Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 725 - Chapter 725 Chapter 722 The Second Severe Beating

Chapter 725: Chapter 722: The Second Severe Beating Chapter 725: Chapter 722: The Second Severe Beating The enormous demon, possessing twelve symmetrical limbs and a human face, finally began to walk away. Under the dome of the high, distant starry sky, her silhouette gradually distorted and merged into the chaos in the distance. Where she had once occupied, only pitch-black skeletal remains and flesh, now gradually disintegrating and ascending, remained, along with dozens of indigenous creatures, battered and slowly regaining strength.

Struggling, several Abyssal Hounds climbed out from the pile of bones, their bodies missing several bone shards. Ominous birds circled above the lifeless remains, searching for materials to restore their energy. A huge, spike-covered skull slowly landed nearby on the ground, its dark red hollow eye sockets watching the demons on the plains.

After the departure of the Superior Demon, a fragile and dangerous balance had formed among these remaining Profound Demons, but this brief balance was soon to be shattered.

As the common sense of fear faded, the instincts for strife and destruction reclaimed dominance–mutual slaughter and devouring are the eternal logic within the Mysterious Deep Sea, especially surrounded by “food” and each demon needing to rapidly heal.

An Abyssal Hound rummaging through the pile for usable bones was the first to growl menacingly at those ominous birds circling in the sky. Following this, the Smoke Dust Jellyfish emerged from the shadows, silently extending their twisted and sinister tentacles toward the nearby Fear Demons. The dark skull also gradually began to float up from the ground, its lower jaw slowly opening, fluttering with a dangerous energy inside…

Even though they had just been pushed to the ground and rubbed by a powerful and unusual “Outsider Demon,” it couldn’t stop these Profound Demons from descending back into mutual slaughter at this moment.

But just as the melee was about to erupt, an additional sound suddenly came from not far away, instantly interrupting the demons’ actions.

The dark skull noticed the presence of the Outsider first, abruptly rising higher and turning its head toward the direction of the sound.

A massive shadow staggered across the plains, as if suddenly “popping” out from thin air, its swelling, wriggling shadow sketching a constantly changing silhouette.

This scene was reminiscent of those “Newborn Demons” that had just emerged from the limbs of “The Saint”–they often took on this formless, chaotic appearance until, after a period of devouring and merging, this chaotic “demon matrix” collapsed and solidified into a specific demon “species.”

However, the uninvited guest appearing on the wilderness was obviously not a “Newborn Demon”–as a shapeless “demon matrix,” the aura it emitted was too dangerous…and eerie.

The sense of crisis made all the Profound Demons at the scene instantly drop their aggressive impulses and instinctively focus their defenses on that constantly swelling and wriggling shadow.

Slowly, a physical form emerged from that shadow, a… an Abyssal Hound constructed from countless floating shards of bones, almost twice the size of its kind.

Ah Dog felt like it had been in a very long dream.

It couldn’t remember what happened in the dream, but it remembered going to a very far place where it met some people, some friends. It lived among a group of weak but orderly creatures and took a long time to learn a set of “rules of survival.”

And a similarly weak… creature had always been by its side.

…Yes, where did that small creature go?

It slowly lifted its head, its groggy vision seemingly covered with a thick curtain, everything in sight appearing distorted and layered. This place… looked somewhat familiar, but it seemed it hadn’t been here in a long time.

It felt like it didn’t like this place–it preferred living in a sunny spot with that “small creature.”

In the foggy haze and curtain around it, many vague shapes gathered on all sides, distant and blurred growls and whispers coming from every direction, seemingly threatening, seemingly malevolent.

Ah Dog tried hard to open its eyes wide to clearly see what those growling shadows looked like, but it still couldn’t see them clearly–however, gradually, it felt something else.

That feeling came from within itself–hunger.

It was hungry, very, very hungry, as though it hadn’t eaten in a century, and then suddenly arrived at a place… abundant with food.

And driven by this hunger, its muddled mind finally began to recall some impressions related to that long “Dreamscape.”

It remembered that small creature, remembered accompanying the little fellow through the long winter nights, hiding together in the house wrapped in a blanket when the weather was cold…

They shared the warm soup brought by a kind neighbor–each time it only ate a spoonful…

Together, they learned how to survive in that vast City-State, learning to understand the kindness and malice in people’s hearts, learning to distinguish useful and dangerous things in dumpsters…

Begging, deceiving, factories, chimneys, stealing, getting beaten, relief soup, working hard, eating well, crying together, laughing together, living…

Together.

In the blurry, layered curtain, threatening and hostile roars rose and fell increasingly agitatedly, then suddenly, a swift shadow dashed from some direction, launching a fierce attack on itself.

Ah Gou felt something biting into his flesh–it stung slightly.

In the shrinking, writhing shadows, Ah Gou’s skeletal skull slowly lowered its gaze, and within the hollow sockets, a faint glint of eerie green twinkled faintly, curiously watching the thing biting into him…

An Abyssal Hound–seemingly one of his own kind.

Ah Gou’s body took shape rapidly amidst the shadows and the dark mist, with bizarrely shaped bone splinters extending from his joints, helping him regain the shape that an Abyssal Hound should have. He watched the “fellow” creature tearing at his body for a few seconds before speaking somewhat awkwardly, “Have you seen a human? She is my friend.”

The Abyssal Hound that was biting Ah Gou’s body hesitated, then stopped, not because it understood Ah Gou’s question–it lacked such intelligence.

It sensed an immense danger–hidden within Ah Gou’s sockets, flickering with an eerie green fire, was an all-too-familiar, dread-inducing aura.

The Abyssal Hound finally reacted, but it was too late. It barely had time to release its grip when the next second, Ah Gou’s body exploded into countless black bone shards, instantly disintegrating and reforming around the assailant’s figure in the blink of an eye, restoring Ah Gou’s form!

Mouth inefficient for feeding, direct consumption was much more efficient.

The rash assailant vanished, replaced by the looming figure of Ah Gou, whose pitch-black skeletal pieces at his trunk vigorously contracted and writhed, producing a series of squeaking and grinding noises from within, along with the violent struggles and muffled roars of the “food”–but these barely lasted a few seconds before the struggles and growls subsided, leaving only the noise of grinding bones.

The hunger subsided.

Ah Gou lifted his head, sensing his strength gradually returning.

“Demon… tasty…”

The feast had begun.

Among the roars and mumblings of countless demons, Ah Gou’s figure abruptly shattered into numerous disseminating black bone shards, like a discordant tornado sweeping across the wasteland–heavy with desolation–carving through everything in its reach, whether the living demons, the rising smoke dust from demon remains, the mud flowing on the ground, even the stones of the surface and thorn-bushes resembling fossils, all torn asunder as “food.”

Some Profound Demons launched futile counterattacks, filling Ah Gou’s belly with their vigorous resistance, while the smarter demons frantically raced towards the ends of the wasteland, evading the feeding storm–with some sustaining scars and even parting with limbs, only about a dozen demons managed to escape to relatively safer grounds.

The storm continued for an indeterminate time until it gradually subsided above the wasteland, and a huge figure, burning with eerie green flames and ascending black smoke, coalesced from the storm.

The hunger had subsided; Ah Gou lifted his head and looked towards a specific direction in the deeper parts of the wasteland–he sensed a familiar presence in the distance.

It seemed to be the small creature he had lived with for a long period.

After a few seconds of dull, confused thoughts, Ah Gou slowly shifted his gaze, locating a relatively large piece of demon remains amidst the wreckage of the wasteland–he lowered his head, picked up the remains, and uttered a muffled grunt:

“Sherry… I found food…”

He strode toward the deeper reaches of the wasteland.

In the wreckage and debris, the surviving demons, trembling, stood up, staring blankly into the distance.

They had survived two feasts–luckily, they weren’t completely consumed.

And the snippet of eerie green fire from the feast was still deeply imprinted in their bewildered minds.

It was fear, a kind of fear ingrained in the fundamental logic of almost all Profound Demons, even overpowering their chaotic instincts.

A gigantic Skull Demon, bristling with spikes and pitch black, wavered midair; it had nearly been eaten away by the recent storm by a third but still stubbornly survived–this creature, seemingly smarter than the ordinary demons, fluttered briefly, uttering an indistinct murmur before slowly drifting away.

But it suddenly stopped.

The Skull Demon seemed to sense something, abruptly turning its head towards the “Mysterious Dome” covering the stagnating stars above.

A stream of eerie green flames, like a meteor, descended from the sky, aiming straight for the wasteland!

Perhaps due to the relentlessly intense stimuli, as the “meteor” appeared, a vague, chaotic “thought” flashed through the muddied, simple “mind” of the Skull Demon–

Ah, the third devastating meal has arrived…