Not all the Beast Tamers present had been teleported here. The Desire Mother Tree had only randomly sent a portion, as there was a limit to the number of guests.
As soon as those words were spoken, several Beast Tamers commanded their Pet Beasts, launching an attack on the tailor, who seemed the easiest target. Their justification was simple: being short wasn’t his fault, but parading around while looking so ugly? That was unforgivable.
"Mountain-Breaking Ape, use the special technique Mountain Throw!" one Beast Tamer shouted.
With a contractual summoning, a gigantic ape emerged. Carrying a small mountain on its back, it forcefully hurled a boulder the size of a carriage.
"Heh..." The tailor’s eyes couldn’t help but redden, his mouth cracking into a terrifying arc, incredibly excited.
The rest of the sequence’s retinue all wore expressions of mockery. Daring to defy the rules? They’re truly courting death.
The Beast Tamer who had attacked felt his pupils contract as if struck by lightning. His body was dragged down by a twisted shadow and, in full view of everyone, torn into seven or eight pieces, which the chef then collected as ingredients.
Violating the rules meant losing guest status, destined for elimination from the banquet.
In just a moment, nine rash individuals were eliminated, including one Dawn Star Powerhouse.
Everyone was terrified and uneasy. Have we been dragged into some forbidden feast?
"These are aberrations spawned by the Desire Mother Tree. Do not act rashly until we understand the rules," the Moon Princess stated, her voice as cold and indifferent as ever. Having transitioned from humanity to Divinity, she showed no emotional fluctuation over the deaths of her subordinates; instead, she maintained her rationality, studying the rules. She possessed Moon Authority and was also the Night Goddess’s future Lunar Attendant. As long as she could find the core of this banquet, she could destroy it with a single strike.
"Yes," the others complied, their fear of this strange banquet intensifying.
Including the Moon Princess, only eighteen guests remained.
"Well then, esteemed guests, let the banquet officially begin," the Gentleman Clown said, leaning on his cane. He gracefully removed his top hat and bowed to the assembly.
The next moment, the dense branches thrashed wildly, causing the entire Forest of Bones to writhe and intertwine, forming a grand Royal Court banquet that enveloped everyone within.
The ceiling was composed of crimson sinews, writhing like maggots. Strange, white-spotted insects could be faintly seen crawling slowly upon it, while one blood-red eyeball after another emerged, peering at everyone from the darkness, casting greedy gazes.
A new round of changes occurred in the surroundings.
The ground split open, and a mass of bloody flesh surged forth. Like a living creature, it revealed countless large mouths, constantly spewing all sorts of bizarre entities born of the banquet.
Dining tables of bone, chairs of white bone, chandeliers made from human bodies... all sorts of fixtures emerged like mushrooms after rain, pervading the air with a pungent, bloody stench.
Some implements, indescribable in their twisted, depraved, and malevolent forms, delivered a tremendous visual shock.
"What is this?!" everyone exclaimed, their pupils dilating sharply.
Witnessing these horrors not meant for mortal eyes, they suffered immense mental contamination. Their spiritual essence fell into disarray; forget participating in the banquet, they could barely even stand. If this continued, their souls would fall, inevitably dragged into the embrace of the Abyssal Mother Goddess.
Yet, somehow, an inexplicable sense of crazed, twisted euphoria welled up in their hearts, more thrilling even than an illicit affair.
Among them, only the Moon Princess remained unaffected, for she herself possessed Divinity.
"Since you are guests, I have prepared suitable formal attire for you before you participate in the banquet," the Gentleman Clown announced, clapping his hands, a hint of mockery in his eyes.
The moment he finished speaking, accompanied by the squirming of flesh, a curtain of tentacles descended from the ceiling. From them hung exquisite and beautiful formal attire, complete with matching shoes.
Before anyone could react, the diminutive goblin tailor stepped out. His greedy gaze swept over everyone, a grotesque grin splitting his face. He first fixed his eyes on a young Alien Race youth, taking out a well-tailored tailcoat and handing it over. "These formal attires," he purred, "are all my masterpieces."
The youth, whose ears were slender and whose brow bore a special mark, quivered. His body trembled, and he didn’t dare to take the offered tailcoat. Pretending not to hear, he instead summoned a Gale Flame Dog to protect himself.
Anyone with a discerning eye could see it. These seemingly normal pieces of formal attire, appearing at such a bizarre banquet, were anything but ordinary. If they wore them, wouldn’t they fall under the hosts’ control? But not wearing them seemed to invite even more terrifying consequences.
"You’re not going to wear it? That is truly a pity," the tailor said, licking his dry lips. His ugly features twisted, and his form squirmed as he radiated a colorful, luminous foam that constantly aggregated and split.
"Wait, I’ll wear it!" the Alien Race youth shouted, suddenly realizing something.
In the next instant, from the foam, countless tentacles suddenly erupted, piercing the Alien Beast Tamer’s head. Blood splattered as his entire body was flung into the air, then torn to shreds by the flailing tentacles. Under the Power of Rules, his remains were woven into an elegant evening dress.
Rule: Refusal to wear the formal attire results in loss of guest status and elimination.
Everyone gasped, a cold dread washing over them. To participate in this banquet, do we really have to wear this bizarre formal attire?
The second unlucky soul chosen was a peripheral member of the Night Commerce. He retreated repeatedly, a terrified expression plastered on his face.
"I just work for the commerce, spare me! Are you followers of Evil Gods? I can worship your deity too!" he babbled, scared and incoherent.
The tailor presented the formal attire, his small, beady eyes staring intently at the man, filled with a hint of bloodlust, greed, and pleasure.
The worker’s mind went blank. Following his instincts, he turned and fled, desperate to escape the danger.
The result, naturally, was that he was torn apart by a wall of tentacles and transformed into a pair of blood-stained leather shoes. Two eyes, still mirroring bewilderment and despair, were embedded in the uppers of the shoes, blinking.
This scene etched a horrifying image into everyone’s minds. A chill shot straight up their spines, yet, contradictorily, they also found it all morbidly amusing.
The third was a delicate-looking young girl.
"Wh-why me?" she stammered, her delicate body trembling as she blankly accepted a princess gown.
The next moment, the gown seemed to come alive. It wriggled slowly, enveloping the terrified girl and clothing her automatically. Nothing else happened.
Outwardly, everything seemed normal.
Is she alright? Is there nothing wrong with the formal attire? Let’s watch a little longer... It seems fine, the onlookers thought, uncertain.
But the next moment, the girl smiled at them, her red lips splitting into an exaggerated arc. Everyone saw a hint of mockery in her eyes.
What in the world...? She’s been possessed by some bizarre entity, her body taken over, reduced to a puppet of the Evil Gods! The implications are terrifying!
Faced with such a situation, everyone felt a surge of despair.
Not wearing the attire means defying the rules—a direct death sentence! Wearing it means having one’s body occupied, becoming a puppet! In this desperate situation, it’s better to fight back with everything we have!
And in the next moment, the girl unexpectedly began to act as an assistant, coaxing the group of guests to choose their formal attire.
The tailor grinned. The more formal attire put on in this phase, the stronger he became.
Before long, his malevolent gaze fixed upon the noble and holy Moon Princess, his eyes burning with a very human-like greed.
If he could defile the Princess, drag her from her lofty pedestal down into the mire, twist her will, subvert her values, and make her fall into the Abyss—what could be more pleasing to the God of Joy than this?!
Just as he approached the Moon Princess, a man in a black robe appeared, looking around in confusion, coincidentally blocking his path.