Chapter 245: Longing

The transport plane jolted violently once, then landed smoothly on a clearing at the foot of the misty mountain that had been forcibly cleared.

The raging wind stirred up by the propeller gradually subsided.

When the hatch opened, a gust of damp, cold air mixed with the smell of rotting earth and Hospital disinfectant rushed in, invigorating everyone.

Jiang Yuan was the first to jump from the plane, and the feel under his feet was strange.

It wasn't solid ground but something soft and elastic, giving slightly underfoot, as if stepping on the entrails of a living creature.

He looked down, his pupils narrowing.

The soil beneath his feet showed a Weird dark red hue, with textures resembling fascia.

"What the hell, what's up with this ground? Feels like a forest growing on a giant's corpse."

Liang Wen followed closely, pinching his nose exaggeratedly; his flashy black Windcoat looked completely out of place here.

Li Qi was the last to be pushed from the plane, trembling all over, his face deathly pale with no color, lips quivering, unable to utter a word.

He stared rigidly at the mist‑shrouded forest ahead, his gaze filled with inescapable terror.

Ouyang Feng, shouldering his long blade wrapped in black cloth, stood silently aside, his cold gaze sweeping the surroundings as if patrolling his territory.

The surrounding trees were grotesquely twisted.

The trunks were twisted, the branches like countless upward‑reaching hands trying to grasp something, wavering in the Gray Mist, faint and indistinct.

A viscous sense of being watched enveloped from all sides, like an invisible film of oil clinging to everyone's skin.

"Stop staring, our target is the main building of the Hospital at the mountain top."

Jiang Yuan's voice broke the Weird silence.

He ignored Liang Wen's odd shout and didn't look at the trembling Li Qi, calmly pulling two Poker Cards from the Card Bag at his waist and pinching them between his fingers.

The icy metallic feel sharpened his focus.

The four began advancing up the mountain.

The higher they climbed, the denser the mist, and visibility dropped sharply to less than five meters.

The "fleshy" ground beneath their feet grew increasingly slick.

"Ah—!"

Li Qi, in the middle, suddenly clutched his head and let out a mournful scream.

His cry was like a stone dropped into a calm lake, instantly stirring violent ripples.

The dense Gray Mist began to churn violently, the twisted "human‑hand" branches flailing wildly, emitting a rustling sound as if countless voices whispered.

The environment resonated with Li Qi's fear!

"Careful!" Jiang Yuan barked low.

Before the words finished, dozens of figures clad in tattered Patient Gowns surged out of the roiling Gray Mist.

Their movements were twisted, limbs swinging at reverse‑joint angles, dragging rusted surgical saws that scraped the ground with a harsh screech.

Most terrifying was that their faces bore nothing.

No eyes, no nose, no mouth—just smooth skin.

Faceless caretakers!

"Well timed! Let me show you the might of the Dark Descendant Emperor!"

Liang Wen wasn't scared; instead he shouted excitedly, looking like a chuunibyou in full swing.

He slipped on a pair of black Fingerless Gloves etched with strange patterns, emitting a faint red glow in the Gray Mist.

"Arcane! The heavens collapse!"

He shouted the technique name, lunged forward in a spear‑step toward the foremost faceless caretaker, his right hand blazing red as he slammed it onto the smooth face.

"Gui Xia!"

With a crisp "crack", Liang Wen forcefully pressed the caretaker's occiput into the mud behind them.

The red light on the custom gloves erupted suddenly.

The faceless caretaker's body convulsed violently, then went rigid, finally fading silently into the mist like a weathered sand sculpture.

Elsewhere.

Ouyang Feng made not a sound.

He simply drew his blade, unsheathing it.

A cold blade flash streaked through the mist like a bolt of lightning.

Pssht!

Pssht!

Three faceless caretakers lunged at him; fine blood lines appeared at their joints, and their limbs cleanly detached from their torsos, scattering on the ground.

He did not pause; blade flashes continued, each strike precisely cutting the monsters' vital joints.

He seemed less in battle than venting.

He poured all the humiliation and helplessness he endured in the Tai Tao City Air-raid Shelter onto the blade.

However, the number of faceless caretakers was overwhelming.

The severed limbs fell to the ground, quickly turning into Gray Mist, then re‑coalescing nearby, fearlessly charging again.

They can endlessly regenerate in the mist!

"Never ending!"

Liang Wen dispatched one with a palm strike, but was soon surrounded by seven or eight caretakers, feeling the strain.

Ouyang Feng's blade was swift, yet the growing horde slowed his progress, his brows knit tightly.

At that moment, Jiang Yuan stepped forward.

He stood there, neither dodging nor retreating.

"Give it to me."

The Shadow behind him suddenly boiled at that moment.

The darkness was no longer flat; it surged and bulged like liquid, eventually forming an indescribable Abyssal maw that opened toward the oncoming horde of monsters.

The few faceless guards at the front barely had time to swing their surgical saws before that dark maw swallowed them whole!

Creak... creak...

A wave of teeth‑aching "chewing" sounds rang out in the deathly silent forest.

The sound was as if someone were grinding bone and metal with their teeth, making Liang Wen and Li Qi's scalp tingle.

Ouyang Feng's motion of slashing monsters also paused.

He suddenly turned his head, looked at Jiang Yuan, and shock flashed in his eyes.

As the Weird guard was devoured by the Shadow, pure and chilling forces continuously surged into Jiang Yuan's body.

He could feel the Shadow behind him swelling at a visible speed, its color growing deeper.

The Dark Shadow Court is expanding!

An even stranger scene unfolded.

The guards that had been swallowed astonishingly stood up again within the surging Shadow!

They retained their original forms, but their entire bodies were composed of pure darkness, and on their smooth faces, pairs of blood‑red eyes opened.

They no longer attacked; instead, they turned in unison, faced Jiang Yuan, lowered their heads, and became his most loyal Black Shadow Soldiers.

"Go."

Jiang Yuan spat out a word.

The Shadow soldiers instantly obeyed, turning into streaks of black lightning that rushed toward the surrounding faceless guards still regenerating.

A civil war within the Weird erupted at that moment.

Jiang Yuan, like a monarch, strolled leisurely through the center of the battlefield.

He manipulated his Shadow, continuously devouring, digesting, and then converting the attacking Weird guards around him into his own soldiers.

His Shadow army was growing wildly like a rolling snowball!

Ouyang Feng halted his knife swing.

He stood in place, gripping the Death Dragon's finger, his joints whitening from overexertion.

He stared at the young man surrounded by countless Black Shadow Soldiers, as if a deity and demon had descended, gazing at the terror force that surpassed human comprehension.

The resentment in his eyes gradually gave way to an even more dangerous, more insane emotion.

It was a nearly twisted yearning.