Why is my anime art style so weird?

The tin doll immediately began to struggle, making a piercing noise, but soon a large amount of black mist escaped from its body, and the doll stopped moving.

Xu Ming was still worried, so he took out his dagger and stabbed it more than a dozen times to make sure it was really dead before letting it go.

This thing is stupid. It suddenly appeared out of nowhere and looks so bizarre. Even a fool would know there's something wrong with it. Xu Ming naturally couldn't just leave it alone.

Take it out directly to prevent it from attacking from behind, and also to ensure that your retreat is unobstructed.

After defeating the tin doll, Xu Ming waited another ten minutes until his phone was fully charged before pushing open the castle gate and going inside.

Upon seeing the scene inside the castle, Xu Ming was taken aback, and his expression quickly turned serious.

The entire castle hall had completely changed since he had investigated it during the day.

When we arrived during the day, the castle hall, which served as the face of the research institute, wasn't decorated in a particularly flashy way.

The floor is made of standard marble tiles, and the ceiling is decorated with a crystal chandelier. To the right of the entrance is a reception desk, and to the left is a notice board.

The only rather flashy item was a giant bear plush toy, as tall as a person, placed next to the reception desk.

But what appeared before Xu Ming now seemed to have transformed into a completely different place overnight.

The colorful floor, the bronze birdcage hanging from the ceiling with white bones inside, the mushroom-shaped decorations, the witch's broom, the pungent pot, and the strange oil paintings covering the walls.

The painting is full of bizarre and eerie content.

From within a cloud of black mist, a blood-red eye appeared, staring intently at Xu Ming below.

An octopus covered in eyes, its eyes gleaming with an eerie light.

A ghost with two heads, carrying a scythe on its shoulder, its eyes icy cold.

In the sea of ​​blood, countless pale arms clung to the edge of the painting, as if something was trying to escape from it.

……

What Xu Ming found most bizarre and terrifying was the portrait of a young girl placed in the middle of the wall, facing the door.

It was a young girl dressed in a purple-black noble robe, but her head had been replaced by the head of a teddy bear.

If that were all, it would at best be a painting with dull colors, depicting the mischievous nature of a young girl.

However, upon closer inspection, one can see an inconspicuous bloodstain on the girl's neck, and a figure wearing a hood seems to be hidden in the shadows behind her.

The somber tones, the toy head, the bloodstains on the neck, the shadowy figure—connecting these details leads to a chilling conclusion upon closer examination…

Xu Ming stared at the portrait for a while before looking away.

Because he seems to have found the 'King', or rather, found a clue to the 'King'.

In the very center of this bizarre and eerie hall stood a round stone table with a chessboard on it.

One side is made of white crystal, and the other side is made of pure black.

On the white crystal side, the number of pieces is complete.

However, the black side was sparsely populated, lacking not only 8 Royal Guards, but also one Knight, one Chariot, one Bishop, one Queen, and one King.

Xu Ming couldn't possibly find a real king here, and the system notification even put the word 'king' in quotation marks.

Could this so-called 'king' refer to the missing black 'king' in this chess game?

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

This chessboard, placed in such a prominent position, must have a very important meaning.

"Come play with me!"

A girl's voice suddenly rang out, followed by an ethereal, playful laugh that echoed through the empty, dark hall, sending chills down one's spine.

Xu Ming vaguely heard a sound coming from ahead. When he looked up, he saw the strange portrait of the girl again.

The voice seemed to come from the girl in the portrait...

Xu Ming gripped his phone tightly, his gaze fixed on the portrait, seemingly hesitant.

despair!despair!despair!

Just then, a series of crisp footsteps came, seemingly the sound of military boots clattering on the floor.

Xu Ming looked in the direction of the sound.

Eight tiny figures, no taller than a finger, like marionettes, completely black, with no faces but only large mouths, emerged from behind the grand staircase leading to the second floor.

They marched forward in neat rows, full of pride and high spirits.

Soon, the villain and Xu Ming faced each other directly, staring at each other in bewilderment.

Whoosh!

The eight little black figures seemed to be startled and scattered in all directions.

Chapter Ninety-Six: The Butcher

Why are you running so fast? Am I that scary?

Xu Ming muttered to himself as he casually put down his phone.

Then he suddenly noticed that there was a little person standing there.

It was probably knocked unconscious by its companion, and it just fell to the ground and only just got up.

Xu Ming smiled kindly and pulled out the 'Dragon's Dagger' to stab it.

"Eek!!"

With a scream, the little man turned into a wisp of black smoke and disappeared into the air, leaving behind a black 'Imperial Guard' chess piece.

Looking at the chess piece, Xu Ming seemed to understand something.

He walked over and casually picked up a chess piece, a strange sensation coming through his palm.

The chess piece was still warm, and it felt sticky to the touch, faintly emitting a bloody smell, as if its surface was covered with a large amount of undried blood.

The 'Imperial Guard' felt so disgusting that Xu Ming didn't want to carry it around for long, so he simply placed it on the chessboard where there was a missing piece.

hum!

His action seemed to have triggered some kind of mechanism.

The spot where the 'King' was originally placed immediately lit up with a faint purple light.

There's a chance!

It seems that as long as he finds all the missing pieces, the 'King' will automatically appear on the board.

To verify this, Xu Ming immediately chased after the black figures that were fleeing in other directions.

If he remembers correctly, of the remaining 7 little people, 2 ran to the right side of the hall, 2 ran to the left side, and the remaining 3 went up to the second floor.

Xu Ming first chased to the right.

After walking through a long corridor, there was a door that was half-open.

The two little people had obviously escaped into the door.

Xu Ming approached the door, slowly lowering his footsteps. He was cautiously wary of the traps behind the door.

blah blah!

Strange knocking sounds could be faintly heard coming from behind the door, somewhat like a cleaver chopping bones.

Xu Ming hesitated for a moment, then slowly pushed open the door.

A stench hit him instantly, and Xu Ming almost vomited up the bread he had just eaten.

The smell is like the result of soaking a pile of raw meat in water for several days, then leaving it to dry in the sun, and finally throwing it into a cesspool and smoking it for two days.

It's practically a biological weapon.

Xu Ming peered through the opened crack.

The scene inside was just as appalling as the smell.

The table was piled high with severed limbs, the floor was covered with a thick layer of blood, and many corpses were hanging in mid-air with iron hooks. The whole room resembled a human slaughterhouse.

Deep inside this 'slaughterhouse', a huge, gray-white fat man was dismembering a female corpse with a super-sized machete that was as tall as Xu Ming.

Those two scoundrels either thought they'd found a powerful backer, or they'd simply lost their minds.

He brazenly stood on the pile of corpses behind the butcher, spitting at Xu Ming and slapping his buttocks.

Xu Ming immediately stood up, took out his phone, held his breath, and then pushed open the door and walked in with a blank expression.

The butcher turned around immediately upon hearing the noise.

Xu Ming then discovered that on its fat belly, there was actually a huge mouth that was almost as wide as its entire body!

The butcher casually picked up an arm from the chopping board and stuffed it into the large mouth on the stomach. The large mouth immediately began to chew it, and red juice splattered everywhere.

"Roar!"

Upon seeing a living person, the butcher was stunned for a moment, then suddenly roared and charged at Xu Ming with his cleaver.

Xu Ming calmly picked up his phone, aimed it at the butcher, and pressed the shutter button.

Click!

With a soft sound, purple-gold lightning accompanied by mysterious runes tore through the darkness of the slaughterhouse.

The butcher immediately dropped his cleaver, covered his face, and howled in pain, but it was soon reduced to a pile of minced meat.

When Xu Ming looked at the two little figures again, they were huddled together, trembling.

Xu Ming smiled slightly and drew his Poison Dragon Dagger...

One minute later, Xu Ming walked out of the slaughterhouse with a relaxed smile on his face.

He held two 'Royal Guard' chess pieces in his hand.

Xu Ming placed the two chess pieces on the chessboard, waited for his phone to charge up, and then walked to the right side of the hall.

The wooden door on the right was tightly closed, and Xu Ming was about to push it open.

Wow!

Suddenly, the observation hole, about the size of a pencil box, on the door was pulled open, and a gray-white face appeared behind it.

That was a strange woman! Her face was completely bloodless, and she looked like a doll.