Chapter 42: Underground Abnormal God
Seeing Xue Hanlei, who was once human and had fought alongside him to find a missing child, now only a ferocious head devoid of reason, Li Jiahong couldn’t help but feel a pang of sorrow.
Perhaps from the beginning, he should not have let this mother enter this forbidden realm of humans, nor should he have blindly given her hope of finding her child.
Hope is straw; sometimes it is the life-saving rope a person grabs when falling into a turbulent river, but sometimes it is the last weapon that crushes the camel’s back.
She succeeded in exchanging her stepdaughter’s life for a chance to reunite with her own child, not only reuniting with the child but also physically merging with them. But all of this was the sinister conspiracy of the Huo Gu; it was they who played vile word games, it was these beasts who deliberately misinterpreted a mother’s true wish.
Li Jiahong felt a surge of intense anger. No matter how advanced or powerful the race that constructed this Dimensional Demon City, which transcended space and reason, was, in his eyes, they were all a degenerate race, more fallen than the demons of hell, more foul-smelling than the evil beasts of the Netherworld.
However, his anger was useless and powerless. From the beginning, they humans and those beings were not on the same level. Just as humans see an angry ant, people usually ignore it, but once they notice a small creature baring its teeth and roaring at them, they will treat it like a rare curiosity, playfully teasing it and indulging their darkest, most wicked desires.
Facing the giant fist swung by the mutated creature, everyone could only duck and scatter.
The girl, who was about to turn four, was lifted above the head of her paternal uncle, her rough large hand holding her precariously.
He Jia’an and two other Mystic Investigators attempted to draw their guns and retaliate, but even with specialized bullets, none of them could inflict effective damage on the deformed monster before them.
This mutated creature was clearly far more advanced than any they had faced or seen before; it had undergone deeper modifications by the Huo Gu.
Li Jiahong, with some unknown courage, picked up debris from the destroyed combat scene and hurled it at the specially mutated creature. His vigorous throw landed as lightly as a dragonfly touching water on the wrinkled columnar body that served as the creature’s face.
The harm was not great, but the insult was extreme.
The special mutated creature, as if greatly humiliated, roared and suddenly lunged at Li Jiahong.
Li Jiahong was terrified to the point of losing his soul. His foot slipped, and he tumbled down the stairs behind him. It was this misstep that precisely saved his life.
The monstrous creature, as solid as rock, swept past Li Jiahong’s tumbling vision, flying over his head, and landed on the platform where the Ushi-Oni and other mutated creatures were engaged in a bloody battle.
It seemed that the will of Jiang Gu still remained in the Ushi-Oni’s head. Upon noticing Li Jiahong falling from the high platform, its ferocity ignited like a bomb, and it unleashed an even fiercer offensive. It mutilated each of the monsters charging forward, scattering their foul blood over the altar below, which was filled with forbidden and grotesque rituals.
As the special monstrous creature landed, the altar, which had absorbed a large amount of blood and life, activated an unknown magic array. With a thunderous roar, the stone gate on the platform shattered and collapsed downwards, falling into the seemingly bottomless dark Netherworld along with the countless, pitiable corpses of mutated creatures.
In an instant, all the humans present froze, stunned by an ancient, unknown roar. Even the specially mutated monstrous creature seemed to lose consciousness for a moment.
The next moment, a hellish claw covered in mucus tentacles and unknown tubular organs extended from the square-like black hole. Just using it for leverage to climb, the claw crushed the corpse of a monster near the edge of the black hole.
As another equally violent and malicious giant claw emerged from the ground, the monstrous creature that had kidnapped the girl was not spared. It was crushed to death by the claw, dying on the spot.
The Ushi-Oni, who treasured the child, reacted swiftly. Before the girl could fall into the endless abyss with the pile of limp rotting flesh, it flew over and snatched the girl back from the monsters.
Just as He Jia’an and the others had no idea what forbidden life they had accidentally unleashed, they saw a winged evil dragon, indescribable in its form, crawl out from beneath the stone gate. It extended its giant head, covered in tentacles and eyeballs, and let out the most frenzied, most ancient roar into the world, as if venting its excited emotions at the universe and at the past that had forced it into a slumber underground.
Faced with such a blasphemous creature with a repulsive appearance, Li Jiahong was so terrified he forgot to breathe. It wasn’t until He Jia’an, who still retained a sliver of reason, grabbed his arm that he got up from the cold, sticky floor and ran aimlessly with the equally panicked Mystic Investigators.
“Damn it, how can there be an unknown god slumbering in this city? What the hell are those Huo Gu worshipping!” Running, He Jia’an cursed loudly to combat his growing tension. He had no intention of looking back at the demon again, nor the courage to do so. He feared that if he met its gaze again, its all-encompassing eyes would destroy his meager brain with their vast knowledge.
Yu Lianyun gritted her teeth and kept running, her thoughts in disarray. After first hearing the roar of the unknown god from underground, she had felt her mind being tethered by an invisible fishing line. She was like a running bait; the moment she was hooked, she had become the most delicious breakfast for the unknown god who had slept there for an unfathomable length of time.
The indescribable and incomprehensible roar echoed through the demon realm. The sound spread through the air like a shockwave, shattering every inch of land around the unknown god. Magnificent tall buildings were pulverized by the soundwaves, and buildings and stone tablets instantly crumbled and collapsed.
While fleeing, Li Jiahong and the others suddenly felt a surprising push from behind. In a sensation of weightlessness, the surrounding sounds seemed to be drowned out. They flew forward one after another, then suddenly lost consciousness.
Not knowing how much time had passed, Li Jiahong awoke in darkness to find himself pinned under rubble. He struggled with all his might to crawl out of a gap in the ruins. Standing on the ground strewn with black stones and fragments of mysterious inscriptions, he numbly gazed at the devastating scene before him. He took off his night vision goggles, their lenses shattered, and watched as a large part of a magnificent Dimensional Demon City was destroyed by a ravenous, rampaging unknown god, while the giant, hunched-over evil beast continued its rampage through the ruins.
“… %kuthuen）**（）” A strange, unknown language came from beside Li Jiahong. He turned to see a rat person, half of its body destroyed, mumbling distractedly, some like a eulogy, others like last words.
The Huo Gu, perhaps the last Huo Gu in this dimensional space, died tragically with its eyes filled with fear and piety towards the unknown god, letting out a whimper.
Seeing the race he most detested perish so easily, dying at the hands of the terrifying beings they had built their city under and devoutly worshipped, Li Jiahong found it all so ironic and absurd.
Writing, writing…
