Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 673 - 1: After Dawn

...

Under the clear sky, Sun Hang lay sprawled in a patch of mud, staring blankly at the sun in the sky.

The sunlight was a bit dazzling but warm—the Shuzhou, long deprived of such warmth for months, was rapidly heating up. The frozen rivers in the fields resumed flowing, the frost on glass curtain walls and city rooftops slowly melted away. People, whether from the rundown old neighborhoods or expensive villas, flocked out of their houses onto the streets, newly brightened by the sunlight.

The lockdown order was yet to be lifted, but when faced with citizens defying the order, the sheriffs and soldiers stationed at the street corners did not immediately take action—all of them indulged greedily in the long-lost sunlight, breathing in the air still tinged with a hint of chill.

"Damn it," muttered Yu, who had a cigarette in his mouth, "Lived most of my life, first time feeling how damn beautiful the blue sky and white clouds are."

The city, under the shroud of night for hundreds of days, came alive once again.

"How do you feel?" A girl in a white dress stood behind Sun Hang's head, barefoot, stepping in the filthy mud, with gray-black spots of mud staining her ankles and calves, accentuating her jade-like fair and smooth skin.

Sun Hang glanced back from his position, just able to see the windswept hem of the dress fluttering, and the sight of her stunningly white thighs, tantalizingly visible. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"What feeling?"

"The feeling of having a third of your soul extracted."

"No particular feeling," Sun Hang closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the richly earthy-scented air, "I don't even know what the soul it's talking about refers to."

"A soul is just a soul, and it doesn't have a more detailed explanation," Anna said, "If you asked me what an apple is, I'd tell you it's a plant that belongs to the Rosaceae family and genus Malus, and also refers to the fruit of this plant. In this sentence, words like 'Rosaceae', 'plant', 'fruit', have more detailed definitions... but I can't explain soul in this way, it's just a soul, since the word was coined by humans, it only has this one meaning."

"I thought a soul might be something like a ghost, a spirit of malice? Or perhaps... Spiritual Body Type Mysterious Creature?" Sun Hang asked.

"Nope." Anna laughed, "Completely different."

"Then is the soul a kind of spiritual power or consciousness?"

"Also not that," Anna smiled and shook her head.

"Alright... so what effect would losing a third of my soul have on me?"

"I don't know." Anna's smile became even more radiant, "It's precisely because it's unknown if there's an effect, I'm asking how you feel."

Sun Hang: "..."

After the "transaction" was completed, Sun Hang carefully checked himself from head to toe—no limbs were missing, existing abilities remained unaffected, the spiritual energy he called "blue strip" hadn't changed, even his memories, including those sealed by the "fog", remained intact.

It was as if he had issued a blank check to Chimera 17, and the other party, without hesitation, perished along with the Eternal Night.

Does this count as a profitless transaction that yielded great returns?

"Speaking of which, are the others still alive?" Sun Hang asked, "Those hunters who entered Chimera 17 'inside' with me."

"Alive," Anna nodded, "Only you were swallowed into her small world by Chimera 17, as for the others, they continued on that dark, endless corridor."

"Where are they now?"

"The cocoon that's lost its life force and memes has completely withered, and the corridor disappeared along with it... but given their physique, being buried alive for a few hours shouldn't be fatal. If the rescue personnel from Tianfu City act quickly, they might still be able to dig them out from the warm wreckage."

"And if they don't act fast enough?"

"Then once the volume and mass of the wreckage decompose to a certain extent, they'll be able to crawl out themselves," Anna said, "There are many pores in the remains of the cocoon, no need to worry about suffocation."

"To be honest, there's always an unreal feeling," Sun Hang exhaled a deep breath, "I never thought things would be resolved this way."

"Even though she was intent on seeking revenge against you," Anna said, "she also deeply loved you."

"Didn't show."

"But her love for you was as deep as her hatred for you," Anna said, "Imagine, if your parents abandoned you shortly after birth, you had to compete with stray dogs and sewer rats for food, while also enduring various diseases inherited from your parents, having ugly looks, physical defects, just surviving requires all your strength... and things easily attained by other children seem out of reach for you... Would you hate your parents?"

"Maybe... maybe?" Sun Hang replied somewhat uncertainly, having no concept of parents himself, it was difficult to feel empathetic to Anna's words, "I'd rather wish they hadn't given birth to me."

"She feels the same way," Anna said, "However, only a painful life is still a life, and if it wasn't for you, she wouldn't even have the right to feel pain."