Chapter 22 The Man Being Used for Hot Pot

Xie Liang "traveled" through time while he was sleeping. He opened his eyes and found himself sitting sideways on the ground, being hugged by Xu He, so he quickly stood up.

The temporary resting place beneath my feet was hard cement, emitting a suffocating smell of urine. The word "destroy" floated on the wind wall to one side, and the blue vortex gate remained motionless.

There were about twenty or so people descending this time. Some enthusiastic "old people" were explaining the rules to the newly awakened ones. Some newcomers, still unwilling to believe in the evil, were pounding on the wind wall in frustration, clamoring to go back.

After a while, the waves of the vortex gate began to surge and the gate opened.

After entering the door with Xu He, Xie Liang was thrown into a fence similar to a farm.

He was imprisoned in a cubicle made of cement and iron bars, with cement walls below the waist and rusty iron bars above the waist.

There was some hay piled on the narrow ground, on which lay four dirty, fat men. They were stinking, naked, and huddled together on a pile of hay, snoring and seemingly sound asleep.

The groove near the gate was filled with their excrement, and some unknown insects and maggots were crawling around in it. The smell of urine and feces was so strong that Xie Liang could hardly open his eyes.

Through the gate, one could see that both sides of the corridor were lined with cubicles like this one, and in each cubicle were five or six fat men like this one.

The layout here looks like a pigpen in a pig farm with fence walls and doors, but the difference is that there are people locked up inside.

Xie Liang guessed that he and Xu He were thrown into compartments like this one. He squeezed his head through the gap in the fence door and looked at the compartments not far away one by one.

After looking for a while, he finally saw Xu He in front of the fence gate diagonally opposite in the distance.

Xie Liang quickly shook the fence gate to attract Xu He's attention, "Brother He, I'm here!" Then, he took out a universal iron wire from his bag and poked it into the keyhole of the copper lock hanging on the fence gate.

Xu He had also spotted Xie Liang. He was waiting for the storage ring on his finger to "spit out" the black sword. More than a minute had passed since he pressed the button on the top of the ring, and the ring finally slowly spit out the black sword.

After Xu He got the black sword, he cut the chain hanging on the door and walked towards the compartment where Xie Liang was locked up.

While Xie Liang was still poking the keyhole with wire, Xu He had already walked up to him and swung his sword to cut the chain on the door.

At this time, heavy footsteps were heard at the gate, and a giant monster that looked like a pig walked towards them from the aisle.

It has a pig's head, is slightly larger than an adult brown bear, and walks upright.

Its limbs were human-like in structure, and its body was covered in brown hair, the same color as its body. A long pig tail jutted out from behind its buttocks. Its five fingers, each with thick joints, were short and sturdy, each bearing a long, sharp nail that resembled the claws of a wild animal.

Xie Liang hurriedly closed the fence gate and pulled Xu He into the haystack nearby like the "natives" in the fence.

The pig monster walked straight to the compartment where Xu He was just now, looked at the open fence door, looked around again, then turned around and took out a chain lock from the iron bucket hanging on the pillar, and locked the open fence door again.

After locking it, it turned and walked towards the gate, but stopped after a few steps, then turned back and opened the gate it had just locked. A dirty, fat man was dragged out from inside.

The pig monster's claws with sharp nails dug deeply into the man's shoulder, and blood immediately seeped out from there. The man let out a shrill scream in pain and struggled.

Then, the pig monster used its other paw to hit the man's head hard. The man was knocked unconscious and collapsed instantly.

The pig monster dragged the man towards the gate and disappeared after he went out.

After Xie Liang and Xu He came out of the cubicle, they opened all the locked gates.

But these people seemed to be stupid. They didn't go out at all. They just stayed in the haystack and slept. They couldn't even speak. No matter how Xie Liang asked, they looked sleepy.

"These people are like fools. No matter how we ask, they don't respond. It's as if they can't even speak." Xie Liang whispered.

"Well, go out first."

It was dark when the two men came out of the smelly tin shed.

In the distance, there was a warm light on in a shed built by a family, and there were dim shadows, as if someone was busy doing something.

"There seems to be someone over there. Let's go over and take a look." Xie Liang said as he pulled Xu He and walked towards the light.

The two men walked along the weed-covered path towards the shed and found that there was a gray bungalow shrouded in the night next to it.

After approaching the shed, the two men hid behind a large stone pillar nearby and stuck their heads to look inside the shed.

Xie Liang then realized that the busy shadow in the shed was not a person, but the same pig monster as before.

The pig monster dragged out the fat man it had dragged away before from the iron cage next to it. The man seemed to be in a daze. He struggled symbolically twice and then let the pig monster drag him away.

The pig monster pressed the man's head against the sink in the shed, then picked up a thick wooden stick nearby and smashed it on the man's head. After two hits, the man's whole body went limp and he could no longer move.

At this moment, Xie Liang was not too scared, but the next scene made his scalp tingle and his whole body tremble.

Under the warm yellow light, the pig monster pierced the man's ankles with two iron hooks, hung him upside down on a special iron frame, and then took out a long knife that was shining white and cut his neck.

Blood instantly gushed out of the man's neck, and then flowed down his upside-down head into the iron basin below. The killing scene looked like someone killing a chicken.

An even more horrifying scene then unfolded: the two pig monsters put the man on a chopping board similar to that used for slaughtering pigs, cut open his stomach, took out his internal organs, cleaned them separately, and put them into another large iron basin, then chopped his body into pieces, and some parts were even cut into thin slices.

Xie Liang couldn't help but want to vomit, and uttered a "vomit" sound. The two pig monsters seemed to notice and turned their heads to look in their direction.

Xie Liang quickly pulled Xu He to the back of the bungalow next to the shed. Behind the house was the dark foot of the mountain, the wind whistled, the shadows of the trees swayed, and Xie Liang subconsciously leaned towards Xu He.

Xu He must have sensed his fear, so he pressed his shoulder and whispered, "Don't be afraid, I'm here."

"Well, it's a little bit..." Xie Liang said in a low voice.

The two walked along the back of the house to a lighted window. Through the dim window, they could clearly see that it was a kitchen. There was a large iron pot boiling water inside, and white smoke was already rising from the pot.

After a while, the water in the pot boiled, and footsteps were heard approaching from outside the kitchen door. A pig monster walked into the kitchen with an iron basin, put something in the pot, and then left.

Xie Liang put his eyes close to the window and looked into the large iron pot. Inside the water was the dismembered body parts of a man! The boiling water in the pot had calmed down, but white smoke continued to billow out.

Not long after, the water in the pot boiled again, and the man's body parts rolled and rushed in the pot. After a while, they were cooked into a rich milky white broth.

Then, two pig monsters walked in one after another. One pig monster held an extra-large copper pot used for hot pot in both hands and stood next to the iron pot with boiling white soup; the other pig monster used a large spoon to scoop the white soup from the iron pot into the copper pot.

After the soup was ready, the pig monster holding the copper pot walked out, and the other one followed after extinguishing the fire at the bottom of the pot. Then, another pig monster came in, took a few bottles of what looked like seasonings from the cupboard, and then left again.

"Is it my illusion? Why do they look like they want to eat hot pot?" Xie Liang said while suppressing his nausea.

"It's not an illusion, it's a fact," said Xu He.

"It's as if the animals and humans have swapped places in this instance. Humans have become the pig monsters' delicacies, while the pig monsters have become the humans' feeders!"

"Have you seen 'The Human Meat Farm'?"

Xie Liang shook his head and asked, "I haven't seen it. Is it a movie?"

"Well, it's a story about the reversal of status between humans and animals."

Xie Liang seemed to understand what Xu He wanted to say: "So the setting of this small world is probably the same as that movie, where the status of humans and animals is reversed."