Chapter 538: Nightfall Changes

Xia Wentao.

He stood frozen for two seconds.

To muster the courage to turn around, he kept encouraging himself inwardly.

Not turning back, he could still deceive himself; but if he turned, he might have to face a cruel truth.

“Nothing’s there—it’s just an illusion!”

Xia Wentao comforted himself with these thoughts, then turned and looked down—and what he saw nearly made him faint.

Beneath his feet should have been a land turtle.

But now it was a grotesque monster: it bore a turtle shell, yet had human limbs and a human head protruding from a gap in the shell.

The shell was far too small.

The human limbs sticking out were crushed and deformed; flesh and organs oozed from the edges, and blood continuously seeped from the shell’s cracks.

Worse still was the head.

Where the neck met the shell, it had been crushed to half its original thickness; the exposed portion swelled purple-red from blood congestion, and on top, blood, flesh, and hair were matted together, the skull slightly warped, with a deep red hollow at the root of the hair—a wound caused by crashing into the tree! The monster’s purple-red face lifted, its eyes bulging as if about to pop out, fixed unblinkingly on Xia Wentao.

“Stay here, stay here, let’s swap—I don’t want to be a turtle anymore, I want to be human, you stay here!”

Xia Wentao’s hair stood on end.

He kicked the monster’s face hard, screaming and cursing in frantic tears as he kicked.

“Let go! Let go right now!”

No matter how hard Xia Wentao kicked, the turtle-man held on tightly, showing no intention of releasing him.

More and more “animals” gathered around.

There was a dog-like creature crouching on the ground, covered in black fur, its cheeks torn, its skull deformed—a “dog-man.”

There was a chicken-like creature with a bird’s beak, its scalp peeled back and stuck to its forehead, its arms stretched open like bloody wings—a “chicken-man.”

These animals had been calm and peaceful during the day; now they were all monsters crawling out of hell.

Human and beast combinations came in many forms—cute, gritty—but what stood before Xia Wentao were the most twisted, horrifying versions imaginable!

They charged toward the group, all screaming similar words.

“Why are you human?”

“And we have to be beasts!”

Facing these deformed “animals,” Xia Wentao felt despair. As death loomed, memories of what had happened an hour ago flashed through his mind.

…

After discarding Han Hao’s severed arm, Xia Wentao, enraged by Ma San’s contemptuous attitude, grabbed his collar and shouted.

“Han Hao’s in trouble!”

“I already told you his condition was off—I was trying to get you to help him!”

“You two are the Blessed Ones—you know the Blessed Land better, you’ve faced more life-or-death crises—saving Han Hao should be easy for you!”

Kang Tiantian reached from the side and pried open Xia Wentao’s fingers; the pain forced him to let go.

Ma San straightened his collar and stared coldly at Xia Wentao.

“I can save him—or I can choose not to.”

“We agreed to split up only to search for the statues more efficiently, not to act as your babysitters.”

“Let me give you some advice.”

“Every ability to fight evil in the Blessed Land consumes something. To survive here, you must stay rational, discard unnecessary emotions, avoid unnecessary expenditure…”

“We’re all ordinary people—we must use every trick just to survive. Only the strong have the strength to protect others.”

“You’re not strong… and neither am I.”…

From that moment on.

Xia Wentao lost faith in the Blessed Ones.

He had seen the cruelty of the Blessed Land: here, only you can be responsible for yourself. He no longer expected help from the Blessed Ones when danger struck.

But now.

Xia Wentao was held fast by the turtle.

A “roe deer” with half a human head dangling from each antler, its body riddled with blood-filled pits, charged toward him—how could he survive on his own? CRACK! The roe deer suddenly stepped into a mud pit; its speed too great, its legs snapped with a sickening crunch—this was the effect of Hu Shutong’s 【Step of Sorrow】 blessing.

Wu Xian whipped out his Blood-Thorn Silk, striking the roe deer’s head, igniting crimson blood-flame atop its skull.

Wen Hua drew a short knife from her waist and chopped off the turtle-man’s hand bones in one slash.

Su Mi lifted the turtle and hurled it away like a shot put, then snapped at the stunned Xia Wentao.

“Run! Why are you standing there?”

Before Xia Wentao could reply, Su Mi grabbed his shoulder and slung him over her back, sprinting toward the dormitory.

From her shoulder, Xia Wentao saw everyone running toward the dormitory—especially Ma San and his wife, who had fled the moment the turtle-man appeared and were now already inside.

The surrounding animals refused to let Wu Xian and the others enter the dormitory; they lunged toward them.

Their terrifying faces could stop children from crying at night; their venomous cries sent chills down the spine—especially some of the animals, whose speed far exceeded that of humans.

Yet in the end, they safely reached the dormitory.

All thanks to Hu Shutong’s 【Step of Sorrow】—she could trip each animal once, allowing the group to slip inside.

The foremost animal halted at the dormitory’s front steps; others crowded the entrance, their deformed human-animal flesh pressed together, howling in frustration toward the first-floor lobby.

Wu Xian exhaled in relief.

He looked up at the time—it was exactly six p.m., and the sky darkened at that very moment.

It seemed that as night fell, the danger level in the training center rose another tier; the once-safe animals now began attacking humans.

Perhaps not just these animals—other parts of the school would grow more dangerous too.

Fortunately, these animals couldn’t enter the dormitory, which was why they hadn’t been attacked before.

For the past two nights, they’d stayed on the ninth floor; even looking down from the windows, they hadn’t seen these things.

Others gradually climbed the stairs.

Wu Xian observed for a moment, then prepared to go up too.

But as soon as he turned, he felt a cold gaze from behind—it made his whole body uneasy, especially his cat whiskers, which trembled violently.

Wu Xian whirled around, staring toward the source of the sensation.

There, beneath a distant tree,

stood six blurred human figures, each bearing animal traits—but far more harmonious than the twisted horrors crowding the gate.

One of them,

was a slightly plump old woman, her hair streaked white, her face a wrinkled, partially bald cat’s face!

She stared at Wu Xian and smiled—a strange, chilling smile.

Wu Xian confirmed it: this thing was the cat he’d been searching for—the old woman who had cursed him! But tonight, he couldn’t spare the time to kill her.

He could only etch her image deep into his memory.

(End of Chapter)