The Black Liquid

"Is it over...?"

Xia Leng had gambled everything on that desperate move, and the gamble had paid off.

When death was inevitable either way, what was wrong with leaving the enemy with a scar they would never forget?

Even without the poison, Xia Leng would have fought back with everything he had, even if all he could do was leave his opponent with a single scar.

Although the poison had entered the man's bloodstream, this Baptized One was as good as dead.

But Xia Leng remained on high alert.

The poison needed three seconds to travel from the blood to the brain and the spinal nerves, enough to make a person completely lose the ability to fight.

And Baptized Ones were generally much stronger than ordinary people, so it would take around five seconds to paralyze one.

Five seconds was plenty of time for an Agile Hunter to throw everything into killing him, even if it meant dying together!

Xia Leng tightened his grip on the dagger, his gaze fixed as he readied himself to defend against the man's furious counterattack.

If he could just hold out for those five seconds, he would survive the night!

And the crystal in the Baptized One's brain was worth a fortune!

Yet two seconds passed without the man unleashing the violent, last-ditch counterattack Xia Leng expected.

Puzzled, Xia Leng looked up. The gang leader had taken the steel blade in his left hand and raised it high. His face twisted with a grimace of clenched teeth.

Crack!

A crisp chop of bone rang out. The gang leader gripped the blade in his left hand and, before the poison could spread from his right hand through the rest of his body, brought it down hard on his own elbow...

"Ah!!!!!!"

Xia Leng stared in shock as the severed arm hit the ground and rapidly melted into a smoking puddle of green pus.

Aside from the blood gushing from the stump and his agonized screams, the gang leader's body was otherwise unharmed.

Sacrificing part of one's body to save one's life was a common occurrence in the apocalypse.

And Xia Leng had, of course, considered the possibility that the gang leader might save himself by severing his arm.

He had to attack now, while his opponent was still struggling to adjust to the excruciating pain!!

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

Clang—

The bone dagger didn't pierce the man's skin as Xia Leng had expected. The gang leader's left hand had been strengthened with startling speed, and he swiftly blocked the blow with the blade's hilt...

"You... bastard... I'll make you feel what it means... to wish you were dead!!"

The gang leader glared at Xia Leng, his eyes bloodshot with pain. He gritted his teeth, looking ready to chew his enemy to pieces!

He was a noble Baptized One, and some lowly commoner had taken his arm?!

Xia Leng instantly sensed the savage fury radiating from him. He was about to yank back his dagger and retreat to a safe distance when—

A shadow flashed beneath him. Thud!!

His stomach went cold. Then excruciating pain spread from his abdomen through his entire body, making him convulse!

A brutal kick from the Apocalypse Hunter, swift as lightning, sent Xia Leng flying five meters away!

As he sailed through the air, he heard the brittle snaps of several ribs breaking inside his chest. Then he crashed to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust...

Xia Leng struggled to raise his head. The gang leader tore off some clothing and wrapped it around his severed arm to stem the bleeding. Then, holding a blade in his left hand, he stalked toward Xia Leng with a savage look on his face.

He was just an ordinary man. He had used every trick he knew and fought with all his might, but he still couldn't defeat a Baptized One, a man favored by fate...

His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, until darkness swallowed his vision...

He had no idea how long the darkness lasted. Then a scorching burn spread over his body, dragging Xia Leng back to consciousness.

He slowly opened his heavy eyelids and found himself strapped to an upright cross. The pain from the broken ribs in his chest made it hard to breathe.

Splash—

Another searing wave crawled from head to toe across his skin, and Xia Leng finally couldn't hold back a cry of pain.

"Huh? Boss!! This guy's awake!"

At that moment, Xia Leng heard a familiar voice. It was the tall, skinny man from before!

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

Weakly, Xia Leng looked around. He was in a crude tent camp, surrounded by a ring of barbed wire, tripods, and other obstacles. Dozens of tents had been enclosed to form a small makeshift refuge.

The cross he was tied to stood in the open center of the camp. A bonfire blazed in front of him, and in the flickering firelight, he could see the hungry, beastlike eyes watching him from dozens of half-open tents.

Xia Leng tried to break free from the cross, but sharp pain shot through his limbs. They had bound his hands and feet with barbed wire!

The two buckets of boiling water the lanky man had just poured over him had nearly scalded off a layer of his skin, leaving him even more sensitive to pain!

A hellish torture was about to begin.

"Send a few men to where we fought earlier. Bring back the bodies of those guys. Don't let some other mutant creature eat them."

Just then, Xia Leng heard the gang leader approaching. He was giving instructions to the men beside him. This was the man whose right arm Xia Leng had severed.

Suddenly!

A hand seized Xia Leng by the hair and yanked his drooping head up!

Forced to look up, Xia Leng saw the same gang leader from before.

The sight of his severed right arm was still fresh in Xia Leng's mind, though now it was wrapped in layer upon layer of bandages, with blood faintly seeping through.

"Well? Looking at your handiwork, aren't you just bursting with pride?!"

The gang leader sneered as he yanked Xia Leng's head up and forced him to look at the stump. His chest heaved violently, betraying his words. He wanted nothing more than to tear the filthy refugee in front of him to pieces!

"Hmph..."

But Xia Leng's response was a contemptuous snort, without even lifting his eyelids. The gang leader had hoped to hear him beg, and his anger only grew.

Still, the man quickly calmed down. "What? You want to make me so angry that I kill you right away? You've got a pretty sweet fantasy there, hahaha!!"

Seeing that his intentions had been read, Xia Leng fell silent and closed his eyes, waiting for the torture to begin. He'd come around to it. If he was going to die after finally surviving death once, he might as well die in an interesting way.

Xia Leng had always been good at finding amusement in misery, giving himself some reason to feel better...

"At first, when I saw how skilled you were and all the traps you'd set, I thought about bringing you into my crew. But you fucking took my arm! Of course, that's not the main reason. It's that look in your eyes. It made me realize I can't let you live, because two tigers can't—"

"Do all leaders love to hear themselves talk? Get on with it, idiot..."

Xia Leng cut him off mid-speech, leaving the gang leader stunned.

"Fine! If you're so eager to die, I'll make sure you die slowly! Kids, come on out and eat!!"

At his command, the residents who had been stirring restlessly inside the tents crawled out one after another!

But these "residents" were covered in pustules or missing limbs. Some were so hunched over that their upper bodies nearly touched the ground!

In short, these deformed people were also products of the Black Rain's corruption...

"Go enjoy your food. Remember, don't bite anything vital, or I'll blow your heads off!"

The savage grin on the gang leader's face showed the satisfaction of a man avenging himself. But then he thought of how his missing right arm would hinder future hunts, and his mood quickly darkened.

As Xia Leng watched the deformed savages approach, snarling, his mind was already prepared for death. He felt nothing.

Even as their disgusting, decayed teeth tore into his body, bringing excruciating pain from every part of him, he still made no sound.

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

Xia Leng felt the agony of his flesh being torn apart. His eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and he had already lost most of his blood.

In this wasteland where people ate one another, death might be the only way out...

Just then, one of the deformed people tried to get a share but couldn't squeeze through the crowd to reach the "delicacy" right in front of it. In its impatience, it hopped frantically in place.

At last, unable to resist the overwhelming smell of blood, it pulled out a spiked club. Stepping onto the backs of the surging crowd, it ignored the leader's warning, charged at the nearly dead Xia Leng, and swung the weapon hard at his head!

The deformed man wanted a taste of the freshest brain matter!

Thump!!

With a dull thud, Xia Leng's head drooped completely...

Inside his skull, a capsule buried there for who knew how long shattered on impact. A drop of pure black liquid spilled out and merged with Xia Leng's brain...