Chapter 354: Bonus Chapter

Baby Corn bolted several thousand meters, nearly back to the surface, then noticed the silence behind it. It screwed up its courage and looked back, and found the Star Borer Insect hadn’t given chase at all.

Why? Baby Corn was puzzled. It chewed at the mouthful of fragrant meat; genuinely fragrant, the Star Borer Insect’s flesh was delicious, springy and chewy, just very tough. Even Baby Corn’s dense rows of small sharp teeth were having some trouble getting through it. Baby Corn chewed its way along, then suddenly felt a twinge of guilt. Meat this good should be offered to Father.

It was only… only chewing to taste it, yes, it wasn’t going to swallow, not at all. It had just been so scared of getting eaten by the Star Borer Insect that having something to chew on in its own mouth made it less nervous.

But why hadn’t the Star Borer Insect come after it? Baby Corn didn’t understand. It tried sending out a ‘provocation!’ emotion, but still no reaction came from behind. Thinking about the unfinished mission, Baby Corn didn’t understand and felt a little dejected, and told its Father quietly.

“You’re saying the Star Borer Insect is a hundred times your size times, a hundred…”

Baby Corn’s anxious words gave Wei Xun pause, then made him laugh helplessly. He didn’t take the chewed-up flesh Baby Corn’s tendril offered him, only put on a glove and turned it over briefly, then sighed. An Xuefeng peered over from his hand, and also laughed.

“This doesn’t count as flesh. At best it’s a bit of dead skin from the Star Borer Insect.”

Even after An Xuefeng had cut it down to half its length, the Star Borer Insect’s body was still enormous. Baby Corn’s “great bite” had felt to the Star Borer Insect like being pecked by a small fish. Worms were dull to begin with, and the Star Borer Insect’s evolutionary direction was toward mass, density, and thickness; it could barely feel pain and couldn’t pick up on Baby Corn’s half-hearted provocation emotion either. It had taken the whole thing as the fine young worm grooming it.

Baby Corn’s all-out tendril slap had felt more like a flattering caress.

‘So, so this meat, Baby Corn can eat a lot more of it?’

Baby Corn was stunned. It didn’t know what “dead skin” meant, but it had understood one thing: the Star Borer Insect had all that enormous flesh on her, and it could eat as much as it wanted, and the Star Borer Insect wouldn’t even get angry!

The Star Borer Insect was so wonderfully great, but clever Baby Corn would absolutely never say that out loud. Father had said the Star Borer Insect was a big bad worm who wanted to eat it; so it wasn’t unreasonable to eat a bit of its meat before getting eaten itself.

Father didn’t want that chewed-up morsel, so Baby Corn treasured it and swallowed it in small, careful bites, then bounced happily back. The Star Borer Insect was right where it had been, lazy as ever, waiting for the fine young worm to attend to it. Baby Corn was completely at ease now; it latched onto the Star Borer Insect and gnawed and gnawed and swallowed and swallowed with great enthusiasm.

The Star Borer Insect’s tough outer skin, tender inner flesh, blood, mucus, tendrils, the mineral crystals built up in the skin over the years, and the small symbiotic creatures: to Baby Corn it was all deeply nourishing.

Worms were devoted to reproduction. Even at the risk of being eaten by the female, a male worm would throw himself in without hesitation, because this “grooming” was also a rare feast for him.

A male who managed to work through an entire breeding season without being eaten would see a tremendous leap in his strength by the end.

They were especially drawn to females much larger than themselves; first because good genes produced stronger offspring, second because there was a great deal to eat during the grooming, and third because the great size difference made it more likely the female would find this “slender” male unappealing after mating and let him survive.

Baby Corn was eating with great satisfaction, but for the people waiting above ground, the waiting was genuinely hard to bear.

Why was it taking this long?

Nearly ten minutes had passed and there was still no movement from below. Zhang Xingcang had one hand pressed to the Dreamchaser dragon’s back and the other gripping his blade; the intense concentration had sharpened all his five senses to an abnormal degree, in that state where every sound and sensation was magnified many times over. The damp, hot wind felt like a film clinging to the skin, deeply unpleasant. The Dreamchaser dragon was irritably flicking its tail; the mental illusion’s disappearance was making it increasingly agitated, and it wanted to fly out and look for him.

Not ready yet?

Dreamchaser’s emotions bled through and made Zhang Xingcang’s jaw tighten into a hard line. If this went on, the Star Borer Insect would likely notice. He thought for a moment, moved his hand slightly, wrapped his fingers around the little dragon’s small horns, and rubbed gently to soothe it. In the bond between Tour Guide and Tourist, the Tour Guide helped settle the Tourist’s nerves, but more often, it was the Tour Guide whose problems ran deeper.

You couldn’t always step into the inner mental illusion for a deep-level calming session; simple comfort worked too, things like a reassuring pat, contact, spoken reassurance. Under Zhang Xingcang’s comfort the little Dreamchaser dragon finally went quiet, but as time kept passing Zhang Xingcang’s expression grew increasingly grave.

His ears twitched slightly, as though something in one direction had caught his attention. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind, but Zhang Xingcang finally settled himself and waited quietly.

******

“Hasn’t it started yet over there?”

Centaur Katie, keeping watch on the outer perimeter, looked curiously toward the oasis, but from their direction the Red Sand giants’ tall figures blocked everything. No extra movement was visible, so it probably hadn’t started yet.

“Quiet; be careful.”

Medium Lily said softly. In her hands was a skull, covered in grey-brown spots, looking less like a human skull and more like the head of some primitive ancestor or primate. A round hole had been drilled into the top of the skull, and a black candle was set inside it. Candlelight shone up from the hole at the top, but strangely, a faint glow also lit the skull’s eye sockets, and within this glow were points of light resembling pupils, currently tilted toward the right, as though the skull were looking to the right.

“The Blood Baron is here. Over there.”

At the same moment, the Infected, who was with them, suddenly spoke, pointing in precisely the direction the skull was looking.

“Has the Silver Moon Killer come?”

David asked. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] Seeing the Infected shake his head and say he wasn’t sure, David laughed coldly.

“All right, I know what your relationship with them is. Say what you know. You’re not planning to stay in the Butcher Alliance anyway, are you?”

“I’ve already said everything I know.”

The Infected said calmly. David looked at him doubtfully, snorted, and said no more.

“Either the Silver Moon Killer and the Lizard Duke didn’t come, or they both came.”

The Stargazer said evenly. He had observed nothing so far, and the Lizard Duke could only block the Stargazer’s observation when he was right beside the Silver Moon Killer.

When the Stargazer spoke, the Infected lowered his head and avoided his gaze.

The Infected always operated on two levels; what he showed openly was one thing, and what he kept hidden behind it was another. He could sense the Blood Baron not only because he had placed something on him, but because of the ‘title of nobility.’

‘Blood Baron’ didn’t mean this person held a baron rank within the vampire lineage; ‘Blood’ was already the highest-tier orange title in the vampire category. The ‘Baron’ nobility was a title granted by the Lizard Duke. Granting titles and ranks was a function of one of the Lizard Duke’s titles; being granted a rank by him was like being infected into a werewolf by Blood Wolf Rex, creating absolute loyalty to the one above. The superior could also sense the subordinate at any time.

But there was a limit to how many ranks could be granted, and it seemed to be tied to the title, so the lower rank had to defend the upper rank while the upper rank also had an obligation to protect the lower. Accordingly, the only person publicly known to have been granted a rank in the West District Butcher Alliance was the Blood Baron: as an A-1 Tour Guide and the third-ranking figure in the West District Butcher Alliance, the Blood Baron had earned this honor.

The reason it was publicly known was that the Lizard Duke was deeply suspicious and would never concentrate power in one person. The Infected, as an A-4 Tour Guide with weaker ability than the Blood Baron, had been secretly granted a rank one level higher, a Viscount, specifically to supervise the Blood Baron; and because of this arrangement, both parties watched each other, maintaining the Lizard Duke’s own position and internal stability within the West District Butcher Alliance.

So the Infected could sense the Blood Baron, but was equally being monitored by the Lizard Duke. Some of what David had said was right, and some of it he had been deceived about; the Infected genuinely no longer wanted to remain in the West District Butcher Alliance. The Lizard Duke’s behavior was growing increasingly erratic and arrogant, and thinking of certain secrets he had uncovered, even someone with the Infected’s nerve felt a quiet chill.

But beyond all that, and most critically, the point that the Lizard Duke would certainly kill him for if he found out that the Infected had used his special title, exploiting his ‘Viscount’ rank to observe the Silver Moon Killer.

The Silver Moon Killer had never been granted a rank, which made him equivalent to a ‘commoner’; this kind of observation was extremely risky, and every look was another shovelful of earth on his own grave. The Infected had sworn he would never do it again, but this time he had decided to risk it one last time.

‘The Silver Moon Killer is here. [Read on RanaTranslations🌸] The Lizard Duke seems to have come too.’

When the Infected’s voice reached Wei Xun through the mutated toxoplasma, Wei Xun smiled. Now that the Silver Moon Killer had arrived, the show could begin.

‘Baby Corn, bite here.’

Wei Xun directed the gorging Baby Corn; his heartbeat had been quickening ever since they drew close, heat rising from his heart, the Ancient Oasis butterfly fragment’s activity sharpening his senses, and without An Xuefeng pointing the way, he could already feel in which direction the butterfly fragment inside the Star Borer Insect lay.

‘On it!’

Baby Corn responded and bit down hard, nothing like the earlier small nips and retreats. Its entire mouth turned inside out, rings of sharp teeth exposed like a spiked mace, and then Baby Corn spun at speed and bored straight into the Star Borer Insect’s body.

Crack!

That was undeniably an attack. Especially since Baby Corn had bored directly down toward the butterfly fragment. It had only gone about two meters when the enraged Star Borer Insect tore it apart; the remaining half of Baby Corn scrambled frantically upward, but the Star Borer Insect was too fast and too violent, and three hundred meters from the surface her tendrils caught it.

It was about to be torn completely to pieces.

Even Baby Corn could not survive being ripped into hundreds of fragments. Right at that moment, Wei Xun directly agitated the butterfly fragment in his own heart. That pull of pure Abyss temptation sent the Star Borer Insect into a daze; it didn’t bother tearing further and instead swallowed this delicious food in a frantic rush.

The instant the half of Baby Corn, along with An Xuefeng and Wei Xun inside its false mouth, was swallowed, the golden tokay gecko pressed against Wei Xun’s left hand, the only one that could move, and faintly glowed orange.

An Xuefeng couldn’t act, but he transferred control of the Return Journey Saber to Wei Xun.

The next moment, brilliant orange light blazed through the darkness. Piercing sword light like a rainbow arc fell into Wei Xun’s hand. His left hand closed around a warm hilt slicked with worm blood, the blade driven deep inside the Star Borer Insect’s body, the Agency’s first-ranked blade, belonging to the strongest Tourist.

An Xuefeng’s Return Journey Saber.