Su Ziyu's weapons had been confiscated long ago.
So he could only hold the training Wooden Sword. Outside, it was a chaotic mess, with many people wielding swords and knives. He also heard the sound of crossbows being fired from the watchtower. The light of the torches couldn't reach very far, and he could vaguely see a dark figure bursting out from a trap set up during the day. Next to it, there seemed to be a person lying motionless on the ground. The figure wasn't very large, but its speed was incredibly fast. With arrows sticking out of its body, it didn't seem to hinder its movement. It charged out and was quickly surrounded by the crowd, followed by several screams.
"What the hell is that?" Su Ziyu gripped the Wooden Sword nervously.
The dark figure appeared to be a humanoid creature, around one and a half meters tall, hunched over with its limbs on the ground, moving incredibly fast, covering a hundred meters in just three or four seconds. Under the cover of night, it was hard to see clearly. It seemed somewhat afraid of the fire and, driven by the crowd, ran towards Su Ziyu in the darkness. Without thinking, Su Ziyu prepared to retreat. Who knew what kind of monster it was? It was too fast and looked dangerous, so he followed his intuition to make a run for it.
However.
What Su Ziyu never expected was that in this pitch-black environment, some bastard suddenly pushed him from behind, exposing him on the monster's escape path.
Hiss!
Which bastard ambushed me?!
Everything happened so fast. Su Ziyu didn't have time to look for who pushed him from behind; the hideous and ugly monster was already pouncing in front of him. It looked like a one-eyed Ghost-faced Monkey. Its pupil was a murky yellow-brown, the single eye on its forehead surrounded by dark red veins. It emitted a nauseating stench. Its sharp black claws seemed very lethal. The monster's agility was terrifying; as it pounced, it swung its sharp claws at Su Ziyu's face. If it hit, his whole face would likely be torn apart; previous victims were gutted by its claws.
Can't dodge!
Su Ziyu realized this in an instant, because the monster was too fast.
But at that moment, time seemed to slow down, the people around him almost coming to a halt. The monster also moved in slow motion, frame by frame. Su Ziyu swung the Wooden Sword upward with all his might and then leapt to the right.
Hiss hiss.
The monster was knocked slightly off course, flying over his head. It quickly climbed up the wall with its sharp claws and disappeared into the darkness. Only then did the people holding torches arrive. With a lingering fear, Su Ziyu leaned against the wall, scanning the crowd with a sullen face. His gaze quickly settled on the man named Rote.
He suspected that the bastard who pushed him was Rote!
But unfortunately, the man's acting was impressive. Before Su Ziyu could confirm it, he had already led others to pursue the monster. Dark red bloodstains marked the ground, presumably left by the monster, which had been hit several times by crossbow bolts and was likely seriously injured. Now, chaos engulfed the entire village. Su Ziyu saw Lina supporting Ken not far away; the monster's speed was too fast, and Ken seemed slightly injured. Further away lay a villager's corpse, the chest a bloody mess, seemingly gouged open and spilling grotesque, scarlet entrails.
Ken's gaze fell on Su Ziyu, having just witnessed him dodging the Ghost-faced Monkey's attack. The events unfolded too quickly for him to understand how Su Ziyu had evaded it, but he sensed the outsider had erupted with astonishing speed. Perhaps, for Su Ziyu at that moment, everything around him seemed slower, but to the others, it wasn't so; it was he who had sped up.
"Here." Ken hesitated a moment before tossing over the black short blade from his waist.
Though Su Ziyu didn't understand his words, he caught the black short blade. It was the weapon of a serpentine leader, taken by Ken later. If he had held this black short blade instead of a Wooden Sword earlier, he might have disemboweled the savage, terrifying-faced monkey monster with a single blow.
This outsider is a bit strange.
But now, the most crucial task is to eliminate the Ghost-faced Monkey. This type of monster is extremely ferocious and, if not killed, will soon return for a maddened revenge.
"Take him along."
"We must kill that monster. Otherwise, no one will be safe. It was hit by Boke, it can't run far." Ken told Lina, gathering some people to follow her lead.
Though Su Ziyu couldn't understand their speech, he guessed part of their intent.
They wanted to kill that monster.
Ken returned his weapon, hoping he would help.
Su Ziyu disliked owing people favors, and Lina had saved his life, so he didn't hesitate to take up his weapon and follow them. Although the monster looked frightening, Su Ziyu had already undergone a transformation in this period. Before, he would have been scared half to death upon seeing such a creature; now, he would at most just jump in surprise.
His courage had truly grown.
In short — "Face life and death lightly; fight if unconvinced."
Lina took out a black short bow from the house, then slotted two daggers at her waist, holding a sharp short sword in her hand. Over ten hunters wielding weapons followed her, torchlight blazing, accompanied by hunting dogs, as they pursued along the blood trail. Su Ziyu was also in the group; throughout the journey, almost no one spoke. Outside the village, he saw Rote waiting with three people; this fellow seemed not to have brought anyone to chase them down. On the way, blood stains were scattered everywhere as more than twenty villagers followed the trail into the forest.
The monster was seriously injured too, leaving traces of its escape all along.
However, moving with so many people in the forest wasn't convenient. After just one or two hours, all the torches were extinguished, leaving only a few hunting dogs to lead the way. Fortunately, they finally saw the monster's figure near a mountain.
It dragged its mottled blood trail and entered a cave in the mountains.
Su Ziyu hadn't yet spoken before the young man named Rote led the way inside, and the others rekindled two torches with flint and followed in a rush.
"Are all of you so reckless?"
"Aren't you afraid there are more monsters inside?"
Su Ziyu followed Lina into the cave, which appeared extremely dark and damp, with a rotting stench. The further inside the cave, the wider it became. By the time Su Ziyu and Lina caught up with the people ahead, they saw Rote pulling the longsword out of the Ghost-faced Monkey's chest. He glanced at Su Ziyu with mild provocation and then swung his sword, chopping the Ghost-faced Monkey's head off.
Why act so arrogant for an extra strike? Or are you trying to intimidate me? Su Ziyu narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Finally killed this monster!" An one-eyed man said solemnly to Lina.
Although Su Ziyu couldn't understand what they said, he also felt relieved.
By the torchlight, he observed the surroundings, seemingly spotted something in the corner, which made his scalp tingle. He reached to tap Lina beside him, pointing in that direction, "What the hell is that!"
Lina couldn't understand his words but instinctively shone her torchlight there.
A chorus of gasps rang out.
A stack of human bones piled up in a corner on the right side of the cave, alongside some scattered fur goods. Most notably, a rudimentary stone altar, upon which several grim skulls and congealed blackened viscera were placed. Centrally located was the eerie statue of an Evil God, which had a single eye on the head bearing three creepy faces. It somewhat resembled a kind of ape; the single eye in the middle of its forehead appeared alive, as if not sculpted from stone but dug from some creature.
"It's the people from the caravan. They've all been killed by this monster," someone said with a grave expression.
All around, a clamor of voices rose.
Yet Su Ziyu stood frozen in place; the more he stared at the Evil God statue, the more his scalp tingled, even felt a slight palpitation. In metaphorical terms, his SAN value seemed to be continuously declining. But he also felt an impulse in the depths of his mind to touch it; the Hourglass of Time within his consciousness appeared to shift slightly, guiding him to search for something on that bizarre statue. To others, he may have seemed paralyzed in fear by the horrifying sight; Lina even reached to hold his hand briefly. When Su Ziyu snapped back to reality, he found these natives surprisingly bold, as they were busily extracting fur goods from among the bodies.
Are these people really just ordinary hunter villagers?
Or were people in this era just this hardy? Encountering so many corpses and not even changing their expressions?
Su Ziyu even saw the one-eyed man kick a half-decayed skull aside and then reach into the rancid, rotten, blood-stained clothing to pull out a purse, his expression showing a bit of delight.
.........