Mist suddenly rose in the valley, rolling through the forest, silently obscuring the last thin light, leaving a layer of shadow on everyone’s face.
Once again, someone came to report: “Director Si, the heads of Ghost Eye Guild and High Tower Guild have consecutively called Blue Pivot headquarters to demand accountability. Trident Guild has also… ahem, perhaps we should open the live broadcast to reassure them and prevent further trouble…”
Hearing this, Si Hongche raised his eyelids. He looked at the inspection team member outside the car window with cold eyes, noncommittal.
After a moment, seeing that the other person still wore an expression suggesting he had offered profound insights that should be appreciated by the leadership, Si Hongche finally lost patience.
Si Hongche raised his index finger, and the reporting inspection team member seemed to be gripped by an invisible hand around his throat. He helplessly opened his mouth wide, stuck out his tongue, and made indistinct strange noises from his throat, his face showing terror and regret.
Only when the inspection team member’s legs were no longer able to kick and his face had turned increasingly purple did Si Hongche indifferently withdraw his finger.
With a thud, the team member fell to the ground, clutching his throat and coughing incessantly.
He didn’t dare stay long, hurriedly croaking out a few random syllables with his hoarse voice before scrambling away in panic.
Si Hongche didn’t glance outside the window again but instead turned his gaze toward Oliver, narrowing his eyes to examine him carefully.
Oliver’s fingertips still emitted a golden glow. Due to the prolonged use of his ability, his golden hair was soaked with sweat, which slid down his skeletal neck.
Even though he was fully concentrated on using his ability, the moment he felt Si Hongche’s gaze, Oliver instinctively shrank back.
Si Hongche habitually kept his emotions hidden. Oliver had seen many times how he could be smiling one second and ready to kill the next, so Oliver couldn’t fathom what Si Hongche meant by looking at him now.
But he still nervously averted his gaze.
Si Hongche gave a cold laugh, suddenly raising his hand and firmly gripping Oliver’s thin neck.
The tiger’s mouth of his hand, roughened by gun butts, covered Oliver’s gland. Then he activated his ability pheromones, forcefully invading Oliver’s Spirit Realm system.
When pheromone compatibility is high enough, the body’s immune system becomes confused, letting foreign pheromones pass and allowing them to enter the most private and important Spirit Realm system.
Oliver leaned forward, his face showing pain, but due to his immune system mistaking Si Hongche for himself, he couldn’t prevent his brain from being invaded.
Soon, Si Hongche’s consciousness entered Oliver’s Spirit Realm system and, through Oliver’s vision, clearly saw everything happening in the underground city.
–
The countless tiny claws on the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl’s flesh wings frantically scratched, like giant mouths eager to devour flesh and blood, swinging as they pounced toward Zhan Pingchuan.
Its speed was far beyond human capability to block. In the blink of an eye, it charged to Zhan Pingchuan’s front.
Before Zhan Pingchuan could retract his smile, the claws on the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl’s flesh wings greedily reached out. Numerous thin blood vessels and fascia were pulled out from the flesh wings. The fascia layer wrapping the blood vessels connected nerves and blood supply. The claws, like swaying branches, extended more than a meter, completely cutting off Zhan Pingchuan’s path!
Zhan Pingchuan finally understood how so many students had died within seconds.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl’s two flesh wings were like a bizarre, ugly flower. It suddenly bloomed all its stamens, each bundle of stamens grotesquely scratching forward. In an instant, it could empty the internal organs of dozens of people, and all the harvested flesh and blood would become nourishment for that bird-beaked human face.
When countless sharp claws simultaneously reached for Zhan Pingchuan’s entire body, his expression changed drastically. His right hand had just raised two fingers—
Bang!
The passage behind him was gouged into a human-shaped hole. Dust flew, rubble rolled, the ground was a mess, and hiding Pouncers screamed, retreating to deeper, darker places.
And Zhan Pingchuan’s figure simply vanished into thin air.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl withdrew its claws, looking at the disappeared prey before it, its yellow eyeballs showing confusion.
At this moment, a leisurely, casual voice came from behind: “Tsk, tsk, tsk, stupid bird, I don’t even want to comment on the cultural level of you beasts. This is called light refraction, refraction, you know? Do you think what you think is what you think it is?”
Zhan Pingchuan had quietly utilized the oil lamps in the passage and adjusted the density of his ability-formed barrier to infinitely increase its refractive index. When the oil lamps cast his shadow into the barrier, the light would undergo a massive deflection. What appeared before the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl was a completely misaligned human shadow.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl wouldn’t listen to his nonsense. It shook its massive flesh wings, scraping the stone walls on both sides with a scratching sound, then sharply turned its head, its huge, sharp beak stabbing toward the source of the sound.
Boom!
Another earth-shaking moment. The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl violently pulled its head out of the rubble, only to find no trace of Zhan Pingchuan at the sound’s source—just a shriveled, broken can.
At this point, Zhan Pingchuan’s annoying voice sounded again from above its head: “Feeling stupid now? This thing is called a paper cup… oh, a can sound tube. Do you understand how sound is transmitted through solid vibrations?”
Some team that had come to the underground city to collect crystal ores had left behind many empty cans. Zhan Pingchuan had used his silver threads and the cans to make several simple sound tubes.
And wouldn’t you know it, karma really came back around—he really had become a trash picker.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl roared in anger again, smashing a large hole in the ceiling with one hit, and predictably, another can fell down.
Before it could recover from its confusion, five identical Zhan Pingchuans suddenly appeared around it.
Zhan Pingchuan stood there unharmed, giving it a regretful expression: “They say if you study math, physics, and chemistry well, you can go anywhere in the world. Brother, you clearly haven’t studied well.”
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl couldn’t tell which figure the voice was coming from, but it didn’t need to know. Several claws had already broken through the air, reaching for Zhan Pingchuan!
However, Zhan Pingchuan’s figure wavered and disappeared again, leaving the claws grasping at nothing.
“This is called light reflection, stupid bird. You don’t even have elementary school knowledge and you dare to be a boss here? Aren’t you embarrassed? What will your peers think of you? How will you survive in the beast world in the future?”
“How about this, we’ve got a connection, brother. I won’t say much more. If you let me go now, I’ll send you a few copies of ‘Introduction to Self-Study in Math, Physics, and Chemistry’ later. How about that?”
As soon as he finished speaking, the can emitting his voice was crushed to pieces.
Zhan Pingchuan, hiding behind a barrier, quickly glanced in the direction the crowd was fleeing. He had stalled the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl long enough to give those people time to escape.
Excluding those trampled to death, those killed by the stupid bird, and those who got lost in their panic, there should be enough to reach 363.
So the most critical thing now was how he could escape.
“Tsk, if you don’t agree, we can negotiate further. Why so temperamental? By the way, are you male or female? Do you beasts get breast hyperplasia?”
Zhan Pingchuan was constantly creating illusions for the stupid bird using oil lamps and barriers, but as the stupid bird destroyed the passage, there were fewer and fewer oil lamps and more and more rubble on the ground. Once he left this position, if footsteps were heard, he would certainly not escape death.
Zhan Pingchuan pressed hard against his chest, suppressing another surge of blood.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl struck too quickly. Sometimes he couldn’t retract his barrier in time and would still be attacked. He now felt his brain entering an emergency numbing state, causing his adrenaline to surge, making him unable to feel pain.
But he also understood that once he entered this state, it meant his injuries were already very severe.
Rarely in his life had he given a promise. He couldn’t break his word now…
–
Outside the Eye of the Living Spring door, Lance stood quietly, wrapped in that jacket.
His count had reached 361, and across the passage, no more people were coming.
The dim firelight of the oil lamps cast moving shadows on his face. His expression was obscure, his entire person frozen like ice, motionless.
Zhan Pingchuan might be dead. His rationality told him he could enter the door now.
But he couldn’t move his feet.
At the end of the path before him lay a student’s corpse, trampled to death by others. Now, with blood flowing from all seven orifices, it was being pecked at by approaching Pouncers.
People who died in this timeline would all end up like this, becoming food for the beasts to share.
As Lance watched, his vision suddenly blurred. He frowned, suddenly feeling his cheeks grow hot, then cold.
Lance raised his hand in disbelief, touching his face.
The back of his hand was wet. As the wind blew, the moisture evaporated, bringing a noticeable coolness.
Lance looked at his fingers, wanting to laugh but unable to, wanting to be angry but not knowing how to vent.
How absurd.
He had only been with Zhan Pingchuan for a week, forced to know this person because of an accident during a mission.
Yet he was shedding tears for his death.
He wasn’t even really dead.
Zhan Pingchuan wasn’t really dead!
Lance clenched his teeth tightly.
Whether it was time regression or something else, as long as he passed through the iron door, Zhan Pingchuan would immediately stand before him.
What died was only the Zhan Pingchuan who existed in this moment, in his eyes.
He despised his current fragile emotions, and even more, he despised himself for revealing such emotions.
His fingers had somehow curled into his palm, his forearm muscles trembling slightly from excessive force, his star magnolia pheromones uncontrollably crashing around in the limited space.
Damn it.
Damn it!
Lance’s eyes turned cold, and he entered his Spirit Realm system in the danger-filled underground city, almost frantically.
He strode across that chaos and void, tearing apart the hollow fantasies that once terrified him. In the endless darkness, he found a sleeping black shadow.
The Outer God wasn’t in the form Lance remembered—no snow-white body, no mane with a silver-glowing neck, no plum blossom deer antlers, no transparent divine halo, and certainly no two bone wings that inspired awe.
It was originally an indescribable, unviewable chaos. It could take any form. It was It who chose the channel, giving humans the right to glimpse It.
It was usually in a dormant state. Everything that appeared in the universe was but a fleeting moment to It, as tiny as dust.
There weren’t many things in this world that interested It, and It had already been deceived twice. Gods don’t produce primitive emotions like anger as humans do. What It did was merely neglect and ignore this channel that dared to deceive a god.
Lance tore a piece of darkness from the void, rolled it into a ball, and raised his hand to throw it at the Outer God’s eyes.
In an instant, the darkness swept away like the tide. In the center of the chaos, a pair of deep blue giant eyes slowly opened. That chilling gaze fixed on Lance, like a sacred and noble ruler gazing at an ant that dared to offend.
Lance had had enough of Its gaze from childhood. Even though his body began to tremble involuntarily, his consciousness remained cold.
Lance coldly mocked: “I’ve already seen that ugly chicken you created in your dream.”
Outer God: Quack?
Lance’s pent-up anger finally found an outlet. Facing those deep blue eyes, he sneered and ridiculed: “Quite scheming, making yourself look so sacred, with halos and totems, but the mount you created is a pile of dog shit. You wanted me to be greatly shocked? Pah!”
The Primal God’s Eye can see through all illusions, falsehoods, and concealments.
So It easily confirmed that this weak channel wasn’t submitting to Its art while being too ashamed to admit it.
He, truly, thought it was ugly!
“Stultus hominum ignorantia!” (Foolish, ignorant human)
“Ingens offenderet!” (Enormous offense)
“Et eventually reddere pretium!” (Will eventually pay the price)
Lance quickly felt the familiar soreness from his gland, his pheromones rampaging, recklessly overflowing outward. His spirit seemed to be crushed and twisted by an invisible hand, making him dizzy and nauseous.
But at the same time, he felt a strange, offensive pleasure, as if this feeling could slightly alleviate the anger and pain in his chest.
Zhan Pingchuan’s already hazy consciousness suddenly sharpened!
Amidst the blood and stench, he caught the familiar scent of star magnolia. That faint pheromone drifted over, conveying emotions of grief, anxiety, anger, and a desperate need for comfort.
Such a large-scale pheromone overflow had already exceeded human limits.
An Omega in this state was very dangerous. Uncontrollable pheromones would cause excessive gland consumption in a short time. Once the foundation was damaged, they would forever lose their ability and become ordinary people.
Lance!
That was Lance’s pheromone.
No, he had to go back!
Zhan Pingchuan bit his teeth and swallowed the blood in his throat. His chest bone transmitted a dull pain as if run over by a truck. With his remaining willpower, he supported himself with both hands on the ground, struggling several times before barely managing to stand up.
He was now severely bleeding, and the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl was still crashing around in the passage. Its tremendous destructive power had shattered the oil lamps one by one, no longer sufficient for Zhan Pingchuan to play his mirror reflection tricks.
How could he get past the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl without making a sound?
Zhan Pingchuan wished he could pull out all his brain cells for overtime work.
Just then, a corpse being eagerly gnawed by Pouncers caught his attention.
Coincidentally, all the oil lamps had been smashed, and the passage was extremely dark… Zhan Pingchuan’s nerves jumped.
He had to try.
With his last bit of strength, he used a barrier to create a small cube cage to hide himself. Then, a barely visible silver thread, taking advantage of the stupid bird’s inattention, quietly slipped over and instantly bound the corpse’s limbs.
Zhan Pingchuan let the thread hang from a jagged, firm rock on the passage ceiling, then pulled the thread in his hand. The already lifeless corpse “sprang” to its feet.
Zhan Pingchuan secretly complained: Damn, it’s heavy.
The Pouncers were enjoying their meal when they saw their food suddenly stand up, frightening them so much their fish eyes bulged out, and they let out shrill cries.
Wings flapped noisily, the loud sound attracting the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl’s attention.
In the dim light, it saw a person in the distance making provocative gestures, a blatant challenge!
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl naturally thought it was Zhan Pingchuan. It flew over in uncontrollable rage, several claws swinging frantically.
The blocked path finally opened a narrow passage.
Zhan Pingchuan tried hard to bend down, making himself smaller in the barrier. Then he used several thin threads tied to the uneven rocks on the cave ceiling to create a simple slide.
The corpse kept twisting under the control of the thin threads. No matter how many times it was pierced by claws, it remained full of vitality.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl had seen too many incredible things all day. Disbelieving, it pierced and stabbed the corpse again and again. Even though internal organs were spilled all over the ground, this person still seemed to be bouncing around.
Zhan Pingchuan, sitting in a small car made of barriers, silently slid along the silver threads under the force of gravity.
Through the one-way transparent barrier, he saw that the gentleman had been torn into a hornet’s nest. Feeling extremely guilty, he made a cross over his chest, then quickly slipped past the gentleman using one cable after another.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl had brute strength but very low intelligence. Only after the human before it was completely dismembered did it notice the extremely thin silver threads hanging from the cave ceiling.
Of course, it could see Zhan Pingchuan’s ability, but the dancing human was too arrogant, and the cave was too dark, so it had overlooked this.
By the time its yellow eyeballs swept along the source of the ability, the transparent cube releasing the silver threads had already slipped far away.
The Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl pounced up, flapping its flesh wings.
Seeing his disguise exposed, Zhan Pingchuan couldn’t afford to ride the slide car anymore. He instantly dissolved the barrier and, using the rebound force of the barrier, rushed toward the iron door!
Suddenly, there was a sound from the passage corner nearby. Lance’s eyes widened, his consciousness quickly withdrawing from the Spirit Realm system.
The next second, Zhan Pingchuan’s figure appeared at the passage entrance, with devastating pursuit sounds coming from behind him.
Lance’s spirit suddenly jolted, and an indescribable wild joy swept over him.
Zhan Pingchuan was alive!
Lance seemed to ignore the relentlessly pursuing Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl behind him and instinctively reached out his hand toward Zhan Pingchuan.
Soon, his hand was tightly gripped by a palm soaked in blood and sweat. As the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl closed in, Zhan Pingchuan used his last pheromones to create a thin barrier, tightly protecting Lance in front of him, and violently crashed into the iron door.
Bang!
The barrier shattered, internal organs tearing in pain, fresh blood overflowing from mouth and nose, yet consciousness fell into the void of regression inside the iron door.
362, 363.
All things follow patterns, all patterns are hints.
In an instant, the light brightened, the sound of the Golden Parasite Human-Faced Owl gradually faded, and Lance opened his eyes amid submersion and torment.
He held Zhan Pingchuan’s dying body, kissed the hand that gripped his own tightly, and revealed a satisfied smile: “You really came to find me.”
##
(advanced chapters available on kofi)
