Chapter 44

Chapter 44: Monster

"What are you all standing there for? Quickly bring the child over!" The first to recover was the man surnamed Yang. Looking at his stunned subordinates, he bellowed, completely forgetting that he had just been rooted to the spot himself moments ago.

The two soldiers nearest the cage immediately moved to intercept Ji Huan, but how could he possibly allow himself to be captured at this moment? Swiftly scaling the metal bars of the cage, in just a few bounds, he had reached the very top of it!

As Ji Huan moved, more blood spurted out—not because his actions violently tore at the wound, but because in his attempt to evade capture by others, he inadvertently further ripped open his own injury!

Fierce, this young man is truly ruthless!

In full view of the crowd, Ji Huan clung to the metal bars, kneeling on top of the cage. Blood streamed from his right arm, dripping through the gaps in the bars and pattering down into the cage, drop by drop.

Crimson blood dripped onto the demonic creature with ram horns, making its already grotesque appearance all the more terrifying.

Sensing the scent of blood, the horned demonic creature, which had been lying on the ground within the cage, lifted its head and gazed upward toward the cage's ceiling.

The young man, currently sprawled atop the cage, then quietly met its gaze in return.

The youth's expression was surprisingly serene.

At this very moment, neither joy nor sorrow reflected in his eyes; there was no frantic desperation of being lost, nor the bewilderment of not knowing where the path ahead led.

His eyes were exceptionally serene.

Two soldiers had already mustered their courage to climb up to the top of the cage. Seeing someone approaching to apprehend them, the youth promptly broke off his intense stare-down with the monster below. With agility, he dodged atop the cage and, in a final act of desperation, even leaped onto the roof of the adjacent cage!

With his vigorous leaps and bounds, not only did the boy's blood spill into the cage of the Horned Demon, but it also splattered into the adjacent monster's cage.

In the air, a subtle scent of rust began to linger.

My gaze returned to the youth's face. Though his complexion was somewhat pale, his expression remained impeccably composed.

Mr. Yang's eyelids twitched again. His gaze then fell on the other man's arm, which was not particularly muscular but unusually fairer than most people's. It was this fairness that made the bloodstains now marring the limb all the more disturbing to behold!

Within that slender arm, seemingly thinner than an adult man's, there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of fluid.

The blood continued to flow.

The youth's expression remained composed.

Beneath his feet, in the cage, the two monsters—one black, one white—had lifted their heads at some point, both drenched in the youth's blood during the frenzied evasion.

There was a sudden quiver in the muscles on one side of the man surnamed Yang's cheek.

"Monsters are, after all, monsters, not of the same ilk as humans. Especially those who have fed on humans—"

"…Once they catch the scent of human blood, even the most benign creatures of the night, who usually masquerade as harmless beings, cannot resist the primal urge that surges within their veins. The thirst for fresh blood inevitably overpowers all else, causing them to instantly revert to their true, fearsome forms…"

The sentence, which had once been uttered by him and then repeated by the youth, suddenly resurfaced in his mind.

"Get him down and staunch the bleeding! Quickly, quickly, hurry!" The repetition of the word 'quickly' betrayed the urgency in his voice.

Just then, the demonic ram in the cage exhibited a new behavior. It lowered its head to sniff the blood on its scales.

"Return! All of you, get back! Everyone around the cage, retreat immediately! Hurry!" With wide-eyed determination, the Yang-named man promptly altered his command.

Trained for such situations, the two soldiers he dispatched to intervene with Ji Huan promptly leaped out of the cage. Though puzzled by the frequent changes in orders, they showed no signs of confusion; obedience had become an ingrained instinct in them.

The two young men landed softly on the grass beside the cage.

And then—accompanied by a heart-wrenching scream, a geyser of blood spewed onto the back of one of them!

The soldier, drenched in the hot flow, instantly spun around in shock. "My God!" He couldn't believe his eyes as he stared at the cage behind him.

In the cage to his left, the horned demon was silent, tears of blood silently streaming down its cheeks.

However, it wasn't the old demon's blood tears that caused his face to drain of color; it was the scene in the cage to his right: the previously quiet black demon had somehow thrown itself against the cage bars, its mouth dripping with blood, revealing half a human arm inside. The well-dressed man with short whiskers, who had been so composed just moments ago, now lay on the grass beside the cage, his left arm vanished, a torrent of blood gushing from the stump. The once sharp-suited man was now a bloody mess!

Paralyzed with fear, the soldier should have fled immediately upon landing, but the unexpected event behind him left him stunned for a few seconds. Fortunately, his companion, alert and responsive, promptly pulled him away without hesitation. As the two retreated, the black demon rammed fiercely in their direction. No one could have guessed the immense strength of this unassuming creature—the sturdy cage deformed under its impact, bulging outward. Its maw, which had just devoured a human limb, opened wide, only to clatter against the air with a metallic ring, as if it had struck an invisible target!

Just now, everyone's attention was either fixed on Ji Huan or the aged, white monster. As such, there weren't many who truly saw what had just transpired in detail.

Among them was Chen Sheng.

Like everyone else, prior to this, he had been captivated by the tale of the young man and the ancient demon.

He was a man with a somewhat overly softhearted nature. After capturing this monster, upon seeing its pitiful state, he couldn't resist feeding it a bit of meat.

The ancient monster didn't touch a single bite.

Later, by accident, he dropped half an apple into the well.

The old monster devoured it.

After that incident, he offered another apple, which was also consumed.

When the royal family accused this monster of being the culprit behind the earthquakes, Chen Sheng was the first to doubt their claim. However, despite their compelling evidence and convincing arguments, he eventually agreed to their plan.

This was the final step: they would hand over the old monster for interrogation, while the royal family could reclaim their tamed magical beast, achieving a mutually beneficial outcome.

But...

Something felt off to Chen Sheng.

What if...

What if this old monster wasn't really the culprit? Wouldn't that mean the true malevolent beast was still at large?

The official report on the earthquake's casualties in this region had already been released: fifteen deaths and four missing in the mountainous area. Yet, those in the know understood that the "missing" were not truly missing at all.

It was as if the monster had devoured a human!

Once a monster tasted human flesh, it could no longer be nourished with ordinary feed.

This was common knowledge to anyone with even a basic understanding of monsters!

If a monster that had tasted human flesh was spared, it would never be able to consume regular fodder again; instead, it would require human flesh for sustenance...

Chen Sheng shuddered at the thought.

He was merely someone with a slight aptitude in this field, slightly better than an ordinary person, capable of capturing only low-level monsters. His self-definition in taking up this job was simply as a "better-paid beast keeper."

He had never come into contact with mid to high-level monsters. If not for this coincidence, he probably would never have encountered them in his entire life.

Before that scene just now, the mid to high-level monsters in his mind were still like the old monster in the cage: fierce and ugly in appearance, yet docile.

Yes, docile.

The old monster with its grayish-white scales appeared quite gentle.

However, ——

Just as the Yang-named man was shouting for retreat, the bearded man standing before him suddenly went against the tide. His target was the cage containing the black demonic creature. While the creature was lowering its head to sniff at the fresh blood, he fished something out of his bosom. Chen Sheng's eyesight was keen, and he could tell at a glance that it was a syringe.

Extending his arm into the cage, the bearded man abruptly plunged the syringe he held into the black demonic creature within.

Yet, another yet ——

Yet, before the syringe could pierce its flesh, the black demonic creature suddenly lifted its head and struck back with a bite! The man with the short whiskers' arm that had reached in was instantly severed by the monster's jaws!

At this moment, Chen Sheng suddenly recalled something:

This black demonic creature... it was reportedly captured in the mountain range where the "earthquake" occurred.

Immediately afterward, he recalled the unintentional words uttered by that young man earlier:

"Do you truly believe in your heart that my grandfather is the monstrous creature causing the earthquakes? Why was that man in such a hurry to take the monster next door away? I speculate that perhaps... that monster might be..."

Finally, ——

"Monsters are, after all, monsters, not the same species as humans. Especially those who have tasted human flesh—"

"…Upon catching the scent of human blood, even the most seemingly benign monster can't resist. The innate craving for blood will overpower everything, and they'll immediately revert to their true form…"

Once a monster has tasted human flesh, it can no longer be sustained with ordinary sustenance.

The words of the Yang-named man echoed in Chen Sheng's mind, intertwining with the warning his mentor had given him on his first day in the profession. His face paled.

"It's this one! This is the monster that caused the earthquake! The one that ate four people in the affected area!" Pointing at the black monster in the cage, Chen Sheng exclaimed in a voice devoid of emotion!

As if waiting for those words to be spoken, Ji Huan ignored the neighboring monster's actions and simply gazed intently at the Yang-named man from afar.

"According to you, my grandfather is a monstrous fiend who has consumed twenty humans, the prime suspect in causing this earthquake, and also the attacker in the affected area. Therefore, you intend to take him away," Ji Huan calmly recounted what he had heard from the beardless Wang family man earlier. His tone was low but unnervingly steady.

Beneath his feet, the black monster's collisions against the cage grew stronger, and it seemed only a matter of time before the bars would give way.

"Similarly, based on your claim, once a monster has tasted human flesh, it can never resist the allure of human blood and flesh. So, could it be inferred that if a monster can withstand such temptation, then this particular monster has never consumed human flesh?"

Staring intently with his dark eyes, Ji Huan's expression remained serene.

By now, the man surnamed Yang finally grasped his intention.

Quivering lips betrayed the first crack in Yang Qi's otherwise stoic expression.

"Would you risk your own life by luring monsters into a frenzy with your blood just to prove this? Do you realize how perilous that is?"

This time, he didn't address Ji Huan as a youth. For the first time, he placed Ji Huan on an equal footing with himself, as an adult.

By the time he finished this sentence, the expression of the black-haired youth across from him shifted as well.

His lips curved up slightly, and a faint smile graced the young man's face.

Somber yet heroic, tinged with a hint of melancholy.

Yang Qi was frantic. "Hurry down! The creature next to you is a demonic beast that has feasted on human flesh—"

However, ——

A moment too late, as he cried out this warning, a crisp snapping sound echoed – the black monster within the cage had finally broken free!