Chapter 694: Die First, Then Live

Again? Lu Mi signaled Lu Jianuo and the others to let go, then asked Amandina:

"Where is he?"

Amandina's blue eyes fixed on the entrance of the black tomb, at the end of the lifeless river, and said:

"He's sitting right there, legs crossed."

As she spoke, Amandina closed her eyes and looked away; her previously smooth, delicate skin erupted in countless tiny bumps, each one swelling as if about to split open and sprout something.

It was because she had seen that illusory, lifeless river, and seen the pale goat wearing a golden mask struggling to walk through shallow water.

The pale goat's limbs had lost all their fur, were heavily decayed, and dripped yellowish pus—and this decay was rapidly spreading across its body.

Valentine, already pale and cold from the emotional turmoil induced by the "Chant of Hatred," suddenly lost the last trace of color from his face.

On his hands, his neck, his cheeks, patches of skin slowly broke down, making him look like a corpse that had been dead for some time.

The decay spreading across the pale goat slowed.

But the lifeless river conjured by the black tomb grew more illusory, visibly narrowing and drying up.

The doll, dressed in a sinister gothic dress, drifted forward another stretch, following the retreating lifeless river.

Suddenly, it turned its body and stared at the green-eyed man made of skin and blood.

The green-eyed man was looking right at it.

The doll's crimson eyes exploded with hatred, malice, and madness; its black gothic dress, entwined with sinister vines, burst open with hole after hole—shreds of fabric scattered or hung limp, leaving the whole garment ragged and torn.

The green-eyed man, dressed in a dark gray suit, appeared untouched—but as he took a step forward, he left behind two footprints filled with crimson blood, the smell of sulfur rapidly spreading.

One step, two steps, three steps—he left a crimson footprint with each, and from within his skin dripped drop after drop of fluid darkening with decay.

Valentine finally recovered from the emotional and desire-fueled explosion of the "Chant of Hatred"; he glanced at the now heavily damaged doll, then pulled another item from a hidden pocket in his clothing.

It was a wooden puppet, no bigger than a palm.

The puppet seemed stitched together from the limbs of a child a few years old—its arms positioned one above the other, its legs attached at the buttocks, its face painted in red, yellow, and white makeup, resembling a circus clown at first glance.

Valentine poured his spiritual energy into this grotesque, deformed puppet.

The puppet instantly became ethereal and vanished from Valentine's palm.

Then it appeared first within the deep brown eyes of this descendant of the Aeges family, then leapt into the green eyes of the skin-man.

The skin-man in the dark gray suit suddenly moved stiffly and slowly.

Lu Mi dared not look further in that direction; he quickly averted his gaze.

After Amandina closed her eyes and looked away, the tiny bumps on her body receded, no longer protruding.

She glanced curiously at the monstrous creature—apparently a demon, terrified nearly to collapse—running toward the green-eyed man, then swiftly scanned her surroundings.

She immediately saw the massive demon body ahead, the scattered, incomplete corpses on the ground, and the blackened bone flute lying beneath a palm tree.

"There—there's something there," she tugged Lu Mi's sleeve and whispered.

Could it be a powerful item that fell from the tombkeeper?

Lu Mi glanced over and smiled quietly to Amandina and the others:

"Pretend you didn't see it. Don't pick it up. Don't even go near it."

The "Chant of Hatred" was deliberately left there—he hadn't retrieved it immediately.

Under these circumstances, playing the "Chant of Hatred" again would risk harming allies far more than striking the enemy's weakness; as the "Harvester," he had no need to use the "Chant of Hatred" to target anyone.

So he pretended he had no time to retrieve it, hoping an enemy might take it to use against him.

If such a thing happened, the bloodshed fate bound to the "Chant of Hatred"—beyond Lu Mi himself and the three divine artifacts—could not be borne by anyone else present; then Lu Mi could simply teleport away with Amandina and the others, return later, and find the enemy's corpse waiting as new loot.

It was a trap laid on a whim.

As the giant demon formed from Devahuo fled toward the green-eyed man and neared the retreating lifeless river, a short figure emerged from the path within the jungle.

The figure was a boy of seven or eight, wearing a cute pajama set and a matching sleep cap, his blond hair and face caked with grease, grime, and blood.

Seeing the boy, Lu Jianuo felt the severed half of his right hand throb with intense pain.

"T-t-t," he trembled, his teeth chattering in fear.

Camille and the others, noticing his abnormal reaction, asked in shock:

"What's wrong?"

Following Lu Jianuo's gaze, Amandina, Camille, and Ria saw the boy.

Amandina turned her head in astonishment toward Lu Mi:

"That… isn't your godson?"

"How did he get here? It's dangerous!"

"No, he's not dangerous," Camille recalled Colobo's exaggerated reaction upon encountering Louis Berry and his godson, and the partial words spoken by that "Fate" path companion; his expression grew grave. "The danger lies with us."

Before Amandina and Ria could ask further, Camille turned to Lu Mi, frowning slightly:

"What do we do now?"

As his godfather, you should have some way to control your godson, right?

Lu Mi glanced at Ludwig, who was trotting quickly after the demon, then at the corpses littering the ground and Devahuo's demonic body, and replied with a smile:

"No problem."

There's enough food here to form an effective seal!

As for why Ludwig had walked all the way to the black tomb area, Lu Mi had already guessed the reason:

The man and woman who arrived in Tizamo Town tonight and checked into the Bliu Inn were likely agents of the devil from the Nos family; somehow, they had remained conscious within this special dream, and as soon as the "Dream Festival" began, they left the Bliu Inn and headed toward the black tomb.

Along the way, they passed the second floor, letting Ludwig catch the scent of delicious food; he abandoned his mundane meals and followed them, matching the pace of a seven- or eight-year-old boy until he reached this place.

At this moment, Ludwig's brown eyes held only the demon Devahuo.

"Why is it no problem?" Amandina gave him a look that said, "I know nothing about occultism—don't try to fool me."

Lu Mi smiled and pointed at the giant demon fleeing desperately toward the green-eyed man:

"He's here to hunt that monster."

"Hunt? Him?" Amandina looked left, then right, bewildered.

A seven- or eight-year-old boy in a blue pajama with yellow stars hunting a black demon nearly three meters tall, with curved goat horns and bat-like wings?

This must be a dream, right?

As Devahuo neared the green-eyed man made of skin and blood, and approached the black tomb, he finally felt a sliver of relief—but his mind still flooded with images: his tongue roasted, his brain scooped out by a soup spoon, his arms and thighs being crunched by the boy.

What kind of monster is this? Devahuo watched in terror as the boy kept advancing toward him.

At that moment, Amandina, glancing this way, cried out:

"That shadow is looking at the man in the black robe."

Valentine? Lu Mi turned to look—but saw no abnormality from Valentine Aeges.

Amandina looked away, paused, then looked again.

She spoke rapidly:

"He's no longer looking at the man in the black robe—he's looking at the demon!"

Amandina suddenly stopped, pulled her gaze back, and frowned:

"That shadow seems to be speaking… I don't understand the words, but I understand the meaning."

"What is he saying?" Lu Mi pressed.

Amandina dared not look toward the black tomb again; she gathered her thoughts, recalling as she spoke:

"It roughly means:

"Everyone in the world knows that crawling insects can form cocoons, and when the cocoons break, butterflies emerge.

"How can an ordinary insect transform into a flying butterfly, changing its very form of life?"

Amandina's voice subtly changed, as if influenced by something.

She paused, then spoke in a low, chilling tone, answering the question:

"Die first, then live—molt to become divine…"

Before Amandina finished speaking, Devahuo in his demonic form froze rigid.

He saw his flesh rapidly rotting, peeling off in large chunks, exposing gleaming white bones.

Within seconds, the demon lost consciousness and disintegrated into a pile of rotting flesh and white bones.

The rotting flesh and bones fused together as if alive, intertwining into a human-sized cocoon.

The fleshy cocoon quickly split open, and from within flew a creature with a human head and a bird's body, covered entirely in white feathers.

The creature absorbed all the remaining flesh and cocoon fragments, swelling rapidly and altering its form.

Below its human head, its body elongated and expanded as if growing its own torso; the flesh at its "waist" fused with the bird's body, both now covered in white feathers streaked with faint yellow grease.

"Hahaha!" Devahuo, now covered in countless white feathers growing from his eyes, nostrils, face, and fingertips, laughed aloud.

He slapped the white-feathered bird body beneath him, took flight, as if riding it, soaring into the sky.

Devahuo rose higher and higher, gradually becoming ethereal, then spiraled downward and plunged into the black tomb.

Witnessing this, Lu Mi looked again toward the entrance of the black tomb—but still could not see the invisible figure Amandina had described.

He felt a sudden thought, stepped forward two paces, and retrieved from the corpse of "Siso" the strange golden mask.

(End of Chapter)