“Troy, Troy, sleep—”
“—Shut up! Go back to sleep!”
Quick on his feet and faster with his hands, Bai Zhou raised the massive shield in his grip and slammed it down with all his might.
Just as the wooden horse’s smile widened halfway, the door-sized greatshield crashed down from above, heavy gusts howling in its wake.
With a resounding clatter against the ground and the faint, muffled crack of aged wood splintering—
Everything came to an abrupt halt.
The chanting nursery rhyme was cut short.
The wooden horse sank once more into a sweet, high-quality slumber.
*No offense intended.*
Bai Zhou muttered silently to himself, eyes fixed on the dead-silent shield. Clutching the snapped spear with both hands, he edged backward step by step.
One step, two steps...
Fortunately, the greatshield served as a dependable coffin lid, sealing the wooden horse tightly beneath it, entirely unable to rise again.
Bai Zhou backed further and further away, only letting out a long breath once he had put a great distance between them.
A mysterious item!
And one whose death wish was inexplicably invisible...
If brought back to the Special Control Bureau, it would be classified as at least an F-Class Black Box, perhaps even an E-Class.
—Yet Bai Zhou felt not the slightest itch of greed; in fact, lingering dread chilled him through and through.
He was somewhat petty and greedy, but he valued his life far more!
Even in the Black Box Special Administration, containing a Black Box required tedious procedures and precise methods.
This wooden horse was hair-raisingly uncanny. Until he had a clue how to deal with it, it was better to let it keep sleeping.
Still, just because he couldn't take it now didn't mean he never could...
Bai Zhou mentally marked the horse’s location, musing over the mystery.
What on earth was this “Troy” mentioned again and again in that nursery rhyme?
Could it have some connection to Empress Irene?
Perhaps it had ties to the inverted city overhead, offering a clue to help him pin down this era.
—He would look into it once he returned!
After retreating to his camp, Bai Zhou dropped off his latest scavenged odds and ends, took a brief rest to regroup, and set off once more.
He had scoured the immediate vicinity clean; only one unknown area remained.
The corpse pit.
This time, holding the broken spear with cautious care, Bai Zhou finally crossed the dried-up riverbed and arrived beside the pit...
The dense, squirming death wishes were just as hair-raising as before.
Holding his breath and tightening his grip on the broken spear, Bai Zhou kept a cautious distance as he observed the mummies and skeletons.
“What’s this...?”
After observing at the edge of the pit for a while, Bai Zhou’s heart gave a sudden leap.
He quickly noticed something new.
Aside from a few sets of armor that were damaged beyond recognition, nearly all of these battered suits of “high-grade armor” bore an identical emblem over the left breast.
The emblem depicted a diamond-shaped shield with a saber and sword crossed before it.
—It was identical to the mark on *Holy Oath Slash*, the extraordinary knowledge he had acquired in the gray mist but hadn't yet understood!
Exactly the same!
*Snap...*
Just as Bai Zhou was deep in thought, a crisp sound of cracking bone rang out by his ear, setting his scalp tingling with dread.
The noise burst abruptly from deep within the pile of skeletons. In the dead quiet of this wasteland, it struck Bai Zhou’s ears like a clap of thunder.
“...What is that?”
Realizing something was wrong, Bai Zhou was about to back away when the dense heap of corpses below suddenly bulged upward.
As the skeletons and mummies on top slid down, the densely squirming death wishes scrambled outward in all directions.
Only then did Bai Zhou notice that beneath those dozens of glaring crimson, tightly packed wishes reading [I cannot rest]—
Lurked another death wish that seemed entirely out of place:
[So dark, so dark...]
The next second—
*Squitch!*
A skeletal hand dotted with clumps of pustules thrust straight upward out of the depths of the pile with a swift *whoosh*!
Under the crimson moon, the bony claws gleamed with a ghastly, eerie white.
*Crash!*
The mound of corpses slid aside and collapsed like rotting mud.
A bloated, pale, grotesquely obese monstrosity covered in tumors slowly rose from within, bearing the death wish [So dark, so dark...].
It looked like a massive, fat “living maggot.”
Beneath the scarlet moonlight, it held a black wooden staff high in the air.
—Calling it a wooden staff was overly generous.
Bai Zhou had once owned a similar contraption back in Wancheng. It had served as his noble sword for cutting reeds and as the trusty tool he used to tame fire and earn his meals.
To put it plainly—it was a fire poker from beside a stove.
*Hiss, hiss...*
The monster twisted its bloated neck.
Within eye sockets crawling with fat white maggots, two putrid eyeballs squirmed and rolled, peering upward in the crimson moonlight—
Locking straight onto Bai Zhou.
“...?”
Every hair on Bai Zhou’s body stood on end at the edge of the pit, his heart seizing in his chest.
*Run!*
He spun around and bolted without hesitation.
*Thud, thud, thud!*
Broken spear slung over his shoulder, Bai Zhou sprinted at full tilt, dashing under the grandeur of the blood moon.
Suddenly, a piercing gust whistled past his ears.
A sinister wind struck at the back of his head, and he instinctively ducked and twisted sideways.
*Boom!*
A skeleton grazed his scalp as it whipped through the air, crashing violently into the ground ahead to block his path.
Fragments of bone and rotting flesh splattered everywhere. A cranium rolled around Bai Zhou’s feet for several turns, the crimson death wish [Let me rest] hovering above it no longer terrifying, but rather laced with a touch of dark comedy.
Now it was even less able to rest.
Yet a chill surged from the bottom of Bai Zhou’s heart.
—The monster could improvise on the spot and make ranged throws?
The earth rumbled and shook. Seizing the opening, the monster had already caught up.
Despite its flabby body covered in putrid flesh and massive pustules, its immense height and long limbs lent it terrifying speed; it charged like a rolling boulder, extraordinarily swift.
With a quick estimate, Bai Zhou realized to his despair that running was merely a slow death. On his two legs, he could never outrun it, only waste his stamina in vain.
—He had to fight!
A suffocating pressure surged forward like something physical.
Bai Zhou gripped the broken spear, the shaft creaking against the webbing of his hand, yet his palms were clammy and cold.
*Rumble, rumble...* The massive figure trampled the earth as the bloated behemoth came bounding in.
Stench washed over him as it slowly raised its blackened wooden staff, exuding suffocating pressure.
Bai Zhou’s heart sank.
Since it had come to this, he had no choice but to try that...
He locked his eyes onto the staff’s trajectory.
The staff rose sluggishly, then crashed down toward his head. Terrifyingly heavy and forceful, the howling wind whipped up rubble from the ground, sending it flying three meters away.
If this hammer-like blow landed, even the hardest skull would be smashed to smithereens!
Yet seizing the moment with everything he had, Bai Zhou rolled backward just in time—
*Boom!*
The staff slammed down like a falling meteor. Earth and sand sprayed, and a crater appeared out of nowhere.
“Roar—”
The bloated behemoth roared at the moon, thrashing wildly at the ground.
*Boom! Boom! Boom-boom-boom-boom!*
The staff pursued Bai Zhou’s figure across the dirt, a scene straight out of a game of Whack-a-Mole.
Yet Bai Zhou tumbled and rolled, chaining seven or eight somersaults in succession, circling the monster incessantly without parrying a single blow head-on.
—Tumbling had been a mandatory physical conditioning course in the Black Robe training regiment, and as a top student, Bai Zhou had scored full marks in it.
*Boom! Boom!*
The staff slammed heavily into the dirt, yet it simply could not keep up with Bai Zhou, striking the gaps between his rolls every single time.
Furious as the creature was at this lively flea of a pest, the more it roared and slammed, the more pronounced its clumsiness became.
Once Bai Zhou seized an opening, nipped up onto his feet, and backed away at a brisk pace, the monster’s staff could no longer touch him at all.
*Close call... Thank goodness...*
Covered in dust after dodging another flurry of attacks, Bai Zhou couldn't help exhaling in relief.
Perhaps the passage of time had decayed its joints, or perhaps the excessive tumors hindered its flesh, but every movement the beast made was accompanied by noticeable sluggishness and hesitation.
It was too slow.
In fact, watching the monster’s halting motions, an apparently absurd notion sprouted in Bai Zhou’s mind—
*Could it be that I actually have a shot at bringing it down?*
At this thought, Bai Zhou stopped merely dodging. While circling the behemoth, he began searching for an opening.
*Boom!*
The staff came crashing down once more. Before the monster could lift its weapon again—
*Swoosh!* Bai Zhou sprang forward like an arrow from a bow, thrusting the broken spear in his hand with vicious force!
*Squish!*
*Aha, a hit!*
Bai Zhou’s eyes lit up.
The spearhead pierced the flesh. A dull thump echoed from the monster’s chest as several bloated pustules burst open, the surrounding skin visibly shriveling.
Yet Bai Zhou, who had kept his gaze locked on the creature, saw not a trace of agony on its swollen, hideous visage.
There was only calm—or perhaps even... a glimmer of sly cunning?
—Something was wrong!
His hairs prickled. Forgetting any thought of driving the spear deeper, Bai Zhou leaned back, wrenched the spear free, and retreated without hesitation.
With a dull *pop*, a pustule on the monster’s belly ruptured, and an unnatural third arm shot out without warning, clutching a massive hand crossbow.
The decayed crossbow dripped with greenish corrosive pus, and the loaded bolt gleamed with a faint green sheen, coated in a venom seemingly far deadlier than the pus itself.
Bai Zhou: “?”
*Twang—*
The trigger clicked, and the bolt shot straight toward Bai Zhou’s throat. Fortunately, his split-second intuition had saved him, granting him the time to evade in advance.
The flying missile grazed past him, its corrosive tip hissing violently as it struck the dirt, sending chills down his spine.
“Roar!”
Seeing its carefully prepared ambush fail, the previously calm monster flew into a rage. Leaning forward toward the retreating spear, it snapped its jaws shut in a desperate bite—
The black-gold spear, forged from some unknown but extraordinarily hard material, gave way like a soft steamed bun. A chunk was torn from it instantly, leaving hideous, terrifying tooth marks etched into the shaft.
Wrenching the spear back, Bai Zhou scrambled to his feet. Catching sight of the sizzling, corroded earth from the corner of his eye, a chill ran down his neck, his entire body plunging into an icy shudder.
The brush with mortality had lasted only an instant, yet it was the closest he had ever come to death...
“—Despicable local!”
Bai Zhou cursed aloud.
Was this how Extraordinaries fought?
Or was it a unique quirk of this civilization?
Sinister, cunning, underhanded—using every dirty trick in the book!
In a pinch, they would weaponize teeth and spit, but worst of all, they were masters of playing dumb and always kept an ace up their sleeve.
—Quite literally holding a hand in reserve!
A fraction of an inch closer, and Bai Zhou’s soul would have returned to Wancheng!
...That being said, even as his chest heaved violently, Bai Zhou’s clear eyes shone brighter and brighter.
After all, his greatest strength was acknowledging his shortcomings and learning from others.
Suffering a setback was only natural; right now, Bai Zhou only felt that he was far from “despicable” enough. He had fought far too honestly.
He understood now...
Before this, he had harbored no concept of how Extraordinaries battled.
As his maiden clash after stepping into the extraordinary realm, this pale, bloated behemoth was essentially his introductory mentor.
And so he realized that combat... was meant to be like this!
The honest died; the upright were vanquished.
One had to be more sinister, filthier, and better at concealing their true colors than the enemy!
—*Coach, I've got it!*
Bai Zhou rallied his spirits, tightening his grip on the tooth-marked black spear, his gaze clear and sharp.
From then on, in the behemoth’s eyes, this damned tumbling “flea” grew far more vexing and nauseating than before, driving it into a frenzy.
The kid was simply too sleazy and slippery, darting into safe blind spots to thrust with his spear, relentlessly taking cheap shots to bleed it dry.
Throughout the clash, Bai Zhou’s movements grew visibly more agile, his thrusting angles ever more cunning.
*Ma Zhenguo's Interpretation of Baguazhang*, *Sixteen Forms of Military Combat*, *Fish-Spearing Techniques*...
The specialized “combat” knowledge he had gained from the gray mist was gradually digested in practice. His spear thrusts and dodges shed their awkwardness, steadily falling into a disciplined rhythm.
Within the space of his Fate Principle, above the black sea, the white sun burned fiercely, continuously radiating light and heat, coaxing the spirituality within him to surge faintly.
Under the stimulation of his spirituality, Bai Zhou’s speed and strength steadily climbed.
His mind grew exceptionally lucid. Questions that had once eluded him clicked into place; his thrusts carried more calculation, and his movements flowed seamlessly into one another.
With a mix of pleasant surprise and regret, Bai Zhou guessed... this was probably the most rudimentary, unrefined application of spirituality after an Extraordinary awakened their Fate Principle.
Well, what could he do? He hadn't had the chance to undergo Crow’s special training yet, or he wouldn't be in such a passive state right now.
As Bai Zhou grew more accustomed to his new strength, his swift, agile tumbles began blurring into afterimages!
Pustules popped with sizzling squelches, the behemoth’s roars echoing across the wilderness.
At this moment,
in Bai Zhou’s enthusiastic eyes, this pale, bloated behemoth was no longer a terrifying, repulsive monster, but a dedicated practical instructor nurturing his growth.
—Even if this instructor had a particular knack for sickening tactics.
Realizing its blackened club couldn't reach him, it even began spitting at Bai Zhou.
The saliva was corrosive and acidic, sizzling upon hitting the ground with a pungent stench of sulfur.
Though Bai Zhou dodged furiously, a few droplets still splashed onto his clothes, sizzling through the fabric and sending up plumes of thick smoke.
Fortunately, the Special Control Bureau uniform was exceptionally durable, sparing Bai Zhou’s skin... but the billows of pungent sulfur smoke made his head swim all the same.
*Boom!*
Another blow smashed into the dirt, Bai Zhou barely dodging it.
Suddenly, his spirituality surged within him, shocking him into alertness—
Why had his movements slowed?
Was it the smoke...?
The smoke rising from the corroded cloth was poisonous!
The toxin worked silently, its initial effect barely noticeable.
Yet it stacked gradually until it thoroughly paralyzed its victim.
—*You still had another dirty trick!*
Bai Zhou cursed aloud.
Yet in that same breath, a bold idea struck him.
Holding his breath, he rolled several times. A moment later, finding an opening, he leaped backward, turned on his heel, and ran.
Only his stride was somewhat unsteady.
“Roar! Roar-roar!”
Seeing its scheme succeed, the monster shed all pretense, unleashing a sinister cackle unlike anything before as it gave chase in massive strides.
*Thump! Thump! Thump!*
The earth groaned beneath it. The behemoth lunged straight ahead, leaving its front wide open.
The very next instant—
*Snap!* Bai Zhou whirled around, leaping more than half a meter into the air. Twisting his waist, he thrust upward in a reverse spear strike, the tip lashing out like a striking viper.
—A back-horse thrust!
At this moment, Bai Zhou’s eyes were clear and bright; there was not the slightest trace of a stagger.
He was poisoned, sure, but not that badly—he had been faking it.
All's fair in war. *Coach, you taught me that yourself!*
*Squish—*
Under the behemoth’s incredulous gaze, the broken spear drove into flesh, plunging straight into its neck.
A bloody, blackened-red puncture opened in that obese, pallid throat.
Blood spurted outward, smoking with thick greenish vapor.
“Roar!!” An agonized howl echoed across the wilderness.
Beneath the gaze of the blood moon, the pale, bloated behemoth crashed to the ground.
“Sorry, I've graduated.”
Bai Zhou finally exhaled.
A gust of cold wind blew past, leaving him feeling distinctly chilled.
Only now did he realize that his outfit had been reduced to a battle-damaged, skimpy disaster, nothing more than a bunch of tattered strips of cloth.
Fortunately, the time had finally come to reap the spoils and loot the corpse.
Bai Zhou was about to step forward when he suddenly halted, blinking twice.
*Wait a second.*
Could such a sinister, underhanded monster really go down that easily?
Better test it first...
Bai Zhou raised the black spear and crept forward slowly.
Prodding the monster a few times from a distance, Bai Zhou leaped back in high tension, on utmost alert.
“...”
The monster lay sprawled on the ground, lifeless and silent.
It seemed it was truly dead.
Bai Zhou nodded.
Yet a sliver of doubt lingered in his mind.
His eyes darted about, and another idea came to him.
His clear gaze turned dead serious.
Raising his arm and lifting the spear, he aimed its glinting tip right at the behemoth’s rear—
“Take this!”
He thrust with all his might.
The strike was swift and fierce, tearing through the howling wind.
*Squish—*
“Awoooo—!”
Agony—pure, unadulterated agony! The shrill scream seemed to rattle the very blood moon in the sky.
Clutching its backside, the dangerous, bloated behemoth leaped three feet into the air, showing not the slightest semblance of being dead!
“I knew you weren't finished!”
Bai Zhou backed away, cursing under his breath.
This monster had more dirty tricks than pustules. Good thing Bai Zhou had learned to play dirty too.
Learn the barbarians' skills to vanquish the barbarians.
—Seriously, what kind of work had this sinister civilization done in the past?
*Gurgle, gurgle...* Pustules burst one after another as the pale monster’s body swelled even further, expanding with the wind to shoot up another two meters in an instant.
Plumes of steam billowed into the sky. Red light flooded its eyes as the monster roared hysterically, having evidently lost every shred of sanity.
*Is this... a transformed phase?*
He had no idea how long it would last, but he reckoned one punch right now could smash five of him to death.
—And he wouldn't even be able to dodge it.
Bai Zhou spun around and bolted, pouring everything into his legs.
The problem was—
Even then, he still couldn't outrun it.
This size was no longer on the scale of a mere monster; it was a “kaiju.”
At that enormous size, two casual strides from it covered more ground than a dozen of his...
Right at that moment,
a tremendous boom echoed across the sky.
Startled, Bai Zhou instinctively looked up toward the sound.
At the edge of the wilderness, atop the precipice, within that inverted city, the hands of thousands of dilapidated clock towers simultaneously pointed to the 36 o'clock mark.
The very next instant,
a thousand bells chimed in unison!
The chimes descended from above, layers of acoustic ripples converging to resonate across the wasteland.
Sand and grit kicked up, the ruins trembled, and even the furious behemoth froze in its tracks.
Bai Zhou’s ears rang so loud he was nearly deafened, but he noticed something against his chest vibrating frantically.
This was...
Surprised and overjoyed, Bai Zhou reached into his coat and drew out the vibrating golden pass.
*Was this the condition to reactivate it?*
*Return! Return!*
With no time to overthink, Bai Zhou immediately channeled his spirituality into it.
The next second,
the tumult in his ears seemed to fade into the distance, and a familiar sensation welled up inside him.
He knew he was about to go back.
Turning his head, he glared at the roaring behemoth not far behind.
“Just you wait, you fat bastard!”
Bai Zhou flipped a tall middle finger at this “despicable local.”
Even in Wancheng, with its peculiar customs, the middle finger carried the exact same meaning as in the outside world.
“When I get back from special training, I'll scatter your ashes to the wind!”
With that, Bai Zhou cast a reluctant, lingering glance toward his campsite, where his scavenged goods were piled high.
The next instant—
Golden radiance erupted, filling his entire vision.
...
As the grand, magnificent golden light receded, it took Bai Zhou a long while to regain his sight.
The incandescent glow overhead shone down, and the familiar scent of coffee drifted in, bringing a wave of reassurance.
He was back on Blue Star.
Back in the cozy dorm room the organization had arranged for him.
“Welcome back... uh?”
Crow’s voice took on a tone of confusion.
Her heels clicked as she took two steps back, taking in the sight of Bai Zhou before her—clothes in tatters, covered in bruises of blue and purple, and reeking of sulfur.
To call him disheveled was an understatement; he was an absolute train wreck, enough to make any onlooker weep.
Stranger still, Bai Zhou had left empty-handed, yet had returned clutching a half-broken spear, its shaft bearing a bizarrely clear set of tooth marks.
“—What did you do?”
“Weren't you going into the Mist of Knowledge?” Crow’s expression grew stern. “What happened?”
“Don't worry, I'm fine.”
Bai Zhou patted his rear twice, instantly dislodging a shower of dirt and sand that raised a cloud of dust.
“...Mm, my hem is barely soiled.”
After a pause, Bai Zhou coughed lightly, looking back on it all with an air of profound melancholy:
“Nothing more... than a touch of wind and frost.”
Chapter 10