Chapter 420 - A Rough Solution

Overhead, the night sky was pitch-black, as though a vast curtain had blocked out countless stars. Only the bright moon hung there silently, half of it veiled by drifting strands of cloud. The moonlight that shone down felt just as cold as the night breeze.

In this area was a central garden with a small circular white stone plaza. Around the plaza were tiers of steps and a ring of colorful flower beds stood at the edges. They emitted a faint fragrance in the chilly breeze.

The central garden served as a dividing point: on the west side, it led to Joy Street and other bustling night markets, while on the east side, it was near inns, restaurants, tailor shops, and other places selling daily necessities. Its north and south exits led straight to the main roads, making it the transportation hub for the entire northern part of Florence's District Four.

This was also the area Cassius had circled on his map as a possibility. Under the hazy moonlight, a robust figure in black single-layer clothing appeared atop a set of steps. He was holding a torch that had only recently been lit.

That entirely black torch bore an unusual flame at its tip. It glowed with a ghostly green light, reminiscent of a wolf's eyes, instilling an inexplicable sense of unease. Especially when Cassius moved, the eerie green flames would leap and extend in the air behind it, leaving a narrow trail of fire that looked rather terrifying.

In reality, though, it was merely the scented air currents generated by the burning black-bait wood. It ignited in the flames and briefly burned in the air. Cassius stood at the top of the steps, his gaze swiftly scanning ahead.

This spot was indeed excellent, offering routes in every direction. It would not take long for the air currents released by the black-bait wood to attract dark creatures.

He strode forward and propped the torch in the middle of the plaza with a rock. A faint, paint-like stench spread through the air. It was unpleasant to human noses, yet dark creatures flocked to it greedily.

Especially since this particular piece of black-bait wood that was provided by Ghost-Man was large and thick, leaving no doubt regarding its quality. It released an even more potent and enticing aroma. Cassius stepped back, letting the darkness fully envelop him. He leaned against a corner of the wall, quietly waiting for the ghoul to deliver itself.

At half-past eight that evening, in District Four of Florence, the streets were silent and deserted. A young man dressed in all black, emanating an icy aura, stood under the candlelight. It was a crossroads, where a forked candlestick burned silently like a street lamp. The man's shadow on the ground resembled a cluster of tentacles, massive and disturbing. On closer inspection, each tentacle seemed to have spikes.

Hu...

A gentle breeze blew in from the distance, causing his clothing to flutter. Solomon furrowed his brow slightly when he sensed a very faint stench in the air. He turned and headed toward a different street.

Five minutes later, at the entrance to a dimly lit alley, he abruptly stopped. His gaze flickered as he lifted his head.

His Sinful Thorns had responded. Sure enough, that dark creature was indeed in District Four and had acted that night. The residual energy aura in the air was fresh and dense, indicating that the dark creature had passed here no more than half an hour ago.

This made Solomon's heart surge with hope. Five days had passed, and at last, there was significant progress in his mission. With a bit of luck, he could complete the first phase of his trial tonight. Solomon lifted his foot and immediately dashed in a specific direction.

Elsewhere, at the junction between the commercial and residential districts, there were four or five major roads. Two of them ran parallel, separated by a row of buildings. Atop the tallest building sat Lion King Soss, cross-legged. He was practicing his Mad Lion Fist while keeping an eye on his surroundings. His Qi churned around his body as bloodshot veins covered his eyes.

After more than ten minutes, his chaotic Qi gradually subsided, and much of the bloodshot appearance faded. One key reason Soss dared to consume large quantities of sacred spring water in such a short time was that he had practiced the Mad Lion Fist diligently for over a decade.

It was a fist technique that helped regulate the body's Qi, balance one's mind, and stabilize one's will. Though it could not address the root issue, it could at least suppress the onset of side effects for a short while. This gave Soss the means to compete once more for the title of Shadow Hunter.

He had already made his calculations; the position of Shadow Hunter was his for the taking. After the baptism at the source of the sacred spring water, the side effects from his current heavy consumption would also be suppressed. Then, backed by the strength of a Shadow Hunter and aided by royal connections, he could search for the remaining stages of the Mad Lion Fist. Once it was complete, the side effects would be minimized. That was Soss's ideal scenario.

For now, though, capturing the dark creature known as the Laughing Nightmare was most crucial.

"Huh?" Soss suddenly perked up, his gaze turning razor-sharp.

His line of sight pierced dozens of meters, falling upon the shadow of a house on the street. A strange creature about the size of a dog darted quickly, rushing forward. Throughout the entire process, it made no noise whatsoever, making it difficult for ordinary people to detect.

"Just an ordinary Wild Beast level creature..." Soss withdrew his gaze and did not choose to strike.

He did not wish to startle his true target, the Laughing Nightmare, allowing it to prepare itself in advance. He calmed his mind and managed his Qi for about a minute.

Then, Soss sharply turned his head toward another street. A grayish mist the size of a human head drifted by at a low altitude, shaped vaguely like a skull. Had someone encountered it in the dead of night, they would likely have fainted on the spot.

It was a Wild Beast level dark creature called the Gray Mist Skull, which preferred staying still and liked to hide in secluded places to feed.

"..." Soss cast it a glance and frowned slightly.

Half a minute later, yet another dark creature passed by in a rush. This time, Soss felt uneasy; something seemed amiss.

One after another, dark creatures appeared to be heading toward the commercial district. It seemed something was happening there. Filled with doubt, Soss waited another two or three minutes in place. During that time, two more Wild Beast level dark creatures hurried by with a clearly defined destination.

He promptly stood and leaped from the rooftop. Following that last dark creature, he trailed after it.

In District Three of Florence, near a cluster of buildings around the Imperial Museum...

Under the faint moonlight, a half-human, half-wolf dark creature suddenly sprang from an alley. Its backward-jointed legs landed atop a wall, and the dark fur covering its body whipped about wildly. It opened its narrow, menacing wolf maw, greedily inhaling a deep breath. All its fur puffed out, faintly glowing.

The werewolf's head locked onto a direction, and it bounded off with a swift leap. Behind it, more dark creatures were drawn out. Nearly a hundred meters away, Claire watched all of this in silence. She reached out a slender finger to pinch the crystal earring on her right ear, which slowly turned red inside. Claire turned silently and followed the werewolf's trail.

In Florence's District Four at the central garden, the torch made from black-bait wood had already burned a quarter of the way through.

Cassius sensed his surroundings, lying in wait. Ghost-Man had said that black-bait wood was highly effective, and this massive piece was even more so. Cassius wanted to see just how effective it could be. Though, he believed that luring out the ghoul tonight would already count as success.

Time ticked by minute after minute, and soon it was around 8:40 p.m. On the edge of the central garden, behind one of the flowerbeds, crouched a young man dressed like a tailor's apprentice. He hunched down, parting the foliage with one hand to peer through a gap. His gaze was fixed on the center of the plaza, filled with greed and a raging hunger.

Each time the young man blinked, another black pupil appeared in each of his eyeballs. After dozens of blinks, his eyes were crammed with countless black pupils, as though they were revolting clusters of insect eggs. It was nauseating, like swarming larvae.

He panted slightly, breathing in the aroma with greed. His mouth grew wider and wider, until a ball of coiled, crimson tongue flopped out. Like a chameleon's, it was covered in fleshy lumps, and there was a pointy mouth at its tip.

"It smells so good... so good... I have to... I have to have it!" He mumbled to himself as if he were going mad.

He took another deep inhale, then stepped back twice. With a

thud

, his back appeared to bump against a thick wall. Yet, that wall radiated blazing body heat, as though an invisible and immense magnetic field had abruptly enveloped the area.

"

Hss

..." The young man felt as though the air around him was fleeing in terror under the pressure.

He found himself completely unable to move, and he heard someone behind him say...

"Smelled nice, did it? A pity it wasn't prepared for you...

heh heh heh

..." As soon as the words fell, the youth had no time to react before a sharp pain ripped through his head, and his field of vision spun a full three hundred and sixty degrees. He saw a thick arm holding him by the hair, and a headless corpse. The next moment, a terrifying vibration pulsed through the depths of his skull. His sight instantly went dark, and light vanished for him forever.

A minute later, a flayed two-headed hunting hound leaped down from the top of the steps, frenziedly pouncing on the torch in the center of the plaza. In midair, a spiral purple lance whizzed through the sky in a horizontal thrust. Carried by a colossal force, the two-headed hound flew off to the side with a thunderous crash. It was instantly blown to pieces by the explosive force contained within that roaring sonic spear.

Bone and flesh scattered everywhere, raining scarlet gore. They were all just rabble, mere Wild Beast level creatures. The ghoul had not shown up yet, so Cassius thought he might as well hope for a few ferocious Wild Beast level creatures to get some action.

In the following few minutes, dark creatures continued to appear from all directions. Without exception, each one met an inescapable fate. They were either pinned to the flowerbeds to become fertilizer or had their flesh spread evenly over the plaza.

Cassius raised an eyebrow; he had not expected District Four to hide so many dark creatures.

In truth, they were not only from District Four. If viewed from above, one would see that dark creatures from Florence's District Three, Four, and Five had all gone into a frenzy, charging toward the central garden. The effect of the black-bait wood that was as thick as an arm proved far stronger than anticipated.

By this point, Cassius saw no need to stay concealed. He stood boldly in the very center of the plaza, where the bodies of dark creatures lay everywhere around him. The scent of the black-bait wood attracted the dark creatures more powerfully than their instincts of fear, and they kept coming to meet their doom.

A tang of blood permeated the air as Cassius gazed at the slowly burning torch, secretly marveling that this thing really did work wonders. No wonder it required top-level privilege to be exchanged at Black Rain Manor. Had Ghost-Man not completed the World of Calamity mission twice to raise his privilege, he might not have qualified to purchase this arm-thick chunk of black-bait wood.

Cassius thought to himself that next time he met Ghost-Man, he should have him exchange for a few more sticks. Better to be prepared, as there was no telling when they might come in handy.

Suddenly, on the western side of the central garden, a figure floating at low altitude swooped in at incredible speed. She wore a tattered white robe, and her dull gray hair was about two meters long. The exposed skin was covered in green scales; her face was ugly like a vulture, and her eyes were hollow. Her left hand was normal, but her right hand had a round, fleshy tumor on the palm, its surface slick with mucus, resembling a fortune-teller's orb.

This green hag extended her right hand; its claw-like fingers raked across the surface of the tumor, drawing a streak of blue blood. Instantly, the plants in the many flowerbeds of the central garden surged forth, growing at hundreds of times their normal rate in a frenzied expansion. They had all mutated, bristling with spikes and scales on their surfaces. They no longer resembled plants so much as venomous sea serpents.

Whoosh!

From four or five of the surrounding flowerbeds, the plants' roots burst through the soil. A mass of mutated stems whipped through the air like iron flails, densely covering every possible angle and weaving a net of limbs.

"Now this was something worth savoring..." Cassius remained where he stood, slowly raising both hands, the tips of his ten fingers glowing a crimson hue like burning flames. He traced two large circles in the air with his fingers, leaving arcs of blood-colored light as an afterimage.

Crackle, crackle... ding, ding, ding...

All of the mutated roots were sliced into small segments; they clattered to the ground with a metallic ring. Clearly, under the green hag's control, those plants had become as hard as steel. Moreover, it seemed that their spikes were laced with poison.

Amid that rain of plant roots, Cassius turned, looking at the green hag from afar. The green hag shrieked, waving her left hand, clearly intending to command her mutated roots to attack again. However, those plants that had just attacked showed no response whatsoever.

The green hag waved again in confusion, only to see the mutated flora in four or five flowerbeds explode into sawdust with a

bang

. Even their roots at the base had been shredded by Cassius's Death's Fang Force.

"!!!" The green hag seemed enraged. She sank all five fingers into the tumor on her right hand, clawing out five bloody streaks at once. She then aimed her palm at the largest tree in the central garden, which stood over eight meters tall and took two people to encircle.

At once, the great tree mutated. Its old bark turned steel-like in color, twisted spiral markings encircling its trunk. In the middle of the trunk, an ancient, hideous face gradually emerged. The entire tree swelled, reaching one and a half times its original height in a single breath, tearing the flowerbed as it expanded.

Its roots at the base entwined into the shape of feet, and its branches contorted as if forming two massive hands. The ancient face on the trunk became clearer, and in a flash, its eyes opened. It was just about to open its mouth to roar.

Boom!

A fist rammed straight into its mouth.

Rumble!

The entire tree snapped at the face, splitting apart with brute force.

Cassius's entire arm was buried inside the trunk, and yellow shavings poured out like flowing water. His broad shoulders gave a slight backward shift, and with a burst of power, his arm became an axe blade that sliced the massive tree cleanly into two halves, causing the ten-meter trunk to topple.

It landed heavily on Cassius's shoulder with a

thud

, driving the ground beneath him downward before his feet rose back up. Cassius turned to the green hag some fifty meters away and let out a grim smile. He stomped down, crushing the entire flowerbed under an immense force.

Grasping the trunk in his arms, he shot forward as if wielding a colossal battering ram. With the speed of a speeding train, he charged straight at the green hag!

The green hag looked panicked and called upon all of the mutated plants around her to block him. However, they could either not keep up, or were simply smashed to pieces by brute force. The trunk never slowed, barreling forward without losing an ounce of momentum.

"Show mercy!"

Suddenly, a cold-faced youth in the distance went pale with shock—it was Solomon.

He had only just caught up to his target, the green hag, when he realized that his hard-won lead was about to be killed by Cassius.

"No..."