Brain bloom

"I'm sorry, the night market has to be temporarily closed—the monster that attacked this ship is some kind of troublesome creature. It's right here among us, but it won't take your lives, I can assure you! Now there's only one thing we need to do, please help us."

What do you need to do?

"Won't you really die?"

"I can guarantee it! Now, we just need to wait for the food storage warehouse..."

Aside from offering words of comfort, Lord Balzac did nothing else for the time being.

This puzzled Dandelion a bit, because the elusive monster was a threat all around, and could launch more attacks at any time... However, Dandelion wasn't worried about her own safety, because she had three reliable companions by her side.

"Is he waiting for the flour to arrive?"

"That must be it. The only thing we have in abundance on the whole ship is flour... nothing else."

"However, just how many parts were taken? Opening the door is such a hassle."

After Mori started the conversation, Kaname and Melia joined in the discussion.

Dandelion tugged at Moritoki's skirt and whispered, "Moritoki... can you tell me about the current situation?"

"In short, the first thing is not to be afraid."

"Yes, with you here, I'm not afraid."

"Alright then." Mori then began to explain the enemy's situation—

To retrieve body parts from the invisible body collector, one must first scatter something into the air to stick to the other party, thus breaking the invisible barrier.

Only in this way can we then proceed to locate the body parts.

The unseen scavengers are exceptionally cunning, often escaping before this step even begins. Lord Balzac was indeed calm, which is why he sealed off the space first and waited for the entire ship of flour to be transported aboard.

He planned to use flour to stick to the invisible enemy to pinpoint its location. After retrieving the components, they couldn't be reattached to his person yet, because they were a type of key.

Volume 1, Chapter 148: Watching a Play Isn't Safe

"key?"

“Look, isn’t there a face over there?” Mori pointed to the bloodstains on the ground, which contained a human face. “This thing isn’t just for scaring people; it’s also a kind of passage. It’s missing a nose, right?”

"Um……"

"After retrieving the nose, we need to place it in the missing part to form a complete face so we can open the door and let the corpse collector hiding in the alternate dimension out. Sigh, we'll have to beat them then. Isn't that troublesome?"

Dandelion looked over and roughly estimated that there were more than ten people missing limbs, and the bloodstains on the ground were much more than that.

"Open all of these? That's too... troublesome."

"It's all about luck. If you're unlucky, you have to fill in everything before you can open it."

Defeating the opponent is probably the easiest condition to achieve here. Mori shrugged, not worried about that at all.

The main issue is that once the corpse collectors are dealt with, a very special material can be collected, but it's uncertain whether it can be obtained... and there's another question troubling Mori Toki.

She looked at Yuan and asked softly, "Why do the invisible corpse collectors turn into what you call the Calamity Mist?"

"It's not that it transforms into something, but rather that this kind of ominous mist devours everything it encounters without exception." (This is the answer.)

Melia took the initiative to speak: "The Evil Mist is my country's greatest enemy. Just ask me if you have any questions."

"Then little Melia, take my place..." Yuan took the initiative to back down, looking at the two of them with complicated eyes, still unable to believe that they were father and daughter.

"Yes, if the creature that the Evil Mist devours is alive, it will drain its blood and replace it with Evil Mist to fill its blood vessels. This will turn it into a half-dead resurrected state, making it a slave and fighting force of the Evil Mist."

"What the hell is this 'Evil Mist'?" Sen Shi listened, feeling completely unfamiliar with it.

"We also want to know, because it suddenly appeared more than ten years ago, which is very terrifying. In short, the invisible corpse collectors were probably also swallowed by the Evil Mist and then turned into what they are now."

"Can all the characteristics of a person be preserved from their lifetime?"

"Memories and habits are lost; although I've become a walking corpse, everything else remains."

Melia stroked the giant axe, her voice tinged with a deep-seated disgust, and continued.

"When a cloud of evil mist comes, it often shakes out a large number of walking corpses that have been strengthened by the evil mist, have no sense of pain, and will fight until death, and are stronger than when they were alive."

"Luckily, it's just a corpse collector who's come."

"That's how it is. However, their expansion rate is too fast... There was no Evil Mist around here before. Oh well, that's not a problem."

Mori decided not to think about it, but to just keep it in mind for now.

Just then, hurried footsteps sounded. Judging from the trembling of the deck, someone was likely carrying a large amount of flour. So the four of them temporarily stopped talking and silently watched the deck passageway.

Sure enough, a beautiful but somewhat dim-witted older woman appeared. Her strength was astonishing; she was covered in flour sacks, yet she seemed completely at ease.

Upon seeing her, Melia's little nose twitched, sniffing out the answer: "It's a phantom dragon... How come a phantom dragon is doing hard labor here? How shameful."

"—However, his development is abnormal."

A dragon's roar that could be understood came from behind them; it was Erlong Daniel.

"During his growth period, he didn't absorb enough knowledge, but rather seemed to have ingested a lot of metal... His intellectual development was very slow, possibly due to absorbing too much metal toxicity."

Daniel's voice held a sigh, clearly indicating he felt the other party had disgraced the dragon race. Sen Shi slapped her forehead; Daniel's words confirmed her judgment—he definitely had intellectual problems. Well, forget about this phantom dragon; keeping it would only make it a liability.

However, everyone else looked at Sister Huanlong with gratitude, for she had brought them a life-saving item.

"Well done, so many... and they came quickly enough!" Lord Balzac praised.

"More money, more money!" These were the first words Huanlong uttered. "Silver coins only!"

"...We'll talk about the payment when we get back!"

"If you don't add it, you won't get it."

Lord Balzac said with annoyance, "...Hey, hey, hey, all of today's revenue will be converted into silver coins for you!"

Satisfied, she put down the bags of flour, but then, suddenly awakened by her wild instincts, she looked into the distance.

He slowly uttered the word: "Evil Mist".

The ominous word created an eerie silence, and all eyes turned to look. It was the first time Mori had witnessed the so-called ominous mist; it was like the foul gas billowing from a factory chimney, leaden black, and made one want to vomit.

The problem is, they are surging towards the night market bus.

"Damn it, is the corpse collector calling for his companions because he's trapped...?"

Lord Balzac immediately dismissed the servant and ordered him to inform the captain to change course, then turned to everyone and said, “Stop looking, I’ll handle that. Open the flour sacks and sprinkle them on the deck! If you see any eyes, noses, ears or anything like that, shout for me.”

Forced by the other party's tone, everyone hurriedly complied, while the four spectators continued to watch the show.

Melia wasn't about to stoop so low as to collect flour and do something so ridiculous. But the appearance of the new Evil Mist had piqued her interest.

"May the coffin bear fruit; this night market has been quite a haul." Melia slung her giant axe over her shoulder. "Not only did it fulfill my wish, but I also ran into our country's mortal enemy—Daniel. You know what to do."

The dragon responded with a low roar, then flapped its wings and flew towards the direction from which the evil mist was surging, determined to sweep away the mist alone.

Sen Shi squinted as she looked out, and saw the shadows of many monsters shrouded in the ominous mist. Some were familiar to her, while others were completely new to her; it seemed these were creatures that had been devoured and then resurrected.

She was also planning to do something; just standing around watching was too boring. She figured she might as well fire a few shots from a distance, since these guys would definitely provide valuable experience.

Just as she drew her debt-collecting bow, intending to fire an unstable, explosive arrow, she heard a disturbing "squeak" sound from the ground. A sense of foreboding washed over her; she looked down and, sure enough, saw bloodstains.

And it's Mori Toki's face... Oh no.

She swallowed hard, her scalp tingling. Wasn't it supposed to be safe hiding in the corner, and with Melia and Yuan there, the corpse collectors wouldn't dare to make a move? Could it be... that they're picking on the weak? Thinking of this, an inexplicable anger rose in Morishita's heart.

She wanted to see what this corpse-collecting man wanted to take from her.

But her face was depicted very clearly, with a nose, eyes, and all her features complete. She was a very beautiful young woman, so much so that even she herself couldn't help but want to praise her.

Could it be that the person who picked up the body was simply captivated by her beauty and came to draw a picture to express their admiration, without any malicious intent? Thinking about it that way, it's kind of cute.

But the painting wasn't finished yet; it started moving upwards again—depicting the roots, veins, and branches above her head.

Only one leaf is missing.

The invisible mist gently poked Sen Shi's shoulder.

"Oh, Yezi. You want it? Here you go. But... Fufu."

Fu Fu appeared, puzzled, and found that Sen Shi had grabbed her and was rubbing her against the leaf that hadn't been painted: "Spit some salt water."

Feeling the chill, Mori immediately turned around, and E'wu seemed to laugh: "Thank you for your generosity."

You're welcome.

The mist immediately plucked a leaf, which quickly withered and vanished into nothingness along with the departing mist. She herself didn't feel any loss; after all, she had grown quite a bit in her True God state last time, and she wanted to repair it anyway.

A few seconds later, an incredibly piercing scream echoed from the void: "Ugh! Poison..."

Volume 1, Chapter 149 - First Update

The invisible corpse collector is indeed a very troublesome creature. It is almost always within spatial magic and has a particular fondness for playing frightening pranks, which is why it is cursed by everyone.

However, upon closer examination, the actual damage caused is not that great.

For example, fishermen in fishing villages have a 30% chance of encountering various ferocious beasts in the water when they go out to sea, and they can become food for these creatures if they are not careful. Or, there are the occasional outbreaks of disease, which can easily devour many lives.

In comparison, the invisible scavengers were relatively law-abiding; once they had taken the human parts they wanted, they stopped taking action.

Even so, it is still a harmful and annoying thing to humans—Mori Shi found it terrifying. Since this thing specifically came to ask Mori Shi for her leaves, she immediately dug a hole.

In any case, the branches and leaves of the Four Seasons are all highly poisonous, and as an evil thing devoured by the Evil Mist, Fufu's salt always works without fail.

Whether it's the poison or the remedy, there's always one that will make it suffer.

Mori was quite pleased with herself because it had worked—but she didn't rejoice in this achievement for long, because she seemed to hear some kind of voice... Although it was blurry and unclear, as if it were through thick glass, it was still a universal language that could be understood.

This thing... spoke?

She turned her head: "Yuan, I wanted to ask you something—"

"I'm here, what's the problem... Hey, Mori! Your face!" Upon seeing the bloodstained image of Mori on the ground, Yui immediately understood the situation and called out, "Little Melia, Princess Dandelion!"

One was watching the show, the other was preparing to jump out and personally deal with the approaching ominous mist, but both were interrupted by Yuan's voice and looked down to find the portrait on the ground. Immediately afterward, the temperature in the air seemed to rise significantly, this heat coming from rage.

Mori quickly said, "Don't worry, I only lost a leaf."

"Oh, Yezi, that's no problem."

The dandelion breathed a sigh of relief, then, with a mischievous grin, continued watching the show. While the sight of the noble gentlemen scattering flour everywhere was amusing, the fact that the mist had stolen the leaves was even more entertaining.