Cthulhu Gonfalon Chapter 7

Sui Xiong's patience was not bad. Or in other words, coming to this bizarre world, wandering in this vast sea and practicing at the oceanic trench had trained his patience.

Therefore, he had been staying at this strange empty land for five consecutive days, observing for five days straight.

During these five days, he didn't do any reckless thing, just observing carefully.

Through observation, he had come up with a conclusion that there was a pattern of transformation inside of this forest----it was really simple. Noon was its weakest time, while midnight was its strongest time. This cycle repeated nonstop.

Apart from that, he finally understood why there were not many insects in this luxuriant vegetation inside this forest---every time that night started, the highly concentrated thick dark power would kill a lot of the animals and insects. Their remains would be sent into the ground. Maybe these black skeletons were the results of these remains' condensation.

The highly concentrated dark powers at night did affect Sui Xiong too. The icy dark power which had been condensed inside his body had soon reached its limit. The dark power concentration was astonishing. Even his body had constantly lost track of the dark power's state. These dark powers were born from his daily regeneration. Due to the fact that he couldn't condense these powers to preserve it, he couldn't help but spread them outside of his body.

This dark power concentration could be compared with the thick one all over the forest at night. There was only the highly concentrated dense dark power on the empty land at night that could be considered denser than his released dark power.

He also discovered another thing. These black skeletons somewhat were full of hatred towards the vegetation out there. Whenever an insect or an animal came close, they would immediately go crazy, rushing forward together. Punching fist, kicking feet, biting, they had to get them into the fold of death. However, they couldn't see Sui Xiong as he got closer as if he didn't exist.

Maybe... that was because when he used this body, its true root had already been "Dead"...

After continually observing for several days, Sui Xiong found that he had collected quite a decent amount of information. Finally, he chose to dig that empty black land at noon, when the sun was the most intense.

The situation also didn't go beyond his expectations. He didn't need to dig that deep, before he immediately saw many black skeletons.

They were not complete skeletons, but were different parts of skeletons.

"It seems like these skeletons have been formed temporarily at night." Sui Xiong looked attentively at these remains whose colors were gradually fading underneath the sunlight, from pitch black to a light gray one. He silently nodded his head.

He didn't touch these remains or the place burying them. He just waited for the next night to come.

Just as he expected, that night, despite the condensation of the dark power above this empty stretch of land inside of the forest, these faded remains didn't turn into skeletons. Instead, they just kept shaking and shaking for the whole night.

On the next day, when the sun shone brightly, under the sunlight, these remains' colors started to fade more. Until night, their shaking noise sounded weaker.

Now that Sui Xiong had almost completely understood the situation, he stopped observing and started to leave.

He had been traveling alone in this black forest, walking in the daytime and resting during the nighttime. Sometimes, he accidentally saw the black empty land where those remains had turned into skeletons.

After he had tried to attack those black skeletons, he discovered that they were very weak. Just one strike from his tentacles could have killed an entire group of skeletons all over the empty land. He didn't even need to use his magic to do so.

"This is a good thing." After destroying another group of black skeletons, Sui Xiong smiled and said to himself, "Turns out this world is not dangerous as I thought."

Just like that and five or six days had passed, he had finally met a human being, whom he had been waiting for a long time.

That was a small village, which was built on a big part of an empty land.

The trees on this empty land had clearly been cut down by humans. There were many tree stumps around. Some of the tree trumps still had newly cut marks. There were some villagers, who were trying to cut down the Black Forest to expand their living space.

The village was not big. Each of the small wooden houses formed into a circle, surrounding one house in the center, which appeared to be much bigger. There was also a well and a stone house around. There was a bizarre statue which was put right up on top of the roof of the stone house, which was in a shape of a horizontal dagger. It formed into a Cross shape with and a Vertical Eye.

That peculiar statue somehow gave Sui Xiong an uncomfortable feeling, not the kind of dangerous feelings, but merely a disliked one. It is like an Indian saw steak, a Saudi Arabian sees a plate of pork chop rice, a gourmet sees a bad dish, a Bulgarian eats raw shrimps...which is really hateful, I don't like it at all!

Except for the statue outside that he hated, this village actually looked really normal. A simple fence surrounded the small village. This fence was neither big nor high, simply like a wall. The houses appeared rudimentary, looked like it was built with enough materials, it seemed very strong. The clothes of these villagers were somewhat worn out, which obviously meant the villagers in this village were not rich.

The entire village just had one entrance, which was guarded by a bald and sturdy looking man. That man didn't wear any armor. He was just carrying a big heavy-looking ax. Judging from this, his ability must not be that bad. He carefully observed around, didn't leave his position even for a second, he seemed to be a very responsible man.

Paddy fields, one by one, circled the village. The kind of plants that was being cropped in the paddy fields was a vine of which Sui Xiong didn't know. There were no flowers or fruits on the vine. There were just gray and green leaves. If looking closely, one could see a vague golden color on the leaves, which radiated a golden halo under the sunlight.

There were also farmers working on the farm. The majority of the farmers were female. Their works were really strange. They didn't dig soils or fertilize plants or catch insects. They carried or piggybacked wooden buckets in various sizes. Sometimes, they used a small spoon to scoop a little bit of water, then carefully sprinkled it on the leaves of the vines.

That spoon was pitifully small. Ten of these spoons were probably equaled to one mouthful of an ordinary person. He could see that they cherished these wooden buckets. It took them awhile to obverse carefully before watering the vines.

The origin of this water was quite extraordinary since it was obtained through a special ritual.

The special ritual was like this: About every ten days or so, at dusk, there would be some girls in black gowns gathering in front of the door of the stone house. They circled a big pot reading some incantations. There was a wooden frame on top of the pot. An alive chicken was hung upside down on the wooden frame. They were reading the incantations nonstop until the moon rose. These girls immediately slit the neck of the unlucky chicken. Then they let the chicken's blood flow into the pot, which was mixed with the original water in the pot. After that, they continued reading the incantations until the moon had arrived in the middle of the sky, then they moved the pot into the stone house.

Sui Xiong wanted to see what these girls were going to do next, not only once, but his spirit sense couldn't get into that stone house as if it was being blocked by the beast's skin. He had to give up in the end.

The only thing he knew was that, on the second day, when the moon rose, the villagers would prepare a bucket of the well water, which was put under the moonlight for one night. When the sun came up, they would bring that bucket into the stone house. With some unknown process, on the third day, they could go into the stone house to get that specific water to water the vines.

Sui Xiong guessed that there must be some kinds of pharmacists or magicians living inside that stone house, who commanded the group of these little girls to get the water from the well, to obtain some particular powers to promote the growth of the vines.

Of course, that man, who may be not allowed to come out of that stone house, was actually a secluded chef. He inherited thousand-year-culinary know-how, which could help him cook an indescribably tasty pot of chicken stew that could make the vines grow.

Sui Xiong felt that in this world with dark powers, anything could happen.

Well, if I have a chance, I'll definitely try the chicken blood soup to see what it tastes like!

Apart from using the special water to water the vines, the villagers would certainly have gotten the water from the well to use it for their activities. Sui Xiong noticed that the distance between the village and the small river nearby was not far apart. But there hadn't been even one person going to the river to get water for daily use. All the people here used the well water.

Maybe, this was related to the dense and chaotic dark powers all over in the forest. Because according to his observations, as he got closer to the village, the chaotic and dense dark power in the forest was getting very much weaker. However, the uncomfortable aura had turned thicker. Perhaps, this kind of aura, which had made him feel annoyed, was the way the villagers used to block the chaotic and the dense dark power all over the forest from eroding to avoid being hurt.

Still, this kind of defense obviously had its limit. Every night, regardless whether they were loggers or farmers, the people would hurry to come back to the village and blocked the main gate securely. A group of young men carrying hammers or axes stayed at the small wooden houses on both sides of the main gate, taking turns to keep guard.

At this moment, inside the stone house, the aura that had made Sui Xiong feel annoyed became much stronger, covering the whole village. Those paddy fields growing vines also radiated a golden halo. Although these two energies were completely different, they were both doing the same thing, which was casting out the chaotic and dense dark power in the forest. These two energies supported each other, protecting this small village.

Sui Xiong hid dozens of miles away outside of the forest. Through his spirit sense, he could have followed the village's situation closely from far away. He found that aside from their main works, which were cutting wood and farming, they also raised chickens. But they didn't feed the chickens. These chickens were merely offerings.

He had also studied these vines. Strangely, these vines clearly could produce the energy which had annoyed him, when he used his spirit sense to touch these vines he couldn't feel any pushing forces and that they were somehow just normal vines.

There was definitely something miraculous inside of those vines. What a pity, he couldn't communicate with them. He just had to hide this doubts deep inside of his heart, waiting for the right chance to inquire later.

Sui Xiong didn't hastily approach the villagers. He diligently observed from far away. He had been constantly observing for a long time. The daily activities of this village were not that interesting. There was as if there was no entertainment or recreation. Every day, except for cutting wood or growing rice, they didn't have any noticeable hobbies.

The life of people in this world looked a little grim.

Day by day, they repeatedly worked, and didn't even rest at all. They were like a group of diligent ants, working hard to build their small territory. There wasn't a hint of laziness.

Sui Xiong silently watched them, waiting for a right chance to talk to them.

He didn't want to hastily approach these people. The first reason was that he basically didn't know these people's language. That meant he had no way to communicate with them. The second reason was that his overly terrifying appearance, which could immediately scare them to death as soon as he showed up without giving them a chance to have a life-and-death battle with him.

He knew almost nothing about this world's customs. But from measuring another's foot by one's own last, facing a language barrier with a big monster, as long as they were normal people, the first thing they would have in mind was to run or to fight. They wouldn't have such a super liberal mind that they possibly wanted to be friends with a big monster. This was not a fairy tale, which was filled up with full-of-courage main characters. This was more likely a funny animation named "Do not die".

Anyway, these villagers didn't look like that.

After a period of time, the vines in the paddy field became bigger and the golden color of the leaves also became clearer. When the villagers saw that, they revealed a smile, which must be the joy of harvest.

Strangely, they seemed to be always worried or anxious about something, which surprised Sui Xiong a little bit.

Then after another period of time, they had even stopped chopping the lumber. All the adults, regardless male or female, under the lead of the bald guard, started to practice fighting, using axes and hammers, while some people was hurriedly making wooden shields. Without a doubt, they also had a ready-to-fight appearance.

Sui Xiong was curiously watching them. He didn't know where their anxiety was exactly coming from or understand whom on earth it was that they wanted to fight.

But somehow, he felt excited inside---judging from the appearances of these villagers an upcoming battle would be very dangerous. At that time, he would just need to use the title of an ally to show up, even if he wouldn't be welcomed, at least he wouldn't be treated as an enemy.

This was the chance that he had been waiting for since long time ago!

Chapter end