Era of Magic and Martial Arts

Pfft——

A teeth-gritting tearing sound echoed, and Feng Yuhuai was forcibly nailed against the wall of the tube.

Her full chest burst open like silk, and a web of cracks spread along her ribs.

Deep within the fissure, a heart woven from countless threads of blood pulsed eerily, each crimson thread wrapped in semi-coagulated mucus, the ends writhing like maggots across the surface of the ventricles.

Suddenly, that heart flipped half a turn, revealing the face of a cloth doll printed on its back — the coiled eyes half shut, as if in deep slumber.

"Science won? You’re too naive. You thought a little toxin could kill me, you’re too naive."

Feng Yuhuai let out a cold snort, her voice sinister and chilling.

She pressed her lips with disdain, mocking the ignorance and fearlessness of the scientists.

The upper half of her body also visibly dissolved, red threads seeped out from under her skin, gradually turning into a pool of crimson thread pulp; though much slower than before, it still melted bizarrely.

As long as she could still melt into threads, Feng Yuhuai was an immortal being, at least, that’s what Feng Yuhuai believed firmly.

However, in the next instant, the smile on Feng Yuhuai’s face suddenly vanished.

Visible to the naked eye, in addition to the bluish-black toxin, a faint layer of silver crawled over her face.

The silver seemed to bore into her skin, permeating into her veins, finally sketching complex and bizarre patterns on her cheeks.

Like some kind of abstract tattoo, containing a power that terrified Feng Yuhuai to her core.

"No...impossible..."

With a gasp, Feng Yuhuai suddenly sensed an anomaly within her body.

In her pupils, the originally vivid coil was being eroded by an eerie silver, like countless tiny worms writhing, crawling, gnawing at her vision.

Her voice suddenly trembled, betraying a long-forgotten horror: "What is this... thing?!"

Zuo Bai habitually adjusted his glasses and looked at the horror reflected on Feng Yuhuai’s face, his own expression revealing a captivating sense of satisfaction.

He excitedly answered:

"This is science triumphing and sealing the evil powers within you."

Feng Yuhuai’s mind buzzed loudly, she looked down in shock, her gaze fixated tightly on her own chest.

There, the previously blood-red lines were visibly dimming, the crimson threads gradually fading into a dull, decayed color like dried serpent skins.

It was like... dead?!!

She could clearly feel the power bestowed upon her by the Puppet Mother receding like a tide.

The mysterious forces that once filled her body were now dissipating bit by bit, as if they never existed.

Along with them, the Puppet Mother’s corruption and malevolent desires — that painful yet utterly reliant hunger — were also retreating.

Her body was undergoing a transformation, from a monstrous being neither human nor ghost, gradually reverting to her former... form?

This should have been the scene she anticipated most countless times in her dreams, yet at this moment, she felt a fear from her soul, just like when she first lay upon the surgery table in that dark clinic.

No, even a thousand times stronger!

Feng Yuhuai’s fingers trembled as they touched her chest, inch by inch pressing in.

As her fingertips pressed down, it was like touching a layer of decayed human skin, or something dead soaked in corpse water for years.

The sensation was cold and sticky, just like...

The night of transformation, that rotten black hand reaching out from the house, skin covered with sores and maggots, exuding a suffocating stench.

A chill of repulsion surged in Feng Yuhuai’s heart, as her fingertips pressed again, it felt like touching the mummified corpses left after her consumption.

She had grown accustomed, even somewhat fond of such a sensation, yet now, it only filled her with dread.

"I can’t... go back..."

The coil in Feng Yuhuai’s pupils was degenerating into black and white. She looked in terror at Zuo Bai behind the Beautiful Spider, her voice sharp and hoarse:

"You monster, are you trying to turn me back into a human? No... don’t... please stop....."

Zuo Bai stood in place, habitually adjusting his glasses, his gaze behind the lenses icy and indifferent.

His tone was calm, as if introducing a scientific achievement:

"Do you see? This is the great power of science. In the face of science, even Evil Sacrifices can be destroyed."

He paused for a moment, a hint of deep intention flickered in his gaze behind the lenses, and his mouth curled slightly:

"However, I won’t kill you. I said before, I still need to use your head to exchange with [Mask] for my Black Core."

With Zuo Bai’s explanation, the Beautiful Spider slowly leaned forward, five ugly heads extending their necks, barbed tongues probing out from within their bloody mouths, oozing thick saliva, licking towards her neck, shoulders, and chest.

As the Beautiful Spider’s tongues licked, those rotting red threads on Feng Yuhuai’s body instantly shattered, turning into chunks of blackened decay, falling with a "splat" into the sewage, splashing muddy blood flowers.

Each chunk of decayed flesh fell with a dull thud, signifying her body being devoured bit by bit.

No.

To be precise, not devoured, but licked off and spat onto the ground!

The five barbed tongues ravaged her skin, peeling her flesh away bit by bit, yet casually spitting it out into the sewage like discarded garbage.

Beautiful female creatures bear grudges, and a composite female bears grudges to a geometrically increasing degree.

A surge of unprecedented terror rose in Feng Yuhuai’s heart, and uncontrollable images flashed in her mind:

"So, was this the feeling Yazhi and Xiaojuan had when I devoured them? But I only wanted to consume others, I didn’t want to be eaten by a monster..."

Thoughts churned like a tide, those scenes of feasting replaying in her mind.

She seemed to hear Yazhi’s screams, see Xiaojuan’s look of despair, empathizing with the despair and fear they experienced while being devoured.

In despair, her body struggled, her throat emitted a hoarse and broken sound:

"Don’t eat me... I, I, [Mask]•Zheng Hang he doesn’t really..."

However, before she could finish, a coldness far more intense than all previous chills combined suddenly enveloped her heart.

Sombreness, evil, strangeness, madness swirled with a hint of... a strangely familiar déjà vu.

Feng Yuhuai felt as if an invisible hand was gripping her throat, forcefully cutting off her voice, the words abruptly halting in her mouth.

Her pupils suddenly contracted into pinpoints, in a trance, her gaze fixating, sweeping past the Beautiful Spider’s nearby pus-dripping tongue, sweeping past the cold sheen of Zuo Bai’s lenses, ultimately sweeping towards the shadow beneath his feet, rippling in the sewage... shadow.

In the shadow, there was a wicked face staring at her... smiling!!!