After reaching a consensus, the group of chicken-headed people charged toward the armed police standing guard around them with their weapons raised.
Almost at the same time, the officer in charge shouted, “Open fire!”
A barrage of gunfire erupted. The dense hail of bullets slowed the nonhuman creatures as they charged toward the crowd. Although the bullets could not injure them, having dense rounds with tremendous impact slam into their bodies was still far from pleasant.
Realizing that these humans were not as weak as they had imagined, they could only change their target temporarily and attempt to break through from the other side.
But Jin Qingqing and the others had already sealed off the entire perimeter with a large formation. Inside, countless armed police stood in formation, systematically rotating teams, opening fire, then rotating teams again…
The chicken-headed people were trapped in the middle by the fierce barrage of bullets, like prey caught in a net. They finally realized that the mortals before them were not as weak as they had imagined.
“What do we do?”
“These things hurt so much.”
“Aren’t they mortals? Why have mortals become so powerful too…?”
All the chicken-headed people looked toward the one at the front, who was clearly their leader.
The wings behind the chicken-headed leader had already been pierced by the rain of bullets, reduced to scraps of fabric hanging from his body. Faced with question after question from his fellow clan members, a look of bewilderment also appeared in his eyes.
Just then, one of the chicken-headed people suddenly let out an extremely agonized scream.
The bewildered chicken-headed people all turned to look and saw that this still-young member of their clan was clutching his abdomen, his face twisted in pain.
An endless stream of black-red blood poured from his abdomen, emitting a strong, rancid stench that quickly spread across the plaza.
“The bullets work on them!” The person in charge looked excitedly at the injured monster. The wound in its abdomen had been caused by a submachine gun.
“Increase the firepower!”
“It hurts so much! Why is there a hole in my stomach?”
Two completely different voices rang out at the same time.
The young chicken-headed person endured the pain and dug a bullet out of his stomach. He looked at his fellow clan members in confusion.
“Aren’t we supposed to have become immortals? Why can these mortals still hurt me?”
Amid the fierce sound of gunfire, his bewildered question caused panic to appear on the faces of all the chicken-headed people.
Another chicken-headed person fell.
A bullet had unfortunately pierced a large hole through her neck. Black-red, foul-smelling blood gushed continuously from the wound. Her entire body went limp as she collapsed to the ground, her pale red eyes widening in confusion and fear before gradually losing their light.
She was dead.
The armed police surrounding them were immediately invigorated.
Originally, facing monsters that were not even afraid of bullets had made them deeply uneasy. The fact that they had been able to hold their ground without retreating even a single step was entirely due to the professional instincts they had developed through years of training.
But now, a chicken-headed person had died in the hail of bullets.
These monsters were not invulnerable after all.
They were nothing more than flesh and blood.
As long as the firepower was strong enough, even they could not withstand it.
Several more chicken-headed people fell in agony one after another.
The remaining chicken-headed people helplessly clutched their wounds, watching as their companions’ eyes gradually lost their light and they sank into the shadow of death.
They had even forgotten to use their deformed arms to protect themselves.
They had forgotten to resist.
Instead, they held their dead companions in their arms and asked in confusion and despair, “We all became immortals. Why can we still die?”
“Why can immortals die too?”
Another chicken-headed person fell.
His pale red eyes looked at his terrified fellow clan members, and at last he asked the one question that no one else dared to ask.
“Did we… really become immortals?”
No one answered him.
All of his fellow clan members fell silent amid the hail of bullets.
Finally, the chicken-headed leader threw down the corpse in his arms and gritted his teeth.
“We have to break out. Otherwise, everyone is going to… going to die here today.”
He bit down especially hard on the word “die,” his voice carrying a faint tremor.
They had lived in the village for so many years, believing that they had long since escaped the cycle of life and death and freed themselves from the shadow of death.
But it was only after leaving the enclosed village and watching their fellow clan members fall one after another that he finally understood.
They had never escaped it at all.
They had been deceived.
The chicken-headed leader let out a shrill cry, abandoned the remnants of the wings hanging from his arms, and planted his deformed, elongated arms on the ground like an ape. Then, at an astonishing speed, he charged toward the crowd on the left.
The originally impenetrable encirclement was torn open by his reckless disregard for death, creating chaos.
The chicken-headed people seized the opportunity and tore open a gap in the formation Jin Qingqing had set up as well. He shouted sharply to the others, “If you don’t want to die, follow me and get out!”
The remaining chicken-headed people, still dazed, instinctively followed him and charged outward.
Although they were in a sorry state, they were simply too fast. In the blink of an eye, they had disappeared without a trace.
The ordinary armed police had no chance of catching them, but Jin Qingqing and the others reacted quickly. They grabbed their equipment and immediately chased after them.
Xu Muchan thought for a moment, then decided not to follow.
He and Wei Xilou stayed behind to wait for the research institute personnel to arrive.
About ten minutes after the chicken-headed people broke through, reinforcements from the research institute and the Religious Association arrived.
The bodies of the dead chicken-headed people had already been properly collected and would later be sent to the research institute. The others contacted Jin Qingqing and split up to search for the escaped chicken-headed people.
A total of six chicken-headed people had escaped.
Several of them were injured, so logically speaking, they should not have been able to get very far.
Yet after Jin Qingqing and the others followed their trail for some distance, they suddenly lost all trace of them.
“We lost them.”
After searching outside for the entire night without finding any sign of the chicken-headed people, Jin Qingqing and the others returned, somewhat dejected, to rest and regroup.
“There are a lot of mountains and forests around here. They probably escaped into the mountains,” Chai Ming said. “We can only wait for the drones to conduct a large-scale search of the mountains.”
Just as he finished speaking, someone nearby received a message.
“A large increase in yin energy has been detected around Feng’an Mountain.”
“Let’s go take a look.”
The group once again rushed through the night toward Feng’an Mountain.
Xu Muchan went with them this time as well.
Several off-road vehicles wound their way along the mountain roads toward the location where the surge of yin energy had been detected.
The Feng’an Mountain area had not yet been developed. The mountain roads were nowhere near as easy to travel as those in the designated tourist areas. After several hours of jolting around, by the time the sky was about to brighten, the group finally arrived.
They had originally expected another grueling battle.
But when everyone carefully searched their way to the area where the yin energy was most concentrated, they were stunned by what they saw.
In this remote, godforsaken mountain forest, there was actually a ruined temple hidden there.
The ruined temple had been abandoned for who knew how many years. Wind blew freely through it from all sides. The original statue of the deity had disappeared, leaving behind only a damaged pedestal.
And the several chicken-headed people who had escaped were now piled one on top of another on that pedestal.
Dark red, foul-smelling blood covered the floor.
They had long since stopped breathing.
They were all dead.
They appeared to have died from having their throats cut.
One deformed white corpse lay atop another on the ruined divine pedestal. Black-red liquid seeped out from beneath their bodies, flowing down the tall altar platform and spreading all the way to the feet of the group.
The scene was somewhat eerie, and no one said a word.
Just then, voices came from outside, finally breaking the strange, oppressive atmosphere inside the temple.
No one said anything else. Instead, everyone quietly withdrew.
The person who arrived later turned out to be Ouyang Mu.
He brought three people with him and said to Jin Qingqing, “I heard about those strange people. It happens to have something to do with my new research topic, so I wanted to come take a look. I already spoke with Sister He.”
Jin Qingqing said nothing. She only told him, “The scene inside is a little… strange. You can take a look, but it’s best not to touch anything for now.”
Ouyang Mu nodded and led his people into the ruined temple, where he happened to come face-to-face with Xu Muchan.
Xu Muchan and Wei Xilou were standing in front of the divine pedestal, their gazes fixed on the chicken-headed people.
It was not until Ouyang Mu and the others entered that Xu Muchan turned his face slightly and gave them a brief glance.
Ouyang Mu clearly still remembered him and greeted him amicably.
Xu Muchan nodded in response and continued examining the chicken-headed people.
He always felt that something was strange.
These chicken-headed people did not look as though they had been killed by someone.
They looked more like they had committed suicide.
And every one of them had a smile on their face.
Judging from the information revealed in their earlier conversations, even if they had realized the truth and decided to die, their expressions should not have been so peaceful.
Xu Muchan suddenly realized something and strode toward the outside of the ruined temple.
Sure enough, the moment he stepped outside, the scene before his eyes abruptly changed.
In the vast white snow-covered forest, an enormous boulder stood before him.
Three crooked characters were written across it:
God Village.
This was the third time Xu Muchan had seen this stone.
Looking at the handwriting, he thought that the person who had written these three characters must not have read very many books.
The handwriting was childish and awkward, like that of a young child.
A series of startled exclamations sounded from behind him.
Just as expected, it was Jin Qingqing, Ouyang Mu, and the others.
He had realized just now that a ghost domain was likely to form here and had wanted to leave and tell the others to evacuate first.
He had not expected that he would still be too late.
Everyone stood in front of the enormous boulder.
Ouyang Mu looked toward the village behind it.
“There seem to be people in the village.”
“We’ll know once we take a look.”
Since they were already here, there was no point hesitating any longer.
Xu Muchan took Wei Xilou by the hand and led the way toward the village.
The others followed closely behind him.
It was still daytime.
The chicken-headed people were nocturnal, so Xu Muchan had originally thought they should not encounter any of them in the village.
But unexpectedly, the moment they entered the village, chicken-headed people poured out from all directions and blocked their path.
One of the chicken-headed people clearly had a bad temper. He arrogantly lifted his head and sized up Xu Muchan and the others.
“How did you mortals get in here?”
Xu Muchan was extremely sensitive to voices.
His gaze instantly locked onto the speaker.
He recognized him as the same chicken-headed person who had appeared in the video—the one who had twisted off a passerby’s head.
Later, when they had been surrounded, he had died in the hail of bullets.
His body should still be temporarily stored in the hospital morgue.
But now, he had appeared alive and well before everyone, as if he had no memory whatsoever of what had happened before.
Aside from slight differences in their builds, these chicken-headed people looked almost exactly alike. The others clearly had not realized this yet, and they watched the chicken-headed people warily without saying anything.
Xu Muchan thought for a moment before speaking first. “We came to the mountains to travel, but we accidentally got lost. Somehow, we ended up here.”
He paused slightly before continuing, “Are you immortals? I heard before that immortals had appeared near Zhenxian Lake.”
His words clearly pleased the chicken-headed people. The arrogant chicken-headed person from earlier said, “You may be ugly, but at least you have good judgment.”
Seeing that they seemed less wary now, Xu Muchan tentatively said, “We got lost, and someone in our group was injured. Could we stay here temporarily for two days?”
The chicken-headed people looked at one another, clearly hesitant.
Ever since they claimed to have become immortals, they had never interacted with mortals again.
Seeing that they did not answer, Xu Muchan continued, “We can find an empty patch of ground and settle down there. We’ll do our best not to disturb you. Once our companion recovers, we’ll leave immediately. After we get out, we’ll definitely offer you plenty of incense as thanks.”
“Incense is useless to us anyway,” the arrogant chicken-headed person muttered.
He gathered with the others and discussed it for a moment before magnanimously saying, “Since you seem to know your place, we’ll take you in for a few days. But you’re not allowed to wander around the village. Leave as soon as your companion has recovered.”