This was Fang Ming's first true encounter with Bai Mu Village in the dead of night.
Unlike his previous fleeting glimpses, this time Fang Ming observed from the cautious perspective of an outsider, moving between houses.
Some monsters were covered in blood-red eyes, others writhed with tentacles all over their bodies, and some, like floating heads, flew about…
Fang Ming hid in the shadows, cautiously watching his surroundings. "Strange, why do these monsters keep fighting each other? Aren't they all transformed villagers?"
Watching a fight between monsters not far away, Fang Ming was deeply puzzled. He had pondered this question before. He had previously seen a two-headed monster devouring weaker monsters indiscriminately, initially dismissing it as the natural law of the jungle among monsters.
After realizing that these monsters were all transformed from villagers, he found it inexplicable.
Wasn't this a form of "cannibalism"? Moreover, with so few people in Bai Mu Village, they should have gone extinct long ago if they kept eating each other.
The fight nearby ended quickly. Of course, it was less of a fight and more of a one-sided slaughter. The monster with three tentacles, flying in the air, was easily torn apart by another four-armed monster, which then carried its corpse away in a certain direction.
“Not eating it?” Fang Ming watched the four-armed monster leave in confusion. Based on his understanding, these monsters had no reason whatsoever, and yet they left purposefully after killing their prey.
Weird, very weird.
Fang Ming quietly followed. Along the way, he saw several more battles of the same nature. The victorious monsters also carried their spoils towards the same direction.
“This direction is… towards the plaza?”
Fang Ming looked at the direction, took out the map he had recorded during the day, and compared it. He confirmed that the monsters were heading towards the plaza.
He opened his diary. The content for the next hour had not yet updated, but the good news was that the content from the past hour had not changed.
Fang Ming put away his diary and headed straight for the plaza. The monsters he encountered on the way either ignored him or fled in terror.
As Fang Ming cautiously made his way to the plaza, he tried to distinguish between these two types of monsters. With the support of a large amount of data, he quickly discovered the difference between them.
Those that ignored him were the larger monsters, at least human-sized. The ones that fled in terror upon seeing him were all smaller in size, like the most numerous head monsters, which scattered like startled rabbits when they saw him charging towards them.
“It seems these two types of monsters are different…” Fang Ming noted this, a guess forming in his mind.
“These small monsters might not be transformed villagers. Only the larger monsters are villagers. But if that's the case, where do these small monsters come from?”
Bai Mu Village felt like an ever-expanding circle to Fang Ming. The more he knew, the more the unknown he encountered. There were too many mysteries here.
“Never mind, I won’t think about it for now.” The outline of the plaza was already in sight. Fang Ming stopped and surveyed his surroundings, quickly finding the large tree he had observed the plaza from during the day.
Fang Ming tiptoed to the base of the tree, intending to climb it.
He looked up.
“…” Fang Ming looked at the monster in the tree, and the monster in the tree looked at Fang Ming.
One person and one monster faced each other.
“Hello… hello?” Fang Ming greeted awkwardly, slowly backing away, not caring if it could understand.
This monster was a type of long-necked monster, but it had two heads. The right neck was like a giant python coiled around the tree trunk, while the left neck stood erect like an angry cobra, staring at Fang Ming.
“Hk! Hk!…” The monster emitted a threatening sound. The erect left head slowly approached Fang Ming, “Smells like human…”
Fang Ming was startled and immediately wanted to run, thinking his identity had been discovered.
But the monster was faster. The left head darted forward, instantly wrapping around Fang Ming's body, constricting him tightly. Then, it lifted him off the ground, its gaze fixed on Fang Ming's face.
“Uh… uh…” Fang Ming struggled with all his might, but it was useless. He was squeezed so hard he couldn't breathe, his face gradually turning from red to purple, and his body starting to go numb.
These monsters… these monsters were still too powerful.
Fang Ming gave a wry smile. He had truly fallen into a trap this time. He had underestimated these guys and relied too much on what was written in the diary.
“A fellow creature still in growth…” The monster stared at Fang Ming for a long time. Just as Fang Ming felt his vision darkening and was about to lose consciousness, it suddenly loosened its grip, and retreated back into the tree canopy.
"Bang!"
"Cough, cough, cough…" Fang Ming suddenly gasped for air and began to cough violently. He was also in pain as he was thrown to the ground, grimacing. Falling from a height of several meters, it was a miracle he didn't bleed.
But he couldn't care about the pain. He quickly got up and moved away from the tree. This creature’s strength was no less than that of the house-sized two-headed monster! Fortunately, it sensed Fang Ming's physical changes, otherwise Fang Ming would have met his demise here.
“Damn it, did you even consider the tree’s feelings hiding up there? Such a massive thing.” Fang Ming cursed under his breath after getting away from the tree. Who knew such a thing was hiding there.
Fang Ming, still shaken, didn't forget his mission for the day. He opened his diary and read the updated entry: "I wanted to climb the large tree to observe the plaza, but I encountered a terrifying monster and almost died. After escaping, I had to imitate those monsters and climb onto the rooftops. From the rooftop, I observed the distant plaza and saw a shocking scene."
What shocking scene? The diary didn't say, and Fang Ming was itching to know. He quickly searched for houses that were easy to climb, following the diary's hint.
Soon, after trying a few, Fang Ming found that one house had several rough indentations on one side, seemingly made by something forcefully striking it.
This was convenient for him. After a few simple attempts, Fang Ming quickly figured out the route and, with a mix of jumps and sprints, reached the rooftop. He cautiously lay down and looked towards the plaza.
From this elevated vantage point, most of the plaza came into view.
Large monsters were standing beside an altar, continuously piling up the corpses of various monsters onto it. Swarms of smaller monsters, in a streamlined fashion, transported the monster corpses to them.
Thick black "smoke" billowed from the pile of corpses and condensed above the altar, gradually forming a black cloud, which continued to grow with the supply of "smoke."
“What is that… thing?”
Fang Ming's gaze was fixed on the black cloud, his heart pounding uncontrollably. A sense of unease washed over him, a fear akin to facing a natural predator, drying his throat.
“Is there really a controller behind these monsters? To be able to carry out such an organized operation.”
Looking at this group of monsters, Fang Ming knew there was definitely a controller in this village. He wondered who it could be, his primary suspect being the village chief.
Fang Ming took out his diary and glanced at it. The content hadn't updated yet.
“A shocking scene…” Fang Ming gnawed on his thumb, looking at the diary's prediction and then at the situation in the plaza. Regardless, the scene unfolding in the plaza did not yet reach a level that could be considered shocking to him.
“Are there any other changes?” Fang Ming put away his diary and shifted his gaze back to the altar in the plaza.
“Thump! Thump! Thump!…”
It was the black cloud!
A heartbeat sound, starting weak and growing stronger, emerged from the black cloud. All the monsters simultaneously prostrated themselves on the ground, bowing towards the black cloud.
Fang Ming clutched his chest, looking at the black cloud with disbelief. Even his own heartbeat was being affected by whatever was inside the black cloud!
What on earth was it?
The dull heartbeat gradually stabilized, and the black cloud, initially smoky, began to solidify, forming a black cocoon at least twenty meters in diameter, suspended above the altar.
Below, the pile of monster corpses continued to supply it with smoke, making the black cocoon increasingly solid.
In just half an hour, the mountain of corpses had been depleted of energy, turning into a pile of dry bones, and the evolution of the black cocoon had entered its final stage.
A sense of oppression descended.
“It’s coming…”
Fang Ming had a premonition that the thing that would shock him was about to appear!
“Crack~” A crisp cracking sound rang out, as if pulling back a curtain.
“Crack, crack, crack…” Increasingly dense cracking sounds echoed, and the black cocoon began to shatter, spiderweb-like cracks spreading across its entire surface.
"Boom!" The black cocoon exploded!
A massive figure appeared under the crescent moon. White mist surged in from the distance like a flowing river, and was greedily consumed by it, its size continuously growing.
“What in the world is this…”
Fang Ming murmured to himself, tilting his head back to look at the colossal being before him.
A monster! A monster so immense it made Fang Ming feel suffocated!
Its size seemed to have no limit to its growth. From its appearance to the present, in just a few dozen minutes, it had grown to a hundred meters in size! The white mist provided it with terrifying energy, fueling its growth!
The monster’s body resembled a human's but with four arms. Its skin was jet-black, etched with twisted blood-red patterns. Its hair was a mass of writhing, small tentacles, each topped with a wailing, faceless head. On its back were four tentacles thicker than its arms, and between these tentacles was a massive maw continuously devouring the white mist.
Admittedly, the creature before him had indeed shocked Fang Ming.
“Is this the mastermind behind Bai Mu Village?” Fang Ming quietly concealed himself, a wry smile on his face. If it was this behemoth, then his "ambitious plans" were likely to be dashed.
Unless he could transform into Ultraman, what else could he possibly do to fight this thing? One slap from it would turn him into paste.
“I wonder if it has any weaknesses?” Fang Ming tried his luck, taking out and opening his diary.
“Another monster rushed out of the white mist. The two monsters engaged in a battle. The monster from Bai Mu Village was quickly defeated, but a tentacle that blotted out the sky suddenly appeared and snatched away the white mist monster.”
“What?!” Fang Ming was aghast.