Bestial Nature

Peak C-rank. Half a step from B-rank.

Those words struck everyone like a hammer.

Captain Wang was at the early stage of the Core Condensation Realm and wielded the B-rank Ghostwood Vine ability.

He excelled at controlling and restraining enemies, but facing an opponent nearly an entire realm above him still filled him with dread.

"I'll hold it off! Use whatever time I can buy you! Get as many people out as you can!"

Captain Wang's voice exploded through their earpieces, hoarse and resolute.

Before he had finished speaking, he charged out of the main building toward the monstrous snake rising from the center of the field!

"You beast! Over here!"

"Ghostwood Vine—Entangle!"

Captain Wang roared as he landed and slammed both hands against the ground.

Dark blue-green spiritual energy flared around him, and he poured out the full power of the Core Condensation Realm!

Rumble!

The ground heaved violently. Countless thick, black, thorn-covered vines burst through the earth!

They were not real plants but manifestations of his ability. Every vine carried a sinister aura as they lashed toward the Nether-Ring Viper Queen's enormous body like countless demonic tentacles reaching up from hell!

In an instant, Ghostwood Vines wrapped around the giant snake's lower body. They tightened, driving countless thorns deep between its scales in an attempt to pin it down.

"Hiss—!!!"

The Nether-Ring Viper Queen let out a deafening hiss, enraged by this insect's provocation.

It thrashed, unleashing terrifying physical strength. Masses of Ghostwood Vines snapped at once and scattered across the ground!

But Captain Wang gritted his teeth and held firm. More vines surged endlessly from underground, winding around the snake as fast as the others broke. He was not trying to hurt it—only to buy time!

Captain Wang's face rapidly turned pale, and veins bulged across his forehead. His spiritual energy was draining fast under the strain of a clash this intense.

Every passing second felt like a dance on a knife's edge.

"Hurry! Move!"

Eyes red, the other team members seized the brief opening Captain Wang was buying with his life. They searched frantically for the last survivors, carrying or dragging those too frightened or injured to move, and rushed toward the school gate.

With their "queen" occupied, the snakes seemed slightly less aggressive. But the ones that had begun devouring each other looked fiercer than ever.

Hua Yin did not help carry the survivors.

Knife in hand, he stood in the entrance hall between the main building and the field like a silent guardian.

This was the front line, the main route by which the snakes could swarm into the teaching building from the field.

He did not watch the earth-shaking battle outside. His gaze stayed fixed on the ordinary Nether-Ring Snakes ahead, excited by the appearance of their mother and growing stronger as they devoured one another.

They surged toward Hua Yin in waves like a black tide, hissing as evolutionary greed and instinctive aggression drove them to attack.

At first, Hua Yin's knife remained steady.

Every stroke cut through a neck or severed a body with precision and efficiency.

Soon, foul blood soaked his boots, and its stench clung to him.

He had only one thought: clear the passage, reduce the threat, and buy time for the evacuation.

But gradually, something changed.

The hunger that had followed him since his awakening stirred under the intense stimulation of blood and life energy. It surged and roared with a force he had never felt before!

It battered at his reason!

This hunger was not an empty stomach. It was a craving from deep within, the collective hiss of the Pale Bewitching Butterflies, a frantic stirring of some instinct buried in his soul!

He could almost smell how delicious the dissipating life force and cold energy of every snake he killed would be!

And the snakes devouring one another, their auras growing stronger, gave off an even more enticing scent!

Kill...

Eat... them...

A cold, indistinct voice whispered from the depths of his mind.

Hua Yin's knife sped up until it was nothing but an afterimage.

But the calm restraint in his eyes gradually disappeared.

Deep within his black pupils, a pale flame began to burn beyond his control, growing brighter and ever more... ravenous.

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Devour...

Another E-Rank Nether-Ring Snake lunged at him. He swung his knife back and sliced away half its head.

The snake's body fell and convulsed. As its energy dispersed, Hua Yin swallowed involuntarily.

His mouth was watering. It was not disgust—it was hunger for food.

Hua Yin jerked his head, struggling to stay clearheaded.

But the Lost Butterflies he had released, those Pale Bewitching Butterflies, seemed to sense the change in their master.

Their flight grew more restless and vicious. Some even dove at snake corpses that had not quite died.

Their wing edges swept across the bodies, and their mouthparts opened, taking tiny traces of energy and feeding them back to Hua Yin like drops of cold, sweet water.

That faint sweetness fell into his desire like a drop of water into boiling oil. It erupted, and in that moment, desire overwhelmed reason completely!

"Grr..."

A low whimper, almost like an animal's, escaped Hua Yin's mouth.

At last, Hua Yin was no longer satisfied with using his knife.

He thrust out his left hand!

Whoosh!

More Pale Bewitching Butterflies poured out, fiercer and more numerous than before!

This time, they were no longer tools for searching or supporting his attacks.

They became the reaper's scythe, a pale, blood-soaked storm of slaughter!

Instead of scattering, the released butterflies gathered into several pale torrents and rushed straight at the densest clusters of snakes!

The Lost Butterflies no longer aimed precisely for vital points. They swarmed over every snake, slicing and tearing wildly with their sharp wings and mouthparts!

Blood and flesh flew through the entrance hall. The snakes were no longer left in halves by his blade; countless tiny edges shredded them into pulp!

Hua Yin stood at the center of the hall, knife in hand, breathing a little harder.

Bits of blood and flesh flecked his face. His eyes grew brighter and brighter as human reason gave way to a more primal, colder hunting instinct.

He watched the snakes shriek and come apart within the butterfly swarm, feeling a steady stream of mixed, cold energy flow into him through the Lost Butterflies.

The Pale Core inside Hua Yin throbbed powerfully like a heart. Pleasure washed over him as though he had finally eaten, and a grin slowly spread across his face.

Not enough...

Still not enough...

More...

Stronger...

Hua Yin took an unconscious step forward, his gaze falling on the "elite" snakes farther away. They were devouring one another, their auras already at peak E-Rank, with some even beginning to radiate D-rank power.

Those were the more "nourishing" prey.

His teammates' anxious shouts came through his earpiece, along with Captain Wang's muffled grunts as he fought for his life and the giant snake's furious roars...

All those sounds seemed unreal now, faint and distant.

The bloody feast before him and the hunger roaring inside him consumed every one of his senses.

Little by little, his bestial nature devoured the reason of the boy named Hua Yin.

The flame of desire burned silently in his eyes, cold and greedy.

Meanwhile, at the center of the field, Captain Wang coughed up blood. The backlash from the countless Ghostwood Vines the Nether-Ring Viper Queen had torn apart shook him to his core.

The giant snake's eerie green slit pupils turned impatiently toward the teaching building. Something there was slaughtering its offspring—an aura it found faintly repulsive, yet strangely alluring.

It whipped its head around and threw its enormous body into an even more violent struggle. The Ghostwood Vines wrapped around it creaked and began to snap.

Captain Wang's eyes turned bloodshot. With a roar, he wrung out the last of his spiritual energy:

"Stop... right there!"

Willpower alone could not bridge the gulf between their realms.

The line was collapsing.

Elsewhere, amid the blood and mangled flesh, the boy surrounded by countless Pale Bewitching Butterflies began to chuckle softly without realizing it.

"Heh... heh... heh..."

"Heh... heh... heh..."