Dance of the Demons

Shanty District.

Time rewound.

Beneath the black clouds, invisible black shadows swept past like a locust plague. Drawn by the human-shaped furnaces, they plunged down headfirst and burrowed into the bodies of one mine slave after another.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

The drifting rain poured down, and the cold wind cut like knives.

Flashing lightning illuminated Wu Dao's wild, towering, bear-like physique. He tipped his head back toward the sky, bathing in the torrential rain, his eyes narrowed as though searching for something.

After his constitution entered the Beast King Realm.

Humans gained senses as sharp as those of animals. Their forewarning of danger far surpassed that of ordinary people, allowing them to "see" many things beyond the reach of the five senses through changes in the environment.

The rain came down in sheets, and the world was deafening.

Amid the clamor, Wu Dao keenly sensed that something unlike raindrops seemed to be falling from the sky into the Shanty District.

Cold, murmuring, chaotic, frenzied...

Ghosts!

The familiar sensation reminded Wu Dao of what he had encountered in Mine No. 1.

There was more than one ghost!

They howled and surged about like maggots in a cesspit, instinctively sickening both mind and body!

Creak!!

The heavy sound of a door closing in the distance pulled Wu Dao from his thoughts.

In the brief flare of lightning.

His gaze crossed several hundred meters and passed through a crack in the door, where he saw Meng Qingshuang and the countless shadows behind him, standing ready in formation.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

Several cold, eerie gusts swept past him.

Wu Dao could not see them.

But he could "sense" that several "people" had run past him.

He was like a stove on a freezing night, making those cold silhouettes fear him. They deliberately avoided him and chose other targets.

Wu Dao narrowed his eyes.

He slowly turned around.

In the darkness, several bloated figures stopped wandering aimlessly and howling from hunger.

The sleeping mine slaves suddenly sat bolt upright as well. Then they all shuddered, lowered their heads, and began convulsing all over as though struck by lightning.

A moment later.

The convulsions stopped.

Amid the unceasing thunder and flashes of lightning.

They slowly raised their heads. Their expressions were twisted and bizarre, their eyes curved into crescents, and the corners of their mouths stretched nearly to their ears, exposing rows of black-yellow teeth.

They were smiling.

Smiling at one another, and smiling at Wu Dao.

Then.

Wu Dao smiled too.

The torrential rain poured down behind him, and the gale whipped his thick black hair about. He looked like a grassland lion before the hunt.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bloated figures with eerie grins charged wildly out of the darkness, their hands half-curled, black teeth bared, like Evil Ghosts come to claim lives.

Five meters...

Four meters...

Three meters...

They drew closer and closer, reeking unbearably!

The curve of Wu Dao's mouth grew wider and wider, until it became exaggerated, revealing two perfectly interlocking rows of triangular shark teeth.

Hoo—

A foul wind rushed at his face.

The filthy black claws, held half-curled, were only centimeters from Wu Dao's neck when they abruptly stopped.

Under the lightning.

Wu Dao's huge, extraordinary physique blocked out all the light. His muscular right arm, veins bulging, shot up like lightning, and his palm, broad as a fan, covered the newcomer's entire greasy face.

His five fingers were like tiger claws. Three- to four-centimeter hooked nails pierced through skin and even facial bones beneath his immense force, as easily as squeezing tomatoes!

Crack, crack—

His middle, index, and ring fingers, pressed against the forehead, punched through the skull and entered the brain. He could feel something soft within.

"Roar!"

Wu Dao's action.

Was like a war drum in an arena announcing the start of a duel.

Ghostly roars shook the Shanty District, as though the gates of hell had swung wide open.

After a brief silence, some three hundred mine slaves erupted into a frenzied riot. With their mouths wide open, they savagely attacked and bit every living thing before them.

Wu Dao's location was no exception.

Aside from the bloated mine slave he had restrained.

The other dozen or so mine slaves in the room also began a chaotic melee.

Pouncing, biting, roaring!

They began slaughtering one another in the most primitive way nature allowed, using every part of their bodies.

The two tall Mutated Mine Slaves were especially ferocious. Like eagles snatching chicks, they pounced and killed several weaker mine slaves in no time. The stench of blood instantly burst forth, thick and lingering.

At the doorway.

"Ha... ha..."

Ragged, violent breathing sounded out.

Before the over-two-meter-tall Wu Dao, the bloated Mutated Mine Slave resembled a squat water vat. Blood sprayed all over its face beneath his claws as it struggled and flailed madly.

Wu Dao remained unmoved. Listening to the hellish symphony of chaos beside his ears, he still wore that savage, Mad Beast-like grin. The two rows of sharp teeth crossing like steel saws gleamed coldly.

His five fingers tightened!

His right palm slowly closed!

Crack, crack—

The sounds of bones shattering and tendons tearing rang out without pause. Red and white matter sprayed from between his fingers, and the bloated mine slave struggled even harder.

But no matter how it struggled.

It was as helpless as a little white rabbit beneath an eagle's talons.

Crunch, crunch...

A figure eating like a wild boar drew a measure of Wu Dao's attention.

Out of the corner of his eye.

In only a short while, just two Mutated Mine Slaves remained in the shack. They lay prone on the ground, baring two hollow fangs like poisonous snakes' steel spikes. Aimed at the major arteries, they gulped and sucked greedily.

As they sucked.

The Ghost Slaves on the ground visibly shriveled, becoming nothing but skin and bones within seconds.

Not only that.

Wu Dao could also "see" blurry black Ghost Shadows being sucked into the two Mutated Mine Slaves' gaping maws.

Raising gu?

At the sight.

Wu Dao vaguely guessed what the Four Seas Gang intended to do. But he only understood the process; he still did not know the final result.

But it did not matter.

Crack!

His right palm closed completely, and the struggling stopped.

Thud!

A heavy body hit the ground.

Crack—

Under the lightning, the bloated mine slave's entire face had vanished, crushed into a sunken hollow. Five clear finger marks could be seen around its edges.

Wu Dao kneaded and toyed with the Flesh and Bone in his palm.

Then he casually tossed it aside, got his bearings, and prepared to leave by another route.

In that fleeting glimpse earlier.

He had seen all the Four Seas Gang members gathered outside the Shanty District's only main gate.

They had clearly assumed that the mine slaves within the Shanty District had all fallen into madness, fighting in Gu Fighting and slaughtering and devouring one another. No one would think to flee for their lives.

Not to mention.

The seven- or eight-meter-high vertical wall was impossible to climb over.

But Wu Dao was not included among them.

His constitution had entered the Beast King Realm. With Tiger-Bear Strength, Leopard-Antelope Speed, Ape-Civet Agility, and hooked claws on both hands and feet, wielded with human intelligence, that power was far more than one plus one.

Forget seven or eight meters—even ten meters was flat ground to him.

Hm?

However.

Just as Wu Dao moved his feet, an inexplicable, richly fragrant scent with fatal allure caught his attention. He twitched his nose and quickly found its source.

He abruptly turned back!

To his surprise, the bloated mutated monster that had been lying on the ground seemed to have shrunk several sizes. It was skin and bones, shriveled without a trace of moisture.

Except...

Wu Dao's gaze shifted to its abdomen.

It writhed and bulged, as though all its Vitality and Spirit had condensed there, something being nurtured within.

The instant he saw this.

All the doubts in Wu Dao's heart exploded apart.

Anomalies!

Since he could consume anomalies to gain Evolution Points, then the extraordinary beings of this world might also have ways to treat anomalies as resources.

He had never considered that possibility before.

Partly because his understanding of the supernatural was limited, and partly because the Four Seas Gang's methods were simply too outrageous.

They used living people to raise anomalies!

He had thought that the Four Seas Gang had forcibly improved the physiques of forty-nine mine slaves and implanted anomalies into them to create a demonic army for conquest and war.

After all, from the first day he arrived in this world, he had heard that powerful figures across Da Li were rising one after another, and the land was far from peaceful.

Yet he had never expected.

The Four Seas Gang could be this ruthless.

After all their plotting, it truly had been to "raise pigs and eat meat"!

But.

The one thing they had not expected was that they had raised a true beast—Wu Dao!

"If the seeds are all 0.05, then once they mature..."

Wu Dao greedily inhaled the enticing aroma mingling with the earthy scent of soil washed by rain. He thought of the Evolution Points that had appeared on his Attribute Panel after he ate that bowl of meat ten days ago.

He weighed it briefly in his heart.

A few seconds later.

He licked his wet lips and turned to walk into the dark room.

Compared to slinking away in disgrace.

He preferred to fight his way out openly. The vicious resentment pent up in his chest for three months might soon be released.

Rumble!

"Roar! Roar! Roar!"

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. Roars rang out in the darkness, but moments later, they turned into silence amid wave after wave of bone-cracking sounds that set teeth on edge.

Two minutes later.

Wu Dao's tall figure, drenched in blood, appeared once more in the rainy night. He flicked the remaining Flesh and Bone from his nails, then spread open his broad right palm.

In his palm glimmered a faint blue light.

Three translucent blue flesh spheres, two dark and one light, were the size of pigeon eggs. Overall, though, they resembled snake eggs.

Because one could clearly see three chopstick-thick snake embryos within the eggs, each with a bizarre human face. They seemed already alive, making the three eggs pulse like hearts.

The two darker ones were the products of Gu Fighting.

The smaller one came from the "monster" Wu Dao had just killed.

"Damn, that smells good!"

Using the rainwater to casually rinse the three "snake eggs," Wu Dao impatiently tossed one into his mouth.

Crunch, crunch—

His serrated steel teeth bit through the snake egg, and juice splashed everywhere. The icy sourness made Wu Dao shudder, and that familiar chill reminded him of Mine No. 1.

The ghost was devoured by the egg after its host died.

Had two anomalies fused together?

Wu Dao toyed with the remaining two snake eggs in his hand, looking at the human-faced, snake-bodied things inside. His mind moved swiftly, and he immediately guessed their origins.

The Four Seas Gang had likely tampered with the food eaten daily by the three hundred mine slaves as well, so that the ghosts from Mine No. 1 could possess the mine slaves accurately.

But it didn't matter.

In the end, I was the one who got the bargain.

Wu Dao's two rows of shark teeth opened and closed as he focused on dealing with the food in his mouth.

The Human-Faced Snake embryo nurtured within the egg had extraordinarily tenacious vitality, tougher than taffy. It leaped and writhed in Wu Dao's mouth, trying to escape.

Sadly, it was useless.

Crunch!

His tongue curled, and his steel teeth snapped shut.

The jade-green little snake broke into two pieces, then was chewed into minced flesh and swallowed in one gulp.

"Crunchy, tastes like chicken~"

Wu Dao savored it for a moment and gave an impartial evaluation, his face still full of unsatisfied relish.

Note: Survival of the fittest was not simply a matter of who was stronger or weaker at a given moment. It referred to whether one could adapt to changes in the environment. Nature had no shortage of supposedly "weak" species that had survived from ancient times to the present; because they kept adapting to their environment, they endured.