Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

Perhaps this head was placed here to serve some purpose of punishment or torture, and has remained alive until now.

That wooden plaque was also an object of obsession. The aura of this object of obsession wasn't too strong, but it seemed to have some special connection, and could correspond to something special.

Besides these, there were two empty small cages. They may have originally contained something, but it has been removed and its whereabouts are unknown.

It's really strange. The things suppressed in this place don't seem to be particularly important or uncontrollable obsessions, but rather people imprisoned for some special reason. Who would come here to take something away from them? And if someone did come here to take something away, when did that happen?

Reaching out, Gao Hai tore open the cage containing the jade pendant, took the object of his obsession, and stored it in his black watch.

A quarter of the core, and that's it for me.

Next was the bear paw, which Gao Hai accepted with a casual smile.

Although the human head wasn't an object of his obsession, Gao Hai, after a moment's thought, still took it out, wrapped the hair attached to the head around his belt, tied a slipknot, and hung it on his body. He admitted he had a bit of a cosplay vibe, but mainly it wasn't an object of his obsession that he couldn't put it in his watch, and he also wanted to see if it would change after being freed from the suppression of the mountain god's power.

Finally, there was the wooden plaque with the symbol of the demon suppressor. After holding it in his hand, even before leaving this special area suppressed by the power of the mountain god, Gao Hai immediately felt a special power fluctuation emanating from it.

Such fluctuations... are they a result of the cohesion of faith?

It seemed that one could sense the sound of prayers, and hear many people pleading devoutly with the "Suppressor of Ghosts, Jiang," seeking protection, help, or peace of mind.

These prayers, each with its own purpose, converged into fragmented sounds that reached Gao Hai's ears at that moment, before quietly dissipating.

If this power were allowed to slowly gather, perhaps it would produce some special effect? ​​But after this wooden tablet was suppressed here, those prayers lost their meaning. After all, even if the mountain god of Little Black Mountain was crippled and dying, he could not be swayed by the prayers of dozens or hundreds of people.

Speaking of which, whose wooden plaque could it be? Is it the one who left behind the investigative information about the strange creature, the one possessed by the power of the Blood Flower?

Or...

Gao Hai turned around and looked at the old woman standing behind him.

This old woman, who should have remained motionless at the entrance, a puppet who had lost her sense of self, now silently appeared behind Gao Hai, her cloudy eyes fixed on the wooden plaque in his hand.

Senior...brother...

Then, she slowly uttered hoarse words, and then reached out and instantly grabbed Gao Hai by the neck.

Chapter 112: The Causes and Effects Sown in the Past and the Urgency That Begins to Manifest

The burning flames spread throughout the entire village.

Armed with swords and spears and clad in armor, the soldiers fought back with great difficulty, but one after another they fell.

The howling phantoms and twisted filth spread wildly through the woods and fields, unleashing terrifying malice with the abandon of a doomsday frenzy.

The villagers have disappeared.

Some of them disappeared without a trace from the beginning, and no one knows how they vanished from the village. Others didn't have time to escape and quickly became the first targets of those things. At this point, they were basically left with only a few remaining limbs, and their complete shape could not be found.

Meanwhile, the people dressed as demon hunters are still doing their best to resist, trying to build a defense against these things, and searching for a way to reseal these terrifying creatures.

Whose voice did I hear?

These things cannot be allowed to continue spreading. If they really leave the woodland, the damage they will cause will be incalculable. They must be contained in this area!

The magical artifacts we used to counteract and suppress the supernatural phenomena are almost exhausted. If we continue like this, they might go out of control before we can even suppress them. We must change our strategy; we can't afford to fight them head-on. A direct confrontation will only lead to our defeat.

Do those lunatics even know what they're doing? Such reckless destruction of the seal… No, we must find a way to establish contact with the Mountain God of Little Black Mountain. To seal a monster of this size, we must find a method in this direction! Tsk, but based on previous investigations, establishing contact will likely require a sacrifice, but we have absolutely no idea what scale of sacrifice is needed to truly solve the problem…

I saw those people fighting desperately.

Even though they are scarred and contaminated from long investigations, and are destined to never leave this twisted land, they are still fighting with all their might.

I saw those villagers.

Standing in the shadowy woods, watching all this from afar, silently observing the villagers who fought to the death against the evil spirits.

[Sizzle...]

Some villagers were chuckling and laughing in hushed tones.

These damned soldiers forced us to resort to this drastic measure. Once they're dead, I'll have them all torn apart!

Some villagers were growling through gritted teeth.

"Chief, is this really alright? Mr. Du mentioned before that tampering with the seal could lead to disaster. If we break the seal now and something goes wrong later, and we can't reseal these things..."

Some villagers also looked worried, gazing anxiously at the twisted monsters raging across the mountains and the people who were dying and being injured by them, and raised their own questions.

"Ha, that's just Mr. Du trying to scare us. Why would he even think of doing that?"

"The Mountain God has protected us for so many years, how could things go wrong just because we broke a seal a little? To put it bluntly, those seals were originally meant to suppress evil spirits. Our ancestors built that place and it's still working perfectly today. How could we be doomed just because we broke the seal once and released those things? There's no such thing as that!"

[Besides, if we don't do this, won't those soldiers destroy our homes? The previous war was caused by Li Duosun's recklessness, but these soldiers are even more powerful and troublesome. They can even actually fight those strange creatures; if we went against them, we'd only be dead. So, let's not worry about the future; let's get through this crisis first. We can't let these guys continue to wreak havoc on our territory.]

Then, I heard Li Ziyong's voice.

With a hint of resentment and the exhilarating feeling of revenge, the man, who looked almost identical to Li Ziyong whom Gao Hai had met, was now smiling smugly.

Even as the chaos raged below the mountain and the village burned in flames, his face showed no sign of distress, but rather radiated pride. It was as if the idea of ​​inciting the monsters to riot and kill the monster-suppressing people had brought him immense benefits. However, considering that the surrounding villagers were already addressing him as their clan chief, and that Li Duosun, with a dark expression, was standing not far away, some things seemed self-evident and didn't need explanation.

The Zhang family has already dug their own grave and is beyond dead. After today, the Liu family will also be completely cut off from any escape route. Next, as long as we wipe out these soldiers who came from who-knows-where, this Little Black Mountain will belong solely to the Li family, and only I, Li Ziyong, will be in charge. Haha, Mountain God, I'll have to rely on your strength a lot!

It seems that I could more or less sense Li Ziyong's inner thoughts.

Like a petty person who has achieved success, Li Ziyong grinned and smiled silently in the burning firelight.

It's becoming clearer and clearer.

The moment the old man touched Gao Hai, the scenes from the past, the things released in the dark night, and the people who fought to the last moment, ultimately perishing, all became clearer.

Finally, one person stepped forward from among the defeated soldiers and walked towards the strange creatures.

All the ghost-suppressing people stood up at the last moment. Their appearance began to age rapidly, their life force continued to drain away, and they eventually fell to the ground and died.

The power of the gods responded to the sacrifice, spreading rapidly across the land, extinguishing the flames, and imprisoning the monster once more, thus finally ending the chaos.

The villagers from the Li family did not rush to show themselves.

Before them, some people appeared in the dilapidated village. It was unclear how they appeared; it seemed like only a blink of an eye, and suddenly many figures appeared in places where there had been no one before.

These people came out and then noticed the last remaining demon-suppressing figure. The one who had sacrificed the life force of all his companions to the mountain god in exchange for a final, cruel victory, and who himself stopped breathing at the last moment, dying standing in the ruins of the village.

Something was wriggling inside the body of this ghost-suppressing man.

After his death, after his life ended, something that was intensely stimulated and about to burst forth from his body.

The villagers from Lijia Village who had been watching earlier had all disappeared and no one knew where they had gone.

The villagers who had just come out were unable to escape the location of the ghostly figure immediately, so they then saw the terrifying colors growing from the ghostly figure's body.

Snapped!

With a soft thud, Gao Hai knocked away the old woman's withered fingers that were gripping him.

He didn't wait for the old woman to finish watching the transmitted image before decisively cutting it off. Although he might miss some important clues, Gao Hai wasn't stupid. He could clearly sense the aura of what was about to burst out of the demon-suppressing figure—a familiar aura he couldn't possibly mistake: the aura of the blood-red flower. Even if it was just a blurry image, Gao Hai was certain that as long as he observed the blood flower again, he could still accelerate the process of breaking free from the seal. It was even possible that as the image played out, the past phantom of the blood-red flower would become real and attack Gao Hai directly at the inspiration clue stage.

Gao Hai knew he couldn't handle it if things really got to that point, so he immediately interrupted as soon as he realized something was wrong.

{That's quite unexpected. So you're the junior sister of the Jiang family, the ghost-suppressing figure? You willingly sacrificed your life force and were drained of it, turning into this old woman. But the Li family picked up your body and reactivated it into a temple-guarding puppet.}

Gao Hai's words were tinged with emotion.

At this point, Gao Hai no longer had the time or inclination to discuss how perverted and disgusting these villagers were. They were basically all absorbed by the mountain god and couldn't escape to cause trouble anymore. And if he could truly crack this dungeon, the black watch certainly wouldn't let these anthropomorphic creatures off the hook. Yeah, they were still disgusting, though. Every time he encountered this situation in the dungeon, there wasn't a single truly troublesome one.

The expressionless old man continued to struggle, trying to attack Gao Hai, grab his neck, and snatch the wooden tablet of the demon-suppressing person from Gao Hai's hand.

Perhaps because he had become a puppet combining the power of a strange creature, the old man possessed immense strength, to the point that even the limits of human endurance were impossible to overcome. However, against Gao Hai, whose strength now far surpassed that of ordinary people, such a mere struggle was utterly futile. In fact, with the blessing of ethereal transformation activated, Gao Hai could easily subdue him with one hand, giving him no chance to retaliate.

After thinking for a while, Gao Hai took out the red soft rope, tied up the old woman, and dragged her away.

Although she's now just a puppet, retaining only a sliver of her former obsession, she is still one of the [Suppressors of Ghosts], and perhaps we can glean some clues from her. Hmm, let's have the historians investigate; maybe they can discover something.

As for this place, well… it's best to take all these objects of desire. Although I don't really need these things anymore, we can't be sure if all the treasure hunters are dead. It wouldn't be good if one or two survivors found this place.

After a brief moment of thought, Gao Hai decisively ransacked the entire underground area, taking everything he could carry. Even though most of these items were Dark Night level, they held little significance for Gao Hai, who now possessed multiple powerful blessings. Moreover, once the [Infant Cry Village] dungeon was solved, none of these items would remain; they would all disappear. But for safety's sake, he didn't leave anything behind, thoroughly cleaning the map and leaving no resources behind.

It was at this moment that news came from Zhenfei: after repeated testing, she, the historian, and the members of the "Fishing Gang" had found a way to enter Liu Family Village. Gao Hai, after confirming several times that there was nothing else in the underground space, finally emerged and headed towards the village.

I wonder what the state of "Liu Family Village" will be, and what the situation is like for the residents there.

Although Gao Hai learned from Chachai last week that the residents of Liu Family Village were communicable and relatively friendly, he still harbored some doubts about the villagers he had not yet met, considering the anthropomorphic nature of the Li family. He worried that they might also cause all sorts of trouble, good or bad.

Tread - Tread -

After the hurried footsteps, the underground space, which had been completely looted, returned to silence and darkness.

Then, a faint wriggling sound gradually came from within.

From the moment Gao Hai came into contact with the old woman and saw fragments of the past, something began to tremble and grow.

Click——

The solid ground cracked open, and dark red shoots sprouted.

The buds grew rapidly, transforming into blood-red vines that blossomed into vibrant flowers.

Even though Gao Hai didn't actually see that thing appear in the historical fragments, he had already heard the wriggling of the crimson vines. So the crimson vines could indeed wriggle in the dungeon world, appear out of thin air, and begin to grow slowly.

Even earlier than in previous playthroughs, the power of the crimson flower spread through the darkness.

...Mom, I will protect you...

...Life on this planet, all my children...

...I will not let you become toys of those chaotic things, I will not let you continue to suffer...

...Just come to your mother's arms, just come to your mother...

May you live happily ever after with your mother...

In the murmurs unheard by anyone, one can almost see many faces flowing among the flowers.

His behavior pattern changed once again.

This time, He did not chase Gao Hai, nor did He chase any living people in the instance. He simply took root in the darkness and grew little by little.

In the woods outside the mountain god temple, Gao Hai, who was walking forward, subconsciously stopped and frowned as he looked behind him.

I feel like I've sensed something, but when I try to identify it, I can't find it.

Very strange.

Have you ever had this sudden clarity followed by a sudden blur before? It always feels like... I was locked onto by something for a moment, and then the other party actively released the lock, so I couldn't find their location.