I changed the world.

Page 143

Pus and rotten flesh sloughed off her face, falling onto the table and into the cage.

A putrid stench filled the room. An Huiling felt nauseous and tried to gag, but nothing came out; there was no saliva in her throat.

After all, she was just a college girl from a well-off family. Even though she had joined a secret sect and embarked on the path of cultivation, she was not psychologically prepared to face strange events.

Even though she had imagined countless times herself as a chivalrous heroine, vanquishing monsters and upholding world peace, when faced with the sudden and bizarre events, she suddenly realized that she was completely unprepared…

The girl, whose bones were visible in many places due to decay, was no longer recognizable as a human being. Anyone who saw her would not believe she was a normal human being.

But then the girl, still rapidly decaying, began to move, walking slowly towards An Huiling in a strange and stiff manner…

"You...you don't come any closer..." An Huiling retreated in a panic, grabbing a table from the side and shoving it at the girl. With her immense strength, the table spun and crashed into the girl.

With a loud crash, the girl stumbled from the table, took several steps back, and half-knelt on the ground.

However, this impact seemed to have also shattered her last remaining rationality. She was seen half-lying on the ground, like a monster on all fours, her skeletal face revealing a ferocious roar to An Huiling.

Then, she exerted her strength and pounced towards An Huiling's location with extraordinary speed.

"Ah!!! Don't come any closer!" An Huiling frantically threw everything she could grab at the lunging monster—teacups, tissue boxes, tea pets on the table, and even a chair she finally grabbed and smashed it over the monster's head...

The chair shattered, but it also slammed the monster back to the ground.

An Huiling quickly discovered the usefulness of the chair, and almost without thinking, she instinctively grabbed another chair from the side and smashed it hard against the monster again...

"I'll smash you to death... I'll smash you to death..."

Clearly frightened, An Huiling kept grabbing chairs and smashing them at the monster, making it almost unable to get up. Eventually, she smashed nearly ten chairs around the surrounding tables until she could no longer grab any more chairs and finally stopped.

Panting heavily, An Huiling looked warily at the monster not far away, which was almost "piled up" by the shattered chair and was no longer moving.

It seems that it (or she) has finally been defeated by itself.

Only then did she have the energy to look around again, and she was shocked to find that in the now messy room, apart from her and the monster lying on the ground, the rest of the room was empty.

Neither Mei'er nor the two bodyguards knew when they had disappeared from the room, as if they had never been there at all.

An Huiling grew increasingly wary. She carefully looked around and suddenly noticed that the once sunny view outside the window had been shrouded in a thick fog. The gray fog made all the scenery outside the window seem to lose its color, turning it into a black and white photograph.

An Huiling's heart was pounding, and she was in a state of confusion, not knowing what to do.

"I need to calm down, calm down..."

She kept giving herself hypnotic suggestions while taking deep breaths.

Gradually, her mood calmed down a bit.

She picked up a broken chair leg from the ground, held it in her hand, and then carefully walked to the monster. She pried aside the chair wreckage piled on top of it and discovered that the girl who had been chatting and laughing with her just moments before had become a mangled mess of flesh.

A gurgling sensation ran through her chest and abdomen, and with a loud gurgle, An Huiling finally vomited...

After vomiting, I felt a bit better. After catching my breath for a while, my mood gradually returned to normal.

At this moment, An Huiling finally realized that this seemed to be the first "monster" she had truly defeated since she began her cultivation.

However, she felt no sense of accomplishment whatsoever. She stood there blankly for a while, then cautiously walked to the window and looked out through the glass. Outside, all was silent; the tourists who used to frequent the resort area were completely gone.

Everything was shrouded in a thick fog; even dozens of meters away, everything was hazy and indistinct.

What exactly happened to me? An Huiling asked herself in her heart.

Chapter 233 Congealed Fog

However, she couldn't answer it either. But she vaguely felt that it might be related to the legendary "Sea God Argon".

Realizing this, An Huiling became increasingly worried. Although she did not know what kind of being the so-called "Sea God Argon" was, it was, after all, a deity.

An Huiling also remembered that when her senior brother was teaching her, he once mentioned to her that all kinds of strange events, especially those related to "gods" or "cults," should be treated with utmost caution, because they could usually cause unimaginable trouble.

But I'm still a newbie... Even if I want to practice, shouldn't I start by fighting weaker monsters?!

An Huiling thought to herself...

However, at this moment, complaining and venting are useless; the only thing to do is to save yourself.

She glanced again, almost unconsciously, at the sea god mask hanging in the corner of the restaurant; its distorted and grotesque face seemed to carry a strange, eerie quality…

Turning her head, An Huiling suddenly felt a little worried about her family who were still in the seaside villa. She wondered how they were doing.

Just as she was thinking about her family, the monster's remains beside her suddenly burst into flames, burning fiercely and turning into ashes in a very short time, the ashes rising in wisps until they disappeared completely.

An Huiling was startled and instinctively assumed a defensive posture, but nothing else happened. When she went to look, she found the ground completely empty; the burning seemed like a dream, leaving not even a trace of char. If it weren't for the still-broken remains of tables and chairs, she would almost have thought the monster she'd just witnessed was a figment of her imagination…

This bizarre situation made An Huiling's heart sink again. This series of strange occurrences left her feeling completely lost. The only thing she was certain of was that she was really in deep trouble...

If the eldest brother were here, what would he do?

When people feel helpless, they always think of seeking guidance from authority figures. In An Huiling's mind, her senior brother was undoubtedly the most authoritative figure in this regard, and she tried her best to recall some of the teachings he had given her.

First, calm down... calm down...

And then...right, I should check my equipment...

An Huiling suddenly seemed to remember something and hurriedly took out her phone. However, after turning it on, she found that there was no signal. After trying several times and confirming that there was indeed no signal, An Huiling put her phone away with some disappointment.

Then, she looked around and then examined her own clothes. Only then did she realize that, due to the brief and intense fight, her shawl was torn near her ribs; it seemed she had ripped it herself by using too much force.

An Huiling thought for a moment, then tightened the hem of her gauze dress and tied a knot at her lower abdomen, making her movements much more agile.

Then, she loosened the bun at the back of her head, combed her cascading hair, and quickly re-tied it into a neat ponytail, which was more conducive to vigorous exercise.

Finally, she removed a cyan bracelet from her wrist and, activating her Qi, it swiftly transformed into a longsword, which she grasped in her hand. This was a weapon her senior brother had left her, which she always wore on her wrist. But in the sudden turn of events, she had momentarily forgotten that she possessed such a weapon.

Now that everything is ready, she needs to go find her family.

An Huiling cautiously descended the stairs. Once she reached the first floor, she found no one. The restaurant was empty, not even a single waiter was in sight.

An Huiling pushed open the wooden door of the restaurant and walked out. A thick fog rolled in, and everything outside was shrouded in gray mist.

There was complete silence all around; there was no sound.

An Huiling noticed that the plants around her all looked somewhat withered, and even the once brand-new road surface seemed to be covered with a thin layer of dust. This gave everything around her an old and desolate feel, making her feel a chill in her heart.

An Huiling walked along the path she had come from towards the seaside. She walked along the way but did not see anyone. It was as deserted as a ghost town.

The temperature seemed even lower than when she arrived, and the chilling cold, like the worries in her heart, followed her like a shadow...

An Huiling walked forward cautiously, raising her senses to the highest level and paying close attention to her surroundings.

Soon, she noticed something else: the warm sea breeze that had always been present on the island was gone. There was no wind at all.

Whether it's grass, trees, plants, leaves, or anything else, everything remains motionless in such an environment.

This gave her the illusion that everything around her had frozen in time.

Continuing forward, past a street market where people had just set up stalls, some empty stalls remained on the ground, with some goods scattered haphazardly on them. However, the owners of these stalls had vanished.

This made An Huiling feel increasingly uneasy, and she couldn't help but quicken her pace.

Ahead was a crossroads where two roads intersected. In the distance, faintly, An Huiling could see something hanging on the streetlights beside the road.

As they drew closer, the hazy scenery in the mist gradually became clearer, and An Huiling could now see clearly that what was hanging on the street lamp appeared to be a person.

It was a figure dressed in a straw raincoat and wearing a bamboo hat, hanging there motionless, in a hanged posture.

As An Huiling approached, it became clear that the raincoat was very worn out, with the brown leather on it discolored and even filthy. This kind of ancient rain gear, once used by the locals, is rarely used now that plastic raincoats have become widespread, and can only be seen during some folk performances.

An Huiling slowed her pace, holding her longsword horizontally in front of her. However, nothing unexpected happened until she reached him. Apart from a strong smell of the sea, An Huiling noticed that the hanged man's knees were empty, and he had no feet. From this angle, she couldn't see his face either, only his hands clasped in front of his chest, as if he were holding something.

Chapter 234 I saw you would die here…

At that moment, the hanged man suddenly began to move without wind, as if he had been tugged at. He, who had been facing away from An Huiling, slowly began to spin...

As he gradually turned to face the body, An Huiling saw that he was clutching a book to his chest with frayed edges and a mottled black cover. Judging from the yellowed and moldy appearance of the cover, it must have been quite old. And from the sleeves of his straw raincoat, a pair of withered and shriveled hands, resembling chicken claws, protruded, suggesting that the corpse had been desiccated for a long time.

However, An Hui's intuition assured her that she had passed by this place before, but everything was normal then, and she definitely did not see any dead bodies hanging here.

An Huiling frowned, carefully examining the corpse. At the same time, the corpse wearing a straw hat suddenly moved; it slowly raised its head!

An Huiling instinctively took a step back immediately, holding her longsword horizontally in front of her in a defensive posture.

By then, she could clearly see the hanged man's face. His skin seemed to have been ripped off and was completely gone. Bloody muscles were exposed, revealing veins and tendons, white and neat teeth, a nose with only the back half of its bone remaining, and bloodshot eyes. His entire face was a bloody mess, making him look nauseating.

He looked at An Huiling, the corners of his mouth gradually turned up, and finally, he revealed a strange smile.

"Welcome to God's Game."

The dead man actually spoke; his mouth, which had no lips, opened and closed, and his voice was hoarse.

Perhaps due to the overwhelming bizarre events she had encountered that day, An Huiling calmed down. Taking a deep breath to compose her turbulent emotions, she stared at the corpse hanging from the streetlight and asked, "Who are you? Where have all the people here gone?!"

However, the deceased completely ignored him: "I saw your future; you will die here..."

"Shut up! Don't talk nonsense anymore!"

However, the hanged man clearly did not respond to An Huiling, and continued speaking to himself: "You will die a miserable death, and your friends and your family will also die here..."

"If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll have to get rough with you!" Hearing him utter such vicious words, even involving her family, An Huiling felt a surge of anger.

"...Your blood will flow on the earth, your souls will be sacrificed to our god..."

Enraged, An Huiling swung her sword, leaving a deep wound on his body. Black, foul blood flowed down his raincoat and dripped to the ground, but the hanged man seemed oblivious, roaring even louder:

“You are guilty! You are all guilty! Fear! Suffer! Desperate! You sinners who have turned away from God…”