northernbook #258 - Neither human nor beast
#258 - Neither human nor beast
Wang Niu cried.
He knew his wife would never get up again.
Suddenly, Wang Niu felt that continuing this escape alone was meaningless.
He just wanted to lie there forever, until the end of his life.
Suddenly.
He felt a warm and wet sensation on his foot.
Wang Niu looked down and saw a wild dog licking his sole.
The next moment.
The wild dog bit his sole and shook its head, tearing fiercely.
Wang Niu cried out in pain.
But his cry triggered a burst of loud barking.
"Woof woof woof!"
In the dark wilderness, pairs of green eyes flickered as they approached.
A pack of wild dogs pounced on Wang Niu, tearing and biting.
"Save… Save me!"
The instinct to survive made Wang Niu cry for help.
He knew there were many others lying in this wilderness.
But no one came to save him.
Those who still had the strength to walk were frightened and hurriedly left.
Those who were too hungry to move could only crawl away or lie there waiting to die.
Wang Niu became increasingly terrified and desperate.
Finally, a large, fat wild dog bit his throat, pinning him to the ground and preventing him from struggling.
The strength in his body flowed away with the blood from his throat.
Wang Niu cried as he waited for death to arrive, feeling the wild dogs gnawing at him everywhere.
As he was dying, he saw an unusual scene.
A child appeared beside him.
The child looked no more than ten years old, crawling on the ground like a wild dog, naked, with long hair.
Strangely, the wild dogs didn't attack him, and seemed to treat him as one of their own, even making way for him to eat.
His eyes were also glowing green!
This child stared at Wang Niu, showing no pity for the dying man, but instead… was filled with hunger!
At that moment, Wang Niu felt a chill all over his body.
He thought of a legend circulating among the fleeing refugees… the Dog Child!
It was said that two years ago, a family of three had starved to death, and villagers had thrown their bodies into a pit.
So many people had starved to death in recent years that the pit was full of rotting corpses.
Layer upon layer, countless.
The stench of rotting corpses was overwhelming.
As a result, the child of that family hadn't died; he had only fainted from hunger.
When he woke up, he saw the pack of wild dogs in the pit.
Perhaps because the pit was full of food, the wild dogs didn't eat the child, but instead accepted him.
So the child became one of the wild dogs, wandering and living with them.
Refugee groups often saw this child among the wild dogs.
At first, some people mistakenly thought the child was being attacked by the wild dogs and risked their lives to save him, but the child would jump up and bite their carotid artery, killing them.
From then on, everyone knew that this child was no longer human!
He had become a demon!
Wang Niu died.
His wide eyes stared blankly at the child, perhaps thinking of his own child who had starved to death.
But this child had already opened his mouth wide, about to bite Wang Niu.
Suddenly!
The surrounding wild dogs whimpered and fell to the ground, kicking their legs as they died.
The child was grabbed by the back of his neck and lifted off the ground.
The child struggled in terror, howling like a wild dog.
But the man was very strong, and the child's struggles were futile.
"You want to eat people?"
Liang Jin snorted, his eyes filled with anger.
He had just arrived at the location indicated by the radar interface and saw this scene.
The child in his hand was still struggling desperately, even trying to scratch and bite Liang Jin.
But with the child's strength, he couldn't cause any damage to Liang Jin.
"Cannot speak human language, behaves like a beast."
"Could it be a creature like a wolf child?"
Liang Jin also noticed that the child's nails and teeth were particularly sharp compared to normal people, and the calluses on his palms and soles were unusually thick.
Especially his way of moving and the sounds he made were the same as those of the wild dogs.
This made Liang Jin remember the wolf child legends he had heard in his previous life.
Wolf children are human children who are taken by wolves from a young age and raised by them.
They look like humans, but their habits are the same as wolves. They walk on all fours, sleep during the day, and come out at night. They are afraid of fire, light, and water; they only know to find food when they are hungry, and sleep when they are full; they don't eat vegetarian food but eat meat, they can't speak, and they howl like wolves after midnight.
After being rescued, some wolf children can return to normal life and adapt to society like ordinary humans; others can never get rid of their bestial nature until they die.
Liang Jin looked at the child in front of him and felt that he was very similar to the legends.
He glanced at the child's legs:
"Huh?"
"It's actually a girl!"
Liang Jin had always thought the child was a boy, but now he realized it was a girl.
This made Liang Jin frown slightly:
"Judging by your appearance, you have probably eaten meat that you shouldn't have eaten and hurt your fellow humans."
"Let's make a bet."
"If you are not an extremely evil person, then I will kill you and let you be completely liberated from this sinful world."
"If you are an extremely evil person, then I will not kill you and will guide you back to the right path."
Although Liang Jin had killed countless people, he had never killed a child.
But the little girl in front of him touched another of Liang Jin's taboos, which was cannibalism.
Liang Jin extremely hated cannibals.
If he encountered them elsewhere, Liang Jin would kill them one by one.
But this place was special.
The drought and famine had already caused many people here to lose their humanity due to hunger.
He would not be too harsh on the people here, but only sigh.
As long as he didn't encounter it personally, Liang Jin didn't want to interfere.
He shouldn't have demanded too much from this little girl.
But...
This little girl was a martial artist!
And even a ninth-rank martial artist!
Liang Jin didn't believe that Wild Dog would teach her martial arts.
Most likely, the little girl was once a normal child who had been taught martial arts by her parents.
Later, due to various reasons, such as losing her parents and family, she ended up associating with Wild Dog and eventually lost her humanity.
If a martial artist loses their humanity, the harm will be very great.
Especially since she is a cannibalistic demon!
"Life or death."
"It depends on your fate!"
As Liang Jin spoke, he immediately chose "Yes" on the panel.
[Nine Empty Realms] only accepts martial artists, so naturally, it will only sense martial artists.
However, there are many starving people in this wilderness, and Liang Jin couldn't be 100% certain, so he could only take a gamble.
The next moment.
The scene before Liang Jin's eyes changed.
He was already standing in front of that golden mountain, completely entering the Nine Empty Realms.
And a figure appeared in front of him, the most evil person who had been summoned.
Liang Jin looked at the figure in front of him and sighed slightly:
"It really is you."
The one who appeared in front of Liang Jin was the little girl.
"Roar..."
At this moment, the little girl let out a low growl.
She was crawling on the ground with her hands and feet, like a dog, baring her teeth at Liang Jin.
And her eyes were glowing green, fiercely staring at Liang Jin.
The next second.
The little girl suddenly rushed over, leaping towards Liang Jin.
She opened her mouth, ready to bite Liang Jin's throat.
Liang Jin shook his head secretly, then slapped her.
"Pa!!!"
Along with the crisp sound of a slap, the little girl was sent flying.
She whimpered and wanted to escape.
But the next second.
A wall suddenly appeared in front of her.
This wall was impossible to see how high or how long it was.
As long as Liang Jin moved his mind, the wall could rise out of thin air, blocking all the little girl's escape routes.
Liang Jin walked towards the little girl unhurriedly, saying as he walked:
"There's no time to teach you outside, so I'll teach you how to be human here."
Seeing that she couldn't even escape.
The little girl turned her head and barked at Liang Jin incessantly, obviously planning to fight to the death.
But how could a ninth-rank beast be a match for Liang Jin?
"Pa!!!"
"Pa!!!"
"Pa!!!"
...
One slap after another kept ringing out.
Liang Jin slapped her hard, without any politeness.
He only needed to make sure that the little girl didn't die.
Just like that, Liang Jin kept teaching her a lesson.
He didn't know how to train a dog, nor did he know how to train a person.
But he believed that most dogs could be subdued with beatings.
Sure enough.
After hitting her countless times, the little girl finally felt fear towards Liang Jin and dared not bare her teeth at Liang Jin again.
Liang Jin then began to slowly express goodwill towards the little girl, teaching her some basic things.
Shaking hands, squatting, sitting, shaking her head, etc.
As for many props, he could also conjure them at will.
Such as tables, chairs, benches, bowls, chopsticks, clothes, etc. from human life.
He began to slowly teach the little girl how to use these things and tried to teach her to speak.
A long time passed.
Just as Liang Jin was planning to start a new round of education, the little girl suddenly turned into a wisp of green smoke and disappeared before his eyes.
"Oh? She's also mentally exhausted?"
"It seems that I was a little too harsh on her."
Liang Jin didn't deny that he had a knot in his heart.
He didn't like this little girl.
He even felt a little disgusted.
If he didn't want to see a demon who had lost his humanity appear.
If this little girl wasn't the most evil person who could enter the Nine Empty Realms.
Otherwise, Liang Jin really didn't want to have any connection with her.
It was this disgust that made Liang Jin a little paranoid when teaching and educating her, so much so that he didn't notice that the teaching time was too long, causing her mental exhaustion to be excessive.
"This terrible land of famine, neither human nor beast, has made my mind a little confused."
Liang Jin sighed.
After seeing the tragic scene in the wilderness, his emotions were inevitably affected.
Immediately, Liang Jin withdrew from the Nine Empty Realms.
He appeared in the wilderness at night again.
And the little girl he was carrying in his hand had already fainted.
A rustling sound came.
Liang Jin turned his head to look, only to see the starving people in the wilderness crawling or walking towards this side.
They saw meat!
Those wild dogs that Liang Jin had killed were meals of delicious dog meat!
The starving people were too hungry.
So hungry that they didn't care what these wild dogs had eaten before.
Liang Jin shook his head slightly.
With a wave of his hand, countless steamed buns fell from the sky.
The [Item Bar] function has been activated and can store external objects.
And Liang Jin's clone in Qingzhou Taipingdao has already stored a large amount of food in the [Item Bar] in order to help Liang Jin's clone.
At this time, these steamed buns were exactly what Liang Jin had taken out from the [Item Bar].
Whether to eat these dog meats or these steamed buns, Liang Jin left it to the starving people to choose themselves.
Then a gust of wind swept through, and Liang Jin and the little girl had disappeared.
The starving people stared blankly at the spot where Liang Jin had disappeared, and then looked at the steamed buns scattered on the ground.
They couldn't help but rub their eyes, feeling like they were dreaming.
"Am I hallucinating from hunger? So many steamed buns, is this my beautiful dream?"
"The person who appeared just now... is he a god?"
The starving people all had this question.
If not a god, how could he wave his hand and have steamed buns appear, and how could he come and go without a trace?