**Chapter 227: Surprise, Surprise!**
This was nothing like what An Que had said when she arrived! An Que had told her the Godmother here was weak and would definitely be no match for her. They even said the Gatekeeper would lend her a hand, ultimately making sure this Godmother was swallowed whole. And what did she get instead?
That so-called weak Evil God was the Thousand Eyes Godmother, and the Gatekeeper was nowhere to be found! To top it all off, there was a second Godmother just waiting to rain all over her parade – the one from Eternal Life Village.
Desire couldn’t help but think that maybe An Que was intentionally leading her into a trap, just waiting for her to jump right in.
With combat spirit all but gone, all Desire wanted was to escape this nightmare.
If she left a word behind, she would surely d*e. Absolutely.
When it came to Evil Gods, even if the Believers and embryos were still around, once their will was devoured, it was the same as being dead.
“Last time I let you go, I should have just spent a little to keep you in Eternal Life Village forever,” Qian Mu said, totally ditching that dumb persona she had while chatting with Chen Yunshi. She finally looked a bit like a Godmother!
“But it’s fine. Since you dare to show up again, I didn’t k*ll you last time, so this time, I definitely will. Perfect! My sister and I could use a little power boost. Thanks for coming right to me!”
“Are you really hoping to escape from here at this point?”
“An Que is using you! Can’t you see that?”
“Let me remind you: my sister and I are both inside Eternal Life Village. And was Eternal Life Village even created without An Que and his master? Without An Que, do you think we’d even have this place?”
Qian Mu’s laughter echoed in the abandoned factory, her confidence almost smothering Desire. It was as if Desire was some helpless little lamb walking right into the jaws of the wolf.
With references to Eternal Life Village and Burning Heart, and with that threatening aura surrounding her, she subtly hinted that An Que was baiting Desire, slowly draining away her will to fight while keeping the pressure just right, not pushing her to her limits—suggesting that she and Burning Heart were actually in a weakened state.
This way, they could avoid making Desire desperate and allow her a glimmer of hope for escape.
With Bai Yu’s assistance, everything was pretty much secured.
Desire, silent as a grave, turned to leave, but Bai Yu unleashed a sweeping wave of red mist that cocooned her, consuming her. While she couldn’t absorb too much of Desire’s will, she could siphon off her evil intentions—just the kind of power radiating from an Evil God embryo. Effectively, it would weaken Desire.
Qian Mu wouldn’t give Desire a chance to escape either, stepping in, where black mist met black mist. Let’s call it an exquisite dinner of mutual devouring. With no Believers in the mix, the fight between Evil Gods was like this.
The three main powers of Evil Gods? Curse, evil intent, will. So, they were essentially competing in that arena.
Boom! With a muffled thud, Qian Mu’s black mist formed a gigantic shadow above the factory, standing over two and a half meters tall, a voluptuous feminine shape with eight arms striking various poses. The sheer force was staggering, as if a deity had descended, an aura so oppressive that anyone with shaky resolve would find themselves inexplicably worshipful.
But no, let’s not call her a benevolent deity. Qian Mu was clearly an Evil God, just looking at her body told that story. She was all about illusion, but those slippery, ghastly eyeballs on her body were strikingly real—absolutely no way to tell these were formed from black mist.
Eyes were everywhere on her—well over eight pairs graced her face alone.
These eyes belonged to people of all genders and ages, yet they all shared one common trait: they were filled with madness and suffering. It was as if every eye housed the world’s every negative emotion, like a trash heap for feelings.
One look at them could send chills down your spine, especially when those icy, slick eyeballs rolled to focus directly on you, almost as if they wanted to peel your skin off!
“You fool! You’ve been sold out by An Que and you don’t even know it!”
With that, her eight arms swept up, summoning a gust of wind.
“Pitiful little worm like you should be wriggling in the sewer, do you really think you can dive into the deep waters outside?”
Desire’s black mist flickered for a moment. While weathering Bai Yu’s onslaught, she formed an illusory figure in human form out of her own black mist, but the horror and presence it emanated was laughably inferior to Qian Mu’s.
Qian Mu threw a punch right at Desire’s chest, and in the blink of an eye, black mist exploded around them. Before Desire could lumber in with her hefty arms, two other arms reached out to grab hers, while five others simultaneously clawed at her, mercilessly rending away parts of her black mist.
Desire wasn’t just going to roll over, though. Black mist surged from her chest, forming a sharp spike that pierced through one of Qian Mu’s arms, causing it to deflate in an instant.
Both raised their hands high, striking synchronously at the temples of each other. Qian Mu launched a kick.
Desire retaliated vigorously, ramming into Qian Mu. Being mist-like bodies, they passed through each other, stopping just for a moment in sync.
After sliding through and swapping places, both Evil Gods showed visible signs of weakness. Clearly, they had fought to a draw.
In truth, if anyone cared to observe closely, they would see that Desire was definitely at a slight disadvantage; she simply wasn’t as strong as Qian Mu.
Everyone watching below could see it: Desire’s body was far more substantial than Qian Mu’s. One was deep, dark mist, while the other appeared faintly gray due to her thin-ness.
“Just a useless piece of trash. After all these years out in the world, you’re still a weakling. If I had spent that time developing myself, I could squash you with a single slap. Believe it or not?”
As soon as Qian Mu finished, Desire suddenly let out a shriek. A faint pink glow expanded from her body, leading Qian Mu to snort dismissively as all her eyes blazed with intensity. In less than half a second, those pinkish glows were crushed down.
“Cursing me?”
The pink light was tremendously suppressed. If not for her numerical superiority and underlying power, it would have been wiped out instantly.
Qian Mu’s power of cursing was borderline cheating. Her body itself was a curse, whereas Desire needed to brew up that glow before irradiating others. Desire was at a severe disadvantage when it came to distribution.
“When I was learning curses, you hadn’t even been born yet!”
As Qian Mu stepped forward, every eye on her opened wide, pupils constricting, bl**d tears streaming from thousands of eyes.
You could actually see that after using this move, Qian Mu visibly weakened a bit.
In contrast, Desire’s curse powers shattered like potato chips at a touch.
The pink light was thoroughly squashed, with Qian Mu achieving an overwhelming effect even when she was at a tenfold disadvantage.
Even the female madmen watching the battle couldn’t help but feel impressed—Qian Mu’s power was off the charts, and the way she fought was just so wild! This was the kind of fighting they loved; being cautious only led to faster deaths.
Timing was everything, just like Qian Mu; she dove right back in, trading blows with her opponent.
Desire’s body dissolved to become like snowflakes thawing in the flames. Amid the chaos, Bai Yu made her move, launching a misty bl**d thread that coiled tightly around Desire, consuming her while hampering her movements.
Honestly, Bai Yu hadn’t really helped Qian Mu that much; her contribution was likely only thirty percent.
But it was enough. As things stood, Qian Mu would get hurt, but taking down and consuming one Godmother? Absolutely worth it!
“Have you gone nuts!” Desire practically hissed, her hands instinctively guarding her face.
The price paid by Qian Mu was undoubtedly greater than Desire’s.
“Am I crazy? Probably, yes.”
With that, Qian Mu retracted her curse power, her eyes half closed with a faintly lethargic look.
Seizing her chance, she leaped straight at Desire once more.
The two Evil Gods traded punch after punch in mid-air, scattering black mist everywhere as curse powers shot forth.
Desire felt utterly frustrated. On one hand, she had to fend off Qian Mu’s relentless assault, on the other she had to split her focus against that pesky evil ghost below her. Meanwhile, she had to keep an eye on Burning Heart, who might be lurking nearby to catch them both off guard the moment they grew weak.
Desire was on the back foot for sure; Qian Mu’s little punches flattened her head before the black mist quickly formed a new one again, and Desires hurriedly distanced herself. “Qian Mu, stop! I’m willing to…”
“Willing to what? I wanna hear that from a certain idiot, but I sure don’t want to hear it from you!”
With a fierce tug at Desire’s chest, she pulled so hard that Desire’s chest was left hollowed out.
Qian Mu revealed a side of her that was anything but the delicate flower image she usually presented. It was clear that she wasn’t just a vase; she would stand her ground against any Evil God when it came to actual combat.
From her vantage point, Chen Yunshi was digging her nails into her palms, a trickle of bl**d dripped down. Seeing that Qian Mu had the upper hand gave her a little comfort, but she was still uneasy.
“Thank you.” Suddenly turning to Bai Yu, Chen Yunshi bowed slightly.
“No need to thank me,” Bai Yu shot back with a curt glance.
“There’s nothing to thank you for. Starting today, I owe you one life.”
Chen Yunshi felt a furious self-hatred for being powerless, forced to stand below and watch without being able to do anything. If Qian Mu were to d*e today, she could never forgive herself.
The other female madmen around glanced over, taken aback by Chen Yunshi’s transformation. This was the ruthless Reaper, and to see her like this… What had happened to cause such a huge change?
She had completely become a different person.
Despite her newfound emotionality, they couldn’t bring themselves to mock her. In fact, it almost seemed like her change wasn’t so bad.
She seemed much healthier, somehow gaining a “soul” feeling.
While they themselves felt utterly “hollow”.
·
·
An Que had entered the fray with his group of evil spirits, retreating while engaging, minimizing losses to conserve strength against Qian Mu.
In the factory direction, he could faintly hear something, likely linked to the Godmother of Desire.
He had looked back for the fourth time, utterly unable to suppress his growing unease, an ominous premonition gnawing at him.
A team of Gatekeepers had entered, not a hint of noise afterward.
The dispatched evil spirits had gone in and left behind nothing but a blanket of despair before dying.
Now he had dispatched an Evil God within, yet there was still no sign of anything.
No, there was movement, but it didn’t seem to be arising from Qian Mu; it was Desire’s voice instead.
Hadn’t she planned to lure Qian Mu out?
This guy wasn’t actually thinking of facing Qian Mu off here in the abandoned factory, was he?
The good news? He was getting closer. Two more minutes and he could retreat to the factory.
‘Should I go take a look now?’
As soon as this thought crossed An Que’s mind, he had trouble controlling himself.
He was desperate to know what was happening inside, what was troubling them. Was it just the Thousand Eyes Godmother?
On the battlefield in front of him, both sides had suffered casualties: Gatekeepers dead, evil spirits vanished, and the Ghost Domain was the same. If things kept going this way, neither side would gain anything.
That was probably what the Ghost Domain wanted to see.
To them, acquiring the Thousand Eyes Godmother would be a hefty profit. If they didn’t get her, it was fine; let Qian Mu transform successfully and upend the world!
He cursed the Ghost Domain in his heart and railed against Chairman Chen and the others for just sitting back and enjoying the spoils without lifting a finger.
If only the intel hadn’t been off, their big setup at the Ghost Gate would have been functional. Would they be in this situation?
If they had arrived early at the abandoned factory, laid down the formation, and waited for Qian Mu to waltz in, with the formation suppressing her and Desire stepping in, who would have cared about the interference from the Ghost Domain?
They could have cleaned up both Qian Mu and the Ghost Domain!
Useless! A whole bunch of useless people.
Fortunately, it hadn’t reached the point of desperation—there was still a chance.
Desire had gone inside, and now he needed a plan to control Qian Mu.
If this batch of Gatekeepers died, it would be just that—a cost given to that old wretch.
An Que quickly sent out orders, leaving two teams behind to hold off the Ghost Domain while the rest followed him to the abandoned factory.
Before long, a duo of Gatekeepers gathered under An Que’s lead as they sped toward the factory.
On the way, he stroked the bl**d ring on his finger—a crucial piece for laying the formation.
At last, they reached the entrance of the abandoned factory where An Que took a step back but still stood in the doorway’s center.
Raising his hand, he indicated for his men to open the doors. As the heavy iron gates creaked, An Que finally saw the truth he had longed to uncover.
But this truth, well, it was just a tad different from what he imagined.
bl**d and body parts were everywhere, littered across the ground—a real-life hell on Earth.
Even An Que couldn’t help but flinch at the sight. But wait, there was more.
The Godmother of Desire, that key player he had so much hope pinned on?
Being pummeled by the Thousand Eyes Godmother, her black mist scattered everywhere!
Below the two Evil Gods, over a dozen figures stood silently. When they saw the gates swing open, their amused gazes met his.
“Well, well, Chairman An, surprised, aren’t you?”
From the shadows, those women looked like devils incarnate.
Everything made sense now.
An Que’s face turned ashen.
