Lu Yibei’s eyes burnt with intensity, warning him of impending doom.
Countless cyan lines appeared one after another, surrounding the magpie-like vines in his vision, waving, intertwined into the phantom of a giant tree.
The giant tree that pierced through the sky was full of delicate peach blossoms. It seemed to stand tall in another space, and humans and beasts alike knelt and prayed to the tree like insignificant ants.
And he saw it. The real figure behind the magpie.
However, it was only a glimpse of the tip of the iceberg, and dense murmurs rang in his ears.
The deep trembling within his soul invaded his nerves, making him feel an unprecedented sense of crisis—this magpie was not simple.
He couldn’t lose. He had to win.
The next moment, the magpie crashed straight into him.
The violent impact was like a heavyweight boxer punching straight through him, and his ribs rang softly.
The unbearable pain sent his heart into overdrive, and a cold wind rushed straight to his head.
The murderous aura and cruelty sleeping within his heart awoke, yet they calmed his mind with each cold gust of wind.
For somebody who’s afraid of dying, handing over his fate to somebody unknown was terrifying; he wanted to take matters into his own hands.
Clenching the kitchen knife behind his back, all he could do was let the magpie approach him.
The magpie noticed his tricks for preparing for a sneak attack, but she didn’t take them seriously.
Ordinary human. Weak psychic fluctuations. Kitchen knife.
‘Be serious!’ she yelled in her brain.
He couldn’t even see her true form. No matter how hard he swings, all he is stabbing is an illusion.
She didn’t intend to hurt him. Just to teach him a lesson for dabbling into the occult and let him know that fallen gods are also gods, and due respect must be given regardless!
He continuously dodged the deadly dives of the magpie, leaping left and right from his bed. Taking advantage of his dropping from the bed onto the floor, he hid the kitchen knife in his sleeve.
The magpie darted from left to right, its wings generating gusts of wind within the room. Fear and pain pressed him back like an invisible cage, eventually cornering him.
The magpie rushed forward again, and his blurred vision locked onto the ethereal shadow of the giant tree.
All he had was a second.
With this in mind, facing the magpie, a cold light swept out of his hands.
The moment he swung the kitchen knife, the oppressive feeling disappeared in an instant as if he had broken free from his shackles.
An unspeakable joy and madness flooded his senses; all he wanted was to defend himself, but now he wants to cut that damned bird up.
Clink!
The sound of gold and stone colliding sounded in the dark room, and dazzling sparks shot out in every direction.
The magpie had already guessed that a cornered dog would bite back, and the moment he made a move, her claws stretched forward to catch the blade of the knife.
A little thousand miles short of your target! She thought as she smirked. ‘Not anywhere close to my true form.’
‘Speak ill of me again!’
However, just as she was about to crush the kitchen knife in her talons, she was horrified to find that it not only couldn’t make a single dent in the knife, it cut her.
That very second of the magpie being shocked was all he needed. His eyes were trained on the phantom of the tree, and he pushed harder.
The knife stabbed at the tree behind the magpie.
It slid across the darkness without making a sound, like the fangs of a poisonous snake.
He was sure he had stabbed something. He could feel the resistance despite his vision intermittently showing that he was stabbing nothing. Despite this, there was still a short distance between the knife and the actual tree, as if something was protecting the tree.
Gritting his teeth, he held the knife with both hands and pushed forward with all his strength as he growled.
Clank!
As the tip of the knife continued to plunge deeper, there was a crack, as if a crystal had shattered.
Hot, golden blood splashed from the magpie’s body and onto his face, plunging his eyes into darkness.
‘Sh*t.’
He thought he had avoided the assassination, only for him to realise that this terrifying existence probably had countermeasures of its own too.
In the darkness, he could hear thunder.
And a voice from afar; deafening, tragic mourning.
It was as if an ancient memory had been awakened like clear water washing away the mud. A sharp roar sounded, and the roar converged into something material, sweeping in all directions.
Lu Yibei seemed to be sucked into the ensuing turbulent vortex alongside the apartment. His furniture, appliances, dishes, and tableware collided everywhere, and finally, his windows shattered, and the fine glass shards pricked at his skin and drew blood.
Amidst his dizziness, he found himself in the dreamscape again.
In the dream, the sun is gone and night is but a forgotten dream, leaving only an eternal dusk.
The Earth is a shadow of its former glory, and everything that was once magnificent has been reduced to dust. Those blood-drinking natives barely survived the ordeal, wandering through the eternal deserts like ghosts.
They called out to their gods repeatedly as they moved from one place to another and finally found a place where the sun rose and where a huge peach tree with birds perched upon it stood proudly in the desert.
Old people, men, women, and children were all made the same in front of the peach tree.
“The moon glows with divine reverence, and I, Jumang, shine the same. I succeed in the sky and stand tall, bestowing merits and virtues on the people.”
…
That magpie is Jumang! He yelled in his thoughts. ‘Did I just f*cking stab the one god I was researching on? It’s over!’
After that, a bone-piercing pain struck him, as if it wanted to tear his body apart.
The moment he felt that he was about to be torn apart, warm currents poured out from his eyes, and chills overflowed his chest, enveloping his body.
Night time, in the residential area directly across Jingyi Apartments. The rented room was devoid of people, but various apparitions gathered together.
“Come on, Eyeball. I brewed this wine with the crumbs of an urban legend’s core and managed to steal the dregs of the core when a powerful urban legend devoured it.”
An apparition that looked like a pile of broken toys and figurines spliced together haphazardly, with arms that stuck out from the heap. It poured a glass of fine wine for the eyeball sitting across it.
“The crumbs? Hah! I have actually devoured a full core before!”
“Is your resident Witch that generous? Does she have room for more?” the pile said, blinking all seventeen pairs of eyes towards the lone eyeball.
“No problem! I’ll talk to that little goblin, and I’m sure it’ll work. She just loves to listen!”
“I’m counting on you!”
“Don’t worry about it,” the eyeball beamed, but the next moment, a terrifying wave of energy enveloped everybody in the room.
After a brief moment of silence, frightened cries echoed everywhere.
“We’re gonna f*cking die!”
“It’s coming from that direction!”
“Eyeball, protect me! Eyeball?”
The eyeball was silent as it glanced at his other friends as they exchanged glances with each other.
“Everyone!” they said in unison. “That’s our Witch! Everything is fine!”
The other apparitions were unconvinced.
‘You trust her that much?’
