Chapter 104: When the Flower of Sin Blooms (Seventeen)
“Silver moon… hanging over… the azure… lake… hot… cold tea… midnight’s pine forest… a new day… a new day… not awake yet…”
The ethereal song floated about, its haunting melody drifting down from somewhere high above, rippling through the depths of darkness, mingling with raspy breaths…
The voice was soothing, like a charming spring at the mountainside, pure and clear, flowing into one’s heart.
I couldn’t help but stop and gaze upwards, my eyes widening in surprise.
It’s “Silver Moon”…
Who’s singing that song… a girl…
That voice…
My mind took a moment to catch up.
Suddenly, vivid memories flashed through my consciousness.
Beneath the moonlight, on the distant terrace of a grand old castle, a girl in a red dress danced joyfully like a sprite, her movements graceful and soft like a fairy in a painting, her slender figure elegant and flexible, twirling her red sleeves to create mesmerizing arcs.
It’s her…
I recognized her immediately.
It’s definitely her…
Even though the song was quiet, nearly drowned out by the “heaving” breaths, the beautiful imagery in the song felt so out of place in this bl**d-soaked, dark environment. I instantly recognized the fragile, pale girl from my memory—this was her voice…
Simply because that voice is so distinct…
One can never forget it…
No one could sing “Silver Moon” like she does…
Gentle…
Lingering…
A slightly sorrowful requiem.
She…
Is she still alive?
Clang—
The Sword Demon beside me fell silent, her face serious as she slowly drew her blade.
“Above…”
I found myself momentarily dazed, murmuring.
That journal…
Didn’t it say she was a test subject?
How…
“She’s upstairs… Sword Demon, follow me!”
Two seconds later, I snapped back to reality, waving my hand to summon Frost Power, having the floating ice orb follow closely behind as I charged into the darkness: “You’re not allowed to act recklessly without my command!!”
The staircase…
I had already confirmed that we could go up the stairs…
After a few steps, I heard the sounds of the Sword Demon following. Suddenly, I remembered something and shouted back, “Grab the coin purse!”
Whoosh—
The Sword Demon made a sudden halt, turning back to retrieve it.
I didn’t worry about her anymore; once I spotted the staircase emerging from the dim light, I jumped right into the center of the spiral staircase and, using the handrail for support, quickly dashed up the steps in leaps.
Whew—
Suddenly, I felt a draft.
In the wind…
Was an unbearable, fishy stink.
The smell of bl**d…
The air temperature seemed to rise…
Sin…
“Dark gray… boulders… heaving… moss and heather… in the distance… the dawn… has gradually appeared…”
The ethereal voice continued to sing, now a bit broken.
Tap, tap, tap…
I suddenly felt a bit of a headache, my steps unconsciously slowing down. As I stepped onto the final stair and rubbed my face, I looked up and my vision cleared.
And in that instant, my pupils dilated.
This is—
Silver, soft moonlight, like a sheer curtain, streamed down through several large holes in the beautifully carved arching ceiling above, scattering the darkness, adding a touch of elegant luminescence like frost and snow to the roughly two hundred square meters of circular ground before me.
Yet, under that illumination, the gruesome and bizarre scene surpassed anything I could imagine.
It was a giant flower.
A bl**d-red flower that had not fully bloomed…
Growing amidst a cluster of red and white flowers flourishing in the black mud, surrounded by an uncountable number of vines and dead smoke, atop the quivering, pulsating tumor, was that stunning flower.
“Heaving… heh…”
A crude, weak, chilling breath echoed clearer in my ears with the tumor’s movement.
I was momentarily stunned.
Hiss, hiss, hiss, hiss—
The black aura rose against the moonlit backdrop.
Grown in…
The flowers of the abyss mud…
The powers of chaos and sin seemed to be in a constant struggle…
The patch of flowers sat in the center, occupying about two acres. They were clusters of flowers growing from the abyss mud, imbued with the Power of Sin—I could see that immediately.
The black mud churned violently, but an uncountable number of bl**d-red vines managed to gather in that spot, spreading from all sides, from the lavish yet decaying stained glass around, and from beneath my feet, threading their “roots” into that disgusting tumor in the flower cluster.
The crimson, soft flesh was familiar to me.
An egg…
“Flags… fluttering… blue and white… grass… glistening with morning dew… shining… in the midnight pine forest~ humming~ ho ho~ a new day… not awake yet…”
That ethereal singing flowed from the largest half-open red flower at the center, like a blossom’s stamen.
“Heh—”
Suddenly, the tumor let out a loud breath.
And in the next moment, the flower “on top” slowly began to move.
“What is this…?”
The Sword Demon rushed up beside me, the pouch of coins jingling at her back, as she gawked at the strange and absurd sight before us, her eyes wide like mine.
“Don’t move!”
Worried she might do something reckless, I quickly blocked her with my hand: “Step back, keep your eyes peeled… if you take another step, you’ll step in the abyss mud and turn to ashes.”
Meanwhile, that enormous strange flower, reeking of bl**d, began to tremble slightly and opened a bit more, revealing a darker, almost brownish stamen, with puffing dead smoke, the chaotic forces eroding nearly half of its filaments, causing them to wilt and dry out. I saw what was wrapped in those filaments at the center—not a stamen, but a person.
A girl…
A n*ked girl with only half of her body remaining.
“Tilya…”
I had not forgotten her name.
That girl named Tilya, who was about my size from memory, now had her eyes half-open, as if just waking up, her pale upper body surrounded by half-black and half-red filaments, as if she was growing on that bizarre giant flower. From her waist down, she was connected to the flower body, countless red lines, resembling veins, twisted and attached to her lower abdomen…
Those eerie bl**d vessels pulsed in rhythm with the tumor’s movement below, glowing faintly as if providing her nourishment.
“A new day… a new day… not awake yet…”
The girl’s mouth opened and closed, singing that beautiful song, but her consciousness seemed fuzzy, a bit dazed or perhaps just plain loopy. That once charming, frail face now looked corroded by dead smoke, with a patch of darkened withered skin from her left eye down to her cheek and jaw, and more black marks on her left arm and chest.
On the other hand, her right arm and shoulder had completely vanished, as if they’d been burnt off, a horrific wound leaking up to her right chest, revealing broken ribs and shoulder blades. The wound continuously emitted a scarlet, infernal-like glow…
A strange, roughly head-sized, shriveled yellow-green eyeball, connected to a bl**d-red, somewhat muscle-like mass, replaced the girl’s original right arm.
That thing was looking at me now… its pupil shaking, constantly expanding and contracting.
Eye of Wisdom…
For some reason, I instantly figured out what that thing was.
And I also… knew it was afraid of me.
