Give Him Dignity

Clusters of blood-red spheres hung heavy like ripe fruit from branches woven of veins.

The two Awakened turned pale in an instant, their bodies shriveling as if drained dry.

Only then did they realize something was wrong, but before they could even scream, they had already become two corpses covered in blood-filled orbs.

They were deathly pale, stripped of every drop of color.

From start to finish, they never even had the chance to reveal what their psychic abilities were.

The blood spheres sprouting from their bodies grew even more eerie and brilliant, hanging there, glistening and succulent.

This grotesque scene drew the gaze of everyone present, plunging the entire room into a deathly silence.

Auntie Zhang, wearing her smiling mask, reached out to pluck a blood sphere the size of a kumquat. She lifted a corner of her mask, bit through the congealed skin, and grinned.

"Ugly as it looks, the taste isn't half bad."

Her teeth were stained a deep, blood red.

Song Zhonghai finally snapped out of his shock, his voice trembling as he spoke:

"Are you... are you the one they call Blood Pearl?"

His face was ashen, as if he were staring at some terrifying entity.

Auntie Zhang covered her mouth and chuckled: "You know of me?"

At the mention of that name, those in the room familiar with the world of anomalies—especially the world of the Awakened—felt a chill run down their spines.

This included Lv Yalian's father, Lv Feng.

Though Lv Yalian didn't know who Blood Pearl was, the sight of those two wretched corpses left her heart cold.

Yet, there was also a flicker of excitement.

Was this the kind of existence she and her father were meant to cling to?

This was power that could only be described as transcendent!

Feng Shihao, however, felt no fear. Instead, he roared at his men:

"Fire! Fire! Kill this monster!"

Veins bulged across his face, threatening to burst, and his bloodshot eyes burned with madness as he grabbed two of his subordinates to use as human shields.

At Feng Shihao's command, the seven or eight gunmen raised their weapons.

But before they could pull the triggers, veins erupted from their hands, and in the blink of an eye, they were covered in blood spheres!

They watched in horror as more and more veins burst from their arms, spreading across their entire bodies, and let out terrified screams.

They were rapidly becoming human trees laden with blood fruit!

Feng Shihao, still hiding behind his two subordinates, showed no sign of fear. Instead, he bellowed in a rage:

"Trash! If you've got the guts, stop using these sorcerous tricks and fight me one-on-one!"

Auntie Zhang, wearing her smiling mask, nodded slightly, ready to grant his request.

Today was supposed to be the day the Shepherd took office; she hadn't expected such idiots to appear at the reception ceremony.

She had to make these people die in the most miserable way possible to slightly atone for the mistakes her subordinates had made.

She only hoped the Shepherd would be a little happier after seeing these beautiful Blood Fruits.

In a flash, Auntie Zhang vanished and reappeared before Feng Shihao, raising her hand to deliver the final blow!

The two subordinates Feng Shihao held in front of him were already covered in blood fruit, looking quite exquisite.

"Stop." A hoarse, deep voice echoed from behind.

Auntie Zhang stopped dead in her tracks and retreated to her original position in an instant.

It was the Collector's command.

Those who had come to pay their respects to the Shepherd finally realized just how powerful this Shepherd truly was.

Even the terrifying woman who had just drained a man's blood with a flick of her wrist was merely a servant, obedient to the Shepherd's every word.

Click. With a soft sound, the Shepherd, wearing a blank white mask, produced a lighter and flicked it open.

The blood-red flame illuminated the dim room, making it appear even more sinister.

But in Li Fan's eyes, everything looked entirely different.

Under the red light, everyone in the room—save for his own family—was covered in black mold, the mark of anomalous psychic infection.

Feng Shihao and his men were almost entirely encased in the black mold.

At the same time, he could see the anomalous psychic entity rising from Feng Shihao; it looked strangely familiar, much like the sensation he'd had with the Tiger Pillar God, though significantly weaker in rank.

No wonder this Feng Shihao and his cronies were so arrogant, daring to openly provoke the Shepherd despite being members of the Cleaning Association.

So that was it.

Flower Civet Cat swiped a paw to extinguish the flame, and Li Fan said in a deep, hoarse voice:

"It's an anomalous infection."

As the words fell, Feng Shihao and the two subordinates he had seized let out simultaneous, frantic screams, their eyes bulging and veins popping across their faces.

His arms and legs had actually fused together with those of the two men!

Meanwhile, the faces of the two subordinates underwent a grotesque transformation, their jaws protruding forward as if they were wolves.

The monster formed by the fusion of the three men now stood on eight limbs; Feng Shihao's tongue lolled out over a meter long, covered in sharp, backward-facing barbs, while a crazed grin spread across his face.

At the same time, those gunmen whose hands were already covered in Blood Fruit, along with the two corpses similarly infested, began to emit strange, guttural sounds from their throats, as if their vocal cords were sticking together, and they began to tremble violently.

Their bodies were also beginning to adhere and fuse into one another!

Under his mask, Li Fan couldn't help but show an expression of disgust.

It was far too undignified.

Auntie Zhang finally understood what was happening; had she gone over there just a moment ago, she might have been ensnared by the opponent's bizarre infection.

"Give him some dignity," Li Fan said slowly.

Auntie Zhang nodded, her expression turning completely solemn. She struck the air repeatedly with her hands, and clusters of blood vessels erupted from the bodies of Feng Shihao and his subordinates, blossoming into crystal-clear Blood Fruit.

Even as their bodies fused into a single monster, they could not stop the birth of the fruit.

Watching this made Li Fan's trypophobia flare up.

Isn't this even less dignified!?

"Hahaha, it's useless! I have already gained enough power to punish you heretical sinners!"

The monster formed by Feng Shihao's fusion let out a wild laugh; although its body was covered in Blood Fruit, it seemed completely unaffected.

An Amalgam does not require blood.

Even if their bodies were completely blanketed by the Blood Fruit.

Auntie Zhang shook her head slightly and snapped her fingers.

The Blood Fruit on the surface of Feng Shihao and the others' fusing bodies shattered instantly, splashing the liquid inside onto the Amalgam.

A "hissing" sound erupted as the flesh of the Amalgam began to melt rapidly, sending up plumes of acrid smoke!

The blood inside these Blood Fruit had transformed into an acid with highly corrosive properties toward flesh!

Before the Amalgam could even react, the majority of their bodies had been corroded, leaving them as a pile of meat sludge dissolving in acid.

After a while, their flesh had been completely eaten away, leaving only a few skeletal remnants that continued to dissolve.

Only then did Auntie Zhang approach Li Fan, bowing her head in terror as she said:

"This subordinate was negligent and failed to notice they had long been infected, dirtying your eyes. Please forgive me!"

Her voice trembled, and tears of fear mixed with sweat flowed from the edges of her mask, dripping onto the floor.

The Mother with the Clown Mask and Old Chen with the Bear Mask also lowered their heads, not daring to draw a full breath.

To have botched the Shepherd's inauguration ceremony was enough to enrage the Collector.

They were nothing but a bunch of trash...

At this moment, Song Zhonghai, Lv Feng, and the others were equally shaken by the bizarre scene, but what shocked them even more was that the powerful Blood Pearl was so terrified of the Shepherd.

Just how strong was this person!?

Lv Yalian was so stunned that her entire body felt paralyzed; she couldn't move a muscle.

Was this the mysterious world of anomalies?

Those monsters were creatures straight out of a nightmare!

Yet, the woman wearing the smiling mask had dealt with all the monsters so easily.

What kind of existence was the man sitting motionless on the sofa, who had only spoken a few words?

He was terrifying, alluring, and impossible to resist.

Lv Yalian felt a dampness between her legs.

It was a mix of fear and the intense excitement of worshipping the strong.

Li Fan shook his head slightly, raised a finger to point at Lv Yalian and the others before him, and said in a hoarse voice:

"It is not over yet."