Plague Doctor

Chapter 228: Stop the Ritual

Translator: Lonelytree 

Darkness had also descended inside that endless loop in the desert. By now, there were 54 people trapped there. People had tried multiple methods to leave but they all ended up at the beginning so eventually they had to accept that they were trapped inside this suspended space. Right this moment, most people were clustered around their own vehicles, only 20 of them heed Kathlyn’s advice to stay together and park their vehicles by the roadside and keep their headlights open to expand their field of vision. This way they could be prepared for any change.

“Do you guys know something?” Mr. Jackson asked the man in the mask, he had discerned who was the decision maker here. The gaze of the masked man was scary and the purplish-red skin that was exposed was enough to put fear in others. In fact, some of them suspected this group of people was the culprit but the question was how did they manage to do something like that?

“I know some but what I don’t know is more.” Gu Jun said. He frowned as he turned his head up to the night sky. He felt the stars and moon were dimming and the breeze was turning chill. Then he could hear a song drifting on the wind…

“Do you hear that?” Gu Jun looked at the surroundings that were lit up by the headlights. “There’s someone singing.” The land’s travellers were the next to hear it, followed by Kathlyn’s group and lastly the rest of the people. A melancholic female voice was singing in an unfamiliar language but somehow everyone understood the meaning of the song. ‘Where did the singing come from?’ The panicked citizens looked around. The headless bodies in the dark were still immobile… were they singing? Both Kathlyn and Peacock saw a ripple in the dimension. Something was transmuting and overlapping. The flickering illusion messed with their visibility.

“Ah…!” Suddenly someone gasped. The Jacksons turned to look and saw the tattooed guy swayed towards a specific spot in the desert and knelt down. He was followed by a few others who refused to listen to Gu Jun’s group’s advice. Like puppets, they moved into position and knelt down one after another. These people turned their heads towards the transmission tower. Above the tower, there was only a single star lingering in the night sky, its yellow glow was spreading across the black canvas. Gu Jun suddenly understood why the wound on the bodies were so even and why there was a lack of blood… the decapitation was done after the petrification.

All of them who received the yellow papers were going to end up as sacrifices. The yellow papers were indeed death notifications.

“Do not listen to that song!” Gu Jun shouted at the panicked people around him. “It can control your mind!” He must end this ritual to save these people. That must be why the black shadow had led him here, he was going to affect this change.

“Take care of yourselves!” Gu Jun told Peacock and the rest before rushing down a direction. At the same time, Holly who was in Mrs. Jackson’s arms as well as the 10 children within this protective circle started to sing along with the female voice. They were joined by the other children from outside the circle. Their young faces slowly drained of expression as their mouths moved along to the song,

“Strange is the night where black stars rise,

 And strange moons circle through the skies

 But stranger still is

Lost Carcosa.”

…

The night sky above the field had turned yellow. The dimension was twisting and the song was ringing out. A figure blocked before Wu Siyu.

“Songs that the Hyades shall sing,

 Where flap the tatters of the King,

 Must die unheard in

Dim Carcosa.”

“Sister Siyu, listen to the song, listen.” Zheng Jialiang stood to block her way, his young face filled with strange fanaticism, “It’s almost done.” Wu Siyu was not surprised to see this man, she was just curious whether he was a traitor sent into the Spell Department or he was turned into one while he was in the department.

“Get out of my way!” She took out a stun gun, this weapon was given to her by Elder Tong. Elder Tong ultimately did believe her but he knew he could not stop the rest from attempting this mission so he handed Siyu the power to end the ritual if need be. She fired at Zheng Jialiang and the electrical wires hit the target. Zheng Jialiang did not even attempt to evade, he should be convulsing on the floor from the stun gun but he was still standing there, shouting feverishly, “You cannot stop this, the whole world is responding to the brotherhood! Do you think this is the only place? You cannot stop this! You poor thing, you have not reached the third chapter so you have not been revealed to the secret of the Hyades… Even when the descendent of Hastur is standing before you, you cannot recognize him!”

Wu Siyu was about to run past him when she saw the people around her turn towards her. They had no expression but their eyes were glowing with a strange yellow light.

“Have you seen your yellow secret spell?” Wang Ruoxiang asked.

“Have you seen your yellow secret spell?” Xue Ba asked.

“Have you seen your yellow secret spell?” Louxiaoning, Chen Zuodong, Gao Yi and the others also asked.

Wu Siyu’s heart thumped like it was hit, her grip on the stun gun tightened. Everyone was affected… The influence probably did not start tonight, not with this ritual, the insidious effect probably started when they decided to study the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan. This was especially true for those who had reached the third chapter, and suffered from ‘Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan training syndrome’, they were not traitors but their minds had been controlled. The culprit was this…’brotherhood’. Did they walk willingly into this trap or they had been hypnotized from the beginning? If not for the kangaroo, would she fall for the same influence? Would she succumb to madness too?

Suddenly, some of them raised their weapons…

“Stop, wake up!” Wu Siyu shouted urgently, “This is not who you are!”

She noticed Cai Zixuan responding to her pleas. The man, who was just in the second chapter, was not under too great of an influence. He did not join in the chant about the yellow secret spell earlier. Cai Zixuan’s face convulsed in pain and his weakened voice was almost drowned by the song, “Siyu, run… this is not Tycoon Jun…” Wu Siyu was about to do so when she heard a painful groan from Wang Ruoxiang beside her. In that groan, Siyu tasted the Formalin. It hit her then, under Wang Ruoxiang’s seemingly measured expression, there was still a struggle of self. The ritual was not yet over, they had not yet fully lost themselves!

…

The yellow light swallowed up the sky as the children sang louder. More citizens shambled towards the desert and knelt down facing the transmission tower. Peacock and Kathlyn were quite dumbfounded while the parents like the Jacksons pleaded with their own children to stop in panicky voices. The nightmare man rushed towards the large red truck on the highway. The truck was 8 metres long and the truck bed was filled with tarped cargo. Compared to the other vehicles, it appeared lumpy and unwieldy. The trucker had already joined the kneelers so there was no one to stop Gu Jun from hijacking the truck. Gu Jun crawled into the driver’s seat, thankfully the key was still stuck in the ignition. He put on the seatbelt, turned on the engine, gripped the steering wheel and stepped on the oil. “This ritual has to be stopped.”

The headlights lit up the road ahead. He kept his eyes glued to the transmission tower and kicked the truck into the highest gear. His feet pressed hard on the pedal, letting the truck pick up more speed!

At the same time, the rest were stunned by what he was doing. “What is he going to do?””Oh my god.”

Under their gaze, the truck picked up speed. It buzzed down the road but the sound was still too weak to drown out the singing,

” Song of my soul, my voice is dead;

 Die thou, unsung, as tears unshed

 Shall dry and die in

Lost Carcosa.”

Through the windshield, Gu Jun kept his eyes on the grey transmission tower that stood in the middle of the desert. He was getting closer and closer. He was driving down a straight line. The speedometer showed 80, 90, 100, 110 km per hour…

The front of the truck was heading towards the side of the tower. Gu Jun gritted his teeth and kicked harder on the pedal!

The land’s travellers gasped in shock while the others looked on in stunned silence.

BANG! The truck rammed heavily into the 30 metres tall transmission tower…

The windshield shattered, as did the headlights. The front of the truck crashed and the sideview mirrors were blown away. The heavy collision sent a huge tremor all over Gu Jun, shaking the bones and organs in his body. Thankfully the seatbelt kept him in place. He opened his eyes and looked ahead. One side of the base had been bent by the collision and it caused the whole tower to sway. The singing of the children weakened. Gu Jun held the steering wheel and stepped back on the pedal, pushing the vehicle forward!

“Damn tower, it’s time to fall! Carcosa shall remain lost!”

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