I built a safe house in the eerie night.

Looking at the corpse of the monstrous creature in the distant wilderness, whose head had suddenly exploded and which had died instantly, Jiang Ning's pupils widened suddenly, and a strange sense of horror and chill surged into his heart.

This bizarre way of dying is highly unusual.

Severely wounded by an arrow, he instinctively fled, only to be inexplicably shot in the head just as he was about to leave the battlefield...

It wasn't a natural death at all; it was... punishment?

A fleeting thought flashed through Jiang Ning's mind, making his heart sink.

Could it be that behind these seemingly aimless and frantically surging waves of strange forces... there is a commander?

Are there even more powerful and advanced supernatural forces secretly driving and controlling them?!

Thinking about it this way, many of my questions seem to have been answered.

No wonder the scale and frenzy of the strange tides that have surged in these past few nights far exceed what one would expect when the altar is about to go out.

No wonder new bizarre species have appeared.

This is not just a case of the altar malfunctioning; it's more like something is deliberately driving it to attack the village.

"This godforsaken place...there are just too many weird things I can't figure out."

Jiang Ning muttered to himself and shook his head.

Changyin Mountain is, after all, a breeding ground for evil and monsters. Although the village is located on the very edge of the mountain, the area to be explored is probably less than one percent of the entire mountain.

However, the terror lurking within is far beyond imagination.

It's not too surprising that it's being targeted by some "big thing".

Jiang Ning shook his head and exhaled.

Instead of pointless anxiety and speculation, focus on what you can do right now.

Improve your defense as soon as possible and accumulate strength.

Being trapped in this cage and constantly being controlled was very unpleasant for Jiang Ning, but the most important thing was to survive and get through the current crisis.

He suppressed the trembling in his heart, his gaze still fixed on the grotesque corpse in the distance, wanting to see if there would be any further developments.

The body lay silently in the darkness, motionless.

However, just as Jiang Ning was about to look away, he saw it clearly through the observation device.

Within that mass of blackened, congealed flesh, a faint, pure white light quietly emerged, like a firefly in the darkness.

"A rare treasure has fallen?"

Jiang Ning's lips curled up slightly, the shock from before being somewhat diluted by this unexpected turn of events.

"Thank goodness you didn't manage to escape!"

He had just breathed a sigh of relief, but the joy had not yet fully taken hold.

Right where the grotesque corpse was, at the edge of a deep, dark forest some distance away, a blurry black shadow flashed by very briefly in the corner of Jiang Ning's observation device!

It was moving so fast that it was almost impossible to detect. If the observation equipment had not had an exceptionally clear detection capability, Jiang Ning would never have been able to find it.

With just one glance, the hairs on his body stood on end, his pupils contracted sharply, and he froze on the spot as if he had been doused with ice water.

He saw it clearly!

That fleeting glimpse in the darkness... was the figure of a child!

It was blurry, shrouded in deeper darkness, but the general outline and some details rushed into Jiang Ning's eyes.

It was a dark figure wearing a bright red bib and with the build of a toddler.

It seemed to be jumping and playing in the dark forest.

But how could a child wearing a red bib possibly be playing and frolicking in the desolate, terrifying darkness of the night?

The eeriness and horror that this scene brought to Jiangning were far more intense than the impact of the thousands of grotesque monsters.

He caught his breath, his heart pounding wildly.

He subconsciously manipulated the observation device, trying to track and zoom in to see more details of the dark figure.

However, all that remained in his vision was a deathly darkness, as if that fleeting glimpse was merely a hallucination born of his extreme tension.

"No, there's no mistake, the Observatory has a very clear view!"

Jiang Ning squeezed his eyes hard, trying to calm himself down.

"Then there's only one possibility: it's not human at all, but some other kind of strange thing!"

"Moreover, it is highly likely to be an intelligent being with special and unpredictable abilities, a first-tier anomaly, or even... higher!"

This assessment and speculation made Jiang Ning feel a major crisis.

An unknown anomaly that may possess the ability to command low-level anomalies and whose behavior is so bizarre poses a threat level far exceeding that of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

He stood frozen in front of the observation device, his expression shifting.

"Young Master?"

A concerned voice came from beside him, "What's wrong?"

Jiang Ning took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down.

When he stepped away from the observation post and turned to face the crowd, his face had returned to calm, but the solemnity in his eyes lingered.

"It's nothing." His voice was a little hoarse. "Maybe... I haven't been resting well lately, and my eyes are a bit blurry."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the mountain of corpses, then looking into the deep darkness in the distance, before finally saying:

"Tonight...should be over by now. Uncle Fu, Uncle Meng, you should all go back and rest. Ah Niu, Hu Zi, Lei Zi, you must be tired too, everyone go back to your rooms quickly..."

After he finished speaking, without waiting for anyone to ask any more questions, he turned around and walked down from the viewing platform with a heavy heart.

Xiong Meng followed him down and asked with concern, "Young Master, are you really alright? Are you too tired?"

Yu Niu stepped forward, patted his chest, and said, "Young Master, you go back and rest. Hu Zi and I are outside; we'll keep watch until the very end!"

Jiang Ning nodded to them, forcing a somewhat strained smile.

"Yes, thank you for your hard work. I do need to rest for a while."

He said no more and went straight to his hut.

There were only two waves of strange tides tonight, and there probably won't be any more large-scale impacts in the latter half of the night, so it's really unnecessary for everyone to stay outside.

Moreover, the mental shock of that glimpse had indeed left Jiang Ning feeling exhausted and disoriented.

Back in the house, Jiang Ning sat on the simple wooden bed, still unable to calm down.

The image of the child in the red bib kept flashing through his mind, keeping him in a low-pressure state for a long time.

Whether in his past life or this one, he always makes this mistake of "anxiety arising before anything happens."

Wang Fu gently pushed the door open and entered, carrying a bowl of water, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping himself.

"Young Master..."

"Uncle Fu, I'm fine, just a little tired."

Jiang Ning took the water, took a sip, closed his eyes, and tried to suppress his chaotic thoughts.

Seeing the lingering seriousness in his eyes, Wang Fu knew that the young master might have seen something unusual, but since the young master was unwilling to say more, he did not press the matter further. He simply kept it in mind and carefully closed the door behind him.

The latter half of the night passed slowly in an unusual quiet.

There were no more large-scale surges of strange creatures outside the village; only a few small creatures, appearing out of nowhere, staggered closer.

They were then swiftly shot down by the watchful arrow towers.

Overall, the village was enveloped in a long-lost and relatively peaceful environment.

After the shock and fierce battle of the first half of the night, most of the exhausted villagers were finally able to relax and fall asleep.

Only Yu Niu and Er Hu, with their overflowing sense of responsibility, remained steadfastly guarding the open space in the village.

Even when I was so sleepy that my eyelids were drooping, I persevered.

Finally, unable to endure it any longer, they leaned against each other, put on thin clothes, and fell into a light sleep not far from the viewing platform, still holding their weapons tightly in their hands.

The darkness remained as thick as ink, and not a single ray of light could penetrate the sky.

The strong smell of blood gradually dissipated and became odorless as the eerie corpses weathered away and transformed into gray Tai Sui.

The altar in the village glowed faintly, its light barely lingering, still enveloping the village and offering a final, symbolic protection.

The village's several arrow towers stood silently in the night, the light in their skull eye sockets dim but not extinguished, silently facing the boundless wilderness outside the village.

And it was in this deathly silence and darkness that...

Deep in a secluded forest, far from Baiye Village, where no one has ever set foot before, in an absolute desolation where even eerie roars seem to be swallowed up.

"Hehe...hehe..."

A child's figure wearing a red bib was emitting ethereal yet extremely eerie laughter.

It was joyfully chasing an old wedding sedan chair in the woodland wasteland. The sedan chair was decorated with pale white and black paper flowers and was shrouded in thick gray fog as it slowly drove along.

The sedan chair floated and moved silently, with children laughing and chasing after it, one in front and one behind, until it quickly disappeared into the darkness of the dense forest.

Only the intermittent, sometimes near, sometimes far, strange laughter of children echoed eerily in the deathly still mountain forest at night, lingering for a long time.