Grotesqueries of the Old Domain

Chapter 36: The Elder

The sound of splashing water echoed as Zhang Wenda, looking tense, quickly retreated with Song Jianguo.

“What’s wrong? What did you see? Say something.” Song Jianguo, holding a spear, ran behind him. “What do you mean by elder?”

Zhang Wenda’s lips were tightly pressed together and he didn’t answer, just kept retreating toward the exit.

“Bang bang bang.” That strange trembling sound rang out again, and as Song Jianguo instinctively looked back upon hearing it, she finally saw a massive figure moving toward them.

It was a giant humanoid creature, at least over ten meters tall, wearing a tattered cotton coat; its face was covered in black spots, its joints twisted, and its toothless mouth and eyeless sockets gaped open, hanging on its face like three black holes.

Besides that, the enormous cane in its hand seemed to be the key reason why Zhang Wenda had initially thought it was an elder.

Clearly, it had already noticed the two of them from afar.

As the trembling sound rang out again, it raised the decayed cane in its hand and lifted its black-armored foot from the water, stepping toward Zhang Wenda and the others.

Seeing this, Song Jianguo’s scalp instantly went numb, and she hurriedly followed Zhang Wenda forward.

“What is that thing? Why is it chasing us?” Song Jianguo shouted while ordering the other cats to scatter quickly.

“I don’t know either!” Zhang Wenda yelled.

The moment he saw the creature, the term “elder” instinctively popped into Zhang Wenda’s mind—he didn’t know what it was, but just by its appearance, he could tell it was extremely dangerous.

Thankfully, despite its massive size, it seemed to move rather slowly.

As the giant, decaying monster saw Zhang Wenda and Song Jianguo getting farther away, its toothless mouth let out a garbled murmur.

Then it bent down, extended its right hand, and tugged at the water’s surface—instantly, the entire surface of the library’s water wrinkled like a carpet being pulled.

This sudden change caught Zhang Wenda completely off guard; he never expected it to have this kind of ability.

In an instant, both of them were tripped by the wrinkling water and staggered to the ground.

Under the monster’s pull, Song Jianguo and Zhang Wenda, who had fallen into the water, were rapidly dragged backward.

Just as they were regaining their footing, a cane with bent bamboo joints came crashing down from above.

With the red glow on Zhang Wenda’s arm faintly shining, he almost instantly leapt out of the water, narrowly dodging the monster’s attack.

However, Song Jianguo wasn’t so lucky—just as she tried to dodge, she was firmly entangled by the branches growing from the cane.

Immediately after, the monster raised its eight-fingered right hand and picked a book from the nearby bookshelf, opening it in front of the immobilized Song Jianguo.

And Song Jianguo, as if under some kind of control, stared blankly at the book.

Seeing this, Zhang Wenda felt his scalp go numb; he never imagined that this was what the elder was after!

Grabbing a handful of coins—pennies and dimes—from his pocket, he activated the red glow and forcefully flung them toward Song Jianguo.

Those light coins, propelled with force, struck Song Jianguo at high speed, causing her real pain.

“Close your eyes! You must close your eyes! You absolutely can’t look! If you look too long, you’ll turn into a monster!”

As if furious that Zhang Wenda was ruining its plan, the monster called the elder roared garbled curses and lunged toward him.

At this moment, Zhang Wenda seemed to have found a method—he exerted strength in his legs, leaping swiftly between bookshelves, dodging the monster’s pursuit as much as he could.

But he also knew that running like this wasn’t a solution—each leap consumed some of his red glow, and at this rate, it would be depleted in three minutes at most. Once that happened, he’d be finished!

Just then, Jianguo’s cats had quietly crept along the shelves and were now surrounding the towering monster.

With a sharp meow, the black cats bared their claws and leapt onto the creature.

Their actions gave Zhang Wenda a moment to catch his breath.

Seeing the clumsy monster flailing in the distance, clutching Song Jianguo in its hand, he became increasingly anxious.

He wanted to rescue Jianguo, but with his current strength, it was nearly impossible to take on that behemoth! Even if he were stronger, it would still be useless against that thing.

“What should I do? What should I do?” Zhang Wenda thought frantically.

Just then, the monster shook its body and knocked over a mountain of books; white pages flew above the water’s surface like a flock of seagulls.

Zhang Wenda looked at the papers and was momentarily stunned—he seemed to have found a way to deal with it.

Since both the library and the elder monster seemed intent on making them grow quickly, then his way out was to use them!

“Isn’t it trying to give me knowledge? Isn’t it trying to make me grow up?”

Zhang Wenda raised his head and shouted loudly toward the surrounding bookshelves, “Give it to me! Give me the knowledge! I need knowledge that can increase my strength right now! I don’t even care if it speeds up my process of becoming an adult!”

Just as he finished speaking, a gust of wind blew by, bringing with it bits of black ash that accumulated in front of him.

Then, under Zhang Wenda’s gaze, the black ash reversed in time as if rewinding, and under the flames’ burning, finally turned into a book about the size of two palms.

《507: The Preliminary Use of the Red Core》

“Red Core?” Zhang Wenda glanced down at the red scar on his arm—he finally understood what that thing on his body was.

He knew there were risks in reading books from this library, but under the current circumstances, he couldn’t worry about that anymore and quickly began flipping through the book, skimming it ten lines at a time.

Just as the monster had shaken off Song Jianguo’s black cats and stood towering over Zhang Wenda, he loosened his grip and the book in his hand once again turned to ash and disappeared with the wind.

At that moment, he slowly looked up at the monster before him, and there was no longer any fear in his eyes.

Zhang Wenda reached behind into his backpack and pulled out a flashlight, tapping its base lightly against the red scar on his arm.

As the red scar rapidly faded to the bottom, a blinding red light instantly shot out from the flashlight.

As Zhang Wenda twisted his body, the dazzling red light quickly condensed and finally formed a red beam about a meter long—or more precisely, a lightsaber.

“So this is another way to use a flashlight?” Zhang Wenda said as he looked at the new weapon in his hand.

The next second, darkness fell from above, and as Zhang Wenda looked up, he saw the massive bamboo-jointed cane coming down on him like Mount Tai.

With a sharp sound like a blade slicing paper, the cane—nearly as thick as two of Zhang Wenda’s waists—was effortlessly cut in half.

As immense strength burst from Zhang Wenda’s legs, he instantly crushed the bookshelf beneath him and shot forward like a blur, crashing into the monster’s chest.

With one arm, Zhang Wenda drove his weapon forcefully inward, and with the sound of flesh tearing, the monster was instantly disemboweled by Zhang Wenda, as if slicing through rotting wood.

When Zhang Wenda kicked off with both feet and leapt high back, he saw the monster slowly collapse backward.

Holding the sword, he pulled Song Jianguo up from the water. “Are you alright?”

Looking pale, Song Jianguo shook her head and looked at the monster lying in the water. “Look, there’s something inside it.”

“What?” Zhang Wenda stepped cautiously along a nearby bookshelf and approached warily.

Then he saw what was inside the elder monster’s body—there lay a completely rotted, long-dead child, who seemed to be crying.