Chapter 135: Going to the Hook Column to Listen to the Music
The line of sight was affected by the darkness, becoming unclear, but the spiritual perception and predictive thoughts were not limited.
At the moment when the dense, scarlet eyes appeared, Lu Qingyi’s spiritual perception detected an exceedingly uncomfortable spirit energy fluctuation.
Sticky, restless, tightly wrapped…
The level of the spirit energy fluctuation wasn’t particularly high, only around Grade B, but the area of coverage was startlingly vast.
It spread from her surroundings to the very end of her spiritual perception range.
Spiritual perception is often said to be a special organ that grows outside the bodies of spiritual ability users and urban legends.
At this moment, Lu Qingyi felt as if her perception was tightly wrapped in a corpse cloth soaked in bl**d, rotting, and emitting a foul odor, slowly dragging her into the mire.
At the same time, her predictive thoughts kept flashing in her mind, reminding her that there was some special existence in the darkness, spreading like smoke in the air, a thousand threads, everywhere.
Even the invisible space had thus gained substance, making the darkness surge as if countless frenzied hands were gripping onto the bodies of every passerby, tightening continuously until bones shattered and guts were ripped apart.
Immediately after, a face seemed to surface from the writhing darkness, slowly opening a massive mouth that was hard to capture with the n*ked eye.
Thus, a strange predictive thought flashed through Lu Qingyi’s mind.
[They have confided their pain to you.]
Confided pain? What the hell? Lu Qingyi was taken aback, and in the next moment, that chilling laughter in her ears turned sharp, echoing like a bat’s sound, spreading countless ripples through the darkness.
Accompanied by the ripples, a violent pain struck, as if sharp steel needles instantaneously pierced her brain, stirring twice before embedding the seeds of anguish deep within.
Those seeds took root and sprouted in her mind, absorbing flesh and bl**d to grow, ultimately yielding grotesque fruits.
Then, a wave of intense negative emotions surged within her heart.
It was as if it were midnight, an eerie silence outside, lying quietly in bed, suddenly recalling the mistakes of the past, frustration and self-reproach mixed with a hint of madness, silently rising to the forefront of her mind.
In the end, amidst the seemingly endless torment while waiting for dawn, she couldn’t help but tearfully utter phrases like “I’m sorry for being human.”
However…
Lu Qingyi had always been one who “was not human,” and words like “sorry” were as rare to her as “zhēnzhāo,” still a senior chef in Hell on Earth, and most importantly, the remnants of human warmth within her had not yet fully digested.
So, after a brief moment of distraction, she expressionlessly raised her hand, and with stunning silver light erupting from her fingertips, she threw a dog at the shadows rushing toward her and the girl beside her.
These shadows looked bizarre and emitted significant negative spirit energy, typically using alchemical dirty bombs to inflict DEBUFF damage on people; whether it would backfire, she could only trust the White Puppy.
As for any further abilities, Lu Qingyi did not dare to unleash them casually; she even feared to open the God Realm prototype, take out the Xuan Ying Luo Fu, or wrap herself in Ling Tai Purification.
Since she had confirmed that the girl beside her might be the protector of the Siye Society, who knows what extent of information she had about “calamity”?
If she accidentally exposed her identity, the girl might beat her up and then throw her to those shadows.
What if she couldn’t escape without exerting her full power?
If worse came to worst, she could just throw the girl over to have her “cover” her retreat!
After all, wasn’t it all to “save her” that she ended up in danger? She should bear some responsibility, Lu Qingyi thought secretly.
The gaping mouth of the darkness was about to swallow the two pieces of “meat,” but instead, a dog was stuffed into it, biting into a mouthful of fur, clearly caught off guard.
The next moment, a loud explosion erupted.
“Boom——!”
Illuminated by the explosion’s light, Lu Qingyi carried the bl**d-soaked girl and, using the blast’s shockwave, flew out like a cannonball.
In an instant, a fierce wind struck her face, howling across her features.
In midair, Lu Qingyi slightly turned her head to look back at the ground, her pupils involuntarily trembling slightly.
That mass of darkness that had consumed an entire White Puppy, despite having its head blown apart, surprisingly did not d*e. It quickly grew new limbs alongside the incoming writhing darkness.
On the ground, the shadows surged like a rushing river, covering large areas of houses, constantly writhing and trembling, spraying putrid, sticky liquid out like a torrential rain.
Between the houses, on the crisscrossed streets, the twisted pale trees shaped like humans exploded one by one under the shadows’ cover, bursting forth large amounts of shapeless, pitch-black sticky substances, rapidly merging into the vast darkness.
It was as if bloodthirsty insects, after a prolonged development, finally emerged from their cocoons, joining together with their swarm.
In the distance, an unfortunate spiritual ability user of an unknown faction encountered the surging shadows, instantly petrifying as if turned to stone, until the shadows invaded his body, draining all vitality before surging out from his mouth and nose, he regained his consciousness and let out a heart-wrenching scream.
“Ah——! Don’t come over, don’t come over, help, help…”
The scream abruptly ceased, followed by the sight of a pale tree rapidly growing from the person’s corpse, gradually twisting into a human shape.
Retrieving her gaze, Lu Qingyi surged ahead in silence.
Fortunately, those shadows seemed to be slower than imagined and did not chase after her.
After a moment, when the writhing shadows were completely out of sight, she turned to the girl on her shoulder and asked her confusion, “What the hell are those things?”
“……” The girl thought for a moment, shook her head and said, “Probably urban legends suppressed within Yumen Pass, forming conglomerates after corruption and degeneration? I’m not too sure about the specifics; I don’t know whether to classify them as aberrant or mixed breeds.”
“……”
Speaking of which, those ghostly things did bear some resemblance to what was encountered in the Great Serpent God’s bamboo slips…
Yumen Pass was much larger than the Bamboo Slips Illusion and was originally used to suppress urban legends, so it made sense that more terrifying things would be born over time. Lu Qingyi nodded thoughtfully.
“However, one thing I can be certain of is that while those figures hiding in the darkness seem to have countless bodies, they are essentially a unity. Killing one of them won’t work; to eliminate them entirely, we’d probably have to annihilate all those countless bodies.” The girl continued.
“Eh?” A flicker of surprise crossed Lu Qingyi’s eyes as she asked, “Even Cataclysm Grade can’t completely obliterate them?”
Upon hearing this, the girl paused for a moment, then began to laugh, “Interesting, how did you figure out that I’m Cataclysm Grade?”
Lu Qingyi pulled out the jade Gray Owl Badge and offered it in front of the girl, saying calmly, “When I saved you earlier, I casually flipped through your belongings to confirm your identity and found this.”
After a pause, she added, “I’ve only seen this kind of jade Gray Owl Badge from my master… our Chief Priest. So I guessed you must also be Cataclysm Grade.”
Lu Qingyi intentionally said it halfway before changing to address the Chief Priest Zhang Huainan to leave ample room for the girl’s imagination, allowing her to think of her identity in connection to someone close to Zhang Huainan, thereby garnering more trust.
This kind of information, accidentally revealed, and then completed by the other party’s own imagination, was definitely far more credible than her directly telling the girl, “I’m a confidant of Zhang Huainan!”
As for the term “master,” there were too many possible continuations.
It could be master, ancestral master… or even junior disciple.
The girl raised her brow slightly upon hearing this, evidently having sensed the hidden meaning in Lu Qingyi’s words, “You’re that old man Zhang Huainan’s disciple? Hehe, then you’re even more one of us!”
Indeed one of them; otherwise, how would she possess the spirit seal condensed from the Dog-Wolf Hunt Map? The girl thought.
She had studied the Monkey’s Birth Map for spirit seal condensation at Dachunyang Palace and also looked through other visualization maps for mutual verification.
Although she ultimately failed to condense the spirit seal, distinguishing the aura of the Dog-Wolf Hunt Map was not too challenging.
“To be honest, I witnessed that old man hiding behind the rockery in the Siye Association headquarters relieving himself.”
Isn’t that old guy a bit lacking in public virtue? Lu Qingyi thought, opening her mouth to feign hesitation, then nodded after several seconds of silence, “Indeed, I’m Lu Qingyi, a disciple of Yanyunzi. This is my first time executing a mission, and the Chief Priest advised not to reveal my identity casually…”
Seeing the girl acknowledging her identity, Lu Qingyi felt a rush of joy.
Fang Girl, your luck is indeed useful!
Just entering Yumen Pass, she picked up a leg to cling to that seemed easy to fool, and she successfully avoided a crisis; Lu Qingyi felt that this was perhaps a “miracle”!
At other times, she would have to battle those shadows for at least three hundred rounds to escape.
“I understand, I understand!” The girl nodded repeatedly, “You’re worried that because of your identity, you will receive special treatment? That old man always likes to worry unnecessarily.”
“We’ve come to a place like Yumen Pass; who cares whether you’re the Black Emperor’s disciple or not? At a critical moment, preserving your own life is the most important!”
Upon hearing this, Lu Qingyi silently gave the girl a thumbs up in her heart.
At a critical moment, let alone being a disciple of the Black Emperor, even the Black Emperor himself wouldn’t have much pull in her eyes.
Just as Lu Qingyi was in silence, the girl spoke again, steering the conversation back on track, “However, if you stay a bit longer, you’ll get used to it. Things like the ghostly stuff we saw earlier are already relatively easy to deal with in Yumen Pass, after all, they lack intelligence.”
“There are more terrifying existences than those ghostly things.”
Is there something more horrifying within Yumen Pass than those shadows? Has she already encountered it? Lu Qingyi secretly noted the girl’s words, then shifted her gaze to the “giant” crouched atop the small palace, constantly emanating a terrifying sense of oppression, and asked, “For example, that one?”
“I haven’t had the chance to ask you yet; why were you fighting that thing?”
The girl glanced at the “giant,” then at Lu Qingyi, and sighed silently, “I’ve been here for some time, and theoretically speaking, I shouldn’t have been battling that thing.”
“However, just earlier when the gates of Yumen Pass opened, I sensed the aura from outside in that direction, and I originally intended to rush out in one go…”
After a pause, as if recalling something, the girl shifted her tone to ask, “By the way, I still haven’t asked you, what happened outside? Why did the gates of Yumen Pass open?”
Lu Qingyi, “……” To be honest, assuming you need two hands to push open the gates of Yumen Pass, I might just be one of them.
“Probably something the Miracle Cult did? I’m not sure; by the time I arrived after receiving the notification, the gates had already opened. When I got close to the gates, I saw a large number of Miracle Cult members passing through from afar.”
She bore no psychological burden in shifting all the blame onto the Miracle Cult members.
Although she hadn’t seen with her own eyes the Miracle Cult members passing through the gates, Fang Ji had worked hard to open them; it was impossible for him not to want to enter.
“The Miracle Cult?” The girl frowned, “So it was indeed their doing. The last time, blowing up the city walls was also the work of them.”
Blowing up the city walls? Goodness, that Fang Ji guy is no newbie? Lu Qingyi thought to herself, preparing to ask about the details, but before she could speak, the girl patted her shoulder and pointed forward, “Let’s go that way.”
“I found a secret base over there; we can rest there for a bit.”
Lu Qingyi followed the direction the girl pointed, seeing a three-story building that stood out among a cluster of low earthen houses.
With white walls and black tiles, the large brackets and high eaves; it was obviously not an ordinary residence. Beneath the distant eaves hung a plaque, but the writing on it had become illegible.
“What place is that?”
“Uh…” The girl pondered for a moment, “It’s probably an old brothel or similar establishment, I guess?”
“Anyway, I’ve observed it and, for some reason, that place hasn’t had urban legends or other strange creatures approach it for a long time, so it’s a place to temporarily rest.”
“By the way, don’t be fooled by the place looking dilapidated outside; the inside is still very well preserved, even the bathhouse is still usable. Oh, sometimes you can even hear the sound of songs!”
Lu Qingyi, “？？？”
What the hell? First the general getting underage urban legends drunk, now an unknown protector dragging underage urban legends to the hook column to listen to music…
Are all you guardians good people?
Odd situations always harbor some hidden danger; aren’t you afraid of what might be lurking inside…
Thinking halfway through, Lu Qingyi hurriedly collected her thoughts, forcibly interrupting the rising notion in her heart.
Calculating the time, the MAX luck value buff was about to expire; at this moment, if she casually set a flag saying “there might be something more terrifying hidden inside,” who knew what trouble might arise.
Lu Qingyi thought, raising her head to look at that ancient little building. As she gazed, it seemed to manifest an illusion: the weathered wooden structures along the fence and corridor regained a crimson hue, rusty copper locks shed their tarnish, and broken tiles became as good as new…
As if the former splendor had suddenly been restored.
Lu Qingyi, “……” Really afraid of what’s coming! Should I stay in this damned place or not?
