Chapter 249: Turning A Blind Eye
“Red and black clouds flashing with crimson lightning spread across the sky over Sakura Island, rapidly expanding toward the entire Earth at an out-of-control speed. Eerie shrieks occasionally emanate from the cloud layer. These clouds were not born on Earth; they invaded from another world…” The frontline reporter from Shenzhou TV Station One is currently standing on a swaying ship, professionally enduring the surging sea storm while loudly broadcasting the terrifying scenes recorded in the broadcast footage.
Seeing this doomsday-like scene, those who experienced Cui Zhu’s Night of Collapse, the human decay in Magic City, or the demonic god’s descent in Fengxiang can now deeply empathize with the people of Sakura Island’s Taomuki City. They all subconsciously gaze uneasily in the direction of Sakura Island.
As direct witnesses to the abnormal god disasters, these abnormal gods—whose very essence symbolizes the filth and collapse of the universe—are terrors beyond all human imagination. They embody a madness more insane than being tormented by a pervert murderer, a horrific traffic accident, or a natural disaster striking from above. Even the tip of the iceberg they reveal is enough to cause mountains to crumble and the earth to split. Humans and all beings on Earth seem like mere insignificant ants to them, pitifully crushed to death underfoot as they pass by. They pay no heed to humans at all. The reason they notice humans might just be a casual glance back…
Therefore, they pray with complex and conflicted emotions that they can ultimately be as lucky as them and survive the disaster, yet they also hope they had better die under the calamity. Otherwise, surviving would mean they end up like them—unable to return to normal life, never again able to experience the beauty of life as before.
After all, this is a terribly awful world.
“Daddy, I want ice cream.” As the little girl and her father passed by an ice cream truck, she saw the vibrant and tempting ice cream scoops on the food cart poster and immediately licked her lips greedily, looking at her loving father with pleading eyes, seemingly oblivious to the gradually panicking crowd around them, her emotions stable.
The father, who had received the emergency school suspension and dismissal notification for his daughter, also ignored the changes around him at this moment. His eyes were only on his obedient and sensible daughter. He patted her little head and smiled, saying, “Daddy can buy it for you, but can you guarantee you’ll eat dinner like normal?”
“Ningning can!” Li Yuning looked at Li Jiahong with a firm gaze and clenched her fist to show her strong determination.
Li Jiahong smiled and nodded, then took his daughter into the now empty ice cream truck. He used the tools inside to make her a three-color scoop and paid for the ice cream. After paying, he even showed the payment amount to the surveillance camera lens in the video.
Since his daughter needed both hands to hold the bowl and spoon, Li Jiahong carried Li Yuning afterward.
The father and daughter walked home while sharing a bowl of ice cream. Li Yuning seemed to finally notice the pedestrians on the street and casually glanced around, but her expression remained calmly accustomed. She asked Li Jiahong, “Daddy, what is Boss Brother doing now? He’s definitely lying in the shop petting the cat again.”
In response, Li Jiahong just smiled without answering, but he thought the same. An image surfaced in his mind of a youth always leisurely living a slow-paced life in the shop.
“Those bad things have come out again. Will Uncle in Red come out to drive them away this time?” Li Yuning asked curiously. Under Li Jiahong’s somewhat surprised gaze, she added, “Just like how he protected us when we were little.”
“You still remember?” Li Jiahong was somewhat surprised.
Li Yuning nodded: “I often have the same dream. In the dream, it’s Uncle in Red with a big painted face who stands up for me and Daddy when we’re in danger. He’s ugly, but also cool.”
Hearing this, Li Jiahong couldn’t help but smile. “You can’t say that to Uncle in Red; it’ll make him sad.”
“Indeed, when he’s in front of me, I usually call him brother.”
“…It seems like the point you’re focusing on is a bit off.”
After walking for about ten minutes, Li Yuning finished the ice cream. Li Jiahong put his daughter down to let her throw away the trash herself. Then the father and daughter held hands again and headed home, shuttling through the running crowd like fish swimming against the current.
“Oh right, when is Uncle He coming back? The one who’s always surrounded by lots of eyes. He said when he comes back, he’ll take me to eat delicious food.”
“Daddy doesn’t know either, but looking at this situation, it should be soon.”
“Daddy, Uncle He is actually kinda dumb, hehe.”
“Why do you say he’s dumb?”
“Heh, Sister Yu has always been right by his side, and he hasn’t even noticed.” Li Yuning said with a sly smile. “Sister Yu told me to keep it secret from him, probably to see when Uncle He will finally discover it.”
……
He Jia’an’s body was teetering on the verge of collapse, his skin torn open and flesh exposed. The surface tissues had completely lost their healthy state. He looked no different from an ordinary walking dead. All around him were the shattered corpses of blood race flesh worms. The demonic blade in his hand had become glossy red, and the blood dripping from the blade tip was like saliva symbolizing hunger—still unsatisfied with the current slaughter and craving more.
He Jia’an walked with a limp, his right half-body moving freely but feeling nothing, because the power of the demonic blade had eroded it. The tubes injected into his body had devoured and replaced the flesh and blood of his right half-body, though his right brain remained unharmed.
This didn’t mean the demonic blade had kindly spared him. Rather, it was like the expensive strawberry on a deluxe strawberry sundae—something it planned to savor last.
He Jia’an destroyed several more hidden advent rituals in the campus. Once the gathered blessing power lost the ritual’s effect, it decomposed and dispersed again, becoming part of the vast, corrupt air in the Inner World.
“Captain He.” As He Jia’an searched for the possible location of the next advent ritual, Xin Junmao, who had been separated for a while, emerged ghost-like from a patch of flesh on the wall once again. Still unformed on the outside, merely a humanoid flesh tumor, Xin Junmao said to He Jia’an, “The advent rituals in Kisaragi High School have all been destroyed. I’ve also cleared out all the blood race in the school. We should leave here… Um, you don’t look too good.”
A pair of crooked eyes on the humanoid flesh tumor scanned He Jia’an. His opponent’s lifeless eyes and stiff expression seemed utterly unconcerned with what he was saying.
When he got within a certain distance of Xin Junmao, He Jia’an deftly swung his blade down. He no longer seemed to care who appeared before him, numb like a slaughter machine, just like Matsumoto Gin had been when almost completely controlled by the demonic blade before.
However, the severed Xin Junmao just laughed indifferently. After falling to the ground, he fused together with the flesh on the floor and quickly disappeared, leaving behind a thought-provoking remark: “Looks like I don’t have to fulfill the promise for now. The person you need has arrived. I hope you can snap out of it before your blade reaches her neck.”
