Chapter 55: Grief
A silent whisper echoed in her ears. Luo Ling struggled to open her eyes, but only a vast, empty darkness greeted her.
Where… was this?
Shouldn’t she still be in Baiyan Village?
What had that madwoman, the one who killed the Bone Doctor, done to her?
Luo Ling felt a heavy fog in her mind, her energy drained, as if lost in an endless void.
Even her memories were fading.
Images of the orphanage dimmed, then her first encounter with her sister, followed by her school days in Jiangcheng County, the fading stopping abruptly at the start of high school.
“No, this isn’t right…”
Luo Ling desperately tried to grasp her past, but it slipped through her fingers, even her sister’s face becoming blurry…
No…
Luo Ling instinctively curled up, hugging her knees. A hard texture met her fingertips, like scales.
Was this… her true self…?
“Xiao Bai… Xiao Bai! Wake up! Xiao Qian, you try, I’ll cover my ears…”
“Big Sister Bai, wake up…”
Faint voices seemed to be calling her, and the color slowly returned to Luo Ling’s eyes as her memories shifted to Baiyan Village.
No, this wasn’t the time to be lost in thought…
An Yu and Elsa were waiting for her…
And that madwoman… Although she didn’t know how the woman planned to merge with the Puppet Ballad, she had to stop her!
And the Seer, fighting against fate in the subterranean cavern…
She couldn’t lose herself here!
Luo Ling slowly raised her head, a faint light appearing in the darkness, the whispers growing clearer.
“I’ve dispelled her ability. Xiao Bai must have fainted. Xiao Qian, give her mouth-to-mouth.”
“I… really… can…”
“…Just do it.”
Luo Ling opened her eyes and saw Elsa, her eyes closed, her face flushed, leaning towards her.
Déjà vu.
Last time it had been An Yu.
“I’m awake.”
“Eek!”
Elsa let out a cute yelp and quickly retreated to her wheelchair, flustered.
“That’s great,” An Yu breathed a sigh of relief. “The madwoman has entered the village. What should we do now?”
Luo Ling was silent for a moment, composing herself, then took out her phone.
Still no signal.
“It’s best to wait for rescue, but it seems unlikely now,” Luo Ling said grimly. “She’s very strong, and she’s probably an Awakened One on the Oneiric path. If we can’t counter her ability, Xiao Qian’s strength is simply…”
“Don’t worry about her ability,” An Yu interrupted softly.
“Hmm?”
Luo Ling looked at An Yu, who had lowered her eyes.
“I… I ranked up. I can erase the effects of the madwoman’s ability, and for a while, I won’t be affected by it again.”
Ranked up at a time like this?
This was unexpected, but An Yu didn’t seem as happy as one might expect.
Luo Ling quickly understood why.
She looked up and saw An Yu’s grandparents among the Meat Puppets frozen by the madwoman.
The kind and loving elders had become grotesque, unspeakable creatures.
An Yu had learned the truth.
The deception Luo Ling and Elsa had maintained had finally been exposed.
But An Yu wasn’t consumed by grief as expected. Instead, she seemed unusually calm.
Her ability was to conceptually erase information…
Information, including memories.
An Yu could erase memories, but her power hadn’t been strong enough before, only capable of wiping information from SIM cards.
The complex memories of a human being weren’t so easily altered.
But… the intense emotions and grief, the desperate desire to forget, had allowed An Yu to take this crucial step on the Order path.
She had temporarily erased her attachment to her grandparents to prevent the overwhelming grief from hindering her actions.
“Don’t worry about me,” An Yu said softly. “Xiao Bai, Xiao Qian, go. I want to be… alone for a while.”
She sat down, her gaze fixed on the Meat Puppets that were once her grandparents.
Silent.
Luo Ling didn’t speak. She didn’t know what to say.
Words of comfort would only add salt to An Yu’s wounds.
After a moment of hesitation, Luo Ling nodded at An Yu and pushed Elsa’s wheelchair towards the shady area in the distance.
Only after they were gone did An Yu curl up, burying her face in her knees.
She stared blankly at the scattered fruits and vegetables, tears streaming down her face.
“Grandpa, Grandma…”
The emotions she had suppressed, the bonds that no ability could erase, finally erupted.
…
When Performer arrived at the shady area, almost all the villagers had transformed into Meat Puppets, hundreds of Grotesqueries, each equivalent to Sequence 350. Even a High-Order Awakened One would find this sight daunting.
But for Performer, with her blessing, Grotesqueries were the least of her worries.
The demonic eye on her fingertip opened, and all the Grotesqueries froze, unable to move.
Performer reached the shady area without any resistance and quickly located the entrance to the subterranean cavern.
Opening the entrance, the hellish scene of the cavern unfolded before her.
Even Performer, who had witnessed countless Grotesquery phenomena, couldn’t help but gasp, using psychological suggestion on herself several times to maintain her composure.
“It seems I didn’t underestimate this Grotesquery… it’s indeed around Sequence 120.”
Performer walked through the cavern, littered with corpses, her gaze sweeping over the wildly growing white reishi mushrooms.
She could tell that these mushrooms, seemingly independent entities, were actually just extensions of a single being, like its “limbs.”
Where was the Grotesquery’s true form?
Performer continued deeper into the cavern. The mushrooms grew larger and larger, and she finally stopped when she saw one the size of a small yard, pulsating rhythmically.
She cautiously reached out and touched the largest mushroom with her demonic eye, then breathed a sigh of relief.
“Fortunately, it hasn’t fully awakened yet…”
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