Chapter 679: Degraded Fang Yue (1/2, Autumn Subscription)

"Rescue… quickly send out the Rescue Order!"

Amid the chaos, the Eagle Merchant Caravan Regimental Commander cried out in a terrified, shrill voice.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh—

Streaks of bright fireworks rose from the Eagle Merchant Caravan manor.

The entire caravan plunged into dire straits, cries for help and screams merging into one.

Tai Yuema, who had already been leaping across rooftops and was halfway to his destination, turned back at the fireworks shooting high into the sky, and his pupils instantly contracted.

In the dark of night, only when a Human Soul is ignited can all things be illuminated!

Someone actually raided the home?!

With thoughts churning, Tai Yuema glanced at the inn still in the distance, and gave a cold smile: "Consider yourself lucky tonight; I'll let you off for now."

Turning back, he rose and fell through the dark of night, Tai Yuema sped toward the Eagle Merchant Caravan.

The Eagle Merchant Caravan was not without strong fighters.

Though they could no longer find a second mid-grade Human-Rank expert, one or two formidable low-grade Human-Rank experts could still be found.

But…

Since the caravan had already sent out a distress signal, it was most likely some major incident that even those low-grade Human-Rank experts couldn't handle.

In this situation, Tai Yuema could only speed back, lest the Eagle Merchant Caravan be wiped out on the spot. Not to mention that doing so would make him conspicuous and inconvenient for hiding his identity.

Just the fact that it would delay Lord Ox-Seat's order to participate in the 【Martial Decision】 process meant he had to preserve the Eagle Merchant Caravan; otherwise, he could have long since stepped in to replace the Eagle Merchant Caravan Regimental Commander.

As his speed surged, from afar, he could see the Eagle Merchant Caravan manor in utter chaos, flames shooting into the sky.

Strangely, there were very few corpses on the ground—only pools upon pools of shocking bloodstains.

On the manor's walls, one could still see little hands, swaying in the wind like weeds.

"Strange?!"

Tai Yuema was taken aback, his pupils slightly contracting.

To be able to infiltrate 【Chunuan City】 without a sound—this strange entity was no simple matter!

Tai Yuema charged to the manor, landed on the wall, and swept his sword.

Bang bang bang—

The little hands burst open one after another with black blood-mist, staining the walls red.

The surrounding little hands, meanwhile, shrank back into the walls.

"These ghost things…"

Tai Yuema's face darkened.

Without thinking further, he leaped down and rushed toward the source of the chaos.

Whoosh—

A 'wall of human hands' suddenly erupted from the ground, as if to swallow him whole.

"Scram!"

A single sword strike exploded outward, the wall of human hands bursting apart, severed limbs flying everywhere.

"Goo goo goo!"

Strange sounds rose one after another all around.

Tai Yuema glanced around and immediately let out a cold laugh.

He saw that, at some unknown point, little hands had sprung up all around, watching him like peeping onlookers.

"Come on! Show your true form! Have a clash with me!"

Mid his fierce shout, he saw those little hands gurgle and shrink back into the ground, as if they found this man a bit troublesome and didn't wish to take the risk.

Seeing this, Tai Yuema's brow furrowed slightly.

This strange entity… actually possessed some intelligence?

Doubt rose in Tai Yuema's heart.

Such a strange entity had appeared in Chunuan City, and yet he hadn't received even a hint of news before?

The intelligence Tai Yuema knew was all directly conveyed from above; he didn't truly have real-time control over anything.

Regarding Ye Niu Niu's breaking through 【Dongliu Mountain】, he only knew fragments.

"Lord Ox-Seat seems to trust me less and less…"

Tightening his fist slightly, Tai Yuema suppressed his thoughts and, like a firefighter, began to move through the manor.

As the strongest fighter in the Eagle Merchant Caravan—in fact, the power behind the scenes, Tai Yuema—everyone obeyed his word without question, and effective organization was quickly achieved.

Once the people gathered together, the strange little hands couldn't slaughter the remaining people as easily.

Like a torch, Tai Yuema attracted more and more people to cluster together, uniting their strength to resist the little hands.

In no time, he had grandly gathered all the surviving members of the Eagle Merchant Caravan together—a grand crowd, on the vast training ground, holding torches high, huddled together like a flock of sheep.

Under Tai Yuema's protection, whenever the 【Nuomian Gui】's little hands burrowed out from the crowd, they were swiftly dealt with by the people.

Those that couldn't be dealt with would wait until Tai Yuema came to support them.

The Eagle Merchant Caravan itself possessed considerable martial strength.

As the seventh-ranked caravan in the Heavenly Merchant Alliance, if their martial strength couldn't keep up, they couldn't hold that position either.

And this wasn't due to Tai Yuema alone; it was only with their overall strength keeping pace that they could hold their standing.

The 【Nuomian Gui】, seemingly because its feeding had been interrupted multiple times, developed a temper like an adolescent child.

Under the night sky, little hands gathered from the ground, forming a tall throne composed of pale little hands.

Upon the throne, topped with Fang Yue's face, a humanoid strange entity whose entire body and all its tissue structures were composed of little hands appeared before the crowd.

"How could it be you!?"

His pupils contracted, and Tai Yuema's face showed astonishment.

The person before him was unmistakably Ye Niu Niu!

Or rather, the appearance was identical to Ye Niu Niu's, only the human body structure was composed of eerie little hands.

What was its relationship with Ye Niu Niu...

"Gugu gu!"

Just as Tai Yuema was thinking, he saw 【Nuomian Gui】 had already walked down from the throne, step by step walking toward Tai Yuema.

At the spot of its forehead, three calamity patterns slowly emerged.

Synchronize with it, a slender finger grew out from the top of its head, and at the tip of the finger, like a Möbius strip, finger after finger grew out, linking end to end to form a pale-white ring, as if imitating Fang Yue's black ring, perched atop its head.

At the same time, 【Nuomian Gui】's right hand trembled, and its fingers stretched out with a clatter, transforming into a hand-blade composed of many little fingers.

The 【Nuomian Gui】 at this moment was simply like a degraded knockoff of Fang Yue.

Of course, the degradation was only in appearance; in terms of strength, it was actually a notch stronger!

Like a child imitating an adult's behavior, 【Nuomian Gui】 mimicked Fang Yue's manner, revealing a ferocious grin, as a great number of little mouths popped out all over its body with a clatter, splitting open to reveal rows of sharp little fangs!

The creaking sound of teeth grinding against teeth was utterly chilling.

And at this moment, Tai Yuema and the others had long since gone pale, staring in terror at the eerie sight before them.

"Calamity-grade... high-tier!"

"It's actually a high-tier calamity-grade eerie!"

"It's over... we're all going to die here today!"

Tai Yuema was also so frightened that he took a step back, the impulse to turn and flee surging up in his heart.

If he had known earlier that what was attacking the Eagle Merchant Caravan tonight was this sort of thing, he wouldn't have come back to take a single look even if it killed him!

If the Eagle Merchant Caravan was gone, he could still go mix in with other merchant caravans, but if his life was gone, then it was all over.

Cold sweat slid down his cheeks, and everyone's breathing grew rapid.

And just then, the 'degraded Fang Yue' moved.

The long hand-blade emitted sharp "gugu gu" laughter, and rows of little mouths grew along the blade's length with sounds like hungry babes waiting to be fed, as 【Nuomian Gui】 charged straight at Tai Yuema.

PS: Today I first lost in a dark showdown with Zhuge Wanjun, the author of the neighboring "Monster Synthesis Master," a crushing defeat, so I owe 1 extra chapter. I had planned to salvage some face against the weaker "The Man Behind the Empress" author Wo Xingzi, but the result... I lost the dark duel again!!

So today I owe 2 extra chapters, plus the 5 I owed from yesterday, so today there are 7 chapters.

The dark duels, terrifying as such!!

(End of this chapter)