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crunch--

The wooden bed made another unpleasant creaking sound.

Xu Hao lay sprawled on the hard bed, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Back when he was still collecting protection money on the streets, if he encountered something so strange, he would have already fled overnight.

But he wasn't really here to work for that million-dollar annual salary; he was here on an important mission from his boss.

It should be noted that the Illuminati is now teeming with talented individuals.

Especially the newly recruited group includes fierce fighters with explosive combat power, experts proficient in various high technologies, and even highly educated intellectuals with doctoral or professorial titles.

Among so many elite soldiers, the boss just happened to choose me to come to this godforsaken place as an undercover agent.

What does this signify? It represents an immense level of trust!

If Xu Hao deserts, how will he ever face the boss again, how will he ever hold his head high in the association?
Despite his seemingly carefree attitude and tendency to consider himself a "veteran" of the Guangzhao Society, he is actually very shrewd.

In terms of combat ability, he's not even close to being ranked.

In terms of education, he dropped out of school at a young age and spent his days on the streets. The number of characters he knew was only slightly better than that of an illiterate person.

What does he have to compete with those elites? Only a desperate fight!
So even if it's tough, I have to do the job perfectly and not embarrass him.

Thinking of this, Xu Hao took a deep breath of the musty, cold air in the room and rubbed his stomach vigorously with both hands.

With a thought, the intense heat and blood energy he had gained from cultivating the "Great Sun Burning Body Technique" began to circulate slowly within his body.

A warm feeling surged up in my chest and lower abdomen, traveling through my limbs and bones, quickly dispelling the chill that had invaded my body.

Feeling the intense heat surging through his meridians, his initial unease was replaced by a renewed sense of confidence.

What's there to be afraid of!
If we really push him too far, we can just go all out and beat those monsters up like thugs fighting for territory on the street.

Anyway, after being a top-notch enforcer for so many years, he had long since developed a set of survival rules.

If you can beat them, beat them to a pulp; if you can't, run for your life.

If you can't escape, then lie down and play dead.

At worst, as long as he yells in his mind, the boss can immediately sense his location.

When the time comes, the boss will personally take action and raze this wretched village to the ground!

Having prepared for the worst, Xu Hao put his hands behind his head, his eyes flickering uncertainly in the darkness.

While eating that meal in the cafeteria that evening, which was devoid of any oil, Supervisor Wu specifically sought him out and, with a stern, expressionless face, informed him of something.

Tomorrow is the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar. According to custom, the village will hold a major traditional festival, and all the villagers must participate in the sacrificial ceremony.

Based on the information the leader had previously provided, tomorrow night's sacrificial ceremony will likely be the moment when these monsters reveal their true colors.

What kind of shady ritual was it?

Will that hidden entrance to the other world, and the thousand-year-old zombie that the boss emphasized, appear tomorrow night?

Xu Hao clenched his fist, and his knuckles cracked softly.

These past few days he's been playing dumb, perfectly portraying the image of a street thug.

Those bastards probably haven't suspected him yet.

No matter what happens tomorrow night, he must find out the truth about the village and the whereabouts of Jiang Chen before the sacrificial ceremony.

Once accurate intelligence is obtained, the chairman will be notified immediately, and the undercover mission will be considered a complete success.

call--

A gust of bleak wind swept across the ground, causing the dry branches outside to sway from side to side and occasionally lash against the brick wall.

The old wooden window frames rattled loudly in the wind.

Even with such a gloomy and terrifying surrounding environment, Xu Hao could not resist the onslaught of weariness.

His mouth was half-open, one leg was dangling loosely over the edge of the bed, and there was even a trace of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth.

Consciousness gradually began to blur, and breathing slowed down, becoming heavy and long.

"Kara, kara..."

Suddenly, a faint but sharp friction sound rang out.

It was as if something unseen was peering out the window, digging at the thin layer of newspaper with its fingernails.

Xu Hao jolted awake, instantly snapping out of his daze.

He sat up abruptly, his eyes fixed on the window, and asked in a deep voice:

Who's outside?

There was no response from inside the house, and only the sound of the wind outside.

No human figure was reflected on the dimly lit window paper; only the shadows of a few tree branches swayed back and forth in the wind.

Xu Hao was filled with doubt and unease.

He reached under his pillow, pulled out his phone, and pressed the power button.

The screen lit up, and the glaring light momentarily blinded me.

The current time is prominently displayed in the center of the screen.

12: 03.

"Was it just a hallucination I had when I was about to fall asleep?"

Xu Hao muttered something to himself and stuffed his phone back under his pillow.

The wind outside the window had stopped at some point, and the clanging of the wooden window frame also ceased abruptly.

In that instant, the entire village fell into an absolute silence.

Even the air seemed to solidify into heavy, leaden blocks, making one's chest feel suffocated.

In the midst of this extreme silence, a strange sound, carried by the vibrations of the ground, slowly crept into Xu Hao's ears.

"Roll-roll—roll-roll—"

The sound was deep and rhythmic.

It sounded like the wheels of a heavy truck rolling over a bumpy dirt road.

Xu Hao frowned, and his previously somewhat dazed eyes instantly sharpened.

In the dead of night, no vehicles should be passing through this remote mountain village.

Could it be that those monsters are up to something tonight?
Upon realizing this, Xu Hao shook off his last bit of sleepiness and quickly sat up.

He tiptoed off the bed, his feet landing on the cold cement floor.

He then grabbed his coat and trousers draped over the back of the chair and quickly put them on.

Then he bent down, pulled out his sneakers from under the bed, quickly put them on, and tied the laces.

After getting dressed, Xu Hao walked quickly to the door.

With his right hand gripping the rusty doorknob, his thumb pressed against the latch, he slowly pushed it down.

"Click".

With a faint sound, the wooden door was pulled open a crack.

A cold wind, thick with moisture, slipped in through the crack in the door and hit my face.

The wind carried a lingering musty smell, along with a faint, inexplicable fishy odor.

Xu Hao turned sideways, like a wary night cat, and squeezed out through the crack in the door.

Fog has risen in the courtyard.

The grayish-white mist swirled along the ground, engulfing his ankles.

He huddled against the wall, inching his way to the large iron gate of the courtyard.

The door was ajar.

He peered through the gap between the two iron gates at the dirt road outside.

There was no one on the road.

But the rumbling sound became clearer, seemingly coming from the east side of the village.

Xu Hao hesitated for a moment, then pushed open the iron gate and slipped into the narrow alley outside.

He deliberately lowered his center of gravity, slightly bent his knees, landed on the outside of his feet first, and then shifted his weight to the entire sole of his feet.

This is the experience he gained from years of fighting in the streets. Even walking on a dirt road full of gravel and dry branches, he can barely make a sound.

Following the two-meter-wide earthen alleyway, Xu Hao made his way towards the direction of the sound.

The further east you go, the thicker the fog becomes.

A fine layer of condensation formed on the surface of the earthen wall.

Xu Hao occasionally brushed his fingers against the wall and could feel a slippery, damp, and cold discomfort.

As he turned a corner, he suddenly stopped.

A few faint halos of light could be seen through the fog about twenty or thirty meters ahead.

It wasn't the usual warm yellow light, but rather a cold, greenish hue.

Xu Hao pressed his body tightly against the shadows in the corner of the wall, peeking out half of his head.

Since practicing the "Great Sun Burning Body Technique", his senses have become much more acute than before.

Several figures carrying white paper lanterns were seen walking slowly along the dirt road in a row.

Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be villagers from Guhuai Village.

They were wearing heavy black cotton-padded coats, their faces were pale, and their expressions were blank.

Despite it being a summer night, these people were all wrapped up tightly.

There were about a dozen people in the group, including men, women, and children.

Their walking posture was extremely strange, with their arms hanging stiffly at their sides without any swinging.

When taking a step, the knees barely bend and the heels don't leave the ground; the body simply moves forward horizontally on the dirt road.

At the very back of the line, there was a figure that Xu Hao recognized.

Supervisor Wu.

He wasn't carrying a lantern; he was simply pulling on an old, single-wheeled wooden cart with both hands, struggling to move forward.

"Roll-roll—roll-roll—"

The axle of the wooden cart was clearly deformed, and the wheel would jam every half turn, dragging a deep rut in the ground.

There was a small mountain of stuff piled up on the truck bed, covered with a tattered tarpaulin.

As the vehicle bumped along, dark red liquid dripped continuously from the edge of the tarpaulin, splashing onto the dry dust and leaving dark spots.

That nauseating, fishy stench was coming from this car.

Xu Hao held his breath and remained motionless, lying in the shadows, quietly observing.

Once the group had passed the fork in the road, he slipped out from behind the wall, landing a hundred meters away, and followed the dark red liquid left on the ground.

The group eventually stopped in an open space in the center of the village.

This is the former site of the ancestral hall in Guhuai Village.

Several dilapidated halls had already collapsed halfway, and the remaining surrounding walls were riddled with holes.

Instead of trees, a huge well stands out prominently in the central courtyard of the ancestral hall.

The well opening is three or four times larger than that of an ordinary well, and is surrounded by a ring of blackened bluestone well curb.

Xu Hao hid behind a stone lion outside the ancestral hall gate, using the eerie green light emitted by the paper lanterns in the courtyard to see the scene inside.

Supervisor Wu stopped and released the handle of the wooden cart.

Then he turned around, walked to the side of the truck bed, and ripped off the tarpaulin.

Xu Hao's pupils contracted sharply.

What was piled on the truck was not some junk, but a pile of skinned livestock.

It looks like a sheep or a dog, but the joints of its limbs have been broken and twisted in the opposite direction.

From a distance, they look like giant, flesh-colored spiders, piled up and intertwined together.

With a blank expression, Supervisor Wu bent down, grabbed the hind legs of a skinless animal with both hands, and forcibly pulled it off the vehicle.

He dragged the mangled body to the edge of the dark well.

With a powerful thrust of his arms, he threw the livestock directly into the well.

one second.

two seconds.

There was no sound of livestock falling into the water and splashing up from the well.

There was no muffled sound of a heavy object falling to the bottom of the well.

Instead, there was a series of extremely fine, dense chewing sounds.

"Crunch... Squeak..."

It's like countless mouths covered with tiny, sharp teeth, simultaneously tearing flesh and chewing bones deep at the bottom of a well.

The sound, amplified by the well shaft, echoed through the quiet courtyard of the ancestral hall, sending chills down one's spine.

Xu Hao felt a churning in his stomach and a sour taste rising in his throat.

I almost vomited up the steamed buns and pickled vegetables I ate that afternoon.

He held it in tightly, forcing back the acidic fluid that was rising in his throat.

Manager Wu repeated his previous actions, throwing the livestock from the truck into the well one by one.

The chewing sounds from the bottom of the well grew louder and more frequent, even emitting a kind of joyful and greedy low hum.

Until the truck bed is empty.

Manager Wu took two steps back, turned around, and his cold gaze swept over the villagers carrying lanterns.

The villagers placed their lanterns on the ground in unison.

Then, they lined up and walked to the well curb one by one.

The first one was a skinny old man.

He stretched his arms out directly above the well opening, then pulled a rice-cutting sickle from his sleeve.

Without the slightest hesitation, he gripped the sickle and slashed his left wrist.

Bright red blood dripped from his withered fingers into the well.

The old man slowly raised his head, and the muscles on his wrinkled face began to twitch irregularly.

Then, he pulled his lips wildly toward his ears, revealing the eerie smile that Xu Hao had seen during the day, a smile so perfect it was like a mask.

The skin at the corner of his mouth was even slightly torn due to the excessive pulling.

After the old man finished cutting, he stepped aside.

The next middle-aged woman stepped forward, took the sickle, and repeated the same action.

No one cried out in pain, nor did anyone show any fear.

The only sounds were the hissing of a sickle cutting through flesh and the dripping of blood into the well.

Xu Hao squatted behind the stone lion, his hands clenched into fists.

He finally understood why the villagers had looked so stiff during the day.

The blood in their bodies had probably been almost completely drained by what was in that deep well.

The entire ancient locust village is like a giant breeding farm.

The villagers are the living containers that provide nourishment.

What lies hidden beneath that well is definitely the true form of Jiang Chen, or a part of his body, that the boss is looking for!

With his target identified, Xu Hao's heart began to race.

Now, all I need to do is quietly slip away, find a safe corner, and report the situation to my boss. That will be the end of my undercover mission.

He took a deep breath of the cold, fishy-smelling air, forcibly suppressing his excitement, and slowly pushed off with his heels, preparing to retreat along the wall.

Just then.

A bone-chilling cold suddenly shot up the back of his neck.

Without warning, a hand landed on his left shoulder. (End of Chapter)