readytorunbook Chapter 51 Wild Dog
Chapter 51 Wild Dog
After the wolf was driven away, Ling Ziling could see that the butcher was anxious to go home. She could understand it. In the minds of ordinary people, it was indeed not safe to go home too late. Even if the butcher was strong, he would still have to rely on cover to fight when he encountered a wolf.
Considering the possibility of meeting again in the future, Ling Ziling told him her name. Although the other party seemed not to understand, it was still considered an introduction. The butcher went home, and she left the village for the mountains to make sure that the two wolves had not actually become spirits and returned to take revenge.
By the time they got closer to the mountains, it was already night. There were no kind-hearted Taoist priests hanging lanterns in these mountains. It was pitch black in the dead of night. In order to see his surroundings clearly, Ling Ziling used one of the special skills of the innate people: lighting effects.
The lighting was perhaps a bit too good; in the dim woods, she was like a walking light source, illuminating wherever she went.
"This atmosphere makes me think I should put on a song."
She was all alone, the light shining on her, the mountain breeze rustling the fallen leaves on the ground—the atmosphere was just right. In fact, the scene was perfect for a music show set.
"Okay, let's fight then..."
"Awooo!"
Ling Ziling punched her palm, just deciding to sing a song for fun, when an extremely shrill howl resounded through the sky, the sound waves hitting her eardrums and making Ling Ziling stagger and almost fall over.
"...This Taoist priest is really busy today."
Robbers, wolves—that loud and eerie howl just now also seemed to be from a wolf, but it was different from the one that had been hit by my whisk earlier. That one had only whimpered a few times, but this one was howling so pitifully that the sound waves were as penetrating as a classic line from a certain Taoist master.
This sounded like something terrible had happened. Ling Ziling rubbed her ears and walked toward the direction from which the sound came. A faint smell of blood wafted in the mountain wind, and the howling wolf was probably in grave danger.
On another road leading up the mountain, there is a mass grave. In the surrounding villages and towns, the bodies of the dead who cannot be identified, or those who have no money for burial or whose affairs are not handled, are ultimately dumped here.
Places like this, littered with corpses and haunted by wandering ghosts, are perfect for wild animals to hunt and monsters to wreak havoc.
And now, a terrifying monster is wandering around here. This monster has the head of a beast and the body of a human. It is tall and its beast head is like a wolf or a dog, but it is more ferocious than ordinary animals. Its mouth and sharp teeth are covered with bloodstains. It is bending down and rummaging through the corpses on the ground, eating the heads of the dead.
Among the corpses nearby were several ordinary wolves, their wounds suggesting they had been killed by the monster. Outside the mass grave, several more wolves remained, wanting to enter in search of prey but fearing the terrifying creature within.
The stench of rotting corpses mingled with the thick smell of blood. In such a place, even the most sensitive creatures could only detect these odors. Thus, the only living person here had a chance to hide and avoid being discovered by the monsters.
But that only allows for hiding; there's no way to run. This place is full of corpses. If someone suddenly stands up and runs, even if the beast-headed, human-bodied monster doesn't notice immediately, the wolves outside will definitely howl when they see someone running out.
Li Hualong lay prone among the pile of corpses, observing the monster's movements by the moonlight. He didn't know if the monster's eyesight was good or bad, but he wasn't surprised that it was quietly crawling out.
With monsters in front and wolves behind, it was practically a dead end, but he really didn't want to die, much less die in a mass grave or at the hands of this monster.
The monsters don't bite off the whole head when they eat people; instead, they grab the head and suck out the brain. Many of the corpses in the mass grave were broken, so they searched one by one and soon found Li Hualong.
Fearing being eaten, Li Hualong hid his head under a nearby corpse, hoping it would be as if he were a headless corpse. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned. He felt the monster's claws poking at his shoulder, but Li Hualong lay dead on the ground, and the monster couldn't budge him no matter how hard it tried.
Seeing that it couldn't pull the corpse, the monster started pushing away the corpses around Li Hualong, clearing away the corpses he had used to hide, revealing his head, which was about to be bitten.
At this moment, Li Hualong grabbed a hard object from the side. He didn't care whether it was a stone or a bone. Thinking that he would die if he didn't run, he shouted and jumped up, hitting the monster's head with the hard object. This hit must have hit its mouth. The monster cried out in pain.
Taking advantage of the monster's moment of pain, Li Hualong used both hands and feet to scramble and crawl towards the outside of the mass grave. He didn't care if there were wolves outside; he just didn't want to die at the hands of this monster.
The monster roared in pain, and Li Hualong guessed that he had knocked out several of its teeth. The wolves that were lingering on the periphery heard the scream and ignored the living people running away. Instead, they ran towards the monster inside and pounced on it while it was covering its mouth and not reacting.
The monsters and wolves started fighting. Now that there was no threat outside the mass grave, and neither side of the beasts cared about Li Hualong, this was a golden opportunity to run away from this dangerous place.
The road at night was several times more difficult to walk than during the day. With only a little moonlight, he could not even see the path under his feet. Li Hualong could only judge the distance between himself and the monster by the distance of the roars behind him. He also stepped on some hairy corpses along the way, which were probably bitten to death by the monster earlier.
The wolves' cries had ceased. It was unclear whether they had all been killed or had ultimately been defeated by the monster and chosen to leave. The monster, enraged by Li Hualong's attack, chased after them out of the mass grave.
Without the corpses to conceal him, Li Hualong's presence as a living person became more apparent. In fact, the bloodstains on his body, which he had just escaped from the mass grave, made it easier for the monsters with their keen sense of smell to track him down.
During his escape, Li Hualong heard voices around him, shouting, "The wild dogs are coming! The wild dogs are coming!" The voices faded into the distance, but he could never see any other living people.
These panicked cries probably came from other spirits in the mountains. The "wild dogs" they were shouting in terror were probably the monster with the head of a beast and the body of a human, because when Li Hualong first entered the mass grave, some corpses suddenly stood up and shouted like living people, "The wild dogs are coming! What should we do? What should we do?"
He was about to leave when he was startled by the sudden appearance of the dead. In his terror, he lay prone in the pile of corpses, afraid to move, lest the corpses discover that he was alive and miss his best chance to escape.
The monster called Wild Dog ran very fast. On such a dark and windy mountain road, it would be difficult for an ordinary person to outrun a wild beast. As expected, Li Hualong was caught up. It was too dark around him. The only light he could see was the Wild Dog's glowing green eyes.
"It's over," Li Hualong thought. He was completely exhausted, and the monster on the other side was furious. This time, he really couldn't escape.
If I had known this would happen, I would have been better off not doing it at all...
"The Dao opens ninefold, revealing mirages; the profound cultivator wields a sword, traversing the heavens... Huh, what is this?"
A beam of light shone from the horizon, illuminating the surroundings. A girl in pink descended from the sky, but upon seeing the monster before her, she decisively retreated and moved away.
Of course, she didn't forget to take Li Hualong with her, but since he had crawled through piles of corpses in the mass grave and was covered in blood and mud, Ling Ziling didn't want to touch him, so she used her whisk to sweep him away.
"Did I wander onto the wrong set?"
Ling Ziling looked around and felt that the monster in front of her didn't seem like a character from a Liaozhai drama, but more like a werewolf from a Western fantasy drama.
"Fairy... Fairy Maiden? Fairy Maiden, save me!"
Startled by the sudden burst of light, Li Hualong finally realized that the girl in front of him had descended from the sky—what else could she be but a fairy? He was finally saved!
"Fairy Maiden? That's a term I haven't used in a long time."
Although the monster in front of me is ugly and strange, judging from its demonic aura, it is indeed a monster. Whether its true form is a wolf or a dog is another matter. Judging from the blood on its mouth and claws, as well as its ferocious expression, I know it is no good thing.
"Since I've encountered this scourge, I can't ignore it. How about a sword strike... No, the sword is still in the hands of Ah Zhen and my uncle. I only have a wooden sword. Killing you would be too much of a waste of the peach wood sword."
She had already vowed to treat her peach wood sword well, and now she didn't even need to use it to split watermelons. This monster in front of her was not only filthy, but also a man-eating menace. She felt that poking it with the peach wood sword would never clean it properly.
Moreover, given the other party's appearance, Ling Ziling didn't want to get close. Ever since she arrived here, she had smelled the blood and stench emanating from him.
"Go straight for the Nine Heavens Beacon Fire Formation? No way, that would set the forest on fire. Setting fire to the mountain would land me in jail for life..."
Perhaps angered by the obvious disdain from the other side, or perhaps the prolonged stalemate caused the monster to lose patience, as Ling Ziling was struggling with her own thoughts, the monster on the other side let out another cry and came toward Ling Ziling.
Then, he was blasted back by several flying yellow talismans.
"Don't disturb my thinking. You have a human form, so why are you behaving like a beast?"
Ling Ziling held the yellow talisman between two fingers. Compared to a demon, the guy in front of her was indeed more in line with the description of a "monster". Most demons first develop intelligence and then cultivate into humans. Many of them have human thoughts and can speak human language, but they do not yet have a human form.
The creature before them had the head of a beast and the body of a human, possessing a human-like form but thinking like a wild beast. The two wolves that were trying to harm the butcher seemed to be smarter than it.
"Never mind, we probably can't communicate with this kind of monster anyway."
Given the space limitations and the need to consider the needs of ordinary people, a straightforward physical attack might not be feasible, so Ling Ziling opted for a magic-based approach.
"Five thunders rectify the law!"
……
The howls of wild beasts pierced the night and blew into Lai Zi's ears on the mountain wind. He hid behind the dilapidated wall, trembling and afraid to make a sound, his eyes peering through the hole in the wall.
The butcher was still pulling out the intestines, and several piles of bloody intestines were stacked on the ground. After being cut off from the woman's body, these intestines all turned into pig intestines.
These pig intestines were just carelessly thrown on the ground. The intestines were endless in length, and there were piles and piles of them on the ground. The intestines took up more space than the butcher and the woman could stand in. The butcher could only throw them in a corner and spread them out like a fishing net.
During this time, the woman, whose abdomen was cut open and intestines were removed, endured the pain without uttering a sound. Only when she heard faint howls did she show some other emotions.
"Oh no, it's a stray dog."
"What stray dog?"
Hearing the woman's scream, the butcher asked curiously, but his hands continued to pull out intestines. He was already skilled at this job and remained relatively calm.
"The wild dogs in the mountains, judging from that barking, will probably run out of the mountains."
Most of her intestines had been removed, and the woman felt better and had the strength to talk and chat.
“That wild dog is a monster, extremely ferocious. If it weren’t for it in the mountains, I wouldn’t be living here.”
The fact that this woman could be disemboweled and have her intestines pulled out means she was no ordinary person. She was a demon, a pig demon with some cultivation, but unfortunately, her cultivation was not up to par. After taking human form, she developed this problem. If she wanted to continue living in the village, she could only hire someone to clean her intestines regularly.
"More frightening than a wolf?"
Called "wild dog," the butcher's first thought was that it was a dog that had become a spirit, but according to the woman, this wild dog should be more terrifying than a wolf.
"If there were only wolves, there wouldn't be so many monsters running out. Those wild dogs like to eat human brains and go to mass graves at night to find corpses to eat. If they can't find anything they like, they will eat the monsters in the mountains. The wolf pack fights with them and most of them are bitten to death."
Upon hearing this, the butcher frowned. He took his knife and cut the intestines again. This time, he didn't pull them out. Instead, he withdrew his hand, stepped back, picked up the intestines on the ground around him, and threw them forcefully over the wall. Some of them didn't get out and hung on the wall, but he didn't care. As long as they didn't get in his way, that was fine.
According to the woman, that wild dog was a real menace; if such a monster were to escape from the mountains, no one would have peace.
After the butcher stopped, the woman's stomach wound began to heal on its own. Without those intestines, her waist and abdomen shrank back to their normal size. Once the wound had healed and she put on her clothes, she was just an ordinary peasant woman, and there was no trace of anything unusual about her.
The pulled-out pig intestines began to disappear little by little, but the smell of blood still lingered. Fortunately, the dilapidated house was far from the village, and by the next day, the odor had mostly dissipated and would not drift into the village and arouse suspicion.
The next morning, the woodcutter went up the mountain to chop firewood. When he passed by the dilapidated house, he found Lai Zi leaning against the broken wall. The man appeared unconscious, and it was impossible to tell whether he was in a coma or asleep.
The woodcutter wanted to go over and wake the man up, but when he got closer, he smelled a strange odor. He assumed it was from other animals and didn't pay much attention. He went over and shook the man awake.
But as soon as Lai Zi woke up, he shouted "Intestines! So many intestines!" and ran away, acting like a madman. The woodcutter was startled, but seeing that the other man was running towards the village, he thought that nothing bad should happen, so he picked up his things and went back into the mountains.
When he reached the foot of the mountain, he saw two figures, one tall and one short, emerge from the mountain. The shorter one was a young girl, dressed in a very bright pink dress with layers of decorative lace. This was the first time the woodcutter had ever seen such an elaborate style.
The tall one was a strong middle-aged man, wearing the simplest short clothes, and carrying a dark, indistinct object in his hand, the nature of which was unclear.
Leaving the girl aside for now, the woodcutter felt that the man looked somewhat familiar. As the two walked towards each other, the woodcutter squinted and carefully examined him.
"...Young man from the Li family, what are you doing here?"
Wasn't this Li family boy drafted into the army? How did he end up out of the mountains?