Chapter 16: Doochu’s La La La

Talkativeness often leads to mistakes; restraining one’s words is a sign of wisdom.
Datta, true to his name, was sparing with words. He used to be a tenant farmer for the Manmores. His father died working in the fields, his mother died at home, his beloved sister never lived past age 12, and the girl he loved ended up marrying Lord Manmore’s brother as his second concubine.
As these misfortunes befallled him, Datta never uttered a complaint, neither in public nor in private. Instead, a fire ignited in his heart, fueled by hatred.
Until Datta raised his butcher’s knife high before his neighbors, everyone who knew him thought he was the kind of simple-minded man who would die in silence from suppressed anguish.
Reality proved to them that the true devil wasn’t in hell but among them—killing infants, murdering children. In a single day, Datta committed more evil than most villains do in their entire lives. His darkness was absolute and relentless.
Darkness rewarded Datta with extraordinary power as praise for his actions: he drank a low-grade potion, achieving freedom to transform between human and demon forms. He didn’t become an immortal demon nor a demon master, but rather a demon thrall. After transformation, his physical traits fully resembled those of a true devil, and his combat strength far surpassed that of ordinary demon thralls. At level 6, he went from a farmer barely at level 1 to a being equivalent to a level 6 knight.
Now, all Datta cared about was Nio. The flame of hatred in his heart wasn’t extinguished by the blood of those he killed; on the contrary, he craved more, desired something special, and longed to once again earn the favor of darkness.
Nio gave him such an opportunity. By subduing this werewolf, even if darkness didn’t reward him, the necromancer Eirlys would. A single dark potion could make Datta the top demon thrall in Tulip Town. The sensation of gaining such power was many times greater than an orgasm—just thinking about it filled Datta with delight and desire…
White vapor exhaled from Nio’s mouth and nose. If one paid close attention, they could notice the rhythm in this exhalation, just like the pace of his running.
Nio wasn’t feeling well. Dark energy and corrupt cysts tormented him, both physically and mentally. Yet at the same time, he felt a deep-seated thrill and excitement from his soul. This wasn’t because he reveled in suffering, but because of the curse of the werewolf race—greater pain meant greater excitement, as if a voice kept urging him: “Die in battle! Die in battle!”
It is said that this curse of boiling blood originated from the ancient demon Pandor, an evil being with godlike power. Pandor created flesh puppets using parts of himself combined with ancient humans, and endowed them with souls using the power of soul slabs, calling them Rosal mixed-bloods—these were the earliest werewolves.

Pan Duo created the Rosar hybrids to compete with his enemies for control over the heavens, earth, and seas of the mortal world, and the Blood Boil Curse was born to ensure that these hybrids could fight to the death in a frenzied manner. Although later, the god Brenens created the Purification Gate to help the Rosar hybrids escape this vicious curse that drove them to fight relentlessly once blood was shed, as a genetic imprint, the Blood Boil Curse had already merged deeply with the werewolves’ bloodline, so it could only be weakened, not completely eradicated.

The first to discover and exploit this secret were the demons from hell, who strived to restore the power of the Blood Boil Curse. Evil werewolf clans such as the Ghosts and Withered Flames became its victims, turning insane and bloodthirsty. The Vidennis werewolves also began attempting to trigger and control this cursed power after a certain chief, achieving some success. As a result, the Vidennis werewolves produced many berserkers, but their intelligence dropped to rock bottom after going berserk, and they reveled in battle.

Nio could sense this clearly mainly due to his strong mental power and keen perception. Additionally, the dark forces absorbed into his body were gradually intensifying the effect of the Blood Boil Curse in his bloodline—a dangerous sign, as its end was complete loss of self, turning him into a mindless killer.

Nio was still unaware of the danger creeping from within him, just as he was unaware of other harms brought by his ability to absorb life force. He simply felt in good spirits, with a strong will to fight and compete filling his heart. His mind was clear, and he had full control over his body. Even with nearly 40 dark minions above level 3 chasing after him, he remained confident and fearless.

Roar… Roar…

Whether they were possessed beings or undead, they were all moving in their beastly forms at this moment. Only in this way could they maximize their speed, reaching over 70 kilometers per hour. For reference, a cheetah only reaches 60 kilometers per hour, and that’s in short bursts.

The wind howled in their ears, the snow along the path turned into streaks flying backward, and the world ahead swayed. Nio felt this was the most exhilarating run of his life. His front and back legs stretched fully with each stride, with each leap covering more than 15 meters.

Yet, Nio’s running style didn’t resemble that of a gazelle’s hopping motion at all; instead, it was a powerful leap, shooting forward swiftly along the snow, giving off an image of agility—the beauty born from the perfect combination of strength and speed.

The werewolves and their pursuers raced south across the plains, while a golden-crowned Solaz eagle flew across the sky. From above, the creatures on the ground appeared insignificant, but the truths of the world lay hidden within these tiny beings, evolving and changing, waiting for eyes to observe and discover…

Datha didn’t run slowly—indeed, he ran wildly—but he still failed to catch up to Nio before entering the forest, not even reaching the range where he could use his Magic Breath (the demonic version of battle breath). Yet Datha felt not a hint of frustration. Watching Nio disappear into the jungle, he merely curled his lips coldly.

The demonized beings and demonized undead rushed to the foot of the forest, stopping in their tracks as their gazes focused on Datai. Datai walked calmly toward the last of the demonized undead and suddenly plunged his claw, gripping its massive head. Crack! Brain matter and blood spilled from between his claws. The demonized undead, with its head crushed, did not die immediately; its body convulsed in the snow. Datai stretched out his blood-red tongue to lick the red and white mixture between his claws, concentrating as if a child were licking a favorite candy stick. Then, as Datai examined each of his dark minions with an expressionless face, they all returned his gaze with fear and reverence—fear born of awe, reverence born of conviction. Datai extended one claw, and black light gathered at its tip, eventually forming a black sphere. Boom! Datai crushed the sphere violently, and black smoke seeped out, drifting like threads, seemingly entering the mouths and noses of the demonized beings and undead as if possessed of a will of its own. By sharing this dark energy, Datai could track them through the continuous emission of dark light from Neo’s body; now, the demonized beings and undead could do the same. A simple tactic of feigning retreat—Datai first made his prey think it had escaped, patiently waiting before setting a trap to capture them all at once. As Datai and his followers finished warming up and began entering the jungle methodically, Neo continued to run fast. Escaping into the jungle wasn’t enough; he didn’t really care if enemies were chasing him. His goal was the Valley of Hidden Soldiers, and he seemed to have endless energy. His heavy load slowed him down in the forest, but it was still much faster than when he was in human form. He crossed ice streams, leaped over ravines, and darted through towering ancient trees, avoiding the crisscrossing branches. The location where Neo entered the jungle was quite far from the Valley of Hidden Soldiers; it took him nearly an hour to reach there. Upon rushing into the smelting chamber in the mine, Neo’s first action was to tear off his skin, which was rotting and oozing pus due to the corrupt cysts. “Ah! Ah…” The intense pain made Neo cry out in agony, but his gaze remained resolute, and his swinging wolf claws showed no hesitation or weakness, until his chest, arms, and even face were covered in blood. Huh… Huh… Neo panted. Although the pain was less severe now, it still made the corners of his mouth twitch involuntarily. Having fought against various intense, brief, and persistent pains since childhood, Neo had considerable experience in this regard and was skilled at distraction—trying not to think about the pain and focusing instead on other things, such as studying or working. Neo began gathering charcoal to light the smelting furnace. The special nature of the furnace made it difficult to ignite, and it took some time before it could be used. During this waiting period, Neo gathered some materials he had on hand to make trap components—he wanted those dark minions to shed all the filthy blood from their bodies in this jungle. Once the furnace was ready, Neo’s first action was to use long tongs to pick up a soul tomb and plunge it into the red, glowing furnace with a golden sheen.

Before long, a sharp, high-pitched scraping sound of metal was heard, and Neo smiled.
“Aren’t you lost? Don’t you know where to go? I’ll help you—go to hell!” Neo neatly arranged the bone-based soul tombs in the smelting furnace, then closed the door and pumped air into it with a leather bellows. Huh…
A dozen minutes later…
“Huh?” When Neo opened the smelting furnace, he was surprised to find that the bone soul tombs hadn’t turned into ashes but had melted into a grayish-black substance.
“Interesting!” Neo didn’t rush to study it. Worried that the wandering souls might not be completely dead, he tossed the substance deep into the furnace and then added some metal parts he had on hand to start crafting trap components.
Since these were already shaped or semi-shaped objects, and what Neo needed were just simple items like spikes, pins, and teeth, progress was fast. In just over half an hour, he had gathered more than 30 pieces, so he stopped for a while.
While forging, Neo fully utilized the healing abilities of his “Wolf Bloodline,” and his injuries had healed significantly. Seeing no remaining rotten scars, he applied some topical medicine and wrapped the area tightly with gauze. As soon as the medicine took effect, a cool sensation spread from the wound, reducing the intense pain.
Neo had left most of his belongings in the underground secret room in Macken’s town in Tulip Town. What he was using now were the military supplies left by Adrian. Though not as excellent as those he prepared himself, they were still decent.
Just then, a dingling sound! The small copper bell hanging in the secret room rang. It was a warning bell set up by Neo, indicating that someone was approaching the Hidden Valley.
Grabbing his clothes, weapons, and the leather bag containing trap tools, Neo rushed out of the smelting room. He also picked up a branch covered with foliage lying nearby and ran straight toward the exit of the mine tunnel.
The branch was used to cover and obscure footprints. Even though Neo had “jumped” into the valley rather than walking along it, traces still remained.
Using the pre-placed rope, Neo quickly climbed up from one side of the valley. He swept the area with the branch and then threw it aside. Using one arm as a pulley, he quickly wrapped the rope around it. In just 6 or 7 seconds, he secured the rope. As soon as he slung it over his shoulder, the sound of footsteps and the stench of undead corpses reached him.
He kept running! Neo needed to create distance and lure those dark minions into the forest area he knew best, then hunt them down one by one.
About 2 minutes later, Datha reached the spot where Neo had tied the rope—a large tree with exposed, tangled roots and a canopy that served as shelter from snow and rain, making it a good temporary resting place. The scattered footprints nearby confirmed this.
Datha sniffed—the smell was still strong, indicating that the target had only left recently.
“Did they discover us?” Datha guessed. It was unlikely, as per Datha’s estimate, the target had rested there for at least 25 minutes (he had miscalculated Neo’s speed in the jungle).
Waving his hand, Datha ordered his subordinates to maintain their current formation without dispersing and to speed up their pursuit.

“Let’s assume they’ve been discovered; then I’ll drive you to death from exhaustion!” Datai thought with satisfaction, firmly believing that the immortals were by far the most endurance-driven hunters.