Chapter 43: The Wager

"Kid, you actually ended up becoming a Hunter after all, haha! Looks like that idiot Wang Feng finally changed his ways." Yao Jun laughed heartily. Every time he mentioned Wang Feng, he would refer to him as an idiot, suggesting there must be some deep-seated hatred between them.

"Kid? I mean... even if I'm weaker than you, I'm not any younger, am I? I'm almost thirty." Ye Yang couldn't help but retort; he really hated being treated like a child all the time.

"Almost thirty?" Yao Jun froze. When he finished listening to Ye Yang's explanation, his jaw dropped in shock. He blurted out in disbelief, "You're Ye Lingyun's son? Holy crap! You're actually his son! No wonder."

"By the way, can I ask you something? What is NO91?" Ye Yang suddenly frowned and asked. He hadn't bothered to read all those combat intelligence reports. Actually, the reports contained all this information, even recording the names and rankings of various fiends.

"NO91?" Yao Jun was stunned once more, then nodded. "No wonder that idiot failed. He was ambushed? That explains it... NO91 is very strong. If I ran into him, I'm afraid he'd be hard to handle."

"NO91 is a fiend ranking. Those guys like to use numbers to represent their strength. There are ninety-nine of the strongest fiends, from NO1 to NO99. They are the strongest bastards around. Remember, if you're going to be a Hunter from now on, you'd better steer clear of them if you cross paths," Yao Jun said leisurely.

"Oh..." Ye Yang nodded, gritting his teeth in thought for a long moment before suddenly rolling up his sleeve and asking another question. "I want to ask something else. Why does that NO91 have a tattoo similar to mine?"

On Ye Yang's arm, the faint outline of a long-haired tiger tattoo had materialized. With the growth of his fiend energy, Ye Yang noticed that even when he wasn't activating it, the tattoo would appear under normal circumstances, though it remained somewhat blurry.

"What tattoo?" Yao Jun took hold of Ye Yang's arm to examine it closely. Chen Yun stepped forward as well, but Yao Jun waved her back with a sweep of his hand.

"Kid, come closer and talk. Lass, don't you come over!" Yao Jun's expression suddenly turned frosty, leaving both of them startled.

"Where did you get this tattoo?" Yao Jun asked coldly.

"Huh? I don't know. It seemed to appear after I woke up from being frozen, though it only fully emerges when my fiend energy erupts," Ye Yang said, scratching his head.

Yao Jun fell silent, scrutinizing the tattoo over and over before sighing, "Little fellow, do you have any idea what this tattoo is?"

"Exclusive to fiends?" Ye Yang hesitated for a long time before asking. That was his guess; this had to be the mark of a fiend. After all, his arm had been invaded on the Day of Apocalypse, right in the exact spot where the tattoo was located.

Yao Jun nodded and said nothing more, merely staring intently at Ye Yang. Ye Yang fell silent too, not knowing what else to say.

"Sigh..." After a long while, Yao Jun finally sighed. "If my perceptive ability hadn't clearly told me that you, kid, are a human being, I'd really want to kill you right now."

Ye Yang bit his lip hard. A sudden thought struck him, and he raised his arm right in front of Yao Jun. "Your perceptive ability is very strong, right? This arm of mine was invaded by a fiend spore organism on the Day of Apocalypse. Help me check—is the fiend inside still alive?"

"I can't tell," Yao Jun replied, shaking his head directly. "I can only sense that your fiend energy originates from your right arm, but I can't feel whatever is inside it. I know what you want to ask, but I can't answer it. I'm afraid nobody in this world can answer that, unless..."

"Unless what?" Ye Yang pressed anxiously.

Yao Jun let out a deep sigh. "Unless your old man comes back to life. Only Ye Lingyun would know what's really going on with this arm of yours. Sigh... I finally understand what that idiot Wang Feng is trying to do."

"I understand now too," Ye Yang said with a bitter smile.

He wasn't some person with terrifying latent fiend energy potential at all. That energy wasn't his in the first place; it was left behind by the fiend that had invaded his arm. Because of this, he possessed only fiend energy and nothing else, because fiends do not have superpowers—their physical forms and special abilities mutually repel each other.

What was Wang Feng trying to do? It seemed he wanted to force out this reservoir of fiend energy. There were two possible reasons: first, to verify whether the fiend inside his arm was dead or alive; second, if Ye Yang grew stronger as a result, he would become a major asset for Hunters in fighting fiends—using a fiend's power to fight fiends!

What if the fiend inside his arm was still alive? Wang Feng probably wouldn't be worried. He was the Thunder Emperor, the strongest Level 5 Hunter; killing a single fiend shouldn't be too difficult for him.

"What should I do? The fiend inside this arm... what will happen to it? Will it turn me into a fiend too?" Ye Yang asked in distress. Actually, he shouldn't have been asking Yao Jun these things, but he had nobody else to turn to.

Wang Feng wouldn't tell him, and Lin Tian probably wouldn't either.

"I told you I don't know," Yao Jun rolled his eyes. "Putting that aside, if it's still alive, and if you eventually end up turning into a fiend, what would you want to do? Chop this arm off?"

"..." Ye Yang had no words. Chop it off? He had thought about doing just that on the Day of Apocalypse, but he hadn't dared. And now? He still didn't dare.

First, he couldn't determine whether the fiend was truly alive or whether it would consume him like before. Second, if he severed this arm, it wouldn't just mean being crippled; he would lose all his fiend energy and never be able to be a Hunter again.

"Stop thinking such foolish things!" Yao Jun suddenly shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, that idiot Wang Feng is taking a gamble—gambling on whether you'll eventually turn into a fiend, and whether you'll acquire immense power! Since he dares to gamble, what are you afraid of?"

Ye Yang was stunned. That was true; both Wang Feng and Lin Tian dared to gamble, so what was he afraid of? But... if he really changed, could he accept becoming a fiend?

"Little fellow, when you gamble, the risks are low and the rewards are high! I'm not talking about probabilities, I'm talking about the benefits!" Yao Jun smiled. "If you lose, the world simply gains one more fiend. But if you win, I'm afraid the strongest Hunter in history will be born."

"Strongest? What do you mean?" Ye Yang was taken aback. At best, this was just using a fiend's power to combat fiends. How did that translate to becoming the strongest Hunter?

"There are some things you still don't know much about, such as the creation process of Hunters. Tsk tsk, it actually involves extracting an evolutionary cell seed from a fiend's body, modifying it through various methods, and implanting it into a human body. Your father invented that process—that's how Hunters are created. Extraterrestrial biological cells guide human genetic mutation."

Ye Yang was dumbfounded. He knew about those so-called evolutionary cells, but he had no idea they were transplanted from the bodies of fiends.

Furthermore, there was one thing Ye Yang was completely unaware of: the first-generation Hunters, namely Wang Feng and Lin Tian, had their evolutionary cells transplanted directly from Ye Yang's arm! Though that was something he could never possibly imagine.

"Think about it for yourself. A single fiend cell can cause a human to completely evolve, transforming into a superman with nearly invincible superpower abilities. And what about you? You don't just possess a single evolutionary cell; you possess the biological spores of an entire fiend, residing right inside your body with its power at your disposal! What kind of creature will you eventually evolve into? To what extent will your genes mutate?"

"Most importantly, you're still alive! You're still human, and you haven't been consumed by these fiend biological spores. An opportunity like this is simply impossible to encounter, yet it happened to fall right on you!"

Yao Jun spoke with wild enthusiasm. He had completely guessed Wang Feng's intentions. If they lost the gamble, the world would just have one more fiend. But if they won, Ye Yang's genes would likely mutate to their absolute limit—that would be true super-evolution!

Ye Yang was so stunned he stood there with his jaw hanging open, utterly speechless. Yao Jun laughed again, saying, "So, think about it yourself. Which outweighs the other—the pros or the cons of winning and losing? The stakes aren't proportional at all."

"The reason Wang Feng didn't tell you is simple: this is really hard to accept, haha. But now that you know, whether you want to take the gamble is up to you," Yao Jun said with a smile that reached his eyes.

"I'll gamble!" Ye Yang gritted his teeth. Anyone who refused to gamble would be a fool and an idiot. If he won, he'd be invincible under heaven; if he lost, he'd just die. What was there to be afraid of?

In truth, what he didn't know was that Yao Jun was effectively helping Wang Feng persuade Ye Yang. Would winning really make him invincible under heaven? Indeed, it might, but this so-called victory might not be a true victory at all. What would Ye Yang be considered once he evolved to the very end? Neither Yao Jun nor Wang Feng knew the answer; they didn't even know if he would still be human.

Sure, winning the gamble might grant him invincible power in this world, but the odds of a true win weren't very high. Because losing meant losing, but winning didn't necessarily mean a true triumph.

"Alright, put your sleeve down. Don't let anyone else see this tattoo; it's best to wrap it in gauze. Remember, don't mention this to too many people—better yet, don't tell a soul. Just act like you don't know anything when it comes to Wang Feng, so he doesn't blame me for meddling," Yao Jun instructed.

Watching Ye Yang nod in agreement and wrap up his arm, Yao Jun suddenly chuckled. Actually, Wang Feng's gamble was quite an entertaining game; it almost made him want to stick his oar in and get involved.

"Hey, leave your number. If you have any questions in the future, just call me directly," Yao Jun said suddenly, pulling out a smartphone with a smile. It turned out to be an iPhone 9 brick—he used to be a Hunter, after all.

"Deal! But you have to answer a question for me first," Ye Yang said with a quirky grin. He knew Yao Jun actually wanted to see how his gamble turned out, but he wasn't a fool. You want to get involved? Then pay the price.

"What's the deal with you consuming monster viscera?" Ye Yang asked, narrowing his eyes.

Yao Jun's expression stiffened. He scratched his head awkwardly and said, "That... sigh, I really didn't want to talk about it, but my superpower just happens to work this way."

"What kind of superpower is that?" Ye Yang became even more interested.

Yao Jun gave a bitter laugh and asked, "Kid, let me ask you something. If doing something extremely disgusting allows you to gain incomparably powerful strength, while not doing it leaves you a complete and utter good-for-nothing, how would you choose?"

"Uh..." Ye Yang paused for a moment, instantly grasping what was going on. Yao Jun smiled bitterly and continued, "My superpower is... consuming the internal organs of these bastards, thereby converting their fiend energy into my own."

"Sigh... to be honest, I never wanted to end up like this, but I really couldn't bear being a useless piece of trash. That kind of life isn't fit for a human. Back then, I was only Level 1, stuck at Level 1 forever. Look at me now—I'm almost at Level 5."

"It all started when I devoured a mutant's heart, jumping straight from Level 1 to Level 2. From then on, I couldn't stop. I know it's disgusting, and I know other people can't accept it, but... what about you? If it were you, how would you choose?"

Ye Yang rolled his eyes directly. "I probably wouldn't choose the disgusting option."

Yao Jun laughed heartily, pointing at Ye Yang's arm. "Actually, your gamble is no different from my situation. It's just that you're not afraid of death, but you can't stomach being disgusted, whereas I happen to not be afraid of being disgusted."

Ye Yang fell silent. Put that way, it made sense, though he still felt that everything Yao Jun did was far too repulsive. Perhaps he simply lacked the agonizing experience of being trapped at a level where advancement was impossible, like Yao Jun had endured.

He thought of Chen Yun as well. To become stronger, or to smooth out her path as a Hunter, the young woman hadn't hesitated to seduce him. Though she deeply regretted it now, in that single split second, she had ultimately chosen the exact same path as Yao Jun.

When humans make choices involving their own interests, you can't simply label them as right or wrong, as long as they don't harm others. Yao Jun hadn't harmed anyone else. Whether his actions were disgusting or not was purely a matter of personal perception. Compared to those individuals who disregarded morality and even life itself just to make money, he wasn't repulsive at all.