The gentle halo formed from Awan’s holy obsession was like a moving full moon, forcibly tearing open a path toward hope through this dark mountain forest steeped in curses.
Bai Yu walked at the very front. The white wooden ladle in his hand was the core of this “moon.” Warm, pure power flowed without end from his palm into every limb and bone, softly smoothing over the hideous cracks left deep in his soul by the backlash. This power carried a woman’s deepest love and most sorrowful hope, allowing Bai Yu to preserve a tranquil, pure land in his heart even as he faced the endless malice around him.
However, that tranquility was confined to the three-meter-wide passage alone.
Beyond the halo was a hellscape of an entirely different kind.
The roiling blood-colored mist seemed like a living thing, crashing again and again against the thin wall of light. Each impact stirred up a silent ripple.
Within the mist, the trees twisted like ghostly shadows seemed to be awakening. Their branches turned into sharp claws, scraping against the wall of light with an ear-piercing sound.
Faces contorted beyond recognition by agony appeared and vanished in the fog. They howled soundlessly, staring at the four people inside the passage with the most vicious gazes, as if they wanted to devour them alive.
“What the hell are these things?!” Mo Fei clenched his fists, blue veins bulging on his arms. He could clearly hear the whispers from hell drilling into his mind, telling of the pain of betrayal, the terror of being buried alive, and the resentment of never being able to reincarnate. Those voices were like poisoned steel needles, constantly stabbing at his nerves.
“Focus your mind, Mo Fei!” An Mu’s low, powerful voice sounded beside his ear. “Don’t let them affect you. These are attacks on the mental level. Guard your own consciousness.”
“Got it!” Mo Fei took a deep breath, forcing himself to stop looking at or listening to the sights beyond the wall of light, and concentrated all his attention on the road beneath his feet and Bai Yu’s back up ahead. That thin figure gave him an infinite sense of security.
Lan Ce pushed up his glasses, the lenses reflecting the bizarre and motley scenes around them.
His voice was exceptionally calm over the mental link. “The energy fields are engaged in a high-intensity confrontation. The ‘holy object’ in Bai Yu’s hand is constructing a miniature independent domain based on the rules of ‘purification’ and ‘protection.’ Outside the domain are the original macroscopic rules of this space, based on ‘resentment’ and ‘curse.’ The two sets of rules are colliding violently. Right now, it’s as if we’re walking in the eye of a storm.”
“Bai Yu, can you hold on?” An Mu’s gaze fell on Bai Yu’s slightly pale profile.
Bai Yu nodded. Fine beads of sweat had already seeped from his temples.
Maintaining this safe passage was an enormous drain on him as well. He not only had to output power, but also had to use his will to “believe” that Awan’s love was enough to withstand all of this. This was a confrontation on the level of faith, far more exhausting than a simple expenditure of strength.
Bai Yu tightened his grip on the wooden ladle. He could feel that Awan’s power was not inexhaustible. It was like a handful of water destined to be spilled; every extra second it was sustained meant another portion lost.
They had to hurry.
The winding mountain path stretched beneath their feet, as though it had no end. After an unknown length of time, a massive, pitch-black outline finally appeared in the blood mist ahead.
It was the entrance to a mountain cave. Rather than a cave, it looked more like a gaping mouth opened wide in extreme agony. Stalactites hanging from the cave mouth’s edge resembled interlaced fangs, while a foul stench—a mixture of rotting flesh and blood, damp earth, and ancient resentment—gushed out from within, nearly staining the holy aura emitted by the wooden ladle with filth.
“This is it.” An Mu’s voice was incomparably grave. “The sacrificial cave. Everyone, prepare to enter the highest state of alert.”
The four stopped at the cave entrance, forming a temporary defensive circle. The light of the wooden ladle in Bai Yu’s hand seemed to be suppressed to a certain extent here as well, flickering uncertainly.
“Judging from the energy reaction, the curse concentration inside the cave is more than ten times that of the outside,” Lan Ce reported quickly. “We are about to enter the core region of this space.”
An Mu swept his eyes over his team members, his gaze finally landing on Bai Yu. “Bai Yu, the road ahead will be even harder. The pressure on your mind will increase severalfold. Remember, no matter what you see or hear, you must believe in the pure obsession you are carrying. That will be our most important weapon.”
“I understand.” Bai Yu nodded solemnly.
He took a deep breath and was the first to step into that bottomless darkness.
The instant they entered the mountain cave, everyone felt the surrounding environment undergo an earth-shattering change. It was as if they had passed through a layer of sticky, ice-cold film and entered an entirely different space.
There were no jagged stone walls as they had expected. Instead, before them was a long and twisted corridor. The walls, floor, and even ceiling of the corridor all had an eerie fleshy texture. They were covered in blood-vessel-like patterns and pulsed faintly, like the esophagus of some giant beast.
Even more hair-raising were the images flowing ceaselessly across those fleshy walls like scenes in a film.
“W-what is that?” Mo Fei’s voice was somewhat dry.
They saw scene after scene of memories from a hundred years ago. Under the moonlight, the young peddler Lin Sheng shyly placed a simple wooden hairpin into the hair of the young girl Awan. Awan looked back with a smile, her charm blooming in every gesture.
It should have been an incomparably beautiful scene, but in the next instant, Awan’s pure smile in the image suddenly became incomparably twisted, full of mockery and contempt. The villagers behind her also all took on disdainful expressions, pointing at Lin Sheng and whispering.
“Ugh—”
Bai Yu’s body swayed violently, and his face instantly turned as pale as paper.
“Bai Yu!” An Mu rushed forward in one stride and supported him.
A violent stabbing pain came from deep within his soul, gouging fiercely at the place where he carried Awan’s memories. This was not merely an illusion, but a form of high-level mental pollution!
That “mountain god” was using Lin Sheng’s most painful memories to deny and profane Awan’s love at its very root!
It was telling Bai Yu: Look, everything you believe in is a lie. This love was built on deception and ridicule from the very beginning!
The images on the walls continued to flow. They saw Lin Sheng and Awan playing by the stream. In the next second, the clear stream turned into filthy blood, and Awan pushed Lin Sheng into it. On the bank was the scene of her embracing other men. They saw Lin Sheng promising to marry Awan in a grand and glorious manner, but with a turn of the image, it became Awan dressed in bridal robes, throwing herself into the arms of another wealthy young master, leaving Lin Sheng with only a cold back.
Every sweet moment had been twisted into a vicious betrayal.
“Bastard! How dare it defile other people’s feelings at will!” Mo Fei roared and slammed his fist into the writhing fleshy wall.
However, his fist sank deeply into it as if striking cotton. Not only did the fleshy wall fail to break, it writhed like a living creature. Countless tiny granulations extended from the wound, trying to wrap around his arm.
“Don’t touch them!” Lan Ce shouted urgently. “This is a product of mental materialization. Physical attacks are ineffective, and you must beware of being assimilated by it!”
An Mu made a prompt decision and yanked Mo Fei back, while ordering everyone, “Close your eyes! Focus your minds and cut off visual information! Bai Yu, hold steady! Don’t be deceived by it. Trust your own judgment!”
Bai Yu collapsed to his knees in agony, clutching his head tightly with both hands. Those polluted memories surged into his mind like a tide, violently clashing with Awan’s pure obsession. He felt as if his soul were about to be torn apart by these two completely opposite forces.
“No… it wasn’t like this…” he muttered, his teeth clenched, more blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. “What I saw… wasn’t like this…”
He remembered that gentle woman who, even in endless darkness, had still lit a lamp for him. He remembered her shyness and sweetness when she spoke of her love, remembered her resolve and sorrow in the face of death, remembered when she turned into the wooden ladle—that selfless prayer that wished only for her beloved to forget his hatred and find peace.
That feeling was so pure it contained not the slightest impurity. It absolutely could not be false!
“Fake… all of you… are fake!” Bai Yu suddenly lifted his head, his eyes crimson, and let out a furious roar.
He gave up resisting the erosion of those images. Instead, he forced his eyes wide open and focused all his attention on the wooden ladle in his hand. He no longer looked at those filthy illusions, but poured all his will and faith into “believing” in that pure love.
“I believe in her!”
Buzz—
With a soft hum, the wooden ladle in Bai Yu’s hand erupted with unprecedentedly dazzling light. That light was no longer gentle moonlight, but had turned into a gold as dazzling as the sun!
Golden light swept through the entire corridor like a tide. Under its radiance, the writhing fleshy walls let out sizzling sounds as if they had been splashed with concentrated sulfuric acid, black smoke rising in waves. The twisted images on the walls were instantly purified beneath the pure light. In the end, the entire corridor’s walls returned to the texture of cold, hard rock.
“As expected, it is hope at its utmost extreme…” Hei Yan sighed silently, withdrawing the power he had already prepared to spread out and forcibly take over Bai Yu’s body.
“Huff… huff…” Bai Yu gasped heavily, his body on the verge of collapse, but his gaze had become incomparably clear and firm.
“Well done, Old Bai!” Mo Fei excitedly patted his shoulder.
An Mu supported Bai Yu and said in a deep voice, “Conserve your strength. We keep moving.”
After passing through the corridor that had returned to normal, they entered an even vaster underground cavern. A sorrowful aura so dense it could not be dispersed rushed toward them, casting a shadow over everyone’s heart.
A river appeared before them.
An underground river composed of pitch-black liquid that gave off an aura of decay and sorrow. It flowed extremely slowly, and black bubbles swelled up on the surface from time to time. Whenever a bubble rose to its peak, it would burst soundlessly. In the instant it burst, faces of villagers twisted by despair and pain would flash past, followed by a faint sigh filled with endless grief.
“Is this… the tears and despair of all the villagers over the past hundred years?” Bai Yu looked at the river, a great sorrow surging in his heart.
“You could understand it that way.” Lan Ce’s expression was also exceptionally grave. “This is a collective body of pure negative mental energy. For the time being, let’s call it the ‘River of Weeping.’ Its energy density is extremely high. Once any spiritual body falls into it, it will be assimilated instantly, then swallowed by endless despair, sinking forever.”
The river was not wide, only about a dozen meters across, but it now blocked the way ahead like a natural chasm. The power of despair contained in the river was so pure that even the air had become heavy. Every breath was like inhaling ice-cold sorrow.
“Looks like we’ll have to rely on you again,” An Mu said, looking at Bai Yu.
Bai Yu nodded and walked to the riverbank. He could feel that this river was different from the memory corridor just now. The corridor had been an active, vicious attack, but this river was passive, silent sorrow. It would not actively attack you, but once you touched it, you would be drowned by the vast despair it represented.
He slowly crouched down and gently extended the white wooden ladle in his hand toward the pitch-black surface of the river.
When the holy wooden ladle touched that viscous black liquid, a wondrous scene occurred.
There was no violent clash of energy, nor any confrontation of purification and being purified. The gentle light formed from Awan’s obsession was like a drop of ink falling into water, spreading gently yet firmly across the black surface of the river. Wherever the light reached, the pitch-black liquid did not vanish. Instead, a layer of transparent crystal emitting soft light condensed over its surface.
The crystal continued to extend outward, eventually building a crystal bridge formed from light and hope over the black River of Weeping.
The bridge was crystal clear, and one could still see beneath it that black despair surging with countless faces of pain. Awan’s power did not choose to disperse or eliminate that suffering. Instead, it chose to use itself as the foundation to bear it, and to carve out a road toward the future above this endless sorrow.
“Let’s go.” Bai Yu stood up and was the first to step onto the crystal bridge.
The four of them walked carefully across the bridge of light. The bridge beneath their feet was solid and warm, but the sight below still made their hearts tremble. Countless despairing faces rose from the black river water. Their hollow eyes stared at the living on the bridge, and intangible arms stretched out from the river, seeming to want to seize them and drag them into this eternal sorrow as well.
The countless suppressed sobs by their ears became clear, gathering into a massive wave of sound that battered everyone’s mental defenses. There was no resentment in those voices, only endless regret and pleading.
“Let us… out…”
“It hurts so much…”
“Why… did you do this to us…”
Everyone had to concentrate all their willpower on keeping their steps steady, eyes fixed ahead, minds free of distraction, walking toward the opposite bank one step at a time. This stretch of road, no more than a dozen meters, felt as long as an entire century.
When the last member stepped onto the solid ground of the opposite bank, the crystal bridge behind them also turned into specks of light and dissipated into the air. The River of Weeping still flowed slowly in place, as though nothing had ever happened.
After crossing the River of Weeping, the scene ahead suddenly opened up.
They arrived at an incomparably vast underground cavern. The ceiling was so high its top could not be seen; they could only see countless enormous stalactites hanging down like sharp swords. The rock walls of the entire cavern pulsed faintly, like a gigantic beating heart.
And at the very center of the cavern stood an evil altar haphazardly piled together from countless eerie white bones and black crystals flickering with ominous dark light.
The scale of the altar far exceeded their imagination. It was like a small mountain, exuding a nauseating stench of blood and curses. Countless thick black roots spread in from every direction of the cave, ultimately converging at the top of the altar. There lay the endpoint of all the malice and resentment in this entire space.
“We found it… the core of the space.” Lan Ce’s voice carried a barely perceptible tremor.
The four of them fixed their gazes firmly on the top of the altar. There, they did not see the terrifying corpse in groom’s red robes they had imagined. Instead, there was a gigantic fleshy cocoon more than five meters in diameter, condensed from flesh, black mud, and resentment.
The surface of the fleshy cocoon was covered in twisted human faces and constantly waving translucent arms. It pulsed rhythmically with the frequency of the entire cavern, like an evil heart. Every pulse made the curse aura around it grow denser by another degree.
“Lin Sheng is inside.” Bai Yu tightened his grip on the wooden ladle. He could feel that heaven-reaching resentment originating from within this fleshy cocoon. “He is undergoing the final fusion with the resentment of the entire village.”
“We can’t wait any longer.” An Mu decisively issued the order. “Bai Yu, use Awan’s obsession to try to awaken his humanity! Mo Fei, Lan Ce, we’ll cover Bai Yu!”
“Yes!”
Bai Yu took a deep breath and, holding the wooden ladle, walked step by step toward the altar of white bones. As he approached, the wooden ladle in his hand shone brightly, and that holy power turned into a pillar of light that shot straight at the fleshy cocoon.
However, at that very moment, a voice that did not belong to any human suddenly echoed throughout the entire cavern.
That voice was neither male nor female, neither old nor young. It seemed to be formed from the overlapping voices of countless people, and also seemed like an ancient murmur from the beginning of the universe. It was vast, cold, and filled with bone-deep contempt for all things in the world.
“Awaken him? What a laughable and naïve thought… insignificant insects.”
The voice was not transmitted through the air, but sounded directly in the depths of the four people’s souls, carrying an unquestionable majesty.
“That pathetic soul of his, together with that shallow resentment, was devoured by me long ago. They made fine firewood, successfully igniting the furnace for this grand feast. But…”
“The protagonist of this feast was never him!”
The instant the words fell, the gigantic fleshy cocoon at the top of the altar suddenly stopped pulsing!
Crack… crackle…
Crisp sounds of shattering rang out as massive cracks rapidly spread across the surface of the cocoon. In the next second, the entire fleshy cocoon exploded with a boom!
What emerged from within was not Lin Sheng at all, but a monster that had completely exceeded the scope of human understanding—one fused together with Lin Sheng!
Lin Sheng’s body was still its core. That tattered groom’s red robe was still worn on him, appearing incomparably bizarre and ironic. But his body had already changed completely. Countless enormous black roots like the dragon spines of mountain ranges madly stabbed out from his back, chest, and limbs, stretching hideously toward the sky. The surfaces of these roots were covered with hundreds of huge eyes slowly opening, as well as mouths full of sharp teeth, drooling black saliva.
His feet had completely fused with the altar of white bones, and those black roots were planted deep within the altar, spreading to the four walls of the entire cavern. Now he was this mountain, and this mountain was him.
He slowly raised his head. That face, on which Lin Sheng’s features could still vaguely be discerned, had already become as rigid as a stone sculpture. What burned in his eyes was no longer the flame of resentment, but a void that seemed capable of swallowing all light.
The “mountain god”!
This source-concept nightmare, which had entrenched itself here for a hundred years, had finally drained Lin Sheng of his last bit of value. Using his body as a vessel and the despair of the entire village as sacrifice, it had completed its descent!
The four-person team stood rooted in place. A shudder and terror that originated from the deepest reaches of life swept through their entire bodies. What they now faced was no longer a pitiful vengeful spirit driven by resentment, but a walking natural disaster, the manifestation of this world’s most ancient fear itself.
Atop the altar, that terrifying amalgamation turned all its countless eyes toward them at the same time. That ancient and vast voice sounded in their hearts once more, delivering the final judgment upon them.
“Now, insects, use your despair as a congratulatory gift for my new birth!”