Chapter 140: Fall of a Third Tier

As soon as that voice rang out, the battered Meng Dansheng and the out-of-control Yu Yan shuddered in unison.

They cast complicated looks toward the source of the sound.

A pair of legs, slender as bamboo poles, strode toward them from the distance.

His steps were light. His massive mouth stretched into a wide grin, exposing rows of sharp teeth and a pitch-black maw, as if he carried a small slice of a dark red abyss on his head.

Taking in the sight of Meng Dansheng and Yu Yan, mockery flashed in the tiny eyes at the top of Giant Mouth's head.

"Look at this. Just look at my friends."

"Why does it feel like I saw this exact scene three years ago? It was just like this back then. One of you scurrying around like a rat, and the other turning into a... hmm, a giant meatball?"

Faced with Giant Mouth's ridicule, Meng Dansheng and Yu Yan's expressions darkened.

But beneath their anger, their hearts were dominated by fear.

Giant Mouth had left out one detail. Three years ago, even though the two of them hadn't been in much better shape than they were now, Giant Mouth had been injured too.

But today... things were different.

Given their current states, if Giant Mouth decided to strike, they would be fish on a chopping block, completely at his mercy.

"Giant Mouth, don't fall for that kid's trick," Meng Dansheng said slowly, his old face grim.

"If you really attack Yu Yan and me, that kid will probably feel his death was worth it."

"Death?!"

Giant Mouth's eyes went wide as he spoke in an exaggerated tone:

"How could I let such an excellent breeder die?!!"

He turned his head and looked at Yan Jing, who was slumped against the ruins of a stall. His bloody maw split into a wide grin.

"Who wants you to die?!! Tell me, and I, Giant Mouth, will be the first to refuse!"

Meng Dansheng's face sank even further.

He hadn't expected Giant Mouth to actually harbor the thought of killing him and Yu Yan.

However, searching his own heart, he knew that if he were in Giant Mouth's position, his choice would probably be exactly the same.

Faced with Giant Mouth's question, Yan Jing's lips twitched.

"Do you want me to die?"

"Me?!!"

Giant Mouth burst into roaring laughter, the sound piercing right through the terrifying rumbling overhead.

"How could I possibly want you to die!"

"Even if you have to die, I'll make sure you die for a worthy cause! I'll make sure you die with honor!!!"

"Do you know something?"

He lowered his voice to a soft whisper.

"I could never find a trace of you. I didn't even know what you looked like."

He pointed a finger at Meng Dansheng.

"This old dog!!!"

"He treated the existence of you and that girl like his most precious treasures. He refused to tell anyone! I was part of the plan, yet he kept it even from me!!!"

"Do you think he deserves to die?!"

Yan Jing nodded.

"He deserves it."

Giant Mouth burst into laughter once more. He threw his abyssal maw wide open. Weird Energy surged, instantly whipping up a violent gale!

The suction from his mouth was so immense it felt like a terrifying typhoon. A horrified Meng Dansheng was dragged right up to him.

Then, Giant Mouth reached out and grabbed him tight!

Hum—

The pajamas draped over Meng Dansheng flared with blinding light, forming a protective barrier.

But in a fraction of a second, a sound like shattering glass echoed through the air. Giant Mouth crushed the barrier with his bare hand, and the once-dazzling light dimmed entirely.

Meng Dansheng spat a mouthful of blood and roared, "Giant Mouth, are you really going to do this?!! The others—"

Seeing Giant Mouth open his maw again, Meng Dansheng abandoned his words. He clamped his eyes shut, trying to forcibly activate his exhaustion and Enter Self-Dream abilities. But Giant Mouth merely smiled and bit down directly on Meng Dansheng's waist.

Squelch!

Stripped of his pajamas' protection and unable to enter a dream state, Meng Dansheng's body was instantly snapped in two at the waist before the sheer physical dominance of the Gluttony pathway.

His tightly shut eyes flew open in excruciating pain. He stared in absolute disbelief at his missing lower half.

Intestines, a stomach, and other organs spilled across the ground in a pool of blood.

"Tastes awful."

Giant Mouth stuck out his tongue and licked his lips. Grinning, he tossed Meng Dansheng's upper half onto the ground.

Wrapped in blood-soaked pajamas, the severed torso hit the stone pavement with a heavy thud.

Even now, Meng Dansheng's eyes were filled with confusion and terror. It was as if he still couldn't comprehend how things had suddenly come to this...

He had finally managed to leave his house today. He was the victor from three years ago. He was the master of the oldest Domain in this city. He was the leader of the Homecoming Plan.

But... Giant Mouth had suddenly turned on him...

"Giant Mouth... you will die a terrible death..."

With those final words, the light faded from Meng Dansheng's eyes.

A light drizzle suddenly began to fall from the sky.

In an instant, it turned into a torrential downpour.

A Third Tier, one of the kings of this city, the absolute apex entity of this Domain, had perished just like that.

The rain felt like a mournful wail from this abandoned city in honor of his death.

No one noticed a figure hiding in a distant corner. After witnessing this scene, his eyes flashed, and he turned to walk out of Rotten Vegetable Village.

The roar of his motorcycle engine was completely swallowed by the deafening thunder filling the sky.

"Are you satisfied?"

Giant Mouth looked at Yan Jing with a smile.

Yan Jing chuckled.

"It would be even better if you killed her too."

He looked over at a terrified Yu Yan.

Giant Mouth laughed.

"I killed Meng Dansheng because if I let him enter his dream state, I might not have been able to beat him!"

"But there's no need for me to kill this woman. With injuries like hers, she won't recover for years."

"Don't be too greedy!"

He reached out with his bamboo-pole hand to grab Yan Jing and chuckled.

"Alright, you've had your fun. Come with me."

"As long as you birth a dual-pathway, your life will have been worth it."

To his surprise, Yan Jing suddenly sprang to his feet. With an explosive burst of speed, he retreated backward.

His foot fluidly kicked over several tightly sealed wooden crates buried in the ruins behind him.

Instantly, a peculiar fragrance wafted through the air.

Watching this, Giant Mouth narrowed his eyes.

He hadn't expected Yan Jing to have any strength left.

Just a moment ago, when he looked at him, he had been absolutely certain that Yan Jing was completely exhausted.

When did he...

He quickly figured it out. It had to be while he was busy killing Meng Dansheng. Yan Jing must have used some kind of restorative item.

Interesting.

He smiled and pointed a finger at the rapidly retreating Yan Jing.

"Hunger."

A Second Tier ability of the Gluttony pathway. It could inflict extreme starvation upon a target; in severe cases, it could even cause them to lose all their strength.

Because he had just consumed a fruit granting resistance against the Gluttony pathway, Yan Jing didn't completely collapse. Even so, he swayed, nearly losing his footing under the sudden onslaught of starvation.

Seeing Yan Jing's speed drop, Giant Mouth gave a sinister chuckle and prepared to charge after him.

But that strange aroma drifting through the air...

Made him freeze in his tracks.

He couldn't control the reaction. The scent had stirred up a specific memory inside him.

Memories of delicious food—something he was completely powerless to resist.

This was the flaw in his pathway.

Whenever he encountered a delicacy from his memories, he would uncontrollably want to eat it all.

A few years ago, that man had failed to properly exploit this flaw, all because he hadn't known what Giant Mouth's memories considered to be delicious food. The man had chosen things he didn't like.

Because of that, the injuries Giant Mouth sustained back then were far lighter compared to the others.

But the delicacy he smelled right now... this was a food ranked extremely high in his deepest memories...

He reached out and cleared away the debris. Instantly, a huge pile of pale-yellow rice was revealed.

As expected...

His eyes darkened. He knew that this was a trap Yan Jing had specially prepared for him.

Suddenly...

Cold sweat began to bead on his forehead.

Nobody knew what was inside this rice...

It could be something this person in front of him had prepared for a long time. It was even more likely to be something that man had left behind specifically to deal with him...

But right now, he couldn't control himself at all!

His hand reached out involuntarily.

Bracing himself, he had no choice but to shove the rice from the ground into his mouth.

The moment it entered his mouth, he sensed something was wrong.

There was something in the rice!!! The taste was very faint, not enough to ruin the delicious flavor of the dish! As a result, even though he tasted it, his body kept eating uncontrollably.

The originally exquisite fried rice now tasted like wax in his mouth.

Simply because his heart was gripped by a constant fear of the unknown that awaited him.

Finally, unable to take it anymore, he swallowed a mouthful of rice and thrust his hand out, firing a blast of Weird Energy up into the sky.

In the distance, Yan Jing watched this unfold, his eyes flickering.

He looked toward the market entrance of Rotten Vegetable Village closest to the village proper, as if waiting for someone to arrive...

But they still hadn't come.

He had no choice. He couldn't wait any longer.

Giant Mouth had clearly just deployed a final trump card, and Yan Jing couldn't just sit there waiting to die either. Since that person hadn't shown up, he would go find her himself.

Seeing the situation, he endured the gnawing hunger in his belly and pointed a finger across the distance at Giant Mouth.

Memory Severance.

The second ability of the Second Tier.

Under conditions of extreme fear, it could make a target temporarily forget a recent segment of their memories.

The duration of the effect and the length of the forgotten memory depended on the target's level of fear.

Having done this, he sprinted off into the distance. Along the way, he dumped out portions of the prepared fried rice one by one.

Struck by Memory Severance, Giant Mouth shuddered violently. He completely forgot about his goal to capture Yan Jing. Instead, he simply inhaled, sucking all the rice on the ground into his mouth.

Then, picking up the pace, he walked toward the next pile of fried rice in the distance.

Before long, having finished all the fried rice, he immediately focused his mind to sense the changes in his body.

This internal check left him feeling both delighted and furious.

He was delighted because the drug laced in the rice was of poor quality. Aside from making him feel slightly fatigued, it did him no real harm.

Yet, that was exactly why he was furious. He had been tricked!!!

There was nothing dangerous in the rice at all!

But wait... who was it that tricked him again?

He stood frozen in place, thinking long and hard. Finally, unable to find an answer, he simply sat down on the ground and quietly waited for his memories to return.

Because he remembered that a few years ago, he had also been hit by this same move.

This sort of trick wasn't permanent.

Meanwhile, Yan Jing had run all the way back to his own house.

Mantou was lying on the bed, deeply unconscious.

He had done it himself.

First, he had knocked her out with a chop to the back of the neck when she wasn't paying attention. After waiting a bit, he had fed her some of the medicine Shen Youran had given him.

Even so.

That bird still hadn't come out.

Then, he had gone outside to face that group of Third Tiers alone, nearly dying in the process.

And yet, that bird still hadn't come out.

Since it wouldn't come out, he would come looking for it.

Looking at the unconscious Mantou, Yan Jing spoke slowly.

"Why haven't you come out yet?"

"You must know that the thing you're looking for is in my hands."

As his voice fell, Mantou's closed eyes suddenly snapped open.