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A pair of scarlet beams erupted from within the flesh sac. It took them a second to realize that they were a pair of human eyes. Just like the crazed Spirit Beasts, they were unnaturally bright, crimson, and utterly devoid of emotions. Only madness and violence dwelled in those pupils.
Every hair on Zhou Hai’s body was standing on end, and it wasn’t just because of the alarm bells blaring in full force inside his head. He immediately withdrew his sword and leaped away from the strange human without a second thought.
Unfortunately, he was just a little too late. What looked like a hoof abruptly burst out of the flesh sac and struck Zhou Hai dead center in the abdomen. The kick was so swift and powerful that it shattered his protective aura in an instant and sent him flying across the air. He crashed hard in the middle of the group and rolled a few times before his momentum was finally spent.
Everyone was stunned by this turn of events to say the least.
There was a loud shredding noise as the flesh sac was ripped apart. The strange human inside it then grabbed the broken flesh walls with large, talon-like hands and pulled himself upright. His entire body was covered in some sort of sticky liquid.
It was clear he was no ordinary human being. Not only was he unnaturally tall and muscular, he had a pair of bull horns on his head, talon-like hands, hoof-like feet, and even a small tail attached to his back.
At first glance, the strange man looked like a mutant cultivator. However, the group quickly amended their impression when they observed him a little longer.
It was at this moment the Great Elder suddenly blurted, “Niu Meng?”
“Niu who?” Lu Ye asked with a frown.
“He is Niu Meng, the sect master of the Black Tortoise Sect!” The Great Elder explained.
The situation immediately took a turn for the eerie. The group had come to destroy the insectoid nest, and one might say that they were halfway to success by reaching the nest itself. What happened after that was nothing like what they expected, however. For starters, no one knew why the sect master of the Black Tortoise Sect would emerge from an insectoid nest’s Nucleus of Life. Second, they did not understand why he looked like a mutant cultivator. Third, the insectoid nest should be shriveling rapidly since its Nucleus of Life was destroyed, but in reality it did not look like it was affected in the slightest.
Finally, Niu Meng was overflowing with vitality. He already looked like a formidable enemy in the first place, but his vitality was something no Cloud River Realm cultivator should possess.
“Careful. He’s very powerful,” Zhou Hai warned while clutching his stomach and spitting out a mouthful of blood. The surprise attack had been way too close from comfort. It could’ve killed him outright if he hadn’t sensed it coming beforehand.
“He’s being controlled by a parasite!” Xia Qianqian said solemnly.
Of all the unnatural things that had occurred since they entered the insectoid nest, this was the one that scared them the most. When a Spirit Beast caught the “rabies”, their eyes would turn scarlet red moments before they turned violent and insane. Later, they found out that it was really the parasites that were manipulating the Spirit Beasts into madness.
However, there had never been a case where a cultivator had succumbed to the madness. It was why everyone thought that the parasites could only infect Spirit Beasts… until now.
Niu Meng was obviously being controlled by the parasites. Naturally, they could not help but wonder if someone in their group was being controlled as well.
It was impossible to know if someone was being controlled until the parasites had completely taken over their body. The Spirit Beasts were the prime example of that. The parasite inside their body was capable of mimicking their host’s aura so well that no one even realized that this was really an insectoid invasion until Lu Ye accidentally discovered the truth. With that in mind, who could say that they weren’t infected already? While everyone looked fine for the time being, it could be because the parasites hadn’t yet grown strong enough to take over them.
It was at this moment Lu Ye declared loudly, “Calm down, people. I promise you we aren’t infected by parasites!”
The reason he was so confident was because he had the Tree of Glyphs. The miraculous entity could burn even the Pill Poison in one’s body. If a parasite had tried to take over his body, the Tree of Glyphs would’ve caught it and burned it to a crisp already. However, he never sensed something like this since he entered the Myriad Beasts Domain.
“How do you know?” Someone asked, but Lu Ye did not give them an answer. The truth wasn’t something he could tell anyone.
The group was still whispering among themselves when suddenly, they heard shredding noises from all around them. What they saw next chilled them to the core. Every flesh sac in the insectoid nest had decided to pop open at the same time, revealing a scarlet-eyed, liquid-covered cultivator inside. Some of them looked like mutant cultivators just like Niu Meng, and some looked completely human.
Suddenly, the group found themselves outnumbered almost four to one. It was a horrifying realization to say the least.
Before this, they thought that getting to the insectoid nest would be the most difficult part of this mission. It was only now that they realized that the greatest threat was waiting for them inside the insectoid nest.
“They’re all Black Tortoise Sect cultivators,” the Great Elder said solemnly. He was the only native in the group and the Great Elder of the Myriad Beasts Sect. Naturally, he was quite familiar with the disciples of the Black Tortoise Sect.
The situation was dire, but it wasn’t without a silver lining. While the insectoids had proven capable of infecting and controlling a cultivator, everything they saw up till this point proved that it wasn’t something they could do willy-nilly like the Spirit Beasts. Otherwise, the Myriad Beasts Domain would’ve fallen way sooner.
Just like the crazed Spirit Beasts, the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators were overflowing with violence and madness as well.
Escape wasn’t an option as the insectoid nest was completely sealed right now. The only way they might live was to slay every infected cultivator in the chamber.
The group would dearly like to hold a discussion before engaging the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators in battle, but of course the enemy wasn’t going to give them the time to do so. The battle kicked off almost as soon as the cultivators had burst out of the flesh sacs.
Vitality and Spiritual Power surged as the Jiu Zhou cultivators and one Myriad Beasts Sect cultivator tightened their formation. They pressed their backs against a flesh wall and braced themselves against the incoming assault.
As usual, the body-tempering cultivators stood at the forefront and blocked as many attacks as possible. Their Shield Spirit Artifacts flashed violently as flesh, metal and spells rained down from every direction.
To the group’s astonishment and relief, the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators fought like mindless beasts despite drastically outnumbering them. They were controlled by the parasites, but the trade-off was their intelligence and rationality. They knew how to channel Spiritual Power into their limbs to strengthen their attacks, but that was it. They even bit at them like animals.
The Jiu Zhou cultivators calmed down a little. The Black Tortoise Sect cultivators didn’t just outnumber them, their average cultivation level was higher as well. If these people could fight at their full strength, then this would’ve been an absolute massacre.
Violent impacts and colorful explosions reverberated throughout the insectoid nest as both sides fought. Although the Jiu Zhou cultivators were at a complete disadvantage in terms of quantity and quality, they were able to hold out thanks to a tight formation and a flexible set of skills.
On the other hand, the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators were immune to fear and pain just like the Spirit Beasts. They continued to attack like wild beasts even though their blood was spilled, and they took fatal wounds all over their bodies. It didn’t matter though. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before they killed them all.
What really concerned the group wasn’t the overwhelming number of cultivators attacking their formation, but Niu Meng. The sect master hadn’t attacked them like the rest of the Black Tortoise Sect cultivators. Since sending Zhou Hai flying with an explosive kick, the man had simply stood where he was and watched them in silence.
The man’s vitality was as glaring as a lighthouse in the dead of the night. It was impossible to ignore him even if they tried.
Zhou Hai unleashed a slash that sent a Black Tortoise Sect cultivator’s head flying across the air. The cultivator had not stopped attacking even after they had blasted away his limbs, but the decapitation caused him to stop moving entirely.
“The only way to kill them is to cut off their heads!” He immediately yelled.
The Black Tortoise Sect cultivators were all controlled by a parasite. It was impossible to say if the cultivators were alive or dead, but the point was that they were immune to pain, and no amount of injury seemed good enough to stop them. The only way to end them once and for all was to cut off their heads.
The group immediately redirected their attacks. Just a moment later, another Black Tortoise Sect cultivator lost his head and collapsed lifelessly on the ground.
It was at this moment Niu Meng finally made his move. The sect master charged forward with a speed that did not match his monstrously huge body at all, bowling over an unfortunate Black Tortoise Sect cultivator who happened to be in his way in the process. Despite the interruption, he easily kicked one of the two body-tempering cultivators blocking in front of the group over his head, causing him to turn white as a sheet and spitting out a shower of blood. Even his Shield Spirit Artifact turned dim and became covered in cracks.
Having smashed open a gap in their defense line via brute force, Niu Meng proceeded to bend his leg back and launched a mighty kick at the Sixth-Order combat cultivator directly in front of him. Considering that the same kick had launched a body-tempering cultivator into the air a second ago, there was no way the man would survive if it landed.
The combat cultivator wanted to dodge out of the way, but he just wasn’t fast enough. Zhou Hai tried to interrupt the attack by landing a vertical slash right on top of the hoof, but the blade struck bone and let out what could only be described as a metallic clang. Right after that…
BANG!
A shower of blood and gore struck everyone standing next to the combat cultivator. The man himself was nowhere to be seen. Niu Meng had literally exploded him with a single kick!
Everyone’s scalp tingled at the horrifying sight. That was about the most direct impression of the kick they could get without experiencing it with their own body.
That was just the beginning of Niu Meng’s assault, however. While ignoring the holes Zhou Hai was putting all over his body, the sect master reached out and grabbed another combat cultivator’s head with a giant hand. Then, he squeezed and popped the poor bastard’s head like a watermelon!
That was two people gone just like that. It was only then Niu Meng threw a swipe at Zhou Hai and knocked him away.
One man had single handedly destroyed their tight formation.
Kitty Shen’s eyes widened, and her blood turned ice cold. Niu Meng’s eyes were locked on hers as he launched a kick at her. The young woman was only a Fifth-Order cultivator. There was no world she might survive if the kick so much as brushed against her skin.
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