Chapter 449: The Gods |
The long-planned explosion continued to rage, blasting Si Qi with shrapnel and a suffocating wave of heat. A giant tongue of fire licked across his body, and the air thickened with the scorched, metallic stench of burning flesh and blood.
He raised a hand to his cheek and neck, his fingers coming away slick and sticky. Scarlet blood, flecked with shimmering gold, cascaded over him like a waterfall. His crimson suit seemed to filter the red liquid, leaving behind intricate, gilded patterns that traced across the fabric.
Lin Jue had prepared more than enough explosives. He was committed to sending both the terrorist and the hostage to their graves in a single, decisive blow, leaving absolutely no chance of survival.
The three members of the Listening Wind Guild scrambled back the instant the explosion roared to life, but human legs could never outrun the chemical fury of saltpeter and sulfur. The rapidly expanding shockwave engulfed them, and when the smoke cleared, all that remained were three mangled bodies, grievously wounded and clinging to life.
"Qi... I think this is it for me..." Yu Jinsheng spat out a mouthful of blood, a flicker of life still left in him. His unfocused gaze drifted toward Si Qi. "I'm sorry for everything that happened between us. Just... go back the way you came. Don't worry about me..."
"What gave you the ridiculous idea that I care whether you live or die?" Si Qi sneered, more warm blood trickling from the corner of his lips.
He was in terrible shape himself, his body riddled with a thousand tiny wounds. Shards of metal and grit were embedded in his flesh, creating a gruesome tapestry of torn skin and muscle. But he was still alive. Gods do not die easily. Even if reduced to a mere skull, he would maintain his basic functions, just as Qi had in the *Flesh Eating* instance.
"It's not time to retreat just yet."
The pain was beyond his threshold, but Si Qi clung to consciousness. He sent a fraction of his awareness into his mind palace, commanding the nearby rose monsters to converge on the tunnel's exit. Sure enough, the sharp *crack* of gunfire echoed from above.
"Encounter any living thing in that tunnel, I don't care who it is—shoot to kill on sight," someone commanded in a calm, steady voice.
The aftershocks of the underground explosion still rumbled. Smoke and dust flooded his nose and mouth, fine particles clinging to the inside of his nostrils before sliding down his throat. Si Qi doubled over, racked by a violent coughing fit that splattered droplets of blood onto the ground.
Shrapnel had sheared the flesh from his right calf, exposing the grisly white of bone beneath. Limping heavily, he braced himself against the cold, damp wall to stay upright, moving forward one step at a time and leaving a trail of bloody handprints in his wake.
"He's heavily wounded! Keep up the suppressive fire!"
"Use the special rounds! They're effective against the supernatural!"
Shouts echoed as a figure stepped into the tunnel, raising a pistol through the thick smoke.
A shot rang out, and blood bloomed from Si Qi's left shoulder. The pain had become so overwhelming it was turning to numbness. He pressed his back against the wall, commanding the rose monsters to charge into the tunnel, forming a living shield between him and the investigators.
The Poseidon's Scepter, which had been inaccessible for so long, suddenly materialized in his hand. Its pristine white staff vibrated with a mournful hum.
Most items that could be stored in one's inventory had vanished with the Weird Game itself. So why, of all things, had the Poseidon's Scepter appeared now?
Si Qi had no time to ponder the reason. He tightened his grip, willing the scepter to meld with his very flesh and blood.
Scarlet blood snaked down the staff, gradually shifting to a shimmering crimson-gold. Bathed in divine blood, the scepter began to radiate a milky-white luminescence. The roar of tides and the drumming of rain surged in his ears, while a chaotic *shuffling* rose from the world above.
A downpour. In an instant, a torrential rain hammered down on Jiang City.
A gray-white curtain of water slammed down from thousands of meters above, kicking up a blinding mist that shrouded the city. Floodwater surged like an ocean tide, pouring into sewers, tunnels, and every low-lying corner. Within seconds, it submerged Si Qi's ankles, the water around him blushing into a pale pink lake as it dissolved the blood.
"Supernatural energy readings are spiking! Watch out for contamination!"
"Si Qi is cornered at the tunnel entrance in the Near River District, three o'clock position! Requesting backup!"
The investigators exchanged grim warnings, their words chopped into fragments by the roaring downpour.
The rose monsters, converging from every corner of the city, felt no pain. Bullets peppered their bodies, but they never faltered, charging relentlessly to reach Si Qi's side.
Vines and rain wove together, obscuring all sight. In the chaos, human figures and ghostly shadows became indistinguishable. The world seemed to merge into a single entity under the deluge, as if the rain could wash away all gods, ghosts, and grudges.
Si Qi slumped onto the back of one of the monsters. The blood streaming from his wounds coated the creature's body, eliciting an excited roar from the grotesque beast.
The monsters were frenzied, drawn by their bloodthirsty instincts. But under the control of his Soul Contract, they maintained a perfect formation around him—not too close, not too far. Like the most loyal of guards, they encircled Si Qi and charged for the exit.
The gunfire grew more frantic until, in an instant, it was muffled. Several patterned tentacles materialized from the void, sealing the muzzles of the guns with unnerving precision.
"Shit! Drop your guns!" an investigator cried, his voice cracking with terror.
The gun barrels buckled like blooming flowers as the tentacles forced their way inside, and the exploding chambers shattered the investigators' hands. At the same time, a carpet of fish bones and seashells spread across the ground, gnawing at their ankles.
Screams echoed one after another, but the situation was too dire for Si Qi to press his advantage. He drew the pistol from his belt, his eyes scanning for an opening as he fired relentlessly to clear a path, all while commanding his monsters to break through the encirclement.
A sliver of daylight broke through, widening with every step and every ragged breath. He had finally escaped the tunnel and set foot once more in Jiang City.
A colossal ship from a bygone century sailed slowly overhead, casting an immense, dark shadow. At its helm was the spirit of a soul lost at sea, its chilling presence pressing down on the people below.
Everything was transforming. The color of the sky bled into the sickly orange-yellow hue of the *Hopeless Sea* instance. Silvery fish scales and feathers scattered across the ground beneath him, and the concrete pavement dissolved into fine, golden sand.
The impossibly dense curtains of rain stitched together a phantom ocean. Deceived by the illusion, sea creatures leaped from the watery surface, flying through the downpour toward the location of the Poseidon's Scepter. A whale skeleton dove toward the investigators, while skeletal arms clawed up from the ground, grabbing at their legs.
The phantoms of a clock tower and a grove of coconut palms materialized on the city's horizon. Schools of flying fish hummed ancient sea shanties, and spectral figures slowly solidified. A towering, pure white idol erupted from the earth—a monstrous form with three fish heads and innumerable tentacles, its dead eyes gazing down on the world with cold indifference.
This was far beyond the power of the Poseidon's Scepter alone. It felt more like the Sea God himself had descended. Si Qi realized that the Sea God—or Lu Li, as he was known—was right here in Jiang City. But whose side was he on? Was he here to help, or was he working with Lin Jue to spring a trap?
Sirens wailed, and red and blue lights sliced nervously through the gloom. Several military trucks skidded to a halt at the end of the road, throwing up curtains of water. Soldiers and investigators, armed to the teeth, leaped out. When the downpour caused their guns to misfire, they began to encircle Si Qi, relying on sheer physical force.
Just as they were a step away, a wave the height of a two-story building crashed down, shattering their formation. The rose monster carrying Si Qi sprinted toward the Near River District. The vine-entangled iron gate appeared at the edge of his vision, adorned with hanging, rotting corpses like grotesque welcoming lanterns. “Woooo—”
A long, mournful cry echoed from a higher dimension, a sound that resonated with the soul itself, piercing through time and space with its seemingly infinite sorrow. It was the final horn of a sinking ship, the collective wail of countless infants drowned in the womb. A tidal wave of grief washed over all who heard it, drawing tears from their eyes.
The funeral mass had begun. Si Qi had a creeping suspicion about what was happening, but no time to piece together the logic and draw a firm conclusion. His control over the rose monsters grew sluggish, and the creature beneath him began to falter, its steps growing unsteady.
The sky was losing its color, fading from orange-yellow to the sallow gray of old parchment, until all that remained was the monochrome of a black-and-white photograph. White rain fell upon a black city, where shadows of black and white danced through the streets. All around him, the supernatural creatures collapsed one by one. The rose monster he rode froze abruptly, becoming as still as a statue.
Si Qi tumbled off, hitting the ground with no discernible sound. The moment his crimson-gold blood touched the pooled water, it turned a dull, grayish-white. A hairline crack appeared on the surface of the Poseidon's Scepter, spiderwebbing across its length in seconds. Then, the symbol of the Sea God's power silently disintegrated into dust.
All sound vanished, and with it, all sensation—even pain. It was as if this monochrome world was holding a grand, solemn vigil, pulling humans, gods, and ghosts alike into its silent embrace. The floating ship, the schools of fish, and the skeletal remains dissipated like smoke. The spectral buildings faded away like a mirage.
Pushing himself up with his hands, Si Qi staggered to his feet. At last, he understood Lin Jue's plan—and Lu Li's fate.
The brief merging of the Hopeless Sea and Jiang City had indeed been an act of the Sea God's immense power—the last, desperate struggle of a dying deity. It was also the prelude to a deicidal ritual.
[In the place where a god falls, all supernatural, mysterious, and grotesque phenomena—past, present, and future—shall cease to exist.]
Lin Jue had clearly exploited this rule to drag him back into the mortal realm, trapping him in a city where all mystery was fading, intending to finish him off with human means.
As far as he could see, the rose-covered vines recoiled as if scorched by an invisible fire, retreating into the shadows with leaves blackened and curled. The bodies hanging in the air began to fall, drifting down into the pooled water as gently as autumn leaves, their expressions serene, their eyelids closed.
His mind palace was pitch-black. The great tree that grew the Soul Leaves had vanished. Golden chains now bound his Scarlet High Priest card, severing his connection to the power of his followers' faith. The Colosseum, the Joy God Statue, the Insomnia Bacteria—he had lost contact with all of it, unable to call upon their power.
The rain still fell, but its fury was gone. It was now a silent, mournful drizzle, grieving the passing of a god. It dissolved the fading spiritual essence and divine power into the mist, feeding it back into the wounded land.
Si Qi felt an itch as his wounds began to heal. At the same time, all his supernatural and divine powers were dissolving into the rain-soaked world around him. He was becoming an ordinary human again, just as he had been two months ago, before he ever entered the Weird Game.
But there was still a chance. If he could find Qi Si's body, make himself whole, and then immediately commit suicide—avoiding death at the hands of a weapon like the God-Slaying Sword—there was still a slim hope of survival.
Si Qi broke into a run, sprinting through the district's iron gate and toward the entrance of his apartment building.
Behind him, the investigators, who had been scattered by the tidal wave, picked themselves up, regrouped, and gave chase. Their running feet sent up high sprays of gray water, like rain flowing in reverse.
A woman in camouflage fatigues with a buzz cut emerged from the stairwell like a ghost, leveling a long rifle at Si Qi. He searched through Qi Si's memories and found a match: Li Yunyang, the holder of the Immortal Witch Priest identity card.
A sudden bark. A scruffy black dog darted out from nowhere and sank its teeth into Li Yunyang's calf. Her aim shifted, and the bullet grazed Si Qi's arm, tearing a long, gray ribbon through the air.
Seizing the chance, Si Qi ducked into the elevator and jabbed the button for the eleventh floor. As the car ascended, he leaned against the cold metal wall, his eyes meeting those of the corpse lying on the floor. A human whose heart had been devoured by one of his roses—someone who had died indirectly at his hand. Here, in this confined space, perpetrator and victim shared a moment of tranquility, an image worthy of an absurdist play.
Si Qi had no time for sentiment. The instant the elevator doors slid open, he rushed into the hallway, punched in the code, and shoved the apartment door open.
A gust of cold wind from outside stirred up the accumulated dust, sending it swirling through the air. A house this neglected could never belong to a neat freak; it looked as though it had been vacant for a very long time.
A terrible premonition bloomed in his chest. Si Qi went straight to the spare bedroom. The quilt on the bed was neatly folded, but the young man in the white shirt he'd expected to find was gone.
He turned and stepped into the master bedroom. The two skeleton specimens that should have been on the bed were also gone.
Qi Si's body wasn't here. He must have moved it somewhere else long before the Final Instance began—to the Qi Family Village, no doubt.
A part of his memory was a lie. He couldn't tell if Qi Si had planted a false suggestion in his own mind to betray himself at this crucial moment, or if some higher-dimensional entity had altered his perceptions, preventing him—the master of the Joy God Statue—from ever knowing the full truth about the Qi Family Village.
The truth was, he had been lured into Jiang City by fabricated memories. Driven by the reckless abandon of a gambler betting it all on one last hand, he had thrown himself into the inescapable trap set by the Weird Investigation Bureau. He had sacrificed himself here only to exhaust Lin Jue's reserves and pave the way for someone else's grand design.
"So that's how it is... That's how it is..."
Staring at the empty apartment, Si Qi suddenly doubled over, clutching his stomach. He burst out laughing, a wild, broken sound that continued until tears streamed down his face.
...
Weird Investigation Bureau Headquarters.
Lin Jue dragged his bronze sword, its blade stained with golden fluid, as he rode the elevator up. He walked down a long, narrow corridor and stepped into his office.
His computer booted automatically after an iris scan. Hundreds, even thousands of messages scrolled across the screen—requests for orders from regional branches, situation reports from field teams.
One message was from the headquarters in the Capital—a video file from a surveillance camera.
Chu Yining, her hair streaked with gray, sat surrounded by stacks of handwritten notes. Her expression was grim, and she spoke with frantic speed:
"I've thought about this for twenty-two years, and I've finally understood His plan. All of humanity, we're just pieces on His chessboard. Even human ingenuity... isn't that just another part of the divine scheme?"
"Because I died, I came back. Xiao Fengchao came back after he died. The others will be the same... including Qi Si. He must not be allowed to return. I don't know what will happen if he does, but one thing is certain: you can never go wrong by assuming the unconditional malice of a god."
"Please, tell Fu Jue: whatever happens, do not kill Qi Si. Never, ever."