Infinite Hunter

After Cheng Yijiu had eaten and drunk his fill and stretched out for a while, he continued on his way, full of energy, following the rutted tracks. Less than an hour into his journey, he found a carriage lying sideways on the road, its dead horse lying on one side, but no one was left. He heard the sound of fighting, and following the sound, he discovered five deformed monsters surrounding a dozen or so people, presumably merchants and their guards.

The five deformed creatures resembled humans, except that their features were of varying sizes and placement, their hair was sparse, their limbs were of varying lengths and thicknesses, and their skin was covered in pimples and sores. They wore clothes made of tattered pieces of cloth and wielded crude but powerful weapons. They possessed unusual strength and speed—a stark contrast to their deformed limbs.

Cheng Yijiu didn't rush into battle. He first needed to observe—according to his observations, these five monsters were actually deformed humans. "Inbreeding? Or repeated backcrossing? I remember there were examples of this in the United States." These five deformed humans, the tallest over 2.5 meters, the shortest less than 1.4 meters, all shared a common trait: extreme ugliness and immense strength.

There were more than a dozen people in the caravan, probably more. The rest had probably either escaped on their own or been killed by these monsters. Cheng Yijiu looked at the nearby bushes and grass. "Why drag the bodies away?" He immediately thought of a possibility, shook his head, and took out his crossbow. Unfortunately, the advanced modern crossbows were impossible to bring here because of the pulley system, the small deformation of the bow arm to store power, and the bow body mostly made of composite materials.

So this was a simple compound crossbow, windlass-strung, and quite powerful. Cheng Yijiu loaded the crossbow and aimed at the smaller figure, who was likely the most dangerous. This deformed figure was as agile as a monkey, and his hopping movements could easily disrupt the caravans and their escorts. Someone had already suffered a cut on the leg, and while their movements were out of whack, the larger figure chopped them apart with his axe.

Cheng Yijiu took aim briefly and pulled the trigger—he was well hidden, and indeed, it was difficult to spot someone from fifty meters away in the woods—if one wasn't specifically focused in a certain direction. The crossbow arrow flew past fifty meters, its trajectory dropping but still accurately piercing the small figure—this was Cheng Yijiu's accurate prediction. He was now a master of the art of attack, so he could naturally see through the consistency of the small man's erratic movements and predict what the man would do when the arrow landed.

The arrow was aimed squarely at the torso, the three-edged, hollowed-out arrowhead easily piercing the man's filthy, fetid, yet tough skin, piercing the underlying muscles, piercing the soft internal organs until it was stopped by the inside of the ribs. Such was the power of the arrow, the sharpened steel arrowhead's effortless impact. This little dwarf was beyond saving—that's what Cheng Yijiu had said. As an experienced hunter, Cheng Yijiu knew from the position and the length of the arrow protruding from the back that the arrowhead had definitely pierced the man's lung.

He would soon die from massive internal bleeding and the blood flooding one of his lungs, likely from suffocation or blood loss. The monsters roared, their heads turning almost immediately to detect Cheng Yijiu's presence—it had to be said that these monsters were incredibly feral and instinctive. Cheng Yijiu didn't even think about restringing his crossbow. He set it aside, drew his greatsword, and strode toward the charging monsters.

Three deformed creatures rushed towards him. The shortest was over 1.8 meters tall, the most normal-looking and well-proportioned. The other two were over 2 meters tall, with arms and legs of varying lengths, shoulders of varying heights. One even had an arm that fell below the knee. They each wielded oversized hatchets with hooked tips. They were large, dark, burred, and rough pieces of iron. The blades were likely blunt, but they weighed at least ten pounds.

The two sides were fifty meters apart, and it only took seconds to close. The three-headed monster ran up and down, twisting and turning, and suddenly leaped up and slashed down. The momentum was so fierce that even the knife made a whistling sound in the wind. Cheng Yijiu stepped forward and crossed his steps—a simple vertical chop to the head, and if he saw the attack, he could dodge it by slightly adjusting the angle. He crossed his hands and gripped the hilt of the sword, twisting his body and swinging the sword diagonally upward.

The lion skin was baring its fangs and claws like a living lion, as if a half-human lion was stretching out its claws to strike. The deformed person, who was more than two meters high, landed on the ground with his head, neck, half of his shoulder and one arm sliding off the rest of his torso, and blood gushed out - the greatsword "Soul Shattering" was an enchanted cold iron sword that could break demons. It was tough and hard but also extremely sharp, with excellent blade retention. Combined with Cheng Yijiu's huge strength and the deformed person's own weight and the momentum of his jump and fall, he was naturally chopped off by Cheng Yijiu as smoothly as cutting butter.

At this point, the dwarf, shot from behind by a crossbow, wasn't dead yet. He simply lay on the ground, pink, foamy blood gushing from his mouth and nose. The two-and-a-half-meter-tall monster roared furiously, brandishing its massive double-sided axe and dissecting the human in front of it.

One of the two-meter-tall deformities had already died... The other two also chopped into the air. Cheng Yijiu turned around, holding the sword in both hands and stabbed it, aiming at the most agile one-meter-eight deformity. The opponent was obviously a little panicked, waving the hatchet to try to block Cheng Yijiu's thrust, but Cheng Yijiu just turned his wrist slightly to slide the opponent's hatchet away, and the sword blade directly pierced through the pear-shaped dimple of the deformity and came out from the back of the neck.

Cheng Yijiu spun his blade, lunged forward, and, using the momentum of his arm and wrist, he used the blade to slice through the opponent's half-stretched neck, pulling out his sword and facing the last deformed person. As for this person, blood rushed up more than two meters, and one of his carotid arteries was severed. The last deformed person was obviously panicked. It had only been a few seconds? Two brothers were already dead - one was still alive, but it had only been a few seconds. This guy with a strange head before him was too fierce.

He was deformed and had a low IQ, and mistook the lion head on Cheng Yijiu's head, which was covered in lion skin, for a part of Cheng Yijiu's head...

third chapter

The largest monster, standing at two and a half meters tall, had already killed two people, but seeing that his brothers seemed to be dead, he roared and rushed over. The merchants had long been scared, and after the monster ran away, they could only run desperately. There was no way they would come to help Cheng Yijiu. Fortunately, the Lion Sword Saint didn't need them to cause trouble.

The third, over two meters tall, snarled at Cheng Yijiu with a ferocious, yet timid expression. The sight of his yellow, jumbled teeth and the stench of his breath made Cheng Yijiu frown. The next second, the hunter launched his attack, his greatsword raised overhead in an attacking motion while he advanced, poised to strike down. The freak also shouted and charged, brandishing his hatchet wildly. Sure enough, this monster, a killer of so many, at least chose a more appropriate response at this moment.

Cheng Yijiu smiled. He had easily defrauded the opponent's attack, and after a pause, he launched another attack, striking first. The strong blade of his sword made the opponent's hatchet slip, and the raised blade slashed the deformed chest and abdomen in the opposite direction, leaving a long bloody wound - bleeding, but not fatal. He crossed his hands, flipped them, one pushing and the other pulling, and the sword light chopped off the deformed head.

With a flick of his wrist to wipe off the blood on the blade, Cheng Yijiu turned around to face the last deformed monster, who should also be the most powerful one in combat - his height of two meters and five gave him terrifying physical strength and power, and this monster was wearing the only "armor" made of thick iron sheets. It was very ill-fitting and had burrs on the surface, but it was thick and large enough to protect the monster's neck, chest and abdomen very well.

There was no helmet on this deformed head—it wasn't that big. Furthermore, this guy's head was too strange, shaped like a crooked potato, with one eye higher than the other, one larger than the other. The axe in this guy's hand was as big as a wheel, and it felt like it weighed at least ten kilograms. Cheng Yijiu killed this monster very quickly. "This guy's fighting ability is not as good as that guy Moshan. After all, Moshan has a complete set of fighting skills, while this thing just relies on brute force to swing around."

So Cheng Yijiu took a slight step forward, then thrust and chopped it off. The monster's arm was completely cut off and it couldn't hold the weapon at all. After falling to the ground, Cheng Yijiu pierced his face with a sword, and chopped off his brain and the upper part of his skull.

After killing these five monsters—yes, the little monster shot by the arrow had already died, and his death was probably the most painful. Cheng Yijiu stroked the lion's mane and curiously followed the trail of the drag. After walking in the forest for about half an hour, he saw a small cabin in the woods. "A familiar plot," the lion-skin swordsman muttered, but he didn't rush into the wooden house.

The view outside the house was awful—Cheng Yijiu could see discarded bones, rotting scraps of meat, and even dried meat hanging from the eaves. The suspicious layer of yellow fat made Cheng Yijiu frown, and many of the discarded bones were human. "I don't really want to step into this kind of house. It might smell even worse than a beast's den."

After much deliberation, Cheng Yijiu chopped down some dead wood, set it on fire, and threw it into the cabin. Screams were heard from inside. Regardless of whether it was a potential victim, Cheng Yijiu remained calm outside, waiting for the flames to die down. The fire was crackling, perhaps because the grease had seeped into the wood. After waiting for over an hour, the cabin burned down, and the air was filled with a burnt stench. Only then did Cheng Yijiu enter the cabin.

There were still a few charred logs standing, the floor wasn't completely burned, and there were even pieces of furniture half or a third burned. There were also more than one charred corpse curled up in the house. Cheng Yijiu looked at the skulls of the corpses and said, "They are all deformed minors. The facial bones of these skulls have degenerated and mutated beyond recognition." The bones in other places looked normal, so they might be food.

Amidst the ashes of burnt furniture, Cheng Yijiu pulled out sixteen scalding silver coins and hundreds of copper coins—the flames had blackened their surfaces, and Cheng Yijiu had to scrub them with charcoal to clean them. As for the other spoils? Cheng Yijiu simply disdained them—they were nothing more than scrap metal. He didn't want the weapons, as they were useless besides their weight.

After collecting the coins, the Lion Sword Saint returned briskly to the main road. The cart was gone, even the dead horse had been carried away. He continued along the rutted tracks and soon caught up with the unfortunate people who were dragging their carts. Seeing the Lion Sword Saint catching up from behind, those people were a little embarrassed, but soon they all greeted Cheng Yijiu - and what Cheng Yijiu found very interesting was that these people spoke English.

But it didn't matter. He spoke Chinese, and the other party seemed to understand correctly, as if the function of language was to communicate from heart to heart... Neither party was familiar with the other, so after a brief exchange of pleasantries about the weather, they went their separate ways. The merchants had suffered heavy losses, the dead horses and the dead men represented financial losses—and there was more to this road than just the monstrous creatures just now...

Not surprisingly, the carriage ahead suddenly tilted and collapsed, and the people pulling it were all injured—the worst-hit guy had a broken bone, while the least injured was a severe muscle strain. Cheng Yijiu walked to the side of the carriage, and the trapped merchant was still wailing, "Hold on! I'll be out soon!" Cheng Yijiu grabbed the edge of the carriage with both hands, and with a force, his muscles arched high, and the huge four-wheeled carriage was lifted and pushed aside by Cheng Yijiu.

After those people were rescued, Cheng Yijiu kindly straightened the unfortunate man's broken bones and fixed them with wooden planks and ropes, saying, "Don't move, or you'll be crippled." He applied some ointment to those with muscle strains—yes, Cheng Yijiu brought the small jar of ointment given by Apollo. After doing all this, Cheng Yijiu squatted in the sunken pit and looked down.

"It's hollowed out down there," someone nearby muttered. Curiosity is human nature, and even terror couldn't stop it. The pit was clearly empty. And the hole was quite large. From above, it looked like a tunnel, nearly three meters in diameter, according to Cheng Yijiu's estimate. And there was a strong, fishy odor—Cheng Yijiu also saw traces of what looked like slime on the walls and the ground.

"It doesn't cover the entire tunnel, but every now and then there's a similar mass... What on earth is this thing?"

Chapter Four

"Let's go quickly." Cheng Yijiu said to the merchants, and they immediately suppressed their curiosity about the tunnel, quickly put on the ropes and started pulling the cart. It's true that in this dangerous time and dangerous place, curiosity can easily kill people. Cheng Yijiu also heard them say that this place is called Madavichiya, a haunted place that has always been known for its colorful and dangerous life...

Of course, the merchants also talked about the deformities they encountered before. "Those are called man-eating monsters, they live in the forest. This time we encountered a lot of them, and they were very powerful." It turned out that these deformities usually only traveled in groups of two or three, and their strength was generally that of a strong man, mostly resorting to sneak attacks. This time, the ones they encountered were particularly powerful, actually starting with traps and then using powerful bows to kill horses.

Cheng Yijiu nodded. "No wonder it took me a few minutes." If they really rushed in all at once, it would be a bit of a headache. But it was probably just a little more troublesome. The result would still be the same - even without the invulnerable lion skin, Cheng Yijiu was still confident that he could kill these deformed monsters without any injury.

Of course, the merchants had also seen his fur, and their expressions of envy were constant. They knew it was a lion—that meant there were lions in this world, and this place was probably not far from where there were lions. Cheng Yijiu casually asked, and they said they had seen it on the family crests of nobles and kings... Lions are pretty easy to identify, aren't they? Many popular illustrated picture books on the market also depict lions.

As Cheng Yijiu walked, he was still thinking about the tunnel. "How many kinds of monsters are there here?" His question was met with a wry smile from the other person. "I don't know, but at least there are more than my fingers." Well, the one who dug the tunnel must be one of them, but who knows if this monster will continue digging tunnels on the road. No one knows, but if they don't walk faster, they will miss the town.

Cheng Yijiu heard from them that at this speed they should be able to reach a town with a wall before sunset today.

After encountering no other monsters the entire afternoon, they successfully reached a town—a small town, roughly ten thousand square meters, surrounded by a dug ditch. The ditch held water, flowing from a nearby river. The town had two entrances and exits, each with a drawbridge and two stone gatehouses. Elsewhere, there were no city walls, replaced by low rammed earth structures with wooden stakes.

After the cart entered the town, the drawbridge was raised—it wouldn't be lowered until dawn the next day. Cheng Yijiu estimated the town's population at around 400 to 500 people, with two taverns and two inns, though the taverns also operated as hostels. Although the road seemed deserted, there were actually quite a few merchants traveling this way.

Cheng Yijiu used the seized silver coins to stay in an inn. Of course, he still had to go to the bar to collect some information before going to bed - so far, he had not yet clearly defined his hunting target.

The merchants were also drinking and boasting in the tavern. Cheng Yijiu wasn't wearing a lion skin, but rather an ordinary linen shirt and cloak. The merchants cheered for a while when they saw him, and even the locals in the tavern cheered for him. Only after Cheng Yijiu sat down and ordered a large beer did he realize that these guys were just bragging in the tavern, praising him very much. Although they didn't see much of Cheng Yijiu's battle and had already fled early, this didn't stop them from describing his imaginary battles in a vivid and colorful way.

And he had indeed killed at least one man-eating monster. The merchants had witnessed two of them—the dwarf and a two-meter-tall monster among the first ones he killed. The dwarf was particularly memorable to the merchants, as he died right before their eyes. An arrow had struck him from behind, and the next thing they saw was blood gushing from his mouth and nose, and he was blowing red bubbles, his face grimacing as he died.

Cheng Yijiu became the center of attention in the tavern. There weren't many entertainment options these days, and listening to people brag was one of them. So Cheng Yijiu ordered some roasted lamb legs and started bragging...

Talking about the pits on the road and the passage below, the locals in the tavern fell silent, a sense of fear coursing through them. "Blood monster!" someone said. "What kind of monster is that?" Cheng Yijiu asked with feigned curiosity, patting his sword and saying, "I'll kill it if I see it!"

After Cheng Yijiu threw a silver coin to buy everyone a round of drinks, the fear in the tavern dissipated, and they all started talking about the so-called blood monster. It turned out that this creature also had a humanoid form, but preferred to dig tunnels underground to move around and attack targets above ground. No one could clearly describe what the blood monster looked like, but all they could say was that it was tall and had no skin.

It's a bloody, muscular monster, hence the name. Its skin is covered in a mucus that emits a strange, fishy odor. This monster eats people, and the scariest thing about it is that it will dig through the walls or floors of your home, silently abducting you, never to be found again. Because there were victims in the town, they dug a moat, a five-meter-deep one.

As for the man-eating monster killed by Cheng Yijiu, it is already a relatively "common" monster. As long as there is an advantage in numbers, ordinary humans can easily fight against it.

"Interesting creature." Cheng Yijiu decided that he must go down and see it when he had time. This place might be dug out by such monsters, and it's hard to say whether it would become an underground kingdom. Is this kind of monster his target? It's hard to say. It's definitely not a deformed man-eating monster. "So what kind of monster is the most frightening here? I come from somewhere else, so I really don't know about these things."

"Vampires," everyone, including the caravan, said in unison. "Although no one seems to have seen one, there have been rumors of vampires killing people here for hundreds of years. Listen, this isn't a foe you can defeat with your sword," said a middle-aged man. An old man, drunk, spoke up. "I've seen bats taller than a man. They can grab a person, wrap them up, and then bite them open and suck their blood!" He gulped down a large glass of wine, as if he were actually drinking blood.

Everyone burst into laughter. "It's that same old bullshit again." It seemed they had heard it too many times. Cheng Yijiu realized that his target was the vampire. Such monsters really existed in this world.

chapter Five

Vampires should be very difficult monsters to deal with. Cheng Yijiu was not sure whether this world had supernatural powers - he thought it did. Those effective ointments reminded Cheng Yijiu that Apollo's divine power was effective in this world. The same was true for the demon-slaying sword. Cheng Yijiu could feel the magic flow under his control.

This almost certainly means that vampires possess magical powers and the magical abilities described in those legends. This can also explain why the deformed cannibals were so strong before - logically, such deformities should be weak, and struggling to survive is their real life.

But now, it has gained strong vitality and inhuman strength. "That's right. No matter where the myths and superstitions are, there are stories about monsters gaining great power by eating humans." Cheng Yijiu knew that cannibalism was actually a magical ritual, and humans were indeed excellent sacrificial offerings. These monsters could certainly gain "magical" power through this method.

I think the so-called blood monster also gained some kind of power through the act of eating humans - these terrifying monsters, the ways they gain power are almost the same, only the truly powerful monsters gain stronger power through some other rituals.

For example, werewolves, vampires, witches...

Cheng Yijiu returned to the hostel. He stayed on the second floor, where the environment was better. However, even that so-called "better" was just a wooden frame raised above the floor, filled with clean straw. The linen-wrapped quilt was also stuffed with straw. It wasn't cold at all, though.

The mud, stone, and wood walls were somewhat effective at keeping out the cold, and the gabled ceiling with its attic also helped. Plus, the wood-burning flue below also passed through the second floor, so the room was surprisingly warm. The windows were very small, with no glass but wooden panels, so nothing could get in except rats.

Except for vampires or other supernatural monsters...

Cheng Yijiu recalled from his memory that vampires could not enter a closed building unless invited, and that vampires could not cross a flowing river - they could not fly over it, even if they could fly, they had to walk on a bridge or fly on the bridge. But it was of no use to him.

Stroking the beautiful two-handed greatsword Soul Crusher, an enchanted cold iron sword identical to the one in the Record of Lodoss War, he thought, "Maybe this time I'll have to drink the black blood of a vampire. I think that thing is called 'true blood'."

Nothing happened the entire night, but Cheng Yijiu was woken up by the noise. It turned out that the floor of one family's house had been broken, revealing a passage underneath. Everyone in that family had disappeared. People gathered around the hole, chattering nervously, "A blood monster! It's a blood monster! How could it have broken through the moat?"

Cheng Yijiu calmly donned his full armor—he carried the lion skin on his back instead of draping it over his head—but his body was already anointed with sacred oil. "They haven't gone far yet," he said, half-kneeling at the breach, observing for a moment and sniffing. But he wasn't going to pursue—Cheng Yijiu didn't believe the kidnapped person was still alive, and his target was now a vampire.

The problem was, he didn't know where the vampire was. Even now, it looked like this mission would take quite a while, or he wouldn't have enough time to find the vampire. After all, the vampire in this world probably wasn't called Dracula, and there were only a few vampire legends here, so it was very likely this wasn't the epicenter of vampire activity.

Cheng Yijiu didn't believe that vampires could travel thousands of kilometers to hunt - after all, they were afraid of sunlight. In the monster encyclopedia he had read, low-level vampires would turn to ashes when exposed to sunlight. Some high-level vampires were not afraid of sunlight, but they would also appear very weak, and many of their abilities would be completely unusable, and their strength would be lower than that of a weak patient.

So, making a nocturnal vampire fly all night and hunt during the day? Isn't that murder?

Of course, if a vampire really wants to travel long distances to change its hunting grounds, it is definitely a huge project - they have to use huge coffins to carry the soil from their burial grounds, because their strength comes from their burial grounds. Without this soil, the vampire will become very weak and can be easily killed.

Cheng Yijiu thought for a long time and decided to show off. He said he was a demon hunter and that after killing the blood monster, he should be able to obtain information from the people in this town. Asking now might not necessarily get you anything - this thing is like completing a quest. After completing quests and gaining trust, you can collect various intelligence.

It's like playing a game...

Cheng Yijiu untied the ropes, draped the lion skin around himself, and jumped down the hole. Holding a sword in one hand and a torch in the other, he advanced through the rather large tunnel. "There must be some supernatural power, otherwise how could such a large underground tunnel be dug? I don't even know where the soil went... Could it be that this thing can devour the soil? But if that's the case, shouldn't it be devouring and excreting at the same time as it digs, blocking the hole at the back?"

It can only be said to be a supernatural method. Fortunately, Cheng Yijiu soon stopped thinking about it - he chased along the passage, and no one else dared to come down to chase the blood monster with him. In the passage, relying on his excellent senses, Cheng Yijiu would never let any monster ambush and attack him. The lion skin on his body amplified the light of the reflected torch, making him look like a golden sun.

Cheng Yijiu himself was emitting a faint golden light, a sun-like radiance. This light shone upon the inexplicable yellow-green stains in the passage, causing them to shrink and vaporize, vanishing without a trace. "This disgusting secretion, this thing must be very..." Cheng Yijiu felt a bit like retching.

He ran very fast, having already covered several kilometers. He tapped his head with his sword. "It must be at least four or five meters thick. No wonder this monster could dig in from under the moat." More passages appeared before him, all running parallel to his. "Oh, there's even an underground tunnel. It looks like the center is where the lair is."

Under the golden light, the air here was quite good. Cheng Yijiu even felt a breeze. There must be a relatively hidden ventilation hole here. "Good! This blood monster needs to breathe too!"

Chapter Six

He had been walking in the tunnel for nearly half a day, and Cheng Yijiu estimated that the sun outside would have set by then. He was moving at a rapid pace, and by now he had covered nearly ten kilometers—the underground tunnel twisted and turned repeatedly, and this distance was Cheng Yijiu's estimated straight-line distance.

"Is this a cave?" There was already a noticeable upward movement, and the top of the passage rose directly to more than ten meters, as did its width. The surrounding walls had clearly changed from mud to stone. Cheng Yijiu also saw corpses stuck together by sticky secretions. "What is this? Did they throw it together after eating in their own nest?"

By this time, Cheng Yijiu had sensed the tunnel master's approach. In the flickering light of the fire, a hideous monster slowly emerged. It looked like a skinned ape, its powerful red muscles twitching in the air, its body covered in a layer of mucus. To Cheng Yijiu, it resembled the Swamp Ape, the supernatural monster he had once slain.

This monster was a human-ape, different from the stinking ape—although equally stinky, this one had noticeably longer legs and shorter arms, and walked like a human. However, its slightly bent waist and forward-leaning body made it seem unlike a human. Standing tall, this creature stood nearly three meters tall, a massive monster—its head was also large, with a noticeable backward tilt, making it look like an ape.

The monster's face was extremely ferocious. It had no skin, and its eyes were completely exposed in their sockets. Its nose was just a protruding hole, and its fangs were exposed. Without the restriction of facial skin, the monster's mouth could open at a very wide angle. The most important thing was that it was holding a human thigh in its hand and biting it...

"Like that stinking ape, it doesn't look like a normal living creature. It's more like a half-dead creature." Cheng Yijiu, as the Chosen One of the Light Gods, looked at the disgusting sticky liquid dripping from the monster's mouth. He was quite disgusted by this ugly and smelly monster. He casually tossed the torch to the ground. The torch did not go out, but the interplay of light and darkness made the monster look even more surreal.

The blood monster roared long and fiercely, its foul breath filling the cave. "What a filthy thing!" Cheng Yijiu cursed. His lion skin shone even brighter in the wind. The hunter gripped the hilt of his sword with both hands and charged at the blood monster. The blood monster wasn't afraid of the glowing Cheng Yijiu, and rushed over, waving its claws and roaring.

Indeed, according to the townspeople, the blood monster is not afraid of ordinary swords and knives. Even hammers are useless against it. If anything, it is afraid of fire and sunlight—they don't do much damage, but they make it extremely uncomfortable and disgusted. Of course, sometimes this can provoke the monster and make it even more violent—the few horrific blood monster massacres occurred in broad daylight.

Cheng Yijiu suddenly turned around in the middle of his sprint, just like playing, and directly performed the heavy slash of Arthur, the Knight of the Round Table, and slashed down with a cold sword. The blood monster seemed to know that he was not afraid of swords and guns, so he waved his arms carelessly, trying to give Cheng Yijiu a hard blow.

The sword light easily cleaved off the monster's arm. If the blood monster hadn't twisted its body at the last moment, it might have been cleaved directly from the shoulder to the hips. Amidst the painful roar, the monster unexpectedly performed a combo: it suddenly thrust its head forward and opened its mouth to bite. So Cheng Yijiu's sword, which had been chopped down, was retracted to the hilt and stabbed forward.

The weighted ball slammed heavily into the monster's face. The combined power of the Devil Breaker and the God of Light caused smoke to rise from the spot where the monster was struck. The powerful force directly knocked back the monster's head. The monster fell backward, its face bruised like a dyeing factory, its cheekbone shattered...

"As long as you're not afraid, this thing seems easy to deal with." Cheng Yijiu swung his sword and directly split the blood monster's thigh in half. It would be difficult for it to stand up again. No blood flowed from the severed arm and the split thigh muscles. Instead, a yellow-green sticky liquid like pus oozed out.

The injured blood monster initially covered its face and rolled on the ground. After its thigh was cut, it roared and tried to return to the darkness. Its lowered right arm pressed against the ground, and the next moment, Cheng Yijiu watched the monster begin to merge into the earth. Cheng Yijiu quickly rushed a few steps and was about to stab it down with his sword.

As a result, his feet were empty and he fell down with the monster. The monster must have used its ability, but Cheng Yijiu did not have the courage to let the monster use its ability. So, with no support in the air, Cheng Yijiu exerted force with his waist and abdomen, turned sideways and chopped off the blood monster's head with a sword.

The next second, he was on solid ground. Looking up, he saw the cave floor was only about three meters away from where he was standing. "Was my superpower automatically released at the moment of death?" Standing in this vertical shaft with a diameter of over four meters, Cheng Yijiu simply climbed out—to get a torch.

Under the light of the torch, Cheng Yijiu began to look at the monster carefully, "It really has no skin. So, could it be that these monsters can also use the special ability of painted skin? They peel off other people's skin and use it on themselves to disguise themselves as humans?" But it doesn't look like it at all. It doesn't look like a monster disguised with human skin. That kind of monster should be called a shapeshifter.

So it was simply the loss of its skin; in other respects, it was no different from an ape. Cheng Yijiu stabbed the monster's skull with his sword, ready to go back and "hand in the task," raise the town's reputation, and then inquire about the situation. He immediately did what he said. He left the monster's body where it was, and only took the bloody monster's skull wrapped in the skin of the monster he had killed. "If I hadn't marked every fork in the road, it would have been really difficult to get back."

At night, Cheng Yijiu chose a place to break out of the tunnel. He simply collapsed a roof and climbed out of the tunnel. When the townspeople went to the bar to brag, Cheng Yijiu once again arrived at the entrance of the town. "Blood monster, right? I have killed this monster this time." Unfortunately, the drawbridge was already pulled up, and Cheng Yijiu could not get in.

This was not difficult for Cheng Yijiu, but in the end, Cheng Yijiu just settled himself on the branch of a big tree outside the town.

Chapter VII

"Now we can be sure that one of the special abilities of the so-called blood monster is to dig holes, which will exist there forever after they are opened. As for where the soil and other things went? It seems that the air in the soil has been compressed..." Cheng Yijiu thought so while sitting on the tree. This might be true, otherwise there is no way to explain it.

"It's truly a formidable siege weapon." Cheng Yijiu felt this blood monster had great potential, with a wide range of uses. If it were willing to be employed by the king and nobles, it might even be able to sway public opinion and become a righteous creature. It was a shame the blood monster was completely out of control, a shame for its abilities.

A night passed, and nothing happened—this haunted place was surprisingly inhabited by few creatures. Not a single creature passed under Cheng Yijiu's tree, and within a hundred meters of him, he heard no sound of any living creature. But there was the sound of rats crawling underground, and in the distance, a strange roar.

After daybreak, Cheng Yijiu walked along the road - he had walked these roads once before, and walking them again was just to see if there were any monsters.

Once again, the townspeople breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing Cheng Yijiu return from outside. Since the man in the lion's skin had returned, there was at least a 50% chance he had killed the terrifying blood monster, and Cheng Yijiu had indeed produced evidence. When he left, he also took with him the blood monster's severed claws and four fangs.

When he took out the spoils, the townspeople cheered, "Finally dead! That monster is finally dead!" From their tone, it seemed as if there was only one blood monster in this place? "That guy is really hardworking, working so hard to open up so many passages," Cheng Yijiu muttered.

Now that he had gained prestige in the town, the townspeople rushed to see the spoils Cheng Yijiu had brought, and of course, they were willing to talk to this powerful warrior. So Cheng Yijiu also asked about vampires, and it was the old man who had said he had seen giant vampire bats who said vampires were on the other side of the mountain...

Cheng Yijiu looked at the sad eyes on the man's old face and knew there was a story behind it, most likely involving the life of this lonely old man. Sure enough, when facing Cheng Yijiu alone, the old man drank a large glass of beer and began to tell his story.

"It's been almost twenty years..." The man's face disappeared into the darkness, only his words drifted out. He probably didn't want anyone to see his face, but Cheng Yijiu, with his night vision, could see clearly that the old man was crying. "My Adriana..." he muttered to himself, "I knew this monster was coming, he was just floating outside the window..."

Cheng Yijiu put on the air of a commander and listened, "Being able to float... is undoubtedly supernatural."

"The pale and handsome face, the red cloak..." This should be the old man's most profound memory. It is a bit inconsistent. Perhaps the fear and excitement at that time were too profound, so that he forgot all the events before and after, and only remembered the most profound impressions.

"He came in, he caught my son. My Adriana..." The old man's face suddenly appeared in the light, his cheeks twitching. "I escaped?" Even after all these years, he still wondered why the monster hadn't killed him. He couldn't recall anything in between, his memory was in fragments.

But what was certain was that the vampire was on the other side of the mountain, his homeland—over a hundred kilometers away. When I continued asking, the old man could only say that he had always thought it was just a legend, and that no one could find the vampire's castle.

This put Cheng Yijiu in a dilemma. He could only look for horses for sale here, draft horses would be fine, and he could even buy a cart to go with him. As it turned out, there was indeed one. The owner of the inn said that if Cheng Yijiu needed it, he could sell him a draft horse and a cart - but the cart needed to be renovated.

The merchants bought a few mules here and left, taking away the legend of Cheng Yijiu, the Lion Knight, especially the legend of him killing the blood monster.

The town's craftsmen spent three days repairing the carriage, replacing the axle and part of the wall, renovating the roof, and removing the original seat, replacing it with a retractable bed—the cost being that the door on one side couldn't be opened. There was also a small stove inside the carriage—which Cheng Yijiu had built himself using tools from a local blacksmith shop.

The ground was covered with felt, topped with tarpaulin and asphalt-coated wooden planks to keep out the rain. This roof extended all the way to the driver's head, and even had side panels and a small door in the front to protect the driver, Cheng Yijiu, from the rain. As for the horses? The rolled-up tarpaulin and racks at the rear of the carriage could be used to create a simple shelter on cold and wet nights. If the horses had food inside, they would not easily freeze to death.