Otherworldly Desert Dust

Wu Hen stood in place.

The heat from the nearby campfire made his arm feel a bit scorched, but the rest of his body was icy cold!!

This girl was a monster too!!

And she was symbiotic with the Head-cutting Evil Spirit!!

The overwhelming sense of survival from just now surged up in his heart again, his heart pounding uncontrollably!

This was truly outrageous!!

What kind of world was this exactly??

If he didn't really know sign language, this symbiotic monster might not have let him go??

Cold sweat soaked his entire body!!

Was he doomed, because this girl could see him and knew he was a living person, she could directly command the Head-cutting Evil Spirit to take his head off!!

In that case, no matter how hard he struggled, it would be to no avail!

Was it ultimately a dead end??

Wu Hen stood there, waiting for the final execution…

But something bizarre happened instead.

Roots grew on the back of the evil spirit, and after the girl "rode" on the evil spirit, she just glanced at Wu Hen with a hint of disdain, then patted the Head-cutting Evil Spirit, signaling it to leave.

The Head-cutting Evil Spirit didn't look back, like a father at dusk carrying his daughter, walking toward home.

This time, the girl and the evil spirit didn't turn invisible, they completely walked into the depths of the town…

Even though he had witnessed them leaving, Wu Hen still stood there in fear for a long time.

This remnant of fear felt like he had swallowed an egg of a poisonous snake, not knowing when it would hatch and burrow into his insides.

It was almost impossible to completely calm down!

...

After resting for a long, long time,

Wu Hen knew that staying in place was pointless.

He clearly knew why he came here.

He had to keep moving forward!

He looked around again.

Behind him and to the sides was a vast rainforest, a glance made it clear it was extremely primitive, filled with hidden dangers.

And ahead was the town extending towards the cliff of the rainforest, along the road ahead, some people could still be seen wandering, like a group of homeless refugees…

Next to a hotel in front of the town, there was a stable.

Inside the stable was a horse, its eyes bulging blood-red, seemingly seeing something terrifying approaching, acting very uneasy.

It kept twisting its neck, its four hooves frantically stamping on the muddy ground.

"Snap!"

The reins snapped, and the chestnut horse bolted out of the stable in terror, running wildly out of the town!

It galloped all the way, fleeing towards the direction of the rainforest.

But just as its figure disappeared into the rainforest, the chestnut horse let out an extremely miserable cry!!

Wu Hen watched in the direction of the chestnut horse, and in the blink of an eye, he saw the horse turn into a skeleton!!

One moment the horse was galloping on the grass, the next, it was like it had entered a machine that peeled its skin and picked its bones, and in the next second, it was left with only bones…

The most horrifying part was, the horse's skeleton still maintained its running motion, plunging deeper into the rainforest, only crashing into a big tree did it fall apart!

Everything happened so abruptly and quickly, it seemed not even the horse realized its skin and flesh had separated from its body!

The clean, bloodless bones scattered on the grass, causing Wu Hen, not far away, to go weak in the knees!

For a moment there, Wu Hen had intended to walk into the rainforest!

It turned out, great terrors existed not just in that symbiotic evil spirit…

Outrageously, he didn't even see what stripped the chestnut horse's skin!

So terrifying!

Compared to the unknown and brutal things in the rainforest, Wu Hen felt that the half-rooted demoness seemed a bit more delicate.

...

Adjusting his mindset, Wu Hen continued towards Juezhen.

The town had only one main cross street, the rest were paths and alleys.

Apart from the shops on the main street that seemed relatively new, most other buildings were in disrepair.

Lichens and vines were everywhere, growing wildly, even blending with some of the houses…

But no matter how dilapidated and messy the town was, there was one thing particularly uniform, and that was the silence!

This silence was unusual, there were no insect chirps or bird calls, even though people walked around the town, they all tiptoed, afraid to step on broken glass or knock off a swaying sign…

There were many wanderers in the town, but since they couldn't make noise, they all communicated with their eyes.

Wu Hen couldn't tell if they, like him, had entered the virtual world, or if they were natives of this virtual world.

The town wasn't big, walking around it wouldn't take too long.

"Ding ding dong~~~~~"

Suddenly, the sound of bells came from an alley.

This sound should have been nothing unusual, merely wind chimes hanging in front of some people's houses, but in this town, it was absolutely adrenaline-pumping!

Wu Hen happened to be outside the alley.

He heard it very clearly!

This sound was definitely not made by him.

In a strange compulsion, Wu Hen stuck his head out, glancing into the alley!

At that glance, Wu Hen saw the outline of an evil spirit, slowly emerging from the base color of the wall…

It didn't look like it had flashed here from elsewhere, it seemed more like it had always been hiding under the wall, coldly waiting for its prey to come near!

At the deepest part of the alley, a young man in a leather jacket stood, leaning against the wall.

In his hand, he held a shard that looked like it was made of diamond, and his eyes were filled with terror as he stared at a very fine thread, the other end of which was tied to a bell!

Wu Hen didn't know what the diamond-like shard was, but he knew someone had stepped into a trap!!

It was a trap set by that symbiotic evil spirit!!

Like a mousetrap, in the eyes of the symbiotic evil spirit, this young man in leather was no different from a mouse with its head caught in a trap!

"Hehe, you disguised yourself as a lost one very well, you managed to stay on my turf for a whole month…" the symbiotic demoness said with a smile.

The young man in leather didn't dare to speak; in his eyes, there was still a strong desire to survive.

"What a pity, in the end, you couldn't resist the temptation of that small shattered crystal; you didn't dare steal the Yuan You in the center of the square, so you set your sights on the fragment…" the symbiotic demoness continued.

"No… don't kill me!! I'll do whatever you want!!!" Suddenly, the young man in leather spoke, his appearance of humility and panic was nothing like a "player."

"Oh, you spoke, that's wonderful!!" the symbiotic demoness suddenly became excited.

The young man in leather heard this and suddenly realized something; he began to tremble uncontrollably!

At this moment, his eyes were filled not with the desire to survive, but with the fear that a nightmare had only just begun!

"He's mine." the symbiotic demoness said.

The Head-cutting Evil Spirit retracted its claws, and the symbiotic demoness suddenly extended roots from beneath her skirt, which stabbed into the young man's body!

Not fully piercing through, more like thick straws, it was clear the roots were moving rapidly!

They were sucking blood and marrow!!

At the mouth of the alley, Wu Hen saw the young man in leather shriveling at a visibly rapid speed.

Throughout the shriveling process, the young man remained conscious, the pain and struggle on his face were something Wu Hen had never seen before in his life…

For a moment, Wu Hen's spine turned cold, he could imagine that had he spoken to the girl earlier, this living draught would have happened to him!

The scene was truly terrifying.

Afraid that his heart rate would spike again, Wu Hen hurriedly left the site of the bloodbath.

"Rumble~~~~~~~~~~"

A muffled thunderclap echoed in the sky, making the already turbid air feel even more oppressively heavy.

Wu Hen needed a moment to adjust his mood.

He even felt a bit of fatigue and doubt.

That young man was probably like him, someone who entered the virtual world in search of the Yuan You.

He should have known it all was virtual, but why did his behavior before death show absolutely no sign of this knowledge?

While it was true that some people in ghost houses could be scared into a breakdown, they could always shout, "I'm not playing anymore!"

This young man didn't…

"Boom~~~~~~~~~"

Another bolt of lightning struck, illuminating the town in an even more eerie light.

Unknowingly, Wu Hen had walked to the cliffside of Juezhen, where an expansive plaza extended towards the cliff, previously used for gatherings and markets.

Now the cliffside plaza was very empty, without any stalls or decorations, only covered in grains!

It was curious, why would someone be drying grains in the Juezhen Plaza?

"Boom!!"

Another flash of lightning tore through the sky over the cliff's clouds, and with the aid of the thunder's light, Wu Hen suddenly realized what was really covering the whole plaza!

It was bones!

The entire cliffside plaza was covered in human bones!!

They were ground into bone particles like grains!!!

In the past, in the countryside, he would often see uncles drying grains on a big flat area; that vast golden display was very beautiful, very wholesome…

But when the grains turned into bones, the horror was straight to the skull!

My god, how many people had that symbiotic evil spirit slaughtered, bones could cover an entire plaza!

And how twisted was that demoness, tossing all the bodies into the plaza, did she gain the same satisfaction from it as the farmers drying their grains??

Horrified, Wu Hen's gaze was then drawn to something else at the other end of the plaza.

Near the edge of the cliff was an altar, and floating above the altar was a—Ghostly Glow!

This Ghostly Glow seemed like a special fire, or perhaps the Mystical Sea Pearl, making it hard to tell if it was gas, liquid, or solid.

And its emitted light was as beautiful as agate jade, extremely enticing!