A Compendium of One Hundred Demons: My Path to Immortality in a World of Demons and Monsters

In the thirty-sixth year of the Yankang era of the Qianlong Emperor, the dynasty was on the verge of collapse.

The princes are locked in a bitter struggle for the throne, the Xiongnu in the north have breached three passes, Japanese pirates in the east have repeatedly invaded the border, and the southwestern barbarians have formed an alliance to establish their own independent state.

It was a year of famine and drought, with the land barren for miles around, and demons and monsters were rampant.

Shuangshan Village truly lives up to its name—two continuous barren mountains, like two crouching giant beasts, tightly embrace this remote village.

Under the old locust tree at the village entrance, several emaciated villagers sat together, their eyes vacant as they stared at the cracked earth.

It hasn't rained for three months. The wells have dried up, the crops have failed, and even the wild vegetables on the mountain have been completely dug up.

"Have you heard? Wang Laosan's youngest son died last night..." Old Man Li's voice was hoarse, and his chapped lips trembled.

Silence fell over the surroundings.

This is the fourth person to starve to death in the village this month!

Xu Yuan leaned against the earthen wall not far away, listening to these discussions, and felt a sharp pain in his stomach.

Having been transported to this godforsaken place for a month, he finally understood that "exchanging children to eat" was not an exaggerated description in historical records.

"Brother Yuan!"

A thin, small figure shuffled over; it was Little Stone.

This child is nine years old this year, but he is so thin that he looks like he is six or seven years old. His big eyes stand out in stark contrast to his thin face.

"Brother Yuan, did you find anything to eat today?" Little Stone looked longingly at Xu Yuan's empty hands.

Xu Yuan shook his head with a wry smile: "The soil on the front hill has been turned over several times, and there are no grass roots left."

The expectant light in Little Stone's eyes dimmed, but he still mustered his spirits: "It's okay, we'll definitely find it tomorrow! My mother said that God won't really force people to their deaths."

Watching Xiao Shitou run away, Xu Yuan felt a lump in his throat. The child had secretly told him yesterday that he hadn't eaten for three days.

Xu Yuan looked up at the dark, barren mountain behind the village.

That was a forbidden area of ​​the village, a rule passed down from generation to generation: no one was allowed to enter the back mountain.

Legend has it that there are man-eating mountain spirits and monsters in the back mountain, and no one who goes in ever comes out alive.

Twenty years ago, the village suffered a famine. A dozen or so young men went into the mountains to look for food, but only one returned. It was said that he was a madman who talked nonsense all day about red-eyed monsters in the mountains.

From then on, no one dared to set foot in the back mountain again, preferring to starve to death.

Xu Yuan, being a modern person, was originally not a believer in superstitions, but the matter of time travel itself was strange enough, coupled with some bizarre phenomena he had witnessed in the past month.

For example, the hens that Widow Zhang kept at the east end of the village to save her life all died overnight, each with two small holes in its neck, and all the blood had been sucked out; another example is that at night, you can always hear strange cries coming from the back mountain, which do not resemble any known animal!

This forced him to maintain a sense of awe towards the "rules" of this world.

but……

Xu Yuan turned his head to look at the dilapidated mud house at the west end of the village; that was Aunt Zhang's house.

A month ago, when he first transmigrated here, he was cold and hungry and fainted at the entrance of the village. Aunt Zhang picked him up and took him home, feeding him half a bowl of rice soup so thin you could see your reflection in it.

Now, Aunt Zhang's daughter-in-law has just given birth. Due to lack of nutrition and insufficient breast milk, the five-month-old baby cries all night due to hunger, and the sound is getting weaker and weaker.

"Damn it!" Xu Yuan spat, but his mouth was so dry he barely had any saliva left. "We can't wait any longer!"

He looked at the ancient book in his mind—the "Hundred Ghosts Picture"—a book that only he could sense.

On the day he transmigrated, this thing inexplicably appeared in Xu Yuan's head.

The yellowed pages, the eerie illustrations, and the first page featured a portrait of a emaciated ghost with an unusually swollen abdomen.

[Hungry Ghost: 5% progress]

[Ability: Extremely efficient digestion (can convert food into maximum energy for blood and qi)]

【Feature: Unlimited food intake (food conversion rate increases with the progress of unlocking)】

In peacetime, this ability would be an absolute cheat code, but in this chaotic and famine-stricken world where even tree bark is almost completely gnawed off, it's simply ironic.

For the past month, Xu Yuan has barely managed to stay alive by digging up grass roots and finding insects every day, and his progress in lighting up the game has only increased from 3% to 5%.

But whenever Xu Yuan looked towards the back mountain, the Hundred Ghosts Picture in his mind would heat up slightly, and the page about the starving ghosts would also glow faintly.

It's as if... there's something it longs for in the mountains.

As night fell, Xu Yuan lay on the haystack in Aunt Zhang's woodshed, listening to the faint cries of the baby next door, tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

The legends of the forbidden area in the back mountain, the strange movements of the Hundred Ghosts Painting, the fading breathing of Aunt Zhang's family... all sorts of images kept intertwining in his mind.

"Screw it!" Xu Yuan suddenly sat up, his eyes resolute.

Rather than waiting to die here, we might as well take a gamble!

He refused to believe that a modern person with a cheat system could really starve to death in this famine.

Picking up the rusty woodcutter's knife beside him, Xu Yuan stealthily made his way towards the back of the mountain under the pale moonlight.

As he passed the village entrance, he also saw the stone tablet that had stood for who knows how many years, with its faded inscriptions still faintly discernible:

"The back mountain is a forbidden area; anyone who enters will surely die."

Xu Yuan paused for a moment, but still stepped over the stone tablet.

As soon as we entered the mountains, the temperature dropped sharply.

Despite it being the height of summer, the mountains were unusually cold and damp.

Moonlight filtered through the sparse leaves, casting distorted shadows on the ground.

Following the knowledge he learned from Bear Grylls in his previous life on a survival show, Xu Yuan found several animal trails and set up simple traps using the hemp rope and sharpened wooden stakes he brought with him.

One, two, three... Xu Yuan set up seven or eight traps in one go, sweating profusely, and his hunger intensified.

The image of a hundred ghosts warmed my mind slightly, and the image of the starving ghost seemed even more vivid.

Just as Xu Yuan was preparing to set up the last trap, a loud noise suddenly came from the depths of the forest, followed by a sharp hiss and a deep roar.

The earth trembled slightly, the trees swayed, and a flock of night birds took flight.

Xu Yuan's heart tightened, and he quickly hid behind a large rock.

When he came to his senses, he realized that the Hundred Ghosts Picture had already unfolded on its own, and the page with the starving ghosts was shining brightly, as if urging him to go to the source of the sound.

"Since we're already here!"

After hesitating for a moment, Xu Yuan cautiously reached out.

After passing through a dense forest, the view suddenly opened up before us.

It was a clearing in the woods, but now it was unrecognizable. Trees were uprooted and the ground was cracked, as if it had been ravaged by something.

The sight in the center of the open space made Xu Yuan gasp in shock.

Two unknown entities are confronting each other.

On one side was a monster about two people tall, resembling a human but covered in long, bluish-black hair. Its face was ferocious, with fangs protruding from its mouth and sharp claws gleaming coldly. There was a deep wound on its abdomen from which dark green liquid was flowing.

On the other side was a dark shadow floating in mid-air, which could be vaguely seen to be human-shaped, but seemed to have no substance. Only two blood-red dots of light resembled eyes. The shadow was surrounded by a cold aura, and wherever it passed, the grass and trees withered rapidly.

"Could this be... a mountain spirit or a ghost?" Xu Yuan's mind immediately flashed back to the descriptions in the villagers' legends.

The two monsters had clearly been fighting for some time and were both seriously injured.

The mountain spirit moved slowly, and the shadow of the vengeful ghost also faded considerably.

Suddenly, the mountain spirit let out a deafening roar and pounced on the ghost, its sharp claws lashing out and creating a stench.

Not to be outdone, the ghost transformed into a wisp of black smoke that entwined around the mountain spirit, its blood-red eyes shining brightly.

Two incredibly powerful forces collided violently, unleashing a blinding light and a deafening roar.

Even Xu Yuan, who was far away, was almost knocked to the ground by the shockwave, and his ears were ringing.

By the time he came to his senses, the battle ahead was nearing its end.

The mountain spirit's chest was pierced, while the ghost's shadow almost completely vanished, leaving only two red dots flickering in the air.

The two monsters exchanged a wary glance, then turned around simultaneously and disappeared swiftly into the dense forest, one to the east and the other to the west.

They all seemed too badly injured to fight anymore.

As the forest clearing returned to its deathly silence, only the mess on the ground and the lingering stench in the air remained.

Xu Yuan waited for about fifteen minutes, and only after confirming that the two monsters had really left did he cautiously walk out.

At this moment, on the first page of the Hundred Ghosts Chart, the Hungry Ghosts Chart is flashing wildly, pointing to a certain spot in the center of the open space.

Xu Yuan walked over and found that it was a palm-sized piece of meat with a faint bluish glow, which was obviously dropped by the mountain spirit when it was injured.

The chunks of meat were warm to the touch and were even wriggling slightly, as if they were alive.

"This...can I eat it?" Xu Yuan hesitated, but the churning hunger in his stomach and the intense craving for the Hundred Ghosts Painting overwhelmed everything.

Xu Yuan gritted his teeth, grabbed the piece of mountain spirit flesh, closed his eyes, and stuffed it into his mouth.

The expected fishy and nauseating smell did not appear; instead, it had a strange sweetness.

The flesh and blood melted upon entering the mouth, transforming into a warm current that surged into the stomach.

boom!

Xu Yuan felt as if a volcano had erupted inside him, with violent energy surging through his limbs and bones, cracking and popping, his muscles bulging, and his skin glowing with an abnormal red light.

High-energy life form detected...in digestion...

[Hungry Ghosts' progress: 5% → 15%]

[New Features: Strength Enhancement, Agility Enhancement]

However, Xu Yuan's surprises didn't end there!

[Pure soul power detected... Second page of the character encyclopedia is being unlocked...]

[Current unlock progress: 47%!]