Condition 5 has been completed.
Now, only Condition 4 remains.
Fang Zhixing slightly smiled, activated the Sea God System, and commanded, "Keep an eye out for the latest intelligence on the nefarious creatures’ movement—I want to participate in the extermination mission."
Two days passed in a flash.
In the afternoon of that day, the Sea God System provided a piece of feedback: "813 kilometers west of Sea King City, at Falling Leaves Highland in Fengye Town, a ’Defiler’ has appeared. Please go to handle it immediately.
Take extra caution, as two groups of personnel previously dispatched to deal with it have gone missing for unknown reasons."
Fang Zhixing uttered a sound of acknowledgment. He didn’t rush into action but first searched to understand what exactly a ’Defiler’ was.
"The so-called Defilers, formally called ’Vile Shapeshifters,’ are classified as Level 6 in terms of danger."
"Defilers can transform into any shape, including carbon-based lifeforms and inorganic matter, meaning they could be a person, or even an inconspicuous blade of grass."
"With just one touch, a Defiler can take on the appearance of anyone, and create perfect confusion."
"Defilers can absorb negative emotions. The more people they contact, the more evil, lewd, greedy, arrogant they become..."
"Because of this, if you wait patiently, as time passes, the Defiler will become self-inflated and expose its whereabouts. That will be the perfect time to kill it."
Fang Zhixing understood.
If a Defiler was mixed among the crowd, the most lecherous and greedy person likely would be it.
"Hmm, Defilers aren’t as ostentatious as Black Goat offspring; they prefer to hide within the crowd, slowly torturing humans..."
Fang Zhixing had a handle on it, pushed open the window, leaped out, and rode the Five-Colored Auspicious Cloud towards the west.
An eight-hundred-kilometer journey wasn’t considered far, and he soon arrived.
What caught his eyes was a plateau covered with maple trees, their falling leaves creating a beautiful scene.
Indeed, the Falling Leaves Highland lived up to its name.
Deep within the maple forest lay a beautiful pastoral town, with a few small villages scattered around.
The Five-Colored Auspicious Cloud descended, hovering at a low altitude.
Fang Zhixing released his Divine Soul Perception, sweeping over the entire Falling Leaves Highland, and instantly furrowed his brows.
He discovered that several small villages had been exterminated, with dead livestock and unburied bodies already rotting and smelling.
In front of the village closest to the pastoral town stood a white-haired old man squatting before a mutilated corpse, appearing to be conducting some sort of examination.
Fang Zhixing landed and asked, "Old man, are you the one who reported this?"
The white-haired old man turned around. He was a cyborg, a hybrid of flesh and metal.
Unfortunately, as he aged, his flesh aged too, and his looks were no longer youthful.
The white-haired old man stood up, surveyed Fang Zhixing, and nodded, saying, "Good day, officer, yes, it was I who made the report."
Fang Zhixing glanced at the corpse on the ground, skinned and met with a most gruesome death.
Obviously, the Defiler had grown fond of torturous games.
Still, he asked, "How can you be certain that the culprit is a Defiler?"
The white-haired man recounted, "In my youth, I came across a Defiler. Wherever it appeared, a variety of gruesome murders would follow, and each victim’s death was more tragic than the last, showing a trend of escalating brutality."
He elaborated, "The first murder happened in Xiao Wang Village, where a family of three was suddenly slaughtered. The female homeowner was raped and killed. Not long after, another family was wiped out, with the woman and her daughter both suffering the same fate.
Subsequent crimes grew more vicious, with both women and men being raped and murdered.
Afterwards, the marks left on the bodies indicated that the victims were raped first, then killed, and then raped again."
The white-haired man pointed at the corpse on the ground and insisted, "Look at this body. He was skinned and then subjected to multiple violations."
Fang Zhixing grimaced, feeling a churn in his stomach.
"Oh, there’s another thing."
The white-haired man added, "Two villages experienced murders on the same night two days ago. I suspect there’s more than one Defiler."
Fang Zhixing raised his eyebrows and gave the white-haired man a deep look before asking out of curiosity, "Old man, only your brain, heart, and skin haven’t been replaced with metal—is it because you can’t afford it?"
The white-haired man was initially taken aback, his expression changing as he replied, "It isn’t a matter of affordability. I just want to die as a human."
He emphasized, "As a human, not as any carbon-based creature."
Looking at Fang Zhixing, disgust flashed across his face as he spoke with an attitude ready to face death, "I am old and close to death now, and will speak my mind.
You’re full of Life Metal too, right?
Let me tell you, we were all once human. The term ’carbon-based lifeforms’ is just a derogatory term used by the Mechanical God."
Fang Zhixing was surprised and asked, "Why are you so adamant about being human?"
The white-haired man, gasping heavily, angrily retorted, "Who would willingly be domesticated by the Mechanical God? Life is supreme, the human race paramount!"
Fang Zhixing smiled and nodded, saying, "So you’re a follower of the Life Church. Let me guess, the sudden appearance of Defilers here is surely due to someone having a psychic union with a Void Spirit, and that person is you, right?"
The white-haired man narrowed his eyes, his voice cold, "Why do you think it’s me?"
Fang Zhixing replied, "Though it’s normal for Qi-Blood to decline with age, your Qi-Blood’s decline is too abrupt, shown to have three severe fluctuations. If I’m not mistaken, you’ve summoned three Defilers, haven’t you?"