Chapter 895: Pit of Lamentation

Compared to their last meeting.

Achuan's Ghost Spirit Cards had grown to eight.

As the Ghost Ring behind him began to spin.

The once-timid youth grabbed a handful of his own hair.

Those eyes were instantly filled with frenzied excitement.

"Hahaha! It's right there, isn't it! Old friend Fan Huo's location!"

His transformation in every battle never failed to astonish, no matter the occasion.

Ye Qiyan smiled and nodded.

"That's right, Senior Achuan. Please do your best to draw their attention. I'll slip inside, find Senior Fan Huo, and get him out."

This was the plan the two had devised.

Very rough, very simple, but also very efficient.

"Hahaha! No no no, you infiltrate while I attack head-on! That useless Smokey Fan Huo, once I rescue him, I'm going to extort a fortune out of him!"

Achuan wielded a ghost blade in hand.

Eight ghosts surged forth from his Card Sequence.

On the dark night streets, a doorway to an unknown place swung open.

One after another, terrifying or bizarre spectral entities appeared in droves.

This scene resembled the mythological Night Parade of a Hundred Demons.

No, perhaps that description wasn't accurate.

Because the ghosts and monsters emerging from that doorway numbered far more than hundreds or thousands.

A thousand ghosts ran rampant, ten thousand ghosts walked the world.

The horrifying spectacle made Utopia City in the night seem like the underworld itself.

Yet the residents of Utopia City felt no fear because of it.

They still wore those blissful smiles on their faces, standing along both sides of the street, some mechanically clapping their hands.

Achuan in his combat state paid them no mind.

He laughed madly, raised his blade, and charged toward the building Ye Qiyan had pointed out, the Utopia City Government, a classical Chinese palace of red mahogany.

Utopia City Government.

A piercing alarm blared from within.

[Warning! Warning! Utopia City under invasion!]

[Combat forbidden! Conflict forbidden!]

[Utopia City denies all misfortune!]

[Pain Disposal Hole opening]

[Misfortune shall emerge from the Pit of Lamentation, escorting the people's happiness.]

But inside this massive building, there was not a single soul.

A black rift split open from the ground, and a skinless hand clawed its way up from below, gripping the floor.

Its appearance mimicked a human.

Yet one glance made it clear it was anything but.

"It hurts, it hurts so much..."

It wailed from its mouth.

Its skinless muscles were covered in traces of black filth.

The first one, the second one... more and more...

"It hurts, it hurts..."

"No, I don't want this..."

This was pain, the exact antithesis of happiness.

Standing atop the roof, Heinz calmly observed the scene below.

Achuan's ghost legion had not harmed a single ordinary person.

They paraded along the entire route, laughing and wandering freely, but ultimately all converged along this predetermined path toward this place.

"Emperor's Order's, ghosts, hmm, hehe... To think the first to arrive would be him. Go, Dahui, all of you together."

A hulking brute beside Heinz patted his own chest, speaking in garbled words.

From the ox horns on his head and the ox hooves at his feet, it was easy to tell this fellow was a Minotaur transformed through racial conversion.

"Moo!"

The Minotaur Dahui shattered brick and tile, leaping mightily into the air, charging toward Achuan.

"Holy crap, a Minotaur! Take my blade!"

The moment Achuan, wreathed in ghost energy, laid eyes on the Minotaur, his expression grew even more excited.

That Minotaur's offensive capability was average, but his defense was remarkably tough.

Achuan's blade slashed down, yet only severed one of his ox horns.

Immediately after, more Train Conductors belonging to Utopia City and superhumans who were not Train Conductors appeared in succession, entangling themselves with Achuan's ghosts.

This city named after Utopia, on this night before the Day of Execution had yet arrived, began to descend into chaos.

The eyes of all the Train Conductors who had come here were drawn to Achuan.

All manner of news was transmitted outward through the Public Chat Room.

Everyone knew that Emperor's Order's members would most likely go to war with Utopia City here, but no one had expected it to come so soon.

They all watched the outcome with rapt attention. No one noticed.

Beneath the dark night.

Ye Qiyan, having activated [Arrogance], walked through the tide of endlessly emerging pain-forms and stepped through the main gate of the Utopia City Government.

The wave of monsters unconsciously parted to both sides.

When Ye Qiyan arrived before that rift, Arrogance's second ability unfolded.

Perspective shift.

He saw it, right beneath this rift.

The concretization of pain accumulated from countless lives.

"This is?"

[Pit of Lamentation (Level 13)]

[Where existence is born. All pain born from happiness, this pain is hidden within the Pit of Lamentation, unknown to all, heeded by none.

It has accumulated to the extreme.

The moment it is fully ignited, the eternal Utopia shall be formed forever, permanent happiness shall crystallize completely.]

This place, was it actually the location in the third option of the Fate Fork?

If that were truly the case, then if he really chose this place, where would the Train dock?

The City Government?

No... it should be deep within this Pit of Lamentation.

Because of Arrogance, he could see completely clearly what kind of scene lay within this deep pit.

It was a place nearly the exact opposite of Utopia City, akin to a mirror world.

In other words, there was likewise a platform there.

The difference was, the city within the Pit of Lamentation had none of those blissful residents of Utopia City.

There were only those wailing walking corpses.

"Utopia, huh? I knew it. Where in this world would you find a true Utopia?"

Ye Qiyan shook his head and slowly rose.

Perhaps because of the stimulus from Ye Qiyan's touch, that rift suddenly grew larger and larger, nearly wrapping around the entire first floor.

More humanoid figures crawled out from within.

They were like evil ghosts living in hell, yearning for this so-called "heaven" named "Utopia City," advancing wave after wave.

Completely unaware that what awaited them was a destined death.

Ye Qiyan shook his head and followed the spiral staircase all the way up.

Not a single guard he encountered along the way discovered him.

But despite his constant searching along the route, he still hadn't found even a trace of information about Fan Huo.

If not for the fact that the other's avatar in the Friends List was still lit, it would have been easy to assume Fan Huo had already been burned to ash.

"Friend, go no further."

The seventh floor.

Ye Qiyan halted his steps.

At the end of the stairwell.

A Train Conductor guard stood holding a weapon, extremely vigilant, his entire body strapped with weapons and armor, looking quite imposing.

But how had this fellow detected him?

Ye Qiyan was very clear that his Arrogance was running at full power. He hadn't used Defiance, but even so, he shouldn't have been discovered so easily.

Was the other a master? Or was there some method to counter Arrogance?

Or...

No more "or."

Because when that guard, after twenty-odd seconds, repeated the exact same line again.

That was it.

The other was bluffing.

At that same moment, at the top of the building.

Among the boys and girls beside Heinz, one spoke anxiously:

"Lord Heinz! The Numbered Weapon purchased from the False God detected the aura of a Card Sequence! But our surveillance methods haven't found any figure! This situation! It's him! Altos! That demon has come!"