The Evolution Compendium

"Where is this?"

The butler shook his head, seeing stars. He seemed to have lost some of his memory.

He looked around.

The dense forest was lush, with thorns everywhere.

He vaguely remembered coming in with the Young Master and encountering the King of Black Robes. Even his Sea Horse Knight had been wounded.

"Young Master, where are you?"

He called out, summoning his Pet Beast.

A surge of Golden Power erupted, and an aqua-blue seahorse emerged. It was fully armored, held a long spear, and its tail sprayed foam as it moved with incredible speed.

Strictly speaking, this was a water-type Pet Beast of the Gana race, adept in both magic and martial arts.

SWISH...

The long spear swept out, blue arcs of light cutting through the thorns. The butler looked around, his gaze occasionally dazed, as if he had forgotten something. He had a persistent, vague feeling of familiarity.

The night was as thick as ink, and rustling whispers lingered in his ears.

The face of the Sea Horse Knight began to change, becoming joyful, then hedonistic, then comical... it was utterly bizarre.

This place isn't right...

The butler's eyes brightened for a moment. A series of eerie images intertwined, piercing his mind like a flash of lightning and jolting his thoughts.

The next moment, the seahorse turned its head.

Scarlet sinews connected its bones, revealing half a skeleton. Only a loose flap of human skin remained, hanging precariously.

Its vertical pupils were hollow and lifeless, and two streams of bloody tears trickled down.

The butler's pupils shrank, and his face froze, as if he had been dragged into a terrifying sea of dread.

This is... the Young Master's head!

The horse-like flesh, the stitched human skin, had ruptured, revealing half of the Young Master's bloodied and indistinct face.

Its dim, grayish-white eyeball rotated slightly, looking at him.

"Ah... ah... AHHHH!!"

The butler recoiled in terror, his hands and feet turning ice-cold.

He fell from the seahorse and, unable to get his bearings, stumbled away, running wildly to escape the bizarre creature.

The terrain in the dense forest was rugged.

The butler had forgotten his cultivation as a Gold-rank Beast Tamer. He ran like a madman, even losing his shoes in his flight.

Occasionally, tree stumps and thorns blocked his path. He crashed into them head-on but didn't even bother to cry out in pain. He just scrambled up and continued running, desperate to escape this strange place!

Strangely, the sensation from the soles of his feet wasn't that of sharp stones, but of something warm and soft.

Suddenly, a figure stood before him.

"Young Master, please stop this... Just let me go..."

The butler collapsed to his knees, his shattered mind already deep in despair.

The Young Master reacted slowly. His neck turned stiffly, creaking with the movement. A relaxed, almost euphoric expression was on his face, as if indulging in extreme pleasure.

What on earth... happened...?

The butler trembled as he looked around.

Just then, WHOOSH... the night wind howled. Leaves rustled and branches swayed, causing the drooping shadows to squirm and twist.

But on closer inspection, he would find that the tree trunks bore grotesquely twisted human faces—old men, women, and children alike, all displaying expressions of pleasure.

And those lush branches and leaves? They were all made of human skin, wrapped around the branches like small, doll-like figures made to resemble weather charms, quietly drifting in the eerie forest.

I... I remember now.

The butler suddenly jerked to awareness. A crack appeared at the center of his forehead and, with that line as an axis, his entire body split in two. A geyser of blood fountained out.

His eyes clouded over, becoming dim and lifeless.

So... I was dead all along...

BANG!

His body suddenly began to tremble and distort.

At first, the cracks merely widened. Then, pieces of human skin began to peel off, one by one, like a banana being unpeeled, revealing the deep red, constantly writhing flesh beneath.

It seemed to be nurturing life, but it was actually a monster wrapped in human skin, one that had seized a Life Chart to masquerade as a human!

The initial plan was executed smoothly.

The butler's form exploded into a mist of blood.

In his place, a figure elegantly climbed out from the writhing flesh.

He stood up, wearing a bizarre, grayish-white mask. The corners of its mouth curved up in an exaggerated smile, making him look like a jester revived from flesh and blood.

Using Sect Secret Techniques, he had transformed into an Egg of Chaos and hidden himself inside a captured Beast Tamer. Then, he had erased the Beast Tamer's memory and entered the Eternal Night Realm through official channels. This allowed him to bypass the Night Goddess's scrutiny and execute the next step of his plan.

Fortunately, the plan had gone smoothly. He truly had the great commotion caused by the Evil Gods and the King of Black Robes to thank for that.

However, dealing with that Moon Princess is indeed tricky, the jester-masked man thought, twisting his limbs and making exaggerated gestures, vexed by how troublesome his opponent was.

The next moment, he snapped his fingers.

Ahead, a blood pool appeared. Several Corpse Puppets floated within it, some sinking and some rising, each releasing an Egg of Chaos.

BUZZ...

A group of Beast Tamers emerged from the depths, looking like zombies. Under some unseen control, they were immediately thrown into the blood pool to sacrifice the Eggs of Chaos that had been transformed from cultists.

Waves surged and the blood boiled, as if a giant beast were feasting on the offerings.

Countless skeletal remains bobbed and sank with the current.

Then, a ripple spread out, and a sharp screech erupted from the center of the blood pool!

Nine masses of blood-colored malevolence floated up like living creatures. They writhed constantly, finally coalescing into a twisted silhouette.

The figure was exquisite and curvaceous, utterly enticing.

Upon its swan-like, slender, jade-smooth neck was a mass of foam. From this foam, heads began to form, one after another, as bubbles burst and reformed.

Gradually, the foam solidified, producing nine heads.

Each head belonged to an exquisite beauty, each with a different allure: one pure, another charming, a third seductive, yet another youthful—a myriad of types.

If one were to randomly cut off eight of the heads, any single remaining one would still be a peerless beauty.

But with nine heads stacked together, the sight was incredibly bizarre.

Awakened successfully? Very good! The God of Joy and the Mother of Desire are blessing us!

The jester-masked man's breath hitched, his eyes blazed with FRENZY.

A Dawn Star-rank Treasure, Desire God's Fantasy!

...

「In the hall.」

A fine long table forged from Star Silver stood in the hall. Around it sat a group of Gold-rank powerhouses; there were at least fifty seats.

This meant that at least fifty Golden Beast Tamers were participating in this trading event.

"This... uh, Divine Medicine that can supposedly boost a man's confidence... is it really that magical?" The Iron Gall Bear King asked curiously.

Noticing the strange looks from everyone, he couldn't help but cough. "AHEM, I'm just asking for a friend."

Another Beast Tamer nodded, saying, "What a coincidence. I also have a friend."

Do you two share the same friend?

Everyone criticized him inwardly, disdainful of this face-saving tactic. Impotence is impotence; why make excuses?

Of course, they still had to vie for it. Having the medicine and not needing it was entirely different from needing it and not having it—two completely different concepts.

You might not use it, but you absolutely cannot be without it.

With this mindset, everyone drove up the price of this mysterious virility-enhancing Divine Medicine to over a thousand Wicked Coins. Barter was also accepted, with appraisers from the Chamber of Commerce present to verify items—assessment fees were extra!

Since the auction had been canceled, everyone had gathered in one place to participate in another trading event organized by the Chamber of Commerce.

The items being bid on here were those that Night Commerce couldn't appraise, making it akin to opening blind boxes.