Chapter 111: You Have Offended Someone You Never Should Have Offended (Bonus chapter in thanks for Fasis readers’ monthly votes)

“No, don’t alter my memories. I do not want them erased. I do not want to forget today’s bitter lesson, or the terrible price humanity has paid to explore the other world. I do not want to forget the soldiers and colleagues who died in battle, exchanging their blood and lives for my own wretched survival.

I do not want to forget any of it. I want to spend the rest of my life atoning for all this, so please, do not change my memories.”

Doctor Owens begged piteously. His words stirred everyone present, and only then did they truly grasp what had happened.

The laboratory had been slaughtered. More than two hundred soldiers had been wiped out; the lab staff had been all but exterminated. Such a catastrophic loss could not simply be concealed.

Their sacrifice could not be buried beneath thick stacks of files, either. The people of Hawkins should know that once there had been such people, who fought to the death to protect their town.

Misty stopped and looked solemnly at Doctor Owens. In his eyes was a deep, pleading look, a plea made not for himself, but for others.

“Doctor, your words have moved me. I’ll grant your request. We also need you to handle the aftermath. I only ask that you not reveal our existence. Please give me your word on that.”

Doctor Owens immediately raised a hand and swore an oath in God’s name. Misty nodded and abandoned the idea of altering his memory.

Seeing that the situation had calmed, Lin Xiao did not want to linger any longer. This was no place to stay. He led the others out of the laboratory and all the way back to where they had parked.

They got into the car and quickly returned to Fountain Square, only to find heaps of demodog corpses piled together. Nick and the others were nowhere to be seen, and faint clamor drifted from deep within the residential quarter, noisy and unsettled.

“What’s going on? Could there still be a large number of demodogs left uncleared?”

Lin Xiao thought this to himself and drove deeper into the residential area.

In front of one house, he saw the bodies of a few young werewolves. Eddie and Eric sat on the steps, looking utterly exhausted. Lucas and Dustin were crying. Nick was crouched on the ground, holding a man soaked in blood in his arms. It was Sheriff Hopper!

Lin Xiao hurriedly jumped from the car and ran to the house, shouting:

“What happened? What on earth happened?”

Eleven, Zoe, and Misty also got out of the car. Eleven hurried after him, clutching Lin Xiao’s arm and trembling.

Sheriff Hopper lay in Nick’s arms, one arm severed clean off. Blood flowed in a steady stream. His face was as pale as paper, and his voice was faint as a dying breath. He had clearly lost too much blood and could die at any moment.

“Who? Who did this?” Lin Xiao roared in fury, then crouched down and picked up the severed arm from the ground. There was still a chance to reattach it to Sheriff Hopper.

“Sacred Paradise! It was people from the Church of Sacred Paradise. They suddenly attacked us. They killed several werewolves, and in front of us they cut off Sheriff Hopper’s arm, saying they were teaching him a lesson for offending an organization he should never have crossed.”

Nick explained with a face drained white. Just remembering what had happened left him shaken.

“Sacred Paradise!”

Lin Xiao ground out the words through clenched teeth, each one bitten off with fury. He never would have imagined that it was this allied religious organization that had launched a sudden attack, killing the young werewolves and cutting off Sheriff Hopper’s arm. Could it be because of what happened the last time he stopped them from preaching?

He had no time to ask further. First he took three LV5 flesh essences from his pocket and stuffed them into Sheriff Hopper’s mouth. Then he tore open the clothing around the severed stump and tried fitting the arm back on. Nick shook his head and said, “It’s no use. It can’t be reattached. Unless we get him to a hospital for surgery right away, but the doctor in town doesn’t have the skill to perform an arm reattachment. We’d have to rush him to the county hospital.”

“No need to make it that complicated. With my magic, I can reattach his arm.”

Lin Xiao carefully aligned the severed end. The wound was a mangled mass of flesh and blood, but fortunately the arm had been cut off cleanly by a sharp weapon, so the injury was not too complicated. Otherwise, even with his abilities, he would not have been able to restore it.

Silently, he drew upon his magic. Then he took out the three LV5 magic essences he had broken down earlier and swallowed them in one go to replenish his power.

His magic had already recovered considerably along the way, and with the essence’s aid it was nearly fully restored. He steadied the severed arm with his left hand and had Nick hold it in place, then pressed his right hand to the wound and activated the special technique of Purification:

Purification: Level 2 Mastery. Removes all abnormal conditions from allies within a certain range, including but not limited to curses, venom erosion, bleeding, and more. Each use consumes 20 mana. Effective range: within five meters.
Level 2 Mastery Special Technique: Limb Reattachment. Consumes all mana at once to reattach a severed limb, provided the amputation occurred less than one hour ago, restoring it to its original state.

Endless streams of mana transformed into life energy and poured into Sheriff Hopper’s severed arm. Bones, muscles, blood vessels, and cells there began to grow back at a visible rate.

“A holy art... limb restoration?”

Misty said in surprise. In truth, she could have healed Sheriff Hopper’s injuries as well, but Lin Xiao was too desperate to save him, and she did not want to interrupt. She had intended to step in only if he failed, never expecting him to possess such an advanced healing art.

Nick and the others were equally astonished, secretly wondering just what kind of remarkable person his teacher must be to have taught him such an outstanding disciple. Was there any spell he could not use?

Could it be Dumbledore, a supreme wizard who had already stepped into the realm of the gods?

Zoe, however, was hardly surprised. This man was full of secrets and endlessly inventive in his methods. There was almost no magic he could not use. Though his rank was not high, his overall strength was no less formidable than Misty, that senior witch.

As the mana surged, the bones at the severed arm slowly fused together, the muscles knit back into place, and the blood vessels and nerves reconnected. With the help of the flesh essences, Sheriff Hopper, who had lapsed into unconsciousness, slowly began to regain consciousness and returned from the brink of death.

Lin Xiao let out a long, heavy breath. Thankfully, the arm had not been severed for long and was still within the effective duration of the Purification skill. Otherwise, once that time had passed, even he would have been unable to reattach it.

“So the Church of Sacred Paradise, is it? I’ll remember this grudge. The day I awaken from sleep will be the day you are destroyed.”

He swore his oath to the night sky. A gentleman may leave an enemy unavenged, but this debt would be repaid, even if he was no gentleman.

“Uh, um... Byers,” Eddie, sitting on the steps, looked up at Lin Xiao and said, “you don’t have to wait until after you sleep. You can go after them tonight. They kidnapped a girl and said they’d sacrifice her to their god to open the gate to Paradise.”

“Who did they take?”

Before Eddie could answer, a familiar girl staggered out, crying as she shouted, “Nancy! They took Nancy! They said they were going to burn her alive and offer her soul to their god. Jonathan, please, hurry and save her!”

“What?”

“Sis!”

Mike suddenly cried out from behind them and rushed out of the crowd, grabbing Barbara as she sobbed and asking what had happened.

Through tears, Barbara told them everything. Tonight Nancy had come to her house to do homework. After they finished, Barbara was driving her home when the demodogs attacked, so they had no choice but to hide in the garage.

After that, several demodogs found them and tried to attack. Fortunately, Sheriff Hopper and Lucas arrived with two monsters—werewolves—and killed every last demodog.

To protect them, Sheriff Hopper and Lucas stayed behind. But not long ago, a group of people suddenly appeared, easily killed the two werewolves, wounded Lucas, severed Sheriff Hopper’s right arm, and took Nancy away.

After hearing the whole story, Lin Xiao burned with rage. Judging from their purpose, they had not come for Sheriff Hopper at all. They had most likely come for Nancy. Sheriff Hopper had simply been unlucky enough to collide with them and so lost his arm.

Could it be because...