Chapter 1266: Chapter 614: Roasted Beast Meat

The massive impact directly blew its jawbone and half its skull to pieces.

The monster’s heavy body slammed into the ground, its four limbs jerking and twitching in crazed spasms.

In less than ten seconds.

Two dead, one gravely wounded.

Such pure, overwhelming violence instantly crushed the remaining monsters’ greed.

They finally realized that this seemingly soft and delicate human was actually the top predator in these ruins.

With a few terrified low growls, the remaining monsters scattered like birds and beasts, tails tucked, melting into the darkness.

The decisiveness of their escape indirectly proved that they not only felt pain, but also possessed a considerable degree of rationality.

Fang Cheng didn’t waste stamina chasing them.

He strode over to the still-twitching hyena-like monster, lifted his combat boot, and stomped down hard, putting an end to its suffering.

Next, Fang Cheng deftly crushed the skulls of the three corpses and rummaged through the brain matter.

The result left him slightly disappointed.

Out of the three monsters, only one had a Treasure Bead condensed inside its body.

And it was even smaller than the previous rice-grain-sized one, its glow much dimmer.

"Looks like the formation of this thing is either linked to strength, or the longer it lives, the more energy it accumulates, and the bigger the bead gets."

Fang Cheng speculated silently, shook the blood off his hand, and stowed away the tiny Treasure Bead along with the others.

Just as he was about to change direction and continue "treasure hunting" in the ruins of this city—

The oppressive dark red sky overhead suddenly, without any warning, went completely black.

As if daylight had vanished and night had fallen.

The thick volcanic ash clouds completely blanketed the firmament, and the howling wind suddenly intensified.

The surrounding air temperature plummeted at a ridiculously exaggerated speed.

In just a few minutes, the air that had been hot enough to roast meat dropped to nearly freezing.

However, for Fang Cheng, whose blood and qi were still surging even under double gravity—

This sudden drop in temperature didn’t feel cold at all; on the contrary, it was like an air conditioner kicking in during a blazing summer day, especially pleasantly cool.

Fang Cheng halted and looked toward the depths of the ruins.

Visibility in the darkness was extremely low; aside from shattered walls and broken structures, he didn’t spot any landmark buildings worth immediate exploration.

He thought for a moment. The external physical test was still ongoing.

Although it was far from over and time was more than enough, there was no need for him to rashly delve deeper into an unknown night.

Fang Cheng withdrew his gaze, which naturally fell onto the fresh monster corpses on the ground.

A bold idea surfaced in his mind.

"I wonder what these things taste like... are they edible?"

As if in response to this thought, a dull "gurgle" sounded from his abdomen.

Come to think of it, ever since he arrived at the West Mountain exam site this afternoon to wait, up until nightfall when the physical test officially began, he hadn’t even had a sip of water.

Let alone a steaming, hearty dinner.

The so-called physical test was effortless for him, but his stomach and intestines were already staging a full-blown protest.

Fang Cheng licked his lips, appetite gradually overpowering reason.

To normal people, these grotesque aberrant creatures were crawling with unknown viruses; a single bite would rot their guts and kill them on the spot.

But Fang Cheng had absolute confidence in his own Constitution.

He could swallow something as foul as the "Deep Red Eye," which was enough to contaminate Spirit itself; a few Mutant Beasts were nothing in comparison.

"Let’s try it. Think of it as researching a new recipe."

Fang Cheng glanced around and picked out the Hunting Dog monster with the most developed muscles, the one that looked the most chewy.

Then he dragged its corpse into a half-enclosed building that was still relatively intact.

He kicked aside the rubble on the ground and quickly cleared out a patch of open space. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Next, he scavenged a few pieces of dried, weathered wooden furniture remnants from the ruins, piled them together, and set up a campfire pit.

Fang Cheng extended his right hand and lightly rubbed his thumb and middle finger together.

Snap.

A tuft of golden flame danced at his fingertip, like the flame of a windproof lighter.

He brought the flame near the decayed wood, and the extreme high temperature ignited it in an instant.

The bright yellow campfire flared up, faintly illuminating the darkness around him.

Once the fire was going, Fang Cheng walked over to the giant beast’s corpse.

He clasped both hands around the giant beast’s thick hind leg joint, applied a bit of force,

and with a sound of fascia tearing, he brute-forced an entire thigh weighing dozens of kilos off the body.

Next, Fang Cheng found a sufficiently sturdy rusted rebar, skewered the meat, and set it directly over the campfire to roast.

Before long, the high heat forced the grease out of the Mutant Beast Meat.

Pale yellow fat dripped into the fire, triggering bursts of sizzling sounds as the flames suddenly leapt higher.

A thick, overpowering meaty aroma quickly drowned out the sulfur in the air, spreading through the ruins.

In this barren land, that smell was undoubtedly equivalent to a deadly poison.

In the darkness beyond the wall, pairs of greedy eyes emitting ghostly light soon lit up again.

Those strangely shaped mutant creatures looked like demons and monsters.

Shrouded by the night, more and more gathered, low, hoarse growls and chilling gulps rumbling in their throats.

Fang Cheng sat by the fire, turning the roast in his hands, not even lifting an eyelid.

If they wanted to look, they could look.

As long as these beasts dared to step even half a foot past the boundary of the firelight, he would absolutely not mind using his fists to prepare a few more late-night snacks.

A dozen minutes later, the outer layer of meat had turned a crispy, golden brown.

Fang Cheng impatiently pulled the rebar back, opened his mouth, aligned with the thickest, fattest part of the thigh, and bit down hard.

Hiss—

The rich aroma, along with scalding meat juices, exploded in his mouth in an instant.

The meat was far more dense and tough than beef on Earth, every bite requiring immense bite force to tear through.

Fang Cheng chewed in big mouthfuls.

The moment the meat slid down his esophagus into his stomach, there was no sign of poisoning.

Instead, it turned into a surge of burning airflow, spreading through his abdomen with a roar like strong liquor.

Immediately after, his powerful stomach and intestines rapidly broke it down, transforming it into nutrients that nourished his body.

"Good stuff!"

Fang Cheng’s eyes lit up.

This meat clearly also contained pure Life Energy, and it could be completely absorbed by him.

After confirming it was harmless, Fang Cheng fully let loose.

Like a feral beast starved for three months, he hugged the dozens-of-kilos beast leg with both hands and tore into it in a frenzy like a storm devouring clouds.

Even the fascia in the cracks of the bone was picked clean, leaving only the sounds of gulping and chewing.

In just a few minutes, the entire thigh was reduced to a bare, naked femur tossed onto the ground.

Fang Cheng let out a burp, wiped the grease from the corner of his mouth, still feeling unsatisfied.

But he did not continue eating. Instead, he sat upright cross-legged, closed his eyes, and entered Meditation State.

In this harsh, radiation-filled environment, the flesh energy he had just devoured in his body was somewhat over the limit; he had to fully refine it as quickly as possible.

The boiling blood and qi in his body roared like great rivers surging.

With every breath, he could draw the subtle energy in the air into his lungs, stripping it in threadlike strands.

At the same time, a few lines of pale blue notification text kept appearing before his eyes.

[You have eaten the flesh and blood of an unknown mutant creature, Constitution +0.001]

[You have eaten the flesh and blood of an unknown mutant creature, Constitution +0.001]

.........

No one knew how much time passed before the flesh energy was finally fully absorbed.

Just as Fang Cheng was about to end the meditation.

His extremely sharp hearing suddenly picked out a faint abnormal sound from within the howling wind beyond the wall.

It wasn’t the heavy panting of a beast, but a deliberately suppressed breathing, laced with extreme fear.

Fang Cheng’s eyes snapped open, his gaze like a blade cleaving toward the shadows at the edge of the firelight by the hole.

He saw a thin, hunched figure sneaking along the base of the wall, eyes locked dead onto the beast thigh bone that had been gnawed clean on the ground.

That outline, that posture—was clearly a human form!

"A human?"

A hint of surprise flashed through Fang Cheng’s heart, and he spoke without thinking.

This sudden voice was like a needle pricking a tightly stretched balloon.

The scrawny figure shuddered violently and let out a scream of terror.

Then, as if having seen some unbearably terrifying demon, it bolted like a rabbit into the endless dark ruins.