Chapter 47: Return of the Dead

Chapter 47 Return of the Dead

Thump, thump, thump!

An inexplicable heartbeat echoed in the ears of the four individuals.

"What kind of ability is this?"

The elementary schooler looked somewhat surprised. The ability to relocate an entire area was simply exaggerated, though it remained unknown whether there were any usage restrictions.

"Did you all hear that heartbeat?"

The sunglasses-wearer looked around curiously, trying to locate the source of the sound.

The fatty wore a solemn expression and said, "Forget about what kind of ability or heartbeat this is for now; this city has turned into a massive altar, and staying here is extremely dangerous!"

"Let's get out of here first!"

The dark-robed figure glanced into the distance at Bridges, who was once again whispering some incantation, and felt a creeping sense of unease.

"Alright!"

The other three had no objections.

All four of them were old friends of over ten years. Although their individual personalities were somewhat eccentric, at a moment like this, no one would intentionally drag the others down.

In an instant.

The four of them each unleashed their respective methods.

The massive fat on the fatty's body burst through his clothes, transforming into eight spider-like lower limbs that propelled him outward at an incredible speed.

The dark-robed figure followed closely behind, the hem of his robe skimming tightly across the ground as he moved.

Yet, when passing over uneven terrain, a faint flash of幽-blue (ghost-blue) fire could be intermittently glimpsed beneath the robe.

"Hehe."

The elementary schooler drew a lollipop, patted the backpack behind him, and said, "Let's go too."

Two four-to-five-meter-long dark hands instantly stretched out from the backpack, propping up the elementary schooler's body. With a single leap, he spanned seven or eight meters, his speed by no means slower than the fatty in the lead.

"Hey, wait for me!"

The sunglasses-wearer stomped her foot in frustration, then broke into a sprint. Her movements were agile and swift; even on such poorly conditioned roads, her speed far exceeded the average rate of the world record for the hundred-meter dash.

Yet, compared to the three in front, she still lagged considerably and could only fall behind at the rear.

On the periphery.

Having finished chanting the incantation, Bridges watched the four figures running outward at high speed and said with a pleased expression, "Since you've entered, please fulfill your duty as sacrificial offerings!"

The antique iron box containing the heart flashed with a faint light and began to vibrate rapidly.

"Thump!"

Within the city, the sound that had previously beaten with a steady rhythm suddenly amplified and then fell into a sudden pause.

"Roar, roar, roar—"

Roars echoed in succession all around.

Those survivors who had lost themselves and stood motionless when the heartbeat first sounded now underwent uncontrollable physical mutations, transforming into humanoid monsters sprouting dozens of disgusting tentacles.

They were like beasts devoid of reason, their eyes burning with a deep, bloody red.

The sound of the heartbeat rang out once more.

Unlike before, however, this time the heartbeat resembled rapid drumrolls, one following closely upon another, fast and dense.

Invisible energy drifting through the air poured madly into the bodies of these tentacle monsters, reinforcing their physiques and tentacles.

The next moment.

All the surrounding tentacle monsters roared and charged toward the fatty, the sunglasses-wearer, the dark-robed figure, and the elementary schooler.

The tentacle monsters seemed to possess a sliver of rudimentary intelligence; aside from a small fraction that charged directly at the four, the majority blocked the path leading out of the city.

Consequently, bearing the brunt of the assault was the fatty running at the very front.

The fatty transformed a portion of the fat on his body into a shimmering, chilling black whip, lashing fiercely at the heads of several blocking tentacle monsters ahead.

The expected scene of heads exploding from the whip strikes did not occur; they were merely knocked away by a few meters, but the cleared gap was immediately filled by more tentacle monsters rushing in.

"Careful, these monsters aren't small fry."

To avoid being surrounded by the tentacle monsters, the fatty had no choice but to halt his advance and issue a warning to the three behind him.

Facing the ever-increasing horde of tentacle monsters.

All four knew that if they wanted to escape, they had to carve out a path of blood.

The fatty's flesh morphed into multiple arms, each wielding a melee weapon. Launching attacks in unison, he instantly hacked one of the tentacle monsters to death.

Ghost-blue flames drifted from beneath the dark-robed figure's cloak, melting several surrounding tentacle monsters straight down.

The elementary schooler's two dark hands acted like paddles, continuously swatting away nearby tentacle monsters to clear a small, safe patch of open ground.

As for the sunglasses-wearer, she removed her sunglasses to reveal a pair of alluring peach-blossom eyes. Blinking hazily, she made several tentacle monsters freeze in their tracks before they abruptly turned around to slaughter the other tentacle monsters.

Tentacle monsters were killed again and again.

Yet, very soon, the four realized that the tentacle monsters were not decreasing at all; instead, they were multiplying.

Even those tentacle monsters that had been slain would have their damaged bodies repaired and resurrected within mere minutes at most, before charging at the four once more.

The abilities of the four were insufficient to sustain endless combat. Facing the endless wave of tentacle monsters, injuries soon appeared.

They.

Had fallen into a desperate situation.

Two lines of bloody tears streamed down the alluring eyes of the sunglasses-wearer. She was controlling a full twelve tentacle monsters, which was already the absolute limit of her ability.

Looking at the three companions struggling bitterly beside her, she gently bit her lower lip, a complex expression crossing her eyes.

Jiang, where are you?

At the center of the city, within a crater created by a nuclear explosion.

At the bottom of the crater lay a blood-red left arm bone.

Around the left arm bone, faint mists condensed on the ground, within which a pale red hue could be faintly discerned.

These mists continuously gathered from the surroundings and converged toward the central crater.

Gradually, the mist grew denser, the red color became increasingly pronounced, and the center transformed into a rich, blood-red hue.

Suddenly.

The blood mist above the crater converged into a droplet resembling blood, which fell onto the left arm bone and vanished without a trace.

Then came a second drop, a third drop, and eventually the tenth and the hundredth.

Yet no matter how many drops fell, they were all absorbed by the left arm bone.

It was unknown how many blood droplets had been absorbed before the left arm bone began to undergo changes. Writhing muscles grew out from the bones, expanding at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Before long.

The left arm bone was enveloped by a layer of scarlet muscle, and the blood flowing across the surface of the muscles could be faintly seen.

Immediately afterward, a layer of blood-red skin grew over it, along with patches of red scales that gleamed with an icy luster.

Puff!

Accompanied by a strange sound, a lump of irregular red flesh sprouted from the severed end of this left arm.

Droplets of blood fell one by one.

The irregular mass of flesh rapidly expanded, transforming into a rudimentary torso, followed by two hands, two feet, and finally a head.

Swish~

The blood mist converged into blood-colored clouds, pouring a gentle drizzle of blood down into the crater.

Regardless of where this bloody rain was originally intended to fall, mid-air it would be guided by an invisible force straight onto the left arm below.

And the flesh created by the left arm was rapidly perfecting its details at this very moment.

Bones, internal organs, muscles, eyes...

Just as the eyes were being perfected.

From deep within the earth nearby, a red light suddenly darted out, flying straight into the flesh's right eye and fusing with it.

The right eye burst forth with a faint red glow, instantly seizing the majority of the bloody rain falling on the left arm while sending out hair-thin red traces to spread across the rest of the face.

Hum!

The left arm suddenly trembled, forcing the red traces back into the right eye and reclaiming all of the bloody rain.

The right eye acted like a child who had made a mistake and been reprimarded by an elder, exuding a wronged emotion, yet daring not to make any other redundant moves.

Hum!

The left arm guided a portion of the bloody rain to fall once more upon the right eye, which instantly transformed from aggrieved to joyful.

By the time the newly created flesh grew a layer of skin, the surrounding blood-colored mist had already transformed into ordinary white mist, scattering away with the wind.

"..."

Jiang Ren opened his eyes in a daze, looking at the unfamiliar scene before him, and couldn't help being stunned for a moment: "I'm actually not dead?"

He stood up from the ground.

Looking at his completely naked self, he tried moving his hands and feet; there was no discomfort whatsoever, and his body felt even stronger than before.

Faced with this situation, Jiang Ren fell into deep thought.

He couldn't figure out why he was still alive.

At the very instant of the nuclear blast, he had basically given up resisting, guessing in his mind what his evaluation would be this time, whether he had made a profit or suffered a loss.

If one had to say he did anything else, it was that he had casually unsealed the full power of his left arm.

"Could it be..."

Jiang Ren looked toward his blood-red left arm.

He vaguely remembered that before losing consciousness, every part of his body had melted away in the nuclear explosion; although the left arm was no exception, its melting speed had been much slower.

At least at the very last moment before losing consciousness, he could still sense the presence of his left arm.

"Was it you?"

Jiang Ren placed his right hand on his left arm, feeling the cold, smooth touch of the scales upon it, and then placed his hand on his right eye: "And you."

Before his consciousness dissipated, his right eye had not completely dissolved either.

Just as Jiang Ren was speculating about what had happened, a sound caught his attention.

"Thump! Thump! Thump!"

The bizarre sound, resembling a beating heart, echoed in his ears.

Even when Jiang Ren tried moving to a different location, the volume and distance of the heartbeat did not change in the slightest.

"My heart."

Jiang Ren raised a hand to cover the left side of his chest, his expression turning somewhat unsightly.

He discovered that amidst this rhythmically beating sound, his own heart was involuntarily beating along with it; although the synchronization was very brief, it was clearly abnormal.

The heart was one of the most important organs in the human body.

Once controlled, the controller could easily kill the master of the heart.

"Where on earth is this sound coming from?"

Jiang Ren released a portion of his left arm's power to protect his heart, then surveyed his surroundings before finally looking up toward the sky.

Beneath the dim night sky, a blood-red moon hung suspended in the air.

This was clearly not a normal phenomenon.

Jiang Ren's left eye emitted a faint glow, and the blood-red moon in his vision gradually deformed, returning to its true form.

That was actually... a heart, dripping with fresh blood.

And it was still beating continuously.

With every beat, countless invisible energies would rise from the ruins below, surging into the heart through the blood vessels upon its surface.

"It's that thing!"

Looking at this beating heart, Jiang Ren instantly figured out many things.

At the entrance of the abandoned town's church, the paper discarded by that Pantheon branch leader bore the pattern of a heart; apart from the color, most of the details were virtually identical to the one before him now.

"No wonder they were so unhinged. Turns out I was just collateral; their true goal was the tens of millions of people in this city."

Thinking of this, Jiang Ren shook his head.

Judging from the scene before him, the Pantheon was using the people who died in this city to conduct some evil ritual requiring a blood sacrifice.

As for how it operated specifically, or what purpose they wanted to achieve.

He didn't know, didn't care to know, and didn't need to know, because—

"If I kill this dangerous entity, my evaluation should rise quite a bit!"

Jiang Ren locked onto a direction and left the crater in a few leaps.

The heart disguised as a blood moon above the city was merely a transit station used to absorb energy; the heart's true body and the person manipulating the ritual were both at the edge of the city.

Threaded through the ruins baptized by the nuclear blast, Jiang Ren's speed grew faster and faster.

Chunks of blood-red flesh broke through the limits of his skin, covering his body like armor and continuously strengthening him.

Taller, faster, stronger.

In barely over ten seconds, Jiang Ren's height surpassed four meters, and every time his feet struck the ground, they produced a booming sound.

Boom~

Facing obstacles blocking his path, he neither dodged nor avoided them, simply crashing straight through to clear a path without his speed being affected in the slightest.

His entire person transformed into a red phantom.

Finally, Jiang Ren arrived at the edge of the city.

He saw the true body of the heart hanging above the city, seemingly contained within an antique iron box, standing beside which were dozens of old men with fanatical expressions.

Likewise.

He also saw four familiar faces surrounded by hundreds of tentacle monsters, covered in wounds, and on the verge of collapsing at any moment.