Chapter 189: 125. Distressed Fate
“Ugh, there are so many bugs coming again!”
Looking at the insects continuously pouring out from the vent, Jasmine behind him shouted in surprise. Fisher turned to look, only to find that many large-eyed bugs were also crawling in front of the crystal glass behind him. Unlike the buzzing insects in front, the silence behind was creeping quietly toward Jasmine.
When Jasmine’s small foot, wrapped in sandals, sensed the texture against her skin, she instinctively closed her eyes and yelled, swinging her tail with immense force, flinging a large number of insects away.
The flung large bugs kept changing their movements, and countless small figures quickly gathered with the insects falling from the vent. From that disgusting, stinking swarm of bugs, a lady with fair skin soon stood up, unclothed but with a face twisted in hateful greed.
“Fisher Benavides, do you think you can escape unscathed by standing with the royal family and receiving their favor? You will die here in the most tragic way. The Child of the Sea cannot take her away; she belongs to the Master.”
“Even if you don’t say so, I will go find that old immortal to settle the score.”
Fisher didn’t waste words, simply raising his Fluid Sword. The next second, with a blade flowing like mercury, it crossed half the chamber and instantly pierced through her body. But like before, this had no effect; there was no blood within her, and even after being struck, her smile became more grotesque.
With a slight raise of her delicate hand, countless writhing large maggots stretched out like a tide from beneath her feet. A closer look revealed that the heads of those harmless maggots were raised high, with a rather large mouthpart positioned centrally, equipped with sharp serrations.
Fisher was truly confused about how Blake managed to turn those once-human beings into their current forms. Based on the modifications seen on Kachina and the previously encountered Kraken, they could no longer be classified as human, could they?
The process of the human-worm disassembling and then reassembling was different. Fisher quietly categorized this additional biotechnology as part of Blake’s Soul Supplement Handbook knowledge, but now wasn’t the time to consider how they did it; the focus should be on how to resolve the enemy in front.
Watching the bugs continuing to charge, a faint hint of black surged in Jasmine’s eyes. She suddenly pointed a finger at the distant insects, preparing to use the power of curses to eliminate them.
But at this moment, her softness in front remained normal, and she had not entered a state of curse manipulation.
This could be considered a result of her training during this period; when conscious, she could utilize a bit of the curse power within her, but it was merely a fraction.
As the life-draining curse activated, the worms on the ground began to fall to the ground like dry leaves, turning to ashes and disappearing. But observing the results in front of her, Jasmine’s expression slightly changed as she looked at Fisher and said,
“Fisher, no, those bugs have no life force!”
“No life force?”
Fisher turned to look at Kachina, who was slowly moving her body, and again stretched out his Fluid Sword to slice through a group of large bugs. Those large insects wriggled and quickly turned to ashes, disappearing in place.
He seemed to understand something, suddenly pulling Jasmine back and shouting at her,
“Go, check behind the shelf to see if there are any clues we can take. Let’s look for evidence first; don’t mind her.”
Jasmine was unsure of Fisher’s exact intentions, but without much thought, she nodded and followed Fisher to the back of the shelf.
In front of them, a series of experimental facilities and bookshelves came into Fisher’s view.
“Buzz buzz buzz!”
The bugs behind continued to close in, giving them no time to breathe. To search for evidence, Fisher had to let Jasmine block the insects first, but requested her to reduce the number of curses used. He was worried that if she used too many, she might go berserk and make things chaotic.
His own attention was on the experimental equipment and reports in front of him, searching for anything that might prove the Healing Room and Blake conducted human experiments.
The reason for not addressing Kachina first was that Fisher had noticed that there were always bugs generating around her, seemingly infinite, impossible to kill entirely.
Or rather, those insects hadn’t truly died; Kachina’s body likely decomposed into countless bugs. As long as one remained alive, it would continue to produce lifeless insects?
But who knows where the bugs hiding Kachina’s life force were.
Fisher, however, had a way to handle her. His arms held a card engraved with Draconic fire magic, and as long as he found the evidence, he would burn this place along with Kachina to the ground.
However, upon inspecting the equipment, Fisher found them all to be perfectly normal, likely just some discarded maintenance chairs, forcing him to shift his gaze to the research materials further back.
Account books, inventory forms, operating manuals, experimental records.
A stack of neatly arranged books and records confronted Fisher. As he scanned them, he picked up a couple, opened one, and found the Nali text detailing the number of bodies purchased by the Healing Room this month and the population received from the Pink Pavilion.
This is it!
Fisher’s eyes brightened slightly; he had evidently found what he wanted.
The account books in front only reflected the data of the income warehouse, while the following operating manuals truly confirmed what the Healing Room was doing and why they sought to purchase corpses and living populations.
“Skin Care Oil: Requires young human subjects as main materials; add Tinnag Skin Water, Willow Tears, and Wood Spirit Essence as auxiliary materials.”
“Step 1: Boil the mixture for 144 hours, maintaining a constant temperature throughout.”
“Step 2: Lower temperature to extract bones, then seal.”
“Step 3: Add human corpses again, reduce temperature to half, add Kamala Coagulation Agent.”
“…”
Fisher grasped the manual tightly, frowning deeply. The incessant buzzing behind him grew louder, as countless eyes peered past Jasmine, who blocked Fisher, staring intently at the gentleman reading the book.
It turns out that the skincare products offered by the Healing Room to the Nali ladies were made from human bodies. No wonder all the ladies were enchanted by this non-magical “natural skincare method” and the results were extraordinarily good.
A wave of chilling discomfort rose in his heart, but Fisher continued reading the remaining content.
This operating manual was printed, detailing how the Healing Room conducted human refinement operations, and several experimental records followed. Fisher casually flipped through the topmost one, which contained specific data from the experiments.
Fisher sighed with relief, knowing this was the “deadly evidence” he wanted, but Kachina had already noticed Fisher reading the hidden records of the Healing Room. Infuriated, she instantly split into a massive cloud of black bugs, sweeping over the shelves toward Fisher and Jasmine.
The iron shelves and experimental equipment were visibly corroded as the swarm passed, and Fisher stared as Jasmine tried to use her hands to block the swarm. He paled, clutching the evidence in his arms, and quickly pulled Jasmine down, narrowly avoiding the attack of the insects.
“Ouch.”
Jasmine rubbed her head, while Fisher slowly pulled out a playing card featuring a black-and-white clown. As Fisher’s magical circuit surged, the clown card gradually glowed with layers of crimson light.
Draconic Magic, [Fei’s Dragon Flame].
Fisher acted swiftly, seizing the moment the swarm turned in mid-air to hurl the dragon flame, then dragged Jasmine quickly away from where they had just stood.
“Bang!”
“Ahhh!”
A blazing shockwave ignited the insect swarm in mid-air, burning towards the source, Kachina, making her scream in agony, her voice reverberating as if dancing in flames.
In Fisher’s view, although the flames were fierce enough to blacken the nearby walls, they seemed to cause Kachina pain without any substantial harm.
Some bugs died or were injured, countless turned to ash, but soon more bugs surged back from the ashes as if being reborn from the void, standing up one after another.
No effect?
Fisher was stunned by the operation of spontaneous resurrection; it left him wondering whether Kachina before him still belonged in the category of the living.
Just as he felt at his wit’s end, he suddenly caught out of the corner of his eye a faint red arrow on the side of the work manual he had just read. The arrow seemed hand-drawn, indicating to anyone seeing it to look at the page it pointed to.
“I am, immortal!”
Kachina’s frenzied voice rang out. In a time of crisis, the black water stream in Jasmine’s eyes surged again as she slowly raised a finger toward Kachina, but Fisher pressed her down.
He quickly opened the work manual to the page indicated by the arrow, only to find that the last page appeared to be glued shut. Without that arrow for guidance, it might have been hard to even notice that there was a final page.
With little effort, Fisher tore open the last glued page, revealing rows of red ink writing in front of him. It spoke in the tone of someone else,
“Hey, Mr. Fisher, this is a little help from your friend.”
Upon reaching this point, Fisher’s gaze shifted slightly, countless thoughts rushing to his mind, but he forced himself to suppress them to read on the mysterious person’s message. The text continued:
“What you see before you is a form of biological alchemy, which is the name of the relic creation method. The fundamental principle is actually to use souls to create a relic. That relic is the essence of Kachina’s ability to continuously summon meat worms. What you see now is merely a manifestation of bugs created by the relic, not her true form; hence, your attacks have no effect on her.”
“Such biological relics usually take the form of a container, and within that container, a complex nutrient solution nurtures a fraction of their true form. Destroy those container relics, and your crisis will be resolved.”
“End of hint, good luck, from your friend.”
A sealed relic?
At this moment, Fisher seemed to suddenly comprehend the principle of the relic.
He remembered reading about the nature of souls in the Soul Supplement Handbook, namely “fragmented independence.” If a part of the main body can survive, then the shattered soul residing within that part will slowly grow into a complete entity!
And the people from the Healing Room, whether Kachina or the previously encountered Kraken, were not their true forms; they were merely empty shells created by the relics, controlled by their souls.
No wonder they had so many extraordinary changes; fundamentally, they weren’t alive at all; they were all fictional products created by relics.
But where were the jars containing their true forms?
Suddenly, Fisher recalled the position where he had first obtained the work manual. At that time, the book was upside down on the shelf, and if that were the case, the side arrow pointed not only to the last glued page but also to the back wall of the secret chamber.
Really?
“Mr. Fisher, fire isn’t working; I should use the power of curses.”
“No, Jasmine, follow me.”
With this exploratory hypothesis, Fisher took Jasmine’s hand, lifting his Fluid Sword as the mercury blade transformed into a huge hammer at his will. He ran toward the back wall of the chamber, followed closely by swarms of bugs weaving through the fiery veil, their buzzing high-pitched.
“You! Damn it!”
Kachina’s voice behind was now barely recognizable, sounding more like a shrieking cursed banshee, but Fisher didn’t slow down. He raised the hammer high and struck the wall with force.
“Boom!”
The entire chamber began to tremble. In front of him, a huge pit was smashed open in the wall by Fisher’s hammer, and it indeed did not disappoint him; it was pitch black inside—it was hollow.
It’s really here!
Following Jasmine’s astonished gaze, inside the dark space lay dozens of small jars covered with some glowing fabric. Clearly, these were the biological alchemical relics the mysterious person had referred to.
“No!”
The bugs behind surged forward, transforming into tangible arms that seemed to aim to halt Fisher’s advance, but he had already raised his weapon, now back to its form as a Fluid Sword, sweeping without pause toward the jars before him.
“Clang clang.”
The sounds of countless liquids and ceramic jars shattering echoed through the dark space, accompanied by phantom-like, piercing screams rising incessantly, as if ghosts were being swept out of their dens by law enforcement. The ear-splitting sounds made both Fisher and Jasmine cover their ears.
Especially Jasmine; being of the Whale Folk, she could hear even lower-frequency sounds, and such shrill high-pitched screams were particularly unfriendly to her.
At that moment, outside the Healing Room, the staff being taken out by the royal guards suddenly stiffened, transforming into withered ashes before disappearing in place, much to the shock of Dexter, Lunsis, and the many royal guards around.
This eerie sight frightened everyone nearby; only Dexter appeared to have realized something, casting a meaningful glance at the now eerily silent Healing Room before glancing at the dazed Lunsis, then slowly walked back to his carriage.
Beside Dexter’s carriage, a lady in a white long dress slightly curtsied to him, softly saying,
“Brother.”
“Yeah, you’ve worked hard tonight. Take Lunsis back to the Golden Palace; I have many questions to ask him, especially about the Healing Room!”
Dexter finished speaking with a cold snort and boarded his carriage.
Once Lunsis was securely placed in the back seat of the carriage, they would depart, meaning Dexter entrusted the search of the Healing Room entirely to Elizabeth, knowing full well that Fisher was still inside investigating evidence.
Watching his older brother enter the carriage, Elizabeth turned her vacant golden eyes toward Lunsis, who was restrained by soldiers, slightly lowering his head, obscured in the moonlight, his expression unreadable.
Elizabeth sighed softly, gradually approaching Lunsis, and addressed him,
“Lunsis, you have made a grave mistake. You still do not repent. Do you acknowledge your errors to your brother?”
Hearing Elizabeth’s words, Lunsis pouted but remained silent, motionless in his stillness.
Observing his silence, Elizabeth gently patted his shoulder and softly advised,
“Listen carefully to your brother’s words when you return. Be a good little brother. He will forgive you, and your life will not change because of this. You must be grateful to him for that, understand?”
After saying this, Elizabeth breezed past Lunsis toward the Healing Room, leaving two soldiers to escort Lunsis toward the carriage.
However, they did not notice Lunsis’s body begin to tremble slightly, the resentment etched deeply in his eyes as he fixed his gaze on the carriage.
Ah, righteousness, ah, righteousness.
What a good, righteous first prince he was.
When did his life and everything depend on him for charity? Just because he was born before him, wasn’t he the one chosen by the father?
Damn it! Damn it! This unjust fate!
Lunsis was forcibly shoved into the back of the carriage, like a small box in an elongated back seat designed to increase passenger capacity. Due to the added length, the balance suppressed the space, making it very cramped, typically occupied by servants and attendants.
The small space and confinement of freedom mirrored Lunsis’s fate—truly distressing.
Sorry, I’ve been busy with work these days, so it’s currently a single update of five thousand words each day. I’ll return to double updates of 6000+ next month when things are less hectic.
Sorry, sorry.
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Thank you so much for your support!
(End of chapter)
