Chapter 60: The “Egg”
“You have to leave! I’ll hold the big mushroom back, so it can’t eat you!”
“Thanks to you saving me earlier, I can save you now!”
The dirty, terrified girl spoke with earnest urgency, seemingly genuinely concerned for Performer’s safety.
But Performer dismissed it. It was just a lunatic. If she took her words seriously… she would be the lunatic.
Ignoring the Seer’s pleas, Performer continued walking forward, her expression unchanged.
Her purpose here was to obtain this “egg,” and now this girl was trying to take it away with such a clumsy excuse…
No, the girl was a lunatic, her actions incomprehensible.
Seeing that Performer wasn’t listening, the Seer grew anxious. She put down the large white reishi mushroom she was carrying, stepped in front of Performer, and raised her hand, about to slap her again.
In the Seer’s mind, a life-saving benefactor needed a good slap to listen to reason.
But this time, before her hand could connect, Performer caught it mid-swing.
“Get lost.”
A slap sent the Seer flying several meters, crashing headfirst into a half-rotted corpse’s leg, knocking her unconscious.
“Heh…”
Performer’s mood instantly improved, finally avenging the slaps she had received.
And now…
Performer turned to the motionless white reishi mushroom on the ground, a smile playing on her lips.
“A mere dormant ‘egg,’ how could it possibly devour me? Even if it could consume my flesh, my soul remains. It’s all futile.”
Performer thought as she raised her remaining left hand, a demonic eye slowly opening on her fingertip.
Although she couldn’t perform the sacrificial ritual here anymore, she could still use the demonic eye to contain the “egg”—she couldn’t possibly carry such a large white reishi mushroom like the Seer, could she?
“His” blessing acted upon the soul; a missing limb wouldn’t affect her ability.
But the next moment, Performer’s expression changed to one of shock.
“What’s… going on?”
She suddenly noticed that the demonic eye on her fingertip had turned a pale gray, completely different from before.
Was it because her soul was damaged that the blessing was also affected?
No, impossible…
This was a projection of “His” Authority… how could it be affected by a minor injury to her soul?
Besides, after Elsa was sealed, her soul had stopped deteriorating, and she had consumed a restorative agent. Even if she wasn’t at her peak, she should still have seventy to eighty percent of her power.
And she had faced more dangerous situations before, and the demonic eye had never shown such an anomaly…
“Wait… this isn’t… damage?”
Performer examined her soul and noticed that the mark of the demonic eye had changed.
The entity that had granted her the demonic eye belonged to the Chaos path, but now, the mark on the demonic eye… was Silent Demise.
Her demonic eye had been unknowingly devoured and replaced by something else…
Could it be…?
A terrifying possibility crossed her mind.
Performer looked up. The white reishi mushroom before her remained still, seemingly just an ordinary fungus, except for its size.
“No, no…”
“This isn’t right…”
The lunatic had been telling the truth…
This “egg” was devouring her… not just her body, but her soul as well.
Performer slowly lowered her head, her movements sluggish, all sensation fading from her body, yet she moved on her own accord.
Terror finally appeared in her eyes, but it was too late.
Viscous white mycelia emerged from her severed arm, weaving and knitting, forming a new, intact arm.
Countless “mushrooms” grew within Performer’s body and soul, consuming, controlling.
Finally, all her injuries, both physical and spiritual, were healed, her body restored to its peak condition, but completely overtaken by white mycelia, only her consciousness remaining.
“Oh? Managed to kill my eldest son? Not bad, not bad.”
Her mouth moved, a sneer appearing on her lips.
But her consciousness was in agony, as if being devoured by countless ants, the pain clear and sharp, yet there was no escape through unconsciousness.
Performer watched helplessly as her body moved towards the white-haired girl, who was covered in wounds.
The Puppet Ballad’s “complete control,” in its twisted sense of humor, left the host’s consciousness intact, forcing them to watch as their body and memories were stolen and used.
Performer had spent her life acting as others, but in her final moments, she was being acted by another.
…A flawless performance.
“…”
Luo Ling looked up, her grip on the dagger loosening.
Her wounds were slowly healing, but her stamina was almost completely depleted.
The Forgotten River Child, fueled by the surrounding corpses, was practically immortal and incredibly fast. Even with her Spores, Luo Ling could barely track its movements.
…This meant she couldn’t use her demonic transformation; she would just become a target.
While Performer had been chasing the large white reishi mushroom, Luo Ling had killed the Forgotten River Child over eighty times, finally managing to strike its true form when it least expected it.
As expected of a Sacred Tool wielded by a High-Order Awakened One, even though Luo Ling hadn’t yet learned how to activate its special ability, the strike had instantly extinguished the Forgotten River Child’s life… or rather, its soul.
The ghostly shadow dissipated, leaving only a mass of disgusting, foul-smelling flesh.
Exhausted, Luo Ling looked up and saw Performer walking towards her. She smiled.
Because she could sense the dense Puppet Ballad aura within Performer, which meant…
Performer was either dead or experiencing a fate worse than death.
Either way, it was cause for celebration.
But the danger hadn’t passed.
Behind the sneering “Performer,” all the white reishi mushrooms in the subterranean cavern trembled slightly, then instantly withered and turned yellow, countless white mycelia threads emerging and flowing into “Performer’s” body.
Although the “egg” hadn’t fully awakened, it was more active than ever before.
It had consumed everything it could in the cavern, absorbing all the Meat Puppets within the incubation barrier, temporarily reviving itself through Performer’s body, with a single purpose.
To consume Luo Ling.
To consume the being that could fully awaken it… its own kind.
“You are also…”
A smile spread across Performer’s cracked lips.
“—An ‘egg.’”
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