Corrupt Creations

The whole cave was thoroughly destroyed, except for the part where the carriages were. There were no corpses left behind, only some grotesque poodles of blood. 

At that moment, the entire place stopped trembling and the environment became silent once again. 

Theodor finally left from inside the crack on the wall that he was hiding in and came running towards Seth's carriage. There was an expression of desperation on his face, as if he was waging everything he had, on that opportunity. The worm could come back anytime and now was the right time to escape. 

"Oh my god! Mr. Seth, we have to immediately leave this place!" 

Seth's specter of darkness was kind of crouching down, hiding in a corner of the carriage. 

When he heard Theodor's voice the specter stood up and jumped from the carriage, as if he was following Theodor's idea. He had a fearful expression on his face, and on a life and death situation like this, he seemed to have even forgotten about his Young Lady that was still inside the carriage. 

A crafty light passed through Theodor's eyes. He had to find a way to separate Seth and Lady Lan, else his final plan would be a bit harder to execute. If this ended up failing, he could still count with his ally, that was a Mana Perception cultivator. However, since Seth fell for his trick, everything would be easier now. 

"Look! There is a whole on the cave wall and we might find a way out from there!" 

Theodor pointed towards a hole that seemed to be illuminated by the sun light, and turned his back towards Seth's specter. He was about to run ahead, making Seth feel confident to run after him, but suddenly, he felt a hand grabbing him by the nape of his neck from behind. 

That grip was so strong, that he couldn't even turn around to look at the man that was holding him. His body immediately reacted by releasing his Qi in an attempt to escape, but in less than a single second, his Qi was thoroughly suppressed inside his energy veins, making him powerless to do anything. 

Seth's specter lifted that man up in the air and nothing Theodor did, not even the dozens of times he tried to flail his limbs backward and hit Seth's arm, were able to do anything. His heartbeat started to accelerate and he was getting anxious, fearing Seth could have seen through his plan and was now retaliating. 

"Release me! What are you doing?! Put me down!" 

As his shaky voice started to ask for Seth to release him, little by little, he noticed Seth had absolute control over him and even his energy was totally sealed. From anxiousness, he started to feel despair. 

"Heh... Do you think I wouldn't have noticed what you and your hidden friend were trying to do? Even going as far as silencing everyone here..." 

The real Seth suddenly opened the door of the carriage he was in, leaving from inside. 

As he descended from his carriage, Theodor got speechless by the fact there were two copies of the same person there. One holding him from behind by the nape of his neck and the other suddenly sprouting in front of him like a ghost. 

Theodor felt even more anxious after realizing Seth was not a normal individual and his brain started to think on a way out of that predicament. 

"Release me... Do you want some gold? I can pay you a hundred thousand gold coins! Just let me go." His wicked nature was only able to think Seth was trying to rob him, since he was a rich merchant. 

Seth looked at him as if he was looking at a fool. 

"Tch. I can let you go if you truthfully answer me one thing." 

"..." 

"Why are you bringing normal people to a place like this? Why are they all lying down unconscious inside those carriages? What do you plan to do with them?" 

Theodor's eyes bulged after realizing Seth really knew something he shouldn't. He didn't even think about answering that question, since he couldn't talk anything about that. If he were to say anything, his whole family would be fragged to hell alongside him. Immediately, he did the only thing left for him to do. He started to shout for the hidden person, asking for his help. 

"Help! Help me! Hazid! Help!!!" 

Theodor's actions were akin to desperately confirming that there really was someone helping him. However, even though he was pretty much telling Seth there was someone colluding with him, he did it anyways. He thought Seth would never find out where that person was and his real strength, that's why he risked it. 

Unfortunately for him, Seth already knew the exact location that person was and where his extra-large worm pet was hiding as well. 

Hazid had his hands on top of the summoning circle, as he used it to control the worm. From where he was, he didn't have visual information of what was happening, be he was able to hear everything. He quickly used his Mana Perception middle-stage base cultivation to scan the energy signature of everyone inside the cave, but he was only able to receive a response from Theodor's signals. 

Hazid could not abandon the formation to go investigate about that, else the worm would get out of his control, so he had to activate a hidden technique he had developed for a situation like this. He closed his eyes and a great amount of Mana started to pour down on the formation circle, enabling him to activate his secret technique. 

His senses were transported to the body of his summon, and he started to view the world as it was able to see it. The problem was that the Rock-Eater Worm didn't have any eyes, so he had to identify everything with his enhanced sense of smell and hearing. Even though the worm didn't have ears or nose too, it had orifices that were used for those purposes. 

Hazid felt his worm body was currently at least three hundred meters underneath the place where Theodor was located, but with his abnormal sense of smell, he was able to identify the presence of two individuals near him. 

Not wasting another precious second, he charged upwards while devouring the rocks on his way. The Rock-Eater Worm's mouth was something really grotesque. There were so many long and sharp teeth, that the rocks in front of him were eaten like they were some pieces of candy. 

Seth and Theodor felt the ground trembling as the worm started to move upwards, in order to attack Theodor's enemy. But differently from the merchant, Seth was totally calm. 

He could see the worm moving as if there were no rocks in between them. It was trying to target the original Seth, that was standing some meters in front of Theodor. 

Rumble! 

The whole area trembled uncontrollably, as cracks started to appear underneath Seth's feet. Suddenly, a huge hole opened up right there and a giant grotesque stinking mouth, stood a few meters away from him. 

Theodor's eyes were already shinning while thinking Seth would be eaten alive, dying a horrifying death. However, the scene that was about to happen, would send chills down his spine. 

"Tch. Annoying." 

As if the darkest devil had incarnated right where Seth was, a huge torrent of dark energy suddenly accumulated beneath his feet. Even Lan Xue, that was peacefully resting inside the carriage, opened her eyes after she realized how pure and strong that dark element he was about to use, really was. 

The worm moved upwards in a super-fast speed, trying to swallow Seth alive, but when it entered in contact with that dark element, it wasn't able to advance anymore. 

Seth suddenly raised his right foot, that was totally covered in darkness, stomping the worm right on its head. 

At the same second his foot landed, it was as if the worm whole body had been thoroughly squashed, exploding in a bloody mess. 

Bang! 

The material inside that worm's body, flew everywhere, painting the whole world in red. Except for Seth's real body and Lan Xue's carriage, everything else was about to bathe in worm's blood. 

Seth's Specter of Darkness suddenly vanished seconds before being hit, finally setting Theodor free. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to feel happy, since he was taken by a huge wave of an acid blood. 

The worm had a very potent acid running inside its body, else it wouldn't be able to even eat rocks. That acid was so potent, that even its blood contained it. Theodor, was feeling how potent that acid was directly on his skin. 

"AAAAAAHHHHH!!!" 

As he was screaming in fear and pain, the blood was about to reach the other four carriages, where the innocent people were still lying unconscious, but suddenly, the seething acid blood froze in mid-air, falling on the ground and shattering right after. 

Lan Xue had not confirmed if Seth's conjecture was right or wrong yet, but she acted nonetheless. She wasn't a saint, but she was no devil either. She felt like acting, so she did it. But the simple fact she did it, was the proof that unconsciously, she was starting to trust more on his words.