Essence Devouring Art

Since time immemorial.

The more remote the Wilderness and the more backward the civilization, the more it tends to breed bizarre, eerie, and horrifyingly grotesque events.

Sometimes they are strange rural tales.

Other times, they are ancestral warnings, legends of the strange and unnatural.

For millennia, that terrifying World has never truly left. It looms like a shadow over the hearts of humanity, its mere mention enough to make one’s hair stand on end.

A record can be found in the *Annals of the Warring States*:

During the Warring States period, in Luoyuan County of the Southern Border, lived a strange folk known as the "Luotou People." They worshipped the Luotou God, and their necks could stretch, their heads could fly. By day, they were indistinguishable from ordinary people. But at night, their heads would fly off in search of blood, returning only at dawn with no memory of their deeds.

In other words.

During the Warring States era, a group of strange people known as the Luotou People appeared in the Southern Border Land. By worshipping the Luotou God, they gained the ability to separate their heads from their bodies without dying.

In the daytime, the Luotou People were no different from ordinary folk.

But once they fell asleep at night, their necks would elongate, allowing their heads to slip out of their homes and fly off to drink blood. They would return at dawn, remembering nothing of what had transpired.

After the *Annals of the Warring States* became widespread, such a bizarre tale naturally attracted many inquisitive people, who set out to verify its claims.

Unfortunately, over the centuries, countless people visited the so-called Luotou Mountain, only to find that its inhabitants were simple and warm-hearted. There was nothing strange about them at all.

Over time, the legend of the Luotou People was gradually dismissed with scorn, becoming nothing more than idle gossip or a folk tale to frighten children. No one took it seriously anymore.

But recently, Li Er, a resident of Stone Village near Luotou Mountain, had been plunged into deep terror by this very legend.

Because...

The eerie, terrifying legend was coming to life right beside him.

"WOOF WOOF WOOF—"

"WAH WAH WAH—"

The moon set as crows cawed, insects chirped, and dogs barked.

Roughly a hundred households lay quietly in the mountain hollow. Under the night sky, Stone Village was deathly still, the frost on the ground shimmering in the moonlight.

THUD THUD THUD...

Yet in Li Er’s home, at the eastern edge of the village, a dull, rhythmic thudding broke the silence, driving the black dog in the courtyard into a frenzy of barks.

Inside the bedroom, Li Er sat on the edge of the bed, his eyes vacant. He stared blankly at his wife, the woman who shared his pillow, as she repeatedly slammed her head against the window. Tears streamed down the old man’s face as he begged in a choked voice:

"What are you trying to do, going out? If someone sees you and reports it to the authorities, they’ll execute you! How is our family of four supposed to survive then?"

There was no response.

THUD THUD THUD...

The only response was the sound of a head hitting the window, growing more violent with each impact.

The moonlight was bright tonight.

Bright, scattered moonlight filtered through the cracks in the impoverished home’s walls.

Clearly visible in the gloom, the woman on the bed beside him was a horrific sight. Her head was detached from her body, her neck now a coil of thin, red thread piled in circles upon her shoulders. It had already stretched five or six meters, connecting to the closed-eyed head that was ramming against the window.

"Sigh..."

Gazing at his wife relentlessly hitting the window, Li Er’s face filled with worry, and he let out a deep sigh.

「Five days ago.」

The couple had gone deep into Luotou Mountain to gather herbs.

After they returned, Mrs. Li Liu had come down with this "strange illness."

Li Er didn’t know how else to describe it. He could only think of it as a strange illness.

Every night, as the sun set and the moon rose, this bizarre and horrifying scene would unfold.

At first, Li Er had been scared out of his wits.

But after it happened again and again, the fear began to fade.

Because Mrs. Li Liu never harmed him or their children.

Her head would simply fly out the window every night and return at dawn with a mouth full of blood, yet upon waking, she would remember nothing.

Li Er knew.

That blood had to be human blood.

He didn’t dare say anything, nor did he dare let it be known.

They had been husband and wife for decades, relying on each other to survive.

Their bond wasn’t so easily broken by fear.

But to prevent the other villagers from finding out, and being a simple, kind-hearted man, Li Er had sealed the doors and windows shut tonight. He wouldn’t give his wife another chance to go out and bring harm to their neighbors.

"Wife, please, just be still," Li Er pleaded earnestly. "Since this sickness doesn’t seem to harm you, you shouldn’t go harming others. In a few days, I’ll go to the County... *yawn*... and ask around..."

But for some reason, as he spoke, an overwhelming sleepiness washed over him. Li Er yawned again and again, his eyelids growing heavy. Before he could finish his sentence, he collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep, snoring sleep.

THUD THUD THUD...

The room fell silent once more.

Except for the relentless thudding of the head against the window, only Li Er’s snores remained.

In his sleep.

Li Er’s brow furrowed. His neck felt terribly itchy.

He scratched it instinctively.

It wasn’t smooth. Instead, his fingers seemed to catch on a slippery ball of thread, leaving bloody bits of human tissue under his nails.

THUD THUD THUD...

THUD THUD THUD...

After a while.

The sound of one head hitting the window became two.

CREAK~

In the side room, a window creaked open.

Under the moonlight, two small, childlike heads with closed eyes slipped out of the house. They wobbled into the night sky, the "balls of thread" at their necks rapidly unwinding, soon stretching into red strands hundreds of meters long.

One end was connected to the children’s bodies on their beds, while the other was attached to the heads that now slithered through the village like snakes.

The two heads twitched their noses constantly.

They finally slipped through the window of a nearby house, exhaled a puff of red smoke to send the occupants into a deep slumber, and bared their sharp fangs. With blissful expressions, they began to drink their fill of blood.

The bright moon hung coldly in the sky over the deathly silent village.

If one were to look down from above at this moment,

one would see an incredibly bizarre and horrifying scene.

In the eastern part of Stone Village,

Dozens of human heads bobbed and swayed in the sky like kites. Every so often, one would descend, slithering like a snake to slip into a house and feast with relish.

「A few days later.」

Once again, a bright moon hung high in the sky. The entirety of Stone Village was deathly silent; not even a dog could be heard barking.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH~