The Barrel Butcher naturally sensed that something inside his stomach had “come alive” and was struggling desperately, but he did not take it to heart.
He instinctively assumed it was merely residual nerve activity from the dead tentacles.
Just like how a venomous snake’s body would not die immediately after its head was cut off — the remaining nerve reactions would still cause the muscles to twitch. It was probably something like that.
As long as it stayed inside his stomach, the highly corrosive gastric acid solution would dissolve all life and turn it into nutrients for his injury recovery. The remaining soul would replace the original undead and become a new part of his body.
The Barrel Butcher slowly walked up to the injured demon hunter lady.
He looked down at her from above. His eyes were filled with contempt for Theresa’s overestimation of herself. The corners of his mouth curled slightly.
“Demon hunter, tell me the bounty amount on the hunter’s list for me, and who issued the bounty. Maybe I’ll give you a quick death.”
“It’s meaningless. From the moment you… cough cough… from the moment you appeared on the hunter’s list, your death was already decided. Even if I die, there will be more powerful senior demon hunters who will find the tavern where you… cough cough… are.”
Theresa coughed violently a few times. A stubborn smile was forcibly squeezed onto her pale, weak face.
“You asked me this question, which means you’re afraid.”
Seeing the Barrel Butcher’s increasingly gloomy expression, Theresa knew she had guessed correctly.
He had nearly been killed by a mere Fierce Ghost Level demon hunter working together with a weak human girl. The Barrel Butcher was afraid. He was scared that even if he killed her, stronger demon hunters would keep coming after him endlessly for the bounty money.
Until they completely killed him.
The only solution was to issue a reverse bounty targeting the bizarre creatures that had bounties on him and kill them first.
“Unfortunately, even though I look like this, as a demon hunter I still have professional ethics…”
The Barrel Butcher’s face alternated between green and purple, becoming increasingly ugly. His killing intent toward Theresa grew stronger. The hand holding the boning knife trembled, as if he was about to chop the girl in front of him into pieces in the next second.
Theresa slowly closed her eyes, silently waiting for the other party to make his move.
It seemed there was no longer any way to kill the Barrel Butcher. Her strength was still too weak, and her intelligence gathering on the opponent’s abilities was far from sufficient.
Normally, hunting Fierce Ghost Level bizarre creatures was as easy as cutting vegetables.
This was her first time attempting to take on a bounty above her level. If she had known the risk was this high, she should not have been so greedy for money…
Wuwuwu… It’s already over now!
Three seconds… seven seconds… half a minute… The expected disaster did not occur. Theresa opened her eyes in confusion and saw the Barrel Butcher holding the boning knife high, his body frozen in place as if he could not move.
Theresa blinked in confusion. “Weren’t you going to kill me?”
“Urgh… urgh ah… No… don’t!”
The Barrel Butcher’s lips moved. His voice was low and hoarse, as if he could sense that something terrifying was about to happen. His face was filled with fear.
In the next moment, a pustule suddenly grew at the Barrel Butcher’s thyroid position. Like an inflated balloon, it expanded crazily at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This was only the beginning. It was not the end.
Immediately afterward, countless pustules of various sizes began growing all over the surface of his body. Just when Theresa thought they were about to burst, each and every one of them grew into pitch-black eyeballs without eyelids, completely exposed.
They trembled at a strange frequency.
Seeing this hair-raising scene, Theresa felt half her soul fly away. Her sanity dropped rapidly.
In order to sustain the continued growth of those eyeballs, the Barrel Butcher’s originally quite robust figure rapidly shriveled up, as if all his energy had been absorbed.
What kind of monster was this? She had never seen such a bizarre scene before.
At that moment, the Barrel Butcher’s body could no longer support the weight of the eyeballs covering his entire form. Without even letting out a wail, there was a crack. The spine supporting his body was completely snapped. He collapsed like a puddle of mud onto the floor.
The wound on his abdomen, which had previously closed, split open once again. With a gurgle, a large pitch-black sphere covered in eyeballs rolled out.
After “vomiting” out the large pitch-black sphere covered in eyeballs, the Barrel Butcher’s original body was like the stamen of a flower that had borne “abundant fruit” — it completely withered into a puddle of mush.
The Barrel Butcher had died… just like that?
Gulp. Theresa swallowed a mouthful of saliva. She instinctively wanted to retreat and stay far away from that huge pitch-black sphere covered in strange eyeballs. Her back touched the cold, hard wall. Only then did she belatedly realize there was no way to retreat.
Wait… why did she feel like that huge black sphere covered in eyeballs looked somewhat familiar?
No! She had clearly seen that big black sphere not long ago. Wasn’t it exactly the way Bai Tang had used her tentacles to completely wrap herself in order to block attacks?!
Besides, who else could come out in that manner other than Bai Tang, who had been stuffed into the Barrel Butcher’s body?
“Bai… Bai Tang, are you still alive?”
Theresa struggled to stand up. Hesitating, she walked toward the pitch-black sphere. To her horror, she discovered that no matter which direction she approached from, the densely packed eyes on the sphere’s surface would stare at her without any blind spots.
She had used such a bizarre method to counter-kill the Barrel Butcher. Was this Bai Tang, or the Parasitic Demon?
“Could it be that you actually didn’t die, Bai Tang?”
The pitch-black sphere showed no reaction. If she wanted to know what had happened, she had no choice but to act now.
Theresa no longer hesitated. She drew her sharp short blade and carefully stabbed into the pitch-black sphere, doing her best to cut along the areas where the eyeballs were growing.
It was as if a balance had been broken. Those pitch-black tentacles covered in eyeballs quickly retracted. Bai Tang, who had been wrapped inside, lost her protection and directly fell out. Fortunately, Theresa caught her in time, preventing the tragedy of her head hitting the ground first.
Bai Tang’s head, which had been blown apart by her flintlock gun, had actually grown back!
Surviving even after having one’s head blown off and regrowing it was not rare in the hell world, but it was mostly exclusive to [Evil]-aligned flesh creatures.
Seeing it happen to a human was completely inconceivable.
Of course, Theresa did not once again suspect that the Bai Tang before her eyes was completely a Parasitic Demon because of this.
After all, a Parasitic Demon would not cooperate with a demon hunter.
She was more inclined to believe that Bai Tang and the Parasitic Demon had reached some kind of agreement, which was why the Parasitic Demon had chosen to become Bai Tang’s helper.
Right now, however, the girl’s eyes were tightly closed. Her life or death was unknown.
Theresa reached under Bai Tang’s nose. There was no breath! She then pressed her hand against the girl’s chest. Although it was weak, at least her heart was still beating. Only then did she let out a sigh of relief.
At that moment, Theresa noticed the potion bottles tightly gripped in Bai Tang’s hand. Several of them were labeled with skull marks. The bottles were already completely empty.
She quickly guessed how Bai Tang had dealt with the Barrel Butcher.
“She poured several kinds of mixed potions directly into that guy’s stomach in one go, letting him rapidly absorb them, causing his flesh to mutate and collapse. Meanwhile, she hid inside the ball made of tentacles?”
“She really is quite clever.”
If that was the case, then the reason Bai Tang had fallen unconscious should be because there was not enough oxygen for her to breathe inside the Barrel Butcher’s stomach. She had passed out from oxygen deprivation.
Just like drowning.
As for how to wake Bai Tang up, Theresa’s gaze fell on the girl’s moist, thin lips.
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