**Chapter 34: It Is Calling for Help**
On both sides of the road, several large masses of liquid, exuding a strong smell of bl**d, floated beneath conical stalactites.
An invisible force enveloped their surfaces, causing them to coalesce into irregular liquid spheres with a diameter of about two meters.
At the center of those liquid spheres, a small mass of bizarre black shadow, continuously changing shape, moved slowly.
Taking a glance at the road beside her, Miss Rabbit withdrew her gaze, a look of disdain flashing across her face.
She felt that those liquid spheres looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t quite remember where she had seen them.
————
Moments later, deep in the cave.
“I found it, VIII, this should be Beres’s prepared avatar.”
After confirming the serial number on the plaque beneath the stalactite, Shuo E took out three soul incense sticks of different colors, a porcelain plate resembling a wine cup, and a bottle of murky yellow corpse oil from his pocket.
Following Beres’s prescribed process, he began the ritual.
Miss Rabbit stepped aside, her arms crossed over her chest, watching with great interest and saying nothing.
As someone who had undergone “d*ath” once, she was very curious about how a Spiritual Ability User could resurrect.
If it were that easy to revive, the Siye Society would have long since equipped their operatives with several “revival coins,” and those urban legends wouldn’t stand a chance.
It suddenly turned from a balanced PVP game, even with urban legend Xiaoyou, to a one-sided slaughter by the Siye Society in a PVE game, Miss Rabbit thought.
Based on varying levels of spirit energy fluctuations and the prevalence of urban legends, an urban legend killed without external assistance might take a minimum of two or three years to revive, or even decades.
This interval roughly matches the time it takes for a Spiritual Ability User to grow to a comparable level, which has formed a long-standing dynamic balance.
Miss Rabbit even thought that once an urban legend re-emerged from the deeply believed tales, it couldn’t be considered the same urban legend.
Having personally experienced the complete process from hunting to re-emergence, she understood it all too well.
This was likely because during the transmission of urban legends, there are always those who like to embellish the stories.
So, I absolutely hate talkative people!
This is not a hint; it’s a clear statement—this is about you, Calamity! Miss Rabbit thought dejectedly.
“Whoosh—!”
A soft sound of flames rising came.
Shuo E lit the first soul incense stick, and a faint scent of locust flowers spread out.
As the smoke curled upwards, he picked up the bottle containing the corpse oil and poured it into the porcelain dish.
In a vague sense, Miss Rabbit felt a cold and weak spirit energy fluctuation emanating from the corpse oil, similar to the energy fluctuations she sensed when she previously encountered Beres.
This corpse oil was crafted by Beres from the body killed by Lu Ming, containing his original spirit energy fluctuation.
“Return, soul! Go to the constant of your lord…”
Watching Shuo E chant with a rhythmic shake, Miss Rabbit frowned, “……” Isn’t this just summoning the soul? What’s the use of merely bringing the soul back?
The summoning technique, while called summoning souls, actually brings forth an unformed urban legend.
Miss Rabbit had never heard of any ritual that could revive humans using unformed urban legends.
Unless… they directly use some means to turn unformed urban legends into urban legends.
But that hardly counts as revival, does it? It should be considered… corpse transformation? Miss Rabbit thought.
“Whoosh—!”
Just as she was pondering, Shuo E ignited the second soul incense stick, this one mixed with willow wood.
“Return, soul! Lord, you must…”
After a slight pause, Shuo E did not light the third ordinary soul incense stick but instead continued to chant the third line, “Return, soul! Lord, do not remain in this ghost town…”
After the sound of the third line fell, he waited for about ten seconds.
“Whoosh—!”
To everyone’s surprise, the tip of the third ordinary soul incense stick flickered with eerie green sparks, and soon emitted a wisp of smoke.
Around the porcelain dish, the three soul incense sticks surrounded it, and the drifting smoke began to gather above, swirling like a ghost, and then…
Accompanied by a mentally ill-like shriek, all the smoke suddenly turned downward and merged into the corpse oil.
The spirit energy fluctuation surged sharply, and in an instant, the corpse oil began to boil and churn violently.
At this moment, Shuo E picked up the porcelain dish, rose to his feet, and carefully poured it onto the irregular liquid sphere.
Thus, the true revival ritual began.
In the center of the irregular liquid sphere, the viscous gelatinous black shadow, emitting a nauseating decaying odor, began to writhe violently.
Numerous bubbles rushed like boiling water, surging within the irregular liquid sphere.
Spirit energy inhaled and exhaled, mass shifting, the black shadow expanded, split, iterated, and transformed at an astonishing speed…
Watching that gelatinous black shadow gradually take the shape of a fish, a monkey, and finally evolve into a human outline, Miss Rabbit suddenly realized what this eerie thing resembled.
It looked like an undeveloped embryonic cell.
After absorbing Beres’s complete spirit energy fluctuations and the memories contained within the unformed urban legend, it started to develop.
From embryo to infant, it finally revealed Beres’s feminine features.
Then…
He opened his eyes, and a cold smile appeared at the corners of his mouth.
————
An hour later, at the other end of the vast cave.
A massive alchemical array was inscribed at the bottom of a large rock pool, exuding a faint crimson glow in the dark.
The melted alchemical materials flowed slowly, like mercury, along the grooves of the alchemical array incantations; from a distance, they looked like small snakes slithering along.
In the center of the pool, a gigantic beast resembling a skinned wildcat lay coiled, its eyes tightly closed, seemingly lifeless, with hundreds of metal long needles firmly pinning it to the bottom of the pool.
This was where the Solar Eclipse Society imprisoned and researched the Inheritance Beast.
At this moment, unlike the usual emptiness around the rock pool, countless cables were temporarily set up, rudely exposed and interconnected with massive instruments.
Dressed in specially designed black protective suits, Solar Eclipse Society members moved orderly among the instruments and altars, busily working as if they were a swarm of worker ants circling around their queen.
As they nervously adjusted the instruments and operated the altar, colorful mists gradually began to spread throughout the enormous space.
In the dozens of large ventilation ducts, the ventilators were set to maximum power, yet they couldn’t quickly exhaust the pungent toxic gas containing spirit energy fluctuations.
The mist grew thicker, continually inhaled into airways and throats, and soon some began to show signs of poisoning.
“The Night Erosion degree has risen to 3.8 and is still rising; everyone prepare!”
The Solar Eclipse Society member in a red protective suit shouted, his raspy voice echoing through the large space.
“The Night Erosion degree is at 4.0; spirit energy pollution level three warning!”
The red-clad Solar Eclipse Society member gasped lightly, and in the next moment, all members nearly simultaneously pulled out their specially made gas masks and quickly returned to work.
In the observation room, Beres looked down upon everything. As he saw that everything was ready, he took a deep breath, summoned the spirit energy within him, and shouted, “Spirit energy cutting blade prepared, begin charging! In ten seconds, we will perform a craniotomy on the test subject!”
“Ten, nine, eight… one!”
As the voice fell, a rumble echoed from above the cave.
Accompanied by the roar, alchemical arrays inscribed with incantations and mechanical structures emerged from the cave’s top, spouting slender dark golden flames in the blink of an eye.
Descending from above, like a heaven-sent sword of punishment, it pierced towards the head of the Inheritance Beast.
The earth trembled, the ground rippled like water.
In what seemed like an instant but felt like a prolonged buildup, the Inheritance Beast, pinned at the bottom of the rock pool and sleeping for a long time, suddenly awoke under unimaginable pain.
It opened its eyes and looked around, its childlike clear and bright gaze filled with pain and confusion.
“Lord Beres, it, it has awakened!”
A trembling voice from a subordinate came through the headphones. Beres frowned slightly and shouted in a low voice, “Don’t mind it; spirit energy cutting blade ready for secondary charging, increase power this time!”
Then, a painful cry erupted, a high-pitched sound that seemed to mix hundreds of beastly roars, almost tearing through everyone’s eardrums.
Even through heavy soundproof headphones, they could feel that sharp sound piercing into their brain.
The Solar Eclipse Society members around the pool couldn’t help but retreat.
The cruel sound triggered by the intense spirit energy fluctuations drilled into their bodies, echoing within their bones, ruthlessly trampling every inch of flesh.
The Inheritance Beast struggled, the metal long needles pinned to its massive body quivered violently, buzzing but remaining motionless.
Soon, after bearing the massive force of the spirit energy cutting blade, cracks began to emerge on the Inheritance Beast’s head, its skin splitting like cardboard, bl**d gushing out and staining the pool.
As Beres had predicted, the spirit energy cutting blade, condensed with the most advanced technology of the Solar Eclipse Society, effortlessly broke open the skull of the Inheritance Beast.
Its smooth, mercury-like brain, constantly changing shape, was suddenly laid bare to everyone’s sight.
Watching its brain, the Solar Eclipse Society members involuntarily held their breaths.
Each of them saw their reflections in the mirror-like brain of the Inheritance Beast.
A strange illusion ensued, as if it were both its brain and its eyes.
It instinctively tried to copy everyone’s powers, yet, unfortunately, the hundreds of intricately engraved metal long needles suppressed all the spirit energy fluctuations within it.
“Hmph…”
Watching the Inheritance Beast’s body twitching, Beres let out a mocking snort.
“It’s time; everyone retreat, release the soul-sucking worms, and start analyzing the memories of the test subject!”
With his command, the Solar Eclipse Society members in the cave wore terrified expressions and quickly retreated from the cave like a receding tide.
Like they didn’t want to be stained by the bl**d of the Inheritance Beast, they also wished to avoid any contact with the soul-sucking worms.
The soul-sucking worms, like the Inheritance Beast, were unfortunate urban legends captured by the Solar Eclipse Society. Born from the legend of “parasite worms that devour human memories,” these urban legends initially entered the human body in the form of eggs.
At first, the infected individuals wouldn’t notice any abnormalities; they might even become highly disciplined and confident. But soon, as the eggs hatched and produced numerous individuals within the host, the affected humans would experience intermittent memory loss, eventually becoming complete empty shells devoid of any memory.
After being captured and undergoing a series of unscrupulous experimental modifications, soul-sucking worms soon became tools used by the Solar Eclipse Society to forcibly read the memories of Spiritual Ability Users and urban legends.
When the last member’s figure disappeared down the passage, a rumble echoed in the cave, and the altar and countless instruments sank underground. Following this, large and heavy metal plates rose from beneath the ground, seamlessly connecting with each other.
Then…
A mass of flesh, branded with the Black Sun Totem and writhing constantly, was thrown into the sealed space from the top of the cave.
That half-illusory, half-real pale flesh, upon landing, immediately transformed into small human-faced wrigglers, scattering and then gathering toward the Inheritance Beast’s brain, opening their hooked tails and plunging into the mercury-like tissues.
In an instant, the Inheritance Beast’s cranium was filled with pale worms, densely and ceaselessly wriggling, greedily sucking on its memories.
In the observation room, Beres and the group of red-clad Solar Eclipse Society members sensed the spirit energy fluctuations from the soul-sucking worms, beginning to record all the changes.
————
Miss Rabbit quietly observed the entire process of Beres slicing open the Inheritance Beast’s head and the soul-sucking worms reading its memories, her expression growing increasingly serious.
She stepped to the window of the observation room, gazing at the dying giant beast below, subconsciously extending her hand.
From the beast’s exposed, shape-shifting mercury-like brain, she saw her own reflection.
Those reflections silently lamented, cried, and pleaded… a profound sense of loneliness and helplessness surged like a tide, overwhelming Miss Rabbit’s spirit, leaving her momentarily lost.
“Uh…”
When her fingertip touched the cold glass, Miss Rabbit’s body trembled slightly, as if receiving a shock, and she quickly pulled her hand back.
At that moment, Shuo E approached, his expression devoid of emotion, saying, “Let’s go, our mission is complete, it’s time to go back; there are many other tasks waiting for us!”
As if she hadn’t heard Shuo E, Miss Rabbit continued to stare blankly at the giant beast.
Shuo E followed her gaze, his face showing a look of confusion, “What are you looking at?”
“Looking at it…”
“It? The Inheritance Beast?”
Miss Rabbit nodded, “Yeah, the Inheritance Beast… it is calling for help.”
Constantly calling for help, yet no one noticed.
Like a little cat trapped in an invisible cage, devoid of air, food, and water, lacking all essential nutrients for life.
It could see people passing by outside, yet no one could see its impending suffocation.
Occasionally passing by, with a similar experience, Miss Rabbit heard its cries for help, but…
I’m sorry, I can’t help you… Miss Rabbit muttered in her heart.
Shuo E scrutinized the Inheritance Beast’s form for a while, frowning as he looked at Miss Rabbit, “You’re overthinking it, right? That’s just a muscle spasm caused by the reflex arc.”
“Bro, don’t be too sentimental; being too sentimental could make you GAY!”
Miss Rabbit, “……” Who the hell is your brother?
————
Half an hour later.
The preliminary report obtained by analyzing the spirit energy fluctuations from the soul-sucking worms was laid out in front of Beres’s experimental table.
Beres studied the report line by line, trying to decode the source of the powers being copied by the Inheritance Beast from its chaotic, fragmented memories.
Ultimately, after highlighting several lines of text, he put down the report and furrowed his brows.
Qin Nanzhu, high-level mythological species powers, a city identical to Huacheng…
“Didn’t expect that rumor to be true?” Beres murmured to himself.
He never fought battles without preparation. When deciding to go around Huacheng to opportunistically capture Gu Qiqi, Calamity, or the No. 11 test subject, he had reviewed almost all the available information about Huacheng.
From that information, he knew that nineteen years ago, a disturbance surrounding Qin Nanzhu’s “inheritance” occurred in Huacheng.
However, initially, he didn’t take this matter to heart.
Although the information within the Solar Eclipse Society subtly mentioned that the things left by Qin Nanzhu were terrifyingly valuable, even the leader and the Elders’ Council kept closely monitoring them.
Yet, with hundreds of urban legends and Spiritual Ability Users spending one or two years without finding them, what were the chances of easily locating them?
There was even the previous Holy Son of the Miracle Cult among them.
Beres didn’t take the remnants of the Miracle Cult seriously; however, he was very interested in studying the Holy Son of the Miracle Cult.
According to the recorded information from the Solar Eclipse Society, every Holy Son of the Miracle Cult has been someone blessed by miracles. No, it should be said they are humanoid koi.
Those sorts who can find a whole bucket of instant noodles with two noodle cakes and three seasoning packets just by casually going to the supermarket.
Such people, in theory, should have been able to stumble upon Qin Nanzhu’s legacy while walking down the streets of Huacheng, yet, in reality, they found nothing.
This inevitably led one to suspect that the legacy left by Qin Nanzhu wasn’t even in Huacheng, and the rumors that circulated nineteen years ago might have been a ruse to mislead.
But now, after reviewing the analysis report derived from the soul-sucking worms reading the Inheritance Beast’s memories, he suddenly felt that the things left by Qin Nanzhu were likely hidden within the “city” she constructed using her powers.
“To construct a special space in the dark aspect of Huacheng and continuously improve it by pulling projections of everything in the city… what a clever technique! No wonder the Inheritance Beast was attracted by her powers.”
While admiring Qin Nanzhu’s extraordinary skills, Beres’s gaze landed on the last highlighted sentence in the report.
“However… isn’t this Luxianbei a reserve operative from Huacheng? How could she be connected to Qin Nanzhu?”
From the spirit energy fluctuations captured during the Inheritance Beast’s attempts to replicate Qin Nanzhu’s powers, Beres acquired a critical yet curious piece of information.
【Do not harm Luxianbei!】
Such a rule, lurking within the spirit energy fluctuations emanating from that city, seemed like the most fundamental core directive…
