Chapter 68: Living Meat, Deer King

Chen Mo gripped his long spear tightly, twisted his body to exert force, and thrust straight at the throat of the strange deer.

The tentacles formed by the two feathered arrows on the deer's body wrapped around the spearhead with all their might, as if trying to dissipate the force.

But how could the deer withstand Chen Mo's strength? The long spear pierced through it without the slightest effort.

Yet, the strange deer was eroding the long spear, wanting to turn it into a part of itself.

Chen Mo had anticipated this; with a flick of the spear, he threw the strange deer far away.

Although he did not know the name of this strange deer, judging from its situation, it seemed to possess the ability to animate all objects and convert them into a part of itself.

Fortunately, there were no other objects in the Grey Mist; otherwise, what he encountered now might not have been a small deer, but some monster that would be hard to describe.

But this strange deer currently only wanted to animate dead objects; it was unclear if it had the ability to animate living things.

If it could also animate him, then he would have no choice but to retreat first.

Chen Mo did not hesitate; he skillfully used his fingernails to slice open his palm—using a Dagger would work too, but it was too slow.

With his Martial Artist Blood Qi covering him, even if the deer had the ability to animate living people, this Blood Qi could hold it off for a while, giving him enough time to escape.

Whether it could or not would only be known after trying; in any case, as long as there was the slightest sign of something wrong, he would strike the Gong and Drum and leave.

Chen Mo was like an arrow released from a bowstring; in the blink of an eye, he reached the front of the small deer. Before it even had time to fall from the air, Chen Mo threw a punch, smashing straight into its spine.

Flesh and blood collided; the flesh on the small deer flowed like water, trying to wrap around Chen Mo's fist and assimilate it as a part of itself.

"Boom!" The Blood Qi within Chen Mo surged, his Blood Qi like wolf smoke, and his Inner Qi erupted rapidly, all of it adhering to his fists.

This strange deer could indeed not only animate dead objects as part of itself, but living things as well.

But he was far stronger than it, so it could not yet animate him.

Chen Mo's fists were like raindrops, smashing onto the small deer with a pattering sound; there was no need for any moves or techniques.

Those were things used when facing opponents of the same level, and while the methods of this ghost deer were indeed very sinister, they were only useful against the weak.

For him, they could not exert any effect at all.

Even in terms of combat ability, it was not as good as the Blood Monkey he had seen before.

After throwing over a hundred punches in one breath, the entire strange deer had now turned into a puddle of bloody mush.

Yet this puddle of mush was still constantly surging and changing; Chen Mo was full of caution, not daring to be the least bit careless.

If this thing could not be killed, then he would have to escape first; there was no need to continue wasting time here.

The puddle of flesh and blood he had smashed to pieces kept squirming, and its quantity was visibly decreasing.

Suddenly, bursts of unimaginable, strange fragrance wafted out; Chen Mo instinctively felt countless saliva secretions. For some reason, he was clearly not hungry, yet he wanted to eat something immensely.

The squirming flesh before his eyes finally turned into a piece of dark red Living Meat the size of an adult's palm.

The reason it was called Living Meat was because the surface of this piece of meat was still constantly pulsing, just like freshly slaughtered beef, looking incredibly fresh.

Chen Mo swallowed his saliva again and again; unconsciously, he picked up the squirming piece of Living Meat and wanted to bring it to his mouth.

"Slap!" His other hand forcibly knocked the piece of flesh away. Chen Mo did not know what consequences swallowing this piece of flesh would cause, but judging from the abilities the strange deer had shown before...

If he swallowed it now, he would likely not get any good results.

He opened his carry-on bag and took out a piece of braised beef.

Most of the beef in Zhu Niu Ji was spiced beef; there was almost no braised beef.

The piece in his hand was something Zhao Yu had specially made for him to eat to improve the flavor; after all, eating spiced beef of the same flavor all the time made it easy to get tired of it.

Chen Mo could not care about anything else now; he took a bite and chewed desperately, wanting to use this to suppress his own surging appetite.

To be honest, the braised beef tasted very good, salty with a hint of sweetness, and a rich sauce aroma.

But to Chen Mo now, it tasted like wax; his whole mind was on the piece of Living Meat still squirming on the ground.

Thinking of this, he hardened his heart and bit his own cheek hard; fresh blood mixed with the beef and was sent down his throat together.

The salt and sugar on the beef further irritated the wound, using the pain to forcibly suppress his appetite.

Chen Mo could not care about anything else for the moment; he used the paper originally meant for wrapping the braised beef to wrap up this piece of living deer meat, then took off the wrapping cloth and carefully wrapped it two more times.

Only then did the fragrance emitted by the deer meat slowly disappear, and the surging appetite in Chen Mo's heart finally slowly subsided.

This living deer meat was too wrong; it had been trying to lure him into swallowing it.

If his willpower had not been sufficiently resilient and he had not been carrying some other food, he would inevitably have fallen for its trap.

Combined with the sinister ability possessed by that ghost deer, it was hard to say what he would become after swallowing it.

It was highly likely he would be animated by that ghost deer and become a part of it, or perhaps become a new ghost deer.

Chen Mo absolutely did not want to see such a situation occur; at the very least, he felt that being a human was quite good right now, and he had absolutely no thoughts of not being human.

Compared to becoming a strange deer and wandering in the Grey Mist where there was nothing for the rest of his life, the life of a human was clearly much more colorful.

Zhao Yu was still at home waiting for him to return for dinner; she said she would make sweet and sour fish tomorrow, and he had to go back to taste it no matter what.

Putting away the bag containing the Living Meat, Chen Mo retrieved the long spear he had just discarded, and then struck the Gong and Drum to leave.

The sound of the Gong and Drum rang out, and the mist before his eyes began to gradually recede.

"Yo... Ying..." A shrill howl sounded in Chen Mo's ears.

Looking ahead, he saw a sika deer nearly six feet tall with two massive antlers charging toward him at full speed.

Those two antlers flashed like gold and iron, with a cold, chilling light.

And behind it were several more sika deer, only those strange deer were now all watching this deer king make its move.

In his haste, Chen Mo had no time to dodge; he held his long spear horizontally to take the blow head-on.

He would be able to successfully escape the mist immediately; at that time, no matter how strong this deer king was, as long as it could not chase him into the real world, it would have no way to deal with him.

"Boom!" The specially made iron-wood shaft of the long spear snapped directly; Chen Mo only felt his arms go numb and tingly, and his entire body recoiled in an extremely strange way.

This was a method he had figured out after mastering Inner Qi; by perfectly controlling himself, he could better dissipate the incoming force.

He had originally intended to use this move to deal with other experts, but he had not expected to use it on this deer king for the first time.

However, with the strength of this strange deer king, even among humans, it would definitely count as an expert.

A full-force strike requires at least four thousand five hundred jin, or perhaps even greater strength.

To kill it, he would likely need to undergo his next shedding of the mortal coil, and at the very least master the fifth level of the Greedy Wolf Seven Kill Fist, before he would have the ability to fight it.

At this moment, the mist before his eyes finally dispersed completely, and Chen Mo returned to the military camp; the sky was already turning gray, and the curfew would soon end, signaling the start of the day's labor.

Even though Chen Mo could sense that his current state was poor, he could not afford to worry about anything else and carefully made his way back to his barracks while concealing his figure.

Most of the soldiers in the camp were old, weak, sick, or disabled, and even the few soldiers responsible for beating the gongs were certainly no better off; as for any sense of vigilance, there was none at all.

Therefore, even though Chen Mo's speed was slower now than before, these people did not notice anything.

Walking back to his barracks, Chen Mo finally had the presence of mind to tend to the injuries on his body.

(End of this chapter)