Chapter 346

In the game.

Fang Yue opened his eyes and found that the people who had been shouting around him were now surrounding the Blood Hunter.

"Quiet! Everyone, be quiet!"

Fang Yue raised his voice, and only then did the others realize Fang Yue had woken up again.

Fang Yue had enough authority; as soon as he spoke, they all fell silent.

Fang Yue looked around and saw that only a few people still held up their Soul Torches.

Even so, those holding the torches trembled, clearly fearing that in the next second they too would burst into flame.

"Blood Hunter, any discoveries?"

"No concrete findings, but I've pieced together this: initially, Ye Ge noticed everyone's hair was greasy; then, as we traveled, the greasy hair began dripping water—or rather, oil—then the people holding the Soul Torches started burning themselves."

"So I'm wondering: where is this oil coming from? It can't be that everyone suddenly turned into Oil Persons for no reason. And if we extinguish the Soul Torches, will we stop burning? If all torches are put out and the group plunges into darkness, is that the enemy's ultimate goal?"

The Blood Hunter quickly formulated a theory, but with too little information, it was mostly guesswork.

Fang Yue frowned: "If the oil's source is in the hair, what about bald people? Would they still produce grease? Who in the group is bald?"

"Me!"

A guard stepped forward—he was indeed bald, yet his scalp was slick with grease, proving even baldness couldn't avoid it.

That meant it had nothing to do with hair; simply being affected caused oil to seep from their heads!

This was a problem…

Fang Yue didn't know how to extinguish this natural flame; if he got contaminated, he had confidence he could counteract it with Night's Breath, but he wasn't sure if he could put out the fire.

"Since the hair hypothesis is invalid, let's shift our thinking: hair… no, the head oozing oil is the root problem, then the oil drips down to form the oil trails on the ground."

What they called oil trails were still slowly forming; if they stayed here any longer, this entire area would indeed become a network of oil trails.

"Then comes the self-immolation—and the speculation that some entity is using this trait to force us to extinguish the torches."

"So the root of everything lies in the head oozing oil. Solve that, or uncover its cause, and all other problems vanish."

Fang Yue was no longer the naive boy from Gu Yue Cun who didn't even understand curses; through his journey to Mo Cun, killing the 【Guizhi】, surviving the Huanggui Yiji, enduring storms and trials, he had quietly become a highly experienced wilderness explorer.

When problems arose, he no longer relied entirely on others—he had his own reasoning, his own ideas, to solve them.

Meanwhile, the entire team placed all their hope on him; he had truly become the team's pillar!

Along this journey, Fang Yue had grown immensely.

And he was still growing—now, no exception.

He sniffed his sleeve and asked: "Does anyone know anything about this fishy-smelling oil?"

No one answered; clearly, none of them knew what it was.

Even the Blood Hunter could only speculate: "It might be body fat or another component reacting uniquely with oil to form this substance."

"You mean this thing is corroding us?" Those who understood a little turned pale with fear.

"There's a possibility."

The group grew even more panicked; two people extinguished two more Soul Torches, and Fang Yue scolded them into relighting them.

In this pitch-black night, without Soul Torches for light, everyone was blind—should anything happen, they'd all be finished.

"Ye Ge, what if we start running? Maybe we can shake off this weird oil phenomenon—or maybe it's unique to this area."

The Blood Hunter suggested.

Beside him, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu was nearly in tears; after telling Fang Yue, she lay flat on the cart and logged off to take a shower.

Even though this was only in the game, Tian Dan Zhi Yuan Wu, who loved beauty, couldn't tolerate it.

Run…?

Maybe we could try.

Before, we ignored this weird oil phenomenon, so we got caught.

If everyone runs, maybe we can shake it off.

Decided, he gave the order—the team broke into a sprint, their speed surging.

But simultaneously, the strange oil oozing from their bodies increased, coating the ground beneath them.

Whether it was an illusion or not, the more they ran, the more their bodies worked, and the hotter Fang Yue felt.

He asked the Blood Hunter—he felt exactly the same.

He was about to ask others…

Pfft!!!

The person at the very front—who wasn't even holding a Soul Torch—suddenly burst into flame without cause!

His entire body became a blazing torch, burning fiercely—worse than the earlier torch-holders; within less than five seconds, he turned to charred human bones, motionless.

Screams of terror spread; the team descended into chaos.

Only after Fang Yue shouted twice did they finally regain control, and the team came to a halt.

The situation seemed unchanged from before, but from every face—filled with anxiety, fear, dread—it was far worse than before.

They were trapped in a prisoner's dilemma: running wasn't safe, nor was standing still.

Anything they did seemed to accelerate self-immolation, yet doing nothing meant waiting to die.

The situation was frozen.

Fang Yue wiped the strange oil from his cheek; his expression was grim.

He hadn't expected that after traveling so far along the village path back to Gu Yue Cun, they'd encounter such a stubborn anomaly!

What should he do? What…

Fang Yue suddenly froze.

Just now, while thinking, he felt the village path beneath his feet—the porcelain-white stone—had moved slightly.

Giving the Blood Hunter a look, Fang Yue signaled everyone to quiet down.

Then he slowly crouched down and tried to push aside the porcelain-white stone beneath his feet with his hands.

His expression froze in an instant.

The porcelain-white stone, which should have been firmly and securely embedded into the ground, forming the village path, was now unusually loose — he could even feel it rising and falling.

As if something underground were loosening the soil…

His expression shifting several times, Fang Yue gave the others a signal, then began a countdown: one, two, three.

The instant "three" was called, Fang Yue suddenly clawed the porcelain-white stone on the ground aside.

The next instant, dense, pitch-black insects surged up from the hole beneath the porcelain-white stone like a tide.

Fang Yue startled and hastily retreated, but it was already too late — palm-sized pitch-black insects had stuck to his clothes and were crawling in through the seams.

Almost instinctively, Fang Yue tried to activate the Blazing Heart Method… then he choked.

PS: Going to sleep.

(End of chapter)