A furious roar erupted from Wang Li’s corpse. The next mont, the supposedly dead Wang Li suddenly stood up—without using her hands to support herself, she rose straight to her feet.
Her pale face was expressionless, but her eyes burned with malevolent intent, identical to the villagers.
“What! It really was her!” Yang Dongqing exclaid in shock. He hadn’t expected Su Mu’s guess to be accurate.
In truth, only Su Mu knew it hadn’t been a guess—he had been 100% certain Wang Li had turned into a monster, because his hypnosis had failed. When he tried to hypnotize Wang Li, she reacted exactly like the villagers did.
ROAR!!
Wang Li let out a scream and charged at the nearest person—Ye Fanyu.
Ye Fanyu’s expression darkened slightly as he swiftly raised his hand into the shape of a gun and aid it at her.
[Five-Finger Fla Burst]!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three blazing fireballs roared forth, exploding on Wang Li’s body in a burst of intense flas. In just monts, the terrifying fire had consud her, reducing her to a charred corpse.
After dealing with Wang Li, Ye Fanyu walked over to Su Mu and asked quietly, “Mr. Su, what exactly is going on? Why did Wang Li suddenly turn into a villager? As far as I know, villagers don’t have the ability to turn humans into their kind. Anyone they catch ends up torn apart and eaten.”
Su Mu smiled slightly, “Then where do you think the people dragged into the shadows by those black figures went?”
“Black figures?” Ye Fanyu was stunned. “You an… the black shadows are the real cause of the villagers’ transformation?”
“That’s just my current theory. Perhaps the answer lies within this house.” Su Mu pointed with his snake-patterned cane at the thatched hut in front of them.
“Yang Dongqing,” he called softly.
Without needing further instruction, Yang Dongqing took the lead and entered the hut. Clearly, he’d been trained well.
Bang!
The door creaked open. Yang Dongqing stepped inside and swept his gaze across the interior. Seeing no danger, he gestured for the others to follow.
Su Mu stepped in and looked around through his tinted glasses.
The interior was very old. There was only a wooden recliner, a chipped square table, and an old-fashioned cupboard standing against the wall. On one side of the main room was the bedroom. The bedfra had simple floral carvings and childlike doodles. Though the bedding was faded, it was clean and neatly arranged.
Further inside was the kitchen. A large clay stove took up one corner. Pots, bowls, and utensils sat on the counter, with dried firewood piled nearby. The walls were blackened from years of smoke.
Though rundown, the house had everything it needed.
Just then, furious growls echoed from outside the door.
Ye Fanyu’s expression changed, “Not good—they’ve caught up.”
Bang!
He quickly slamd the door shut and peered through a gap to watch the approaching villagers. His heart leapt to his throat.
The problem was that the house was too old. Even the door was entirely made of wood and didn’t close tightly. He seriously doubted it could keep the villagers out.
Luckily, when the villagers reached the door, they stopped.
Phew!
Ye Fanyu let out a breath of relief, “It held.”
But when he turned around, he was stunned to see Su Mu walking out from the cupboard holding a plate of dumplings.
The dumplings looked like they’d been there for so ti. They had dried out and wrinkled, their once-plump forms now misshapen from being squished together. So of the stuffing juices had leaked into the plate, pooling into a murky liquid that emitted a faint sour sll.
“Are those… dumplings?” Ye Fanyu gulped. In the real world, dumplings in this condition would go straight into the trash. But now, he was genuinely starving.
“Can we eat them?” Li Qiang’s eyes were glued to the plate.
Su Mu smiled and placed the plate on the table, “If you two want to eat, go ahead.”
Ye Fanyu and Li Qiang approached, staring at the dumplings, swallowing hard.
Su Mu and the others had entered the village later. Though they were hungry now, it wasn’t unbearable.
“Twelve dumplings total. I still have to fight later, so I’ll take eight, and you get four,” Ye Fanyu said without consulting Li Qiang.
Though Li Qiang clearly wanted more, he didn’t dare argue. He just nodded, still staring at the dumplings.
“You eat first,” Ye Fanyu said.
Li Qiang hesitated. In such a creepy place, where a plate of mystery dumplings had just appeared, who would dare be the first to eat?
“Hurry up!” Ye Fanyu urged impatiently.
Gritting his teeth, Li Qiang thought, ‘To hell with it. If I’m going to die, I’ll die full!’ He grabbed the dumplings and stuffed them in his mouth like Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit. Four dumplings disappeared in one breath.
After finishing, he glanced at the remaining dumplings with longing. Though the taste was a bit off, to soone who hadn’t eaten for three days, they were pure bliss.
Ye Fanyu, ever cautious, observed Li Qiang closely. After a long while with no abnormal reaction, he finally relaxed and began eating the dumplings himself—though he still kept an eye on Li Qiang as he ate.
After finishing his eight dumplings, Ye Fanyu felt alive again.
“Mr. Su, why were there dumplings here?” Ye Fanyu asked. Su Mu’s earlier displays had made it painfully clear that there was a gap between their levels of intelligence.
“Because Tingting loved dumplings, and this is her ho,” Su Mu replied with a smile.
“Then—” Ye Fanyu had barely spoken a word when his expression suddenly changed!
And not just him—even Yang Dongqing and the others turned grim. Whoosh! Everyone’s gaze imdiately locked onto the wooden bed in the bedroom!
A dull thump had just co from the bed—as if soone had hit the fra with their head.
“Who’s there! Co out!” Ye Fanyu tensed up, his right hand forming a gun, flas flickering between his fingers, raising the room’s temperature.
Zhao Chaoyao and the others drew their machetes—they had used up most of their bullets in the earlier fight.
In the tense silence, sothing under the bed seed to be trembling.
“Co out!” Ye Fanyu shouted again. The fla on his fingertip was on the verge of launching.
Just then, a snake-patterned cane blocked his hand.
Ye Fanyu looked at Su Mu in confusion, “Mr. Su…”
Su Mu shook his head, signaling him to lower the “gun.”
Ye Fanyu extinguished the fla, and Su Mu took a step forward, speaking softly to the space beneath the bed, “Tingting, we’re not bad people. Co out.”
Tingting!?
Everyone was startled—was that Tingting under the bed?
Sure enough, the trembling shadow under the bed stopped moving when she heard the words. A mont later, a timid little girl’s voice ca from underneath:
“Are you really not bad people? You really won’t hurt Tingting?”
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