"Monster"

"I imagine not everyone's constitution is suitable for 'Tai Sui' parasitism, right? And among those who are parasitized, only a very small portion truly have terminal illnesses, correct? You use them as examples, hyping up the Anomaly's abilities to the heavens, luring more people to willingly be parasitized by 'Tai Sui'..."

Sun Hang paused, staring into the Saint's eyes and asking, "Did I say something wrong?"

"...Then what do you plan to do?" The Saint's expression didn't change much. "Notify the Public Security Bureau and the Investigation Bureau to come and arrest us all?"

"Where is the main body of 'Tai Sui'?" Sun Hang asked again.

"It's within each of us," the Saint shouted, raising his arms. "It's right before your eyes, within arm's reach."

Sun Hang: "Bullshit."

He could feel that all the fragments of 'Tai Sui' parasitizing everyone here combined wouldn't even be as much as the dirt Wang Xiyi scrubbed off herself in the shower.

The Saint took two steps back. The two people closest to Sun Hang suddenly leaped up from their meditation cushions, tore off the bandages in front of them, and charged forward with strange cries.

"Those who defy Tai Sui will have their blessings stripped away!" the Saint declared with a grim face. "The process of stripping is a thousand times more painful than integration!"

"Oh, really?"

Hundreds of white mycelia erupted from the bodies of the two believers. In an instant, these mycelia wove into a large net, descending upon Sun Hang! Sun Hang didn't move. He stood perfectly still, letting the net of mycelia fall upon him.

The mycelia, seemingly soft and weak, instantly became like sharp blades upon contact with Sun Hang's skin. They cut through the epidermal tissue and plunged into the flesh, leaving grid-like cuts oozing blood on Sun Hang's face—as for his upper body clothing, it had already turned into countless evenly-edged diamond-shaped slices, scattering onto the ground.

But as these mycelia sunk into the flesh, they simply vanished within Sun Hang's body, as if directly dissolved, disappearing without a trace.

The cuts on Sun Hang's body healed instantly, and even the small beads of blood that had seeped out were absorbed back into his skin.

The two believers immediately collapsed onto the ground, their bodies convulsing.

Their skin began to dissolve, their bloody subcutaneous tissue directly exposed to the air, and dense popping sounds of bubbles could be heard from within their muscles... In less than five seconds, the two had turned into two stiff corpses, lying prone at Sun Hang's feet.

"Ugh... It seems you weren't lying to me. Forcibly stripping 'Tai Sui' parasitizing a human body is indeed very painful," Sun Hang said to the Saint earnestly.

The Saint's previously calm and composed expression was long gone. His eyes were wide, staring intently at Sun Hang, and he muttered, "What... what did you do to them?!"

"I did what you intended to do to me... Unfortunately, this amount is too little, not even enough to fill the gaps between my teeth." Sun Hang took two steps forward. "Tell me, where is the main body of 'Tai Sui'?"

"Monster! You're a monster!" the Saint shrieked. "You can't possibly be a Hunter of the Federation! The Federation wouldn't tolerate a monster like you!!"

The believers sitting on the meditation cushions could no longer maintain their composure. With every step Sun Hang took forward, they retreated a step. Soon, all thirty-odd people were squeezed against the wall.

"I'll ask one last time, where is the main body of 'Tai Sui'?" Sun Hang lowered his voice. "I'm very hungry right now, so I'm very irritable. I don't want to waste any more time with you."

But who knew, the Saint seemed to have lost his nerve. As if he couldn't hear Sun Hang's question at all, he kept muttering the word "monster" to himself.

"Noisy." Sun Hang raised his hand and shot the Saint's head off.

The 'Tai Sui' parasitizing the Saint was of the best "quality" among this group, but it still couldn't alleviate Sun Hang's hunger.

Not only that, but Sun Hang also discovered that after "first" devouring another Anomaly, it was like eating an appetizer. Instead of being relieved, his hunger intensified.

He glanced at the group of believers trembling in the corner and couldn't help but think to himself how fortunate he was.

The cult's brainwashing wasn't entirely thorough—at least, they still knew how to fear death.

"Does anyone among you know where the main body of 'Tai Sui' is?" Sun Hang asked. "Take me there, and I can guarantee your survival."

The quality of the 'Tai Sui' within these believers varied. The worst was even inferior to the little girl who went out to buy breakfast, and the best was still far from the Saint's... As long as he could find the main body of 'Tai Sui', these scraps were practically negligible to Sun Hang.

The best course of action would probably be to hand them all over to the Investigation Bureau and the Research Institute... Of course, that would be after Sun Hang had devoured the main body of 'Tai Sui'.

He didn't intend to hide this matter, but before reporting it to the authorities, he had to fill his stomach first.

"...I know where Lord Tai Sui is!" a soft voice with a hint of timidity rang out. Sun Hang looked over and saw it was the young woman who had been used as a cushion by the "Saint" earlier.

The young woman was only wearing a thin white robe. In her panic, half of the robe had fallen off, revealing large expanses of snow-white skin—when she noticed Sun Hang's gaze, she hesitated for only a moment before lowering the arms that had been covering her chest.

"Put your clothes back on," Sun Hang said, waving the gun in his hand. "I'm not interested in taking over. As long as we can find the main body of 'Tai Sui', none of you will have to die."

"The Saint took me to cut Lord Tai Sui's flesh before!" the young woman said hurriedly. "Lord Tai Sui is buried beneath this building!"

"Beneath the building?" Sun Hang was slightly taken aback. If the main body of 'Tai Sui' was buried underground, why hadn't he sensed anything when he approached the building earlier?

"Really, I'm not lying!" The young woman looked so distressed she seemed about to cry. "Just two months ago, in the shaded area behind this building, you could see Lord Tai Sui just by digging up the soil!"

"You could see it just by digging up the soil? Is Tai Sui buried shallowly?"

"It... it seemed to be only about ten centimeters deep," the woman recalled. "That day, the Saint dug a few times with a shovel, and Lord Tai Sui's flesh was exposed... He cut the flesh himself. He didn't let us get close, only allowing us to hold jars and wait at a distance. After he finished cutting the flesh and filled the soil back, he allowed us to step forward and collect the cut pieces of flesh into the jars."

"Besides you, who else was present?" Sun Hang asked.

The young woman pointed at the two believers who had died first.

"Besides them? Who else saw the main body of 'Tai Sui'?" Sun Hang asked again.

"I... I've seen it too," said a woman in her thirties or forties. "What she said is true, Lord Tai Sui is indeed buried beneath this building, but only the Saint truly came into close contact with Tai Sui. We could only watch from a distance."

"How big was Tai Sui?"

"I'm not sure about that," the woman shook her head. "I could only see the soil being dug away, revealing a patch of white, scalp-like substance..."