Chapter 179: The Monster

From the head of the giant Ghoul King, Xie Yaoyao learned that this cave was the secret base of King Aotuo of the Rhine Kingdom, and these ghouls were all raised by Aotuo.

From the bones filling the cave, one could see that this King, who was only briefly mentioned in the original story, was not a simple character either.

Looking at the dark and deep passage behind him, Xie Yaoyao lifted his leg, preparing to continue tracking Weituo and his companion.

He had just used his authority to control flesh and blood to save the two, intending to let them continue the unfinished exploration.

But just as Xie Yaoyao lifted his leg, an inexplicable feeling rose from the bottom of his heart.

Having reached his current status as a Demigod, his spiritual sense would always provide hints for certain things.

Turning his head to look at the passage behind him again, Xie Yaoyao sighed slightly.

"Helai'er, then I can only leave it to you!"

The fabric on Xie Yaoyao's left shoulder trembled slightly, as if brushed by an invisible wind; it was the invisible messenger, quietly accepting the order and leaving.

Ever since Helai'er's 【Spirit of Nature】 entry awakened the ability to turn invisible, he almost never appeared in front of people anymore; he seemed to like this behavior of observing everything from the shadows, and even spoke less.

Xie Yaoyao left Lilisi outside, telling her to continue tracking the whereabouts of the three remaining Travelers on Snow White's side. In the entire underground chamber, apart from the strange flora and fauna he had just mutated and created using his authority, only Xie Yaoyao and little Annie remained.

Gently letting go, Xiao Annie stretched her body and spun around Xie Yaoyao; a drizzling rain began to fall in the entire cave, and those mutated animals and plants, nourished by the rainwater, became even more eerie and sinister, yet they seemed to contain a strange, vigorous vitality.

Xie Yaoyao sat cross-legged on top of the mutated Ghoul King's head, introspecting his spirit to carefully experience his authority, and sure enough, he discovered that the feeling just now was not an illusion.

His original authority to control flesh and blood had integrated with authorities belonging to the Druid path, such as nature, plants, and wildness, which caused Xie Yaoyao's control over his own body to begin to decline severely.

Sitting cross-legged there, Xie Yaoyao's body began to grow mushrooms and mold spots again, his hair began to mutate in the direction of vines, the white 【Faceless One's Peering】 had long been put away by him, and his pale cheeks and skin also began to gradually show lignification.

This was not the substitute Xie Yaoyao had actively used his authority to create in the Queen's bedchamber to escape; rather, his body was beginning to mutate under the influence of the fusion of the flesh and nature authorities.

If he couldn't completely and thoroughly control his body with his own will, not to mention acting with this mutated body in the future, it was highly likely he would just sit there and transform into a flesh-and-blood flower or mushroom.

In the empty cave, various terrifying corrupted ghouls and eerie plants were everywhere, and as the plague toxic mist rose, Xie Yaoyao's mutated body gradually merged into it, with only that bright red flash of Xiao Annie spinning around him.

Weituo and Salvatore blocked the Ghoul King's final reach and immediately ran toward the depths of the passage without looking back; although the passage was winding and twisted, it was quite spacious, but it could only accommodate one of the Ghoul King's arms, and its entire body definitely couldn't squeeze in.

The two had a feeling of having escaped death, praying and thanking fate for its favor as they ran.

That monster was already preparing to take a bite, yet it actually slipped.

And slipping actually happened to throw the two of them right to the escape exit; how fortunate! How fortunate! Mars protect us!

But this passage... it couldn't have been dug out by those ghouls claw by claw, could it?

Looking at the numerous claw marks on both sides of the passage, the two even began to feel a little pity for those ghouls.

Such a long passage, no wonder it was pitted and craggy everywhere; this was exploitation even more cruel than that of livestock!

"Bang!"

Weituo was paying attention to the claw marks on both sides of the passage and, not paying attention, bumped into Salvatore's back as he ran in front; the Gladiator's solid latissimus dorsi almost knocked his nosebleed out.

"Salva, what's wrong? Why did you stop?"

"There's a sound!"

"A sound?"

Weituo tilted his head to listen, and sure enough, faint cursing sounds came from the front of the passage.

Retreating and going back was definitely impossible; the two exchanged a glance and lightened their footsteps as they crept toward the front of the passage.

After turning another corner, faint firelight came from the passage, and the cursing became louder.

Salvatore, who was leading, suddenly stopped and extended a finger; Weituo stretched his head out from behind Salvatore and looked forward along his finger.

The passage ahead suddenly widened significantly, and on both sides of the passage, naked humans were hung by iron chains; these people were all strong and fierce-looking, and even though they were locked by chains, they were still cursing incessantly.

And these weren't important; what was important was that beneath the body of each person hung in mid-air, there was a small square altar with four flames lit at the four corners, and a weak black energy on the altar was winding upward, wrapping around these people's bodies.

"Weituo, what is this situation?"

Weituo was a 【Demon Hunter】; seeing this eerie scene before him, Salvatore felt that he should know.

And Weituo did indeed know; although he had never seen such a scene, the knowledge brought by the 【Demon Hunter】 entry made him understand what was happening before them.

"This should be some kind of transformation ritual, but looking at this energy density, it shouldn't be any powerful monster! It feels like it's not very cost-effective!" Fearing his companion wouldn't understand, Weituo continued to explain: "It's just using the altars below to transform the people hung above into some kind of monster, to be commanded by others!"

Salvatore nodded and shook his head, asking in confusion.

"Weituo, what do you mean by not cost-effective?"

This touched upon his professional field, and Weituo immediately began to show off in front of others.

"Salva, look at these people; each one is very strong, and even as ordinary soldiers, they have some combat effectiveness, and with a little training, they would know how to cooperate and so on. But this weak dark energy transformation into a monster might not even have as much combat effectiveness as these people had when they were human."

Weituo had just finished speaking when the person on the far left suddenly stopped cursing, let out a painful roar from their mouth, and then their entire body began to mutate.

The skin all over their body, along with their hair, began to melt and fall off, dripping onto the altar below like money was no object; the flames at the four corners of the altar were nourished by the flesh and blood and burned even more vigorously, and the dark energy connecting to the human body became visibly more than twice as dense.

The skin fell off, revealing the muscle tissue inside, and the teeth and nails began to mutate; soon, a ghoul was fresh out of the oven.

Only, compared to the ghouls in the underground cave, this newly born ghoul appeared weak and thin.

It was just as Weituo had said, not cost-effective!

But thinking of the corpse mountain composed of countless dried corpses in the underground cave.

With that almost endless food supply, plus the fighting and elimination among the ghouls, the Traveler duo immediately understood how so many ghoul elites and that Ghoul King in the cave had been cultivated.

The person who came up with this plan was truly a genius.

Humans couldn't grow to be that powerful by devouring their own kind, but monsters could! ===== CHAPTER 180 =====