The sun is high

Although in Theseus's words, the descendants of the Dark Abyss are just low-level defective products that cannot even make it to the table, but based on what Xiuge has seen with his own eyes along the way, this power comes from the ancient magic of the "Abyss Palace" Creation actually has its own uniqueness.

Fundamentally speaking, the descendants of Dark Abyss are indeed magical creatures that serve their own survival instincts.

Find prey, wrap it up, devour it, digest it and complete the learning process.

That's what they really need to do.

Simple, straightforward and no overly complicated process in between.

The richer the experience, the more complex the memory and past are, and the heavier the "digestive burden" will be on the descendants of An Yuan.

In contrast, children with simple minds and limited life experiences are better understood and "accepted" by them.

Now, these living "cases" have come to Xiuge.

The newsboys who once earned their living expenses by selling Peace Newspapers with the help of the Salem Mutual Aid Association are still shouting on the streets of this dilapidated city day after day, even on the route they travel. There doesn't seem to be much difference compared to the past.

Xiuge looked at those familiar figures. Perhaps because so much time had passed, these descendants of the dark abyss who devoured those children had basically acquired the outlines of humans. However, perhaps it was because of inherent flaws, or perhaps because They have never been able to truly understand the existence of human life forms, so they have not been able to simulate real skin and flesh.

In short, in Shuge's eyes, the monsters coming towards him were still these monsters with the outlines of children, but still maintaining a dark gelatinous state all over their bodies.

"Newspaper! Newspaper!"

They kept repeating human speech in imitated children's voices, their arms swinging meaninglessly in mid-air.

Of course, now that the Peace Newspaper Agency has disappeared, there is no newspaper in their palms made of pitch-black, turbid gel. These children's human figures just follow the rules of life in those memories, repeating these meaningless things again and again. Just an action.

Xiuge just stood there, quietly waiting for them to approach.

As the distance between the two parties shortened, the voices that originally had strong child characteristics began to change. They began to become muddy and weird. Even though they were just repeating some very simple words from beginning to end, gradually, they became even these. The vocabulary is also unclear.

These parodies of human behavior are gradually distorted and fading due to the awakening of the hunting instinct.

They felt the smell of "food" in front of them.

Unlike other prey in this closed city, the target standing not far in front of them seems to have an extremely strong temptation. This power almost instantly makes the greedy desires of these descendants of the dark abyss. Completely revived, they accelerated their movement, and the original outlines of children turned into flowing "mud" in an instant.

Xiuge quietly observed the changes displayed by these descendants of the Dark Abyss. With the help of magical vision, he could even see the outline of a very familiar and thin girl gradually collapse while running, and completely different from her. People of the same kind merge into one.

In just a few seconds, this dark sludge rushed in front of Shuge, and in it, countless mouths that once belonged to children grew up, just like they had found customers willing to buy newspapers in the past, they were happily elated shouted.

"Newspaper! Mr. Writer, do you want to buy a newspaper?"

A heavy sigh came out of Xiuge's mouth. He stood quietly, watching the mud expand into a huge curtain in front of him...

"Let's forget it for today."

He responded softly.

So the Touch of Charron with its sharp arthropods surged out from behind him, piercing and shredding the deadly black curtain in just an instant. The mucus that could easily digest the flesh of living creatures adhered to Shuge's black tentacles. , but couldn't break through those hard horny cells at all.

At this moment, the descendants of the Dark Abyss finally took an extremely important step in learning about human beings - they finally understood what the "despair" and "panic" emotions that these human beings had at the last moments of their lives were about. .

The figure that they regarded as a delicacy just a second ago suddenly transformed into a predator even more ferocious than themselves.

Some soft dark remains fell to the ground. Xiuge lowered his head instinctively, only to see that the mucus that still had considerable vitality was squirming around his feet. The organs used to produce sounds were even still functioning, but at this moment , the sounds they made have turned into shouts and cries filled with fear.

"It's not so bad if you can learn to be afraid at the last moment."

Shuge said softly, then raised his foot and kicked a piece of gel to the side, and Charron's Touch immediately came out, penetrating and corroding it on the spot.

Those constant noises were really annoying, so Xiuge mobilized his magic power to summon the substitute of the messenger in the mirror who was already ready for "meal".

"Enjoy as much as you like."

After getting Shuge's consent, the humanoid stand-in standing aside immediately exploded on the spot, turning into a hazy mist, and rushed towards the scattered wreckage. As a result, a large number of fragmented Anyuan descendants' power and Memories were immediately collected and gathered together.

So Xiuge took two steps back, closed his eyes, and began to quickly sort and read the messages sent back by the messenger in the mirror.

The "meal time" this time was not too long. After a few minutes, Charron's Touch and the Messenger of the Mirror ended their work one after another, and more information about the current situation in Salem City was also revised. Known.

Only then did Shuge know that the children who used to sell newspapers on this street had actually been killed on the day of the Incident in Salem City - the place where they usually lived and hid was a few miles away from Salem City. The entrance to the sewer is really close, so after nightfall, it becomes the first hunting target of the descendants of An Abyss.

It is precisely because of this that these poor children did not experience the desperate moments that other survivors in Salem City later encountered.

From a certain perspective, this can be regarded as a kind of luck.

It's just that Xiuge can't get any comfort from this. That kind of thinking is no different from self-deception. These victims' memories plundered from the bodies of the descendants of An Abyss can only make Xiuge understand these ancient creations and the people who made it happen. The Black Sun Society felt even more hatred and disgust.

…

Salem City ushered in a new morning.

There was a dull and continuous roar in the distant sky. It was the shelling on the plain far away from Salem City. Through the source of the sound and the traces of magic in the sky, it was easy to judge that this was a round of bombardment by Delan. The Kingdom's artillery took the lead in launching an artillery attack on Votel's army position.

Compared to the hustle and bustle in the distance, Salem City seemed extremely quiet.

The sky is not too bright yet, and no survivors will take to the streets at this time. At this time, the descendants of the Dark Abyss will still frequently forage on the streets. Once they encounter a large group of the descendants of the Dark Abyss, even if they Heavily armed soldiers or well-prepared spellcasters can easily become their food.

In this case, Xiuge seems a bit out of place.

He was like a traveler who had just come from another place and wanted to carefully observe the street scene of a strange city, walking alone on the empty streets.

Xiuge had already changed his clothes.

Relying on his memory of Salem City, he found a clothing store. After "devouring" the descendants of An Yuan who were entrenched in the anti-customer place, he found some clean new clothes from the closed warehouse.

So he became what he looked like when he lived in Salem City before, but the calmness on his face and the confidence in his eyebrows were completely different from before.

Shuge did not want to have any form of conflict with the survivors in Salem City prematurely. In this case, Votel's military uniform must be replaced. If you want to prove your identity, you can have the documents of the army and the council. It was enough. In his pocket, he also carried the official emblem of the Ernst family. With these things, he could report to any Votel army at any time and be accepted by the other party.

Under Shuge's magical perception, any descendants of the Dark Abyss hidden in houses and ruins are unable to escape. They are either swallowed on the spot by the mist of the Mirror Messenger, or are found from the corners by the Touch of Charron. .

And as Xiuge continued to advance, his complexion became grim bit by bit.

"The number of Dark Abyss descendants remaining in Salem City is probably far beyond my imagination... During this period, they are not only constantly trying to break through the ceremonial ground set up by the Legal Committee, but they are also trying every means to expand their own group. Given time, The city will be completely overrun by them."

Xiuge digested the latest memory of his offspring.

A considerable part of the content came from a survivor of Salem City who had just died not long ago. In his memory, Shuge found some horrific scenes that were enough to make him feel scared.

The survivor, who died two nights ago while searching for food, had seen "huge shadows" rushing through the streets more than once at night.

The scale of the shadows has completely exceeded Shuge's expectations - they look like a torrent of death made of deep colors and dim fluorescence. Their scale is enough to cover half of the streets, and their height is enough to submerge those streets. Two-story shops on both sides.

The survivors in Salem City called this horrific phenomenon the "death wave."

The meaning is simple and clear, referring to this terrifying phenomenon that consists of a large number of descendants of the Dark Abyss and is very likely to kill all residents hiding in low-rise shelters on the spot.

As one of the people who knows the most about the descendants of An Abyss in this world, Xiuge almost immediately understood the meaning behind this strange sight - the growth rate of the descendants of An Abyss has reached an incredible level. In comparison, the "scale" they displayed on the day of the Salem City Incident was simply not worth mentioning, and the number of those descendants who entered the sewers to pursue themselves could only be regarded as "pediatric".

"How many people did they eat?"

Shuge squinted at the buildings next to him. He noticed that there were some very obvious marks on the walls of the buildings next to this street, which looked like the marks left by the water on the dam.

Obviously, the "death wave" mentioned by the survivors of Salem City has been here before. Judging from the windows that were deliberately broken and the building walls that were penetrated by brute force, the "death wave" that "passed" here at that time "Must be trying to find survivors who may be hiding nearby.

This is really not good news.

As incomplete creations, the descendants of the Dark Abyss do have many weaknesses, the most typical of which is their aversion to high temperatures and bright light. This is also the reason why the members of the Legal Committee in Salem City have been able to stick to the present.

But Xiuge knows that the current methods of confrontation and avoidance adopted by mankind against the descendants of An Yuan are actually based on a very weak foundation.

This basis is the scale and number of An Yuan's descendants.

Through the descendants of the Dark Abyss that he hunted, Xiuge has come to a preliminary conclusion, that is, the continued growth of the group size will lead to an increase in the speed at which the descendants of the Dark Abyss understand human knowledge and memory, and the larger the number, the harder they will be. The "wisdom" displayed may become even more amazing.

And as the wisdom of the group has generally improved, some individuals who break away and act alone will also show some terrifying characteristics and abilities that exceed the past.

The scion he met in Brown Hill Town who disguised himself as a refugee, and the individual who traveled through the vast battlefield to the Black Forest and transformed into a walking spider were very convincing cases.

"These guys must not be allowed to continue to 'evolve' and 'learn'... They have already learned the rules and methods of human beings to avoid themselves through the memories of their victims. As long as you give them some more time, they will also know how to fight against light and flames. , and even understand what magic is all about. At that time, it will be even more difficult to deal with it."

Xiuge has always wanted to be a lazy person.

He doesn't think he is very noble, nor does he think he can shoulder such important responsibilities based on his ability.

But at this moment, he looked at the bleak street scene in front of him and the tattered clothes left on the roadside because the bodies of the victims were devoured, and finally couldn't help but set himself a goal that seemed a bit scary and a bit difficult.

"Since fate has brought me back here, I should have filled in the part of the 'script' that I didn't finish before, right?"

He gently snapped his fingers and spread out the magic rats used for reconnaissance again, while his eyes moved to the sky ahead.

In a neighborhood not far away, thick smoke was slowly rising.