Chapter 65: Blood and Slaughter
Entering the Black Sphere where the city was enveloped in darkness, it felt even darker than the sky of Black Street.
This was primarily because the roads, buildings, and even the streetlights were covered in a black, soil-like substance. Stepping on it felt sticky, as if one had entered the body of some living creature.
Not a single sound of human voices could be heard nearby. Everywhere I looked, there were monsters I had only seen in videos.
These monsters didn’t wander around aimlessly, but rather crouched in place, as if waiting for something. Rope-like limbs wriggled, fanning out across the ground like a spiderweb. Each one was spaced a certain distance apart, as if waiting for prey to enter their trap.
These monsters were completely beyond reality and fantasy, like Alien Creatures. Even if one saw them, they wouldn’t want to approach them, let alone initiate a conversation. I hid beside a newsstand, looking at the monster closest to me.
Squinting, I could barely make out its blurry title.
[Child of Darkness]
[■■■]
Child of Darkness… I feel like I’ve heard that somewhere before.
But I can’t recall where I saw it for now. A name with such chuunibyo vibes might have appeared in some manga or novel.
And since they are called “child,” does that mean their “mother” is Kaoru?
Ugh, I feel like something is off here.
In any case, she definitely wouldn’t do something like this intentionally. I already have a plan in mind on how to bring her back. Perhaps this bottle of Yi Shui is the key.
She chose this timing to give me this bottle of Yi Shui for a reason.
She didn’t tell me how to use it, perhaps because she didn’t know how herself. Just like how she saved Kuuga last time, she might have been acting on a request from my past self. As for how to use it… that’s a decision only I can make. It’s essentially a multiple-choice question with only two options.
① Give it to Kaoru to drink.
② Drink it myself.
Perhaps if I give her this bottle of Yi Shui, it will help her recall her missing memories and she can recover.
Of course, there’s also the possibility of drinking it myself, and then I could awaken my past life’s memories.
Gain an overpoweringly strong cheat, instantly transform into an omnipotent being, gain the supreme power to control samsara, and restore everything to how it was. What a joke.
Even I don’t believe that.
If it were really a script like that, I’d kill myself on the spot! And again… after all this time.
If I awaken my memories of my past life again, will I become like I was last time? It might even be worse. The remnants of my past life’s memories already felt like a demon possessing my mind, drastically changing my personality. If I recall everything… no… I’ll be completely replaced by my past self?
Killed by ‘myself.’
Honestly, I’m terrified of becoming like that.
So, I’ll keep this option on hold for now. I need to see Kaoru with my own eyes before making a decision.
If I really have no other choice, I… might have to do that.
I took out my phone and checked the location of the light spots. The three light spots were no longer far apart. The lone one should be Kaoru, and the other two are Zi’ai and Xueqing. They are still a distance from my current location, and traversing several hundred meters will be quite difficult.
The monsters before me are clearly not to be trifled with. Perhaps I should try using my spiritual pressure to command them. Knowing their titles is enough to issue commands.
However, as I imagined extending my body and spreading my spiritual power, I hit a wall.
My outward-reaching spiritual power collided with another net woven from spiritual power, and a sudden sharp pain struck my head, forcing me to my knees, pressing my forehead to the ground.
A net-like structure connected together, like a local area network! With such spiritual powers interconnected, they formed a web covering the entire sky. When a conflict occurred in one area, spiritual power would be transported and amplified by the nearest ‘node’!
This is truly a complete net… this place has indeed become a monster’s nest…
After my method of breaking through with spiritual power failed, I began to enter buildings, slowly approaching the light spots through the windows.
As I was stealthily avoiding the monsters and had reached within two hundred meters of the light spots. The three light spots finally converged.
Kaoru… I found Xueqing and the others!
But the current Kaoru wouldn’t be approaching them to protect them, that’s for sure!
Damn it! I need to hurry! Isn’t there any way that doesn’t involve going around… Suddenly, I saw a group of people fighting against the monsters in front of me! Being swept up by those flying tentacles… Damn, are there really such brave people?
No, wait, something’s not right! The way those people move is not human-like at all. They don’t even have any decent weapons. Some of them are even biting with their teeth… daring to bite those monsters’ mouths is too perverse…
But what is the meaning of such frantic behavior…
I opened a restroom window and observed with my naked eyes, finally seeing their titles.
Rows and rows of [Zombie] and [Ghoul]… Oh! So they are Undead!
So, Lianbing is still helping me. And there are zombies mixed in. Did Li Nai successfully persuade them?
In any case, this provides a breakthrough!
Without hesitation, I jumped out of the restroom window and sprinted forward. A few Children of Darkness nearby noticed me, and their tentacles slithered towards me like snakes at full speed!
They were much faster than me! If this continues, I’ll be caught before I can break through!
“Damn it… [Child of Darkness! Stop moving, all of you!]” I was forced to issue a command. The tentacles did indeed stop as if they had a cramp. However, my situation was also terrible. It was like killing a thousand enemies and injuring myself by eight hundred.
I felt like my head had been hit by a flower pot falling from the seventh floor. My nose suddenly felt warm, and the blood I spat out flowed into half of my mouth, filling it with a metallic taste.
My consciousness began to blur, but my body continued to run forward, utilizing all its physical functions to run at the fastest speed.
Finally reaching the location of the light spot on the map, my steps were already very unsteady, and I was about to lose my balance and fall. A figure ran over to support me and led me towards the shopping mall in front.
“Lord Juncheng!”
“…Yu Hui?”
“Yes! What are you doing in this place! Ah… Please wait a moment, I will get you out of here immediately!”
After resting for a while and feeling slightly recovered, I gently pushed Yu Hui’s hand away, wiping the blood from my nose with the back of my hand, and looked around.
It turned out that those tentacles were blocked by blue transparent light walls. Lily was also not far away, carrying someone on her back as she walked down the escalator.
Seeing me, she was first surprised, then ran down the escalator excitedly. In her haste, she almost fell, and one of her high heels dropped to the ground. Then she also kicked off the other high heel and ran towards me. And the person Lily was carrying was none other than Zi’ai.
Zi’ai seemed to have fainted. Lily had sustained a minor injury, but she seemed fine, just that her clothes were quite torn. Still, it was quite a view.
However, one person was missing.
I turned back and asked Yu Hui.
“…Where is Xueqing? Is she upstairs?”
The light spots on the map had overlapped. Kaoru and Xueqing are above us.
“…Yes, on the top floor. She stayed there to buy us time to escape.”
“Two best friends opposing each other, this is not what I wanted to see!”
“Then I’ll go up to find them. Yu Hui, you take Lily back…”
Yu Hui seemed to want to say something, but she already knew my personality very well. She knew that no matter what, she couldn’t persuade Juncheng in this situation, so she grit her teeth and ultimately said nothing.
But Lily, who had already reached my side, placed Zi’ai down from her back and grabbed my neck, yelling.
“What are you talking about! Why did you come here! Didn’t Ji Lianbing find you! Do you know how dangerous this place is!”
I know, that’s why I came.
“…Lan Hua must have sent you a report! Didn’t you read it!”
“…I only watched the video…”
“Alright, I’ll tell you now. Kaoru Tsukiyose has completely become something else! Some entity possessing her has taken over her soul, her body, her spirit! Everything has been taken over!”
“The ‘Black Goat’! The organization speculates that the entity possessing her is very likely that thing!”
“What? Black Goat?”
My mind, severely wounded, couldn’t think clearly. I couldn’t immediately recall what this “Black Goat” was.
“So, the hair, it’s a conduit… No, no… Maybe all the ghouls are her offspring. Yes… That’s right, it must be. There’s no mating, yet they have such a vast population. The number of ghouls is too unnatural. But if they reproduce like dandelions… Are the so-called three taboos actually rituals to summon that entity…?”
“Hey, I don’t understand…”
Yu Hui seemed to understand, a shocked expression on her face. Then she looked at me seriously and said,
“…If it is indeed that thing, it’s too dangerous. Lord Juncheng, I cannot let you go.”
“The current assessment is still A-class! But if the situation worsens, it could even become S-class… evolving into a world-ending threat.”
“I know, that’s why I’m going to stop her.”
“However, they won’t save Kaoru.”
The emergency notice earlier had already stated that Kaoru was a “cleansing target,” an “annihilation target.” The organization clearly had no intention of saving Kaoru in a gentle manner, but rather to kill her.
To release such a notice… Nana also agreed…
Lily was speechless, not knowing what to say to persuade me. Finally, she gritted her teeth and unreasonably yelled.
“I’m your teacher!”
“I’m still your Master.”
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“…In short, I forbid you to go!”
I shook my head. There was nothing more to say. I directly walked past Lily towards the escalator.
Lily grabbed my hand with all her might.
I continued to walk forward regardless.
“Juncheng…”
She actually started crying. She’s already an adult.
At a critical moment, Zi’ai woke up, clutching her bleeding abdomen, and said to me in a weak voice.
I looked back at Zi’ai. Our eyes met, but we were at a loss for words.
“…Ask him… I know his personality. He definitely has a way to save Kaoru Tsukiyose, that’s why he has to go.”
“What else can be done at this point?”
“Trust him.”
As expected, Zi’ai supports me, just like Li Nai, she chose to trust me.
“That’s right, trust me. I’ll come back, just like before.”
“…I will definitely save everyone.”
Such confidence was shattered into dust the moment I stepped onto the top floor.
What I saw was Kaoru hanging Xueqing in the air with her hair, her crimson eyes devoid of any emotion.
She ignored my arrival, and her hair, which was increasingly resembling a mouth, seemed about to pierce Xueqing.
Even Thought Acceleration couldn’t stop the sharp hair towards Xueqing. Xueqing’s chest was pierced, her heart was bitten to pieces, and blood and heart fragments splattered. But from that mouth, a white Sphere was taken.
This time, no one created a miracle for me. The duration of Thought Acceleration ended, and a frantic emotion surged from the depths of my heart, almost making me lose my sanity.
But there was no time to wail in sorrow. In the next second, a drastic change occurred.
The brutal hair grew longer and longer, eventually enveloping Kaoru herself. The hair retracted, writhed, and finally formed a cocoon-like shape. This state didn’t last long. Just a few seconds later, it broke its shell, and black mist erupted from within, spreading out.
In the pure darkness, nothing could be seen.
The darkness began to fade. The ‘thing’ broke out of its shell, born anew without even a trace of memory.
The light of its birth was so vibrant, it let out a joyful cry, high and resonant.
What emerged from the shell was already ‘something else.’ That was no longer Kaoru. I, who had insisted on saving Kaoru all along, now felt utter confusion, unaware that I had…
[The Forest’s Black Goat, Which Hath Born Ten Thousand Young]
[Shub-Niggurath]
That title, even I had heard of.
No wonder… Lily insisted so much on me leaving, and Lianbing too. They might have realized it.
That is an existence that no mortal can confront.
Rather, the gap is already on a dimensional level.
A god…
An evil Earth Mother Goddess called the Goddess of Dark Abundance.
Ah, Child of Darkness. So that’s what it is… young Black Goats…
It should have been an absurd myth fabricated by humans.
But undoubtedly, she is now standing before me, born in a form that transcends common sense.
In this instant, I understood everything. And realized that it was completely over.
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I will die. Perhaps everyone will die. This is the despair I face.
Seeing that existence, no one could muster any will to resist.
“Ah, what a dazzling scene.” The voice was neither male nor female, high and low, like multiple voices overlapping. My ears buzzed, and I felt blood flowing out. My eyes also became wet. Perhaps my eyes were bleeding too. With a “poof,” I spat out a mouthful of blood, my throat burning.
My orifices were bleeding.
“One day, the curse called love will descend upon my children. Burning love will consume their hearts, and impure emotions will pollute their souls.”
I don’t know who she was talking to…
“And at that time, I will descend here, spread darkness upon this land, and devour all that pollutes my children.”
“The world will be filled with my love, and she will be reborn in a new form.”
Perhaps it was the villain’s entrance line.
“Then, finally, by devouring you, this child’s soul will return to its origin.”
Devour me?
The emotions that had been brewing until now finally erupted from my chest. The impassioned emotions made me roar out.
“WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!”
For some unknown power, I crushed the tentacles that were entwined around my body.
Struggling to my feet with all my might, I shouted.
“[Xueqing! Wake up!]”
The words, carrying my wish, became a command to the ‘world’ and turned into reality.
The shattered heart tissue and blood re-coalesced, filling Xueqing’s chest.
I wanted to step forward and place my hand on her shoulder, but the sharp killing intent made me stop. When has Xueqing ever emitted such killing intent? Even when facing a group of murderers, she was indifferent, like a repeating automaton, devoid of any emotion.
But the killing intent emanating from her now was like countless sharp daggers, enveloping her entire being. It was as if she had ripped open a lock she had suppressed for years. The emotions that surged out turned into pure killing intent amid hatred. I saw her completely red title flashing, finally changing into a new title.
[Witch of Calamity]
[Jiang Xueqing]
“…You!”
A diagonal slash, carrying a sweeping blade of light, drew a horizontal line in the darkness, and then… Everything within sight was… severed. The top of the great building was cut off by this slash and slid down, falling to the ground with a loud crash.
But the evil god instantly recovered and counterattacked.
This was the persistence of a fractured soul, and the proof of a promise to a friend, that bond.
“GIVE HER BACK TO ME!”
