Similar Kind

Ye Chuan felt a foul wind assault his face. The tentacle, coated in rotting, warm mucus, twisted like a living snake as it lunged at him.

With a tap of his toes, he drifted backward several meters like a phantom, narrowly evading the sweeping path of the tentacle—

The tentacle smashed into the carriage wall, embedding itself into the melting flesh with a wet squelch. Pus splattered outward, only for the wall to slowly absorb the vile fluid.

"Interesting, but disgusting," Ye Chuan remarked.

"Cognitive Pollution." Ye Chuan activated his ability again, and pitch-black threads of energy silently wound their way toward the monster.

This time, the monster showed a distinct reaction. The tumors covering its body suddenly stopped squirming, and its tentacles froze in mid-air.

It seemed to be sensing something. The human silhouettes beneath its skin pulsed violently, emitting a muddled chorus of wails—a mix of men, women, the elderly, and the young.

"It worked?" Ye Chuan raised an eyebrow. He was just about to press the attack when the monster suddenly let out a deafening roar!

The skin on its fleshy surface split open, and countless tiny tendrils erupted from the fissures, lunging at the threads of Cognitive Pollution energy.

These tendrils seemed to possess a devouring ability; they wrapped around the black threads, tore them to shreds, and stuffed them back into the fleshy body to be chewed up.

"Sacrifice... Soul..."

The monster's voice remained slurred and indistinct, yet it now carried a note of fanaticism.

Writhing its massive bulk, it launched a simultaneous attack with over a dozen thick tentacles. Some stabbed straight at Ye Chuan, while others twisted and wove together in mid-air, forming an airtight net of flesh. The mesh was so dense it blocked out all light, plunging the carriage into instant darkness!

Ye Chuan observed calmly, then the power of chaos surged around him, materializing into a shield of black light.

The tentacles slammed against the shield in rapid succession, causing ripples to shudder across its surface.

Mucus splattered onto the shield, sizzling as it tried to corrode the barrier, yet it failed to leave even a mark.

"Is that all you have?" Ye Chuan stopped passively defending.

He abruptly dropped the shield, his figure flashing through the gaps between the tentacles. The spiritual sword in his hand gleamed with a chilling light as he slashed at the thickest tentacle.

With a sharp swish, the tentacle was severed. Dark purple liquid gushed out, corroding deep pits wherever it splashed onto the floor.

Then, Ye Chuan shredded the rest of it.

But a second later, the flesh at the monster's stump began to writhe madly. New tissue rapidly coalesced from the dark purple liquid. In just two seconds, the severed tentacle had regenerated—even thicker than before!

"Resurrection again?" Ye Chuan mused.

It looked disgusting, and its abilities were equally disgusting.

Watching the increasingly distinct human silhouettes beneath the monster's skin, he surmised that this creature was likely a fusion of the flesh and souls of countless passengers.

At the very least, this Death Train had certainly devoured quite a few tourists.

"Let's see how many times you can revive." A cold sneer played on Ye Chuan's lips as he raised a hand.

The air inside the carriage instantly turned scorching hot. Countless runes manifested around him, converging into a massive magical formation. At its center, a fireball materialized, its surface rippling with spatial rifts, radiating an aura capable of destroying heaven and earth.

"Go."

Sensing the danger, the monster lunged at Ye Chuan with all its tentacles at once, even throwing its own body against the magical formation in desperation.

But Ye Chuan had anticipated its move. With a tap of his finger, the fireball blasted forward, slamming directly into the monster's torso.

BOOM—!

A violent fiery explosion instantly engulfed the entire carriage. The light pierced through the metal hull, illuminating the world of flesh outside the windows.

The monster let out a shrill scream as its bulbous torso was blown to pieces. Its tentacles were severed into countless segments, scattering dark purple liquid and shredded flesh everywhere.

Ye Chuan hovered in mid-air, looking down at the scattered gore, but his brow remained furrowed.

Sure enough, the moment the shredded flesh and severed tentacles hit the ground, they began to converge toward the center again. However, the speed of regeneration was much slower this time, and the human silhouettes beneath the skin had become blurry.

"Infinite resurrection... Is it because of the train?" Ye Chuan looked at the fleshy interior of the train. Perhaps destroying the vehicle itself would eliminate the monster.

Or maybe—

"Cognitive Pollution." Ye Chuan unleashed his Cognitive Pollution once more; after all, it had produced some effect earlier.

The flesh monster writhed, but as Ye Chuan's Cognitive Pollution coated it, its movements became sluggish once again.

"It works, but why is the effect so weak? Is its resistance high? But this ability is supposed to ignore resistance."

In that case—

"Cognitive Pollution, Cognitive Pollution, Cognitive Pollution..." Since the ability didn't cost him anything to use, Ye Chuan spammed Cognitive Pollution at the flesh monster relentlessly.

In just a few seconds, Ye Chuan cast the ability hundreds of times. As layer upon layer of light settled over the flesh monster, it actually triggered a qualitative change.

However, the flesh monster's movements weren't restricted. Instead, it stared blankly at Ye Chuan, as if puzzled by something.

Huh?

Ye Chuan was also a bit confused.

"Gurgle... We... same kind... gurgle..." The monster suddenly squirmed, actually ceasing its attack completely!

"Same kind?" Ye Chuan heard the voice clearly. What did that mean?

Was he being mistaken for one of them because he could spam Cognitive Pollution?

"Gurgle..." The flesh monster before him suddenly extended a tentacle. "Gurgle... take you... eat sacrifice..."

With that, the flesh monster began to slither away, heading toward the adjacent carriage.

Ye Chuan observed for a moment. Given the monster's sudden change in behavior, he held his fire and followed it into the next carriage.

The other carriages had undergone drastic changes as well. The seats had transformed into rotting flesh, and the stench drifted into Ye Chuan's nose intermittently.

Ye Chuan continued to follow the flesh monster forward. Occasionally, he glanced out the window—the world outside seemed to be made of flesh, obscuring any view of the distance.

"Gurgle..."

"Gurgle..." The monster made noises from time to time. Following this featureless, bloody abomination would have caused a normal person to suffer a mental breakdown long ago.

But Ye Chuan adopted a "since I'm already here" attitude, curious to see where this thing was leading him.

After passing through several carriages, the flesh monster finally stopped moving.

This carriage wasn't much different from the others, but Ye Chuan noticed a young girl sitting quietly in one of the seats.

Her eyes were closed, as if she were asleep.

Surrounded by rotting flesh and foul stenches, the clean, fair-skinned girl in a school uniform looked completely out of place—a jarring anomaly in this gruesome setting.

"Hm? Qiu Ya?" Ye Chuan recognized her immediately.