"A bear, huh?"
Neo muttered the words under his breath.
He let out a small sigh and nodded to himself.
"Alright, thank you for your help," he said.
The boy nodded back.
He didn’t ask for anything in return for rescuing Neo, and Neo stepped out of the hut.
Outside, the village looked the same as the hut.
The place was in poor condition.
Most houses were mud huts with thin roofs and cracked walls.
Neo walked forward and noticed several people staring at him.
Some looked at him directly.
Others peeked at him from inside their homes.
He could hear their whispers even from far away.
"Is he a cultivator?"
"The area where he was rescued from was completely devastated. If he survived a battle like that, he must be one."
"What if he’s a martial artist?"
"Shh! Don’t say something so ominous."
They spoke like they thought Neo couldn’t hear them.
No one tried to stop him or approach him.
They only stole small glances as he passed by.
Neo kept walking toward the village exit.
Just as he reached the edge of the houses, the tiny girl appeared again.
She ran up to him and stopped right in front of him.
"Are you leaving, uncle?" she asked.
Neo’s lips twitched.
Being called an uncle hurt his pride a little.
His current appearance was young, at least in his opinion.
Still, he held back the complaint.
"Yes," he said with a calm tone.
"What?! You should stay!" she said. "We helped you! So you should help us—"
That was when it happened.
Neo blinked.
His eyes opened and shut in a natural rhythm.
But the world changed in that one blink.
The shift was so sudden that he froze.
The sky was no longer blue.
It had turned red and torn, like giant claws had ripped the sky open.
A pungent smell hit him.
Rotting flesh. Blood.
The scent was thick and heavy.
Wails and screams echoed across the air.
They sounded like ghosts crying in agony.
Neo’s body stiffened.
Confusion washed over him.
The village around him no longer looked poor.
It looked abandoned.
Completely dead.
The huts were broken and dark.
Grass had grown through the floors.
It looked like no one had lived here for centuries.
But that was not the worst part.
Every person he had seen earlier...
They were now half-rotted husks.
Pieces of flesh hung off their bones.
Blood fell from their bodies like an endless stream.
Maggots crawled across their skin.
Insects were eating them alive.
Even the little girl standing in front of him had changed.
She wore a deep red gown.
Half her face had melted away.
Neo’s heart pounded.
He could see the empty sockets where her eye had been.
Despite being obvious corpses, they were all moving.
Their limbs dragged.
Their heads twitched.
Suddenly, they all stopped.
Every single corpse turned to him.
Silence spread through the air.
Then, their mouths opened wide.
"The Dao is corrupt!"
Their voices came out rough and broken.
"The Dao is corrupt!"
More joined.
"The Dao is corrupt!"
Some spoke gently.
Some screamed at the top of their lungs.
Some cried while chanting the same line.
A deep fear rose inside Neo.
He didn’t understand why the fear was so strong.
But the words shook him to the core.
His skin crawled.
Goosebumps ran up his arms.
’The Dao is corrupt!’
The words echoed again in his mind.
Neo gasped softly.
His breath stumbled.
He took a step back and lost his balance.
He fell onto the ground, hands scraping the dirt.
Then he froze.
He looked down at himself.
VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: Extra's Death: I Am the Son of Hades