Chapter 501: Feel Your Presence

A pungent-smelling mist drifted along the empty street, while dark red flesh rolled back and forth among the ruins of buildings.

“Clop–clop–!”

In the distance.

Iron hooves thundered, bursting forth with a metallic clang.

Immediately after, a whistling sound echoed as a nimble figure shot out from a cramped alley, tracing a silver-white arc through the air.

Jiang Li, clad in simple silver armor, had just landed when the dark red flesh clinging to the street and buildings instantly stirred, as if savage beasts had caught the scent of blood.

Right after, a loud crash erupted from the alley behind her.

With the collapse of the alley walls, stones and dust exploded outward. From the shattered alley, a horde of twisted beasts surged forth.

Cats, dogs, rats, birds, even humans and plants–various common city creatures gathered in packs, each covered in masses of dark red flesh, which surged and writhed.

Affected by the flesh of the Beast of Inheritance, their bodies showed varying degrees of haunting transformation.

Countless pairs of scarlet eyes stared fixedly at Jiang Li’s back. In the next instant, a piercing screech erupted, and the frenzied horde charged at her.

In a flash, a bloody wind rushed toward her.

Jiang Li gritted her silver teeth, spun lightly, and pushed off the ground with her toes, leaping backward.

As she widened the distance from the beasts, her left hand swiftly retrieved a cloth bag filled with pearls from the backpack on her chest.

“Stars scattered, wind stirs the foothills, silver threads fly, white pearls sweep, the clash of spears, the fall of arrows, invoke the seventy-fifth curse, Torrential Arrow Rain Falls!”

As the incantation ended, the surrounding humidity thickened abruptly.

Jiang Li raised her arm and flung the pearls from the bag into the sky.

These pearls, born within aquatic mollusks and long submerged underwater, were not top-tier spell materials, but when used in water-type spell formations, they provided a certain amplification effect.

The snow-white pearls, influenced by psychic energy fluctuation and the incantation, diffused mist around them, bursting with azure light, tracing arcs through the air before accelerating sharply, transforming into a rain of razor-sharp threads.

“Thud thud thud–!”

Like spears and falling arrows, the rain of threads plummeted from the sky, whistling as they pierced the air, splashing water everywhere, instantly blooming blood among the relentless beasts, pinning their twisted bodies to the ground.

The stench of blood stained the ruined asphalt road red.

Suddenly, from the splattering blood, a canine, grotesquely swollen to several times its normal size, broke through the rain curtain and lunged at Jiang Li, jaws agape.

Yet, right in its path, a silver long blade appeared, as if it had been waiting for it all along.

A flash of silver light.

The fleeting blade left an azure afterimage in the sky.

The giant dog froze, the greed and ferocity in its scarlet eyes gradually turning to shock and pain.

A bloody line appeared on its jaw, spreading to the top of its head. In the next moment, its skull split from top to bottom, viscous filth spraying out.

“Boom–!”

The giant dog’s massive body convulsed violently, crashing heavily to the ground with a thunderous noise.

However, it did not die instantly. From the split skull, masses of dark red flesh sprouted granulation tissue, wriggling like swarms of insects, trying to repair its body.

Then, failing to heal the giant dog, its body suddenly exploded, and the flesh of the Beast of Inheritance surged out, burrowing into the bodies of nearby still-living monsters, spawning even more grotesque and terrifying forms.

This flesh of the Beast of Inheritance attached to living creatures acted like a parasite–once the host died, it immediately detached and transferred to another living host.

“Damn it!”

Jiang Li cursed under her breath. Without hesitation, she activated her Spirit Pattern and turned to run toward the end of the street.

She had no doubt that if not for the Hydra’s toxin on her long blade, the giant dog would have instantly healed its fatal wound under the power of the Beast of Inheritance’s flesh.

“……”

Why had the flesh of the Beast of Inheritance become so agitated and spawned so many hauntings?

What exactly happened here?

Could it be related to Lu Yibei’s aura disappearing in this special space? Jiang Li wondered anxiously.

When she encountered that haunting-transformed stray cat on Mudan Street, she still felt that the situation in this special space was within controllable limits.

Relying on her seasoned combat experience, even with her psychic energy fluctuation suppressed, she could easily defeat one or two haunting-transformed creatures.

But as Lu Yibei’s aura vanished, slipping beyond the effective range of divination, it was as if some force had catalyzed the flesh of the Beast of Inheritance entrenched in the special space, driving it into madness.

The situation was gradually spiraling out of control, running wild and unstoppable.

A large number of creatures whose bodies had undergone haunting transformation under the influence of the Beast of Inheritance’s flesh and blood began to appear in the streets and alleys.

Ten, fifty, a hundred… In just about an hour, the number of haunting transformation creatures chasing after Jiang Li had surpassed two hundred, and it was still climbing.

With so many haunting transformation creatures, and with psychic energy fluctuation suppressed by the special space so that they were only a bit stronger than Class D, even with Jiang Li’s rich combat experience, she could no longer go on a rampage.

So, as she fought and retreated, her mood grew heavier.

Although she was very reluctant to believe in the possibility that Lu Yibei had been devoured by the Beast of Inheritance, faced with the mutation inside the special space, she subconsciously prepared herself for the worst.

What worried her even more was that if the situation in this special space got out of control, it would affect Hua City, causing the Nocturnal Syndrome outbreak that had just been contained to flare up again, or even directly bring irreversible destruction to Hua City…

She wondered how things were in Hua City now, Jiang Li thought.

——–

Hua City, Mudan Street, Folk Culture Administration Bureau, Office No. 2.

A young girl in tattered clothes, with messy long hair, was sprawled out on Li Xuan’s desk in the shape of a big “X”, her breathing so faint and her body so still that she looked like a corpse.

When Li Xuan hurried back to the office with the monitoring data in hand, he saw this scene and couldn’t help but twitch at the corners of his mouth.

Ever since he brought Huá Sāng to Hua City’s The Midnight Watchers Society, she had been lying there, not moving at all, not even bothering to eat the meals he brought her.

“Junior Sister? Huá Sāng!”

Li Xuan called out three times in a row, each time raising his voice a little more, before Huá Sāng finally responded.

She twisted her slender waist slightly, lifted her eyelids a bit, glanced listlessly at Li Xuan, sat up cross-legged, stretched lazily, and then somehow fished out a primitive-looking Black Iron Ruler, scratching her back with it as she muttered, “Senior Brother, what is it? Why so urgent?”

“You… I…” Li Xuan was at a loss for words.

He was truly exasperated by Huá Sāng. He had thought this junior sister who cared about his beloved car would be a sweet little cotton jacket, but who would have thought she was a drafty, black-hearted one.

He’d always known Huá Sāng was unruly, but he never expected that, as a disciple of the Great Pure Palace and a confidant of the Headmaster, she could be this lazy.

It was simply a disgrace to the sect, a shame to the lineage!

His chest heaved for a moment, but he forced down his anger and handed the monitoring data to Huá Sāng, saying, “Take a look! This is the latest psychic energy fluctuation monitoring data. That special space is already on the verge of losing control, and you still have the mood to slack off here?”

Huá Sāng glanced at the data in Li Xuan’s hand, waved her hand, and said, “Don’t worry, Senior Brother, I’ve been watching it the whole time. The anchor points the old Headmaster left behind have only been damaged three-eighths so far.”

“For now, there won’t be any problems.”

Although Zhang Huainan had been frugal with materials when setting up the anchors, making their defense against external attacks very weak, his methods were nothing if not ingenious.

Eight anchor points, all part of one system, yet each operated independently.

According to Huá Sāng’s understanding of Zhang Huainan, as long as two anchor points remained, that special space would not lose control and rise up.

“You’ve been watching it the whole time?” Li Xuan said with thinly veiled anger. “Why do I feel like you’ve just been slacking off? If this keeps up, will there still be time to fix things if it really gets out of control?”

Li Xuan was so worried about the special space losing control that he completely missed Huá Sāng’s mention of only three-eighths being damaged.

“There’s still time, there’s still time…” Huá Sāng drawled, “As they say, ‘Stillness restrains motion, depth restrains floating, breadth restrains narrowness, slowness restrains haste.’ Being anxious won’t help with this kind of thing.”

“The deadline is the greatest productivity!”

“You…” Li Xuan was speechless. He was completely at a loss with Huá Sāng. “Did the Headmaster know you were like this when he sent you? I’ll be sure to report the situation truthfully!”

“Go ahead, go ahead, it’s no big deal.” Huá Sāng replied lazily with a smile.

Anyway, that old geezer told me to do this. Your tattling won’t help; I’m slacking off under orders… Huá Sāng added silently in her heart.

Although she didn’t really understand why the Headmaster had stuffed a letter into her pocket before leaving, telling her, “Before there’s only one anchor point left, just watch and wait. Don’t tell anyone the reason for this,”

She’d done a quick divination with little effort and confirmed that following the Headmaster’s instructions would bring great fortune.

As for the reason behind the Headmaster’s actions, she really didn’t know. It was easy to divine whether something was auspicious or not, but figuring out why was a lot of work–possible, but unnecessary.

Anyway, as long as she knew the Headmaster’s decision was right, that was enough.

That old geezer was practically a spirit by now; he wouldn’t make random decisions.

So…

Since the Headmaster said it was fine to slack off, you annoying Senior Brother, you still want me to get moving?

Keep dreaming!

Thinking this, Huá Sāng stretched lazily and lay back down on the desk, soon entering a state of hibernation. No matter what Li Xuan said to her after that, she ignored him completely.

After saying so much and using her brain a little, she was already “tired” and needed to recuperate!

As for the matter entrusted to her by the Headmaster, she’d wait until the time was right.

Inside the Beast of Inheritance’s spiritual world.

The earth kept collapsing, turning into fragments, getting swept into the chaotic currents. Lu Yibei’s foothold was shrinking by the second.

Although she really didn’t want to enter the depths of the little park, she wanted even less to be swept into the chaotic currents formed after the city shattered. Helpless, she could only keep retreating.

In just over ten minutes, the area around the little park shrank from a diameter of about one kilometer to less than two hundred meters.

Then…

The slow collapse suddenly intensified. The sky darkened rapidly from far to near, merging into a pale gray fog. The ground beneath her feet fractured in large chunks, breaking away, turning into sharp shards.

“Boom–boom–!”

Amid the thunderous rumbling, in the blink of an eye, the fissures spread to Lu Yibei’s feet.

“Damn!”

She cursed under her breath, didn’t have time to think, and quickly retreated. When she came to her senses, only a small grove separated her from the Beast of Inheritance, no more than twenty meters apart.

Through the gaps in the grove, she could vaguely see the upside-down swing swaying in the sky, and the child sitting on the swing.

The child looked about eleven or twelve years old, small, with dark red, blunt-cut short hair. Too young to tell the gender.

Maybe, things like the Beast of Inheritance don’t even have a gender… Lu Yibei thought to herself.

A pitch-black crystal ring covered its eyes, a silver long needle pierced from its left ear through to the right, and its thin little mouth was sewn shut with a glowing red thread. Its face looked like it had suffered long-term malnutrition, pale and gaunt.

Yet even so, looking at its facial features, one couldn’t help but think, “If it got proper nutrition, it would surely be an adorable child, right?”

Like anti-theft wire, barbed chains wrapped around its petite body, embedded in the flesh, tightly locking it to the swing. Perhaps due to long-term restraint, its slender hands and feet appeared somewhat twisted and deformed.

With the upside-down swing swaying back and forth, the sharp barbs stabbed into its flesh, blood kept dripping, corroding the chains wrapped around its body. It was impossible to tell whether the dark red marks on the chains were rust or dried blood.

Lu Yibei, “……”

Did it do this to itself, or did someone else? That’s just sick.

What should I do! That thing looks way too creepy, I don’t want anything to do with it!

What’s the PL girl doing? It’s been so long, still not done?

Lu Yibei thought, and just then, a gentle murmur sounded in her ear again, “Did you see me? Does my appearance scare you? I must look really frightening, right?”

The tone was very timid, cautious.

Lu Yibei, “……” Yeah, I’m scared, but I don’t want to deal with you.

“Even if you don’t plan to save me, could you come a little closer? I can’t see, can’t hear, if you come closer, at least I can feel your presence.”

“Boom!”

A rumbling sounded behind her. Lu Yibei glanced back and fell silent.

Collapse had started again.

“……”

Is this a request? More like coercion, right? This kid really has something wrong with their head! Lu Yibei thought.