The No. 1 Hunfen King in the Entire Server [Interstellar] Chapter 7

The forest resounded with Blondie’s terrified screams.

The group, groping their way through the dense fog, stopped in their tracks.

“…Blondie?” Xixi’s voice trembled. “No, that’s not right—he was just with us.”

They halted, unease thick in the air.

Feng Haozhong forced himself to remain calm. “This happened yesterday too, right around this spot. It’s probably an auditory illusion. Stay vigilant—it might not be real.”

Xixi’s face was deathly pale. “Not real?”

The fog was so thick that only vague outlines of towering trees could be seen. The scattered light diffused through the particles in the air, casting an eerie red glow over everything, as though the forest were bathed in blood.

After the scream, all went quiet. Then came the sound of chewing—soft, deliberate, and horrifyingly vivid. It was the sound of teeth tearing into flesh. The noise made everyone’s scalp tingle.

“Ah!” Xixi shrieked, grabbing Xiao Xu’s hand in terror.

Lin Jing, who was intimately familiar with Blondie’s constant chatter, immediately recognized his scream. “It’s not fake,” he said flatly after a glance ahead.

Xixi’s voice quivered. “Not fake? Then…should we go save him?”

The sudden disappearance of a teammate only added to the group’s fear and tension.

Feng Haozhong’s face twisted in frustration. “What a useless idiot.”

Lin Jing still had some sense of camaraderie toward Blondie. Seeing the others hesitate, he said, “I’ll go alone. You all keep moving forward.”

Xu Wanzhi glanced at him. “I’ll go with you.”

Lin Jing was momentarily surprised, then smiled. “Thanks.”

He turned to Feng Haozhong. “I’ll need to borrow something from you.”

Everyone had brought weapons into the forest. Blondie, fearing ghosts, had taken garlic from the village chief, but others had come prepared with tools like hoes, clubs, axes, and even a machete. Feng Haozhong’s expression soured as he reluctantly handed over an axe.

The fog was thick, but Lin Jing had a good sense of direction and could roughly determine the source of the sounds.

The chewing noises quickly stopped, replaced by the sound of something heavy being dragged—fabric brushing against tree trunks.

As they headed east, the fog began to thin.

Lin Jing carried a flashlight. When he turned it on, the beam cut through the fog, creating a straight path of golden light. In the eerie forest, the light had an unsettling yet mesmerizing beauty.

Walking cautiously, Lin Jing caught the unmistakable scent of blood.

“Do you smell that?” he asked, treading carefully to avoid tripping over tree roots.

Xu Wanzhi, apparently unaffected by the fog, replied calmly, “Yes. Many people must have died here.”

“…”

Lin Jing had always considered himself pretty bold, but compared to Xu Wanzhi, he felt like an amateur.

As they pressed on, the fog continued to lift, and the smell of blood grew stronger.

Lin Jing’s flashlight illuminated the ground, which had changed from moss and fallen leaves to soil tinged with dark red. The dirt was damp and soft, and stepping on it seemed to squeeze out drops of crimson liquid.

The putrid stench was nauseating.

Lin Jing scanned the surroundings with his flashlight. The massive trees formed an impenetrable canopy overhead, leaving most of the forest in darkness, with only faint beams of light piercing through.

“What’s causing this smell?” he wondered, moving toward the source.

Xu Wanzhi stopped and glanced at the red string around his wrist. In this place, the string seemed to writhe with excitement, like a tiny snake. If not for the Buddhist bead suppressing it, it might have burrowed into his skin.

Lin Jing followed the scent to a particularly large tree. The smell was strongest there.

He touched the rough bark. “The sounds earlier—almost like someone being dragged up this tree.”

A thought struck him.

He turned on his flashlight, raised it, and directed the beam upward.

Lin Jing’s pupils contracted sharply.

The flashlight beam illuminated a pale face, vacant and dazed—it was, indeed, Blondie.

He was now hanging from a tree, his arms tied to the branches.

Next to him was a blood-soaked infant. From afar, it resembled a blurry mass of red and white flesh, wrapped in a thin membrane. A bright red umbilical cord-like object stretched from its stomach to somewhere unknown. The blood infant sat perched on a branch, gnawing at the tree bark. The sound was faint yet deeply unsettling.

Lin Jing took a deep breath and handed the flashlight to Xu Wanzhi, who had wandered over to watch the scene unfold.

“Hold this for me.” 

Xu Wanzhi took the flashlight, raising an eyebrow. “Are you planning to climb up there?”

“No,” Lin Jing replied. “I just got out of the hospital—not supposed to do strenuous activities.” He glanced at the tree. “Besides, this tree doesn’t look easy to climb. Unless I could jump seven or eight meters straight up, that is.”

Xu Wanzhi: “Oh.”

Lin Jing then gripped the axe in both hands. “But we can chop the tree down. That’ll bring him down naturally.”

“That works too,” Xu Wanzhi said, unhurried.

Lin Jing swung the axe with all his strength, driving it into the tree.

However, it didn’t feel like hitting solid wood. Instead, it was like slicing into something soft and rotten. A wet squelch followed, and black-red liquid oozed out from the tree’s trunk.

Lin Jing froze in surprise.

In the next instant, a piercing, gut-wrenching wail—like that of an infant—echoed in his ears. The blood infant on the tree went berserk, abandoning its meal. It crawled along the tree trunk toward them with eerie speed.

Lin Jing also noticed the “umbilical cord” wasn’t a mere appendage—it stretched all the way up to the tree’s canopy, tethering the infant to it.

Taking another deep breath, Lin Jing ignored the blood infant and swung his axe again, harder this time.

The tree seemed to be made of human flesh, oozing blood with each strike. It didn’t take much effort to chop through it.

Finally, with a series of sickening cracks, the tree toppled. Midway up, the blood infant let out an earsplitting cry. Its umbilical cord began to shrivel, as though its lifeline had been severed. The creature collapsed onto the fallen tree, its flesh melting into a puddle of gore. Before it died, its black, hollow eyes locked onto Lin Jing, filled with malice.

The blood infant’s death cry seemed to awaken the forest.

A cacophony of wailing filled the air, sharp enough to pierce eardrums. From the surrounding trees, more creatures began to emerge. They looked like skinned monkeys, small and blood-red, with childlike proportions.

Xu Wanzhi blinked. “Looks like you stirred up something you shouldn’t have.”

Lin Jing sighed, catching Blondie as he fell from the tree. Blondie seemed to have fainted from fear.

Lin Jing checked his breathing and confirmed he was still alive. Then, with a mix of pinching and slapping, he brought him back to consciousness.

Blondie slowly opened his eyes. “Lin… Brother Lin?”

Lin Jing gave his face a light slap. “You awake? Good. Get up—we might need to run for our lives.”

“Run for our lives?!” Blondie sat bolt upright, then froze at the sight of the blood-red creatures crawling down from the trees all around them.

“…” His eyes rolled back, and he almost fainted again.

Lin Jing grabbed the scruff of his neck and hauled him to his feet.

“Why am I so unlucky?! Two supernatural missions in a row! D*mn it, I’m terrified of ghosts!” Blondie’s wails grew increasingly shrill as his terror peaked.

Lin Jing, irritated, was tempted to cover his mouth.

They ran deeper into the forest, where the mist thickened.

The area was eerily quiet, like a cemetery. Blondie began to falter, gasping for breath. “I… I can’t go on!”

“Why are you so useless? I’ll take you with me.”

Lin Jing, who was walking ahead, finally lost his patience. He stopped and reached out his hand.

Blondie was so touched he was about to cry. “Brother Lin, from now on, you’re my sworn brother!”

Just as he was about to reach out and grab the hand—

“Idiot.”

A calm voice came from the other side.

Suddenly, an axe slashed through the air, chopping off the outstretched hand at the forearm. Black blood splattered onto his face.

Blondie froze, his whole body stiff with terror.

Out of the mist, another Lin Jing emerged. He bent down, picked up the severed arm, wrapped it in a piece of red cloth, and smiled calmly.

“Even when fooling an idiot, you shouldn’t use the same trick twice.”

“……” Blondie was too scared to think straight, but he still felt vaguely insulted.

The “Lin Jing” with the severed arm stood silently in the mist. “His” body flickered like the fog, unstable. Before long, a girl with a blank expression appeared before them.

She had braided hair, a gray short jacket, and loose blue trousers. One hand clutched her severed arm, trying to stem the continuous flow of black blood. Her face was pale with a grayish tint, her eyes dark and lifeless. She stared at Lin Jing—not with hatred, not with greed. Just like someone seeing a stranger for the first time, observing with numb indifference.

Blondie finally snapped out of his shock, shivering as he hid behind Lin Jing.

Lin Jing held the severed arm wrapped in red cloth, bent slightly, and smirked as he spoke to the little girl.

“Little sister, how about we make a deal?”

The girl stared at him for a long time but didn’t respond. With a swirl of mist, she vanished.

Blondie wanted to ask something, but just as he opened his mouth, Lin Jing shoved the severed arm wrapped in red cloth into his hands.

“Take it. Shut up.”

“Holy sh*t!” Blondie felt like he was holding a burning hot potato—he was about to die on the spot.

After dealing with the little girl, Lin Jing was no longer too concerned about the other things lurking in the forest.

Luckily, the eerie creatures hanging from the trees were tethered by umbilical cords and couldn’t chase them too far.

When Xu Wanzhi finally caught up, Lin Jing switched on his flashlight and said, “Alright, let’s head out. We’ll wait for them just outside the forest.”

Xu Wanzhi looked at him strangely.

Then he asked, “You came all the way here just to chop trees?”

Lin Jing wanted to deny it, but after reflecting on his actions, he could only rub his nose awkwardly and say, “Seems like it.”

Xu Wanzhi asked, “Since you were cutting trees, why didn’t you cut them all?”

Lin Jing replied playfully, “I was afraid Brother Scar would invite me for tea if I did.”

But his words turned out to be prophetic.

Speak of the devil, and he appears.

As soon as they exited the forest, Brother Scar was already waiting for them.

Brother Scar was fuming, his eyes practically spitting fire. He looked like he was ready to devour someone whole.

Lin Jing: “…”

Xu Wanzhi, however, chuckled softly. Usually cold and detached, watching everything with an air of disinterest, he now looked slightly amused, even a bit gloating. “Looks like he does want to invite you for tea.”