Chapter 37: The Monster Covered in Pink Fur
When Zhipianxian saw the hideous ghost infant appearing on Lin Yiqi’s shoulder and sensed that Luxianbei was approaching, he instantly realized he had been tricked.
“Senior Lin, I didn’t expect you to be that guy’s lackey?” he said with a gloomy expression. “Don’t you think what you’re doing is a bit excessive?”
Clearly, it seemed to be a game of desire between a scumbag and a scumbag girl, purely lustful. Why resort to schemes and tricks to ruin that purity?
Zhipianxian thought that if he could miraculously escape this time, he would come back to answer the question on a certain platform, “What is it like to encounter a divine trap during a one-night stand?”
[Uninvited, standing on the main road of Gate Four, just saw an urban legend, got hard! Fist got hard!]
“Lackey?” Lin Yiqi shook her head. “Although that guy is the king of Huacheng urban legends, it doesn’t mean she can command all the spiritual ability users and urban legends in Huacheng…”
“At least I’m not. I’m just acting on someone else’s request, being loyal to someone else’s cause.”
“…” Zhipianxian fell silent for a few seconds, sensing Luxianbei getting closer, his mood growing increasingly anxious, then he bit his lip lightly and suddenly sprang into action.
He stepped forward and ran wildly towards Huacheng University, his figure instantly becoming fleeting under high speed.
He had no intention of entangling with Lin Yiqi. After understanding the situation, he was solely focused on escaping.
“As long as I’m not caught by that guy this time, I can immediately leave Huacheng.
Once I do that, with such a vast world, where can’t I go?
With the subtle connection between me and that guy, as long as I’m more cautious, that guy will never catch me in this lifetime!” Zhipianxian thought.
Watching Zhipianxian’s retreating figure, Lin Yiqi raised an eyebrow and muttered to herself, “Want to escape? If you manage to slip away, I’ll have a hard time dealing with it.”
For a long time, Jumeng had been helping her solve troubles, and she was grateful.
Now that Jumeng rarely asked her to do something, she did not want to mess it up.
“Baby, stop that guy!”
With a soft call, the ghost infant lurking on her shoulder emitted a strange shriek, transforming into a bl**d shadow, chasing after Zhipianxian.
The spirit energy fluctuation spread from its palm-sized body, merging into the air, causing the drifting wind to carry a faint scent of bl**d.
In the next moment, the scenery within Zhipianxian’s line of sight began to change.
It was as if dark clouds were surging in, obscuring the moonlight, and the surrounding light suddenly dimmed.
Thick fog arose from the dark corners, as if alive, twisting, wriggling, and spreading.
As the dense fog slowly rose, the dilapidated and desolate main road of Gate Four was shrouded in a hazy red light, and everything in sight looked as if it had been soaked in bl**d.
Under that scarlet glow, all the scenery on the main road of Gate Four seemed to have merged into the thick fog, vanishing without a trace.
Noticing the change in the scenery before him, Zhipianxian was momentarily stunned, stopping in place and looking around.
The old and dilapidated road was covered with fallen leaves and dust, cracked in winding paths, steaming with fog, the front swallowed by darkness, leading to an endless abyss…
A rusty sign lay fallen by the roadside, the glass already shattered, notices posted on it became twisted and blurred under the rain’s soaking…
On both sides of the road, untended vegetation grew wildly, shadows intertwining to outline a bizarre scene, giving the impression that something was hidden in the dark.
The entire main road of Gate Four seemed to have been intercepted by some force, sealed in a strange space far from the mortal realm.
Sound also seemed to have been swallowed by that force, leaving only the faint sound of cold wind passing by.
Zhipianxian saw the same scenery in every direction.
Whether he turned left or right, moved forward or backward, the sight before him failed to change even a little.
Strange shadows flickered in and out of the thick fog.
That sensation was akin to walking home at night when suddenly a bizarre thick mist envelops you, causing you to lose your direction amidst it.
At that moment, a sneaky sound echoed down the empty, silent road.
“Tap—tap—!”
The eerie sounds resembled footsteps, quick and light, seemingly stepping on some slippery, viscous substance.
It sounded as if something wrapped in thick, sticky bl**d was scuttling quickly.
“Tap—tap—!”
Zhipianxian looked in the direction of the sounds.
He saw small bloody handprints and dragged crimson trails appearing from the darkness, coming closer and closer.
Zhipianxian instinctively shuddered, feeling as if someone was pricking his scalp with countless fine needles.
He dared not linger or act rashly, only awkwardly retreating step by step, but the emerging bloody handprints were approaching at a rapid pace, and in the blink of an eye, they reached his side.
Then…
They crawled onto the back of his foot and gradually climbed up his body.
Was it that ghost infant just now?!
Although Zhipianxian could not see the ghost infant’s figure, he could clearly feel something ice-cold, exuding a foul odor, crawling on his body, leaving behind bloody handprints.
He instinctively wanted to resist.
However, even though he had awakened his self-awareness and experienced some subtle changes, in terms of spirit energy fluctuation levels, he might not even compare to the little urban legends residing at Luxianbei’s home.
He was too weak; his physical abilities were somewhat stronger than an average person, but that was only enough to show off on a soccer field. Faced with a ghost infant whose spirit energy fluctuation level had reached C+, almost advancing to B-, he was utterly helpless.
Every inch of muscle, every drop of bl**d where the ghost infant passed felt as if it had been frozen, losing any sensation.
Soon, a stream of unintelligible babbling and a voice slicing through the soul rang in Zhipianxian’s ears.
“Yiya, gaga!”
In the next moment, a small hand, covered in sores and dark purple, quietly reached from behind, gently pressed against Zhipianxian’s cheek, making his shoulder feel as if something had suddenly weightily landed on it, slightly sinking.
Cold, as if falling into an ice cellar.
The bone-chilling cold emanated from that small hand, he turned his stiff neck to look at his shoulder, and saw a pair of pale eyes exaggeratedly bulging out, wrapped in bloodshot membranes.
As their eyes met, he felt a tightness in his chest, his breath momentarily choking.
It was as if he had been suddenly thrown into deep water, heavy currents pressing in from all directions.
Faintly, Zhipianxian heard a strange whisper, and the surroundings rippled with layers of illusory light, boundless and endless.
The colors of the ripple light were chaotic, resembling the light forming waves on the sea as a rainbow reflects in it.
Like a hallucination, through the ripples, Zhipianxian saw countless figures crowding around him, casting indifferent gazes.
These figures included men, women, old people, and children, but more were shapes that could not be specifically described, familiar yet nameless with twisted outlines.
Immediately after, the voice that had awakened Zhipianxian appeared in his ears again.
“Do you see? She won’t let you go…”
“She will capture you, imprison you first, then destroy you, leaving only a pile of paper pulp…”
“Shut up!” Zhipianxian roared hysterically, trying to interrupt the voice.
Yet the voice showed no signs of stopping, becoming increasingly intense and shrill.
“Everyone, all the urban legends will help her, while the only one who can help you is me…”
“She is a monster, the most terrifying monster in this world…”
Zhipianxian’s head grew more and more muddled, feeling his thoughts boiling like boiling water, his brain churning and bubbling, as if at any moment it would break through the constraints of his skull.
“Thud—!”
He fell to the ground, his body convulsing and struggling like a soft-bodied creature that had landed in a boiling pot of oil.
“Sizzle—!”
In a frenzied state, he grabbed a handful of his hair from the top of his head, black strands falling to the ground, turning into pieces of paper shavings.
However, this action did not alleviate the pain within his head that felt like it would explode—pain, irritability, madness, despair, all kinds of negative emotions swarmed like a horde of bugs, crawling over his thoughts.
Is that guy torturing me? Because I defied her… Under such extreme suffering, the thought flashed through Zhipianxian’s mind.
Then he heard that voice in his ear say to him, “That’s right, you went against her will and did things she doesn’t like, so she needs to punish you, making you wish you were dead!”
“But I can help you…”
Zhipianxian froze for a moment, his voice trembling as he asked, “Help me? How can you help?”
As soon as he voiced that, he suddenly woke up; the previously deep-rooted pain seemed to have never existed.
“Become just like her, become a terrifying monster…” Zhipianxian heard the voice say to him.
————
Huacheng University, on the main road of Gate Four.
“Baby” flew around Zhipianxian, and a swirling mist with a faint red glow spread out from its small body.
Zhipianxian found himself in the middle of it, as if enchanted, spinning in place repeatedly, eventually weakly collapsing to the ground, revealing his original form.
A paper figure made of yellow paper and bamboo strips, its facial features resembling those of Luxianbei in human form, with hollow, lifeless eyes and a drop of Luxianbei’s bl**d leaving a red mark on its forehead.
What Baby used was its innate ability, [Evil Spirit Mist], which it had also used once on Luxianbei before.
It was an innate ability that influenced the target’s consciousness through spirit energy fluctuations, creating illusions. Many evil spirit types of urban legends possess similar abilities.
Previously, there was a more colloquial term for these similar abilities—ghost blocking the way.
Although ghost blocking the way had limited lethality, it was highly effective for trapping a specific target.
It is said that some high-level evil spirit types of urban legends can even directly create realms of ghostly domains that are just a step below the God Realm.
Lin Yiqi watched from the side, a slight frown appearing on her brow as Zhipianxian was toyed with in Baby’s grasp.
Why was this fake junior brother so fragile? After just a few moments, he couldn’t handle it…
Should I let Baby ease up a bit?
Otherwise, if I accidentally let him break, it might be difficult to explain to Calamity, Lin Yiqi thought.
She was not overly ambitious; she just wanted to stay in Huacheng. If possible, she even didn’t want to leave University City, where there were thousands of college students at several universities.
These young people, whose minds had not fully matured, were easily stirred by emotions of jealousy and anger, which provided a great source of spirit energy for her and Baby.
In fact, she had already planned; once she graduated from Huacheng University, she would use some little tricks to change her appearance and start anew at the nearby finance or teacher’s university.
Since she wanted to stay in Huacheng for a long time, she couldn’t afford to offend the local overlord—Calamity.
Moreover, she had long understood what happened when one offended Calamity.
Even Jumeng couldn’t deal with her; Zigu had given up on the Hundred Demons Walk in Huacheng because of her. What more could I achieve? Lin Yiqi thought.
While she was pondering, she suddenly heard a few crisp sounds.
The crisp sound was like dried paper cracking, after being soaked and then dried, breaking apart under external force.
Lin Yiqi looked towards Zhipianxian, only to see cracks appearing on his pale body at some unknown point, and from the jagged seams, some viscous substance glowing faintly was churning, its colors chaotic, a disconcerting spirit energy fluctuation spreading out.
What’s going on? That Zhipianxian seems a bit off?
Seeing that, Lin Yiqi’s expression changed slightly, and she hurriedly called out, “Baby, come back!”
She sensed that Zhipianxian was undergoing some change and wanted to summon Baby back, but by the time she made her call, it was too late.
Zhipianxian’s body suddenly erupted with a blinding light.
The chaotic and magnificent radiance seemed like an explosion of a rainbow.
In the dazzling brilliance, Baby let out a cry of despair, “Yiya!” Its bloody, mangled body flew through the air in an arc, “Bang!” It collided with a nearby lamp post, exploding into a cloud of bl**d mist.
Although the ghost infant was an evil spirit type of urban legend and the destruction of its physical form wasn’t considered a fatal injury, the difficulty of condensing its physical form led to a series of chain reactions.
With Baby’s disappearance, Lin Yiqi instantly felt a heart-wrenching pang in her abdomen, a streak of crimson slowly sliding down from the corner of her mouth.
Before she could collect herself, she heard a roar erupting ahead.
“Boom—!”
A rumble resounded as a vague pink figure surged out from the still lingering mist, swiftly approaching Lin Yiqi, extending its palm and grabbing her forehead, “Bang!” pushing her to the ground, half of her body sinking into the hard ground, carving out a deep fissure.
A painful sensation akin to a skull fracture struck, spinning her world around. Lin Yiqi finally saw the face of that thing.
It was a monster covered in pink fur…
