Creak.
A soft sound.
Less than ten meters away from Lin Bei, the door of a wooden house slowly creaked open, and a pitch-black shadow slowly stretched out, finally stopping on the ground not far from Lin Bei's side.
A dense, decaying aura rushed toward him, making Lin Bei furrow his brows.
Super Intuition made his six senses far surpass ordinary people, but facing this oncoming stench, even with his Combat Power exceeding 20,000 points, it was hard for him to endure.
As the nearby wooden door made a sound, the doors of over a dozen houses further away also trembled slightly, as if something was vaguely waking up.
"Hoo... hoo..."
A gaunt figure staggered out of the wooden house, its body wrapped in white strips of cloth, covered by a decaying aura that was difficult for the naked eye to perceive.
The decaying aura spread rapidly; in the blink of an eye, the area around Lin Bei was engulfed by a decaying black mist.
The surrounding air became even more foul-smelling.
"Holy crap, that is seriously stinky!"
Lin Bei covered his nose and mouth, unable to bear it any longer.
Quickly, his expression shifted, and he took out a miniature Bonfire, lighting it immediately.
Purple flames rose, and a visible radiance spread outwards, dispelling all the rotten aura.
Not only that, but as the radiance spread, dense black smoke suddenly emerged from the surface of the gaunt figure, which was tightly wrapped in white cloth strips.
"Aaaahhh—"
A miserable scream came from the area beneath the cloth strips where the head should be.
The black mist emanating from the withered figure grew denser, eventually drifting into the air and vanishing completely.
At the same time, the mummy-like Disqualified One's body surface scattered onto the ground like shredded paper, ultimately turning into a pile of ashes under the shroud of the purple flame radiance.
"Holy crap, the Dawn Bonfire... actually has this kind of effect?"
Lin Bei watched everything unfolding before him with a face full of shock, his gaze fixed incredulously on the small Bonfire in front of him, which only reached the height of his knees.
[Dawn Bonfire: excellent quality. Once lit, it can dispel all darkness and grant the "Inspiration" status to surrounding Survivors and their companions. Inspiration: Allows one to forget fear, fight bravely, and increase Combat Power by 10%.]
"It can dispel all darkness..."
"Is this how it dispels things?"
"Isn't this a little too overpowered?"
Lin Bei could sense that the aura emanating from that Disqualified One was significantly weaker compared to the first Disqualified One he had encountered previously.
But even so, the opponent's Combat Power should have exceeded 1,000 points.
And the result?
It was instantly killed simply by the residual glow of the Bonfire he lit shining upon its body!
The entire process took nothing more than a single breath!
"The power of this thing... seems to far exceed imagination."
Lin Bei stared blankly at the Dawn Bonfire, where purple flames danced, momentarily losing focus.
After a while, when he snapped back to reality, he was horrified to find that the nauseating decaying aura in the surrounding village... had all vanished!
The doors that had been creaking were now completely silent, without the slightest movement.
All around, there was dead silence.
"Holy crap? Those Disqualified Ones... just died off like that?"
"Dawn Bonfire... it is truly terrifying!"
Lin Bei had clearly felt that the doors of many surrounding houses were about to open, but as soon as he brought out the Dawn Bonfire, the restless doors immediately fell silent again.
It was as if everything that had just happened was merely an illusion.
"Then I understand."
A smile appeared at the corner of Lin Bei's mouth. He then picked up the Dawn Bonfire from the ground, walked up to a house that hadn't opened yet, and gently knocked on the door.
Instantly, a clattering sound came from inside the room, followed by a series of rapid, heavy breaths.
"Is anyone home?"
Lin Bei asked through the door, his lips curled upwards.
"...N-no."
A weak voice came from inside the room.
"If no one is there, how are you speaking? Open the door quickly! I'm just looking, I won't come in!"
"..."
Inside the room, dead silence returned.
"If you don't open the door, I'll toss this Bonfire down your chimney!"
Lin Bei threatened aloud.
Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, a flurry of hurried clanking sounds immediately erupted inside the room.
A few seconds later, the door clicked and slowly opened.
Lin Bei pushed the door open and walked right in.
"You lied! Didn't you say you were just looking and wouldn't come in?"
In the corner of the room, a skinny figure wrapped in white cloth strips was huddled fearfully.
As Lin Bei entered the room, the Bonfire's radiance spread out, instantly illuminating the previously dim room.
Concurrently, dense black mist began to emanate from the Disqualified One in the corner.
Soon, the figure in the corner gradually turned into ashes, accompanied by screams.
Lin Bei looked indifferent, gazing at the fragmented figure in the corner, and spoke lightly: "You're too easy to fool, aren't you? I said I wanted to look; if I didn't come in, how could I look?"
"You—"
The Disqualified One let out a final, mournful cry, dying unwillingly.
However, Lin Bei frowned slightly upon seeing this.
"Something's not right."
Lin Bei recalled that the first time he killed a Disqualified One, besides gaining the title "Hunter," he also received some experience rewards and a material called "lost soul."
But now... although two Disqualified Ones had died in front of him, he hadn't received any notification regarding rewards.
This was very wrong!
"Could it be... because I used the Dawn Bonfire?"
Lin Bei mused.
Subsequently, he temporarily put away the Dawn Bonfire.
The next second, the previously silent houses in the village became noisy again, and the decaying aura that had dissipated slowly seeped out from various houses, drifting into the surrounding space.
Soon, the door of the house next door was violently pushed open by a thick arm.
Lin Bei looked back and saw a giant Disqualified One, over three meters tall, holding a Battle Axe and blocking the doorway behind him.
However, the opponent only managed two roars before Lin Bei raised his hand and froze its body with a Frost Ice Arrows.
Lin Bei stepped forward and threw a punch at the massive ice cubes.
With a loud boom, the ice cubes shattered, and the giant Disqualified One died instantly.
The next second, a strange scene occurred: dense black mist actually floated up from the giant Disqualified One's corpse, eventually dissipating into the air.
No system notification sound rang in Lin Bei's ear either.
"It seems... it's not because of the Dawn Bonfire."
Lin Bei's expression was grave as he muttered to himself, "If I'm not mistaken, all these strange phenomena happening to the Disqualified Ones must be coming from that Mysterious Altar mentioned in the Hidden Quest!"
"Those Disqualified Ones... might not have truly died, but instead returned to the altar, waiting to be reborn."
"If that's the case..."
Lin Bei looked toward the dim sky above the village. In the sky, a thin stream of white radiance particles was still slowly drifting from the village entrance toward the depths of the village.
"It looks like to solve these strange phenomena, I must first go to the depths of the village as indicated by the quest guidance."
"If I'm not mistaken, the location of that bizarre altar should be at the endpoint of the radiance particles."
Lin Bei sighed, having no choice but to temporarily abandon his plan to search the village rooms for supplies one by one. He took out the Dawn Bonfire again, cradled it in his arms, and walked towards the deepest part of the village according to the quest's direction.
The surrounding noise once again fell into silence.
Seeing this, Lin Bei couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.
"These Disqualified Ones... are really cautious."
...Meanwhile, deep within the village, in an underground space, a massive black altar was submerged in a huge Blood Pool. Black mist permeated the surroundings, emitting a dense decaying aura.
Before long, a mass of black energy condensed into a naked, gaunt figure.
Soon after, the blood in the Blood Pool slowly gathered towards the center along the strange markings of the black altar and was injected into the gaunt figure's body.
However, his body seemed unable to contain the blood, and countless drops of fresh blood seeped out from his skin, looking as if they were about to drip back onto the ground.
Just then, the space deep within the altar vibrated, and countless white cloth strips shot forth, wrapping the gaunt figure tightly in just the span of a breath.
The blood that had been seeping out was finally sealed inside the gaunt figure's body.
"Hoo... hoo..."
The newly born Disqualified One let out a muffled grunt, stumbled down the altar, and stepped onto the staircase leading to the surface.
Behind him, the massive black altar condensed another mass of pitch-black mist, and gradually, another naked, gaunt figure appeared upon the altar.