Chapter Seven: Waiting by the Tree for the Rabbit

“Haah! Haah!” Lin Lei gripped his long blade tightly, his eyes shining with excitement. Beheading an enemy with a single stroke—though it looked simple, it was something most people could hardly replicate. He’d only managed it by taking advantage of his forward momentum, and the instant’s hesitation of the ghoul. If there had been even one more ghoul, he wouldn’t have dared to attempt such a move; the strain on his body was too great.

The strike had been immensely satisfying, but now both his hands felt a faint soreness and trembled slightly. He flexed his palms and arms, licking his lips as he approached the ghoul’s corpse. This one bore scattered wounds—clearly injured before. If it hadn’t already been wounded and distracted by his presence, lingering in place, he might not have managed so cleanly to sever its head.

The wounds were unmistakably caused by a sharp weapon. After all, the ghoul’s body was as tough as rubber; without something sharp, it was nearly impossible to harm such a creature.

“Perhaps clawed by another ghoul…” he mused. Conflict among their kind was only to be expected.

Suppressing the gnawing hunger within, Lin Lei refrained from devouring the creature on the spot. Instead, he knelt to inspect the body. “The ghoul’s physiology is somewhat similar to a human’s…” The thought even crossed his mind to bring the corpse home for careful dissection and study—but the night’s hunt was only just beginning, there was no need to hurry.

He dragged the corpse to the edge of a nearby sewage pool, letting blood from its neck gush and spill into the flowing water, spreading its scent far down the sewer. The sheer volume of blood and the pungent reek would far surpass the few pieces of rotten meat he carried. And where there was one ghoul, there were likely more nearby.

Lin Lei licked his lips, gripping his Tang blade, and shrank into a dark corner. About ten minutes passed. Then, amid distant, wailing cries, a flurry of rapid footsteps echoed through the sewer.

He held his breath, pressed into the shadows, his keen gaze fixed on the darkness, ears straining: “One, two… three. Three ghouls!”

If too many responded, he’d have fled immediately. But three was still within his limits. With similar physical abilities, Lin Lei’s fighting skills and the reach of his long blade gave him a decisive edge.

He remained hidden as three ghouls darted into view, gathering around the dismembered corpse he’d left as bait. The three monsters made low, woeful sounds, as if communicating.

Seeing his chance, Lin Lei surged forward, holding his breath. He drove his blade into the back of the nearest ghoul, felling it with a single blow—no need to withdraw the blade, for the power of Gluttony surged through him, and the dead monster was consumed by an invisible maw.

He swung at another. Though he’d ambushed one, fighting two at once was still no easy feat. Even as low-level anomalies, ghouls were formidable. Yet the advantage of a longer weapon was clear. Their claws were deadly, but their reach was short.

Using this advantage, Lin Lei ultimately slew both remaining ghouls, suffering a claw wound to his shoulder in the process. He then invoked Gluttony again, devouring both fallen adversaries.

Regardless of the ghoul’s actual flavor, once Gluttony was invoked, the taste was far from unpleasant. He’d tried to activate Plunder as well, but he hadn’t yet amassed enough Gluttony energy to use it on a second ghoul.

“Yesterday, when I used Plunder directly on that ghoul, I nearly drained all the Gluttony energy this body had accumulated over twenty years of ordinary eating.” Though he couldn’t activate Plunder now, consuming three ghouls had stockpiled a fair amount of energy.

If devouring a ghoul normally granted one unit of Gluttony energy, then Plundering a ghoul required about eight units. With his body’s remaining strength and the three ghouls he’d just consumed, Lin Lei now had about five units.

“In other words, if I eat three more ghouls, I’ll have enough energy to Plunder the next one.” In fact, with the corpse nearby as bait, he’d only need to kill two more to accumulate the energy, but to use Plunder he’d still need to slay an extra ghoul as a target.

He shook his head, then took out a bandage he’d prepared earlier and quickly wrapped the wound on his shoulder. Only by using Plunder to devour the flesh and blood of an anomaly could he heal; ordinary eating wouldn’t restore his injuries.

Fortunately, the wound wasn’t serious and didn’t much affect his combat effectiveness. He retreated into the darkness once more, continuing to use the ghoul’s corpse as bait, waiting for others to arrive.

This time, however, more than an hour passed without another ghoul appearing. “Lying in wait can’t always work. I must have just happened upon a few ghouls hunting in the area. The true nest must be some distance away…”

He shook his head, retrieved an oversized burlap sack he’d brought for this purpose, and stuffed the beheaded ghoul’s corpse inside. The rotten meat he’d prepared was resealed and stowed away. He moved on, wary of blundering into a ghoul lair, navigating the labyrinthine sewers with utmost caution.

His luck did not return; for two or three hours, he found no prey. Only deep into the night did more ghouls, attracted by his cache of blood and meat, finally appear. This time, however, there were seven or eight—far beyond what he could handle.

“If I only had to face three or four, I might risk a head-on fight. But seven or eight is too much—far too dangerous.” Though eliminating three would have let him use Plunder to heal, the risk was unacceptable.

He swiftly devoured the bait corpse and retreated quietly. In the tangled, pitch-black sewers, he moved fast and escaped the pursuing ghouls with ease.

When he was certain he’d shaken them, he pulled out his phone, used GPS to determine his location, and made a note. Encountering so many ghouls at once meant he was likely near their nest.

He turned to leave, but hadn’t gone far when his steps halted. Suddenly, he heard the sound of a manhole cover scraping in the distance. Someone was opening it?

Raising an eyebrow, Lin Lei crept forward through the shadows. Soon, a circle of crimson moonlight spilled into the darkness of the sewer, and with a muffled thud, a dark figure tumbled from above.

Hidden in the gloom, Lin Lei, by the scattered moonlight, saw clearly—a human corpse, bloody and mangled. The man’s clothes were ragged and filthy—a vagrant, most likely. His chest bore the marks of sharp claws, and his neck was gouged by savage fangs.