Chapter 88: No One Will Remember Her Face
Within the incubation barrier.
The silver-haired girl walked, witnessing scene after scene.
She wasn’t in Jiangcheng County anymore, but a strange, unfamiliar city.
This was… a projection of a city from the past.
An unidentifiable stench filled the air, a mix of sickly sweet decay and the metallic tang of blood.
As far as the eye could see, the city was littered with mangled corpses, the gruesome scene a testament to… the Puppet Ballad’s utter devastation.
Disturbing white fungi bloomed from almost every corpse, a cruel reminder of their “kindred.” The people who had died in this city had all been under the Puppet Ballad’s control.
This was a city… of only Meat Puppets.
A lone figure sat amidst the carnage, waiting silently.
Luo Ling walked over and sat beside her.
“Ji Ying.”
“Mm.”
Ji Ying nodded slightly.
“This is your memory, right?”
Luo Ling asked softly, but it was more of a statement.
From the moment she entered the incubation barrier, she had entered Ji Ying’s domain.
Luo Ling hadn’t resisted the “egg’s” pull, allowing herself to be drawn into Ji Ying’s memory.
Because this was her only chance to speak to Ji Ying in her current state.
The Ji Ying here was just a memory; her last shred of sanity remained on the train, her desperate struggle reaching its inevitable conclusion.
“It’s ironic, isn’t it?” Ji Ying murmured, her usually indifferent face stained with tears. “In the end, I’ve become the very thing I hate the most…”
From their very first meeting, Ji Ying had told Luo Ling that she wanted to kill the Puppet Ballad.
But now… she had become its puppet, the source of its revival. This incubation barrier was her creation, and once the incubation was complete, the Puppet Ballad’s true form would emerge.
“Ji Ying, can you tell me your story?” Luo Ling asked, turning to her. “I want to hear it.”
Although she had pieced together some of it from Artist’s fragmented memories, she wanted to hear it from Ji Ying herself.
Even memories destined to be forgotten by the world deserved to be remembered.
“Actually, I’m not from this Boundary,” Ji Ying looked up and said slowly. “I come from… another Boundary, one that has since been annihilated.
“A Boundary of complete Disorder.”
A “Boundary” was the division between the physical world and the Realm of Nothingness.
Normally, there was no such thing as a Boundary.
But three hundred years ago, when the ten Taboos fell silent, they caused a “Disorder” across the world, and Boundaries were born.
The relationship between time and space was shattered, different parts of the world experiencing time differently, each time layer becoming a Boundary.
If the world were a Jenga tower, each block representing a period in time, stacked one upon another,
Each time period a layer, the entire tower the history of the world,
Some blocks, due to certain incidents, were removed, and the empty spaces in the tower became places beyond the Boundary, known as the Realm of Nothingness.
Grotesqueries and Awakened Ones who had encountered Authorities could see the Realm of Nothingness, this difference in perception creating another layer of danger, which was why Li Shaoheng had been so cautious.
The current method for those aware of the Boundary to travel through the Realm of Nothingness was within vehicles of the outer world, such as trains and planes, but this method could only take them to other locations within the same Boundary.
To travel to a different Boundary, more specialized methods were required.
The Spirit Walker was such a valuable Sacred Tool, capable of traversing Boundaries.
In Artist’s memories, they had come to Jiangcheng County from a place called “Victoria,” a Boundary different from Jiangcheng County’s, earlier on the timeline, perhaps by one or two hundred years.
And Ji Ying came from a later Boundary, where the Puppet Ballad’s disaster had spiraled out of control.
Over a third of Asia had fallen, its people turned into zombie-like beings.
Their bodies, consumed by white mycelia, only their brains and consciousness remaining, watched in horror as their bodies committed unspeakable acts.
Consuming flesh and blood was the most “acceptable” act; the more horrifying scenes were beyond description, far more terrifying than any zombie movie.
Like the end of the world.
Finally, after countless sacrifices, Ji Ying and her team had managed to kill the Puppet Ballad, removing this Disorder Boundary caused by the Grotesquery from the world’s history.
But they hadn’t expected the Puppet Ballad to have planted an “egg” in another Boundary beforehand. This “egg” had inherited the Puppet Ballad’s consciousness and was about to become a new Puppet Ballad.
If the Puppet Ballad was revived, the Disorder Boundary they had painstakingly erased would return, the missing block placed back in the tower.
To prevent this, Ji Ying had decisively used her ability, Illusion, to erase her past and implanted the Puppet Ballad’s white mycelia within herself, allowing her to follow the trail to Jiangcheng County and attempt to kill it completely.
And because of Illusion, her own past was gone, preventing any connection to that terrifying, annihilated future.
As for the method of killing the Puppet Ballad…
“All my teammates, including my captain, died for it,” Ji Ying said calmly, revealing her expected fate.
In that annihilated Disorder Boundary, this was how they had ended the apocalypse.
Merging with the Puppet Ballad, using consciousness to kill consciousness.
However, the Puppet Ballad in Jiangcheng County had hidden itself too well, never revealing any weaknesses. Ji Ying couldn’t find its true form.
She could only continuously merge with the spawned “eggs,” trying to find a clue, but ultimately, she failed.
And in her failure, she had become another disaster.
This was the most tragic outcome for Ji Ying.
She wasn’t afraid of death; she had been prepared for it from the beginning. But now…
“Can we… still succeed?”
Ji Ying turned slightly, looking at Luo Ling, who had come to see her off.
“…Of course we can,” Luo Ling nodded firmly.
“That’s… wonderful…”
A smile appeared on Ji Ying’s face.
She reached out and cupped Luo Ling’s face, her eyes sparkling.
“Thank you, Miss Luo Ling…”
For staying with me, even in my final moments.
The city of the undead in her memory began to crumble, its fragments dissipating, along with Ji Ying’s figure, completely merging into nothingness.
This meant that Ji Ying’s memories… had been completely erased from this world.
From now on, no one, besides Luo Ling, would remember this quiet woman who had sacrificed everything to kill the Puppet Ballad.
This was Ji Ying’s final act, her refusal to become another Puppet Ballad, another disaster, another Disorder Boundary.
From this day forward, no one would remember the woman named “Ji Ying.” She, and her despairing Boundary, were now erased from existence.
Luo Ling closed her eyes, a faint stinging sensation in her nose.
When she opened her white, pupilless eyes again, she saw an enormous fungus, reaching towards the sky, rooted in the center of Jiangcheng County.
The surrounding buildings were covered in mycelia, the corpses on the ground, not even their bones spared, completely consumed.
The moment Ji Ying lost control, the Puppet Ballad’s incubation had begun.
The only reason it had waited for Luo Ling’s arrival to create the incubation barrier was because of Ji Ying’s final act of resistance. Even as a Grotesquery, she had instinctively tried to minimize the scale of the disaster.
Luo Ling walked towards the enormous fungus, and a few of its extending mycelia threads touched her, wrapping around her fingertips almost affectionately.
Even knowing that this wasn’t Ji Ying’s will, but merely the “egg’s” instinctive connection to the Puppet Ballad, Luo Ling couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness.
Silent tears dripped onto the ground, instantly sprouting tiny fungi.
“An incubation site… yes, this is the Puppet Ballad’s incubation site…”
The silver-haired girl slowly raised her head, her expression hardening.
“And I… am also the Puppet Ballad.”
“Let’s settle this, for this world, for… her final wish.”
…
“The incubation barrier is expanding, we must evacuate the residents of Jiangcheng County immediately!”
“The Grotesquery energy at the center of the incubation site is rapidly increasing, prepare to face a High-Risk Grotesquery!”
“The Company is calling for all P7 and above specialists within Boundary Twenty-Three, both regular and outsourced. Issue a warning to all Awakened organizations!”
One urgent message after another was sent out. The Company had classified this as an S-level emergency, and even the P9 director stationed at headquarters was preparing to depart.
Dormant High-Risk Grotesqueries weren’t uncommon. Even if they knew of their existence, it was difficult to pinpoint their location. In most cases, only their spawned “eggs” were active, which a team led by a P8 specialist could handle.
But an awakened High-Risk Grotesquery…
Was a completely different matter.
High-Risk Grotesqueries possessed Authorities, each one capable of causing unimaginable disasters.
The reason Artist and the others had chosen to act was not only because of the matching path, but also because the Puppet Ballad had seemed so weak.
They hadn’t expected… this weakness to be a complete facade. It had hidden most of its power within Ji Ying, a self-restricting “egg,” allowing it to create the incubation barrier without warning.
Once the incubation barrier appeared, most countermeasures were useless. They could either wait for the High-Risk Grotesquery to fully hatch and emerge, or send a team to infiltrate the incubation barrier and kill it while it was still incubating.
The Company was mobilizing its forces for the second option.
Within Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital, almost all the members of the exchange group were gathered in Ward Zero, including Li Shaoheng, who had just returned from the incubation site.
But Liu Songyi, usually the one in charge, was absent. He was using his police status to evacuate the residents of Jiangcheng County, both to save their lives and to prevent them from becoming nourishment for the unknown Grotesquery.
No, it was no longer unknown.
“Now, I’ll share the information I have.”
Li Shaoheng forwarded an urgent intel report from Company headquarters in the group chat. He glanced at Ji Shinian, who was still unconscious, then at a young woman who was yawning repeatedly.
This mysterious administrator, who had never appeared in the Patient Exchange Group before, looked like she was in her early twenties but wore clothes that didn’t belong to this era.
She wore round-rimmed glasses, her long hair in two old-fashioned braids, and a simple, neatly tailored dress, as if she had stepped out of a Republican-era film.
But Li Shaoheng, knowing the truth about Boundaries, suddenly considered another possibility, though he wasn’t sure.
Because this seemingly Republican-era young woman was too weak, just a Mid-Order Awakened One.
“Why do you keep staring at me?” The woman raised an eyebrow, a heroic air about her. “Go on with your explanation, I won’t interrupt.”
“…”
Li Shaoheng averted his gaze and said,
“The forbidden stone tablet that records Grotesqueries has revealed its true name. Sequence Forty-Nine, Silent Demise: Puppet Ballad.”
When he first saw the name in the Company intel, Li Shaoheng had felt a sense of familiarity, but he couldn’t place it.
It seemed to be just a feeling.
His words silenced the room.
Forty-Nine.
Any Awakened One who had encountered a Grotesquery knew what this Sequence number meant.
Li Shaoheng had been calling it a High-Risk Grotesquery, but it had only been a speculation, and the Awakened Ones in Jiangcheng County had held onto a sliver of hope, perhaps Li Shaoheng’s judgment had been wrong.
But now, with confirmation from the forbidden stone tablet, the cruel truth was undeniable.
“There’s one more thing, and this is the reason I called you all here,” Li Shaoheng’s expression turned grim. “About the White Witch in your exchange group.”
An Yu and Elsa were the first to react, their faces filled with anxiety, while the others, except for Shen Miaoyun, looked confused.
Shen Miaoyun blinked. She hadn’t forgotten this “colleague,” they were both healers, although they hadn’t interacted much.
“Based on various indications, she is likely an apostle of the Puppet Ballad,” Li Shaoheng continued.
An apostle!
Those who understood the meaning of “apostle” were shocked, while those who didn’t looked puzzled.
“In layman’s terms, it means ‘minion,’” the Republican-era woman helpfully added.
“Impossible!” An Yu immediately stood up, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Little Bai… how could she be a minion of that terrifying monster?!”
She had experienced the Baiyan Village incident firsthand, her life saved by Little Bai’s resurrection ability, and she had witnessed Little Bai defeat the terrifying Grotesquery in the subterranean cavern.
To say that Little Bai was a minion of that Grotesquery who had slaughtered the villagers…
How could that be?!
“Big Sister Bai is not a minion!”
Bella, using her shrill voice, spoke for Elsa, the foreign, red-haired girl’s face filled with stubborn defiance as she “looked” at Li Shaoheng.
To her, the Company people were outsiders, indirectly responsible for the deaths of Miss Luo Ling and her sister.
Although she had been rescued, after experiencing such horrors, how could she fully trust the Company?
If she had to choose between Big Sister Bai and the Company, she would choose Big Sister Bai.
“I’m merely speculating based on the available evidence. I’ve only met this White Witch once,” Li Shaoheng’s gaze shifted. “I certainly hope she’s not. The existence of a Grotesquery apostle would greatly affect the situation.
“If you want to refute this possibility, then tell me everything you know about the White Witch, including her age, place of origin, address, and real-life identity.”
After Li Shaoheng posed this question, Elsa and An Yu, who had wanted to defend the White Witch, were silenced.
Thinking about it, they knew… almost nothing about Bai?
Bai had always been mysterious, appearing only when necessary. Logically, with her striking appearance, she should be easily recognizable, but they had never heard of anyone like her in Jiangcheng County.
“Even after using all our resources, the Company couldn’t find anything. Her past and origins are a complete mystery,” Li Shaoheng said grimly. All resources, of course, including Other Shore path abilities.
Unfortunately, only Ji Shinian was truly skilled at finding people, even the Speaker had to ask for his help.
Even he had been almost helpless against this White Witch and was still unconscious.
“We don’t know the current situation inside the incubation barrier, but we need to determine our course of action. The Company has mobilized all available forces. We have to salvage the situation before it deteriorates further.
“Now, we need to know the weaknesses of the White Witch, and the Puppet Ballad.
“Please tell us everything you know… everything about the White Witch.”
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