2922 Inflated

Dong dong, dong dong. At that moment, the rhythmic knocking on the school door echoed through the air. Concurrently, the Village Chief, the elderly man, was embroiled in an intense struggle against the layers of Buddhist light.

However, he found himself unable to breach the barrier created by the young monk's sacred aura. Instead, he could only skirt around the outer perimeter, occasionally attempting to penetrate it.

Lu Zheng shook his head, understanding dawning. "Now I see why you managed to evade my concealed weapons at the village entrance."

Initially, he had attributed it to the Village Chief's luck, but now it was evident that the Elder Village Chief's skill as a Physical Master had enabled him to avoid the projectiles.

Qiao Mu remained unfazed.

To govern such an extensive underground village, the Elder Village Chief must have possessed considerable abilities.

Typically, individuals sought to attain mastery through body cultivation or by harnessing the powers of heretics, cults, dark arts, or malevolence, ultimately becoming Physical Masters.

However, it seemed there was a third method—one that involved harnessing the heavenly-fated medicine to awaken unique abilities.

Naturally, the likelihood of success was exceedingly low.

It was precisely this low probability that often led people to resort to turning their transformed bodies into reanimated corpses.

Qiao Mu felt somewhat adrift in these revelations.

She wondered if she would ever reach a point where she'd be willing to consume a pill promising to grant her boundless power when she felt cornered.

When a person found themselves at a crossroads, they might surprise even themselves.

"Boom!" Two individuals, resembling village women, burst into the scene. As they took in the chaotic battle unfolding in the hall, they let out startled cries.

"Village Chief! Commander Hu!"

Hu Erhua stared at the two women with a cruel and malevolent gaze. "What brings you here?"

Meanwhile, the Village Chief was in the midst of a grotesque transformation. Given what these two women had just witnessed, it was clear that their chances of survival had all but vanished.

A glimmer of murderous intent flickered in Hu Erhua's eyes.

The two village women were paralyzed with fear. In response to Hu Erhua's question, they trembled and stammered, "Village, Village Chief, how… how did this happen?"

"It's a monster! It's that monster!!" Another woman snapped out of her shock and screamed, her voice filled with anger. "It's you! It's really you! You were the one who abducted my child from our home half a month ago!"

"Ah! I'll fight you to the death, you vile monster! So it was you who took my child. I trusted you so much, and you deceived me, promising to gather the villagers to help find my child!"

The woman shouted with bloodshot eyes, grabbing a rolling pin from a nearby doorway and wielding it menacingly toward the Village Chief, who stood in the center of the main hall.

"Bang!" The Elder Village Chief used one of his ghostly claws to swat the rolling pin from the woman's hand. Another ghostly claw extended, seizing the woman by her throat and hurling her into the air.

This horrifying sequence of events unfolded with astonishing speed. By the time Lu Zheng attempted to intervene and save her, the woman had already been torn to shreds by an onslaught of ghostly claws. Her mangled remains dripped down.

The Elder Village Chief, now resembling a malevolent demon, raised his head and opened his mouth wide, greedily sucking in the woman's blood and flesh.

His body underwent a swift and grotesque transformation, twisting into a monstrous form. Seventeen to eighteen ghostly claws sprouted from his chest and back. Some extended outward, others clamped down, and a few even coiled into fists, swinging menacingly in the direction of Qiao Mu's face.

"Creak." Before Qiao Mu could react, she witnessed the ghostly claw being engulfed by streaks of purple flames, disintegrating before it could reach her.

A glint of icy determination gleamed in Qiao Mu's eyes as she fixed her gaze on the Elder Village Chief, her lips curving ever so slightly.