Chapter Eighty-Nine: The Corridor of Fear

A human body appeared before Fan Li, grotesquely large, its surface coated in a layer of slime. One head after another was embedded in that slime. Some of the heads had skin no different from an ordinary person's, while others looked like dried corpses, dripping with a rancid stench of decay.

Most horrifying of all, these heads still retained a degree of movement. Faces twisted in terror, mouths gaping, they pleaded again and again.

A closer look revealed that every head said the same thing. Not only that, even their expressions of fear were identical: the same panicked eyes, the same twitching brows, the same pauses and inflections in every word. From first to last, there was not the slightest difference.

Fan Li realized the truth behind the cries for help. Those heads had long since lost consciousness. The voices they now uttered were nothing more than the final longing of lives unwilling to leave the world.

Their pleas for rescue, their calls, their reluctance to part from their loved ones—this monster had cruelly slain them, then sealed away the final memories of their lives.

A pungent reek stabbed into Fan Li's nose. He saw clearly as a swollen head slowly rose from the monster's back. Its skin was covered in wartlike granules; its teeth were yellowed; and when it opened its mouth, it released a nauseating stench.

A suffocating pressure filled the corridor, followed by more than a dozen piercing cries for help. Some of the heads had rotted beyond recognition. The monster raised an arm, gave a hard tug, plucked one head free, and hurled it against the wall, where it smashed into a heap of rotten flesh.

Those heads were not its true body. They would decay with time, and before they finally rotted away and could no longer make a sound, the monster would seek out new ornaments to replace the old.

This was a monster with a collector's habit.

Its eyes had been squeezed into narrow slits by the flesh on its face, yet vicious light still flickered within them. Its arms were dark red, and a thick smell of blood seemed to drift from them.

It glanced at the triangular-headed figure, a trace of disgust flashing in its eyes. But when its gaze moved to Fan Li, its already cramped eyes widened a little. It was choosing a new ornament, and by the look of things, Fan Li won without effort.

Disgusting. Aberrant.

Just looking at the monster made breathing feel like suffocation. Fan Li took out the music box, ready to summon Ellie if necessary.

The inverted cross could create a safe zone half a meter wide, and Ellie was so short that it would not cause the butcher to fly into a frenzy midway and shift his true target.

Arms within the surrounding walls continued to flail, straining as they clutched at the butcher's body, as if trying to make it easier for the monster to end its life.

One of the monster's abilities?

The dead could merge to some extent with their surroundings. Those arms might well have belonged to the heads. They had died in terror, and tragically, even after death, their bodies were manipulated by the monster, turned into tools for enslavement and murder.

As for the arms clinging to him, the butcher showed no sign of panic at all. His movements were exactly as before: one sweep of the broad blade, and the arms covering the wall fell to the ground, motionless.

The butcher stood calmly in place, yet a force impossible to ignore lay hidden within him: a kind of violence so nearly elegant it was almost serene, a quiet cruelty like the union of a serpent and a beast.

Clutching the broad blade, the butcher seemed to be provoking his opponent. After severing the arms, his right hand hung behind him, poised to strike again at any moment.

The monster at the far end of the corridor noticed this. Not only its original head, but all the heads that had been screaming in agony turned their gaze toward the butcher at the same instant. It seemed to sense something: the enemy before it was not quite like the humans who had fled before.

The surrounding space fell into stillness. Each seemed to be sizing up the other, searching for the right moment to spring.

"Why aren't they moving? Is the pressure not enough?" Fan Li raised an eyebrow, feeling that something was off.

He had been out for two days, and this was the first monster he had encountered. How could he let it slip through his fingers?

To put it grandly, he was ridding the people of a scourge, eliminating a hidden tumor lurking in the corners of the county town. At the very least, he could also replenish the kill points he needed for summoning.

Creak.

Creak.

An ill-timed sound of turning gears rang out.

Ding ding ding... ding ding ding...

A wall slick with blood. A monster standing on either side of the corridor, each one unlike any human being. This was a scene few horror films could ever create. And just as the uncanny atmosphere reached its peak, leaving one unable to breathe, a lively melody suddenly burst forth.

A petite figure appeared before Fan Li. A cute little skirt hung to her knees, and a cartoon hair clip was pinned in her hair. In her right hand, however, she held an exceptionally strange weapon.

It was a hammer that could only be described as fearsome, covered in dense weld marks. Perhaps the welding had been poorly done, because the marks were too long and looked more like little iron nails. No one would doubt the hammer's power, for even at a glance it radiated terrifying, chilling destructive force.

Ellie was meeting the butcher for the first time. Instinctively, she treated the two monsters before her as enemies. For all her small frame, she actually possessed a reckless heart within. In battle, she scarcely thought before acting: four words—just go for it.

Lifting the hammer in her right hand, Ellie bent both legs slightly. Just as she prepared to leap and smash the big fool in front of her to death first, a large hand covered her head and stopped her.

"Don't move. We're on the same side."

Ellie had some capacity for thought, and Fan Li briefly and clearly explained their relationship.

Tilting her head, Ellie tried to shake free of Fan Li's hand.

What a joke.

Half a meter was the safest distance. If Ellie went out too far, she might very well draw the butcher's attention. Fan Li was not about to make such a foolish mistake. He kept his right hand pressed on Ellie, not letting her move even an inch.

The butcher seemed to sense something, and his body shifted. Ellie's appearance broke the deadlock. The monster far away, seeing the butcher stir, immediately let a glint of cold light appear in its narrow eyes.

It started forward, then charged swiftly toward the butcher. Its movement was extremely fast, especially in its burst state, when it could make some uncanny motions.

Foolhardiness was not Ellie's alone. Once the monster launched its attack, the butcher did not retreat a single step. Instead, he advanced to meet the danger head-on. His whole body trembled like a beast trapped in a cage and starved for days, turning pain into strength. He lifted the broad blade behind him, and with that massive weapon, drove straight toward the oncoming figure!

This desperate, all-or-nothing strike was nearly perfect in both speed and angle. Even stranger, the monster did not dodge at all, but took it head-on.

Splurt.

With the sound of flesh and blood tearing apart, the monster's body was pierced clean through by the broad blade.