Chapter 242 | Transmigrated with a Sanity Gauge

Inside the hive.

A faint green light radiated from Kraus, illuminating the sealed section of the pipe network.

Four members of the Grey Covenant stood in the center of the passage.

The leader stood in the middle, with a fourth-rank deputy to his right and two third-rank attackers in the rear.

It was clear that the four members of the Grey Covenant were now trapped inside.

The previous scene was still etched into their eyes. Their companion's head had shattered in Kraus's hand. A single palm had pierced through the headless corpse's chest. Green crystals had spread from the wound, turning the entire body into a crystalline statue.

From the start of the move to the end, it had taken only an instant.

The leader took a deep breath.

He looked at the man in the dark shirt with rolled-up sleeves, standing atop the worm tide, looking down at the four of them with green eyes.

There was no more room for talk.

The other side clearly had no intention of negotiating.

“Kraus!”

The leader's voice echoed through the hive.

“In that case, let me see if you are truly as strong as the rumors say!”

As the words fell...

The leader and the fourth-rank deputy beside him simultaneously erupted with an indescribable, filthy aura.

Black liquid appeared out of thin air.

The liquid surged and boiled, appearing in incredible quantities, instantly filling a space of three or four meters around the two men with a black tide.

The worm tide formed by Lake was violently pushed back.

For a moment, it was actually forced into a steady retreat.

The worm bodies dissolved upon contact with the black liquid, making a sizzling sound and turning into wisps of grey smoke.

A massive depression was corroded into the front of the worm tide, and it continued to expand.

The two third-rank members moved as well.

Two angry shouts rang out.

Their skin stopped flickering.

Fine, grey-black patterns cracked across the surface of their skin like a dried riverbed. A foul, rotting liquid constantly seeped from these patterns, spreading down their limbs to the floor and merging into the worm tide.

Knowing they couldn't handle Kraus, they provided as much support as possible to put pressure on Lake's worm tide.

They were helping the leader erode the worm tide, eating away at Lake's territory from the flanks.

The four of them coordinated perfectly.

Frontal suppression and flanking corrosion.

The worm tide was shrinking.

But Kraus's expression remained unchanged.

In the next instant, he vanished.

Simultaneously, the worm tide split open like it had a mind of its own, and Kraus's figure swept through the gap, trailing a large patch of afterimages.

It wasn't just one or two, but seven or eight layered together, each carrying a faint green light, spreading forward from different angles.

The bone sword fell.

The green light carved an arc, directly splitting the surging black tide rushing toward him.

The moment the filthy liquid was struck by the green light, green crystals began to grow.

Green crystalline flowers surfaced on the black liquid, like frost spreading across water.

The leader's expression changed.

His entire body stiffened.

Then, he instantly exploded.

His body actively burst apart, turning into a mass of surging black liquid that splashed in all directions, flinging away the newly grown green crystals along with part of himself.

Splitting for self-preservation.

The worm tide closed in at the same moment as the explosion, enveloping most of the splashing black liquid.

The meat-worms dissolved frantically, and grey smoke filled the enclosed space.

But Kraus had already closed in, braving the splashing liquid.

His afterimages dragged out in several layers.

The bone sword of the foremost Kraus was already pointed toward the direction where the leader was reconsolidating.

The leader didn't have time to fully reform.

But he didn't need to.

Because the fourth-rank deputy had arrived.

The man, covered in black liquid, cut in from the side at extreme speed.

The black liquid condensed into a carapace, and the body beneath it swelled by a full size, the writhing on the surface of the carapace becoming violent.

A massive black hand wrapped in filthy aura lunged directly at Kraus's back.

But the moment the claws grabbed Kraus, the man's expression changed, because there was only an afterimage there.

The green phantom shattered at the deputy's fingertips, dissipating into points of light like fireflies.

Meanwhile, Kraus, carried by the surging worm tide, had reached the deputy's side.

“Stay here.”

His tone was calm, but it was already a death sentence.

Kraus's left hand, enveloped in green light, reached directly into the surging filthy liquid, pierced the carapace, and seized the deputy by the neck.

“Aaaagh—!”

The deputy let out a shrill scream.

Green crystals began to spread from his neck, extending along his collarbone toward his chest and climbing up his jaw toward his face.

With every inch it spread, the carapace shattered, revealing the greyish-white skin beneath that was turning into crystal.

Kraus simultaneously raised the bone sword in his right hand.

The green light on the blade surged.

The leader saw this scene.

“Kraus! You wouldn't dare!”

His voice was filled with rage and fear.

The surging black liquid instantly enveloped him, and his body swelled rapidly.

Two meters, three meters... a massive black-water monster took shape from the liquid.

It had no fixed outline; the black surface constantly bulged and collapsed, with countless tiny tentacles extending from it, looking like a living mass of the eerie.

Two grey eyes floated at the very top of this black mass.

The massive black-water monster tore through the worm tide's obstruction and instantly lunged at Kraus.

A trace of disdain flashed in Kraus's eyes.

At some point, he had already turned around.

The worm tide dispersed at the same time.

It was as if it were intentional.

Letting the leader see clearly that Kraus had turned around in an instant and was facing him.

The wave of black liquid was already in front of him.

But Kraus did not dodge.

Because he was still holding the deputy by the neck.

The black liquid slammed into the deputy.

The leader's power landed on his own man.

At the same time, Kraus's bone sword fell.

“Boss, run!”

These were the deputy's final words.

The bone sword slashed down from above, splitting the deputy in half from the middle.

Green crystals grew frantically from both sides of the sword wound.

But the black liquid on the deputy simultaneously boiled.

He was burning.

Like ignited paper, the deputy's body began to turn to ash from the inside out.

Grey residue drifted from the split body; upon touching a worm, the worm also began to boil.

Upon touching the copper wall, white smoke rose from the surface.

This was the Grey Covenant's final resort.

“Lake!”

Kraus remained calm.

With a shout, the worm tide rapidly contracted, moving away from the center of the explosive combustion.

Kraus flung the half-corpse that had already begun to turn to ash directly away.

The corpse spun through the air, ash peeling off it like a burning meteor.

Everywhere the ash and boiling liquid touched—even everything in the air—began to boil, ignite, and gradually turn to ash.

Kraus's right hand was touched by a portion of it.

Green light immediately spread from his palm, crystalizing the contaminated area to seal it off.

But from his slightly furrowed brow, it was clear that this was not without a cost.

The leader saw this opening.

But he didn't seize the opportunity to attack.

Instead, he chose to run.

Clearly, the leader of the Grey Covenant realized that he was no match for Kraus at all, especially with Lake's assistance.

His black-water-covered form rapidly shrank and liquefied, seeping into the cracks of the pipe network's copper walls.

The black liquid soaked into the seams between the copper plates like water into sand.

Within seconds, he had vanished completely.

The worm tide surged toward the cracks, but it was already too late to catch him.

Kraus did not pursue further.

He turned around.

The pipe network passage was a mess.

A half-green crystal statue stood frozen in place; half of the deputy's body was crystalized, while the other half had turned to ash, leaving only a fragmented outline.

The conditions of the two third-rank members were different.

The one closest to the deputy hadn't been able to avoid the self-destructive chain reaction.

The boiling liquid had splashed onto him, and his grey-black skin began to burn and curl like paper, with ash spreading from his limbs to his torso.

He struggled in the worm tide for a few seconds, letting out a piercing scream before turning completely into a pile of grey powder.

The last third-rank member was shivering in a corner of the worm tide.

Kraus walked over.

His pace was not fast.

Only one afterimage remained.

But that single afterimage was enough to make the third-rank member completely give up resistance.

The bone sword swung twice.

Two arms and two legs were cut off directly.

It was clean and efficient; green crystals grew at the cuts to seal the wounds, preventing him from bleeding to death.

Lake's worm tide immediately swarmed up, enveloping the man who was now just a torso and a head.

Kraus looked down at him.

The green light in his eyes slowly receded, returning to their original color.

The bone sword began to shrink, returning to the form of a ring.

On his right hand, the area sealed by crystalization glowed with a dark green luster.

He glanced at it and ignored it.

“Let's go.”

Lake dragged the prisoner and followed Kraus.

The hive began to recede, the meat-worms peeling off the walls and ceiling to reconverge into Lake's main body.

The pipe network passage returned to its original state.

Only the stench of burning and corrosion lingered in the air.

Hundreds of meters away, while Kraus was fighting...

Lu Yuan ran out of the hive's murmuring range while carrying Bolen.

Bolen struggled a bit.

“Put me down, I can walk.”

Lu Yuan set him down.

The old man's face was pale, but he leaned on his cane and managed to stand steadily.

“Be careful. If a few greater ghouls show up now, we're both finished.”

The two of them walked quickly along the numbered arrows.

Although Lu Yuan hadn't participated in the battle directly, his current state was not good. His Sanity was down to 29, and occasional hallucinations of the copper wall patterns writhing appeared at the edge of his vision, making it hard for him to distinguish what was real.

After walking for about three or four minutes...

Greyish-white text flickered.

【Environmental Perception: Mutation aura detected... approaching...】

Lu Yuan stopped instantly.

His right hand reached into his inner pocket.

Two figures rushed out from a fork on the left.

They were fast.

The invisibility colors on their bodies were fading as they switched from stealth to attack mode.

Greyish-white skin, thin build—they looked exactly like the ones they had encountered before.

They weren't the ones from the hive.

They were two others.

“They have more people!” Bolen's voice was filled with shock.