It was precisely one in the morning.
Wisps of smoke curled from the deserted village.
The scene was utterly horrifying. What had been an abandoned village moments ago now showed signs of activity.
Furthermore, even a normal village wouldn't start cooking in the middle of the night, would it?
At this moment, the black狸猫's fur stood on end.
It retreated step by step, then glanced at Chu Tian and the others.
Then, it suddenly rammed its head into a large tree.
And disappeared again.
This...
It seemed terrified. Could there be danger associated with this phenomenon?
Chu Tian's divine sense rippled.
"Not good!"
Within Chu Tian's divine sense range, he detected bursts of blood mist erupting from the ancient well at the village entrance.
The entire village was enveloped by this blood mist. Accompanying the mist was a patch of black shadow, drifting through the village.
This shadow was heading straight for Chu Tian and the others.
It had reached the village center and was about to drift to their position. Perhaps the night狸猫's fear wasn't of the anomalies within the village.
It was likely that it could see or sense the black shadow within the blood mist.
Chu Tian felt strange. His eyes saw the village's transformation, while his divine sense perceived a dense red blood mist.
The shadows in the blood mist were spreading rapidly. At this pace, their current location would be covered in mere seconds.
Moreover, a faint mist had already appeared where they stood. This blood mist could actually diminish Chu Tian's divine sense perception.
It prevented him from clearly seeing what the shadow was.
The changes in the village and the scent of cooked food were likely illusions created by this blood mist.
At this speed, even if Chu Tian and the others started running now, they wouldn't get far before being overtaken by the shadow.
What to do...?
Chu Tian relayed the situation within his divine sense to everyone.
Xu Duoduo suddenly flashed and lunged towards Zhao Lei.
Zhao Lei was startled and raised his hand to block, but it was useless.
Xu Duoduo, who should have passed through him and appeared behind him, did not manifest.
Everyone was momentarily stunned. Zhao Lei suddenly took a running start.
And charged headfirst into the large tree.
With such determined force, colliding with the tree would at least result in a concussion, perhaps even a burst head.
Chu Tian reacted quickly, reaching out to grab him.
The moment his hand touched Zhao Lei's arm.
Zhao Lei's head made intimate contact with the tree.
It's over...
Gao Kai's heart sank. He thought Zhao Lei was going to be killed by Xu Duoduo.
Chu Tian also had a thought: Could Xu Duoduo be behind all of this?
But in the next second, Zhao Lei's body vanished with a "bang."
Just like the black leopard, the only difference was that a small pool of blood was left on the tree trunk.
Throughout all of this, only Ye Ling slightly frowned.
She absolutely trusted Xu Duoduo, but she didn't understand why Xu Duoduo would do this.
The moment Zhao Lei's body disappeared, she raised her head and glanced at the mountainside to the side, a look of surprise in her eyes.
Then she said, "Follow me!"
And she too, as if possessed, rammed her head into the large tree.
"Bang..." She also disappeared.
Chu Tian, Gao Kai, and Jing Kaiyu exchanged glances.
Chu Tian gritted his teeth and said, "If we die, we die!"
Gao Kai and the other two nodded.
Jing Kaiyu was the first to charge forward, but as he approached the tree, he didn't use his head to collide.
Instead, he kicked the tree. "Bang..."
The tree trunk swayed, and he was repelled a step back by the impact.
He looked astonished: "Do I have to hit it with my head?"
With the demonstrations from Zhao Lei and Ye Ling, and Jing Kaiyu's test, Gao Kai gritted his teeth and rammed his head into the tree.
The same thing happened. He also disappeared. This confirmed to Chu Tian that he had to hit it with his head.
Seeing this, Jing Kaiyu no longer hesitated and followed suit.
After they both successively disappeared, in Chu Tian's divine sense, the black shadow within the blood mist was less than three meters away from him.
He quickly ran towards the large tree.
The shadow seemed to know he was trying to escape and instantly accelerated, chasing after him.
Chu Tian felt a slight pain in his head, and his vision shifted.
Several flashlight beams shone on him, then quickly moved away.
Chu Tian saw Ye Ling and the others were all there, including Xu Duoduo in her spirit form.
Only Zhao Lei lay on the ground, his head seemingly bleeding.
"What's going on?" Chu Tian, being the last to enter, asked inexplicably.
"Yeah, what's going on? You weren't saying anything earlier," Gao Kai asked Xu Duoduo.
Xu Duoduo glanced at him and said, "You guys were coming in one by one, how could I explain it to each of you individually?"
"Uh..." Gao Kai was choked by her retort.
Seeing that Gao Kai had fallen silent, Xu Duoduo said calmly, "I saw that 狸猫 hit the big tree with its head twice earlier.
And thinking back to before, it always disappeared when we chased it here.
It made me realize that the big tree might be an entrance to a formation."
As soon as she finished speaking, Chu Tian asked curiously, "This entrance is too bizarre! You have to hit it with your head to get in?"
"Precisely because it's like this, it's hidden! Normal people wouldn't try to forcefully hit a tree with their head; it's no different from seeking death."
"What's the principle behind it?"
"Have you heard of the saying about humans having three fires?" Xu Duoduo asked.
The group nodded.
"In reality, all living beings have fires, just in different locations. However, the fire on the head never changes.
This formation was set up such that it can only be activated by absorbing the fire on the head! I truly don't know what level of formation master would possess such an ability!
I only heard a snippet from an old companion of mine; otherwise, I wouldn't have thought of it."
After speaking, Xu Duoduo couldn't help but exclaim.
"When you guys came before, didn't you see it hit the tree with its head? At that time, you even had a formation master with you!" Jing Kaiyu asked.
"When it ran, its speed was faster than my flight, so how could it have allowed us to observe it at such close proximity?
I was also wondering why it was so close to Chu Tian?"
Chu Tian naturally didn't know why this 狸猫 was close to him, so he couldn't answer.
"I don't really want to know either!"
Seeing everyone looking at him, he replied.
Then, looking at Zhao Lei lying on the ground, he asked, "What's wrong with him?"
Because everyone who entered here was unharmed, except for him.
Hearing his question, Xu Duoduo seemed a bit embarrassed. "Well, I don't have a physical body, so I needed to possess someone to enter.
But because I possessed him, his head fire became much weaker.
So, during the collision, uh... he ended up like this.
Fortunately, he's a virgin, and his head fire is the most vigorous.
If it were one of you, perhaps..."
As she said this, Chu Tian exclaimed, "What? He's still a virgin?"