Chapter 345: New Life

Neon still flickers in the city's arteries, its bizarre colors casting onto the slick streets, yet they cannot reach the depths of this alley.

This is the backside of prosperity, the landfill of filth and trash expelled by the city.

The thick sour stench and rot almost seem to solidify.

"Ho... Ho..."

A man curls in the shadow of the Garbage Mountain, like a dying stray dog, his throat emitting ragged breaths like a broken bellows.

His name is Wang San, once a lucky survivor of the Weird Domain, an unrefined wild practitioner of the uncanny.

But that trivial luck was swiftly exhausted.

He was officially wanted, hunted by his own kind, hiding everywhere, living in constant dread.

Now, the Evil Ghost symbiotic within him is finally about to lose control.

Under his skin something writhes madly, inflating uneven bulges. His bones moan under the strain, as if the next second they will be burst apart by the runaway force.

The intense pain makes his whole body convulse, his eyes bulge with congestion, veined with spider‑web blood threads.

Despair.

Pure, hopeless despair engulfs him completely.

He is about to die.

Not killed by an enemy, but torn to pieces by the very power he relied on for survival.

What a ridiculous ending.

Just as Wang San's consciousness is about to be wholly devoured by pain.

Tap.

Tap.

Tap.

A crisp, oddly rhythmic knocking sound comes from the alley entrance.

The sound is unhurried, like a leisurely gentleman tapping the ground with his staff, admiring the night after rain.

Wang San lifts his head with difficulty; in his murky gaze appears a figure out of place here.

The newcomer wears a meticulously tailored vintage black suit, polished shoes stepping on the filthy puddles without splashing a speck of mud.

On his face is a Gray Stone Mask with no features, leaving only two pitch‑black eye holes that flicker with a crimson glimmer.

A hand clad in White Gloves elegantly supports an Odd Staff whose tip is set with an eyeball.

The eyeball continues to turn slowly, curiously surveying everything in the alley, finally fixing its cold gaze on Wang San.

The newcomer is Sai Men.

He is like a spectator who steps into the theater backstage, ready to watch the lead's final struggle before the curtain falls.

He tilts his head slightly, peering through the two crimson eye holes, keenly observing Wang San's twisted, deformed misery.

"Oh? What a marvelous movement."

Sai Men speaks, his voice exaggeratedly theatrical, as if reciting poetry.

"The wail of life on the brink of collapse, the shiver when soul separates from flesh... truly never tires the ear."

The Evil Ghost within Wang San senses an unprecedented threat; fear overwhelms its runaway desire.

He erupts with his last strength, his body swelling violently, turning into a lump of foul, sticky slime mixed with rotting trash, lunging madly at Sai Men.

It is his strongest strike, a suicidal charge to mutual destruction.

Facing this disgusting assault, Sai Men does not move a single step.

He merely lifts his Eyeball Staff lightly, using the rotating eyeball to give the incoming slime a gentle tap.

There is no earth‑shaking collision.

The fierce slime, the moment it contacts the Eyeball Staff, bursts like a punctured bubble, silently disintegrating and collapsing, reforming into a humanoid shape that crashes heavily at Sai Men's feet.

"Sigh..."

Sai Men lets out a regretful sigh.

He crouches, ignoring the filthy liquid flowing from Wang San, and gently lifts the other's chin with his staff.

His tone is gentle to the point of mercy.

"Why resist?"

"Listen, your soul is weeping, yearning for wholeness, yearning to break free from this frail shell. Yet you, with your pitiful humanity, imprison it tightly."

"Do not resist the Abyss, my friend."

Sai Men's voice is laced with temptation, like a demon's whisper in the ear.

"Embrace it, become it, and you will obtain... an unprecedented evolution."

In Wang San's dilated pupils reflects the gray, expressionless mask.

He does not understand what the other is saying.

Sai Men seems to see through his desire, emitting a low chuckle.

He slowly raises his other hand, palm upward.

An antiquated Brass Pocket Watch lies quietly on his White Gloves.

This watch is the ultimate product that fuses all Fourteen Divine Gifts from the Blood Moon game.

Sai Men gently flicks the watch's knob with his finger.

"Click."

Crimson Rule Power surges out of the watch like a breached dam, forcefully pouring into Wang San's body!

"Aaaah—!"

A gut‑wrenching scream echoes through the alley.

Wang San's body seemed to be gripped by an invisible giant hand, and every bone in his body emitted a sour‑tooth‑making explosive crack!

The Evil Ghost inside him was forcibly activated by this domineering force, no longer parasitic but merged!

His skin, flesh, bones, even his soul... were shattered and reassembled in an extremely barbaric manner!

He could clearly feel his rib bones piercing his lung lobes, then being twisted into a braid by a new force; his spine fractured segment by segment, only to be re‑bonded by the Evil Ghost's chilling energy, becoming tougher yet more twisted.

Metal fragments burst out from his body and grew together with his flesh.

Pain.

The utmost pain, almost driving him completely mad.

But at the end of that pain, an unprecedentedly powerful force erupted like a volcano.

He no longer felt any pain.

In its place came an indescribable ecstasy, a leap in his life's tier.

After a few seconds, the scream ceased.

The curled man on the ground had completely changed.

His body elongated by a span, his limbs grew slender, and his skin took on a gray‑ruined hue of metal mixed with stone.

A half‑Weird monster without pain, without fear, whose eyes held only a frenzy for power and worship of its creator.

He—or rather, "it"—slowly rose from the ground, feeling the ever‑rushing new power within.

Then, it made a gesture that no human could comprehend.

It reverently, prostrate on all fours, knelt at the feet of Sai Men.

"First Disciple... has been born."

Sai Men spread his arms, like a deity standing on an altar, receiving worship from followers.

His voice was not loud, yet it carried a madness capable of overturning the world.

"Listen, my child."

"Humans are a flawed species destined for extinction."

"What they call reason, emotion, morality are merely shackles that bind the ascension of life!"

"Only by completely discarding these useless things, fully embracing the Weird, and perfectly merging with the Divinity within can one become a higher‑dimensional, perfect lifeform!"

"This is the ultimate form of evolution!"

"This is the … Ultimate Gospel I will bestow upon this world!"

The newly reborn monster let out a frenzied, hoarse roar, as if answering its deity, answering this brand‑new doctrine.

It will follow the Divine Envoy before it.

Spread this mad Gospel throughout this world that is about to be reshaped!