Free Web NovelChapter 190: Chapter 187: The World’s Extreme Silence
It’s said that ghosts fear the wicked, and this was proving to be absolutely true.
Lesser aberrations lacked clear sentience and acted purely on instinct.
And the instinct of these aberrations was to bully the weak and fear the strong.
Song Ciwan traversed the streets. This time, she lingered longer than when she had rushed home earlier.
She discovered that the aberrations also preyed on the poor and weak.
Some wealthy households had Door God posters gleaming with golden light and Peach Talismans overflowing with Spiritual Qi at their gates. With guards and servants patrolling the grounds, the abundant vitality and yang qi made most aberrations shrink back in fear, not daring to approach even during the Night Parade of Hundred Demons.
Meanwhile, the homes of common folk were clearly more susceptible to a knock from an aberration.
The Sun Family was not an exception. Throughout all of Pinglan City, Young Master Sun was far from the only one tricked into opening his door.
However, Young Master Sun was fortunate in his misfortune. Though terrified, he had ultimately managed to keep his life.
There were others in the city who, like him, were fortunate in their misfortune.
These people had either been saved by the soldiers of the City Patrol Department, the patrolling Night Wanderers, or other unaffiliated Cultivators...
However, Pinglan City was too large. While many were saved, even more were not reached in time.
Worse still, many died silently in their own homes, their deaths going completely unnoticed by the outside world. frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓
Above the city, streams of invisible energy rose like curling mist. Ultimately, some of it flowed toward Wangjiang Mountain, while the rest surged toward the City God Temple.
Song Ciwan observed closely. She remembered the night of New Year’s Eve, when she had clearly seen the strange spectacle of invisible energy from across the city rising into the air, only to vanish into the void.
Back then, invisible energy had also gathered above the City God Temple.
It was just that the invisible energy above the City God Temple seemed scarce and weak in comparison to that of the entire city—
’To put it bluntly, back then she’d even had the feeling that the City God Temple was using some method to secretly steal the invisible energy that was supposed to go to the Illusory Nether City.’
’This theft even seemed somewhat pathetic.’
It was nothing like the present, where the invisible energy seemed to be split forty-sixty.
Forty percent surged toward the City God Temple, and sixty percent toward Wangjiang Mountain.
If the distribution of this invisible energy was a tug-of-war, then the City God Temple, which originally stood no chance, was now rapidly reversing its decline and gaining the strength to fight back!
The great battle, then, was bound to take place on Wangjiang Mountain.
Song Ciwan had to get to Wangjiang Mountain as well. She was in the Otherworld now, but she couldn’t stay there forever. To return to the real world, she would ultimately have to pass through the four curtains of light on Wangjiang Mountain Peak to find her way back.
Along the way, Song Ciwan encountered many more strange and bizarre aberrations of all kinds.
Most aberrations had no definite form and changed as they pleased. Some were headless, with faces growing on their hands. Some had no legs, their lower bodies a mass of tentacles. Others weren’t humanoid at all, instead resembling all sorts of strange objects.
Such as embroidered slippers, golden scissors, old scraps of paper...
’To be honest, these types of aberrations were even more terrifying than the humanoid ones.’
They didn’t need to speak or even make a sound. Their mere appearance was enough to make one’s blood run cold and scare the soul from their body.
Compared to these, the ’beauty’ who had knocked on the Sun Family’s main gate practically deserved an award for her looks.
As Song Ciwan sped along using her Escape Technique, she would occasionally intervene to save a family in crisis, unleashing her Black Insects to tear at the aberrations—
’But I have to admit, the Black Insects aren’t particularly effective against these aberrations.’
The Black Insects were clearly far more effective against living creatures of flesh and blood.
The aberrations’ nature was unique. They weren’t afraid of the Black Insects’ bites. What they feared were positive energies, like righteous qi, yang qi, life force, and Vitality.
The reason the Big White Goose had been so effective at killing aberrations was mainly due to its abundant Qi Blood. After eating so many Poisonous Insects, it was brimming with a baleful aura, which filled its attacks with power.
But the Big White Goose was now resting in the Spirit Beast Bag, sleeping deeply after undergoing the Spirit Nurturing Technique.
Being in the Otherworld presented all sorts of inconveniences for Song Ciwan.
After that, she stopped less often, focusing only on pressing forward with her Escape Technique.
After some time, perhaps half an hour, the bright moon, which had been obscured by heavy clouds, peeked out from the horizon, revealing half of its icy disk.
The silvery moonlight and the pitch-black clouds wrestled with each other, creating a strange and beautiful scene high in the sky, like a splash-ink painting.
The night seemed to splash down, dyeing everything ahead in a hazy, illusory light that made it all feel both impossibly distant and strangely near.
Song Ciwan flew past one residential ward after another, until at last she crossed back into the territory of Wangjiang Mountain.
The moment she stepped across, she felt as if she had entered another world entirely.
The world outside the boundary was strange and clamorous, filled with the chaotic, unfolding stories of humans and aberrations.
But the world within was unbelievably silent.
When Song Ciwan had left Wangjiang Mountain earlier, she had heard countless voices shouting in a deafening uproar, "Immortal, fall from the mountain..."
Though the Cultivators on the mountain were not true Immortals, they had responded.
Back then, the cultivators were arrayed for battle, and a great war had been on the verge of breaking out.
But now, Wangjiang Mountain was eerily silent. The deafening cries were gone. The slowly ascending Red Lantern was gone. And the voices from the peak shouting, "Form ranks! Form ranks to fight the aberrations!" were also gone.
At the foot of the mountain, the Steward Hall, toppled and looking as if it had been weathered by centuries, was still there.
In front of the Steward Hall, the kneeling Cultivators were also still there.
A sliver of moonlight spilled down, illuminating the ghastly pale faces of the dead Cultivators. Their broken bones seemed to sway gently.
Song Ciwan didn’t want to look too closely. She ceased her Escape Technique and switched to the Wind Manipulation Technique, beginning to drift gently up the mountain.
She didn’t drift quickly. As she ascended, she observed the various cave residences on Wangjiang Mountain.
Most of the residences were sealed, making it hard to tell if there were still Cultivators in seclusion inside.
After all, whether a residence was empty or housed a Cultivator in seclusion, it would look sealed from the outside.
Someone unfamiliar with the mountain would find it difficult to tell the subtle differences.
Song Ciwan drifted for a while, feeling the silence around her grow deeper. It wasn’t just the absence of human voices; even the sound of the wind, the rustle of tree branches, and the chirping of mountain insects had all completely vanished.
The higher she went, the Vitality also seemed to be thinning—
’This was clearly wrong. Normally, the Vitality should grow thicker the higher one went.’
There was still no sign of life anywhere around her—no one from the real world, and no one from the Otherworld either. frёewebηovel.cѳm
Song Ciwan continued on. Suddenly, she passed through a wall of trees, and her vision was flooded with brilliant light.
What did she see?
From out of the absolute darkness, she had walked into a pastoral world of crisscrossing field paths and neatly arranged houses!
