Volume 3, Chapter 49 – Experiment

Meanwhile, near the Jing River, in an area only a little over ten kilometers from the river, a village town was undergoing inhuman torment.

The one inflicting the violence was a curly-haired man in glasses. He had the deep eye sockets and big nose typical of people from the Federation, and a thick beard that almost covered his mouth and chin. Wearing a blue-and-black checkered shirt and a brown jacket, he was squatting on the ground, watching the reaction of the corpse.

“Pupils dilated… bones shattered… widespread dissolution of skeletal muscle.”

Muttering technical terms under his breath, the man pinched up one of the dead man’s fingers. As expected, the thing lifted like a water-filled balloon, as if packed with liquid inside, even giving a little twitch in midair.

“A failure?” The man shook his head, let go, and dropped the finger back where it had been. The friction tore the skin open, and with a wet splurt, a great gush of blood slurry burst out.

Whatever a leaking bag looked like, that was what this corpse looked like. It quickly ran dry of blood, leaving behind nothing but a sheet of human skin.

“You lunatic…” a weak voice sounded from the side. “What are you trying to do… why don’t you just kill us outright?”

He looked up. Hanging upside down from the eaves, bound hand and foot, was a man in his thirties. Several cuts marred his body, none of them immediately fatal. This was Deacon Jiang Lai, whom Guo Rongzhi had already assumed to be dead.

Jiang Lai truly felt he’d had rotten luck. He’d already been extremely careful to stay away from the demonic beast tide, yet he’d still managed to trip up over this foreigner who looked so harmless.

The guy clearly didn’t possess any outstanding Sword Dao strength; even now, Jiang Lai couldn’t figure out how he’d lost earlier.

“You’re from Great Yu. You should’ve heard the story of the Zhenyuan Sword.”

The bearded man—Bruce Evan—walked toward Jiang Lai. Casually, he picked a longsword out of the pile leaning against the wall and slowly drew it free.

Clang…

As the screech of metal echoed through the village, Jiang Lai, hanging there, couldn’t help shifting his gaze to that sword.

It wasn’t his own sidearm, nor did it belong to anyone else in the ill-fated team.

The style was similar to an ancient Yu sword. Why did it look a little familiar?

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His heart gave a jolt as Jiang Lai suddenly remembered—wasn’t this more or less the same as Bai Xiang’s sword?

Only the details differed, but the overall build was identical!

“Very few people know that after the Great Yu imperial house took away the Zhenyuan Sword, that sacred Sword Dao blade, its owner left eight sword embryos in the world.” Dr. Evan stepped up to Jiang Lai, lifting the blade so he could examine it carefully while he began explaining another hidden tale.

“Legend has it that these eight sword embryos are linked to eight secret manuals, compiled over the course of the sword owner’s eight reincarnations on his path to becoming an immortal.”

“Whoever obtains these sword embryos and secret manuals inherits this precious legacy—and has a much greater chance than others of becoming an immortal.”

“Utter nonsense!” Jiang Lai roared. “Trash made up by Yaosui! Only you barbarians would treat that as treasure!”

At last, he understood why he’d lost!

This thing was a sword embryo of the Zhenyuan Sword?

Of course he knew the legends of the Zhenyuan Sword. But it had long since been established that they were fabricated by Yaosui—that there was no such thing as reincarnation at all. Chan Master Daokong, unable to gain eternal life, had developed an obsession; most likely he’d “fallen into disorder,” and the obsession he left behind had turned into the remnant soul Yaosui. It was Yaosui that tried to use this legend to seize the bodies of geniuses!

Of course, it was also possible that, even as he lay dying, Chan Master Daokong still believed this was the “true path”—that he really could resurrect himself endlessly this way.

Naturally, Jiang Lai didn’t believe any of that. Things like Zhenyuan sword embryos were cataloged as extremely baleful items in the Demon-Suppressing Bureau’s artifact registry. Even if someone handed one to him for free, he wouldn’t dare accept it—yet this big-nosed barbarian was treating it like a treasure.

Then the man had to have been seized by Chan Master Daokong’s remnant soul Yaosui.

That was the only possibility Jiang Lai could see.

He’d inherited Chan Master Daokong’s sword arts and vision—that was, after all, a Sword Lord’s power, perhaps even something that had surpassed a Sword Lord—so of course Jiang Lai couldn’t beat him…

“Most people of Great Yu are just like you—clinging to that arrogance of yours，” Dr. Evan pressed the cold blade against Jiang Lai’s face, leaned to his ear, and whispered, “Why is it that only he can devour me, and not I devour him?”

Jiang Lai’s pupils shrank violently.

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“Your Sword Dao is fascinating. In the end, right before death, the obsession you accumulate can actually transform the human soul into something akin to a Demon Pool.” Dr. Evan nodded. “But it’s a road of no return. This so-called Sword Dao that people of Great Yu are so proud of is nothing more than a clumsy imitation of ancient demons’ power.”

“Too fragile.”

“It doesn’t compare to my research in the slightest.”

“If you want to kill me, then do it!” Jiang Lai struggled furiously. “Don’t spew this garbage pseudo-philosophy at me!”

“And don’t think you can control everything!”

“This is Great Yu’s territory!”

“Once they recover, they won’t just kill you—they’ll go to your country and wipe every last one of you out!”

“Ha ha…” Then, to his surprise, Jiang Lai heard a soft laugh.

“Really wipe us all out?” A pair of blood-red eyes suddenly filled his vision. Dr. Evan had tossed aside the Zhenyuan sword embryo and was now gripping Jiang Lai’s face in both hands, shouting like a madman.

“Can they really wipe us all out?”

“Can they?”

“You probably wouldn’t dare lie to me… Right, there’s no reason for you to lie to me at a time like this…”

“Then that’s double insurance! Double insurance!”

“Ha ha! Then I definitely need to do more good things!”

He bent down and picked up the Zhenyuan sword embryo again.

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“And I’ll start… with you arrogant Yu people…”

Squelch!

With a wet thrust, the sword pierced Jiang Lai’s chest, and the Zhenyuan Sword immediately began drinking his blood essence.

The color drained rapidly from Jiang Lai’s face. He knew he was almost certainly going to die, but he couldn’t accept dying in such a humiliating way. He’d rather have been cut down with a single sword in open battle!

But just then, a sudden mutation occurred.

From the center of the Zhenyuan sword embryo’s guard, a clump of red light suddenly shot out. It was so fast that Jiang Lai couldn’t see what it actually was; he only saw red fill his vision as something rammed into his body—and then searing, bone-gnawing pain spread through him.

“Aaah…! Aaaah!!!”

His screams spread through the village as he suddenly began to bleed everywhere. Blood gushed seemingly without limit from his seven orifices, splattering over the ground in great sheets.

“It’s time.”

Dr. Evan quickly yanked out the Zhenyuan sword embryo, pulled a tiny syringe from his coat, and injected Jiang Lai with it.

Jiang Lai’s fountains of blood stopped at once.

But in their place, even more horrifying changes began to occur across his body.

His skin swelled with huge blood-filled blisters. One after another, the blisters burst with wet pops—and underneath them, unbelievably, were eyeballs. In the blink of an eye, thousands of eye-blisters wrapped his entire body, turning him completely into a monster.

Ssss!

His skeleton was also growing and warping. His spine suddenly shot up from his back and stretched, both ends punching through the obstruction of his torso, spreading out like a centipede made of bone, its hundreds of rib-like legs waving and twitching.

Crack! Crack!

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Every eyeball on Jiang Lai’s body exploded, turning into clumps of thick slime that wrapped around the bones, condensing and transforming on their surface, and were swiftly devoured and absorbed by the bone.

With a bang, Jiang Lai snapped the rope and crashed down into the blood.

But by now he no longer looked even remotely human… The bones had transformed into some kind of exoskeletal shell; his flesh and blood had become the nourishment fueling the new monster’s transformation. Only a single blood-soaked human head remained stuck to its back, eyes rolled white, unable to die in peace.

Dr. Evan widened his eyes, wanting to lean closer for a better look—but the very next second, the gigantic worm-like aberration erupted, exploding into a spray of viscous fluid that splattered all over his head and face.

“Another failure?”

He sighed, took out a handkerchief, and wiped his face.

“The body’s too weak. A vessel like this can’t possibly withstand even the early shaping stage. It’s not worth wasting bones on him.”

“It’s a pity the boss failed so early and left me so little time. Otherwise I could have cloned ‘X1’… Her talent would definitely be enough.”

Standing there, shaking his head in regret, Dr. Evan turned his gaze toward the house.

More people were tied up inside. They’d watched with their own eyes how the people outside had died. When they saw this devil look their way, terror overwhelmed them, and they all scrambled frantically to press themselves farther in.

“If the quality’s not enough, I’ll just have to make up for it with quantity.”

Muttering to himself, Dr. Evan hefted the Zhenyuan Sword and walked into the house.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of material here.

He could finally cut loose… and carry out the last experiment of his life.