Chapter 888: Flesh Forest

888. Flesh Forest

“I truly have no way to control those Starfish Ornaments, but I never said the Starfish Ornaments couldn’t explode.”

Lin Ye answered as though it were only natural.

The Starfish Ornaments were products of the Special Ability. Since Lin Ye could not control the Special Ability, he incorporated a little knowledge related to explosions whenever he made Starfish Ornaments.

Every Starfish Ornament was made this way.

The White Mask stood before Lin Ye, his right hand clutching the Short Knife and trembling incessantly.

He was a master of knife arts and should not even have had trouble holding a knife steady, but the bloody scene behind him kept reminding him to run. If he did not run now, it would be too late.

In just an instant, his friends, brothers, boss, and enemies had all become a heap of strangely textured wreckage.

“Aren’t you going to make a move? It’s rare for me to give you the first strike.”

Lin Ye placed the newly finished Starfish Ornament on the tabletop. His movements were exactly the same as before.

The White Mask began retreating. He would rather face that hell than face Lin Ye.

However, after taking only two steps back, his body began to collapse, turning into a pile of shapeless chunks whose material was impossible to identify.

“That was dangerous... Aren’t you going to blow up the people inside as well? No one will be left to buy your Starfish Ornaments in the future.”

Scarlatti shifted her posture. She disliked this place, but she enjoyed the feeling of staying beside Lin Ye.

“It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t planning to keep running the shop anyway.”

Lin Ye stood up and put away the rocking chair. A starfish employee walked up to him and lowered itself flat against the ground.

“You’re leaving the city?”

Scarlatti rose and stepped onto the starfish’s ankle. She did not know why Lin Ye wanted to leave, but she was willing to trust him.

“Yes. It’s time to go.”

Lin Ye stood at the center of the starfish and turned to glance at the general store.

“Boss, where are you going? Can you take us with you?”

Fat Man ran out of the general store, but the starfish had already left the ground and was falling toward the sky.

“I found the murderer! When you leave, can you take me with you?”

Lola ran out as well and shouted excitedly.

“Sorry. I can’t help you.”

Lin Ye controlled the starfish as it moved through the air, gradually distancing itself from the city district below.

“Did you discover something?”

Scarlatti seemed to have noticed something. She took out a black overcoat and draped it over herself.

“These people shouldn’t have formed an organization so quickly, and they shouldn’t have attacked us so soon either... unless they were influenced by some kind of irresistible force.”

Lin Ye looked at the city below and spoke with some regret.

“Those imprisoned deities?”

Scarlatti had never considered this possibility before. After all, under the system’s control, problems like this almost never occurred.

At least, none of the previous incidents had caused any problems.

But she had failed to consider why Lin Ye had appeared here in the first place.

“That’s right. This is the Land Where Deities Are Imprisoned. Only deities could control those factions.”

Lin Ye could not actually confirm this either. Those people’s performances had been exceptionally convincing, and it was possible that they had not been acting at all. But he did not need to be certain.

“Those factions are all servants of the deities? Then why didn’t they deal with us?”

Scarlatti did not understand what the other side was trying to do. Rather than put on an act here, they could have simply controlled them directly.

“Servants of the deities? You don’t really think deities still need servants, do you? If my guess is correct, every living creature in this Plane has already become part of the deities. If they dealt with us, how would they escape? You don’t actually believe we need to find some murderer, do you? In their eyes, we are completely insignificant. If they controlled us, they might truly be unable to escape.”

Boom!

Under Lin Ye’s control, all the Starfish Ornaments in the city exploded simultaneously. The entire city was blasted into Ruins. Explosions of various properties mixed together, destroying everything within the city.

“Then aren’t we completely doomed?”

Scarlatti did not believe they could deal with the deities that had escaped.

“They’re merely inferior deities who have no idea how many years they have been imprisoned by the system. They can’t even escape from this place, so they probably aren’t capable of killing us.”

Lin Ye looked down at the city. At the center of the explosions, a forest made of flesh appeared. The flesh forest grew at incredible speed, and the citizens who had been blown apart were hung from the tops of the trees. Soon, it approached the underside of the starfish.

“Boss, where are you going?”

Lola stood on a branch and asked with a smile.

“I knew something was hiding beneath the city district. Is that forest your true body?”

Lin Ye was not surprised in the slightest.

“That last attack really hurt. If you’re willing to take me out of here, I can pretend it never happened.”

Lola slowly closed the distance between them.

“Take you out? What about the remaining deities? Don’t you need to compete for a place to escape?”

Lin Ye did not move away from Lola. Even beneath the general store there was the true body of a deity, so he did not believe there was anywhere safe here.

“The remaining deities? Guess why I was able to escape the system’s control.”

Lola approached until she stood before Lin Ye, less than five meters away from him.

“You absorbed the power of those deities?”

Lin Ye could more or less guess what had happened here.

“More precisely, I ate all those useless things. They were nothing but worthless trash, but they were just enough to fill my stomach.”

Lola licked her lips, an expression of lingering enjoyment appearing on her face.

“So now you intend to eat us as well?”

Lin Ye seemed to have no intention of running away at all. This made Lola hesitate slightly.

“There’s no need. As long as you remain in my stomach, I can digest you whenever I want.”

Lola did not move any closer to Lin Ye.

“You need us to take you out of this prison, so you can’t digest us.”

Scarlatti had not expected this place to be so dangerous. If she had known, she would never have come.

“No. I only need one person to take me out. Right now, I’m deciding which one to keep. I’m leaning toward the boss because he suits my taste better.”

Lola licked her lips as she spoke.

“If someone suits your taste, shouldn’t you eat them?”

Scarlatti slipped her hand into the pocket of her overcoat.

“I like saving delicious things for last.”

Lola answered seriously.

“What a coincidence. So do I.”

Lin Ye looked at Lola calmly.

“But wouldn’t you still eat them in the end? What difference does it make?”

Scarlatti did not know what Lin Ye was waiting for. She was already about to lose her patience and attack.

“Once you leave, you’ll be protected by the system. I still have to escape the area under the system’s control, so I won’t have time to eat you.”

To Lola, Scarlatti was merely a backup option. After all, Scarlatti herself had not arrived through any proper method. If Lola left together with Scarlatti, her true body would have to remain in this Plane.