Chapter 471: It’s Calling for Help

On both sides of the road, several massive clusters of liquid, exuding a strong bloody stench, hovered beneath the tips of conical stalactites.

An invisible force wrapped around their surfaces, condensing them into irregular liquid spheres about two meters in diameter.

At the center of those liquid spheres, a small, constantly shifting, bizarre black shadow squirmed slowly.

Glancing sideways at the road’s edges, Ms. Rabbit withdrew her gaze, a look of distaste flashing across her face.

She felt those liquid spheres looked familiar, but for the moment couldn’t recall where she’d seen them before.

—

A moment later, deep within the cave.

“Found it, VIII, this should be the avatar Berses prepared in advance.”

After confirming the number on the plaque beneath the stalactite pillar, Shu E took out three soul-capturing incense sticks of different colors from his coat, a porcelain dish shaped like a wine cup, and a bottle of murky yellow corpse oil.

He then followed the procedure left by Berses and began the ritual.

Ms. Rabbit stepped aside, arms folded across her chest, watching with interest, silent.

As a haunting who had experienced “death” once, she was quite curious to know exactly how a psychic could die and come back to life.

If resurrection were really that easy, The Midnight Watchers Society would have long since equipped every operator with a few “revival coins,” and what fun would hauntings have then?

It would instantly shift from a balanced, even haunting-favored PVP game to a one-sided slaughter, a Warriors-style PVE game for The Midnight Watchers Society, wouldn’t it? Ms. Rabbit grumbled inwardly.

Depending on the psychic energy fluctuation level and the spread of the haunting legend, a slain haunting, without external aid, would need anywhere from two or three years to several decades to revive.

This span of time was roughly equivalent to the time it took a psychic to grow to similar strength, which was why a dynamic balance had persisted for so long.

Ms. Rabbit even felt that even for hauntings, after descending again from the haunting legend people devoutly believed in, they couldn’t really be considered the same as before.

Having personally experienced the full process from being hunted to descending again, she understood this deeply.

This was mostly because, in the spread of haunting legends, there were always people who liked to embellish the story.

That’s why she hated talkative people the most!

This wasn’t a hint, it was a direct statement-she was talking about you, Calamity! Ms. Rabbit thought resentfully.

“Hoo-!”

A soft sound of flames rising was heard.

Shu E lit the first soul-capturing incense, its color pale, and a faint scent of locust blossoms spread out.

As the smoke curled upward, he picked up the bottle of corpse oil and poured it into the porcelain dish.

Vaguely, Ms. Rabbit sensed a cold and weak psychic energy fluctuation emanating from the corpse oil, similar to what she’d felt from Berses before.

This corpse oil was refined by Berses from the body that Lu Ming had killed, containing his most original psychic energy fluctuation.

“Soul, return! Go to your eternal rest…”

Watching Shu E sway and mutter incantations, Ms. Rabbit frowned, “…Isn’t this just summoning a soul? What’s the point of just calling the soul back?”

Soul summoning-so-called summoning, but what’s summoned is an unformed haunting.

Ms. Rabbit had never heard of a ritual that used an unformed haunting to resurrect a human.

Unless… you directly used some means to turn the unformed haunting into a haunting.

But that wouldn’t count as resurrection, right? It should be… corpse transformation? Ms. Rabbit thought.

“Hoo-!”

As she pondered, Shu E lit the second soul-capturing incense, this one mixed with willow wood core.

“Soul, return! May you not ascend to heaven…”

After a brief pause, Shu E didn’t light the third, ordinary soul-capturing incense, but instead softly chanted the third line, “Soul, return! May you not descend to this nether realm…”

After the third line, he waited about ten seconds.

“Hoo-!”

At the tip of the third, ordinary soul-capturing incense, a ghostly green spark suddenly flickered, and soon a wisp of smoke rose.

The three soul-capturing incense sticks encircled the porcelain dish, their drifting smoke gathering above, floating like ghosts, and then…

With a hallucination-like shriek, all the smoke suddenly plunged downward, merging into the corpse oil.

The psychic energy fluctuation surged intensely; in an instant, the corpse oil seemed to boil, churning violently.

At this moment, Shu E picked up the porcelain dish, stepped forward, and carefully poured it onto the irregular liquid sphere.

Thus, the true resurrection ritual began.

At the center of the irregular liquid sphere, that viscous, gelatinous black shadow, reeking of nauseating rot, began to writhe violently.

Countless bubbles, like boiling water, surged and rolled within the irregular liquid sphere.

Psychic energy was absorbed and released, mass changed, and the black shadow rapidly expanded, split, iterated, and transformed…

Staring at that gelatinous black shadow, which gradually began to resemble a fish, then an ape, and finally developed a human outline, Ms. Rabbit suddenly remembered what this ghostly thing looked like.

It was like an undeveloped embryonic cell.

After absorbing the complete psychic energy fluctuation of Berses and the memories contained in the unformed haunting, it began to develop.

From embryo, to infant, and finally revealing Berses’s androgynous face.

Then…

He opened his eyes, and a cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

—

One hour later, at the other end of the massive cavern.

A gigantic alchemical matrix was inscribed at the bottom of a vast rocky pool, its crimson glow faintly illuminating the darkness.

Molten alchemical materials, like mercury, slowly flowed along the grooves of the matrix’s incantation, resembling little snakes slithering and winding their way across the pool. At the center of the pool, a colossal beast, its form like a skinned wildcat, lay coiled with eyes tightly shut, its fate unknown, pinned to the pool’s floor by hundreds of long metal needles.

This was where the Eclipse Society imprisoned and studied the Beast of Inheritance.

At this moment, the altars around the rocky pool were no longer empty as usual; countless cables had been hastily set up, exposed and crude, connecting the massive instruments together.

Members of the Eclipse Society, clad in special black protective suits, moved busily between the instruments and altars in perfect order, looking from afar like worker ants swarming around their queen.

As they anxiously adjusted the instruments and operated the altars, mists of various colors began to fill the vast space.

Even with the ventilation fans in the dozen giant ducts running at maximum power, they could not clear the pungent, psychic energy-laced toxic fumes in a short time.

The mist thickened, constantly inhaled into throats and windpipes, and soon, signs of poisoning began to appear.

“Night Corrosion Level rising to 3.8 and still climbing, everyone prepare!”

The member monitoring the data, dressed in a red protective suit, suddenly shouted, his raspy voice echoing through the cavernous space.

“Night Corrosion Level 4.0, psychic energy contamination level three warning!”

The red-clad Eclipse Society member called out again, and in the next instant, all present members almost simultaneously pulled out their special gas masks and put them on, quickly returning to their work.

In the observation room, Berses overlooked everything. Seeing all preparations complete, he took a deep breath, summoned his psychic energy, and shouted, “Psychic Cutting Blade ready, begin charging! In ten seconds, commence craniotomy on the specimen!”

“Ten, nine, eight… one!”

As his words fell, a thunderous roar came from above the cavern.

With the roar, an alchemical matrix and mechanical structure inscribed with incantations emerged from the cavern’s ceiling, and in a blink, slender dark-gold flames burst forth.

From top to bottom, it was like a sword of divine punishment descending from the heavens, stabbing toward the Beast of Inheritance’s skull.

The earth trembled, the ground rippling like the surface of water.

It seemed to happen in an instant, yet also as if after a long brewing; the Beast of Inheritance, pinned to the pool’s bottom and dormant for ages, was suddenly jolted awake by unimaginable pain.

It opened its eyes and looked around. In those eyes, clear and bright as a child’s, were filled with agony and bewilderment.

“Lord Berses, it-it’s awake!”

A subordinate’s trembling voice sounded in his headset. Berses frowned slightly and growled, “Ignore it. Psychic Cutting Blade, prepare for a second charge-this time, increase the power!”

Agonized cries erupted, the shrill wails mingling with the roars of countless beasts, nearly tearing everyone’s eardrums apart.

Even through thick soundproof earmuffs, the piercing sound seemed to stab into their brains.

Members of the Eclipse Society at the pool’s edge couldn’t help but step back.

The cruel sound, triggered by intense psychic energy fluctuation, bored into their bodies, echoing in their bones, mercilessly ravaging every inch of flesh.

The Beast of Inheritance struggled, the long metal needles pinning its massive body quivering violently and humming, yet not moving an inch.

Soon, cracks began to appear on the Beast of Inheritance’s head, bearing the immense force of the Psychic Cutting Blade; its skin split and shattered like cardboard, blood gushing out and staining the pool red.

Just as Berses had anticipated, the Psychic Cutting Blade, embodying the Eclipse Society’s cutting-edge technology, easily split open the Beast of Inheritance’s skull.

Its smooth, ever-shifting brain, like a mass of mercury, was instantly exposed to everyone’s view.

Staring at its brain, the members of the Eclipse Society unconsciously held their breath.

Each of them saw their own reflection in the mirror-like surface of the Beast of Inheritance’s brain.

It gave a strange illusion that its brain was also its eye.

Instinctively, it tried to replicate everyone’s power, but unfortunately, the hundreds of metal needles engraved with complex incantations suppressed all psychic energy fluctuations within its body.

“Hmph…”

Watching the Beast of Inheritance’s convulsing body, Berses let out a mocking snort.

“It’s time. Everyone retreat. Release the Soul-Absorbing Worms and begin parsing the specimen’s memory!”

At his command, the Eclipse Society members in the cavern showed expressions of terror and quickly retreated like a receding tide.

Just as they didn’t want to be tainted by the Beast of Inheritance’s flesh and blood, they wanted no contact with the Soul-Absorbing Worms.

Soul-Absorbing Worms, like the Beast of Inheritance, were hauntings unfortunately captured by the Eclipse Society. Born from legends of “illusory parasites that devour human memories,” these hauntings first enter the human body in egg form.

At first, the host feels no abnormality, even becoming highly disciplined and confident, but soon, as the eggs hatch and multiply within the host, the parasitized human begins to suffer intermittent amnesia, eventually becoming a hollow shell with no memory at all.

After being captured and subjected to a series of ruthless experimental modifications, the Soul-Absorbing Worms quickly became the Eclipse Society’s tool for forcibly reading the memories of psychics and hauntings.

When the last member’s figure vanished into the exit passage, a rumble echoed through the cavern as the altars and countless instruments sank underground, followed by massive, heavy metal plates rising from below, locking together seamlessly.

Then…

A mass of writhing flesh, branded with a black solar totem, was thrown from the cavern’s ceiling into the sealed space.

That half-real, half-illusory pale flesh, upon landing, immediately split into finger-sized, human-faced wriggling worms, scattering before converging toward the Beast of Inheritance’s brain, then opening their hooked tails and viciously stabbing into the mercury-like tissue.

In an instant, the Beast of Inheritance’s cranial cavity was crawling with pale worms, densely packed, writhing ceaselessly, greedily sucking at its memories.

In the observation room, Berses and the red-clad Eclipse Society members sensed the psychic energy fluctuations transmitted by the Soul-Absorbing Worms and began recording every change.

Ms. Rabbit quietly watched from the side as Berses cut open the Beast of Inheritance’s skull and used the Soul-Absorbing Worm to read its memories, her expression growing increasingly grave.

She paced to the window of the observation room, gazing down at the dying giant beast below, subconsciously reaching out her hand.

On the beast’s exposed, ever-shifting mercury-like brain, she saw her own reflection.

Those reflections silently wailed, wept, pleaded… A wave of intense loneliness and helplessness crashed over Ms. Rabbit’s heart, leaving her dazed and absent-minded.

“Uh…”

When her fingertip touched the cold glass, Ms. Rabbit shuddered slightly, as if electrocuted, and quickly withdrew her hand.

At that moment, Shu E stepped forward, expressionless, and said, “Let’s go. Our task is done, time to head back. There are plenty of other missions waiting for us!”

As if she hadn’t heard Shu E’s words, Ms. Rabbit continued to stare blankly at the giant beast.

Following Ms. Rabbit’s gaze, Shu E looked puzzled. “What are you looking at?”

“I’m looking at it…”

“It? The Beast of Inheritance?”

Ms. Rabbit nodded. “Yes, the Beast of Inheritance… it’s calling for help.”

It’s always calling for help, yet no one ever notices.

Like a kitten locked in an invisible cage, with no air, no food or water, none of the essentials for life.

It can see people passing by outside, but no one can see its agony as it suffocates.

By chance, Ms. Rabbit, who had similar experiences, heard its cry for help, but…

Sorry, I can’t help you… Ms. Rabbit murmured in her heart.

Shu E scrutinized the Beast of Inheritance’s body for a while, then frowned at Ms. Rabbit. “You’re overthinking it, aren’t you? That’s just a reflex arc causing muscle spasms and twitching.”

“Bro, don’t get so sentimental. Any more of that and you’ll be way too gay!”

Ms. Rabbit, “…” Who the hell is your bro?

—

Half an hour later.

A preliminary report, derived from analyzing the Soul-Absorbing Worm’s psychic energy fluctuation, was laid out on Berses’s lab bench.

Berses read the report line by line, word by word, trying to decipher from the Beast of Inheritance’s chaotic, fragmented memories the source of the power it had recently been replicating.

Finally, after marking several passages in red, he set the report down, frowning.

Qi Nanzhu, high-tier mythical type power, a city exactly like Hua City…

“So the legend was true?” Berses muttered to himself.

He was never one to fight unprepared. Before deciding to head to the outskirts of Hua City to capture Gu Qianqian, Calamity, or the No. 11 test subject, he had reviewed nearly every piece of information about Hua City within his clearance.

From those records, he learned about the upheaval nineteen years ago in Hua City, triggered by Qi Nanzhu’s “legacy.”

But at first, he hadn’t paid it much mind.

Although the Eclipse Society’s files vaguely mentioned that what Qi Nanzhu left behind was incredibly valuable-even the president and Council of Elders kept a close watch on it for a time-

Still, hundreds or thousands of hauntings and psychics spent a year or two searching and found nothing. How could it be so easy to find?

There was even the previous Holy Son of the Miracle Order among them.

Berses didn’t care at all about the Miracle Order’s remnants, but if it was the Holy Son, he was quite interested in studying them.

According to the Eclipse Society’s records, every Holy Son of the Miracle Order was favored by miracles-no, more like a human koi.

The kind who could buy a random bucket of instant noodles at the supermarket and find two noodle cakes and three seasoning packets inside.

Someone like that, in theory, could walk down the streets of Hua City and stumble upon Qi Nanzhu’s relic, yet in reality, he found nothing.

This made one suspect that what Qi Nanzhu left behind wasn’t in Hua City at all, and the rumors from nineteen years ago were just a smokescreen.

But now, after reading the Soul-Absorbing Worm’s analysis of the Beast of Inheritance’s memories, he suddenly felt that Qi Nanzhu’s legacy was probably hidden within the “city” she constructed using her power.

“She built a special space on the dark side of Hua City, and by pulling in projections of everything in the city, kept refining it… What an incredible technique! No wonder the Beast of Inheritance was drawn to her power.”

While marveling at Qi Nanzhu’s extraordinary skill, Berses’s gaze lingered on the final passage marked in red.

“But… isn’t this Lu Yibei a reserve operator for Hua City? How is he connected to Qi Nanzhu?”

From the psychic energy fluctuation intercepted during the Beast of Inheritance’s attempt to replicate Qi Nanzhu’s power, Berses obtained a crucial yet strange piece of information.

[Do not harm Lu Yibei!]

Such a rule was like the most fundamental, core directive, hidden within every psychic energy fluctuation emanating from that city…