0151 Food

This must be what they call a blood waterfall.

Moumou stared blankly at the sudden, violent gush of blood before her eyes. The long-necked behemoth, having instantly lost its head, turned into a giant blood fountain. The immense pressure from its heart forced all the blood meant for its head out into the air. The splashing blood, mixed with a small amount of venom, sprayed indiscriminately in all directions. The Night Ghouls stood unconcernedly in place, letting the blood stain their bodies. Their relaxed and blissful expressions made it seem as though they were taking a shower rather than being drenched in blood. Only when blood mixed with venom splattered towards them did they slightly adjust their positions.

Moumou, however, was not as carefree as the Night Ghouls. With wide eyes, she tried to dodge a glob of blood and unknown air impurities heading straight for her. Unfortunately, the restriction placed upon her by the Fairy Sister had not been lifted. Moumou could only make slight movements with her head—such as looking up, down, or slightly turning it—completely lacking advanced functions like rolling.

Yet the Fairy Sister seemed completely indifferent to the flying, foul-smelling blood. She remained lying motionlessly over Huanluo, as if nothing around her could distract her from observing the actions of the Night Ghouls. Unable to get up or dodge, Moumou could only wide her eyes, close her mouth tightly, and stay obediently in place, waiting for the blood to strike.

Thud—a faint, muffled sound, inaudible unless one leaned in close, rang out less than two centimeters from Moumou's ear. Moumou looked closely and was amazed to find that the blob of blood and impurities that had just flown at her had stopped two centimeters away from her side, as if there were an invisible wall beside her. In disbelief, she watched the blood and impurity mass hitting the "wall" slowly slide down along a strange curve, leaving no trace of blood on the transparent wall. That large dark red mass of liquid staged a fresh scene of "if there were no friction" right before Moumou's eyes.

It seems the Fairy Sister does care about such annoying things as blood splashing on her body after all... Moumou thought to herself secretly. She had been secretly wondering why the three living people were so close to the Night Ghouls yet remained undiscovered by them. Now, everything made sense. The Fairy Sister must have used some kind of transparent barrier to completely isolate the three of them from the outside world. Perhaps even their bodies were hidden along with it. Therefore, the Night Ghouls, who lived in the forest year-round and excelled in reaction time and observation skills, should have discovered them long ago.

The only thing Moumou found strange was that as a four-element mage, she had no idea what kind of magic the Fairy Sister used to create this barrier. Moumou could not feel any magical aura or natural elemental fluctuations emanating from the barrier that had been beside her all along. If this large barrier, capable of shielding three people, hadn't accidentally been hit by blood, Moumou might not have realized its existence even now.

What on earth is the origin of this Fairy Sister? If, as she thought, the Fairy Sister was also one of the Night Ghouls, wouldn't that mean the Night Ghouls possessed their own power system independent of the four major magic systems plus the earth magic system? But when the Night Ghoul squad leader was fighting the long-necked behemoth earlier, he clearly used wind magic elements. Could it be that the Fairy Sister did not belong to the Night Ghoul tribe and was instead an external entity? Or was the Fairy Sister some special kind of existence...

Before Moumou's mind full of strange thoughts could finish turning, she heard Huanluo beside her gasp sharply.

What's wrong now? Wasn't the fight already over? Why is she still gasping? Moumou had no idea what had happened; she simply followed Huanluo's line of sight and looked forward.

After the death of the long-necked behemoth, the lake water it had controlled returned to the large pit on the ground. The finally tranquil lake was as still as a pool of stagnant water. On the boundless horizon, the very last trace of the setting sun was about to sink below with the sun. The red glow of the twilight, mixed with the blood from the behemoth's corpse and the intermittently oozing venom, dyed the entire lake a scarlet, ghastly red. Lifeforms that had died from various causes floated lifelessly on the surface of the water, adding a dark atmosphere of enforced silence to the crimson expanse. The surroundings of the lake were also left in ruins by the chaotic battle. The ground corroded by the toxic venom was pitted and uneven; trees corroded by the venom were incomplete, charred, and withered in patches; lifeforms mistakenly injured by the toxic venom had all turned into black, mummified corpses, their mutilated bodies scattered in unknown places.

Amidst this deathly silence, the leading Night Ghoul captain heroically raised the scimitar in his hand and let out another loud howl toward the sky. Thick blood trickled down from his scimitar. At this moment, the Night Ghoul captain was completely unrecognizable; he looked as though he had taken a thorough bath in the behemoth's blood. Except for his eyes, which remained pitch black, his entire body was completely stained red. Against the backlight, Moumou felt that the captain at this moment was the very picture of a bloodthirsty demon crawling up from the depths of hell.

The other Night Ghoul members fared no better. In this operation, two of their teammates were heavily wounded and unconscious, one teammate had died, and another teammate, unable to dodge the final "venomous blood fountain," had no choice but to sacrifice an arm that accidentally came into contact with the venom to save his own life. Filled with grief and indignation, they followed their captain, raising their blood-soaked weapons high and howling towards the sky. The howling, devoid of any joy of victory, was filled with desolation and sorrowful indignation.

Next, a completely bloody scene that made Moumou and Huanluo's eyeballs almost pop out of their sockets unfolded.

The Night Ghoul squad leader, who had been standing in place striking a sorrowful pose, suddenly dashed straight toward the corpse of the long-necked behemoth. Without a word, he kicked the behemoth's corpse over, exposing its chest—the only part of its entire body untainted by toxins. Brandishing his scimitar, he hacked off a piece of tender meat from the behemoth's chest, completely ignoring the continuously dripping blood and the unstripped skin, and simply took a direct, hearty bite. In less than two or three bites, such a large piece of absolutely fresh breast meat was cleanly devoured by the captain.