Cut Finger!

That was a severed finger!

It looked as though it had just been chopped off. Blood still drenched the cut surface, and one could even see the densely packed granulation tissue. It looked just like a snail's feelers.

The bearded man shook the sealing bottle and was about to explain, but the armored freak rasped, "Deal!"

The decisive reply left the bearded man stunned. Had he sold this universal flesh too cheaply?

"Wait, that thing will gradually replace all the flesh in your body. The side effects are tremendous. Give me three days, and I'll definitely gather anything you want."

The stall owner screamed!

"Bastard!"

The bearded man flew into a rage. He abruptly raised a hand, and the shadow beneath his feet suddenly transformed into a giant bear that lunged toward the stall owner.

Unexpectedly, the stall owner deftly scooped up the odds and ends from his stall, ducked down, escaped the bear's embrace, and fled.

The smoothness of his movements reminded Ning Xiuyuan of street vendors dodging city inspectors.

"Give me three days! Just three days!!!"

The stall owner plunged into the crowd, not forgetting to shout at Ning Xiuyuan.

"Money in one hand, goods in the other!"

The bearded man panicked. He gathered the pile of items together and looked at Ning Xiuyuan pleadingly.

Ning Xiuyuan turned and walked to the table. He reached into his clothes and took out a matchbox. With a flick of his finger, he pried open the match drawer, revealing the azure water droplet inside to show that he hadn't tampered with it or switched it out.

"Trade?" the bearded man couldn't help confirming again.

"Trade."

Ning Xiuyuan set the matchbox on the table, pressing down on it with only his right index finger.

The bearded man guarded his things with his right hand while nervously extending his left. Imitating Ning Xiuyuan, he lightly pressed his index finger against the matchbox.

Ning Xiuyuan lifted his index finger.

The bearded man snatched the matchbox into his hand. Only after confirming that the Dreamland Lake water inside was unharmed did he finally let out a long breath.

At that moment, he was surprised to discover that Ning Xiuyuan hadn't put away his goods. He seemed completely unafraid that the bearded man would go back on the deal.

"You have quite the nerve, sir. If you come across anything good in the future, feel free to look for me. I guarantee fair dealings with everyone." The bearded man smiled.

"Certainly!"

Ning Xiuyuan's voice was low as he turned and left.

"Sir, your—"

The bearded man had intended to remind Ning Xiuyuan that he hadn't taken his things, but before he could finish, he was dumbfounded to see that the items on the table had vanished at some point.

The sight turned his face deathly pale.

What terrifying methods!

He didn't even dare imagine how he would have dealt with it if the other party had harbored evil intentions and tried to seize the goods by force.

However, this was no time for lingering fear. He opened his mouth, stuffed the matchbox inside, and swallowed it expressionlessly.

Then the "quadruplets" rose simultaneously and walked toward the four directions of the black market.

At the same time, Ning Xiuyuan had already left the black market. He could clearly sense vague gazes lingering around him.

He suddenly recalled Angela's complaint: "Sometimes I can't understand it either. Why doesn't the Church level that place?"

Why didn't they level it?

Because this was Francis's Zion!

Ning Xiuyuan would bet that this black market was certainly under the Church's surveillance. The bearded man who had traded with him might even be a member of the Church.

With that thought in mind, Ning Xiuyuan quickened his pace.

Instead of proceeding along the street, he plunged straight into the residential building opposite after leaving the black market.

He hadn't gone far when a round, plump, spherical monster rolled out of the darkness. It split open its mouth, which was full of teeth, and croaked, "Baby, go to sleep, little flower blanket, cover yourself well..."

Muttering a strange nursery rhyme, it rumbled toward Ning Xiuyuan.

When it was about to reach him, it suddenly opened its enormous mouth and swallowed Ning Xiuyuan.

Ning Xiuyuan seemed to have been frightened senseless.

He stood there blankly, allowing the monster to swallow him whole.

After swallowing Ning Xiuyuan, the round monster was satisfied. It rumbled back into the darkness.

A moment later, three figures rushed over.

They stood where Ning Xiuyuan had disappeared and grimly surveyed their surroundings, whispering among themselves. Suddenly, an enraged roar rang out from the darkness.

"Sleep! All you know is sleeping! Hurry up and get to work! Work! Work!"

The darkness seethed. A huge figure with countless arms and an obese body, its tailcoat nearly bursting apart, rose from within it.

It brandished countless teaching rods and whips, lashing them viciously at the three figures who had followed.

"Damn it, go!"

The three men shouted in low voices and withdrew with grim expressions.

At the same time, Ning Xiuyuan had already passed through walls and alleys, reached the stables, and returned to his dormitory.

He shut the doors and windows, placed the oil lamp on the bedside table, and, like a weary traveler returning home, lay down on the soft couch. After murmuring a few incantations, he sank into a deep sleep.

In his dream, Ning Xiuyuan seemed to fall into the sea. Surging seawater crashed over him and submerged him, leaving him unable to breathe.

He desperately opened his mouth wide, trying to draw breath.

"Zz—"

At that very moment, Ning Xiuyuan took a long breath and abruptly opened his eyes.

The rough yet solid dormitory came into view.

"Phew—"

Ning Xiuyuan slowly exhaled the breath he had drawn in and successfully returned to the real world.

He took out his pocket watch and checked it.

An hour had passed in the dreamland, but only a minute had passed here.

"If one doesn't consider the consumption of spirituality, the dreamland is practically the perfect place for study and training." Ning Xiuyuan sighed and snapped his fingers.

A pile of supernatural items immediately appeared in front of him.

Besides those, a corpse suddenly dropped to the floor.

He had brought all these things out using his misaligned space storage. That brief period of storage had nearly drained all his spirituality.

Ning Xiuyuan considered the matter. Since he had obtained so many supernatural items through this transaction, he had to construct a permanent misaligned space as soon as possible. Otherwise, hiding so many things would be difficult.

As he thought this, tentacles suddenly emerged from the edge of his left eye socket.

Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes was as excited as a spider. It waved its jointed limbs and clung to the edge of his eye socket, forcing its body out. Its pitch-black horizontal pupil stared fixedly at the corpse, impatient to enjoy its food. Yet it seemed to be wary of something and was unwilling to leave the eye socket.

It could only unleash wave after wave of mental attacks, desperately crying out that it was hungry.

"I knew your cries of hunger weren't instinctive."

When Ning Xiuyuan saw that Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes refused to leave his left eye socket no matter what, his heart suddenly sank.

This meant that even though Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes had been controlled, it still retained a certain degree of consciousness.

After his expression shifted uncertainly for a long while, Ning Xiuyuan still rose and walked to the corpse, reaching out to touch it.

Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes waved its tentacles joyfully and burrowed into Ning Xiuyuan's eye socket again.

But this time, it went deeper!

It writhed frantically along the surface of its host's skin, burrowing all the way to the back of Ning Xiuyuan's hand. Only then did it suddenly force its way out, extend its tentacles, and thrust them into the corpse, beginning to process its food.

Under Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes' salting and fermenting, the corpse quickly emitted a nauseating stench.

Ning Xiuyuan frowned and had no choice but to squeeze out his remaining spirituality, pulling the corpse into misaligned space.

Three breaths later, the corpse gradually turned transparent before finally vanishing.

Left behind were one red and one crimson supernatural characteristic, entangled and roiling together.

Besides them, there were also several supernatural items.

At that moment, Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes was like a drunken man who had eaten his fill. It withdrew its tentacles, retracted into the skin, and slowly returned to the eye socket. After shifting its body, it transformed into a pitch-black round pupil.

"It didn't consume the supernatural characteristics? Is that deliberate camouflage, or do the Old Ones simply not need them?"

As Ning Xiuyuan pondered this, he suddenly recalled the scene after he killed Orlando's loss of control. The supernatural characteristic of Disease Deceiver that originated from Orlando had returned to its main body like a weary bird returning to the forest. He faintly formed a few guesses.

While thinking, he took out a sealing bottle and stored the two supernatural characteristics inside.

The unexpected acquisition of two supernatural characteristics did not make Ning Xiuyuan very happy, because he could clearly feel that Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes had grown stronger.

Its maximum driving time of eight minutes had been reduced to seven.

Of course, the radius of the space he could misalign had also increased by one foot.

Feeling the subtle changes in Horizontal-Pupiled Sheep Eyes, the heavy stone in Ning Xiuyuan's heart sank another degree.

Only after a long while did he come back to himself. He turned his gaze toward the supernatural items on the soft couch, and only then did his mood ease slightly.