The words fell, and Wang Batian suddenly opened his mouth, no, it could no longer be called opening his mouth, but rather a裂开 (lìkāi - split open).
Wang Batian's upper and lower jaws separated widely, his lips cracking and bleeding, and countless blade-like tentacles extended from his throat, then violently bit down on the back of Wang Mingqin's head...
"Ah!~"
"Pfft~! Pfft~ Ah~~ Ah~ Ugh~…….."
"Chh~ Ah~ Ah~……….."
For a time, Wang Mingqin's shrill screams, the sounds of gnawing, licking, and sucking, continued to echo.
After a long while, Wang Mingqin's screams gradually faded. By this point, his entire neck had been reduced to a bare bone, and the back of his head was a bloody cavity. His brain had already entered Wang Batian's stomach.
"Chilú!~"
Just then, Wang Batian's mouth withdrew from the nape of Wang Mingqin's neck, and a slender, blade-like tentacle was slowly pulled from the spinal bone.
"Chilú~! Chilú~!"
With a sickening sucking sound, a pile of blade-like tentacles retreated back into Wang Batian's mouth, and the split in his lips healed completely within a few breaths.
"Burp!~"
Wang Batian licked his lips, let out a satisfied burp, closed his eyes, and savored the moment.
"Your ghoul race is truly twisted!"
Suddenly, a somewhat slurred male voice echoed in the hall, as if the speaker was eating something.
Immediately after, a middle-sized man, clad in a blood-red coat and with a tall, straight red braid tied on his head, walked out from behind a pillar. It was Sphinx, whom Ye Feng had seen at the auction.
"You thing, no different from a zombie, have no right to talk to me!"
Wang Batian seemed unfazed by Sphinx's appearance. He retorted coldly.
At this moment, Sphinx was holding a wrinkled, bloody spherical object in his hands – a human brain.
A corner of the bloody brain was missing, and Sphinx's lips were also stained with blood...
"You're right!"
Sphinx glanced at the brain in his hand, then opened his mouth wide and began to gnaw on it ravenously, a truly horrifying sight...
"You guy is really t—"
Seeing this, Wang Batian and Old Ghost both frowned, their expressions tinged with confusion, but neither spoke.
"Speaking of which, after you ate your own father, you don't feel much different than before?"
"I really thought you were going to transform!"
At this moment, Sphinx spoke again, holding a wine bottle and looking lazily at Wang Batian.
"Oh? Is that so!"
As he spoke, a cold glint flashed in Wang Batian's eyes, and an immense pressure emanated from him, causing the hard granite floor to shatter instantly.
This immediately caused Sphinx to shed his lazy demeanor, and even Old Ghost beside him showed a surprised expression.
"Hmm?"
Suddenly, Wang Batian's expression changed. He looked sharply in a certain direction, as if sensing something. Then, Wang Batian leaped up and flew rapidly towards that direction...
...
Meanwhile,
Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao were walking down a dimly lit street. The street was largely deserted now, with only the occasional car passing by.
"Xiao Xiao, what's wrong?"
By now, they were quite far from Wang Batian's location. Ye Feng turned to ask Xiao Xiao.
Earlier in Wang Batian's hall, when the two tortured individuals were brought in, Xiao Xiao had suddenly become tense, her small hand tightly gripping his, and she hadn't let go yet.
Xiao Xiao didn't answer immediately. Instead, she closed her eyes, as if sensing something.
After a while, she finally spoke, "Big Brother, I felt an extremely dangerous aura in that Wang Batian's hall just now!"
"To be precise, it was when those two lean men were dragged in by the guards..."
"This dangerous aura... I felt it not long ago..."
"It was the last time I saw Sister Yun Yao for the first time, wanted to follow her, and inexplicably got knocked out..."
Xiao Xiao quickly said to Ye Feng.
"Yun Yao?"
"Xiao Xiao, are you saying that the mysterious black shadow you mentioned before might have been in Wang Batian's hall?"
Upon hearing Xiao Xiao's words, Ye Feng's expression changed immediately.
He had suspected for a while that the mysterious black shadow Xiao Xiao had spoken of was actually targeting Shen Yun Yao, not Xiao Xiao herself.
Xiao Xiao had merely followed Shen Yun Yao by chance and was knocked out by the other party...
"Mmm-hmm!"
Xiao Xiao nodded earnestly, "But I didn't see the black shadow..."
After receiving Xiao Xiao's confirmation, Ye Feng's brow furrowed.
This implied that the mysterious black shadow stalking Shen Yun Yao was highly likely connected to the Wang family, and that the other party was incredibly powerful, as he hadn't even sensed them just now...
"Judging from Xiao Xiao's reaction when she was previously injured, the mysterious black shadow seems to possess some form of mental attack... And those two strong, lean men dragged in by Wang Batian's subordinates just now..."
Suddenly, Ye Feng's eyes lit up.
He had vaguely felt something was amiss when he saw those two lean, robust men being apprehended by Wang Batian's subordinates earlier. Now, with Xiao Xiao's words, he suddenly understood: it was their mental state. At that moment, both of them appeared too energetic.
Those two must have been severely tortured by Wang Batian. No matter what, their mental state would have been affected, perhaps showing signs of fatigue...
Yet, at that time, both of them were exceptionally energetic, vividly describing how Wang Shaoda was "deceived"...
"Xiao Xiao also sensed the danger then... Were those two guys' minds controlled at that moment?"
"If people were being controlled... was the purpose to frame the Shen family?"
Ye Feng analyzed inwardly.
"Whoosh!~"
Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound pierced the air from behind Ye Feng.
Ye Feng's expression shifted slightly. He tightened his grip on Xiao Xiao's hand and abruptly dodged to the side.
"Clang clang!~"
Almost simultaneously, two dark, gleaming crossbow bolts struck the spot where Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao had been standing, plunging deep into the stone slabs.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!~ Whoosh!~"
At that moment, a shadowy figure flickered in the distance, accompanied by piercing whistling sounds. A barrage of crossbow bolts was shot at Ye Feng from various angles...