The Cannibal Curse

With a bellyful of questions, Liu Xuan continued reading.

In the image, after Joanna was trapped, the Wendigo slaughtered the others and quickly came after her.

Just as its razor-sharp claws were about to pierce the girl’s chest, a figure suddenly rushed out and stepped in front of her.

Lambert had arrived!

The deputy captain of the security force cleaved aside the Wendigo’s claws with a single stroke, then pulled Joanna free from the roots of the [Death-Calling Whitewood].

So far, what Liu Xuan had seen was broadly consistent with Joanna’s earlier account.

But the scenes that followed were somewhat different.

Lambert and the Wendigo clashed. Just as that soldier had said before, Lambert was indeed highly skilled.

He had no flashy techniques—only straightforward slashes and blocks—yet he fought the Wendigo to a standstill, even gradually gaining a slight advantage.

Fresh wounds continued to appear on the Wendigo’s body, leaving it covered in blood. At this rate, Lambert had every chance of winning.

But then the image before Liu Xuan suddenly flickered and shifted to another scene.

Lambert was training. However, instead of a standard-issue sword, he held an exquisite blade that was clearly of exceptional quality.

Several people dressed in security-force uniforms stood nearby, pointing at him and whispering among themselves. Their words could not be heard clearly, but judging from their expressions, they were certainly not saying anything kind.

After his training ended, Lambert lowered his head and looked at the sword in his hand.

The image flickered again, returning to the battle between Lambert and the Wendigo.

Having sustained numerous injuries, the Wendigo became increasingly frenzied. Lambert, however, remained calm. He reduced the intensity of his attacks and shifted to defense, evidently realizing that if he could simply endure this burst of rage, the monster would eventually exhaust itself.

Yet the Wendigo suddenly launched a savage claw strike. Lambert raised his sword to block it, but to his surprise, with a sharp clang, the standard-issue blade could no longer bear the strain and snapped at that very moment.

The Wendigo’s claws carved three deep gashes across his chest, and the tremendous force sent him flying.

By the time Lambert struggled back to his feet, he was covered in blood, with only a broken sword left in his hand.

The image skipped ahead. When it became clear again, Lambert and the Wendigo were both lying on the ground, the latter with a broken sword embedded in its chest.

Joanna hurried over and helped Lambert up. He was not dead yet, but he had essentially lost all ability to fight.

In the scenes that followed, Joanna tore her outer garment into strips and used them to give Lambert some rudimentary bandaging.

Lambert’s life was temporarily saved, but the two of them were trapped in the forest, surrounded by monsters. In their condition, there was no way they could fight their way out. They could only remain where they were and wait for rescue, hoping someone would be sent to save them.

Under normal circumstances, help would have come.

But neither of them had expected that the Destroyers would invade at that moment, and even Orenburg would fall.

After being trapped for several days, they faced a fatal problem: they had run out of food. How were they supposed to survive?

Lambert’s wounds received no proper treatment and grew worse by the day, until he could no longer even walk.

That day, Lambert suddenly made a suggestion. He said that he had always believed that if they could just hold on for a few more days, the lord of the city and the town guard would surely send someone to rescue them.

No matter what, he had to complete this mission. He had to get Joanna out.

As for how they could last a few more days, his solution was to let Joanna eat his flesh.

When Liu Xuan read this, a chill ran down his spine.

Lambert had actually suggested something like that! “Tragic” was no longer enough to describe it.

What Liu Xuan had not expected was that Joanna agreed.

In the recording, her expression was extraordinarily strange, as though she were suppressing some primal urge. Her eyes were hollow, yet feverishly intense.

Liu Xuan felt that something was deeply wrong. No matter how hungry someone was—no matter if hunger had driven them mad—they should not have looked like that. She seemed possessed.

“The Cursed Forest...”

Liu Xuan suddenly recalled the forest’s name. Could this place truly be haunted by something unnatural?

The scene shifted once more.

The woman’s back was to the viewer as she knelt on the ground. Lambert lay before her, the light already gone from his eyes.

With her head lowered, she seemed to be stuffing something into her mouth again and again.

At the same time, her body began to twist and swell. Her skeleton stretched and elongated. As she fed, she transformed into a monster more than three meters tall, with the head of a deer.

The recording ended there.

Liu Xuan was still holding the broken sword when a cold shiver suddenly swept over his entire body.

So this was the truth of what had happened back then?

Joanna had not lied. In a sense, Lambert truly had perished alongside the Wendigo—but afterward, Joanna had become the new Wendigo...

Liu Xuan let out a sigh. What a tragedy.

If Lambert had not replaced his weapon because of other people’s rumors, if the Destroyers had not happened to invade at that very moment... both of them might have had a chance to survive.

But there were no ifs.

Shaking his head, Liu Xuan was about to stand up when the broken sword before him suddenly reflected a blurred figure slowly approaching.

Liu Xuan spun around sharply.

It was Joanna!

She had returned to human form, and she looked at him with a faint smile.

“I hope that, once you get out, you can take that spirit herb to my father,” she said softly. “Thank you.”

Liu Xuan opened his mouth, but for a moment, he did not know what to say.

It seemed she truly had not lied. She genuinely believed that only a little over ten days had passed since then, that her father was still waiting for her medicine.

Before Liu Xuan could explain, Joanna’s body suddenly began to change. Enormous antlers gradually grew from her head.

“Wait! If you transform now—”

Liu Xuan’s expression changed. He immediately tried to retreat, but Lambert’s grave mound behind him held him up for an instant. It was already too late.

The next moment, he saw Joanna—now transformed into a Wendigo, yet with the same upturned smile still on her lips—as a bolt of heavenly lightning descended upon her.

The damage from the [Lightning Aura] increased by another 120,000, but Liu Xuan could not bring himself to feel happy about it.

He stood there in silence for a long while before finally letting out a heavy sigh.

Perhaps this could be considered a good ending, too.

Although Joanna had no idea that her father was already dead—and that the Eternal Grass was no longer of any use to her—at least she left without any regrets.

After killing the Wendigo, Liu Xuan leveled up again. But because of that earlier passive skill, he was still held up by the quest and hadn’t drawn anything yet, so he couldn’t claim this one for the time being either.

Still, there was another troublesome matter at hand: how was he supposed to explain this to Heg?

Tell him that his son had been eaten?

Wouldn’t that drive him into a rage on the spot?

But lying didn’t seem right either. What if it caused the quest to fail?

Liu Xuan thought it over and decided that if he wanted to complete this quest properly, he couldn’t simply take the broken sword and go looking for Heg.

What Lambert had wanted most in life was to prove himself and earn others’ recognition. If Liu Xuan could fulfill that wish for him, then the quest might truly be completed perfectly.

Perhaps Heg would find some comfort in that as well.

With that in mind, Liu Xuan immediately picked up the broken sword and headed for the Orchid River Outpost.