this time.”

His white shirt was stained with filthy blood.

He looked up slightly, smiling lightly as if it were nothing. “Alright, we can enter the village now.”

Yun Xueqing showed no shock, merely eyeing Fu Wuxuan’s right hand, tucked in his pocket. The bandages there were faintly seeping blood—not much, but noticeable.

He didn’t mention it, simply looking away as if nothing had happened.

The three had just entered the village when an old man hobbling on a cane approached unsteadily.

The old man was decrepit, skin and bones, his facial structure protruding sharply with barely any flesh—just a thin layer of skin clinging on, like a mistreated monkey from the zoo, barely human-looking.

His eyes were the same muddy, wooden orbs as the two big men at the gate. They scanned the trio, and his gloomy face suddenly cracked into a stiff smile. “Out-of-towners looking to stay the night?”

Knowing Yun Xueqing wasn’t one for talk, Li Yulin stepped forward to converse. “Yeah, and you are?”

“I’m the village chief of Thicket Village,” the old man proudly raised his cane. “Lots of out-of-towners today—the villagers’ places are full. You two can stay at my place.”

He pointed his cane vaguely at Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan. Li Yulin panicked a bit. “What about me, Village Chief?!”

The village chief seemed to notice him for the first time. “Ah,” he said. “Hong Niu’s place might have room. You go there.”

Naturally, Li Yulin didn’t want to be separated. He put on a bitter face. “Can’t I squeeze in at your place? If not, sharing a bed with them is fine too!”

The village chief’s wooden eyes swiveled, eerie as hell, fixing on Li Yulin without emotion—like staring at an object.

“In Thicket Village, the village chief’s words must be obeyed unconditionally.”

Spotting the newcomer, Li Yulin ignored even the village chief’s deathly stare and raged, “San Zhi, you bastard—how dare you show your face in front of us!”

Yun Xueqing eyed the suddenly appearing San Zhi, his gaze deepening.

Sure enough, San Zhi carried the aura of his Natal Sword.

He definitely knew where the Tianquan Sword was.

He had to find a chance to pry it out of San Zhi’s mouth.

“Don’t be hasty, little brother,” San Zhi said, oblivious to Yun Xueqing’s thoughts, smiling at Li Yulin. “There was just a timing mishap getting in. Everything else matches what I said, right?”

He deftly glossed over the Weird Domain boss-tier detail. Li Yulin couldn’t counter his sophistry, and arguing here was pointless. He held his temper and asked, “You said we have to obey the village chief—that’s a rule of this Weird Domain?”

He spoke bluntly about it right in front of the village chief, without hiding.

San Zhi kept his smiling facade. “Don’t believe me? I’m staying at Hong Niu’s. Coming along?”

Li Yulin frowned.

San Zhi was undeniably dangerous—sticking with him risked a backstab.

He glanced back at the village chief and met those muddy eyes. Perhaps because of Li Yulin’s sudden turn, the village chief hadn’t masked the greed in them fast enough.

Li Yulin shivered, knowing staying at the village chief’s was hopeless. He drooped his head in resignation. “Fine, let’s go to Hong Niu’s.”

Heading off alone with a dangerous guy to an unfamiliar place, Li Yulin looked back at Yun and Fu behind him like a kid leaving home, resentment in his voice. “Why am I the one going to Hong Niu’s…”

Yun Xueqing ignored his chatter. Fu Wuxuan, however, chuckled. “Probably sorted by looks.”

Li Yulin: “…”

You bandage freak—what looks do you even have?!

Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan followed the village chief’s lead to his home.

As befitting a village chief, it was far grander than the ramshackle huts of the ordinary villagers they passed.

Massive solid stone blocks formed a quadrangle courtyard, with a central yard and well. Rooms surrounded it.

The village chief raised his cane, pointing to the southeasternmost corner room. “You two stay in that one.”

Fu Wuxuan: “The two of us in one room?”

Having lured them into the courtyard, the village chief’s attitude did a complete one-eighty. “Freeloaders—think you get a room each?”

Fu Wuxuan: “…”

You old coot, you’re asking for it!

“That’s not what we meant,” Yun Xueqing smoothly took over, recalling San Zhi’s rules mention. He added, “New arrivals—we don’t know the village customs yet. Any taboos?”

“Taboos, eh?” The village chief tapped his cane head thoughtfully. “Big communal pot meals in the yard at noon twelve and six PM. At night, stay in your rooms—no going out.”

It sounded innocuous enough.

As he thought that, the village chief added in a ghostly tone, “Be kind to the Buddha statues.”

The last bit was downright odd, but no matter how Yun Xueqing pressed, the village chief clammed up.

He gave up and pointed to a row of tightly shut wooden doors in the distance. “Those rooms have people too?”

He sensed no presence from that row of doors—they should be empty.

This time, the village chief didn’t ignore him. He looked at Yun Xueqing with a creepy grin. “Of course—lots of people.”

Yun Xueqing tuned out the village chief’s fear-mongering, merely gazing thoughtfully at those tightly shut wooden doors from afar.

By the time they settled in, dinner time had passed, so they stayed in the room awaiting nightfall.

“This is my first time sharing a bed with someone,” Fu Wuxuan adjusted a dangling bandage tail and asked softly, “You want the outside or inside?”

“Outside.”

Fu Wuxuan raised a brow. “Outside’s more likely to run into creepy stuff. Still outside?”

“Outside.”

“Fine.” Fu Wuxuan smiled and prepared to wash up.

Yun Xueqing ignored his movements, scanning the surroundings to probe the environment.

The room the village chief assigned them was spacious. Besides the bed, there was a vanity, a side table, and—most conspicuously—a shrine table in the dead center.

The vanity faced the bed directly, its mirror reflecting the entire bed—a highly inauspicious layout. The central shrine table only made it worse.

Yun Xueqing’s gaze settled on the eye-catching shrine table.

The room’s furniture was all worn; the wooden bed might’ve been decades old. Yet the central shrine table looked brand new. The redwood stand’s paint gleamed freshly, and even the bronze Buddha statue atop it shone brighter.

This huge room housed a statue of the Six-Armed Bodhisattva.

“What’re you looking at?” Fu Wuxuan came over, following his gaze. “Six-Armed Bodhisattva?”

“You know it?”

“I don’t know it,” Fu Wuxuan said. “I saw it had six arms, so I just called it that.”

Yun Xueqing was speechless for a moment.

Fu Wuxuan had just washed his hands and casually tossed the hand towel onto the Buddha statue’s head, completely covering its face.

Yun Xueqing suddenly remembered what the village chief had said: Be kind to the Buddha statues.

He hesitated. “Is this okay?”

“I don’t want to be stared at by a Weird the whole time while I’m sleeping.”

Fu Wuxuan smiled as he calmly pointed out the statue’s true nature. “I’m being pretty kind to it, aren’t I? I’m even afraid it might catch a cold, so I covered it with a blanket.”

Yun Xueqing neither agreed nor disagreed.

They turned off the lights early, and the room plunged into darkness.

No matter what Yun Xueqing tried, he couldn’t fall asleep. He wanted to sit up and meditate, but he was afraid of waking Fu Wuxuan beside him, so he could only lie flat on his back, stiff as a corpse.

Wind began to blow outside, and the wooden windows creaked under the gusts. Moments later, heavy rain poured down.

The extreme quiet made it hard to sleep, but accompanied by the rhythmic sound of the rain, Yun Xueqing actually started to feel a bit drowsy.

Suddenly, creaking sounds came from the bed board—like rats gnawing on peanuts, rustling about, or like someone’s nails scratching at the wood in a prickly, grating rhythm.

Yun Xueqing’s drowsiness vanished in an instant. He held his breath and secretly heightened his vigilance.

At that moment, regular knocking sounds suddenly came from the door.

After waiting a while with no one opening it, the knocking from outside grew heavier with each strike.

Yun Xueqing tensed up, his eyes fixed on the wooden door that shook as if it might collapse at any moment.

Moments later, the “person” outside stopped knocking.

Yun Xueqing waited a bit longer, thinking the other side had given up. He was just about to close his eyes when he heard the village chief’s voice from outside the door:

[Yun Xueqing, I’m coming in. Help me open the door.]