Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 893: The Bonds of the Immortals (5)

Like shattered clay—the tentacles, resembling enormous steel needles, were tough yet gave off a sense of vitality. But now, they fractured piece by piece, finally falling to the ground.

Once they hit the ground, the fragments instantly turned into piles of black residue, lifeless and void of energy.

This disintegration was even contagious, starting from the tentacles and rapidly spreading toward the monster's main body. Sensing this fatal danger, the ugly creature immediately severed its own tentacles.

Seeing this, Karen Yishel pushed aside some rubble and struggled to emerge.

"You... what are you..."

Too injured to stand, she collapsed to the ground before finishing her sentence... but just before she hit the ground, Elizabeth hurriedly caught her.

But Karen had already lowered her head, and despite Elizabeth calling her name several times, there was no response. "Miss Karen has fainted."

Luo Qiu nodded and said, "Take care of her. I'll go inside and take a look."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement. At that moment, Zhong Luoyue, feeling she should contribute, rushed over to help Elizabeth support Karen Yishel.

Miss Zhong seemed very unwilling to remain idle, not wanting to be useless.It was a stark contrast to the current state of a certain vacationing, half-disabled boss... Luo Qiu glanced at Zhong Luoyue, nodded, and walked through the holes in the walls left by previous impacts.

"Be careful!" Elizabeth hastily reminded.

Luo Qiu waved his hand, indicating that they could rest easy.

"He... he'll be alright, right?" Zhong Luoyue asked Elizabeth, worried. "That monster up ahead looked much scarier."

Her perception of life was undergoing a transformation like never before—but for the third miss of the Zhong family, her concept of being human hadn't fully changed within the last one or two hours... or perhaps, it hadn't even begun to change.

For Miss Zhong, who had no concept of extraordinary power, she could only "judge" the strength of supernatural creatures by appearance and form.

Elizabeth shook her head and said, "That's because you don't know how powerful a fourth-generation vampire is... even someone as strong as Viscount Fernandez was reduced to nothing by just a few words from Brother Luo Qiu. That monster is no match for Brother Luo Qiu!"

The young girl’s face was filled with confidence and admiration.

Zhong Luoyue nodded, feeling somewhat reassured. However... since when did this girl start calling him "brother"? She didn’t even seem to ask for that poker-faced guy's permission, right?

Zhong Luoyue instinctively checked her phone, realizing it was already past 7 p.m. The wine-tasting event had started at 3 p.m., meaning only four hours had passed.

But to her, these few hours felt as long as several days... outside, it must be nighttime by now, she thought.

...

"Save... me..."

The voice came from the human faces that appeared on the monster. When Luo Qiu walked into the laboratory and approached the grotesque creature, many more tentacles had regrown.

Luo Qiu observed it briefly, saying, "Quite impressive regeneration... and it seems to have a devouring ability as well."

He noticed the technological devices fused into the creature, showing that it could balance organic and inorganic matter simultaneously, making it far more complex than a simple organism.

Unfortunately, this thing lacked any real intelligence, driven only by basic instincts—or rather, merely the unconditional reflexes of its cells. The evil intent wrapped around its body came from another source, while the fear and hatred originated from the human faces.

"Hmm... it seems to have the ability to self-proliferate as well?" Luo Qiu took a closer look.

He realized the monster's body was constantly "expanding"—not because it was growing larger, but because its cells were crazily dividing.

The division seemed limitless. If left unchecked, who knew what form it would eventually take?

A massive, cancerous creature... It might ultimately become a literal cancer to the world, wouldn't it?

"I'm sorry, but I'm not in business right now." Luo Qiu shook his head and said to the human face on the monster, "I'm also trying to enjoy various feelings as much as I can. For example..."

He waved the patterned longsword in his hand. There was no sword aura or light, no mystical energy, but the tentacles in front of him were instantly severed.

"...Right now, I have this sudden sense of justice, feeling that if I let you be, you'll cause a lot of trouble."

He slashed again... this time, the grotesque monster's body was split open, and thick green fluid gushed out.

The monster's cells began to contract wildly, as if in spasms, while the large gaping mouth at its center emitted sounds of agony.

Luo Qiu continued to swing the patterned sword, his expression indifferent.

"I realize this sense of justice might seem somewhat cheap because, at the beginning, I didn't try to save those people killed by Lady Eve, Takizawa, or even the zombies." Luo Qiu shook his head, pausing for a moment.

The monster now had over a dozen deep wounds on its body, resembling a cake that had been savagely sliced by a dining knife.

"I never intended to change the fate of those guests who died today... but I feel that if I leave you alone, your harm will be far greater than I imagined... perhaps one day, you'll become the cancer of the entire world. And when that day comes, cutting you out will be much harder. More importantly, many of my customers, including future potential clients, might suffer because of you, which would be even worse."

The monster's entire body trembled, growing sharp tentacles at a rapid pace and launching them all at once. However, it was as though an invisible sphere surrounded Luo Qiu, protecting him. No matter how fiercely the tentacles stabbed, they couldn’t penetrate this "sphere," breaking one after another upon impact.

Suddenly, Luo Qiu seemed to remember something and said, "Actually, before you, I met someone—or rather, something—very similar to you. I originally wanted to say 'something,' but it developed its own consciousness later on, so I can't really call it that anymore. But unfortunately, you don't have the ability to evolve consciousness. Yes, it's truly unfortunate. Otherwise, I would've enjoyed having a conversation with you..."

Luo Qiu slowly raised his patterned longsword and walked toward the monster, ignoring the frenzied tentacle attacks.

As it approached the end, the monster's body began to turn fluid-like, spreading around Luo Qiu and then starting to rise, as if to envelop or devour him completely.

Luo Qiu suddenly smiled and said, "Though it's a cheap sense of justice, I’m actually enjoying this, because... it's what my father taught me."

It fully swallowed Luo Qiu, reverting to its original hideous form—a massive cancer cell combined with mechanical parts.

Its enormous maw opened wide, revealing its ferocity. But in an instant, its roar turned into a wail of pain as all its cells suddenly began to swell.

It was as if its body was growing more tumors... densely packed. Finally, when every cell swelled to its limit, they all exploded.

Boom—!

A complete detonation.

Black matter splattered across the entire lab, yet at the center of the blast, Luo Qiu stood untouched. He quietly stood there, frowning slightly, as if deep in thought.

He muttered to himself, "I seem to have talked a lot today... not really like me."

He shook his head, choosing not to dwell on why he suddenly became talkative, and instead began to survey his surroundings.

After the monster exploded, the technological devices it had devoured were scattered randomly around the room—though most were unrecognizable.

However, there were quite a few ‘bodies’ left behind... some resembling werewolves, others like the mermaids of legend, and a few other strange creatures.

Most of their bodies were nearly ‘melted,’ with only remnants left, perhaps because the monster hadn’t fully digested them yet.

But without a doubt, they were all dead... and among the black pile of matter, Luo Qiu found half of Takizawa’s body.

This vampire from the East was also dead, his body emitting a foul stench. Luo Qiu used his patterned sword to poke and flip over Takizawa’s remains, unexpectedly discovering something inside his body.

It was a cylindrical container, about the size of a 500ml thermos. It seemed that Takizawa had swallowed and hidden this item within his body.

"This is... Naihe?"

From the hole in the broken wall, Elizabeth and Zhong Luoyue entered, carefully supporting Karen Yishel, who still had her head bowed, seemingly not fully conscious.

The one who spoke was Elizabeth. She looked at the container Luo Qiu had uncovered and said in surprise, "How strange, why is ‘Naihe’ here? Didn't Takizawa already hand it over?"

"He probably handed over a fake," Luo Qiu suddenly said, pulling out a tissue to cover his hand before picking up the container to examine it.

Luo Qiu planned to cheat at this moment. His thoughts stirred, and his gaze locked onto a certain spot in the lab. His eyes pierced through door after door, eventually landing in a pure white room.

He snapped his fingers.

A pedestal in the white room split open, and the items stored within flew out instantly, making their way to Luo Qiu’s side.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. "Three Lives, Ninety-Seven, Yellow Springs, my family’s Flower on the Other Shore, and this is... River of Forgetfulness, right?"

She glanced at the container in Luo Qiu’s hand. "And with Naihe, they're all here..."

Luo Qiu’s focus was mostly on ‘Three Lives’ and ‘Flower on the Other Shore,’ glancing at the other items only briefly. Elizabeth then said, "Three Lives is a crystal, but if you place it in pure spring water, the water will turn into a substitute for blood that even we can drink... though it’s also a type of wine, said to be intoxicating."

"A gem that turns spring water into wine... such a wondrous thing," Zhong Luoyue remarked with some amazement. By now, she had seen more than enough strange things today, so she was merely surprised, not shocked.

At that moment, from a pile of black matter and scattered machinery a few meters away, there came the sound of movement.

A figure crawled out with difficulty.

His entire body was rotten, covered in what looked like festering boils, a horrifying sight, yet his identity was recognizable... Zhong Luoyue gasped, "You... Uncle Jin?"

But she did not move closer.

At this point, Uncle Jin was a dying man. He seemed completely unaware of Zhong Luoyue calling out his name, only struggling as he crawled toward Luo Qiu, muttering something.

"Fake... Naihe is fake... Why is it fake... I went through so much trouble... but it’s fake... Why... why... why is it all fake... why!!"

He roared in anger, "I did so much... I did so much..."

Not just a dying man, Uncle Jin now resembled a madman... and there was always something chilling about a dying madman.

Zhong Luoyue felt it instinctively, blurting out, "What... what did you do?"

"What did I do... what did I do?" Uncle Jin's eyes were wide, speaking to himself. "What did I do? What have I done... I did... that’s right! I’ve worked like a dog for Tu Shenyi for over a decade! But he never bit me! He didn’t give me immortality!! He was afraid I’d surpass him!! He was afraid to lose! He was afraid I’d outshine him!! So he never bit me!! He didn’t bite me!!!"

"He refused to bite me!! Hahahaha!!! He didn’t bite me!!"

Zhong Luoyue and Elizabeth exchanged glances, realizing that Uncle Jin had indeed gone mad.

Luo Qiu, however, watched Uncle Jin with a certain interest.

"He didn’t bite me..." Uncle Jin suddenly burst into tears. "It’s all because of him... he didn’t bite me... but I can’t blame him for me killing him, right... we’re even now, right? Hahahahaha! We’re even! Even... haha... haha..."

"Tu Shenyi... you killed him? How is that possible?" Elizabeth gasped, covering her mouth in disbelief.

At this moment, however, Karen Yishel, who was being supported by the two women, furrowed her brow slightly, her eyelashes trembling as if she were about to wake up...