Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 333 - 10: The Courtyard_2

Panic can spread among people, and it spreads much faster than a virus.

The soldiers stationed by the roadside raised the temporary barricade, and the convoy swiftly passed through, driving into the vast mountains.

...

...

Sun Hang walked along the street, and he noticed that wherever he went, the lights of the buildings on either side would go out... as if he were a jinx, bringing misfortune and disaster...

"Damn it, Revolt the Heavens," Sun Hang cursed under his breath, "Clearly, you guys are the real weirdos, right? Can you have a bit of basic weirdo dignity?"

He walked a bit further, and a rather large courtyard appeared in view on his right side—compared to the dilapidated buildings on both sides of the street earlier, this courtyard was obviously more luxurious, with vermilion-painted wooden gates and stone lions at the entrance, all indicating to Sun Hang: this was a prominent family's residence in town.

Sun Hang took out a mirror and looked towards the courtyard—as he expected, in the mirror, the vermilion paint on the door turned into dark red bloodstains, and the stone lions on either side transformed into two lumps of rotting flesh dripping with pus, with countless maggots crawling in and out, a scene extremely unsettling.

To be honest, until now, Sun Hang still couldn't determine whether the things he saw with his naked eyes were real, or if the images in the mirror were real.

Or maybe... neither was real.

Sun Hang stepped forward and knocked on the vermilion door.

No one came to open the door, and there was no sound from inside the courtyard.

Sun Hang knocked a few more times, each knock more urgent and forceful than the last.

The courtyard remained dead silent.

"Is anyone there? If no one's home... I'll just help myself," Sun Hang shouted loudly.

After saying this, he pulled out his gun and aimed it at the latch on the door.

"Bang! Bang!"

The deafening gunshots echoed above the small town, the hunting handgun creating two bowl-sized holes in the wooden door. The latch behind the openings had already broken, and the heavy doors creaked open slowly.

Facing the courtyard entrance was a shadow wall, a common design in Xiazhou's ancient courtyards. The shadow wall was intricately carved, but unfortunately, most of the carvings had weathered away, leaving only vague traces of things like manes and claws.

"A dragon?" Sun Hang muttered to himself as he examined the carvings on the wall.

In ancient times, dragons were rarely used in decorations because they were symbols of the emperor. If commoners had dragon motifs on their clothing, tools, or homes, it was considered treasonous, a crime punishable by death—even wealthy families would only carve legendary creatures on walls, never daring to carve dragons, especially not five-clawed golden dragons, on the shadow walls.

After all, the shadow wall was the first thing one would see upon entering the courtyard...

But considering this courtyard was likely a modern imitation of an ancient building, with the feudal dynasties of Xiazhou Continent long gone, unless someone was foolish enough to declare themselves emperor, not only could they carve a dragon on the wall, they could even have dragon motifs on everything in their daily life and be a contemporary "Ye Gong," and no one would care.

In either corner beyond the courtyard wall were large fan-shaped flowerbeds, but the plants in them had long since withered, leaving only charred remnants resembling ghosts. A tattered copper watering can lay beside a flowerbed, and a little further away was a broom made of sorghum.

Sun Hang bypassed the shadow wall and headed straight for the main house. However, before he could get close, he heard a faint whispering sound coming from behind him.

He looked back, but besides the shadow wall, there was nothing behind him.

The back of the shadow wall had no dragon carvings, instead covered in geometric patterns. Sun Hang took a couple of steps closer, and the next time the whisper came, it was significantly clearer.

The wall talks?

No, it was the thing hiding inside the wall that was talking...

The whispering had become clearer, but Sun Hang still couldn't understand it—it didn't seem to be human language. At least, it wasn't Chinese, nor any common foreign language Sun Hang could recognize.

"Could it be... a dialect?"

The Yundian Region has many ethnic groups, each with their own languages, and learning these niche languages is no easier than mastering foreign languages like English or French...

Sun Hang moved a bit closer, and just as he was about to press his ear to the shadow wall, a hand of the same color as the wall suddenly reached out from within and grabbed his shoulder.

"Holy shit." Sun Hang instinctively tried to break free, but the moment the hand touched him, it released him and began to spasm violently, the whispering from within the wall turning into agonized screams.

"What the hell?" Sun Hang picked up the broom from the ground and poked the hand emerging from the wall, feeling a hard texture through the broom handle, as if this hand was also carved from bluestone.

Sun Hang was too lazy to further investigate what was inside the wall, so he simply drew his gun and fired three shots at the shadow wall.

The shadow wall was nearly a foot thick, with the base made of blue bricks and the carvings on a solid slab of bluestone. Despite the power of the hunting handgun, it couldn't penetrate entirely.

The carvings shattered into pieces, revealing what lay beneath—a bizarre stone-carved body. It seemed human, but Sun Hang could count at least eight arms.

"Bang!"

Another shot, precisely hitting the "torso" area. The carvings shattered further, yet the inside was still bluish-grey stone.

Sun Hang took out the mirror, expecting the stone to turn into horrifying flesh and blood in the reflection, but to his surprise, the mirror showed stone as well, only the color changed from bluish-grey to a plaster-like white.

"What's going on..."

The sculpted limbs continued to struggle in agony, their screams slowly turning into weak moans.

[P.S. Since the start of the new volume, I've seen many comments complaining about the abrupt loss of power and abilities... To be honest, I initially wanted to ignore such comments, but since more than one reader has mentioned it, I think it's necessary to explain to everyone.

First, this book is a weird fiction novel, not a traditional fantasy where characters level up by defeating monsters. Personally, I dislike having fixed power and level systems in my writing. In a world of anomalies, no matter how high one's physical combat power is, they'll just become playthings in front of rule-type anomalies. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Even in fantasy novels, the high-level battles aren't about combat strength; they're about rules and truths...

So-called power, skills... they're merely tools, external possessions that can be easily gained and lost.

Truly important things are never these factors.

And since I've written it weird, you shouldn't just believe whatever I write, right? Who knows, maybe I'm a practitioner of disappearance? Does the protagonist really lose all power just because the author said so? What kind of nonsense is the author?

Finally, some advice, don't believe every word written by the guy with the ID Dark Dust Diffusion. If his writings contradict your common sense and understanding, please don't...

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Don't...

Don't be... lieve...■■...

???

Make sure to believe the content I write, as a conscientious author, I would never cheat my dear readers, wouldn't you agree?

Commenter: Dark■Diffusion, Personal Info No. 9■■42■, Last Edited Time: Chinese Calendar 4■21, Year 9■2■.