"Bang!"
Fang Ming was pulled by a tentacle and smashed into the roof, his internal organs churning. A mouthful of fresh blood uncontrollably overflowed from his mouth, and his vision went black.
"Am I going to die..."
"I can't die..."
His head grew increasingly heavy. The monster outside the room excitedly tugged at the tentacle, but the gap was too small to pull Fang Ming out entirely.
"Human! Human!..." the monster shrieked in frustration.
"Huh? It can't pull me out?" Fang Ming managed to regain a sliver of consciousness and realized the tentacle could only repeatedly tug him without pulling him out.
The hope of survival made his eyes gradually focus. Looking at the disgusting tentacle still struggling to pull him out, Fang Ming hardened his heart and bit down on the tentacle wrapped around his waist.
"Ugh!"
The moment he bit down, the intense, foul stench almost made him vomit his dinner.
Fang Ming suppressed the revulsion and bit down hard on the tentacle. The monster on the roof sensed his actions and hurriedly tried to withdraw the tentacle.
"Pain! Pain!..." the monster screamed madly. The tentacles not yet inside thrashed violently, smashing against the roof, but were blocked by runes.
"It can bite through?"
The unexpected ease confused Fang Ming. Based on his previous attempts to attack the tentacle with a stick, its defense shouldn't be low, yet he had personally bitten through it now.
However, since he could bite through it, Fang Ming didn't bother to investigate the reason. Enduring the nausea, he began to tear at the flesh and skin of the tentacle with his teeth.
A more pungent,腥臭 blood gushed from the wound, and the monster's screams grew louder. kuAiδugg
"Bang!"
"Ouch!"
Fang Ming fell from the roof, landing heavily on a pile of firewood on the haystack. The hard firewood made him gasp for breath.
"Crackling..." A rustling sound came from the roof. The two-headed monster fled without looking back, never wanting to encounter this human again!
"I survived..." Fang Ming lay on the haystack, looking at the sky through the hole in the roof, and grinned.
Saved from peril.
After this ordeal, Fang Ming temporarily abandoned the idea of sneaking out at night to find clues. With his current abilities, escaping would be a death sentence!
He used his hand to remove the tentacle still wrapped around his waist and began to examine it under the moonlight.
The monster, unable to withstand the intense pain, had severed its tentacle to escape. This left Fang Ming somewhat puzzled. Was his bite really that painful?
"No wonder..."
He finally discovered the reason. The blood he had left on the tentacle was still corroding its flesh, "breaking the armor" where it had touched, making it easy to damage.
"It seems my constitution is indeed unusual. Is it because of the 'Four Yin Body' that the village chief mentioned before?"
Fang Ming pondered the reason, gradually forming some ideas: if his body's blood possessed this "armor-breaking" ability, was it feasible to act at night?
Plan after plan flashed through his mind, only to be rejected.
He was unsure if dying in this place would affect his true body, so he was hesitant to attempt anything without a high degree of certainty.
"Heh heh..." A terrifying laugh interrupted Fang Ming's thoughts. Fang Ming quickly looked up at the roof, the laughter coming from there!
A human head, the size of a small watermelon, was poking through the hole made by the tentacle. A slender neck connected it to the outside, making the monster resemble a human-headed snake.
"I forgot about the hole in the roof!" Fang Ming's heart leaped. If this hole wasn't blocked, who knew how many more monsters would crawl in. Of course, the immediate priority was dealing with this long-necked monster!
Create distance first!
With that thought, Fang Ming rolled off the haystack, ignoring the pain, and scrambled to his feet, putting distance between himself and the long-necked monster.
Although this creature was not as powerful as the two-headed monster, it was more troublesome.
"Flesh and blood..."
The long-necked monster grinned sinisterly and slowly approached Fang Ming.
"Die!"
Fang Ming casually grabbed a stick and struck it. The monster didn't dodge, taking the blow head-on.
"Bang!"
The monster looked at Fang Ming with amusement. The blow had caused it no harm!
The attack was ineffective, and Fang Ming retreated, quickly bumping into the wall. Seeing that he had no escape route, the monster grinned creepily and approached again.
"Hmph!" Fang Ming snorted and raised the stick again. He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto it and then smeared half of the stick with it.
As the monster approached, Fang Ming swung the stick again. Just as he had expected, it still didn't dodge, intending to take another hit.
"Bang!"
Intense pain made the monster's pupils constrict. Looking at Fang Ming's similarly amused smirk, it seemed to understand something!
"Quack quack quack!"
The monster screamed, its head rapidly retracting. But Fang Ming wouldn't let it off. Seeing that his plan was effective, he immediately pursued and, seizing an opportunity, struck it again, bloodying its head.
"Lucky for you, you ran fast."
The long-necked monster was quick to escape. Fang Ming only managed to hit it once before it disappeared. There was nothing he could do about it; this body, a frail woman's, couldn't possibly catch up to the monster's speed.
Looking at the hole in the roof, Fang Ming gradually formed a plan. Now that he knew his blood could significantly threaten these monsters, the possibility of going out at night was not zero. As long as he was careful, it should be fine.
However, the immediate priority was to block the hole. Ordinary materials, without inscribed runes, couldn't withstand the monsters' attacks.
"What should I do?"
Fang Ming's gaze swept around the room. Suddenly, he saw the severed tentacle left by the two-headed monster.
"The two-headed monster seemed quite powerful. I wonder if using its tentacle to block this hole would work," Fang Ming thought.
At this point, he had no other choice but to try. Other than this tentacle, there was no other material in the room that could effectively block the hole.
Fang Ming picked up the tentacle, climbed back onto the haystack, and used his feet to prop himself up on the firewood to shove the tentacle into the hole. Then, he used a few small wooden sticks to secure it.
He was a bit worried about its effectiveness. He climbed down from the haystack, picked up the wooden stick he had used to repel the long-necked monster, and hid in a corner, cautiously watching the hole.
The night passed quickly. No further incidents occurred. A few unknown monsters passed over the roof and peered at the hole, but sensing the power of the tentacle's owner, they left with disappointment, not daring to touch it.
"Ooooh—"
The village rooster crowed.
The sky outside the window gradually brightened.
Fang Ming, whose eyes were bloodshot from staying awake, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had safely survived the night.
This night had been terrifying. Although he had a way to counter the monsters, it didn't mean he could defeat them.
"Huh? Where's the tentacle?" Suddenly, in a moment of distraction, Fang Ming realized the tentacle he had used to plug the hole was gone, leaving only an empty gap.
Startled, Fang Ming quickly gathered his spirits and climbed onto the haystack to investigate.
"What is this..."
Fang Ming suddenly saw a severed human finger on the haystack. He quickly crouched down to examine it and then looked up at where the finger had appeared. It was directly facing the hole!
Without a doubt, this finger was definitely related to that severed tentacle!
"Are those monsters transformed humans?!" Fang Ming was shocked. Who would have thought that the terrifying, deformed monsters were originally humans!
And the only humans in this village were the villagers!
"Then who does this finger belong to, meaning the two-headed monster?" Fang Ming suppressed his shock and began to ponder another question.
The finger looked somewhat thick and rough on the surface, but its skin was fair and tender, suggesting it belonged to a young male.
He couldn't see all the villagers at the moment, so he couldn't determine who it was. Otherwise, he could try to sneak attack their true form to see if it affected the monster.
He quietly hid the finger. Exhausted, Fang Ming forced himself to find a few more pieces of firewood and awkwardly propped up the tattered leather covering the hole, disguising it to prevent the people here from discovering it.
As long as it wasn't the two-headed monster or the long-necked monster from yesterday, others shouldn't know the effect of his blood. Of course, it was possible that the villagers already knew.
After tidying everything up, Fang Ming found a corner and fell into a deep sleep. He was utterly exhausted. Fighting all night and being on high alert was too much for this body to endure.
"Wake up, wake up."
Fang Ming was woken by being shaken. He rubbed his tired eyes and then saw who was pushing him.
It was the old man who had brought him to be locked up again.
"What is it?" Fang Ming looked at him warily.
"Today, I'll take you to meet your husband," the old man said.
"My husband?" Fang Ming frowned. "Can I see him before I'm married?" He knew that in many customs, the bride couldn't meet her fiancé before the wedding.
He had no immediate plans to escape. This village held too many mysteries, and he needed to understand what was going on here.
The old man heard no resistance in Fang Ming's words and nodded imperceptibly. This little girl was quite obedient this time, unlike usual when she was beside herself with grief.
"It's our village custom. Three days before the wedding, you must see your husband."
Fang Ming thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "Okay, no problem."
He then asked, "Am I going like this?"
Fang Ming pointed out the stains on his clothes to the old man. The old man chuckled, and at first glance, he even looked rather kind. "Don't worry about that. I'll take you to change clothes now."
"When do we leave?"
"Now."
The old man led the way, and Fang Ming followed closely. They soon walked out of the house, this being the first time in two days that Fang Ming had left the house where he had been confined by a villager.
As soon as they stepped outside, Fang Ming deliberately slowed his pace, subtly observing the surroundings. The old man paid no attention, assuming the girl was slow-footed and would stop every few steps to wait for Fang Ming.
The houses here were ordinary mud-brick structures, divided by a central avenue, arranged in three rows on either side. The houses were not tall; the tallest was only three stories. He learned from the old man that this was the village chief's house. In another direction, there was a magnificent, large building with a thick ancient tree protruding half its crown from within.
The old man said it was the village ancestral hall, and outsiders, women, and children were absolutely forbidden to approach. Usually, only the village chief had the right to enter, and ordinary villagers could only enter during ancestor worship.
Upon hearing this, Fang Ming kept the ancestral hall in mind. His intuition, guided by the woman's senses in this body, told him that there were definitely some truths hidden within that ancestral hall.