CH 103

On the circular line, the train shuttled through the fog. Its style was close to an old-fashioned subway, but it wasn’t as fast.

Zhong Chengshuo’s metal hook instantly hooked the joint between the carriages. He seized the right moment to jump and stick himself to the outside of the car. The Evil Fruit pierced deeply into the hard compartment wall. Zhong Chengshuo quickly bowed and smashed the corner of the glass window.

The tempered laminated glass was covered with cracks in an instant, then kicked in by King Yama.

If he was a metaphysician, then he would fall at this moment. The evil things inside the carriage were as dense as packed sardines in a can. As soon as Zhong Chengshuo kicked the car window in, a soft limb of some unknown person was exposed in the window by his forefoot.

However, Zhong Chengshuo didn’t notice it.

He neatly passed through the soft limbs and jumped into the carriage. The soft limbs that he passed through shivered and curled back up.

In Zhong Chengshuo’s dark eyes, the carriage in front of him was empty. The plastic seats on both sides were covered with unknown stains, and the pull ring holding the billboard swayed side to side following the vehicle’s movements.

The situation was almost the same as his speculation.

Fu Xingchuan and Li Nian weren’t opponents who could be easily dealt with. As long as their enemies still had brains, they would send physical evil beings there—most of the physical evil things weren’t weak. For example, Snake Swallowing or Yellow Millet.

Shian wouldn’t take the risks when the situation was unknown, let alone counterattack when the situation became unfavorable.

Taking a step back, the position of the science post personnel was more inclined toward “defense”, and there wouldn’t be much physical combat power left around the “evil thing behind the scenes”.

Zhong Chengshuo leisurely threw down Shian’s headset and crushed it with his feet. With the sound of a click, Shian’s last means of contacting him was also cut off.

The smashed headset was retrieved by Zhong Chengshuo, who stuffed it in his pocket, and he even zipped up the pocket to prevent the broken pieces from falling out.

Now, he wouldn’t be bothered by anyone—

Even if there was no physical evil thing, the residents of this town were insane, making it difficult to predict what method they would employ.

Blood red and milky white were intertwined as the fog somehow infiltrated the carriage. There was no barrier between each carriage, but the scene ten steps away was already submerged by thick fog.

There was now fog outside and inside the window, thinning out all colors like a bad dream.

There were old-fashioned LED scrolling screens installed between the carriages. The red light on the black background penetrated the fog as characters composed of red dots kept scrolling. Its content should have been daily notices and arrival reminders, but all it had was the same words that kept repeating themselves.

[I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear…]

The dial Zhong Chengshuo was wearing had turned blood red, but it didn’t vibrate again—rather, it kept making a piercing sound.

The carriage he was in was at the rear of the train. King Yama was playing with the Evil Fruit as he kept moving forward step by step in the thick fog.

There was no air conditioning in the carriage, which made the strange smell even stronger in the humid atmosphere.

Strictly speaking, in the years of being in the Nightwalkers, Zhong Chengshuo had smelled everything he should and shouldn’t have. This smell wasn’t the thickest and most uncomfortable scent he had ever encountered, but it had a hint of Yin Ren in it, which made him particularly unaccustomed to it.

Zhong Chengshuo accelerated his steps.

In the world he couldn’t see, it was a completely different scene.

The carriage was like a subway during rush hour, with all kinds of evil things standing side by side.

The old people sat neatly on the plastic seats with pale, expressionless faces. The ancient shrouds they were wearing gleamed like silk.

They hugged tablets tightly in their arms and their backs were covered with white paper elegiac couplets. Those white papers were sitting under their butts, making light clicking noises from time to time.

The rest of the men and women had their necks stuck in suspension rings. They wore thick cloth gowns that were common in the countryside, and their heads were swollen and bruised. As the vehicle moved forward, the corpses flickered, and all their cloudy and protruding eyeballs stared at Zhong Chengshuo.

The floor was full of fragrant ash, soil, and paper money.

More inhuman evil creatures occupied the remaining spaces. Their appearances were similar; most of them were weird hairless animals or withered vines with strange fruits.

Rows of ghostly bodies passed through Zhong Chengshuo’s shoulders, which then spat out vicious curses. The rotten blood stuck to the ceiling dripped and strange eyes in the shadows would open from time to time. Zhong Chengshuo kept moving forward on his own, quite content with “passing through a myriad of evils, none of which could touch him*”.

*(万邪丛中过，片煞不沾身) This is a line from a poem often used to describe someone who is pure and untainted even in the midst of corruption and evil.

At the connection between carriages, there were two oblong monsters guarding it.

They were similar in structure, dressed in expensive materials that were popular a hundred years ago, and had jade-studded melon skin hats on their heads.

The bodies of those two evil monsters were flat, as if they were forcibly pressed

into the door panel of a mansion—if one ignored the truly deformed brows, the neck that was folded to their chest, and the light green mucus flowing on their skin, they looked quite harmless.

When Zhong Chengshuo approached, the two monsters formed a fleshy door, which tightly blocked the junction between the carriages.

They opened their large mouths and let out a threatening roar. The light green mucus flowed faster and accumulated into a pool on the metal plates at the junction, and there was a tendency to expand even further.

Tap, tap, tap.

A pair of sneakers stepped into the mucus without hesitation. Zhong Chengshuo walked fast and steady into the unknown fog.

Tap, tap, tap.

He easily passed through the two abnormal looking “evil gates” with their unusual appearances and continued to move towards the front of the train.

The next carriage was long and empty.

The smell of that evil thing became stronger.

Zhong Chengshuo wrinkled his nose subconsciously and sneezed.

Every living thing had its own scent, which could be strong or light. In any case, the smell of a living person couldn’t be stronger than that of a corpse. The lingering scent at the tip of his nose reminded Zhong Chengshuo of smelling a “corpse”.

The evil thing hiding behind the scenes—a poor imitation of Yin Ren, the failure of Sunken Society that couldn’t be controlled… Its condition may not be good.

Zhong Chengshuo walked into the second “empty’ carriage. Countless evil things instantly turned their faces and looked at the intruder.

The evil things in this carriage were slightly different from the ones in the first section.

Although their outfits were old-fashioned, they were much more modern than the previous carriage. They sat neatly, with smiles on their faces, and there was even a little hint of hope in their dead eyes.

A miner’s lips were purple. His face was covered with dust, and he held an envelope full of banknotes tightly in his hand. A bride’s twisted braids were coiled behind her head. Something had crushed half of her body, and a delicate rose was pinned to her chest. A rich businessman had gold chains hanging around his neck. His face was swollen, like he had drowned, and muddy water dripped from his mouth and nose.

Black smoke and dust rose from the bottom of the seats, mixing in with the red paper of firecrackers. Flower baskets celebrating a grand opening fell all over the floor.

The windows of the carriage were plastered with headlines about “Gengsheng Town”. The huge black letters were particularly eye-catching. The walls of the carriages were covered with cinnabar red letters, all of which were auspicious words such as “Wishing Prosperity” and “Great Luck and Fortune”.

The non-human evil species were richer than before. Some had characteristics unique to exotic monsters.

The evil things huddled together in a cramped manner. Their joints collided with the metal, and their soft flesh blended with rotten wood. The smell of sulfur and water were indistinguishable from each other, and there was a bit of excitement in the cold atmosphere.

There was dazzling dark red everywhere.

Compared to the surroundings, Zhong Chengshuo was plainly colored; even the color of his lips were somewhat light. Among the heavily colored evil things, he looked like a person walking out of a faded old photo.

The blade of the Evil Fruit was clasped in the palm of his hand as Zhong Chengshuo passed through the evil things, like he was passing through ancient times.

…As if he were a phantom.

At the end of the second carriage, there was a huge calendar of the God of Wealth.

On the paper painting, the Gold of Wealth had a round face with big earlobes and a beaming smile. However, his eyeballs had been gouged out and painted over with a red pen.

The days on the wall calendar were crossed out one by one in red ink, stopping on a certain day twenty-eight years ago.

Above the wall calendar, the red light from the LED screen condensed into a line, passing through the thick fog and reflecting on Zhong Chengshuo’s glasses.

[I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear…]

Blood-red spots of light circulated in the fog.

Zhong Chengshuo cast a quick glance at the electronic screen but did not linger for more than a half-second. He put on a loose sweater and passed through the weird wall calendar as if it wasn’t even there.

As soon as he entered the third carriage, a few arrows shot out from the fog. Zhong Chengshuo had been prepared. His attack flashed like light wind as he twirled his feet.

The dial on Zhong Chengshuo’s wrist emitted a long and uninterrupted shrill noise. The metal shell behind the dial was as hot as soldering iron. During the long-term strange noise, a wisp of green smoke appeared from the electronic watch, then the red dial went out and turned into a deep black.

He finally arrived.

Zhong Chengshuo removed his glasses and placed them in a strong pocket bag. His too-long bangs were disturbed by the frame as it glided across the ends of his eyes.

Immediately afterwards, he tore off the button of his cuff and threw it into the depths of the thick fog.

Three seconds after the little thing stopped, there was a muffled “puff” sound, followed by a violent shake in the air. The fog in the carriage was twisted into pieces, sucked into the button, and disappeared with a quick spin.

When the fog disappeared, the Yin Ren-like smell became extremely thick, almost condensing into a strong stench. It was several grades more irritating than the smell of corpses. Zhong Chengshuo almost burst into tears when he sniffed it.

…The “thing behind the scenes” was nearby.

At this moment, Zhong Chengshuo could see clearly.

The interior of the carriage was covered with dense yellow symbols. They were organized in an orderly manner, one by one, and the edges were arranged neatly, leaving only the windows. Zhong Chengshuo glanced at the lines of the symbols—the lines had obvious characteristics, and most of these charms were used to “diffuse” corruption.

There were between thirty to forty people sitting in the carriage.

Most of them were middle-aged men and women, mixed with a few sturdy old people, but there were no young faces.

The fog had dissipated, revealing their hateful eyes on their almost dull, pale faces. Their bodies trembled lightly, and there were water vapors floating around their mouths and noses, as if they were sitting in a cold environment.

Kitchen knives, shovels, wrenches… All kinds of weapons were scattered on the floor. At this moment, everyone was holding a homemade crossbow in their hands. The tips of the arrow loaded in the crossbow emitted a faint sweet smell, which was probably a homemade poison.

Finding that Zhong Chengshuo wasn’t shot down, they turned their heads sideways at the same time and stared straight at the uninvited guest.

In addition to this group of “innocent people”, there were four mummified corpses standing in the carriage.

They blocked the long aisle—two in front and two behind. Their faces were submerged by layers of yellow talismans. The skinny skeleton barely propped up the large cloth gown, which was stained with a dark yellow liquid of unknown origin. Whether it was the body shape or the claws with sharp nails, these zombies were exactly the same as Lao Jiang from the ghost market pawnshop.

The zombies curled up, making hoarse noises in their throats.

The mental outlook of these enemies was far from that of Lao Jiang, Zhong Chengshuo thought regretfully.

He stepped on the “weapon carpet” with one foot.

The entire carriage seemed to be activated at this moment. Everyone in the carriage suddenly got up. There were dozens of crossbows firing arrows at him this time. Zhong Chengshuo leaned down on one side, bit the Evil Fruit, raised two rectangular kitchen knives with his toe, and held them with both hands.

Clang, clang, clang, clang.

The majority of the poisonous arrows missed, and the rest were all blocked by the kitchen knives. Not a single scratch was made on this person’s oily skin. In the next instant, two kitchen knives were thrown out in a spinning motion, passing by a living person and hitting right between the eyes of the two zombies.

Two knives were embedded horizontally into the zombie’s head, cutting nearly half a head deep.

The corners of Zhong Chengshuo’s lips curled.

Countless incorporeal evil things gathered around him long ago. Numerous severed hands tried to grab Zhong Chengshuo’s feet as a giant bloody mouth descended from above, attempting to bite off his head. Wet and slimy tentacles emerged from the ground, overwhelmingly covering Zhong Chengshuo.

The severe hands caught nothing. the mouth above bit into air, and the tentacles almost got tangled in each other.

The strongest one just managed to corrode Zhong Chengshuo’s clothes, exposing half of his shoulders and arms, revealing the unscathed skin underneath.

Curses, collisions, and corruption were all invalid attacks. The position of evil things in relation to mortals appeared to be completely reversed.

All but for a few seconds.

Seeing that the situation wasn’t good, the living people switched out their crossbows. They replaced them with the “short-ranged weapons” on the ground and swarmed up.

They acted disorderly, trying to suppress Zhong Chengshuo with their own bodies. However, since their target threw the kitchen knives, his movements hadn’t stopped at all.

Zhong Chengshuo stepped on one end of a rake, lowered his body, and cocked the rod directly into the person behind him, knocking them out. He crouched down and performed a roundhouse kick, knocking over two people in front of him. Zhong Chengshuo then grabbed their heads and slammed them together, causing their eyes to roll back.

As soon as his body fell, there were three fewer enemies.

When he stood up, Zhong Chengshuo bit the Evil Fruit and grabbed a nearby steel pipe. He used it to block an old man who was attacking him from behind with a meat cleaver. Zhong Chengshuo hooked his arm around the old man’s shoulder, and then used the momentum to jump up and kick a man and woman who were trying to hit him with shovels, sending them flying away.

Before the old man could react, the steel pipe hit his chin, causing him to fall back and hit his head on a seat, rendering him unconscious.

People continued to pour in.

Their goal was like a high-precision instrument, and their movements were as smooth as if they were filming. Although the space was narrow, the people used the most difficult encirclement method. However, that person was like a breeze and was impossible to catch.

Zhong Chengshuo advanced firmly in the front line as murder weapons danced around the carriage full of astral winds that caused the yellow talismans to flutter.

From a third person’s perspective, he advanced at a much slower pace than the first two carriages but still maintained a terrifyingly uniform speed.

One step, then another, then another.

With a roar, the two zombies with kitchen knives embedded in them crossed the unconscious townspeople and rushed towards Zhong Chengshuo. The sounds of chains rattling lightly sounded as the Evil Fruit flew out in a red arc along the chain—

Cling, cling. Two solitary kitchen knives fell to the ground.

The next moment, a pair of sneakers stepped on them.

…Finally, with a slashing motion, the last townsperson fell.

Zhong Chengshuo stopped beside a pole-shaped handrail. His expression became more vigilant.

Sure enough, the spirit weapon hidden in the corner was activated at the same time. Countless metal wires soaked in lethal poison twisted around the unconscious bodies as they approached Zhong Chengshuo. At the same time, a concealed machine gun on the top of the carriage was activated and fired at Zhong Chengshuo’s head.

King Yama swung the Evil Fruit attached to a chain and countless metal wires broke in response. It seemed he had eyes on the back of his head. With a neat twist, Zhong Chengshuo circled the thick metal pole in the middle of the carriage. All the bullets fired by the machine gun hit the metal pole.

He didn’t give them more time as he threw out the Evil Fruit quickly, destroying the organs of the spirit weapon—after learning about the arrangement of the spirit weapons here, even those that had not had time to activate were calculated by him.

Time and again, a bright red brilliance cut through the space.

The Evil Fruit returned to Zhong Chengshuo’s hands, leaving behind only four “people” who were still awake in the entire carriage.

Except for Zhong Chengshuo, two zombies were still standing quietly in the back row, as if they were background decorations for the carriage. At the back of the carriage was a thin figure wrapped in a blanket who appeared to be an elderly man.

The old man sat among all kinds of weapons. Compared with those sturdy townspeople, he looked extremely weak, and the space around him seemed wider.

The LED screen above his head was still scrolling red letters.

[I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear. I don’t want to disappear…]

Under the old man’s dirty red blanket, something gray and visceral leaked out. It shivered, then retracted, and a foul stench emanated from the blanket.

Yin Ren’s translucent wings were soft and beautiful, with the smell that Zhong Chengshuo liked. Under the old man’s blanket, the abnormal limb appeared to be stillborn, decomposing, and necrotic.

Zhong Chengshuo’s hands once again only held the Evil Fruit.

He stopped a few steps away from the old man and lowered his gaze.

…He speculated that this was a replica of Yin Ren, or rather, an imitation of the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi. Since the “evil thing behind the scenes” was based on a living human, it probably had a physical form.

But he never thought that the “evil thing behind the scenes” was still alive.

The old man-like thing was breathing. He could even hear its rapid, human-like heartbeat. Unlike the weird madness that Zhong Chengshuo imagined, that thing looked old, thin, and confused.

The townspeople scattered in all directions, and all that remained was silence, save for the rumbling sound of the circular train moving forward.

“Look up,” Zhong Chengshuo said softly.

The evil thing understood human language and subconsciously raised its head, revealing a human face.

Zhong Chengshuo was slightly startled.

“You guys… go back…”

The face was filled with sticky, muddy tears.

“Must… all go back… I don’t welcome you… Ahhhhhh…”

Its face twitched with an expression of pain, and its mouth couldn’t stop raving.

“Go back. Go back… die… die… let me… stay quiet…”

Zhong Chengshuo silently stood in the ruins of the murder weapon.

He had been in control of the battle initiative all along, but he couldn’t claim to have emerged unscathed—his clothes were mostly corroded and were full of holes and tattered edges. Purple and blue bruises were visible through the tears, and blood was oozing from his wounds, mixing with the dirt on his skin.

Fresh soil was smeared on the shovels beside him, and the cleavers had obvious scratch marks on them. They trembled and stirred in the pile of lethal weapons, as if eager to be used again.

Even if the Evil Fruit had cut through most of the space, Zhong Chengshuo could guess that there were still powerful intangible evil things left. They still hadn’t given up and were trying their best to attack.

The night was long and fraught with dreams. He knew what he should do.

The body of the “evil thing behind the scenes” wasn’t strong. Its sense of oppression was far inferior to Yin Ren’s. He could quickly take samples, and then destroy all the evil things here. Then came the investigation and analysis, which was what he did best.

Shian had withdrawn in time. Even if he didn’t deal with this evil thing, Sunken Society would transfer it away afterwards and even destroy the corpse.

This was his only chance to get in touch with the “imitation”, and there was no problem with his plan.

Zhong Chengshuo cracked his knuckles and moved the Evil Fruit to his left hand. He made an improvised knife from the surroundings and pasted several talismans on it, creating a crackling sound.

However, the sharp knife hung in the air for a long time, but it didn’t fall.

The thing that looked like an old man stared at Zhong Chengshuo. Perhaps it was because they were too far away, but the thing didn’t recall Yellow Millet or Snake Swallowing, nor did it beg for mercy. It just watched Zhong Chengshuo sadly.

…The same kind as Yin Ren.

“King Yama”, who had always been resolute, was a little disturbed.

Perhaps it was the smell that reminded him of Yin Ren that numbed him.

Perhaps it was because the other party’s breathing and heartbeat were too close to a living person.

In the carriage that was wrapped with yellow talismans, Zhong Chengshuo was expressionless as his makeshift knife dangled frozen in the air.

The evil thing raised its wrinkled face, a little more puzzled in despair.

“Order Snake Swallowing and Yellow Millet to keep everyone alive, but don’t let them go for now.” Zhong Chengshuo stared at those human eyes, trying to suppress the strange emotions in his heart.

“What do you want to… do…”

Zhong Chengshuo lowered the makeshift knife, tilted his head, and thought for a while. “Let you live for about half an hour longer?”

The evil thing made a series of rapid breathing sounds; he didn’t know whether he was crying or laughing.

“Slowly studying is fine, but I’m very curious this time.” Zhong Chengshuo played with the Evil Fruit as he spoke. “I know you… How did you become like this? What is your current condition? You…”

Zhong Chengshuo paused as he digested his question for a while.

“Are you in pain?”

With his back to the unconscious people on the floor and small wounds all over his body, Zhong Chengshuo asked this question solemnly.

“……”

The living, evil thing didn’t answer immediately.

It took a short breath and slowly exhaled. The expression on the old man’s face was frozen, as if trying to understand his words.

“I… don’t know… for hundreds of years… I have been… here…” Its eyes were dilated, and muddy tears continued to flow. “I just… don’t want… to disappear…”

Zhong Chengshuo looked down at the “person” in front of him in amazement.

He thought for a few seconds, then slowly squatted down in front of the evil thing, looking directly into its eyes.

“You…”

Zhong Chengshuo frowned slightly.

“Do you remember your name?”

“I’m more… No… I don’t remember… too much… No, no, I’m human…. My name is…”

The evil thing coughed painfully, exposing some necrotic intestine-like limbs under the dirty red blanket that was covered with dust.

This time, Zhong Chengshuo was silent for a while.

“So that’s it. I understand,” he said softly. “No wonder they chose you… It’s a pity that you and him are still different.”

“I’ll give you half an hour.”

Zhong Chengshuo picked up the skinny old man with one hand and put him on a plastic seat. He ignored the two zombies who were still standing in the corner and sat beside the old man.

“Let’s talk about ‘the will of Gengsheng Town’.”

……

Time reversed ten minutes ago.

Fu Xingchuan was shot by a poisonous arrow, and his defenses fell. Yellow Millet and Snake Swallowing were coming from above and below, intending to collide with the eight people that were floating in the air.

Yin Ren’s eyes shone with a faint red light, and everything around him seemed to move in slow motion.

Xiang Hai’s hemp-rope net came over. Li Nian immediately threw the green willow whip, tied himself, Ren Jiying, and Qi Xin together, and locked the handle of the whip onto Xiang Jiang. Several science posts were bound by the wicker, and they didn’t slip through the hemp rope net.

Ge Tingting subconsciously stretched out her hand, wanting to summon bones to serve as a shield. Huang Jin hugged his spirit weapon bag tightly as he cowered his head and closed his eyes. Fu Xingchuan was struggling to cast a spell. Yin Ren could recognize that it was a strong protective spell.

The huge eyeball and the hideous snake mouth were getting closer.

If this was just a protective technique, the battle would only continue to prolong.

Yin Ren closed his eyes.

He put his hand behind his back to cast a different spell at an inhuman speed.

At the same moment that Fu Xingchuan’s protection spell was activated, Yin Ren’s left hand also completed a spell. The air suddenly shook, and in less than a heartbeat, the violent impact stunned seven people physically.

Immediately, his right hand followed.

Yin Ren straightened his right arm and rushed straight at Yellow Millet’s huge pupil that was close at hand.

“Idiot, after being controlled by someone for a few days, you don’t even recognize your old master?”

In the dense fog, a red light appeared.

“…You still have my spirit contract on you,” Yin Ren added with a smile.

A huge circular formation appeared out of thin air. The circular array was like a dumpling wrapper. It bent from the center and wrapped the huge Yellow Millet into a stuffing.

In an instant, Yellow Millet’s cognitive confusion was completely broken.

Immediately afterwards, those scarlet runes merged into the body of the giant eye. Yellow Millet shivered, and there was a strange sound in the air like a tendon being torn. Yin Ren’s spirit contract was significantly higher than that of the manipulator, and the effectiveness of the latter was instantly suppressed.

At the moment of recovery, the huge eyeball shrank back 800 meters. The entire evil thing concave backward, turning its perfectly round sphere into a bowl-shaped depression.

“Yo, now you know how to be scared?”

Lord Ghost King bared his teeth at his royal sofa cushion.

He didn’t even look at it and threw a series of spells at his feet. The dark spells fell murderously, causing Snake Swallowing to close its mouth in terror. It retreated into a hole in the ground, vigorously pulling its head back.

Yin Ren narrowed his eyes—according to Shian’s conclusion, the evil thing behind the scenes used the emotion of “sorrow” to control people and the evil beings here. It seemed that the control ability of that evil thing wasn’t very strong, as the survival instinct of evil beings superseded its control.

Finding that its old master was lost in thought, Yellow Millet tried to take advantage of the situation to slip away, but before it jumped a few hundred meters, it was pulled back by the spirit contract. When it saw the smiling Yin Ren in front of it, it shrank quickly, down to the size of a grape, and continued to shrink.

“It’s useless to shrink. Change back.”

Yin Ren flicked this noble Class A-level evil spirit with his fingertips.

“I still have to find someone—what kind of evil thing was it that controlled you before?”

When Zhong Chengshuo left the team, Yin Ren could guess with the tips of his wings.

Yellow Millet hurriedly “puffed” a few times. It was aggrieved and turned into a soft ball with a diameter of two meters. Yin Ren sat down onto his old cushion and supported everyone with a levitation technique, slowly sending them to the ground and arranging their appearance of “falling after the defense spell was activated”.

Yellow Millet, who exuded a monstrous sense of oppression in the Ant Den, was now an honest glutinous rice dumpling at this moment.

Snake Swallowing peered around, revealing the tip of its mouth from the ground. Yin Ren almost teleported to its side, pressing a hand against the cold and slippery rock.

“It’s been a long time since I did this,” he muttered with emotion.

After the Archive incident, his strength had recovered quite a bit. However, since he came to this world, he never tried to use “old methods” to control evil things, and he didn’t know if the effect would be as good as it was thousands of years ago.

In less than half a second, the entire body of Snake Swallowing trembled. It bowed its head in an instant and obediently sent the tip of its mouth over.

“Protect these people. Remember, don’t let them see that you are protecting them. If you do well, I’ll help heal your wounds later.”

Snake Swallowing seemed to have won its gold medal of avoiding death and snuck back into the earth. The ground shook violently, and a bulge surrounded the seven unconscious people on the ground.

Yin Ren nodded.

“Yes, let’s go meet my ‘imitation’ first.”

Before his voice fell, something drilled out of his hair, intertwined, and turned into pieces of red cloth. The red cloth continued to grow, and various seal patterns appeared on it.

Flesh, blood, and bones stimulated the sense of dead matter intertwined into various “spirit weapons”. All kinds of spirit weapons clanged and collided, and the power of the seal became stronger.

Under the heavy seal, Yin Ren’s aura gradually weakened. Not to mention the aura of an evil qi, it finally became not even as strong as a living person.

The appearance of Yin Ren at this moment was still slightly different from the “Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi” of thousands of years ago.

The red cloths weren’t wrapped into thick and clumsy cocoons. The lower ends of those red clothes were loose, revealing a little bit of translucent black wing clusters. Looking at it as a whole, it looked more like a drooping flower bud that was about to bloom.

A strand of black hair wrapped around Yin Ren’s ankle and turned into a circle of dark yellow bone bells. The bells were no longer crisp, and there was a chill in the sound of its ring.

Now, apart from not having hundreds of arms, Yin Ren was closer to the “Evil Spirit” form in the Archive.

Yin Ren floated on Yellow Millet who had consciously changed itself to a black color that wasn’t easily exposed. The red cloth slid down the pitch-black eyeball, and the edges of the soft wings swayed in the wind.

“Go find that evil thing that controlled you.”

“Puff, puff, puff!”

“You only know its general location? …Fine, just tell me on the way. What exactly happened to you?”

Yin Ren didn’t know that a few seconds after he flew into the air, among the ruins, a certain powerful individual struggled to open their eyes—

Yin Ren’s burst of qi was so powerful that a heavier hit would cause problems. Unfortunately, one of the seven people had endured too many beatings and had developed a sad resistance.

In Fu Xingchuan’s blurred vision, a scarlet humanoid stepped onto Yellow Millet and rode away in the wind. The surrounding evil things scattered, and a small number of them followed far behind, forming a procession in the mist.

It was like the ancient murals in the Ant Nest had come true.

Fu Xingchuan dug into his wound fiercely with trembling hands, holding on to watch the figure of the man disappear into the fog. It was a long time before he succumbed to the toxin attack and lost consciousness again.

Yin Ren was preoccupied with lying on top of Yellow Millet.

Yellow Millet flew around, puffing sharply and trying to tell its sad story.

More than a thousand years ago, the Great Celestial Master died.

Yellow Millet, who had lost its master, was miserable. In the past, with Yin Ren around, everyone was used to the heavenly days of having food served to them. They even got the chance to savor delicious evil spirits.

Now that there was no commander, the IQ of the evil things simply couldn’t support the activity of “hunting large evil beings”. They couldn’t even catch fierce ghosts that were slightly clever.

It wasn’t good to feel hungry, but the taste of ordinary evil things was dry and bland, so Yellow Millet simply dug a hole in the mountains and prepared to fall into a deep sleep, escaping hundreds of years of an evil life.

As a result, the poor thing was apprehended by Sunken Society.

As he had speculated, Sunken Society created an Ant Nest near Gengsheng Town just to study the terrifying power of the Great Celestial Master Zhong Yi and tried to figure out how to obtain such power.

As Yellow Millet was one of Zhong Yi’s closest evils, it and a group of evil beings were locked here for observation by Sunken Society.

Prison food wasn’t delicious, but the advantage was that it didn’t have to hunt for itself. Anyway, it had nowhere to go, so Yellow Millet and the other evil creatures didn’t struggle and just laid low and lived a life of eating and sleeping.

Until twenty-eight years ago.

“For thousands of years, Sunken Society has been corrupting the people and land here with all kinds of Evil Forces. It wasn’t until the ‘Divine Descent’ that a group of extremely corrupted and relatively stable corrupted people appeared here.”

Yin Ren tried his best to sort out Yellow Millet’s upside-down “puffs”.

“Puff, puff, puff… puff, puff, puff!”

“You have always been very lazy, but they thought you were out of your mind, so they talked about things in front of you?”

“Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff—” Yellow Millet accelerated its speech and narrated quickly.

“They recorded the changes in the power of those people and found those similar to my situation—artificially aggravating the corruption… Similar situation? Are you saying, something widely known and revered by the people can cause serious corruption and give birth to a ‘living evil’?”

If he thought about it carefully, “widely known” and “tragic death” were conditions for the birth of ghosts.

The “serious corruption” would cause the living to lose the characteristics of normal creatures and become more like evil things, and they would be more easily affected by metaphysical-related things.

But it was just “like”, not “is”.

In other words, he and the imitation were born as “specific evils”, essentially derived from “being widely known” and “being revered”…

If “tragic death” created resentful ghosts, then what did “being revered” create?

When Yin Ren was still alive, he was always isolated from human society. Except for the great pain of being corrupted, he wasn’t affected by anything else. Yin Ren was unaware of the world’s awe, expectations, and sustenance for him, and he was uninterested in it.

He just liked to be lively and didn’t have much sense of responsibility in the world.

But the person who lived here… What would happen if the person who carried the sustenance of thousands of people and was also born as a “living evil”?

Countless thoughts and questions raced through his mind. In a trance, the former Great Celestial Master realized something.

“Now things have become interesting.” Yin Ren petted Yellow Millet under his ass. “Hurry up and be careful not to stir someone’s hornet’s nest.”

“Puff?”

“Zhong Chengshuo,” under the red cloth, Yin Ren murmured. “If you find that guy, don’t irritate him…”

“Things like us—if we lose control, we may become an ‘Evil Spirit’.”