Crescent Lake

“What mission are you talking about?” Belinda said, with a blank look on her face.

“You’re still trying to deceive me?” Aegnis’ voice rose an octave higher, “Don’t forget that as the leader of the holy city’s garrison, I have jurisdiction over both the adventurer and mercenary guilds!”

“The Crescent Lake Acquisition mission is extremely difficult, and has a Rank 5 danger level! Even those who are Rank 5 will have to face certain dangers, and you think you can do it?”

Aegnis bitterly exhorted her: “If you’re doing this for that holy light crystal, then just leave it to me!”

“Thank you Aegnis, but I have my own reasons......”

Belinda forced a smile on her face.

“I know, is it because of Nick? Even though you haven’t gone to find him for over a year, I know all about how you ask Sofia to bring things to him.”

“Is it because of him that you aren’t willing to accept me?” Aegnis’ said in a dark voice.

“It’s not what you think it is!” Belinda didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry.

“It’s exactly because of him! That bastard, sooner or later...” Aegnis slammed her fists together fiercely.

“Aegnis!”

“I only consider you my good friend. I’m giving you a final warning, if anything happens to Nick, you’ll definitely regret it!” Belinda’s expression grew darker.

“For him... You’re acting like this for a filthy man! You dare to actually argue with me?”

Aegnis emanated a terrifyingly powerful aura, and many shadows converged at her back to become the likeness of a three-headed python.

“Precisely!”

Even under the innate oppression of her race, Belinda still staunchly looked Aegnis in the eye.

Seeing Belinda acting this way, Aegnis’ chest heaved violently. “As you wish!” she panted out vulgarly.

The sound of armour dropping to the floor rang out, followed by the distant footsteps of Aegnis as she left.

Once she had left the villa, Aegnis’ expression grew completely dark.

“Bang!” A snake whip slashed out suddenly, and many rose petals and tulip petals flew into the sky.

“Nick!” Aegnis ground her teeth in frustration, but it soon became a cold laugh.

“I promised Belinda not to harm him, but Thomas hasn’t agreed. However, shall I go about this a little more secretly?”

......

“It should be here!”

Belinda looked at the map in her hand and appeared to be very cautious.

Currently, she was in a wasteland which had an aura of death and decay, which made her unconsciously become nervous.

Ever since the Calamity of Gluttony broke out, the entire Serpentes Plains was not how it used to be.

War, hand-to-hand combat and gluttony spread with incredible speed, leaving the plains covered in blood.

Even the Snake Dowager’s radiance could not move those savage gluttonous beasts, because they were also protected by an Exemplary.

The Sovereign King of Gluttony-- Beelzebub. Although it had not been 2 years since Beelzebub’s descent into Purgatory World, his name was known by everyone. It was to the extent where it could immediately make little snake children cry.

In this situation, because of the gluttonous beasts’ terrifying consumption, food shortages had broken out in the holy city. In the past, this would have been an absolute joke, but now it was something that had really happened.

In fact, the gluttonous beasts were facing the same food shortages, which were even more serious for them than the snake people. They were already at the stage where they were killing each other for food, otherwise they would have already invaded the holy city.

It was different from previous calamities. Belinda had a feeling that once the gluttonous beasts had occupied a territory under the Sovereign King of Gluttony’s command, it wouldn’t easily be relinquished ever again.

The Snake Dowager’s large-scale purification that had happened in the beginning could never happen again.

When she thought of this, a fog immediately shrouded Belinda’s mind.

“Once I pass through here, I will be very close to the Crescent Lake!”

Belinda muttered to herself, although she had disguised herself, she felt very unsafe in this sort of place.

“If Becker and the others had come, perhaps I would be able to relax more easily. It’s a shame......”

Belinda smiled bitterly. In her career as a mercenary, she had gained a few subordinates and the like, but once they heard that she had taken on this mission, they had rejected her one after another.

If Belinda had just a little more time and used her own methods, it would be effortless to unite some powerful and loyal subordinates. But just a year wasn’t even enough to bind them to her through familiarity, and certainly wasn’t enough to persuade them to take risks with her.

“However, my mission this time is just to collect blue quartz within the Crescent Lake. If I don’t disturb those gluttonous beasts, the danger should be quite low!”

Belinda pondered over this in silence, and soon passed through the plains.

Past the sloping fields, the scene ahead was reflected in her eyes-- a blue lake shaped like a crescent extended across the plains as far as the eye could see.

A sparkling radiance and a hint of chilliness was emitted from the Crescent Lake.

“This was once the holy city’s valued resource point, but after falling to the gluttonous beasts, it has already grown wild. If the holy city wasn’t so short of resources with they urgently need to replenish, perhaps they wouldn’t have put such a high price on this mission...”

Belinda bit her lip in distress.

With Aegnis there, she simply did not need to come out and take risks. If she was willing to forget her pride and plead with Aegnis, a piece of Holy Light Crystal would easily fall into her hands.

However, Belinda did not want to owe her so much and moreover, she was not willing to give up her dignity to do this.

Because of this, Belinda had not hesitated to risk her life to do this mission.

“If only the gluttonous beasts weren’t here, then I would have more of a chance,” Belinda’s eyes lit up. A tattoo of a white eyeball appeared and flew up to a high altitude, and images of the scene were transmitted to her.

“Roar...” “Hiss...”

It was unlucky that there were several gluttonous beasts lingering next to the Crescent Lake, tearing apart the corpse of a giant serpent.

Powerful undulations that were on par with a Rank 5 were emitted from a gluttonous beast that was the size of a small mountain

“Oh damn it! My luck is awful today!’ Belinda cursed silently.

Through the surveillance eyeball, Belinda had already received images of the scene which were transmitted directly into her consciousness. Amongst those gluttonous beasts, one was a giant serpent with many tentacles that had been split open from head to foot. There was also a giant rat with two heads, one bigger than the other, which gnawed its food at lightning speed.

The final beast appeared to be the corpses of different animals stitched together into a giant ball of meat, with a giant crack in its centre. A red tongue licked its white teeth incessantly, and it gave off the strongest undulations. It seemed to have reached the peak of Rank 5.

The corpse of the giant serpent on the floor was clearly also Rank 5, but it was definitely not a match for these three gluttonous beasts and had become their food.

“What a pity......” Belinda tightly clenched her fists.

That Rank 5 giant serpent was clearly a giant serpent descendent of the Thousand Snake Plains, but it couldn’t escape from its fate and became prey.

Although the Snake Dowager and the holy city had done their utmost to rescue and evacuate the giant serpents, the Thousand Snake Plains were too vast, and these unlucky ones often surfaced.

Although Belinda was furious, she was rational enough to not rush out hot-headedly and die.

“Gluttonous beasts have to eat very frequently, so sooner or later they will leave after they finish eating here...”

Belinda very patiently waited and hid herself.

These gluttonous beasts had astonishing military power and a frightening ability to consume, but their intelligence and detection were rather weak. This gave her a chance.

“Click! Click!”

These three gluttonous beasts ate very quickly, and not even the bones were spared. Even the drops of blood on the floor were greedily lapped up until there was nothing left-- The blood of a Rank 5 giant serpent was full of nutritious energy, and one drop of it was said to be better than eating ten low-ranked beasts.

When food is short, the gluttonous beasts probably massacre each other! In that case...”

Belinda’s eyes lit up a little as if she was a lone cheetah, waiting for the opportunity.

“Roar...” “Hiss...” “Coo! Coo!”

After eating the prey they had caught together, the three gluttonous beasts sized each other up and let out a huge roar which shook the void.

After obviously testing each other, the sewed-up monster and the tentacle snake left one after the other in opposite directions.

The gluttonous beasts digested things quickly, so they almost had no time to rest. They had to spend the rest of their lives fighting and hunting for food.

The two-headed rat that was left seemed thirsty. Leaning against the Crescent Lake, the two rat heads began to drink up the water in the lake. The surface of the lake seemed to drop in volume continuously, exposing the dried up lakebed.

Within the lakebed, small blue rays of light began to flicker.

It was a blue ore that looked very bright under the rays of light.

“Blue quartz!” After seeing the goal of her mission, Belinda grew very excited.

However, the actions of that two rats made Belinda feel endless frustration.

After the two-headed giant rat had drunk its fill from the lake, it unexpectedly lay next to the lake and sunk into a deep sleep.

The rat’s body emitted traces of black gas to its surroundings, and it breathed it in again. In this process, its body grew even more enormous, with a sarcoma growing on its neck. Its aura grew even more powerful, and was approaching the peak of Rank 5.

“Damn! I’ve unexpectedly run into an evolving gluttonous beast!”

Belinda’s expression grew exceptionally unsightly. gluttonous beasts rarely rested, one exception was when they absorbed too much energy and started to evolve!

After their deep sleep, the power of gluttonous beasts would undergo an earth-shattering transformation!