Munch!
Yuan Tianzhu's eyelids were heavy as cement; he could barely lift them.
Munch!
A sound reverberated in his ears, one that was disturbingly familiar—the sound of something being chewed.
Chills ran down Yuan Tianzhu's spine.
He tried to open his eyes, but something held him back. His eyelids fluttered at each attempt, but thwarted by an invisible weight.
The munching and tearing sounds grew louder and louder.
Yuan Tianzhu's heart stopped.
His ears buzzed with the sound, an eerie discomfort surging through him.
His teeth clenched as dread rose making him quiver. Beads of cold sweat formed on Yuan Tianzhu's face as a heavy, nauseating and pungent smell attacked his nostrils.
The scent of iron hung in the air.
After a few minutes, he finally managed to open his eyes, blue like the ocean and shining brightly like the sun. Immediately, a somber and dim light assaulted them, forcing him to shut them again.
When he reopened them once more, his pupils narrowed into slits.
His body involuntarily trembled at the sight, prompting his stomach to churn violently, surging like ocean waves.
Gnaw!
A group of people was gathered around a motionless 'object'. The latter was as white as snow, pale like cotton, lying on the ground as the people danced around it like a sort of ritual.
Its interiors were open wide.
The vital components visible to the eye, some tossed around like puzzle pieces.
Some twisted, broken and shredded to pieces.
Rip!
…. Yet, that wasn't enough to put Yuan Tianzhu in such a state.
Tear!
The group of people were clustered around it, their heads lowered, their mouths moving to the rhythm of their chomping, like a malevolent symphony.
Devouring it without mercy, tearing it apart, piece by piece.
Blood splattering wildly as they unceremoniously feasted.
Yuan Tianzhu watched in horror as a child picked up from the motionless object's gory insides and ate something long, sinuous, and slippery—a pale mass ranging from grayish to pinkish, with patches of clotted blood here and there.
They were tangled together like a serpent in a grotesque knot.
The child's face beamed with pure innocence joy, as he happily nibbled the bloody entrails like he was savouring the sweetest candy in the world, rather some gray shaded entrails.
Blood trickled across his soft and delicate cheeks, dirtying them like when a toddler was told to eat by himself.
It was bone-chilling!
Yuan Tianzhu's gaze returned once more to what they were feasting, a foul and thick putrid smell hovering in the air.
Immediately, something rose to his throat.
Gag!
Huuuuurgh!
Yuan Tianzhu immediately emptied his stomach.
Saliva trickled from his dry lips.
A mix of sticky liquid and various decomposed foods pooled on the ground.
A repugnant smell embedded his nostrils, causing him to grimace.
His face paler than snow. His body convulsed uncontrollably, his breathing laboured as he tried to steady himself. But he couldn't do it. It was unnerving. He had never seen something like that in his entire life.
There were times he would wake up with stained hands and mouth—the aftermath of Mo Xie Zhe's doing, but he had no memory of what had happened before.
He hadn't consciously experienced any of it.
But now…
Seeing this horrific scene unfold before him in full awareness was an entirely different and far more disturbing experience.
He couldn't believe his eyes.
Was he dreaming?
Wasn't he at the doctor Yang's office?
How did he end up here?
Was this a nightmare?
When it was going to end?
Yuan Tianzhu didn't know.
But deep down he hoped he was dreaming. Such a horrifying scene was worthy of being a nightmare.
His actions immediately caught the attention of the group, making them turn toward him. Each one of them was holding a crimson bag. As they marched, blood kept dripping from them.
Yuan Tianzhu instinctively took three steps back as disgust churned inside him. He almost passed away from the nauseous stench.
He didn't know who these people were, and had no intention of getting involved with them. Who knew if they wouldn't eat him too when they got hungry? His cancerous meat wasn't tasty at all!
Anyways, he couldn't trust them.
"Newcomer, huh?"
A middle-aged man was the first to arrive, his eyes slicing toward Yuan Tianzhu. Though his voice was muffled as he was still crunching on a piece of meat.
Pieces of flesh flew around as he spoke, making the scene look eerily distorted.
"Yes, he arrived yesterday," nodded a woman who appeared to be in her twenties. She had a calming and elegant presence, and held a piece of bloodied arm alongside her bag.
"Hey, newbie!"
The middle-aged man called out sharply.
Yuan Tianzhu's body trembled slightly at the call.
"Hehehe, it must be strange to you, no? But don't worry, you'll get used to it." the middle-aged man picked up another piece of meat. "Either you do or you'll starve here."
He licked his bloodstained fingers affectionately, as if savoring some divine liquid.
"… Get used to it?"
Yuan Tianzhu's eyelids twitched madly.
Get used to it my ass! I don't want to get used!
Staring at the man licking his fingers, a deep sense of disgust grew within him as his stomach clenched unconsciously. But he didn't show on his face, maintaining a frown.
And why the hell are you licking it like that?
How can anyone 'normal' like me grow accustomed to that?!
"Yep, bad uncle is right! If not, you're going to starve. Little Yu doesn't like to starve. It makes Little Yu's stomach feel funny!"
This time it was the child he had seen earlier who answered, still holding the entrails in his tiny hands as he approached while running.
He smiled happily as if he were enjoying the best meal in the world.
'Is there any normal person here?'
Yuan Tianzhu recoiled from him.
Though a pure-looking child smiling at him could be healing, this one wasn't in that category. The stench of decay was unbearable and the scene of the child eating 'that' was traumatising.
"Hehehe, look around you. Maybe you'll understand."
The young woman had a faint smile on her face. Her eyes appeared pure without any ulterior motive.
"???"
Prompted by the young woman, Yuan Tianzhu couldn't help but look around him.
"What the hell?!"
A dark forest, with a ghostly light faintly shining in the surrounding darkness, as deep as the bottom of a well. The ground beneath him was black as coal, like the charred remains of a long-dead fire. And splashes of red that he could already imagine what they were.
Vroom! Vroom!
The wind howled sinisterly, sounding like laughters.
The trees were darker than despair, eerily shaped as if they were dead spirits. Like wraiths ready to devour them. The pungent and rotten smell permeated in the air, strong and nauseating.
A cold breeze hit him, and chills ran through his whole body.
"What the hell is this place?!"
Yuan Tianzhu couldn't help but curse.
The situation was far too strange, and these people were far too odd. How could they act so casually after cold-bloodedly eating a corpse? Wasn't he supposed to wake up in a hospital? And more importantly how did he even end up here?!
"Your voice. Lower it, newbie. Do you want to die?"
The middle-aged man had a stern expression on his rough face.
He had already chewed most of the 'delicious' meat he was eating. But he made a mess of himself as his mouth was totally red.
"…."
Yuan Tianzhu immediately complied, lowering his voice—not out of fear, but because the middle-aged man had more power than he did.
Yes, power; knowledge was power.
He had information about where they were, something Yuan Tianzhu lacked, which made the middle-aged man and the other had an advantage over him.
So, he had to be very careful with his words.
"Ahem!"
The middle-aged man cleared his throat.
His hands poaching another piece of human meat, he opened his mouth and gnawed crazily. After that, he licked his fingers again, slowly, taking in the aftertaste of the meat.
Only then, he continued:
"Don't raise your voice, newbie. Least you attract them. Well, it doesn't matter for now. Where I was? Ah, yes. We're in the Black Forest—the Dao Trial is meant to take place here."
"Attract them? Who? And trial?"
Yuan Tianzhu furrowed his brow.
A flicker of memory surfacing—he immediately remembered before he fainted, in the Doctor Yang's office.
The Poster.
That damned poster…
The Trial Is About to Begin.
And lastly… the Doctor Yang's words before he fainted:
"Another new participant. Let the trial begin."
His head buzzed with questions.
Was that it?
But why Doctor Yang?
They didn't have any bad blood.
Why would he do this to him?
To pass a trial?
Is this the Experiment Treatment?
How did he bring me here?
How did he make me faint?
Ahhhhh! I'm so stupid.
Wait…
Stupid…
Mo Xie Zhe's voice suddenly faintly sounded in his memory:
"You really haven't realized? Even after taking that thing every day? Hahahaha. Stupid brat. Hahahahaha."
Taking that thing every day? That thing? What—
Yuan Tianzhu's heart went cold.
His body went rigid right there.
Throat dry as a desert.
The injections.
The pain-relieving ones.
That's why he fainted.
He took one before meeting doctor Yang. But why Doctor Yang did that? No matter how much he thought, he didn't have an answer.
"That's right, the Dao Trial," the young woman crossed her arms, her voice weary and exhausted.
She completely ignored his first questions, making Yuan Tianzhu's face darken slightly.
They're hiding something important.
Her eyes devoid of any emotion but despair, when she added: "We've been brought here with no explanation. If it's been week or months or not, we don't know. Only survival is important. And for that we need to pass the trial… We only have to ascend the mountains there."
When she finished talking, she pointed toward one direction.
Yuan Tianzhu turned his head.
There lay a chain of mountains; a curtain of dark fog obscured his vision of the top. Their humongous figures, steady and sturdy as the mount Tai. The wind whistled loudly, as its sharp gust fractioned the air. Bellow was the Black Forest where they are currently. The problem was that the mountain chain's end couldn't be seen.
"That's all it takes?"
Yuan Tianzhu feigned surprise, but he was only doing so to keep them talking.
He needed more information about the trial to come up with a plan to survive. He could only hope, they were stupid enough to spill everything they knew.
But they weren't brought here by Doctor Yang? Strange…
"Kekekekeh… you should be asking that to the fifty souls who've already met their end. But alas, they aren't around to answer, now are they?"
An old man in ragged clothes suddenly approached, chuckling.
There's it.
Yuan Tianzhu's eyes flashed eerily.
That's all he needed to know.
If it was dangerous or not. He didn't care about these people, he only wanted to survive. Thought he didn't know if he could, since he had stage 4 cancer, but that didn't matter. He wanted answers. The only one who could answer them was doctor Yang. If these people went against this little intention of his…. Then, they could only blame themselves.
The world was cruel; between strangers and himself, that was the only logical answer.
He wasn't a saint. Nor was he here to give salvation to the people. If they weren't dear to him, then they could go to hell like he would give a shit.
It wasn't a fairy tale where it was all sunshine and rainbows.
"Grandpa! Did you finish eating? Was it delicious? Little Yu found it decli-delicious! I want more! I want more!"
Little Yu rushed towards the ragged old man's embrace.
The ragged old man affectionately patted his grandson's head.
"Kekekekeh… it may not be as fine as the feasts before, but even a small bite still satisfies, no? Kekekekeh…"
'Crazy bastards,'
Yuan Tianzhu grimaced.
But that could work for him as well. Humans are inherently selfish creatures. In the face of danger, one could truly see one's veritable face.
…Vroom… Vroom…
Suddenly, strange, unsettling noises slashed through the void.
Wind gales howled around them, mourning sounds pierced the air like ghostly wails.
Vroom… Zezezezezeze…
'?????!'
Yuan Tianzhu's heart pounded.
His eyebrows creased, his hair stood on end, as a bitting wind slashed his face. His feet beneath the hard ground suddenly felt itchy.
He glanced at the others.…
All of them, frozen in terror, hollowed and dead eyes. Their faces, once full of life, smiles, now drained — robbed of hope, filled only with despair!
Zezezezeze!!!! Zezezezeze!!!!
The sounds ripped through the air, faster and faster, like blades tearing the atmosphere.
"Hahahahaha,"
Suddenly the middle-aged man and the others burst into wild laughter, clutching their stomach as if they'd just heard the greatest joke in the world.
Their laughter shredded the eerie stillness that was installed in the Black Forest, sharp and unnatural, like the grinding of a broken gear in hell. It grew louder, more twisted, as if they were enjoying themselves in a release from a grotesque torment that had devoured them.
A chill crawled up Yuan Tianzhu's spine.
The laughter dragged on—too long, too forced—until it became something eerily strange.
"Hahaha! We're dead! We're all gonna die! No! Grandpa, Little Yu doesn't want to die! They're coming! They're coming Grandpa!!!"
Little Yu shrieked crazily, clinging to his grandfather's legs in a desperate search for comfort.
"Who's coming?"
Yuan Tianzhu asked, but Little Yu offered no answer.
Then he noticed that the others had long fallen in silence, their maniac faces now serious and dark.
Yuan Tianzhu's frown deepened.
"Who's coming?"
The middle-aged man slowly turned to him, a twisted smile cracking his face.
"The…"
"The what?"
"The Abyss Wraiths!!!"