Before Ed stood a little girl, tortured by pain and despair, having lost her loved ones.

An indescribable fury surged within Ed's heart. He gripped his steel sword tightly and charged towards the creature, Vil, now transformed into the white version of Alice, on the flesh platform!

Since he couldn't sever the ethereal thread connected to Alice, he would try killing the monster Vil and see if that solved everything!

Fueled by rage, Ed sped toward the flesh platform once again.

At that moment, the corpse of Alice's father, which had been standing on the platform, moved again. From his throat, dozens of small white serpent-like creatures erupted. Each was about the size of a thumb in diameter, but nearly two meters long.

These miniature white serpent-like creatures immediately rushed toward the nearby corpses.

When they crawled into the mouths of the dead bodies, something astonishing happened. The corpses, which should have been beyond revival, began to rise again, speaking in unison, "Don't waste your effort, Hunter. Your power is impressive, but killing me completely is impossible."

"The light of the Moon Worship Sect covers all, as all things are bathed in moonlight, illuminated by its glow."

The ten or so creatures, resembling Vil, began running toward Ed. At that moment, the faint sound of the flute that had previously disappeared resurfaced, though not as clear as before—faint and distant.

Under the influence of the flute's sound, the giant rats, which had previously lost their target and stood frozen, began to gather again, moving toward the place where the rocks had fallen.

They started gnawing at the hard rocks with their sharp claws and teeth.

Ed knew that the mysterious Piper in the black robe wasn't dead yet and was trying to find a way to escape from beneath the rubble.

If they waited any longer, danger would strike again. As dangerous as the current situation was, it would only get worse.

Controlled by the smaller white serpent-like creatures, the dozen or so revived corpses began surrounding Ed, trying to prevent him from approaching the white Alice, the human-shaped flesh transformation.

These corpses showed no fear of death. Even if Ed used his steel sword to decapitate them, their remaining bodies would still move, trying to block his way.

Time was running out. The soul of Alice had already detached halfway from her body!

Ed was very close to the white Alice, but the surrounding moving corpses were hindering him. He couldn't advance quickly enough.

All the Moonstone Marks had been used up, and now Ed had no way of delivering a high-damage attack.

The more he realized this, the more uncontrollable anger swelled in his heart. He felt that the villagers, Alice—they should not have been treated this way. This was a dangerous Hunter world, a world Ed thought he had already understood.

But now, he was truly beginning to see this world for what it really was.

From the moment Ed first entered this world, he encountered the ghoul, which had seemed terrifyingly brutal to him at the time. Later, he was sold as a slave to the fox woman sorcerer, watching one person after another die around him.

Back then, he wasn't yet a Silver-level Hunter. His Moonlight Meditation Technique gradually increased his strength, and he thought everything would eventually get better. It felt like a game—difficult at first, but once you leveled up, things would get easier.

But this was no game. Ed couldn't ignore what was happening in front of him.

He couldn't do what Anthony did—when faced with potential danger, give up the mission and return to the Moon Eclipse Demon Hunter Association.

Just as Ed persisted, not willing to give up, the voice of the monster Vil came from Alice's mouth: "Hunter, I forgot to tell you my full name. I am known to you Hunters as the immortal serpentine Parasitic Monster Vil. Even a Gold-tier Hunter cannot kill me completely."

"Remember my name. I have a feeling that we may meet again someday."

Ed suddenly realized something. He quickly turned to look, only to see that Alice's soul had been completely pulled out of her body by the ethereal thread!

In the blink of an eye, Alice's soul fully merged with the white version of Alice's body.

An invisible shockwave erupted in an instant, sending Ed flying backward.

The corpses controlled by the miniature white serpent-like creatures stopped moving. One by one, the small serpent-like monsters crawled out of the corpses' mouths, then rushed into the white Alice's body.

Vil's voice once again came from Alice's mouth: "Oh, by the way, if you can, please deal with the Piper buried under the rocks for me. I don't want to pay any kind of reward."

"Ed, thanks for watching the show. If we meet again next time, I'll invite you to watch a performance with no flaws. Don't forget to clap when the time comes."

"Hahahahahaha!"

The maniacal laughter echoed throughout the underground space, as the white Alice swiftly approached the massive bronze door standing in the depths of the cave. Without hesitation, she pressed her palm against the door, and a seam appeared. The white Alice walked right through it.

The bronze door slowly closed.

The entire underground space fell silent, with nothing but the sound of the giant rats gnawing on the stones. There was no other noise.

Ed struggled to rise from the ground. The earlier shockwave had caused his back to slam against a stone, and now his ribs were aching.

He slowly walked toward Alice, only to see her small body lying motionless on the ground, discarded like a piece of trash.

She was a little girl who didn't even know what wrong she had committed, yet she had been tortured by pain, watching her father turn into a monster and her mother be killed.

Toronto, holding his steel sword, slowly walked up to Ed's side, unsure of what to say.

This was his first mission, and he had encountered such horrors. The entire village was now empty, with only the limping old village chief still alive.

Ed's voice broke the silence, "Toronto, are these kinds of things common in this world?"

Toronto was taken aback for a moment, looking down at the steel sword in his hand. He thought back to his parents, who had also died at the hands of monsters, and responded heavily, "I don't know. Maybe, a long time ago, when the sun would shine for longer and the moon didn't make it so hard for people to adapt, it wasn't as bad."

Ed took a deep breath, picking up his steel sword once again. It wasn't time to lower his guard yet; there was still one more enemy to deal with.

Ed walked toward where the rocks had fallen, and Toronto followed behind.

The faint sound of the flute abruptly stopped. Ed saw the mysterious figure in the black robe, trapped beneath the rocks.

Under the black robe was a face resembling that of a rat, with several grayish-white whiskers trembling uncontrollably.

Ed raised his steel sword, placing the tip against the black-robed figure's forehead, and coldly asked, "Who are you?"

Piper gave a bitter smile, not answering Ed's question. Instead, he said, "Who am I? It doesn't matter. Vil has already entered the ruins, that damn bastard tricked me."

Ed changed his question. He asked, "What exactly is Vil?"

Piper suddenly coughed, blood spilling from his mouth, clearly a result of the falling rocks injuring his internal organs.

He was dying.

The control over the giant rats earlier had only been a dying struggle.

Piper took a labored breath and slowly said, "A traitor of the Moon Worship Sect. He can parasitize and take over other bodies, and he's nearly impossible to kill. He's called the Undying Parasitic Serpent Monster. Vil is the name he gave himself."

Moon Worship Sect?

What is that?

Ed furrowed his brow, continuing to listen.

Through Piper's explanation, he gradually learned more about the Moon Worship Sect. It was a complex organization with a diverse membership—vampires, ghost spirits, evil sorcerers, intelligent monsters, and even human traitors.

They all gathered together with one purpose: to make the moonlight shine across the entire world, so that everything could be bathed in moonlight at all times. Only then, they believed, could they survive in a world gradually heading toward destruction.

Ed continued his questioning, still with one more question on his mind: what exactly was in the ruins that caused Vil to sacrifice an entire village and Alice's soul.

Unexpectedly, Piper responded, "I don't know. That damn Vil didn't tell me. But I did find a stone tablet in the outer area of the ruins. It seems to have some mysterious writing on it, probably containing some information about the ruins."

"If you ever encounter Vil again, don't hesitate. That bastard can only be truly killed by turning him to ashes!"

Piper weakly raised the green flute in his hand, wanting to pass it to Ed, but Ed didn't react.

He simply looked at Piper coolly and asked the last question, "Can those giant rats ever return to being human?"

Piper smiled weakly, shaking his head with difficulty, and said, "No. They're just pathetic, weak humans. Even if I die, they will die too."

"Take the flute, consider it a reward from me. You need to kill Vil for me!"

Ed glanced at the flute, then slightly bent down and slowly extended his hand.

Just moments ago, Piper had been on the brink of death, but suddenly his eyes lit up. A hint of eager anticipation flashed in his gaze, as if he was desperately hoping Ed would take the green flute from him.

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