Apocalyptic Beastworld: A Farming Space Dimension to Another World-Chapter 71: The Real Culprit

The person was covered in a soot, almost unrecognizable. The hands and feet were wet, making them think of the wet wall in the front of the slaughterhouse.

They immediately identified this beastman as the culprit.

Most people rushed over, not caring whether the soot covering the person’s body was full of contamination or not. They all dragged the person away, whose eyes seemed a bit dazed.

Clearly not a sane person.

"This is the person?" Ma Yongcheng asked, somewhat finding the beastman’s scent familiar. He walked over, sniffing.

Meanwhile, Village Head Peng hurriedly stepped forward, stopping the agitated village beastmen from butchering the beastman to pieces.

"It must be this person!" A beasman yelled angrily.

Village Head Peng took the person away and appeased them. "Alright, let’s ask this beastman first. The traces of energy explosion from the ability awakening are still strong. It might not be this beastman’s doing."

The rotting and dried bloodstains indeed suggested that the fire in the slaughterhouse had happened days ago. Meanwhile, this person should have awakened the water ability not long, perhaps less than a day.

They were unwilling, but the village head’s words calmed them down somewhat. They could think more rationally.

"Someone, fetch some basin of water and bring it here," Village Head Peng ordered. He was worried they might try to hurt this beastman when he wasn’t there, so he could only ask someone else to take the water.

There was no need to ask twice. Everyone hurriedly did as they were told, wanting to know who this beastman was. There were multiple wounds on the person, similar to long claw marks.

The feet, hands, and neck were stained with blood, mixing with the soot, making the blood appear darker. However, the hands were clean.

Soon, someone returned with a basin of water. Village Head Peng took the cloth offered by the beastmen and began to clean the soot from the beastman’s face.

Ma Yongcheng helped him. The water probably triggered some pain from the beastman. She slowly woke up, groaning in pain and coughing badly.

"Zhao Chunmei." Ma Yongcheng announced the person’s identity.

Everyone was in uproar. Wasn’t she one of the culprits who had stirred up trouble? Her husband was in cahoots with Elder Peng. Before everyone could rush over again, Village Head Peng signalled them to be silent.

"Who...?" Sitting on the ground, Zhao Chunmei asked hoarsely, her voice followed by another round of mad coughing. She even vomited blood.

Memories of what had happened before she was reduced to her current state resurfaced. She had thought she would die. Even her newly-awakened ability couldn’t help her.

"Village... Head...?" She asked amidst coughing. Unfortunately, one of her eyes was hurt and she could barely see with her other blurry eye. Her face stung from the pain of smaller wounds, but it was nothing compared to the claw marks on her hands and feet.

These wounds were definitely not inflicted by ordinary creatures. The pollution level in her body had risen sharply. It was about time she would be a fallen beast. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

"Zhao Chunmei, did you do it?" Village Head Peng asked sternly, his voice tinged with disappointment.

She wanted to sit straight and explain, but she found she had no strength left. A wry smile made its way to her face.

It might be her retribution.

"No... not me." Zhao Chunmei coughed before she forced out the words, inhaling deeply.

Her coughing was eased after some time, and she heard the Village Head’s question again. "Can you tell us what happened?"

Zhao Chunmei nodded. She had another round of small coughs before she hoarsely explained, "It’s Xiong Ye... he escaped... then, then... he put contaminated blood on their meal..."

How did she know that? Because she and Xiong Ye were imprisoned together. Before he escaped, he had told her about his crazy plan.

Unexpectedly, he succeeded in sneaking into the slaughterhouse amidst his injuries. He coated and dripped the polluted blood on the fierce beast meat.

"My son..." Zhao Chunmei sobbed and tears rolled down on her barely clean cheek. "Is he... alive?"

No one spoke at this moment. They more or less already figured out most of it from Zhao Chunmei’s words. Xiong Ye was the culprit.

"Elder Peng... my husband came back... they became fallen beasts," she added in grief. This time, she didn’t deny her husband was a fallen beast because he was indeed one.

Elder Peng had some contact with her husband who had been handling the rotten zombie beasts’ flesh for their scheme. Hence, he was most likely infected because the pollution traces hadn’t been cleaned properly.

She was safe mainly because the villagers had starved and ignored her. Their plan was to let them die out of starvation.

Elder Peng and her husband still had many arguments, but they were forced to work together, wanting to release the imprisoned beastmen. Unfortunately, they became fallen beastmen just as they started sneaking in.

Perhaps because of their prolonged unease after living in the dangerous forest for a while. Their transformation from fallen beastmen to fallen beasts were quick.

The village beastmen had no choice but to fight against them. The traces they found near the entrance of the village were such, bloodstains and chunks of flesh from Elder Peng and the wolf beastman’s fallen beast forms.

From the place where she was imprisoned, she could still occasionally hear people panicking because there were always beastmen turning into fallen beasts every day.

Unfortunately, the number grew into something the remaining beastmen couldn’t handle. They all ended up luring the fallen beasts with the fierce beast meat and locked them in the slaughterhouse.

"What about the remaining people?" Ma Yongcheng asked.

"Xiong Ye..." she choked, vomiting blood again. "He... killed them." A brief pause. "Even my son..."

"My son died... didn’t he?" She desperately asked. "I escaped... to find my son."

They could only tell her the truth. Everyone else who was in the slaughterhouse had died and most likely her son too. Children generally had weaker immunity toward pollution.

Zhao Chunmei became silent again, not speaking for a long time. As if she was digesting the fact she most likely already knew.

Her son was taken to the slaughterhouse too. Although he wasn’t implicated by his parents, he no longer had anyone else to rely on. Zhao Chunmei’s heart clenched at the thought, and now she was filled with regrets.

Her husband hadn’t told her much about his plan, but she also shouldn’t have agreed to it...

"H-he, Xiong Ye... wanted to... kill me," she sobbed again.

"Your claw marks, is it made by fallen beasts?" Ma Yongcheng asked again, acting like he was interrogating a prisoner. He felt some pity for her, but that was it. They still needed to get information while she could still answer them.

"Xiong Ye... threw me to fallen beasts," she said with difficulty. "Half-dead... fallen beasts... then dragged me here."

So, not all of the fallen beasts died from the fire Xiong Ye had set. Some of them had gotten burned, but their vitals parts were still safe. Still, for the starved Zhao Chunmei who was looking for her son, she was still no match for them.

He only killed them after he dragged the weak and barely-alive Zhao Chunmei out.

"Where is Xiong Ye now?"