Chapter 506: Black Sun Fire Seed

The Beast of Inheritance genuinely accepted the name “Wang Yingying.”

Lu Yibei gave the Beast of Inheritance the name “Wang Yingying,” and it also genuinely accepted this name, so Wang Yingying became synonymous with the Beast of Inheritance.

Thus, when it painstakingly wrote the three characters “Wang Yingying” on the [Moonlight Project Contract] with it’s fingertip, the contract began to take effect.

Golden flames burst forth from the charred contract and merged into the Beast of Inheritance’s thin body.

In an instant, whispers echoed in Lu Yibei’s ears, recounting the powers of the Beast of Inheritance, and telling all about it.

“All forms are not forms, all dharmas are not dharmas…”

Immediately after, a desolate and ancient voice sounded from within Lu Yibei, like a morning bell or evening drum, growing stronger and gradually drowning out the description of the Beast of Inheritance’s powers.

“There is a place with zhong mountain, there is a woman clad in green, her beauty and spirit can awaken the gods…”

Huh? Did my power description change? Could it be because I fused with the remnants of Ms. Wang Meili’s power? Lu Yibei thought to herself.

Before she could delve into the specific reason for the change in her power description, a violent tremor struck, instantly interrupting her thoughts.

The psychic energy drifting in the air seemed to be celebrating something, boiling over and setting off waves of buzzing.

Amid the deep buzzing, countless dazzling arcs of electricity emerged from the Beast of Inheritance’s body, swiftly coursing across it’s surface with crackling sounds.

In the end, all the arcs converged on it’s forehead, stroke by stroke, gradually outlining a complex flame-shaped pattern.

Isn’t this it? Seeing the familiar’s mark about to take shape, Lu Yibei felt a surge of joy.

Later, I must find an opportunity to ask Godmother for a few more “Indentures,” and after I get them, I’ll have the PL girl alter them all for me, to use as protection! Lu Yibei secretly thought.

At that moment, the PL girl’s voice sounded in her ear at the most inopportune time.

“Hey! I didn’t expect it would actually work?”

That contract was altered, the witness was Lu Yibei, and the contract target was layered like a mille-feuille; even the PL girl wasn’t sure if it would take effect.

Hearing this, Lu Yibei wished she could grab the question marks floating in her mind and smash them hard into the PL girl’s face.

“Explain to me, what do you mean by ‘it actually worked’?!”

“Slip of the tongue, just a slip of the tongue, don’t get distracted! It’s not over yet! In a moment, follow my lead and say…”

Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei thought for a moment and understood.

Successfully altering the [Moonlight Project Contract] to trick the Beast of Inheritance into signing was only the beginning.

Using the familiar’s mark left by the [Moonlight Project Contract] to seize the consciousness of the Beast of Inheritance from the control of the Eclipse Society would be the true victory.

Now, this contest had only just begun.

For a “universal adapter” with such special powers as the Beast of Inheritance, the Eclipse Society would not give up easily.

“In the name of Calamity, I grant Wang Yingying speech!”

The PL girl’s voice sounded again, and Lu Yibei’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the familiar’s mark about to form on the Beast of Inheritance’s forehead, softly repeating, “In the name of Calamity, I grant Wang Yingying speech!”

As the words fell, the golden arcs of electricity coursing over the Beast of Inheritance’s body swept across it’s lips, and the glowing red line instantly dimmed.

As the red line broke inch by inch, it turned to flying ash.

A deep rumble, like an angry roar, came from a distant time and space, exploding in Lu Yibei’s ears.

In an instant, Lu Yibei felt as if her occiput had been struck hard by an iron hammer, her head spinning and her vision darkening.

“……”

Is this the backlash from breaking the Eclipse Society’s seal?

If it’s only to this extent, it seems bearable… Lu Yibei thought to herself, steadied her mind, and followed the PL girl to speak the second phrase.

“In the name of Calamity, I grant Wang Yingying light!”

With a “crack,” the crystalline ring covering the Beast of Inheritance’s eyes shattered.

As the ring broke, shards of pitch-black crystal scattered, and the Beast of Inheritance slowly opened it’s eyes–a pair of silver-gray pupils, as clear and bewildered as a newborn beast, unstained by dust.

After all these years, to see the light again.

After a brief excitement, the Beast of Inheritance couldn’t wait to look at the benefactor who had helped it escape the sea of suffering.

When it’s gaze fell on the red-haired girl, it froze for a moment, then it’s pupils trembled violently.

Not far away, Lu Yibei was coughing up blood in great gulps; the blood seemed to have mutated, turning pitch black, sizzling as it fell into the air.

Unintentionally meeting the Beast of Inheritance’s gaze and sensing the worry and anxiety in it’s eyes, Lu Yibei felt a slight warmth in her heart, then waved her hand, straightened her back, and continued to repeat the words the PL girl murmured in her mind.

“In the name of Calamity, I grant Wang Yingying…”

Halfway through, Lu Yibei’s voice abruptly stopped.

Without warning, her head buzzed, her thoughts stalled, and her throat felt as if gripped by a pair of invisible hands; her lips parted, but the word “freedom” stuck in her mouth and couldn’t come out no matter what.

As a burning pain surged from her eyes, a sense of foreboding quietly rose in her heart. At that moment, the PL girl’s exclamation sounded.

“Damn, there’s a small problem, I’ll handle it first, you hold on, don’t die!”

What the hell? Life-threatening is a small problem? Lu Yibei’s heart skipped a beat and turned cold. Before she could ask the PL girl what had happened, something unexpected occurred.

A shrill scream erupted, the piercing sound scraping her eardrums like blades, making her body go rigid.

Amid that maddening shriek, Lu Yibei vaguely heard a whisper.

“Black sun at noon, tomorrow’s collapse…”

The whisper seemed to come from a distant time and space, yet also rose from the depths of her soul.

It was like a deep, resonant elder chanting an ancient ballad, yet also like a child mumbling half-asleep.

It’s the Eclipse Society… Damn it, someone is playing dirty and launching a sneak attack! Just as Lu Yibei had this thought, her vision suddenly went dark.

It was as if the sun had suddenly fallen below the horizon, and light was swallowed by darkness.

Everything in her sight was coated with a layer of profound shadow.

Under the shroud of shadow, everything in the dilapidated little park showed signs of decay, as if the end was near.

“Hmph!”

A deep, cold snort came across countless voids, as if proclaiming the arrival of a long winter and eternal deathly silence.

The next moment, as if hallucinating, a pitch-black, shattered, seemingly dying “sun” appeared before her eyes…

Meanwhile, at the bottom level of the Great Furnace.

Berses stared at the Beast of Inheritance below, his chest heaving violently, his bloodshot eyes filled with a fierce glare.

The clothes on his upper body were completely torn, his skin scorched as if burned by extreme heat, covered in large patches of charred marks. His limbs were also somewhat withered, as if all vitality had been drained from him.

Following his gaze through the glass window of the control room, one could see the laboratory littered with corpses. Amid the thick, poisonous smoke, figures hurried about, extinguishing flames, dismantling damaged alchemy equipment, clearing circuits, and patching leaks, all to restore operations in the shortest time possible.

Surrounded by nearly a hundred alchemy devices, the massive body of the Beast of Inheritance had almost turned into a pile of mush, from head to tail, not a single inch of skin remained, not a piece of flesh intact.

All flesh, bones, and organs were exposed, dripping with blood, in plain sight.

It was as if something had savagely flayed its skin and split open its body, leaving behind such a gruesome sight.

Wisps of pitch-black flame clung to the Beast of Inheritance, as if they would never extinguish, burning and flickering, bit by bit devouring its body.

With every flicker of the flames, its broken body convulsed violently, letting out weak and painful whimpers.

A few minutes ago, the Beast of Inheritance, already on the verge of losing control, suddenly went berserk, shattering more than half of the steel needles used to restrain it in an instant. Its raging psychic energy fluctuations spread out, immediately damaging and paralyzing dozens of alchemy devices, while every Eclipse Society member responsible for operating the equipment perished.

With no other choice, Berses decided to use the [Black Sun Fire Seed], a special substance representing the highest honor for Eclipse Society members, and also an extremely lethal one-time weapon.

……

Creak–!

The door to the control room opened.

Meihong Zhuang walked in, an apple between her lips, swaying her slender waist.

She glanced at the miserable-looking Berses, curled her lip, and teased, “Little B, I didn’t expect you’d use the Black Sun Fire Seed bestowed by the president on something like this?”

“It’s just a test subject. Was it worth such a heavy price?”

Berses shot a sidelong glance at Meihong Zhuang and spat, “What the hell do you know!”

That was the only special individual of the Beast of Inheritance currently captured, of extraordinary significance.

When the accident happened just now, they detected psychic energy fluctuations suspected to be from the catastrophe-class psychic of The Midnight Watchers Society, codename 3. Clearly, someone from The Midnight Watchers Society was meddling.

For a special haunting entity like the Beast of Inheritance, no matter the cost, it must not break free from control and fall into the hands of The Midnight Watchers Society.

“Even if it means… destroying it!” Berses said harshly.

Meihong Zhuang secretly observed Berses’s expression for a while, then murmured thoughtfully, “If you can’t have it, you’ll destroy it? Interesting.”

——–

As that black sun appeared before her eyes, Lu Yibei felt the faint connection she had just established with the Beast of Inheritance brutally severed in an instant.

Immediately after, an unknown mental shock forcefully invaded her consciousness, suppressing her every action.

Then… it was as if a cold steel spike was driven forcefully through her temple into her skull.

A sudden twist.

Her thoughts spiraled out of control into chaos, all sorts of abnormal ideas flashing through her mind, as nightmare-like illusions surged before her eyes.

In a daze, she looked up at the Beast of Inheritance.

Shrouded in deep shadows, its petite figure was now just a vague outline, only those silver-gray eyes faintly visible.

At this moment, the eyes that once resembled a child’s were no longer clear; the silver-gray pupils were dull, and all the negative emotions buried deep inside erupted–irritation, worry, confusion, panic… until finally, all emotions turned into deep despair.

Watching the light fade from the Beast of Inheritance’s eyes, Lu Yibei’s heart tightened, a sour ache spreading through her chest.

In her daze, she recalled a line she’d once read in a book–“I could endure the darkness, if I had not seen the light.”

She had promised the Beast of Inheritance to save it, had given it hope, but at the last moment, an accident occurred. Now it might fall into the abyss once more; one could imagine how desperate it must feel.

At this thought, whether it was the Eclipse Society members on the PL girl’s side having finished their dirty work, or her own potential erupting in extreme anger, Lu Yibei gritted her silver teeth and simultaneously activated [royal authority] and her charm ability, targeting herself with a psychic shock.

Although using her own innate skill to launch a psychic shock against herself to resist external mental attacks was just a guess–never tested before.

By her nature, she should have conducted over a hundred controlled experiments before daring to use it in practice.

But in this situation, she no longer had the chance to experiment in advance.

As the psychic shock carrying the special effects of [royal authority] and charm ability descended upon herself, Lu Yibei’s petite body convulsed violently as if electrocuted.

Her already chaotic consciousness became even more disordered, instantly surpassing what she could bear, plunging her mind into a blank void.

Like a computer crashing from overload.

In that less than 0.1 second of clarity before her mind went blank, she uttered her final words.

“In the name of Calamity, I grant Wang Yingying freedom!”

As her words fell, a sound like shattering metal rang out.

Ding! The chains wrapped around the Beast of Inheritance’s body snapped and broke.

Immediately, golden flames burst from the Beast of Inheritance’s body, instantly melting the chains into dazzling molten iron, which was swept away by a sudden blast, splattering in all directions.

Lu Yibei, too, was swept up by the surging blast, flung like a pile of mush into the distant psychic turbulence.

Bathed in brilliant golden light, that petite figure stretched out her long-constrained limbs, like a newborn emerging into the world.

Then…

It reached out, grabbed the rapidly drifting Lu Yibei, pulled her back with all its might, and held her tightly in its arms.

It saved her, just as she had saved it.

In the next moment, pitch-black flames descended from above, instantly engulfing Lu Yibei and the Beast of Inheritance together, spreading like evil spirits, burrowing into their lungs, clinging to their bones, and burning fiercely.