Free Web NovelThe once bustling market, at some unknown point, fell into a deathly silence, with the exterior walls of buildings on both sides of the street splattered with crimson.
A suffocating smell of blood permeated the air, with fragmented limbs and scraps of internal organs, indistinguishable from which part of the body they came, mixed with blood plasma, covering the bluestone road, making every step sticky.
Pairs of bloodshot, lifeless eyes, wide and round, silently watched the figure of the young girl who arrived late, unable to participate in the frenzy that had occurred moments before.
They were “watching” Lu Yibei, and Lu Yibei was watching them too.
The moment she stepped into the market, her eyes became agitated.
They were eager, as if impatient to help her see clearly everything that had happened on this long street moments before.
Feeling the abnormality in her eyes, Lu Yibei was startled for a moment, and her footsteps paused.
This was the first time her eyes had “consulted” her opinion since she had regained her sight after the car accident.
In the past, whenever they wanted to see something, they would always act first and report later, presenting everything to their owner before saying anything, completely disregarding whether their owner could accept it or not.
Could this change be due to advancing to Calamity-level?
The power of Calamity-level made the previously uncontrollable ability slightly more controllable. Lu Yibei thought.
In her opinion, this might be like an unqualified trainer suddenly acquiring a high-level Pokémon beyond their capability; before their strength meets the requirements, it's natural for that high-level Pokémon to be disobedient.
That's right, I'm talking about you, Charizard!
After a brief moment of surprise, Lu Yibei composed herself, raised her hand to gently caress her eyes, as if conversing with them, and murmured to herself, “Since you are ready, then show me everything that happened here...”
She was here to investigate the truth behind the riot anyway; if she could “see” more clearly and truly, it would naturally be for the best.
As her words fell, she looked up at the sky, then turned to look at her feet, and after confirming that the two terrifying existences hidden above the firmament and deep underground had not noticed her for the time being, she silently activated the Spiritual Energy circulation.
As the phantom of Qingyi flashed by, the Spiritual Energy containing the authority of Goddess Bei, carrying a scorching and desolate aura, entered her eyes, and with a slight burning sensation in her eyes, her vision suddenly blurred.
In a daze, everything reflected in her eyes withered and decayed, as if all things were burning under her gaze, turning into ashes in an instant, raising gray-white dust.
The next moment, the gray-white dust dispersed, and everything in front of her became clear again.
The street was still the same street, but it was shrouded in a dim color like an old yellowed photograph, and streaks of dark red light floated in the air.
Those dark red streams of light rose from an unknown source underground, ascended to the sky, like blood-stained thin gauze pulled and dancing wildly by a strong wind, enveloping the entire market, and even most of Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, in a bloody hue, continuously emitting an uncomfortable aura.
Lu Yibei raised her hand and tried to touch the dark red aura floating past her.
As soon as her pale fingertips touched those dark red streams of light, a tingling sensation like an electric shock spread through them.
Immediately after, the dark red aura quickly solidified, forming tiny, darker, and eerily active masses of flesh and blood.
It was like scattered blood droplets and minced meat splashed from unknown places.
The moment those pieces of flesh and blood condensed, they quickly grew a large number of “villi.”
Upon closer inspection, those villi were various twisted limbs—hands, feet, hooked claws, tentacles—converging on the blood-drop-like body, like some kind of bizarre-looking crawling insect, frantically twisting, crawling, and gnawing along her fingers, attempting to spread a faint but extremely dangerous Spiritual Energy.
As that dangerous Spiritual Energy invaded her body, Lu Yibei’s Demoness Seed urban legend core stirred restlessly, and a faint fervor, uncontrollable, rose within her heart.
Is this the damned thing causing trouble?
Lu Yibei frowned slightly, then let Spiritual Energy ripple at her fingertips, creating a ripple that blurred and distorted the air.
As the scorching Spiritual Energy swept across, the flesh and blood clinging to her fingertips immediately stiffened, then withered at a visible speed, finally turning into ashes and falling.
Rubbing the ashes remaining on her fingertips, Lu Yibei pondered for a moment, then looked around.
As far as her gaze reached, on the scattered, mutilated bodies, which looked like blood-soaked rags, countless dark red flesh and blood, like maggots, wriggled and rapidly moved through the “nests” constructed by the corpses. ƒreewebɳovel.com
Suddenly, a wind blew, and countless dark red flesh and blood rose with the wind, transforming into something like the dark red streams of light dancing in the sky, drifting away.
After a brief observation, she made an initial judgment.
Those floating, dark red auras could not be perceived by the naked eye or touch, because their Spiritual Energy fluctuations were too faint and secretive, making them difficult to even capture with spiritual senses.
If it can “excite” the Demoness Seed urban legend, it should, without a doubt, be power originating from the Shaman King...
However, a slight suppression with Spiritual Energy can immediately destroy it. The erosion of Psychic or urban legend does not seem serious at present; is it only more harmful to ordinary people?
Lu Yibei thought, and walked a few steps forward, looking at two relatively intact corpses lying on the right side of the street.
From their body outlines, the two corpses were a middle-aged man and a young boy.
As her gaze fell, light and shadow shifted, and a low growl sounded in her ears.
————
A burly middle-aged man, holding a blood-stained sickle, was hurrying with a numb expression, his face filled with malevolence, densely covered with dark red flesh and blood wriggling back and forth like maggots.
Behind him, a boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old desperately clutched his sleeve, his face filled with terror and helplessness.
“Dad, Dad, what’s wrong with you? Wake up, Dad!”
Seemingly annoyed by the boy's incessant chatter, the middle-aged man suddenly turned to face the boy, his eyes glinting fiercely, and raised the sickle in his hand. However, before the sickle could strike, he froze, looking down to see a dagger plunged into his chest.
“Heh, hehehe... blame Dad for not listening to me!” The boy, with his head lowered, let out a chilling laugh, then slowly raised his head, revealing beast-like eyes through his disheveled hair.
Dense, dark red “insects” crawled across his face, burrowing into the corners of his eyes and nostrils.
The next moment, the boy’s laughter abruptly ceased, his pupils, shrinking to the size of a grain of rice, trembled as he looked at the sickle embedded in his neck.
The fatal injury and intense pain did not make him flinch; instead, as the violent expression on his face grew stronger, he pulled out the dagger from the middle-aged man's chest and began stabbing frantically.
“Puff, puff, puff—!”
A series of muffled thuds of flesh and blood echoed.
Some came from the sickle, others from the dagger.
...
Lu Yibei couldn't bear to watch the scene of father and son slaughtering each other anymore, and silently turned her face away, but as she walked forward, new images entered her sight.
————
“Bang—!”
With a dull thud, the old man with graying temples was kicked flying by someone unknown, his back, bent by years, slammed heavily onto the square table of the tea stall, caving it in.
“Little Bell! Give Little Bell back to me, give her back to me!” The old man screamed hoarsely, disregarding the pain, struggling to get up and snatch the tiny figure, who was being lifted by a group of frenzied people and tossed around like a ball.
However, before the old man could stand firm, he was pressed back to the ground by figures coming from all directions, their hands and feet scrambling.
The next moment, a harsh, crisp sound erupted.
A ceramic pot smashed heavily onto the old man's head, shattering into pieces.
Then, heart-wrenching screams rang out.
The figures surrounding the old man quickly picked up the sharp fragments of the ceramic pot scattered around, stabbed them into the old man's body, pulled hard, cut open his chest and abdomen, reached inside, and vigorously pulled and stirred, as if they were a pack of vicious beasts enjoying licking blood.
As if trying to grasp the little girl who was gradually moving away, the old man raised his withered arm from the tightly packed crowd, but in the end, he caught nothing, only letting it fall powerlessly into the pool of blood accumulated on the ground.
————
“Hoo—!”
Letting out a long, turbid breath, Lu Yibei closed her eyes.
She had seen that pair of grandfather and granddaughter, like rootless duckweed in the chaos, ravaged by the bloody tide.
Twice.
One was when she peered into past light and shadow through the urban legend-transformed Xia Lianqing.
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The old man ran a simple tea stall on the street, and the little girl sold flowers near the tea stall. Their lives seemed a bit poor, but they were filled with warmth and joy.
Another time, when she went to inspect the house at the end of the market street within the Divine Kingdom Jade Gate, a thousand years later, she saw the already decayed corpses of the grandfather and granddaughter on the way.
She had thought that the shocking scene was left by the Shaman King's army, which had broken into the city, and never imagined it would be the result of the city's people slaughtering each other...
Adjusting her state slightly, Lu Yibei continued forward, her gaze following the direction the little girl had disappeared.
————
As the figure called Xiao Lingdang moved up and down, the crowded figures, covered in deep red flesh, burst into unrestrained laughter.
Streaks of deep red light happily drifted among the crowd, occasionally entering people's bodies through their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, then soaring into ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) the air in an instant, visibly growing a few sizes larger.
Those deep red streaks of light took something away from those people...
Reason, conscience, humanity, or something else.
————
“Oh?” As her gaze shifted, Lu Yibei suddenly let out a surprised sound.
She saw a figure.
Not through the special power of her eyes.
The figure was truly present, on the street not far in front of her.
Unlike the deceased found everywhere along the way, that figure's body was relatively complete, but only in the sense that it hadn't lost any limbs. The meticulous level of gruesomeness was even worse.
That seemed to be a Longxiang Army Armored Soldier. At this moment, his armor was almost completely shattered, with only a few broken black armor plates remaining, hanging precariously from his shoulders by tanned leather. His body, exposed beneath the tattered armor, was covered in “thorns.”
Spindles, scissors, iron awls for breaking sugar, sharp broken wooden sticks... various seemingly ordinary objects now seemed like malicious torture instruments born to inflict pain.
Just looking from a distance, one could imagine the cruel scene of the irrational populace tearing off his armor and violently plunging their “weapons” into his body.
He knelt in the center of the street, one arm wrapped around his chest, vaguely visible, holding something, while the other hand held a Phoenix Wing Tang, propped on the ground, supporting his tottering, broken body.
Noticing the Phoenix Wing Tang, Lu Yibei's eyelids twitched violently, and her heart tightened.
She recognized that Phoenix Wing Tang; Dragon Tang had proudly introduced it to her before.
That was a gift Dragon Xiang gave him on the day Dragon Tang came of age.
At this moment, the sharp blade of that upright Phoenix Wing Tang shimmered with a silvery light, seemingly unstained by any blood. In contrast, the iron shaft below the blade was covered in scratches, nicks, dents, and even teeth marks...
Staring at the scarred iron shaft for a long time, the scene gradually emerged before her eyes, and Lu Yibei's brows quickly furrowed into a knot.
————
“Get out of the way! Bastards!”
With a roar, Dragon Tang, holding the Phoenix Wing Tang, leaped up from the crowd, grabbed the little girl who had been thrown into the air, and shielded her in his arms.
However, before Dragon Tang could land, countless arms holding sharp objects reached out from the frenzied crowd.
As Dragon Tang descended, those sharp objects scraped against the black armor covering his body, sparking a series of flashes and emitting a grating, ear-splitting sound.
“Thud—!”
Dragon Tang landed, and with a downward swing of his Phoenix Wing Tang, it struck the ground with a muffled thud. A wave of earth spread from the point where the Phoenix Wing Tang met the ground, pushing away the frenzied crowd gathered around him, like suddenly shaking a blanket and dislodging small objects on it, creating an empty space.
However, that empty space lasted for less than a breath before being re-engulfed by the surging tide of people.
Seeing the surging figures approach again, Dragon Tang's expression changed. He single-handedly gripped the Phoenix Wing Tang, instinctively about to sweep it forward, but upon seeing the faces of those figures, hesitation appeared in his eyes. Coming to his senses, he immediately stopped the Phoenix Wing Tang's momentum and blocked it in front of him.
Then, while using the iron shaft of the Phoenix Wing Tang to protect his vital points, he hunched over, tightly shielding the little girl he had just rescued in his arms.
The next moment, the tide of people swallowed Dragon Tang's figure, just as it had swallowed the briefly appearing empty space...
————
So, what Dragon Tang was protecting was that little girl?
I thought it was the iron box containing the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers' tokens!
Lu Yibei thought, when a slight cough suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
“Cough, cough, cough... Who? Who is it?”
Still alive? Lu Yibei's heart trembled, and she quickly replied, “It's me! It's Shen Baiwei!”
Hearing this, Dragon Tang lifted his swollen, bruised eyelids, his eyes struggling to open a slit. He glanced at Lu Yibei, then tremblingly curved his lips, “Miss Shen? Is... is it really you?”
Seeing that Dragon Tang still had a breath left, Lu Yibei instinctively wanted to cast a Spell to heal him, but she had just raised her hand when she put it down again.
Shen Baiwei might not even be able to withstand her current Spell with its spiritual mark effect, so how could Dragon Tang endure it?
One Spell would probably kill the already severely injured Dragon Tang on the spot...
While Lu Yibei hesitated briefly, Dragon Tang gasped slightly and spoke again, “Miss Shen, quick... quick, help me see how Xiao Lingdang is...”
As he spoke, he slowly loosened his grip.
It was only then that Lu Yibei realized that the little girl Dragon Tang was protecting in his arms had, at some point, turned into a cold, headless corpse, and her dirty little hand was still tightly clutching a broken rib, picked up from who knew where.
One end of the rib was held in the small hand, the other had already entered Dragon Tang's abdomen.
“She...” Lu Yibei opened her mouth, repeatedly wanting to speak but stopping herself several times, before finally saying expressionlessly, “She's fine, just sleeping.”
At this moment, she suddenly felt that what she had said earlier, that this place was slightly more acceptable than Shen Baiwei's little house, had been said too soon. frёewebnoѵēl.com
All those “Shen Baiwei” in the house merely caused physical discomfort and made one's scalp tingle.
But the cruelty and malice that filled every corner of this market street had a chill that struck directly at the soul.
Sons killing fathers, bullying the old and weak, repaying kindness with enmity, thousands of people gathered together, reveling in blood and slaughter... All of this, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a projection of hell cast upon the human world.
Lost in thought, Lu Yibei heard Dragon Tang's trembling voice, “Really? That's great...”
His words carried a hint of relief.
“Yes, that's great,” Lu Yibei nodded in agreement. “Let's go. I'll take you... you all back to heal first.”
Dragon Tang didn't speak, only struggled to turn his face to the side.
Following his gaze, Lu Yibei found a corner of the iron box containing the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers' tokens among a pile of bloody corpses, then sighed silently.
“Understood, I'll bring that thing with us. Don't worry.”
————
A moment later.
Lu Yibei, carrying the iron box containing the Longxiang Army Armored Soldiers' tokens in one hand and the Phoenix Wing Tang in the other, and with Dragon Tang, who was two heads taller than her, on her back, walked on the way back to Daimu Courtyard, finally unable to resist asking Dragon Tang the question that had been lingering in her mind.
“Dragon Tang, little brother?”
“Hmm...”
“When those guys attacked you, why didn't you fight back?” Lu Yibei asked.
Although Dragon Tang's Spiritual Energy fluctuation level was not high, only barely C-level by modern evaluation standards, even so, he was much stronger than ordinary people. Coupled with a set of excellent armor and a sharp weapon in his hand, if he really fought back, ordinary people would find it difficult to harm him in the slightest.
“Because... I couldn't...” Dragon Tang replied with a shaky breath, “Those people... Xie Erlang from the spice shop, Big Brother Zhang from the wine shop, Auntie Wang from the dye house... they are all neighbors I know well... they are the people of Yumen Pass...”
“When my brother gave me that Phoenix Wing Tang, he pointed to the tip of the tang... and told me, 'This blade can only be directed at enemies.' Even if those people temporarily lost their reason, they... they are not enemies...”
After hearing Dragon Tang's answer, Lu Yibei remained silent for a long time, unusual colors flickering in her eyes, wondering what she was thinking.
