Chapter 14: Parallel Killings

Victor’s beautiful adjutant was most skilled in two areas: one related to plants and containers, the other involving beds and noises. So it was quite unfortunate for her to encounter Neo without any warning.
“You… you dare do this to me?” The adjutant, pinned to the ground by Neo without mercy, hadn’t yet figured out who he was. She was incredulous and furious, but trapped as she was, she couldn’t make much noise.
“I need your knowledge of plants and poisons. Now, everything of it.”
Neo’s words drove the adjutant crazy. She couldn’t believe her ears—it was as if some pig were telling her it wanted to learn magic and do so in just one minute. Yet the pain in her body made her realize this foolish wolf was serious. “Okay, okay, no problem. Relax, I’ll tell you everything I know!” She felt as though she were calming down a berserker who had gone mad and couldn’t sober up in time.
“I’ll find the information myself. All you need to do is obey.”
If those words still hadn’t made the adjutant fully understand Neo’s intentions, it was only when Neo—no, more accurately, Nancy—launched a hypnotic mental assault that she finally realized this was an information theft through memory invasion.
While shocked that a lycan could carry out such a technically sophisticated act of espionage, the adjutant cooperated willingly.
In less than three minutes, the information gathering was over. Her knowledge of plants and poisons was indeed invaluable, but her knowledge of military and political matters was quite limited. Victor had given her jewels, status, glory, and sweet words—only lacking truth.
As the adjutant stared in astonishment, Neo’s throat moved strangely a few times before emitting a voice identical to hers: “Leo, come here.”
Thud, thud, thud! Heavy footsteps echoed as the burly gatekeeper strode through the corridors of the magical garden and pushed open the door to the adjutant’s room. What caught sight first was the completely naked adjutant, in a provocative pose. The typical meatshield-type guard was momentarily stunned, while Neo, hiding his presence behind a water curtain, leaned against the door and lightly pressed his raised hand onto the head of the clawed lycan named Leo.
A Level 10 fighter, whose combat energy circulated in his body like blood and had become an instinctive habit, allowed Leo to have about a second to respond even when faced with a powerful technique like “Life Siphon.”
Leo’s emergency reaction wasn’t bad—he punched at Neo’s arm pressing on his head and another punch at Neo’s chest.
Neo chose to protect his arm, so his chest took a solid hit from Leo’s fist. Crack! That was the sound of a bone breaking. Neo’s chest visibly dented. Despite his combat energy, his defense wasn’t strong enough to withstand Leo’s punch, even if it was thrown in haste. Leo’s other punch was blocked by Neo, allowing “Life Siphon” to succeed.

Colding watched as the light in Leo’s eyes quickly dimmed. Neo swallowed the blood rising in his throat and swiftly applied Life’s Touch to his wounded area. On the ground, the beautiful adjutant, whose limbs had been dislocated by Neo, stared in horror as Leo’s muscular body turned into a mere shell before her eyes. When Neo turned to look at her with a slight cough, she was so frightened that she lost control of her bowels. During this time, Nancy had already compiled all the information stolen from the beautiful adjutant. “We were wrong; she isn’t the key person we’re looking for.” Neo froze for a moment before slowly gritting his teeth. He knew full well the weight of Nancy’s words. Victor’s method of dealing with the people had nothing to do with potions. The clues were gone, hope was lost, and he probably no longer had time. This time, Neo was right—he truly had no time left. What Victor used to achieve his goals this time were “insects”—white insects resembling ants, released from the staff held by the insect handlers. Unafraid of the cold, they headed straight for their targets, crawling into people’s noses and ears. Those affected acted as if choked in sleep, unable to get up, making gurgling sounds before falling silent again. Some exhibited more severe symptoms, such as rolling their eyes, convulsing, or even snoring loudly after being infected. This insidious method of infection progressed smoothly at first. By the time Neo subdued Leo, over one-third of the camps in the settlement had been attacked. Those strange insects could sense whether a target was asleep; they ignored those who didn’t meet the criteria. Yet, since they acted purely on instinct, they were eventually discovered by a guard who had been entrusted by Neo. Remembering what Neo had said, the guard couldn’t sleep from excitement and went outside to use the latrine, only to see someone in the same tent being attacked by the insects. Stunned, he immediately blew the horn. According to Neo’s instructions, these guards were supposed to stay awake and alert, blowing the horn immediately if anything went wrong, with every horn blast triggering others to follow. The sound of the horns ringing together was extremely loud in the quiet night. In the migration camp, this signal meant “enemy attack, assemble urgently.” Valentin and others had practiced this several times before. Many people, still half-asleep, were awakened by the loud horns and instinctively scrambled to get dressed and rush outside, waking up the entire camp. Victor, who had been observing the progress secretly, wore a cold smile. This was exactly as he had expected. With the leader of the rebels, Neo, captured, Victor believed the people in the migration camp would be limited in what they could do. He waved for one of his bribed confidants. “Follow Plan B as I instructed earlier.” The clawed werewolf responded and strode out. Soon, werewolves stationed at the three isolation zones at the exits of the valley gathered their own teams. The team leader shouted, “Brothers, dark minions are lurking in the migration camp. Get ready for battle. Follow me!” “Roar!” Meanwhile, werewolf squads patrolling the migration camp were maintaining order.

“Arrest all the trumpeters. If they can’t come up with a reasonable explanation, they’ll surely get a beating.” The night-duty werewolf officer was extremely annoyed. He commanded over 40 elite werewolves, and it would take some time to calm down more than a thousand people.

At that moment, the insects that had invaded people’s minds began to take effect. Their hosts not only suddenly rose to their feet in agony but also exhibited abnormal physical traits. These traits weren’t as severe as those of the dying Dark Cultists Neo had encountered in Thors, but their impact was more immediate. The abnormalities mostly took the form of partial transformations—heads, limbs, extra tails, sharp fangs and teeth, or bodies moving on all fours… the list was endless.

Once awakened, the monsters became fiercely aggressive. They attacked those around them or rushed out of the tents, whether they were clawed werewolves or members of the migrating crowd. They would pounce and tear at them. The camp descended into chaos as people screamed and fled in all directions like headless flies. More monsters kept emerging from the tents. The werewolf patrol teams, though well-trained and skilled in fighting in formation, were outnumbered and unable to control the situation.

The insect controllers had withdrawn, and another group took over to deal with the crowd. Under the pretense of helping and rescuing them, they injected the targets with demonic potions. Thus, scenes like this arose from time to time in the camp: an injured person being helped to evacuate suddenly ripped at their own flesh, screamed, and transformed into a monster…

Neo, who was in the airship’s cabin, was unaware of what was happening in the camp. Even if he had known, he wouldn’t have intervened. He was powerless to save the people of the migrating group, but he believed he could make a difference.

“Please, don’t kill me!” With her jaw back in place, the beautiful officer’s first words were pleas for mercy.

“Is it necessary to put your dislocated joint back if I kill you?” Neo’s expression and voice remained calm and indifferent, as if he were discussing trivial matters. “I’ll knock you out. As for how long you’ll be unconscious, that’s uncertain. Maybe by the time you wake up, you’ll find yourself in Sanvest City.”

The beautiful officer, now laid on the bed, breathed a sigh of relief—only to have her neck suddenly broken.

After giving one last look at the woman’s gentle expression, Neo quickly cleaned up the traces, including wiping away the urine she had lost control of earlier…

More than ten minutes later, by the time chaos reigned in the camp, “Leo” gently closed the door to the officer’s room, picked up a bundle, crossed through the magic garden, and strode away.

With a new identity, Neo’s next target was the captain’s quarters. Leo had a high status rank, and his dull and quiet personality was easy to portray. Moreover, Neo had learned quite a bit about Leo from the beautiful officer, which also ensured his success in playing the role. Along the way, he passed by two groups of sentries and a patrol team without any trouble.

The captain of the Hurricane was a human in his forties, with a hooked nose and a sinister glint in his eyes; he seemed quite rigid in demeanor. When Leo woke him up at such a time, he was naturally displeased, but still allowed this loyal dog of Victor into the small living room and yawned as he instructed the servant to prepare two cups of coffee.

When the servant entered the small living room with the rich coffee, he found the captain, who had been leaning back in his chair, dead—his head hanging unnaturally low, his tongue sticking out far. Before he could scream, a pair of large hands reached out from the side, and crack! The servant’s neck was also broken.

Taking the tray from the servant’s hands, Neo didn’t spill a single drop of coffee. With one hand, he gently lowered the limp servant’s body, then casually placed the tray on the low cabinet before heading straight for the door, not forgetting to pick up the package along the way. He had obtained what he wanted.

Meanwhile, at the Ground Migration Camp…

“Kill these monsters and save the villagers!” With the loud command of an officer, the Claw Wolves who had crossed the barrier formed ranks and began to combat the monsters using military tactics to rescue the villagers. Under the officer’s orderly command, more and more people were brought to safety behind the barrier. A row of Claw Wolves stood in front of it, mercilessly attacking any monster that tried to cross.

These monsters were as agile as cheetahs and as strong as wild boars, but against the Claw Wolves, who were all combatants at level 5 or above and clad in fine armor, they were nothing but weaklings. If it weren’t for the civilians running around in the midst of the monsters, they would have been completely contained and killed in no time.

“Those with serious injuries first; those with minor injuries can wait.”

“Here, drink some hot soup—it’ll help relieve stress. It’s safe here now.”

There was something wrong with the potions and the hot soup—not everything, nor did it have to be everything. Before long, abnormalities began to appear among the people behind the barrier. If the monsters mutated due to insect infestations were the weakest, those injected with the potions were the next tier, while those who drank the hot soup were stronger, and those who underwent treatment and mutated were the strongest of all. These stronger and most powerful mutants already had combat capabilities comparable to ordinary Claw Wolf soldiers. Suddenly, many Wolf soldiers were injured or killed.

“Help! Ahh…”

One after another, civilians screamed as they were overpowered and disemboweled. This happened not only behind the barrier at the exit of a valley but also behind the barriers at the three entrances to the valley.

“Kill! Kill these monsters!” Faced with this situation, the Claw Wolves were growing impatient.

On top of a cliff somewhere, Victor watched the chaotic scene below with an expressionless face. Turning to a person covered in black robes, he said, “It’s time for your people to step in.”

Deep within the hood, two hellish red flames flickered—light emitted from their eyes. “It seems your people forgot to leave a mark and killed the wrong ones…”

“No markings,” Victor smiled faintly. “Neither my men nor the diehards in the Fangs Legion are anything but tools, each with its own use. Sometimes, the latter, used properly, can be more powerful than the former.”
The man in black chuckled. “That’s the difference between those who possess power and those who possess both power and authority.”
Victor raised his eyebrows. “Indeed. Simply having power makes one easy to exploit.”
The man in black waved his hand, and a ring of demonic light quickly appeared on the cliff tops of the valley—light emanating from the demonized, transformed, and demon servants. Over 700 of these dark minions were the elite among the forces of darkness.
“Enemy attack! Enemy attack!”
As a large number of dark minions leaped down from the cliffs and joined the chaos, a shrill and piercing eagle whistle finally sounded. All the Claw Wolves responded to it, gathering in formation to confront the enemy.
“This is a trap! A premeditated attack!” one of the senior commanders of the Claw Wolves roared in anger.
The Claw Wolves felt deceived. Those so-called refugees fleeing from Edrith’s realm were nothing but a group of dark cultists!
“Haven’t you realized yet? The more recently transformed of these cultists become the stronger?” someone said.
“Kill them! Anyone who isn’t one of our brothers must be killed! This is a trap set by the forces of darkness! Everyone but us is an enemy!” someone else added.
A few of the Claw Wolves’ officers chose silence at this moment. They also didn’t want to see more monsters emerge among the refugees, undermining their own forces from within.
The silent approval of the senior commanders marked the beginning of the slaughter. The surviving refugees were pushed to the enemy’s side, many of them slaughtered quickly like chickens and ducks. As for those who tried to escape—where could they go? Surrounded by Claw Wolves outside and various monsters inside, they had nowhere to flee…
In the airship’s cabin, though Neo couldn’t see or hear, he could imagine that the massacre in the valley had already begun. And with Victor’s methods, the refugees from the migration group had surely been labeled with unforgivable crimes.
Swish! The last sealed door gently opened, revealing a huge barrel-shaped space before Neo.
This was the airship’s control center, located beneath the control room. It could only be opened using both the technical chief’s and the captain’s authorization cards. Undoubtedly, the technical chief was already dead at Neo’s hands.
At the heart of the control center was a fist-sized sphere made up of many pure crystals. It was said to have been modeled after a divine creation—the Sun Crystal Core. Though its beauty paled in comparison to that of the Sun Crystal Core, to Neo, it was the most beautiful artificial object he had ever seen.
The control core, shaped like a cone and an inverted cone, was trapped between them, floating in midair and rotating slowly, surrounded by dense but not blinding demonic light.
“It’s indeed an intelligent system produced by the Church of Glory!” Nancy exclaimed in delight after seeing the control core through Neo’s eyes.

“Do you recognize them?” Neo was surprised. As far as he knew, the sacred artifacts had been buried underground for no longer than the time since the Holy Church was established.
“I don’t recognize them, but they share the same origin as me, just not in the same category. The most important thing is that they’re of a very low level.”
“Very low level” meant that despite the control core being protected by multiple layers of energy barriers, Nancy still had a way to crack it open and take complete control of it, and that too in a non-destructive manner.
Transferring from a medical-grade smart brain to an all-purpose one, the knowledge gained by analyzing this control core was extremely valuable to Nancy. It provided direction and a roadmap; the rest was just deduction and calculation, which clearly posed no challenge to her.
“Alright, we now have highest-level access. The airship is under our control.”
It took just over ten minutes for Neo to receive such good news. He had originally planned to destroy the Hurricane, but now it seemed possible to make more detailed arrangements.
“Do we always retain control?”
“The airship isn’t entirely controlled by the core, and there are special safety mechanisms, so we can’t guarantee that no one might cut off the power supply to back up, restore, or restart the core.”
Neo nodded. Nancy’s explanation meant there was no way he could hijack the airship.
“Can we set up hidden timers? Like everything appearing normal until it suddenly malfunctions at a certain time?”
“Yes.”
“Great. I want to leave some surprises for Victor and those executioners…” A sharp glint appeared in Neo’s eyes.