Chapter 37
The moment the girl's figure was completely swallowed by the mist, Yan Bujian froze in place, his pupils suddenly shrinking into needles.
The residual force of the kick just now still remained in his shoulder, bringing a slight pain, which intertwined with the sword wound on his shoulder that he had left in the empty mist, forming an absurd and sharp pain -
She actually kicked him away at the critical moment of life and death?
Why did the evil woman who whipped and tortured him in the dungeon and personally forced him to drink the Ten Thousand Insects Lure, the enemy who clearly wanted to toy with him to death, try to win a chance of survival for him before her own life ended?
Countless question marks were entangled in his mind like a tangled mess, making him almost forget to breathe.
The moment before the girl disappeared into the mist, blood still flowed from her chest. The sword he had pierced with his own hands still lingered in her heart. He clearly remembered the confusion and disbelief in her eyes at that time. That scene shattered into sharp fragments at this moment, piercing his heart with unbearable pain.
"Cough..." Yan Bujian coughed violently as intense pain shot through his limbs and bones, a stream of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. He struggled to get up, but his legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead. He took only half a step before collapsing to the ground.
The rough stone scratched his palm, but he was completely unaware. He just supported himself on the ground with his elbows, his eyes fixed on the direction where Lin Yibai disappeared, with resentment and confusion surging in his eyes.
At this moment, as if the heavens had sensed his request, a gust of wind suddenly swept in without warning, like an invisible giant hand, forcibly tearing a crack in the thick blood-red fog before him. Where the fog dissipated, a horrifying scene suddenly appeared:
A massive iron pot, nearly two men tall, sat atop a black stone stove. A faint green will-o'-the-wisp flame burned beneath it, and within it swirled a thick, dark green liquid, emitting a sickening, fishy-sweet odor. Lin Yibai's face was as pale as paper, her eyes tightly closed. Like a broken rag doll, she slumped limply over the pot. Blood still gushed from the wound in her chest, saturating the ground beneath her in a deep crimson.
Standing next to the pot was the demon that had only revealed one hand a moment ago—it stood over three feet tall, its body covered in dark scales as rough as old tree bark. A sticky yellow mucus oozed from the cracks between the scales, corroding small pits wherever it touched the ground. Its misshapen head held a single, cloudy eye. Whenever it glanced at Lin Yibai lying on the ground, its mouth cracked to the roots of its ears, revealing two rows of jagged fangs, its greed evident.
In his hand was a shiny, gray butcher knife with a blade covered in tiny notches. It was being polished repeatedly, making a harsh scraping sound.
There were dozens of fist-sized monsters surrounding the pot at its feet. They had spider-like legs but children's faces on their upper bodies. Their eyes were greedy and vicious. They were circling around Lin Yibai's body, and the saliva from their mouths gathered into small puddles on the ground. They made a "gurgling" swallowing sound, and it was obvious that they were also salivating over this "delicacy".
"No..." Yan Bujian's eyes trembled, and then a broken murmur came out of his throat.
Normally, this evil woman would be punished for her evil deeds, and only by dying at the hands of the demonic knife could he relieve the hatred in his heart. However, at this moment, looking at the cold light reflected by the slicing knife, he felt an unprecedented panic:
He couldn't let her die like this.
——At least before finding out why she saved herself, she must not be allowed to die!
Once the thought took hold, it grew like wild weeds. Yan Bujian used all his strength to prop up his upper body, his knees slamming heavily against the gravel. He dragged his wounded body towards the pot with difficulty. The sharp stones scratched his palms, leaving a bloody mess. The wounds on his shoulders and arms split open again from the force, leaving long trails of blood on the ground. But he didn't pause, his eyes fixed on the slender figure lying in a pool of blood.
But God seemed unwilling to give her this opportunity.
Just when he was only five feet away from the girl, the troll finally sharpened the slicing knife. He let out a foolish, sinister grin, his single eye flashing a red light of excitement. Then he suddenly raised the gray slicing knife high in the air, the blade gleaming coldly in the will-o'-the-wisp light. The next moment, he slashed fiercely at the defenseless girl lying on the ground!
"-- No!"
Yan Bujian's roar was like the cry of a trapped beast, hoarse and desperate. There was no longer the coldness and alienation in his voice as before, only extreme panic and unwillingness, and a surging tide of emotions that he himself had not even noticed.
But the demon turned a deaf ear to it and swung his knife without stopping. The knife fell with a sharp whistle, and it was about to split Lin Yibai's body in half.
At this critical moment, a jet-black demonic energy suddenly burst forth from the deepest depths of the dense fog! The demonic energy, condensed as a substance, yet possessed the agility of a snake. It broke through the air without stirring up even a single draft, leaving behind only a fleeting black shadow that instantly entangled the troll's knife-wielding wrist!
The troll's blade swing froze in mid-air, its cloudy single eye suddenly narrowing, a flicker of bewilderment and confusion crossing its face. It clearly didn't understand the origin of this demonic energy, much less why it was targeted. Heavy gasps escaped its fang-riddled mouth, carrying a strong, fishy stench. Just as it was about to raise its other giant hand to tear at the demonic energy wrapped around its wrist, the black energy suddenly erupted with astonishing force!
“Crack!”
A sharp bone-crackling sound erupted in the deadly fog, like a dead branch being snapped. The troll's wrist suddenly twisted at an unnatural angle, its black scales peeling away as it twisted, revealing the pale bone and sticky flesh beneath. The slicing knife then shifted direction, flashing like lightning as it slashed straight at its own chest!
"roar--!!!"
The troll let out a roar of pain that shook the mist. Its single eye bulged almost out of its socket, and dark green blood instantly gushed out from the wound, splattering all over the ground. It twisted its body desperately, trying to break free from the demonic energy's control, but the black energy seemed to be stuck to its wrist bones, holding on tightly, even splitting into several strands that penetrated its meridians through the wound, frantically devouring its demonic power.
What was even more bizarre was that the controlled hand showed no intention of stopping at all.
Under the control of the evil spirit, it suddenly pulled the butcher knife out of its chest. Broken internal organs and dark green blood foam were still hanging on the blade, and it chopped down its neck, torso, and limbs mercilessly!
“Puff!”
The dull thud of the blade slicing through flesh and the crisp snap of bone echoed alternately, each blow cutting deep enough to reveal bone. Scales and fragments of the troll rained down like raindrops. A scaly arm was the first to be severed, slamming heavily onto the iron pot with a resounding clang, sending the dark green liquid inside splattering high.
The troll's one eye quickly lost its luster, leaving only extreme despair and pain. Its huge body was on the verge of collapsing from the constant self-mutilation, but it was fixed in place by the demonic energy, not even having the chance to fall to the ground.
The little monsters surrounding Lin Yibai were already scared out of their wits. Some of them wanted to go back into the fog, but were hit by the flying flesh and instantly turned into a pool of pus; others collapsed on the ground, trembling, and didn't even have the strength to escape.
In a matter of seconds, the troll, so insolent upon its first appearance, was chopped to pieces by the knife in his hand. Flesh and entrails rained down like a torrential rain, forming a foul-smelling mountain of flesh before Yan Bujian. Dark green blood flowed through the cracks of the flesh mountain, forming a winding stream on the ground. The stench of blood nearly distorted the surrounding mist.
Yan Bujian looked at the extremely bloody scene in front of him, and his stomach churned; and Xiao Mi, who had been hiding behind a rock and wanted to take revenge on Yan Bujian in the chaos, could no longer hold back and vomited violently while holding a rock.
However, at this moment, a ray of black suddenly emerged from the mountain of flesh - it was the evil energy that had just controlled the troll.
It still crawled on the ground like a snake, but this time, it attacked towards where Yan Bujian was!
Yan Bujian was well aware of the strangeness of this demonic energy. Seeing this, his eyes froze, and the sword-shaped birthmark at the corner of his eye suddenly lit up with a crimson glow. Driven by his life-or-death instinct, his already depleted spiritual energy surged frantically, flowing with difficulty along his ruptured meridians, and finally condensed into a faint but extremely sharp sword energy at his fingertips. Even though he was seriously injured and unable to support himself, he still stared at the demonic energy, ready to deliver the final blow with all his strength.
——But he didn't expect that the evil spirit would suddenly make a sharp turn and rush towards the young man behind him at the moment it was about to touch him!
Xiao Mi was still immersed in the shock of the blood and flesh flying everywhere, vomiting and choking on his tears, completely unaware of the shadow of death approaching. It was not until the cold demonic energy wrapped around his limbs like chains, the biting chill penetrating his skin into his bones, that he realized something was wrong and struggled violently.
But the evil spirit was getting tighter and tighter, like iron shackles, binding his body tightly. No matter how he twisted, kicked, or hit, he could only make muffled "wuwu" sounds in vain, and couldn't break free even a little bit.
Just when Xiao Mi was in despair, the sound of faint footsteps suddenly came from the depths of the thick fog.
“Tick, tick, tick…”
The steps were light, yet carried an inexplicable sense of oppression. As the voice approached, a pink figure slowly emerged from the diffuse blood-red mist.
The woman had a graceful figure, and her pink dress looked particularly dazzling in the bloody smell. Her face was extremely beautiful, and it was Su Ruo.
But at this moment, her face no longer had the calmness and self-control of the past - her eyes, which were once lively, were now pitch black, without any pupils or spirit to be seen. They were like two bottomless ancient wells, revealing a heart-pounding weirdness.
Her eyes were fixed on Xiao Mi, who was bound by the evil spirit. The corners of her mouth slowly curled up into an almost insane and smug smile. The smile spread along her cheeks, and even the corners of her eyes were stained with morbid excitement.
After a long while, she slowly spoke, her voice strangely hoarse, like sandpaper rubbing against each other, echoing in the silent fog.
"A hundred years have passed, I should finally win once, right... Lord Demon?"
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