Volume Three: The Academy Runs Completely Amok - Chapter 231: A Close Call (Part Two)

When I devoured the Crystal Emperor Fruit, thick Crystal Spike pierced out from inside my body, leaving my torso riddled with holes.

When I devoured Yan Yi Ming Hua, the crimson flames burned me to a crisp from the inside out, subjecting me to endless cycles of destruction and rebirth within the fiery hell.

The processes differ, but without exception, they are all extremely painful.

Yan Yi Ming Hua, in particular, was in so much pain that he lost the real sense of suffering.

But this time is different.

Is it because I've been in pain ever since I discovered the truth of this period of time that I'm now caught off guard by this novel feeling that's flooding my entire body?

It took my brain, which had been frozen in place, an unknown amount of time to recover, and that's when I understood the true nature of that feeling.

Comfortable. Very comfortable.

It felt so good that I thought I was dreaming.

Compared to eating delicious food, getting a massage, enjoying air conditioning in the sweltering heat, achieving orgasm through masturbation, or becoming the top scorer in the provincial college entrance examination, all of these combined are a hundred times more comfortable and blissful.

The fleshy mass called the Serpent's Egg melted almost instantly upon entering the mouth.

The vibrant energy it released permeated every inch of my body.

The excruciating pain was gone; the blood vessels stopped proliferating, wriggling, and eroding; and the damage to the body was repaired in an instant.

Not only those, but even the calluses on the palms from the Northern Frontier, the dead skin from the metabolism on the heels, the filth accumulated in the intestines—all the little details that everyone has but no one pays attention to are purified.

I feel completely refreshed, inside and out.

Even more incredible is the change in psychology.

The lingering madness and Killing Intent in my heart gradually disappeared, taking with it all the negative emotions I felt after learning the truth, such as shock, despair, and grief. I am in an incredibly good mood now, so good that it wouldn't be surprising if I could float away right now.

That's wonderful.

This is life.

There is no feeling in the world more pleasant than being born.

The vitality here is truly overwhelming.

Healing the body, clearing away impurities, improving mood—this is only a small part of it.

What about the rest?

It would be such a waste to let it slip away like this—my body seems to sense this as well.

Thus, the remaining vital energy flowed continuously into the body.

It permeates every cell, every drop of cytoplasm, every mitochondrion, and every strand of chromatin.

This is simply heavenly enjoyment.

You don't need to do anything, and your physical condition will keep improving.

The muscle fibers become larger and stronger.

The body, which had stopped growing, began to grow taller again.

The bones became hard and strong.

New fleshy growths compensate for inherent deficiencies in the human body.

The perspective is getting broader.

My body is getting bigger.

They are taking up more and more space.

Excess nerves emerge from the skin, directly receiving information from the outside world.

The ever-growing bones pierced the skin, and the wound healed again before it even had a chance to bleed.

The large, muscular mass was no longer content to stay in that area; it spread outwards recklessly, like pieces of bread scattered across the ground.

Even so, it feels so comfortable.

The feeling of growing up.

The feeling of becoming stronger.

The feeling of life.

I want to express my joy through singing, but I don't know where my mouth is.

I want to look around, but I have too many eyes and don't know which one to use.

I wanted to move, but my limbs were already fused together with large clumps of muscle and fat.

"...?"

Only then did the brain, numbed by the wonderful feeling of "gaining life," send out a "bad" signal.

The three of them stared wide-eyed at the strange sight before them.

When Haoyue first saw Ye's veins recede, she almost shouted with excitement.

Xiao Wu finally breathed a sigh of relief, thinking: Although Givinia made the devouring sound terrifying, it seems to be going smoothly.

Givinia was a little puzzled as to why things had gone so smoothly this time. But anyway, it was good that she had recovered.

But what happened next gave them a slap in the face.

"What... is this...?"

Xiao Wu's exclamation reflected the feelings of the other two.

The Serpent's Egg was very effective, not only restoring her to her original state but also strengthening her body.

The problem is that the effect was too good.

Excessive life force caused the body to grow unchecked, exceeding the limits of primates and developing in a distorted direction.

The sticky, enormous mass of flesh was so thick that it was impossible to distinguish the head from the limbs. Large chunks of what appeared to be muscle, fat, or internal organs were piled up haphazardly. Eyes of varying sizes were everywhere, and pink fur grew from every crevice. Near the top of the mass, there was more than one brain, and near the bottom, one could see many genitals and nail-like keratin.

What should we do?

"I'll try to break off the outer mass of flesh and forcibly pull out the main body..." Xiao Wu said, rolling up her sleeves.

"--Wait a minute!!!!"

"Don't worry, I won't touch or pick up anything directly with my bare hands."

With a clang, he drew his twin pistols.

"Not even with a gun!!!"

"You guys are such a hassle!"

"The problem is your brain!!!"

"Sigh..." Givinia sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"Tsk..." Haoyue clenched her fist.

The rampage of the Rakshasa True Word has come to a complete end—meaning the worst outcome has been avoided.

However, the situation is far from optimistic.

Haoyue looked at Givinia and asked, "You're the only one who witnessed Xiao Ye devouring something. In your experience, what should you do in a situation like this?"

Givinia shrugged helplessly.

"Wait, at a time like this, she can only rely on herself. Anything we do will only interfere with her."

"..."

Haoyue nodded slightly, then plopped down on the wet inner surface of the pipe, ignoring the dirty water splashing up and soiling her clothes.

"Only at this moment can we finally rest... isn't that ironic?"

An overwhelming weariness washed over me like a tide, and the bright moon slumped low in the sky.

Instead of the expected dirty pipe wall, my head bumped into something elastic and with a faint fragrance.

"... sausage?"

"Believe it or not, I'll shove your face down in the water!" Xiao Wu said impatiently.

"Just kidding... To be able to enjoy a lap pillow from this rebellious lady is truly an incredible privilege..."

A brief joke.

It was just to relieve my tension.

Then, the three of them turned their gaze back to the constantly writhing mountain of flesh.

The cells were like wild horses, proliferating uncontrollably! The amount of muscle, fat, bone, nerves, internal organs, and body hair all increased tenfold, and this rampant proliferation showed no signs of stopping! Cells divided into two, then four, increasing exponentially!

Stop! Stop!!!

But no matter how much I shouted in my heart, it was no use! Can an ordinary person control every single cell in their body? Of course not! Besides, I'm not a superhuman who can freely manipulate my body! What's most frustrating is that, unlike the previous two times, my life isn't threatened now; on the contrary—I have more life force than I can use! If I were under "attack," I could at least "resist" to prevent the situation from worsening, but "rebirth" theoretically doesn't threaten my life, so there's no question of resistance.

In other words, I am now completely at a loss.

Pain can be resolved by simply enduring it, but endurance won't solve the problem right now.

But how do we take action?

How can I control my out-of-control body?

"Enemy..."

This time, the enemy is not the Crystal Spike that burst forth from the body.

It wasn't a hellish inferno.

Instead--

"The enemy... is my own body..."

So--

"... As long as the enemy is defeated, that's all that matters!"

Then, I clarified the action plan.

I couldn't control the out-of-control chunks of meat.

Organs that cannot be controlled to proliferate.

However, my special ability, the Blood Fiend's special ability, is ultimately only one.

I still have things I can control.

My blood--!

"What's wrong!"

The sudden change startled the three of them.

The enormous mass of flesh, whose upper end had already reached the tube wall, suddenly began to writhe erratically. Its rough, sticky outer skin began to twitch, pulling out more and more intensely. Finally, the entire mass of flesh began to twist violently, as if something inside was turning the world upside down!

"Gurgle... gurgle..."

Something emerged from beneath the surface of the fleshy mass, and strands of red gradually increased, like tightly interwoven spiderwebs. As the web-like structure appeared, the lower part of the mass swelled up like a balloon, trembling violently. In the dim light, one could see that it was filled with an ominous red liquid—

Pfft! The protruding part broke.

Just like a water balloon being punctured, a large stream of liquid gushed out like a small fountain.

That was blood, a large amount of blood spurted out, drawing a bright red arc as it spilled onto the ground, forming a small puddle.

Starting with this signal, all parts of the flesh mass swelled up, burst open, and gushed out streams of blood, a sight that was indescribably bizarre and disgusting! Soon, the entire mass of flesh and the ground around it were covered in blood, like organs just dug out from some recently dead creature, bloody and sticky.

Even stranger things were just beginning.

All the blood slowly rose to the surface, coalescing into a large mass that tumbled and deformed in the air, like a living creature. The mass of blood split into several streams, each transforming into a long strip, the tip of which was a deformed maw resembling that of a moray eel, containing sharp, long teeth made of blood crystals. More than twenty mouths were aimed at the still slightly twitching but already regenerating mass of flesh, like a group of ferocious beasts appraising their prey.

"Hiss..."

The gigantic maw of blood completely surrounded the lump of flesh, leaving no blind spots.

At this moment, the three bystanders had already guessed what was going to happen next, and they all silently moved back a little.

More than twenty enormous mouths opened simultaneously, their blood-red crystalline teeth emitting a dark crimson glow, and they bit down hard on the mass of flesh! The jaws, possessing terrifying bite force, forcibly tore off chunks of skin, flesh, and fat, swallowing the entire mass of meat that had stuck together! With each piece of meat swallowed, a flame ignited in the blood, burning the excess flesh to ashes! However, the out-of-control flesh was not to be outdone; with each piece of flesh torn off, new flesh grew back at an even faster rate, and the newly grown flesh was more resistant to heat and tearing than the original, unlike the initial flesh that could be freely devoured by the giant mouths!

This was a truly bizarre and terrifying scene. Blood gushing from the flesh mass was devouring it, while the flesh mass itself was rapidly regenerating. A fierce tug-of-war had begun! The flesh mass was regenerating and multiplying faster and faster, and the bloody maw was devouring it more and more fiercely. Flesh and ashes flew everywhere, and blood was splattered all over the place, like a hellish scene of hungry ghosts devouring their prey!

Biological evolution is essentially the process of changing the gene frequency of a population through natural selection over thousands of years, passing on superior genes at the cost of countless lives.

The death of the first is so that the latter may live a better life.

This endless cycle of self-destruction before our eyes seems like a super-accelerated version of biological evolution.

Finally, the scales tipped.

Although it was only a tiny bit, the lump of flesh did shrink slightly. While the change was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, it was proof that the blood-mouthed creatures had finally gained the upper hand.

The standoff continued, with Bloodbeak growing more and more ferocious, its gaping maw expanding ever larger, while the mass of flesh shrank at an accelerating rate. Layer upon layer of muscle and fat dwindled, and the internal organs were completely devoured. By this time, the remaining portion was the size of an adult, but Bloodbeak showed no sign of stopping.

Glug-- Boom!!

Finally, the last piece of meat was swallowed whole.

There is none left.

They didn't leave behind a piece of meat the size of a person; they swallowed it all whole.

The pink-haired girl did not appear.

But the blood was still moving.

Glug glug glug...

Suddenly, all the blood floating in the void, whether droplets or torrents, coalesced into one. The blood sphere, a dozen cubic meters in size, continued to compress, becoming increasingly viscous with each compression. When it was finally compressed to the size of a human woman, the coagulation of the blood had reached the level of real flesh.

The Blood Maiden became increasingly clear, every detail of her body was outlined, and a dazzling pink radiance descended from her head, transforming into her signature long pink hair. Two rounded, high mounds also grew on her chest, her waist narrowed, her buttocks became more pert, and more and more of her original features reappeared.

This is a true rebirth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Get the new cheat code! Congratulations! After this, it'll be the boss battle of Volume 3. Guess how many bosses there are? One, two, three? No, no, no, you're all too naive!