High blood and robust defense

At this moment, Qi Xi felt utterly repulsed. Since fear had abandoned him, the gruesome spectacle before his eyes stirred no emotion, yet the revolting sight of bloodied flesh and excrement squeezed from the monster’s intestines made him furrow his brow in disgust.

The heavy stench of blood and filth drifted through the corridor.

“How disgusting. You.” Qi Xi, brows knitted, stared at the creature. Instead of retreating, he stepped forward.

Behind him, Mizukami Jiro had collapsed on the floor. Witnessing Qi Xi’s approach, he was struck dumb with terror and shouted, “What are you doing! Shirazawa—run!” Even from afar, he managed to cry out, proving he had some measure of loyalty and courage.

Qi Xi paid no heed to his warning. He reached out and tapped the monster’s maw, the same creature that had just devoured a man.

Slap, slap.

It was like a strongman gently smacking the face of a weakling, brimming with contempt and mockery.

“Oh my god!!”

“What is he doing?!”

Kodashimura Masamune, Mizukami Jiro, and Oshii Daisuke were all dumbfounded by Qi Xi’s actions. In their eyes, Qi Xi was usually timid, meek, and incapable—a mere shadow of Shirazawa. Yet now, he dared to step forward and slap the face of a man-eating monster! Was he courting death? If you don’t seek it, you won’t find it, Shirazawa—are you tired of living?

In truth, Qi Xi was not showing off, but testing the creature.

Sure enough, after he slapped its cheek, the monster did not turn to eat Qi Xi, but instead barked at him: “Woof! Woof!”

Qi Xi opened his mouth to reply, and saw the gleeful look flash across the monster’s face. But he abruptly shut his mouth, and the creature’s expression turned hideous as it glared at Qi Xi fiercely.

“So it’s just as I thought…” Qi Xi murmured to himself.

“Run! Run!” Mizukami Jiro and Kodashimura Masamune shouted instinctively, scrambling to their feet ready to flee.

“It won’t help,” Qi Xi said coolly. Though his voice was soft, in the stillness of the night it rang clear.

“What won’t help…”

“Hurry, or we’ll be eaten!” Kodashimura Masamune’s fear had reduced him to a quivering wreck.

“There’s no escape,” Qi Xi replied as he drew out a steel pipe.

“Ha!” Qi Xi suddenly struck the monster with the rod.

The blow stunned the creature, knocking out forty or fifty teeth, and the bits of flesh stuck between its jaws from its recent meal splattered out. Quick-footed, Qi Xi dodged the debris.

Even after being struck, the monster could only repeat its call, “Woof! Woof!” Its voice was thick with resentment, but Qi Xi met the venomous glare with unflinching calm.

He sent a probing scan with his world-view data system.

[Name: Controlled Wall Monster]
[Type: Monster]
[Attribute: Materialized Soul-Type Monster]
[Attack: Five times stronger than a normal human]
[Defense: Two hundred percent of a normal human]
[Agility: None]
[Note: If it hides in the wall, you can’t hit it. If it shows itself, you’d better react fast… This isn’t a whack-a-mole game.]

“It’s just as I suspected. These wall monsters, in Japanese mythology, only attack if you respond to them,” Qi Xi mused, stroking his chin. The body’s original owner was a weak-willed man, fond of idle amusements, lewd comics, his own sister, and had a penchant for mythological tales.

Japanese myths, in truth, are often superficial. Take Izanami, for example—also called Izanami no Mikoto—the mother goddess and queen of filth in the underworld. The Japanese gods were born of her and her brother Izanagi. Their first child was a leech child, a crippled, malformed infant…

But to return to the subject. The wall monster’s lore is simple: it barks, and if someone answers, it will eat them.

A strange premise… Qi Xi thought. But it stems from a certain condition—otherwise, such behavior would not exist. The creature can move freely within the walls, so there is no way to escape.

No matter how they tried, escape was futile—the monster had already created a haunted domain.

Sure enough, after Mizukami Jiro and the others fled, it wasn’t long before they ended up running back from behind Qi Xi, completing a circle and returning to their starting point.

Their faces showed signs of imminent breakdown. Qi Xi curled his lip and said, “As long as you don’t answer it, you’ll be safe. It won’t eat you. Quickly, kill this thing so we can leave.”

With that, he swung his rod and attacked the monster.

Having just consumed a person, its belly was round and full, still undigested. Wherever a section of wall protruded, that was where the creature lurked.

Qi Xi battered away for a long while, but its defenses were formidable—hiding in the wall gave it immunity bonuses. Despite his efforts, he hadn’t even depleted a fifth of its health. It was far from “red blood” status, and he had no idea if the monster could regenerate, or how quickly. If its healing was swift, that would spell trouble.

Panting, Qi Xi dropped the steel pipe, glanced at the three beside him, and said, “You guys take over! I’m exhausted. Let me catch my breath!”

Seeing the monster cower in the wall after Qi Xi’s assault, and recalling his earlier words, the others found their courage. They exchanged looks and nodded. Mizukami Jiro went first, beginning the arduous task of draining the beast.

Qi Xi rested in a corner to recover his strength. Suddenly, he noticed some tiny monsters on the carpet below.

He picked one up and held it to his eyes.

The little creature was pitch-black, about the size of a lens, its eyes round and wide. As Qi Xi grabbed it, it bared its teeth and tried to bite, but he held it firmly, rendering it unable to move. It could only flail its limbs in protest.

“Move again and I’ll kill you,” Qi Xi said, narrowing his eyes.

The tiny monster immediately froze.

Rather clever, Qi Xi thought. In truth, the creature had been terrified by Qi Xi’s boldness. This human was truly fearsome—far more so than the wall monster. For the sake of its pride as a monster, it had flailed defiantly, but now, threatened, it dared not move.

On the floor lay many such creatures, sucking up blood—specifically, the blood of Konoe Hajime.