Chapter 695

Looking at the mask in his hand, cast from gold and painted with white or black oil paint around the eyes and face, Lu Mian decisively put it on his own face.

A cold sensation quickly seeped into his skin, and the heaviness of the gold was unusually real.

Lu Mian's head felt dazed for a moment. Through the mask, his gaze looked toward the entrance of the black ancient tomb, toward the end of the river of dead silence that had mostly receded.

This time, he finally saw a slightly blurry figure.

The figure wore a strange, rusted iron crown and a dark, heavy robe with many strange patterns. The skin on its face was like white jade, and its eyes were so dark they were gloomy, as if they contained the entire night, while its mouth and chin had flowing, pale white whiskers.

At this moment, the old man sat cross-legged with his hands tucked into his sleeves, his back against the open tomb chamber door of the black ancient tomb, his expression cold and indifferent, like a statue.

As Lu Mian looked over, the old man also looked at him. His gloomy eyes seemed to reflect him, or perhaps they revealed a large number of layered, overlapping phantoms.

Clatter!

Behind the old man, even more illusory, nearly lightless water ripples surged in the void, and a giant figure wearing blood-stained armor roared loudly, trying to approach.

This caused the palm of Lu Mian's right hand to instantly become scorching hot.

Just then, the old man wearing the corroded iron crown and strange robe withdrew his hands from his sleeves.

Those two hands had pale, dull skin, yet still possessed the texture of jade. The backs of them were split with one opening after another, and each crack was either growing white feathers stained with pale yellow grease or dripping with rotten, yellowish pus.

Seeing this, Lu Mian's thoughts instantly vanished, and his whole person felt as if he were constantly falling into a deep, cold darkness with no visible bottom.

A familiar burning sensation appeared on his left chest, which, along with the scorching heat, madness, and violence in his right palm, awakened Lu Mian's consciousness, allowing him to find a foothold in that darkness, a rope he could grab onto.

Lu Mian used this to regain the ability to think, seeing that the deep black eyes—which seemed to contain the entire night—showed protruding, nearly black blood vessels, stained with a madness that seemed to bury everything and end everything.

Those eyes closed, and the illusory water ripples and giant figure behind him vanished.

Lu Mian's vision began to spread to the surroundings, and his ability to sense the outside world was fully restored.

He immediately felt intense pain.

Lu Mian jerked his head down and looked at his right hand, discovering that from the wrist to the back of the hand, disgusting bumps that looked like they were about to split open had protruded. The fine hairs growing on them seemed to have become much coarser and whiter.

He turned his palm upward and saw the brand brought by the residual aura of the "Blood Emperor" Alista Tudor fully emerge, fresh and dripping red.

And surrounding these brands was rotting flesh, oozing pus, and pale skin.

Lu Mian frowned immediately.

Under the condition that the "Blood Emperor's" residual aura was fully triggered, none of the surrounding people like Amandina or Lugano showed any signs of panic or fear, and he himself hadn't sensed any extremely mad or violent intent!

"This...

"That figure wearing blood-stained armor just now seemed to be the 'Blood Emperor' Alista Tudor...

"The feeling here is also quite close to the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring'... Is the figure sitting at the tomb chamber door the Netherworld Daoist mentioned by the 'Armored Shadow'?

"How did he and the 'Blood Emperor' appear here again? Shouldn't they be at the source of the 'Samaritan Woman's Spring'? Are the two connected?

"Did the Netherworld Daoist just discover the 'Blood Emperor's' residual aura on me and seal it for me, so that even if I fully trigger it, I can't display the momentum of a mad 'Red Priest'?

"Uh, I don't know if it's because of Mr. Fool's seal or because I'm wearing 'Ciso's' golden mask, but the Netherworld Daoist didn't directly make me emerge from the chrysalis, nor did he force me into a state of loss of control..."

Lu Mian quickly figured out his situation, and at this moment, as the emerged demon entered the black ancient tomb, the situation inside changed again.

The interior of the tomb chamber, which had returned to dead silence and stillness, emitted rustling sounds and the sound of metal colliding with stone.

The next second, a golden, brilliant figure appeared beside the Netherworld Daoist, at the entrance of the tomb chamber.

That figure was covered in gold from head to toe, with long limbs and a golden mask on its face painted with white and black oil paint.

It was the same kind as the one on Lu Mian's face and the one on the pale goat's head!

The figure wearing the golden mask was in a stiff, upright state, as if its limbs hadn't been activated yet. Relying purely on the strength of its waist, it sat up from a lying corpse posture.

It kept its eyes closed and turned its head toward the pale goat closest to it.

The pale goat's aura instantly became ordinary, unable to walk on the river of dead silence anymore. It decayed rapidly, sank, and soon vanished without a trace.

The golden figure with closed eyes turned its head again toward the tattered, eerie ragdoll.

The grim vines on the surface of the ragdoll's Gothic dress suddenly came to life, wrapping around the ragdoll in circle after circle, causing it to fall powerlessly to the ground and lose all movement.

The head of the corpse in the tomb chamber then turned toward the slowly walking green-eyed man.

The green-eyed man, who had the ugly puppet reflected in his eyes, stopped abruptly. His body changed with a *pop*, turning into a bloody little pig.

The ugly puppet fell beside the pig, motionless, as if it had transformed into the most ordinary and common kind.

Ludwig, who had trotted over, saw his eyes light up.

He jumped up like a giant frog, pounced beside the bloody little pig, grabbed the pig's head, and took a bite.

Amandina was so scared she closed her eyes.

Louis Berry's godson is actually such a monster?

Pig squeals rang out intensely. The corpse wearing the golden mask kept its eyes closed, turned its neck, and faced Ivelista Aigars.

Lu Mian's temple throbbed violently. He wanted to break through the suddenly surging feeling of imprisonment and "Teleport" over to take Ivelista away, but he hesitated.

He had been adhering to the self-imposed restriction of not approaching the black ancient tomb, looking at most once or twice. He didn't want to break this "rule" now; violating it meant facing a very high risk.

But Ivelista was a member of the "Fool" Church.

Just as Lu Mian made his decision, the corpse covered in gold turned its head again, and Ivelista remained unchanged, still in a state of serious injury with a weak aura.

What is going on? Why would this cold corpse in the ancient tomb let Ivelista go? When the Netherworld Daoist was staring at Ivelista just now, he didn't do anything to him either... Lu Mian was puzzled, and then the corpse's golden mask turned toward Reyasa.

After the pale goat vanished, Reyasa summoned an undead to wrap around himself and flashed to the edge of the ancient tomb area, about to escape into the jungle. However, before he could make his next move, his body stiffened there.

*Pop, pop, pop. * On Reyasa's face, neck, and the back of his hands, one large, wet meat tumor after another burst out, carrying disgusting mucus.

This deputy captain of the Porthos Port patrol team fell down and rapidly disintegrated into countless bloody meat tumors, which kept squirming in the gaps of his thin suit.

The undead Reyasa had summoned turned into a thin piece of human skin and landed lightly on the ground.

Lu Mian felt his scalp tingle. He finally broke free from the feeling of imprisonment brought by the corpse sitting up and said to Lugano, Amandina, and the others:

"Grab onto me!"

He was going to "Teleport" back to Tizamo Town!

Just then, the corpse's face wearing the golden mask turned toward him.

Lu Mian's body turned cold. He couldn't care about Camus and the others anymore and immediately prepared to trigger the black mark on his right shoulder.

Suddenly, he saw the face of the cold corpse, and the eyes—peeking out from under the golden mask and surrounded by white and black oil paint—opened.

They were a pair of cold, ice-blue eyes.

Ice-blue eyes? Lu Mian was stunned for a moment, feeling a sense of familiarity.

This is...

These are the eyes of Napo Redisli!

Damn it, how could Napo Redisli be here? How could he be the cold corpse inside the black ancient tomb?

How is he qualified to bestow the Beyonder powers of the "Prisoner" pathway?

It must be fake, it's not Napo Redisli, the eyes just look similar...

As Lu Mian's thoughts raced, he saw a hint of a smile in those ice-blue eyes, a smile carrying amusement, realization, and certainty.

This was completely different from the pain in those ice-blue eyes on Hunter Island.

Suddenly, a semi-withered, intensely beating dark red heart flew out of the golden corpse's hand, flying toward the outside of the completely disintegrated river of dead silence.

A short figure pounced over like a frog and grabbed the heart. It was Ludwig, his mouth covered in blood.

The amusement in the golden corpse's ice-blue eyes became a bit more relaxed.

He nodded at Lu Mian and voluntarily fell backward, lying back in his original position, with no intention of taking this opportunity to leave the black ancient tomb.

The illusory sound of splashing water rang out, and the open tomb chamber door gradually closed.

The figure sitting by the door, suspected to be the Netherworld Daoist, vanished along with it.

This... Napo Redisli's corpse doesn't seem willing to leave the tomb chamber... How did he lie in there in the first place? Did he lie in there himself? Lu Mian couldn't figure out the reason and could only look at Ludwig, discovering that the little boy was bringing the semi-withered dark red heart to his mouth.

Lu Mian wanted to stop him but didn't have the ability, and the surrounding corpses didn't seem to attract Ludwig more than that semi-withered heart.

*Clang! *

The tomb chamber door closed completely, and the entire area shook violently.

Lu Mian and the others saw dream fragments one after another again, and saw everything around them become blurry.

After a brief daze, Lu Mian found himself lying in the middle of a street with no streetlights around. The red moon in the high sky was bright, casting down its light.

This was inside Tizamo Town.

(End of chapter)