Chapter 231: The First State of Hatred

The crescent-moon smile on the Masked Man’s face remained unchanged. “Just an incomplete soul, nothing more. Superhuman, your time is running out.”

The elderly face among the Eight-Limbed Human Face gritted its teeth, as if making an agonizing decision.

Chen Ye urged, “Hurry up, or the promise is void!”

At the same time, Chen Ye stood ready. If the Eight-Limbed Human Face tried any tricks, he would make the final call at the last moment.

The old man’s eyes were slightly bloodshot. He bit his lip and said, “Sorry, little grandson. Grandpa will avenge you!”

After saying that,

a tentacle suddenly shot toward the childlike human face.

The little boy’s expression changed drastically. “Grandpa… Grandpa, no… I don’t want to die…”

The other faces clearly realized something, their expressions flipping to terror and unease one after another.

“Grandpa, you… you wouldn’t dare…”

“Father!”

“You…”

While the other faces were still stunned, they saw the tentacle already—

The following scene left even Chen Ye dumbfounded.

If one tried to describe it in words, it would probably trigger a content filter.

The Eight-Limbed Human Face originally had eight faces.

Now, it had seven.

Not only that.

In the next second,

the little girl’s face vanished amid frantic struggling, pierced by a tentacle, wrapped up, pulled out…

And swallowed…

The old man’s face chuckled through tears.

“Sorry, my precious grandson, Grandpa didn’t want this either…”

The other five faces showed different expressions.

Some were despairing.

Some indifferent.

Some terrified.

Some venomous!

Some hated the grandpa for being so ruthless—this child had been his cherished treasure he always boasted about.

But now…

he swallowed him himself!

All for the sake of gaining great power.

Of course, some blamed Chen Ye.

If it weren’t for his forcing…

The whole process was incredibly quick.

When the Eight-Limbed Human Face was reduced to six faces,

the old man’s face let out a wheezy laugh and looked toward the Masked Man.

His gaze was full of poisonous hatred.

“You think this is just a domain, and that an old man like me is helpless?”

“Come out, get out!”

Saying that, thick tentacles shot forward like deadly arrows, frantically stabbing at the Masked Man.

The crescent-moon smile on the Masked Man’s face didn’t change at all;

he simply stood there watching the Eight-Limbed Human Face’s rampage.

He seemed supremely confident in his ability.

Chen Ye was stunned by the Eight-Limbed Human Face’s ferocity.

He hadn’t imagined it could go this far.

Of course, Chen Ye also guessed why the Eight-Limbed Human Face was doing this.

It was now on the edge between soul and body, its current strength far inferior to the peak it had during the Rong City battle with the Death God.

To temporarily gain enormous power, there was no better method.

Meanwhile, Chen Ye’s wariness of the Eight-Limbed Human Face rose several levels.

If he himself hadn’t yet fully succumbed to it,

then the Eight-Limbed Human Face’s primary target right now might not be the Masked Man, but him!

This kind of brutal anomaly combined madness with perversion.

The whistle of tentacles cutting through air stung Chen Ye’s eardrums.

“Come out, come out! Come out!!!”

Each tentacle became the sharpest of weapons, stabbing hard at the Masked Man, then withdrawing.

Then stabbing out again!

In the blink of an eye, it had struck countless times.

Even if each thrust hit only empty air,

the Eight-Limbed Human Face did not relent.

The six remaining faces were full of bone-deep hatred and killing intent.

Even with Chen Ye’s Blood Eye, he could only make out blurs and afterimages.

The Masked Man remained unscathed.

His long limbs looked—

The Masked Man tilted his head slightly. The crescent-moon smile didn’t change, but a hint of boredom showed in his eyes.

“Superhuman, your time is up…”

“3!”

“2!”

“Click!”

Just as Chen Ye prepared to pull the trigger,

the space in front of the Masked Man emitted cracking sounds.

Like a mirror being pierced by a nail.

And that nail was the Eight-Limbed Human Face’s strike.

Cracks radiated outward from the tentacle tightly lodged in the spatial mirror, like a burst pattern.

“Heh heh… Whoever you are, have you underestimated me?”

The Eight-Limbed Human Face’s eerie voice came.

“Crack… crack… crack…”

The fissures multiplied.

Some cracks even spread to Chen Ye’s vicinity.

Next second,

“CRACK~~~”

The entire space collapsed like a shattered mirror, completely breaking down.

That suffocating pressure from the warped space finally vanished.

The Smoke Breath surrounding the Eight-Limbed Human Face dissipated quickly at the same time.

The old man’s face of the Eight-Limbed Human Face looked at Chen Ye. “Young man, remember the promise you made to me… or I will not spare you~~~”

The other faces glared at Chen Ye with equal venom.

Chen Ye snorted inwardly.

Promise? What promise?

What are you talking about? I don’t remember.

He exhaled a mouthful of Smoke Breath and summoned the Human-Faced Scorpion again, ready to fight.

Compared to the Eight-Limbed Human Face, the Human-Faced Scorpion was far more obedient and lacked those twisted thoughts.

“Amazing… Superhumans truly are unbelievable!”

“In that case…”

“Roar!”

At that moment, a Fire Dragon roared into the shattered space and lunged at the Masked Man.

Hatred at Chen Ye’s waist trembled madly, trying to rush out and vie with the Fire Dragon.

This was… Sun Xixi…

“Chen Ye, Chen Ye, are you still there?”

Amid the broken space, Chen Ye saw the pink-haired girl’s eyes wide open, her pretty eyes frantically scanning.

“Yezi, are you still there?”

Iron Lion’s simple voice came through…

Chen Ye finally snapped back to the real world.

Iron Lion and Sun Xixi had arrived.

When the two saw Chen Ye appear, both visibly breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Chen Ye hurriedly said, “There are anomalies. Everyone… be careful!”

By the usual TV or movie cliché, this is the most likely moment someone dies.

Chen Ye didn’t want that melodramatic nonsense happening around him.

“You’re okay, that’s such a relief. Don’t worry, leave this to me!”

The pink-haired girl’s eyes hardened, her expression turning serious as she muttered incantations.

The Fire Dragon grew hotter and hotter.

It formed a small fiery vortex on the spot.

Chen Ye felt Hatred tremble.

He lightly pressed his right hand on the hilt.

No way!

Hatred actually—

it actively triggered the first layer of its grudge-absorption state: Wailing.

When Hatred absorbs enough grievance, it can trigger three states.

The first state is Wailing: grievance is abundant, the blade’s sharpness and damage to anomalies are significantly increased.

The second state is Bitter Wailing: grievance reaches a critical point, allowing the blade to expend a large amount of grievance to launch a powerful attack that unleashes a slash accompanied by countless anguished human-face shockwaves. After activation, the grievance falls back to the initial tier. The faces on the blade briefly materialize and wail, causing a mental shock to all around (friend and foe alike).

As for the third state: Hatred briefly awakens and gains an unknown, immense power.

Chen Ye did not want to trigger the third state.

But now, Hatred had actively triggered the first state on its own!

This was unexpected to Chen Ye.

Could the grief in Divine Elephant Village be so concentrated?

Or was it Sun Xixi’s Fire Dragon Sword that caused it?

Or… was it this gilded Mask-wearing Man now being burned by the Fire Dragon?

Just then, the pink-haired girl’s expression shifted slightly.

“Careful, this… this anomaly… is wrong!”