Chapter 2: A Terrifying Moment |
Abominations?
Though both Xia Hong and Xia Chuan were hearing about "Abominations" for the first time, the fear on their father's face made them feel an inexplicable sense of gravity.
Their father Xia Ding seemed too panicked to explain. Instead, he quickly ordered the twelve-man lumberjack team to carry six large trees into the cave. Without hesitation, he then led the entire camp in sealing the cave entrance completely.
After sealing the entrance, Xia Ding looked at the central campfire with hesitation, but soon made his decision. "Put out the fire. Everyone, put on all the clothes you have and huddle together for warmth. Only if someone truly can't endure may we light the fire again—and for no more than ten minutes!"
"What? Put out the fire?"
"We'll freeze to death!"
"Leader, no! My son is still young—he won't survive this!"
...
His words caused an uproar, with nearly sixty percent of the camp voicing objections. The remaining forty percent—aside from the lumberjack team who knew the situation—were the calmer types waiting for Xia Ding's explanation.
Hearing "Abomination" alone didn't faze most people—they clearly didn't understand the term. But when they heard two entire camps with over three hundred people each had been wiped out, terror filled every face, including Xia Hong's.
Among Redwood Ridge's nine camps, only Rogge was mid-sized; the other eight, including Great Xia, were small camps. Among small camps, strength varied—and both wiped-out camps had been stronger than Great Xia. The leader of Iron Peak, Iron Eagle, had even been an Earth Digger level expert!
And now Xia Ding claimed over six hundred people from both camps were dead? What kind of power did this Abomination possess?
"Get dressed and put out the fire immediately. Dawn will come in four hours. If anyone truly can't endure, I'll light the fire as needed—trust me."
After a brief daze, everyone quickly followed Xia Ding's orders. Xia Hong rushed back to his family's area in the cave, gathering all his clothes and tossing the thickest fur coat to his younger brother Xia Chuan.
"Brother, keep it—I have enough."
"I'm stronger than you. I'll be fine." Blocking Xia Chuan's attempt to return the coat, Xia Hong hurried back to his father's side.
Within two minutes, everyone had dressed and gathered at the cave's center. Seeing this, Xia Ding nodded to the four men holding hides ready to smother the fire. They rushed forward, and the two-meter-high flames vanished instantly.
With the entrance sealed and no firelight, darkness swallowed the cave—along with biting cold. The temperature dropped perceptibly the moment the fire died.
The camp's two hundred people didn't huddle randomly. Youngest children were in the center, surrounded by women, then adult men, with the thirteen lumberjacks forming the outermost ring. Elders? There were none—not just in Great Xia, but nearly all camps. Ordinary elders couldn't survive this apocalyptic winter.
As the leader's sons, Xia Hong and Xia Chuan received no special treatment, positioned toward the outer rings.
An hour passed, and the temperature had more than halved since the fire's extinguishing. Children's teeth chattered audibly, women began shivering visibly, while men trembled slightly. Only the thirteen lumberjacks seemed unaffected.
"Leader, maybe we could light—" A woman begged, watching her child's lips turn blue, but Xia Ding cut her off.
"Let me tell you about Redwood Ridge's Abomination." Though freezing, everyone looked up at Xia Ding's voice in the darkness. Recognizing this as a distraction tactic, Xia Hong still listened intently—his long-held curiosity finally being addressed.
"I've never seen it myself—this comes from an old friend at Rogge Camp. In fact, across all nine camps around Redwood Ridge, only one person has seen that Abomination and lived."
"Who?" Xia Chuan blurted out, his youthful curiosity overriding patience. His question echoed everyone's thoughts.
"Rogge Camp's... Luo Feng."
A collective gasp filled the cave. Even Xia Hong's eyes widened. Luo Feng—former leader of Rogge Camp, rumored to be Redwood Ridge's first Earth Digger level expert. Twenty years ago, Rogge had been a small two-hundred-person camp like Great Xia, flourishing under Luo Feng into a mid-sized settlement.
The shock came firstly from Luo Feng's fame, and secondly—because he was said to have gone mad. Fifteen years prior, news spread that Luo Feng had gone berserk during cultivation, even killing his own son. Could his madness relate to the Abomination?
"Your guess is correct. Luo Feng's madness came from encountering that Abomination during a hunt. His twenty-man team was wiped out—he alone escaped. But one night after returning, he inexplicably murdered his youngest son, then lost his mind. Before going mad, he warned Rogge's hunters never to venture deep into Redwood Ridge, sharing some information about the Abomination. That's how a few at Rogge know about it—and how I learned."
"What does it look like?" Xia Chuan asked eagerly.
Xia Ding paused before answering: "No fixed form. It's said... it can take anyone's appearance."
Assume any form? Like magic? Shape-shifting? Though aware this was a supernatural world, such ability still stunned Xia Hong.
"No way to tell?" Xia Hong couldn't help asking.
Xia Ding seemed surprised by the question, hesitating before replying: "None. No method works."
"What does it do after impersonating someone?" another voice asked the crucial question.
Xia Ding's tone darkened: "It becomes someone you trust. Once you fully believe it's that person... it turns you into a human stump."
"Human stump?"
"A standing, motionless stump."
"And then?"
"It uses a small knife... slowly carving away your flesh piece by piece. No matter how agonizing, you won't die until every last bit of flesh is gone."
A collective shudder ran through the cave. Such excruciating, unending torment—how monstrous was this Abomination?
Terrified silence fell—shattered by a clear voice from outside the sealed entrance:
"Why seal up so early? Open up—we're back."
Every huddled person flinched simultaneously, Xia Hong included.
"Open this door now! Hear me?" The second shout made every pair of eyes in the pitch-black cave widen in horror.
All heads first turned toward the entrance... then slowly swiveled back toward Xia Ding, who'd been speaking this whole time. Their shock morphed into pure terror.
Because the voice outside the cave...
Was also Xia Ding's.
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