96: Chapter 96 Keep an eye on my ranch
The six S-rank Strange Tales from Neon froze in the rain.
The black clouds above the East Sea had not yet dissipated, and the fragmented remnants of the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom fell slowly into the sea like pieces of charred paper.
Rainwater pelted them, yet not one of them dared to move.
Tsukuyomi's fanaticism was ripped away by an invisible hand, revealing the pale fear underneath.
He stared fixedly at the cluster of scarlet eyes on the seabed, his voice trembling for the first time.
"Dev... Devour us?"
The water leaking from Yomi Boy's backpack stopped.
The rotting child corpses hidden inside curled into a ball, their cries stifled back into their throats by fear.
The Noh mask on Faceless Lady's Face cracked from a smiling expression into a weeping one, then back to blank, and finally settled into an extremely stiff, white Face.
The copper coin fragments in the eye sockets of the Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade spun crazily like two out-of-control compasses.
"Impossible..."
His voice was dry and hoarse.
"How could our King devour believers?"
The Headless Samurai held his own head, black blood from the severed neck dripping into the puddles along his armor.
The lips of the head he held in his arms trembled.
"We are... the offerers..."
The three Faces of the Inverse Buddha twisted simultaneously.
Compassion.
Fury.
Rot.
The three expressions blended together, looking even uglier than crying.
Faith in their hearts collapsed in a corner.
The King offered no commendation.
No title.
No recruitment.
He didn't even cast them a second glance.
He simply treated them as an after-dinner dessert.
They had crawled out from the ruins of the fallen Neon nation, crossed the East Sea with their final fanatical faith, and presented the half-King-level Mirage of the Sea Kingdom, the plan for the Queen of Great Britain's head, and the death list of human powerhouses like Bai Cang, Night Owl, and Executive Jiang Xu.
They thought this was a pilgrimage.
They thought this was an enthronement ceremony.
But the King only felt they were noisy.
He only felt they were in the way.
He only felt that since they delivered themselves to his door, they were just right to eat.
At that moment, a very faint whimper came from the backpack behind Yomi Boy.
It was like a child who had died long ago, finally realizing they had believed in the wrong god.
But the next second.
Tsukuyomi suddenly shuddered.
Grasping at the last straw, he jerked his head up, and his cracked Black Moon eye reignited with a sick light.
"The King... Is the King testing us?"
Yomi Boy was stunned.
Faceless Lady froze.
Tsukuyomi's voice grew louder, as if trying to convince others, but more like convincing himself.
"It must be so!"
"The King is testing our resolve!"
"A baptism of the abyss must go through a trial of life and death!"
"If one cannot even bear the fear of being devoured, what qualifications do they have to kneel before the throne?"
The Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade nodded tremblingly, his forehead knocking into the puddle again.
"Yes! Yes!"
"The throne does not raise useless people!"
"This is a test!"
The Headless Samurai raised his head, black blood dripping from the severed neck.
"Please, King, inspect us!"
The Inverse Buddha's three Faces lowered in unison.
"If we can serve our King through being devoured, it is also a supreme honor!"
Yomi Boy smiled, a look uglier than crying.
He wanted to shout along, but his throat felt like it was stuffed with a clump of cold, wet seaweed.
Finally, he could only squeeze out one sentence.
"Please, King... inspect us."
In front of the freight station.
Su Jianguo suddenly laughed.
Black Flame licked the puddles at his feet, burning the rainwater into patches of black steam.
He looked at the row of kneeling Neon Strange Tales, his tone mocking.
"Resolve?"
"Does your King really like the gift you sent?"
Tsukuyomi's expression stiffened.
Su Jianguo pointed to the East Sea.
There, the afterimages of the shattered Mirage of the Sea Kingdom were still churning.
There, Linhai had just barely survived the city-destroying tsunami.
"Acting on your own, inviting a half-King-level Strange Tale to flood the city."
"You almost smashed the master's ranch, belongings, and food supply."
"And you dare to call this an offering?"
Su Jianguo sneered.
"If I were your boss, I would have blown up the company on the first day of work. Forget about becoming permanent staff; the security guard at the door would have broken your legs."
Bai Cang stood to the side, half his body already atomized into water mist, but he couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth at these words.
This little brother.
Sometimes his mouth is truly poisonous.
But it's accurately poisonous.
Queen of Great Britain's silver-white hair was plastered to her Face by the rain.
She added coldly, "Such subordinates cannot be kept."
Princess Evelyn shrunk behind her, whispering, "Mother, that sounds a bit like a corporate layoff notice."
The Queen didn't even look at her.
"Shut up."
Beneath the sea.
Su Yun laughed softly.
The laughter was not loud, but it seemed to roll up from the deepest part of the seabed, passing through the joints of everyone's bones.
"They are right."
Countless scarlet eyeballs slowly turned toward the six Neon Strange Tales.
The sound of rain seemed to soften at this moment.
Su Yun's voice was calm, without a ripple.
"Commit suicide."
Tsukuyomi's pupils shrank violently.
The fanaticism finally couldn't hold up.
Because he heard it.
This was not a test.
Not a baptism.
Not a ritual before the throne.
It was a notification.
A cold, simple, unrefusable death notice.
"No!"
Tsukuyomi jerked his head up, his voice hoarse to the point of breaking.
"My King! We were wrong this time!"
Yomi Boy scrambled to kneel forward, the backpack behind him splitting open, and the rotting child corpses inside let out terrified whimpers.
"We won't dare to offer gifts without permission again!"
"We can obey orders!"
"We can kill, we can create fear, we can do anything for you!"
The mask on Faceless Lady's Face cracked, her voice so soft it was almost pleading.
"Please, King, keep me."
"I can spread fear, I can disguise my identity, I can even infiltrate human cities."
"I am useful..."
The Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade kowtowed frantically, the copper coin fragments in his eye sockets falling out of his flesh and spinning twice in the puddle.
"I am willing to offer fear every day!"
"I am willing to harvest human hearts for the King!"
"I am willing to offer all lost Souls to you!"
The Headless Samurai held his head, his broken blade stuck into the mud.
"If the King is dissatisfied, I can slaughter all enemies."
"Just don't devour me!"
The Inverse Buddha's three Faces wailed in unison.
"My King, have mercy!"
"We will never cause trouble again!"
"Begging for the King's mercy!"
The giant mouth on the seabed slowly opened.
It was a mouth that could not be described in human language.
It was like a split trench.
Like a black hole devouring light.
Like some ancient hunger itself, opening its fangs beneath the East Sea.
Su Yun's voice rang out.
"So noisy."
"I sentence you—"
A brief pause.
Like the suffocating silence before a guillotine falls.
"To death."
"Run!"
Tsukuyomi roared sharply.
The Black Moon Domain exploded instantly.
He didn't care about faith.
He didn't care about the new King.
He didn't care about the hatred of the fallen Neon nation or the dignity of a pilgrim.
He only wanted to live.
That incomplete black moon rose behind him, twisted moonlight wrapping around his body, forcibly tearing space open and crashing toward the depths of the clouds.
The backpack behind Yomi Boy sprayed a large amount of black blood, which turned into wet ghost gates upon landing.
He wanted to escape into the shadows.
The masks on Faceless Lady's Face exploded into powder simultaneously.
Dozens of white masks, carrying her aura, turned into mist and scattered in all directions.
The Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade released countless vengeful spirits, attempting to fill the entire freight station with a tide of ghosts.
The Inverse Buddha's three Faces opened their eyes simultaneously, and the rotting Buddha light turned into an inverted Buddha statue to block behind it.
The Headless Samurai's body and head fled in two directions.
The head shouted, "Run separately!"
The body had no mouth, but ran faster than the head.
They were S-rank.
Each of them, if placed in any city, was an existence capable of causing a million-level disaster.
They couldn't beat a half-King.
But they had the survival instincts belonging to disasters.
But they forgot.
This was the East Sea.
It was a place that had just been covered by the "Sea Kingdom" Authority.
It was also a dining table where The Rancher had just finished the main course and hadn't wiped his mouth yet.
"Run?"
Su Yun's lazy voice rang in the ears of all six simultaneously.
"You've delivered yourselves to my mouth, and you still want to run?"
Boom!
The sea surface exploded.
Six dark purple tentacles shot into the sky.
There was no earth-shattering collision of rules.
No mutual crushing between Domains.
Not even any extra technique.
It was the most pure, most violent, most unreasonable physical penetration.
The first tentacle pierced into the Black Moon.
That incomplete black moon was pierced on the spot, and the moonlight exploded like broken glass.
Tsukuyomi had just rushed into mid-air when his heart was precisely pierced.
The huge force nailed him from below the clouds back to the water surface.
Boom!
The seawater exploded into a hundred-meter-high wave.
Tsukuyomi was nailed to the crest of the wave, his limbs twitching, and for the first time, only fear remained in his Black Moon eyes.
The second tentacle swept across dozens of white mists.
Those masks were still smiling.
Still crying.
Still trying to deceive perception.
But countless small mouthparts cracked open on the surface of the tentacle, and like swatting flies, it rolled the white mist along with the masks into its mouth.
Faceless Lady's scream only lasted for half a sound before it was chewed to pieces.
The third tentacle stabbed into Yomi Boy's shadow.
Yomi Boy hadn't run ten meters before the bulging backpack behind him was torn off along with his spine by the tentacle.
The child corpses in the backpack screamed crazily.
The next second, the entire backpack was swallowed.
Yomi Boy lay in the puddle, his body twitched twice, and he never got up again.
The fourth tentacle suppressed the ghost tide released by the Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade.
Thousands of vengeful spirits hadn't even unfolded before they were crushed into a mass of black mist like paper fed into a meat grinder.
The Elder of the Hundred Ghosts Night Parade had hollow eye sockets, murmuring, "My hundred ghosts..."
The tentacle fell.
His voice stopped abruptly.
The fifth tentacle wrapped around the Inverse Buddha.
The inverted Buddha statue had just raised its rotting palm when the entire Buddha body was squeezed with dense cracks by the dark purple tentacle.
The three Buddha Faces screamed simultaneously.
"My King, mercy—"
Crack.
The Buddha statue and its main body were squeezed into meat paste together.
The sixth tentacle caught up with the Headless Samurai's body and head at the same time.
The head looked at the body running faster than itself and was stunned for a moment.
"Aren't you supposed to come save me?"
The body ran silently and wildly.
The tentacle fell.
The head and body were finally reunited.
In a way that they were kneaded into a ball.
"No!"
Tsukuyomi was nailed to the sea surface, black blood streaming down his chest.
He stared fixedly at the scarlet eye cluster on the seabed, roaring with resentment.
"You are digging your own grave!"
"The Abyss Royal Court will not let you go!"
"The old King will not accept a monster that guards a human ranch!"
"You will sooner or later be—"
The tentacle tightened suddenly.
Crack.
Tsukuyomi's cursing stopped abruptly.
The bodies of the six S-rank Strange Tales were kneaded into a ball of bloody, blurry sphere.
The next second, that meatball was swallowed whole by the giant mouth on the seabed.
Gulp.
It was very crisp.
So crisp that it was like someone casually swallowing a grape.
[Devoured S-rank Strange Tales: Tsukuyomi, Yomi Boy, Faceless Lady, Hundred Ghosts Parade, Inverse Buddha, Headless Samurai]
[Growth level increased: Current growth level 572 / 1000]
The sound of chewing traveled to the shore along the rain curtain.
Crack.
Crack.
It made people's bone marrow feel cold.
Inside and outside the freight station, it was dead silent.
Lin Wanqing gripped black day tightly, veins bulging on the back of her hand.
That black blade vibrated slightly in her palm, as if it also sensed the hunger of that thing on the seabed.
Executive Jiang Xu stared at the sea surface, the gravity field of the dark gold spear shrinking to the extreme.
His Face was very cold, but his finger bones had turned white from the force.
Su Jianguo swallowed a mouthful of saliva, the Black Flame at his feet dancing uncontrollably twice.
These were six S-ranks.
Six natural disasters that forced the Great Xia, the Sanctuary, and the Queen of Great Britain to almost perish together.
In this thing's mouth, they were eaten crispier than fries.
Su Jianguo suddenly felt that when he hunted Strange Tales before, he was indeed a bit too simplistic.
This guy is running a buffet directly.
Even the plates aren't left.
Su Yun's voice rang out again.
This time, he was speaking to the shore.
"Don't look at me with those eyes."
The dark purple tentacles wriggled slowly on the sea surface.
That huge, incomparable scarlet eyeball turned, its gaze sweeping over everyone.
Executive Jiang Xu.
Lin Wanqing.
Saintess Lin Xinglan.
Bai Cang.
Su Jianguo.
Queen of Great Britain.
Everyone swept by that gaze felt as if their throat had been licked by some higher-order predator.
"I said."
"I do not save people."
"I just hate it when others touch my things."
"This city, this world, they are all my pasture."
"You chives had better grow faster."
The scarlet eyeball narrowed slightly.
Su Yun's voice deepened a few degrees.
"When I am hungry, if you cannot provide enough fear and despair..."
"Then I will destroy this world!"
As these words fell.
Inside the hall of the Linhai Investigation Bureau.
Chen Jianguo collapsed directly into his chair.
The technicians stared at the screens, their Faces paler than the dead.
No one cheered.
No one felt lucky.
Even though they had just survived the city-destroying tsunami.
Su Yao bit her lip hard, tasting the metallic tang of blood in her mouth.
This is a monster.
No bottom line.
No emotions.
He didn't even bother to make up lies to appease humanity.
He saved Linhai.
But not out of kindness.
He saved the pasture.
He protected the granary.
The sea breeze blew, carrying the scent of blood.
In front of the freight station, Su Yun's gaze suddenly landed on Executive Jiang Xu.
That cold, violent gaze slammed onto the shoulders of the Sky Captain like a solid object.
Executive Jiang Xu let out a muffled groan.
His body, half-eroded by the Abyss rules, erupted with a harsh sound of cracking bones.
Dark gold patterns surged beneath his skin.
Like living chains.
"As for you."
Su Yun's tone turned cold, carrying the dissatisfaction of a superior.
"I gave you a bone."
"I let you stay in the pasture as a security guard."
"And this is how you watch the gate?"
"Letting stray dogs from outside climb over the wall and almost break through my fence?"
After a brief pause, two words fell.
"Useless trash."
These two words slammed into the rain curtain like a hammer.
The eyes of the top powerhouses around them changed drastically.
They all knew what happened at the reservoir.
They knew Executive Jiang Xu had been modified by the monster.
They knew his body was a mix of Psionic Energy, the Awakening System, and Abyss rules.
But hearing this monster evaluate Executive Jiang Xu in such a tone still made their hearts run cold.
The highest Executive of Great Xia.
Humanity's strongest shield.
In the monster's eyes, he was merely a guard dog to whom he had casually tossed a bone.
Executive Jiang Xu did not get angry.
Or rather, he did not let his anger show on his Face.
He just leaned on his dark gold spear, wiped the black blood from the corner of his mouth, lifted his head, and stared straight at that scarlet eyeball.
Rainwater dripped down his bangs.
His voice was very flat.
"I only draw my spear for humanity."
"I did my best."
"If you think I am not qualified, you can kill me."
He was very tough.
So tough that Su Jianguo secretly broke into a cold sweat.
Talking back to such an unreasonable forbidden existence, isn't that just seeking death?
Saintess Lin Xinglan's palm faintly lit up with Holy Light.
Lin Wanqing's hand gripping black day also tightened a fraction.
But neither of them moved.
Because they knew.
Whoever moved first at this moment might cause Linhai, which had just been saved, to fall into the abyss once again.
Just then.
A translucent figure stepped forward.
It was Bai Cang.
To block the tsunami, his water-type rules had been overdrawn to the limit.
At this moment, his entire right arm was gone, and the edges of his body were turning into water mist and dissipating.
The rain passed through his shoulder.
Through his chest.
He looked like a painting being rotted by water.
In less than five minutes, he would completely turn into a puddle of water.
Dying without even ashes left.
Bai Cang dragged his broken body and walked in front of Executive Jiang Xu.
He lifted his head.
On his pale Face, he pulled a smile of extreme madness.
"Since you think this dog is not enough."
"Why not hire another one?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole scene was shocked.
Su Jianguo almost jumped up.
"Big brother! Are you crazy?!"
Queen Elizabeth frowned.
Princess Evelyn gasped.
"Mother, is he actively applying for a security guard position at the monster company?"
The Queen gave her a cold look.
Princess Evelyn immediately shut up.
Executive Jiang Xu also turned his head in astonishment to look at Bai Cang.
This isn't how you seek death.
Rushing to be a guard dog for a monster?
But Bai Cang didn't look at anyone.
He just stared at the sea.
In those eyes, there was no submission.
No fanaticism.
And no fear in the true sense.
Only the madness of a gambler pushing their last chip onto the table.
He was dying.
He knew his physical state too well.
If he kept holding on, he wouldn't need the monster to act; he would collapse into water himself.
But the Sea Kingdom was dead.
The Sea Kingdom Authority was still there.
And the authority was in Su Yun's hands.
There was no more dangerous opportunity in this world.
And no more tempting opportunity than this.
Deep under the sea.
Su Yun paused for a moment, almost unable to hold back a laugh.
Good big brother.
You really know how to pick your timing.
I was just worrying about how to save your life without exposing my identity.
And you just brought the steps and placed them at my feet.
However.
The act must be fully performed.
Boom!
A suffocatingly massive Abyss pressure descended from the sky.
That was the pure oppression unique to the "Lord of Blind Idiot God".
Not Psionic Energy.
Not killing intent.
But a suppression of life status.
Like the sky collapsing.
Like the seabed opening its eyes.
Bai Cang's body trembled violently, his knees went soft, and he was pressed down onto one knee into the stagnant water.
His bones made a teeth-grinding friction sound.
"Mortal."
Su Yun's voice was filled with coldness and arrogance.
"Are you teaching me how to do things?"
"What kind of thing are you to deserve to ask me for power?"
Bai Cang vomited blood.
The blood he spat out had turned into pale blue water.
But he still stared fixedly at the sea.
"I am not a thing."
"I am just a person who is about to die."
Bai Cang gritted his teeth, and with every word he spoke, his body faded a little more.
"But I understand water!"
"You give me power."
"I will manage this sea for you!"
He was a madman.
For human evolution, he dared to open the Abyss gate.
To block the tsunami, he dared to overdraw his life.
Now, in order to survive and obtain the power to end the apocalypse, he even dared to apply to be a monster's dog.
Su Jianguo watched from behind in stunned silence.
This big brother is truly fierce.
Others ask about salary and benefits during interviews.
He asks the boss for his life directly during the interview.
This turned a Face-saving resume-submission session into a life-or-death salary negotiation.
Under the sea.
Su Yun was silent for a few seconds.
These few seconds were incredibly long for everyone.
Executive Jiang Xu gripped his spear.
Lin Wanqing gripped black day.
Saintess Lin Xinglan's palm Holy Light flickered uncertainly.
Su Yao stared at the screen in the Investigation Bureau hall, her heart almost stopping.
She suddenly realized that if Su Yun agreed, things would be even more terrifying than devouring the Sea Kingdom.
Monsters eating people is just a disaster.
But monsters granting power means order.
It means subjects.
It means a throne.
Subsequently.
Su Yun laughed.
"Interesting."
That massive scarlet eyeball slowly closed halfway.
"Since you want to be a dog."
"Then I will grant you a bone."
A tentacle broke out of the water.
At the tip of the tentacle, a mouth full of fangs split open.
A pitch-black water droplet was spat out from the mouth.
That was not ordinary water.
It was a wisp of the embryonic "Sea Kingdom Authority" that Su Yun had just stripped away after devouring the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.
The water droplet hung in mid-air.
The surrounding space appeared irregularly refracted because of its existence.
The boundary between reality and illusion, at this moment, was like two layers of paper soaked by rain, sticking to each other and tearing at each other.
Everyone felt an extremely dangerous aura.
It was not healing.
Not a gift.
It was more like a nail.
A nail from the monster's throne.
Once nailed into the Soul, it could never be pulled out.
Swoosh!
The black water droplet turned into a stream of light, piercing straight into Bai Cang's forehead.
"Big brother, look out!"
Su Jianguo exclaimed.
Lin Wanqing also gripped her sword hilt tightly, wanting to stop it.
But it was too late.
The black water droplet melted directly into Bai Cang's skull.
"Aaaaaah!"
Bai Cang let out a painful roar to the sky.
His body was instantly wrapped in a mass of twisted black water.
The body that had already completely atomized into water and was about to dissipate, the moment it touched this power, actually re-solidified at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Not just re-solidified.
The rain around him stopped.
Droplets of rain hung in mid-air.
Some were real water.
Some were just refracted phantoms.
The boundary between illusion and reality was forcibly rewritten.
His missing right arm grew back.
Only, on the skin of that arm, it was covered with strange patterns similar to those on the buildings of the Mirage of the Sea Kingdom.
Like streets.
Like tides.
And like an illusory city sealed into flesh and blood.
The rules belonging to the S-rank water type were crazily raised under the forced infusion of the semi-King-level authority.
Boom!
A water-attribute fluctuation with an Abyss aura, yet extremely pure, exploded from within Bai Cang.
The stagnant water within a dozen meters instantly evaporated.
And instantly reassembled.
Turning into transparent water blades hanging in mid-air.
Bai Cang stood up, panting heavily.
Deep in his pupils, a phantom of an inverted sea city appeared.
That phantom flashed for only an instant before he forcibly suppressed it.
He didn't die.
In fact, he had crossed the S-rank threshold and touched that indescribable boundary.
Although he was only borrowing the authority.
Although this power carried the mark of the Abyss.
Although he could clearly feel that there was an extra gaze from the seabed within him.
But now, he was capable of overturning this coastal area with one hand.
Executive Jiang Xu stared fixedly at Bai Cang.
Saintess Lin Xinglan's Face was pale.
They watched helplessly as this monster, in front of the world's powerhouses, forcibly created a second top-tier combat force.
"Remember."
Su Yun's voice gradually faded.
That huge shadow began to dive deeper into the seabed.
"Do not try to provoke my patience."
"Watch my pasture well."
Rumbling.
Seawater flooded back.
Huge waves crashed.
That terrifying aura pressing down on everyone's heads finally disappeared completely.
Above the East Sea, the heavy rain gradually stopped.
A faint light cracked open in the sky.
But no one felt warm.
Only the messy edge of the city remained, along with the silent crowd standing where they were.
Inside the Investigation Bureau.
Chen Jianguo's fingers were deeply embedded into his thighs.
The technician's voice trembled.
"Chen Jianguo..."
"Bai Cang's energy reading has broken through the System's upper limit."
"He is now..."
The technician swallowed.
"Stronger than S-rank."
The hall was deathly silent.
The monster could not only eat people.
He was also granting power.
He was actually building his own team.
A Bai Cang who controlled the currents of reality and illusion.
An Executive Jiang Xu who possessed the rules of the World-Swallowing Prison Wolf.
Two sharp blades capable of cutting through the battlefield had both become "guard dogs" in front of that monster's door.
Su Yao covered her Face with both hands.
Those fragmented images from her past life surged in her mind once again.
Collapsed cities.
Kneeling crowds.
Human powerhouses who were contaminated by Abyss power but still claimed to be guardians.
And that indescribable throne.
She finally understood why the world-ending disaster of her past life was unstoppable.
Because before he truly descended.
More than half of humanity was already kneeling under his throne.
In front of the freight station.
Su Jianguo leaned over to Bai Cang, looking with a complex expression at this big brother who was glowing, his skin even looking much better.
"Big brother..."
"How do you feel now?"
Bai Cang clenched his newly grown right hand.
The currents of reality and illusion surged in his palm.
A raindrop fell.
The moment it touched his fingertips, it split into two drops.
One drop fell to the ground in reality.
One drop flowed back into the sky in illusion.
Bai Cang lifted his head, looking at the sky that had cleared up again.
He laughed.
The laughter was cold.
And carried an uncontrollable madness.
"How do I feel?"
"I feel—"
He slowly clenched his right hand.
In the distance, on the sea surface, a wave rose silently and then dissipated silently.
"I finally have the capital to flip the chessboard."