The End
Chapter 719: Dust returns to dust, soil returns to soil
“…”
Behind them, Chen Cheng looked at them with some disbelief. He opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to ask, “Wait a minute, what just happened? Am I the only one among everyone present who saw it?” However, before he could actually utter any unpleasant remarks, Chen Mo silently pinched the wound on his arm with one hand. Instantly, his face twisted, and he couldn’t spit out a single word.
Unfortunately, after missing this opportunity to speak, he would never have the chance to open his mouth again.
The young man standing at the very front, Wen Jianyan, slowly took a step forward. At some point, a cold copper oil lamp had appeared in his hand.
This was a dome light from the train, still containing unburned grayish-white lamp oil.
Accompanied by a “hissing” sound, a cluster of flames shot straight up.
Just like that, the bright red tongues of fire licked the bottom edge of the oil painting canvas bit by bit.
As the flames climbed upwards, the fabric of the oil painting also began to shrink and wrinkle. The paint on it began to melt bit by bit under the high-temperature roasting, dripping down tick-tock. The already cold, bizarre, and hair-raising picture became increasingly distorted.
A stench like a charred corpse immediately permeated the air.
However, after rising to a certain height, the flames could no longer spread further upwards.
In the firelight, the portrait that had originally been sitting motionless in the picture suddenly moved—!
“…?!”
Seeing this, Wen Jianyan’s heart palpitated, and he couldn’t help but take a half step back.
He knew that all of this was definitely not his hallucination. He immediately turned his head and said sternly: “Quick, the rest of the lamp oil!”
Although he hadn’t completely guessed the current anomaly, he had more or less anticipated that everything couldn’t go as smoothly as he hoped. So, for the sake of insurance, while the others were dismantling the auction stage, he went to the train and collected all the remaining lamp oil inside one by one, just in case of emergency.
More lamp oil was smashed onto the oil paintings one after another. The raging fire burned increasingly fiercely, almost as blindingly white as magnesium.
But even so, the fire line still climbed slowly, unable to advance an inch.
Just like this, under the illumination of the firelight, the “figures” residing in the oil paintings regained their mobility one after another.
One after another…
The blurry-faced undead slowly stood up and began to walk outside the oil painting frame.
Soon, the first one stepped out of the frame.
Its figure was not tall. From the neck up, it was a patch of darkness, and its facial features could not be seen. The only thing that could be seen clearly was…
A pair of hands placed properly and squarely in front, old and shriveled, like tree bark.
“Urgh—”
In an instant, as if taking a heavy blow head-on, Ji Guan staggered and retreated two steps backwards. He raised his hand to press on his temples, his face turning pale in a flash.
As a psychic, his perception was keener than anyone else’s.
He could feel that the “things” entering their space at this moment were incomparably powerful and incomparably evil, far exceeding any existence he had encountered before… That oppressive feeling, thick almost to a substantial degree, rushed straight at him, almost destroying his willpower right then and there.
This was no ordinary existence—but a ghost that had been placed in the innermost core of Nightmare, nourished and fed by the bloody aura here for who knows how many years—
Beneath his skin, the evil ghost that had originally been dormant for a long time seemed to have also sniffed out the aura of its own kind, and began to stir restlessly.
Ji Guan’s forehead was covered in cold sweat, and he shouted sharply:
“Careful!!”
The old person walked very slowly, but with every step forward, the surrounding light dimmed a bit, as if the darkness deep within the oil painting was also swept out along with her figure, surging out and dispersing behind her like thick, turbid fog.
The surrounding temperature dropped rapidly. In just a few short seconds, it was actually bone-piercingly cold.
Wen Jianyan only felt cold sweat flowing down his back.
He knew in his heart that in their current condition, they could no longer withstand a second bitter battle.
Almost everyone was like a lamp running out of oil, almost at the end of their rope. But if this situation continued—
Suddenly, caught off guard—the old person in front of them stopped her steps, and actually just stood still like that.
Staring at the motionless, gloomy figure in front of him, Wen Jianyan froze, as if suddenly reacting, and abruptly turned his head to look to his side.
Wu Zhu stood in the center of the roaring darkness, fine golden lines flowing beneath his skin. Deep within a patch of suffocating, gloomy shadow, his eyes burned coldly, like two specks of ghost fire.
In an instant, the pressure that had been accumulating in the air for a long time was released in a flash. Violent power swept in from all directions.
In this giant wave that was like toppling mountains and overturning seas, He was like a stubbornly nailed-in hard reef, protecting the peace of the square inch of land beside Him.
Then…
He slowly took a step forward.
Ji Guan was dumbfounded, staring in shock at the scene before him. That existence, which had just brought him endless fear and threat, slowly—almost unwillingly—took a step back.
One step, two steps, three steps.
Like darkness retreating before flames, like a tide breaking apart before a reef.
All the “figures” seemed to equally feel the same compulsory force. With every step the other party took forward, they had to take a step back. Just like this, they were forcefully “pressed” back into the portraits where they originally belonged!
Wu Zhu slightly turned his head.
Golden cracks extended across his cheekbones.
His gaze landed on Wen Jianyan. In that gaze like ghost fire, only an intimidating focus remained.
“…You can continue.”
Wen Jianyan woke up as if from a dream. He turned his head and said sharply: “Quick—”
At such a critical juncture of life and death, even the wounded took action, giving their all, not leaving a trace of leeway, not sparing the slightest bit of strength—one lamp, another lamp, and another. The grayish-white lamp oil was melted by the flames, and the crimson tongues of fire leaped as if wanting to burn everything down. All the lamp oil was smashed up there with everything they had!
However, even though the flames wreaked havoc, the paint melted, and the picture distorted, the portraits were like they couldn’t be completely destroyed. They always existed, resisted, and maintained their completeness against the outside world.
Soon, the last lamp of oil was also used up.
But it wasn’t enough, still not enough.
The figures distorted in the flames. Under Wu Zhu’s suppression, they couldn’t leave the picture frames, but they were unwilling to dissipate just like this.
Looking at the cracking, increasingly dense golden lines on Wu Zhu’s face, Wen Jianyan only felt his heart burning with anxiety.
He looked around irritably, wanting to find a method to break the current situation.
They couldn’t drag it out like this any longer, they had to hurry…
Suddenly, the Dead Sea Scrolls that had always been held by him strangely slipped from his hand at this moment. That texture like human skin just abruptly slid down from his fingertips, as if possessing its own personal will, falling from his hand.
—?!
Wen Jianyan’s pupils shrank, and he subconsciously reached out to grab it, but halfway there, he suddenly stopped abruptly mid-air.
Just like that, he watched helplessly as the Dead Sea Scrolls fell into the raging fire.
In just the blink of an eye, the flames, burning fiercely under the catalysis of corpse oil, instantly licked the cover.
Rustle!
The pages of the book moved without wind in the flames. The pages made of human skin flipped rapidly. In just an instant, everything within sight seemed to burn along with it! Everything around fell into a purgatory sea of fire. The air seemed to turn into flowing magma, pouncing straight towards the surroundings!
Wen Jianyan shouted hoarsely: “Fall back!!!”
Everyone pulled and supported each other, stumbling backwards to avoid being dragged into the raging fire.
However, even though they had retreated timely enough, they still inescapably suffered the invasion of the high temperature. Sharp, burning pain came from their faces, and every breath was like wanting to burn their lungs to ash.
Wen Jianyan coughed, raising one hand to block his eyes.
Under the strong light and heat wave like a magnesium flare, he barely opened his eyes to a slit, trying his best to look into the distance.
Countless thin snakes formed by flames leaped up, and void-like shadows emerged along with them. They wrapped the raging fire, stirring up into a surging howling wind in the darkness, like giant titans, violently pouncing towards those portraits!
Amidst the raging fire and hurricane, came sharp whistling—despair, resentment, fury—roars mixed with countless emotions soared into the sky, condensing into terrifying power.
The canvas curled, the paint melted.
The fire line that had originally stopped moving forward advanced step by step, capturing cities and seizing lands.
Within the oil paintings melted and distorted by the flames, the “shadows” with blurred features were still struggling unwillingly. However, countless arms condensed from raging fire grabbed them, holding them in a death grip, and forcefully dragging them towards the deeper parts of the flames!
Four hundred and eight lives, four hundred and eight undead.
The “Dead Sea Scrolls”, carrying blood and unwillingness, future and hope, was destined from its birth to be inseparable from Nightmare, like a virus evolved from source code—even if the residual pages were torn out and the original book sealed away, Nightmare could not pull it out from its own system—that “408” that repeatedly appeared again and again was the ineradicable brand it left behind.
And not far away, a hunched, old figure stood there.
The outline of that figure was equally ignited by the raging fire, but it was as if it didn’t feel it, remaining motionless like a rock.
It looked towards Wu Zhu’s direction from afar, its originally straight shoulders slumping downwards, and then…
It bent down and slowly took a bow.
“BOOM!!!!”
Accompanied by a deafening roar, the heat wave exploded before everyone’s eyes. It spread outwards with destructive power, destroying everything nearby—
Under the impact, Wen Jianyan staggered backwards, but the next second, the excessively piercing, scorching light and heat before his eyes were completely blocked.
The night spread open before his eyes, like gentle wings.
Pitch-black darkness where one couldn’t see their own fingers diffused.
It swallowed everything.
The raging fire was blocked outside, and everyone was firmly protected within.
Finally…
The darkness gradually dispersed.
The raging fire had extinguished, leaving billowing heat waves in the air.
On the walls that had been smoked beyond recognition, hung crookedly twisted picture frames whose original forms could not be identified, deeply melted into the walls, like charred human bones. The canvas had been completely burned away, along with the figures inside.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
“…”
Everyone supported each other amidst the mess and got up with difficulty.
They looked around blankly, panting rapidly, seemingly not having recovered from what just happened.
Without the slightest warning, everything around suddenly began to shake. The vibrations transmitted wave after wave from deep within the ground. In just the blink of an eye, it went from slight to violent. It seemed the entire world was trembling along with it.
Rumble, rumble—
From deep within the ground, muffled sounds came.
The originally intact ceiling cracked at an unstoppable speed. Giant cracks grew madly, and the bizarre patterns originally spanning overhead became fragmented along with it. Bricks and rubble of various sizes smashed downwards, making loud, crashing noises.
Wherever the eye could see, everything seemed to be collapsing along with it.
Everything, everything, was proclaiming a reality:
They succeeded.
The invisible heavy burden was lifted from their shoulders. Intense fatigue and relief rose from deep within their bodies. For a moment, it actually gave people the illusion of wanting to cry bitterly.
“Is it destroyed?” Yang Fan, unable to see, raised his head, looking around blankly and helplessly.
“En.” Wen Ya lowered her eyes, holding back tears, and answered, “Yes, destroyed.”
“It’s all over, right?”
“…”
“Right?”
After this question, there was a long silence. Everyone couldn’t help but freeze and turn their heads to look in Wen Jianyan’s direction.
The young man didn’t say a word, his gaze lingering for a long time on the remains of those picture frames, not knowing what he was thinking about.
“Hey… hey!”
Such a long silence made everyone start to tense up uncontrollably.
“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong?”
“…No.” Wen Jianyan came back to his senses, shook his head, and said slowly, “Nothing’s wrong.”
Yes, it was over.
All the bloodline souls that established the initial contract had been completely pulled out. Nightmare’s final connection with this world had broken right here.
Losing the “anchor point” based in this world, Nightmare could no longer invade in.
Everything seemed logical, without any loopholes.
But…
For some unknown reason, there seemed to be a faint uneasiness growing in his heart.
“It’s just…” Wen Jianyan quickly found the source of this uneasiness. After hesitating for a few seconds, he spoke, “I just feel like… we encountered a bit too few obstacles.”
“…What?” Figaro turned his head and looked at him, as if hearing some Arabian Nights tale, his voice rising in disbelief, “Few???”
Where exactly were the obstacles they encountered few?
Narrowly escaping death on the train, risking their lives on the cruise ship—one after another, forcefully chopping off Nightmare’s right and left arms. From the Gentleman, to Ye Lin, Dan Zhu, and then to Zhang Yunsheng, until all its chess pieces were useless, and all its methods cut off.
Every step along this journey had been so arduous. For every inch they advanced, they had paid a bloody price for it.
“No, that’s not what I mean…” Wen Jianyan shook his head and spoke, “It’s that ever since the train entered the cruise ship, Nightmare seems to have never given any reaction to our actions again, hasn’t it?”
How afraid Nightmare was of them getting on the train back then.
It didn’t hesitate to use all its power, playing all its trump cards one by one. Whether it was piecing together a fake instance using the wreckage of the Lucky Cruise Ship, or reawakening the formless No.1. All of this, everything, was merely to stop them from boarding the train, to stop them from entering this floor.
However, when the train really entered here, Nightmare never made any reaction again.
The location of the portraits was not dynamically changing in real-time, otherwise, they could have completely been moved out of the auction venue. And the portraits’ struggle and counterattack in the raging fire was also their autonomous choice. In this process, Nightmare’s existence was close to nil.
Why?
Could it be that because it had lost all its trump cards, it simply gave up resistance? Was everything really this simple?
As the surrounding shaking became increasingly violent, the uneasiness in his heart expanded along with it.
Suddenly, Wu Zhu raised his head. His face revealed an unprecedentedly grave expression:
“Wait, no.”
BOOM!!
Almost the instant his voice fell, a rock as tall as several people smashed down, leaving a crater several meters deep on the ground, making a loud, crashing noise, but it couldn’t cover up his cold, tense voice.
“It hasn’t left.”
Crash.
The ceiling overhead collapsed completely.
A gust of icy sea breeze, carrying a cold, gloomy, fishy smell, was delivered from above.
Everyone seemed to realize something. They slowly, almost sluggishly, raised their heads.
The ceiling above had been completely destroyed at some unknown point. All the floors pressing down from above seemed to have disappeared along with it. Further up, was the icy, boundless night sky—however, unlike the dark, lightless sky in their memory, this time, the sky had turned completely red through and through.
It looked as if it had been completely torn apart by some terrifying power.
Countless huge, giant eyeballs rolled in the sky. Some were as small as palms, some as large as tall buildings. They squeezed against each other, almost occupying the entire sky. Endless red light looked down from above, like a blood-colored curtain, enveloping everything within.
Wen Jianyan looked up at those familiar eyeballs, feeling as if he had fallen into an ice cavern in an instant.
He suddenly understood.
When did this red, scar-like tear in the sky appear?
Right.
It was on the train.
When he was sent onto the train by Uncle De from the Place of Origin and returned to the present timeline, looking through the train window, he saw the blood-red scar in the sky for the first time.
Within the tear, eyeballs rolled.
As Wen Jianyan got closer and closer to the truth, Nightmare finally realized that it was no longer safe. So, from that time on, it began to prepare for two eventualities.
The first—which was also what Nightmare had been doing until now—was to stop all of Wen Jianyan’s plans of destruction: whether it was stopping him from returning to the cruise ship, or boarding the train. As long as Wen Jianyan tried to do something, it tried every possible means to stop him.
The second, however, was even more hidden, and even more core.
Nightmare knew that once its connection point with this world was destroyed, it would be completely expelled from this world. All the effort it had put in here, all the layouts it had set up, would all fall short of success and go to waste.
To stop all this from happening, there was only one method that could solve it once and for all:
Completely invade.
Making its connection with this world no longer just that paper contract. Deeply rooting itself within this world, like a pus sore firmly growing into the skin and muscle. Even if the anchor point was destroyed, it couldn’t be driven out from within.
As time passed, that tear was pulled bigger and bigger, bigger and bigger.
More and more eyeballs drilled in from the crack, occupying more and more of the sky.
It manipulated Zhang Yunsheng to interfere with the train’s progress, and used Dan Zhu to destroy the living forces on the cruise ship.
All of this, everything, was only for one purpose.
That was…
Total invasion.
