Chapter 362 - The Terrifying Cycle of Life
Chapter 362: Chapter 362 The Terrifying Cycle of Life
Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Wei Xiao Bei even noticed compassion in the eyes of one of the rabbits. It was looking at the wolf as though the wolf was its inferior. There wasn’t a single trace of terror in its eyes.
What was happening?
A chill spread through Wei Xiao Bei’s heart when he saw this bizarre scene unfold.
The wolf didn’t have all that large of an appetite. Its stomach was stuffed after eating just four rabbits.
Supposedly, wolves would not slaughter needlessly as long as they haven’t been harmed or they didn’t need food for their cubs. They were fairly well-known for their frugality when hunting compared to other carnivorous creatures.
A wolf typically wouldn’t pursue fleeing prey once it had hunted enough for itself to eat.
However, this wolf had undoubtedly been affected by the clone of the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven. It refused to let the rabbits go even after filling its belly.
It would tear out the throats of every single rabbit, leaving pink bubbles, a mixture of blood and air, gathering atop their wounds.
These rabbits struggled in agony and slowly inched closer to death. The wolf stared at these rabbits with a savage and wicked bloodthirst in its eyes, almost as if this was an exciting game for it.
It was at this moment that a trace of terror finally surfaced in the eyes of the rabbits. It was like they had woken up in this instant, only to realize they were on the brink of death. They started to struggle with all they had.
However, this painful struggle was all in vain.
In just mere minutes, the first rabbit died. Then, the second. Then, the third...
Wei Xiao Bei’s face had turned dark by the time the last rabbit had died.
It wasn’t out of pity for the tragic deaths of the rabbits nor out of horror at the wolf’s cruelty.
Rather, it was because the corpse of the first rabbit to die was suddenly experiencing changes. The originally small rabbit started to stretch and transform and in just two minutes, had turned from a rabbit to a human corpse.
A human corpse!
When Wei Xiao Bei saw these rabbits slowly transform into human corpses, he was suddenly enlightened. All the previous mysterious had been solved!
So that was it!
He understood everything now.
The people who had been converted by the Anagami Pagoda had all been turned into rabbits!
It was as simple as that!
Motherfucker!
Thank god I wasn’t converted.
Wei Xiao Bei couldn’t help but get goosebumps when he imagined himself turning into a rabbit and looking compassionately at a wolf as it slowly devoured him.
That would have been an indescribably terrifying experience.
This caused Wei Xiao Bei’s cautiousness toward the pagoda to go up another level.
In all truth, Wei Xiao Bei would rather be killed directly than to be turned into a small rabbit with no self-consciousness, nibbling on grass and waiting for a wolf to come and eat him.
Then again, could these wolves then be humans that had been tempted by the Demon King of the Sixth Heaven?
When this thought appeared in Wei Xiao Bei’s head, he immediately shifted his gaze onto the wolf.
Compared to the rabbits, the wolf had a much more ferocious temper. It immediately crouched down when it saw Wei Xiao Bei looking at it.
This was the precursor to a wolf’s attack. It allowed them to lunge at the enemy instantly, biting their throat and tearing it to shreds!
However, all this was meaningless before Wei Xiao Bei.
The wolf jumped and he extended his left hand, catching it by the neck. He then applied a little pressure, causing a snapping sound to release from the neck of the wolf.
This wolf was far too weak.
Its creature rank was probably around 1-Star Elite at the very best.
When the wolf died, a trace of black mist emerged from the wolf’s orifices and started to escape toward the forest.
Wei Xiao Bei saw this black mist fleeing and grabbed out with his left hand. His spear appeared in his grip and cut through several meters and hit the mist in the blink of an eye.
The black mist let out a desolate cry before being struck by the tip of the spear. It was like a balloon being popped, as the mist vanished without a trace.
That was a pity. Wei Xiao Bei sighed softly as he saw the dispersing black mist. If the Fledgling Life Altar was still awake, then it could have devoured the mist. It was a form of nutrition, after all.
The Fledgling Life Altar was too weak as it was currently. All of the creatures it created were far too weak. Their only purpose was to be placed on the enemy to monitor their movements. However, these creatures had extremely bad mobility as well, making their utility relatively limited.
Wei Xiao Bei wanted to have the Life Altar grow as fast as possible. As such, he wanted to catch everything that was beneficial to the Life Altar and send it into its mouth.
Changes started to occur in the body of the dead wolf. After a while, it finally turned into a human corpse.
Just as expected.
Wei Xiao Bei couldn’t help but let out another sigh.
Without any doubt, the fates of these humans who had been controlled by the mist and the pagoda were extremely tragic.
That said, it seemed as if the clone of the Demon King was much weaker compared to the power of the Anagami Pagoda.
This was obvious from the human-turned rabbits and wolf.
There were as many as thirteen rabbits transformed by the Anagami Pagoda, while there was only one wolf under the control of the Demon King.
The members of Ash Gray must have entered the Dust World from the underground base in the forest. If that was the case, then they must have also appeared in the forest of the Dust World.
There were at least three Ash Gray members who had entered the Dust World before this. However, there was only one of them before Wei Xiao Bei now. This meant that it was very likely that the other two members were converted by the pagoda.
Of course, there were no particularly obvious marks on this Ash Gray member. Wei Xiao Bei did not discover anything either, even after examining all of the corpses.
These corpses were completely naked, without a single thing to identify them.
A short moment later, Wei Xiao Bei’s gaze accidentally swept across the human corpses. It was then that he felt a shiver run down his spine.
The reason was very simple. The corpses of these dead humans were disappearing.
In the end, the human corpses turned into faint golden threads and flew toward the village.
Wei Xiao Bei hesitated for a moment when he saw this happen. In the end, he gritted his teeth and followed after the golden threads.
However, he stopped right at the entrance to the village. He could see everything clearly from here already, including the changes at the pagoda.
The faint golden threads dove into the surrounding golden light of the pagoda without any hesitation.
Then, nothing happened to the golden light itself.
Wei Xiao Bei continued to wait. He knew that it was impossible for there to be no changes after the golden threads had entered the pagoda.
As expected, the changes that came after were just as Wei Xiao Bei had predicted.
Half an hour later, several golden threads emerged from the pagoda and landed on the ground, before turning into rabbits.
Wei Xiao Bei did a simple count. Thirteen rabbits. Exactly the same as before.
There was no question about it. Those human corpses had been turned into rabbits once again.
These rabbits followed the path and hopped out of the village upon landing.
They never paused for a single second even when they passed by Wei Xiao Bei. They simply continued as before and ran toward the stream as if they had not seen him at all.
Chills ran down his spine. Wei Xiao Bei couldn’t help but be terrified. There was no doubt that these rabbits would undergo the exact same experience if another wolf appeared.
Their lives were like a Möbius strip, from the front side to the other side, from the other side back to the front side. Locked into a cycle, repeating constantly for eternity.
This was an even more cruel fate than just simply killing them.
At the very least, Wei Xiao Bei would not enjoy a life like this.
Wei Xiao Bei finally let out a sigh of relief when he returned to the stream and saw that the human corpse from the wolf was still there.
Good thing this didn’t change.
If the wolf-human corpse had also vanished like those rabbits and then reappeared once again after he had destroyed the black mist, he wouldn’t be able to deal with it.
Wei Xiao Bei might even start suspecting whether his entire life had been under the control of another entity. Fortunately, nothing had happened to this human corpse after the black mist was dealt with.
This proved a certain fact.
The changes that happened to the rabbits were caused by the golden thread.
However, Wei Xiao Bei did not try and do anything to the rabbits at the moment.
He wasn’t an idiot. Even if he caught these rabbits now and forced out the golden threads, he could only destroy them with the spear. He couldn’t benefit from the threads while the Life Altar was asleep.
This Divine White Mist Great Spear could absorb the power within enemy corpses, but it could only destroy the black mist, not absorb it.
Wei Xiao Bei felt his heart hurt when he thought about this.
As mentioned prior, Wei Xiao Bei became upset whenever he lost something that could have been used to strengthen the Life Altar.
Now, Wei Xiao Bei could only wait in boredom.
Fortunately, perhaps because of Wei Xiao Bei having the Fledgling Life Altar devour the golden thread and the black mist, neither the Anāgāmi Pagoda or the Demon King’s clone tried to make a move on him.
As such, his time waiting by the stream was fairly peaceful.
Finally, after one hour of waiting, a signal of hunger appeared in Wei Xiao Bei’s mind.
The Fledgling Life Altar had awakened.
The awakened Altar appeared to be extremely hungry. It required large amounts of flesh and blood to recover from its weakness after evolving.
Just like the last time it went to sleep, the Fledgling Life Altar did not change too much. However, Wei Xiao Bei could clearly sense that the Altar’s ability to create lifeforms had improved significantly.
Wei Xiao Bei pressed his left hand against the human corpse of the wolf without any hesitation.
Fleshy tendrils reached out from the fissure and pierced the corpse, digesting and devouring all the flesh. Even its bones cracked under the tendrils, soon being absorbed.