Chapter 277
Should I gamble on whether the existence that emerges will be kind to me?
Or should I leave first, at least preserving the “Subverter” archive at level three?
The “Subverter,” like the “Plague Bearer,” is a type that completes the ritual only after drinking the potion.
Under normal circumstances, if a creature from the Otherworld appears in Bolun City, I would definitely be able to digest the “Subverter” potion.
The digestion progress might not be sufficient, but it would certainly meet the minimum standard for becoming a “Subverter.” If subsequent creatures from the Otherworld can cause greater destruction, then my potion digestion level and speed will increase accordingly.
After a moment of struggle, I made my decision.
Even in a simulation, engaging with the Otherworld is not something to gamble with lightly; it can affect my mental state. Moreover, my mind has not yet healed; I can barely function like a normal person with the help of Aivina.
As the saying goes, “While the green mountains remain, one need not fear a lack of firewood.”
I quickly turned and dashed toward Tara, grabbing her collar as her gaze began to drift. “Quick! Take me to the Jazz Bridge District! The faster, the better!”
Startled by the sudden grip, Tara shook herself back to reality. Without even processing what I meant, her body instinctively began to move.
She raised her hand and placed it on my arm, her shadow twisting beneath us, splitting into a white silhouette that swiftly circled the blood eye suspended in mid-air and darted out of the church.
In the next moment, Tara’s figure vanished, leaving only a white afterimage behind.
From the shadow beneath me, a white arm reached out, grasping my arm and pulling me into the underground shadows. My body was yanked through the ground, plunging into my own shadow.
The remaining white afterimage of Tara pressed against the ground, pulling my shadow along as it dragged me out of the church.
However, just after we burst out of the church, this ability began to falter. My shadow started to waver, and Tara’s white silhouette quickly reached into my shadow, pulling me out.
The carriage outside remained in place, but it had become battered and broken, as if corroded. Even the stone bricks at the church entrance showed severe signs of erosion, as if they could be crushed to dust with a mere squeeze.
The guards had long since collapsed, many having shot themselves. The expressions on their faces revealed they had suffered immense pain before dying.
Tara’s gaze quickly locked onto a horse lying on the ground, convulsing. The white silhouette drifted toward the still-living horse, and a white scythe appeared in its hand. The white figure hurled the scythe at the horse’s shadow.
The hook chain sank deep into the horse’s shadow, dragging it out. The horse, which had been twitching, suddenly went still, dead.
Tara’s white silhouette helped me up, and the shadow horse, now corrupted by the white figure, charged toward Tara. The two white silhouettes embraced Tara and me, tossing us onto the shadow horse’s back. Then, the shadow horse galloped away toward the outskirts of the city.
Having used this method before with the “Judicator,” I wasn’t surprised. As we distanced ourselves from the Clock Tower Church, the howling in my mind began to diminish.
Phew...
That was close; I almost lost myself.
But...
I turned back to glance at the distant Clock Tower Church.
Under the rain, the church glowed with a crimson light from every window, yet there was no sound—no one knew what terrifying existence was brewing inside.
Just looking in that direction made my heart constrict and twitch, as if my hair were being pulled toward it.
Though the moment was calm, once that Otherworld gate and the creatures from the Otherworld absorbed the extraordinary energy...
It seemed my simulated self had anticipated such a situation. During the earlier explosive incident, I had already arranged for Aivina to feign death and leave Bolun City, taking Adele, Amy, and my sister with her.
Though this was just a simulation, it wouldn’t allow them to be affected by the nemesis in reality, sparing me from their fear.
Now, I had to reach Manor No. 5 as quickly as possible.
There, I would find what the Keybearer had hidden, something I couldn’t simulate.
The “White Horse” galloped silently along the way. Just as we could see the outline of Manor No. 5, a sudden wave of heart palpitations surged through both Tara and me.
But we didn’t look back—I knew that whatever was behind us, turning around would only burden my mind further and increase the risk of being specially targeted.
Tara, sitting behind me, didn’t turn either, simply because I didn’t.
Soon, the “White Horse” carried us into Manor No. 5, the ethereal white silhouette smashing through the manor’s door. The “White Horse” charged inside, stopping at the door of a room on the second floor.
At that moment, several members of the “Chaos Squad” still stood at the door, dazedly gazing through the window at the red light on the horizon, completely oblivious to Tara and me appearing beside them.
I pushed open the room door, my gaze locking onto the desk.
I quickly walked to the desk, standing before the wall that the Keybearer had torn open with green light.
I bent my knees, clenched my fist, and swung my right arm, striking the wall with precision at the spot I had seen in the dream.
A crisp sound echoed as the hollow, brittle brick shell shattered, revealing a wooden box behind it. I opened the box to find some money and items inside, along with a black-covered notebook.
Found it.
I reached for the notebook, flipping it open, only to find it empty. This was likely because the spiritual imprint on it had yet to dissipate.
A spiritual notebook...
The Keybearer’s?
This is a valuable item... With this, I can directly locate the Keybearer in reality.
The Keybearer probably never imagined that this action would lead to his own demise.
Without a moment’s hesitation after obtaining the spiritual notebook, I took Tara and left Manor No. 5, following another route out of the city, escaping Bolun City under the cover of night.
It wasn’t until we reached the lush farmlands that I instructed Tara to stop the “White Horse.”
I now stood at the foot of Kreek Mountain. Crossing the farmland and following the mountain path would lead to Dedton Manor, but I had no intention of going up there just yet.
I leaped off the horse and turned to look back at Bolun City.
The city was shrouded in mist under the rain, illuminated only by the factory lights that remained on, just as always.
Nothing... happened?
Since I had exited the city from the Jazz Bridge District, there were no suppression troops there, only a few temporary checkpoints, and no one was on guard at night.
Many troops were stationed on the outskirts of Bolun City. If anything were to happen, I would only need to watch whether the army would flee in this direction.
“Xia’er... my lady?”
Tara’s uncertain voice broke the silence, and I turned to her, puzzled.
“What’s wrong?”
I asked, looking at Tara.
“Your eye...”
Tara raised her hand, pointing toward my right eye.
From her perspective, my right eye appeared as a hollow black void, with what seemed like sharp teeth lurking deep within.
But with the next blink, the anomaly Tara had just seen seemed to vanish. When I opened my right eye again, it was back to normal, with a regular eyeball and pupil.
My eye?
I observed Tara’s astonished expression and slowly raised my hand to touch the area around my right eye.
I... couldn’t feel my eyeball.
Not just the right eye; when I reached for my left eye, I still felt nothing, as if it had melted away, leaving only the eye socket.
But when I probed into the eye socket, I immediately felt pain and withdrew my finger.
My fingertip bore several scratches, as if I had stuck it into a pencil sharpener.
Yet when I reached inside, I could clearly feel the obstruction of the eyeball, but the sharp teeth inflicted real harm.
It was as if my eyeball existed in a state of superposition, both there and not there; only by truly touching it could I discern its existence.
Had the potion’s erosion altered my body?
No, it didn’t feel like the erosion of a potion; it felt more like something from the Otherworld...
And...
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