Chapter 170: Proxy Player! Calling Proxy Player!
Not knowing how long she had been falling, the bizarre colors swirling in her vision began to quickly fade. Luxianbei heavily crashed onto the cold, hard ground, dizzy and with her insides churning.
Why couldn’t I fly this time? I clearly tried…
Perhaps it was influenced by the power of the shadow?
Luxianbei thought to herself, slowly sitting up and checking to confirm that her body was uninjured and that her ancestral kitchen kn*fe and talismans were not lost. She secretly breathed a sigh of relief and then strained to listen.
Breathing sounds, heartbeats, and the dripping sound of water falling in the unseen cave structure…
That was all she could hear.
Looking around, it was all darkness; she could see nothing, as if light was blocked outside the sinkhole.
Used to brightness, losing her vision so suddenly made her very uneasy. Despite taking several deep breaths, she couldn’t adapt to this environment.
Recalling the process of her fall, she felt a wave of fear.
The last time she had entered the Bamboo Slips Illusion, she had been able to look down from a high altitude and catch a glimpse of a corner of the space beneath the sinkhole.
In her memory, the shape of the sinkhole was irregular, looking like an open maw with jagged rocks, akin to sharp fangs within that big mouth.
When she fell, she didn’t crash into any sharp protruding rocks, which was perhaps a small blessing in misfortune.
As Luxianbei thought of this, the figure of Gu Qiqi flashed in her mind, and her mood suddenly turned heavy.
I wonder if Gu Qiqi has that kind of luck…
…
In the darkness, Luxianbei groped around until she found a spot to quietly sit back against the rock wall and didn’t foolishly get up to act but waited for her eyes to adapt to the dark, taking deep breaths to force herself to calm down.
The last time she looked down over the sinkhole, not only did she discover the treacherous terrain, but she also found that there were countless caves, large and small, below, creating a complex and seemingly endless labyrinth.
In such an environment, completely losing her vision felt akin to being a headless fly, easily misstepping into inexplicable dangers.
She did not dare to rashly use a spell or talisman for light; in the complete darkness surrounding her, suddenly conjuring a light might signal some dangerous and terrifying entity.
The boundless darkness, the faint chill, and the potential dangers mingled together, making it suffocating.
…
Time became meaningless in this dim, confined space.
Luxianbei sat quietly for a long time, her eyes gradually adapting to the darkness, but visibility remained low. She could only see things around half a meter away; beyond that, everything was just a blur, and over two meters, she was engulfed in total darkness.
This situation made her feel quite uneasy. Her eyes had extraordinary vision, even in places like Shihhekou Middle School, where there was almost no light, she could see clearly.
However, this place was entirely different.
In the surrounding darkness, it seemed to conceal some strange power that obstructed her line of sight.
Maybe I should get moving; staying in this ghostly place for too long will only make things increasingly dangerous. Not finding a way out is equivalent to a slow d*ath, Luxianbei thought.
She vaguely recalled seeing in “Animal World” that certain types of snakes possessed thermoreceptors, meaning darkness wouldn’t affect their movements much.
Luxianbei did not know whether the so-called Great Serpent God and its accompanying urban legends possessed similar abilities. If they did, being stationary and not moving would eventually get her targeted.
Moreover…
Her heart continued to pound violently, as if yearning for something, continuously guiding her onward. Gradually, her will was influenced by that sense of longing, and she finally made a decision.
It seems I have no choice but to move forward blindly… Luxianbei mused as she got up, one hand against the rock wall, moving forward cautiously, feeling that the ground was covered in something strange, slippery to step on…
…
After trudging through the darkness for a while, Luxianbei suddenly frowned as she vaguely saw a blurred outline ahead.
What is that?
She drew out her two ancestral kitchen knives, wielded them with care, and cautiously approached, stopping just a step away from that thing, secretly sighing in relief.
It was a black wooden box about the size of a half-human, square-shaped, with faint carvings visible on it.
Could it be one of those wooden boxes used to hold offerings?
She wondered what materials it was made from; if it had fallen from so high, regular wood would probably have shattered by now.
And what was inside the box…
At that thought, Meng Raoze’s request when he was dying flashed through her mind, causing her to frown slightly. She stepped forward, feeling around to open the box. A faintly foul, bloody stench immediately invaded her nostrils.
Inside the box lay a deformed baby with one eye and one leg, its tiny body scattered with some black scales.
Luxianbei didn’t remember pulling such a weird baby out from the water tank, assuming it must have been sent from a similar place as an offering.
At that moment, it lay silently in the wooden box, drenched in bl**d and completely devoid of life.
Even though this deformed baby showed signs of being the subject of urban legends, seeing such a tiny life fade away before her eyes still made Luxianbei sigh inwardly, how pitiful.
Just as she was about to close the box again and continue exploring, a sudden cold wind blew past her, and in the next moment, a shadow flashed before her, followed by a soft clatter of bones colliding ringing in her ears.
Following the direction of the noise onto the box, her pupils constricted sharply as she saw that the deformed baby’s corpse, which had just been lying quietly in the box, had, after the shadow flashed by, turned into nothing but a heap of white bones.
Something was nearby; it had devoured the baby’s corpse!
But…
Where is it now?
A wave of terror swept over her heart; the chill felt as if it had grown limbs, creeping from her spine up to her head. Luxianbei swallowed hard, acting quickly, turning around and pressing her back against the rock wall.
Compared to the complete darkness where nothing could be seen, this dim light where she could make out faint outlines was far more frightening.
In such an environment, her severely dulled senses could feel something approaching nearby, but as soon as the other party slightly concealed itself, she couldn’t find its trace any longer.
Luxianbei leaned against the rock wall, concentrating her attention on the changes around her. She could sense something moving quickly in the darkness, creating a rustling noise.
Soon, a low, hissing sound entered her ears, initially resembling a snake’s hiss, but upon closer listening, it sounded more like a human imitating a snake’s rasping sound.
d*mn, this ghostly place indeed conceals some kind of urban legend that can move freely in the dark.
Luxianbei scolded inwardly, quietly pulling a talisman from her palm, preparing to throw it towards the direction of the sound at any moment.
In the darkness, the strange hissing grew closer, the intervals became shorter, and it became increasingly piercing, shrill—like a cry, yet also resembling a laugh, chilling to the bone.
“Crack—!”
Suddenly, there came a faint sound from the darkness, as if something had kicked aside a stone while moving quickly. Luxianbei caught that moment’s sound and looked in that direction, and her eyes were greeted by a wave of heat.
Right there!
She focused her gaze slightly, unhesitatingly hurling the talisman in the direction that caused the heat in her eyes.
The talisman flew through the air, emitting a dazzling emerald glow, and by that glow, Luxianbei saw a group of bizarre, deformed figures.
They had the size of infants, with swollen, decaying faces, lacking eyes, noses, or mouths, only three black holes, their bodies covered in black scales, thin arms supporting their bodies, their lower halves completely transformed into serpentine forms.
There were many of them, yet they seemed weak; when swept by the light of the talisman, a large number fell down.
But there were more that managed to escape, fear making them flee from the emerald light yet unable to abandon it, still circling around Luxianbei, creeping along the gray-black stone walls.
They crowded together densely, a mass without an end, like a swarm of giant ants with the hue of rotting corpses.
What made Luxianbei even more uneasy were not those distorted deformed babies, but something else.
She saw shiny, black, viscous things growing on the ground, looking like asphalt.
They formed some bizarre and grotesque procession, stretching and contracting as they wriggled deeper into the branching paths.
Did they resemble the shadows summoned by Hui Mother? Luxianbei frowned.
Before long, those urban legends contaminated by the talisman’s flames were reduced to ashes amidst howls of agony, and the flickering emerald light gradually dimmed.
As her surroundings fell back into darkness once again, Luxianbei’s heart immediately leaped into her throat. In the dark, those baby-like urban legends scuttled rapidly, making a series of delicate sounds.
Pulses of foul odor surged in; that smell was more nauseating than anything Luxianbei had ever encountered, as if it originated from the decay of the soul.
Fear incessantly stimulated Luxianbei’s nerves; finally, when her eyes captured the source of the searing pain once more, she thrice hurled the talisman in that direction.
In an instant, the emerald flame surged forth, and the urban legends burned by the fiery light collapsed on the ground, writhing their thin, ugly bodies, emitting sounds that resembled cries and screams, scaring off other urban legends that wished to approach.
Seeing this, Luxianbei swallowed hard, seizing the opportunity in that brief respite, forcing herself to calm down, and ruminating inwardly.
These ghostly beings bore a striking resemblance to the deformed babies but had clearly transformed entirely into urban legends.
Could they be the baby spirits left behind after the deformed babies offered as sacrifices died?
No, no, their existence did not seem to display the characteristics of malevolent spirits described in “The Book of Siye,” but rather resembled the characteristics of aberrant beings…
As Luxianbei thought of this, the emerald flames quickened in extinguishing. She hurriedly threw several talismans at the nearby urban legends to sustain the light.
If they were aberrant beings, then it became somewhat puzzling. The creation of aberrant beings necessitated the presence of real bodies, yet as offerings, those…
Wait, could it be that the legendary Great Serpent God devours offerings but never consumes the flesh, or has it never devoured any offerings at all?!
Luxianbei froze for a moment, taken aback by her second hypothesis.
If the Great Serpent God had never consumed offerings, what then were those villagers repeatedly sacrificing to?
According to “The Book of Siye,” which states that “as long as one believes, it may come to life,” could it be possible…
With the thought of those villagers, the priests, and Hui Mother, worshiping a deity that had long abandoned them, continually creating slaughter and bloodshed, unwittingly generating some other form of urban legend, a chill suddenly rose in Luxianbei’s heart.
Just as she fully focused her thoughts on that possibly manufactured urban legend, the sound of footsteps came from a distance, followed by a faint yellowish light emerging from the darkness.
That light was indeed Gu Qiqi’s innate spirit pattern cloak.
…
On the other side.
“System, are you really sure the ancestral hall is nearby? We’ve been walking for two or three hours; you wouldn’t be lost, would you?”
“How could I possibly be lost? No one knows the ins and outs of this place better than I do!”
However, it was rather strange; she clearly felt that familiar aura of the ancestral hall nearby! Why wasn’t it showing up… The system rebutted Gu Qiqi loudly while secretly grumbling.
At that moment, Gu Qiqi suddenly gasped in alarm within her mind, interrupting the system’s thoughts.
“System, system, look over there! What is that!?”
Following Gu Qiqi’s pointed direction, they saw the steep rock wall, densely covered with deformed babies’ bodies, looking from a distance as if a carpet of rotting flesh had been laid out.
Amidst that “carpet,” a petite girl held talismans in her hands, occasionally tossing them out like feeding fish in a park.
The system, “…”
What is happening here? Is Calamity trying to tame the urban legends or is she surrounded and in trouble? I can’t quite make sense of it.
Forget it, either way, the best course of action is to keep our distance from her.
According to the system’s experience, whether in good or bad circumstances, if Calamity was involved, it was bound to become a perilous situation.
“Gu Qiqi, let’s go. We’ll take a detour and not get involved with her!”
“But…” Gu Qiqi hesitated.
“But what? Didn’t she just suggest using you as a sacrifice?”
“Oh…” Gu Qiqi replied, reluctantly glancing back toward Luxianbei before walking toward a side cave exit.
Just as she turned into the branch, the light shifted from dark to bright, and her toes kicked against a hidden wooden box.
“Thud—!”
With a muffled sound, the wooden box flipped over, its dark lid ajar, and a tiny, frail-looking baby rolled out. Its pale and delicate body made contact with the ground and struggled uneasily, soon beginning to cry.
“Wah… wah…”
Though the cries were feeble, in this dark, silent environment, they echoed far and wide, enough to attract those deformed urban legends.
“System, system, it’s a living, completely normal baby!” Gu Qiqi exclaimed excitedly in her mind.
“Gu Qiqi, shut up! Just look behind you!” The system scolded softly.
Gu Qiqi was momentarily stunned, turning to look behind her.
In the distance, amidst the darkness, a sea of crimson points glowed like the eyes of some being, moving around Gu Qiqi’s body and landing on the barely alive baby, filled with malice…
…
Luxianbei was weighing whether to waste a few more talismans to carve out a bloody path or use the large-area destruction spell she had secretly learned from her dad, considering which option had better cost-effectiveness when suddenly she heard a baby’s cries, momentarily stunned.
Immediately thereafter, she noticed that the deformed urban legends encircling her all retreated, attracted by the cries of the baby from afar, howling as they dashed away.
Within those piercing cries was contained their resentment towards the living for being deprived of normal life.
Following the direction of the retreating deformed urban legends, it was only then that she noticed the faintly familiar yellowish light in the distance.
Is that Gu Qiqi? Has she encountered a living baby?
Luxianbei froze momentarily, then suddenly exclaimed in alarm, realizing something was wrong as she raced after the retreating deformed urban legends.
Rushing out was her instinct to save someone, but as soon as she reached Gu Qiqi’s vicinity, she regretted it.
…
At that moment, Gu Qiqi’s corrupted divine bl**d had long been cleansed, and faced with the deformed urban legends that had only D-class spirit energy fluctuations, she had completely formed a crushing advantage.
The metal bat whistled through the cave, eliciting sob-like low moans, and wherever it passed, those deformed urban legends were instantly turned into clouds of bl**d mist.
Under the shine of the golden light radiating from the metal bat, Luxianbei saw that the foul-smelling bl**d spilled onto the ground, intermingling with the shiny, viscous black substance that resembled plant roots, instantly as if they had been activated, writhing like living bl**d vessels.
Their writhing speed accelerated, and amidst the darkness of the cave, came the heavy sounds that resembled the beats of an enormous heart, beating violently from afar.
Luxianbei’s eyes burned with intense pain, reaching the intensity she had documented as the fourth-tier urban legend strength.
Bizarre images continuously flashed before her eyes, and powerful negative emotions invaded her mind without any medium.
Fragmentary words buzzed in her ears, converging into noises that were indistinguishable.
In that cacophony, she felt an overwhelming desire for destruction, and in the next moment, she witnessed a scene that sent chills down her spine.
A mass of glossy black objects emerged from the distant darkness, impossibly large, nearly filling the cave that was over ten meters high, looking like black sludge, yet it was not still.
That slick, shiny surface continued to churn and undulate, splitting and proliferating various animal organs, as if distorting and mimicking nature’s creations grotesquely.
Seeing such a nightmarish scene, Luxianbei didn’t have time to warn Gu Qiqi or to recite a description that sprang from her own being; she instinctively screamed out loud.
“Proxy Player! Calling Proxy Player!”
In the next moment, everything around her seemed to freeze, and her surroundings fell into a deadly silence…
