What is the Chronicle of the Desolate Village? First, It Must Be a Desolate Village.

Yin Fate Village, Saintess Valley.

A frail-looking figure slowly climbed to the mountain's peak.

On his back, he carried a stunningly beautiful young woman who had fallen into a deep sleep.

He looked down at the pile of the Saintesses' bones. The corner of his mouth curved up as he drew a dagger from his waist.

"Resurrect! My love!"

He paused. "Oh, got my lines crossed again. It should be, Rise! My army of the dead!"

Wu Wang fiercely plunged the dagger into the ground.

The next second, the temperature in the once-windless valley began to plummet. In an instant, it fell below zero.

A black shadow crawled out from the tower of skulls. The mist on its face began to dissipate, and soon, a tear-streaked face was fully revealed, a sight that would make anyone's heart ache.

As the resentful spirit of the first Saintess emerged, black shadows began to surge out from the entire valley.

The mist on their faces also began to disperse.

The shackles of bondage and bewilderment silently vanished, leaving behind only firm and grateful gazes.

"Sir, your righteousness is profound! I have no way to repay you!"

The first Saintess to appear knelt before Wu Wang. She looked very young, and from her hairstyle and speech, one could tell she was a well-bred lady from an older era. It was impossible to know how she had been tricked into coming here to become a Yin Fate Saintess.

The other Saintesses also knelt and kowtowed to Wu Wang one after another.

But he simply gave a slight bow and stepped aside, avoiding their grand gesture.

Then, he pointed a finger down the mountain.

"They built their homes and lived contentedly on your corpses. They happily ate your human blood mantou. They trampled on humanity and pushed greed to its absolute peak."

"You don't need to thank anyone."

"You need only seek revenge. That is the best repayment."

With that, Wu Wang completely cleared the path down the mountain.

He knew very well that the doom of Yin Fate Village had arrived.

They were about to pay the most severe price for all the sins they had once committed.

The Yin Fate Saintesses exchanged a look.

Then, roaring, they surged down the mountain.

Watching their receding figures, Wu Wang suddenly thought of something.

He shouted into the distance, "Right! If you encounter anyone actively seeking death during your revenge…"

The Saintesses stopped in their tracks and looked back at Wu Wang.

But unexpectedly, the moment he opened his mouth, he couldn't hold back.

"That doesn't mean they know they were wrong! When you meet people like that, be sure to check their courtyards, basements, and kitchen rice vats. You might just find a few people they're trying to protect! Don't let them get away!"

The Saintesses' expressions turned a little strange.

Wasn't he the real expert at this? How was he so practiced?

Although their expressions were odd, they firmly committed Wu Wang's reminder to memory.

They would not let anyone escape.

After all the Yin Fate Saintesses had descended the mountain and entered the village, Wu Wang looked down.

The 【Deceitful Thorn Dagger】 had completely turned to dust.

It was obvious that while the black-hearted Penguin did a good deed, it definitely wouldn't let him get any extra benefit out of it.

"The sun is out, luo wei~ So happy, luo ei~"

"Lifting the shoulder pole, lang lang che lang che~ Up the hill, luo ei~"

He hummed a little tune from a long time ago.

After adjusting Second Sister's position on his back, Wu Wang walked toward Zhang Sanfeng's dilapidated house in the distance.

He didn't use double jump, nor did he change his physique.

He was a little worried the black-hearted Penguin was still observing the area.

If he were caught being the Red Tentacle Thief right now, it would be game over.

Fortunately, with Wu Wang's stamina and pace, it didn't take long for him to return to his starting point.

Just as he was placing Second Sister on the bed, screams that echoed through the valley erupted from the village below.

"Ah! Ghosts! There are ghosts!"

"Retribution… Retribution has come!"

"Please, spare me! I didn't do anything!"

"Help! Help me!"

The ceaseless screams were like heavenly music to Wu Wang's ears.

The curve of his lips grew wider.

He couldn't even stop his hands from waving, as if conducting a top-tier choir, with rising and falling crescendos here and lingering echoes there.

But it still felt like something was missing…

BOOM!

Just as he was thinking this, a loud explosion came from down the mountain.

What followed were even more miserable cries, which sounded as if they came from those suffering immense pain.

"Now that's more like it. How could a performance like this lack the beat of war drums?"

He was so delighted he couldn't close his mouth.

Those wonderful wondrous tools buried on the road out of the village had finally come into play.

Bodies were pierced by the steel balls that burst forth from the explosions. Even if the villagers weren't killed instantly, their howls of extreme agony added the icing on the cake to this grand chorus.

He was laughing wildly.

He was dancing.

His blood boiled for destruction.

He cheered for rebirth.

The once-peaceful village was instantly transformed into a living hell.

The perpetrator of all this felt not the slightest remorse. Deep down, he even felt like laughing.

In his eyes, this place had been a living hell from the very beginning.

It had just been cloaked in a layer of normal human skin.

Just like the Old Village Chief.

No matter how he tried to hide it, what lay unchanged beneath his thick, cotton-padded coat was his ugly body and his bloody, human-skin clothes.

Wu Wang admitted that he had always known he was a terrible person, exceptionally vile in both personality and behavior.

But what was worse was that he had no intention of repenting.

For him, last night's grand ritual was far less spectacular than the current living hell.

Tap, tap, tap…

Wu Wang watched the markers for living people on the map gradually decrease until only a scattered few were left struggling.

His expression slowly returned to normal.

He saw one of the markers running in his direction.

Luckily for the runner, most of the landmines on this path had already been triggered.

Staggering, the person actually managed to reach the dilapidated house.

Creeak…

He pushed open the unlocked wooden door.

A middle-aged man, covered in blood with his clothes and skin tattered, fell inside. He was on the verge of exhaustion.

Seeing the familiar little madman before him, Uncle Li barely managed to squeeze out a few words.

"Er Wa… save Uncle Li… quick, hide me!"

But then, he heard the little madman let out a chuckle.

In a voice that was cold to the extreme, he retorted, "Uncle Li, why hide? Shouldn't I be helping you escape? I'll take you into the forest right now!"

"N-no… don't… don't go into the forest."

Uncle Li had no time to ponder why the little madman was speaking so normally. His courage was about to be shattered by fear.

Wu Wang sneered.

"Why not go into the forest? Is it because you know that no one can leave Yin Fate Village during the three days of the Grand Ritual? Then why did you unlock the door for me on the first day?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Uncle Li froze.

His gaze began to shift evasively.

That's right. He knew full well that he couldn't leave during the Grand Ritual and that entering the forest was extremely dangerous. So why did he pretend to be kind and unlock Zhang Sanfeng's wooden door, letting him escape?

"Not talking? Then I'll talk."

Wu Wang raised his AK.

"It's because your family lives in and eats what belonged to Zhang Sanfeng's family. After his parents died, the village allocated their things to your family, which wasn't very wealthy."

"Now that Zhang Sanfeng is about to come of age, if he hadn't died during this Yin Fate Grand Ritual, you would have had to return everything. That's the village rule."

"So you would rather he escape into the forest and be lost forever than risk him surviving the Grand Ritual. All so you wouldn't have to give back what never belonged to you."

"And in front of your own wife, you hypocritically acted as if you had a change of heart."

"Stop pretending. You're just another beast in human skin who eats mantou dipped in blood."

Wu Wang's every word struck Uncle Li's heart like a heavy blow.

His already exhausted body was on the verge of collapse.

He couldn't understand how these things had become known. How had the secrets of his heart been dug out so completely?

Little did he know that Wu Wang had already found out most of it while infiltrating the village. Coupled with the 【Vision of Truth】's insight and his own genius-level reasoning, the truth was easy to uncover.

Click.

Wu Wang ejected the magazine.

A glimmer of hope flashed in Uncle Li's eyes.

Was he going to be spared?

But unexpectedly, Wu Wang slammed a hand onto his face, grabbed his features in an extremely rough manner, and dragged him outside.

At that moment, hundreds of eerie and terrifying black shadows were already standing there.

They were waiting for this final sin to be purged.

"Trash like you isn't worth wasting my fucking bullets. They should be the ones to judge you. You can ask these Saintesses if they can forgive you."

Wu Wang spat at Uncle Li, whose legs were too weak to stand.

He turned and went back into the house.

The black shadows gradually closed in, pinning down the utterly terrified man.

A heart-wrenching scream once again echoed through the valley.

The beginning was also the end.

All of this became the final note of the symphony.

【Instance 《Chronicle of the Desolate Village》 hidden condition completed】

【Turn this place into a truly desolate village】

【Please check for your Hidden Reward】

【Time remaining in Instance: 10 minutes】

In the real world, a red alert sounded in the Instance Supervision Department of a certain province's Abnormal Affairs Bureau. This was the department responsible for monitoring supernatural situations in the real world.

Now that Spirit Calamity Players were integrated into society, supernatural phenomena were inevitable. Therefore, every Abnormal Affairs Bureau branch was exceptionally attentive in its supervision.

"Where's the incident?" the person in charge demanded, his voice tight with anxiety.

A red alert. Since the branch was established years ago, they had only heard it once. It indicated that the supernatural situation was highly likely to be a malicious attack on human society, most likely from an external threat, not an internal issue among players.

"Chief, we've detected intense malicious energy fluctuations from deep within Yin Fate Mountain in our province."

"This energy fluctuation also seems to contain some kind of information."

The technical department worked at full capacity to analyze whatever the energy was trying to transmit.

A moment later, the supervising officer received feedback. His expression became extremely unnatural.

He looked back, somewhat uncertain, and said, "It's been analyzed."

"The other party seems to be saying, 'To the arrogant Penguin and you damned lowly creatures, He has returned.'"

"The detailed address has also been pinpointed."

"It's the ruins of a place called Yin Fate Village within Yin Fate Mountain."

"Five years ago, a bizarre supernatural event occurred there."

"Overnight, the entire village was wiped out, becoming a desolate village with no survivors."

"The case file for this incident is currently classified as an A-level secret."

"The case file's codename is 'Chronicle of the Desolate Village'."