Dual Cultivation: Beasts and Women!

Three days after Liam's group arrived at one of the shores of Violent Lake, other groups similar to his arrived there as well.

At dusk on their third day in the area, the leader of the group that had brought Liam and the other seven hostages ordered the guards to take the hostages out of their cells.

As soon as they were forced to do so and directed to a medium-sized boat on a wooden pier, one survivor who had been by Liam's side for the last 10 days threw himself on the ground, begging.

"Please, seniors, take me as your slave! Please don't throw me on that damned island!"

Drool and tears punctuated the man's speech, and his nasal mucus only added to his revolting demeanor.

The blond man, leader of the group that had brought them there, saw this person attracting the attention of the others and quickly took action.

"First Officer, cut out that man's tongue." His voice rang out, chilling several souls on the shore of the lake.

But that wasn't all!

"Cuff his wrists too. We'll throw him like this into the Eternal Doom Island." The blond man completed his order, making the others watching that person crying out for mercy stand firm and not repeat the pathetic reaction of the now even more desperate one.

'These people are cold and cruel. Anyone who tries to attract attention and defy them will suffer bitterly.' Liam observed the situation in silence, then walked back to where others like him were already lined up.

Counting the person who had just lost his tongues, 29 hostages, equally 'selected', were there when they were directed to board the wooden boat nearby.

At first glance, the members of the group had nothing in common. Of the 29 individuals, 12 were women, 17 were men. 10 of them had darker skins, 19 had light skins. 21 were between 20 and 40 years old, with 6 under 20 and 2 over 40. But they all had one thing in common: they had been selected from survivors of attacks like the one Liam's group had suffered.

They didn't know it, but there was a reason for it.

The general leader of the groups in the area greeted his colleagues and looked at the 29 people. "Listen carefully to what I say, because you will no longer hear my voice until the end of the three months on the Eternal Doom Island.

We will take you to the island, which is a day's boat ride from where we are. But as close as it may seem, don't let the distance fool you. Monsters inhabit the lake here. If you want to survive, work hard on the island. Any other path will lead to your death.

As long as you're on the island, there are no rules. No matter what you do, your only mission is to survive. In three months from the moment we leave you on the island, we will come back for you.

That's all."

As soon as the bald man with a vertical scar over one of his eyes had finished, the small wooden boat moved, with a sea beast pulling it towards the island.

Only six guards went ahead with the group, while the rest of the men watched them in silence for a moment before leaving the area.

The moment they saw those people leaving the shore of the lake, some of the 29 hostages started muttering among themselves.

"Are there really monsters in the lake? What if this is a psychological test?"

"Is it? I wouldn't risk it."

"It makes little sense for it to be a test. Why would they have these guards around us if it was a test?"

"It's exactly the opposite. If it wasn't a test, then there would be no need for any guards to come with us."

"Maybe they're here to push us off the boat when we reach this island."

Liam overheard these conversations as he watched Day, keeping an eye on this woman.

'Maybe it's a test. But I will not risk it. If they want us to spend the three months on the damn island, then that's my mission!'

Liam convinced himself, as the tone of the conversations increased.

"If you're so confident that it's a silly test, then go ahead. Jump in the water and test your theory! If you will not do that, stop talking your shit!" said a thin, red-haired woman, as she spoke more and more angrily.

Two men next to the red-haired woman looked at each other and then at the shaven-haired man who had raised the topic.

When Liam least expected it, the person trying to persuade the group to test the lake let out a scream, with two men grabbing him by the arms and quickly dragging him to one edge of the boat.

'Shit! What are they doing?' Liam put his thoughts aside as he saw the barbarity about to be completed.

None of the six guards on the boat moved, while most of the other 26 hostages heading for the Eternal Doom Island watched the scraggly haired, slightly overweight man being thrown into the water.

Everyone fell silent after the sound of the man falling into the water, several of them approaching the corner of the ship where the man had been thrown.

Four seconds later, everyone felt their boat shake as if something large had passed underneath it.

Gulp!

A huge tentacle appeared below the man's body, hurling him into the sky with force, capable of sending him flying 45 meters above the boat.

As he stopped momentarily in mid-air before his fall, four tentacles grabbed his wrists and heels, before pulling his limbs in the wrong directions.

'Shit!'

Liam brought his hands to his mouth, watching the man's body being butchered before an octopus-like creature appeared beneath the pieces of that man to devour the pieces of the corpse.

The two men who had thrown the first dead man from their group stood in shock as they watched the scene unfold, noticing the great danger of the lake.

'Shit! They've just killed that person!' Liam walked backwards until he hit his back on a metal structure of the ship and trembled with fear as if he had collided with an enemy.

Luckily, it was only his fears that were stimulated at this extreme moment.

...

The rest of the journey to the Eternal Doom Island flew by, the wind rushing past their faces as they sailed through the open sea.

After taking the lake test, everyone in the group became convinced that their priority should be finding ways to survive on the island instead of trying to escape. As for killing themselves, well, that wouldn't help them much, so the previous death was enough to dampen the spirits of these nervous people.

Some of them spent the next few hours talking about what had happened, what to expect on the island, and even about partnerships.

Liam wouldn't receive any invitations, unfortunately. He even believed that his chances would be better if he joined a group. But no one approached him, perhaps because of his still unhealed injuries from the incident about 10 days ago.

At the end of the boat trip, he was alone, as were some injured or limited individuals, like the person who had cried out for mercy before they left the lakeshore for the island.

Liam didn't join any of them. He felt it would be better to be alone than alongside individuals who were even weaker than him, so he mentally prepared himself to face the challenge ahead alone.

Fortunately, he had good hearing and heard some information from the hostages who knew more about the Demon Gate than he did.

Before arriving on the Eternal Doom Island, he was aware of what these three months on the island were all about. Either they could make agreements with the island's demons and start cultivating their spirits, or they would die, devoured by the demons!

As soon as their boat came within 30 meters of the shore, it stopped, before the six guards there threw one by one of the 28 survivors of the boat trip.

Liam saw Day being thrown onto the shore before him, but just after the fourth person after her, a guard grabbed him by his pants before throwing him as if his over 70 kilos were nothing.

He opened his mouth in preparation for the impact, but luckily, the bank where they were thrown had sand too soft for one to be hurt by the fall.

As soon as he touched the sand and tried to get up, he felt something wrong and looked into the water, immediately seeing some small black creatures, similar to crocodiles, coming quickly towards the shore.

Like the others who had already noticed the situation, Liam ran towards the dense forest less than 50 meters away from the lake shore.