Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

The surrounding mist was suddenly blown away by a strange wind of unknown origin, disappearing without a trace. Li Ziyong's voice also became much more indistinct, as if he and Gao Hai had suddenly been separated by a great distance.

[Trying to stall for time, trying to find my location? You think I can't find you? Hahaha, with your paltry tricks, you won't find me once I get serious! Just wait to collect your companions' corpses; you chose this path!]

You can definitely feel that the spatial connection has been broken.

This Li Ziyong was more cunning than Gao Hai had anticipated. On the surface, he feigned righteous indignation when communicating with Gao Hai, but in reality, he used the spatial barrier to employ some tricks. This meant that Gao Hai's mental probe only detected a temporary, fake space, while the other party's true location was hidden much deeper within.

【Hahahahaha! 】

Li Ziyong's laughter, which made him feel that he had finally gotten some satisfaction, echoed in the darkness.

[Huff... Huff...]

And the deep breathing of some enormous creature also resounded.

The two voices seem to be located in the same space.

Li Ziyong's laughter stopped abruptly. He turned around and saw a huge black bear whose body was half-rotten, with obvious signs of splicing on one of its paws, yet it was still staring at him.

"I never said I came to find your location myself, so don't get the wrong idea."

In the dark ruins, Gao Hai added lightly, but then the roars and howls of bears drowned out his voice.

Chapter 138: The Origin of the [Black Immortal] and the Arrival of the New Region

Gao Hai didn't actually have a deep understanding of the origins of the Black Fairy.

Unlike other strange creatures, the Black Fairy is essentially just a black bear. As an animal, it doesn't possess the clear consciousness and thinking abilities of a human. Therefore, even if one tries to empathize with it through perception, it's impossible to see anything very clearly, and looking at it for too long could potentially affect one's mind.

Hmm, how should I explain this? When Gao Hai uses his senses to understand the traces of a strange creature's past life, he can, to some extent, perceive its thoughts and emotional changes. Whether what he perceives is clear or blurry, complete or incomplete, it is fundamentally [human perception], and it is interconnected with his own senses. But when Gao Hai tries to perceive the Black Immortal, he experiences animal perception, which creates a great sense of disorientation.

For example, when it comes to eating, when he empathizes with someone, he perceives that person picking up utensils, tasting food, experiencing the flavors through their teeth and tongue, and making an evaluation in their mind. But when he empathizes with the Black Fairy, what he perceives... well, what he perceives is something like, "I smell food! Find it! Found it! Eat! Eat! I'm eating, eating, eating!" A bear's brain cannot develop such complex thinking abilities as a human's, so when Gao Hai empathizes with this giant bear, his brain is forced to adjust to the same frequency, giving him a terrifying feeling that he is becoming mentally challenged.

[The grass! So comfortable! Let's roll around in it!]

[Little bunny! You can eat! Eat, eat, eat! I'm eating, eating, eating!]

[Strange bug! It looks edible! Eat! Ugh! Don't eat it! Don't eat it!]

The sun is so warm! Let's sunbathe! Let's sunbathe!

I'm full! Time for bed! Time for a nap!

Various overly simplistic and crude thought processes brought Gao Hai an indescribable feeling as they continued to sweep through his brain.

Even so, Gao Hai ultimately managed to pull through. Although he almost pounced on Zhen Fei and started mating during his heat cycle after the empathy ended (since he hadn't entered the village yet, no one saw this), overall, the incident didn't have much of an impact on him.

What is certain is that this mutated giant bear, known to the villagers as "Black Fairy," is essentially just an innocent child. It has lived around Little Black Mountain since birth and, seemingly due to its visits to the Ghost Cry Cave, established a special connection with the mountain god of Little Black Mountain, subsequently forming a bond with the Fox Goddess. Under the influence of these two deities, Black Fairy's physique further increased, and its intelligence grew slightly, but it remains essentially a child.

After the Black Immortal established contact with the gods, the animals in this land were affected to varying degrees, and all living beings in the entire ecosystem became connected to the gods to some extent. However, this connection did not cause earth-shattering changes to these animals; at most, their lifespans increased, their reproductive abilities strengthened, and the hunting and killing between carnivores and herbivores became more intense.

After that, the Fox Goddess guided the villagers of Liu Family Village, who still devoutly believed in her after thousands of years of development, to this secluded place. The Li Family and the Zhang Family, who were also fleeing, were taken in by the Liu Family out of pity. From then on, the three families worshipped the Fox Goddess together and worked together to build their first home.

Because the Liu family had a deeper connection with the Fox Goddess, they could understand many things that the Li and Zhang families couldn't. They knew that the animals here were protected, and that large-scale hunting would disrupt their connection with the gods and have adverse consequences. Therefore, the hunters' actions needed to be carefully managed, and each hunt had to be conducted after praying to the Fox Goddess. The large black bear that had helped the three families during their journey to Little Black Mountain was officially given the title "Black Immortal" and worshipped as a servant of the Fox Goddess, even though it was actually just a clumsy bear.

Some villagers racked their brains to give the Black Fairy various characteristics. Some noticed that the Black Fairy would appear freely in the thick fog, and when someone passed by in the fog, it would stand up and remain still like a human, or wave and greet people when they approached. So they believed that this deity was related to the fog and that seeing it meant that they did not have to worry about getting lost in the fog.

This idea was widely accepted and welcomed, but the Black Fairy was actually just looking for plump insects whose wings were damp and unable to take flight in the dense fog. As for the villagers, it certainly wouldn't attack them, since it could vaguely sense the connection between these villagers and the gods. But to say that it would take people out in the fog was a complete misunderstanding. It wasn't that it wasn't interested in such plump insects; it simply couldn't understand or think of that aspect.

Humans! Give me food! Good people! They're all good people!

In the Black Fairy's simple and straightforward mind, these were all the impressions it had of these villagers.

However, this is just an impression left over from the very beginning.

No matter how beautiful the initial memories are, what happens afterward will shatter them all, leaving only the cruelest and darkest things.

【Roar! ! ! 】

[A Black Immortal? This is impossible! Why is it a complete Black Immortal?! Ughhhhhh—]

A terrifying roar and Li Ziyong's incredulous shout rang out together.

The giant bear, several meters tall, bit Li Ziyong's shoulder, flung him into the air like a rag doll, and easily tore him in two.

The Black Immortal is now nothing more than a strange creature, a monster filled with pain and hatred that remains in the corpse of the giant bear that is already dead.

It didn't attack Gao Hai when he reattached its leg because Gao Hai had already obtained the core object of obsession from the Fox Queen. Under the influence of the object of obsession in Liu Family Village, the strange creature did not trigger the relevant rules, so it simply turned and left after regaining its mobility.

Later, as Kaguya and the others traveled, it followed them for a while in the form of mist. However, it still did not attack at that time. One reason was that neither Kaguya nor Chika turned around, but instead used the power of blessing to probe behind them. The second reason was that Li Xiaoxiao and the surrounding corpses had the aura of Zhangjia Village villagers, which to some extent achieved the effect of confusion, so the Black Immortal did not take action.

The auras of the Liu and Zhang families remain trustworthy to the Black Immortal, now transformed into a monstrous entity. Even though it no longer thinks and doesn't understand the reasons behind them, the corpse remaining in the world will continue to act according to this logic.

But when facing Li Ziyong, this strange creature will not stop.

Surrounded by the incredibly strong, unmistakable aura of the Li Family Village villagers, and after the man turned around inexplicably, triggering an even higher rule, Black Immortal would never let this man go.

Especially now that the bodies have been freed and are in a relatively intact state.

【Ugh, why am I here?! ahh ...

Li Ziyong's roar quickly turned into a scream.

The enormous bear instantly tore open Li Ziyong's chest and abdomen, pulling out his internal organs and bones.

hatred.

Undisguised, intense hatred.

It only wanted to tear apart all the villagers of Lijia Village within its sight; the obsession left on this thing's corpse was nothing more than that.

[Damn it, how could they release something like this... Help me! Help me!]

Li Ziyong did not die.

Just like the people from Takamagahara that Gao Hai encountered in the [Campus Ghost Stories] instance, these individuals who have come into deep contact with supernatural powers may not have very strong combat abilities, but they are certainly very tenacious in terms of vitality. Without special means, it is generally impossible to kill them quickly.

Chen Qiucai, whose body structure had been transformed into a paper doll, appeared at this moment and quickly ran towards Hei Xian, who was still tearing Li Ziyong apart.

At this moment, the darkness that had been obscuring the spatial rift had disappeared, so Gao Hai, who was in the abandoned village, could clearly see Li Ziyong lying on the ground, almost a pile of mangled flesh, and Chen Qiucai, whose face was full of reluctance, but who still had to take out his obsession item to try to repel the Black Immortal.

It's hard to see where we are. Can't the Black Immortal's interference completely reduce the barrier? In that case, we can only try to force our way through with our mental power.

Gao Hai didn't focus too much on Li Ziyong, who was being torn apart by Hei Xian, but rather on how to get to the other side.

hum-

It seems like I can sense something.

Amidst the chaos of the giant bear's carcass and Chen Qiucai's battle, Gao Hai detected a very subtle signal.

It was a faint voice, as if someone were speaking earnestly to you from a great distance.

Mr. Gao Hai, I'm here.

After a short while, the voice became clearer.

It was Chatchai, a member of the historians, who provided me with the location!

Gao Hai was overjoyed to have confirmed the source of the sound signal. He immediately began to try to use the signal to locate the location and bypass the spatial distance to directly transmit to the space where Li Ziyong and Chen Qiucai were.

【Roar! ! ! 】

When Chen Qiucai lit the flames as instructed by Li Ziyong, the enormous bear let out a mournful howl.

Something was being touched.

Even though they were still some distance apart, Gao Hai could still sense these things.

[It hurts...it hurts so much...why does it hurt...]

Smiling villagers feed the giant bear pieces of fresh meat, along with rusty nails and shards of glass encased within.

Some specially concocted poison was mixed in, and the pain and maddening stimulation began to drive the giant bear mad. It tried to vomit the substance, but sharp metal pierced its internal organs, rendering all its efforts futile.

Then it became enraged. It remembered the villagers who had given it the drug, remembered the similar scents, and began to launch attacks.

For a bear with its physical abilities, killing a human would be an incredibly easy task.

But it was precisely because of this that when the first member of the Li family died, the counterattack began. These members of the Li family began to denounce the Liu family for blaspheming their view of the Black Immortal as a god, and they actively ventured into the forest to try to find and kill the Black Immortal, in order to enhance the Li family's prestige and reduce the Liu family's influence.

The only thing this plan hadn't considered was the Black Immortal's fighting prowess. As a result, the Li family's team suffered heavy casualties. The Black Immortal, emerging from the mist, patting villagers on the shoulder from behind before biting off their heads, gained an even deeper presence among the villagers of Li Family Village. They began to say it was a man-eating monster that could emerge from the mist, that it could disguise itself as a human, gently patting someone on the shoulder from behind before biting off their head when they turned around. Others said that the Black Immortal's path was always shrouded in mist, and ordinary people had to quickly avoid it, never allowing it to pass.

The Liu family, already in decline, couldn't change anything. The Zhang family, wavering on their feet, quickly knelt after confirming the bodies of the Li family villagers killed by the giant bear, immediately removing the Black Immortal from the ancestral hall and declaring they would no longer interfere. As more bloodshed occurred, the Liu family seemed to begin exhibiting some abnormal behavior related to the Black Immortal's transformation. After much hesitation, the clan leader ultimately chose to remove the Black Immortal statue.

With their worries completely gone, the Li family used flames to drive away the giant bear, used firecrackers to scare it away so it couldn't rest and recover, and began a sustained hunt.

The complex causes and effects of this series of changes were naturally incomprehensible to the Black Fairy itself. It couldn't understand these things, nor would it try to. It only knew that the people of Li Family Village had brought it pain, and therefore it wanted revenge, to exact its due. That was all. Its bestial instincts intensified with the growing pain, and the frenzied bear launched attacks more and more frequently. But with each attack, the pain in its abdomen worsened. The incurable injury made the bear increasingly weak, until one day it lay on the ground, unable to move, finally on the verge of death.

At this moment, the villagers finally came up. The villagers it hated, carrying various weapons such as knives, axes, hammers, and clubs, walked step by step toward the place where the Black Immortal was lying.

What happened next was already visible to Gao Hai when he reached the depths of the forest.

The Black Immortal's corpse was deliberately dismembered. Under the guidance of a certain master, the villagers took preventative measures against this Black Immortal, who had not yet become a monster, to ensure that he could not easily seek revenge against the Li family.

In the end, the Zhang family did nothing but watch it all unfold. Meanwhile, the Liu family faced even more serious internal problems, and their previous control over the Li family began to weaken, leaving them increasingly preoccupied with their own troubles.

As for the impact of this event, it is far more profound than it appears. After all, the existence of the Black Immortal is deeply connected with the Mountain God and the Fox Queen, and the chain reaction caused by its death, such as changes in the animal ecology within the instance and changes in the lives of the villagers, is something that even Gao Hai cannot be certain of.

call--

But these things aren't important right now.

Importantly, Gao Hai finally arrived at the place where Li Ziyong and Chen Qiucai were hiding.

A place that appears to be located higher up on the hillside, above the original location of Lijia Village, and looks like a temporary defensive fortress built of wood.

Is this... a mountain stronghold built by those rebel soldiers?

Chapter 139: The Enemy's Deployment and Gao Hai's Response

Looking around, the surroundings are desolate, with tree stumps left behind after being cut down everywhere.

Some tents were scattered haphazardly across the gentle slopes of the hillside, along with a few makeshift wooden houses. Torches were tied to various corners, providing illumination to this dark place. Overall, the mountain stronghold was quite rudimentary, with only the outer fence made of sharpened logs appearing relatively tall.

Gao Hai could tell that this was the stronghold of the rebel soldiers he had seen during his third playthrough.

At the time, he and Hayasaka hadn't thoroughly investigated the area because they were trying to evade Bloodflower's pursuit; they had simply hidden in a hunter's hut on the outskirts for a while. Looking back now, if he had mustered the courage to attack directly then, he might have been able to capture Li Ziyong hiding in the stronghold, thus reducing a lot of trouble for the Fourth Target's operation.

To be honest, the origin of the mutinous soldiers has always been unclear. If I remember correctly, some say that Li Ziyong led the mutinous soldiers, while others say that Li Duosun led them.