Gao Ming held the pill and nodded. “I’ll help you deliver the thing. Is there anything else?”
“The butcher’s home, the meat shop and the feeder represent a different modification each. However, the butcher lost his mind, murdered the meat shop boss and destroyed the meat shop. He’s still searching for the elderly man responsible for the feeder.” The man’s face was pale, but he continued, “I don’t know when the butcher will return. The knives here are treasures. They can kill ghosts and defend against evil. If you need, you can pick one of them. However, don’t be greedy.”
“Won’t the butcher come after me if I do that?” Gao Ming didn’t touch anything. However, he believed the butcher ransacked the meat shop because he was looking for the knife Gao Ming currently had.
“He has lost his mind. He has a horrible memory. That is information I obtained by risking my life.” The man still wanted to say something else, but an angry roar came from the street outside.
“The killing knife has been stolen! Manager Wang stole my knife!”
Gao Ming leapt onto the wall and melted into the dark. He focused on the front door of the meat shop. The wooden door was half-open. Candlelights shone inside the shop. A giant shadow shot out onto the street.
“Manager Wang is dead, you stupid pig! You were the one who killed him and turned him into blood tofu!” The masculine voice suddenly sharpened like the person was speaking through a pinched nose.
“Did I kill him? Yes! He is dead! I grabbed him by his chin, stuck the knife right down its throat, and stabbed his heart!” The voice became gruff again. “No! No! Manager Wang is dead! Who stole my knife? He’s still alive! He’s not fully dead! He even had the black donkey give birth for him!”
“I’ll kill you if you dare to kill her!” The shrill voice became demented. The male voice didn’t hold back either.
“Damn it! She deserves to die! You deserve to die too! Kill! Kill! Kill! I’ll look through your book of ancestral history and kill all of you! Row by row!”
The candle stick was knocked over. The shadow spread. Gao Ming felt threatened and escaped. He could sense the shadow coming after him. He only stopped after he was more than a street away.
“The butcher saw the book of ancestral history as the menu.” Gao Ming realised the butcher was not in a correct state. “The butcher has two voices as if he’s suffering from multiple personality disorder. The black donkey is a tester. He was previously controlled by Manager Wang. The butcher killed Manager Wang but allowed the donkey to live.”
The butcher should have killed everything. The black donkey’s survival was probably related to that sharp voice. Gao Ming suspected the voice belonged to the tester. They used some kind of method to share a body with the butcher. Dream Break Town was the tester’s last test before advancing to level five. This was the core of Immortal Pharma’s secrets. The testers who could survive here were very capable. There might be players from the taboo game who were trapped here by Immortal Pharma.
“The player inside the white pig said that everything here is symbolic. What does the butcher represent?” Gao Ming raced through the night with a light gait like a cat. When he passed by a few houses, he noticed strange things happening inside them. He didn’t stay. He hurried to the west street. This street led directly to the village’s west gate. The gate didn’t have any stone pillar to support it. There were only broken rocks and abandoned homes. The place appeared abandoned for a while already. The buildings were covered in dust.
Gao Ming was strangely alert when he arrived. After eating the fruit of the flesh, his eyes changed. The most direct change was his sight became much better.
The west gate appeared to be at the end of the street, but the street appeared endless to Gao Ming. The rows of abandoned houses looked strange. As he looked over, he felt pairs of eyes looking back at him. He initially thought there were people hiding in the houses. However, he slowly realised the windows were the things staring at him.
“This place… is wicked.”
Gao Ming hesitated as he held the mud pill. He was about to leave when he saw the small temple mentioned by the human face. The temple was small, and the bricks were glued with rice glue. The surroundings were adorned with blessing ribbons. Joss stick ashes gathered at the entrance. The Tu Di God inside the temple smiled kindly. However, due to the flaking paint, it looked creepy.
“Is he smiling at me?”
Gao Ming thought back to what the human face said. He became more careful. After making sure he could grab the knife easily, Gao Ming slowly moved forward.
“The temple outside the town is lit up, but the temple inside is dark. This is strange.” Dreaming of a temple was normally a good omen, but Gao Ming couldn’t tell what a temple represented in this place.
Gao Ming purposely avoided looking at the figurine of the God. He could sense a powerful stare on him. As he neared the temple, the gaze intensified.
Gao Ming took out one copper coin. He slowly walked past the temple. Nothing happened. Gao Ming didn’t put his guard down. He glanced at the house behind the temple. Compared to the other houses, this one was barely intact. The walls were leaking, and the windows were cracked.
Bricks and mud were scattered all over. The home didn’t even have a functional stove. A thick wooden pillar stood in the middle of the house. As Gao Ming moved closer, the human face carved on the pillar slowly opened its eyes.
At the same time, the mud figurine at the northern edge of the house revealed a fearful expression. The person he was waiting for didn’t return. He was in danger.
“Temple construction?”
Gao Ming looked around. His eyes met the gaze of the wooden pillar. The other party was frightened, but he couldn’t communicate with Gao Ming verbally. He tried to move the dust on the ground to write out sentences. “My friend, please be kind. Once the temple is constructed, you are welcome to come here to seek protection.”
The human face was filled with sincerity.
“Can a living human really turn themselves into a spiritual temple?” Gao Ming was shocked. Memory fragments loosened in his mind. In his nightmare, he remembered buildings being constructed from living humans. Was that city a giant spiritual temple?
Gao Ming saw a giant grave. He had no idea whose grave it was. However, he felt connected to it.
“Am I the one being buried?”