He slowly opened the door and first stuck his head out to look around.

Good, that brat Edgar isn't here.

Todd tightened his monk's robes, carefully stepped on the stone slabs, and followed the direction from which the sound came, heading forward.

He knew that this exploration of the unknown could have serious consequences, but his curiosity, which was already in the late stages of cancer, prompted him to abandon all risk assessments and survival instincts and head towards what was probably the most dangerous place.

Holding up the candle he had asked Master Myris for, the monk carefully chose a place to stand by the light, thinking to himself with a self-deprecating smile.

I remember a famous psychological test in my past life. In a closed room, there was a bright red button with a note that said "Do not press". The test observed the behavior of people who entered the room. Some people ignored the button from beginning to end, some people thought about it carefully before pressing it, and some people pressed it without thinking.

Todd clearly remembered how he answered that test in his past life.

He would not only press the button, but also try various tricks such as "a short test", "a quick three-hit combo", and "holding it down" to observe what would happen... No wonder the counselor at the time would jokingly scold him for being "mischievous and cheeky".

We passed through the monks' quarters and then through the main hall's corridor.

Arriving at the "short head" at the very back of the San Sidlow Monastery's cross-shaped architectural layout, we walked through a cemetery and down the underground passage that Huggins had led us through on the first day. The screams of the men around us grew louder and louder.

Todd swallowed hard, pressed himself against the wall of the passage, one hand protecting the faint flame of the candle, the other reaching forward, deeper and deeper.

Finally, they arrived at that metal door again, engraved with four strange "proverbs".

The monk slowly pushed open a crack and squeezed through the gap between the door panels.

The torches in the originally dark hall had been lit by someone, and the flickering flames, along with the dimly lit statues and the occasional wails, made Todd's heart pound.

Perhaps it's not too late to go back now; this thought had barely crossed his mind when he immediately dismissed it.

If he were to return to bed knowing nothing, the tossing and turning and sleepless nights would be more unbearable than death.

Todd continued walking and reached the end of the hall. By the light of the fire, he felt his way along the wall and found an inconspicuous wooden door behind the statue. He tried to push it, and without any resistance, the door opened.

A gust of wind blew in from behind the door, nearly extinguishing the candlelight.

The monks quickly used their bodies as a shield to block the wind, and only felt somewhat relieved when they saw the flames leaping up again.

The screams became clearer, and the meaningless, jumbled words, accompanied by pleas and roars, echoed from underground, becoming even more eerie and shocking.

Then, following a long corridor, we arrived at an attic and carefully descended a long spiral wooden staircase.

Todd eventually arrived at a place that resembled a cave. After turning a few corners, he emerged sideways from a narrow crevice in the rocks, and what he saw before him made him gasp in astonishment.

In the spacious cave, a man about two meters tall had his hands and feet bound by four huge iron chains. His eyes were bloodshot, his veins were bulging, and his hands and feet looked twice the size of a normal person's.

Each palm strike against the hard stone wall sent up clouds of stone dust and left behind handprints; each footstep on the compacted ground crushed chunks of rock and soil, creating deep pits.

The giant's face was contorted, drool dripping from his mouth, sometimes roaring in anger, sometimes pleading loudly.

"It hurts...it hurts! Let me go, please! Let me go! My body is...going to split apart!"

This isn't even human, is it?!

By the light of the candle, the monk could see the giant's face clearly and suddenly realized that the giant's face seemed familiar.

"You are... Little Jerry..."

Todd murmured.

That young man, who looked like a bamboo pole, always had a憨笑 (a kind of innocent smile) on his face, and seemed harmless...

An anxious voice came from the other end of the cave.

"Damn it! Todd! Get out of there!"

Enraged by the sudden burst of fire and the shouts, the giant opened its jaws wide toward the monk. The iron chains binding his hands and feet, stretched taut like ropes, and the nails anchoring him to the mountainside, snapped and cracked with a sharp, tooth-grinding sound as they were pulled apart by the immense force.

Terrified by what he saw, Todd staggered backward, and the candlestick fell to the ground.

Kara!

The chains, unable to withstand the force any longer, snapped, and the giant's massive hand slammed down on Todd's head, leaving him with a shattered skull.

"Edgar!"

A loud shout rang out not far away, and the boy suddenly realized that it was Huggins' voice.

The next second.

A blur streaked through the air.

The scenery rushed forward at high speed, and the monk's body was pulled backward rapidly, barely dodging the giant's attack.

Todd turned around and saw Edgar hugging him, watching the giant's next move with a tense expression.

Jerry's attack missed, making him even angrier. He took a step forward with his right foot, clenched his left fist, and punched the two of them again.

Edgar moved with lightning speed, pulling Todd back a step to dodge another attack.

The giant's fist struck the rock wall, and with a deafening roar, a dent was punched into the hard stone.

On the other hand, the two had retreated to a dead end in the cave, with nowhere left to go.

At that very moment.

A figure moved in from the side and stood between the two men and the giant.

Wearing a leather jacket, Huggins stared intently at the giant before him, took a deep breath, and said to those behind him, "Edgar, I'll hold him off for a bit. You wait, Todd goes first!"

The man slowly unfastened the clasp of his glove, and under the astonished gaze of the monk, black gas rose from his withered palm.

With a low crouch, Huggins moved closer to the giant's chest, grabbing his right arm with his left hand and his left arm with his right.

The black gas instantly penetrated into Jerry's skin, causing the areas it touched to turn yellow and black, which made him roar in pain.

Taking advantage of the moment when the giant's movements slowed down, Todd used his X-ray vision to look at the two fighting sides.

Numerous black particles were constantly flowing across Huggins' arms and hands.

Inside Jerry's body, everything was in chaos. His blood was flowing like a dam releasing water, his lymph nodes were swollen like balls, and his heart was beating like a piston pump about to explode.

Feeling the pull from behind, Todd moved backward, but his innate curiosity compelled him to continue observing.

Signaling Edgar to stop, Todd suddenly lay down on the ground and looked closely from below, finally discovering the strange thing in the giant's lower abdomen.

Above Jerry's kidneys, next to the renal fascia, in what is commonly known as the adrenal glands, there is a parasite that looks like a leech!