Shi Kangjian, with his hands and feet bound tightly by hemp ropes, was lying on the altar in the attic of Lu Gui's residence, his mouth open, staring blankly at the ceiling.
He had long since lost consciousness, his body covered with deep cuts inflicted by Lu Gui with a dagger.
Blood poured continuously from the wounds, meandering and trickling onto the complex array of symbols surrounding the altar.
"Too slow."
With dagger in hand and eyes bloodshot, Lu Gui stood at the edge of the altar, looking up at the projection of Dusheng Village's map hovering above the altar, and shook his head.
Filling the Formation with Mana from the human sacrifice required a duration neither long nor short. On the map projection, the red dot representing the Fierce Ghost wandered incessantly at the fringe of Dusheng Village. It appeared and disappeared intermittently, each reappearance edging closer to the village.
The effect of the rain curtain on it was diminishing. In perhaps another fifteen minutes, it might break through the weakening rain curtain and rush into the village, embarking on a killing spree.
After a moment of contemplation, Lu Gui had his son, Lu Maocai, use the public address system to gather all villagers here under the pretext of "preventing the invasion of evil spirits."
Lu Gui held very high prestige in Dusheng Village, and recently, with demonic spirits harming people, the panic-stricken villagers, upon hearing the broadcast, left their homes with their families and headed to Lu Gui's Residence.
The guests staying in different homes—including the unlucky temporary roommate knocked out by Li Ang—also left their houses with a confused look and merged with the crowd of villagers.
However, when they reached the village center, they were stopped by Tian Yourong.
Tian Yourong claimed he had made contact with the outside world and that the county had sent a rescue team for support, urging the guests to wait with him at the village hall.
After much hesitation, all the guests left the group of villagers and went to the village hall with Tian Yourong.
At the village hall's platform, two bodies covered in white cloths were laid. Wei Linglan, who was speaking with Song Zhen, saw Tian Yourong bringing people back and stood up to ask, "Is everyone here?"
"One is missing."
With a hint of anxiety, Tian Yourong spoke, "That Han guy is nowhere to be seen; do you think he might have been kidnapped by someone in this village?"
Wei Linglan searched her memory and, recalling the young man who hadn't made a good impression on her, frowned and said, "It's possible. You all wait here; I'll go check at Lu Gui's house..."
Her sense of imminent danger didn't act up. With the help of some special tools, she also predicted through Divination that the target of the Fierce Ghost wasn't the foreign guests.
It was much safer for Tian Yourong and the others to stay in this empty village hall than in a home.
Just as Wei Linglan was about to head to Lu Gui's Residence to find out what the village chief was up to, a figure in a black raincoat appeared at the entrance of the village hall, illuminated by the light of thunderbolts.
Li Ang, who had just dug up a grave, placed the streetlamp pole he had temporarily dismantled from the roadside next to a pillar at the entrance of the hall. Without paying attention to the astonished stares of the guests, he walked straight into the building and up to the two bodies.
He removed the white cloths covering the bodies and, with hands clad in rubber gloves, tore open the dead men's upper garments to reveal the roughly stitched long scars on their chests.
In Tian Yourong's stunned gaze, Li Ang roughly tore open the corpses' incisions and reached inside only to find no hearts within.
Their hearts had been extracted.
Snapping his hand back, Li Ang shook off the blood and flesh from his hand and nodded calmly to Tian Yourong, "Yo, good evening."
"..."
Tian Yourong took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. "Who... are you?"
Standing up, Li Ang's expression turned solemn, and he said in a deep voice, "Protecting the life and property of the people, guarding important secrets, and vigilantly preventing evil forces from causing trouble, I am the former chief instructor of the special organization composed of the strongest soldiers—the Dragon Group. You may call me, Long Yaren."
God damn Dragon Group, god damn Long Yaren.
If Tian Yourong hadn't read plenty of military-themed web novels in his spare time, he might have actually believed it.
"Anyway," Li Ang's face transformed as swiftly as an actor in Sichuan opera, from solemnity to a relaxed and lazy expression, "you guys just stay here for now. I'll head over to the village chief's house and see if I can bring them some warmth or something."
With that, Li Ang walked straight out of the village hall, effortlessly picked up a streetlamp pole, casually swung it around a few times, and then dashed toward Village Chief Lu Gui's Residence.
Wei Linglan, who hadn't yet left the entrance, watched Li Ang's figure disappearing quickly into the rainy backdrop, feeling the fierce Gale from the swinging streetlamp and stiffening up a bit.
This seemingly roguish young man was actually a gamer...
And judging by the ease with which he wielded the streetlamp, his level was definitely not low—his strength and Agility Attribute were far beyond Wei Linglan's current level.
She recalled Li Ang's exhibited coarseness, vulgarity, flamboyance, and affectation over the past few days, and cold sweat broke out on her back.
She hadn't noticed anything unusual about Li Ang at all! Chapter source: My Virtual Library Empire (*).
Such a perfect disguise, such covert infiltration! Could this be... the way of a big shot?
Wei Linglan let out a long sigh and glanced back at the confused and helpless villagers. After much hesitation, she still followed the path Li Ang took, running towards Village Chief Lu Gui's house.
Wei Linglan's intuition told her that Li Ang would not pose a threat to her life; in fact, staying close to Li Ang might be even safer.
As long as she could ensure her own safety, watching a big shot's moves and enjoying the silky smooth experience of being carried, why wouldn't she want to do it?
At this point, Village Chief Lu Gui's house was already crowded with villagers who had rushed over.
Everyone huddled together, watching with some trepidation as Lu Maocai led the young and strong to board up the villa's doors and windows with wooden planks and nails.
The rain was moderate, and the wind gradually died down.
Occasionally, the light from thunderbolts bursting in the distance would penetrate through the gaps in the boarded windows, casting the shadows of everyone inside on the walls.
KEKEKEKE—
The dull yet distinct sound of breathing emanated from outside the door, as something, like a gecko, clung to the walls of the house, scurrying about.
It was searching, looking for a flaw in the house.
THUD—
It slammed its body violently against the villa's great hall window, and a web-like crack appeared on the glass, which shattered instantly.
Glass shards scattered, spraying onto the villagers and inciting screams.
Rainwater splattered on its flesh, leading to rising plumes of dense smoke, yet it continued to laugh silently and cruelly as if untouched by the pain.
Twisting its spider-like, bizarre form, it attempted to crawl through the window, only to see the walls of the villa gradually revealing glowing green runes which severely burnt the hand it stretched inside.
Agony that penetrated to the marrow caused the creature to finally let out a piercing howl.
It cast a resentful glance at the villagers inside before flipping away from the window to continue its search for a flaw in the villa.
THUMP, BANG, CLANG.
Outside the villa, sounds of digging at the walls, striking glass, and prying tiles were incessant. The villagers huddled together, racked with fear, praying to the heavens and gods.
Finally, the cacophony ceased after a long silence.
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, a young man's voice came from outside the door.
"Folks, open up!"