Chapter 55: The Cultivator
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.97%
Hydration: 99.97%
Wei Long felt something shift.
It was so minor, so barely noticeable, yet it sent a surge of hope crashing through him like a tidal wave.
His suffocating despair cracked, allowing light to pierce through.
The Bio-engineered instinct wasn't invincible. It could be fought.
A wild, shaky laugh bubbled up inside his mind.
At first, it was just a chuckle, but as realization dawned, it grew louder, unrestrained, triumphant.
"Hah… hahaha… HAH!"
Wei Long's voice rang through his own consciousness, full of unfiltered joy.
The instinct had been playing with him, torturing him, stretching out his suffering for its own amusement. But now? Now, he was fighting back. And it was losing.
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.96%
Hydration: 99.96%
The numbers were falling. Slowly. Painfully slowly. But they were falling!
Wei Long cackled, his voice growing louder, sharper, more hysterical.
"You sadistic little lab lizard! What happened? Weren't you having fun just now?!" He mocked, his tone dripping with sarcasm. "What? You don't like it when the prey bites back?! You thought you had me, didn't you?!"
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.95%
Hydration: 99.95%
His body trembled.
The instinct was trying to suppress his thoughts, to smother his consciousness beneath the weight of hunger, but now Wei Long knew.
He knew it could be resisted. And knowing that was all he needed.
"Ahahaha! You're nothing but a mutated little lab freak! You hear me?! A failed experiment! A Bio-Laboratory Lizard! What kind of pathetic creature lets its 'prey' talk back, huh?"
The name stuck. Bio-Laboratory Lizard. It had no identity, no soul, no true self.
It was a parasite, a mindless devourer, a beast without will. But Wei Long? He was different.
He was human.
He had a will, and it was stronger than any primal hunger.
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.90%
Hydration: 99.90%
It was dropping faster now.
The more he fought, the more he insulted, the more his mind clawed its way back from the abyss, the weaker the instinct became.
"Oh? What's this? You're getting weaker! HAHAHA! You're afraid, aren't you? I can feel it! You don't like this! You don't like ME! Well, guess what? I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE!"
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.85%
Hydration: 99.85%
Wei Long was grinning now, in his mind, in his very soul. He was clawing his way back from the brink, taking each fraction of a percent as a hard-won victory.
"Pathetic. You really thought you could just erase me? Turn me into some mindless, flesh-eating puppet? I don't think so. I am Wei Long. Not some bio-engineered freak like you!"
The Bio-engineered instinct twitched.
It could feel it, too.
The shift in power.
The loss of control.
The struggle.
Ding!
Satisfaction: 99.80%
Hydration: 99.80%
Wei Long took a deep breath—not that his body did, but within his mind, it felt as though he was inhaling the crispest, freshest air he'd ever tasted.
Freedom.
It was coming.
He could almost feel it in his fingertips.
"Keep resisting all you want, Bio-Laboratory Lizard! Struggle all you want! I'll take my body back, piece by piece, even if I have to grind you into dust!"
The Bio-engineered instinct finally reacted. It wasn't playful anymore.
The sadism vanished.
It became something else.
Something deadly.
It lunged forward, body moving with vicious purpose. It no longer cared for the slow, torturous game. It had a single objective now—hunt, consume, overpower.
Wei Long barely had time to react before his body was already moving, eyes locking onto the nearest beast. It lunged.
CRACK!
A massive wooden sword slammed into the ground, blocking its path.
Dust exploded into the air, sending a powerful shockwave outward.
The Bio-engineered instinct froze.
Its hunt had been interrupted.
Slowly, it lifted its gaze.
Up above, a shadow hovered in the night sky.
…
Meanwhile, before all this happens.
At first, the cultivator was soaring through the sky, his robes billowing as he surveyed the land below. His mind was heavy, weighed down by an unshakable feeling of unease.
The deeper he traveled into the forest, the more unnatural the atmosphere became.
The wind rustled the treetops, but there was no sound of life—no chirping birds, no rustling critters, not even the distant roar of a beast.
The silence was deafening, thick like an invisible fog suffocating the entire area.
His grip tightened around the hilt of his sword. "Something is wrong here," he muttered under his breath.
The more he flew, the more the emptiness gnawed at him. He passed a river that should have been teeming with aquatic life, yet the water was still, devoid of fish.
The ground was littered with broken branches, but there were no signs of a struggle—no blood, no tracks, no indication of battle.
It was as if the forest itself had been abandoned by life.
Then, his mind drifted to his younger brother.
A peak Mortal Cultivator.
A warrior whose strength should have ensured survival even in the most treacherous circumstances.
His brother wasn't weak.
No common beast could have slain him so easily.
His beast companion, a rare and powerful creature he had personally gifted, should have protected him.
So why? Why had his brother's life crystal shattered?
A shiver crawled up his spine.
The more he thought about it, the less sense it made.
He had faced many battles, seen countless deaths, but this—this was different.
Suddenly, movement caught his eye.
A pride of Empower Lions, creatures renowned for their elusive nature, emerged from the underbrush. But something was off.
There were no males among them—only lionesses and cubs, their bodies weary, their gazes frantic.
They moved like creatures fleeing a predator, their golden fur dirtied with mud and exhaustion.
The cultivator narrowed his eyes. "Why are they running? And where is their king?"
The male Empower Lion was the pillar of the pride. It would never abandon its family, not unless…
Something stronger forced it to.
His heart pounded as he pushed forward, his instincts screaming at him that he was closing in on something terrifying.
He soon came upon a new sight—a horde of beasts running in a chaotic frenzy.
Their stampede rumbled like thunder, shaking the earth as they trampled the undergrowth.
At first, he thought his brother might have perished fighting these creatures. But no. These beasts were not hunting. They were fleeing.
He frowned. "What… are they running from?"
His pace quickened. Soon, he spotted another tide of beasts—only this time, their bodies were warped, twisted by demonic Dao essence.
Their eyes glowed with malevolence, and their auras reeked of corruption.
This had to be it.
These creatures had to be the ones responsible for his brother's death.
Rage ignited in his veins. With a flick of his wrist, he unsheathed his blade. "If you're the ones who killed my brother, then I'll—"
Before he could finish, the demonic beasts, despite their corruption, turned tail and fled, their bloodthirsty nature seemed like it was overshadowed by an even greater fear.
The cultivator's breath caught in his throat.
"No... even they are running? Then what in the name of the heavens…"
And then, he saw it.
A body.
Half of a body.
The upper torso of a man lay on the ground, his arms sprawled, his face frozen in an expression of agony. His lower half was missing, as if it had been swallowed whole.
The cultivator descended, his heart hammering in his chest.
The features of the corpse were barely recognizable, but he knew.
He knew before he even knelt beside it.
"Brother..."
His voice cracked, his hands trembling as he reached out.
The fabric of the robes was torn, the edges soaked in dried blood.
His brother's life had been snuffed out in such a gruesome manner.
A choked sob escaped him, but he swallowed the rest. He could grieve later. Right now, he needed to understand.
What did this?
Then he heard it.
A wet, sickening crunch.
His head snapped toward the source of the sound. His breath hitched at the sight.
A massive ground lizard, its body covered in strange, otherworldly scales, was hunched over a beast, tearing into its flesh. But it wasn't just eating. It was playing.
The creature was torturing its prey, snapping its limbs, dragging out its suffering, savoring every moment.
A glint of sadistic pleasure shone in its eerie, reptilian eyes.
The cultivator's body went rigid.
He could feel it—his brother's presence.
It lingered faintly around this creature.
This thing.
Was this the beast that ate his brother?
His blood boiled. His fingers twitched, itching for revenge.
It didn't matter if he wasn't certain. His instincts screamed at him to act, to cut this abomination down before it could continue its slaughter.
He reached into his robes, pulling out a pouch filled with talismans.
Without hesitation, he released them.
A flurry of golden lights erupted, streaking toward the ground lizard in a deadly arc.
At first, the creature seemed clueless about the talisman he sent to it. It was not even looking around; it was seemingly staring at a fixed distance with a grin on its face, and one could see the prehistoric fangs it had.
The talisman took effect, and soon the demonic dao essence from its body began to pour out.
The creature now seemed to notice.
The cultivator wanted it to wash out even a little of that dangerous dao, so that even if he touched it later, he would be able to touch his brother's corpse inside it once he killed it.
Suddenly, the creature's head snapped up.
Its eyes met his.
For a brief moment, the air between them crackled with tension.
Then, the cultivator raised his sword.
"I don't care if you're responsible or not. My instincts tell me you must die."
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