"Escape first, explanation later."
The middle-aged man threw the scythe again. This ti, the scythe was different from the last; it exuded an ominous black aura.
"Let the Fire Sli unleash its full power."
The wolf-skin air balloon suddenly ascended, dodging the two extrely dangerous scythe throws.
The scythe returned to the hand of the middle-aged man once again. This ti he didn’t throw it, as the distance made it impossible to hit.
The middle-aged man’s face grew sullen as he watched Li Cunxu leave.
"Let the Winged Sli push with all its might toward the west."
Flying over the wolf smoke, Chen Lu saw the camp behind it. Over a hundred people were working; so were drying fish, washing clothes by the river, and farming the fields.
The scene left Chen Lu even more puzzled.
Unable to understand why the middle-aged man attacked them unprovoked, forcing them to descend.
Nor could she grasp why Li Cunxu flew over the camp, knowing that a swarm of Desperate Spiders was following. Passing above the camp ant the camp would be overrun by Desperate Spiders.
Li Cunxu pointed at the people below and said, "Don’t look. The people below are already dead."
Chen Lu was taken aback, finding it hard to believe, yet Li Cunxu wouldn’t say this without reason. Coupled with the strange behavior of the middle-aged man, she found herself believing Li Cunxu’s words.
Long Xiaoxiao asked in confusion, "Dead? Aren’t they alive and well?"
"That’s just a hollow shell. Cut it open, and it’s all straw inside. They’ve been transford into Straw Slaves of the Evil Scythe Scarecrow."
"Evil Scythe Scarecrow? What is that?" Chen Lu asked.
"Evil Beast?"
"I read the entire Evil Beast compendium, and there’s no ntion of the Evil Scythe Scarecrow."
"The compendium you read claims to be comprehensive but only records a portion of them. Many Evil Beasts aren’t docunted there and require permission to view."
Li Cunxu continued, "If you check the disaster ranking, you can find the Evil Scythe Scarecrow."
Chen Lu was astonished.
"What? The Evil Scythe Scarecrow is on the disaster ranking; how many stars is it?"
Long Xiaoxiao asked, "Sister, what is the disaster ranking? What do the stars an?"
"The ranking of phenona that can cause great disaster to human society is called the disaster ranking. One star is the least severe, capable of destroying a village. Ten stars is the highest, the only ten-star disaster, which is the great catastrophe everyone knows."
Li Cunxu looked down, "The Evil Scythe Scarecrow is a three-star disaster."
Long Xiaoxiao turned to Chen Lu, "Sister, what level of damage does a three-star disaster cause?"
Chen Lu replied solemnly, "It can destroy half of a third-tier city."
"What abilities does the Evil Scythe Scarecrow possess to be classified as a three-star disaster?"
"It’s rumored that the Evil Scythe Scarecrow was specifically created by the Ten Thousand Tribulations Evil God to transform humans into evil beasts. It has the ability to disguise as a human; after killing soone, it can stuff Evil Qi Rice Straw into the body, transforming it into a Straw Slave under its control. The Straw Slave retains so mories of its previous incarnation, and the Evil Scythe Scarecrow can absorb the mories in the Straw Slave’s mind."
"The most terrifying aspect of the Evil Scythe Scarecrow is not converting the dead into Straw Slaves but absorbing human mories. The more it absorbs, the more human-like it becos, eventually perfectly mimicking a human."
The two won suddenly thought of their family and friends, possibly being disguised by such a scarecrow, and couldn’t help but feel a chill to the bone.
Chen Lu said, "The Evil Scythe Scarecrow could easily infiltrate our upper echelons by disguising as humans."
"Yes, such cases have occurred before."
"The disaster rating is too low, in my opinion. The Evil Scythe Scarecrow should be a six-star disaster."
Long Xiaoxiao couldn’t comprehend the severity of a six-star disaster but agreed with Chen Lu’s assessnt. This terrifying scarecrow’s disaster rating seed underrated.
"The Evil Scythe Scarecrow once achieved a seven-star disaster ranking, but after discovering a fatal weakness, it was lowered to three stars."
"What weakness could cause a seven-star disaster to drop to three stars?"
The ten-star disaster nearly wiped out the Human Race, which once occupied seventy percent of the continent’s territory. Now weakened, they only hold one percent.
A nine-star disaster could annihilate the current Human Race.
An eight-star disaster could destroy the Alliance.
A seven-star disaster would put the Alliance in grave peril.
...
Why was the Evil Scythe Scarecrow once classified as a seven-star disaster?
Because an Evil Scythe Scarecrow disguised as a human almost beca a vice-president of the Alliance.
Li Cunxu said, "Its weakness is its inability to comprehend the mory of the ’Eyes of People’ that belong to the Pupil Emperor. The Evil Scythe Scarecrow can absorb human mories, but all mories regarding the ’Eyes of People’ vanish from its mind. The ’Eyes of People’ possess a unique characteristic; only humans can see and rember them. Non-human entities cannot see or rember the ’Eyes of People.’"
Chen Lu realized, "So that’s why you asked the middle-aged man if there was a statue of the ’Eyes of People’ in the central square."
The Desperate Spiders attacked, revealing the true faces of the people in the camp.
Pitch-black, hollow eyes, mouths full of razor-sharp teeth like saw blades, straw sticking out of their joints, gripping a foreboding black-bladed scythe.
The rampaging Desperate Spiders t the Straw Slaves, as if encountering an impenetrable wall of copper and iron. In just a few minutes, scores of Desperate Spiders were decapitated and dismbered by the scythes, like cutting through wheat.
Chen Lu witnessed this and muttered:
"How terrifying."
"Truly terrifying."
Li Cunxu nodded, initially thinking the Desperate Spiders and the Straw Slaves would destroy each other, but the battle quickly beca one-sided, with the Desperate Spiders no match for the Straw Slaves.
Chen Lu asked, "When did you realize the people here were Straw Slaves?"
"When we flew the wolf-skin air balloon this way, not a single Flying Pet Beast was in the sky, which was quite abnormal..."
"What does the absence of Flying Pet Beasts in the sky have to do with the Evil Scythe Scarecrow?"
"The Evil Scythe Scarecrow hates creatures above it, and flying pet beasts soaring freely in the sky violate this taboo."
"Ground-bound Evil Scythe Scarecrows can’t harm flying pet beasts high in the air, can they?"
"The Evil Scythe Scarecrow can’t reach them when they’re high up, but it can attack when they land. Flying Pet Beasts won’t continuously fly high; they need to land to sleep and hunt ground prey."
Long Xiaoxiao asked, "Brother, didn’t you say we were given a Good Luck Blessing from outside? Why would people with such blessings still die?"
Li Cunxu replied, "Because good luck doesn’t work on the Evil Scythe Scarecrow. Its third form is the ’Calamity Apostle.’"
Chen Lu, hearing this, felt a lingering fear, grateful, "Luckily you noticed, otherwise we’d be in danger."
Li Cunxu chuckled bitterly, "You’re mistaken. The danger has just begun. I ntioned earlier that flying pet beasts eventually land, and once we land, we’ll attract the Scythe of Death wielded by the Evil Scythe Scarecrow lurking in the shadows."
"Ah? So we can’t go down?"
"Yes, the wolf-skin air balloon can’t land, or we’ll surely die."
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