Chapter Sixty-Seven: Knight [4K]
Here is Changlekou Station, a secret passage leading to the vast network of air raid shelters beneath Shancheng.
It is rumored that during the construction of the subway lines in Shancheng, there were attempts to convert the air raid shelters into subway tunnels. However, due to some unknown reasons, the relevant authorities had to abandon the original renovation plan.
Yet, although the initial renovation plan was halted, the legends surrounding these abandoned subway lines have never ceased, with urban legend incidents of people getting lost or witnessing tunnel entrances happening frequently.
At this moment, in the endless, lengthy tunnel, a nauseating stench of decay fills the air.
A faint glow filters in from an unknown source, illuminating the ground, which is cracked and covered with mold and shadowy moss, with distorted and rusted tracks interspersed, pointing to a train car lying in darkness.
In the dark, shadowy figures march in groups along the tunnel.
They softly chant a song, as if calling for something or perhaps offering some kind of warning.
“The eyes that hide the sky, silently oversee
Chocolate-colored shrouds draped over the city and harbor
Terrified howls, charred churches, bloodstained palace walls, plagues driving wedding cars to the graveyard.”
All their voices blend together, forming a dissonant drone that echoes in the eerie darkness, continually startling fragments of sound that flee away as if in a panic.
Zhang Yu, hidden among the crowd, is doing his best to wield spirit energy to resist the power contained within that song.
He closes his eyes, sealing off his hearing, relying solely on his spiritual sense to judge the direction to proceed.
However, the song penetrates through the painting in his hand, like a bloodthirsty worm, “tearing” into Zhang Yu’s flesh, crawling along his bones, until it burrows into his head, gnawing at his nerves.
In fact, when he first sensed the strange power emanating from the painting, he had an opportunity to immediately sever its influence.
However, upon discovering the location of the ritual being held and preparing to notify Maima to contact the Siye Society, he found that all communication methods had already failed. He then decided to endure the corrosion of that strange power.
Evacuating the subway station and trying to reach Maima or the Siye Society would surely be too late to stop the ritual.
Therefore, he must attempt to halt the ritual, even at the cost of his life, no matter how much he could delay its progress! This was the belief that supported Zhang Yu’s decision.
As time passed, the corrosion intensified, his eyes gradually hollowed, and his expression became numb. He felt as if he were being sucked into a vortex of chaos, with space and time distorting in this whirlpool, presenting bizarre and grotesque illusions before him.
For a moment, he even forgot who he was, forgot the existence of the real world, and forgot that the only strong belief remaining was the intense idea of “I must stop the ritual,” which brought him weak rationality, driving his body deeper toward the altar below.
Until a piercing scream suddenly stabbed through his eardrum.
Amid the scream, Zhang Yu regained consciousness, and a glimmer of light flickered in his hollow eyes.
Seizing the fleeting clarity of his awareness, he quickly discarded the painting in his hand, which seemed to carry a terrible curse.
With the painting hitting the ground, the song that had been affecting his mind abruptly stopped.
Looking ahead, a hellish silhouette emerged before him, and his pupils trembled violently.
In the silent, empty underground space, only a few dim ceiling lights cast light over an ominous altar and a massive statue.
A hauntingly alluring female form merged with grotesquely twisted flesh tumors, exuding a strange aura that Zhang Yu had seen before, in the underground of Han Ye Studio.
He had even killed a few humans affected by the statue’s eerie power there, witnessing their corpses quickly decay into repugnant rotten flesh.
Unlike the statue in the underground of Han Ye Studio, however, this statue oozed dark red substances from its cracks, resembling hair soaked in bl**d, spreading in all directions.
Layer upon layer, it spread through the dark, deep tunnels, as if to cover the entire city, corroding every inch of land, causing everything that came into contact with it to gradually become hellish.
In front of the statue, there were two altars carved from rock, one large and one small; the larger resembled a wine cup, while the smaller looked like a porcelain bowl, both arranged side by side with intricate inscriptions engraved within.
A figure knelt before the altar, holding up an oil painting, continuously emitting incomprehensible, high-pitched throat sounds.
With a body as shriveled and twisted as a mummy, skin a waxy yellow streaked with dark spots, and scarred with ghastly wounds from countless surgeries trying to battle against illness, that figure was none other than the host of this ritual, Zhang Shuisheng.
As Zhang Shuisheng chanted the incantations that drove the ritual’s operation, twisted fanatics raised their hands at the altar’s edge, completing their final “pilgrimage.”
They raved and babbled madly, using their blades, or the metals picked up on their way here, or sharp stones smeared with filth, to tear open their bodies, casting their twisted tissues, due to malignant tumors, into the altar with reverent expressions.
It seemed they were completely unaware that their lives, and even their souls, were becoming someone else’s feast.
Thus, the twisted tissues in the “bowl” piled up like a mountain, the hot bl**d staining the “wine cup.”
Looking at the altar, resembling a wicked god’s dining table, Zhang Yu took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to vomit, and stealthily drew a spirit energy firearm from beneath his coat, aiming it at Zhang Shuisheng’s back, decisively pulling the trigger.
“d*e, old beast!”
“Bang—!”
The gunshot suddenly erupted, and inside the chamber, a ruthless brightness, like the scorching sun, ignited.
The spirit energy firearm, wielded by a legendary urban legend hunter, magnified the power of the alchemical b*llet by more than ten times. As the alchemical b*llet exploded, a heatwave surged, expanding in all directions.
Sparks exploded around the altar, igniting countless bright spots on the dark red “carpet,” like dazzling stars.
Glaring at Zhang Shuisheng’s body enveloped in flames without any hesitation, Zhang Yu pulled the trigger again.
“Bang—!”
Accompanied by the gunshot, the alchemical b*llet shot out, dividing into dozens of pieces in the blink of an eye.
“Pop, pop, pop—!”
Under the torrential rain of alchemical bullets, the insane fanatics, looking like shambling corpses and attempting to approach the altar, instantly transformed into blobs of bl**d-soaked slime, splattering everywhere, leaving a grievous sight.
The acrid smell of gunpowder instantly pervaded the air.
Zhang Yu fired twice more, and the powerful alchemical bullets easily shattered the back of Zhang Shuisheng’s head and his chest.
Half of his skull vanished, his disheveled white hair dyed red with bl**d, and his hollow chest appeared to have a chunk of heart chewed out, having already stopped beating.
However, he did not fall down; instead, he twisted his body, stiffly standing up and turning to face Zhang Yu, his remaining half of the lips struggling to part.
“You ignorant thing,”
Just as he was about to say more, a smile filled with affection suddenly appeared at the charred corners of Zhang Shuisheng’s mouth.
“But my lord is merciful; the Pool will forgive your reckless actions. Accept my lord’s grace and embrace the only salvation in this world!”
“Embrace the only salvation!”
In the empty underground space, all the fanatics cried out in unified chorus, their voices merging into a deafening roar.
The evil sacrifice momentarily paused as the hunt for heretics began.
With the chanting, an unsettling bloodlight shimmered over the eerie statue, and bathed in the bloodlight, those fanatics twitched and collided together, with countless deformed limbs extending from their bodies.
Such twisted forms resembled beasts more than humans.
Following that, a wave of filthy, unclean spirit energy surged like a tsunami, crashing over Zhang Yu’s body and flooding into him.
In a daze, rotting creations, dead cities, and devastated lands filled with holes appeared before his eyes.
The next moment, a sharp pain shot from his lower leg.
Zhang Yu abruptly looked down, only to see a bl**d-drenched figure crawling at his feet, a hand that seemed immensely powerful and continuously wriggling, clutching tightly onto his ankle.
As if trying to crush his bones.
In the brief silence, Zhang Yu lowered his arm and aimed the g*n at the figure’s head, pulling the trigger, and then accompanied by the gunshot, began to chant the power description of spirit patterns.
“When the battle rages, the sword will swing tirelessly, its edge stained with foul bl**d; when the ivory horn sounds, reinforcements arrive on horseback, filling the valleys and covering the mountaintops, their figures scattered across the wild plains.”
[Heroic Spirit-Type Spirit Pattern. Roland’s Horn] Activated!
Summoning “Vehicle.”
As the waves of spirit energy swirled and spread, a pitch-black Kawasaki Z1000SX materialized from the void, stopping beside Zhang Yu.
“The only salvation to go, I don’t need anything like that!”
He roared, his body leaping forward, firmly landing on the speeding motorcycle as if merging into it.
The engine roared.
In the next moment, he charged forward like a knight on horseback, crushing the twisted forms trying to get close.
As a spirit ability user possessing the legendary Twelve Holy Knights’ related spirit patterns, he can maximize his power when riding a vehicle.
With piercing howls, dozens of twisted bl**d shadows lunged at him from all directions.
Zhang Yu blankly watched the approaching bl**d shadows, his left hand controlling the motorcycle, spinning sharply, while his right hand drew out a shotgun-shaped spirit energy item from beneath his coat, aimed into the air, and pulled the trigger continuously.
“Bang—bang—bang—!”
The roaring erupted, blinding light filled the sky, and the approaching bl**d shadows in midair exploded into a cloud of bl**d mist.
But in the next moment, a reckless fanatic, undaunted by d*ath, dashed through the bl**d mist and lunged at him, shredding his vehicle.
The explosion followed, sending flames into the sky.
Zhang Yu, with his right shoulder a bloody mess, leaped out from the fire, and in the instant he landed, a new vehicle reformed around him.
Thus, the charge continued, bl**d and fire intertwined, explosions and screams mingled, with flesh and bones paving the way.
Finally, the bl**d-soaked “knight” arrived beside the wicked statue.
On the other side, above Shancheng.
“Actually, it’s fine to tell you.”
After a brief hesitation, the Haze God made a response that Luxianbei didn’t expect.
She had thought such a personal question would at least require some extraordinary means to get the Haze God to cooperate, but she didn’t anticipate the Haze God to be so forthright.
“Even if I don’t tell you, the moment you become a calamity, you will know.”
Though having talent doesn’t mean one can necessarily ascend to Calamity Grade, the Haze God felt that Luxianbei’s talent and growth rate made her possibility of progressing to Calamity much higher than that of most urban legends.
“What nonsense? Just wait until I advance to Calamity Grade to know?” Luxianbei whispered to Jumeng, “Stinky little sis, is there any special process when advancing to Calamity Grade?”
Jumeng pondered for a moment and replied earnestly, “I wouldn’t know about these things; from a certain point of view, Sister Me has been at Calamity Grade since the day I was born, having never gone through an ascension.”
Luxianbei, “d*mn, suddenly really want to punch her twice!”
As she was thinking, the next moment, the Haze God’s words jolted her spirit.
“Years ago, I remember it was around ’90? At that time, the entire world was almost under my power, every city with modern factories had my followers.”
“But on the very day my power reached its peak, I vaguely saw a twisted, bizarre, giant figure looming like a mountain.”
“And then?” Luxianbei urged impatiently, “Did you fight it?”
She recalled that car accident and the terrifying scene glimpsed through Wang Ying’s memories.
Noticing Luxianbei’s unusual reaction, Jumeng glanced at her secretly but said nothing.
“Fight?” The Haze God forced a smile, “You have no idea how terrifying that thing is! You know, I initially thought I was strong, but when facing that figure, I felt an almost power-shaking fear.”
“Since that day, that shadow has haunted my mind like a nightmare. It was also from that day that the part of my power that causes cancer began to uncontrollably strengthen rapidly.”
“As this part of my power grew stronger, I gradually glimpsed at my ultimate fate. The fate of being devoured by my offspring.”
It sounded unintentionally like being forced to be a surrogate mother, Luxianbei internally complained but didn’t interrupt the Haze God.
“But how could I easily accept my fate? To avoid being devoured, I prepared a human body as a vessel for its descent, using the body’s limitations to weaken the offspring’s powers.”
“I created the Hundred Demons Walk and increased my followers, constantly strengthening my powers.”
“In fact, to delay the enhancement of the cancerous portion of my power, I even hinted to my followers to engage in the environmental protection cause that I once despised. At first, everything was going smoothly until…”
“Until what?” Luxianbei instinctively pressed on.
The Haze God’s expression darkened, glaring at her fiercely for a few seconds before gritting her teeth, “Until you and another urban legend appeared, my plan began to uncontrollably unravel. I tried to salvage it but to little effect, as if some mysterious force was preventing me.”
Luxianbei,
You mean it’s my fault?
Trying to shift the blame, huh!?
This definitely doesn’t have much to do with me; the other urban legend is probably the main culprit!
(QAQ, I wanted to write more, but as everyone knows, I’m not good at writing battles. This battle segment stalled me, and I could only do a normal update. I’m very sorry!)
(Here’s the supplement for yesterday’s cliffhanger!)
