Kars didn’t dare to look up, the scales on the back of his neck trembling with fear. He said, "Yes, they... they were salvaged from the mountain flood... the corpses of Wild Beasts and Beastn..."
"Beastman corpses?" Evangeline raised an eyebrow.
’The Blackwater Tribe really is a lawless place. They’ll do anything, not even sparing the bodies of other Beastn.’
"It... it was my subordinates. They didn’t know any better. They were starving..." Kars replied cautiously.
Nix gently set Evangeline down on a pile of bones in the swamp, pressing the serrated vine umbrella he was holding into her palm. He then turned to Kars and said in a low voice, "Bring the plague-ridden corpse."
Kars didn’t dare to delay. With a wave of his hand, two Beastn carried over a corpse wrapped in reeds.
Standing on the pile of bones, Evangeline glanced down. Only two or three days had passed since the flood, yet the corpse was already horrifically shriveled. Its eye sockets were sunken, and it was little more than skin and bones, as if it had been devoured by sothing.
Nix’s violet eyes were filled with a deathly, cold glint. His fingers clenched into a fist, and vines shot out, wrapping around the corpse’s chest. With a muffled SQUELCH, they precisely gouged out a Beast Crystal.
The serrations on the vines greedily ground the Beast Crystal to pieces, devouring it with a sickening, crunching sound.
Evangeline stared at Nix’s tall, straight back, her rose-colored lips pressing into a thin line.
’So this is the power of a Plant Beastman, a one-in-a-million existence. They’re not bound by the Beast God Law. They can devour Beast Crystals without becoming Fallen Beastn.’
’No wonder Nix, this secondary personality, had advanced with such unstoppable force, reaching the Nine-star Extre Realm in just a few short months.’
As the Beast Crystal shattered, Kars’s face grew even paler, and he bowed his head lower.
The mont the Beast Crystal was removed, the corpse began to shrivel at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Imdiately after, strange bulges erupted beneath the corpse’s skin, as if living things were squirming and crawling underneath. They pushed the paper-thin flesh into a series of ripples, creating a bizarre sight.
Nix tilted his head, and his vines shot out, piercing the squirming ripples.
"SPLAT—"
The corpse’s torso abruptly burst open. A fist-sized insect erupted from within, its ring-like maw lined with fine fangs dripping a foul-slling sli. The flesh inside the body had been devoured completely.
Dozens of the insects, now exposed, scattered in all directions like a receding tide. As they scurried away, their countless legs made a grating SKITTER SKITTER sound that set one’s teeth on edge.
Kars’s face went white as a sheet. Staring at the insects scrambling everywhere, he stumbled backward along with his tribesn.
They knew with chilling certainty that this was the cause of the sudden deaths in their tribe. The Beastn had been infested with these parasites, which had hollowed them out from the inside, draining them of all life.
Nix’s violet eyes blinked. He lifted a finger, and the rampaging vines ensnared all the flailing insects, dragging them back. The vicious creatures’ serrated maws snapped open and shut, splattering more of the stinking sli.
He pinched one of the insects between his pale, slender fingers. The creature imdiately began to thrash wildly.
As he examined it, the insect’s sharp maw pierced his skin. To a horrifying effect, the area around the bite turned a deathly gray and began to shrivel rapidly, like a wilting leaf.
Nix’s long lashes lowered, casting a strange shadow over his violet eyes, which were filled with a cold, deathly stillness.
Suddenly, the corner of his mouth curled into a smile. "...How interesting."
The words had barely left his lips when a pair of slender hands suddenly covered his own.
"SKREEE—" A shrill cry erupted as the insect between their fingers turned to ash, which sifted down into the muddy swamp.
When Evangeline pulled her hand away, several black scorch marks remained on Nix’s pale palm.
"You lunatic! Do you have any idea what that thing is? You just picked it up? Do you think you’re a child?"
The corners of Evangeline’s narrow eyes swept upward as she shot Nix a vicious glare, her fury practically radiating from her.
She grabbed Nix’s wrist and stared at his finger, where the decay was still spreading. Taking a deep breath, she sprinkled so dicinal powder on it, only for it to evaporate instantly, as if it had landed on scorched earth.
Nix’s finger showed no sign of improving. It continued to decay, the deathly gray color spreading like a spiderweb.
’This is Spiritual dicine! It’s filled with Spiritual Energy, and it can’t even dispel this insect’s venom?’
’The rainy season on the Beastman Continent is more dangerous than I thought. As it cos to an end, all sorts of ghouls and demons are crawling out of the woodwork.’
Nix leaned down slightly, his gaze fixed on Evangeline’s trembling eyelashes.
His violet eyes were deep pools of darkness. With his sharp-knuckled fingers, he lifted her chin with a force that brooked no resistance. "Are you scared?" he asked softly.
A cold glint flashed in Evangeline’s eyes. "I have no use for a handless cripple."
Nix suddenly let out a low chuckle. The pad of his thumb gently stroked the skin of her jaw. "Such a sharp tongue."
"Don’t be scared," Nix whispered, an unnatural light swirling in his violet eyes.
He decisively ford his fingers into a blade. A flash of purple light, and in an instant, he had cleanly severed his own slender hand at the wrist. It fell into the swamp, splashing up a spray of greenish blood.
SPLAT. A drop of cold blood landed on Evangeline’s face.
She lifted her gaze to et Nix’s deep violet eyes. A faint smile still played on his lips.
Evangeline closed her eyes, an almost inaudible sigh escaping her throat.
’He’s a complete and utter madman!’
A mont later, a wet, squelching sound ca from Nix’s severed wrist as flesh began to writhe. Nerves and blood vessels intertwined like vines, and within a few breaths, a new, slender, pale hand had already ford.
He flexed his newborn hand, his whisper laced with a chilling laugh. "Just like the old one."
Evangeline suddenly raised her hand and sent a crisp slap across Nix’s face.
Her beautiful face was grim. Without a word, she turned to the insects thrashing in the vines, her voice laced with ice. "Do you recognize this thing?"
The slap knocked Nix’s head to the side. A dark glint flashed in his violet eyes.
As his head turned, his gaze fell upon Evangeline’s pale calves, half-subrged in the mud.
He stared at that stark white skin sinking in the filth, and a flicker of indescribable irritation flashed in his violet eyes. No matter how he looked at it, the sight was... an utter eyesore.
Nix suddenly closed the distance, sweeping Evangeline into his arms without another word. He strode through the swamp, heading for the bamboo house.
Kars and the other Beastn of the Blackwater Tribe looked terrified. "High Priest—" they shrieked.
"High Priest, save us! Save the Blackwater Tribe!"
"High Priest! The Blackwater Tribe has always made offerings to you!"
"Please, High Priest! Don’t abandon us! We’ll continue to make offerings! High Priest—"
Nix didn’t turn back. He strode away, carrying Evangeline, his low, raspy voice drifting back, laced with a cruel amusent.
"Save you? There’s nothing worth saving."
"The Swarm brought by the flood is about to devour every last Beastman. You should all just wait obediently for death."
As his footsteps faded, one last sentence drifted back, tinged with a chilling laugh:
"Ah, I almost forgot. Rember... to bring the Beast Crystals from every Beastman that dies. Don’t miss a single one."
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