Chapter 167



167 Countercurrent

Selma Payne’s POV:

My heart beat like a war drum, and my blood flowed rapidly. The strong friction made my skin hot all over, so hot that I cried out in pain and was about to burn.

The mark flickered rapidly, sometimes bright and sometimes dark, sometimes strong and sometimes weak as if it had a life of its own.

I was about to suffocate. My skin was expanding, and my internal organs were shifting. The mark was distorted, deformed, and cracked, reaching its limit…

Everything was compressed tightly, like the critical point before the Big Bang.

Then, it exploded!

I felt myself exploding. My blood evaporated, my body dissipated, my bones cracked, and everything turned into fragments, fusing with the cold cocoon.

Only my soul retained its consciousness. Everything had become my nutrients, a protein that could provide new life. It reassembled chaotically, hoping that a beautiful moth would fly out.

I saw the golden substance flowing between the nutrients. It was shapeless, like the light of fireflies. It swam aimlessly, emitting the sorrow of loss.

Why was she sad?

I tried to reach out to the golden substance, only to realize I had no hands.

However, the light spots of the fireflies seemed to have suddenly found their target. They gathered together in threads and formed a curled-up frame with a faint glow. ‘Ah! That seems to be my body.’

I’d already dissipated.

Was I dead?

Were these light spots the purification runes from Moon Goddess?

It was a pity that I’d let them down and caused them to fail their mission.

A condensed black mist dispersed from the light spot, emitting a cold and evil aura. It wandered freely in the sticky liquid as if it was strolling in its backyard. It trembled slightly around the frame made of golden light.

It was laughing at him.

After realizing this, I was furious.

What was it? It was just a fragment left behind by a despicable creature, not even a fox, that used the power of a tiger to intimidate others. How could it dare to laugh at the gift of the goddess?

My anger drowned me, and my soul suddenly scattered, turning into stars to form a cage, imprisoning the black fog in the cage.

It tried to leave, using its ugly synapses to test the gap.

The moment it came into contact with my soul, I had an inexplicable thought, ‘It looks delicious.’

I didn’t know what emotion drove me, but the black mist disappeared when I reacted.

The next second, I realized that I had eaten it.

The moment it swallowed the black mist, a bright red liquid suddenly condensed between the frames formed by the light spots. Unlike the viscous dark red sap, this liquid was fresh and full of vitality. It was accompanied by a faint light wandering around, slowly flowing between the frames.

This was my blood!

It only took a second for me to be enlightened. I realized that everything in this cocoon could become my nutrients. I no longer needed to worry about whether the evil energy would pollute my body because I no longer existed. From now on, every bit of power I digested would be for my use, whether good or evil. As long as I wanted, I would be their master.

I was like a crying baby waiting to be fed, using all my strength to squeeze out the power of my mother’s body. The cold tree sap formed my blood, and the hard cocoon shell reshaped my bones.

After eating the cocoon, I was still unsatisfied, so I greedily looked for more nutrients.

That huge, lifeless, and abnormally powerful pine tree.

What could be more delicious than this?

Without muscles, I was like a hard iron frame, wrapped in the sticky sap, and rushed toward the pine tree.

It was afraid. It didn’t understand why I wasn’t digested by it, and it didn’t understand what kind of monster it had created that was thousands of times more evil than it.

However, it was a tree, the heart of the forest. Where could it escape to?

It was surrounded by the sap it produced. This time, they were no longer sharp weapons that could be used with one’s mind but axes that were about to take its last breath.

The thick branches were slowly disintegrated. No matter how much sap was produced, it would only be an additional helper for me.

I chewed on the dried pine needles and drank the cries of the pine trees until they gradually fell apart and collapsed in the bone-piercing wind and snow. Then, they were eaten by more sticky juice.

The heart of the forest I ate turned into my muscles, becoming the last piece of the puzzle to construct my new body.

There was nothing else that could provide me with nutrients. The plants that formed the forest’s capillaries were nothing more than rotten wood that had long since decayed. Once the heart died, it would also dissipate with a bang.

In the end, all was left was the dark red tree sap that charged into the enemy lines for me.

Since they’d chosen to serve me, it was their honor to be my new student’s celebration party, wasn’t it?

It was too late to regret. I drank these evil creatures as if they were a fine wine. They were the last drop of blood from my heart. Did they think they could fool me by changing sides with their old master?

I didn’t care. I just needed to eat them.

All the power flowed back to me. I transformed, was reborn, collapsed, and dissipated again. I was like a moth in the process of evolution.

The tree sap was my nutrient. This time, the snow and stone formed my cocoon.