Chapter 157 Angelina's Tea Party 26

Parasites never consider that their growth is entirely due to stealing nutrients from their host; they never think that those nutrients originally belonged to the host and never belonged to them in the first place.

They don't understand gratitude; they only feel that what they've snatched through their own "ability" is rightfully theirs.

As for the host who gave them gifts out of kindness, only to be ruthlessly abandoned once their utility was gone? To the parasites, they got what they deserved.

Whoever is kind is the one who deserves it.

When a cuckoo occupies a magpie's nest, can you really expect it to feel guilty as it pushes the magpie's eggs out of the nest?

Lin Xiangjun had no intention of judging the right or wrong of this mindset; after all, if such people could continue to exist without going extinct, it meant this way of thinking had its own rationality.

Parasites can always find a host.

One is willing to strike and the other is willing to suffer—what did it have to do with her?

She simply didn't like Nancy's attitude when speaking to her. Nancy's shouting was too loud, echoing in the enclosed stairwell and making her ears ache.

Therefore, she grabbed Nancy by the hair, treated her head like a yo-yo, swung it in a wide circle, and then, following the momentum, slammed it against the wall several times with a series of "thuds."

A human head isn't a bouncy ball, after all. Having suddenly taken such a beating, Nancy let out a miserable shriek and spat out a mouthful of blood, mixed with two incisors and three halves of molars.

Lin Xiangjun hadn't aimed for an even distribution of force, so the head she was holding became quite irregular. The right side was fine, but the left side was sunken in; the nose in the center of her face was okay, but her brow bone and mouth were smashed to a pulp.

"Where did you learn your habit of screaming? Which etiquette teacher? Tell me their name so I can make sure to avoid them."

"Y-you—" Nancy's lips, now like two tattered rags, trembled as she prepared to curse Lin Xiangjun out, but she was cut off before she could start.

"Please stop talking, sweetie. You're whistling through your missing teeth; it sounds terrible."

What people find most unbearable is having the things they've worked hard for dismissed.

Like someone who has starved themselves for a whole year until they're ready to gnaw on a bedboard—if you tell her she looks like she's gained a lot of weight, she'll definitely want to grab a stool and crack your head open.

Nancy, who had been ruthless with herself just to fit into the social circle, naturally couldn't accept Lin Xiangjun attacking her etiquette first and then her appearance. This was no different from stomping her "face" into the ground.

She quickly shut her mouth and only glared at her.

By then, Lin Xiangjun had finished the long flight of stairs and reached the basement.

The basement still looked like a place where one couldn't survive due to lack of water and electricity. The candlelight was dim, and the air held a damp, musty smell from years without ventilation.

In the very center of the basement stood that camellia tree, over a man's height. The top of the tree already touched the ceiling, and head-sized camellias bloomed with delicate brilliance. Twelve cocoons were arranged in a circle around its roots, looking somewhat like peanuts or sweet potatoes.

Sensing someone's arrival, the camellia tree's branches swayed slightly.

"You still ended up dead."

The camellia tree's voice was androgynous, as calm as it had sounded over the surveillance.

"I told you long ago that you should be more vigilant and not underestimate those Guests; otherwise, you would pay the price for your arrogance. Why do you never listen to me?"

The head had already kept its mouth shut, and now it even closed its eyes, clearly not wanting to hear the camellia tree criticize her.

After finishing its lament, it turned its gaze toward Lin Xiangjun—more accurately, toward the pearl necklace in her hand.

It clearly had no eyes, but Lin Xiangjun felt its gaze nonetheless.

Like fiddling with prayer beads, Lin Xiangjun turned the pearl necklace in her hand.

This pearl necklace was the first piece of jewelry Angelina had given Nancy; it was the source of the camellia tree before her and a necessary item for clearing this instance.

[Nancy's Pearl Necklace: A gift from a former friend. Although well-protected, it has inevitably grown old with the passage of time. This item grants immunity to curses and slows down contamination to a certain extent.]

In this instance, the continuous loss of vitality and stamina was actually a curse transmitted through contaminated black tea as a medium. Thus, a contamination clearing potion could slow the rate of stamina loss but could not provide a complete cure.

The contamination clearing potion itself could only slow contamination; it could not remove the curse.

"What a shame. You could have left safely," the camellia tree said in a flat voice, devoid of any pity or emotional fluctuation.

Being able to obtain the pearl necklace and still make it to the basement after drinking the tea meant this Guest was clearly going to challenge the source of the instance's contamination.

Meaning, she was here to kill it.

As the words fell, the atmosphere in the basement suddenly became sharp. Lin Xiangjun didn't dare be careless; she gripped her sharp knife, her muscles tensed, and she remained alert to the surroundings without acting rashly.

Even a broken ship has three catties of nails, let alone the contamination source of a two-star instance.

Even with the counter-item in hand, Lin Xiangjun still didn't dare be careless.

The candlelight suddenly began to flicker violently, then extinguished one by one at an extremely fast speed.

The basement had no windows and relied solely on those candles for light; now, it plunged into darkness almost instantly.

At the same time, the faint sound of struggling to break out of cocoons came from the darkness. The sound wasn't loud, but it was exceptionally clear in the empty, dark basement.

The light changed too quickly for Lin Xiangjun's eyes to adapt. Plunged into pitch blackness, she could only hear the rustling of cocoons breaking and a sharp whistling sound through the air!

She couldn't see, but the physical conditioning from Aunt Bai's month of hellish training remained. That whistling sound in her ears was extremely similar to when Aunt Bai would blindfold her and whip her with a rattan cane!

Lin Xiangjun didn't even need to think; the instinct beaten into her forced her to crouch down. The whip-like vine that had been aimed at her head swept past, bringing only a gust of wind.

Unfortunately, there was no time for her to catch her breath or celebrate. A second, third, fourth... several whistling sounds followed in quick succession. She dropped to the ground and rolled several times, the whips following her trail and forcing her all the way to the wall.

To her left was the wall, and to her right were the vines whipping down ruthlessly; Lin Xiangjun had nowhere left to retreat.

At that moment, she suddenly bent her knees and kicked off the wall. Before the next whip could strike, she exerted sudden force, her body lunging forward a great distance like an arrow from a bow!

"Crack—"

This whip strike was intended to kill, slamming down hard on the spot where Lin Xiangjun had just been lying.

Her enhanced body adapted to the darkness much faster than before. In this short time, Lin Xiangjun's eyes had adjusted. She glanced back at the spot where she had been lying and clicked her tongue in surprise.

A deep crack had been whipped into that spot.