**Chapter 76: Total Destruction to Restart**
The winding road seemed like dark gray ribbons, coiling around the city’s body.
Huaxie Yu sat in the back seat of a taxi, her head resting against the glass, gazing out at the desolate and cold streets, appearing to be deep in thought, but her mind was utterly blank.
It was a state of extreme mental exhaustion, yet she insisted on staying awake, feeling as if she were a walking corpse in a dull numbness.
As she lost herself in thought, the sound of hurried footsteps pierced her ears.
“Pat-Pat—!”
That sound resembled someone running barefoot on the asphalt road.
Soon after, a pale figure darted into her peripheral vision from behind, swiftly chasing after her and flashing past, overtaking the moving taxi.
What was that thing?
In an instant, Huaxie Yu’s brain, which had been in standby mode, was forcibly activated.
She sat up straight and peered through the windshield, tracking the trajectory of that pale figure. In front of the taxi, a humanoid outline was sprinting, moving astonishingly fast, disappearing in no time.
It looked like an albinistic freak.
Stealing a glance at the driver’s expression through the rearview mirror, he remained calm as usual.
Then she looked at the dashboard—the speed was 52KM/H.
Huaxie Yu thought, “Running so fast. The taxi driver didn’t even see it. It must be an urban legend, right?”
It actually ran wildly on the street, showing no signs of hiding—were Huacheng’s urban legends that bold? Huaxie Yu wondered.
In that man’s information, it was mentioned that there existed the king of urban legends in Huacheng, and the number of urban legends here was greater and more active than in most cities.
Although Huaxie Yu had obediently stayed in the dormitory of Huacheng University after dark as reminded in the information, she hadn’t taken the matter too seriously at first.
After all, in her perception, urban legends were often the exploited subjects.
If it were in Dawn City, a creature like the one she just saw wouldn’t last an hour before its core would appear in some spiritual ability user’s trade location.
However, reality had exceeded her expectations.
Seeing the earlier shadow of the urban legend, Huaxie Yu felt an odd sense of astonishment and novelty, as if she had witnessed a rare wild animal in the streets.
It seemed that under the rule of the king of urban legends, the number of urban legends in Huacheng was indeed vast.
The fact that an urban legend like that just brazenly appeared on the street was evident enough.
While this idea blossomed in Huaxie Yu’s mind, she remained unaware that the legend she had just seen was merely the tip of the iceberg.
As night deepened, the urban legends that had hidden throughout the day emerged from their secluded corners, gathering for a rendezvous.
At the appointed time, the urban legends began to stir, taking over the night of Huacheng.
Streetlights flickered, and in the interplay of light and darkness, a group of urban legends resembling human heads with deep red skin and the size of iron pans floated along the street, their lower spines swaying back and forth, looking like clusters of human head balloons.
In the greenbelt at the three-way intersection, the sound of stone cracking echoed from a statue, as cracks appeared and dense clusters of eyes opened slowly like blooming flowers, aimlessly glancing in all directions.
Two shared bicycles chased each other, bells ringing like howls, then suddenly stopped, lifting their front wheels and colliding with one another as if two wild horses were contending for mating rights.
Witnessing the multitude of urban legends in the streets of Huacheng, Huaxie Yu silently drew her gaze from the window, taking a deep breath to steady her nerves. Panic surged through her veins like fresh concrete.
“What is this, a den of demons?”
For a moment, she even felt that Huacheng, seemingly calm on the surface, might be even scarier than Dawn City behind the scenes.
Huacheng’s urban legends were not just bold but utterly rampant—it was outrageous!
She couldn’t help but wonder what that legendary king of urban legends in Huacheng was truly like.
She had once seen a notorious urban legend from a distance in Dawn City, and it had left a deep impression on her.
That figure, like a skeleton, shrouded in filthy black mist, its spine bent into an arc, bore grotesque limbs with limbs that seemed to emerge and covered in bark-like rough skin; even from afar, she could smell a stench akin to burnt plastic.
Just looking from a distance had unleashed an indistinct pressure on her mind.
Yet, that frightful urban legend held sway over only two or three blocks in Dawn City.
Huaxie Yu felt that the reputed king of Huacheng’s urban legends could only be more horrifying than that creature, but as for how terrifying, she could hardly imagine.
That horrible-looking urban legend had already been the scariest one in her recognition.
What could be worse?
How could she envision something she hadn’t seen?
I refuse to believe that urban legends could look good; the king of Huacheng’s urban legends can’t possibly be a handsome guy, thought Huaxie Yu.
The taxi pulled out from near Huacheng’s old sports stadium and, after about two minutes, stopped beneath the archway marked with the three large characters “Mudan Street.”
“Miss, coming to Mudan Street at this hour isn’t wise!” The taxi driver kindly piped up just before Huaxie Yu got out, “All the small shops are closed now, and if you’re looking for accommodation in the scenic area, it’s much pricier than outside.”
“If you don’t mind, I can drop you at a nearby hotel; you can come back tomorrow morning, which would be just as good.”
“Thank you, but no need,” Huaxie Yu replied with a smile, paying the fare as she opened the door and walked towards the depths of Mudan Street.
On the way from Huacheng’s old sports stadium to Mudan Street, it was evident that the number of urban legends was rapidly decreasing; by the time she reached about two kilometers from Mudan Street, they had completely vanished.
Huaxie Yu had initially decided to come to Mudan Street to avoid being secretly observed by that man and the elusive Mr. S. After witnessing the bizarre, frightening sights on Huacheng’s streets at night, her resolve to stay at Mudan Street strengthened.
After all, the Siye Society was right here, and the urban legends ruled by the king of Huacheng dared not approach this place easily, which indirectly indicated its safety.
Although Huaxie Yu, as a petty thief in Dawn City, disliked contact with the Siye Society for various reasons, at this moment, she felt that an organization with an official background was more reliable and reassuring.
It was like a rebellious child; even if they often clashed with their parents and severed ties, when harmed in the outside world, they would still seek comfort in their parents’ embrace.
I wonder if the Siye Society is still recruiting?
Looking towards the Huacheng Folk Culture Research Management Bureau, this thought suddenly sprang into Huaxie Yu’s mind.
Meanwhile, far away in the Barents Sea, in a small wooden house surrounded by gray giants.
The flickering flames in the fireplace cast shifting shadows on a spiritless middle-aged man, his expression seemingly changing alongside the shifting light.
He had been sitting quietly here for four days without a word.
The nine enigmatic figures hidden in the darkness, who could hardly still be called human, had remained by his side as if competing to see who could hold out longer.
The man appeared passive, sitting motionless as if engaged in some form of silent protest.
Yet only those lurking in shadows knew how terrifying the man truly was.
The spirit energy fluctuation capable of instantly pulverizing C+ level urban legends emanated continuously from his seemingly frail body, colliding with the spirit energy fluctuations stirred by those nine figures, generating waves of high-frequency shrieking inaudible to human hearing within the cramped wooden space.
Although the conflict between the Elders’ Council and the president within the Solar Eclipse Society had persisted for a long time, instances of face-to-face confrontation ready to escalate were quite rare.
Throughout the past four days, the nine members of the Elders’ Council speculated various purposes behind the man’s intrusion into the gray forest cabin and sent their most capable members to disrupt his plans but failed to reach a consensus on the matter.
The man couldn’t possibly have acted solely for one calamity, could he?
There were more factors contributing to the destruction of the world than just calamities!
Excluding the severely controlled “disease,” which made it difficult to access its core, there was a chance to manage the other factors causing this man’s appearance—perhaps there were deeper reasons.
Could it be that his power had advanced further, making him capable of killing us?
Or…
However.
Just as those nine figures were anxiously speculating how much longer the man would remain, he suddenly dissipated the spirit energy fluctuations within him, stood up, and stretched his muscles.
“Elders, I apologize for the disturbance over the past few days; I believe it’s time for me to go.”
“Leaving? Is this really the end?”
The nine members of the Elders’ Council were taken aback.
Then, a pale blue flame surged from the darkness, illuminating a face with pale skin and filled with wrinkles.
“Mr. President, why not stay a bit longer? It’s been a while since we last met; we still have much to discuss! Our last talk about the apocalypse didn’t yield any results; why not take this opportunity to communicate further?”
Although remaining here felt like an inescapable nightmare, bringing a sense of despairing pressure.
Miss Rabbit and Shuo E had already delivered the parasitic urban legend to Huaxie Yu, and it should soon have an effect, seriously injuring the man.
If at that moment he happened to still be in the gray forest cabin, the Elders’ Council had a 99% chance of ensuring he was “fatally injured beyond recovery.”
How could they possibly let him leave so easily at such a time?
“It’s been a while; to be honest, I too wanted to spend more time with you all,” the man spoke with a lack of zeal and an air of resignation. “I’m just about to run out of my family leave, and if I don’t leave now, my salary next month will only be the base, and I might even get fired.”
“To be honest, I quite enjoy this job right now, and I don’t want to lose it over something trivial.”
“Moreover, I took a leave; returning on time when the break ends is a rule to follow.”
The nine members of the Elders’ Council felt insulted by the man’s words, increasingly confused about his true intentions.
Although the man had long acted like a weary corporate slave numbed by a cold society, it was precisely for that reason that the Elders’ Council found him inscrutable.
“However, since you all mentioned the apocalypse we discussed last time,” the man said, “I want to remind you that this time is very different from past apocalyptic events such as Pompei, Ragnarök, or the Great Flood; it’s best if you don’t hold out any hopes.”
“This world has rotted to a point of irreparable extent; only total destruction can lead to a restart.”
Pausing, he added, “Only in a new world can the Black Sun rise.”
Having said that, without waiting for the members of the Elders’ Council to respond, the man stepped forward and left the gray forest cabin without looking back.
A few seconds later, just as the members of the Elders’ Council were about to begin their exchange, he hurriedly returned.
“Sorry, where’s the exit to Z Country? There are too many passages here, and I can’t distinguish them,” the man scratched the back of his head, awkwardly said, “Just now, I accidentally ended up in the Kremlin, and once outside, I was met with several guns pointed at my head; it scared me to d*ath.”
His expression was akin to someone who had not fulfilled the task assigned by his superior.
In the darkness, nine sighs laden with contempt sounded almost simultaneously, and following that, a figure swaying with soil-colored fiery markings slowly raised a hand, pointing at a bright red side door to the east of the cabin.
“Oh, thank you, Elder Kronos; I’ll be going now. We’ll see each other later,” the man said, quickly walking towards the door, pushing it open under a chorus of disdainful gazes.
At the moment he crossed through the side door, his gaze slightly sharpened, a somber color flickering across his face.
His departure from the gray forest cabin was not solely because his leave was ending, nor because the Elders’ Council had sent people to Huacheng to thwart his plans, but rather because Yunshen Machine had disrupted his plan—Huaxie Yu, who was on the verge of complete transformation, had broken free from control.
Yunshen Machine had clearly promised not to interfere in this matter, yet now they had acted.
This violated the agreement between them and disrupted the rules!
Of course, aside from that, the main reason he felt apprehensive was that his leave was about to end, worrying about losing his job.
In that case, Phoenix would likely go on a rampage, he thought anxiously.
