Chapter 209: Yūmi Island (Fifteen)

Chapter 209: Yūmi Island (Fifteen)

When Fang Jing stood up again, everything except him disappeared completely.

This violent cracking method of his became quite an effective way to solve problems under specific conditions.

But… this approach wasn’t suited for everyone.

The trick was to cause large-scale destruction—yes, as long as the damage extended far beyond what the Mirror Image Space could cover.

Then, the ability to affect the field wasn’t all that amazing for him anymore.

The only condition was that you had to know normal people didn’t have such exaggerated destructive power.

“It turns out after all that mess, the one making all the fuss is just this guy!”

The hall was completely ruined. The ceiling collapsed, and after the fall, it was messy and chaotic, like a scene of wreckage. Broken walls were visible everywhere, along with some grayish-white stones.

Looking around, he didn’t find any other enemies. He only saw one unlucky parasitic entity, half of its body crushed under a huge rock, slowly wriggling itself out bit by bit.

Fang Jing walked over, reached out with one hand, and flipped the several-ton concrete slab several meters away. He then grabbed down and held the bloodied parasitic entity in his grasp.

The parasitic entity felt its neck tighten suddenly. It was like a little mouse being lifted into the air by Fang Jing.

“Hey! I think you’re different from the other parasitic entities. You must be one with a good deal of intelligence!”

Apart from Tomatsu he had met before, the parasitic entities he later ran into were completely worthless things without any brains.

They only became stranger life forms that were stronger in fitness than normal humans, but in every other way, they were much worse.

The saddest thing was they had very low smarts.

Still, there were exceptions. At least Tomatsu had shown decent ability, so Fang Jing figured that the two parasitic entities who could use the Mirror Image Space to attack him shouldn’t be lacking in intelligence either.

“You… what kind of ‘thing’ are you?”

The parasitic entity just stared wide-eyed. It didn’t believe the man before it was human. So, as soon as it spoke, it called him a “thing”.

The moment its voice came out, it felt like its neck was squeezed tighter and tighter by the other, feeling like it couldn’t breathe.

“I don’t want to hear any nonsense from you. Just answer my questions truthfully.”

“No way!”

Rage filled the parasitic entity’s eyes.

“No matter what you are, the great ‘God Kingdom’ is coming. Very soon, all fragile beings will be wiped out, and we will rule the new world.”

Suddenly, the parasitic entity let out a shrill scream. The next moment, it swelled up like a balloon.

“Self-destruct.”

Fang Jing’s expression changed. He threw the parasitic entity away with all his might. In the next second, a wild force exploded, turning into a shockwave that surged wildly through the wreckage.

Countless stones flew, soil gushed out, and Fang Jing’s eyes turned icy cold.

He transformed into a three-meter-tall gray-skinned giant and wasn’t hurt at all. But the only captive he had caught blew itself up, which made him very unhappy inside.

“Still, I felt it, or should I say, I smelled an extremely strong blood scent.”

Fang Jing’s sense of smell was far beyond normal humans. Now he smelled an incredibly thick blood scent.

The faint blood smell in the air, like rust, also quietly guided him in a direction.

This made him slowly stride through the ruins and head toward a suddenly appearing arched stone gate on the other side.

————————

The style of the buildings kept changing.

The surrounding environment was transforming too.

This was a kind of continuous shift.

It happened bit by bit, every minute and every second, in a subtle way.

…

Yuki Ham opened his eyes wide. His legs felt as heavy as lead.

Luckily, he found he could finally stop moving.

(What the hell! This was no joke!)

He had been chased badly. The muscles in his legs felt torn apart. Ignoring the intense pain, he pushed his body onward with strong will and managed to escape those tentacle monsters.

What on earth have I gone through!

Yuki Ham tried hard to remember. Earlier, he found a body under a fallen cabinet—or more like shed skin. It resembled the remains of a middle-aged woman. Her back had split open, just like a snake shedding its skin—inside was completely empty, with no flesh or blood.

Spore-like glowing specks floated near this body, especially deep in the hollow skin, where there was some liquid giving off a faint bluish glow.

There was also a dragging mark on the ground. It stretched out all the way, turned a corner at the end of the hall, and disappeared.

“This… this is…”

It seemed like whatever was living inside had sucked away the person’s flesh and blood, then shed this human skin and crawled out from it.

The problem was… where was that thing now.

At the same time, a shattering noise came from behind. Glass and window frame pieces scattered everywhere. A powerful shockwave spread inside the building.

A terrifying boom echoed, sending a sharp pain through Yuki Ham’s eardrums.

He didn’t know what happened. He could only guess if something huge had destroyed the floor above.

“Was it a bomb attack?”

This thought just flashed through his mind when Yuki trembled and stumbled to the ground.

The strong shaking made him unsteady on his feet. From the hallway behind came a gust of vibrating air.

“Ugh, ugh, ugh…!”

Stones and dust kept falling from the ceiling. Holding back his fear, he forced himself to turn around.

Only then did he see that the passageway and hallway behind him had broken apart, as if hit by an earthquake. The way back was blocked off.

In the blink of an eye, everything around became a pile of wreckage.

Right at that moment, he noticed something floating above his head.

It was a lump of shapeless, bubbling matter, glowing with a faint phosphorescent light. Countless green-lit tendrils hung down from it, as if trying to smash him as it lunged straight down.

The hallway floor creaked noisily. The huge shape, falling vertically, seemed ready to pack the corner of the hallway below.

Yuki Ham jumped and rolled forward to avoid being grabbed.

Using the skills of obstacle racing, he kept hurdling over chairs, squeezed through cracks where walls and ceiling had collapsed, slid down hills of rubble and sand, and escaped fast.

The tentacled monster didn’t seem to have any sense of dodging objects. It moved straight ahead, using its tentacles to knock aside anything blocking its path. The more stuff it broke, the longer it took for it to advance.

This way, Yuki Ham pulled away smoothly and kept running.

He knew very clearly that if he let up for even a moment, he could die then and there.

Thank goodness!

He just about got away safe.

Without noticing, as he moved forward, one European-style arched door after another kept popping up. This made him feel something was seriously wrong.

It seemed like every time he passed through a door, he entered a whole new scene. After going through layers of stone doors, he felt completely different from when he had first come in.

This was already a situation that could be called incredible.

How Yuki Ham felt now was that the environment he was in became more and more strange.

In the dark passage, the light was very dim.

Yuki Ham started to look around, staying cautious and thoughtful.

He still couldn’t figure out where he was.

Originally, Yuki Ham believed he was on the floor where the Shinzaki Tenrikyo Sect was located.

Or rather, that was true at first.

But now, he couldn’t understand what this place was supposed to be.

It was a dark area with no one else around, front or back.

The walls had become rough stone surfaces. The cement-covered floor had turned into a path paved with blue-gray bricks.

A red light appeared at the end of the hallway. Yuki Ham hurried toward it.

Damn it!

Was it a castle?

In a hall with a large staircase, a fancy chandelier shone brightly, and rich carpets woven with gold and silver thread covered the floor. The staircase railing was carved with patterns of flowers and summer leaves, and above the stairs, he could see a door.

Yes, he really saw a bright red “door”.

This door was stuck tight to the wall.

He began walking up the stairs toward the second floor.

The wooden stairs creaked with every step up. Without noticing, Yuki Ham reached the second floor. He stretched out one hand to grab the red handle and open the bright red door.

“Hey!”

A loud voice called from behind Yuki Ham.

This made him turn around and see a girl dressed in a bright red gown like a poppy flower.

In one of her hands, she held an oil lantern. The lantern glowed an eerie blue like ghost flames, somehow giving off a pulsing, expanding feel like a heartbeat.

“You shouldn’t be thinking of opening the ‘door’, should you? I’d advise you not to do it…”

The red-gowned girl had lovely curly hair, but her face—beautiful like an artwork—had little expression.

It was worth noting that her eyes were covered by a layer of black gauze.

“You… who are you?”

His mouth twitched. Inside, he felt like a startled animal, every muscle tensed up.

In another situation, seeing such a pretty girl, he would have had admiring thoughts. But in this dangerous zone, he only felt deep caution.

“Before asking someone’s name, you should tell your own first! That’s basic manners!”

On her extraordinary, beautiful face, she spoke calmly in a soft voice. “My name is Toriumi Arisu, unknown visitor. Who are you?”