Sandy swung his hand, and his fierce knife slashed on the whisker. A terrifying force directly shattered the blade, and the dagger flew out of his hand.
With a pull on the whisker, Sandy fell into the water with a thud.
The water churned for a while, then gradually went silent.
Little Loach was disgusted by Sandy and threw his corpse aside without even looking at it, but it swallowed the Evil Dog in one bite.
Then, dragging its somewhat heavy body, it wriggled ashore.
Owen Bertram came out of the woods nearby. From now on, Sandy would no longer be in the village. His corpse would soon become the food of those fierce creatures in the river.
Owen looked at Little Loach, the fellow's belly was bloated, and it was as big as a house.
Owen felt playful and grabbed the iron chain used to leash the dog, shaking it to tease Little Loach: "Don't you like to eat? Keep eating!"
Little Loach rolled its eyes and ignored the unscrupulous fellow as it lay on the ground sunbathing.
Little Loach had a terrifying ability to digest food. Owen watched as its belly slowly deflated, and its body grew another segment.
A familiar warm current flowed from Little Loach's body. However, this time the current didn't wander through his body but directly poured into Owen's mind. Something new appeared in his mind: the Beast Speech Skill.
This ancient book with only a portion intact had been found by Sandy after killing an old scholar who was passing through his hometown.
Owen was able to tame the Evil Dog and order it to secretly harm Uncle because of this magical skill.
However, Sandy's cultivation was incomplete, so he could only communicate with low-level beasts like the Evil Dog. But if this magical skill was practiced to a high level, it could communicate with powerful demon beasts.
Owen had learned it, but for the time being, he had no target to use, so he put it aside.
Owen looked at the sky, the sun was already setting in the west. Yesterday, he returned home late, making his sister worried. Today, he decided to end here and go back early.
As he got up and walked back, halfway there, he heard Uncle's joyful shout in the distance, and he couldn't help but smile.
In the village, Owen saw Vanessa Thoughts of Shadow come out of her house. He froze for a moment: Why was there an extra house outside the village?
Owen kindly walked over and said, "Don't sleep in the house at night."
Vanessa was confused: "If I don't sleep in the house, where am I supposed to sleep?"
Owen looked at her, puzzled: Why would you ask me where you're going to sleep? Do you want to stay at my place? That won't work. My little cave is already crowded with my sister...wait, are you trying to kick my sister out?
"Sleep in a dug hole."
Vanessa rolled her eyes: "Are you crazy?"
Owen shook his head and left, thinking to himself, I tried to advise you, but if you won't listen, so be it.
Vanessa watched his retreating figure, her eyes filled with a complex expression.
Today, she had gone to the County Government Office to check the household registration of Extinct Village.
The number of people was crucial for any dynasty. Even a place like Extinct Village had a household register.
When she checked, she did find a problem.
It was said that the Extinct Village had changed every three years, but the household register still had a few old people who had been in the village for many years.
Whether it was because the people had died and their households hadn't been cancelled, or these people had indeed been in the village for many years, she decided to find someone to ask carefully tomorrow.
As for the young Owen... He didn't seem too clever, so she doubted she could find out anything from him.
But on second thought, such a foolish child could condense Heterotext. The once top prodigy fairy of Waves Prefecture was not well: "I must break through as soon as possible and condense Heterotext."
"Even a silly kid like that has surpassed this little fairy girl."
"Even if someone helped him condense it, I can't bear it."
...
Owen reached the door of his house, and Verna happily rushed over: "Brother!"
Owen smiled and opened his arms wide: Hug, hug!
Verna suddenly hit the brakes.
"Huh, how did you get smart today?"
With both hands covering her buttocks, Ava Bertram stuck her tongue out at him: "Bad brother! Don't even think about breaking my butt again, hmph!"
"Hahaha..." Owen Bertram laughed heartily, scratching his sister's nose: "Do you want to eat meat?"
"Meat!" Ava Bertram's saliva gushed.
Owen Bertram smiled: "Wait for two more days."
...
*Crack-*
In the dark night, the small courtyard manifested by the magical instrument was crushed by a foot.
Waves Prefecture's number one genius beauty, Fairy, wearing only a small dress, hugged her body with her jade-white arms that could frost-over, shivering from the cold, her teeth chattering as a huge dark shadow slowly retreated.
"What the hell is that?!"
If that giant foot had shifted just a little bit, she would have been crushed into pieces along with the courtyard.
She thought of the words of the dumb and silly young man, and silently maneuvered the flying sword to dig a hole in the ground to hide in.
If that dumb and silly young man were here, he would definitely comment that her control of the flying sword was deliberately rigid and not natural and smooth enough.
But he would secretly praise her for having a naturally smooth and curvy figure.
...
Sandy didn't return to the village last night, and nobody paid much attention to it.
Many things like this happened in Extinct Village. Pearl divers could freeze stiff and sink to the bottom of the river after only a moment in the water, their skin and bones eaten clean by the Fierce Fish.
It wasn't until two days later that Uncle grew worried about Sandy's potential revenge and noticed that he was missing.
Sandy's house was one of the best in the village; no one knew how the previous owner died, but when Sandy came to the village, he fought with several people and moved in after crippling two of them.
No one lived in the empty house now, as everyone thought it was unlucky.
No one ever suspected Owen Bertram.
Tomorrow was the day to pay the Life Saving Tax, and Owen Bertram found two more pearls in the past few days, both the size of a fingertip. The pearls in the Great River were indeed more numerous and larger.
Owen Bertram had been using Uncle's pills to feed the Little Loach these past few days.
The warmth that Little Loach brought back all settled in the acupoint on the right chest. The symbol in the center had completely taken shape, looking like the character for "life."
But the more it ate, the more the pills were running out - only half a bottle remained from the original three.
It seemed that the Little Loach knew that there were enough pearls for this Life Saving Tax and didn't make much effort to find them today. It swam around the river, just wanting to find something to eat.
The little fellow, with a body length of over ten feet, had already become the undisputed overlord of this section of the river. The river's fierce creatures had all been eaten by it. As for the smaller ones… they weren't enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
So, the little fellow jumped ashore and wriggled over to Owen Bertram's feet, rubbing against them and rolling, acting all spoiled. If it could speak, it would definitely whine and act cute: Baby's hungry, baby needs food!
Owen Bertram pushed it away with his foot, but it stubbornly wiggled back again.
Owen Bertram held his forehead, realizing that he had run out of things to feed the little fellow. He couldn't bear to feed it the battle armor and sabre that Uncle had left behind, could he?
Suddenly, Owen Bertram remembered something - the main characters of those bloody horror films had left something behind. He took it out of the Brocade Pouch, a palm-sized tortoise shell.
It seemed like a magical instrument too, but Owen Bertram had no clue about its purpose.
"For defense?"
"For divination?"
Owen Bertram looked at it and casually threw it to Little Loach.