Chapter 454: Testing Poison with One’s Own Body

Hua City, a tributary of the Yangtze River runs through the entire city.

On a stretch of riverbank that extends for hundreds of kilometers, beside an unremarkable bay.

A pitch-black, ugly bizarre fish had been staring at the hole in front of it, which looked as if it had been drilled out by a boring machine, for over a dozen hours.

“Lu Yibei obtained the title of Calamity several years ahead of schedule… Eclipse Society members carry the flesh and blood of the Beast of Inheritance with them…”

“Insane, truly insane, what on earth happened in this timeline after being reborn?” the system muttered to itself incessantly.

Although with every rebirth, the events it experienced would always have subtle differences, this time, the changes were by far the greatest.

The terrifying pressure brought by the unknown made it feel as if it was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Finally, at the moment when the morning sun rose, it made a bold decision-it had to go down and take a look.

Although, without a host, in terms of direct combat ability, it was not even a match for a regularly trained adult male.

However, when one of the seven world-destroying factors was up to something right in front of it, even if it couldn’t stop it, it at least had to know what was happening down below, right?

What’s more, in terms of sheer danger, the Beast of Inheritance was probably even more threatening than a Calamity that hadn’t yet matured.

Based on the system’s scant three times of designating the Beast of Inheritance as a target for subjugation, and twice severely injuring it, as well as the intelligence it had gathered.

Purely in terms of its own form, aside from that signature dark red flesh, the Beast of Inheritance didn’t even have a fixed shape that the system could remember well enough to describe.

Its power would change hundreds or even thousands of times in a short period, depending on the haunting it encountered, and its appearance would also vary according to its “food” and regional differences.

Its core entity had already been liberated from the “common sense” of all hauntings, constantly, almost frantically, copying the powers of other hauntings and then crudely fusing them together.

And this grotesque copying and evolution would, sooner or later, collapse due to its extreme distortion and irrationality, causing the Beast of Inheritance to exhaust its vitality and die.

At that time, the powers it had copied would fall apart, lose their restraints, and as its body collapsed, they would burst forth like vengeful spirits, rushing in all directions, resulting in Nocturnal Syndrome outbreaks affecting over a billion people and countless animals and plants, and in turn spawning a massive number of hauntings.

Although it itself had no intention of destroying the world, its existence was like a potent catalyst, accelerating the growth rate of hauntings across the world.

If left unchecked, the number of hauntings would soon multiply several times over, and the whole process usually took only three to five years.

And compared to letting the Beast of Inheritance “burst” itself, if it were controlled by another haunting or a psychic ability organization, the situation would be even worse.

The only time the system failed to severely injure the Beast of Inheritance was precisely under such circumstances.

That time, the Beast of Inheritance came into contact with the Plague Taisui, and for unknown reasons, the two world-destroying factors formed a companion relationship.

One constantly copied powers and fused and evolved, the other constantly devoured hauntings and split and proliferated-such a combination was “reasonable” enough to go trick-or-treating on Halloween, so reasonable it was almost ghostly.

In less than two years, the system was standing on the last patch of pure land in the world, watching the final sunset, as the entire world turned into the body of “Plague Taisui.”

……

The system wriggled its body, dug a channel on the riverbank, and diverted the water into that bottomless hole. As the river water poured in, it leapt up and plunged down with the current, and soon everything before its eyes was swallowed by darkness.

Then……

Falling in the darkness, falling endlessly, until a sudden sense of weightlessness struck, and in the midst of deep blackness, it saw a city seemingly wrapped in a giant bubble.

Countless human figures were flying out from the bubble, falling downward.

That dark red torrent formed from the flesh and blood of the Beast of Inheritance coiled atop the bubble, lying in wait like a predator, preying on those human figures, while countless dark red threads spread from its body, deeply rooting themselves into the bubble.

After a while, the system couldn’t help but curse.

“Damn, what the hell is this? Even I can’t figure it out!”

It had thought it had “reincarnated” once again, but upon seeing this scene, it suddenly realized that the “Hua City” it had been in these past few days was actually a place similar to a bamboo slips illusion.

But even the living Great Serpent God couldn’t create a complete “world.”

So just what kind of existence could create a city so real that even it couldn’t detect anything amiss?

Another world-destroying factor? Could it be a Calamity? the system wondered.

On the outskirts of Yue City, in a cold storage facility less than ten kilometers from the border of Hua City.

The dimly lit space was filled with a damp, chilling atmosphere and a nauseating stench.

A man in a black robe stood silently before a rusted metal operating table, his figure almost merging with the shadows. Only his pale face was clearly visible, deep and somber eyes fixed on the direction of the door, as if waiting for something.

Creak-

The heavy iron door of the cold storage was pushed open, emitting a low, mournful groan. A sturdy man strode in with long, purposeful steps.

The sturdy man was dressed oddly. Though it was early spring and the weather around Hua City had already warmed, he wore a thick military coat meant for deep winter.

His slightly gaunt face bore a pair of triangular eyes, and his right ear looked as if a chunk had been bitten off, missing its earlobe. The combination of his features gave him a look of sorrow tinged with a hint of ferocity.

On his shoulder, he carried a body bag, but inside was something alive. With each jostling step, the “living thing” inside squirmed, emitting a series of low, muffled whimpers.

The sturdy man walked up to Berses, casually tossed the body bag onto the operating table, curled his lip, and rumbled, “Here, I found what you wanted. Now, the payment?”

“Excellent, excellent. No wonder you’re one of the highest-rated bounty hunters for three years running-your efficiency is unmatched.” Berses replied warmly.

As he spoke, he bent down and retrieved a silver, gold-trimmed metal box from beneath the table, pushed it forward, and lifted the lid to reveal its contents to the sturdy man.

Inside the box were thirty-five special crystal test tubes. The substance inside looked like mercury, glowing with a faint green light, and within the swirling bubbles, faces twisted in pain occasionally surfaced.

These were all high-purity primal spirits, each worth as much as a core entity of a Class C Haunting.

“Personally refined primal spirits. Want to count them?”

The sturdy man glanced at the test tubes in the box, frowned, and said in a deep voice, “The number’s off. The bounty said thirty, but there are five extra.”

“Heh.” Berses chuckled softly, spread his hands, and said, “Friend, Hua City is Calamity’s turf. Sneaking in to collect Nocturnal Syndrome patient samples is dangerous work.”

“To be honest, I originally hired three bounty hunters, but you’re the only one who made it back. Clearly, your skills are exceptional.”

“The extra five are an advance payment. I hope we can work together long-term.”

After hearing Berses’s explanation, the sturdy man’s mouth curled downward slightly. He closed the metal box and tucked it into his arms, murmuring, “So they were scared off by Calamity?”

“For a King of Hauntings, at least a minimum of respect is due.” Berses replied perfunctorily.

Moreover, this King of Hauntings had displayed some truly extraordinary traits… Berses added silently.

However, research into “special individuals” was currently top secret within the Eclipse Society, and would not be casually revealed to a bounty hunter who only cared about money.

“Just snatched by force, that’s all.” The sturdy man said indifferently. “If you ask me, instead of worrying so much about Calamity, you’d be better off keeping an eye on Gu Qianqian. I hear she’s from Hua City too.”

Back in Taoyuan, “Gu Qianqian” had already stunned everyone by luring a group of psychics and hauntings into the Midnight Watchers Society’s trap, killing Suolang Baima, and defeating three Class A Hauntings single-handedly.

Recently, several factions had infiltrated Hua City seeking revenge on “Gu Qianqian” but failed, suffering heavy losses instead, which only added to her fearsome reputation.

Cunning chestnut hair, murderous intent hidden in the shadows, the Bloody Witch who devours hauntings… All sorts of terrifying titles intertwined, making her a rumored figure of extreme danger.

In some places, hauntings had even begun to scare little Hauntings in tombs with, “If you misbehave, we’ll send you to Gu Qianqian to be eaten!”

Reportedly, it worked wonders.

As for this sturdy man, it couldn’t be said he had a personal vendetta with “Gu Qianqian”-it was more a fight to the death.

If not for his Spirit Pattern’s unique properties, which allowed him to sense danger ahead of time, he would have ended up buried in the riverbed of Golden Toad Gorge along with those short-lived souls.

“Hey, friend…” Berses sighed softly. “Since we’ll be working together for a long time, let me give you a tip.”

“For someone as ruthless as Gu Qianqian, if she hasn’t stirred up trouble in Hua City, do you really think it’s just because Calamity fears her and turns a blind eye to her activities?”

“All the psychics and hauntings active around Hua City must have crossed paths by now. I suspect they’re either friends, or evenly matched and unable to do anything to each other, which is why they tolerate each other’s existence. What do you think?”

Of course, there was another possibility: they were actually the same person!

A Calamity possessing two types of high-tier powers could easily create multiple identities using methods to alter appearance.

Of course, since Team B and Team A had previously monitored their activities in different areas, this possibility was rather low… Berses thought to himself.

“……”

The sturdy man pondered for a moment, then cupped his hands to Berses. “Thanks for the tip.”

—-

Hua City Central Hospital, Laboratory Department, Independent Lab.

Silver horn moved back and forth among various testing instruments, occasionally stopping to flip through the documents and test results on the table.

“This way… no, it should be like this?”

To deal with the Nocturnal Syndrome outbreak in Hua City, he hadn’t slept in a long time. His eyes were bloodshot, dark circles hung heavy beneath them, and his pale face was etched with exhaustion.

Still, his efforts were paying off. In the past few days, by studying ample human, animal, and plant samples of Nocturnal Syndrome, he had made a major discovery.

In the vast majority of samples, he had found a special substance.

This substance had almost no psychic energy fluctuation, no physical form yet displayed biological activity. During certain stages of Nocturnal Syndrome, the Night Corrosion Level would briefly spike, then rapidly decline as the patient died.

Silver Horn temporarily identified that special substance as some kind of special haunting organization, or something similar to a split entity of Plague Taisui, and sent the sample data to Golden Horn, asking him to compare it in The Midnight Watchers Society’s database. Once a suspected haunting was found, they would immediately launch an investigation.

In addition, Silver Horn also discovered that for these Nocturnal Syndrome patients, the appearance of abnormal limb proliferation was actually already a late-stage manifestation of this Nocturnal Syndrome.

According to his in-depth observations, before the abnormal limb proliferation appeared, there should be two other stages of disease progression.

In the early stage of illness, they would first experience sleep dysfunction, having similar strange dreams every night after falling asleep, then waking up in fright. Because of this process, the patient’s mental state would rapidly deteriorate.

However, nowadays, people tend to get more energetic the later it gets at night. Even if they’re not sick, there are always a few days each month when they’re listless, so most patients in the early stage don’t notice anything abnormal with their bodies at all.

The initial stage lasts about three days, after which it enters the second stage.

After the second stage, patients occasionally experience visual and auditory hallucinations, seeing buildings on the street in broad daylight that don’t exist in the city, then briefly becoming unable to distinguish between dreams and reality, and their emotions start to become unstable, showing mild paranoia and split personality.

Lack of sleep already affects mental and physical health, causing hallucinations and psychological disorders similar to symptoms of chronic insomnia. Even if they go to the hospital, they’re likely to just be prescribed some antipsychotics or sleeping pills.

Then…

It only takes about two days. Before the patient realizes the medication is ineffective, they enter the final stage-the stage of abnormal limb proliferation.

This special Nocturnal Syndrome, from onset to death, has a course of only about a week. Pathologically, it’s already a very severe acute illness.

If…

Silver Horn picked up a test tube from the table, which contained a special substance extracted from the research sample’s body. He frowned and examined it for a while, then a ruthless glint flashed in his eyes.

He turned around to get a syringe, drew the special substance from the test tube, and plunged the needle into a vein in his upper arm.

Just as he slowly pushed the syringe, injecting the special substance into his body, Jiang Li, also looking exhausted and carrying the latest dissection records, entered the independent laboratory.

Seeing the scene before her, she froze for a moment and asked in surprise, “What are you doing?”

Hearing her, Silver Horn looked at the syringe, then at Jiang Li, and gave a wry smile. “I’m verifying whether this Nocturnal Syndrome is contagious!”

During these days of experiments, under the assumption that this Nocturnal Syndrome was infectious, he had already used traditional scientific methods to verify whether it was contagious.

That mysterious special substance showed no pathogenic characteristics at all in lab mice and dogs.

Maybe if the number of experimental subjects was increased, there would be a very small chance of infection, but Silver Horn felt there was no need for that anymore.

There are many pathogenic factors for Nocturnal Syndrome. Besides being affected by residual psychic energy fluctuation, which raises an individual’s Night Corrosion Level and causes illness, there are also possibilities like haunting organization contamination, human manipulation, or even some diseases being hauntings themselves.

Except for the first pathogenic factor, the others only appear with special psychic energy fluctuation under certain conditions, causing Night Corrosion and triggering symptoms.

Just like the sample Silver Horn obtained when participating in the Plague Taisui subjugation: on the surface, it looked no different from a common pneumonia virus, but only after entering a living organism would it, under Plague Taisui’s control, begin to take effect and turn the organism into a part of its body.

Aside from the large number of Nocturnal Syndrome patients that appeared that night in the old cement plant mining area, most of the current Nocturnal Syndrome patients in Hua City are organisms with psychic potential, followed by ordinary humans and plants and animals, and then inorganic matter.

So, the fastest way to verify its infectivity is to use psychic potential bearers or psychics as samples.

Psychic potential-bearing plants and animals are rare and hard to obtain.

Silver Horn couldn’t just grab a psychic potential bearer or psychic as a test subject, so he had no choice but to use himself for the experiment.

Marshall dared to drink bacteria to verify whether Helicobacter pylori causes stomach ulcers. For the sake of verification, why shouldn’t Silver Horn inject a bit of suspected haunting organization into his own body?

“This disease, we still don’t know if it can be cured…” Jiang Li gently reminded, “Also, people who commit suicide don’t get welfare graveyard plots.”

The implication being, you’re really courting death by doing this!

“Haha, don’t worry.” Silver Horn laughed again. “I’m not like that reckless Golden Horn. My Spirit Pattern is [Mythical Type · Silver Spirit Boy], a proper immortal in charge of the medicine furnace!”

Silver Horn wasn’t lying. If Golden Horn was one of Xing Yuan’s great weapons, then he was the top-tier healer.

A healer who can’t even heal his own HP, how dare he call himself top-tier?

Sometimes Silver Horn would even think lewdly, if he were a girl, in a novel he’d at least need a G-cup setting to be believable.

“Besides, if I get infected alone and can verify all the characteristics of this strange disease, isn’t that a great deal?”

“By then, we can issue an early public notice and take epidemic prevention measures, saving a lot of people.”

“……”

Jiang Li held her forehead in silence for a moment, then helplessly muttered, “Madman.”

At the same time, in the cold storage on the outskirts of Yue City.

Not long after the sturdy man left, Berses took the Nocturnal Syndrome patient sample out of the body bag, stripped off his clothes, and spread-eagled the body on the cold operating table.

In the darkness, the chilly air brushed over his skin, a strong fishy stench invaded his nostrils, and this man, about thirty years old, suddenly woke up from his stupor. When he saw his surroundings clearly, his pupils contracted violently, and a terrified whimper came from his gagged mouth.

“Mmm-mmm-!”

The man vaguely remembered that last night, after working overtime, he only got home at dawn. He hadn’t even washed up before collapsing onto his bed to sleep. In a daze, he seemed to hear some noise from the living room, but he didn’t pay it any mind.

Recently, his company had taken on a new project, developing a bizarre app similar to “Didi Scare” for a client called Calamity Scare Liability Company. The client’s manager was a very demanding woman, making him work overtime every day, and he hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in ages.

Every night when he got home and closed his eyes, he would dream of a city both strange and familiar. During the day, he suffered severe tinnitus, which worsened into auditory hallucinations, but he didn’t think much of it.

But…

What he never expected was that, upon waking up, he would find himself in such a hellish place.

The light around him was dim, candle flames flickered, the air reeked of dead fish, and the old walls were stained with dark yellow watermarks twisted into all sorts of eerie shapes. The tattered plastic curtains used as partitions swayed in the breeze like ghosts.

And in front of him stood a hunched, pale-faced man, holding an axe-saw in his hand, staring at him expressionlessly, as if looking at a corpse waiting to be dissected.

This was one hundred percent a haunting incident! the man thought.

“Hmm? Still alive?” Berses glanced at the awakened man and shook his head. “Unfortunately, you’ll have the chance to watch yourself being dissected with your own eyes. But don’t worry, it won’t hurt.”

Although Berses’s strange Spirit Pattern couldn’t make the man completely lose consciousness, it was easy enough to deprive him of all five senses.

As for why, when he could have deprived the man of all five senses, he deliberately left his sight and hearing…

Well, for no other reason than that he liked it. Before joining the Eclipse Society and being guided by the president to become a “scientist,” he used to sell these kinds of videos on certain illegal websites.

“Mmm mmm mmm-!”

Hearing Berses’s words, the man let out a terrified whimper and struggled violently, making the iron hooks at his wrists and ankles clang, but just as Berses had said, he didn’t feel a bit of pain.

And so, the blade fell.

The man watched with his own eyes as the saw, once used to cut frozen fish, sank into his body, the muffled sound of flesh tearing ringing in his ears.

“Don’t move! Look, you made me saw crooked, your intestines are all cut!” Amid Berses’s loud roar, the man’s face twitched violently, his eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.

—-

Meanwhile.

Several kilometers away from the cold storage, a small truck loaded with potatoes was driving along the mountain ring road.

Rustic, energetic music blared from the truck.

The driver was an old farmer of about fifty, a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he hummed along nasally.

Driving his little truck down the road, he spotted from afar the sturdy man in a military coat by the roadside, seemingly waiting for a ride.

As the truck passed by the sturdy man, the old farmer stepped on the brake, stopped in front of him, grinned, and revealed a mouthful of smoke-stained yellow teeth.

“Brother, where are you headed? It’s hard to catch a ride here. Want me to give you a lift? Just give me a little money, come on, hop in, there’s still room for potatoes, you can squeeze in!”

Faced with the old farmer’s enthusiastic offer in a thick dialect, the sturdy man’s face darkened, his brows furrowed, and he snapped impatiently, “Get lost!”

“Damn!” The old farmer rolled his eyes. “You don’t want a ride, I don’t want to take you anyway. Forget it, forget it!”

Muttering curses, the old farmer restarted the truck and drove off, quickly disappearing around a bend in the mountain road.

After driving several more kilometers, the old farmer suddenly felt a rush of blood, his face turning pale. He hurriedly pulled over to the roadside, then…

He took out his phone from his pocket, typed quickly with both hands, and sent out a text message.

Old farmer: “Confirmed the target has completed the transaction. Should we move in now?”

Codename Au: “No rush. That guy stole the Nocturnal Syndrome patient’s corpse, definitely to sell it for money. We need to find his buyer before we act. Send me the location info, I’ll have someone tail him.”

Old farmer: “Understood. Also… I think I’ve been hit. Please send someone to back me up.”

Codename Au: “Received. Backup will arrive within thirty minutes.”