"This..."
Upon hearing Li Ang's words, the village chief hesitated slightly and, after pondering for a mont, sincerely said, "To be honest, we also have physicians in our village who have been researching the essence of early aging disease for decades. They've used every bit of knowledge, technology, and material at their disposal, yet have still achieved nothing. This early aging disease might belong to the realm of miracles, beyond human capability.
Your dical skills, brave one, might not be very helpful..."
Before the village chief could finish speaking, he saw the brave adventurer wave his hand calmly and say, "Your thods are useless,
but mine might do the trick.
If you don't believe , I'll show you a magic trick."
With that, Li Ang took off the Mirage Dragon Red Mane Coat Gloves from his right hand,
raised his right arm horizontally, palm facing himself, and with the index and middle fingers of his left hand, lightly pinched his right thumb as if pulling it sideways.
The village chief was taken aback, finding it sowhat amusing,
isn't this the old visual magic trick? The top half of the right thumb is bent down, the top half of the left thumb replacing it, pretending to break off the thumb when moving the hand
not even a real visual magic trick, just a street trick to amuse kids...
Screech—
Unexpectedly, the brave adventurer actually forcibly pulled off his right thumb, and instantly, like a high-pressure faucet, it sprayed blood furiously, creating quite a scene.
The Dragon Head Mask adventurer was prepared, aid the wound at his mouth, and the dragon's mouth caught all the blood without missing a drop, even calmly saying, "How about that, chief, did I show off a bit?"
Never mind showing off a bit, aren't you stopping the bleeding? The amount of blood is enormous!
Under the shocked and bewildered gaze of the village chief and other players, Li Ang reattached the severed thumb, instantly stopping the blood flow, then shoved his entire right hand into the Dragon Head Mask's mouth,
after a gulping sound, he pulled out his right hand, without any traces of blood, as if it hadn't been severed at all.
"This move is limb reattachnt, as long as it's not the head, it can be put back."
Li Ang boasted in the tone used by street sellers of miracle pills, "Actually, even if the head is detached, as long as it's not for too long, and the brain hasn't lost too much blood and oxygen, I can restore it.
Though there's a possibility of losing so mory, causing brain confusion and such.
If you'd like to experience it yourself, I have a knife here..."
"No need, no need!"
The village chief raised both hands to quickly refuse, his old face pale, seemingly on the verge of passing out.
"No need, huh? That's too bad."
Li Ang slipped the knife back into the inner pocket of his white coat,
with a plop, a glass-like object fell out of the Dragon Head Mask.
Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be an eyeball with brown-yellow irises.
"Ah, my eye just fell."
Li Ang reached out to catch the falling eyeball and shoved it back into the mouth of the Dragon Head Mask.
Crack—
In the next instant, a dozen or so eyeballs of various sizes, shapes, and pupil colors rolled out of the Dragon Head Mask's mouth,
Li Ang called out, "Dragon Bead Chase!"
He astonishingly caught all the eyeballs with his hand, tossing them into the air like a circus performance,
letting the eyeballs trace arcs through the air before landing back into the Dragon Head Mask's mouth.
Gulp—
The sound of chewing and swallowing emanated from the Dragon Head Mask, as if Li Ang had crushed and eaten the eyeballs back into his stomach.
This ti, the village chief's face was as white as paper, and even Ding Zhensi's face had turned pale, feeling his Sanity Value had dropped a bit.
Those eyeballs were probably not fake, attached with nerve fibers, and visibly they didn't belong to one person...
The more they thought about it, the more terrifying it beca. Damn.
Ding Zhensi, in a daze, recalled Xing Hechou's reliable evaluation of Li Rising, which didn't ntion him being a Demon from The Abyss in human disguise...
Li Ang ignored the gazes of others, patted his belly, chuckling, "Chief, how's my dical skill?
Anyway, it's worth a try, you won't suffer a loss, nor be deceived,
if I really find a way to resolve your village's early aging disease, it'd be a contribution to the peace of the Sacred Mountain."
The village chief desperately wanted to refuse politely, but when the words reached his mouth, they transford into, "Then... let's give it a try..."
They were the first Hero Team to enter the Sacred Mountain's realm in decades, and seemingly defeated the Shadow Monster, reclaiming bricks of the Holy Mountain Gate, naturally indicating their strength.
If they didn't agree to utilize the Wishing Machine to solve the early aging disease, they would have to rely on dical ans...
The village chief hesitated, stepping out of the house, leading players and a few guards stationed outside towards a corner of the village.
After a few minutes, they arrived at a small house and stepped inside, seeing heaps of funeral supplies stacked in the living room.
Introduced by the village chief, the players realized
that due to the Guardian Village's prolonged struggle with early aging, villagers rapidly aged from fourteen or fifteen, with few living past thirty.
The house was ho to a twenty-eight-year-old villager who, aware of his remaining limited ti, had followed village customs, preparing funeral supplies, including a coffin, ready for burial anyti.
This was common in the village; even in the village chief's personal study, a coffin was placed, standing as a bookshelf, ready to lay down in whenever dead, by simply removing its panels.
Though everyone knows that day cos for everyone, the constant proximity of death's agony remains difficult to accept.
The villager's family busy with funeral matters wore sorrowful expressions, surprised upon the village chief's introduction of the "Divine Doctor."
The village held onto old traditions, with the chief's authority being unchallengeable,
the villager's family soon agreed to let the Divine Doctor ascend upstairs for a consultation.
Due to the house's narrowness, Ding Zhensi, driving a Kui Ox cha, couldn't enter, waiting outside,
other players followed the villagers, walking up the creaky wooden stairs to the second floor where the twenty-eight-year-old villager's bedroom was located.
Upon entering, aside from Li Ang, everyone frowned; the room's windows were open, light-filled, yet infiltrated by a decaying odor, embodying a dying atmosphere.
The villager lying on the bed looked older than the white-haired village chief, with skin like dry wood, full of wrinkles, tightly clinging to bony fras,
eyes turbid and dim, floating with strands of murky deposits,
The hair has already fallen out to the point where only a few strands remain, growing sparsely on a scalp full of black spots.
"Andrew? Andrew?"
The village chief sat by the bed, gently called out the villager's na a couple of tis,
The latter lay silently on the bed, and after a long ti, finally reacted, slowly turning his head, with the image of the village chief reflected in his clouded eyes.
"We found a doctor for you. If things go well, he can cure your premature aging, and may even save others or our village. Can you hear ?"
The village chief repeated his question several tis but got no aningful response, so he stood up, took a deep breath, clenched his teeth, and decisively looked at Li Ang, saying solemnly, "Hero sir, please take a look at him."
"Okay."
Li Ang nodded, pulled a chair over, sat by the bed, held the hand of the aging villager, and slowly closed his eyes.
In a hidden spot unseen by others, a multitude of extrely thin plant fiber threads pierced from Li Ang's palm, penetrating the villager's skin, drawing blood, and analyzing the body.
This analysis lasted for as long as ten minutes,
Finally, when the village chief and the villager's family were getting anxious, Li Ang slowly opened his eyes and let out a long murky breath.
"Doctor, doctor, how is my father?"
A villager who looked like a middle-aged man, age uncertain, asked nervously.
Li Ang turned to look, nodded calmly, and said, "You must be the deceased's relative, right?"
???
The room's atmosphere suddenly beca tense,
Li Ang patted the back of the dragon head mask, giving an awkward smile, "Sorry, the patient's condition was so unusual that even I mistook him for dead.
Ahem, he's fine,
I just checked, this premature aging condition..."
"How is it?" The village chief asked nervously.
"It can be treated."
Li Ang extended the word, slowly saying, "But it's very, very complicated."
For the village chief and the villagers, only the words "can be treated" remained in their minds, so they hurriedly asked, "Do you have a thod? What should we prepare?"
Li Ang waved his hand, stood up from the chair, "Let's talk outside."
He and the village chief went to the balcony, leaning against its edge, motioning for the players in the distance to co over too—this short distance couldn't block out teammates' hearing, and it wasn't a confidential matter that needed to be shielded from temporary allies.
Once everyone stood on the balcony, Li Ang gazed down at the street scene below, pondering, "Village chief sir, I'll just say it directly, your village, you aren't ordinary humans, are you?"
The village chief's expression froze for a mont, then he let out a long sigh, "You've found us out, then?"
"For heroes of our level, just by sll, we can tell the differences between certain species. Moreover, your village has declined a lot and the villagers can't hide the faint scent of their own bloodline."
Li Ang said calmly, "However, it was only during the diagnosis earlier that I finally confird it.
Your village belongs to a race, so kind of dark lineage that feeds on living beings."
The village chief's face showed a mix of emotions, he sighed and said, "Sir, no need to use those grandiose words of dark lineage with us, we know our own situation best,
we are rely a group of ghouls who devour corpses."
Ghouls?
Aside from Hoenhem, the other players were taken aback, David furrowed his brow, and Amber reevaluated the village chief, smacking his lips in surprise.
These players affiliated with large organizations also carried detection-type equipnt and items,
Though they couldn't scan various types of species and substances within the Heterodox Academy's database like the Kui Ox cha,
They were sufficient to handle most situations in ordinary scripts.
At least when soone approaches, they could discern whether the person is human, a disguised Terminator, or a Blood Clan mber.
In most mystical definitions, there's a significant difference between the Blood Clan and ghouls.
The forr, cursed in ancient tis, unloved by the gods, neither demons nor humans, feeding on blood, possessing a range of extraordinary abilities, including but not limited to morphing into bats, flying, ground tunneling, blood manipulation, rapid regeneration, and immortality,
boasting a long history, a large lineage, strict family regulations,
each mber is a handso man or beautiful woman, with an inherent style value.
Conversely, the ghouls originating from early Arabic legends are far more crude,
they feed on dead bodies, appear grotesque, have low intelligence, walk on all fours, similar to beasts, with no extraordinary powers worth ntioning except for thick skin and tough at,
In so mysterious studies texts, ghouls are even depicted as slaves, loyal servants, or pets raised by the Blood Clan, responsible for eliminating potential enemies or acting as cannon fodder to die.
To the eyes of Hoenhem and others, mistaking these two creatures is almost impossible, unless...
The village chief sighed faintly, explaining, "Long, long ago, in an era with no recorded text, our ancestors were probably just a group of the most primitive and unintelligent beasts.
Perhaps due to sheer luck, they crossed over land and sea, reached this land, and as the first inhabitants, were summoned by the Sacred Mountain.
The Sacred Mountain accepted the ghoul tribe, and over the long ages, transford that group of ghouls with its sacred and unspeakable great power.
Turning them from hideous, fierce beasts, they were granted wisdom and transford into human form.
Our ancestors revered the Sacred Mountain imnsely, choosing to live at its foot for ageless tis, building a village, never leaving.
At one point, one of our generational ancestors reportedly received a revelation from the Sacred Mountain, claiming it possessed the power to fulfill all worldly desires, and that a group of adventurers would soon arrive on the island.
That generation of ancestors hosted the adventurers, witnessing them climb the snowy mountain, complete the trials, and ultimately realize their wishes.
They spread the greatness of the Sacred Mountain worldwide.
After that, the usual history followed—endless streams of hero teams arrived to undergo trials at the Sacred Mountain,
leading our village to beco a world hub.
But, as you guessed, the blood of ghouls flows in our veins."
The village chief sighed helplessly, "The Sacred Mountain nurtured and summoned us, yet except for that generation of ancestors, very few have since received divine inspiration from the Sacred Mountain.
Before the heroes arrived, our village always had a sparse population, maintaining a scale of a dozen households, surviving by hunting beasts at the forest's edge, consuming their blood and flesh.
After the heroes' arrival, due to intermarriage and alliances, our village's population steadily grew, swelling from dozens to hundreds, and even thousands."
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