Chapter 146: Corpse Vein

As the battle between the ghouls and humans raged fiercely, an aberration occurred within the Blood Pool, unseen by all.

Zuo Zhicheng, immersed in the blood, had his eyes tightly shut. He had fallen unconscious. A fresh wound, over ten centimeters long, marred his head. Strangely, no blood seeped from it.

Had there been a microscope, one would have witnessed countless silver tendrils within the injury constantly contracting and adjusting. Their ends not only connected to the wound’s tissue, skin, and even brain matter but also entwined with the fleshy strands extending from the Life Grove ‘Corpse Vein’—which Zuo Zhicheng had previously discovered. They meshed together.

The Corpse Vein was inserted into Zuo Zhicheng’s head like a computer chip, and the silver tendrils linked themselves to this Life Grove like wires.

These silver tendrils had originally emerged from the ‘Night Sea’ within Zuo Zhicheng’s left eyeball. As he cultivated the Life Grove, they became a part of it, gradually spreading over his head, neck, and chest. Upon reaching the Leakless Realm, they would clearly blanket his entire body.

Now, while Zuo Zhicheng was deeply anesthetized and unconscious, the tendrils from his original Life Grove still worked diligently, merging the new Corpse Vein Life Grove bit by bit into his very being.

Normally, Life Grove transplantation demanded extensive preparation to manage physical and organ rejection, ensure cleanliness, sterility, surgical tools, and navigate the body’s complex structure. Even after transplantation, issues like side effects, internal bleeding, or infection were common.

But these silver tendrils were different from ordinary Life Grove tendrils. They not only stemmed the bleeding in Zuo Zhicheng’s head but also adjusted various bodily parameters—blood pressure, electrical potential, mineral levels—seamlessly.

At the point where the two Life Groves met, they perfectly linked the Corpse Vein, suppressing all rejection reactions as if the Life Grove had always belonged to Zuo Zhicheng.

In just twenty minutes, the fusion completed. The wound on Zuo Zhicheng’s head healed at a visibly rapid pace.

Five minutes later, as the wound sealed completely, a pair of ruby-red blood pupils snapped open deep within the pool. A flash of crimson light flickered and vanished instantly.

Zuo Zhicheng did not awaken. He felt only as if he drifted in a world saturated with bloody light—a domain that seemed like a dream, consciousness, or perhaps the spirit. The sole sensation he could grasp was an overwhelming, uncontrollable Hunger that threatened to dissolve his rational mind.

Yet, even in this state, his body remained asleep under the Blood Pool’s anesthetic effect.

However, once the wound healed, the silver tendrils transformed again. Streams of information poured forth from the Corpse Vein, spreading through the tendrils across Zuo Zhicheng’s head, neck, and the upper portions of his chest.

Covered by the Life Grove, these areas were continuously reshaped by the transmitted data. The existing Life Grove network and its tendrils underwent modifications under the Corpse Vein’s influence.

Accompanying these changes, barely noticeable waves began to stir deep within the Blood Pool. These ripples grew increasingly larger, transitioning from invisible disturbance to distinct waves breaking the surface.

This Blood Pool, meticulously crafted by Yilezi to trap, nurture, and transform living vessels, contained immense energy, embodying his profound investment.

Now, with the ripples spreading, vast amounts of this energy permeated Zuo Zhicheng’s skin on his head and chest, and flooded through his nostrils and mouth cavity, flooding into his body.

Clearly, due to the modification of his left-eye prosthesis, not only was Zuo Zhicheng’s original Night Sea Life Grove vastly more potent than others’, after fusing the Corpse Vein, his abilities surpassed ordinary ghouls significantly.

While other ghouls still relied solely on their mouths to feed, Zuo Zhicheng could directly absorb all kinds of nutrients using the tendrils from his Life Grove.

As a torrent of nutrients was absorbed, the power of the Corpse Vein intensified. The patterns of the Blood Curse etched onto Zuo Zhicheng’s skin started fading rapidly. More than that, under the surge of the Corpse Vein’s strength, his entire body began transforming.

His bone density adjusted. His joint structures reforged into impact-resistant configurations. His muscle fibers thickened, gaining elasticity and resilience, becoming like strands of steel combined with rubber.

As the physical metamorphosis proceeded, the crimson hue of the Blood Pool began to visibly fade.

Within his consciousness, Zuo Zhicheng felt only warm red currents enveloping his body. That comforting warmth felt like being cradled back within a mother’s womb. And that terrible, maddening Hunger gradually ebbed away with each passing moment.

…

On the battlefield, Quinlin, Alice, and Scarface surrounded the grey-robed man surnamed Li.

Although the man wielded the Flying Sword, a weapon remarkably effective against flesh, the three confronting him were ghouls boasting superhuman physiques and regenerative abilities. Unless striking the critical Life Grove housed in the brain, damage inflicted elsewhere was largely irrelevant.

He was particularly wary of these ghouls seizing an opening during attacks to lock down his Flying Sword. Thus, his strikes were cautious, quick, and fleeting, drastically reducing their effectiveness.

The trio, however, encircled the grey-robed man like wolves on the Grassland, launching probing attacks, wearing down his stamina and focus. Their expressions held the look of cats playing with prey.

Just as the pressure mounted for the grey-robed man, Scarface, who had earlier been pierced through the skull by the sword, slowly rose to his feet. The reason the brain was a ghoul’s vital point was precisely because the Corpse Vein Life Grove resided there. Had that fatal strike hit anyone else, death would have been instant. But curiously, it missed Scarface’s Life Grove. So, after regeneration, he stood up, completely unharmed.

“Bug,” Scarface snarled, his ghastly visage contorted with threat. “I’ll tear you to pieces!”

Seeing this, Quinlin immediately yielded his position in the encirclement to Scarface. He began slowly extracting the Flying Sword that was trapped within his own muscles.

Grinning savagely as he pulled, Quinlin mocked, “An Eastern Mage… laughably weak.”

A flicker of intense caution crossed the grey-robed man’s eyes. In the next heartbeat, three figures lunged at him simultaneously. Quinlin, meanwhile, held the sword—which still struggled wildly in his grip—and observed the chaotic fray from the perimeter. He seemed to be searching for the perfect moment to plunge in and rip the mage apart.

Meanwhile, the scene on a different part of the battlefield appeared even more gruesome.

Over two hundred soldiers stood with swords and spears. Behind them, archers held powerful bows and crossbows, supported by a thirty-strong musket troop.

They had arrived brimming with confidence. However, facing the true horror of ghouls, they now realized reality was far less promising than imagined.