CHAPTER 404: CHAPTER 49: ETHICS AND THE HALF-SAINT BEAST

The clear voice of a young girl still echoing in the ear, tinged with a trace of resoluteness amidst its crispness.

Yue Jinghua did not expect to receive such a task.

"This is unscientific!"

The Gold Eater Worm, feigning death beside her, was once again in disarray, tumbling endlessly on the ground, wondering why such a beautiful voice emerged from a ferocious mantis.

Only Yue Jinghua and the Gold Eater Worm heard the words of the moon-white mantis.

Standing across from them, Guo Ziyu and his wife saw Yue Jinghua reveal a face full of shock and amazement, then look towards Ximing with an extremely complex expression.

After a long moment, as if after careful consideration, Yue Jinghua spoke again, "I’m sorry, I cannot accept your request. A quarter of an hour ago, I had already accepted the commission of this couple. According to the regulations of the Mercenary Manual, I cannot accept missions from two opposing forces at the same time."

"Even if, he is a bad person? Even if he is an utterly reprehensible beast who made my mother and my companions live a life worse than death," tears seemed to well up in the bright ventral eyes of the mantis, just like a human.

It gesticulated excitedly, wielding its "Big Saber" as if it wished to shatter Ximing into pieces.

For ten years, because of this man and the power behind him, it lived every day in pain and shadows.

The moon-white mantis, its forelegs clasped together, as if praying.

Suddenly, a light curtain rose within the room, and within it, a scene gradually revealed itself.

It was a cold, damp prison where a Mantis the size of an average adult was chained by several iron chains, its ventral eyes as red as burning flames.

At the bottom of the prison, a young girl was also curled up.

She was a beautiful girl, naked, her young skin radiating an alluring luster.

The girl kept twitching, moving her slender legs, trying to cover her private parts with her hair.

Outside the prison, an aged figure bent over, his face as wrinkled as old bark, the Third Elder of the Divine Court emitted an annoying laugh.

Looking younger and more grim, the Third Hall Judge Ximing stood behind the elderly man.

"After this Eighth Rank Peak Mantis, drugged with Forbidden Medicine, mates with the virgin temple girl, it will breed a unique Half-Saint Beast on the continent. With a Half-Saint Beast, what will the Dragon Rider Team amount to? Or the Federation Mercenary Corps? The Divine Court will be the unparalleled power on the continent, just the thought of it fills one with anticipation," the Third Elder said, intoxicated by the scene before him in the prison.

Every year, countless believers send their own children to the Divine Court, hoping to receive the love of the gods. Little did they know that these girls, who wholeheartedly worshipped the deities, ultimately became tools for breeding Half-Saint Beasts at the Divine Court.

The girl’s cries of anguish drowned everyone’s ears.

In the scene, Ximing’s fists clenched tight before finally, helplessly, letting go.

The view kept zooming out, revealing the full expanse of the prison to everyone, a huge dungeon vast beyond comprehension.

The same scene with a similar girl and Peak Dark Beast was unfolding in each cell.

Ten months later, after the girl gave birth to a Chaos Egg, she ended her life in unbearable shame.

Round after round, batch after batch of girls and Chaos Eggs were produced like a flowing assembly line.

The Chaos Egg birthed, due to its supreme quality, had nearly perfectly inherited its Dark Beast father’s bloodline and its young mother’s pure bloodline; yet for some unknown reason, it remained unhatched.

It was ultimately chosen, and the most trusted Judgement Envoy of the Third Hall Elder at that time, Ximing, was to return it to the Divine Court to be handed over to several other elders within the temple.

Glimmering tears, like pearls breaking off a string, rolled down from the mother mantis’s eyes.

That was its origin; it was born carrying the girl’s hatred and the Dark Beast’s fury.

It remembered, at birth, its mother was in tears, holding it tightly and whispering apologies—sorry for bringing it into this world, sorry for its fate of becoming a weapon as soon as it was born.

It still remembered the last warm and moist kiss that the mother gently pressed upon its eggshell before her death.

It hated, it detested the whole world, it refused to be hatched, it wanted to destroy everything.

Ten years ago, that force of resentment seeped through the eggshell and successfully inflicted heavy injury upon Ximing, who was then saved by Song Mu and other people from the Divine Court who hurried over.

At that time, Ximing, in complete despair, declined Song Mu’s help and left alone, dragging his heavily injured body.

"He deserves to die!" The girl mantis waved her sickle, her movement technique was bizarre, as if a gust of wind, she immediately appeared in front of Ximing.

Inside the Conscious Sea of Mo Xi Star, the Little Xuan Beasts let out furious roars, and the Gold Eater Worm was even more enraged, claiming it would die together with Ximing.

"Ximing, you explain, why don’t you explain?" Guo Ziyu looked incredulously at Ximing, "Is this the truth? The truth you’ve desperately hidden, so different from the wall hanging you told me about."

Ximing, as if having his backbone ripped out in an instant, leaned against the wall behind him and slowly slid down.

The blade swung by the mother mantis stopped at Ximing’s throat, where a bloodstain was already visible.

"Ximing," Guo Ziyu’s expression changed dramatically, she twirled the Summoning Bracelet in her hand and charged forward alone, while the Fur Spider also sprayed out its viscous silk.

"Ziyu, I owe her, let her kill me," Ximing closed his eyes, the corners already drenched, he grasped the Chaos Mantis’s sickle firmly and sent it towards his own neck.

"If you die, I will not live in stealth," with Ximing’s intervention, Guo Ziyu, with tears, stood aside, she looked in despair at the Ximing who had cut off his own lifeline, she understood that man, he was determined to seek death, and saving him would be in vain.

They had promised, to live freely and fully.

To die, thoroughly, without reservations.

Just at this moment, a ripple flashed in a corner of the room, a Transmission Array suddenly appeared inside, and from within the Dark Light, Judgement Envoy Song Mu of the Divine Court appeared just in time.

"Ximing, how long do you plan to conceal it? Why don’t you tell her, that the pain you’ve suffered these years is far more than hers, why don’t you tell her, that you are her uncle," Song Mu’s words slowed down the Chaos Mantis’s movement to slit Ximing’s throat by half a beat.

"Uncle? Impossible, how could he be my uncle," the mother mantis let out a piercing scream.

"Twenty-five years ago, a brother and sister, whose parents both perished, were sent to the Divine Court. The boy and girl were separately entrusted to different elders for training, not seeing each other for over a decade. The boy, due to his remarkable talent and diligence, was accepted into the service by the Third Hall Elder and became a Judgement Envoy. His sister, having not seen him for many years, was selected as a Sacrificial Maid. Years later, the flawless and beautiful maid was chosen for an unknown experiment at the Divine Court, and she had no idea that her own brother also participated in that experiment. After suffering unspeakable humiliation, the girl gave birth to a mixed-blood Chaos Egg, ultimately dying of shame and indignation. It was not until that moment, as the young man who arranged her burial did so, that he realized, she was his own sister," Song Mu sighed inwardly and recounted the entire series of events.

"Enough, enough," Ximing knelt on the ground, holding his head in agony.