Chapter 224: Not a Curse |
"Starve to death?" Xiao Wei asked, clearly puzzled. "So burying the black bear in the dirt was meant to starve it? But does it actually need to eat?" "I set up this experiment precisely to verify whether it needs to eat or not," Bai Mu replied. "Of course, I don't mean eating rice or meat like we do. I mean whether this type of monster needs to consume other things to sustain its life."
"Other... things?"
"Tell me what you think, Xiao Wei," Bai Mu said. "What do you consider to be the weakness of these monsters?"
As his summon and teammate, he chose not to simply hand her the answers. He wanted to temper Xiao Wei's ability to think independently, encouraging her to learn how to observe the finer details.
"Weakness..." Xiao Wei lowered her head in deep thought. "It would be their aggression, right? They go berserk the moment they see people, so we could set up traps in advance and lure them in."
Perhaps because she was a hunter's daughter, her suggestions sounded exactly like hunting tactics.
"That is indeed one of them," Bai Mu agreed. "Let's be more specific. If it were up to you, what kind of trap would you design to deal with them? Fire, water, bear traps, nets, or something else entirely?"
"That..." Xiao Wei fell into a profound silence. "Water... water definitely wouldn't drown them. Fire might be effective... if there was enough oil... maybe they could be burned to death. But if they aren't killed instantly, they would just turn around and kill me instead."
"As for bear traps... bear traps would definitely be useless too. Even bombs and muskets can't kill them..."
Killing a Mountain Evil God through sheer burst damage was extremely difficult. Even with an item like the Book of the Witch, there was no guarantee of randomly generating a perfect-tier spell every single time.
After turning the problem over and over in her mind, Xiao Wei finally offered a compromised answer.
"I can only think of using a net, sir," Xiao Wei said. "Trapping them like in a net, just like how you trapped those wolves in the valley before. If we confine them in a place they can't escape from, we can at least ensure our own safety."
Bai Mu nodded. "If it were me, I would use a 'net' as well. However, if my goal was to kill them, I would set a fire in the valley to burn away all the vegetation before laying the net."
"Burn it all..." Xiao Wei seemed to suddenly realize something, asking with a hint of uncertainty, "Is that to prevent them from eating?" "Those withered forests and meadows... could it be... could it be that they rely on absorbing the life force of other things to sustain their activities?" "That is exactly what I wanted to verify." Bai Mu nodded. "At first, I thought the phenomenon of the surroundings withering wherever a Mountain Evil God went was a kind of curse. But after the wolf pack trapped in the valley died, I started to question that initial assumption."
"I understand now, sir," Xiao Wei said. "You think the wolves starved to death in the valley, right? Because they had no way to feed, they were just like trapped humans. For a person to survive, they need to drink water and eat food. For a Mountain Evil God to survive, it must constantly absorb the life force of plants or animals."
"Exactly," Bai Mu said. "But at first, there was a flaw in this theory. Those wolves were far too persistent in hunting us. If they only wanted to absorb life force, they didn't need to chase us so relentlessly right from the start. It was the same with that wild boar. Based on their behavior, they acted more like traditional monsters born from resentment."
"However, once I questioned the captive about the Son of Heaven and the deity, and understood the whole story, I could finally see why those Mountain Evil Gods prioritized chasing humans. In fact, the only Mountain Evil Gods that pursued us were likely the beasts that people had killed with muskets. Only those beasts harboring an extreme resentment and a thirst for vengeance against humans would prioritize hunting them."
"Meanwhile, within that forest, there's actually a significant portion of Mountain Evil Gods that do not prioritize humans as their targets. They are merely spreading endlessly toward places with life. That is an instinctual behavior, much like a person wanting to eat when they get hungry. If they don't do it, they will die."
"The entity that best fits this behavioral standard is the monster the Son of Heaven transformed into. After he obtained the deity's head and mutated into a monster, he didn't just target humans. His attacks were indiscriminate—birds, beasts, humans, and the forest itself. Wherever it went, it brought death. Or rather, it had to rely on absorbing a massive amount of life force just to keep its own existence from collapsing."
"I don't think this so-called deity possesses the same emotions of resentment as humans or animals. It is merely a phenomenon. When it was whole, it brought life to the forest and the earth, making the woods more lush and the animals grow taller and stronger."
"But when its head was severed from its body, in order to sustain its existence, the process reversed. It began drawing the life force of other things into its own body. It didn't do this to take revenge on humanity; rather, the actions of humanity caused it to manifest this phenomenon." "So..." Xiao Wei suddenly realized, "if that black bear dies because it's buried in the dirt and can't absorb life force, then that proves this theory is correct."
"Exactly," Bai Mu stated. "Now we just need to wait. If that black bear is 'killed' by me, it means being buried in the dirt was the direct cause of its death."
"If that's the case, then there is actually no curse upon the withered lands. Even if we step into those areas, we won't die from contamination. Although there would still be plagues or bacteria caused by decay, and a severe lack of food and water, the danger wouldn't be quite as great in comparison." "However, this assumption could also be wrong. If the so-called 'Mountain Evil Gods' truly are cursed monsters, then stepping into the outer regions would be tantamount to courting death."
"But regardless of which theory is correct, we still have to face the Mountain Evil Gods," Bai Mu noted. "The only difference is that we can delay that moment. After they devour all the territories, they will undoubtedly search desperately for anything still alive. Only when this entire land is covered in death will they vanish along with it."
"Sir, I have an idea," Xiao Wei suggested. "Right now, we are like people trapped inside a ring of fire. My father once taught me a trick. When surrounded by flames, you can set a fire outward. Once that fire burns away all the dry grass, the advancing flames will go out because there's nothing left to burn."