Near the ticket gate of the roller coaster ride.
Suddenly, Chu You’s steps came to an abrupt halt, her sharp gaze instantly locking onto the edge of a flowerbed ahead.
There sat a figure, head bowed, intently fiddling with their own fingers.
However, those hands were anything but normal—lifeless and bluish-black, with grotesquely overgrown, twisted, and sharpened nails, the backs of the hands covered in twisted scars and dense, crack-like lines as if porcelain had shattered.
An alarm sounded in Chu You’s mind.
She immediately stopped, body lowering slightly to steady her center of gravity, both hands gripping her gun, the muzzle aimed precisely at the figure with the bowed head.
Almost simultaneously, the fiddling stopped.
Then, that head began to rise—slowly, unbearably slowly, in a way that sent chills crawling down one’s spine.
Revealing a face… one Chu You knew all too well, but which now appeared chillingly bizarre.
Most unsettling of all were the eyes—pupils crimson as blood, roiling with undisguised hunger and greed, like a predator eyeing its prey.
She looked at Chu You, who had her gun raised, the corners of her mouth twisting upward in an exaggerated, contorted arc, revealing a smile full of malice.
Her voice was hoarse, with an uncanny accent.
“…I’ve been waiting so long for you. Why are you only just getting here?”
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
The muzzle of the Glock 18 spat fire.
In reply, she delivered two shots to the body, one to the head in rapid succession.
Chu You slowly lowered her gun, eyes fixed on the body that fell backward into the flowerbed.
Her vigilance didn’t lessen in the slightest; instead, her expression grew even more grave.
The echoes of the gunshots still lingered in the air.
In the next moment, under Chu You’s solemn gaze, the figure collapsed in the flowerbed began to sit back up, as if controlled by invisible strings—movements stiff and unnatural.
Even more chilling, the three gaping bullet wounds in her left chest, right chest, and forehead were not bleeding at all.
The flesh around the wounds squirmed and contracted as if alive, making a faint, wet squelching sound.
Within seconds, the three twisted, deformed bullets were forced out by the writhing muscle, clattering weakly to the soil of the flowerbed.
The woman raised a hand, calmly brushing off nonexistent dust from her clothes, as if the deadly attack just now was nothing more than a few mosquito bites.
She lifted her eerie face again, crimson eyes locking on Chu You, the corners of her mouth stretching into a broader, more distorted smile, her tone mocking and feigned chiding: “Not even a greeting… Tsk, how rude~”
Chu You frowned slightly, the cold barrel once again aimed at her head, her voice as frigid as ice: “Chen Xinyu, do you realize just how disgusting you look right now?”
It was Chen Xinyu.
Ever since her escape after the battle at the old school building, she had vanished without a trace.
Chen Xinyu showed not a hint of anger at the words. Instead, she slowly stood up from the edge of the flowerbed.
She raised that mutated, twisted, bluish hand before her eyes, as if admiring a priceless work of art, carefully scrutinizing the overgrown talons and scars, an unsettling, almost reverent fanaticism flickering in her crimson pupils.
Examining her inhuman palm, she spoke in that hoarse, bizarre accent, her tone full of lofty pity: “…The living are ignorant, walking this world only to atone for the dead.”
“Chu You, you… know nothing at all.”
As she spoke, she slowly lowered her arm, suddenly turning her head toward Chu You, those blood-red eyes staring deathly at her, each word pronounced with twisted reverence and proclamation.
“Just as you will never understand the kind of forbidden knowledge the Professor truly possesses—”
Her lips stretched, revealing an almost maniacal smile: “That is… the mercy of the gods, a guide to immortality!”
Hearing these frenzied cultist ravings from Chen Xinyu, Chu You felt a cold chill creep up her spine, goosebumps prickling uncontrollably.
Without a word, she quickly glanced up at the roller coaster—stopped at its highest point due to the power outage—where panicked riders were trapped in midair.
Then, without hesitation, she holstered her emptied pistol at her waist and drew the high-voltage stun baton from her other side.
With a sharp snap, she flicked it open and gave it two forceful swings, slicing the air with a faint whistling sound.
“What nonsense are you mumbling?” Chu You scoffed, her tone dripping with undisguised contempt, “Immortality? Ha, ugly as sin but dreaming big.”
Chen Xinyu’s maniacal smile faded in an instant.
She slowly turned to face Chu You directly.
A putrid aura of oracular corruption and degeneration surged from her body like a boiling mire, revolting to the senses.
In the next instant, her arms began to mutate once more.
This time, the flesh did not slough off. Instead, countless sharp bone spurs suddenly thrust out from beneath the skin, instantly shredding her sleeves.
Flowing out like mercury, they extended rapidly, intertwining and covering both arms.
At a speed visible to the naked eye, they condensed and shaped madly—until finally, they became two ghastly, bone-white blades!
The air around the blades seemed to ripple and distort.
Chu You’s expression turned grave.
Concentrating the air around the bone blades, seeking ultimate cutting power and speed?
Last time, she was only able to use the oracle’s power to harden air into barriers to smash people.
Yet in just a few days, she’s already developed new abilities?
And considering her last arm mutation was completely different from this one—could it be innate talent?
No…
Chu You immediately dismissed the idea.
Such a fundamental transformation was almost certainly the handiwork of that Professor.
The knowledge—or rather, the technology—he possessed could forcibly reshape a person into something like this in such a short time.
The implications made Chu You’s heart sink.
“Chu You, in fact, you are also one of the lucky ones… Favored and watched by the gods, you too could join us in the pursuit of immortality.”
Chen Xinyu crossed her arms, the two ghastly bone blades grinding together with a grating screech.
She advanced step by step toward Chu You, crimson eyes flickering with fanatical allure: “Put down your weapon and come with me, and you’ll witness the Professor’s grea—”
“Cut the crap!”
Before she could finish, Chu You’s waist and abdomen suddenly tensed, her body exploding forward like a leopard, almost turning into a blur as she darted to Chen Xinyu’s side.
The stun baton was turned up to the highest setting, crackling with blinding arcs as it smashed viciously toward Chen Xinyu’s temple.
“BZZZZZT—!”
The instant the baton touched flesh, it unleashed a scalp-numbing sound.
The stench of burning flesh immediately spread through the air.
Chen Xinyu’s body jolted violently, frozen stiff for a brief moment.
A look of even deeper madness surged in her crimson eyes as she let out a bestial growl: “Courting death!”
Even as she spoke, the bone blade in her right hand swept out with a piercing shriek, slicing through the air—a ghastly white arc, like the scythe of death, aiming to cut Chu You clean in half!
At the very last moment, Chu You bent backward at an impossible angle, narrowly dodging the lethal blade as it swept past her nose.
Planting the stun baton on the ground, Chu You used it as leverage to rebound, and without any pause, her other fist shot out like a cannonball, wrapped in fierce wind, and slammed hard into Chen Xinyu’s abdomen.
“Boom—!”
A dull thud echoed.
Caught off guard, Chen Xinyu’s body bent violently like a boiled shrimp, stumbling back several steps, her face showing disbelief for the first time.
Chu You shook out her numb fist, a flash of peach-colored light flickering in her eyes.
Guns and stun batons posed no threat to Chen Xinyu—her only chance was to call upon the demon clan’s source within her.
Chu You had no intention of holding back.
Her footwork ghosted forward, closing in again in an instant!
As she approached, her body turned slightly, delivering a brutal rising elbow straight to Chen Xinyu’s chest, as heavy as a sledgehammer.
“Urgh!”
Chen Xinyu grunted, feeling a strange, domineering force surge through her body, rampaging inside her, leaving her unable to react effectively.
But Chu You’s assault didn’t stop.
At some point, she had swapped the stun baton for a sharp combat knife.
Taking advantage of Chen Xinyu’s wide-open defense, Chu You twisted her wrist, gripping the knife in a reverse hold, and stabbed mercilessly and precisely into her heart.
“Squelch—!”
A muffled sound of blade piercing flesh.
Chu You’s gaze was icy, and with a powerful twist of her wrist, she ruthlessly widened the wound before pulling the blade out decisively.
A gush of hot, foul, pitch-black viscous fluid—like rotten blood—spurted from the wound.
A few drops splattered on Chu You’s cheek, the peach-colored glow in her eyes adding an even more bewitching aura.
“How could you… w-why…”
Staggering backward, Chen Xinyu looked down at the hole in her chest, black blood gushing forth, her expression twisted to the extreme.
“Surprised, huh?” Chu You shook the black blood off her blade, smiling at Chen Xinyu, “The rich rely on tech, the poor rely on mutations, and things as disgusting as you rely on having no bottom line.”
As she spoke, a huge, snow-white, fluffy fox tail appeared behind her.
Peach-colored radiance flowed within her body, and in an instant, Chu You’s true form was revealed—looking even more enchanting and bewitching than before.
“But I’m different…” Chu You smiled, her body slowly rising from the ground, “If I want to get stronger—”
“All I have to do is stop being human.”