Chapter 141 Giant Beast

Chapter 141: The Giant Beast

They followed the back alleys of all the houses facing the main street and found an empty house with slightly lower walls. They knew it was empty because the walls were covered with withered grass and moss, and the copper lock on the back door was heavily rusted.

Meng Wan yanked a few times but couldn't open it. He glanced at the earthen wall. "Qing Xing, go down first, then give me a hand."

Using a kitchen knife to chop at it would make too much noise; climbing the wall was safer.

Qing Xing clambered up to the top of the wall, then helped Meng Wan up. The empty house’s backyard was also overgrown with weeds. Qing Xing jumped down first, then caught Meng Wan. Fortunately, Meng Wan wasn't heavy; otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to catch him.

The two crouched as they entered the house, which was thick with dust, making their throats itch. Meng Wan found a room where he could see the street without casting a shadow and hid behind one of the pillars. Qing Xing was across from him. Through the broken window cracks, they watched the eerie and absurd ritual on the street.

Four villagers were beating bronze drums, bronze bells, gongs, and waist drums noisily at the roadside. In the middle of the street was a redwood long table, on which sat a strange idol with a human head and a dog body.

In front of the idol was an incense burner, and beside it were five-colored flags—blue, red, white, black, and yellow—inserted in the five directions. The place where offerings should have been was empty.

A Taoist priest in a gray robe, with hair half black and half white under his matching hat, holding a short yellow cylindrical rod, was muttering spells in front of the altar, apparently performing a ritual.

After a while, the gray-robed priest finished the ceremony, stopped the villagers playing instruments beside him, and chanted in a low voice: "Present... the... offering!"

The four villagers stopped playing, suddenly scattered into the alleys, and disappeared in no time, startling Meng Wan.

Then a cart was pulled over, piled with seven people. Five of them were the soldiers who had come with Meng Wan to the town, but each had blood at the corners of their mouths and purple lips, clearly dead.

The other two were dressed in tattered coarse cloth, were unmistakably Min Geer's parents. They had followed the villagers that day and seemed to have fared a little better than the five soldiers—at least there were no signs of poisoning on their faces, and their chests rose and fell slightly, suggesting they had been drugged.

The cart puller unloaded the people in front of the altar, looking terrified, and ran off without even taking the cart.

The priest surveyed the people on the cart, seemed dissatisfied, snorted coldly, and finally flicked his sleeves and left.

After the priest left, strange, distorted howls arose from all directions, echoing through the silent streets, mournful and eerie, especially chilling.

Qing Xing swallowed unconsciously, looking at Meng Wan across from her. Seeing him unmoved, she barely managed to calm herself.

But the next moment, a small figure dashed out from the alley. Min Geer, sobbing, rushed to the cart. "Dad, Papa, wake up! Wake up!"

The howls drew closer. In Qing Xing's mind, she could almost imagine Min Geer's fate in a moment. The little boy who had been with her all day, no older than A Xun—could she just watch him die before her eyes?

As a doctor, she couldn't stand by and let a life slip away. A sense of guilt pressed on her heart until it nearly bled.

But in Meng Wan's view, after seeing Min Geer, Qing Xing only hesitated for five seconds before resolutely charging out. She quickly carried the heavier of Min Geer's parents, saying to the crying boy, "Grab your father and run with me!"

Meng Wan sighed inwardly. Qing Xing wasn't foolish; she wouldn't go out to certain death. Since she rushed out, it meant there was hope of rescue, but the risk was immense. Only a foolish girl like Qing Xing would dare to sacrifice herself like this.

Although Min Geer was ten, he was thin and weak, barely able to pull his father off the cart. But a huge dark shadow was already approaching the street corner.

"Run with her! I'll carry your father!" Chu Yujing also rushed out from the alley, quickly hoisting Min Geer's father onto his back. Qing Xing led the way in the direction the villagers had disappeared.

The next moment, a giant beast, taller than Min Geer when crawling, stepped gracefully to the roadside. Under the bright moonlight, Meng Wan's pupils dilated instantly when he saw it clearly.

The beast was two sizes larger than the Alaskan Malamute he had seen in his past life. Its body was pure white without a single stray hair, with strong, agile limbs. At first glance, it looked like an oversized snow wolf, but above its neck, there was indeed a hideous human head. Even the mouth was human, not a pointed animal snout.

It lowered its head, sniffing the five corpses on the ground. Its human mouth split wide open, revealing a mouthful of sharp teeth with strands of red flesh stuck between them. With one bite, it bit off half a head. Gray and red brains splattered, staining the beast's chest fur red.

The beast swallowed the food in its mouth and continued tearing at the corpse. It ate quickly, soon devouring an entire body.

The crunching sounds could be heard from a distance, terrifying the villagers, who trembled under their blankets.

Meng Wan covered his mouth, nearly vomiting. He barely suppressed the nausea rising in his stomach when he heard movement in the back alley.

He quietly returned to the backyard and noticed something at the back door—something had been splashed on it. Then a short, thin man's body was thrown into the yard.

Meng Wan stared at the unfamiliar corpse for a while, then heard very faint footsteps gradually fading away.

After a moment's thought, he grabbed a bundle of dry grass from the backyard, placed it against the wall, stepped on it, and peered in the direction of the retreating footsteps. There was no one there.

He looked back at the back door. A large bowl of blood had been splashed on the old wooden door—whether chicken blood or human blood, he didn't know.

"Well, I underestimated her. She must have woken up long ago and followed me without making a sound." Meng Wan sneered. Not caring about noise now, he pulled the short dagger from his boot and broke open the already damaged door of the empty house. Then he dragged the corpse from the yard and rushed out, heading back to Wang Mama's house.

Wang Mama's house was two streets away, but the alleys crisscrossed, and it was only two houses away lengthwise. Meng Wan quickly made his way back to Wang Mama's house. Without a word, he chucked the dead body in through the door and then ran in the opposite direction, shouting, "The mountain demon isn't full yet! It's going to eat people again!!!"

The mountain demon was huge; the town's walls couldn't stop it. Even with offerings, no one in any household could sleep that night, huddled under their blankets waiting for dawn.

At Meng Wan's shout, the residents in that area all heard it. Though they didn't know if it was true, if the mountain demon really wasn't full, it would cost whole families their lives!

A family living on the street looked outside and saw the mountain demon chewing on a bloody leg, running into their alley. After years of dealing with the giant beast, they knew it really wasn't full and was about to pick a household to attack!

That family was terrified. They were experienced enough to know that staying put and waiting to die wasn't the answer. By the time the mountain demon broke through the wall, it would be too late. So they immediately grabbed their wife and kids and ran to the street, heading straight for one specific place in the town.

The people on the street fled, and the noise alerted other households. Gradually, more and more people dragged their families out and ran.

Meng Wan had been waiting for this. He silently blended into the fleeing crowd. He didn't believe the curse that you'd die if they left the town; it was probably a trick by the Taoist or the Chen family. With so many people threatened, as long as they left the town, the village they were staying in wasn't far away.

But as they ran, the crowd didn't lead him out of town. Instead, they arrived at a Taoist temple at the foot of the mountain, crowding into the main hall. They knelt and bowed before the mountain god idol, which had a human head and an animal body.

A young Taoist priest in a gray robe, used to this, took them in and handed out incense sticks one by one.

Meng Wan was dumbfounded.

He had been busy all night, and this was the outcome. Speechless and angry, his stomach ached from frustration.

Meng Wan rubbed his stomach, trying to calm his breathing. Afraid of being discovered by the villagers, he slipped into a side hall to rest while observing the temple.

The temple was newly built. The exposed tiles on the eaves were expensive glazed tiles, and the pillars were painted with fresh vermilion lacquer, indicating recent work.

He had glimpsed earlier that the main hall where the mountain god was enshrined was very spacious, likely able to hold a hundred or two people. There was another door on the other side, probably leading to another side hall like the one he was in now. Behind the side hall he was in, there seemed to be a small door leading to the back of the temple.

What was back there?

Meng Wan stood up. The side hall was still too dangerous. If any of those frantic villagers took a few steps in from the main hall, they would find him. The hall was bare, with nowhere to hide. If the backyard had a safe place, he would hide for a while. If not, he would have to take a risk and return to the Chen residence, which he guessed wouldn't be attacked by the beast.

He pushed open the side door of the side hall. Behind it was a large pond, and behind the pond was a row of rooms. One of them had an oil lamp lit, indicating someone was inside, while the others were dark.

Meng Wan hesitated. Going out now would possibly mean encountering the mountain demon, or he might be lucky enough not to meet it—a fifty‑fifty chance.

But seeing more and more villagers in the temple, he abandoned that idea. The mountain demon would likely smell any living humans; otherwise, these people wouldn't be so scared.

The risk outside was too great. It was better to hide in the back rooms for the night.

Having made up his mind, Meng Wan didn't hesitate and walked straight to the back rooms. The lit room was on the east side. He chose the westernmost room, found it unlocked, and slipped inside.