Chapter 259: The Unfortunate

Transparent worms covered with brilliant starlight drilled out from the palm of that lazy lady and connected with the invisible and virtual crack, dyeing it with the color of starlight.

Along with that lady pulling hard, the layer of transparent skin that seemed to cover the surface of this world made a terrifying sound that it couldn't bear, irresistibly rolling toward both sides.

Amidst the tooth-aching, indescribable cracking sound, the crack was forcibly torn open, turning into a huge hole flashing with dots of starlight.

This made it look like a tunnel entrance connected to an unknown realm.

The next second, the lady wearing the orange long skirt flashed and disappeared above the wilderness.

"Lady Moon," sitting in the cradle-style carriage, changed her expression slightly, drove the devil-like creatures pulling the carriage, and drilled into that "tunnel" following her.

Lady "Judgment" followed closely behind.

…………

Inside that world where the ground was full of gnarled tree roots and the white clouds were like oil paintings.

As the branches near the virtualized canopy "secreted" viscous black liquid and grew various strange-shaped things, Lu Mian, although he had received Termiboros's instruction not to look up, still produced a feeling of mental disorder.

His skin itched in bursts, and the flesh underneath appeared to be squirming abnormally, as if it were about to grow dense bumps or tumors.

Just at this moment, rays of pure starlight shone into this world, illuminating Lu Mian's eyes.

Not far from him, a certain tiny crack instantly expanded into a virtual and mysterious Star Gate.

"Close your eyes and rush into that door." Termiboros's magnificent, thick voice rang in Lu Mian's ears.

Lu Mian didn't hesitate. He used his left palm, which had been blown into a bloody mess, to tightly grip "Fallen Mercury" and ran wildly toward that Star Gate.

He closed his eyes tightly, relying on the Hunter's grasp of spatial position and accurate distance. In a few steps, he ran to the front of the target, not caring what changes were there or whether dangerous creatures were hidden, and jumped in with a leap.

After a brief dizziness, Lu Mian felt as if he had drilled out of the water from the bottom of a deep lake, and his whole body became relaxed.

He opened his eyes and saw the brownish-green Shadow Giant Tree not far away, saw buildings like the Golden Rooster Hotel wrapped in branches and vines, saw the different areas of the streets separated in the wilderness by strange power, saw those peddlers and pedestrians immersed in their respective desires, and saw Franca jumping lightly from a window on the second floor of the Golden Rooster Hotel.

He had escaped from the different-dimensional space inside the "Shadow Tree," but he hadn't returned to the real world yet.

Franca also discovered Lu Mian, who was not far from her, and shouted both happily and urgently:

"Quick, find the exit!"

Although she had "summoned" Lady "Judgment" and had confidence in her heart, she still didn't want to stay here for long.

How could a tiny Sequence 7 like her participate in a battle involving demigods? Even just watching from afar carried huge risks.

Lu Mian nodded, running wildly toward Franca while looking left and right, searching for things suspected to be exits.

The more he looked, the more he felt that this place was like an "Other Shore World" from the gift of the "Great Mother," but there were no large numbers of undead and devils throwing sinners into the abyss.

Could it be that believers of the "Great Mother" also participated in the Society of Bliss's actions? Lu Mian instantly had a guess and shouted to Franca, who was already close at hand:

"Go to the edge of the wilderness!"

According to his experience, if this place was truly an "Other Shore World," then it should be possible to escape from the edge of the wilderness.

Franca nodded gently, didn't ask questions, and ran along.

Suddenly, this wilderness shook violently, and a dull booming sound rang out inside that brownish-green giant tree.

The sky became dim, and the whole world seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

The branches and vines that wrapped around buildings and street roads quickly retracted, and the peddlers, pedestrians, and tenants influenced by different desires blankly regained their sobriety.

They stopped the act of crazily eating food, they loosened the opposite sex they had pushed down, stood up with fear, they ended the bloody slashing, and looked around in confusion with light or heavy injuries…

Inside the Golden Rooster Hotel, the couple who had eloped and were cursing each other stopped their exercise. They didn't feel that what they were doing was wrong, just confused about why the sky had suddenly become so dark, as if evening had arrived.

Anthony Reid, who was shivering under the wooden table, first calmed his trembling, then his expression sank, and he drilled out, looking out the window.

Gabriel, who was crazily signing his name, instantly regained his reason, suspecting whether he had suffered from mental illness due to excessive pressure when he was working with the theater manager to further polish the "Chaser of Light" script.

The underground bar owner, Paval Nisen, put down his paintbrush, but couldn't bear to move his gaze away from the drawing board. Although he had only quickly made a draft just now, he felt that it was the most outstanding work he had ever produced in his life, far surpassing his highest level in the past. He subconsciously wanted to return to that state, but couldn't do so no matter what.

In an instant, all the branches and vines had shrunk back into the "Shadow Tree." Most of the peddlers, pedestrians, and tenants who had regained their sobriety saw that abnormally terrifying brownish-green giant tree.

They didn't know what had happened, but following their instinctive fear, they fled quickly toward places far away from the "Shadow Tree."

At this time, Susanna Mattise, wrapped in blue-green long hair, protruded from the virtualized canopy, while Charlotte Calvino stood on the branches lower down with a face full of loss, frustration, and hatred.

After the "sacrifice" escaped the ritual site, their sacrifice was temporarily declared a failure, so they hurriedly escaped from that different-dimensional space to avoid being affected by the battle at the demigod level.

Susanna Mattise, who had suffered backlash and divine influence, had her figure become extremely faint, as if she would dissipate completely at any time.

Her eyes reflected Lu Mian and Franca running toward the edge of the wilderness, but she was powerless to exert influence on them again.

Under normal circumstances, she, who was combined with the "Shadow Tree," could completely use her abilities from such a long distance, but the backlash brought by the ritual being interrupted and the pollution of the "God-child" descending power without control made her almost die on the spot just now. Now, she was weak to the extreme.

Susanna Mattise, who was already an evil spirit and essentially extreme, radical, and persistent, was unwilling to give up just like that. She still wanted to catch Lu Mian back, drag him into the "Shadow Tree" again, and continue the unfinished ritual.

She let the branches and vines of the "Shadow Tree" spread out quickly again. They caught up with a peddler, hung him up, and inserted the thorns on the surface into the other party's skin, absorbing the essence that could let Susanna recover.

This was equivalent to using the "Shadow Tree" to make the process of entering dreams, having intercourse, and absorbing energy, which gradually led to the target's death, simple and crude, and accelerated the progress!

Seeing those brownish or greenish branches and vines surging over like monsters, seeing companions being hung up on the spot, struggling hard, and letting out screams, the peddlers, pedestrians, and tenants trapped in this wilderness shouted in terror, running wildly, terrified to the extreme.

That couple who had eloped wrapped themselves in sheets, ran out of the Golden Rooster Hotel, followed Anthony Reid and ran toward the edge of the wilderness. Behind them was Gabriel, was Paval Nisen, and those tenants who hadn't gone to other places to work at this time, while in front of them were peddlers and pedestrians running around.

One after another, refugees were hung up by branches and vines in terror, letting out calls for help.

That peddler who had given Lu Mian more sour wine before tripped over a stone on the ground, despairingly watching blue-green vines crawl onto his body and wrap around him layer by layer.

Noticing such movement, after staring for a few seconds, Lu Mian slowed his pace.

Franca, seeing this, immediately cursed:

"Do you want to go back and save them?

"Damn it! Recognize your identity; you are just a wanted criminal, a gang leader!"

Lu Mian didn't continue to slow his pace, but he didn't speed up either.

He and Franca were approaching the edge of the wilderness.

At this time, Termiboros's magnificent, overlapping voice rang in his ears.

This time, this Angel of Fate didn't say one sentence at a time, but poured a large passage of words into Lu Mian's ears with slight intervals:

"Haven't you recognized your fate yet?

"Having borne the power of Fate, there will naturally be corresponding erosion.

"From the moment Cordu Village was destroyed, you had already become an unfortunate person.

"Many things before were not me exerting influence, but your unfortunate fate playing a role.

"As an unfortunate person, not only will you become unfortunate yourself, but the people around you, the people close to you, will also become unfortunate.

"If it weren't for your lack of occult knowledge, letting Susanna Mattise discover the problem in your body and start contacting Hugo Artois to arrange the sacrifice with the help of the chemical plant explosion, Jianna's mother wouldn't have committed suicide, and Jianna's brother wouldn't have gone mad.

"If you were careful enough, when Flamant regained sobriety and drank with you, you should have remembered to find an opportunity to invite a real 'psychiatrist.' He wouldn't necessarily have chosen to commit suicide.

"If you hadn't just urged Ruhl but restricted his actions, he wouldn't have been infected with the disease again and died quickly, and Michelle wouldn't have lost the will to live.

"All these misfortunes were brought by you.

"My existence is not just the power of the gift and the trump card of deterrence given to you, but also a curse you cannot escape.

"Only if you bow to Fate and let me out of the seal will your misfortune stop.

"If you continue like this, those you want to save will not be saved, those you want to protect will also not be protected, and you will only increase their misfortune.

"By then, the people calling for help here will die.

"Gabriel will die.

"Charlie will die.

"Jianna will die.

"Franca will also die."

Lu Mian stopped his steps, his expression twisting, no longer able to hide his pain.

Franca shouted again:

"Wake up! When there's nothing to do, occasionally going crazy and doing good deeds is no problem. Now, let's escape and find official Beyonders! Who knows what the result of those demigods' battle will be? Susanna is now equivalent to a strengthened Sequence 5 with some divinity, not something we can deal with!

"Those people never expected a villain who likes to bully them with pranks to provide help!"

Near the brownish-green giant tree, many people had already been hung on the branches.

*Swish! * Gabriel was lifted directly by several green vines, and the "Chaser of Light" script was scattered all over the ground.

The underground bar owner, Paval Nisen, was beside him, already having thorns inserted into his body.

Among that couple who had eloped, the woman ran slower, was tripped by a tree branch, and was wrapped by vines.

The young man wrapped in a sheet was terrified for a while and continued to move forward, but after a few steps, he stopped suddenly and cursed himself:

"Dog shit!"

Before the sound fell, the man had already turned around, running toward his partner, gritting his teeth and wanting to tear the vines to help her up.

Desperate shouts and terrified screams echoed back and forth in the wilderness.

Lu Mian's fists clenched unconsciously.

Suddenly, he laughed in a low voice:

"Then do you count as someone close to me? After all, you are in my body. Will you also encounter misfortune?

"I know, I will fail again and again, but I will also do it again and again, pursuing that illusory and tiny hope!

"If I chose to give up, I would have been knocked down long ago!

"And now, there is still a possibility of success."

After saying this, Lu Mian took a step again, continuing to run toward the edge of the wilderness.

Franca, although she didn't understand what he was talking to himself about just now, was happy to see him make a wise choice.

Two or three seconds later, the two arrived at the edge of the wilderness. Lu Mian, who had deliberately lagged behind Franca for a distance, suddenly stretched out his hands and pushed his companion outward.

Franca, caught off guard, looked at her body gradually leaving the wilderness in astonishment while turning her head to look at Lu Mian.

Lu Mian revealed a smile and said in a soft voice:

"I was once as desperate and painful as them, hoping to get help, and that time, someone reached out to me."

After finishing, he suddenly turned his body and ran wildly toward that brownish-green giant tree.

On the dim wilderness, crimson flames ignited on his body surface, and this time, the flame cloak was no longer separated from his clothing, directly burning his skin and flesh.

He wanted to use continuous pain to fight against the various desires he would encounter next!

In the wild run, his gaze locked on Susanna, who was wrapped in blue-green long hair, but what he "saw" was not just this "Fallen Tree Spirit," but also the figure in his memory.

The person who gave him light.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 260 =====