Chapter 590: Diffusion (2/10, bonus chapter for

Fang Yue froze on the spot.

"Just now, what exactly was…"

Fang Yue stared in bewilderment at his own 【Monstrous-Objectified】 thumb.

His entire right palm had lost all flesh and blood, completely reduced to bare bone.

Only the 【Monstrous-Objectified】 thumb still maintained the form of paper, standing proudly, utterly out of place among the surrounding white bones, like a general guarding the frontier—one man at the pass, ten thousand men cannot breach it.

Fang Yue was stunned; he had thought it was the evil fruit of Monstrous-Objectification after backlash, yet it had saved his life!

That curse 【Black Rain】 seemed to fear the parchment, becoming too afraid to move.

Clearly, just moments ago, after losing the recovery effect of 【Breath of Night】, the curse 【Black Rain】 had rebounded vengefully, madly devouring the flesh and blood of his palm—but upon reaching the 【Monstrous-Objectified】 thumb, it suddenly gave up.

Parchment, forever the GOAT!

Earlier, Fang Yue had thought he was done for, frantically calling out to the parchment in his heart.

But the parchment was dead asleep, showing no response at all.

From the previous battle with Bai Xiaoya, Fang Yue had used the parchment's power even more than during the Gu Yue Cun incident.

The parchment had already been suffering the aftereffects of the great battle at Gu Yue Cun, needing extensive dormancy to recover its strength; now overdrawn by him once more, who knew how long it would have to sleep before waking.

But there was no choice—Fang Yue had exhausted every means, his only hope was to burn his remaining lifespan, letting the parchment continuously perform 【Time Rewind】 to help him hold out until Heiqing Xiagu.

Yet the parchment never appeared, and the curse 【Black Rain】 suddenly stopped, taking 【Night Rain】 down with it.

But what was the situation now? Neither here nor there…

Fang Yue lowered his head to look at the curse 【Black Rain】, then raised his head to look at the great black cloud overhead.

Suddenly, Fang Yue's pupils contracted sharply.

It was as if the curse 【Black Rain】 had called off its attack.

The massive dark clouds overhead slowly dispersed, parting to reveal the sun!

The morning sunlight fell upon Fang Yue, and for an instant it gave him the feeling of being reborn.

The clouds… dispersed?!

The effect of the curse 【Black Rain】 had worn off??

Coming back to his senses, a surge of wild joy welled up in his heart.

Fang Yue collapsed onto the ground in one motion, his whole body trembling, gasping in great hurried breaths like one who survived a calamity, and bursting into loud laughter.

The aftereffects of 【Hai Jiao Dan】 now came crashing over him like a tide.

There was not a single spot on Fang Yue's body that didn't hurt; covered in wounds, his eyelids so heavy he only wanted to lie down, close his eyes, and not care about anything.

But he couldn't!

He still had to get up, still had to run!

Because with 【Night Rain】's disappearance and the black clouds' dissipation, the anomalies in the distance could finally approach Fang Yue.

That tide-like converging army of anomalies was something the current Fang Yue absolutely could not handle.

So he had to flee—get up and run immediately!

Looking at his own pitted, cratered body, like a clay figure washed clean by heavy rain, many spots on his body had bone showing, fresh blood overflowing directly from the wounds—the sight was simply too gruesome to bear.

But gritting his teeth, Fang Yue still got up, and immediately began his escape.

By great fortune, after running forward for some distance, he spotted a small merchant caravan hurrying along the main road.

Seeing Fang Yue's ghostly appearance, and the dark, dense army of anomalies behind him, this small caravan was scared out of their wits on the spot.

The people who had been walking scrambled onto the carriages in a panic, frantically whipping the horses to flee.

But how could Fang Yue let them get away? He accelerated, caught up, seized a horse, tossed down a black stone, and galloped off at full speed.

Yet these merchants didn't care about money or not—this was a matter of life and death!

"The horse—the horse is gone!"

Someone in the caravan cried out, their face pale as death.

But no one paid him any attention, because behind Fang Yue, that vast army of anomalies was the real death threat!

Losing one horse only cost them a bit of mobility, but facing the anomaly horde meant certain death with no place to be buried.

Everyone immediately screamed and shrieked, but when the anomaly horde swept past them, the anomalies that would normally devour any living person they saw now passed by this small caravan as if utterly uninterested, their target locked on the man who had just stolen the horse—rumbling as they trampled the village road, crossing past the caravan and charging off into the distance.

Watching the anomaly horde gradually recede, everyone exchanged bewildered glances, faces full of confusion and astonishment.

None of them could believe that after encountering such a massive number of anomalies, they were still alive??

"Who exactly was that person just now…"

"No idea, never seen him before."

Being hunted by so many anomalies—what on earth did he do?"

Everyone buzzed with discussion; only the caravan boss silently picked up the black stone on the ground, bit it with his teeth, and immediately revealed a pleased expression.

It was actually the real deal?!

What a generous boss!

For ordinary horses like theirs, a few silver taels could buy one; measured against the value of a black stone, this was a markup of who knows how many times over.

Just as they were collecting themselves and preparing to continue their journey.

Rumble rumble…

The earth, trembled and roared.

In the extreme distance, more anomalies—vast, countless anomalies—were charging toward this direction!

And in the sky, a swarm of flying anomalies ignored the terrain and flew toward this place.

From the sky, from the ground, countless numbers, converging toward their direction!

With a clatter, the black stone in the caravan boss's hand slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground.

He stared blankly at the scene, his mind going completely blank.

"How… how could there be so many anomalies appearing!"

It wasn't just him—everyone else was scared stiff, stunned into a daze.

He had thought that the wave of anomalies from earlier was already abnormal enough.

But compared to the scene before his eyes, that earlier one was merely an appetizer!

If the number of anomalies were small, this merchant caravan of theirs might still have tried to fight or run.

But with the number of anomalies this enormous, they had completely abandoned hope, their hearts a sheet of ash, their eyes a sheet of deathly stillness.

Still, everyone in this line of work kept their heads strapped to their waists; each of them was mentally prepared—it was just that when truly facing a certain-death move, it was still impossible to accept.

And this scene was happening all across Heiqing Shanmai—on every village road, in every district.

The anomalies of Heiqing Shanmai had, for the first time, made such a collective movement; that black, pressing mass of an anomaly army brought a despair that drowned out everything.

Yet once the anomalies had passed through, everyone discovered… they were perfectly fine.

It was as if this enormous anomaly army had a precise target and absolutely never did anything unnecessary.

After the shock passed, every person's mood immediately surged, and they celebrated as if reborn from a calamity.

And when these "survivors" reached their respective villages and exchanged information with one another,

they discovered that every single anomaly in Heiqing Shanmai had been chasing one person out—Ye Baiyi of Qingsi County!

(End of chapter)