"What in the world is going on? How could a Shazhong appear in broad daylight?" Several village chiefs, hiding in the distance, huddled together, watching Fang Ming's wanton slaughter with alarm.
"Damn it, Shazhong have no consciousness at all, we can't wake him up!"
"Never mind how he became a Shazhong, the urgent matter is to find a way to stop him from killing any further."
"Let's each gather our people and temporarily form a team to confront him. Although Shazhong are powerful, they are still within the realm of living beings. A war of attrition might be able to defeat him!"
"I think it's feasible."
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
...
On the other side, Fang Ming, still in his killing spree, felt a flicker of confusion. "The leaders of these villagers are actually sitting tight? Aren't they going to stop him?"
He was killing so many villagers that he almost felt a sliver of guilt. However, when he thought of how many women these people had wronged, and recalled the tragic scene in the well space, this guilt was instantly suppressed.
Fang Ming took a deep breath. "They are all demons. I am acting on behalf of heaven."
Honestly, in his entire life, he hadn't even killed a chicken more than a few times. Now, suddenly engaging in such rampant killing, he still felt somewhat uncomfortable.
For Fang Ming, who had always lived in modern society, this sudden act of "savagery" felt like a disharmony with his values.
"Swish, swish, swish!" Fang Ming leaped from house to house, catching up with several more villagers. With a swift stroke of his hand, blood splattered everywhere.
A villager, seeing no hope of escape, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, weeping. "Mercy, Grandpa! I have a seventy-year-old father and a three-year-old son. Please spare me."
"Tap, tap, tap..." Fang Ming slowly walked up to him, raising his tentacle high.
"Thwack!" Another corpse.
"Monster, stop!" Suddenly, a furious roar came from afar, accompanied by the sound of chaotic footsteps. A group of burly men, led by several old men, were rushing towards Fang Ming.
Fang Ming looked up at them. His monstrous face twisted into a terrifying grin. "Finally took the bait. If you hadn't come soon, I would have gotten too bored to kill."
The group surrounded Fang Ming, their weapons a motley assortment of pots, pans, shovels, hoes, and knives. Even more absurdly, a short man holding a chamber pot stood at the very front.
"Take down the monster! Charge!" The chamber pot man led the charge, waving the still-leaking chamber pot. Fang Ming, not wanting to get splattered, quickly retreated to avoid it.
Seeing someone make a move, the others also charged forward, brandishing their weapons. However, the dense crowd made it even easier for Fang Ming to kill. With a flick of his tentacle, large swathes of flesh and blood flew, as these ordinary people were no match for a single blow.
"The ones with pots, hold the line! Everyone else, attack from behind!" An old man from the back of the crowd quickly commanded upon seeing the situation. The charging villagers hastily changed their formation.
To be honest, Fang Ming was impressed by the sturdiness of the iron pots from this era. The scales at the tip of his tentacles could only leave nicks when they struck. For a while, relying on the front line of iron pots, these villagers fought back and forth with Fang Ming.
"Bang!" A villager holding a pot absorbed Fang Ming's attack, being pushed back several steps. But immediately, another villager stepped up, and simultaneously, a cleaver, thrown by an unknown person, flew from the crowd.
"Thwack!"
Fang Ming turned his head to see the cleaver embedded in his shoulder. He let out a delayed cry of pain, pulled out the cleaver, and his tentacles flailed wildly and erratically.
The villagers rejoiced, finally managing to injure the monster. Their eyes turned red with renewed vigor as they charged forward.
Fang Ming dared not take the blows head-on. He leaped over the crowd and landed on a courtyard wall, then fled in one direction along the wall.
Many villagers immediately gave chase, unwilling to give up this golden opportunity. Moreover, if this monster escaped, the village could face danger again at any moment!
"Quick, chase!"
A vast procession of people ran through Baimu Village, following Fang Ming. Fang Ming led them on a wild goose chase, while the other villagers who hadn't participated hid in their houses, trembling and afraid to come out.
"We're here." Fang Ming chuckled, looking back at the villagers who were about to catch up. These people were truly "simple-minded," having been kited all this way by him.
"Stop him! Don't let him enter the ancestral hall!" Several village chiefs, seeing Fang Ming heading straight for the ancestral hall, were greatly alarmed and immediately ordered the villagers to stop him.
But the villagers' speed could not match Fang Ming's. With a slight increase in speed, Fang Ming leaped and bounced off several courtyard walls, disappearing into the ancestral hall through a gap in its wall in the blink of an eye. Then, with a turn, he vanished from the villagers' sight, using the courtyard wall for cover.
The pursuing villagers stopped at the gap in the ancestral hall's wall, looking at each other. Without the village chiefs' orders, none of them dared to step into the ancestral hall. This was a rule of centuries, deeply ingrained in their minds.
As for the village chiefs who had caught up, they were also in a dilemma. They couldn't possibly let so many people search the ancestral hall. They knew some secrets and wouldn't dare let a large number of villagers enter.
What to do?
The village chiefs looked at each other. This was no longer a matter of individual dominance; none dared to issue orders lightly.
"Let's go in and search. We can't let it stay in the ancestral hall forever," one village chief suggested.
"No, if so many people go in, it will surely disturb the respected person. We would be in serious trouble," another village chief quickly denied.
"Then what? Without a large number of villagers, how can we defeat that Shazhong?"
"How about we wait until night when we transform into Shazhong and then come out to encircle and annihilate it?"
"You're talking nonsense! When we become Shazhong, we'll have little consciousness left. We'd be lucky if we didn't treat it as one of our own and have each other's backs."
"That's true."
The village chiefs remained silent for a while, then one of them said, "How about we send a few sharp villagers in first to search? Once we find that Shazhong, we can then devise a plan to lure it out for annihilation."
"I think that's a good idea."
"Seconded."
"Seconded."
After discussing, the village chiefs could only agree to this plan. They arranged for the villagers to wait in place and then selected a few fearless individuals to enter the ancestral hall to search for the monster's location.
Meanwhile, Fang Ming, using a blind spot, climbed over the courtyard wall. He removed the severed finger from his chest and held it by a thin string, isolating himself from it. In an instant, he transformed back from a monster to a human and swaggered along the roads of Baimu Village, heading towards the old well.
After his disturbance, the entire Baimu Village was surprisingly quiet. Everyone was hiding in their houses, afraid to come out and even afraid to make a sound.
This allowed Fang Ming's subsequent plan to be implemented smoothly, without any worry of these villagers suddenly appearing and disrupting his plans, as they were still very much afraid of death.
"Speaking of which... does the 'Venting Pool' refer to this fountain?"
Fang Ming stood beside a fountain near the plaza, looking at this structure that exceeded Baimu Village's scale. Combined with Bai Minmin's diary, he deduced that this fountain was likely the Venting Pool mentioned by the old well's malevolent spirit.
The fountain was luxuriously built, entirely carved from marble, approximately ten meters high, and covering an area the size of a basketball court. It was shaped like a lotus and divided into five tiers. The edges of the petals on each tier were carved with various grotesque monsters. Water sprayed from the center of the top tier flowed through the mouths of these monsters into the pool below to be recycled.
Standing below, Fang Ming could only see the water pool and the area beneath the fountain; the upper sections were completely obscured.
Fang Ming held the severed finger, and his body rapidly transformed, soon becoming a Shazhong with significantly enhanced strength.
"Heh!" Fang Ming gathered his strength and leaped, grabbing onto the stone surface at the bottom of the fountain. Then, he climbed upwards like a gecko, quickly reaching the space between the first and second tiers.
Upon reaching this level, Fang Ming discovered that the interior of the fountain was covered in runes. Each stroke of the runes was filled with red paint. This expanse of twisted red runes, refracting the water's flow, created a strangely dizzying sensation, which confirmed his suspicion that this was indeed the Venting Pool.
"Where did my father learn all these magical things? I've never seen him use them before," Fang Ming suddenly mused. In his memory, his father was just an ordinary small owner of a funeral supplies shop, making a living by selling items for funeral services. He had no idea his father possessed such abilities.
"When I find him, I must ask him properly about all of this." Fang Ming smacked his lips, setting aside his doubts. After all, it was his father; he would ask him properly once he found him.
Two chapters today. The book has finally reached the novice stage of one hundred thousand words. I shamelessly ask for your support and votes.