C208 You All Look Delicious!
Zanas gazed into the miasma-filled air, his face ashen.
Within the miasma, thousands of flies buzzed and screeched, seemingly struggling desperately to escape the toxic cloud.
The colorful miasma had become like sticky glue, adhering to each fly.
All that could be heard was the incessant buzzing; not a single fly could break free from the miasma.
The strongest of these flies were nurtured by Zanas with his lifeblood. As their leader, this formidable fly had recruited swarms of its kin in the Serpent Spine Mountains and across many regions of Aetherius.
Zanas regarded these thousands of flies as his ace in the hole, a means to intimidate the Sacred Hands.
Yet now, through the bond of vitality and the faint remnant souls of a few powerful flies, Zanas received news that left him stunned.
The flies were perishing en masse!
More precisely, a multitude of flies were being devoured by something anomalous within the miasma!
"Chi! Chi!"
Zanas bit his fingertip, and a droplet of crimson blood, clear and glistening like a ruby, emerged.
He pressed this droplet firmly onto his forehead.
A burst of bloody radiance suddenly erupted from his brow.
Bloodlines interwove, forming an intricate and sinister rune resembling a scarlet face with a grotesque smile.
Suddenly, in Zanas's Mindscape, pale green, deep red, and azure points of light flickered into existence.
There were eight peculiar light spots in total.
Each one corresponded to an Alien Bug, each far more formidable than an ordinary fly, nourished by his lifeblood.
"Only eight!"
Zanas's face contorted with alarm, his temples throbbing as if quivering.
Initially, after employing the mystique of the Binders of Shadows, he could discern twelve corresponding light spots in his Mindscape.
Now, with only eight remaining, it implied...
"Master!"
Before he could examine them further, Zanas was jolted by a terrified scream. He abruptly ceased the mystique and turned his attention to the swamp, where one of his hand-chosen disciples was in distress.
This disciple, who possessed the cultivation of the Veil Breaking Stage and brimmed with vitality, had a jade pendant hanging from his middle elixir field—a pendant gifted by Zanas. The pendant, shaped like a dark red tiger's head, contained a resplendent blood cloud within, from which wisps of vapor continuously streamed into the disciple's elixir field.
The Tiger Head Jade Pendant was an artifact designed to nourish vitality and bolster the middle elixir field.
At that moment, the pendant radiated a dazzling red glow.
Within the eerie light of the pendant, a blood cloud took the form of a fearsome, blood-drenched red tiger with expansive wings unfurled like serrated blades, seemingly ready to leap forth.
"Hu!"
Suddenly, the essence and spirit of a two-winged red tiger burst forth from the pendant!
Even more astonishing, as the red tiger's spirit and essence soared away, the middle elixir field of Zanas's hand-chosen disciple opened like floodgates, releasing a torrent of rich vitality.
In an instant, the disciple collapsed, life force drained, reduced to a limp husk devoid of flesh and bone.
He perished abruptly, overcome with fury.
"Little Li!"
Zanas cried out in agony, watching helplessly as the spirit of the red tiger, carrying his disciple's life essence, merged into the miasma cloud overhead.
Countless flies buzzed with excitement, feasting on the fresh essence rising from below.
Yet, Zanas sensed with dread that two of the mightiest Alien Bugs had inexplicably vanished in mere moments.
"Ah!"
The remaining two hand-chosen disciples, a man and a woman, looked up, clutching their throats, faces flushed with redness.
"Crack!"
Their cranial plates seemed to have been levered open.
In an instant, two brilliant red columns of light burst from their crowns, swiftly absorbed by the miasma.
In just a short while, all three hand-chosen disciples lay dead.
Within the miasma cloud, new flies seemed to undergo a metamorphosis, rebirthed, while others were rapidly spawned by the rich vitality essence.
Some flies engaged in a deadly struggle, cannibalizing each other.
The flies nurtured by Zanas's own blood and bound to him by a tenuous spiritual link perished one after another.
A presence that chilled Zanas to the core began to stir silently within the miasma cloud.
As a cultivator of the Binders of Shadows, with an innate keenness for sensing all manner of venomous insects and oddities, Zanas instinctively knew that a formidable entity lurked in the depths of the miasma cloud.
After the demise of his three hand-chosen disciples, Zanas refrained from charging in for vengeance.
He wavered briefly, clenched his jaw, and then dispersed his remnant soul.
The remnant soul flowed outwards, seeping into the surroundings like water.
His eyes brightened abruptly.
A cold and cruel smile curved the corners of his mouth as he effortlessly ascended.
He glided directly towards Yu Yuan, Bai Shenshen, and the herbalists from various nations.
As he advanced, the vibrant miasma clouds, teeming with flies, seemed to possess a mind of their own, trailing behind him.
He glanced back periodically, and upon confirming that the miasma was indeed following, his icy smile grew even more merciless.
...
"Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!"
As Yu Yuan conversed with Bai Shenshen and observed the multitude of young herbalists from Aetherius, it felt as if swarms of flies were buzzing incessantly in his head.
"Psicrystal! Where did you obtain that? You actually possess a Psicrystal!"
"Kid, are you also here for the herbalist's Land of Trials? Your robe isn't the standard attire for herbalists, and there's no emblem on your chest! Is this your first time?"
"Brother, where did you acquire your Psicrystal?"
"You're quite good-looking and seem young. Hehe, your big sister here can look after you."
The cluster of young men and women that had surrounded them hailed from the great empires of Aetherius. The families they came from, and the powers backing them, were comparable to the Su family, if not greater.
They swarmed in, and upon seeing Yu Yuan and Bai Shenshen standing together in a daze, they began to chatter excitedly.
Only Liu Zaihe, the aloof young man from the Sunblessed Empire named by Bai Shenshen, stood at a distance, observing them with a discerning eye.
"This is bad."
Yu Yuan jolted as though he had been abruptly roused from a nightmare.
He turned to Bai Shenshen and commanded, "Take everyone back to the Sacred Hands Sect immediately!"
Bai Shenshen, taken aback, asked, "What?"
"A member of the Binders of Shadows has ushered in a disaster," Yu Yuan explained urgently.
After more than three hundred years, the contingency he had buried had long since missed its intended moment.
He had calculated that, after taking the Rebirth Pill, he would be reborn within ten years—at most, thirty years—and then he could retrieve what he had hidden.
He never anticipated that, after being betrayed by his senior brother, his rebirth would be delayed by nearly three hundred years.
Three hundred years. By now, that thing had likely grown to a terrifying extent.
He wasn't even sure if he could tame it after three hundred years, suppress its wild ambitions, and force it to recognize him as its master.
"What are you talking about?" Bai Shenshen asked, clearly bewildered.
“Ladies and gentlemen, future herbalists of the Everlands, my name is Zanas, from the Binders of Shadows.”
A sinister laugh, brimming with malice, suddenly echoed from a distance. Before anyone could gather their thoughts, Zanas glided in, landing before Bai Shenshen and Yu Yuan.
He greeted everyone with a slight bow, then his gaze settled on Bai Shenshen. “Are you with the Sacred Hands?”
Bai Shenshen replied with a stern expression, “Senior, I’ve been observing you and your disciple for quite some time.”
“Heh, I'm aware of you,” Zanas acknowledged with a nod, seemingly unfazed. He turned his smile to the young men and women, eyeing them as if they were delectable treats. “You all seem rather appetizing. That thing would probably take a liking to you.”
His words left everyone, Bai Shenshen included, in a state of confusion.
They couldn't grasp his meaning.
Only Yu Yuan was on edge, his spirit tense and his heart filled with trepidation, without a shred of certainty.
"It's been far too long."
