2025-08-06 21:00:10However, the fervor on Viridian's face instantly cooled, turning into a bottomless indifference.
His past life of being treated like a dog by the client taught him that the bigger the cake promised, the deeper the trap.
"Essence of Evil?"
He no longer paid attention to the clamor behind the wall; like a gecko, he silently pressed himself against the cold, damp stone.
Deep in Viridian's eyes, a cluster of crimson flames suddenly burst open.
Ear pressed flat against the rock.
"Can it double my power again?"
The man behind the wall, called Grib, keenly picked up on the subtle shift in Veridian's aura, as if clutching at a lifeline; his tone instantly turned fervent and obsequious.
"Yes, my lord! Absolutely true! 'Butcher' Wugu is a madman—he can boil down the wailing souls and flesh of sinners into a kind of paste-like 'essence'!"
"Just a tiny piece can spawn a monster! His ten years of stockpiled material would be enough to make you the king of the entire underworld!"
The man's voice was full of seduction.
[Ding! You are focusing intently; passive skill [Advanced Hearing] proficiency +1...]
With his extraordinary hearing in effect, the barrier of the wall dropped to almost nothing.
He heard it.
Two heartbeats.
One belonged to a woman: urgent, disordered, yet containing a faint but stubborn rhythm, like a guttering candle in the wind, stubbornly unextinguished.
The other belonged to Grib: agitated, greedy, and with a nonhuman stickiness to it.
Viridian could even hear, in the throb of that heartbeat, a nauseating "rustle" of mycelium crawling through flesh.
Lies.
A cold, mocking curl slowly lifted the corner of Viridian's mouth.
What bullshit "Spore Guardian" — this guy is a monster himself.
One perpetrator, one victim.
Lock them together and, like an alchemical reaction, they’ll keep producing the most efficient kinds of "evil."
A clever move — killing two birds with one stone.
This butcher Wu Gu, whom he'd never met, turned out to be someone who valued efficiency.
But now...
Viridian slowly opened his eyes, and the world before him was already different.
The two people behind the wall were no longer "prisoners" or "intelligence sources" in his eyes.
They were "resources."
Perfect "experience babies" that produced "blood of sin" and "proficiency."
Rescue them?
No.
A smile split Viridian's mouth—so utterly delighted it was, yet so cold it sent shivers down the spine.
Why save?
This "first sin feeding pool" that the butcher Wugu had painstakingly constructed was practically tailor-made for him, the perfect "sanctuary for secluded cultivation"!
What he wanted was not redemption.
What he wanted was—takeover!
"Hey, mushroom-face behind the wall."
Viridian straightened, his voice regaining that lofty, aristocratic elegance and indifference of the upper-blooded, "Your intelligence has piqued a very insignificant bit of my interest."
"Sir! You're willing to save me?" Grib's voice was full of delirious joy.
"Save you?" Viridian laughed lightly, that laugh laced with unmasked contempt. "No, I'm here to give you a chance — a chance to prove to me that you still have a last bit of usefulness."
He walked to the center of the cell, kicked open a rotten wooden box, and pulled out a rusted iron chain.
"Listen, on the other side of the wall there's another 'Butcher' watchdog."
Viridian's voice, like the whisper of a devil, entered clearly into the ears of the two people behind the wall.
"Wait a moment, I will open this door."
"You—whoever, between you and that watchdog, can bring the other's head to me will become my humble servant, guiding me to the lair of the 'Butcher.'"
"As for the other, he will be the first meal for my servant."
"Now..."
Viridian's gaze swept over the mercenary corpse he had just drained, and a more perfect "parasite-breeding" plan formed in an instant.
He dragged the desiccated body to the alchemical gate, then slowly raised the hunter's crossbow in his hand.
Whoosh!
The bolt struck precisely through the dried corpse's heart, pinning it fast to the gate.
"Game, start!"
The moment the words fell, he yanked the control lever down with a snap!
"Kah—krrr—rumble—!!!"
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the heavy stone wall that separated the two cells began to slowly rise!
The ecstasy on Grib’s face froze in an instant.
What he saw was not the dawn of freedom, but the corpse of a comrade horribly nailed to the door! And behind the body, standing in the shadows, a pale nobleman with a devilish smile held a blood-dripping hand crossbow!
Beside Grib, the woman he had always treated like a toy now stared at him with a look that measured the dead, cold and unflinching.
"Roar!"
Grib understood Veridian’s intention in an instant: this was meant to make them slaughter one another!
He let out a beastly roar; the mushroom on one side of his face suddenly exploded, spewing forth vast clouds of multicolored spore-poison mist that lunged toward the woman!
He needed to take out the weakest one first, then think about how to deal with the devils outside the gate!
But the woman, faced with the lethal toxic mist, did not dodge at all; instead she uttered a piercing shriek of utter anguish!
"Ah—!!!"
The invisible sound wave spread in an instant, and it actually blew those poisonous mists back upon themselves!
Gribb staggered backward, coughing from his own poison, his eyes full of disbelief.
This "feed" he had tormented countless times actually hid this kind of power!
Now!
Data streams flashed wildly in Viridian's eyes as he raised the crossbow in his hand once more.
Whiz! Whiz! Whiz!
Three crossbow bolts formed a triangle as they tore through the air—not aimed at any of them, but precisely striking the ground at their feet, sending up three splashes!
This was a warning!
And an urging!
Gleeb and the woman shuddered at the same time, instantly understanding the true rule of this "game"—performance!
They had to use the most brutal, bloodiest slaughter to please the demon outside the door!
"You bastard! I'll tear you apart!"
Gleeb went utterly mad; the mycelial filaments on his body surged, and like a humanoid monster he lunged forward again!
A flash of resolve crossed the woman's eyes. She picked up a stone from the ground and, defying death, charged forward!
For a moment, the cramped cell filled with the dull thuds of fist meeting flesh, shrill cries of pain, and bestial roars—woven together into the most primitive, blood-soaked symphony!
Viridian watched it all with an impassive expression. On the pale blue panel before him, the data refreshed like a waterfall!
[Warning! High concentration of "Sin" detected being generated!]
[Sin types: Tyranny (Level 5), Hatred (Level 5), Harm (Level 6)...]
[Notice: This area is a place long soaked in "sin." You are currently within "sin radiation." All skill proficiency gain speed +20%!]
Viridian greedily inhaled the thick scent of "sin" in the air.
The feeling was exquisite!
The fight was soon decided.
The woman finally ran out of strength. Grib landed a punch square on her chest; she flew backward, slammed into the wall, and spat a mouthful of blood.
Grib grinned viciously, advancing step by step, ready to take her head to trade for a chance to live.
Just as his hand was about to touch the woman's throat.
Whoosh—!
A sound of air being split rang out suddenly!
A crossbow bolt, like a viper, struck true and pierced the wrist of Grib's raised right hand!
"Ah!"
Grib let out a miserable cry and looked toward the doorway in disbelief.
Viridian stepped slowly out of the shadows, a hint of playful, icy amusement on his face.
"Sorry, your performance was simply too dull."
"Now, let's change the script."
He glanced at the woman collapsed on the ground, barely clinging to life, then looked at Grib, clutching his wrist, eyes wide with terror.
"He is yours now."
Viridian's words stunned Grib.
The woman who had fallen to the ground, however, suddenly erupted with an incomparable light in her eyes. She looked at Grib, her face breaking into a grimace that mixed relief with the thrill of revenge.
The next second, summoning the last of her strength, she lunged forward, opened her mouth, and bit down fiercely on Grib's throat!
Grieb didn't even have time to scream; in a convulsion, his life rapidly drained away.
[Ding! Your "Raising the Gu" plan succeeded, the target was induced to complete the kill, [Spirit] permanently +0.1, [Plotting] skill unlocked!]
Viridian nodded in satisfaction.
This is profit maximization.
He stepped forward, toward the woman drenched in blood, hunched over a corpse and gasping for breath.
He intended to keep his "promise" — to make the victor his servant.
But just as he drew near.
The woman slowly lifted her head.
Her face was smeared with Grib's fungus-tinged gore, and her eyes shone terrifyingly in the dark.
She looked at Viridian and pulled her mouth back into a strange, spine-chilling smile.
In a voice hoarse to the extreme yet edged with a hint of innocent curiosity, she whispered:
"Are you here for the 'buffet' too?"
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 150
“Ashen Council…”Lilith mouthed the unfamiliar name, her pulse tightening like a drawn wire.Gaia’s last whisper still echoed through the bridge—its ancient presence fading, leaving behind a silence vast enough to drown a galaxy.“Thank you.”The words came not through speakers but directly into their minds, faint as dying starlight. Gaia’s final thought watched the quiet void now freed of the swarm’s madness, where only the distant suns still burned in mute witness.Veridian did not answer. A promise was a promise. The transaction was complete.He lifted his hand. At his fingertip coiled a wisp of purest Termination—not energy, not light, but the embodied concept of an ending, the point where even “protection” itself ceased to exist.He touched the void.The power leapt forth, silent as breath, striking the fading core of Gaia’s consciousne
Chapter 149
The ancient voice echoed through the mental link, carrying with it a weariness that seemed to have endured across countless ages.Veridian’s will did not waver in the slightest. He didn’t even answer the question—instead, he asked in return, his tone as cold as the vacuum between stars.“You—or rather, you all—where do you come from?”Lilith stood beside him, lips pressed tightly together as she tried to process what had just happened.The Heart of the Swarm was not a chaotic beast—it was rational. That realization frightened her more than facing the swarm itself.The voice was silent for a moment, as though struggling to find words—or perhaps recalling a memory buried too deep in the abyss of time.“I… I am called Gaia. I am not a being of this universe.”As it spoke, torrents of vast information flooded directly into Veridian’s an
Chapter 148
“Talk?”Lilith’s voice quavered; the word itself seemed absurd, trembling as it left her lips. Talk—with that? With the Hive Mind that had just vomited out a moon-sized abomination?Veridian didn’t answer her question. He simply acted.“Nexus,” he commanded, calm and measured, “activate the Genesis Engine. Engage phase-walking protocol. Target: the Heart of the Hive.”The Expedition’s engines made no sound.Instead of roaring to life, the vessel grew still—eerily still. Then its massive hull began to blur, edges dissolving like ink in water. A shimmer rippled through its frame, and in the next heartbeat, the warship became translucent, a phantom adrift between realities.And then, the ghost ship plunged straight into the crimson nebula of living flesh.Lilith’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. She could <
Chapter 147
“The core… it sees us!”Lilith’s voice trembled—a terror older than reason, born from the marrow of life itself.Veridian’s gaze did not linger on the starmap for even a heartbeat.That colossal eye spanning the heavens, brimming with cold malice, stirred nothing within him.“No,” he said evenly, as though reciting a law of physics. “It doesn’t see us.”Lilith turned toward him, confused. Beyond the viewport, the red tide of the swarm was rising—a galactic tsunami of flesh and chitin surging from every direction toward the Expedition.The sheer magnitude of it crushed the mind; despair built not from power, but from numbers beyond comprehension.“But they—”“It only senses the void,” Veridian interrupted, his tone calm, almost patient.“I’ve cut the Expedition from the inf
Chapter 146
The Expedition tore through the fabric of space, completing its jump.Outside the bridge viewport, the cold, infinite darkness of the void was gone—replaced by a vast nebula of flesh and sinew, dark crimson and pulsating, like the entrails of some cosmic beast.Viscous clouds churned and bled with motion; within them, billions of glimmering motes flickered like fireflies in blood—each a living Zerg organism.The sheer scale of the nebula dwarfed entire star systems.Lilith’s stomach lurched. A wave of nausea rose from the primal depths of her biology—an instinctive revulsion born of life itself recoiling from its antithesis.“Expedition, enter stealth mode. Begin data acquisition.”Veridian’s voice was calm as still water, cutting through the dead silence of the bridge.Optical camouflage engaged instantly; the warship’s presence was erased from the physical spectrum.
CHAPTER 145
The pain that pierced Veridian’s soul came swiftly—and vanished just as quickly—but it left behind a trace he could not ignore.His expression darkened slightly as his consciousness sank into the core of his being.There lay the perfect loop of law-runes, a luminous circle woven from pure order. It was the foundation of his power, the symbol of his existence, the embodiment of the “Absolute Order” he had built himself upon. Yet now, on that immaculate ring, a flaw had appeared.At the node that governed the concept of “Void,” a microscopic breach had opened—a gap smaller than a grain of dust, but vast in meaning.From it emanated a faint wisp of Chaos, clinging there like a line of corrupted code deep within the logic of his soul—an anomaly that defied identification, coexisting alongside his own law of the Void.Veridian immediately summoned the silvery Primordial power he had just used to clea
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