Chapter 273: 269 Lingering Fear (Two-in-One)

Why is this Nail Hammer here?

Fang Mu was shocked and confused, yet his brain automatically linked all his memories regarding the Toad God and the Nail Hammer together. He suddenly realized that the Enforcer captain's accent from back then seemed to carry a slight Guinan regional lilt; although the man might have worked away from home for many years, his native accent was hard to change.

Therefore, that Enforcer captain himself was very likely a hidden believer of the Toad God!

But what connection did this Nail Hammer have with the Toad God, to the point that the Toad God and her followers would have such a massive reaction?

After the Nail Hammer fell out of the paulownia wood box, the entity hidden in the darkness kept emitting roars of anger, yet it also seemed quite wary and did not immediately launch any attacks on Fang Mu.

Fang Mu felt deeply puzzled by this; if this Nail Hammer could make the Toad God feel pressured, why had he suffered an attack from the other party last time?

Could it be that the current Nail Hammer had undergone some other changes compared to before?

Fang Mu did not overthink it; he only knew that the Abnormal items in the surroundings were all afraid of the Nail Hammer, so he braced himself, withstood the pressure, and picked up the Nail Hammer that had fallen to the ground. Holding the nail in one hand and the hammer in the other, his confidence suddenly surged.

Regarding Fang Mu's act of picking up the Nail Hammer, those monsters hiding in the darkness all emitted sounds of resistance and anger, seemingly complaining about Fang Mu's behavior.

A flash of pale blue light suddenly streaked through the dark stone chamber, illuminating the pitch-black shadows within. Faintly, a hideous and terrifying bat-like maw flashed by; that uncoordinated, ugly face was growing on the body of a giant toad. Around the edges of the stone chamber, there was also a group of loathsome, humanoid-shaped frog-men monsters eyeing him covetously, their pairs of pitch-black, giant eyes—filled with a desire for slaughter—staring fixedly at him, wishing they could swallow him whole with their gazes alone.

As the light swept past, a roar erupted in the darkness, followed by the sound of rapid footsteps coming from all directions.

Fang Mu's expression changed drastically. He knew the angry Toad God had just issued an order, letting her kin and Servants stop worrying about anything else and attack him directly. Those frog-men also seemed to have become extremely crazed due to the influence of the flash just now. Just by hearing the sound of wind being broken by the large-scale and rapid limb movements in the darkness, he could imagine the exaggerated and ferocious nature of the frog-men's actions.

Fang Mu turned and ran, his breathing heavy.

The flash of light from earlier hadn't just unveiled the veil of fear or simply given him a scare; Fang Mu had also managed to see the layout of the stone chamber. He saw the direction of one of the exits and ran toward it.

Just as that old village chief had said: don't look at anything else, don't listen to anything else, regardless of anything, just run.

Ribbit!

A frog croak sounded from behind Fang Mu's side, and a swift figure lunged over from the darkness, knocking Fang Mu to the ground.

Under the stimulation of the fear of death, Fang Mu erupted with a strong desire to survive. He kept stabbing and smashing wildly with the Nail Hammer in his hand toward the darkness in front of him. The strong monster pressing down on him suffered heavy injuries after only a moment and let out a miserable, tragic cry, its body spurting out foul-smelling, cold bodily fluids that splattered all over Fang Mu's face.

"Ah!" Fang Mu felt the Nail Hammer in his hand suddenly become as scalding as magma, so hot it felt like it was going to melt his hands. He soon screamed and threw away the Nail Hammer, then scrambled to his feet and continued running toward the direction of escape.

Fang Mu panted as he ran, his pace only ever increasing, never slowing down. He didn't know how many times he had bumped into walls or been injured by sharp objects in the darkness that he couldn't distinguish as stones or teeth, nor could he feel the pain of those moments; he relied entirely on instinct to dodge and flee.

It continued until he finally collapsed from exhaustion. As his vision slowly grew dark and narrow, Fang Mu looked back behind him, and in his weak and weary state, he realized he had escaped that mountain forest surrounded by mist.

Just as he was about to lose consciousness, he vaguely heard approaching footsteps. A pair of bare feet walked before his eyes; they were a pair of severely deformed, strange feet, similar to human feet but flatter, with webbing between the toes.

When Fang Mu woke up again, he was already back in the room of the family he was staying with. He sat up in a start, gasping for air, his eyes filled with terror as he nervously scanned his surroundings. Cold sweat, like a gushing spring, had soaked his clothes and bedding. Only after seeing the scenery of his environment did he finally let out a long, relieved sigh.

Fang Mu rubbed his brow, his temples throbbing. The nightmare-like images replayed in his brain: the giant toad shadow in the cave, the red eyes, the man-eating toad... and those frog-men wearing human clothes...

Hiss...

Fang Mu's senses slowly recovered, and a stinging, stiff, and sticky sensation came from his hands. He lowered his head to look and realized his hands were clenched extremely tightly; he guessed it was because he hadn't let go since he fell unconscious, to the point where it wasn't easy to open them now. At the same time, the surface of his skin was severely burned, with exaggerated, scalded blisters rising up, looking just like... just like the skin of a toad.

Fang Mu recalled that when the old village chief handed him the paulownia wood box containing the Nail Hammer, the man's hands had also become like his own. He thought that was probably because both of them had touched the Nail Hammer.

That eerie Nail Hammer now possessed some kind of terrifying, mysterious power; even the Toad God was wary of it and dared not take action against him while he held it, instead letting her kin and Servants act on her behalf.

His movement upon waking caught the attention of someone nearby outside the room. Soon, the door was pushed open, and the daughter of the host family, a cute-looking little girl, walked in carrying a washbasin and a towel.

Seeing Fang Mu wake up, the little girl was very happy. "Uncle, you're awake."

"What time is it now?" Fang Mu put on an ugly smile. He still remembered the strange behavior of this little girl in her own courtyard; she had collected his hair and nail clippings to feed the toads.

Before he transmigrated, Fang Mu had heard from Ning's uncle about some ancient customs of the Toad God's followers in the old days.

If they liked an outsider very much and had a good impression of them, they would collect things from that outsider—preferably directly related body parts like hair, skin flakes, and nails; of course, if none of those were available, they could also provide fabric from the clothes that person had worn. In short, they would eventually feed these things to the "house toads" kept by the Toad God's followers. Those "house toads," as messengers of the Toad God, would convey their intentions to the Toad God, and then the Toad God would provide protection to that outsider.

But Fang Mu couldn't even handle a mysterious "Blessing of the Toad God," so how could he possibly afford to enjoy this "Protection of the Toad God"?

Perhaps this little girl didn't realize the consequences her actions would bring, and simply couldn't distinguish right from wrong under the long-term influence of such a culture. She still naively thought she was helping others, rather than harming them.

The little girl explained: "It's already past seven in the morning, almost eight."

"How long have I been asleep?"

"It's been two days since you were carried back from the forest."

"What's the date today?"

"Today is March 5th."

Fang Mu fell silent. He had entered the mountains on February 28th, which meant he had been wandering in Nong Mountain for 3 days before coming out.

"When we found you, you looked miserable, covered in injuries everywhere. But fortunately, they were all superficial flesh wounds and nothing serious. The deadly part was that you were poisoned." The little girl placed the heavy washbasin on a stool by the bed, soaked the towel from the edge of the basin into the water, and skillfully washed and rubbed it.

Seeing this, Fang Mu hurriedly wanted to say he would do it himself, but when he looked down at his hands, he couldn't help but hesitate.

The little girl smiled sweetly: "It's okay, let me do it. Dad told me to take good care of you."

While Fang Mu helplessly accepted the care of the younger generation, he asked the little girl who was carefully wiping his face: "Where is your dad?"

His sensitive ears told him that there was no one else in the house right now; to be precise, there were very few people in the entire village, and he could barely hear the sounds of villagers moving about.

The little girl smiled and explained: "The adults have all gone to the village meeting."

"Where did they go? The village chief's house?"

"No." The little girl shook her head.

"Nong Mountain?" Fang Mu's eyes flickered.

The little girl, who was helping Fang Mu wipe the back of his hand, raised her eyes slightly. Those eyes revealed an expression far beyond her age, and she gave an eerie smile but did not answer further.

Seeing this, Fang Mu already had the answer in his heart.

After the little girl finished helping Fang Mu with his morning wash, Fang Mu used the excuse of changing clothes to send her away temporarily. He locked the room door and returned to the bed.

After a period of repeated stretching, Fang Mu felt his clenched, stiff hands loosen. He relied on willpower to try to open his hands again. Beads of sweat quickly broke out on his freshly dried face. The sensation of this process was a sour and spicy pain; his palms were the parts of his skin that had directly touched the Nail Hammer, and the burns there were the most severe. Making the movement of opening his palms meant tearing the wounds open.

Foul-smelling bodily fluids mixed with the scent of blood flowed down from the wounds. Fang Mu closed his eyes and took deep breaths, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.

Then he slowly immersed his hands into the washbasin from earlier. The warm water stimulated the wounds, further irritating the nerves. Fang Mu endured the intense, violent pain but still didn't make a sound.

After a while, Fang Mu seemed to adapt to the pain and took his hands back out of the now-murky water in the basin. By this time, his hands had regained some flexibility, and the wounds had been cleaned quite a bit.

As Fang Mu was checking his wounds, he suddenly made a new discovery. He found that the wound on his palm was stuck to a piece of dark blue fabric; half of the fabric was adhered to the split skin. He once again endured the intense pain and tore the black cloth off.

He poured a cup of water onto the table and rinsed the black cloth in the cup.

After re-applying medicine and bandaging his hands, Fang Mu went back to check on the dark blue cloth; it had been rinsed clean, and as he lifted it to inspect it, he found the material and color strangely familiar.

It was nearly twelve o'clock noon when Fang Mu heard the sounds of people moving about and interacting in the village again, and the little girl's parents had just returned.

Seeing that Fang Mu had woken up, the little girl's parents appeared very happy, stating they would kill a chicken for him today so that he could eat well now that he was recovering from his serious injuries.

Fang Mu accepted with a smile, yet in his heart, he felt an indescribable chill.

They were all very kind to him and took good care of him, but... not one of them asked what had happened to him in Nong Mountain.

Was there no need to ask? Were they not curious?

Could it be... that they were already accustomed to the fate of those who entered the mountain, or perhaps... they had known about his ordeal all along.

In the afternoon, Fang Mu went to visit the village chief again, but upon arriving at the house, he found the village chief was not home; he was received by the village chief's wife, whom he had not met last time, an old woman who hosted him.

Fang Mu wanted to ask where the old village chief was, and the old woman explained in broken Mandarin; he listened carefully and managed to understand.

It turned out the old village chief's son had died, and the old village chief had gone to bury him; he was not available today, nor would he be receiving guests for the next few days.

Fang Mu understood, then suggested: "The old village chief did me a great favor this time; since your child has passed away, it is only right that I offer a stick of incense for him, please do not refuse."

Since he had put it that way, the old woman did not refuse; she nodded silently and led Fang Mu to the ancestral hall behind the house.

Stepping into the ancestral hall, when Fang Mu saw the black-and-white portrait illuminated by the candlelight in the dim room, every muscle in his body instantly tensed, and he quickly lowered his head to hide his shocked and terrified expression.

It was him! That Enforcer captain! He... he was actually the old village chief's son!

Fang Mu's brain suffered a massive shock, and his facial expressions became difficult to control; he forced himself to suppress his changing emotions, acting as if he did not recognize the person in the portrait, offered a stick of incense solemnly, and then returned to his lodging in silence.

Not until he returned to his room and closed the door did Fang Mu collapse against it, sliding to the floor, his breathing heavy and his mouth parched.

He swallowed hard, took out the dark blue cloth from the hidden pocket inside his jacket, and the scene of him struggling in the darkness of the Nongshan Shandong against a frog-man that had pounced on him flashed through his mind.

He remembered using a Nail to stab the person until they were riddled with holes, and then using a Hammer to smash their head into a pulp; the blood and flesh splattered all over him, and during that struggle, he had torn a piece of fabric from the other person's clothes, which had remained stuck to his wound ever since, clutched tightly in his hand out of nervousness, never once released, and never discovered by anyone.

Examining this familiar piece of fabric now, Fang Mu felt as though his head were about to split open.

This fabric, wasn't it the exact same material as the uniforms of the Enforcers in the Shenzhou Region?