Chapter 431: She Is Awakening

He didn’t know how long he’d been sinking in the nightmare, as if he’d fallen into the gap between reality and darkness, never able to find relief.

Then…

Suddenly, all those terrifying scenes that had chilled Suolang Baima to the bone vanished.

Amidst a burst of noisy voices, he opened his eyes. After seeing the scene before him, he froze, a look of confusion and bewilderment flashing in his eyes.

The sun was setting, the afterglow of dusk spreading orange-yellow hues across the land, giving the city the tint of an old, yellowed photograph.

In the city, vehicles sped by, their wheels scraping the ground with faint, piercing sounds.

Beneath the overpass, a crosswalk as vast as Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing was packed with people, yet it was eerily quiet. Everyone seemed to have lost their voices; not a single person spoke. All he could hear were dense footsteps, soft coughs, and the vibration of phones in silent mode.

People bowed their heads, silently waiting at bus stops, silently hailing taxis, silently walking forward. The scene was harmonious yet bizarre.

Why was it like this? Was this also a Dream? Suolang Baima frowned.

His rational mind told him he was still trapped in that damned Dream woven by the witch type, but the smell of exhaust in the air, the warm breeze brushing his face, even the faint body heat from passersby brushing past him all felt so real.

Full of doubt, he turned and stopped a passerby walking by his side.

“Hey, I’m asking, where is this…”

Before he could finish, when he saw the passerby’s face, his pupils contracted sharply and his words cut off.

The passerby’s face was a blur, as if shrouded in thick fog, or like some shifting, amorphous, eerie substance, churning and flickering in a shadow the size of a face.

Having just escaped the nightmare and still shaken, Suolang Baima was startled by the sight and instinctively recoiled from the passerby.

The passerby stumbled in place, fell to the ground, knocking over more people. For a moment, the crowded street was like a line of dominoes, toppling one after another.

No dodging, no screams, no curses… Aside from the dull thuds of bodies colliding and falling, there was no other sound. Everyone was like a corpse, letting their limbs entangle with others.

Watching this bizarre scene, Suolang Baima felt his scalp tingle. He swallowed hard and turned to leave.

However…

Just as he turned, a rustling sound came from behind, like something crawling on the ground. He froze, stiffly turned around, and saw a terrifying sight.

Those fallen passersby, like some kind of monster, were crawling rapidly on all fours, constantly approaching him. The shadows on their faces writhed madly, quickly coalescing into a face Suolang Baima knew all too well.

Lu Ming. Every passerby’s face had become Lu Ming.

Their expressions were crying or laughing, angry or sad, but all were repeating the same words.

“Why did you kill me?”

“Why did you kill me?”

“Why…”

All the whispers merged together, gradually becoming strange and twisted, buzzing in Suolang Baima’s ears.

Some substance darker than darkness seeped from their eyes, ears, mouths, and noses, turning into shapeless black shadows that enveloped Suolang Baima.

The entire city began to shake violently, buildings twisting and stretching as if melting, as if ready to devour anyone.

A powerful sense of fear suddenly surged in Suolang Baima’s heart. He realized that the terrifying presence he’d seen on that rainy night was hidden inside these “Lu Ming” bodies.

The dreadful voice rang in his ears again-wind rustling, thunder rumbling, mountains murmuring, and the shrill howl of a raging gale.

So, faced with the fear surging toward him again, Suolang Baima couldn’t help but scream.

“I didn’t, none of us killed you! Our plan was only to get that thing Qi Nanzhu left behind, we never meant to kill you, please, let me go!”

“Don’t come any closer, don’t…”

All the “Lu Ming” suddenly shouted in unison, “Who is Qi Nanzhu? What did she leave behind?”

Thinking of that thing, Suolang Baima hesitated for a long time, opened his mouth, just about to speak, when his body suddenly convulsed violently.

The next moment, the “Lu Ming” in the Dream suddenly broke free from Lu Yibei’s control, crawled frantically onto Suolang Baima, as if not wanting him to speak, and pairs of strong hands gripped his throat tightly.

“Crack-crack-!”

With the crisp sound of bones breaking, blood filled those unwilling eyes…

–

Suolang Baima suddenly died. Lu Yibei didn’t even have time to dissolve the Dream, feed him the potion, or treat him.

But…

Why did the Dream suddenly spiral out of control?

Who is Qi Nanzhu, and why did he have something of hers?

As Lu Yibei pondered, she dissolved the Dream and opened her eyes, only to see Jiang Li standing beside her, long blade in hand, the icy blade piercing through Suolang Baima’s body.

Lu Yibei froze for a moment, then looked up at Jiang Li. Her eyes were dry, as if flames were burning within them. She bit her lip, and the words squeezed out from between her teeth were heavy and forceful, like stones hitting the ground.

“Why did you kill him?! I was this close to getting the answer!”

“Damn it, I was so close, I could have known everything!”

“…”

Jiang Li looked at Lu Yibei expressionlessly, withdrew her long blade, and gave it a slight shake, flicking off the blood.

She understood all too well the pain of once having a happy family and then losing everything, and had once lashed out like a cornered beast. Lu Yibei’s reaction was already quite restrained.

After a moment, when Lu Yibei finished speaking and her emotions calmed a little, Jiang Li stepped forward, ignoring Lu Yibei’s struggles, pulled her head into her chest, and hugged her tightly.

“It’s okay. It’s all over now.”

Jiang Li’s gentle voice sounded in her ear. Lu Yibei’s body trembled slightly, the fire in her eyes dimmed, and she felt a sudden urge to cry, but forced herself to hold it back.

“Do you think my methods were too cruel, and you couldn’t stand to watch, so you stepped in?” she asked softly.

“No,” Jiang Li replied calmly. “You did well, it’s just…”

“It’s just that his Spirit Pattern was already out of control, and his body was showing signs of haunting transformation. If you kept going, it could have been dangerous.”

Every year, operators from The Midnight Watchers Society lost control of their Spirit Patterns due to negative emotions, underwent haunting transformation, and became terrifying monsters.

Fear is also a negative emotion. Under intense fear, it was only natural for Suolang Baima’s Spirit Pattern to spiral out of control.

Lu Yibei looked at Suolang Baima’s corpse and only then noticed that his skin had at some point turned a strange bluish-gray, dotted with moss-like growths, like the moss on the plateau. Beneath the skin, many oddly shaped tumors bulged, resembling unopened lotus flowers.

The moss and tumors spread and grew at a speed almost visible to the naked eye, but as the psychic energy faded, the haunting transformation halted and quickly shriveled and collapsed.

“Sorry…” Lu Yibei withdrew her gaze, lowered her head, and apologized softly for her earlier outburst at Jiang Li.

Jiang Li looked down at Lu Yibei and feigned surprise. “Hm? You actually know how to apologize?”

“…” Lu Yibei was silent for a few seconds, then looked up at Jiang Li expressionlessly. “What I meant was, sorry, your armor is poking my face. Can you move a bit?”

Jiang Li, “…”

After a while, Lu Yibei whispered, “Thank you.”

“Mm.” Jiang Li nodded slightly.

–

After rummaging through Suolang Baima’s body and finding a few haunting core entities, some herbs, and a curved blade, Lu Yibei thoughtfully arranged a grand cremation for him.

Jiang Li stood quietly to the side, watching as Lu Yibei used the spell formation “Whip the Corpse.” Flames rose, and only when Suolang Baima’s body was reduced to a pile of black ash, which she scattered to the wind, did Jiang Li shake her head helplessly.

Was it really necessary to be this thorough?

After scattering Suolang Baima’s ashes, Lu Yibei clapped her hands and walked toward Jiang Li, complaining, “An A+ level psychic, and that’s all he had on him? He didn’t even have as much as Hu Yue’s crew.”

“Pah! Cheapskate!”

Jiang Li, “…” Maybe this was just Lu Yibei. She could pull herself out of grief so quickly and start worrying about these odd things.

Just as Jiang Li was thinking this, Lu Yibei seemed to remember something. Her eyes lit up as she looked toward the distant woods. “By the way, when I got here, I found a peeping guy over there. I accidentally killed him, so I need to go deal with that.”

Hearing this, Jiang Li recalled the Eclipse Society totem that had appeared behind Lu Yibei earlier, and how Berses’s voice had suddenly agitated her. She frowned slightly, then said calmly, “Mm, shall we go take a look together?”

“Sure, but if there’s any good loot, you can’t fight me for it!” Lu Yibei said. “I soloed him, so it’s all mine.”

Actually, Lu Yibei was quite happy to share her spoils with Jiang Li.

It’s just that Lu Yibei worried if she gave things to Jiang Li, she’d turn them in to The Midnight Watchers Society as evidence.

Letting The Midnight Watchers Society get free loot-how could she stand that?

Jiang Li shot Lu Yibei a look and said expressionlessly, “It’s all yours.”

–

When Lu Yibei and Jiang Li arrived in the forest and found Berses’s corpse, they discovered it was already unrecognizable.

The corpse was severely decayed, looking as if it had been dead for a long time, reduced to a foul-smelling mass of dark red flesh and blood.

The stench was like a body fermenting in water, enough to make anyone recoil.

Jiang Li stared quietly at the highly decomposed corpse for a while, unable to discern any features related to Berses, and could only shake her head helplessly before glancing sideways at Lu Yibei, saying, “Is this the guy you said you accidentally killed? It’s rotted this badly…”

“Killed half a month ago?”

“I…” Lu Yibei examined the corpse from all sides, frowning, “I just killed him, as for why he ended up like this… maybe he has some kind of ‘useless as rotten mud’ special constitution?”

Jiang Li, “…”

Some hauntings do have the trait of rapid decomposition after death, but…

Where exactly is that guy’s core entity?

As Jiang Li pondered, a sudden explosion sounded from afar, the earth shook violently, the momentum no less than when the city barrier strikes.

Emerald green flames erupted from the core of Taoyuan, spreading out like a giant tree stretching its branches across the land, thick smoke spiraling up to the sky.

The next moment, Lu Yibei’s phone vibrated. She took it out and glanced at it-it was a message from Xing Yuan.

[The west side has fallen, a force of eighty to one hundred people is approaching Taoyuan.]

After reading the message, Lu Yibei’s expression darkened.

The city barrier bombardment was over, entering its cooldown phase; as Gou Meng had said, the real threat was coming.

–

Meanwhile, deep within Taoyuan.

Mountains collapsed, the cave where the Fusang divine tree once grew sank into the earth, the scorched mountain rocks gleaming with crystalline hues.

After the collapse, a massive pit formed, shrouded in darkness, sharp pillar-like crystals jutting from the stone walls like fangs. At the bottom of the pit, Gou Meng’s haunting core entity was already shattered, leaving only a vermilion glow swirling within her nearly hollow shell of a body.

She was impaled by a slender crystal, suspended in midair as if skewered by a spear, her arms hanging limply.

She was approaching death, the trees were approaching death, the earth was approaching death, yet something was emerging from death.

In her daze, a gentle voice sounded in Gou Meng’s ear, like a maiden gathering herbs softly singing ancient ballads in the mountains, distant and indistinct, the words unclear.

However, when she summoned the last of her strength to listen closely, she realized there was no sound echoing in her ear.

Did she fail? But that was only to be expected, Gou Meng thought sorrowfully.

The moment that monster with Fuyang power broke free, she felt she had already failed.

To kill that creature, she needed the power of the city barrier, but if she couldn’t bind it together with the Fusang divine tree, the city barrier’s power couldn’t be fully unleashed.

So, to keep that creature here, Gou Meng detonated her own haunting core entity.

The old haunting core entity was dead, the new haunting core entity had yet to take shape.

Such a severe wound, even for Gou Meng, was hard to bear, not to mention the lingering power of the city barrier continuously destroying her body.

As her consciousness gradually faded, bizarre hallucinations began to appear before Gou Meng’s eyes.

Countless bubbles danced around her, streams of psychic energy outlining an indescribably magnificent scene, then her vision plunged into chaos, just as it had when she was first born.

“…The hall is full, oh beauty, suddenly you alone meet my gaze.”

In a trance, she heard another whisper, this time not in her ear, but as if inside her, echoing like the tide, bringing peace to her heart.

Was this… the description of Shao Siming’s power?

But why? Gou Meng wondered in surprise, unable to figure out what was happening before she followed the low chant rising within her and began to recite.

“Entering without words, leaving without farewell, riding the returning wind, bearing the cloud banner…”

“Entering without words, leaving without farewell, riding the returning wind, bearing the cloud banner…”

“…”

With each word she chanted, it was as if something was assembling in the depths of her soul, lifting her consciousness upward.

For a moment, Gou Meng felt she was awakening…