Wu Ren looked around at the silent alleyway and frowned. There were no wolves around the area, not even the corpses of any from yesterday.
There were some bloodstains and organs here and there, some exploded bits of machinery too. But no wolves.
There were not even any clues about himself here. He cursed his luck and went back to the area where he saw the three people fight yesterday.
The innards of beasts littered the area and blood was all over the 'carriages' and roads. But for some reason, the familiar smell of blood was entirely absent.
"What do you think about this, Stele?" Wu Ren asked as he gouged the surroundings.
[The Stele has no individual thoughts, other than the base capabilities to reply, and having a perfect understanding of itself.]
Somewhat disgruntled by the reply, Ren asked, "So you know everything about yourself?"
[Not everything. I do not have knowledge of my origins but I know what I am capable of.]
"What are you capable of?"
[I am capable of absorbing the Celestial Sources of the world and fusing them into the host's soul. I already absorbed the 'Source of Devour' from some unknown place at an unknown time, and I have absorbed the 'Source of Wisdom' earlier.]
"What are these Sources?"
[Ultimate Powers of the Cosmos with Limitless Potential.]
Ren wanted to continue on this mysterious topic but as the Innate Qi in his ears was used to make his hearing better, he heard the sound of weak breaths from a distance.
Cautiously, he moved with held breath, as noiselessly as he could to the biggest carriage around the area that looked to be made with the specific purpose of carrying heavy things. Once there, he put his ears against the iron and could now clearly hear the noise of weak breathing.
'It's not one but more than five… six?' he counted, and then silently looked through one of the rusted slits. As he expected, six people were inside, all old and weak-looking but somehow, equally as young.
"What might you be doing here, boy?" a gentle hand came to rest at the back of his shoulder and he froze. He could feel the coldness rising from his guts to his spine.
He didn't even hear any sound of breathing or even footsteps!
"I asked, What are you here for?" the voice asked again and Ren finally turned around to glance at the speaker. A man in a black outfit, his face hidden under a blue metal mask, and his hand holding a spear.
At the same time, a second man jumped out of the metal vehicle and looked at them, his black skin filled with sweat. "Another normal citizen? Is he corrupted too?" he asked tiredly.
"I don't think he is corrupted but he seems very dumb," The first person said casually and took his hand away, wondering: "Do you think he doesn't understand me?"
"He is young too, boy, are you from around here?" The second person asked as he looked at the ruinous situation of the place and removed his silky gloves.
Ren looked at them both without understanding anything they said but from their actions, he could guess they had no malicious intent. If they had, he would have died from a spear to the back.
"Is he deaf?" The first guy asked.
The second man didn't speak and held his bare hands infront of him in a praying gesture. The other man turned silent.
Ren looked at them and silently moved some distance away, just enough to not let the spear reach him, and looked at them silently.
"For all the ones who died in this incident, and all incidents around the world today, I hope you find peace in heaven," The man did a brief gesture of a kneel and then returned his gaze back to the metal vehicle. "Please lord, let the young ones inside the truck be eternally happy in your kingdom."
"Are you going to burn them?" The first one asked, his blue mask reflecting the rising sun.
The praying man nodded and silently sighed. "We don't even know how many we are having to burn at this point. Too many are being corrupted."
"I will take care of this one, you deserve some rest." The masked man looked at the truck with a sigh of his own and Ren's goosebumps started to rise as the white vehicle floated up into the sky and began to distort with a screeching sound and soon, it became bent and broken, and then started to compress—
'No way…' Ren's face paled.
—Blood oozed out like juices as the truck became as big as a small hand and fell down with a light thud.
"How unsightly," The tired man grimaced. "They were humans at a time, show some sympathy at least."
"They became nonhuman when they let greed dictate their actions." The merciless blue eyes inside the mask then glanced at the shaken Ren with cold eyes.
[Source of Devour activated and absorbing the neutral energy of the dead.]
[Neutral Energy +1]
[Neutral Energy +1]
[Neutral Energy +1]
.
.
[Neutral Energy: 21]
Ren didn't have time to see the popping notification and just kept looking at the man with a bad feeling in his gut. 'Another person practicing demonic arts!'
"Are you deaf? If you were you wouldn't flinch like that due to the screech of the truck, right?" the masked gaze was full of malice and questions.
[Do you want to analyze the memories of your current life? (10 units of neutral energy)]
'Yes!'
"What are you going to do Zen, he is just a kid." The black-skinned man asked, his eyes starting to grow cold as a menacing tiger phantom of light appeared above him.
"Do you think the army would have allowed a normal citizen to enter before the ghost house is sealed? Or do you think a normal young man could have survived the second wave of wolves? This kid is suspicious," the masked man chuckled.
As they were speaking, both of them didn't notice the cold sweat oozing on Ren's back as his memories started to flow in.