Wu Xiaoming hastened his steps to walk through the main road running across the village. He counted a total of seven houses that were still standing, and at least ten in ruins across different locations, some collapsed, and some were burned down.

The village’s shape seemed to be a rather long rectangle, and the main road went along the longer edges. And as he reached the end of the road he realized one thing: all the houses that were still standing were right by the side of the main road, while all the others, even those who were just a few steps away, were in ruins.

He reached the end of the main road, and in front of him seemed to be a dark forest, with a high, dark mountain behind it. Not ominous at all. He walked out of the perimeter of the village and tried to circle it. But not even before he could take his third step, his surroundings flashed, and he was back to where he had initially started - a spot close to the start of the main road, in front of a few still standing houses.

“Interesting.” Wu Xiaoming scratched his jaw, then proceeded to head towards one of the houses in front of him. It was time to check for the children’s toys like he planned.

The layout of the first house was quite simple, there were no separate rooms, only what looked like a reserved space for beds with torn bedding and broken wooden boards, and at the corner of which was a smaller bed. Compared to the messes of the other rooms, this little corner seemed rather tidy - as he came close to it, there was not even a wrinkle on the quilt and blanket.

He looked under the bed, the space was empty. He then lifted the quilt, then the pillow, only to find a small hay doll under it.

A doll, how convenient and coincidental. He fixed his eyes on it for a moment, and there it was - a trace of dark smoke was lingering around its tiny chest area. Exactly the same area where the tree creature would appear in the “original version”. He looked around and found a crude linen sack and swept the doll inside using the pillow.

He went up to the next house, and without any trouble found another similar doll under the pillow on the smaller bed, also infected with a trace of dark smoke. He swept it into the linen sack just like the previous one.

He went through the rest of the standing houses and collected all the hay dolls. All of them had the same basic design, and the same traces of dark smoke on their chests. And from one of the houses, he pulled a neat piece of wooden plaque off the wall, and at the cost of a third of his spirit, he made a giant fire talisman.

Then, at the middle of the main road of the village, he placed a pile of twigs, broken wood, dried grass, with all the hay dolls on top. Without hesitation, he slapped a small fire talisman made from a smaller piece of thin wood on the pile. Fire erupted, igniting the entire pile. Flames swallowed the hay dolls in whole.

A screech exploded from the center of the fire. A black wind tornado shot up into the air, blowing all the burning twigs and wood away. Wu Xiaoming shot at the tornado with the giant fire talisman in hand, and slammed it right at the central vortex.

“

Boom!

” The black wind tornado turned into a fire tornado spinning at the middle of the road, brightening up the entire village. And at the same time, the ground began shaking. A frightening, depressing aura swept through the whole space. Wu Xiaoming readied his weapons and fixed his eyes on the direction where the aura came from.

There it was, the same tree creature but visibly bigger: a height of more than two grown men stacked together, two long arms made of tree branches, sharp, slender fingers twitching and dangling; two horns poked up into the air from its head, like forked swords or spears; its eyes glowed in dark green, while blood red mist arose from the corners of its mouth.

“There you are.” Wu Xiaoming flexed his two weapons, then felt his right pocket - he still had one last fire talisman made of wood.

The creature raised its head with a long face, letting out a long, wolf-like howl. It moved, its long tree hunks of legs stepping in the dirt road, speeding up, charging at Wu Xiaoming.

“Shield!” Wu Xiaoming created an energy shield to protect himself, then darted backwards at one of the houses.

The tree creature changed course and ran straight through the house, tearing down the fences, walls, shelves, and ceilings. But right at this moment, Wu Xiaoming shot out from the side through the dust and rubble, swinging his soapberry wood staff at the creature’s left thigh - this was the highest angle at which he could strike without sacrificing any attack power.

“

Bang!

” “

Crack!

” This strike landed true, instantly breaking the creature’s left leg. Just like the previous victims of the staff, the break surfaces glowed in dark green, as if they were shattered glass statues.

He tried to follow up with another attack, but the tree creature’s left claw was already at his side. 

The energy shield shattered, his body was thrown through a wooden wall in the neighboring house. But Wu Xiaoming still held onto the two weapons in his hands. He shot up, ignoring the blood dripping from his abdomen and chest areas and faced the tree creature head.

The cracks on the creature’s broken left thigh crawled upwards towards its abdomen area. Yet, it growled and continued its pursuit of Wu Xiaoming. He had no idea if the creature remembered him, but right now everything was sure up close and personal. With only three limbs, the tree creature pushed the ground and launched itself at him through the air.

Another slam of the claw with slender fingers and sharp nails, Wu Xiaoming leapt sideways, having endured a cut on his right shoulder.

“Fuck you!” A counter-swing of the tempered steel baton struck the creature right where its left thigh was broken. A violent explosion of dark red energy pushed both the creature and Wu Xiaoming back. The cracks shot up higher on the creature’s body, almost halfway through its wooden torso to its right shoulder.

Wu Xiaoming tossed the soapberry wood staff into his left hand, reached into his pocket and threw the wooden fire talisman out at the creature’s back.

“Shield!” Wu Xiaoming barked, and then shot at the creature: “Slash!”

The energy slash landed on the creature’s right elbow, leaving a smoking gash on it. The talisman ignited just as it was about to hit the creature’s waist and turned into a ball of fire, brushing through the creature’s entire upper body.

With how the creature had changed for the stronger, there was no guarantee this fire attack would work. Wu Xiaoming lunged forward, both weapons in hands and swung at the creature’s chest area.

The creature swept its left arm at Wu Xiaoming. 

The ball of fire dissipated right as Wu Xiaoming and the tree creature landed their attacks on each other. The tree creature’s torso completely shattered in an instant. Wu Xiaoming landed on the dirt road and rolled into the foot of a house on the opposite side. His internal organs were almost squeezed out of his mouth, and he might have broken many ribs from that attack.

He coughed, both spit and blood came out. He could barely catch a breath, but survival instincts kept reminding him that he needed to be ready, just in case that attack of his did not terminate the threat.

He tried a few times before he could finally stand up. His limbs were trembling, his fingers were barely powerful enough to hold onto the weapons. He was in no shape to fight like he had just done, so he pulled up his personal panel - maybe there would be a skill he could use, he still had 7 spare skill points.

But he was sorely disappointed, he could view his skill tree, but everything was grayed out, he could not read any of the descriptions. And he could not sense his skill points either, much less allocate them.

So all he could do was to pull out the damaged weapon he had not used for a quite a while: Rusted Grim Enchanted Sword.

“Rusted Grim Enchanted Sword: a weathered sword with faded enchantment. Grants active skill: Grim Slash.”

He put the tempered steel baton back in his inventory, then held the soapberry wood staff using his left hand while holding the sword with his right. Hopefully it still had one more use of Grim Slash.

He moved towards where the creature was, step by step. The limbo had not disappeared, so it was a sign that the creature was not dead yet.

From afar, Wu Xiaoming located the head of the tree creature - one of its horns was broken, while the other stood out amongst the debris of the house. It still had a bit of neck and right shoulder connected, while the rest of its body was gone. Its arms were nowhere to be found, and its eyes were already dim.

Yet still, the limbo was still here, a surefire way to tell that it was not dead - even if it tried to pretend.

He could go up and smash the creature’s head - but it could still have other abilities it had not shown during the fight. It was too risky. So, he raised the Rusted Grim Enchanted Sword.

“Grim Slash!” Like an anime character, he barked the name of the attack. A crescent-shaped light blue energy blade shot out from his swing, cleaving through the dirt and wooden debris.

But before the energy blade would reach its target, Wu Xiaoming’s surroundings blurred and flashed.

Before long, he was back before the Emerson family house. The Rusted Grim Enchanted Sword was still in his hand - only the blade itself was completely shattered, no longer usable.

“Motherf - ”