Chapter 342: Scarlet Queen (Combined Chapter)

The villa, with its deep red and dim lighting, was chilling and eerie. Rising from the floor beneath their feet into the air, the bizarre art pieces scattered all around seemed to have been imbued with evil souls by some mysterious power. Stepping inside, the two felt those hidden gazes; every look was filled with lethal mockery and ruthless contempt.

Like lambs entering a tiger's den or a pack of wolves, the fear and trembling that pierced into his marrow made every step Li Hao took feel like sinking into a quagmire, growing heavier and heavier. The best moment to turn back had already been lost, because from the moment they entered the villa, the front door behind them had automatically locked, as if an invisible demon had closed off the path to any hope of survival.

Inside the villa, a trail of glowing white footprints extended all the way, like the cold guidance of a path to hell, pointing the two of them in the direction of seeking death and the truth.

His brain vibrated with a numbing itch, as if cicadas that loathed the light were screaming frantically. His reason and ability to think were gradually being devoured. For the first time, Li Hao understood the painful sensation experienced by ordinary people who encountered those terrifying things. At this moment, he truly wanted to discard the professional ethics and fine character he had spent over forty years building, and imagine himself as a humble, timid coward fleeing this gloomy, ghost-ridden mansion without looking back.

An icy aura rose from the ground, and the glowing white footprints also pointed the way to the villa's basement, as if everything were indicating that there was an even more terrifying sight beneath this villa.

One must not try to imagine, but one also cannot give up thinking. Hold your breath, guard your true self... This was the comfort Li Yuning gave him when his heart was filled with panic, and it was also a warning.

Li Hao did not understand how a girl not yet twenty years old had developed such extraordinary courage and a demeanor that remained calm in the face of danger, and even beneath that indifferent gaze, there seemed to be hidden a certain arrogance and disdain. The scene before him that was driving him mad was so insignificant to her.

Walking into the basement, Li Hao finally understood that he might not have entered a residence where humans lived, but rather a private museum built by a madman who pursued the bizarre and embraced sin.

In short, the sister of Zhao Zheng, who died in an "elevator accident," was definitely no ordinary person.

Zhao Qian, the owner of the villa who had built her residence like a museum of the abnormal, was a lunatic with a Satanic aesthetic and bizarre fetishes. She had collected strange objects from who knows where and stored them all in the basement of the villa.

Beside the spiral staircase leading to the basement, one side was a wall carved with meticulously engraved reliefs, while the other side had no railing. Every five steps, one could see a winged demon and an unknown bizarre monster carved from basalt and onyx. They were all crouched and hideous, their eyes spitting out long, gloomy green light. If you stared into the eyes of those stone carvings, you could see that the green light was actually a phenomenon caused by candles placed inside. Yet, this scientific reasoning could not bring you any peace of mind, because you simply could not understand why such a natural phenomenon would imbue them with lifelike souls. An unknown, gloomy wind brought a low, deep roar, as if it were a hunting signal sent by those monster stone carvings, torturing the nerves of those passing by every second, repeatedly crushing their souls, which were like candles in the wind.

The air in the basement drifted with a special composite scent: there was the lily fragrance of Western churches mourning the dead, the holy fire incense of Eastern funerals, and it was also mixed with the nameless stench of wild graves and mounds. It surged and spread in this place of blasphemy that stirred the souls of all things. Everything that met the eye—those "rare art pieces" that challenged the limits of human endurance and broke the rules of common sense—was displayed, filling every corner of this secret room.

Here, there were artifact fragments from a lost civilization that died in madness, eerie musical instruments that could emit horrifying and nauseating sounds, demon paintings that did not seem to be the work of human hands, Evil Scripture sealed with human skin and magic patterns, and even nameless ancient corpses that were either twisted and withered or lifelike... They were all collectibles carefully selected and preciously treasured by the owner of the house. The quantity was so vast that Li Hao could not count or list them one by one.

"Damn it!" Li Hao whispered, not knowing if he was cursing the owner of the house or the world that gave birth to such a madman.

Li Hao was dazed and his whole body was cold. He had completely forgotten the psychological suggestion he had given himself before entering the villa. His hand, which was always resting on the pistol at his waist, had long since lost the strength to grip it. He just maintained this strange posture, following mechanically behind Li Yuning, numb and unaware that he was like a movable sculpture that had lost its emotions, no different from the decaying mummies displayed in the cabinets.

In his blurred consciousness, his slowly moving gaze was like a computer with overloaded memory, slowly reading the information of the things before him.

At the end of the underground stone chamber, a woman wearing a high-slit red dress with disheveled hair stood like a sculpture in the center of a Ritual Array, motionless. On her hideous and twisted face, she maintained a fanatical smile, limbs splayed, looking up at the dim ceiling of the basement. Only her eyes, trembling like tadpoles, told everyone that she was still alive and had seen "flowing light and vibrant colors" that they had never seen before.

Seeing the other party, Li Hao froze. He did not know what kind of sight the other party had seen to become so crazed and fervent. A thought of curiosity even surfaced in his heart, but the more surging fear that followed immediately overwhelmed this crazy and abnormal idea.

"Uncle Li (Dad)!" A call from the person beside him, and a warm little hand gently patted his stiff back, as if a warm current had ignited his will to survive, briefly awakening his reason that was gradually being submerged in dark chaos.

Li Hao didn't even have time to think about who the woman standing in the center of the bloody ritual altar was, what she was doing, or what kind of unknown crazy goal she wanted to achieve. He directly drew the pistol from his waist and, without hesitation, fired a shot at the female biological entity that had suddenly turned its head from looking up at the ceiling to looking directly at the two of them.

Boom!

The moment the shot was fired, Li Hao also felt the flesh at his waist suddenly squeezed to one side, and immediately after, his whole body uncontrollably fell to one side. He stumbled and knocked over an Other-dimensional Creature statue in a display cabinet nearby, smashing the statue of unknown value into pieces while he himself became dizzy.

In his confusion, he seemed to see the woman's smiling face appear at a distance of no more than a meter from him, but out of the corner of his eye, he saw the other party's body still standing in a strange posture in the center surrounded by candles.

He gradually felt his strength draining away, just lying blankly in the ruins, watching the magical scene unfolding before him.

"You've become so ugly, yet you can still smile." Li Yuning retracted her long leg, clapped her hands together, and pulled them apart, producing a burning chain. She swung it with force, striking the woman's head—which still had a bullet stuck in its rotten nose—to the ground. Instantly, filthy black gas evaporated frantically from the screaming woman's head.

The woman's body standing in the Ritual Array was also twitching and twisting, her neck, elongated like a snake's body, switching back and forth between being taut and limp. The other party's vitality was dissipating at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Li Hao blankly closed his eyes and muttered, "So powerful..."

Immediately after, Li Hao closed his eyes and passed out.

When Li Hao woke up again, he felt as if everything that happened before he passed out was a real nightmare. He jumped up in shock on the sofa in the back seat of the car. His astonishing jumping ability caused this forty-something-year-old veteran Enforcer to hit the roof of the car, and then he hugged his head and screamed in pain.

"You're awake?"

Li Hao heard a familiar and kind voice and subconsciously replied, "Jiajia, what time is it now?" But as soon as the words left his mouth, he immediately regretted it.

His brain wasn't clear yet; his daughter had been gone for a long time!

But the owner of that voice answered his question without any doubt about the address, replying, "It is now ten-oh-three at night."

"You, sorry, Miss Li... I..." Li Hao saw Li Yuning sitting in the passenger seat and was somewhat incoherent. He suddenly realized that the "dream" he had just had was actually real. He had truly experienced a thrilling Abnormal event and had survived by luck.

"Uncle Li, just call me Yuning. The elders around me all call me that." Li Yuning interrupted the other party with a smile and said, "Calling me 'Miss Li' makes it feel like I'm very old, and it's too distant; I don't like it."

"Uh, Yuning." Li Hao hesitantly called her name, but felt very ashamed. He did not think he had any qualifications to be an elder to her.

Whether in terms of status or experience and ability, this young girl who looked under twenty years old possessed a more excellent ability to handle affairs and a higher level of thought than he did.

In this Abnormal event, his performance was very embarrassing, even worse than when he first started as an Enforcer. He didn't have any positive performance in this operation and even held them back; his life was saved by her.

Li Yuning seemed to see through his thoughts and said with a smile, "Uncle Li helped a lot this time."

"I didn't do anything, you're joking." Li Hao knew the other party was comforting him. If he hadn't been there, Li Yuning could surely have handled it easily on her own.

Li Yuning shook her head and said, "No, if you hadn't fired decisively and hit Zhao Qian's head with a very precise shot, interrupting the ritual she was performing, we would have been in danger."

"Zhao Qian? That woman was Zhao Zheng's sister, Zhao Qian!?" Li Hao was shocked, sat up quickly, and hurriedly asked, "What is this all about?"

Only then did Li Yuning recount the whole thing. The development of the matter was far beyond Li Hao's imagination.

Before they arrived at Zhao Qian's house, Zhao Qian had already gone mad. Her spirit had been invaded by Other-dimensional Power and was severely polluted. She had personally slaughtered her daughter who was at home on vacation, and then used her blood to perform a mysterious ritual under the manipulation of Other-dimensional Power. She would serve as a vessel for another-dimensional creature to descend into this world.

When they discovered Zhao Qian performing the ritual, it was already nearing its end. At this moment, Li Hao, awakened by Li Yuning's voice, decisively fired a bullet, smashing Zhao Qian's face, which was equivalent to breaking the vessel and interrupting the ritual, causing the Other-dimensional Creature that was supposed to be resurrected through her body to fail to bring its full power into this world.

Not completing the ritual meant that Li Yuning could banish that thing from this world.

When that thing manipulated Zhao Qian's body to resist, Li Yuning, in order to protect Li Hao, kicked a bit too hard in her urgency, knocking Li Hao unconscious. While Li Hao was unconscious, Li Yuning drove that thing away.

Li Hao was silent for a moment. He felt that the other party seemed to have kindly not described in detail how she defeated that version of Zhao Qian.

If she were just an ordinary human, could she have the ability to deal with an Abnormal creature?

But Li Hao decided not to pursue it. He also did not intend to report the strange scene he saw when Li Yuning made her move before he passed out to his superiors. For the next things, he did not intend to just be an Enforcer who followed orders.

"Then did you find anything in Zhao Qian's house?" Li Hao asked.

Li Yuning stated her discovery: "Of course, the Ritual Array under Zhao Qian's feet at that time was the biggest discovery. I have already roughly guessed what the Abnormal organization hidden in Baizhou City, that Socialite Gathering, is up to.

In the shared encyclopedia data of the world's Investigators, there are many records of the pattern at the center of that array—a pattern similar to a crown with tentacles. This originated from the faith of a certain order of knights in the Great Britain region over a thousand years ago. And this faith was actually the empress of that era. That empress was known as the Scarlet Queen or the Scarlet Queen; she was an absolute autocrat and a ruthless, peerless strong woman. According to local legends, this empress might not have been human, but a god or demon who had fallen into the mortal world, possessing terrifying power unknown to ordinary people. She could easily influence the will of all who resisted her, turning them into flesh or indescribable monsters. Therefore, the imperial guards who specifically guarded her, that is, the order of knights, not only regarded the empress as an object of protection but also served her as a deity. And that order of knights seemed to have received her blessing, as everyone gained powerful strength that surpassed ordinary people.

But the cruelty and terror of this Scarlet Queen eventually led to her demise. According to legend, a great mage named Gante led a group of resistance fighters to defeat the order of knights and banished the Scarlet Queen from this world. Only then did the land of the Great Britain region usher in the rule of a new empress."

"So that means that Miss Hong, the force behind the Socialite Gathering, comes from another region?" Li Hao guessed while asking.

Li Yuning nodded slightly: "At least in Shenzhou, there are no records of similar deity rituals in known historical documents.

By the way, this Scarlet Queen and her exclusive order of knights were all women without exception, and their personalities were very extreme. They were quite repulsed by all gender groups other than women, and would even take pleasure in killing and torturing the opposite sex. For this reason, they even summoned, subdued, and tamed a certain creature from another dimension that was as cruel and vicious as their own nature. And this creature, according to my deduction, is the 'Cruel Child' that killed Zhao Zheng and Hu Mo!"

I'm late... I "modified it a bit," so it was posted late.