254: Chapter 254 Mutation, Monster

The gale howled, and True Qi surged.

The mist rolled violently, emitting a faint "hissing" sound, as if a living creature were wailing in pain.

"Since you dare not come forward, this seat shall come to find you personally."

His tone was indifferent as he took a step; Chen Ran walked slowly into that patch of thick white mist.

As he advanced, that white mist seemed to possess intelligence, retreating one after another.

Within three feet of his body, a patch of clarity was always maintained.

If others were to see this scene, they would surely find it inconceivable.

Ordinary Martial Artists, when facing such eerie demonic mist, would fear being unable to avoid it; how could they be like him, walking within it as if strolling in a courtyard, even forcing the mist to retreat voluntarily?

Chen Ran's gaze swept across the surroundings, attempting to find the traces of Captain Xia An and the others.

The houses in the village appeared and disappeared in the mist, exuding a sense of decay, and even the scene itself had changed.

The once-normal village now had dilapidated doors and windows, was covered in cobwebs, and seemed as if it had been abandoned for hundreds of years.

The air was permeated with a faint scent of decay, mixed with the fishy smell of soil, which was nauseating.

Chen Ran walked through narrow alleys, quietly releasing his Divine Sense to investigate the movements around him.

However, this white mist seemed to have the effect of blocking Divine Sense.

Even with the assistance of [Sky Net], his Divine Sense could only leave his body for a few zhang before it felt like it had fallen into a quagmire, unable to advance any further.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet; all sounds seemed to have been swallowed up completely by this thick mist.

The entire world seemed to have only him left.

Chen Ran's expression remained unchanged, but his heart was completely calm.

The monster that had set up this maze in the dark was clearly trying to use this method to slowly erode the prey's sanity.

He had been walking through the village for about half an hour.

At his pace, this half an hour would have been enough to walk back and forth through this small village several times.

However, when he passed through an alley again and stopped, the scene before his eyes made him narrow his eyes slightly.

Ahead was a dilapidated temple.

The stone steps were covered in moss.

It was precisely the temple he had first walked out of.

Chen Ran stood still on the spot, his gaze as deep as an abyss.

"A maze formation, huh..."

He muttered to himself, his tone revealing not a hint of panic.

During this half hour, he had been moving in a straight line without turning.

Yet, in the end, he had returned to the starting point.

This kind of mist was clearly some profound technique that distorted the space and sense of direction of this place.

Causing people to fall into an endless loop without realizing it.

Chen Ran did not rush to break the formation; instead, he slowly crouched down.

He extended his finger and picked up a fist-sized stone from the ground.

Chen Ran's fingertips moved slightly, and a wisp of pure True Qi was quietly injected into the stone.

Subsequently, he flicked his wrist.

"Swish!"

The stone turned into an afterimage, carrying a sharp sound of breaking through the air, and instantly plunged into the thick mist ahead.

Chen Ran closed his eyes slightly, relying on that wisp of True Qi to perceive the stone's trajectory.

The stone flew in the mist for about a dozen zhang, its speed not decreasing in the slightest.

However, at the very next moment.

Chen Ran frowned slightly.

The wisp of True Qi he had attached to the stone had suddenly lost connection.

It was as if it had been forcibly erased by some invisible force.

That stone had just vanished into thin air within this patch of white mist.

Chen Ran stood up and walked toward the direction where the stone had disappeared.

He walked to that location and carefully searched the ground with his gaze.

The flat, muddy ground was completely empty.

There was no sign of the stone, not even a trace of it having landed.

"Devouring..."

A strange look flashed in the depths of Chen Ran's eyes.

This white mist not only could block Divine Sense and distort space, but it could also actually devour objects.

No wonder Captain Xia An and the dozens of elites had disappeared silently in this village.

Facing such eerie methods, even an expert at the Peak of the Return to Truth Realm would be extremely prone to falling into the trap if caught off guard.

Chen Ran stood in the thick mist, surrounded by a vast whiteness, as if he were placed in a void of Chaos.

He did not continue to Move forward blindly but stood quietly on the spot.

Just as he calmed his heart and breath, attempting to capture that glimmer of a flaw.

A sudden mutation occurred!

Rip!

An extremely faint yet fiercely sharp sound of breaking through the air suddenly came from behind him.

The sound was extremely fast; one moment it was several zhang away, and the next, it had approached the back of his head.

Accompanying it was a nauseating, thick, fishy wind, along with unmasked, violent killing intent.

Chen Ran's eyes snapped open, and a cold glint appeared in his eyes.

He shifted his footsteps strangely, his figure moving like a ghost, instantly shifting three feet to the left.

"Boom!"

Just at the moment he dodged, a rusty giant axe, as large as a door panel, carrying the momentum to split mountains and crack stones, slammed fiercely into the spot where he had originally stood.

The violent force poured down, and the hard ground was instantly cleaved into a deep gully several zhang long.

Gravel splattered and dust flew.

Chen Ran steadied his figure and swept his cold gaze toward the attacker.

Upon seeing the appearance of that monster, a trace of surprise could not help but flash in his eyes.

It was a burly man nearly a zhang tall.

However, this burly man's appearance could no longer be called "human."

His entire body was covered in black hair as coarse and hard as steel needles.

His muscles were knotted, veins were bulging, and it seemed to contain infinite explosive power.

The most terrifying thing was his face.

That face was completely distorted and deformed, with features squeezed together, making it impossible to see the original appearance.

His eyes were bulging, the whites bloodshot, his mouth split to the roots of his ears, revealing a mouthful of intersecting sharp fangs, with drool dripping down his chin.

This monster held the rusty giant axe with both hands, emitting a low growl like a beast from its throat.

"Roar!"

Having missed the strike, the monster seemed to be enraged.

It violently pulled out the giant axe embedded in the ground and stomped its legs heavily on the ground.

"Bang!"

The ground instantly caved in, and the monster's massive body, like a cannonball leaving the chamber, carried a violent Aura and lunged at Chen Ran again.

The giant axe was held high, drawing a semi-circular arc in mid-air, bringing a piercing whistling sound as it hacked down directly.

Just as the giant axe was about to land, Chen Ran flicked one hand, finding an opening.

The next moment, the long blade in his hand emitted a crisp ringing sound.

"Clang!"

A cold blade light, like an Epiphyllum blooming in the dark night, instantly illuminated the surrounding thick mist.

Then, with a boom, the ground around him instantly collapsed and sank, and a wave of Qi surged toward the distance like an inverted sea.

When the blade light ended, his gaze fell.

He saw that on a patch of empty land, the humanoid monster stood blankly in place.

Subsequently, the giant axe in its hand, along with its body, developed several cracks like porcelain.

Finally, with a crack, it turned into pieces of flesh and blood that scattered all over the ground.

"Is it a villager whose mind was eroded by this mist? Or some kind of raised demon?"

This monster's strength was immense, even comparable to an ordinary Aperture Condensation Realm Martial Artist.

But its movements appeared somewhat stiff, with no Moves to speak of, fighting entirely on instinct.

Chen Ran pondered to himself.

Judging from the remnants of clothing on this monster, one could vaguely identify it as the coarse linen clothes of an ordinary farmer.

It seems the villagers who disappeared in this village did not flee to escape disaster.

Instead, they were turned into these half-human, half-ghost monsters by this thing in the dark.

Hum.

Chen Ran flicked his wrist, and the blood on the long blade was instantly shaken off.

He slowly sheathed his blade, looking calmly at the corpse on the ground.

Although this monster's strength was not weak, it was still not enough to look at in front of him.

However, Chen Ran's brows did not unfurl.

He keenly sensed that with the death of this monster, the surrounding thick mist seemed to have undergone some subtle changes.

Those white mists that had originally retreated three zhang now seemed to have been stimulated by something and began to roll violently.

From within the mist, more bone-chilling low growls faintly came.

Rising and falling, continuous and unending.

It seemed as if countless such monsters were hiding in the depths of the thick mist, gathering toward this side.

The corners of Chen Ran's mouth curled up; within his Divine Thought, several black shadows were rapidly approaching.

"It seems I have poked a hornet's nest..."

Since this thing in the dark wanted to use these monsters to exhaust him.

Then he would kill to his heart's content.

Chen Ran held the hilt of his blade, standing quietly on the spot.

The surrounding thick mist became thicker and thicker, until one could almost not see their own fingers.

Those low growls also got closer and closer.

As if from all directions, countless bloodthirsty eyes were staring fixedly at him.

Chen Ran took a deep breath, and the True Qi within his body surged endlessly like a great river.

In an instant, several massive black shadows within the thick mist lunged at him like arrows released from a bowstring.