Demon Bible

Chapter 221: Is This What It Means to Be Human?

Though Bain hadn't appeared yet, the suspect was basically confirmed.

Bain was a pure pragmatist who prioritized Profit First.

In his youth, upon discovering his sister was in love with a noble, he had used every method at his disposal to assist them.

Later, when Nels caused trouble, he firmly stood by the Dartmenerly family's camp.

When Nemus first arrived in Tail Fin Town, Bain had even showed up at his door as a lobbyist.

Afterward, to target Nemus, Bain even sought out the Scavengers, an outer organization of the Construct Protocol, hiring them to attack Nemus's smuggling caravans.

However, because Isabella had not yet advanced to the Iron Rank, and the environment at the time prevented her from projecting her mental power for perception, she couldn't definitively confirm Bain's identity. Consequently, there was no way to hold him accountable afterward.

On the surface, Bain was a die-hard loyalist to the Dartmenerly family; his entire identity, status, and wealth were bestowed by them.

But peeling back the facade revealed that Bain was only loyal to profit. Everything else was merely an illusion.

Given this, as the statuses of the Dartmenerly family and Nemus underwent a complete reversal, what would be the problem with Bain defecting to his nephew?On the contrary, it was entirely normal.

Or perhaps, Bain had wanted to defect to Nemus early on, but hesitated out of fear that Nemus still harbored lingering resentment over past grievances.

Therefore, as long as Nemus merely beckoned with a finger, Bain would immediately run to his side.

"What is Bain doing?" Dartmenerly sent people to confirm Bain's location, only to learn that he had gone to negotiate business with a certain merchant guild.

But when they dispatched men to find him, Bain was nowhere to be found.

Upon receiving this answer, Isabella's face remained calm, showing no significant emotional fluctuations.

Dartmenerly's face darkened. He knew the family had major issues, but he never expected the problem to be this severe.

An outsider who didn't even share their surname had actually managed to access the official seal, then brazenly swaggered out to act on behalf of the Dartmenerly family.

The most crucial point was that after he did it, the family didn't notice anything amiss.

It took an outsider showing up at their door and investigating step by step for them to finally realize the man's betrayal.

Everyone in the family seemed to have been manipulated entirely in the palm of his hand. It was an unspoken humiliation.

Faced with this situation, Dartmenerly wanted to erupt in anger but forced himself to hold it in. At the same time, a certain thought in his heart grew even firmer.

"Lady Isabella, I believe you have seen the situation. We truly did not go and bring Xixi back."

"I understand," Isabella replied. She could confirm that Dartmenerly was not lying at this moment, and subsequently bid him farewell.

Given the current circumstances, it no longer seemed appropriate for her to stay.

After watching Isabella's departing figure, Dartmenerly could no longer conceal his fury. The entire family desperately needed a thorough purging.

As Isabella followed a servant, preparing to leave, she noticed a young boy undergoing cultivation not far away.

He was swinging the blade in his hand while synchronizing his breathing.

His speed wasn't particularly fast, but it was obvious his hands were exceptionally steady. His movements didn't deform in the slightest.

This was a common form of Breathing Technique cultivation. By conducting sword art training synchronized with breathing, one could mobilize the muscles of the entire body to drive changes in their attribute values.

However, the reason this exercise caught Isabella's attention was due to the power the boy unintentionally displayed.

As the blade was slightly lowered, the breath he exhaled instantly swept over the fine grass on the ground.

Simultaneously, a fierce Life Path aura surged forth, causing the surrounding vegetation and insects to wither and die.

This was the compression of life against life. It generally occurred when a lifeform's tier formed an absolute crushing suppression over another, yet the entity lacked sufficient control or simply wasn't deliberately restraining it.

'An Iron Rank?' Isabella observed that the boy was not very old.

To become an Iron Rank at an age that couldn't even be considered an adult meant this person's innate talent was abnormally high.

'A bloodline experiment?' Isabella couldn't help but wonder. After all, the Dartmenerly family had a prior criminal record of such things.

But soon, Isabella discarded the thought. After finishing his cultivation, the youth looked over. His entire being exuded a rustic, unadorned feeling, much like a tree naturally growing in a forest.

Even if he was a test subject, with a temperament like that, he was no ordinary test subject.

While Isabella was still pondering, the boy had already arrived in front of her.

"Auntie?" Nimes looked at Isabella, his eyes full of curiosity.

Although he had frantically crammed a lot of knowledge about mankind recently, he still retained a great deal of curiosity about humans.

"Can you tell me how you do it?" the Saint Child asked. "The feeling you give me is completely different from other humans. It's like... it's like comparing animals and plants."

Isabella paused, taken aback, unsure of what kind of descriptive method this was.

Before Isabella could figure it out, the Saint Child immediately spoke again, "No, you aren't like an animal."

"You are like something far more advanced." Yet, the Saint Child couldn't articulate what that 'more advanced' thing was.

In his cognition, the majority of life in this world was no different from plants.

They rooted themselves in the mud, absorbing and competing for all external nutrients. Yet, in this process, they were bred by others, harvested by others.

But there was a portion that wasn't just plants; they were animals.

Take the Dartmenerly family for instance. They were social animals that formed a tribe. The convictions of some among them had detached from the plant-like state of only growing for oneself; they were willing to sacrifice themselves for the development of their tribe.

But now, upon seeing Isabella, the Saint Child sensed a completely different kind of individual.

She possessed the essence of a social animal, yet was entirely different from those people in the Dartmenerly family.

Mankind... was truly complex.

The Saint Child looked at Isabella with curiosity, but Isabella had no idea how to answer his question.

However, at this moment, Isabella roughly understood where the Saint Child's confusion lay. She paused for a moment before saying earnestly, "I am neither an animal nor a plant. I am human."

"And I hope that everyone can become human."

Hearing this answer, the Saint Child froze in place.

He had constantly pondered all sorts of complicated questions, using different things to symbolize mankind, only to realize that he never knew what original humanity was supposed to look like.

Subsequently, the Saint Child raised his head and looked at Isabella. "So, should everyone be like you?"

"Is this what it means to be human?"

"I do not know either," Isabella shook her head. She didn't know what mankind was supposed to be like either.

She simply wanted to prevent people from living such bitter lives because she could empathize with the suffering of the majority of mankind.

Prompted by the Saint Child's inquiry, Isabella's originally chaotic heart suddenly seemed to recall her past self.