Chapter 691: Indescribable

Clouds surged in from all directions, enveloping the moon, snuffing out the light; the whole city slipped from its bright candy‑colored hue into a dim, purplish gloom.

Qingque hadn't even had time to comment on the sudden change in sky when a voice yanked her out of her thoughts—

Clang!

A dark‑red thing brushed against her ear and hammered into the wall at the alley mouth.

Brick fragments exploded outward, tiny shards peppering her cheek.

She followed its direction with her eyes; it was neither spear nor gun, not even a weapon.

It was an arm.

Of course it could no longer be called an arm.

It was an absurdly long limb extending from the street's center, with an excessive number of joints; its dark‑red surface was covered by a thin fleshy membrane, beneath which something writhed.

The limb was at least a dozen meters long, drawn from the shoulder of a Mutant standing in the street's middle, piercing the brick wall at the alley entrance.

Broken bricks continued to fall, striking the ground at her feet.

The Mutant stood in the street's center, arm outstretched, its neck twisted at an angle no normal person could achieve.

Its face was covered in buds; only one eye barely showed the outline of an eye socket, and that eye locked onto her.

Qingque's eyes widened, and she turned to run.

The alley was too narrow; running straight would make her a target.

She tapped the wall with her toe, then vaulted sideways, running along the wall with her body turned.

The asymmetrical hem brushed the wall, and the Silver Feather Pattern Anklet at her ankle rang out a crisp chime as she ran.

It was utterly unscientific, defying all physical rules, but this was a dream; dreams need no science.

From behind came the sound of brick walls tearing.

The limb swept horizontally from where she had just stood, shaving off the entire green‑brick wall on one side of the alley.

Before the broken bricks could settle, three more limbs shot out from the same direction, each absurdly long, joints countless, the fleshy membrane on the surface bulging where something underneath pushed it out.

Qingque burst out the other end of the alley, and as she leapt onto the main street she nearly stepped on a Mutant lying on the ground; its back was covered in buds, and when it sensed movement its body arched upward, folding at the waist so that the upper and lower halves overlapped at an impossible angle for any normal human.

Then the folded body sprang off the ground like a spring, hurling toward her.

Qingque sidestepped, her turquoise eyes tracking the figure that flew past, a twitch at the corner of her mouth.

What the hell is that thing!

The whole street had turned into some indescribable amusement park.

On the left, a creature with a three‑meter‑long head stuck its head out of a second‑floor window, its neck bending like a soft hose around the frame, the head hanging upside down and swaying, muttering something about Happiness.

On the right, a person whose limbs were stretched to disproportionate length ran on all fours across the road, elbows and knees flaring outward, each step landing at an impossible angle, moving more spider‑like than a spider.

Ahead, a crowd of pedestrians whose bodies were covered in buds formed a sheet, circling a lamppost hand‑in‑hand, performing a bizarre round dance, all shouting Happiness in unison until their throats gave out.

Qingque's mind was screaming wildly.

This is even more absurd than a Demon Shadow Body.

A Demon Shadow Body may have limits; Branches pierce out of armor, limbs twisted and deformed, yet still within a normal person's comprehension, at least you can tell it was once human.

What are these in front of me?

A head stretched three meters long, limbs elongated into spider legs, buds blooming and withering on human bodies, withering and blooming again.

This is no longer a spore issue; these guys are competing over who can be more abstract!

A blooming pedestrian lunged from the side, and she instinctively flashed to the side.

Her body moved far faster than her mind; she tapped the ground with her toe and floated sideways two meters, her hem swinging into a crisp arc.

Then she ran up a wall.

Her boots pressed against the colorful building's wall as if on flat ground, her body perfectly parallel to the surface; gray‑white hair hung downwards, the hem flipped up, revealing a calf sheathed in mist‑gray thigh‑high socks.

She didn't even realize what she was doing; her feet had taken several consecutive steps between walls, she vaulted over a low eave and fell back to the ground on the other side.

The movement was so fluid that she herself was stunned.

The pursuers behind her kept increasing.

It wasn't just people; the pixelated things by the roadside also began to come alive.

A hovering car parked at the roadside suddenly sprouted four legs, its body flipping into a beetle‑like form that chased after her rear.

The lid of a trash can lifted on its own, its rim sprouting countless tiny teeth like a circular mouth, snapping at her with a chattering sound.

The dark‑red bud on the lamppost suddenly detached, becoming a flower with four slender legs that pattered across the ground in pursuit.

Qingque glanced back, nearly bulging her eyes out.

This can all turn into monsters?

Has the logic of this dream completely crashed!

She ran up a billboard.

The billboard depicted a huge smiling face, whose mouth opened the instant she stepped on it, revealing a pitch‑black passage beneath.

She had no time to think; she slid right in.

The interior walls of the passage were covered with flickering Pixel Grids, dazzling to the eyes.

When she slid out from the other end, she found herself on a building's roof.

Before she could steady herself, the roof beneath her suddenly bulged upward.

The entire roof swelled like a balloon, tiles cracking apart in sheets, exposing a massive petal underneath that was writhing.

A bud burst out from within the whole building, thrusting her upward.

Qingque flipped once in the air and landed steadily on the balcony of another building, her movement as crisp as if rehearsed countless times, her body instinctively finding its balance.

She looked down at where she had stood; the building had been split open from within by the bud, the walls cracking in the middle, rebar jutting out like bones, the bud still pushing outward as dark‑red petals unfurled layer by layer.

Qingque's mouth twitched, and a thought suddenly flashed through her mind:

Am I actually pretty strong?

But that thought only lasted less than half a second before being interrupted.

The top of the distant TV Tower erupted again with a ring of red ripples; this time they were fiercer than before, and wherever they spread even the white grid on the ground began to warp and deform.

The monsters chasing her all stumbled in their steps, then, as if infused with some new power, they ran faster.

A creature with a head stretched five meters long twisted its neck into a knot midair, then its head snapped forward another five meters, lunging straight toward the balcony she was on.

Qingque leapt off the balcony without looking back, used the spider‑leg pedestrian's head as a springboard in midair, and vaulted onto the opposite billboard, stepping on the smiling face's nose as she ran farther.

Her ash‑gray long hair streamed behind her, and her dress left a flickering trail in the pixelated light.

Behind her, Mutant after Mutant from the whole street chased—long‑necked ones, spider‑legged ones, budding ones, split ones, trash‑can‑turned ones—swarming in a massive, absurdly extreme Hundred Ghost Parade.