Hunter of Immortals

Chapter 154: Chunks of Meat

Inside the underground chamber, Sithu had already been sedated into a state of unconsciousness.

There was some blood on his neck, but thanks to Jiang Senior's expert technique, he hadn't actually bled very much at all. The skin on his throat had been sliced open to produce a sense of sharp pain, while the effects of the sedatives simulated the feebleness that came from slowly bleeding out, culminating in a very convincing package to lull someone into thinking that they were actually dying.

However, it had all been a lie.

"If we still get discovered this time, don't worry about me and leave the psychic world right away."

"Don't worry, I have many ways to get out of a battle."

"Good."

Adam nodded in response. Fighter Li was a far more technically proficient adapter than himself, so issuing any further precautions would've only come across as condescending. Thus, Adam wasted no further time with words as he put on Fighter Li's helmet for him and commenced the next psychic invasion.

Once again, the two of them entered Sithu's psychic world, but this time, Adam didn't immediately fuse as one with Mummy as that form would've attracted a great deal of attention. Instead, in order to keep a low profile, he chose to fuse with Nun.

"This is a different place from last time," Fighter Li immediately remarked as he sniffed the air around them. "There's a very strong smell of blood in the air."

"It seems like we're outside a slaughterhouse."

Adam had also noticed the smell in the air, and after cautiously conducting a search, he was able to roughly identify where they were based on the blood and lipids present in the sewage system.

The fact that there's a psychic module of this place indicates that it holds an important memory for the host, so it's definitely worthy of exploration.

If Hook were present, then they would've been able to directly search for straggling targets, but without Hook's presence, they could only conduct a blind search.

During the search process, they also had to take care not to be detected by those anomalies.

The two of them made their way in the opposite direction to the one that the sewage was flowing in, and they quickly caught sight of a semi-automated slaughterhouse.

After entering through its bright red doors, they saw a line of cattle on a conveyor belt being branded on the forehead one by one before lining up to be killed.

Further down the conveyor belt, the cattle underwent a series of industrialized processes, including being skinned, bled, and having their organs removed.

There were many people in Sandrise City who consumed artificial meat, but there was also no shortage of people who preferred genuine meat.

However, in this day and age, people wanted to eat meat, but couldn't bear to witness animals being slaughtered. Hence, most of these slaughterhouses were situated in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of cities, where they operated in the shadows to produce meat products for those who lived in the light of society.

"Warning, keep out... Warning, keep out..."

Right as Adam and Fighter Li were about to progress further into the building, they were stopped in their tracks by an automaton.

At the same time, Fighter Li's ears twitched slightly, and he heard some sound in the distance.

"Someone's coming... Their footsteps are very heavy, and they seemed to be carrying some type of heavy object..."

Adam immediately concealed himself upon hearing this, while Fighter Li also sprang up into the air, using his qinggong to spring up onto the ceiling, where he ducked behind some cover to ensure that he was out of sight.

A short while later, a man made his way into the slaughterhouse with several huge suitcases. Following his arrival, he dialed a number, and it didn't take long before a portly man who appeared to be a butcher arrived on the scene as well.

The fatso was wearing a work badge, indicating that he worked at the slaughterhouse, while the man with the suitcases was quite thin and had the same face as Sithu did in the real world. However, his limbs were quite strange, and Adam immediately identified the man to be the anomaly of horror that he had seen once before.

This was the most fearful of all of the personas in Sithu's psychic world.

Sithu was unable to deal with the crippling fear in his heart, and that fear had spilled over to give rise to this anomaly.

He was afraid of far too many things. He was afraid of his heinous crimes being uncovered, he was afraid of retribution, he was afraid of Mechguard. he was afraid of death, he was afraid of going to prison. He was afraid of everything, and in the end, that had caused him to become one with the anomaly.

Hence, this anomaly of horror wore a perpetually fearful expression, and it was constantly looking around in anxious, jerky movements, as if it were expecting an ambush at any moment.

"Hurry up! We'll both be screwed if someone sees us!" the anomaly of horror hurriedly hissed in a sharp and urgent voice as soon as it caught sight of the butcher.

"Calm down!"

After arriving on the scene, the butcher scanned his work badge to deactivate all of the automatons and surveillance equipment.

"Every time you come here, you look like you're about to have a panic attack! We're definitely going to get caught someday if you keep this up," the butcher grumbled.

"Hurry and process all of this meat!" the anomaly of horror urged in an anxious voice.

"Is it fresh?"

"It's all fresh meat. The chef just butchered it today. He always likes to keep the leftovers in the freezer, he has no idea how dangerous that is! If someone finds out, then it's over for all of us!"

"Shut up! You say the same thing every time," the butcher snapped. "Leave the meat with me and get out of here."

"No, I have to make sure that you process all of this meat before I leave. Otherwise, I won't be able to sleep at night!"

The anomaly of horror began to mumble broken phrases such as "process the meat" and "I have to see it for myself", and the butcher wasn't able to convince it to leave, so he had no choice but to take it into the slaughterhouse.

After the two of them were out of sight, Adam and Fighter Li reappeared in unison.

"Should we follow them?"

"I don't see why not. We're already here, so we can't just go back empty-handed. Also, they don't seem to be prepared for us this time."

Judging from the anomaly of horror's words and actions, Sithu's anomalies seemed to be oblivious to Adam's arrival in his psychic world.

After a brief discussion, the two of them made their way deeper into the slaughterhouse.

The slaughterhouse was very well equipped, complete with conveyor belts, meat cutters, meat hooks, cold storage, and automatons that oversaw the various processes taking place in the slaughterhouse.

Theoretically speaking, no butchers were required here as administrators alone would've sufficed, so perhaps this butcher was only a manifestation of Sithu's imagination.

Adam and Fighter Li followed the sounds to a semi-automatic cutting machine, then hid behind a hanging cow carcass, where they continued to spy on the two.

At this point, the butcher had already opened all of the suitcases. These suitcases were specially made with a plastic lining inside to prevent blood from seeping out, and inside them were the limbs of some of Sithu's victims.

.

The butcher crouched down to examine the quality of the meat, then took some pictures before beginning to process the meat.

Some of the parts were made into meatballs, while others were sliced into steaks and mixed together with beef after some special markings were made on them. In this bloody environment, the extra pieces of meat weren't conspicuous in the slightest.

"There's a strange smell in the air..." the anomaly of horror mumbled as it turned its long and thin neck to inspect its surroundings. "I smell something strange."

"What are you talking about?"

The butcher's patience was really beginning to wear thin at this point.

"There's a dangerous smell..." The anomaly of horror lifted up its shirt to reveal its thin and shriveled body, which was currently covered in goosebumps. "I can sense danger!"

It began to sniff at the air as it spoke while slowly approaching Adam's hiding spot.

"I immediately felt like something wasn't quite right as soon as I came in. It's like we were seen... We can't let anyone see us... We have to wipe away all evidence..."