Night.

Pale moonlight filtered through the study window, bringing a faint light.

A figure sat bolt upright at the desk without moving. His nails were pitch black, his eyes faintly red, and he emitted a subtle stench of a corpse. A shadow seemed to dance and sway behind him, casting an eerie and terrifying atmosphere over the entire study.

"Knock, knock, knock!"

The sound of knocking at the door startled the figure from his daze, and at the same time, the countless whispers in his ears quickly dissipated. The previously black nails returned to normal, his eyes also returned to their usual state, and all strange phenomena in the room rapidly disappeared. He rubbed his cheeks as if just waking from a dream, his expression unpredictable.

"Changming, aren't you going to sleep?" his wife's voice came from outside the door, tinged with a hint of worry.

"You go to sleep first, I'll sleep in the study tonight," Xiao Changming said.

"Changming, are you okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine, trust me, everything will pass," Xiao Changming reassured.

"Then I'll go to bed, and you should also rest early."

His wife's footsteps gradually faded, and with the soft sound of the door closing, his face turned gloomy.

"Damn it! It's getting worse."

Xiao Changming could feel his resistance to the eerie voices becoming weaker. His consciousness, thoughts, and even memories could not escape being warped and assimilated.

He felt like he was barely holding on.

He glanced at the cold food on the desk, then suddenly picked up the chopsticks, repressing his nausea to begin eating.

The dishes were all his favorites from before.

But now, they tasted like wax.

As soon as he swallowed it down, he was overwhelmed with retching.

An inexplicable irritation rose up from his heart, causing his eyes to faintly redden.

So hungry!

Since waking again, he hadn't eaten for five days, the intense hunger constantly tormented him:

"Mortal... you are no longer human. Blood and souls are the source of your strength. To you, humanity is merely food. Go, slaughter... my mighty warrior... you are the source of chaos..." The whispered murmurs returned, like the devil's temptation, echoing by his ear.

He had already been transformed into a monster by that dreadful presence.

His body craved fresh blood, craved the souls of living beings.

Unawares, Xiao Changming stood up, eyes glowing red as he walked to the window, looking at the passing pedestrians in the distance, his expression shifting...

Half a minute later, the window stood wide open, but the figure had vanished.

…

The next morning.

Chen Shouyi, riding a bicycle, passed by a villa and suddenly stopped,

The entrance of the villa was cordoned off with tape, surrounded by a crowd of onlookers.

"There's blood everywhere inside, a family of four all dead, it's horrific."

"I live nearby, but I didn't hear a thing last night."

"Aren't there soldiers patrolling here at night? How could this happen?"

The crowd was abuzz with discussion, faces filled with terror.

Chen Shouyi's expression changed slightly. Those living in the villa area were primarily military and government elites, at the very least martial artists. Therefore, the security here had always been good, heavily guarded, with a battalion of soldiers stationed specifically for patrol day and night.

Since moving here, not to mention picking things up from the street, there had never been any mention of murder cases, let alone home invasions.

Committing a crime under the patrolling soldiers' noses, without causing any disturbance,

This was definitely not the work of ordinary people.

Soon, police emerged from the entrance, carrying corpses covered with white cloths.

Once the flatbed tricycles carrying the bodies had left, Chen Shouyi hesitated for a moment, then continued riding his bicycle towards the spatial passage in the city.

During the day, there was no one at home. His parents were at the restaurant, Chen Xingyue at school.

All were bustling places, so there was not much danger.

…

In the next seven or eight days, there were no more murders in the villa area.

This allowed the slightly anxious Chen Shouyi to relax a little.

Perhaps they were caught!

The morning forest was shrouded in a thin mist, with light piercing through the layers of leaves, leaving sparse, dim spots on the forest floor.

Time advanced into July.

The otherworld had become even colder,

The morning low temperature was close to freezing,

One could occasionally hear various eerie roars from near or far, as if continually reminding that this was a barbaric wilderness.

Fortunately, for the current Chen Shouyi, this place posed basically no danger.

Chen Shouyi plucked a bright red fruit casually by the roadside.

He bit into it, its sweet and sour juice delighting his taste buds.

Having been in this forest for so long,

he had managed to identify several kinds of edible fruits, though most wild fruits were astringent, with only this one being palatable.

He ate while following a 'beast path' trodden by some large creature, moving quickly forward.

His pace was neither too fast nor too slow, like an ordinary person, yet each step miraculously covered seven or eight meters.

The forest paths were not easy to traverse.

The rotted leaves, soft enough to reach the calves, concealed roots like tripwires and vines crossing like a web, making the place a minefield of traps.

Yet Chen Shouyi moved as though on level ground.

If someone were observing closely, they'd notice his soles barely touched, the rotted leaves just about to cover the instep would explode with a small pit, fragmented leaves fanning out wildly.

Given this world's triple gravity, were he on Earth, he was confident he could walk freely on water.

During this time, his strength increased another 0.1 point, reaching 16.3.

Agility, constitution, and perception also grew by 0.1 point, reaching 16.1, 16.5, and 14.0 respectively, especially perception finally breaking through to 14 points.

However, he clearly felt his power growth rate was slowing, no longer advancing at the previous fast pace.

…

Nearby in the flower bushes, the Shell Lady, limbs retracted within leaves, stared intently at an insect stealing food, buzzing around the flowers collecting nectar.

This fellow, daring to snatch food on her turf, aroused quite the anger, her eyes seemingly ablaze, yearning to smash it at once.

But the menacing three sharp stingers glistening at the opponent's tail,

made her hesitate, decisively backing down.

Despite being much larger in size, she didn't think she could defeat it.

Annoying nasty bug, but thankfully I have the foolish giant.

With one resentful glance, she scrambled out from the leaves, scampering over to Chen Shouyi.

"Good giant... sob, sob... a bad bug wants to bite me!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

"Boom!"

…

A sizable tree ahead split open into small holes along the trunk, leaves rustling loudly.

The holes widened, eventually causing the tree to collapse, landing with a thunderous crash.

Chen Shouyi set down his bow, panting heavily.

His arms trembled slightly, muscles twitching uncontrollably.

"Finally got to six arrows per second!"

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