At this unimpressive part of the cryptic world, the man who was awashed in blood gripped at the knife. Moments earlier, there were many kinsmen behind him but now he was all alone. They had given him every bit of hope and goodness they had. He needed to survive, that was the least he owed them.
The bladeless knife glowed softly. The beauty of humanity glowed like fireflies in the dark, compared to the whole world, their lights were barely enough. However, in that moment, they cleared away the sin sediments in the blood pool and lit a path for Han Fei.
“Notification for Player 0000! Your profession affinity with Midnight Butcher has reached 100 percent! Do you wish to skip the inheritance ceremony and become the Midnight Butcher?
“Warning! If you skip the inheritance ceremony, you will not inherit the previous Midnight Butcher’s understanding of this profession, instead you will be giving it a new meaning! The profession’s property might change!”
Han Fei could obtain the profession without going to the House of the Butcher but the price was he wouldn’t get the profession specialties that he was promised. In other words, if Han Fei chose to become the Midnight Butcher now, then he would be a Midnight Butcher different from the other butchers in the cryptic world! If this was another place and time, Han Fei might hesitate but now he wasn’t given a choice. He needed everything he could get his hands on to survive!
Skipping the inheritance ceremony, after Han Fei confirmed to become the Midnight Butcher, his menu crawled with bloody vines. A bigger whirlpool appeared inside the bottomless pool.
“Notification for Player 0000! Congratulations for obtaining a rare profession—Midnight Butcher!
“Profession Ability 1: Curse resistance to cold-steel type items increases by 30 percent.
“Profession Ability 2: Curse resistance to blood and flesh type items increases by 30 percent.
“Profession Ability 3: Advanced Skill Mastery of Cold Steel (The knife is an extension of the butcher’s body, you can use any butcher’s knife freely)
“Profession Ability 4: Gluttony, engorging on food can rapidly recover your Life Points. The recovery rate will double if you feast on meat.
“Profession affinity reaches 100 percent! Unlocked Profession Ability 5: When you gain a new attribute point and add it to Stamina, the system will award you an extra point in Stamina!
“Profession affinity reached 100 percent! Unlocked Profession Ability 6: Blood and murder excites you. When your Life Points dips under 10 percent, your speed and burst attack will double!
“Since you’ve skipped the inheritance ceremony, the profession speciality has changed!
“Profession speciality: Dawn Butcher, you are a butcher that hunts other butchers! When you are fighting against enemies who are murderous monsters, your knife will become even sharper!”
Han Fei did not have time to examine the new messages carefully, however, he did feel a unique bond being formed between himself and the knife. One after another name imprinted themselves onto the hilt like symbols that couldn’t be washed away. Holding the knife, Han Fei could feel the warmth of their souls. It felt like they were still fighting alongside him. Their human brilliance which even the blood pool couldn’t corrupt became the sharpest blade. The eviller and bloodier his enemy was, the sharper the blade would become.
Raising his arm, Han Fei and all the souls inside the blade, slashed at the heart that had been submerging at the bottom of the pool for who knew how long already. The hardened scabs were sliced through, the rotten heart was chopped apart. Malice and hatred weaved to shield the heart but they were no match for the blade!
The black chains cracked inch by inch. As the rotten half heart was cut open, the blood sea churned and the edges of the pool cracked. The whole meat packing factory was shaking violently. The foundation of the whole Cattle Alley was shaken!
No one had ever been able to do something like this but Han Fei did. Even Spider himself couldn’t find the way out of Cattle Alley but Han Fei did. His hands were still clamped around the hilt of Rest in Peace but his body couldn’t move anymore. Han Fei and the black scale of humanity sank towards the bottom. Just as he was about to be drowned by the water, a hand reached for his shoulder. The slender Weep carried Han Fei and swam towards the surface. Han Fei leaned on Weep’s back. Strangely enough, even though Han Fei was already too weak to use Soul-Depth Touch, he could still easily sense the boy’s emotions.
The well-tortured young boy appeared to have opened his heart to Han Fei. Be it joy or pain, he stopped hiding himself. After meeting Han Fei, Weep did change. As they broke the surface, Han Fei gasped greedily for air. He looked around. The floor of the plant had started to fissure. There was blood everywhere. The place was collapsing.
The pig-faced monsters were born of hatred and venom, the moment they touched the blood water, they would be dissolved and become part of the liquid. With the dangerous water rushing everywhere, they abandoned their fight with Xu Qin and started to run for their lives. As a Curse Amalgamation, the blood water would damage Xu Qin as well. But she did not run away, instead she turned towards the most dangerous blood pool.
The roof crumbled. The larger pig-faced monsters had already disappeared, only the manager with the wind chime around his neck remained. Its large body was resting against a meat-mincing machine. It grabbed more blood vessels and stabbed them into its body but no matter what it did, it could not stop the factory’s inevitable collapse. It whimpered anxiously. When it saw Han Fei and Weep crawl out from the blood pool, the hatred within it exploded. The flabby arms picked up the machine and it charged at Han Fei. “Never mind, we’ll die together!”
When the manager was a few metres away from Han Fei, a sharp table knife shot over and flew right between Han Fei and the manager. After the death of the heart, the blood mist had dissipated for the most part but when the manager turned back, it noticed Xu Qin was still surrounded by heavy blood mist. Its porcine brain could not calculate how many monsters the woman had murdered to accomplish this.
While the manager turned to fight Xu Qin, Han Fei took out the pig’s hearts from his inventory. Weep helped feed him the pig’s heart. This was the first time Han Fei used his new profession ability—Gluttony. At the start, he had trouble even chewing but after he swallowed the first piece of meat, a warm energy spread through his extremities.
“Xu Qin’s food might contain curse but I have curse resistance against blood and flesh type items; she likes to use table knives and I have curse resistance against cold steel…” He continued to gorge and the meat dissolved into energy. When Han Fei finished the 6th hearts, he finally regained control of his body. His mind cleared. Standing uneasily up from the ground, Han Fei grabbed his butcher’s knife and glared at the factory manager. “Now it’s your turn.”
