Chapter 63 She discovered he had discovered her secret, but they weren't there...
"Ghost face doll".
No sooner had Ji Mingran finished speaking than, bang! The windowpane shattered, and thousands of ghost-faced dolls rushed in.
"It should be faceless dolls, right?" Shen Qingluo, standing behind him, leaped up and stood shoulder to shoulder with Zhu Shibai, who was casting a spell to block the attack. With a sweep of her long sword, the blade whistled, and a large number of faceless dolls crashed to the ground.
The dolls that had crashed to the ground froze for a moment, then suddenly flipped over. Slowly, pale, featureless faces emerged, revealing resentful black eyes and mouths oozing blood.
It was ferocious, terrifying, and resembled a ghost face.
Shen Qingluo and Zhu Shibai were stunned when they witnessed the changes in the ground doll.
"Watch out!" A crisp voice came from behind.
A burst of golden light erupted, accompanied by a continuous series of clanging sounds. The two snapped back to their senses and discovered that countless faceless dolls were pouring out of the dark, black hole-like square window in front of them, crashing into the Vajra Formation like a whirlwind.
The faceless dolls that fell to the ground began to grow ghostly faces one after another, rising up from the ground and crashing into the formation with even greater force.
The formation shattered, but a new formation always managed to be activated before the original one collapsed. Finding themselves unable to break through the formation, the ghostly dolls ceased their attack, clinging tightly to the Vajra Formation, their eerie, dark eyes fixed on them. Above and below, the faceless dolls filled the space in front of them.
Everything changed in the blink of an eye. Zhu Shibai, having broken free from the terrifying spell of the ghost dolls, made a hand seal with his two fingers. Two water dragons roared into the air, swirling and rushing towards the window that was spitting out dense dolls, forcibly pushing back the newly emerging faceless dolls.
The water dragon intended to rush into the cave entrance in one go and destroy the source that had spat out the faceless doll. However, the roaring water dragon was blocked in front of the window and could not advance any further. The faceless doll was blocked from the exit by the water dragon, and the water dragon was also blocked from its path of attack. The two forces fought, and it was difficult to determine a winner for a time.
Zhu Shibai called out softly, "Qingluo!"
The blade flashed through the air, the resulting gust of wind lifting the hairband that bound Zhu Shibai's hair. Chen Qingluo launched a surprise attack, his twin blades, accompanied by a fierce gust of hot wind, slashing towards the window opening as if to tear the air apart.
The dolls clinging to the Vajra Formation seemed to sense something, and they turned around in a dense mass, instantly blocking the window before the slash landed, intercepting it.
The stacked dolls fell to the ground with a rustling sound, scattering as the attacks dissipated. However, the faceless dolls that fell to the ground transformed into ghost-faced dolls one by one, rising up and unleashing even more powerful attacks as they charged towards Shen Qingluo.
Shen Qingluo was completely surrounded by the dolls and couldn't get away for a moment. She shouted, "Mingran, don't wait for us. Go, Little Pony!"
The donkey, which had been standing still, twitched its ears, raised its head and let out a long bray. With its front legs raised and its hind legs pushing off, it sprang out like a spring and rushed swiftly around the corner.
Before entering the city, the four agreed to maximize their chances of surviving to the end. In case of any unforeseen circumstances, they would split up immediately without looking back. As long as one person remained until the end, they would not completely lose the chance to defeat the illusion's fatal flaw.
The dolls that were entangled with Shen Qingluo moved at the first sign of trouble. Some of them broke out of the encirclement and flew at high speed in the opposite direction of the donkey. However, a sharp arc flashed through the air like lightning, sweeping away all the faceless dolls that were trying to chase the donkey.
With one hand, Shen Qingluo wielded her long whip with fluid grace, stopping the scattered dolls chasing the donkey one by one. With the other hand, she swept away the ghost-faced dolls that kept closing in on her with her knife. Her movements were as swift as lightning, making it impossible for anyone to keep up.
Despite the whip's attempt to stop them, the donkey had already carried Ji Mingran away at the end of the street. Seeing no hope of pursuit, the faceless dolls, who had initially intended to give chase, turned and pounced on the two remaining figures, burying them completely...
Ji Mingran gripped the donkey tightly, trying to find his way through the rapidly passing streets. When they entered the city earlier, the sword formation of the Hongqi Sect had created a blindingly bright and dark scene, and it was only thanks to Zhu Shibai leading the way that the three of them and the donkey could barely move forward. In the current situation, Ji Mingran had no time to give directions.
Now that the sword formation has been broken, the city streets of my memory come into view.
Abandoned cement roads, dilapidated utility poles and signs, crooked and broken shop fronts, cars buried in dust, and mutated species hiding in corners gnawing on human corpses.
And the oppressive and gloomy atmosphere that permeates the city.
It is indeed the hometown I remember.
She was born here, grew up here, and died here.
"This way." Ji Mingran pulled the donkey's left ear, and the donkey obediently ran to the left of the fork in the road, entering the city's main road. Although the road was wide, it was littered with wrecked cars that had crashed together, as well as tires, glass, and other debris scattered all over the ground.
The donkey dodged left and right, slowing down relatively. Ji Mingran took the opportunity to steady her body, which was tilted to one side. But as soon as she looked up, her hands, which were loosely covering the donkey's long ears, suddenly clenched tightly. She abruptly turned her head and bent down again.
A sharp, cold glint grazed past his earlobe; the strike, which should have been aimed at the top of his head, instead sliced off a strand of black hair stained with crimson blood.
A bloody scratch appeared on her right cheek. Ji Mingran turned around in the direction the bloody scratch had fallen. The mutated creature's exoskeleton, suspended in mid-air, was shiny and hard. Its six legs on its abdomen trembled and twisted slightly, and the black eyes on the head that had grown on its abdomen were staring at her.
It is a cockroach-type mutant that chased Xiao Ji to the city gate.
There was only one, but its presence here indicates that Guan Wangzhen, who was guarding the city gate, was in a state of collapse.
Once the city gates fall, a large number of mutated species will flood into the city from outside.
Ji Mingran glanced at the distant sky. Around the black tower, only two disciples of the Hongqi Sect remained, still struggling against the tentacles of the mutated black ape.
If we don't hurry, all the disciples participating in this test will be eliminated. The most urgent task is to defeat the fatal flaw of this illusion.
Ji Mingran, who usually greets people with a smile, had no smile in his eyes at this moment. His gaze returned to the mutated cockroach in the air, and he said expressionlessly, "I don't have time to waste with you right now."
She raised her arm, her index finger pointing forward, and whispered quickly to the donkey, "See that department store with the blue sign up ahead? It's right in front of you. Go as fast as you can and rush over there!"
The donkey suddenly leaped forward, galloping wildly ahead, and appeared like a phantom in front of a building thousands of meters away, leaving the mutated cockroach far behind.
Although the mutated cockroach was a beat slower to react, it quickly followed up, its wings buzzing.
With no time to waste, Ji Mingran turned his cold gaze to the department store in front of him.
The department store's main entrance was tightly shut, and the windows were shattered, but the openings were all blocked by something heavy, making it completely airtight. The exterior walls of the store were peeling, but the exposed thick reinforced concrete indicated that this place was not easy to breach.
With lightning speed, Ji Mingran leaped off the donkey's back, stepping through the thick layer of dust, and in a few steps arrived at the gate, slapping the tightly closed valve lock shut with a single blow.
"Identification successful." A mechanical voice sounded, and a crack appeared in the tightly closed valve.
Ji Mingran tossed out a sentence: "Go back and help them!" Accompanied by the sound of the donkey's hooves galloping away, she slipped into the crack in the door, and the gate behind her closed immediately.
The shop's lighting was off, making it dark and gloomy. Only the shadowy outlines of the haphazardly stacked shelves could be vaguely seen, and the air was filled with the stench of rotting food.
Stepping over the litter scattered on the ground, Ji Mingran walked towards the escalator in the mall's atrium, which had long since stopped operating, and began to descend step by step.
"Tap, tap, tap, tap..." The sound of footsteps echoed repeatedly in the empty, dark space, as if countless footsteps were sounding at the same time, but only one lonely figure was moving.
Ji Mingran's figure continued to descend, one floor after another, until the third underground floor. She walked out of the escalator area and into the quiet underground parking lot.
The underground parking lot was filled with abandoned vehicles, some of which still had gasoline residue, and the dimly lit headlights cast a faint glow over the space.
Ji Mingran continued walking without stopping, heading straight for the most secluded corner of the wall.
There is a hidden door painted white. The room behind the door is used by the mall to store miscellaneous items, and no one outside the mall staff knows about it.
She was an orphan who was taken in by a cleaning lady at the mall after she collected trash there, and secretly lived in the storage room.
Did someone arrive before her?
Ji Mingran placed his fingers on the fingerprint on the handle, gripped it tightly, and pulled down. The rusty hinges creaked harshly, and the moment the iron door swung open, a stench of musty and blood assaulted his nostrils.
A faint orange light illuminated the storage room. Ji Mingran's eyes darted around, following the beam of the flashlight. The light was dim, but enough for her to see the person lying face up on the ground.
Their eyes met.
The man was pale and handsome, his robes spread out in a pool of dark red blood. The folds of his robes were crisscrossed with dark red, ink-like blood-red patterns. The contrast between the deep red and the black made him look like a black iris that had bloomed brilliantly but was about to wither.
He slightly raised his eyes, silently gazing at her.
The two looked at each other in silence, silently understanding the emotions in each other's eyes.
He found out.
She knew he knew.
Regarding the origin of this illusion.
Finally, Ji Mingran broke the silence, "Yu Tianxing, what happened to you?"
Meeting Yu Tianxing's gaze, she knelt down beside him. The cement floor was hard, and Ji Mingran subconsciously lifted Yu Tianxing's head, but unable to find anything suitable, she simply let him rest his head on her lap.
The dried bloodstains blended seamlessly with the dark clothes, making it impossible to discern the severity of his injuries from the outside. Without hesitation, Ji Mingran reached out and pulled back the clothes of the man lying face up on the ground.
His lean body was covered with fist-sized holes, from which blood gushed out, soaking his black clothes and flowing to the ground.
“I used to be somewhat cruel.” Ji Mingran sighed softly, his pale fingertips touching the only spot on his waist and abdomen without any bloody holes, feeling the skin and muscles he touched tremble slightly.
Perhaps he had been beaten too badly and was too badly injured. Ji Mingran thought, that's why his body was trembling.
She turned her head to meet the gaze that had been fixed on her, her clear, dark eyes filled with apology. "So please bear with me, okay?"
Yu Tianxing's dark eyes overflowed with thick, unfathomable emotions. After a long while, he said in a hoarse voice, "Fine." His voice was still as gentle as before: "Only I am allowed to know about this matter."
Ji Mingran knew he was referring to her origins from the apocalypse. "No problem." In any case, she hadn't planned to tell anyone about it anyway.
A soft, pale blue light expanded outwards from her palm, rapidly spreading across her scarred body.
Yu Tianxing looked at the bright-eyed girl in front of him. She was serious and trying to heal her injuries, but her expression gradually became serious and her brows unconsciously furrowed.
The next instant, a cold, pale hand caressed the girl's smooth, delicate neck and pressed her to his side.
Ji Mingran leaned forward, and Yu Tianxing's face suddenly loomed large before her eyes. At the same time, a gust of wind swept past her head. The wind, having missed its target, struck the wall, causing a loud bang. The wall shattered, leaving deep and terrifying cracks.
The fragments of the attack still lingered and trembled within the walls. Ji Mingran didn't even lift his eyes, only staring at the dark pupils before him, and said, "So, you clearly could have dodged, and you even had the strength to attack, so why did you stubbornly endure it?"
A strong gust of wind swept in again. Ji Mingran pressed his palm firmly against the man's waist and abdomen, stopping his large hand from covering his neck, and gestured, "Let me do it."
As she spoke, she calmly turned her head, just in time to avoid the blow that was about to hit her. With her other hand, she grabbed a head precisely and slowly pulled out the figure hidden in the darkness.
The key to the illusion is the deepest fear in the heart of the memory's owner. She is the owner of this illusionary memory, and she knows better than anyone what the key to the illusion is.
What she feared was never any mutant species.
Ji Mingran's gaze fell on the thin girl who had been pulled out. The girl's face was thin and sallow, her eyes were bruised, and she glared at him fiercely.
Back then, aside from her gloomy and ruthless expression, she really looked exactly the same as this body she has now when she was young.
This is the Achilles' heel of this illusion.
The shadow in her heart was herself, panicked and helpless, hiding in a secret door in the basement after the entire city was overrun by mutated creatures.
She was eight years old that year, and had just evolved superpowers, making her the only surviving human in the entire city.
Ji Mingran stared at his younger self, who was baring his teeth like a little beast, his eyes filled with ferocity, his hands pounding hard against the hand that was gripping his long hair.
Yes, long hair. When the city fell, she still had long hair like an ordinary girl, but she soon found that long hair was not conducive to fighting, and shaved her head a few days later.
His hands were numb and swollen from being hammered. "Hey, Ji Mingran," Ji Mingran called out softly.
Hearing someone call her name, the girl's eyes flashed with surprise. She gradually stopped struggling and looked at the woman who was holding her with a gloomy expression.
Unexpectedly, a layer of warmth suddenly spread across my forehead.
The girl stared blankly at the person pressing their forehead against hers.
Ji Mingran touched his forehead to his own, closed his eyes, and sighed, "It's all in the past."
A burst of light appeared and enveloped the girl, whose figure gradually disappeared.
Yu Tianxing looked at the two people whose foreheads were touching, and unconsciously tightened the hand on the girl's neck.
She killed herself.
He had always thought she was a heretical cultivator who had possessed another's body, but today he realized that she was far more than that.
She is powerful, ruthless, and has a bestial nature; she may be a monster from another world.
This is an existence that is even harder for the spiritual community to accept than heretical practitioners.
He didn't care whether she was a heretical cultivator or not; if she were a monster...
Yu Tianxing's gaze slowly moved from the girl's face, finally settling on the fingertips covering his waist and abdomen.
With each heavy breath, his body trembled uncontrollably once again.
His brain, his heart, every muscle, and every drop of blood were uncontrollably screaming and roaring for this.
If she is a monster, if she is a monster, then he is willing to bow down to the monster.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
