Killing came at a price.
Especially devouring a Harvester that had lived for countless ages.
That immense essence of life flooding into his body was not merely a tonic—it was poison as well.
Inside the black ship's quiet chamber.
Chu Qing sat upon the throne, both hands clamped tightly around the armrests.
His knuckles were white, and the veins on the backs of his hands were like tiny green snakes, racing and throbbing wildly beneath his skin.
"Want my body?"
A low growl squeezed from Chu Qing's throat.
Inside his mind, countless shrill, chaotic screams echoed. That was Shang Xie's will.
It was excited.
It craved more blood, trying to seize control of this powerful vessel and embark on an endless slaughter.
Chu Qing's pupils expanded and contracted, while the world at the edges of his vision began turning a nauseating blood-red.
He raised a hand and viciously struck his own temple.
The sharp pain instantly reeled his wandering consciousness back in.
"Behave."
Chu Qing drew a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the boiling blood energy within him before rising and heading deeper into the ship.
Deep within the Earth Vein.
This was the core of the entire black ship—or rather, Stone Ridge Mountain.
The once hard, icy rock walls had now become warm and soft, as though they were breathing.
The Harvester's severed limbs, fished out of the river, had been thrown onto the ground.
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle.
Fine cracks split across the rocky ground like countless hungry little mouths. Dark-red tendrils stretched out and pierced into those gray, withered remains.
The sucking sounds made one's scalp prickle.
As the devouring continued, ancient and eerie runes began surfacing on the rock walls.
Those runes had not been carved there. They had "grown" out of the stone.
They glimmered with a