Unending Rancor

The instant those pupils locked onto him, a prickling chill ran down Ji Jue's spine inside the vehicle, leaving him cold all over. Yet immediately afterward, confusion set in... You chased us this whole fucking way, throwing yourself at the window like a vengeful wraith hellbent on payback, just to ask me to join you for dinner? Eat what dinner? Only then did he sense that something was off. Everyone in the car turned silently to look at him. Even Lou Feng beside him instinctively scooted away in shock, his eyes full of suspicion: —Are you two in cahoots? Wait, you weren't the one who led this monster here, were you? Wait, no... Ji Jue glared in indignant grievance. It took so much fucking effort to get into this team—how the hell did I suddenly become a mole? Before he could even raise his voice to refute this sudden slander, someone had already lost patience. On the roof, Ji Liu—who had been waiting for the signal—dropped from above the moment he received Tong Shan's cue. "—Fuck your mother!" Across a mere span of two meters, he crashed down like a falling meteor—a brutal stomp! In an instant, he crushed the lunging eerie figure beneath his feet. Though it was just a stomp, it unleashed a torrential wave of ghastly crimson that rippled outward, instantly distorting the surrounding scenery under the shockwave. Blessing—Sweeping Clouds! Immediately after, blood-colored fire surged and swirled over his right hand. Reaching forward, he seized the figure by the neck, hauled it off the ground, and slammed it down! Spiritus converted into flame erupted forth, instantly engulfing the writhing, twisted figure! As if doused in gasoline, the bloody flames clung like rot to bone, spreading at blinding speed. Everywhere they passed, all turned to ash. Such astounding spiritus fluctuations and terrifying destruction wrought against all tangible matter were more than an inherited technique—their foundation lay in another crucial high-tier blessing of the Swarm: Crushing Ruin! Within the span of a single snap of the fingers, the screaming, squirming figure vanished without a trace, leaving only ashes drifting down from Ji Liu's hand. "What a piece of trash..." Ji Liu snorted disdainfully. Yet in the very next instant, his expression shifted drastically, and he whipped around. Only then did he discover that the eerie doorway draped in tattered curtains had somehow appeared behind him. From behind the curtain, an outline bearing the exact same face as before poked out, a bizarre smile on its lips, one hand already reaching toward him. It wanted to drag him behind the door. "Sit down, sit down, come on in..." Ji Liu's figure shot backward in retreat at blistering speed, but the doorway shadowed him relentlessly. Until a roar erupted, and an invisible, colossal force manifested in the air—a terrifying pressure that seemed to rival the deep abyss descended, locking the doorway in place. Tong Shan had finally struck. In Ji Liu's grip, a scimitar materialized from thin air and chopped straight down, bisecting the cackling figure from top to bottom. Covered by his sister, he flipped back onto the vehicle. The split figure actually regenerated rapidly in midair, dividing into two, and lunged once more with eerie laughter. Then, it abruptly seized. As if a spike had suddenly pinned their feet, the divided shadows convulsed violently, their shrill laughter turning into hisses and shrieks of rage. It was a flash of silver light. Just as the others were preparing to act, Ji Jue snapped to attention and flicked his wrist. Through the slit in the car window, he shot out a bead of quicksilver. Infused with a heavy dose of spiritus and propelled by Masterwork Nature, the quicksilver rivaled a bullet as it shot right between the two phantoms, spraying countless fine threads outward like spider silk. The strands that brushed past Ji Liu snapped instantly in the howling wind, but several quicksilver threads that snagged onto the two eerie figures tightened and retracted at once. Tough as steel cables. An invisible vortex of spiritus erupted from the quicksilver, like an unseen maw, dragging at the phantoms and pulling them in with torrential force! The two phantoms stiffened in place, their movements slowing to a crawl as they flickered violently. Yet to Ji Jue's frown, they seemed rooted to the spot; the gravitational pull of Solid Alchemy could not drag them into the quicksilver's binds at all. Something was wrong! Completely wrong! Even in haste, to play it safe, Ji Jue had estimated their mass and used double the usual portion of quicksilver. Based on his past experience, dealing with remnant spirits like this—let alone two, even four or five—would have been child's play. Yet now, they wouldn't budge at all. It was like bending down expecting to yank out a weed, only to pull on the stalk and discover an infinitely deeper and more massive root system buried beneath the earth. That eerily cackling phantom was nothing more than a superficial layer. Behind it lurked some colossal monstrosity, enabling it to regenerate as fast as it was destroyed, reappearing moments after being reduced to ash by Crushing Ruin, clinging like an inescapable ghost. Yet that single instant of entanglement bought by the quicksilver's tether was enough for Tong Shan to stomp on the gas and rocket forward. Just two seconds later, the quicksilver burst and evaporated, but the ghastly, clinging figures had already lost their target. No matter how they searched, they could no longer catch the scent or trace of the outsiders. On the desolate street, it wailed, screeched, and sobbed. In the end, a hand reached out from within the doorway behind the tattered curtain and beckoned to it. Amid wails and wild laughter, it was hauled into the darkness like a mad dog on a leash. The tattered curtain fluttered softly in the wind before vanishing along with the ruined doorway. Or perhaps it merely sank back into silence, waiting for the next visitor to come knocking. "What on earth was that thing?" Inside the car, Ji Jue wiped away cold sweat as he caught his breath. In less than ten minutes since entering Quancheng, his eyes had already been opened twice. Seemingly ordinary shadows were the projections of aberrant monstrosities, while an apparently feeble, clinging remnant spirit proved utterly immortal, haunting them like an unshakeable curse. "Ever seen a horror movie?" Ji Xue sighed. "Just think of them as the vengeful ghosts in those movies. Once they latch onto you, it's to the death. "If you get lucky and find a way to counter them, you might banish them. But if you can't, the entire reconnaissance mission is scrapped, and you might even take casualties. "You two read the safety handbook, right? If a stranger approaches you in here, don't answer, don't pay them any mind, and leave immediately. If a teammate goes out of sight, you have to verify their identity first—who knows if someone took their place the moment you blinked. "Team Two from Chaocheng learned that the hard way. By the time they noticed, their squad had three extra people, and they couldn't tell who was who at all. In the end, they had to trouble Lord Tao to step in." Watching their nonchalant reactions as if this were everyday routine, Ji Jue felt a slight chill. "Are there... a lot of these things?" Ji Xue fell silent for a moment. She glanced back at him and murmured, "They're everywhere." Decades ago, when Quancheng fell, Lord Tao had made a split-second decision to advance to Celestial-Human. Like a Heavenly Pillar, he held up the entire city of Quancheng for two hours, buying a sliver of hope for every citizen. Yet aside from the survivors who fled Quancheng in that initial two-hour window, countless victims had been trapped by accidents and unforeseen disasters. They fell alongside the entirety of Quancheng, struggling to survive amidst the descent into darkness. A fortunate few were recovered by later search-and-rescue teams, but the rest had long since mutated, succumbed to corruption, or simply perished. Their bodies rotted, weathered away, and turned to dust; their souls twisted, shattered, or dissolved into unrecognizable monstrosities amidst aberration. Those countless unceasing rancors, madness, hatred, and despair scattered to the winds. Across the long passage of time, they had long since merged into one with this unrecognizable ruin. Eventually, many years later, a tiny fraction of it, catalyzed by the Evil Transmutation Cult, formed a tumor that bred abominations and drifted toward Yacheng... Ji Jue fell silent, offering a quiet sigh, finding nothing to say. A rhythmic tapping sounded from the roof. Tong Shan waved a hand, and Jiang Xuan braced himself against his seat, stood up, and climbed onto the roof. Ji Liu dropped down inside, his face twitching as he sucked in a cold breath. "Holy crap, something's wrong. Sis, take a look for me." Saying so, he stuck out his rear. "Get lost!" Ji Xue snapped, poised to kick him, but froze when she spotted a pitch-black fingerprint on the hazmat suit over his backside... Xu Zhao couldn't help but burst into laughter. "Big Liu, did someone cop a feel? Should we crown you Yacheng's Number One Bubble Butt?" "Piss off," Ji Liu rolled his eyes, gritting his teeth as he peeled off the suit, revealing a distinct black fingerprint branded onto his pale cheek. Then, the laughter died in everyone's throat. Corruption pollution. No, more like a mark. If left alone, that damned thing from earlier could come knocking at any moment. "There's no other way now." Ji Xue's expression shifted, giving way to a mournful grin as she drew a dagger from her boot, completely ignoring Ji Liu's horrified look. "We'll just have to carve it out." "Holy shit, wait—" "Delay invites disaster, we can't wait!" Ji Xue glared at him. "Don't worry, I'll make it quick. Mine's pretty big, bro, just bear with it." Watching the gleaming blade hover and measure repeatedly over his backside, Ji Liu grew increasingly terrified. Before he could stop her, a hand caught Ji Xue's wrist. Ji Jue. "Sister Xue, don't be hasty. It doesn't have to be this tragic." He pushed the dagger back down. Ji Liu instantly beamed. "Aiya, Little Ji really is the kindest—WHAT THE FUCK?!" Before he could even sigh in relief, he saw Ji Jue draw a bone short blade far more exaggerated than the dagger, and cleanly, mercilessly, stab it straight into his buttock. "Hiss—" A unison gasp of sharply inhaled breath echoed through the vehicle. Every single person in the car felt a phantom pain shoot through their own backside. Before Ji Liu could even struggle, he felt a cold sensation in his cheek, followed by the burning pain vanishing completely. Ji Jue pulled out the blade, wiped away nonexistent grime with foil-like quicksilver, and sheathed the weapon. "All done." "Huh?" Ji Liu turned stiffly. Looking at the reflection on his phone screen, he found the black fingerprint on his rear had completely disappeared. Not only that, there wasn't even a single cut on his skin; everything just now felt like an illusion. He was cured!