Chapter 11 Severed Head

Yong-ge's head, with bits of flesh still attached to the neck, looked as though it had been forcibly ripped from his body while he was alive.

His eyes were wide open, as if he had witnessed something utterly terrifying, the expression frozen on his face, vividly lifelike.

This scene was enough to make even Shi Wuliao feel queasy, let alone Fang Yue.

Damn it, did they have to make it so realistic? A severed head was just too gruesome.

Niu Niu and the others were stunned for a moment before steeling themselves to investigate.

Fang Yue followed, and discovered that Yong-ge's torso, hands, feet, and an unlit torch were placed separately further ahead.

These dismembered limbs were scattered at intervals.

It was as if Yong-ge had been running away when his body was dismantled piece by piece, with a remarkably skillful touch.

Normally, tearing off a person's hand with brute force would also pull out parts of the skeletal structure. If twisting was used to remove the arm, there would have been marks at the point of separation, but there were none.

The whole corpse looked as if it had been turned into building blocks, with body parts easily detached with a gentle touch, except for the head, which had been removed with conventional violence.

Calmly, Fang Yue picked up the human-soul torch from the ground, lit it, and walked further ahead.

A pungent, acrid smell of blood instantly assaulted his senses. Fang Yue frowned and held the torch forward, his pupils constricting.

Ahead, a pile of human body parts was heaped together like garbage, forming a small hill, with crimson blood flowing across the ground.

Fang Yue's heart sank. After a brief examination, he recognized the bodies as belonging to Yong-ge's teammates.

"A spirit did this."

Fang Yue said in a low voice, holding the human-soul torch high, trying to illuminate everything around them, his nerves on high alert.

"It might not have gone far. Only an hour has passed since we were supposed to meet up with Yong-ge's team. That monster might still be nearby!"

The other five shuddered simultaneously at his words, and the sound of them gulping down saliva echoed in the air.

"Ye-ge, should we retreat?"

Shi Wuliao asked tentatively, earning him a glare from Fang Yue.

"Are you kidding me? That's what the patrol team is here for. Now that something's happened, you want to run? If you do, according to the rules, we'll all be expelled from the village tomorrow!"

There was something else Fang Yue didn't say.

If they started running and made noise, they would most likely be the first to be discovered and killed by the spirit.

Thinking of this, Fang Yue even extinguished the human-soul torch, told Niu Niu to put out his fire, and asked everyone to stay close to him.

"Then, then what do we do?"

According to the rules of the patrol team, they couldn't run away. They could only request support and fight to the death with the spirit. This was one of the reasons why the patrol team had the best benefits in the entire village, the best equipment, and the right to use yangshou (lifespan).

They were responsible for the safety of all the villagers!

But Shi Wuliao and the other players didn't see it that way.

What did the lives of the villagers have to do with them? It was better for a fellow Daoist to die than for them to suffer. All the glory of the patrol team was fake; their own lives were what really mattered.

If they really died, their characters would be lost, and all their previous efforts would be wasted.

But if they didn't follow the rules of the patrol team, they would be expelled from the village and sent into the wilderness to fend for themselves.

In the wilderness, there was no earth core, no patrol team, no shelter from the rain.

Rain, cold nights, spirits—any one of these could easily take a person's life.

Not to mention the accompanying problems of hunger, cold, and how to get food.

Even Fang Yue would die if he stayed in the wilderness overnight; he had no way to resist the Nightchill Erosion.

Just as everyone was wondering what to do, Niu Niu suddenly stepped forward and shouted, "What are you afraid of? It's just a spirit! To us players, spirits are just monsters. We can kill it, level up, and earn yangshou! I heard that killing spirits also increases yangshou. Don't you want to earn that extra cash?"

The others were stunned by his words and shook their heads frantically.

Talking big was one thing, but Yong-ge had been defeated. They didn't want to die.

After all, none of them had learned martial arts, except for Niu Niu, who had a drill sergeant teaching him and was naturally strong, giving him some combat power.

Besides, Niu Niu had internal channels and probably knew Yong-ge's strength? Did he think he was stronger than Yong-ge? Was that why he was so confident?

"Whether we kill the spirit or not is another matter, but we have to investigate the situation first. That's the rule. Besides, we need to send someone to request support."

Fang Yue's words made Shi Wuliao and the others' eyes light up.

As long as they could get away from here, what did running errands matter!

Shi Wuliao was the first to raise his hand.

"Ye-ge, I'll go get help!"

The others glared at Shi Wuliao, wanting to go run errands themselves.

Fang Yue suppressed the others' emotions.

"I have two routes for requesting support. The first is to ask Captain Chen Mu to come and help. Chen's residence is nearby, very close. It'll only take ten minutes or so to run there. Chen Mu is also the chief captain of Gu Yue Village and has great strength. When we patrolled past Chen's residence earlier, I saw that it was very quiet inside. He should be back at his residence resting at this hour."

"The second route is to go to a patrol team that's further away and have them come and reinforce us. The closest to us was originally Yong-ge's team, but now, we'll probably have to run for half an hour before we encounter another patrol team's area."

"Theoretically, choosing one of the two is enough, but our lives are at stake, so we'll send people to request support both ways. Which one do you want to choose?"

In reality, both routes were Fang Yue's test.

He wanted to know if anyone ran around, making noise, would the spirit attack.

This was the best way to test whether the spirit was nearby, though he felt a little bad for his teammates.

Shi Wuliao didn't think so much. His eyes darted around, and he raised his hand and said, "I want to go to Chen's residence and ask Captain Chen to save us!"

"Alright, do you know the way?"

"Yes!"

They had just patrolled around and passed by Chen's residence, and Fang Yue had mentioned it to Shi Wuliao and the others, so he remembered it.

"Alright, go then."

Shi Wuliao was stunned.

"Ah? I'm just going like this? I don't have a torch."

"Chen's residence is close. Including the one I picked up earlier, we only have two torches. I can't give you one; you'll have to run in the dark. Or, you can switch to requesting support from a distant patrol team, and I can give you a torch."

When the others saw that Shi Wuliao was hesitating, they were tempted to speak up, but Shi Wuliao spoke first.

"Then I'll go to Chen's residence. Ye-ge, wait for my good news!"

Gritting his teeth, Shi Wuliao turned around and ran in the direction of Chen's residence, soon disappearing from sight, blending into the night.

Fang Yue watched the direction he left, and after waiting for a while, there was no scream of death. Only then did he feel calmer.

"There might not be a spirit guarding that route? But it's too short a time to use as absolute proof."

There was nothing he could do. The spirit might be nearby, so Fang Yue had to be careful.

Others might not know how terrifying spirits were, but how could he not? He had escaped from a spirit's clutches before.

His eyes shifted, and Fang Yue's gaze landed on Niu Niu and the other four.

"Which one of you wants to go on the other support route?"