Tavern of the Spear: Desire for Pleasure

Time seems to have lost its meaning here. The instability of space and the distortion of time intertwine, making it impossible for those within it to perceive the passage of time. What may be just a fleeting moment can feel like a world transformed outside. This feeling is unsettling, as if one has been abandoned by the entire world and banished to the wasteland of time.

Fortunately, Bai Yu was prepared. He took out an exquisite hourglass from his pocket. The top and bottom of the hourglass were engraved with beautiful clock patterns, and the hands were stopped at a certain mark, seemingly symbolizing the freezing of time. The sand in the hourglass was also special. It was a dazzling silver-white color, but when it flowed, it became ethereal, as if it did not exist in this world. After falling, it would solidify again into a silver-white solid.

“This is the ‘Hourglass of Time,’ a protective artifact given to me by my master,” Bai Yu explained. “With it, we no longer need to worry about time distortion.”

As Bai Yu channeled his magic into the hourglass, the numbers at the top lit up. The appearance of the numbers brought a sigh of relief to everyone; they knew this meant they had reconnected to real time. A faint halo spread out from the hourglass, gradually correcting the distorted space and time around it. The previously blurry scene became clear, and the disordered time returned to its normal flow.

"Phew, finally back to normal." Cheng Yu breathed a sigh of relief. "In this godforsaken place, the feeling of having a distorted sense of time is just awful."

"Yes, it felt like the whole world had forgotten us," Aolian said, still shaken.

“Now that the time issue has been resolved, why don’t we take this opportunity to search this complex more carefully and see if we can make any new discoveries?” Cheng Yu suggested.

“Good idea,” Bai Yu agreed. “Maybe we can find more clues about this place.”

So the three of them split up and began to search the surrounding buildings carefully. They moved among the dilapidated houses, observing every detail, hoping to find something.

Bai Yu entered a half-collapsed house. Scattered throughout the room were broken pottery and stones, and some blurry murals remained on the walls, vaguely depicting figures and animals. Bai Yu carefully examined these murals, trying to decipher some information, but due to their age, the murals were severely eroded, making it difficult to identify the specific content.

On the other side, Cheng Yu crawled into a warehouse-like building. Inside were piles of wooden crates and sacks, most of them rotten and decayed. Cheng Yu opened a crate; it contained some grain that had turned to powder and emitted a musty smell. He then opened a sack; inside were some dried fruit, as hard as stone.

“These things look quite old,” Cheng Yu muttered to himself.

He continued searching, hoping to find something of value. Suddenly, he discovered a pile of strange objects in a corner. These objects were neither made of metal nor wood, and their shapes were quite peculiar. Some resembled a twisted metal plate, some a curved tube, and others an irregular sphere.

Cheng Yu picked up a twisted metal plate and examined it closely. The plate was covered with intricate patterns, seemingly some kind of writing or symbols, but Cheng Yu had never seen such writing before. He smelled the metal plate, and an indescribable stench assaulted his nostrils, almost making him vomit.

"What the hell is this thing? It stinks!" Cheng Yu threw the metal plate aside with a look of disgust.

He picked up another strange object and smelled it; it also had a nauseating odor.

"The smell of these things... it feels like..." Cheng Yu frowned, trying hard to recall, "That's right! This smell, why does it smell so much like that strange smell I smelled before? This mixture of fishy stench, rot, and some indescribable... lewd smell is simply unbearable!"

"What's wrong?" Aolian came over when she heard Cheng Yu's commotion.

“Smell these things,” Cheng Yu said, pointing to the strange objects. “The smell on them is... utterly disgusting!”

Aolian also picked up an item and smelled it, her brows furrowing deeply. "This smell...it's really strange, and very familiar; it seems I've smelled it somewhere before..."

“Right? I think it looks familiar too!” Cheng Yu said. “I smelled a similar odor in that tribe before, but the smell here is stronger and more disgusting!”

"A tribe?" Aolian asked疑惑地, "What tribe?"

"Oh, it's the tribe I told you about before, the one where I lived for a while," Cheng Yu said casually. "I found some strange things there, and it had this strange smell."

“These things…could they have been left behind by some kind of creature?” Aolian wondered.

“Very likely,” Cheng Yu said. “And judging from the intensity of the smell, the creature that left these things must have been quite large, and… they seem to have engaged in some kind of… um… very intense activity here.”

"Intense activities?" Aolian was even more puzzled.

"Um, it's that kind of... that kind of..." Cheng Yu stammered for a long time, unable to bring himself to say it.

"That kind?" Aolian tilted her head, looking completely bewildered.

"Well... never mind, you wouldn't understand even if I told you." Cheng Yu gave up on explaining. "Anyway, these things are definitely not good, so let's just leave them alone."

"Hmm." Aolian nodded. "Let's continue looking for anything else."

So the two continued searching the warehouse. However, apart from the strange, foul-smelling items, they found nothing of value.

"It seems there's nothing special here," Cheng Yu said. "Let's go check out other places."

“Okay,” Aolian replied.

The two walked out of the warehouse and met up with Bai Yu.

"Have you made any discoveries over there?" Bai Yu asked.

"No, there's nothing there except some strange, foul-smelling objects," Cheng Yu said.

"A foul-smelling object?" Bai Yu was taken aback. "What kind of object?"

Cheng Yu described their findings in the warehouse.

"This..." Bai Yu fell into deep thought after listening. "These things do sound very suspicious. And this stench... I think I've smelled it before."

"You smelled it too?" Cheng Yu and Ao Lian asked in unison.

“Yes.” Bai Yu nodded. “I smelled a similar scent on my way here, but I didn’t pay attention to it at the time. Now it seems that this scent is very likely related to the secret of this place.”

"So what do we do now?" Cheng Yu asked.

“Let’s keep searching and see if we can find any more clues related to this smell,” Bai Yu said. “This smell is so strong, and it has survived for so long, it must be extraordinary. Perhaps it is the key to solving the mystery of this place.”

“Okay, let’s keep looking!” Cheng Yu said.

So the three of them split up again, continuing their search through the mysterious ancient architectural complex. They moved among the ruins, carefully examining every corner, hoping to find more clues about the mysterious stench. And that faint, persistent stench lingered around them, as if guiding them, or perhaps warning them…

The group searched the surrounding buildings carefully, gathering all the items they found together. However, when these items were piled up, an even stronger and more nauseating stench erupted, almost knocking them unconscious.

Without exception, these items were all strangely shaped and ambiguous objects. Some resembled organs of some kind of creature, others looked like instruments of torture, and still others were completely unidentifiable in their purpose. But regardless of their type, they all exuded a strong sense of lewdness, making people feel uncomfortable at first glance.

"What...what are all these things...?" Cheng Yu covered his nose, looking at the mountain of "high-end adult products" with disgust. "This smell...it's worse than swill!"

Aolian frowned deeply, fanning her nose with her hand to try and dispel the stench. "These things...don't even look like normal things..."

"Are you sure these things can help us find clues?" Cheng Yu turned to look at Bai Yu, his tone full of doubt. "Why do I feel like these things are more like remnants of some kind of... um... perverted rave party?"

“This…” Bai Yu was also a little unsure. He scratched his head. “Logically speaking, these items should have some information left on them, which might help us understand what happened here. But… this smell is really… intoxicating.”

He took a deep breath, forcing himself to endure the stench, and encouraged himself, "No matter what, let's give it a try. I'll use time magic to go back in time to these items and see if I can find anything."

As he spoke, Bai Yu closed his eyes and began chanting a spell. His hands traced mysterious trajectories in the air, and a faint magical fluctuation emanated from his body, gradually enveloping the mountain of items.

As Bai Yu infused his magic, the objects began to tremble slightly, and a faint halo appeared on their surfaces. Then, blurry images began to flash within the halo, like old film reels playing intermittently.

These images flashed before the group like a revolving lantern. In them, countless wolf-beastmen, black and white dragon-beastmen, regardless of sex or gender, seemed to be engaged in a depraved ritual. The scene was one of lewdness, with mutilated corpses scattered in the distance. Blood stained the ground red, and the air was thick with the stench of blood and a decadent atmosphere.

"Ugh..." Cheng Yu couldn't hold it in any longer and covered his mouth, running to the side to dry heave.

Although Ao Lian didn't vomit like Cheng Yu, her face turned deathly pale, and she tightly closed her eyes, unable to bear looking at those images anymore.

Seeing this, Bai Yu quickly reached out and pulled Cheng Yu and Ao Lian into his arms, using his body to block their view. "Don't look, these scenes... are too... too..."

He wanted to say "disgusting," "bloody," and "too offensive," but couldn't find the right words to describe it. He was also shocked by the images, standing there stunned for a while before he came to his senses and quickly covered his eyes.

These images are just too...too shocking!

"What...what exactly happened here..." Bai Yu muttered to himself, "What...what happened here..."

From these fragmented images, Bai Yu managed to piece together some information. Long ago, this tribe had suffered a horrific massacre, and the perpetrator of this massacre seemed to be... an extremely powerful werewolf.

This werewolf seems to possess some kind of ability to manipulate people's minds, capable of igniting their deepest, most primal desires, driving them mad and causing them to kill each other. In the images, many people can be seen with bloodshot eyes, appearing insane, frantically mating or attacking everyone around them, regardless of age, gender, or whether they know them or not; all become objects of their bestial lust.

The werewolf stood on high up, coldly watching everything, a strange smile on his face.

Finally, the werewolf seemed to join in the frenzied revelry, mating wildly with many others amidst corpses and blood, a scene that was extremely bloody and lewd.

However, at that moment, the image suddenly cut off, leaving only a blurry blur of light and shadow.

“It seems that these items alone are not enough to trace back the complete past.” Bai Yu sighed and stopped the magic. “Although that werewolf was eventually killed, there seem to be some other hidden secrets. We must find other clues.”

“Other clues…” Cheng Yu said weakly, “You mean… that statue?”

“Yes.” Bai Yu nodded. “That statue seems to be the key to this place, and we must find a way to repair it.”

“But the statue is already so broken, how can it be repaired?” Cheng Yu said.

“I don’t know either.” Bai Yu shook his head. “But we have to try. Perhaps only by repairing that statue can we completely unravel the mystery of this place, find out what really happened here, and find a way to leave.”

"Alright..." Cheng Yu said helplessly, "So what do we do next?"

“Let’s take a break first,” Bai Yu said. “Using time magic continuously has almost depleted my mana. Once I’ve recovered some mana, we can figure out how to repair the statue.”

"Mm." Cheng Yu and Ao Lian nodded.

So the three of them found a relatively clean spot and sat down to rest. The nauseating stench still lingered, but they were too exhausted to care. All they wanted now was to get some rest and leave this awful place as soon as possible.