Chapter 597: Chapter 386: Celebrating Too Soon
I had thought that this investigation would ultimately end in disappointment, but unexpectedly, I now learned some surprising information from Onions’s mouth.
"Tell me more." Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Colin asked in a deep voice.
Onions was silent for a moment and then said, "It’s difficult to describe plainly; perhaps I should take you there to see them, as those plants are actually quite common in the cave."
"Mm." Colin nodded, rising up with him, and said indifferently, "Lead the way."
"Yes, My Lord." Onions let out a sigh of relief.
This secret had been buried in his heart for a long time, yet he had never spoken about it to anyone.
However, this was not out of selfishness but due to other concerns.
Five minutes later, Colin and Onions found the first plant in a cave leading to node five.
The plant looked very peculiar, colored in gray-brown with patches of subtly disgusting flesh-pink, shaped like a lantern from a former life, with slender roots holding a misshapen, rotting bulb.
"I usually call it the Flesh Sphere Grass." Onions gazed at the bizarre object in front of him, his eyes filled with both hatred and desire.
He hesitated no longer, took a deep breath, and said solemnly to Colin, "Your Excellency Colin, there is something very important that I need to explain to you."
Colin stopped examining the plant, looked up, somewhat puzzled.
Under the silver-gray mask, Onions’s eyes showed a little struggle, but it eventually turned into determination.
He silently reached up to remove his helmet, revealing a youthful yet resolute face, then took off his silver armguard and rolled the sleeve of his left arm up to his shoulder.
"This is..." Colin’s eyebrows lifted slightly, his gaze somewhat grave.
Onions’s exposed arm, from near the biceps to his chest, was covered in a deep, black-purple hue, even more troubling was that this black-purple area also showed marks resembling severe burns.
Yet unlike the chaotic scars of a burn, the markings on Onions’s body were more orderly, looking like a sudden growth of... peculiar skin?
"This is a side effect brought by consuming things like the Flesh Sphere Grass." Onions pulled down his sleeve, his face slightly pale, but his gaze still clear, continuing:
"Besides these harmless marks, I often feel a bizarre bloodlust, which can only be slightly relieved by coming to the cave and indulging in a spree of killing."
Speaking more, Onions felt the burden lifting from his heart, his pale complexion gradually recovering.
He had long wanted to share these burdens, but had never found the right person, coupled with various worries.
But now, Colin, a powerful, unfamiliar wizard capable of dealing, was naturally the best person to confide in.
Onions turned his head to look at the pitch-black cave passage in front of him, the empty darkness seemed to swallow him, taking him back to many years ago, as he began to recount to Colin.
"Before I turned ten, I had always lived in a simple farmer’s home; they treated me well. The most common thing I did was race with friends in the wheat fields,
and also—venture into the cave."
Colin listened calmly, giving the young knight in front of him the utmost patience.
"The cave is dangerous, but because there are so many wizards coming on adventures, many of the upper layers of the cave are actually not that hazardous."
"This made us lax in our vigilance, thinking that the dangers adults spoke of were nothing much," Onions caressed his left shoulder, giving a bitter smile.
"Just like those tales often say—’Misfortune often strikes when people least expect it.’
During a routine adventure when I had just turned ten, I was tricked by a companion, accidentally straying deep into the cave and losing my way."
Colin raised his eyebrows slightly. Indeed, the upper layers of the cave had no subterranean creatures, and were not very perilous, but for a ten-year-old child to lose his way...and still survive, was truly fortunate.
"I survived by eating cave plants like the Flesh Sphere Grass and walked out after ten days, inadvertently alarming my father’s brother, my uncle, who had placed me in the farmer’s house."
"Normally, as an illegitimate child without inheriting the Wood Family’s bloodline, I was not eligible to return to the family."
"But this accidental venture out of the cave made my uncle think I possessed some form of luck or talent, mistakenly allowing me to return to the Wood Family and receiving the same education as the younger generation of the Wood family.
Then, within a mere six years, I had become a Great Knight."
"However, behind such rapid advancement, misfortune was hidden."
Onions sighed continually, finally saying:
"When I practiced the Giant Mountain Breathing Method, I detected an inexplicable energy in my body left from eating the Flesh Sphere Grass that could aid cultivation.
Thus, to elevate my Knight Cultivation swiftly, I came to the cave and consumed more cave plants..."
"Eventually, one day, a purple-black mark emerged starting from my heart, and for the first time, my mind was filled with an inexplicable desire for slaughter..."
After venting all the emotions that had been suppressed in his heart, Onions felt an unprecedented relief.
For countless nights in the past, he would wake up from similar nightmares.
—In a night of blazing fire, unable to suppress the bloodthirsty impulse brought by the cave plants, like a madman indulging in wanton slaughter, ultimately killed by the masses.