Chapter 426: Victor and the Stitched Monster

At night, a dark figure nearly three meters tall crept stealthily out of a rocky cave.

The caution it displayed was a complete mismatch for its size.

In the moonlight, its deathly pale skin was visible, as were the extremely conspicuous black stitches.

The stitches bisected its body, making each part seem jarringly mismatched, yet somehow cobbled together.

The stitched monster's eyes were filled with hatred. After climbing out, it headed for Mary Town, its objective simple: to hunt down its creator, Victor Frankenstein.

This hatred, born in his earliest days, had driven him to survive until now.

But he hadn't taken more than two steps before an immense force seized him from behind.

He turned his head in confusion and saw a human, which gave him a terrible fright.

'How can a human have this much strength?'

"Hello," Qi Suian asked very politely. "Have you eaten?"

The question stunned the stitched monster.

In the past, everyone who saw him would instinctively recoil in fear and disgust before screaming and running away.

Even his own creator had reacted that way, yet he couldn't sense any fear from the person before him.

'Instead, was that some sort of vague malice?'

"Are you... a Demon Hunter from the Church?" the stitched monster asked tentatively.

He knew of the Church and the Blood Race, though he had only ever encountered the latter.

They hadn't drained his blood; after all, he was a reanimated corpse, and the blood in his veins had long since putrefied.

So the Blood Race had merely driven him away in disgust, giving him a beating for good measure. At the time, most of his stitches had burst open.

It had taken him a very long time to stitch himself back together.

Therefore, he was certain Qi Suian was not of the Blood Race, which meant he had to be a Demon Hunter from the Church.

"Close enough," Qi Suian replied. 'This stitched monster is surprisingly polite,' he thought.

"Are you here to stop me from getting my revenge?" As he spoke, a vicious glint flashed in the stitched monster's eyes, looking exceptionally savage under the moonlight.

As he spoke, he raised a massive fist and swung it at Qi Suian's head.

In his long and twisted struggle with Victor, he had naturally grown more and more cunning.

In his mind, no human was trustworthy; it was best to just kill them all.

But this time, his usually unstoppable fist met its Waterloo.

Qi Suian casually caught his opponent's hand, his own strength even greater, making it impossible for the monster to pull its hand away.

"And here I was, about to compliment your manners. I didn't expect this is what you're really like," Qi Suian sighed. With a sharp tug, he ripped the stitched monster's right arm clean off its body.

This had less to do with Qi Suian's strength and more to do with the monster's poor stitch-work. If it had been sewn on properly, the yank would have sent him sprawling face-first into the dirt instead of just tearing his arm off.

"Your strength... it's far greater than those vampires."

"You're getting more and more interesting," Qi Suian said, slamming the stitched monster to the ground.

The monster, naturally, was not about to submit, but its struggles were completely futile.

The stitched monster simply couldn't comprehend how Qi Suian's much smaller frame could unleash such terrifying power.

Qi Suian, meanwhile, tied the stitched monster up in short order, picked up its detached right arm, and headed for his rendezvous point with Victor.

Victor had been waiting there for some time.

When he saw Qi Suian approaching with a dark figure slung over his shoulder, his initial joy quickly turned to terror.

He had assumed Qi Suian would bring back a corpse, not that the creature would still be alive.

"Where is it?" Qi Suian asked, dropping the stitched monster and turning to Victor.

"I wanted it dead! You didn't keep your promise!" Victor snarled, his eyes darting about warily, poised to flee at the slightest disturbance.

"It'll be dead soon enough. First, give me the Spirit Staff and the research notes," Qi Suian said bluntly. "I'm doing this to prevent you from going back on your word."

"If I'd killed it for you, you could have just turned around and said, 'I don't know what you're talking about.' Would you have me work for you for free?"

"So, I brought it here alive. If you hand everything over like you're supposed to, I'll kill this monster."

"And if you don't, it's even simpler. I'll just let this monster go and let you die with eternal regret." Qi Suian's words left Victor speechless.

He had, in fact, been planning to renege on the deal after Qi Suian killed the monster, with no intention of handing over the Spirit Staff.

In Victor's eyes, Qi Suian was a man of dangerous ambition. If he were to obtain the Spirit Staff and the research, he would likely create an army of monsters and overturn the entire world.

But he never expected that the man would see right through his plan and bring the monster to him alive.

"Fine. You kill it first, and I'll go get what you want," Victor said, gritting his teeth. The monster had to die first; he'd worry about the rest later.

Qi Suian, however, remained unmoved. He even began to loosen the ropes on the stitched monster.

Seeing this, a savage grin spread across the stitched monster's face.

"This time, we'll see where you can run."

"Demon Hunter of the Church, once I've killed Victor, I'll lead you to the Spirit Staff as a reward," the stitched monster said, his voice laced with excitement as he offered Qi Suian a new deal.

This terrified Victor, who hastily cried out, "I'll give you the Spirit Staff and the research! Just stop!"

Faced with a choice between a world crisis and his own survival, he chose the latter.

The stitched monster let out a derisive laugh. "Victor, you never change."

"Once, you chose yourself over your friends and family."

"Between love and renown, you chose renown."

"You are a selfish, self-serving bastard!"

Listening to this, Qi Suian could tell the history of love and hate between these two could fill a book, but he had no interest in the details. He just said calmly, "Hand it over."

"I keep it at my residence. You'll have to come with me to get it," Victor said, his expression grim.

His residence was a lighthouse by the sea, adjacent to Mary Town.

Victor's reclusive and eccentric nature had led him to be ostracized by the townsfolk of Mary Town. The fact that they hadn't driven him away completely, instead allowing him to live in the lighthouse, was already quite generous.

"Go," Qi Suian said simply, telling him to lead the way. He tightened the ropes on the stitched monster, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and set off.

Seeing this, Victor sighed in helpless resignation and led the way.

Victor remained silent on the journey. The stitched monster, however, taunted him relentlessly while recounting its life story to Qi Suian.

After the stitched monster was created by Victor, it suffered greatly due to Victor's disgust and fear, leading to immense trauma in its early existence.

If it had ended there, it might have only developed a timid and subservient personality. But later, Victor abandoned it.

It was forced to take shelter in the forest, suffering from hunger and cold.

To find food, it bravely entered a village, but its monstrous appearance terrified the villagers. Some fled in panic, while others threw stones at it, beating it until it was covered in wounds.

It once saved a drowning person, but this act didn't earn it any sympathy or acceptance. On the contrary, its only reward was always indifference, contempt, and rejection, leaving it feeling a profound loneliness.

So, after it had grown stronger, it sought out Victor again. It begged its creator to make a female companion to spend the rest of its life with, promising that they would live far from human civilization, settling in the desolate wilderness.

Up to this point, the stitched monster was still relatively normal. Despite all the unjust treatment it had received, it had not yet developed true hatred.

The real turning point was Victor's fickleness.

When the stitched monster confronted him, Victor, out of fear, agreed to its request.

But afterward, he grew worried, imagining the horrifying consequences if the male and female monsters were to reproduce and create a whole race of creatures.

So he broke his promise. It was then that the stitched monster's heart turned black. It began by killing Victor's friends and family, and even murdered his wife on their wedding night.

It did all this so that Victor would feel the same crushing loneliness it felt.

And it succeeded. As a result, Victor's heart turned black as well.

When the stitched monster finished its story, Qi Suian's expression hadn't changed in the slightest.

"A fascinating story. I'll be sure to leave you a good review next time," Qi Suian said. He couldn't care less about so-called loneliness.

He couldn't muster even a shred of empathy.

"So, Mr. Victor, I assume we're here. Are you going to get it, or am I going with you?" Qi Suian asked.

"Let's go together. It's not like you'd trust me to go alone," Victor replied.

He, too, had heard the stitched monster's tale and felt a pang of remorse. If he hadn't become so obsessed with the origin of life, none of this tragedy would have ever happened.

'And now is the perfect time to end this tragedy for good.'

Victor opened the door and gestured for Qi Suian to enter first.

Without a word, Qi Suian walked into the lighthouse with the stitched monster on his shoulder, showing no hesitation.

After he was inside, Victor locked the lighthouse door and followed Qi Suian up toward the room at the top.

The process went very smoothly. Upon reaching Victor's bedroom, Victor pulled a box out from under the bed.

"Everything you want is in here," Victor said, opening the box. It was crammed with all sorts of books and a strange-looking staff.

Qi Suian reached out and grabbed the staff. It was the Spirit Staff, one of the Blood Race Sacred Artifacts he had been searching for.

"Now, you should kill this monster," Victor said, his eyes fixed on Qi Suian.

"The lighthouse is on fire. Aren't you going to do something about it?" Qi Suian ignored Victor's question and spoke as if to himself.

'When he locked the door, he never planned on leaving here alive.'

As for why it caught fire so easily, it was naturally because everything had been prepared in advance.

Only, this trap wasn't set for Qi Suian, but for the stitched monster.

"Let's all die together! Whether it's you, him, or this box of things, the best outcome is for all of it to disappear from this world," Victor said, a hint of madness in his voice.

Qi Suian nodded in agreement. "You're right. The three of us are no saints."

"But... I can fly."