In a high-level martial arts game, a wife is given to you at the start.

A black wind swept over us.

A dozen pairs of scarlet eyes slowly lit up in the depths of the black mist. Their pupils were unfocused, filled only with a kind of pure hunger—as if something had hollowed them out from the inside, leaving only the instinct to eat.

Lin Qiye stood still, the dark gold emblem on his palm slightly warm.

He didn't move.

Those eyes didn't move either.

The two sides stood locked in a tense standoff for several breaths amidst the swirling, gray-black mist. The only sounds in the air were the gurgling of magma churning deep within the earth's fissures and the sizzling of something viscous, like liquid dripping onto scorching rock. He glanced down at the detection compass in his hand—the red dots on its surface were dancing wildly, almost overflowing. Each of the owners of these eyes was a threat level exceeding the compass's indicated limits.

Any ordinary person facing this situation would have turned and fled for their life long ago.

But Lin Qiye simply stood still, not even tightening his grip on his gun. He had faced far more bizarre things deep within the Canggu Mountains, and had slaughtered hundreds of armored giant lizards in ten breaths on the wasteland. These creatures lurking in the darkness before him were not enough to make him move an inch.

Then, the first pair of eyes moved.

The figure emerged from the black mist, its entire body covered in a dark red carapace, the surface of which was covered with fine cracks, from which emanated the same dark red light as that from the depths of the earth's fissures. Its form was almost humanoid, yet its back was hunched, its limbs disproportionate, its arms reaching to its knees, and its fingertips tipped with sharp bone spurs. Its gait was extremely strange, like that of a spider whose spine had been forcibly straightened, each step carrying an unnatural stiffness.

It stopped about ten feet away from Lin Qiye, tilting its head and scrutinizing him with the air of examining prey.

Then, it opened its mouth.

The voice seemed to be squeezed from deep within the throat, hoarse and broken, with a sharp, metallic quality: "You... are not from the Holy City."

Lin Qiye did not answer.

"Your aura... is very clean." The thing took another half step forward, the cracks on its carapace opening and closing slightly with the movement, revealing an even brighter light. "Much cleaner than those sent to their deaths. The lackeys of the Holy City always carry that nauseating stench of order. You don't."

It paused, as if pondering something, and then made an unexpected move—it slowly straightened its back, and a faint glimmer of light flashed in its scarlet eyes, as if some deeply buried memory had been touched.

"You...are you from outside?"

Lin Qiye finally spoke. His voice was flat, devoid of any emotion: "What are you?"

The thing fell silent.

The crimson eyes behind it remained motionless, as if awaiting its answer. After a long while, it let out a sound that was both laughter and sobbing: "What am I... what am I... heh... I was once a human. A human just like you. A person from the outside."

The words came to an abrupt halt.

The creature's body stiffened abruptly, the cracks on its carapace opening and closing violently with a crackling sound. Its scarlet eyes suddenly lost focus, as if something had exploded deep within its mind, turning the memories it had just pieced together back into a jumbled mess.

"I...who am I..." It clutched its head, its voice trembling. "I remember...I remember I have a home...I have a son...What was my son's name again...what was his name again..."

Its voice grew more urgent and shrill, finally culminating in a mournful roar: "I forgot—! I forgot—! I forgot—!!"

Its back straightened abruptly, its hunched posture vanishing instantly. The cracks in its carapace suddenly gleamed with a blinding dark red light, and the scarlet eyes lurking in the shadows stirred simultaneously, their pupils once again filled with pure hunger.

It slowly raised its head, its empty eyes locking onto Lin Qiye.

"I've forgotten who I am." Its voice was hoarse and broken, devoid of any emotion. "But I remember... I was hungry."

It moved.

Its speed far exceeded its previous sluggishness when it moved half a step—its figure transformed into a dark red afterimage, covering ten zhang in an instant. Its two long arms covered with bone spurs, accompanied by a shrill whistling sound that tore through the air, plunged fiercely into Lin Qiye's chest! The dozen or so pairs of scarlet eyes behind it also burst open at the same time, transforming into a dozen dark red shadows that pounced from all directions.

Lin Qiye stood still, without dodging.

He raised his right hand, fingers spread, and the dark gold emblem on his palm suddenly lit up. He didn't use a gun, nor any other move—he simply made a fist towards the monster that lunged at him.

boom.

The dark red carapace suddenly solidified less than three feet away from him, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall. Then, starting from the inside, it crumbled, disintegrated, and annihilated inch by inch—flesh, bones, and carapace turned into dust in the dark golden light, scattering into the black mist without leaving a single drop of blood.

Those crimson shadows that had rushed halfway through their attack seemed to sense some kind of aura that made their souls tremble. At the same time, they stopped in their tracks, let out a shrill scream, and scrambled back into the depths of the black mist, never daring to show their faces again.

Lin Qiye withdrew his hand, his gaze calm.

The monster briefly remembered something before dying, then died in oblivion. Who it once was is now lost to history—and in this polluted land, there are far too many such beings.

He started walking and continued towards the crevice.

The black mist parted automatically in front of him, and the scarlet eyes lurking in the shadows retreated, with nothing daring to approach within three zhang of him.

He walked to the edge of the fissure and looked down into the bottomless crack. Magma churned slowly deep within the fissure, casting a dark red glow over the entire underground. Thick, grayish-black fog billowed from the depths, carrying with it a familiar yet strangely polluted odor.

He closed his eyes.

Perception spread downwards like a tide, passing through thick fog, through magma, through layers of rock, until it touched that dark area that even a compass could not analyze.

That dark area resembled a sleeping eye.

It showed no malice, no hostility, and not even a sign of awakening. It was simply waiting. As if it had been waiting for countless years deep within this land, waiting for a specific person to arrive.

Lin Qiye opened his eyes, and a dark golden light quietly shone deep within his pupils.

He leaped into the crevice in the ground.

The wind whistled past my ears.

The rock walls on both sides of the crevice receded upwards at an extremely rapid speed, the dark red light grew brighter and brighter, and the temperature rose higher and higher. Thick gray-black fog surged in from all directions, carrying a suffocating, decaying stench, as if countless invisible hands were pulling at his body.