Even Sun Hang himself hadn't realized that his demeanor now was like a completely different person.
"But rest assured, I will be very gentle..."
In the girl's terrified eyes, Sun Hang leaned down, took her slender hand, and gently placed her clearly defined index finger into his mouth and began to suck on it lightly.
The next second, his jaws exerted a sudden force, directly biting off the girl's finger!
The girl immediately let out a loud, piercing scream and fell backward onto the ground.
"Ugh." Sun Hang spat out the half-bitten finger, the expression on his face instantly changing from gentle to disgusted, "It tastes like... rotten meat."
Whether it was from pain or fear, tears continued to stream from the girl's eyes as she struggled to crawl backward, only to be grabbed by Sun Hang at the ankle and dragged back to her original spot.
At that moment, a hint of confusion flickered across Sun Hang's eyes.
What am I doing?
Did I just bite off her index finger?
Was I planning to eat her?
No, that's not right... she still has a use, she can't die yet...
Sun Hang grabbed the girl's wrist once more, focusing his gaze on the severed finger.
The severed finger was no longer bleeding; countless tiny flesh buds were emerging from the cut surface, starting to form a newly born finger...
Sun Hang stared carefully—what emerged were not flesh buds at all but clusters of white mycelium!
The girl's bitten-off finger quickly returned to its original state, except for its paler color. The patterns of the fingernail, the texture of the skin, and even the shape of the bone at the knuckle were no different from the severed finger on the ground.
"The severed limb can actually regenerate?" Sun Hang looked at the finger in amazement. For some reason, compared to the previous severed finger, he felt the newly born one seemed much more beautiful and far more attractive.
Is it because this finger was reshaped using the ability of some eerie entity? Sun Hang wasn't sure, but he decided to carry out a small experiment nonetheless.
He picked up a dagger and, using the sharp tip, made a cut on the fingertip of the girl's newly regenerated index finger.
No blood flowed from the cut, and no expression of pain appeared on the girl's face.
"I understand now..." Sun Hang nodded slightly.
"W-what?" the girl's eyes widened. To her, this strange man seemed nothing less than a demon.
"I understand what the 'price' is." Sun Hang said, "The Taishou meat didn't exactly give you the ability of infinite regeneration, and you can't really be considered true infectees either... the relationship between Taishou and you is more like that of a parasite and host. Its 'cells' reside within you, growing by absorbing your nutrients. And to ensure the host's survival, it mimics and replaces the 'malfunctioning' organs of the host..."
"What are you saying?!" The girl's expression turned blank with confusion. "I don't understand…"
"These organs copied by the 'Taishou' connect with all the body's systems, including the nervous system, so you don't feel any anomalies... All organs can be replaced, all except for the brain."
Sun Hang paused for a moment, then continued, "Once a person's entire body has been replaced, they are completely taken over by the 'Taishou'... Even if you could live a life without illness or injury, the metabolism of the human body never stops, and you will eventually become a part of the 'Taishou'..."
While Sun Hang was explaining all this, a fierce look flashed in the eyes of the girl sitting on the ground. In an instant, her new index finger transformed into a sharp claw. She sprung up with an incredibly bizarre burst of force and launched herself onto Sun Hang, embracing him with extreme intimacy.
Her petite body buried itself entirely into Sun Hang's chest, as the sharp claw punctured through Sun Hang's throat with pinpoint accuracy.
However, what she couldn't anticipate was that the claw, once piercing through Sun Hang's throat, dissolved like an ice cube dropped into boiling water... And the hole on Sun Hang's neck completely healed within seconds, disappearing without a trace.
"How can this be?!" The girl's eyes widened, and before she could even loosen her grasp on Sun Hang, a massive force pressed against her shoulder and back — Sun Hang flung her harshly to the ground, her spine snapping audibly against the edge of the stair step.
The pain had not yet reached her brain when the damaged central nervous system was immediately reconstructed by the "Taishou." As she rolled and just got to her feet, she received a heavy punch in the abdomen!
"Bang!!"
Her body slammed directly into the wall, leaving a shallow human-shaped dent. Plaster dust rained down on her body... She vaguely sensed that something was about to burst out of her body... After a brief moment of terror, what followed was ecstasy.
"It's ascension! It's the ascension the saints often spoke of!! I... I've been waiting for this day!"
The fear for the man in front of her vanished, as she curled up against the wall, muttering those incomprehensible prayers in a broken voice, waiting silently for the "miracle" to descend.
What "replacement," what "eerie transformation"... those are just the blasphemies of ignorant people towards the "Taishou," which is different from those eerie entities; it will grant her rebirth, making her become...
The girl's consciousness ended abruptly here. Her skin began to bubble up rapidly, as if it had been doused in boiling oil, with large patches of red welts appearing... Then, these welts burst open, releasing a foul-smelling gray pus from within.
The lifeless body slumped against the wall, slowly sliding down... soon becoming a pool of blood, mixed with the fragments of plaster scattered across the floor.
Sun Hang frowned.
The part of the "Taishou" parasitic within the girl evidently had a "self-awareness"—it would rather burn out the host's vitality and "commit suicide" than be consumed by Sun Hang.
Originally, even without the "feast," he could at least use the "Taishou" parasitic in the girl to "satisfy" his hunger... But in the end, he only managed to devour a small portion of the "Taishou." The rest of it decisively chose self-destruction.
It was like buying an ice cream cone and just after taking a lick, the heap of ice cream atop the cone "plopped" and fell onto the ground.
"What a waste."