Chapter 116: Thirty-Second Village — House of Flesh and Blood

The trip on the Terror Bus went perfectly smoothly.

Nothing happened from the moment they boarded until they got off.

The only minor incident occurred when the long-haired conductor sitting by the door noticed the leftover Fear Heart in Yan Jing's hand—a remnant after a portion had been absorbed—and looked visibly tempted.

But upon sensing the aura radiating from that cloth bag, she pursed her lips and consciously averted her gaze.

Clearly, when Lu Miao took those Fear Hearts back to Rotten Vegetable Village last time, something had happened between her and this conductor.

After disembarking, Yan Jing looked at his surroundings with a hint of surprise.

The Terror Station in this Domain was completely different from those in other places.

A crudely crafted wooden sign was planted askew in the black soil, the station name and route written on it in marker.

Other than that, there was neither a rain shelter nor a platform.

"Those guys in Solitude Lane don't want anyone coming here, so they dismantled the platform."

Old Master Liu, who had been here once before, said, "I heard that from someone inside who calls himself a 'Historian.'"

Yan Jing nodded. He thought of the book in his hand, "History of Old Sin City."

It did mention that during the early days when the Terror Station was first formed, a war broke out between it and Solitude Lane, which had always existed in Old Sin City.

Rumor had it that the war was extremely brutal. Solitude Lane emerged victorious; they smashed the Terror Station's buses to pieces, dismantled the chassis, and threw the tires into the river under Virtue Bridge. The bus they saw today was a restored version.

However, one could imagine the Terror Station must have gained some advantage as well, seeing as they ultimately established a stop in Solitude Lane.

Past the wooden sign lay an empty expanse of black land that stretched endlessly into the distance, meeting the sky like a desolate wilderness. Just looking at it evoked a profound sense of isolation.

The group walked forward along a "path" beneath their feet that could only be described as a faint set of tracks.

After walking for a full few kilometers, they finally saw the first object aside from the black soil:

A wooden sign.

Written on it was:

"Thirty-Third District"

Scattered beside the sign were wooden splinters. The remnants of a foundation and support beams were faintly visible, surrounded by a chaotic mess of footprints.

It looked as though a house had originally stood here, but someone had ultimately torn it down.

Yan Jing recalled the information about Solitude Lane that Shen Youran had given him after he logged out of the Inner World last night.

[Solitude Lane is exactly thirty-three li long and thirty-three li wide.]

[Calculated by its length, for every li of distance, there is a Ward Chief. Ranging from the Thirty-Third Ward Chief to the First Ward Chief, the smaller the number, the higher their status.]

[During Stage A of this Dungeon, Players usually form teams of two. One takes on the role of a Solitude Servant, while the other takes on the role of a Ward Chief. As long as they successfully serve as a Ward Chief in Solitude Lane for five days, it counts as a success.]

[The rule of this Domain is absolute solitude. If there are more than three living beings within a single li of land, after thirty minutes, they will automatically divide into groups of no more than three and generate intense hostility toward any unit outside their own group.]

Old Master Liu was also aware of this rule and immediately explained it to the group:

"This Domain dictates a maximum of three people traveling together. We have to split into teams of two and three to avoid any accidents."

"Alright, then I will team up with you and him."

It was Chen Nian who spoke; the "him" referred to Tiger.

"Then it's settled."

Old Master Liu immediately finalized the decision, pulling Tiger over without caring whether he was willing or not.

"There seem to be two ways to become a Ward Chief, but what were those two ways again..."

Old Master Liu pondered. He was getting old and sometimes suffered from a spotty memory.

"If someone belongs to the 'Pride' Pathway, they can spot which of the thirty-three li of land is vacant, walk onto it, and automatically become the Ward Chief."

"If someone doesn't belong to the 'Pride' Pathway, they need to defeat the Ward Chief they have their eye on. They must either kill him or beat him at his own strong suit."

It was Yan Jing who spoke. He attributed the source of this information to a guest who had visited his bar.

As for which guest, he didn't say, and no one could verify it anyway.

"Yes, that's exactly it."

Old Master Liu looked left and right. "This Thirty-Third District doesn't seem to have a Ward Chief. I wonder if something happened."

Yan Jing knew exactly what had happened.

Because the head of the Thirty-Third Ward Chief was currently in his possession.

But he couldn't say that, so he simply said:

"Let's keep walking. We aren't from the 'Pride' Pathway, so an empty plot of land means nothing to us."

He had come this time to find the memories buried by Cameraman.

The more places he examined, the more confident he would be in pinpointing the exact location.

As for this Thirty-Third District, although it was possible the memories were buried here, the messy footprints on the ground didn't seem to fit Cameraman's description of a place "where no one would disturb it."

The group continued forward along the faint tracks.

A few hundred meters later, another sign appeared on the ground.

Only, unlike the previous wooden sign, this one was made of iron: "Thirty-Second Village."

"If a Ward Chief runs to another Ward Chief's home, it means they are issuing a challenge to that Ward Chief. It's a best-two-out-of-three match. For the first two rounds, each person sets the rules for a competition, and the final round is a fight to the death."

"If someone who isn't a Ward Chief runs to a Ward Chief's home, they either have to beat him and become the Ward Chief themselves, or if they are just passing through, they must accept the other party's entry toll. Otherwise, they cannot move forward."

Old Master Liu explained.

Evidently, this Domain, just like the others, possessed its own unique set of rules.

"If anyone violates the above rules, they will be dragged underground by the black soil beneath their feet and buried alive."

"Rumor has it that this black soil was formed from a few grains of dirt casually tossed by a great existence from ancient times. Because 'Pride' causes inflation, those grains eventually expanded into these thirty-three li of land."

Old Master Liu spoke slowly:

"That 'Historian' specifically dragged me over to ramble about all this nonsense for half the day. That was his entry toll."

As he said this, one could faintly hear his deep-seated resentment toward this so-called 'Historian.'

Sure enough, after finishing his sentence, Old Master Liu didn't even try to hide his intentions as he declared to Chen Nian and Tiger:

"He's in the Twenty-Eighth District. This time, we're going to wreck him!"

"What did he do to you?"

Chen Nian asked, "Just because he made you listen to his gibberish for half the day?"

"No."

Old Master Liu slowly shook his head and took off his sunglasses. His eyes—one black and one white—were filled with fury as he said indignantly, "It's because he talked a lot of trash about my hometown!"

"He said everyone from there is a psycho! He even said my hometown is backward and ignorant! That it's full of local thugs!!!"

"If I hadn't wanted to avoid becoming some brain-dead Ward Chief last time, I would have wrecked him right then and there!"

"I think he's the real psycho here!"

"I'm giving you a heads-up right now. Some people in this place are alright, but a lot of them are extremely obnoxious."

Yan Jing nodded.

"Then let's first see what kind of character this Ward Chief of the Thirty-Second Village is."

The group looked to the right of the iron sign.

There were two houses on the black ground: a tall, sturdy cone-shaped structure and an ordinary-looking wooden cabin.

The tall house had a pointed roof, with four ridges sloping down from the peak, making it look like a pyramid.

Dense clusters of objects were stuffed tightly within the house's four metal frames, coming together to form its four walls.

One wall was made of ghastly white bones.

One was made of darkened flesh and blood.

One was made of all sorts of bizarrely shaped heads.

And the final wall was made of genitals.

The door was set in the wall of white bones. Yan Jing walked up and knocked.

A short moment later, the door opened.

Behind the door stood a man dressed as a servant, his expression wooden.

He led the group into the house.

Immediately after, the group saw the Ward Chief of this plot of land.

He had slightly parted, choppy hair and wore a black plaid shirt. A long severed finger was tucked behind his left ear. The severed base of the finger dripped blood that looked like red ink.

Spread out before him was a massive sheet of white paper bearing the sketch of an unfinished, majestic building.

After the group entered, he raised his head to look at them, his eyes bursting with a sharp glint:

"So many bugs have arrived."

"Good. Good, good, good."

"Do you want to pass through, or do you want to challenge me?"

Yan Jing stood in front of Old Master Liu and Chen Nian, whose faces had already darkened, and said:

"What is the entry toll?"

"The entry toll is leaving behind one of your body parts to become a part of my house!"

The man threw his arms wide open, squeezed his eyes shut, and took a deep breath:

"It is your honor to become a part of such a great building!"

"Come on, choose. Bones? Flesh?"

"Or heads and genitals?"

The man wore an intoxicated expression.

"Then we choose to challenge."

Yan Jing said slowly.

"A challenge?"

The man looked a bit surprised and opened his eyes. "You want to compete with me in building a house?"

"Heh, how truly ridiculous."

He began to laugh, shaking his head as if he didn't take them seriously at all.

Yan Jing also shook his head.

"We don't know how to build a house."

As his voice faded, the sound of gulping echoed in the quiet room.

Tiger hurriedly covered his mouth.

He was a little scared and hadn't been able to hold it in.