BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Explosions reverberated through the forest. Towering trees, so wide it would take several people to encircle them, snapped one after another, collapsing and tumbling to the ground.

"Let me go! Let me go, AAAHH!!"

A man wearing a white leather coat, his face covered in nails, stumbled and fell. He cried out loudly, desperately reaching for fallen leaves and vines. His fingernails peeled and tore off from the excessive force, blood seeping from his fingertips, yet it did nothing to stop someone from grasping his ankle and dragging him backward.

"Let you go? How could I do that?" Li Ang said casually, still holding the man's ankle and walking forward unconcerned. "Didn't you say you wanted to skin me and make a coat? And that you wanted to drink my brains raw, along with my liver and lungs? I, Huanhuan, may be good-natured, but I'm not entirely without a temper. Someone! Feed this gentleman some dirt!"

"Yes!"

Miss Chai immediately emerged from Li Ang's chest, floating in mid-air. With a sinister smile, she looked down at the man whose face was covered in nails and took the Ruitu Military knife 300 Li Ang passed her. She pulled out the shovel attachment from the knife. With a hearty "heave-ho!" she scooped up fallen leaves and dirt, pried open the man's mouth, and forcibly stuffed the soil inside. Then, she patted his mouth with the shovel, compelling him to chew.

"Eat! Open up and eat!" With a wave of his hand, Li Ang smiled. "Now, are you still threatening me?"

The man in the leather coat, his mouth full of yellow earth and eyes brimming with tears, frantically shook his head.

Li Ang's eyes widened. "What are you crying for? I see you're clearly dissatisfied. Continue feeding him!"

"Yes!"

Miss Chai cheerfully continued to shovel dirt into the man's mouth. When he refused to chew, she smashed his teeth with the shovel. He cried out, "WAH!" spitting out a mouthful of blood mixed with broken teeth, leaves, and mud.

Li Ang, hands in his pockets, bent forward slightly, looking down at the man like a legendary "dynamically oriented social organization" boss. "Is the dirt tasty?" he asked.

"Tasty," the man, his teeth entirely broken and tears streaming down his face, mumbled unclearly, chewing the dirt bite by bite under Miss Chai's menacing gaze. "It's so tasty..."

"If it's tasty, eat more of it." Li Ang nodded in satisfaction, then threatened like a neighborhood bully, "Earlier in the forest, I saw you crouching under a tree, seemingly eating something. Was it some treasure, like Ganoderma or ginseng? Hand it over."

The man hurriedly shook his head. "No! There's nothing! I was just..."

Li Ang glared. "Hmm?"

The man fell silent for a moment, weeping quietly. He then fished out something from the inner pocket of his leather coat, placed it on his trembling palm, and offered it to Li Ang.

It was a chewed-up piece of ghastly pale skin, with faint traces of Japanese characters tattooed on it.

The man weakly lifted a corner of his leather coat, explaining to Li Ang, "I haven't eaten for many days. I could only scrape off some material from my coat..."

"Ugh, disgusting! Just die!"

The sickle swung. A head soared into the sky, turning to ash before it even hit the ground, scattering into the wind.

"What bad luck."

Li Ang shook his head and sharpened his sickle blade on some tree bark. He casually took out Pale crystals from a groove in the handle and tossed them to Miss Chai. Without a second glance at the leather coat remaining on the ground, he turned and walked toward the distant vehicle.

Wanli Fengdao and the others in the car watched Li Ang return, all struggling to adjust for a moment. In just an hour, this gentleman had eliminated more than a dozen baleful spirits in the woods. His average combat time per spirit was three minutes, even less than the time he spent "interrogating" them.

That being said, their group had encountered quite a few players in the killing game: some were calm and composed, unfazed by changes; some were addicted to killing, savage and uncontrolled; some were pathologically extreme, mad and abnormal; and some were cowardly and afraid to fight, always looking before they leap. But they had never truly seen anyone like Brother Li, who enjoyed "getting chummy" with baleful spirits and even actively sought them out, an aficionado of 'bump-and-scam' tactics.

I knew from the beginning at Guhan Temple that you were not a normal person.

"All taken care of." Li Ang pulled open the van's rear door, jumped into the vehicle, and greeted his companions. "There shouldn't be any more baleful spirits in the forest. Let's get going."

Wanli Fengdao noticed that the Water Nightmare, which had been bound in chains, hadn't followed; it had presumably met a grim fate. He silently turned the key, started the engine, and looked towards Xing Hechou in the passenger seat. "Old Xing, which way?" he asked.

"Head left first." Xing Hechou checked his pocket watch and directed the vehicle.

Meanwhile, Li Ang took out the Beehive, summoning back the Scout Soldier Bees scattered throughout the forest.

The endurance of all models of Soldier Bees was exceptional, far surpassing ordinary Unmanned Scout Drones. They were capable of continuous flight for several hours at maximum speed. After exceeding their operational time limit, they needed to fly back to the Beehive to consume honey and replenish Energy.

Li Ang's future plan was to continue specializing the Soldier Bees' structure, regressing some components and equipping the freed-up body mass with specialized organs. Some Soldier Bee variants wouldn't even be able to feed autonomously; their sustenance would be primarily provided by other variants. This is similar to modern fighter jets that can be refueled mid-air by aerial tankers, thus expanding their cruising radius.

After collecting all the Soldier Bees, Li Ang bent down, pulled the van's rear door closed to shut out the wind and rain, settled into his seat, and stretched. He then turned to Xing Hechou and asked, "By the way, Brother Xing, after we leave this forest, how long will it take to reach the next area?"

"That..." Xing Hechou hesitated. "I'm not quite sure. According to the think tank, the collective unconscious layer of the King of Shengnan is teeming with urban legends. Spatial distribution here doesn't adhere to the physical laws of the real world; it must be measured in 'areas,' not 'distance.'"

Wanli Fengdao raised an eyebrow. "Areas?"

"Yes." Xing Hechou nodded. "We can envision this collective unconscious layer as a huge, circular cake with different types of urban legends scattered across it. Each type clusters in a specific section, like different slices or areas of the cake. There are legends related to desert highways, legends related to urban life, and legends related to mountains and wilderness. The passage to the next layer should be at the dream's center. The closer you get to the center, the more distinct the areas become, and the legends appearing there will pose a greater threat."

Wanli Fengdao smirked. "Ha, in that case, I hope the next area is related to luxury cars and beautiful women."

Xing Hechou slowly shook his head. "Judging from the Split-Mouthed Woman that appeared in this forest, the next area is likely to feature urban legends based on the culture of the Japan Islands..."

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