The Black Stone

Ning Ming didn't dare think too much, and hurriedly led his sister forward.

Chen Jianjia immediately retreated, while Wu Xue and the others followed along.

They gradually stopped arguing, all gathering around the firelight with Ning Ming and his sister, staring at the girl in the firelight with greedy eyes like wolves.

Drip...drip...

Especially the tall thin man, whose body seemed to be rapidly dehydrating, leaving wet footprints with every step.

His whole body had already become a dried corpse!

Just then, Chen Jianjia's black hair seemed to come alive, wildly surging towards the firelight like snakes bursting out of their nests.

"How could this be?"

Chen Jianjia seemed very surprised. "How could my hair start moving on its own..."

Ning Ming was so frightened that his body stiffened.

Fortunately, any hair that entered the firelight would burn, giving off a nauseating stench.

But as a result, the longevity lamp burned even more rapidly.

"Why hasn't Uncle Lin arrived yet?"

Ning Ming looked at the little that remained of the longevity lamp, and felt the night road of the village was endless, as if deliberately tormenting him.

"Almost gone...hee hee...almost burned out..."

"That girl...that girl is very special..."

Disturbing, changed voices rang out from Wu Xue and the other behind them.

At that moment, something even more dangerous happened.

The Man in Green Robes actually came back!

Covered in blood, with a mad look on his face.

"I'm normal! I'm really normal now!"

The Man in Green Robes staggered towards Ning Ming like a lunatic. "There's only one me left in the world, the real me!"

But as soon as he set foot inside,

The Man in Green Robes shrieked as the firelight burned him, maddened, "Ahhhh! Why! Why is this happening? I already killed that damned fake, didn't I!"

"Senior Brother Tang, you have already become warped."

Chen Jianjia looked calmly at the Man in Green Robes.

The latter was furious, reaching out to grab Chen Jianjia's neck. "It's you! It's all because of you, bitch! I cultivated so hard for so many years, only to have it all ruined by a stinking whore like you!"

Chen Jianjia stood still as all of her hair came alive, tendrils coiling around the Man in Green Robes and slicing his body into meaty chunks, bloody and gruesome.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Senior Brother Tang..."

Even more bizarrely, Chen Jianjia was actually apologizing. "I don't know why, but my hair is out of my control. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

The Man in Green Robes was vivisected alive into pieces of flesh, horrifying and hard to look at.

"That's [Snake Hair]! The young miss has truly become warped as well!"

The dried corpse that had been the tall, thin man said in terror, "That is the taboo of the eighth level of Tianxuan Star..."

Seeing this, Ning Ming felt unprecedented horror.

It was as if he was in an insane asylum,

These cultivators were twisted not only mentally, but physically as well, warped into monsters.

What made him feel even more despair:

Bang! Bang...

Old Man Lin's door simply wouldn't open.

It was as if no one was home!?

How was that possible?

Ning Ming was extremely anxious, the longevity lamp in his hand nearly extinguished, only a stub remaining.

The flame gradually weakened as the sphere of firelight contracted.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In a flash, the gazes of the gathered cultivators all fixed on Ning Ming in the firelight, looking ominous.

"The only one that's not normal is that guy over there..."

"Almost...almost there..."

One disturbing voice after another rang out.

Chen Jianjia stared fixedly at the candle stub on the verge of extinguishing. "I'm normal! Really! Believe me, take a good look at me after the longevity lamp goes out..."

As she spoke, Chen Jianjia moved closer.

But just then,

Ning Ming suddenly took out a small half-stub of candle from his clothes.

Chen Jianjia was startled, not having expected this.

This half-stub was one Ning Ming had secretly pinched off earlier in the house, keeping one last avenue of escape for himself lest he have no way out.

In his past life, Ning Ming had suffered too many losses from being late to catch rides, exams, and dates...

So afterwards, he had forcibly cultivated the habit of always leaving himself time or a way out no matter what he did.

"I wouldn't have thought this habit would end up saving my life."

Ning Ming secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but his heart remained lodged in his throat, unable to settle down.

The next moment,

Ning Ming scrambled for every second, madly running while dragging his sister to find the house of a neighbor in the village to knock on their door.

But there was still no response...

This undoubtedly made Ning Ming extremely frustrated, completely unable to accept it!

Could it really be that all the villagers were sleeping that deeply?

What should he do now?

In the night village, Ning Ming and his sister were only wearing thin clothes, the temperature seeming to pierce into their very bones.

Cultivators...so these were cultivators who had gone astray in their cultivation...

Looking at Chen Jianjia and the others outside the firelight, Ning Ming finally witnessed this warped side of the world with his own eyes.

No matter what words outsiders used to tell stories, the effect could not compare to personally experiencing it to leave a deep impression.

Ning Ming's courage was already rather strong, but it still hadn't reached the point where he could sit on graves, teasing female ghosts.

At this moment, Ning Ming really panicked, his mind buzzing blankly.

But just then,

Ning Yao tightly grasped Ning Ming's hand. "Brother, don't be afraid."

His sister was here...that's right...

This gave Ning Ming the courage to face his fear.

But the flame flickered as the last candle stub burned away, the faint light completely extinguished, symbolizing the demise of hope.

Those few terrifying shadows drew closer step by step...

No!

Ning Ming instantly felt empty inside, his whole body surrounded by the dark night, as if he had fallen into an icy cold spring.

And it was right then that bizarre changes occurred!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Three arcs of light, like meteors and arrow shafts, shot over from the distance in an instant, piercing through the skulls of Chen Jianjia, Wu Xue and the others.

"What?"

Ning Ming was greatly alarmed, his mood rising and falling like a rollercoaster.

He saw

Chen Jianjia and the others' bodies shook violently, stiffening in place, their pupils gradually dulling, seeming to have their three hun souls and seven po souls frozen in place.

"What you have witnessed is the taboo in the midst of cultivation."

An aged voice rang out from the distance, "The [Twins] of Heaven Lonely Star, [Snake Hair] of Tianxuan Star, [Corpse King] of Pojun Star..."

Hearing this, Ning Ming was startled, his heart thundering violently.

Clang!

At the same time, a black gold short dagger flew to land at his feet, particularly clear in the night.

"Ning, if you still wish to cultivate, then kill these monsters with your own hand and eliminate your inner fear."

A blurred figure stood in the darkness, it was the village chief.

"Fuck..."

Ning Ming's face instantly turned red, he very nearly burst out cursing.

This was the normal reaction after overcoming fear, needing to vent emotion.

At this moment, he finally understood everything.

Why the village chief let this group of outsiders stay in his home...why no villagers responded when he was desperately seeking help in the night...

Damn it all!

So everything had been arranged by Old Man Li the village chief!

He had long seen that this group of outsiders would warp, yet deliberately didn't say anything, wanting to scare him tonight!

Right now, Ning Ming's expression was extremely unpleasant, gritting his teeth tightly as he forced himself not to move.

The old man stood somewhere, saying, "Ning, haven't you always wanted to go out and cultivate? These are cultivators from outside. How do you feel tonight?"

"Brother?"

Ning Yao looked at her brother.

Ning Ming's face was dark, not saying a word.

Old Man Li took a puff of his dry pipe, then said, "If we were just ordinary people, if Ning made just a small mistake, you could have died, you know?"

"Kill your inner fear with your own hands."

"If you still have the guts, come to my place."

Having finished speaking,

Old Man Li turned and left, his figure fading into the night, those voices also growing distant.

Soon after,

The village at night, tranquil and deserted once more.

On the quiet, empty streets.

Ning Ming silently held his sister's small hand, not letting go.

This night, he felt as if he had been on a runaway rollercoaster, ready to be thrown out into the air at any time.

These outsiders, who seemed to be normal cultivators, underwent a horrifying transformation in the dead of night. This was probably the true face of this world - full of bizarre events and grisly taboos that would make one shudder.

The village chief's words echoed in Ning Ming's ears once more...

Suddenly, Ning Ming gritted his teeth, his eyes flashing sharply.

As an ordinary person, he was too weak and vulnerable to face such things. Even if the village was safe, how could he live here his whole life? And no matter how bizarre cultivation was, how could he cower in fear?

He would kill these twisted cultivators!

He would purge his heart of fear with his own hands this night!

Ning Ming let go of his sister's hand and crouched down to pick up the black gold dagger.

His hand trembled as it gripped the blade...

In fact, even if Ning Ming had transmigrated here, the largest living thing he had killed in his past life was just a chicken or duck.

Looking at the motionless Chen Jianjia before him...

Pfft!

Ning Ming rushed forward in two quick strides and swung the dagger.

The blade was sharp enough that the head dropped to the ground like a ripe fruit falling off a tree, with blood gushing from the severed neck.

The youth was drenched in blood. His face paled at first, his body shook unsteadily, and his breathing grew strained.

But soon, for some reason,

Ning Ming's heart rapidly grew cold and calm.

"So this is what it feels like to kill?"

Ning Ming didn't know if this counted as killing a person or killing a monster in human form.

In any case, his hand had stopped trembling.

There was none of the nauseous, fainting, or weak reactions he had seen in his past life...

In the next moment, Ning Ming used the black gold dagger to sever the throats of Wu Xue and the tall thin man.

Then,

he stood motionless for a time.

"Brother?"

Beside him, Ning Yao blinked at her brother.

Suddenly, Ning Ming moved.

He dragged the corpses to a distant field and concealed them in the grass, planning to bury them the next day.

Beneath the thick night,

the youth’s movements were steady and unhurried, as if something inherent in his bones had been aroused.

In the far distance,

Old Man Li watched this scene, alongside a middle-aged man crouching on the ground.

"He can even calmly dispose of the corpses. How unexpected,"

Lin Zuodao said in astonishment. "I guess he wasn't scared witless tonight?"

Old Man Li said, "How old is young Ning? He’s grown up now.”

Lin Zuodao chuckled. “When I was his age, I had already narrowly escaped death countless times."

Old Man Li retorted in annoyance, “You were never a good person to begin with."

"Besides, if Ning the Cripple hadn't entered our village back then and we hadn’t raised young Ning for thirteen years...”

As he spoke, Old Man Li deeply inhaled his pipe, gazing at the youth beneath the starry sky and fields,

“The boy has a long and difficult road ahead of him...”

...

...

On the other side, Ning Ming didn’t want the villagers to be frightened by the corpses in the morning, so he was concealing them in the fields.

The youth’s mood grew increasingly excited,

not because of the sticky blood but because of anticipation.

That night, the village chief had revealed a snippet of the truth, and now he would probably finally be able to embark on the path of cultivation.

He had awaited this for thirteen long years, and now his wish was finally coming true.

“Destiny star...Taboos of cultivation..."

Ning Ming wiped the sweat from his brow, fired up inside. “Old Man Li has an extraordinary background, and the villagers are also mysterious. I'll definitely be able to embark on a decent path."

Just then,

a small black stone suddenly dropped from Chen Jianjia’s corpse.

The black stone fell onto the grass, around the size of a game piece, its whole body lustrous like jade, seeming to reflect a radiance.

“Hm?”

Ning Ming was startled at first but soon recalled some information he had heard.

This black stone was extraordinary!

This series of bizarre events had probably all been caused by it. Chen Jianjia’s master had become warped because of it, and Chen Jianjia’s group had turned into monsters one by one...

For some reason, the surrounding temperature seemed to plunge sharply.

At that moment,

the night sky was like a sea of death that had been silent for tens of thousands of years. The stars did not twinkle brightly, but rather resembled bizarre eyes, blinking as they watched the human realm.

In the fields, Ning Ming gazed at the black stone, a creepy feeling rising in his heart.

“Brother, are you done yet?”

Just then, his sister's shout came from behind.

Ning Ming hurriedly shook his head and took a deep breath. Not thinking twice, he decided to take the stone first before figuring things out.

But as soon as his hand grasped the black stone, an unbelievable scene occurred.

The black stone melted into Ning Ming's palm!