Black Liquid

"Is it over..."

Xia Leng had gambled his life on this desperate maneuver, and he had won.

Death was inevitable either way; if he could inflict a scar upon his enemy that would last for eternity before he perished, why not do it?

Even without the poison, Xia Leng would have fought with everything he had, even if it meant leaving behind nothing more than a single scratch.

Although the poison had seeped into the enemy's bloodstream and this Baptized One was undoubtedly doomed, Xia Leng remained on high alert.

This was because it took three seconds for the poison to travel from the bloodstream to the brain and cervical nerves before a person would completely lose their combat effectiveness.

Given that the physique of a Baptized One was generally much higher than that of an ordinary person, it would take about five seconds for them to be paralyzed.

Five seconds was enough for an agility-type hunter to cast everything aside and kill him with the intent of mutual destruction!

Xia Leng gripped his dagger tightly, his eyes focused, maintaining a defensive stance as he waited for the enemy's furious counterattack.

As long as he could endure these five seconds, he would survive the night!

Furthermore, the crystal within the brain of a Baptized One was of immense value!

However, after two seconds passed, Xia Leng did not receive the storm-like counterattack he had expected.

Puzzled, he looked up to see the leader grabbing his steel blade with his left hand and raising it high, his expression twisted into a savage, teeth-gritting snarl!

Crack!

With a crisp sound of bone being severed, the leader used his left hand to hack down viciously at his own elbow, just before the poison could spread from his right arm to the rest of his body...

"Ah!!!!!!"

Xia Leng watched in astonishment as the severed arm fell to the ground, rapidly melting into a puddle of smoking green pus.

As for the leader himself, aside from the blood spraying wildly from his stump and his agonizing screams, the rest of his body remained unharmed.

Sacrificing a limb to save one's own life was a common occurrence in this apocalyptic world.

The leader's act of self-amputation had been one of the possibilities Xia Leng had anticipated.

He had to take the initiative while the enemy had not yet fully adapted to the extreme pain!!

Xia Leng raised his dagger again, lunged forward, and thrust it toward the enemy's neck!

Clang~~

The bone dagger did not pierce the skin as expected; instead, it was quickly blocked by the leader's rapidly strengthened left hand, which gripped the blade's hilt...

"You... you bastard... I will make you experience... what it means to wish for death!!"

The leader's bloodshot eyes, fueled by excruciating pain, glared fiercely at Xia Leng, his teeth grinding as if he wanted to chew him alive!

As a noble "Baptized One," he had actually been crippled by a lowly commoner?!

Xia Leng instantly felt an extremely violent aura radiating from the enemy. Just as he prepared to retract his dagger and retreat to a safe distance, he saw a black shadow flash beneath him. Thud!!

He felt a chill in his abdomen, followed by a spasm-inducing pain that spread from his gut throughout his entire body!

Xia Leng was kicked by the lightning-fast hunter and sent flying five meters away!

In mid-air, he heard the crisp sound of his own ribs fracturing within his chest before he crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of thick dust...

Xia Leng lifted his head with great effort, watching as the enemy tore his clothes to bind the stump of his arm and stop the bleeding, then walked toward him, blade in his left hand and a savage look on his face.

He was just an ordinary person; despite using every scheme and exhausting every ounce of his strength, he was still no match for a Baptized One favored by the heavens...

Gradually, his eyelids grew heavy, until darkness swallowed his vision...

He did not know how long the darkness lasted, but a searing, scalding sensation spreading across his body finally jolted Xia Leng from his unconsciousness.

He slowly pried his heavy eyelids open and discovered that his entire body was bound to an upright cross; the agony from his broken ribs made it difficult to breathe.

Splash~

Another wave of intense burning crawled from his head to his toes, forcing a painful roar from Xia Leng's throat.

"Huh? Boss!! This guy is awake!"

At that moment, Xia Leng heard a familiar voice—it was the thin, tall man from before!

The thin man dropped the iron bucket he had been using to carry the boiling water and ran off to report to the boss.

Xia Leng looked around weakly and found himself in a crude tent encampment, surrounded by a circle of barbed wire, tripods, and other obstacles that formed a small, temporary shelter.

The cross he was bound to stood in the empty center of the camp, with a bonfire roaring in front of him. Through the flickering firelight, he could see beast-like, hungry gazes staring at him from the dozens of partially open tents surrounding him.

Xia Leng tried to break free from the cross, but an intense, sharp pain immediately surged from his limbs; they had bound his hands and feet with barbed wire!

The two buckets of boiling water the thin man had just poured over him had nearly scalded a layer of skin off his body, making him even more sensitive to the pain.

Soon, a hellish torture was about to descend upon Xia Leng.

"Arrange some men to go to the location where we fought earlier and bring back the corpses of those guys; don't let them go to waste in the mouths of other mutant creatures."

Just then, Xia Leng heard the voice of the leader whose right arm he had crippled approaching, as he gave instructions to his subordinates nearby.

Suddenly!

A hand violently grabbed Xia Leng's hair, yanking his drooping head upward!

Forced to look up, Xia Leng saw that it was indeed the leader from before.

The right arm he had severed was still fresh in his memory, though it was now wrapped in layers of bandages, with bloodstains faintly seeping through.

"How about it? Looking at your masterpiece, does a sense of pride well up inside you?!"

The leader sneered, grabbing Xia Leng's head and forcing him to stare at his severed arm. His heaving chest betrayed his true feelings; he wanted nothing more than to tear this lowly scavenger in front of him to shreds!

"Hmph..."

Yet, Xia Leng's only response was a cold, disdainful scoff without even lifting his eyelids, which only further infuriated the leader who had been hoping to hear a plea for mercy!

However, the man quickly calmed down. "What? Trying to provoke me into killing you outright? Your wishful thinking is a bit too optimistic, hahahaha!!"

Having his intentions seen through, Xia Leng stopped speaking and closed his eyes, waiting for the torture to come. He had come to terms with it; since he was going to die anyway, having a few more ways to go wasn't so bad.

Xia Leng had always liked to find joy in suffering, giving himself a reason to be comforted...

"Originally, seeing your skills and the various traps you set, I had thoughts of recruiting you under my command. But you, you bastard, destroyed one of my arms! Of course, that's not the main point; it's that look in your eyes that made me decide I absolutely cannot leave you alive, because two tigers cannot share one mountain..."

"Are all leaders as long-winded as you? Get on with it, you idiot..."

Xia Leng interrupted the man's long-winded speech, leaving the leader stunned.

"Fine! Since you're so hell-bent on dying, I'll make sure you die slowly! Boys, come out and eat!!"

At his command, the residents who had been restless inside the tent swarmed out!

These "residents," however, were either covered in pustules, missing limbs, or, in more extreme cases, so hunched over that their upper bodies were nearly pressed against the ground!

In short, these deformed, grotesque humans were also products of the Black Rain contamination...

"Go and enjoy your meal. Remember, don't bite his vital points, or I'll blow your heads off!"

The savage grin on the leader's face showed a sense of gratification as if his revenge had been served, but the thought of his missing right arm hindering future hunting operations quickly darkened his mood again.

As for Xia Leng, watching these deformed savages approaching with guttural roars, his heart, already prepared for death, remained without a ripple.

Even as their disgusting, festering teeth began to gnaw at his body, and heart-wrenching pain radiated from every part of him, he did not let out a single groan of agony.

Even in death, Xia Leng wanted to see the look of disappointment on that leader's face...

Xia Leng felt the excruciating pain of his flesh being torn away, and his eyelids grew heavier; his life was fading along with the loss of his blood.

In this man-eat-man wasteland, perhaps death was the only true liberation...

Just then, a deformed creature on the periphery, unable to squeeze in to get a share of the "delicacy" right before its eyes, jumped around in agitation.

Finally, unable to resist the lure of the thick, bloody scent, it pulled out a mace covered in barbs, stepped onto the backs of the surging crowd, ignored the leader's warning, and lunged at the dying Xia Leng, smashing down hard on his head!

This deformed creature wanted to taste the most delicious brains!

Thud!!

With a muffled sound, Xia Leng's head dropped completely limp...

And within his skull, a capsule that had been buried there for who knows how long shattered upon the heavy impact, releasing a single drop of pure black liquid that merged with Xia Leng's brain...