Chapter 126: The Assault

Wade half-crouched down and lifted a corner of the clothing on the corpse beneath his feet with his sword.  

Unlike those bones that had long decayed into white skeletons, these bones still had plenty of flesh stuck to them, as if they were freshly butchered big bones from a butcher’s hands, with strands of meat not fully removed.  

One could almost imagine the nauseatingly strong bloody stench. This entire harbor had no living person left; everyone had become food for those black insects.  

No one was an exception. Those wearing different clothes, whether Icelanders or smugglers, had all turned into blood-red skeletons.  

The insects consumed not only the flesh but also completely devoured their souls.  

Mia could not sense the souls of the dead; these bones were as hollow as stones. From soul to body, they had all become nutrients for those monsters.  

Wade held the insect he had just killed in his left hand. After death, the insect’s tail quickly liquefied into a black viscous fluid. Its shell and mouthparts became as brittle as dead bark after death, with no flesh inside the shell—only that greenish juice.  

Wade watched as the insect’s shell hardened from a soft state. It was as if it had burrowed out of these people’s bodies.  

This type of insect did not have anything that could be called a soul. Inside their shells was a chaotic mass composed of shadow-like energy.  

There were hundreds of people in the harbor. If each corpse harbored one insect, then hundreds of insects would have been born.  

But in this harbor, not a single insect remained.  

Where had they gone?  

A terrifying question presented itself before Wade.  

Why had the insects completely ignored him just now?  

Could these insects not sense him?  

Wade stared at the fortress-like warship, pondering.  

Suddenly, Wade realized that during the half month the Icelanders had been in this king’s land, they had been slaughtering demi-humans nonstop.  

Half a month was enough time for them to thoroughly search every place they could find.  

All demi-humans who could be found by them had died by their blades and arrows. Those who remained either hid in places difficult to locate like the ratfolk and catfolk or lived in isolated regions such as high mountains and plateaus.  

For these Icelanders, finding and killing those demi-humans was far too difficult.  

Their human mission had already been completed.  

Those insects had come to take over the remaining work.  

Their sole purpose of birth was to kill off all the hidden demi-humans.  

That was why the insects could not sense Wade—because Wade was an undead, a lifeless entity.  

These insects had descended to kill demi-humans. They could move through shadows and use this ability to enter narrow caves and climb perilous mountains.  

The way insects sensed the outside world was not through eyes or vision.  

They did not need such inefficient perception; they possessed a different sense that allowed them to detect living beings.  

Just like the skeletons’ soul vision, these insects had a perception incomprehensible to both humans and undead.  

The insects relied on this perception to accurately locate their prey. Skeletons and ghosts beyond their prey were not within their hunting range.  

The ratfolk cave…  

Wade suddenly thought of the cave where hundreds of ratfolk and catfolk lived. If the insects’ target was demi-humans, then the ratfolk cave would definitely become their hunting ground!  

The demi-humans hiding there had yet to realize the danger was approaching and mistakenly believed it to be a safe fortress that had not been discovered!  

Realizing this, Wade quickly ran back onto the snow.  

Under Mia’s control, the bone-beast galloped forward, carrying him swiftly across the snowfield and leaving deep tracks behind.  

Under the moonlight, Jessia sat by the window, bored, twirling a dagger while looking at the moon outside.  

She liked to overlook the ground from a height—that was the catfolk’s nature. She enjoyed gazing at the snowy field and distant snowy mountains from the window, as such a broad view gave her a sense of security and freedom.  

Although it was late at night, she was not sleepy. Catfolk naturally preferred nocturnal activity; she usually slept during the day and was active at night.  

Besides, her bed and room had been taken over by the dragonkin and the lich. As a catfolk with territorial instincts, she had not yet adapted to the new room. So she monopolized the window alone, enjoying the scenery.  

Suddenly, she saw something moving in the distant shadows—only a flash, then it disappeared.  

But what followed was a chill running down her spine, making her fur stand on end.  

In an instant, her danger sense exploded from a relaxed state.  

It felt as if an invisible snake was coiling around her body, strangling her neck; she sensed a deadly threat.  

It was like when she faced the dragonkin in the Cross Valley—a pressure from the level of life itself that made her whole body break out in goosebumps.  

Something was approaching here!  

She rolled over and jumped down from the high cliff.  

The first thing she did after landing was to look for the dragonkin.  

In these ten days, she had grown accustomed to obeying the dragonkin’s orders.  

The dragonkin’s schemes and insight impressed her. She knew she could never devise such plans. Although Jessia had spent many years in the underworld, she had not learned much scheming; most of the time, she communicated with others using her dagger and claws.  

She became the leader of the Black Cat Society not because she was skilled at leadership, but simply because she was the only one who could be leader here.  

After the dragonkin branded her with the slave mark, she placed herself in a low position.  

Even she did not realize that after so many years, she had become accustomed to following orders.  

She thought she was free, but in truth, an invisible leash still bound her body.  

In just ten days, she seemed to have reverted to being the battle slave manipulated by others.  

Only now, the one enslaving her was not the Tania noble but the lich’s envoy.  

Jessia found the dragonkin in front of the door of her former bedroom.  

The dragonkin had not gone to sleep either. Her golden vertical pupils revealed a cold expression.  

“What is it?” the dragonkin asked.  

“My lord, sorry to disturb you,” Jessia lowered her head. “But I saw something in the snow.”  

“In the snow?” the dragonkin frowned.  

At that moment, a scream suddenly came from inside the room.  

“Monster! There’s a monster!”  

The dragonkin turned her head. A piercing shriek suddenly sounded from behind.  

A black insect crawled through the window. It was the source of the scream, a sound so shrill it pierced the skull and filled the dragonkin with fear.  

She suddenly froze. The insect was no longer in its insect form but had transformed into a bloody corpse.  

That was… her sister.  

Her deceased sister appeared before her again.  

Blood flowed from her sister’s hollow eyes. The sister reached out her hand toward her, with her mouth wide open and no tongue inside.  

While she was stunned, the catfolk bared her teeth and stabbed the corpse with her dagger.  

She snapped back to reality and finally saw the semi-real, semi-illusory black insect wildly writhing before her, burrowing into the shadows.