After resolving the crisis of corpse poison, Dustin’s hatred toward the Whitebone Cult had reached its peak.
Plagues, red mist, corpse poison --- each one a
ruthless method meant to annihilate entire cities.
Although he had done everything in his power to
stop the Whitebone Cult’s plans, tens of thousands of innocent people still
perished during the chaos.
The four major cities of the Southern Frontier
also suffered various degrees of destruction.
Things couldn’t continue like this. It was too
passive.
If the Whitebone Cult came up with another vile
scheme, who knew how many more innocents would fall victim?
The best course of action now was to root them
out completely --- destroy the Whitebone Cult and restore peace to the Southern
Frontier.
Upon returning to Pucheng, Dustin didn’t rest.
He immediately sought out Margaret.
“I’ve got one good piece of news and one bad,”
Margaret said right after meeting him.
“What’s the good news? And the bad?” Dustin
asked.
“The good news is that my people have located
the Whitebone Cult’s altar. The bad news is, it looks like the remaining
cultists are cooking up something new,” Margaret replied.
“Tell me the location. I’ll handle it,” Dustin
said without hesitation.
Right now, he was practically boiling with
killing intent. He couldn’t wait to tear the cultists limb from limb.
Margaret made a hand signal, and Su Lan stepped
forward to hand over a map.
Margaret took the map, unfolded it in front of
Dustin, and pointed to a red-marked location. “Here. My scouts all mysteriously
disappeared while searching this area. I’m certain the Whitebone Cult’s altar
is somewhere nearby.”
“So the filthy rats finally got cornered,”
Dustin said, eyes narrowing as a glint of killing intent flashed in them.
“Watch me exterminate them to the last one.”
With that, a whoosh rang out as Dustin
soared into the sky, vanishing into the distance like a streak of light.
Margaret opened her mouth slightly, then called
softly after him, “Be careful.”
…
Half an hour later, in a remote part of the
Southern Frontier ---
Thick mist shrouded the Swamp of Rotten Mud,
dense as black ink.
Dustin flew low over the swamp. Below him,
occasional pop sounds echoed from bursting gas bubbles. Amid rotting
leaves and dead grass, half a child's skeleton emerged, its finger bones still
adorned with a faded red string.
“Waaah ---”
Suddenly, the cry of a baby echoed from the
depths of the mist, but three seconds later it turned into a sharp, eerie
laugh.
A group of Whitebone Cult remnants emerged from
behind the trees, wielding bone spears tipped with green-black poison.
The moment they spotted Dustin, their bone
spears were hurled like missiles.
Dustin had already sensed them coming. He
lifted his hand calmly with a wave.
Over a dozen bone spears disintegrated into
dust mid-air, as if they had never existed.
While the cultists were still stunned, Dustin
formed a sword seal with his left hand and slashed out a beam of golden light.
Whoosh!
The golden light flashed by.
The cultists froze in place --- then, one by
one, their heads toppled to the ground like footballs, rolling into the swamp.
“Fast sword,” came a voice drenched in
bloodlust from the mist.
Bloodhand stepped out, walking on the bloated
body of a zombie. Each step stirred the blood in the swamp, bubbling up around
his feet. “But no matter how fast your sword is, it can’t cut through my Blood
River.”
He suddenly spread his arms wide. From each of his
ten fingers shot out blood-red chains, each over ten feet long, forming a
bloody net in the air. Wherever they passed, the swamp below turned crimson.
Dustin leapt lightly off a withered tree, his
figure like a white crane in flight. As he dodged the blood net, golden light
flickered at his fingertips, forming countless star-like dots. Each struck
precisely at the joints of the blood chains.
Zzzzzzt --- The blood chains exploded one after another.
Bloodhand grunted in pain, staggering back
three steps. Five bloody gashes split open on his palms.
He stared at the black mark on Dustin’s
shoulder and suddenly sneered. “Even after being hit by Poisonheart’s ‘Rotbone
Incense,’ you still dare move around? In half an hour, your bones will rot into
sludge from the inside out!”
As he spoke, a sickly-sweet scent wafted
through the mist.
At some point, Poisonheart had appeared atop
the altar. She wore a long dress stitched from human skin, embroidered with
tiny cursed insects at the hem. In her hands was a black clay bowl, crawling
with squirming purple-black worms.
“Won’t you try my babies?” she said with a
twisted smile.
With a flick of her wrist, the worms turned
into a purple mist and surged toward Dustin.
The moment they hit the ground, the worms
burrowed into the swamp, only to emerge moments later the size of a fist. Their
carapaces were covered in barbs, and their mouths dripped venom potent enough
to make stone hiss.
Golden light burst from Dustin’s body, forming
a spinning halo of light.
The worms exploded on impact with the light
wheel, their venom evaporating in purple smoke.
Dustin glanced at the black mark on his
shoulder --- his clothes there had already been corroded, revealing a growing
lesion.
“Getting distracted will get you killed!”
Boneface suddenly burst from underground. The
bone mask on his face glinted with sharp teeth.
He wielded a bone whip entwined with three
infant skeletons. As he swung, the air itself rippled.
Dustin dodged sideways, forming a golden dagger
in his palm. He feigned an opening and let the whip coil around his left arm.
As Boneface pulled, Dustin slid the short blade along the whip and stabbed
directly into Boneface’s wrist.
Crack! The wrist bone shattered.
But Boneface didn’t seem to feel pain. With his
other hand, he tore off his mask.
His face was a grotesque patchwork of dozens of
bone fragments. In his eye sockets, two red worms wriggled, hungrily staring at
Dustin’s shoulder.
“Bloodhand, Poisonheart --- form the array!”
Boneface’s voice grated like grinding bones.
Bloodhand shot out more blood chains, which
turned thick and viscous, forming a blood-colored prison.
Poisonheart’s swarm of worms spun into a
vortex, sealing off all escape routes.
Boneface crushed his shattered wrist bone, and
the shards turned into bone needles, firing at Dustin’s vital points.
Dustin took a deep breath. His inner energy
surged like a raging river, and his eyes were veiled in gold.
“If you’re all so eager to die --- then I’ll grant your wish!” - Ton
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