A Spirit-Name Secret Treasure Within Arm's Reach!

"Whatever happens, I cannot meet its gaze—" The warning struck like an alarm bell in his mind, prompting Bai Zhou to wrench his eyes away in haste. Fortunately, the dense fog stood between them, preventing Bai Zhou from locking eyes with the Inverted Maiden. Even so, a bone-chilling dread washed over him as if he had plunged headlong into a frozen lake. With the folding knife serving as the key, and numerous Extraordinaries along with the Iron Thorn squad offered as sacrifices— The mysterious entity sealed in slumber deep below had finally reawakened, surfacing before everyone's eyes. —So, what was Bai Zhou, this newly minted gatekeeper, supposed to do? Originally, Bai Zhou had felt quite confident in his new mantle as the Principal. He had felt that anomalies gathered in Yuanmeng Middle School like clouds, and in his perception, there were even formidable anomalies verging on Rank 6. If he could muster such power, he could surely accomplish something to some degree. What was more, he could mobilize every building, plant, and tree—even the very air—throughout the entirety of Yuanmeng Middle School! And yet— Only when Bai Zhou truly laid eyes upon this Inverted Maiden, whom he had briefly glimpsed during his divination, did he realize that all his confidence was likely nowhere near enough. "A demon—" In that split second when his reason verged on collapse upon clearly looking down at its form through his status as master of the minor secret realm, this was the only word Bai Zhou could conjure. The suspended girl seemed embedded within an undulating mountain of crimson flesh, the two tightly fused yet existing independently. Tentacles formed of countless flayed, severed arms writhed in every direction. A colossal crimson spider cast a gruesome, thrashing shadow across the ground, and towering flesh-and-bone structures converged to form this red spider's head. The outer rim of this mountain of flesh was a brooding crimson, but the closer one went to the interior, the more tenderly pink it became. Its surface was coated in slippery mucus, and bands of red fascia bound and unified the tender lumps of flesh. The exterior presented a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood from who knew how many lives, littered with severed limbs and wrecked remains. Yet the interior was a pristine, delicate pink, pulsing with clusters of flesh that seemed brimful of vitality— Interspersed among the meat were crumpled, torn test papers, rusted student desks and chairs, a roaring diary, and countless mysterious phantoms. Things of every sort converged together, and a mountain rose straight out of the mist. Yet taking it all in from Bai Zhou's vantage point overlooking the scene, the tender pink portion at the center of the flesh mountain resembled a swollen, pulsing womb— And the suspended girl was like a newborn infant nurtured by that very womb. She hung upside down from a cord of flesh. Her slender figure seemed unclothed, bearing an unnatural, almost translucent pallor, with bluish veins protruding faintly beneath her skin. Yet most of this body was covered by armor of flesh and blood, obscuring everything from view and leaving only her head exposed. Bai Zhou even felt as though her body was semitransparent, as if it did not truly exist, but was merely a vague, hazy phantom—neither present in this place nor belonging to this moment. Compared to the mountain of flayed flesh, savage and bloody to the extreme, this woman surrounded by densely packed severed arms and mangled remains was impossibly pristine and ethereal, possessing an incongruous air of holiness alongside a frail, quiet temperament. This touch of holiness and stillness complemented the surrounding tender pink clusters of flesh, yet radiated an uncanny, twisted wickedness. She was like a goddess imprisoned by fiends, yet the mountain of flesh clustered by dense masses of meat encircled her, and the surrounding peaks bowed as though paying homage, fully confirming her true identity. Her pitch-black hair drifted upward. Those deathly pale eyes inexplicably brought to mind a frigid, dead expanse of stars; with merely a casual glance around, she forced numerous Extraordinaries to lower their heads and retreat, none daring to meet her gaze. "A bloody mountain range, a maddened mountain of flesh—" "A mountain resembling a spider, or a spider resembling a mountain—" Bai Zhou's thoughts were already spiraling into disorder. Recognizing that he was being swayed by some invisible influence, he once again invoked Soothe. *Buzz!* Invoking the character Soothe repeatedly within such a brief span took a toll. Even though the ability had already been etched deep into his instincts, it left Bai Zhou with a profound sense of weakness and exhaustion from the bottom of his soul. Thankfully, his mind cleared. "..." The suspended girl seemed to utter a sound, or perhaps speak, as if declaring her arrival. Yet this language could not be comprehended by mortals, much less processed by the human brain. One could only sense a droning buzz beside the ears, yet hear nothing at all. That twisted, grotesque sound shook the air, as if blending ten thousand sorts of groans and wails. Yet those ten thousand groans and wails were strangely unified into a vague, grand consciousness, bearing a contradictory, complex sensation that felt both exceptionally ancient and exceptionally tender. "What on earth is it—" Tense to the limit, Bai Zhou watched from afar in silence, beginning to ponder the possibility of fleeing straight away. With just a single glance, Bai Zhou knew this was unequivocally not an opponent he could take on. It was beyond Rank 6 without a doubt, an insurmountable foe without question—at this moment, Bai Zhou wanted nothing more than to hoist Yuanmeng Middle School onto his shoulders and run for his life. Truth be told, fleeing right now seemed far from impossible. His objective had already been met anyway. Now that the authorities had discovered this creature's presence, there was no reason for them to sit idly by. But the problem was— The other party had already taken notice of him. Relying on that faint, ethereal connection, Bai Zhou vaguely sensed that this mysterious Inverted Maiden had already locked onto him! After all, Bai Zhou was the new gatekeeper of the minor secret realm, and his trek deep into the realm had originally been for its sake. Just then, Bai Zhou remembered the obscure, cryptic prophecy the crystal ball had granted: [Heart of the mountains! The Maiden hanging upside down! The demon who hastily severed the umbilical cord is about to arrive, about to arrive! Praying to God brings no answer, for the answer hangs not in the sky! The sun strangles the demon with an umbilical cord; the home of the mountain dweller lies encircled by peaks!] "The demon who hastily severed the umbilical cord—" Bai Zhou's eyes flickered. "Since the answer doesn't hang in the sky, where could it be hidden?" "What a demon!" Not far away, a solemn murmur drew everyone's attention. Gazes converged in astonishment. The three Titled Extraordinaries discovered that Deputy Director Liu was the one speaking. At this moment, wearing a contemplative expression, he looked toward the towering mountain of flesh in the distance. His eyes were draped in purple spirituality, with arcs of lightning dancing faintly within them. "Director Liu! You're finally awake!" The Extraordinaries were pleasantly surprised, feeling as if a great weight had lifted from their hearts. As the sole existence present who walked above Rank 6, no matter how Deputy Director Liu had performed earlier before the building of flesh and blood, and regardless of whether this outsider from the Anomaly Investigation Bureau had any ties to the FZDC— At this very moment, he was undeniably the pillar of the crowd, a stabilizing anchor! "If I didn't wake up—our heads would have been arranged on the chopping block to serve as offerings to this demon!" Deputy Director Liu's voice was hoarse. None knew what he had just undergone, but lingering fear was still plain in his eyes. "What an ambitious scheme—" He stared at the immense monstrosity nearby. Within a field where chaos and corruption intermingled, the monster threw back its head and let out a long howl. It sounded as though thousands of people were vocalizing simultaneously in different timbres and hundreds of dialects, their profane utterances sounding like open mockery of the divine. Those pink masses of flesh at times revealed thousands of faces and rolled several thousand eyeballs, while at other times they were merely ordinary, tender lumps of flesh clustering around the Inverted Maiden. "Don't you think it looks familiar?" Deputy Director Liu seemed to be asking the others, yet also questioning himself, carrying out his final deduction with suspicion and uncertainty. "What? Familiar to what?" the Rusted Silver Knight promptly turned to ask. Deputy Director Liu countered, "A maiden 'riding a beast'—what does that bring to mind?" As the words fell, before the others could ponder, he began reciting a fragment of an ancient text without context: "'One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries."'" "'Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.'" "'The name written on her forehead was a mystery: "Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth!"'" "The Whore of Babylon and the Beast 666!" Everyone's hearts lurched. They hurriedly turned their heads to look at the Inverted Maiden within the building of flesh and blood. As veteran Extraordinaries hailing from official backgrounds, possessing knowledge of numerous myths and legends was a basic requirement. The "enemy of God" recorded in the Bible, the woman bearing a mark on her forehead, riding upon the "Beast"— Put that way—there really was a resemblance! "Of course, this cannot possibly be the Whore of Babylon from myth," Deputy Director Liu said, shaking his head, knowing what everyone was thinking. "Otherwise, never mind a few Extraordinaries like us; the moment we laid eyes upon it, the entirety of Tinghai would likely have ceased to exist." "—However, this imagery is by no means purposeless. It is deliberate blasphemy, intended to lure certain terrifying entities of extreme evil." With that, Deputy Director Liu shifted his gaze and pointed toward the base of the flesh-and-blood building. As articulated limbs and tentacles hoisted the building bodily from the ground, the foundation hidden beneath it was exposed before their eyes. Thick, sticky blood trickled down from the building, drenching the foundation. There, one could faintly make out numerous skeletal remains alongside glowing characters scattered all over the ground. Without exception, these characters shimmered with a reddish-black radiance. There were dense mathematical formulas as well as different scripts—Arabic, Greek, Roman, Hebrew, and more, all present in abundance. "It seems someone bypassed the authorities to conduct demon worship and demon summoning within the Reflected Ruin Realm!" Deputy Director Liu spoke gravely. "Moreover, they have already completed the majority of the prerequisites—" "A demon summoning?!" Tension gripped everyone's hearts. Throughout history, the act most taboo among Extraordinaries had been the worship and summoning of demons. Yet throughout history, the act most common among Extraordinaries had also been the worship and summoning of demons. However, demon summonings that actually succeeded were vanishingly rare. Those demonic wills possessing toys, or century-old haunted houses rumored to be plagued by demons, were mostly mere imitations of true demonic rituals, or perhaps just a tiny fraction of a protracted prerequisite. Especially in the modern era, following the founding of the Federation—for certain reasons, the authorities held demon worship and demon summoning in extreme abhorrence, strictly prohibiting them. The moment such practices were uncovered, they were investigated relentlessly to nip the threat in the bud! Confronted by the clamoring crowd, Emerald Flame stepped forward: "Do not panic! If the demonic ritual had truly succeeded, we would have been dead long ago!" With that, she turned to Deputy Director Liu, her eyes flickering. Seeming to realize something, she abruptly asked, "Director Liu, what did you 'see' just now?" Gazing into the abyss invited misfortune. Yet even while inviting misfortune, one could also "see" the fragments of information carried by that misfortune. This was an esoteric trait possessed only by existences above Rank 6. Hearing this, Deputy Director Liu pursed his lips, lingering fear showing in his eyes. He weighed his words before speaking: "I saw a realm more hidden than the esoteric, a mysterious dimension bathed in blood and fire. I also saw—" "I also saw a boundless spiritual projection formed jointly by twisted rules and insatiable desires!" Hearing this, Emerald Flame took a deep breath. In a voice so faint it was nearly imperceptible, she whispered, "From the Und—" Yet the words cut off halfway. It was as though she had brushed against an unmentionable name, terrified of disturbing some unspeakable entity. "Then I fear this is no mock demon-summoning ritual, but an actual demon summoning that has gone awry." Her expression turned grim, her gaze sweeping quickly over the people with their varying expressions: "Everyone, what we are facing is likely a true demon. Perhaps it remains unknown to history, or perhaps its name was once recorded in some esoteric tome." "Perhaps even our battle today will be passed down through the ages, becoming a model for humanity's fight against demons." "—This is our fortune, and also our misfortune!" The moment the words fell, the crowd stirred once more, but their murmurs were quickly suppressed by Emerald Flame's voice: "Yet put your hearts at ease for now!" "A demon-summoning ritual requires fulfilling far too many prerequisites, and it demands an extensive gestation period—even then, the demon may not successfully descend into the mortal realm." Saying so, she pointed toward the Inverted Maiden surrounded by the building of flesh and blood in the distance: "If what stood before us were a fully descended demon, the entirety of Tinghai would have ceased to exist long ago, and its opponents would be Tianjing or even the entire Federation!" "Right now, it is not an exalted 'He,' but merely an 'it'!" Emerald Flame's icy voice lacked warmth, but it was firm and resolute, gradually rekindling everyone's confidence: "This demon is, at most, an embryo still within the womb, in the midst of gestation!" "..." "Fortunately, fate has shown us favor, allowing us to stumble upon the conspirators' scheme in advance, uncovering this summoning ritual barely underway and the demonic embryo gestating behind Tinghai's back." *Clang!* The Rusted Silver Knight stepped forward, straightening his back as he said gravely, "Indeed." "A mission has fallen upon our shoulders!" "The Federation is watching us, humanity is watching us, and our manifest destiny is watching us!" "I, Rusted Silver, promise here and now: I will charge ahead of all of you, and I will die before any of you!" "If we make it back alive, the organization will never mistreat a single one of you!" "Therefore—now that things have come to this, everyone, let us give it our all!" There was no path behind them, no room for retreat. Even if a demon stood before them, their only choice was to charge. To find life in the face of death! Or rather, precisely because a demon had appeared here, they, as Extraordinaries of the Disaster Response and Investigation Agency, could not shrink back in battle. If they allowed the demon to leave, no one knew where it might hide, and even fewer could tell on which night Tinghai's millions of citizens would awaken from their slumber into an apocalypse far more horrifying than a nightmare! "The various departments should already be on their way, and what has happened here must even be reported to Tianjing!" "Yet before they arrive—" Taking a deep breath, Deputy Director Liu gripped the Thunderous Heavenly Bow in his hand, his fingertips unconsciously rubbing the patterns along the bow's frame. If anything could grant him confidence before a demon, it was this heavenly bow, whose mysteries he had yet to fully unravel. "Under the present circumstances—" "Leave it to me!" Deputy Director Liu stepped forward. For the building of flesh and blood gave them no further time to hesitate. It had already breached the mist, its massive and unspeakably twisted shadow beginning to shift. Tentacles squirmed and articulated limbs thrashed. Rather than walking, it was "gliding," trailing long smears of mucus across the ground. It surged toward the crowd like a mountain range striding toward mankind. "Do not fear." At that moment, Deputy Director Liu—the sole Extraordinary present standing above Rank 6—slowly floated upward into the sky. He positioned himself ahead of the crowd, interposed between them and the monster. His diminutive silhouette seemed negligible before the monstrosity, yet in the eyes of everyone on the ground, nothing could be more towering! Then, he raised the bow and drew the string. *Buzz!* The bow twanged like a thunderclap, the drawn string startling the crowd. With five fingers locked around the bowstring where arcs of electricity danced, Deputy Director Liu communed with the external spirituality, his aura surging abruptly. Spirituality unleashed to the fullest, the bow drawn to a full moon! Deputy Director Liu's figure wavered in midair, yet a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his pale face. The pressure of a desperate crisis honed his focus; drawing the bow to a full moon placed him in his strongest state ever! With an arrow like this, even before it was loosed— Deputy Director Liu was confident that even this demon in its embryonic state could never ignore such a strike— *Boom!* A clap of thunder erupted. The rings of crackling lightning dancing around the bow frame seemed activated in an instant, unleashing an ear-splitting roar as they converged frantically toward the center. At the same time, his fingertips grasped the lightning, and snakes of electricity coiled rapidly up his arm, wrapping entirely around Deputy Director Liu's upright frame and casting him in a radiance like a thunder god descended to the mortal world. Furthermore, as Deputy Director Liu poured out all his spirituality and drew the heavenly bow to a full moon— Even Deputy Director Liu himself failed to notice that behind him, the faint, hazy outline of a grand palace emerged, bobbing indistinctly within the sea of thunder. His focus remained entirely on the incoming adversary. Facing the tender pink mountain of flesh striding forward, Deputy Director Liu, resembling a descended god of thunder, remained expressionless, murmuring coldly, "Halt—" The moment the words left his lips: Thunder blazed, and ten thousand bolts of lightning surged! A divine arrow of thunder loosed from the string, the space-warping lightning tearing the sky apart. The tail of the arrow dragged countless branching electrical currents like a bird spreading its wings, hurtling straight into the distance accompanied by a barrage of sonic booms. The spectacle was magnificent beyond measure, setting the blood of all onlookers ablaze. "As expected of a Spirit-Name Secret Treasure that surpasses Extraordinary weapons!" Emerald Flame was thoroughly awed, anticipation surfacing in her gaze. An arrow like this! With an arrow like this, even a demon would— At that moment, the "demon" in the eyes of the crowd, the Inverted Maiden encircled by the mountain of flesh, turned her gaze downward. Pupilless, deathly pale eyes quietly regarded the arrow from beyond the heavens that trailed countless bolts of lightning. Then, flesh sloughed away like a blossoming fruit. A pale, semitransparent arm reached out from within, and a deathly white fingertip lightly tapped from across the distance, aloof and supreme— With just a single tap, crimson ripples bloomed. Layer upon layer of concentric rings tightly enveloped, bound, and coiled around the arrow of thunder, ultimately peeling away the dense lightning layer by layer. Deputy Director Liu, who had been immensely confident in this arrow: "?" "..." Before anyone could react, the Inverted Maiden tapped lightly once more. Deputy Director Liu let out a muffled grunt, then coughed up a mist of blood toward the sky with a *pfft*. Though it had been an ethereal tap from across the void, untainted by earthly force, Deputy Director Liu felt as if he had been struck head-on by a speeding train. He was sent careening violently through the air, flipping eight somersaults in succession. He could not even keep his grip on the bow that had been his greatest reliance. Man and bow flew off in two different directions, tossed into the depths of the mist one after the other. "—?!" At this, the Extraordinaries, who had just been brimming with fervor, felt as if a bucket of freezing water had been dumped over their heads. Silence fell across the entire field! Within the mist, a furtive figure slipped carefully into a teaching building. The fifth-floor windows of this building had been shattered, shards of glass littering the outdoor corridor. And the culprit responsible for shattering the glass—the object that had plummeted from the sky—lay right atop this scattered carpet of jagged shards. *Tap—* Bai Zhou appeared, his footsteps crunching softly over the glass. Then, he looked down, suppressing the rapid pounding of his heart, and thoughtfully appraised the item at his feet— The Thunderous Heavenly Bow that had been flung from Deputy Director Liu's hand!