Roya reached for the knife and fork several times, only to pull his hand back midway, a look of excruciating pain twisting across his face.
*Crack!* He collapsed face-down onto the dining table, teeth clenched tight.
Robin's expression was equally ghastly as he forced down a piece of blood-soaked flesh, fighting back a wave of nausea.
The bell was brief — it ended in barely thirty seconds.
*Snap!*
As though an invisible maw had bitten down out of thin air, a low wail of agony tore from Roya's throat.
A huge chunk of flesh had been torn away near his right ear — the entire ear was gone. Through the side of his face, white teeth were visible in the wound. It was a ghastly sight.
A flash of white light flickered in the void, and before one of the shadowy figures, a bloodied ear materialized, the muscle still twitching involuntarily.
"Ugh..."
After several rounds, Robin and Roya looked ashen as corpses, yet the Bear Barbarian Priest across from them finally broke, collapsing onto the dining table.
*Hum!*
As though a signal had been triggered, the Bear Barbarian Priest was immediately transferred to the vacant thirteenth chair, and the swarm of dark shadows lunged at him.
"Ahhhh..." The Bear Barbarian Priest screamed without end. One by one, patches of fur vanished from his body, followed by flesh, blood vessels — not even the bones were spared.
"Mmmgh..."
This Bear Barbarian Priest, who had already reached the Crystal Stage, could offer not even a shred of resistance before he was devoured by the gaping maws of the dark shadows.
From his final gaze, in the very last moment before his life slipped away, his consciousness had been utterly lucid.
After consuming the Bear Barbarian Priest, the dark shadows dissipated into the air one after another, and Roya felt the powerful binding force that had gripped him finally dissolve.
"It's finally over..." Roya let out a long breath, then slumped to the ground and began retching — he nearly brought up bile.
"I swear, I'm not eating anything for at least three months..."
Roya's face was twisted in misery, yet the injuries on his body were healing at a remarkable rate.
Robin's gaze burned with intensity, fixed upon some unseen point in the void. In Roya's perception, a nameless existence from beyond had already descended upon this place.
"What reward do you desire?"
An unknown voice resonated within the minds of both of them.
"I want..." Robin's voice was low, trembling with barely contained excitement...
At that moment, Lin Lei and Tanaasha walked out of the ecological garden and arrived at the Illusory Causeway Corridor from before.
"Master! According to our research, we only need to pass through three more spatial nodes, and we can get out!" Tanaasha looked much better than before, her previously missing arm having even regrown under the help of potions.
"Mm." Lin Lei nodded.
"After we get out, stay in the Forgotten Lands for the time being, and look for a chance to slip out and rendezvous with me! Are there any restrictions on you within the organization?"
"None! I'm one of the leaders of the Exiled Alliance, and I haven't signed any soul contract or anything like that!"
Tanaasha answered quickly. With her strength as a Crystallized Wizard, this was indeed the case.
"Good..." Lin Lei nodded, but just as he was about to say something more, his expression suddenly changed, and he gave Tanaasha a meaningful glance.
Tanaasha nodded, and water ripples emerged from her body as she vanished entirely.
According to the Chip's detection, Wizard fluctuations had been detected up ahead, and Tanaasha was a contingency Lin Lei had arranged — she couldn't casually appear in front of outsiders.
Lin Lei smiled toward the concealed Tanaasha off to the side, then turned a corner.
And there, he saw a warlock in black robes collapsed on the ground, a puddle of black blood still expanding. Lin Lei was very familiar with this warlock — he was one of Kasha's subordinates, named Akzil.
"Akzil, wake up!"
Lin Lei turned Akzil over, and immediately saw the crisscrossing wounds across his chest, black blood still gushing continuously from them.
"The power of a curse!" Lin Lei's expression darkened as he sensed an incredibly powerful curse emanating from those slender wounds.
As a Wizard, he had some knowledge of curses as well. The Book of the Great Serpent left behind by the Scarlet Grand Wizard had given him a great deal of inspiration — he had even developed several curses of his own, which had helped him greatly during his time on the South Coast.
But the deeper his research went, the clearer he became about how bizarre and tenacious this kind of power truly was.
Ancient curses in particular were something he still wasn't willing to touch lightly even now.
But it seemed that within the Quicksand Ancient Castle, there existed terrifying curse power as well, and it had already found its way to Kasha and her group.
"Today really is your lucky day!" Lin Lei looked at the still-unconscious Akzil, whose face bore faint rune-like markings formed from black mist, and smiled as he took out a test tube filled with green solution from his leather pouch.
Drop by drop, Lin Lei dripped the green liquid onto Akzil's wounds.
Hiss! The green liquid immediately underwent a bizarre transformation, condensing into countless tiny green worms that writhed across Akzil's skin — a sight that was both disgusting and terrifying.
Then, the swarm of green worms lunged toward the black mist on the wounds, devouring the black curse power ceaselessly, as if feeding.
Gradually, the black mist on Akzil's face grew thinner and thinner, until he finally opened his eyes.