Chapter 1: Anomalous Weed

At dusk, clusters of dark mist squirmed and flowed across the wilderness, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws like demonic shadows. If one looked closely, they would begin to hallucinate and then involuntarily walk into the mist, never to be seen again.

However, this dark mist was currently confined outside a deserted village, as though some invisible force was holding it back.

The deserted village was not large, consisting of only about a dozen households, but it had long since fallen into decay. Most of the houses had collapsed, and there were traces of fire everywhere.

The only intact structure was a stone house, which showed signs of multiple repairs over time.

Inside this less than thirty-square-meter stone house, Li Si slowly woke from unconsciousness. His last memory was of drinking heavily the previous night with a heartbroken friend, after which he remembered nothing.

Waking up here, he did not cry out loudly, nor did he suspect it was a prank or that he had been kidnapped. Of course, no one came forward to ask how he was feeling either.

The house was dim, with a fire burning in the center. A clay pot hung over it, apparently boiling something that gave off a foul, unpleasant odor.

There were also several people inside—men, women, young, and old—ten in total, including him.

Li Si tried to sit up and confirmed that he was not weak or sick. All four of his limbs were intact, and apart from a strong sense of hunger, he felt fine otherwise.

Leaning against the stone wall, he noticed that no one paid him any attention; his presence seemed quite low.

Of course, the main reason was that everyone was staring intently at the food boiling over the fire.

“It seems like a group of refugees, and I’m one of them,” Li Si quickly assessed his situation and accepted the fact that he had crossed into another world. Then, he began to carefully observe his surroundings.

Inside the stone house, the most physically imposing figure was a burly man dressed in animal skins, seated near the fire. He carried a bow on his back and a quiver of arrows, though only three feathered arrows remained.

A hammer hung at his waist, and beneath him lay a shield. Such armed prowess was quite impressive.

Li Si didn’t dare look too long and quickly shifted his gaze to the opposite side of the fire. There sat a pale, thin young man who appeared to have just recovered from a serious illness. He was in his twenties, wearing a tattered robe covered in patches. At first glance, one might mistake him for a high-ranking beggar.

But this young man had a very unique aura, especially his eyes, which seemed capable of seeing through people’s hearts. In fact, he seemed to sense Li Si’s gaze and suddenly turned to look at him in the next second.

At that moment, Li Si’s scalp tingled, and he thought he was doomed.

However, the young man merely smiled at him.

“Sigouzi, you’re awake? You, Zhuwazi, and Shanwazi should go outside and gather some firewood in the village. Be careful, and don’t go beyond the boundary.”

Li Si was bewildered, but he understood that “Sigouzi” referred to him. Slowly, he stood up and casually glanced at the two others who had also risen. They were both young, and he couldn’t tell which was Zhuwazi and which was Shanwazi. However, both of them picked up a dark, charred wooden stick.

Pretending to be groggy from sleep, Li Si looked around but couldn’t find his own black stick. The next moment, a child barely over a meter tall handed him the stick, along with a small leather pouch.

It seemed Zhuwazi and Shanwazi also had similar leather pouches tied at their waists.

“Here, Brother Sigouzi.”

The voice was clear and crisp—it was a girl.

Besides, what was with the “brother” part? Weren’t they supposed to be refugees?

Not daring to linger any longer, Li Si followed the two boys out of the stone house. As they opened the door, he clearly saw that the crudely nailed wooden door had three grayish-brown talisman papers pasted on the outside.

Yes, Li Si was certain they were talisman papers. Although the texture was unfamiliar, the scribbled patterns on them left no doubt.

The door closed behind them. Once outside, Li Si couldn’t help but shiver—not from cold, but from an indescribable, eerie chill that made his hair stand on end.

The sky was dim, with only a faint glimmer of light, as though the sun had just set.

The village was desolate, the ground charred black as if it had been burned.

About a dozen meters away, clusters of dark mist squirmed and flowed, blocking the view up to several dozen meters high.

After only a few glances at the eerie dark mist, Li Si began to hear strange murmurs in his ears and see hallucinations. Suddenly, a line of text flashed before his eyes, jolting him back to reality.

“Alienation Contamination Degree +0.001%.”

What the heck?

Li Si was terrified and realized he had unknowingly taken a few steps toward the dark mist. He immediately averted his gaze, focusing instead on the two boys.

The two showed no intention of cooperating. One headed east, the other west, both keeping their heads down and avoiding the dark mist. Simultaneously, each took out a palm-sized talisman paper from the leather pouches at their waists and stuck it to their chests.

Though puzzled, Li Si quickly opened his own leather pouch. Inside, aside from a ten-centimeter-long black spearhead, were three grayish-brown talisman papers.

He hurriedly took one out and pressed it to his chest. Instantly, the talisman paper transformed into a wisp of gray energy that vanished into his body, while the paper itself turned to ashes and disappeared.

“Acquired Evil-Warding Aura. Duration: one incense stick’s time.”

“Huh?”

Li Si blinked in astonishment.

But he had no time to ponder this further. He immediately took out the black spearhead and fitted it onto the black stick—sure enough, the two pieces connected perfectly.

Almost the moment he successfully attached the spearhead, another line of text flashed before his eyes.

“Acquired Evil-Slaying Spearhead. Effective uses remaining: three.”

—

“Got it. They’re all consumables,” Li Si thought.

He glanced again at the other two boys. As expected, they hadn’t attached their black Evil-Slaying spearheads, probably thinking it unnecessary as long as they stayed within the village.

“Crap, my luck in this new world isn’t exactly great,” Li Si inwardly lamented. Between the evil dark mist, the Evil-Warding Talismans, and the Evil-Slaying spearheads, it seemed this world was ruled by demons and monsters—even if he had a cheat ability.

Well, that information box from earlier probably counted as a cheat ability, right?

For a moment, Li Si felt overwhelmed with despair. He was a peace-loving, kind-hearted person who had no desire for violence. Why did he have to deal with demons and monsters now?

But he quickly steeled himself. The atmosphere outside was too oppressive. What if a female ghost appeared? Would he agree or not? Better to return to the safety of the house.

Gathering firewood wasn’t difficult. The collapsed houses contained plenty of nearly rotten wood. Strangely, although the place looked scorched, the structures of the fallen houses hadn’t been entirely burned away.

Li Si rummaged through the ruins of one house and soon gathered a large armful of firewood. Just as he was about to carry it back, an icy aura shot toward him like a swift needle. He clearly felt his Evil-Warding Aura burst like a balloon.

Then, the chilling energy wrapped around his neck like a serpent. When Li Si looked down, he nearly panicked.

It was clearly a rope as thick as an arm—or perhaps a black weed. Whatever it was, the thing had emerged from the ruins and was tightly coiled around his neck. In just moments, he was almost suffocating.

How utterly unfair! What had he done to deserve this?

Li Si’s mind was in chaos. The only thing he could do was struggle, still clutching the Evil-Slaying spear in his hand. He jabbed wildly a few times until he finally struck the black weed. Instantly, the black spearhead erupted in flames, and a sharp, piercing scream echoed. The black weed strangling Li Si’s neck was engulfed in fire, dropping to the ground.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Li Si knelt on the ground, tears and mucus streaming down his face, his mind completely blank.

Until another line of text silently appeared before his eyes.

“Slayed Anomalous Weed. Obtained Gray Firewood +1. Accumulate 100 Gray Firewood to refine into 1 Gray Fortune.”