Chapter 27: Thanks to the Dense Fog
The moment Lin Kule saw the strange woman, her heart skipped a beat, and she instinctively held her breath, afraid to make any sound, as if doing so would make the woman unable to perceive her presence.
In this dim underground space, the two of them silently stared at each other for a few seconds, and then the woman slowly stood up.
For someone who was lying on the ground, standing up was a completely normal action, but to Lin Kule, it inexplicably evoked a sense of eerie discomfort.
Accompanied by the crunching sounds of her bones shifting, her rising movements exuded an air of discord, as rigid as if every joint were nailed with steel.
It was as if she should be some kind of being that could not stand upright at all, but was being forcibly controlled to do so by some power.
This forced action brought her immense pain, and her already grotesque face twisted even further, her cracked and rotting lips parted as a ghastly low growl emerged, pus and bl**d oozing from the corners of her mouth.
Watching such a scene, Lin Kule felt a tingling sensation rise from her toes, as if she were being electrocuted, spreading up her spine and causing her brain to momentarily go blank until—
Until the woman grasped the handle of the dilapidated iron door, she finally realized what the woman wanted to do here. However, before she could react, the woman heavily slammed the door shut.
“Bang!”
The sound of the door closing hit Lin Kule in the back of her head like a heavy hammer, jolting her awake as she rushed forward. “Wait, what are you doing?”
“Did you record those audio messages?” “Don’t go, I can help you, I…”
“Clank――click――!” After the sound of chains moving and metal clashing, there was a faint sound of locking.
As soon as the locking sound resonated, Lin Kule’s voice abruptly stopped, and the vast enclosed space fell into a stifling silence, various unpleasant thoughts surging in her mind like a tidal wave breaking free.
Perhaps I ended up here because that strange woman drove me here. Many wild beasts in nature also have the habit of driving their prey to specific locations for hunting.
So now she’s locking me in here to—
No, I need to get out of here quickly. Although there are only corpses and that strange statue, who knows what will happen if I stay here for too long.
After standing in the dead silence for a moment, Lin Kule jogged towards the iron door, ready to unleash her spell formula to break it down. Although her command of spell formulas was poor, that rusty iron door was even worse than her skills.
She even thought that if she had trained more in physical techniques during her training sessions, she could probably break the door down with her bare hands now. “High peaks, withered trees, dark clouds…”
As Lin Kule chanted the spell formula, just as her incantation faltered, she suddenly heard faint human voices behind her, causing her chant to be interrupted.
At the first moment she heard those faint voices, she thought she was experiencing tinnitus due to her fright, but after a few breaths, the voices gradually became stronger.
At the same time, she felt a powerful spirit energy fluctuation suddenly descend upon the enclosed space, filling it with a stifling and morbid atmosphere.
Her intuition told Lin Kule that a terrifying urban legend had been lurking here, merely having temporarily left moments ago. Now, with the door closing, it had detected the scent of “food” and returned to its dining table.
As the terrifying spirit energy fluctuation descended, and the sound of what seemed to be a secret ritual prayer intensified, the viscous substances clinging to the corpses beneath the statue began to stir, as if they had come to life.
They resembled a bizarre, grotesque procession, writhing and crawling up the platform, adhering to the lower half of the twisted statue as if being absorbed by it, slowly merging into the figure.
With more and more viscous material merging into the statue, small cracks began to appear on its surface, gradually widening. “Drip!”
As if intentionally syncing with the eerie and chilling scene, the recording, which had been absent for some time, suddenly resumed. “On April 12, with the police mediating, I finally freed myself from that damned boss and that damned job.
I never expected he had secretly made a key to my place; I don’t know how many perverse things he did before I found out. In retrospect, I still feel a chill.
Strangely enough, the police searched the entire studio but couldn’t find the entrance to the underground. How could it be missing?
Forget it, I’m leaving this city today; I haven’t decided where to go. This is probably the last time of my life; I’ll take it as it comes.
Find a quiet place and leave quietly.”
“Drip!”
“On April 13, I was planning to give up on recording, but yesterday at the budget hotel near the train station, I encountered some strange happenings that made me feel like the situation isn’t over.
In the early morning, I kept hearing noises of people moving in the hallway. I didn’t dare to open the door, worried it was my boss. Though he should still be detained…
I called the hotel staff, but when they checked the hallway, they reported that there was no one there.
With the confirmation from the hotel workers, I felt a bit more at ease, went back to sleep, and then had a very strange dream. In the dream, I saw a massive shadow appear at my window, and I heard voices calling my name. Many voices.
I had never heard those voices before; they were calling me to return, to that terrible studio.
When I woke up from the dream, I found I had somehow left the hotel and was standing by the roadside, facing south, towards the direction of the studio.”
“Drip!”
“On May 2, today I’m in a good mood, came out to relax. The moon is beautiful, and everyone is very friendly.
The boss said that the first prize of this event can win a mysterious grand prize. Thank you…
At this point, the woman’s voice in the recording clearly hesitated, but soon her hesitating voice was drowned out by the cheers of the crowd.
“Thanks to the dense fog beneath, our king!”
The recording had many people shouting loudly, and amidst the rising calls, a woman’s desperate wail could vaguely be heard.
Then…
That desperate cry gradually weakened, as if it were swallowed by those cheers, turning into a faint but clear—”Thank you, dense fog, thank you, plague, thank you, our king!”
Looking at the eerie transformation of the statue before her, and listening to the recording that was oppressively intense, Lin Kule’s sense of fear reached an all-time high in her life.
Just when she thought she could take no more, disregarding her pride, she pulled out the Gray Owl Badge, ready to ask her companions for help, but reality struck her hard.
“Bang—bang—bang—!”
The banging on the door sounded, each impact hitting Lin Kule in the chest like a shock.
The already old and decaying iron door creaked with the sound of metal twisting that made her teeth ache. Something terrible was about to come in.
Coupled with the strong smell of bl**d accompanying the banging and the red light streaming through the gaps created by the door’s damage, Lin Kule felt that outside the door, a mountain of corpses and a sea of bl**d surged.
It’s over, this time I’m doomed.
Two terrifying urban legends were about to unleash a brutal battle here, and by coincidence, I stood in the center of their battleground.
Thinking of this, Lin Kule trembled, and at that moment, the decaying iron door finally fulfilled its final mission, with a loud crash and brilliant flames, it was ripped off like torn cardboard and lifted into the air.
Thick smoke enveloped the area, fierce winds swept through, extinguishing the flickering candlelights overhead, and the vast enclosed space was instantly consumed by darkness.
In the dark, eerie orbs of light manifested, as if some colossal creature capable of filling the entire underground tunnel had opened its eyes, revealing its long teeth that glowed red.
As the giant beast opened its eyes in the darkness, a piercing sound split the air. “Swish—swish—!”
Several high-speed moving white figures, like gliding birds, pierced through the thick smoke and entered Lin Kule’s field of vision, brushing past her body, flying towards the eerie statue, scattering a trail of light and triggering a violent explosion.
The strange statue disintegrated amidst the explosive flames, bursting forth like a shell, revealing the urban legend that had been hiding within it.
In the dark, a massive silhouette rapidly expanded, growing larger and larger, filthy flesh twisting and rolling as if a stormy thundercloud was writhing, bringing a painful spirit energy fluctuation.
That energy fluctuation was permeated with fear of d*ath, helplessness against physical decline, and numbness from long-standing illness.
Lin Kule had never witnessed such an urban legend; her legs trembled uncontrollably while confronting it was an evil spirit energy that was even more pure.
The dense and suffocating spirit energy fluctuation descended, chilling her to her core, causing a layer of frost to form in the enclosed space.
“What a guy! If this thing were to be cooked, it should make a top-notch hell on earth, right? I wonder if Boss Hu would accept such ingredients.”
After a mocking remark filled with sarcasm, a bloated yet remarkably nimble figure burst forth from behind the iron door, raising a massive sword that shimmered with red light, and met the continually writhing flesh of the urban legend, executing a clean and decisive downward strike.
“Thud!”
With a dull thud signaling the shattering of flesh, the giant sword sank completely into the twisted body of the urban legend. Only then did Lin Kule see clearly that it was a witch species urban legend clad in heavy armor, wielding a giant sword?!
Although the figure looked like an onion knight, Lin Kule’s intuition told her that it matched the description of a witch species urban legend found in “The Book of Siye,” which was characterized by cunning, seduction, and allure.
While she was momentarily dazed, the witch species urban legend crossed her hands, tightly gripping the sword, somewhat awkwardly wielding the giant sword technique she had recently familiarized herself with, unleashing a violent wave of air that surged from the sword’s edge.
【Taihe Gentleman Sword Transformed into the Violent Mountain Gale】!
In an instant, a devastating tempest of crimson energy filled with a sense of annihilation rushed through the twisted body of the urban legend, enveloping every inch of its flesh in d*ath.
“Roar!”
The threat of d*ath forced the twisted urban legend to emit a low growl of desperation, and in its dying struggle, countless swollen and malformed tentacles whipped against the witch species urban legend’s armor, resulting in a series of desperate thuds.
“Clang—clang—clang—!”
Moments later, as her tense nerves slightly relaxed, Lin Kule once again had a flash of insight.
Her intuition told her she was safe.
And in that instant of rising intuition, she felt as if she had been drained of all her energy, lightweight, and fell backwards.
In the last few seconds before losing consciousness, the scene she witnessed was that of the witch species urban legend employing at least three different methods to thwart the swelling body of the twisted urban legend from rapidly healing.
Witnessing that somewhat absurd scene, Lin Kule recalled a saying— the best defense is offense.
And that witch species urban legend proved to her through action that conversely, extreme defense is also an excellent offense.
During the fray, when one side could not break through the defenses of the other, the struggle would turn into a one-sided slaughter—
At 3:07 AM, at the entrance of the alley at Seven Star Hill.
“I originally thought I caught the main culprit; I didn’t expect it was just an inconsequential clone.” Luxianbei complained to Jiang Li, “Clearly only at the level of an elite monster, yet it occupies a boss room…”
“What a cr*p-tier level design!”
Looking at the terrifying creature that also had a strong spirit energy fluctuation, yet lacked the core of the urban legend, it could only be a clone, right? “Don’t be greedy after receiving a bargain.” Jiang Li shot Luxianbei a glare, “If you really ran into X Tian Shenzi…”
She intended to say that Luxianbei would not hesitate to flee, but upon thinking of Luxianbei’s current combat power, as well as her astonishing defensive armor, she was uncertain whether Luxianbei would resort to fleeing like that.
After a pause, she shifted the topic, “However, even if it’s just a clone, we did gain a lot of clues this time.”
As she spoke, she raised the voice recorder she had found on the strange woman, “From the content of this recording, there are many followers worshiping X Tian Shenzi, definitely more than just that missing painter. Similar cruel rituals could very well be taking place somewhere in Shancheng right now.”
Surrounding that altar, they only found a dozen corpses, yet the cheers in the recording did not sound like they could come from merely a dozen people.
To produce such an extent of cheer, at least hundreds of people would be needed!
Luxianbei gazed at the voice recorder, recalling the recording’s content, and the scene when they pursued the strange woman to the gate of the evil altar, where the woman handed over the voice recorder to them, and then forcibly tore open her own body, exposing her diseased organs, fell into a heavy silence.
She had never experienced such a severe “illness,” and it was hard to imagine the level of suffering one must endure to prefer the pain of tearing their own body apart over continuing to suffer from illness.
What was even more terrifying was that the woman, clearly in a terminal state, with tumors throughout her spine causing her so much pain she could only crawl on all fours, somehow managed to endure until just moments ago.
After a long while, Luxianbei snapped back to reality, letting out a silent sigh, “It’s a pity we couldn’t find those three paintings. If we could find those three pieces, we might uncover even more clues.”
“Maybe they were taken by that painter’s accomplices.” Jiang Li reassured, “Honestly, there’s no need to feel too regretful. The account book of that painter found on-site is also a very useful clue.”
Hearing this, Luxianbei nodded in agreement.
Normal people, who in their right mind would buy those bizarre and strange paintings?
Those who would buy paintings from the painter probably had issues—investigating them shouldn’t go wrong!
After muttering a few complaints in her mind, Luxianbei turned to Jiang Li, opened her mouth to say something, and suddenly noticed Jiang Li furrowing her brows slightly, taking out the Gray Owl Badge from her pocket, and gently shaking it in front of her.
“They’re coming so soon? The Shancheng Siye Society operates too efficiently, don’t they?” Luxianbei grumbled unhappily, glancing at Lin Kule lying on the ground, “What will happen to her? Will she—”
“Don’t worry.” Jiang Li said, “With me around, she won’t disclose your situation.” “Is it really that reliable?”
“Her relationship with me is about the same as yours with that person from the Peach Source.” Jiang Li said expressionlessly. Ah? Does she also want to sleep with you? “Luxianbei blurted out.
Jiang Li, “???”
Watching her expression grow colder and feeling the ominous “d*ath” word subtly rising over her head, Luxianbei felt it was really time for her to leave—
At 3:15 AM, Dorethea pushed open the door to Zhang Yu’s office on the second floor of CHARMCLUB.
After parting ways with Luxianbei, she didn’t immediately return to the Solar Eclipse Society base as Luxianbei had advised. Instead, she lingered leisurely around Jiujie like a reluctant school child after school, tasting various delicacies before finally returning here.
Pushing open the door and entering the office, Dorethea did not see Zhang Yu at first; all that greeted her was an empty desk. Is he not here? Has he already left?
Just as she felt puzzled, she vaguely heard whispers coming from behind the bookshelf in the office. “Those three paintings have already…”
“Absolutely must not fail.”
“It’s fine, it’s just a minor hiccup; if it comes to it, k*ll him.”
Soon, the intermittent whispers fell into silence.
“Thud!”
A thick book fell from the bookshelf. “Thud, thud, thud!”
Accompanied by surging spirit energy fluctuations, more books fell from the shelves, orderly forming a staircase, and soon Zhang Yu appeared before her, climbing up towards a hidden space behind the bookshelf.
“When did you come back?” Zhang Yu assessed Dorethea as he questioned.
“Just, just now.”
Zhang Yu nodded noncommittally, “Well, since you’re back, let someone take you to rest, you must be tired too.”
Dorethea hesitated for a moment; she wanted to ask Zhang Yu who he was talking about when he mentioned killing someone, but before she could speak, she suddenly remembered her teacher’s patient teaching and nodded, turning to leave the office.
“Don’t be overly concerned with matters unrelated to you,” Luxianbei had told her.
