24: Chapter 24 Neither Human nor Monster: The Mysterious Old Man Reappears

Splash!!

Outside Rebirth City, the dark red Buddha light and boundless blood water soon erupted into a more intense collision!

The two rule powers constantly repelled and strangled each other.

Inside the Main Hall of the Buddhist Temple, Lin Chuan's stone Buddha statue body also trembled violently.

That [Weeping Blood Head] was, after all, an S-rank Taboo!

Even though Lin Chuan had been promoted to A-rank and had Controlled multiple Rule Abilities simultaneously, he still seemed somewhat inadequate when facing it.

At this moment, one shocking crack after another began to spread from the chest of Lin Chuan's Buddha statue... "Gurgle... Wah!!"

In the dark mid-air, the head constantly made strange noises.

It was now like a bottomless blood spring; the blood flowing from its seven orifices seemed endless, carrying the power to corrode all rules as it slowly ate away at Lin Chuan's Buddha light.

"Not good..."

Lin Chuan gritted his teeth to endure.

He could feel his rule power being rapidly dismantled.

On the high walls of Rebirth City, blood wriggled like spreading tentacles or a fungal carpet... about to swallow the entire city!

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle... Under the coverage of the blood water, the solid city walls were like melting candles, rapidly softening and collapsing.

Some buildings on the outskirts of the city had already been completely submerged.

"I can't continue like this; the Second-Layer Ghost Domain can only be maintained for three minutes..."

Lin Chuan's mood was very heavy.

The time left for him was getting shorter and shorter.

If he lost the ten-fold rule power amplification brought by the Second-Layer Ghost Domain, he would completely lose the qualification to fight against the [Weeping Blood Head].

On the illusionary panel deep within his consciousness, the maintenance countdown for the Second-Layer Abnormality was constantly popping up:

[30 seconds...]

[29 seconds...]

[28 seconds...]

[...]

Buzz!!

As the final second passed.

The dark red light screen shrouding Rebirth City instantly dimmed.

The Buddha light that could originally barely hold on also became like a candle in the wind at this moment, teetering on the edge of collapse.

Whoosh, splash!!

Outside Rebirth City, the blood water, having lost the obstruction of the Buddha light, instantly let out a roar and frantically poured into the city.

An aura of despair once again shrouded the entire city.

Lin Chuan looked at the surging sea of blood but did not give up.

He opened the wish power mall, preparing to use the remaining over one million Power Of Will points to exchange for Abnormal Items!

He was going to make one final gamble!!

However.

Right at this moment.

Lin Chuan suddenly felt a surge of heat in his chest.

He looked down.

The Blood-red Handprint that had been imprinted on his chest, coming from that Mysterious Old Man in Qingquan Village, actually flared with a layer of eerie black light at this moment.

That black light was deep and cold, as if it connected to another unknown dimension.

Immediately after.

A withered, hunched figure slowly walked out from that black light.

He appeared out of thin air above Rebirth City, standing between Lin Chuan's Buddha light and that sky-covering sea of blood.

On his body, there were still no rule fluctuations.

He just stood there quietly, like an ordinary old man in the twilight of his life.

But the moment he appeared.

The entire world seemed to stand still.

The tumultuous sea of blood stopped spreading.

That head that had been screaming strangely also seemed to have its mouth sealed, the sound coming to an abrupt halt.

"It's him..."

Lin Chuan looked at that back, and a storm of shock rose in his heart.

The Mysterious Old Man who had appeared in Qingquan Village and taken the Heart Spring Ghost away!

How could he appear here?

Was it because of that handprint?

Just as Lin Chuan was filled with doubt and uncertainty.

The old man slowly raised his head.

In an instant... the sky changed.

The sky, which had been crowded with darkness and Buddha light, instantly turned into a sea of dark red.

And amidst that endless dark red.

A huge, blood-red moon slowly rose.

No! That wasn't a moon.

It was a giant, slowly crawling... eyeball!

The eyeball looked down coldly at everything below, as if scrutinizing everything in the world!!

Under the gaze of this eyeball.

Whether it was Lin Chuan, who had just been promoted to A-rank, or that S-Rank First Order taboo [Weeping Blood Head].

Both were firmly suppressed.

Whoosh! Whoosh!!

That infant head trembled violently.

It seemed to be in fear, shuddering... or rather, it had instinctively sensed danger.

Without any hesitation.

The blood water that had been rampaging instantly surged back, all of it retreating into its seven orifices.

Then.

It turned around, transformed into a streak of blood light, and rapidly fled into the distance.

Seeing this, Lin Chuan was horrified.

It was fleeing for its life!

An S-rank Taboo was actually fleeing for its life!!

However.

The old man just quietly watched the direction it was fleeing, not making any move to chase.

He simply slowly extended that hand, which was as withered as a tree branch.

Toward the Void Realm, he made a light grasping motion.

Crack!!

The Void Realm thousands of meters away suddenly shattered like a mirror.

Immediately after, accompanied by an extremely piercing cry.

The S-rank Taboo [Weeping Blood Head], which had already fled quite far, was suddenly caught by an invisible force.

Squelch!

Lin Chuan saw from afar that its head... had actually been crushed in half!

Half of a shattered head, dripping with blood, appeared out of thin air in the old man's hand.

While the remaining half continued to flee, disappearing without a trace.

The old man looked down at the half-head in his hand, his eyes cloudy and filled with indifference.

Then, he opened his mouth and, as if eating an ordinary fruit... slowly chewed up the half of the taboo head and swallowed it into his stomach bit by bit.

Having done all this.

The old man turned around.

With those cloudy, lifeless eyes, he looked at Lin Chuan inside the Rebirth Temple.

Lin Chuan's entire body went stiff; even though he was now an A-rank Abnormality, in front of the old man, he still felt like a lamb for the slaughter.

He tried to summon the panel to check the old man's information.

But the panel was completely blank.

It gave no prompts whatsoever.

The old man looked at Lin Chuan for a long time.

In that gaze, there was no joy, anger, sorrow, or happiness; it was like a pool of stagnant water... After a long while.

The old man's figure began to slowly fade.

The terrifying Blood-red Eyeball in the sky also subsequently dissipated.

When everything returned to calm.

The sea of blood outside Rebirth City had disappeared, leaving only a complete mess of the land.

The crisis seemed to be resolved.

But Lin Chuan's mood was not lightened in the slightest.

Instead, it became even heavier.

Because he discovered.

The blood handprint on his chest, which was originally only the size of a palm, had now doubled in size!

Moreover, its color had become darker, like it had been branded on with a branding iron, and it was still faintly burning.

"Is this... the mark deepening?"

Lin Chuan used his 360-degree perspective to stare intently at the mark on his chest!

At first glance, there was nothing special about this handprint.

But after being promoted to an A-rank Abnormality, Lin Chuan could clearly sense that the rules constituting the handprint were terrifying!

They were even countless times more terrifying than the rule power released by that S-rank Taboo [Weeping Blood Head]!!