Chapter 857 - The Monster Village
After a brief rest, Jing Jing’s four Bone Dragons returned with several hunted wild boars and wolves. It seemed the wild animals on this continent were weak.
After communicating through their soul, Jing Jing learned that a large stretch of wilderness surrounded them. The Bone Dragons had also found a man-made road. Following it would likely lead to civilization.
“Let’s follow the road and see what we find,” Han Wu suggested.
Jing Jing nodded. With the Bone Dragons leading the way, the group set off and soon came upon a small village. Wisps of cooking smoke rose from the chimneys of the houses. People lived here.
“V, scout the village,” Han Wu ordered.
V stepped forward and raised one arm. A faint mechanical hum came from inside his armor, and when it opened, over a dozen bee-shaped drones flew out. The drones projected their video feed directly to the group. Han Wu saw villagers living normal lives, cooking and farming, with children even running through the streets.
It looked exactly like a low-level civilization going about its daily routine. There was barely any danger, yet four different factions had classified the lost continent as a high-risk mission. This probably had something to do with the bizarre undead monsters V had observed earlier.
“Let’s wait and watch,” Han Wu decided.
Jing Jing nodded in agreement.
The group waited patiently. Han Wu kept an unblinking eye on the drone feed the whole time. As night fell, he heard a strange, eerie sound.
As if in response to the unsettling sound, the perfectly normal villagers tore through their human skin and turned into monsters. They poured into the streets, fighting, killing, or simply wandering. The peaceful little village had become a monster den.
It wasn’t just the people. The animals in the surrounding forest shed their skins and became monsters too. Two mosquitoes even burst open when the sound occurred, each releasing a tiny creature.
The tiny creatures grew rapidly until they reached about thirty centimeters in length. Han Wu studied one closely. Its limbs were thin and its body gaunt, with a cylindrical head that bore a gleaming needle.
These tiny monsters threw themselves at anything that moved, attacking with the needles on their heads. Though bold, they were only Heroic life forms in strength. Even the weakest member of Han Wu’s group was at the Sage rank. A sneeze could blow these things away.
The Origin of Mutation and V each caught one to examine more closely.
“Confirmed. These are undead, and they’re curiously... pure soul entities,” the Origin of Mutation reported after attempting a genetic analysis.
Jing Jing perked up at the mention of soul entities. She released a burst of soul pressure onto one of the tiny monsters. It instantly trembled and made soft chittering sounds. Through the resonance of their souls, Jing Jing understood it was begging for mercy.
Jing Jing relayed this to Han Wu and waited for his decision. Han Wu was interested in the creatures. Something that small was already at Heroic rank. It was unheard of.
“Jing Jing, can you get any useful information from it?” Han Wu asked.
Jing Jing communicated with the tiny monster, but only received two clear signals: begging for mercy and wanting to drink blood.
“Cheeky little thing. Crush it,” Han Wu said.
The Origin of Mutation squeezed the tiny monster until it popped. V did the same with the other one. Their bodies dissipated, leaving behind small blood-red crystals.
Upon closer examination, Han Wu identified them as crystals formed from a combination of Blood Energy and Soul Energy. They didn’t contain much energy, but they were rare, so he pocketed them as collectibles.
If even a tiny mosquito could produce a Heroic rank monster, what about the larger creatures? What about the people? How strong had they become? Han Wu was curious, so he led the group down the road into the village.
The village had become a ghost town. Bizarre monsters roamed the streets. Whenever two monsters came within a meter of each other, they fought. The monsters’ fighting styles were unconventional, but their soul fluctuations betrayed their High Lord rank.
The discovery shocked him. During the day, these people had been completely ordinary and without power. At night, they became monsters, each at the High Lord rank or above. The gap was staggering. This was only a small village on the edge of the lost continent. The creatures closer to the center were surely even more powerful. Moreover, what was inside that ruin?
While Han Wu was lost in thought, a monster spotted them and attacked. Jing Jing responded instantly by touching its forehead with the power of her incomplete Soul Jurisdiction. The monster detonated, its pure soul body scattering and dissolving. It left behind a crystal half the size of a fist.
This crystal was half Soul Energy, half Earth Energy. More monsters swarmed in, but Han Wu’s group was more than capable of handling them. A short battle later, every monster in the village was dead.
Afterward, Han Wu chose to stay. He wanted to see whether the village would reset when the eerie sound came again.
