Chapter 249 | The One Who Devours All

The group following them from behind suddenly fled.

They ran exceptionally fast.

It seemed they had sensed a crisis, immediately using some kind of supernatural method to vanish in the blink of an eye.

Yue Shi felt a slight tinge of regret; those little snacks actually had brains!

After that minor interlude, Yue Shi and his companions continued their journey toward the northwest.

As they walked, the surrounding environment gradually began to change at some point.

Man-made dirt paths appeared in the wilderness, littered with gravel and withered grass.

At the edge of their vision, they could occasionally glimpse one or two crooked, abandoned houses.

"Huh? That's strange. Why is there no signal on my phone?" the middle-aged man, Huang Fengjing, spoke up, breaking the silence.

Previously, he had been locked in either a laboratory or a dark room.

Now that he had finally regained his freedom, he had asked Yue Shi for a phone.

Through the phone, he could quickly gather information about the outside world and understand how it had changed during his imprisonment.

Just as he was hungrily scrolling through short videos, the screen suddenly switched to "No Service."

Without looking back, Yue Shi said calmly, "We have likely entered the range of a supernatural domain. Ordinary electronic devices will be interfered with here and cannot function normally."

Starting a short while ago, the sky had begun to darken at an unnatural speed.

Even though it was clearly daytime, very little light was visible, creating a very oppressive atmosphere.

Previously, Yue Shi had only deeply explored the supernatural domain of the Qingshan Sanatorium, and its range of influence had been relatively limited.

However, judging by the abnormal celestial phenomena, the scale and radiation range of this domain, known as the Orphan's Grudge, were likely much larger.

Several ravens circled high in the sky, their pupils looking down upon the deathly silent earth, sharing the scenes they saw in real-time.

After a while, the Ghost said, "There seems to be an abandoned town up ahead."

Looking out, the outline of a town loomed faintly in the gloom.

Crooked utility poles, collapsed houses, and dilapidated streets—everything was deathly quiet.

Only when the wind blew did it make a whimpering, sobbing sound.

The walls of some old apartment buildings were covered in withered vines, and their windows were dark and hollow, like giant ghost eyes silently watching the living beings who had intruded into this dead land.

"Is there anything to eat? I'm hungry."

Seeing that he couldn't play with his phone anymore, Huang Fengjing put it away and rubbed his stomach, complaining.

His nerves were thicker than one might imagine.

Or perhaps he had experienced so much hardship that he had completely given up and accepted his fate.

Yue Shi said nothing, simply taking a bag of bread from his extra-dimensional space and handing it to him.

Huang Fengjing took it, tore open the packaging in a few quick motions, and stuffed the bread into his mouth to chew.

Hmm, strawberry jam filling. Delicious!

After finishing the bread, he casually tossed the wrapper onto the ground.

A gust of cold wind blew, and the light plastic bag tumbled away into the distance, eventually getting stuck in a cluster of withered grass.

"Look over there."

As if he had discovered something, Huang Fengjing called Yue Shi's attention to where the wrapper had stopped.

"What is it?" Yue Shi scanned the area.

Huang Fengjing pointed at the withered grass and said, "Look at the grass there. There are signs of it being stepped on, and the tracks look fresh. They should have been left recently."

"Other people might have come here as well. In a hellhole like this, we don't just have to worry about the supernatural; we have to watch out for humans too."

The Ghost didn't think much of it and explained, "This place produces something called Demon Seeds, which are very valuable. It's normal for people to be lurking around here."

"We don't need to be cautious. It's the others who need to be careful."

Huang Fengjing froze for a moment, then remembered Yue Shi's way of doing things and nodded in deep agreement.

Indeed, it would be best for anyone else in this supernatural domain to pray they didn't run into this bringer of calamity.

Yue Shi didn't need a reason to kill.

The group continued forward, officially stepping into the abandoned town.

Lingering dark clouds shrouded the sky, and the air was thick with the smell of dust. Every corner exuded a dilapidated and ominous aura.

Most of the buildings on both sides of the street had already collapsed, revealing the dark bricks and stones inside.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet; there were no people and no small animals—only ravens circling in the sky.

Through the ravens' eyes, Yue Shi saw the only well-preserved building in the town: the Warm Children's Welfare Home.

There were no weeds in the welfare home, and it was clean and tidy, as if someone regularly swept it.

When things are this abnormal, there must be a catch!

Yue Shi adjusted his direction and walked toward the welfare home.

"Is it just my imagination? Why does it feel like the temperature is getting lower and lower?"

On the way, Huang Fengjing tried to initiate a conversation to lighten the mood.

Yue Shi didn't respond, simply taking out a black trench coat and handing it to him. His attention remained focused on observing the environment.

Huang Fengjing draped the coat over himself and felt a bit warmer. A small smile appeared on his face as he said to Yue Shi, "You're actually a pretty good person."

The Ghost, standing nearby, shot him an incredibly astonished look, wondering how he could say such a thing against his conscience.

"Are you sure you're not being sarcastic?"

"How could I be?" Huang Fengjing's face was full of sincerity.

"You're the ones who rescued me from that lab. You aren't mistreating me now, and you're providing food and warmth. That's already very good."

Yue Shi indeed killed people like they were nothing, but he wasn't the one being killed.

Yue Shi was cold and ruthless to others, but so far, he had been treated reasonably well.

Regardless of Yue Shi's motives for doing these things, at least Huang Fengjing was still alive right now.

Living one day at a time was enough; future problems should be left to his future self. Why ruin his current mood?

The Ghost was speechless. "You really are easy to satisfy."

Huang Fengjing gave a bitter smile. His life had been truly rough, and he had rarely encountered anything good. His expectations for happiness were extremely low, so naturally, he would brighten up at the slightest bit of sunshine.

Since life was already like this, he might as well make the best of it.

He turned to Yue Shi and said, "Actually, with your strength and appearance, if you just acted a bit more like a benevolent leader, I'm sure many people would be willing to follow you."

A powerful person with a poor character, possessing both beauty and strength, was naturally suited to be a leader.

Yue Shi shook his head repeatedly. "Forget it."

He loved solitude. Allowing the Ghost to stay by his side was already his limit.

The Ghost had discarded his human form and was a non-human creature, so Yue Shi didn't find him as repulsive.

Having too many people around would only annoy him, and then they would just become his snacks.

Just as the group turned a street corner, a blurry black shadow suddenly appeared at the intersection ahead, then suddenly vanished.

It flashed by so quickly that it almost seemed like an illusion.

Yue Shi stopped in his tracks.

"Someone's there?" Huang Fengjing immediately became alert, nervously looking around.

In the next second...

There was a squelch.

Flesh was torn apart.

A spray of blood erupted from Huang Fengjing's chest!

A fist-sized hole appeared in his left chest, and blood gushed out.

His expression was one of pain and shock as his body swayed and he fell backward.

"An enemy attack?" the Ghost shouted. His voice held no trace of panic, only excitement and surprise.

Just what kind of person was this?

How bold, to actually dare to cause trouble for Yue Shi!

More Shadow Soldier ravens flew from Yue Shi's shadow into the sky, like spreading black ripples covering a vast area of the sky to search for the attacker's tracks.

"Have you found the enemy's location?" the Ghost asked softly.

Yue Shi's brow furrowed slightly as his vision constantly switched. "Not yet."

As soon as he spoke, a crisp crack sounded out of thin air behind his head.

Someone was attacking, but the blow was firmly blocked by his defenses.

"Is it a person or a supernatural creature?" the Ghost pressed.

"I can't be sure," Yue Shi's eyes were dark.

The opponent's method of attack was unusual. There was no trajectory, no path—it was as if the damage appeared directly on the target's body, leaving no trace of an attack.

He grabbed the injured Huang Fengjing and moved behind the ruins of a half-collapsed house nearby, using it as temporary cover.

"Are you okay?" Yue Shi asked.

Huang Fengjing clutched his chest, his face pale. He couldn't speak at all and could only let out gasping breaths.

"It seems you are not okay," Yue Shi concluded expressionlessly.

A lush, emerald-green willow branch was stuffed into Huang Fengjing's hand.

Spring Is Not Late emitted a burst of vibrant life force, merging into the horrific wound on his chest.

The blood flow stopped instantly, and granulation tissue began to wriggle and grow at the site of the injury.

Huang Fengjing's complexion finally looked slightly better. He gasped for air, his heart still pounding with fear. "That was close... just a little bit more and I really would have died..."

No one cared about his survival speech.

The Ghost asked again, "Still haven't found the attacker?"

Yue Shi shook his head. "The opponent's attack method is very special. The wound on Old Huang's body seemed to act upon him out of nowhere. I can't see the source or the trajectory of the attack at all."

"A peculiar attack method? Even you can't find the source. This is troublesome; things are getting a bit prickly."

The Ghost said this, but he wasn't panicked at all. His tone clearly suggested he was enjoying the spectacle.

"How about I go out as bait, and you guys take the chance to find a way to lock onto the attacker's position?" Huang Fengjing suggested, enduring the sharp pain in his chest.

He was desperate to show his value in exchange for the chance to live longer.

Yue Shi immediately rejected his proposal.

"As long as the enemy isn't a brain-dead moron, they won't attack you so easily again. Besides, there's no need for such trouble."

As he finished speaking, a powerful spatial fluctuation centered on Yue Shi and rapidly spread outward.

The surrounding scene was indiscriminately crushed.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Three figures suddenly bolted out from a cluster of withered grass in the distance!

Without hesitation, they immediately fled toward a further direction.

However, one of them was clutching his chest, his speed slightly slower, trailing behind the others.

A flash of surprise crossed Yue Shi's eyes. That patch of grass was low and sparse, not even reaching his calves, yet three people had been hiding there?

How did they do it?

"Don't even think about escaping!"

Yue Shi's figure vanished from the spot.

The three fleeing people felt their vision blur, and a long-haired man appeared out of thin air directly in front of them, blocking their path.

The faces of all three changed in unison, their footsteps coming to a dead stop as their eyes filled with shock.

Was it extreme speed? Or spatial transfer?

Whichever it was, they didn't want to accept it.

Ever since this supernatural domain had begun producing valuable things like Demon Seeds, people had frequently entered to search for treasure.

A single Demon Seed could be sold for an extremely high price.

Where there was treasure hunting, there was naturally killing for treasure.

In the fringe areas of this supernatural domain, there were many scavengers who specialized in ambushing those who entered to find Demon Seeds, killing them and looting their goods.

These three were a professional robbery team. With their peculiar method of attack, they had succeeded time and again.

But clearly, they had kicked a steel plate this time.

Among the three, the tall, thin man in the lead reacted the fastest. A fawning, humble smile instantly appeared on his face. "Friend, it's a misunderstanding. That was purely a misunderstanding! We admit defeat. What compensation do you want? Just say the word..."

Before he could finish his plea for mercy, a fierce light flared in his eyes.

Since a grudge had already been formed, negotiations were basically meaningless. Seeing Yue Shi's murderous appearance, there was no possibility of a deal anyway.

Better to just strike!

At the same time, the three of them launched an attack toward Yue Shi.

"Aaaah!"

"No, please don't!"

"Let me go, I'll never do it again!"

In the distance, Huang Fengjing and the Ghost only heard screams and pleas for mercy.

The screaming lasted for about a minute before the world returned to silence.

Three people had selflessly contributed their flesh and blood to nourish this land.

When Yue Shi returned, not even a hint of the scent of blood clung to him.

The Ghost remarked, "Oh, that was fast this time."

"I didn't want to waste time on three pieces of fodder."

Yue Shi looked at Huang Fengjing.

"I'm fine. I can continue the mission," Huang Fengjing immediately stood up to declare his stance.

Although his wound hadn't healed yet, he didn't think Yue Shi would be willing to waste time waiting for him to fully recover.

Fortunately, Yue Shi did not take back the willow branch, allowing him to continue holding it.

The group no longer delayed, heading straight for the Warm Children's Welfare Home.

The closer they got to the welfare home, the more normal the environment became.

The buildings were old, but they were largely intact.

There were no wildly growing weeds in the courtyard. The ground was flat and clean, and several brightly colored rocking horses and swing slides could be seen.

The main building of the welfare home had three floors with beige exterior walls. the window glass was polished and bright, as if people still lived there.