bookpub Chapter 62 The Illusion Shatters
Chapter 62 The Illusion Shatters
Fang Shuwen almost threw the bowl away.
But he held back.
Without showing any emotion, he steadily took the soup bowl and placed it on the table.
"Village Chief Chen, your village... is quite lively."
He made a casual remark, but his gaze subtly swept around the main room.
An eight-immortal table, benches, portrait paintings on the wall, and a cupboard next to the stove.
Everything was arranged neatly, looking no different from a normal household.
But that sense of incongruity grew stronger and stronger.
just like……
Everything in this room is so new.
It doesn't look like the house of a poor farmer in a remote mountain village.
It looks more like a stage set up for a theatrical performance.
Besides, given the current situation of the Great Yan New Kingdom...
Even wealthy landlords couldn't afford to eat fish and meat every day.
The meal before us can no longer be described as lavish.
"Lively? Oh well, we'll just have to make do."
Village Chief Chen grinned and raised his wine glass to Fang Shuwen.
"Young man, would you like a drink? It's homemade rice wine, not worth much, but it's potent."
Fang Shuwen picked up his wine glass but didn't drink it.
He brought it close to his nose and smelled it; the smell of alcohol was strong, with a sweet and cloying aroma.
It doesn't taste like rice wine.
At this moment, Village Chief Chen added another piece of meat to Fang Shuwen's bowl:
"Eat, eat, don't be shy. Young people, you're still growing, eat more."
"Wait a minute, before we eat, there's something I want to ask the village chief."
Fang Shuwen put down his chopsticks and looked at the old man in front of him.
Without waiting for his response, she began to speak on her own:
"Village chief, I've heard things haven't been peaceful around here lately?"
"Not peaceful? What's not peaceful?"
He raised his eyelids to look at Fang Shuwen, a vague and inexplicable glint in his cloudy eyes.
"It's about demons, monsters, and strange creatures," Fang Shuwen continued.
"When I came here, I heard an old man on the roadside say that several people have died here."
The main room fell silent for a moment.
Village Chief Chen's smile vanished, and his expression stiffened.
"Young man, who told you that?"
His voice changed.
It wasn't the enthusiastic, rural-accented old man's voice from before, but a lower, hollower voice, like the roar of some animal.
Fang Shuwen's back tensed slightly.
He sensed it.
The temperature in the room is dropping.
It didn't get cold gradually; it suddenly turned cold, as if someone had opened all the doors and windows, letting the winter wind rush in.
"An old man resting by the roadside."
Fang Shuwen's expression remained unchanged, as if he felt nothing at all.
"He said that in your village, everyone was either dead or had run away, leaving only a few old bones. But when I went into the village, it was quite lively, completely different from what he had described."
Village Chief Chen remained silent.
He stared straight at Fang Shuwen, his cloudy eyes growing brighter and brighter, fierce and ruthless.
"So, young man, you're not just passing through and taking a rest?"
"No, I accepted a bounty from the National Martial Arts Academy to kill the alien demons."
He raised his head and looked directly into Village Chief Chen's eyes.
"If I'm not mistaken, that evil spirit is you."
The moment he finished speaking, Fang Shuwen thought to himself, "Absorb."
Suddenly
The scene inside the main room was shattered like a broken mirror.
The eight-immortal table, benches, portraits on the wall, stove, and cupboard all turned into a hazy mist and dissipated.
Fang Shuwen realized that he was not in any main room at all.
He stood on a barren piece of land.
There was no village, no main hall, and no lavish banquets.
All that could be seen was a ruined wall, burned by fire.
The earthen wall had mostly collapsed, revealing the charred wooden beams inside.
The ground was littered with broken tiles and warped pots and pans, and wild grass was desperately pushing its way out from the cracks.
The air was filled with a burnt smell, mixed with a rotten, sweet stench that made people feel nauseous.
Fang Shuwen looked down at his hands.
She was still holding that "soup bowl" in her hand.
What is now a blue and white porcelain bowl is clearly a skull, filled with a half-pool of murky muddy water.
He shook off the skull and wiped the mud off his hands on his trouser leg.
"This mutant can even use illusions; it seems to be even more powerful than described in the report."
He cursed and looked up, scanning his surroundings.
This is right next to that apricot grove.
Village Chief Chen has disappeared.
Looking further ahead, it was about three zhang away.
A humanoid creature stood there; it looked like a human, but also like a dog.
The person stood upright, with not a single hair on their body.
The creature's face barely resembled a dog's outline, but all its features were distorted.
One eye was in the normal position, while the other was tilted to the side of the forehead. The nose was sunken in, and the mouth stretched to the base of the ear, revealing two rows of uneven, sharp teeth.
The most chilling thing is that it's laughing.
On that distorted face hung a bizarre, chilling smile.
"You didn't get infected?"
It opened its mouth.
His voice was hoarse and indistinct, like someone whose throat was stuffed with shards of glass and was desperately trying to speak.
"Did I act badly just now?"
It tilted its head and looked at Fang Shuwen, its eye, which was tilted to the side of its forehead, flashing with an indescribable light.
It didn't seem like anger, nor did it seem like fear.
It's like a child whose prank has been exposed, feeling a little wronged and a little resentful.
Fang Shuwen remained silent.
He stretched his arms and legs, his knuckles cracking.
"I simmered that soup for a long time..."
It took a step forward, its forelimbs supporting its weight, all four legs on the ground, lying like a dog, but its head was still raised, staring straight at Fang Shuwen.
Why aren't you drinking?
"If you drink it, you won't feel any pain when I change your skin."
Fang Shuwen frowned slightly.
Reskinning?
What would this thing want its skin for?
"What skin should we change?"
The monster tilted its head, a hint of confusion flashing in its normal eye.
"Don't you know?"
Human skin ages and deteriorates.
"I want a new human skin, a young one, full of life..."
"You are a good fit."
It smiled again, its mouth stretching to its ears, revealing a whole row of yellow teeth.
And at that very moment.
Fang Shuwen pushed off with his feet, blasting two shallow pits into the gravel ground, and launched himself out like a cannonball.
Mountain-crushing force.
This time he didn't hold back.
The dog demon clearly hadn't expected him to be so decisive; before he could even finish speaking, Fang Shuwen's fist was already upon him.
A flicker of panic crossed its distorted face, and its four legs sprang up violently, propelling it forward.
No, the whole dog darted to the side.
Not slow.
But Fang Shuwen was faster.
The snake-shaped special effects of the Tengshe Fist were fully displayed at this moment.
His body twisted suddenly in mid-air, his spine contorting at an incredible angle as if it had no bones.
The fist abruptly changed direction, cutting in from the dog demon's side.
"Bang!"
The fist slammed into the dog demon's left shoulder.
It's not a vital point, but the power of the Mountain-Crushing Force is no joke.
A cloud of dark red blood mist exploded from the dog demon's shoulder, and its entire forelimb drooped limply, with at least two or three bones broken.
It let out a sharp screech, its body sent flying by the punch, crashing into the crumbling wall behind it.
The earthen wall was already mostly collapsed, and this impact caused it to collapse completely, burying the dog demon in rubble.
Fang Shuwen landed and shook the blood off his fist.
"this one?"