Chapter 9: Grey Mist, Blood Monkey?

Before his eyes, the Stable and military camp were no longer there; row upon row of barracks had long since vanished, and all that appeared before him was mass after mass of Grey Mist.

Chen Mo felt a sense of alarm in his heart and reached out to feel behind him; the haystack was still there.

Even if he had undergone a rebirth and the time wasted was much longer than he had estimated, it was impossible for such a thick fog to suddenly rise without any signs.

Everything within his line of sight was obscured; apart from the grey-white mist and the haystack behind him, he could see nothing, and even the Stable adjacent to the haystack had disappeared.

To take a step back, even if a fog were to rise, he had never heard of any place where the mist would be grey.

Chen Mo reached out and waved his hand in front of him; a small amount of mist changed due to his disturbance, but the vast majority remained completely motionless.

He did not open his mouth to call out to others directly; in the military camp, going out at night or shouting loudly were both serious crimes.

Once discovered, he would receive at least eighty military floggings, and if no one bribed anyone to plead for him, it was basically no different from a death sentence.

Chen Mo rested one hand on the haystack and reached the other toward where the Stable should have been.

However, within reach, there was nothing but Grey Mist.

Chen Mo took two deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down, and pinched himself hard; a clear and distinct pain instantly traveled to his brain.

He really could not figure out what exactly had happened; it was impossible that his rebirth had resulted in a mental breakdown!

He swallowed a mouthful of saliva, pulled a few stalks of dry grass from the haystack behind him, and quickly rubbed them together.

Before long, a thin grass rope over two zhang long appeared in his hand; this rope was indeed crude, but it was sufficient to use.

He did not know what the situation was with the Grey Mist before him, whether the fog was so thick that it covered the heavens and the earth, or if some other change had occurred.

If it were not for the fact that the haystack was still there, he would have even suspected that he might have transmigrated to another world.

After all, if such a thing as transmigration could happen once, it was entirely possible for it to happen a second time.

Tying one end of the grass rope to the haystack and holding the other end tightly in his hand, he carefully probed forward.

If he had not touched the Stable just now because the distance was too short, then this distance was definitely enough; as long as the Stable still existed, he would certainly be able to touch it.

However, until he could no longer see the existence of the haystack and the grass rope was pulled taut, the places he could touch remained a void.

Above, below, left, right, and in all directions, apart from the Grey Mist, there was nothing else.

Even the ground was nothing but Grey Mist; Chen Mo could step on the ground, but he could not touch a single grain of soil with his hands.

While in the Grey Mist, the ground he touched was flat, smooth, and solid, like refined steel that had been tempered a thousand times.

Chen Mo did not give up and walked a full circle around the haystack, yet he still did not touch anything.

Apart from himself and the haystack, the entire military camp seemed to have been swallowed and submerged by the Grey Mist, with nothing left.

Of course, there was another possibility, which was that the military camp still existed, and he and the haystack had entered the world of the Grey Mist.

Regardless of which one it was, it had no meaning for his current situation.

He had to find a way to leave this place, otherwise, it would not be long before he would have to consider eating dry grass to survive.

"Wu-ha!" A sudden roar broke the silence of the world of Grey Mist.

This sound seemed to be some kind of animal, sharp and hoarse, like two pieces of rough sheet metal rubbing slowly together, making one's teeth ache just to hear it.

Chen Mo looked in the direction of the sound, and a humanoid creature, no more than three feet tall, with sharp teeth and a short, thin frame, came into view.

No matter how one looked at it, this creature looked very much like a monkey.

There was only one difference: it had no fur.

The monkey's skin looked as if it had been peeled off alive; the bright red, blood-stained muscles were directly exposed to the air, and just one look made one's scalp tingle.

"Hou-hu!" The Blood Monkey shrieked miserably, its two pale eyeballs rolling around.

Chen Mo's footsteps slid slowly backward; the Blood Monkey before him was truly too strange and terrifying, and he did not want to have any contact with it if it was not necessary.

It twisted its head, staring straight at Chen Mo, and the next moment it lunged at him violently.

The Blood Monkey moved extremely fast, like a gust of blood-colored wind, and carried a scent of rotting stench.

Chen Mo hurriedly raised his fists to block, but who would have expected the Blood Monkey to have surprisingly great strength; even though he had undergone a rebirth, he could only barely resist it.

"Wu-ah!" The Blood Monkey failed in its first strike, roared again, and leaped far away.

Chen Mo frowned, looking at his slightly trembling arms.

This Blood Monkey was hard as refined iron all over; although his strength was not much different from it, he was still a mortal body.

If this continued, after a few more times, he would sooner or later die at the hands of this beast.

The Blood Monkey was extremely intelligent; it seemed to see Chen Mo's weakness, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws in a show of force, its body constantly circling around Chen Mo.

Chen Mo felt a wave of regret in his heart; since coming to the military camp, although life had been hard, it had finally become stable.

Having become accustomed to a stable life, he had not thought to carry a weapon on his person this time.

If he had a blade on him at this moment, he would at least be able to fight this beast.

But now, relying on his bare hands, it was truly too difficult to defeat this Blood Monkey with copper flesh and iron bones.

In truth, this could not be blamed on him; the situation he was encountering and the scenes appearing were truly beyond the expectations of an ordinary person.

He had never thought or considered that such a situation would suddenly occur.

If he could luckily escape this time, Chen Mo made up his mind that in the future, even when sleeping, he would keep a Dagger tucked in his Huai.

"Wu-ha!" The Blood Monkey let out another miserable shriek, its spine arching at an extremely strange angle, and then it sprang violently, pouncing toward Chen Mo's lower body.

Chen Mo did not dodge and kicked forward with all his might, the force vibrating his left leg until it went numb, just barely stopping the Blood Monkey.

The Blood Monkey, however, opened its arms and hugged his thigh tightly, revealing a bloody maw as it prepared to bite.

Chen Mo did not hesitate to drop to his knees, pinning the Blood Monkey firmly beneath him, his knees pressing against the beast's chest and abdomen.

"Ha!" The Blood Monkey roared in unwillingness, and a foul, rotting, and fishy Wind mixed with countless Blood Qi rushed straight at Chen Mo's face.

It struggled with all its might, baring its fangs and brandishing its claws; Chen Mo ignored everything else, one hand pressing firmly on the monkey's head while the other fist continuously hammered at the monkey's neck.

This Blood Monkey was like it had been cast from refined iron; after only seven or eight punches, blood was already showing on Chen Mo's knuckles.

He still gritted his teeth and hammered the Blood Monkey punch after punch; in the current situation, one of them had to die.

Chen Mo did not want to die, so he had no choice but to send this beast to its death.

After throwing who knows how many punches with all his might, Chen Mo only felt that his arms had lost all sensation, and this Blood Monkey no longer struggled, gradually turning into a limp corpse.

Chen Mo gasped for air, sat down on the ground, and looked at the Blood Monkey that no longer had any movement before him.

To his surprise, the corpse before him began to dissolve and dissipate, and in just a fleeting moment, it vanished completely like a wisp of smoke.

Left in its place was only a Blood Stone the size of an infant's fist, with a rough surface covered in gullies.

(End of this chapter)