Chapter 226: The Witch

In Louis’s perception, a powerful soul force was opposing him.

This soul force was not only as refined as his Yin Spirit power, but also carried a unique energy fluctuation, as if influencing thought.

It was just like Jiali’s, but Jiali’s mental force was crude and direct, while this one leaned more toward illusion.

But the intensity was the same.

In other words, the opponent had sacrificed the power to manipulate reality with mental force in exchange for far stronger illusionary effects.

No wonder all these armed personnel were lying on the ground.

Wait!

Louis saw the W insignia on the cuffs and collars of these armed personnel.

His eyes instantly narrowed; the thought of whether to act vanished instantly—act! He must strike hard!

He hadn’t forgotten that this W Company had mobilized forces to hunt down his own company!

He told the driver to pull over, then walked forward; Yin Spirit power coiled around him, forming a perfect sphere like an egg, blocking out the ever-present mental force.

Arriving at the entrance to the autopsy room, he glanced at the armed personnel slumped against the door, his insignia notably distinct.

Before he could act,

the armed personnel’s eyelids twitched, as if struggling to awaken—then, in the next instant, the mental force surged violently.

He sank back into stillness.

“Heh, W Company has some substance after all—there are still capable people.”

He abandoned the idea of killing, and casually tossed him aside.

He stepped into the underground autopsy room.

…

Inside the autopsy room.

The female corpse lay motionless on the gurney; beside her, Tang Mi and his father lay on the floor, eyes tightly shut, hands flailing as if in panic.

As for the shattered lights, the open body storage cabinets, the rumbling thunder…

None of it existed!

There was only the growing panic—the son trying to shield his father, only to be shoved away by his father, both desperately fighting to protect each other.

Presumably, what was happening to them in the illusion was anything but pleasant.

But what was even less pleasant was the female corpse.

The contact between mental force and Yin Spirit force was mutual—Louis sensed her, and she sensed Louis just as clearly.

Louis’s overwhelming threat and his unyielding resistance to forced entry into illusion made the female corpse sense danger; she wanted to end this ritual immediately.

But these two fools were now playing this ridiculous game of who should protect whom!

What a waste of time!

As Louis closed in rapidly, the female corpse had no choice but to mobilize vast amounts of power to block him.

In the corridor.

With magic power activated, the Wan Huan Yi faintly revealed a wasp silhouette; Louis’s steps lifted off the ground, and he began gliding low above the floor.

Swift and ethereal.

Hum!!!

The mental force surged silently, like seawater pressing in from all sides, exerting crushing pressure on Louis’s “egg.”

In an instant,

countless illusions appeared.

Corpses with milky white, sinister eyes walked the corridor; a spider-woman with black hair covering her face clung upside-down to the walls; a giant covered in rotting flesh, chunks falling off to become tiny figures charging forward…

Most crucially, the illusions were crafted with extreme realism, and with the mental force’s reality-interfering effects, these monsters produced tangible, physical effects!

In other words—these monsters’ attacks were fully effective!

The terrifying sounds, the slimy textures, the chilling air… all were real!

Under such a level of illusion, it was only natural for those special armed units to collapse—let alone them, even clergy would fall just the same. But Louis still had to say:

Is this it? Is this it? Is this it?

Louis’s lips curled into a feral grin—Hum!

Magic power surged like flooring the accelerator, while Yin Spirit power fully condensed around him, forming an impregnable fortress wall with not a single crack.

Illusion is a power both mighty and feeble.

Mighty to the point of terror, feeble as a joke.

And it all depends on who the opponent is.

Unfortunately for her, Louis’s resistance was off the charts!

Wan Huan Yi! Pure Yin Realm cultivation base! Zhen Hun Chi!

Three buffs stacked on him!

You, a naked talent monster—how dare you fight me?!

“Hello baby! Louis is here!”

With the howling wind and the Yin Spirit power amplifying his voice, Louis’s words spread far and wide.

The invisible, colorless Yin Spirit force coalesced into countless blades and spears, condensed upon the egg-shell, charging like an armored vehicle, smashing through the crushing mental force into shards!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

The walls cracked under Louis’s impact.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line—this principle was simple.

Louis understood it, and so did the female corpse, alive but trapped in her body.

As Louis drew near, her eyelids began to tremble.

Too bad her body hadn’t recovered—if it had, she’d already be running.

Snap!

She deliberately severed an invisible thread.

Tang Mi and his father instantly stopped shoving each other, collapsing weakly against the corner.

As for the armed personnel who had intruded into the ritual and been ensnared by the illusions, they all accelerated their suicides—gunfire erupted continuously.

Bang bang bang!

Warm blood splattered across the grass.

Only the captain, who clearly recognized within the illusion that he was under its influence, chose not to kill himself—he kept running, running, trying to escape the pursuit.

After performing these acts, the female corpse seemed to have broken some restraint.

The gurney began moving on its own, without wind.

The door opened.

Wheels turned; the gurney, bearing the female corpse, rolled outward.

Yes.

She chose to flee!

As a soul with thought, intelligence, and the ability to manipulate others and orchestrate rituals, she was clever.

If things turned bad, retreat a step!

That brute was about to smash through the wall—now was the perfect time to run!

Creak creak—

Wheels spun rapidly.

The gurney’s speed became astonishing.

Carrying the female corpse, it raced toward another direction, attempting to detour to the underground elevator.

Along the way, stairs and uneven surfaces existed, so—

Click click click—

The gurney bounced up and down, swaying wildly like a trampoline, racing forward; the female corpse lost her earlier calm, the composure she’d shown while weaving dual illusions and manipulating minds.

She jolted violently on the gurney, looking absurd, and with those unblinking gray eyes, an uncanny feeling arose.

Click!

The gurney halted before the elevator.

Tap tap tap!

The elevator button was pressed repeatedly—over a dozen times in quick succession, clearly how desperate she was.

But the elevator didn’t care—it moved at its own pace; despite the gurney’s frantic collisions, the elevator slowly opened.

The gurney ceased its collisions.

The motion somehow gave the impression of a sigh of relief.

Pop!

Because the gurney was too large for the elevator’s space, it flipped over, forcing itself vertically into the elevator—consequently, the female corpse sat upright, stiffly, in the corner.

The elevator doors slowly closed.

But—

Whoosh!!

A howling rush of wind came roaring past.

In the darkness, the cruel laughter was painfully sharp.

“hellobaby!”

Louis’s figure raced toward them.

Click-click-click!

Buttons were frantically pressed.

But the elevator just stubbornly, dazedly, closed slowly!

Finally!

At the very last moment before Louis arrived, the elevator doors shut.

The female corpse leaned against the cold elevator wall, feeling a long-forgotten sense of relief.

It was the first time she’d felt this since her death nearly three hundred years ago.

But there was no choice.

This time, luck had run out—she’d truly met a hardened opponent.

Judging by the soul strength of that insane brute just now, he was far stronger than her; if they’d clashed directly, she had no confidence at all.

But it didn’t matter—since she’d escaped, she could just hide a while longer. In today’s society, with its dense population, police often solved cases and took corpses back.

With this fast-moving method, she wouldn’t recover as slowly as she had over the past few centuries.

Once she was fully resurrected and completed the Demon King’s ritual,

Not just one human—even wiping out all of humanity would be no problem!!

Hmm.

As long as I escape.

Huh? Is this elevator so old that it’s still lagging?

Click-click-click—

The elevator shuddered.

It seemed about to ascend.

But—

Click!

The elevator doors were suddenly torn open, ripped wide.

Louis stuck his head in, cleverly imitating Johnny from The Shining.

Grinning at the corpse, “Little bunny, Louis is here!”

Then, like a Sichuan face-changing trick, his expression shifted back to calm normalcy. “Tsk. Psychopaths really aren’t my forte.”

Creak—

He placed both hands on either side of the doors and forcibly tore them open.

Meanwhile, his Yin Spirit power had already sabotaged the elevator’s internal wiring—just as ghosts often did, destroying the circuits to trap humans with no escape.

Now, it was just a swap of attacker and defender.

No real difference.

Louis looked at the pale female corpse, her chest exposed, and smiled. “So, what kind of demon or monster are you?”

“...”

“Stop pretending. Your red eyeballs are about to burst into tears.” Louis stared straight at the soul trapped within the corpse.

It looked roughly like the corpse, but only roughly.

Why put it that way?

Because her soul preserved the exact form she had at the moment of death!

Her entire body was charred black, a mix of burnt, rotting flesh and fresh tissue; all her hair had been burned away, leaving a bald scalp; her mouth, stripped of lips, revealed only white teeth like false dentures; thick, yellowish, murky corpse oil dripped slowly from her flesh.

A complete evil spirit burned alive by fire!

And this evil spirit was now locked tightly within the corpse, unable to move, forced to act on the physical world only through its powerful soul energy.

At this moment, two blazing red orbs stared in terror from her pitch-black eye sockets.

“You can see me?”

Louis blinked, stepped into the elevator, and brushed off nonexistent dust. “Of course. Your appearance is truly grotesque. Did you die by fire?”

“Forget it, I won’t ask that. First, tell me how you gained this kind of power.”

Since communication was possible, he naturally had to ask about the source of her strength.

Over the years, the monsters he’d faced were mostly low-powered or too savage to talk to—this one was different. She seemed intelligent.

Moreover, she was the first spirit he’d encountered in all these years whose power had broken past the Evil Spirit tier and reached Demon-tier levels.

Very curious indeed.

And facing Louis’s question,

the corpse chose to answer.

She began telling her story.

It all started with the 1693 Salem witch trials—their brutality and the dark forces behind them terrified many witches, who fled in all directions.

During the trials, many witches were captured and brutally burned.

But the real victims were mostly ordinary women.

Extortion, false accusations, rape, framing...

Humanity’s evil was unleashed at that moment.

If you labeled a woman as a witch, you could legally extort her money—or even her body—without facing any punishment!

Some went even further: they slandered her, sent her to the pyre, and stole her life outright!

The reason? Simply because she was the miller’s daughter, and others envied her white bread.

Or because another woman, jealous of her beauty while she herself was plain and unattractive, reported her out of envy...

The reasons were endless.

Eventually,

it became a full-scale public frenzy. The mob, lost in collective hysteria, had completely lost reason and spiraled out of control.

This mad fire even spread to upper-class women—wives and daughters of the elites who had secretly driven the campaign were doused in oil and burned alive, utterly consumed!

Only then did the madness finally stop.

The truth proved: nothing ever ends until it burns the upper class.

She, a farmer’s daughter named Alice, suffered a cruel fate simply because of her natural beauty—accused of being a witch, she was burned alive.

As for why she became like this,

she didn’t fully understand.

She only knew that over time, her power slowly grew stronger.

“I—I didn’t mean to hurt them. I couldn’t control my power. I’m sorry. Truly sorry. If I could, I’d apologize to you all.”

“C-Can you not kill me? I’m afraid of pain.”

“Being burned alive... it was so painful... waaah...”

As she spoke, her voice cracked with sobs.

Louis softened his demeanor, no longer cold and detached. He looked at Alice with pity and stepped forward.

“I see. You’ve had terrible luck. I’ll spare you—but you must stop influencing others so recklessly. You kill too easily.”

He crouched down, staring at the corpse, and spoke.

Inside the corpse, Alice’s eyes, blurred with tears, shone with gratitude. “What’s your name? If I ever recover, I’ll thank you.”

“Oh, no need. I think you don’t need to know my name,” Louis said strangely.

???

Alice stared at him, confused.

Louis only looked at her with pity.

That gaze held only pity... no, something else—something... condescending contempt!!!

Alice’s wide, gray-white eyes suddenly blazed with intense light.

This was her hidden killing move!

She’d been waiting to lull this fool into complacency!

Though she didn’t understand why his expression had suddenly changed, she knew: strike first, survive; strike late, die. If she didn’t act now, she’d never get another chance.

So—

Hummm!!

In the space, an extreme illusion appeared.

The illusion began to blur into reality.

The elevator, the corridor, the underground morgue—all vanished. In their place stood a village.

A village with an old Western flavor.

Villagers in tattered clothes, holding torches, stormed angrily through the streets, searching for something. At the front walked an old man in a bishop’s robe, yet oddly out of place.

And what they were searching for was...

Black hair whipped wildly, blue eyes, lips vividly red with blood, and a beautiful, delicate face—it was Alice.

At this moment, Alice seemed to be performing some ritual; six or seven figures in black robes were slicing her skin to trace patterns.

“Gluttony Witch! Your end has come!”

The old man roared with righteous fury, then a crowd of villagers charged forward with pitchforks and torches.

But at this moment.

Alice, who had been in the midst of an unbreakable ritual, suddenly moved.

She waved her hand.

A vast, jet-black mouth suddenly appeared, splitting the fastest-charging villager in two just before he reached Alice.

!!!

Everyone froze at this sight.

But Alice did not seize the chance to retaliate; instead, she turned toward the corner.

“Mr., are you not going to come out?”

Louis shook his head and stepped out from the corner, gazing around at the surroundings with wide-eyed wonder.

He truly hadn’t expected illusions could be used this way.

It felt almost like a replacement for reality.

Now, was the environment around him still an illusion?

“I didn’t expect you to surprise me like this—worth the pity I just felt for you.”

Alice’s face darkened.

That look just now—so strange.

Was he… pretending?

Had he never been deceived at all?

No, that couldn’t be—if he’d seen through me, why would he let me launch my killing move?

So.

He was bluffing!

Louis ignored Alice; the killing technique she had prepared was merely a recreation of the scene of her death.

Temporarily restoring her former power.

Indeed, this creature was a witch.

Louis had never been fooled from the start—come on, any modern person who’s survived in society isn’t that easily deceived.

Besides, there were too many inconsistencies about her.

So Louis never believed her from the beginning.

He was merely buying time to seal off the surroundings.

Still, he hadn’t expected her to pull off something like this.

Illusion descended, replacing reality.

It felt like a fixed barrier or a virtual space.

So, if they truly fought, could this illusionary space hold up?

Louis’s magic power surged rapidly.

A blood-red pearl shot into the sky.

In a single breath.

A red meteor appeared.

Louis floated into the sky.

He looked down coldly at Alice’s frozen face.

He said nothing—she was already trapped.

He waved his hand lightly.

The meteor descended from above with unstoppable force.

“No!!!”

Alice’s eyes went wild; at this moment, she revealed her postmortem form once more—a jet-black mouth ten meters wide, trying to swallow the meteor whole.

Crimson fire fell from heaven.

BOOM!!!

The village was utterly destroyed; all the villagers dissolved like ripples in water—no, not just the villagers, the entire “world” trembled.

The next instant.

The illusion that had covered and replaced reality was shattered!

Everything returned to reality.

It seemed nothing had changed…

No.

Something had changed.

In Louis’s hand, the Blood River Pearl emitted terrifying fluctuations, poised to strike.

(End of Chapter)