Chapter 268 – The Destruction of the Harpy

It proved true that highly centralized magical creature tribes like the Harpies would show obvious sluggishness after losing their absolute authority. When Punk returned above the Harpy Tribe holding the Eerie Eyeball with Mage Hand, he found these harpies—including some elder ones dressed like high-ranking members—hadn’t reacted at all to the potential impending crisis.

They merely ordered a few guards to surround the small hut destroyed by Punk before continuing with their activities. Shockingly, not a single member of the entire tribe had considered what to do if their High Priestess failed.

In fact, far from preparing to flee, the harpy elders had even set up a large cauldron at the tribe’s center, placing fresh meat inside for celebration.

“Blind trust inevitably leads to blind ignorance, and blind ignorance brings instant destruction. The reason these magical creatures get driven everywhere ultimately boils down to sheer stupidity”!

Punk coldly glanced down at the jubilant-looking Harpy Tribe from the sky, then focused on casting his spell:

“Just as well. This saves me trouble. Wiping them all out at once beats chasing scattered ‘little mice’ everywhere!”

With malicious amusement, Punk aimed at the large cauldron at the tribe’s center. Just as a harpy elder shouted “The High Priestess must be returning triumphant!”, he threw down the deep purple orb in his hand.

“Master-Level Conjuration Spell—Kinetic Tide.”

“Metamagic – Mana Compression”!

To cover the entire Harpy Tribe, Punk specifically used metamagic to enhance Kinetic Tide’s range, enabling the spell to directly obliterate all living beings within this extensive tribal territory.

The harpies joyfully preparing to celebrate their already-deceased High Priestess didn’t witness the majestic, beautiful priestess descending upon the plaza. Instead, they saw a brilliant purple stardust rapidly falling through the clouds, the seemingly tiny “star” bursting with terrifying purple radiance like a miniature sun.

“What’s that? It looks… so beautiful”?

This became nearly every harpy in the plaza’s final thought.

A purple wave surged up, creating energy tides several meters high. Within the purple tides, even space fragmented and got swept away by the waves. Everywhere the “surge” passed was overturned and crushed—tall trees and hard rocks crumbled into debris as easily as dried bread under the purple energy’s pressure. The fragile, wailing creatures stood no chance against this horrifying “cataclysm”. Even the quickest-reacting harpies couldn’t escape the disaster’s range, left to be overtaken by the purple death torrent amidst their screams, then “kneaded” together with their tribesmates and the tribal land itself!When the terrifying kinetic tide slowly faded away, the Harpy Tribe that once had many tree houses standing had turned into a plowed field. Fragments of rocks and wood were mixed into the blood-stained soil, and the collapse of space had sucked away large amounts of earth, causing the ground to appear half a meter lower than the surrounding area.

Finally, Punk shot down the few harpies who had been flying in the air from the start and were now staring blankly at the ruins of what was once called the “Black Claw Tribe” one by one with his “Kinetic Cone.” After carefully using a divination spell to confirm that there were no lucky survivors, he nodded with satisfaction:

“Mission accomplished! It’s a pity I have to leave quickly, otherwise looting this tribe could have yielded quite a bit of gain… but now I have no choice but to give it up.”

Punk didn’t waste time greedily chasing after some wealth. He casually cleared away the energy residues around him that were related to his presence, then decisively and swiftly departed.

With the shielding of the Haitzita Magic Box, Punk was confident that as long as he wasn’t discovered on the spot, no enemy would be able to track his traces. The professionals who came to investigate the secrets of this sudden event would ultimately return empty-handed and utterly confused.

————————Break————————

“Speaking of which, this eyeball is truly peculiar. Could it really be a body part of some legendary creature?”

In the quiet forest night, Punk sat by the campfire, carefully examining the massive eyeball in his hands. He wore a pair of silk gloves shimmering with golden light, the runes on which activated a special field that blocked the eerie aura emanating from the eerie eyeball.

“Master-Level Alchemy Magic—Zelen Golden Gloves”: Effectively defends against most Master-Level energy or physical chronic erosion, duration seventeen magic hours.

Protected by the alchemy spell, Punk forcefully squeezed the lifeless eyeball, feeling the smooth texture transmitted directly through the gloves. He couldn’t help but fall into deep thought.

He couldn’t be sure whether this eyeball was necessarily the eye of some creature, as some mages might craft magical equipment into such strange shapes. Unable to determine the identity of the eerie eyeball, Punk couldn’t deduce its original purpose. It might be a piece of magical equipment used for charging attacks, or it could be the visual organ of a legendary magical beast.

“But what’s with the eerie fluctuations on this eyeball? No matter how you look at it, it doesn’t possess a soul or life, does it?”

Punk was quite certain that the eerie eyeball had neither life nor a soul. Its reaction to energy seemed more like a stress response mechanism, lacking any autonomous characteristics.

Punk had tried injecting various types of energy into the pupil of the eyeball, including aether, elements, and even life force and animal souls. The vertical pupil of the eyeball accepted everything without discrimination—it consumed whatever was offered—but simply remained inactive.

That’s right, no matter how much energy Punk injected, the eerie eyeball never “came to life” as it had in the hands of the Harpy priestess. Instead, it calmly converted all the energy, growing slightly larger in volume, and then… nothing else happened.

“It seems it’s not an issue of energy. Could it require some special kind of ‘energy’?”Punk stared intently at the eerie eyeball’s vertical pupil, carefully contemplating the “traits” present on the harpies. He suddenly recalled the “essence” exchange this eyeball had continuously conducted before the priestess’s death, and also remembered the aura full of “malevolence” that clung to many harpy warriors.

Especially when the eerie eyeball’s vertical pupil began extracting the priestess’s soul, the “malevolence” she erupted with was no longer mere “malice.” To Punk, it felt more like a highly corrosive energy. It was only after the eerie eyeball devoured that substantial “malevolence” that it managed to unleash that half-baked Legendary attack.

“When the priestess died, what exactly filled her aura? Resentment, hatred, rage, despair, sorrow… So it seems negative emotions—or rather, energy-based negative emotions—might be the key!”

Punk quietly reached his final conclusion.

(End of Chapter)