Chu You stared at Xia Ji, who stood before her, shrouded in a suffocatingly dense aura of corruption, half her face crawling with sinister black veins.
Her heart felt as though it were being tightly squeezed by an invisible hand.
Though she had braced herself for this, seeing Xia Ji with her own eyes still made her voice waver uncontrollably with a stifled ache.
“Xia Ji… you shouldn’t be like this.”
Xia Ji heard her words and lowered her head slightly, her gaze falling to the hand now utterly devoured by writhing black veins, its original form no longer discernible.
Her voice, no longer crisp, was soaked in a desolate emptiness, the kind left by utter despair: “But I have to atone, Sister You.”
Her words were soft, yet pierced everyone’s eardrums like icy needles.
“For Yuanzhou… for Mom… for all of this…”
“I must atone for my sins.”
There was no madness in her tone, only a heart-chilling calm that bordered on lifelessness, as if she had long since accepted this as her fate.
The black veins crawling across half her face pulsed faintly as she spoke, almost as if they were alive.
Hearing this, Chu You’s brows furrowed tightly, her heart repeatedly pounded by the bleak serenity in Xia Ji’s despair.
Without hesitation, she took a step forward, her voice filled with urgency and unwavering resolve: “No one wanted those things to happen, none of that was your fault, Xia Ji.”
She tried to pierce through the self-imposed cage around Xia Ji.
“Don’t force yourself to bear all that guilt alone. In that disaster, you were a victim too, do you understand?!”
Xia Ji still kept her head down, not reacting at all.
Chu You stepped forward again, the distance between them growing ever smaller.
Her eyes grew red, uncontrollably so, her voice trembling with emotion, nearly pleading, “Didn’t you say… we’re friends?”
“Didn’t we agree? That we’d go shopping together, go to school together, and someday climb to the top of Binhai Park to watch the sunset… Did you forget all those promises, Xia Ji—!”
Here, Chu You suddenly stopped right in front of Xia Ji, slowly raising her left arm.
On her slender wrist, the uniquely-shaped badge bracelet that Xia Ji had given her still quietly gleamed, reflecting a faint but stubborn light even in the murky air thick with corruption.
“See… this proof of our friendship, you’re the one who told me about it.”
Chu You’s voice caught, but her gaze only grew more resolute.
She stretched out her bracelet-adorned hand towards Xia Ji, palm up, as if to catch something that was about to fall.
“Listen, Xia Ji… let me take you away from here.”
“There’s always a way, there must be some way to cleanse you of this corruption… Even if—even if you can’t go back to how you were, at the very least…”
Her voice was gentle yet brimming with strength, tearful but clear: “At the very least, I’ll be with you.
“No matter what happens to you, I’ll face it with you.”
That outstretched hand hung in the space between them, waiting for the other’s response—like a fragile bridge connecting past and future, light and darkness.
Xia Ji’s breath suddenly caught.
Staring at the hand that had entered her line of sight, at the bracelet on that wrist, Xia Ji staggered back a few steps.
“Sister You…”
Her head hung even lower, her voice hoarse, “You… just go…”
“Xia Ji!”
At that moment, Xu Guangming, who’d been lying on the ground, suddenly jerked his head up, his voice shrill with desperation: “Don’t forget, Yuanzhou is still watching you!”
“Bang—!”
A thunderous crash rang out as Xu Guangming’s body was bent like a shrimp and hurled over ten meters away.
Gu Qiancheng dusted off his pants, glared at Xu Guangming impatiently, and said, “This is a conversation between sisters, what the hell are you butting in for?”
At that moment, Lin Mo’s brow suddenly knit tightly, an intense sense of foreboding pouring through him like ice water.
The situation should have been in their favor—Gu Qiancheng was controlling the field, he and Chu You were still in fighting shape, Xu Guangming was at his limit, Xia Ji was in a strange state, but Chu You seemed able to reach her… So why did Xia Ji tell Chu You to leave?
And why, when Xu Guangming heard those words, did he suddenly scream, “Yuanzhou is still watching you!” as if his tail had been stepped on?
Realizing this, Lin Mo no longer hesitated; he moved at once, aiming to dash to Chu You’s side.
Yet at the very instant he set off—
“Squish, squish…”
A chilling, hair-raising sound echoed out.
Xu Guangming, who by all rights should have been incapacitated by Gu Qiancheng’s kick, staggered back to his feet.
What was even more alarming—countless thick black veins, like crazed tree roots, burst from his broken body and stabbed deep into the earth beneath him.
A moment later, a subtle but dense sound, like the heartbeat of some gigantic beast, thudded up from the depths of the ground.
“Buzz—!”
The black veins on Xu Guangming’s body swelled and wove together at unprecedented speed.
They lifted his body high into the air; before everyone’s eyes, flesh, bone, and blood twisted and melted, merging completely with the black veins until all that was left was a warped, shifting, vaguely humanoid silhouette.
“…Three Clans… origin, fusion… symbiosis…”
A chorus of chaotic, malicious whispers—like the voices of ten thousand tortured souls—rose from every direction and burrowed into each person’s mind.
Atop the massive mass of black veins formed from Xu Guangming’s body, a shape burst open like a tree crown.
Thick, inky darkness surged forth, blotting out what little light remained from the sky above and plunging the entire area into an even deeper shadow.
The dead do not rest, the bronze gate opens… return…
“Thump! Thump! Thump!”
With each whisper like a summoning incantation, the ground shook violently, and countless smaller, corruption-laced black shoots shot from newly cracked fissures in the earth like tentacles from hell.
A warped, chaotic, and overwhelmingly powerful magnetic field erupted, distorting the rules of reality and turning the whole area into an independent, forbidden domain.
“–Return, to, the, mortal, world!”
As Xu Guangming gave his final proclamation…
“BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!”
The black tendrils bursting from the ground, as if following a command, surged and tangled together.
Before their stunned eyes, they wove and built themselves mid-air, forming in a flash a colossal, grotesque black throne made of countless writhing veins.
Lin Mo, Chu You, and Gu Qiancheng all looked up in unison, pupils constricting in shock.
Atop that black-veined throne… sat a human figure!
A “person” stitched together with coarse black thread.
His missing flesh and limbs had been crudely patched with clay the color of dried blood.
His entire body was encased within a massive, amber-like crystal, glowing faintly from within with swirling murky energy.
The figure’s head was bowed slightly, one hand propping up a jaw torn and patched by stitches, the other resting idly on his leg.
Lin Mo’s gaze locked onto that face—pierced by countless stitches and suffused with a deathly, metallic pallor.
His heart felt as if it had been struck by a sledgehammer—suddenly, he understood.
[Yuanzhou is watching you]
So that’s what Xu Guangming’s cry had meant.
He had used this desecrating method to revive and imprison the corpse of his own son right here.
“Uncle Xu—!!!”
Across from Chu You, Xia Ji jerked her head up, looking at the pitiful, terrifying Xu Yuanzhou on the throne.
Her gaze flicked to the mass of twisted veins that was now Xu Guangming, her voice breaking, “I… I alone should be enough…”
The next instant, her pleading was cut short.
Xu Guangming’s cold, inhuman voice echoed from within the mass of veins: “Put away your pathetic weakness, Xia Ji!”
Even as his words fell, three branches of black veins shot out from the enormous mass.
One, like lightning, stabbed at Lu Ran and Chen Xinyu, who were cowering in terror at the flowerbed’s edge, instantly cocooning and devouring them—leaving only their terror-twisted faces exposed.
A moment later, the black veins ensnaring them let out a delighted, hungry screech.
The second branch issued a gurgling sound as if swallowing food, and the taint of a high-level aberration began to seep out.
Within the veins, Lu Ran and Chen Xinyu’s eyes flew wide open.
They could feel it clearly—the corruption that once marked them as time aberrants was now becoming a ruthless, overwhelming force, savagely invading and devouring the oracle power at their core.
It felt as if their identities as oracles were being ripped out of their very souls and bodies.
“No! No, no, no! Don’t—!”
“Professor! Please, I beg you, let us go, don’t—!!!”
Their cries were shrill, desperate, filled with hopeless pleading.
But the darkness that was now Xu Guangming radiated only the will to destroy: “No one… will escape!!”
As his voice fell, the unique energy and life force of the oracles within Lu Ran and Chen Xinyu was violently drawn out and devoured by the black veins at a horrifying speed.
Their wails quickly faded, their eyes growing empty.
Then—
“Swish!!”
The black veins on Xia Ji’s body suddenly shot out, as if obeying a supreme command, lashing out like a hungry viper and connecting precisely with the black vein cocoon around Lu Ran and Chen Xinyu, the very one greedily draining their oracle power.
A torrent of pure yet chaotic oracle essence, filled with pain and resentment, surged through the connection and forcefully flooded into Xia Ji’s body.
“Ugh…!”
Xia Ji’s body trembled violently, a stifled groan escaping her lips.
Her crimson eyes blazed up in an instant, burning too fiercely to be looked at directly.
“Danger! Move!”
Lin Mo’s breath caught, alarms blaring in his mind.
He no longer held anything back; reaching out, he tried to drag Chu You—who stood closest to Xia Ji—out of danger.
But before his fingers could touch Chu You’s sleeve—
“Thud thud thud thud!!!”
Countless even thicker black veins, flickering with ominous blood-red light, burst from the ground as if premeditated.
In an instant, they formed an impenetrable barrier, cutting Lin Mo off from Chu You and Xia Ji.
“Baiyu Capital · Ascending Pagoda!”
Golden divine flames roared to life in Lin Mo’s eyes, burning at their peak.
Complex golden runes exploded outward from him, like a boiling golden ocean crashing into the black barrier, trying to tear it apart.
On the other side, Gu Qiancheng acted almost simultaneously—his palm flickered as he unleashed his oracle power, attempting to collapse the black veins into another dimension.
But—
From deep within the black veins, a strange, sticky glow like fresh blood began to pulse.
Lin Mo’s usually unstoppable seal-breaking power, as well as Gu Qiancheng’s spatial collapse, were swallowed up the instant they touched the bloody glow—devoured and nullified by the darkness’s insatiable greed.
The barrier of black veins, under their combined assault… didn’t budge an inch!
“Don’t worry, it’ll be over soon…” Xu Guangming, fused with the veins in midair, croaked out, “Your opponents are me.”
As soon as he spoke…
Countless vein-branches became savage blades, slashing at Lin Mo and Gu Qiancheng.
Inside the barrier, all light was sealed away.
Only a filthy, hellish glow seeped through the cracks.
Chu You didn’t even have time to speak.
From her feet and sides, countless hair-thin but unbreakably tough black veins swarmed in like leeches smelling blood, latching onto her from head to toe.
They were cold and sticky, reeking of corruption, tightening like living things inch by inch.
In that suffocating hold, Chu You managed to lift her head, eyes searching through the crawling darkness, locking onto Xia Ji, just a few feet away.
Xia Ji’s pupils were flooded with a thick, unyielding red—full of pain, struggle, and an ever-growing cold detachment.
Yet in the instant their eyes met, a faint flicker, like a candle in the wind, struggled to shine through Xia Ji’s crimson gaze.
Her lips trembled, opening and closing silently.
But Chu You clearly read the shape of those three words.
They were soaked with endless apology, despair, and final farewell—“I’m sorry…”
The next moment, that fragile clarity was snuffed out like a candle in a gale, vanishing from Xia Ji’s scarlet eyes.
In its place was pure, frigid emptiness—the hollow numbness of a vessel.
Chu You’s mouth fell open, as if to speak, but the black veins surged forward like a tide, swallowing her whole into the writhing darkness.
Her consciousness faded rapidly, receding like the tide.
That cold, desecrating darkness crept along her limbs and bones, stealing away all sensation.
She tried to struggle, to move even a fingertip, to summon any trace of her demon blood’s power…
But nothing answered.
Her strength was utterly sealed, like someone plunged to the ocean’s depths, crushed by the weight on all sides—unable even to make a ripple of resistance.
Her vision was swallowed by darkness; in her ears, only the strange thrum of the veins.
Even her sense of smell was drowned by the overpowering stench of blood and rot.
In the last moment before her consciousness was fully consumed, a face surfaced in her mind.
It was Lin Mo?!
That face, always calm yet infuriating, sometimes showing exasperation or indulgence because of her; those eyes, usually tranquil but igniting with golden flame at critical moments.
Why… was it him?
The thought flickered like the last spark cast into darkness, carrying with it emotions even she hadn’t realized, and then was utterly swallowed by the void.
The world fell into deathly silence.