Chương 29: Curses (Part V)

Throughout the destroyed village, fewer than half a dozen houses remained intact, most having been reduced to rubble by either the puppets or Lucian. It was an eerie scene, the iron smell of blood and a herbal scent clashing and confusing one's senses. Glancing at the dried wooden corpses emitting both scents, Lucian frowned. That child puppet was stronger than these, he thought, mildly distracted by his own curiosity.

While he couldn't remember his actions during the Curse of Wrath, the state of the puppets told him enough. He could perceive that these creatures' endurance was subpar when compared to the small puppet Liu Tian had thrown at him in the Azure Magpie Forest. Suddenly, a sharp pain in his left side snapped his attention back to his condition. His body had reacted on its own, and Blood Essence was forcing his blood not to leak out of the stump where his hand once stood. However, this wasn't sustainable.

He was wounded beyond what his current prowess could handle. Besides the missing arm, Lucian had multiple self-inflicted wounds, worsening his condition by the second. At this rate, death would come within minutes. This will require true slumber, he thought with disdain. A single lost arm and fighting against dolls are giving me so many problems. Disgusting. Aware he should act fast, Lucian mobilized more than half of his remaining Blood Essence and sent it to his left eye.

In his pupil, an image of a half-closed eye formed by three lines shimmered in crimson light, surrounded by a circle of shifting sigils. Devilish Arts: Boon of Sloth — Body Over Mind A heavy wave of sleepiness crashed over him, but he was prepared. Pressing his torn left arm with his right hand, the spike of pain forced him awake. Focusing inward, he perceived the Blood Essence gathering throughout his body, infusing into bone, muscle, and organs while blending with his blood.

The more Blood Essence he infused, the stronger his body became. And accompanying that strengthening, the pull of sleep grew. Fighting it was increasingly difficult, and not even his pain could keep him awake. When a little more than one tenth of his original Blood Essence reserves remained, he commanded the Rune of Sloth to stop, and the sigil faded, leaving behind a wave of drowsiness. Lucian staggered forward twice, forcing his body to remain upright.

Twenty, he thought at first, but soon shook his head as his vision blurred. No. Ten minutes. I have to find a place to slumber in ten minutes. Then, with senses sharpened further by the enhancement brought by Rune of Sloth, he caught the faint sounds of groaning and clawing nearby. Frowning, Lucian moved with silent steps. Though not as fast as during the Curse of Wrath, his speed was vastly greater than it had been hours before.

One of the effects of the Rune of Sloth was precisely to permanently increase his strength! However, it came with a great cost. I do not accept hidden risks during my slumber, he thought, a pproaching a large cellar. There, he saw the source of the noise. A dozen wooden puppets clawed at the cellar door, walls, and windows, close to breaking in. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Closing his eyes to focus and sharpening his hearing, Lucian heard only the groans ahead. These are the last puppets, he concluded. But why this building? Are there survivors inside? Knowing he had only minutes before collapsing into sleep, he slipped through the shadows, counting the number of puppets and checking their positions. Three at the front. Three at the back. Two on one side. Four on the other. Then his gaze lifted. Two more on the ceiling, he thought, exhaling slowly. I have to deal with them.

And with whatever is inside. Without wasting another moment, he moved toward the two closest to him. The wooden puppets appeared to have an unusual way of perceiving their surroundings, because even in darkness and with Lucian making no noise, both turned to him as he approached. Unfortunately for the corpse puppets, Lucian had arrived close enough to attack.

Grabbing the rightmost one's head with his remaining arm, he threw it onto the other creature and then kicked their knees with a swipe of his leg, causing them to fall. The puppets didn't have much to do, as Lucian followed by stomping their necks in succession, his foot bringing down a force strong enough to separate their heads from their torsos. Looking at the rolling heads, he nodded to himself and walked to the others.

With a glance, he noticed that a ll puppets on the ground were still amidst their transformation, with human blood and flesh still present. This indicated to him that they were easier to deal with, because even if the creatures couldn't feel pain, they could still lose their faculties and be unable to move or attack back when hit in the right places. Narrowing his eyes, he walked like a stalking predator, going through the cellar's periphery and lunging at the creatures, batch by batch.

He was quick in incapacitating them before killing each one. The noise of his battle against them couldn't be hidden, and he made no attempt to do so. For him, these puppets were akin to zombies, merely following their instincts. If they came to him or waited for their deaths, it didn't matter. Given his battle experience, he wasn't surprised when the twelfth creature died without any of them successfully hitting him once. Now, to the ceiling, he thought, prepared to jump into the nearby wall.

However, a scream inside the cellar caught his attention first. Bai Xiaomeng. Recognizing her voice, he looked strangely at the cellar. So they didn't flee, and I also didn't kill them during the Curse of Wrath. I can't say if they are lucky or unlucky. Dismissing that thought, he climbed the wall and found a hole in the ceiling from where he supposed the other wooden puppets had entered the cellar.

Quickly jumping down, he saw Bai Xiaomeng behind a wooden pillar, holding a lantern with her shaking hand, and Wang Chen fending off six wooden puppets. When Lucian saw that Wang Chen was using a broken wooden pole to strike the puppets, he narrowed his eyes. T he attacks, while strong, either missed completely or hit the puppets' chests, causing them to stumble but not be harmed. Worse still, Wang Chen was bleeding from his arm and also from his belly, getting slower by the second.

With a glance, Lucian guessed that while Wang Chen had been dealing with four puppets, two new ones had broken the previous balance and wounded him, causing Bai Xiaomeng to scream seconds ago. Well, I could take this opportunity to test and train you to become useful, Wang Chen, Lucian thought, clicking his tongue. But we are out of time. Searching for more enemies in the periphery and finding none, Lucian kicked off the ground toward the puppets.

Bai Xiaomeng and Wang Chen, both cornered and having their own fears rampaging through their minds, were greatly surprised when one of the puppets encircling them flew sideways and crashed into one of the cellar's pillars. Wang Chen, with his enhanced vision, was able to perceive a black shadow rushing from one puppet to another. Each creature was smacked into the ground or against the walls, their heads detaching from their bodies a second after they reached the ground.

In less than a minute, all corpse puppets lay broken on the floor. It happened so fast that the duo didn't know how to react. After finishing with the puppets, Lucian stepped into the light near Bai Xiaomeng and was about to speak when he heard her shout with a scream,"Young Master Wang! There's another monster!" She was looking at him.