82: Chapter 82 Driving Away Wolves and Tigers
The Bald Strongman fell silent for a few seconds, a sinister grin spreading across his lips.
He looked toward the short man who had not spoken yet.
"Doesn't your Pitcher Plant lure provoke Armor Beasts?"
The short man grinned, revealing teeth that had already begun to mutate.
He opened his mouth, and his lips were suddenly covered by a layer of sharp spikes, which then gradually formed a grim muzzle, shaped like the jawbone of some ancient Vicious Beast.
A metallic, dark brown luster emerged from beneath his skin, and fine, scale-like armor plates spread along his cheeks toward his neck.
Finally, they condensed into a slightly pulsing sac-like organ at his Adam's apple.
Armorization Skill: Provocation!
Sound waves centered on him spread in a fan shape into the depths of the swamp.
He cautiously guided several groups of Armor Beasts in the distance, slowly moving them toward Lin Fan's location.
"Let's hide first; these Armor Beasts don't distinguish between friend and foe."
The short man's face went noticeably pale, and he breathed heavily.
Clearly, the consumption was significant.
"Once he's tired from killing, we'll go down and collect the head."
...
Meanwhile, in a hidden depression.
Several people in gray robes were squatting on the ground, carefully processing dozens of unconscious Armor Beasts.
These Armor Beasts were not of a high Rank, mostly between Rank 10 and 15, and of mixed species.
Mud Swamp Crocodiles, Poison Swamp Toads, Moss Armor Beasts, and even a few Shadow Mist Wolves.
They were neatly lined up, showing signs of being anesthetized, clearly captured alive.
The lead gray-robed person was squatting next to a comatose Mud Swamp Crocodile, probing it with a specially made bone knife.
"Hurry up," he said in a low voice.
"Once we finish collecting this batch, we can head back."
Another gray-robed person was squatting nearby, recording something in a thick booklet.
"The harvest this time is good. Thirty-seven low-Rank Armor Beasts; their scales, teeth, and poison glands can all be used. Especially the bone spurs of those Moss Armor Beasts—they have a hard texture, suitable for the first transplant experiment for new members."
The leader nodded with satisfaction.
"Although these low-Rank Armor Beasts don't have strong combat power, their advantage lies in their numbers and tenacious vitality. Using them for practice has a much higher success rate than using Advanced Armor Beasts directly."
He paused and looked into the distance.
"Once these Materials are sent back, we can begin live transplants with the next batch."
As soon as he finished speaking, the ground trembled slightly.
The leader frowned and looked up.
In the distance, fog churned, and the sound of Armor Beasts running could be vaguely heard.
And... it was getting closer.
"What's going on?"
He stood up, and a strange left eye was revealed beneath his gray hood.
That eye was a murky amber color, and the pupil was not round but a vertical slit, like a cold-blooded reptile.
The white of the eye was covered in dark red bloodshot veins, and even more horrifying was the edge of the eye socket...
The skin and the eyeball had not healed naturally but were crudely stitched together with thick black threads resembling animal tendons.
The stitches were crooked and gruesome, with some flesh even turned outward, revealing the slightly wriggling dark red tissue underneath.
The eyeball itself did not seem to belong to a human; it was too large, almost filling the socket, and emitted an extremely faint, sticky friction sound when it moved.
It wasn't Armorization, and certainly not a normal human eye; it looked terrifying.
The gray-robed person's left eye turned slightly, the pupil shrinking into a thin line as it pierced through the fog, looking toward the direction the sound came from.
The next second, his face changed drastically!
"Get out of the way!"
Before the words had faded, a massive Swamp Giant Lizard rushed out of the fog and crashed directly into their camp.
Immediately after, more Armor Beasts swarmed out...
Mud Swamp Crocodiles, Poison Swamp Toads, and a few Shadow Mist Wolves driven mad by the trampling, frantically charging and biting, turning the entire camp upside down.
Those neatly arranged unconscious Armor Beasts were trampled into meat paste, and the collected Materials were scattered everywhere.
The leader watched helplessly as the fruits of his labor, collected over three days and nights, were destroyed in just a few seconds.
His face turned livid, and that strange left eye instantly became bloodshot, the pupil shrinking to the size of a needlepoint.
"Who!"
He roared at the sky, his right arm extending from his cloak.
That arm was an inhuman blue-gray, the surface of the skin covered with dense, horny scales like crocodile skin.
The five finger joints were abnormally thick, and curved black claws extended from the fingertips.
This was by no means a human arm; it looked more like the forelimb of some fierce Vicious Beast, forcibly grafted onto a human body in some cruel manner!
He waved his hand, and the charging Swamp Giant Lizard was torn in half.
But the remaining Armor Beasts had already scattered and fled, leaving a mess behind.
The leader breathed heavily, looking in the direction from which the Armor Beasts had charged.
"Someone is driving the Armor Beasts."
He stepped toward that direction, his voice as cold as frost.
"Follow me. I want to see who dares to ruin the business of our Ruin Fetus Society."
...
The Bald Strongman and his two companions were currently hiding behind a dirt slope about two hundred meters away from Lin Fan.
Through the fog, they watched from afar as Lin Fan battled the Swamp Giant Lizard.
After finishing the Provocation, the short man's face was deathly pale, and he was leaning against a rock, gasping for breath.
Just then!
An extremely faint sound of footsteps suddenly came from the fog.
The Bald Strongman turned back abruptly.
"Who?!"
No one answered.
The fog churned, and three figures walked out slowly.
Leading them was a person in a deep gray cloak, the hood pulled very low, revealing only the lower half of a pale face.
Behind him followed two people in the same attire.
The Bald Strongman instinctively took a step back, his left hand instantly undergoing Armorization.
"Friends, we are just passing explorers; let's mind our own business..."
Before he could finish, the leader slightly raised his head.
Beneath the shadow of the hood, a strange amber vertical pupil was revealed, along with that gruesome stitched eye socket.
"Hiss..."
The Tall Thin Man gasped, his legs going weak, and he almost collapsed to the ground.
What is this thing??
The Bald Strongman's pupils contracted violently.
He had traveled north and south for so many years and had never seen such a... person?
A monster?
That was not an eye a normal human should have!
"You... what are you people?" His voice was trembling.
The leader did not answer, only observing them with that strange eye.
His gaze swept over the Bald Strongman's face, glided over the Tall Thin Man's trembling legs, and finally landed on the short man.
To be precise, it landed on the scale-like patterns on his lips that had not yet fully faded.
"Pitcher Plant?"
The leader spoke, his voice hoarse and harsh.
"Were you the ones who drove those Armor Beasts over just now?"
The short man's face turned deathly pale, and he shook his head instinctively.
"No... not us... we didn't do anything..."
Before he could finish, the leader moved.
The right arm hidden under the cloak suddenly thrust out, and the short man didn't even have time to react before those sharp claws had pierced his chest.
"Pfft!"
Fresh blood splattered.
The short man looked down, staring at the scale-covered claw that had pierced through his chest, his eyes filled with incredulous fear.
His lips trembled, wanting to say something, but he only spat out a mouthful of blood foam.
The leader withdrew his arm expressionlessly.
The short man's corpse slid softly to the ground, his eyes still wide open.