# Chapter 696: Grains of Evolution
More tentacles responded to him. Xu Huo retreated below the platform, and seeing two mechanical soldiers charging at him from either side, he took advantage of the fact that it wasn't raining anymore to throw down the Desert Windmill!
Sand swept through again, and with the help of the Painting Woman, he easily destroyed two of them using the "Life Core." Just as he was about to deal with the remaining ones, they suddenly withdrew from the sand!
Hearing a slithering sound ahead, Xu Huo put away his prop and saw the remaining Black Armored Men retreating back to the front of the Square Palace, blocking the broken gate and the open entrance on the second floor. Meanwhile, more tentacles extended from above—this time, instead of directly sucking people dry, they coiled living people up to the second floor!
Water Blade Gun in hand, he severed the tentacles at maximum speed while simultaneously releasing his Spiritual Realm to envelop everyone in front of the Square Palace.
Since the Instance Boss had been weakened, its mental control would correspondingly weaken as well. Although the residents of Square Palace City hadn't woken up yet, they were no longer as deeply immersed in cannibalism as before. The best way to prevent them from becoming nutrients for the Instance Boss was to take them away...
But since they couldn't be awakened by shouting, he could only try to control them using the same method.
The gates and stairs of the Spiritual Realm appeared below the platform. Under the tug-of-war between the two forces, some people actually turned around and began walking down the platform!
But at that moment, the Square Palace inside fell into an unusual silence.
Standing below the platform, Xu Huo observed the people moving toward him. Just as they reached within a meter or two of him, the little boy in front shifted his eyes toward Xu Huo's position, and the next second lunged at him like a wild beast!
Xu Huo grabbed him by the throat mid-air and held him up, frowning as he forced a dose of antidote into the boy's mouth. But it had no effect. The child stared at him maniacally, his opening and closing mouth still stained with flesh and blood...
Just then, someone approached from behind. Xu Huo dodged with the child in his arms and saw a clearly mutated woman charging on all fours into the crowd, excitedly biting into living people!
"Xiao Yun...!" Xiao Yun's brother chased after her from not far away, clutching his blood-drenched arm, tears in his eyes as he watched his sister, who had already degenerated into a mutant.
Too fast.
From the time Xu Huo had given them the potion to now, less than an hour had passed. Xiao Yun had lost her sanity while her body developed animalistic traits—this speed far exceeded normal evolution.
Knocking the child in his arms unconscious, Xu Huo walked over to Xiao Yun's brother. "Have the people in the county town eaten human flesh before?"
Seeing him, Xiao Yun's brother's eyes lit up with hope. He fell to his knees and begged, "Save my sister... save her..."
If it were simple mutant poison, the King Fungus could still detoxify before irreversible changes occurred. But Xiao Yun had become like this because she had been injected with an Evolver's blood—she had failed in evolution, not merely been poisoned.
Seeing Xu Huo shake his head, Xiao Yun's brother's shoulders and back slowly slumped. Watching his sister tearing through the crowd, he said regretfully, "I shouldn't have given her that injection..."
Xu Huo said nothing. The residents of Square Palace City weren't much better off. To obtain more nutrients—or rather, to better control them—the Instance Boss would make them eat people. How different were they from mutants?
They even had to reproduce, forcing their descendants to repeat this cycle.
Xiao Yun's brother's breathing and heartbeat underwent drastic changes. Xu Huo looked down at him. "I'm warning you: once you've eaten human flesh, you'll have to rely on it to survive for the rest of your life."
Xiao Yun's brother gave a bitter smile, hatred gradually gathering in his eyes. He stared at the Square Palace. "It's that thing! It's the one that harmed everyone!"
"You're no match for it," Xu Huo said, flexing his injured arm. "But the first floor is almost blown to pieces, and most of the Black Armored Men are gone. The Instance's control over the area might not be as strong for a while. You could try leading the others out of the county town."
"Escape the county town?" Xiao Yun's brother slowly stood up, showing no pity for his fellow townspeople. "Everyone here has eaten human flesh. What difference would it make even if they left?"
"Besides, even when they were clear-minded, they knew what kind of place the Square Palace was. They dragged outsiders down to save their own skins, and some even profited from it. There's nothing regrettable about sinners dying."
Xu Huo's gaze swept over the unconscious child. "At least I think it would be a shame if you died."
"Thank you." Xiao Yun's brother stepped toward the crowd.
Having failed to use his Spiritual Realm to lead the Square Palace City residents away, Xu Huo decided to retreat. As he had said, the Instance Boss couldn't mount another attack anytime soon. Staying safe until the Instance ended wouldn't be a problem.
Perhaps Xiao Yun's actions were too conspicuous. A tentacle shot out from the second floor of the Square Palace, coiled around her, lifted her high, and snapped her in half!
The sound of cracking bones was clear. Xiao Yun's lifeless body was thrown down. Her brother, who had rushed over, didn't catch her corpse but instead leaped up and grabbed the retracting tentacle, getting pulled into the second floor of the Square Palace!
The doors on the second floor slowly closed. The retracted tentacle and the person who had gone in both fell silent instantly.
Dawn was approaching. A fine drizzle began to fall again. Xu Huo looked at the people wandering the streets like ghosts, then picked up the unconscious child and walked toward the entrance of the Square Palace.
"Ding!"
"Ding!"
"Ding!"
The metallic sound of the lighter opening and closing was crisp and clear. Building after building caught fire, once again plunging the city into a sea of flames.
"Xu..." Yi Pei's voice came from beneath the rubble. Xu Huo went over, pulled her out, poured a bottle of Self-Healing Agent down her throat, then followed the bullet marks on the ground to find the already dead Fang Penghui and the others.
The Black Shirt Player was also still alive. His condition was better than Yi Pei's—not to the point of being completely immobile, but he had lost the use of one arm and one leg.
He leaned against a tree, staring straight at Xu Huo.
"If I were you, I'd put away your prop," Xu Huo said.
The Black Shirt Player smiled and indeed put away his prop, but said, "If you were me, you'd probably have used your prop to attack by now."
"Want a cigarette?" Xu Huo took out a pack and offered it to him.
"Give me one." The Black Shirt Player used his remaining functional hand to awkwardly hold the cigarette to his lips. "The Square Palace..."
"As long as the Box Carrier doesn't come, surviving until the Instance ends won't be a problem." Xu Huo lit a cigarette for himself, took a drag, and said, "Rest for three to five minutes, then leave. When the water rises again, there won't be any boats to find."
After finishing his cigarette, the Black Shirt Player extended his hand. "Bian Jin, E27-007 Player."
"Xu Zhi." Xu Huo shook his hand, then handed the child over to him while carrying Yi Pei on his back.
The group walked toward the water. Yi Pei lay on his back, speaking weakly, "Won't the Instance Boss come to kill us?"
"After all this, it still won't show itself. It probably doesn't dare to leave the Square Palace," Xu Huo said. "With the house blown up, it'll have plenty to grieve over for days."
Yi Pei grinned. "Didn't know you had a sense of humor."
(Chapter End)