"This …?"
Seeing this scene, Gray, who had given up, hesitated for a moment before turning around and slowly approaching the blood beasts.
He was on his guard. Once these blood fiends showed signs of coming to life, he was ready to escape immediately.
However, even as he approached, these blood fiends still showed no signs of getting up to attack.
He even kicked them, but there was still no response. These blood fiends, which were originally corpses, seemed to have completely turned into corpses this time.
Having guessed this, he stepped over these blood fiends and arrived at the clearing in the forest. In the clearing, he saw that the ape-type blood fiend had already turned into an ice sculpture. It could not be any more dead.
"The wind blades at the beginning probably did not kill it, so it was able to send an attack signal to the blood fiends under its control. The reason why it died in the end was probably because the ice had spread all over its body."
Looking at the corpse of the ape-type blood fiend, Gray speculated in his heart.
After breaking open the ice and letting it melt, Gray filled an empty kettle with the blood of the ape-type blood fiend.
"I didn't bring a rune pouch."
Looking at the blood flowing out of the ape-type blood fiend, Gray could only shake his head helplessly.
His target this time was the remains, and he did not intend to hunt blood fiends. His original plan was to avoid blood fiends as much as possible. Therefore, he only brought wilderness survival equipment and did not bring a rune pouch.
After putting away the kettle filled with the blood of the ape-type blood fiend, Gray could not help but look at the seven blood fiends lying on the ground not far away. His heart was filled with pity.
"It's a pity that it has been less than two months since I last consumed the blood of a blood fiend. Otherwise, if I consumed the blood of this ape-type blood fiend now and obtained its ability to control corpses, I could immediately obtain an army of blood fiends."
According to his observation during the day, including the wind wolf he killed, there should be a total of nine blood fiends under the control of the ape-type blood fiend.
In addition to the seven corpses in front of him, there was also a yellow-haired blood fiend. It should be lurking by the stream, hunting for the ape-type blood fiend.
In other words, if he obtained the ability to control corpses now, together with the corpse of the ape-type blood fiend, he would immediately have nine blood fiends. One could imagine how much stronger his combat strength would be after obtaining nine blood fiends.
"No, maybe it's not impossible."
Gray suddenly thought of something. According to his estimation, there could be two reasons why he couldn't continuously consume blood fiends' blood.
On one hand, it was the time interval between two swallows. On the other hand, it was the body's tolerance. He felt that the most likely factor was the body's tolerance.
Indeed, it had only been less than two months since the last time he swallowed the Gale Wolf's blood and obtained a transformation.
However, his strength had increased from an upper-level Blood Warrior to a Ferocious Blood Warrior. The increase in his physical fitness had far surpassed that of a lower-level Blood Warrior to a middle-level Blood Warrior, or a middle-level Blood Warrior to an upper-level Blood Warrior.
It had been nearly two months since his physical body had been strengthened by such a large margin. He felt that swallowing the blood of an ape-type blood fiend wouldn't affect his body too much. At most, his body would become extremely fatigued.
"Gulp …"
After figuring this out, Gray swallowed a mouthful of blood at the ape blood fiend's wound, which was still bleeding.
He didn't look for another safe location. If there was one, it would be the safest place at the moment.
As a blood fiend that controlled nine blood fiends, it was certain that the ape blood fiend's territory was extremely wide. Now that the ape blood fiend had just died, the other blood fiends wouldn't come here for a short period of time. Therefore, this was the safest place.
Whoosh!
As soon as he swallowed the blood of the ape blood fiend, a scalding heat appeared in Gray's stomach and spread to his entire body.
Gray felt as if he was being roasted over a fire. Sweat kept dripping down his body. In just a short while, his entire body was drenched.
His head was dizzy and his entire body was crimson. He was like a seriously ill patient who had a high fever. He had lost all sense of time and his surroundings.
If a blood fiend were to attack him at this moment, he wouldn't even have the strength to retaliate.
Fortunately, such a thing didn't happen. Just as he had expected, the lair of the ape blood fiend was the safest place at the moment.
After an unknown amount of time, his mind finally cleared up. However, what followed was extreme fatigue. Not only was it physical, but it was also mental.
He was so tired that it was as if he hadn't slept for three days and three nights. Just like that, he fell into a deep sleep. The moment he fell asleep, he came to a conclusion.
"It's the same as when I consumed Hanhu's blood. It's a little too much!"
His strength had indeed increased significantly from an upper-level Blood Warrior to a Ferocious Blood Warrior. However, it was still a little too much for him to consume two blood fiends' blood consecutively within a short period of time.
In the morning, the sun shone on Gray's face. His eyelids moved heavily and he finally opened them.
His body still felt very tired. He struggled to sit up.
"Gu —"
A strange sound was heard. It was his stomach protesting.
Yesterday, in order to hunt the ape blood fiend, he had been hiding in the shadows. Naturally, he hadn't eaten anything during the process.
In addition, during the transformation process after consuming the ape blood fiend, his body would have consumed a large amount of nutrients. It was normal for his stomach to protest.
Gray took out his rations and wolfed them down with water. He only stopped when his rations had decreased by a lot.
Fortunately, he was strong enough to carry a lot of rations. Otherwise, with his appetite, he would have had to hunt for food.
Then, he stood up and looked at the corpse of the ape blood fiend. In order to obtain the ability to control corpses, he had suffered a lot. Now, it was time to test his gains.
Staring at the ape blood fiend's corpse, he imagined controlling it. Then, a strange scene appeared.
The palm of his left hand was slightly itchy. He looked sideways and saw that on the palm of his left hand, a crack had suddenly appeared. But unexpectedly, no blood flowed out from it.
The crack slowly opened up like a slowly opening mouth. At the same time, he could vaguely see a black meatball-like object covered in tentacles within the crack.
Finally, the crack opened up to its maximum size. This round object fell from Gray's palm and fell to the ground.
After landing on the ground, the numerous tentacles on the meatball-like creature wriggled like earthworms. They dragged the meatball-like creature up the body of the blood fiend and crawled into the mouth of the blood fiend.
Then, the body of the ape blood fiend, which was already dead, began to change.
It trembled slightly from time to time, as if it had a nervous reaction.
Clang!
More than ten minutes later, the tremors on the ape blood fiend's body disappeared. Then, the ape blood fiend opened its eyes and got up.
The wound on its chest was still hideous, but it didn't seem to have any effect on it.
At this moment, Gray felt that he had established some kind of connection with the ape blood fiend. He only needed to issue a command to the ape blood fiend in his mind, and the ape blood fiend would act according to his orders.
"Take five steps forward."
He issued such an order in his mind.
Then, the ape blood fiend lifted its legs and walked forward. It took exactly five steps.
"Squat down."
"Crawl forward."
...
It was as if he was playing with a remote-controlled toy from his previous life. After manipulating the ape blood fiend for a while, Gray had a general understanding of the ability to control corpses that he had obtained from the ape blood fiend, as well as the blood fiends under its control.
"The blood fiends under my control don't have self-consciousness, but they have some simple abilities to carry out my orders."
Gray discovered that the blood fiends under his control had the ability to carry out his relatively simple orders.
For example, if Gray ordered the ape blood fiend to move the yellow-haired blood fiend to the stream, the ape blood fiend would find the yellow-haired blood fiend and move it to the stream. During the entire process, Gray didn't need to issue any other orders.
"Moreover, the black meatball-like object can secrete a substance that prevents the corpse from decaying, so that the corpse won't lose its combat ability.
"The only pity is that the blood fiends under my control will lose all their abilities except for their physical abilities. But this is normal, since the blood fiends are already dead."
Even if the blood fiends were to use wind blades and flames, they still required the support of the power of blood.
Since the blood fiends were already dead, their bodies naturally couldn't produce the power of blood. Therefore, the blood fiends under my control would lose the ability to use wind blades and flames, and would only retain their physical abilities.
"Even so, it's still an extremely powerful ability. With so many blood fiends under my control, I can defeat most of the blood fiends with just my physical abilities. If there are enough blood fiends, it's not impossible for me to fight above my level."
Gray wasn't disappointed that the blood fiends under his control couldn't use their abilities. He went to the corpses of the seven blood fiends and used the same method to control them. Then, he went to the stream, found the yellow-haired blood fiend, and controlled it as well.
After taking a bath in the stream and changing into a new set of clothes, Gray set off to search for the ruins with nine blood fiends in tow.
One day later, in the morning.
"We should be there in half a day."
Gray judged as he looked at the map in his hand.
Gray kept the map and walked forward. After walking for about an hour, Gray suddenly stopped and looked down at the thing under his feet.
It was a pile of black ashes, and there was some firewood beside it that hadn't finished burning.
"Someone camped here?
And it should have been done in the past few days … "
Judging from the age of the ashes, this pile of ashes should have been left here in the past few days.
If it had been left here for too long, it would have been covered by soil due to wind and rain.
However, this pile of ashes was still in the same state as when it was burning. Therefore, Gray judged that this pile of ashes should have been left here in the past few days.
"Who exactly left this behind?"
Suddenly, Gray's expression changed as he thought of a possibility.
"This place isn't far from the ruins. Could it be that the person is heading there?"
He was at most one or two hours away from the ruins. At such a close distance, it was entirely possible that the person was heading there for the ruins.
Moreover, even if the person wasn't heading there for the ruins, it wasn't impossible for them to bump into the ruins by chance.
Thinking of this, he couldn't help but speed up. He couldn't let someone else get to the ruins first. Otherwise, the half a month's time from Sidney Hill to Oka Hill would have been wasted.
After more than an hour, Gray was extremely close to the ruins.
Roar — —
Suddenly, an angry roar of a blood fiend was heard. There was extreme anger in the sound, as if it had been provoked.
The direction of the sound was in the direction of the ruins.