Free Web NovelNanling Yaohua, hearing Lord Huaiyuan's summons, rushed to the adjacent room. Following Lord Huaiyuan's refer todirection, she looked at Shen Baiwei on the bed and was startled, her pupils trembling slightly.
From Shen Baiwei's face, between her mouth and nose, black blood mixed with fragments of internal organs continuously gushed out. After leaving her body, the black blood immediately vaporized into smoke, spreading outwards, silently increasing the black night disease erosion around her.
Under the influence of the black night disease erosion, the bed she was on visibly decayed and deteriorated at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The fabric aged, tore, and fell to the ground, raising pale dust.
Dark green rust crawled like a living thing on the copper decorations at the corners of the bed.
The wooden bed frame gradually deepened in color until it turned black, developing dense, worm-eaten-like small holes.
This level of black night disease erosion was fortunate to have two people present: one an A+ rank Psychic and the other a Calamity rank. If it were most low-level Psychic or urban legend, they would likely fall into an uncontrolled state along with Shen Baiwei on the spot.
It was as if she had contracted some virulent infectious disease.
At the same time, on Shen Baiwei's skin exposed outside her clothes, cracked fissures appeared. Within these fissures, a wriggling darkness, like a materialized nightmare, mixed with blood, slowly permeated beneath her skin, gradually outlining an obscure and difficult-to-understand pattern.
This is a common symptom of Spirit Mark losing control, where the power of urban legend contained within the Spirit Mark corrupts and gradually contaminates the entire body, conflicting with the Spiritual Energy within. It's somewhat similar to the skin redness, swelling, and ulceration symptoms when certain immune system diseases flare up.
However, this seemingly common symptom was anything but ordinary for Nanling Yaohua. The moment she saw those patterns, her heart pounded fiercely, and she subconsciously touched her right hand.
Although she still didn't know what those patterns represented, she recognized at a glance that the patterns gradually appearing on Shen Baiwei's body were identical to the “Membership Expiration Notice” outlined by the tiny scars on her own body.
“...”
Why did she also have this pattern on her body?
Could it be that Lu Yibei entering that environment and my glimpse of Lu Yibei's movements in the illusion have some connection to her? Nanling Yaohua thought.
“Nanling Yaohua, Nanling Yaohua?” Lord Huaiyuan called out a few times. Seeing Nanling Yaohua regain her composure and look at her, she sighed and said, “You also find it very tricky, right?”
“To be honest, after working for the Night Watch for so many years, this is the first time I've seen someone with such a high degree of black night disease erosion in their body who hasn't yet turned into a urban legend.”
Although she had long heard that there was a disciple named Hua Sang in Da Chunyang Palace whose body had an extremely high degree of black night disease erosion, like a walking nuclear waste dump, she had only heard about it and never seen it.
“If you also have no solution, why don't you just let me handle it? So that she doesn't actually turn into a urban legend and cause trouble.”
“Oh? You plan to...” Nanling Yaohua looked at Lord Huaiyuan, about to ask how Lord Huaiyuan intended to deal with Shen Baiwei, when she saw Lord Huaiyuan roll up her sleeves, revealing her muscular forearms, and swung them twice in the air.
Lord Huaiyuan said nothing, yet it was as if she was saying, “Just three or two punches to smash Shen Baiwei's head and end her life.”
Lord Huaiyuan was indeed not good at healing, but she was good at smashing enemy heads.
This style of action, to some extent, resembled M Country's approach to black night disease patients and Psychic who had lost control of their Spirit Mark—if all the injured were eliminated, wouldn't everyone be healthy? Of course, they did it very secretly, so no one would find out.
However, Lord Huaiyuan's consideration was not entirely without reason.
As is well known, blackening strengthens tenfold. If they waited for Shen Baiwei to turn into a urban legend before acting, she might ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) need dozens or hundreds of punches to smash Shen Baiwei's head. In this process, causing a commotion might even attract the Shaman King, who was currently wandering around Yumen Pass.
Looking at Lord Huaiyuan, Nanling Yaohua's mouth twitched slightly, and she tentatively whispered, “Senior, are you planning to...”
Mid-sentence, she raised her hand and made a throat-slitting gesture.
“Yes! This will also help her alleviate some pain.” Lord Huaiyuan nodded and said, “You should also know that when a Psychic falls into a state of Spirit Mark loss of control, they endure inhuman pain and torment almost every moment...”
“No!” Nanling Yaohua blurted out. After speaking, she realized she had lost her composure and quickly explained, “After all, it’s a human life. Besides, she hasn’t turned into a urban legend yet, has she? I still want to try harder.” freēwēbnovel.com
The bizarre patterns on Shen Baiwei made her realize that Lu Yibei's entanglement in that “illusion” might be greatly related to Shen Baiwei's Spirit Mark losing control.
If Shen Baiwei died at this moment, who knew what would happen to Lu Yibei.
Thinking positively, Lu Yibei might escape that “illusion” with Shen Baiwei's passing, but thinking negatively, Lu Yibei might be forever trapped in that “illusion.”
How could one casually risk such a thing?
“Hmm...” Lord Huaiyuan pinched her chin, pondered for a moment, and then nodded to Nanling Yaohua, “You have a point. Why don't you try first? Only if absolutely necessary, follow my plan.”
Seeing that Lord Huaiyuan didn't insist on killing Shen Baiwei, Nanling Yaohua secretly breathed a sigh of relief. But immediately after, she turned to look at the dying Shen Baiwei on the bed and found herself in a dilemma again.
Although she had to save her now for Lu Yibei's safety, how could she save her when her Spirit Mark had lost control to this extent? Nanling Yaohua wondered.
At this moment, Shen Baiwei was like a high-temperature, high-pressure boiler filled with dangerous materials. Although she was temporarily maintaining a delicate state of stability, a slight misstep could immediately lead to a violent explosion.
There was no way to start.
————
At the same time, the unconscious Shen Baiwei had no idea that she had almost faced the might of a Calamity and been crushed into pulp by Lord Huaiyuan’s fist, which was as big as a bean paste bun. The moment she uttered the word “Disaster,” she fell into a state similar to an inescapable nightmare.
A seemingly endless corridor, with yellowish moonlight scattered on the ground as if it had decayed.
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At some unknown point, the world became completely silent, with only lonely footsteps echoing.
This was Tethys Laboratory of the Eclipse Society; Shen Baiwei would never forget it.
Because this hellish place not only left her with countless agonizing memories, but every time her life was threatened, she would return here, to the place where the Psychic, the host of The Serpent of the Years—Shen Baiwei—was born.
This was her original “anchor”! frёewebnoѵēl.com
Then, everything started anew.
Just like the mythical creature symbolized by the part of the power contained in her Spirit Mark that drives the entire power of The Serpent of the Years—Ouroboros.
In many myths, there exists such a great serpent that devours itself, symbolizing that all living beings, from the moment of their birth, are constantly eroding their past selves until they are completely consumed, then reincarnated after death, starting a new life all over again.
Normally, the “giant serpent” hidden in Shen Baiwei's power could maintain stability by devouring “yesterday” contained within various ancient artifacts, ruins, or elderly individuals.
But once the “yesterday” of those ancient artifacts and ruins changed, the “giant serpent,” deprived of food, would become irritable and angry...
It was like placing a sumptuous feast before the “giant serpent,” which happily devoured it, only for the food to suddenly turn into dirt, metal, and broken glass once it entered its belly.
How could it not be angry?
Thus, the “giant serpent” would begin to devour her body until it completely swallowed her, and then start anew.
This process always reminded her of the little character controlled by players in games, who, after their health bar was depleted, would revive with full health and status.
But has anyone ever wondered if the little character that revives each time might no longer be the same little character as before?
If it's not, then where did the previous little character go after it died?
Shen Baiwei walked forward.
This Tethys Laboratory seemed several times larger than she remembered. Specialized metal doors engraved with complex spells lined both sides of the corridor. Through the small glass windows on the doors, one could see various strange things displayed inside.
Boilers burning with raging black flames, urban legend corpses lying silently on experiment tables with pipes inserted all over them, shelves displaying specimen jars filled with organ specimens of black night disease patients...
The entire laboratory was empty, with only her as a living person.
Seeing everything before her, Shen Baiwei knew that she was about to become that “previously deceased little character” again.
Although when she woke up again, everything would seem as if it had never happened to her, she always felt very uncomfortable, wondering if it was still truly herself.
Like the Ship of Theseus in legend, after all its parts have been replaced.
So she wanted to end this “cycle.”
And to end this cycle, unless a miracle occurred...
Therefore, she needed the radiance that could grant all wishes when the First Generation Miracle Saint awakened.
Just one wish would suffice...
Just to make the “giant serpent” never “hungry”...
Shen Baiwei thought dazedly, walking numbly, like a goat being herded by shepherds migrating. After an unknown amount of time, she finally arrived at the door at the deepest part of the corridor.
Pushing open the door, a nauseating stench assailed her.
Inside the huge space behind the door, corpses were piled up like mountains, each one a “Shen Baiwei.”
Some still looked as if they had just died, while others were already disfigured, their clothes torn and withered, leaving only pale skeletons. In their empty eye sockets, putrid black viscous fluid silently flowed.
Only at the top of the small mountain of corpses, there was a “Shen Baiwei” as complete and flawless as a newborn baby, quietly sleeping.
An ordinary person seeing such a scene would probably be scared out of their wits, but Shen Baiwei had long been accustomed to such sights.
After all, even before she was captured and modified by the Eclipse Society, when she was just a severely ill black night disease patient, she had seen such scenes countless times. At that time, she always couldn't help but bury her past.
In a sense, “the dead past” was the core of her Spirit Mark power; the power of Ouroboros was only responsible for driving it.
It was like the relationship between system software and hardware.
Shen Baiwei sighed silently, walked forward, found a relatively comfortable spot, sat down with her back against the mountain of corpses, and slowly closed her eyes.
Then, she began to wait.
Like an old elephant about to die, coming to the elephant graveyard, lying down against the remains of its kind, waiting for death to arrive.
“After it restarts, I'll go stop the Disaster... This time, I definitely will...” Shen Baiwei murmured before her consciousness fell into silence.
