The Devouring

As soon as Wen Li spoke, a silent storm swept through the entire space, then quickly faded into nothing.

In terms of intensity, the shock was little more than a breeze brushing across his face, but Fu Qian could feel that something had changed.

Before he could take a closer look, a nonhuman roar rang out, making his eardrums ache.

The Shadow Nightmare whose neck he was gripping began to struggle violently.

Had it been scared out of its mind? Fu Qian glanced at him.

The top assassin who had just been saying they could talk now had blood-red eyes and a beastlike growl rumbling in his throat. He thrashed about as if he didn't care whether he lived or died.

A sharp crack rang out.

Unable to break free, the Shadow Nightmare's neck was snapped in the next instant.

Stranger still, the severed stump was already withered as dry as a twig, and not a drop of blood spilled out.

Even with its head severed, the Shadow Nightmare didn't stop struggling. If anything, its movements grew more frenzied.

A rush of wind sounded. Fu Qian turned his head and dodged a claw swiping at it.

The claw missed, and the powerful momentum snapped the arm, already rotted beyond repair.

Again, no blood came out. Instead, the dark-red blood threads covering the arm peeled away all at once.

Then came the shoulder, the chest, and the rest of the upper body.

Like a cicada shedding its shell, the dark-red threads pulled themselves free of the Shadow Nightmare's corpse, strand by strand, then slipped onto the wall and clung tightly to it.

The Shadow Nightmare in his hand was well and truly dead. Fu Qian tossed the remains aside.

At that moment, it was as if a grenade had gone off inside his head.

An utterly violent urge to kill flooded his mind, stimulating every nerve and sending his thoughts reeling on the brink of collapse.

Every cell in his body turned restless. It seemed that only the bloodiest slaughter could calm them.

Hiss!

Drawing a deep breath, Fu Qian looked back.

Wen Li stood motionless, her eyes still shut.

She was still pale and delicate, but there was a clear difference in how she felt now, as if she were cloaked in mystery.

Farther away, Tan Mingxue had completely broken down. She clutched herself tightly and shivered in a corner.

Countless transparent threads, formed from her hair, writhed chaotically around her, keeping anything from getting close.

Could that invisible storm amplify people's emotions?

Fu Qian's mind stirred as he used the remnants of his reason to assess the situation.

The Shadow Nightmare had clearly been affected. It had already been desperate to escape, which was why it had just fought so recklessly to break free of his grip.

He hadn't expected Tan Mingxue to be affected too. This woman was more timid than she let on.

And she called herself a Night Watcher?

As for Wen Li, that storm had clearly been released from her. She was the source of this anomaly.

From that perspective, his plan to use the pressure and fear of death to push Wen Li had worked.

He still hadn't received a mission success notification, but Wen Li was clearly in the middle of a transformation.

As for whether this was the breakthrough opportunity she had mentioned, he could only wait and see.

Crack!

With a dull thud, Fu Qian snapped his own right hand.

He had no choice. If he hadn't, he would have beaten everyone nearby into a pulp.

Yet within seconds, his broken hand had firmly healed.

If he could just interrupt Wen Li, it would stop.

Amid another crack, Fu Qian broke one of his hands again and forced himself to calm down where he stood.

Interrupting Wen Li was easy. The tricky part was doing it without breaking her—literally.

Just then, the world before him turned blood-red.

After a shudder, the thing that had torn itself free of the Shadow Nightmare curled up on the wall into a spiked ball.

Not only that, the ball began expanding wildly. Countless crimson veins twisted together, corroding and devouring everything they encountered.

The nearest person was Wen Li, standing motionless.

In ten seconds at most, this promising young woman would be dead before her time.

Fu Qian made his assessment at once.

But if he smashed the thing, Scarlet Fever would escape.

That wouldn't matter to him. The problem was, even if Wen Li had advanced, there was no telling whether she would survive.

The instant the two choices surfaced in his mind, his thoughts descended into chaos, and he could barely think.

Sure enough, his indecision was being amplified too.

The thing grew at a furious pace. In the blink of an eye, it had expanded several times over, and now it was only a step away from Wen Li.

Kill it without breaking it. A little complicated.

The stricter the requirement, the broader the approach needed to be.

Fu Qian stepped forward, then completely released his hold on the violent urge to kill.

Squelch!

A flash of blood-red light, and his newly healed right hand carved a deep, bottomless gash across his chest.

Driven by his ferocious killing intent, his metabolism surged to its limit.

Almost instantly, the cells around the wound multiplied wildly, forming rows of sharp fangs.

He drew a deep breath, and the gash across his chest rapidly tore wider. In half a second, it had become a bloody maw lined with fangs.

Fu Qian opened it toward the dark-red mass.

The swollen blood mass had nowhere to run. He swallowed it in one bite.

The maw snapped shut, and the blood mass began to thrash wildly.

But no matter how it slammed itself against the walls, the cells in Fu Qian's berserk state held it down, leaving it no way out.

After an untold number of impacts, the blood mass finally ruptured and disintegrated.

A hot red mist spilled out, but Fu Qian still kept it locked inside his chest. Not a wisp escaped.

Half a minute later, Fu Qian walked over and kicked Wen Li.

"Ah!"

Wen Li cried out and opened her eyes, then sprang to her feet.

Judging by how swiftly she got up, there was no need to ask. She had definitely reached rank six.

Fu Qian felt the frenzy inside him vanish in an instant. It had indeed been caused by her.

Ranking up in the Mental System was such a hassle!

"Mr. Fu, thank you for your help."

Wen Li glanced around and seemed to understand what had happened. Delighted, she bowed deeply to Fu Qian.

But Fu Qian didn't answer. He stared into Wen Li's eyes, now far deeper than before, as a voice rang in his ears.

[Wen Li has died. Containment failed]

The next moment, the scene before him rapidly fell apart, and Fu Qian returned to the familiar Warehouse.

[Evaluation: Insane beyond all reason]

[Kills: Shadow Nightmare ×1]

[Special kills: Scarlet Angel ×1]

[Special kill reward: Tyrant's Fist]

[Current Sanity Value: 33]

[Play event replay?]

So it could still count as a failure. His instincts had been right: this mission had been far more difficult than it seemed.

Fu Qian took a breath. He didn't do anything like smash his keyboard. Instead, he stood still and selected the event replay.

He needed to confirm something.

Wen Li had been standing right in front of him and had successfully advanced to rank six, yet the notification said she had died and containment had failed.

Unless she wasn't Wen Li!

He skipped everything at the start and dragged the replay straight to the end, watching Wen Li rise after bowing.

The same face, the same lifelike expression. But compared with before her advancement, there was a hint of wickedness deep in her eyes.

Thanks to Hanjun for the support, and thanks to every reader. Good night, everyone!