BFET Chapter 69

Rebirth

With a muffled thud, Xie Yi fell unexpectedly.

He quickly braced himself and stood up, raising his head to look around warily. This was a very wide platform, and he seemed to be at its edge.

The surrounding light was dim, but it became brighter and brighter as he looked ahead. He could see many statues in the brightest central area. The sculptures were of various shapes and colors, but they all maintained the posture of worshiping towards the very center.

Many black and red, unfamiliar and strange symbols floated around the statues.

Xie Yi instantly realized that this was the outer altar Shen Shu had mentioned.

These strange black and red symbols should be the inscriptions that needed to be destroyed first.

After coming into contact with the illusion outside, he had arrived here directly, but why had Shen Shu disappeared? Where would he go? Besides the altar, were there any other places here?

Xie Yi pondered the words Shen Shu had said, staring ahead without immediately stepping forward. Instead, he raised his head and looked at the darkness above, which seemed to have no end. Then, he looked behind him, and the darkness there also seemed endless.

He hesitated for a moment, then cautiously turned around and took a few tentative steps outwards. The countless sharp and overlapping chanting sounds that he had only just escaped from rushed over instantly!

Xie Yi’s scalp exploded immediately, and he staggered back.

Cold sweat condensed on his forehead and slid down his cheeks.

He took a deep breath and, as he regained his senses and looked again at the bright center, his thoughts did not stop. It seemed that the illusion outside was what enveloped the altar. They had come in from there, and although he didn’t know why they had been separated, since he was now alone on the outer altar, the vanished Shen Shu must be on the central altar.

Following the order Shen Shu had given, he needed to destroy the inscriptions and then send the heart to the central altar to start the ritual. There must be a path to the central altar hidden here. The surroundings were inaccessible, so it could only be the middle. He had to destroy the inscriptions first.

Thinking this, Xie Yi strode towards the group of statues in the center.

At the same time, below the same location.

Shen Shu was standing on a turbulent, illusory sea, looking rather nonchalantly at a looming shadow in the illusory sea curtain beside him.

“You worm is very strange.” A neutral voice, sometimes old and sometimes young, sometimes childish and sometimes mature, came from all directions with a cryptic tone, “You don’t have those lowly, disgusting smells on you. On the contrary, I find you kindred. I can feel the aura of my own race’s bloodline on you, but you are not of my race. Why do you have the aura of my race’s bloodline? What are you?”

“Is it possible that what you’re sensing is this heart?” Shen Shu moved his eyes slightly, “As the bloodline of the most ancient god in the universe, don’t you even recognize your father’s heart? Ksylla.”

“My father’s heart, I naturally know, otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” As Ksylla’s voice appeared, a gigantic figure floated onto the sea curtain, “Although the aura of your bloodline is very faint, I won’t mistake it. Since you know that I am the most ancient god in the universe, you must have accepted my race’s inheritance through my father’s heart, so you came here? Bringing another worm, what do you want to do with the ritual?”

As soon as He finished speaking, Xie Yi’s image appeared simultaneously on the surrounding sea curtains and the turbulent, illusory sea surface beneath Shen Shu’s feet. In the image, Xie Yi was carefully weaving through the floating red and black inscriptions, destroying them.

“The aura on this worm is also a bit strange. It’s similar to yours, but he doesn’t have the aura of my race’s bloodline like you. Yet despite that, he can still withstand the backlash of the inscriptions.” Ksylla’s figure churned in the sea curtain, “What have you done?”

Shen Shu lowered his eyes and looked at Xie Yi on the sea surface, not responding.

But Ksylla didn’t care, “It doesn’t matter. Whatever you’ve done, and whatever you want to do because of it, will only be futile.”

As Ksylla spoke his last words, Shen Shu saw cracks appearing on the statues behind Xie Yi on the sea surface.

“Crack—crack——”

Xie Yi’s movements as he moved between the inscriptions paused. The arrogant sound of something shattering rapidly rang out from behind him. Then, he saw a cyan-black figure slam down directly where he had been standing.

It was a monster, hunched over and misshapen, completely skin and bones, squatting on the ground and tilting its head, staring at him with hollow eyes.

Xie Yi glanced rapidly at the periphery of his vision. At this moment, the statues around him had completely peeled off their outer shells, revealing the shriveled and hideous deformed bodies inside, gathering towards his location.

“That bastard’s plan didn’t include this.” Xie Yi clicked his tongue, quickly surveying his surroundings. His gaze paused for a moment on the inscriptions floating in mid-air, and an idea suddenly popped into his mind.

The next second, he rushed straight towards the gap beside him that had not yet been surrounded.

As soon as Xie Yi moved, the surrounding monsters let out “hoarse” hissing sounds, and they also crawled towards him rapidly!

At this moment, he was no longer as cautious as before, directly charging through the inscriptions in mid-air.

The shattered inscriptions carried a scorching heat, assaulting Xie Yi’s body. He felt the traces of the alien transformation that had never completely faded from his body becoming increasingly hot at this moment. The speed at which this heat rose was even faster than when he had tried to absorb Shen Shu’s blood.

His pupils turned vertical in the blink of an eye, and the mottled red marks at the corners of his eyes twisted and expanded outwards.

Xie Yi dodged a few monsters that pounced at him and glanced at the inscriptions behind him.

As he had expected, the inscriptions, which had been mostly intact, were directly smashed to pieces by the monsters, much faster than if he had been careful himself.

Seeing the effect, Xie Yi immediately stopped wasting time. While avoiding confronting these things head-on, he lured them towards the places where the inscriptions were gathered.

Therefore, he didn’t notice that the scattered inscriptions were slowly chasing towards him and the monsters.

Before long, after he used the monsters to smash the last gathering of inscriptions to pieces, he was thinking about whether he could also use these things to make the inscriptions gather in a chaotic manner, when his gaze paused.

He saw that the shattered inscriptions were now gathering around him intimately.

No, to be precise, they were gathering around the monsters chasing him!

While Xie Yi was distracted, several monsters that had pounced over from the front were already close at hand. He spun around almost reflexively, but was still scratched on the arm by the sharp claws that came at him head-on.

The black sleeve was torn, and three distinct claw marks appeared on his forearm, which already had some gray patches. The entire forearm immediately developed countless black patches, centered on the three claw marks.

“Hiss—”

Xie Yi inhaled lightly. He only glanced at it before ignoring it. His attention was now entirely focused on the inscriptions that were gathering towards the monsters.

His mind raced for a moment.

He suddenly remembered Shen Shu saying that these inscriptions were engraved by the sacrificial leaders of the successive dependents. Obviously, these monsters that had peeled off the outer shells of the statues were the engravers of these inscriptions, which was why the inscriptions were gathering towards them.

The shattered inscriptions converging towards the engravers—the result was self-evident.

He absolutely couldn’t let these inscriptions continue to gather towards these monsters!

This idea only flashed through Xie Yi’s mind. He immediately reversed direction and retreated towards the outside of the altar, wanting to temporarily lure away these monsters that would cause the inscriptions to regroup correctly.

However, he didn’t expect that even after leaving the central area where the inscriptions had been located, the shattered inscriptions still chased after him and the monsters in an orderly manner, and even showed a tendency to regroup during the chase.

Seeing this scene out of the corner of his eye, Xie Yi took a deep breath. He stopped wasting time, drew his gun, and was about to turn around when he suddenly saw glittering blue light spots floating on the ground!

These blue light spots gathered rapidly, forming ball shapes of various sizes on the ground in the blink of an eye.

The commotion behind him disappeared at this moment.

Xie Yi subconsciously turned his head and found that the monsters that had been close behind him had resumed the posture they had had when they were still statues, collectively worshiping towards the center of the altar.

The inscriptions around them also stopped chasing towards the monsters and flew quickly towards the center of the altar, as if being pulled by something.

From the balls formed by the blue light spots on the ground, countless blood-red lines grew, spreading rapidly along the ground, outlining complex and bizarre characters.

These characters quickly covered the entire ground, connecting all the balls, forming a huge totem.

The moment the totem took shape, a huge vortex appeared out of thin air in the center of the altar.

Xie Yi was stunned, and before he could react, the entire altar suddenly collapsed!

“What have you done!”

Ksylla’s roar echoed from all directions. The sea curtain and the image of the outer altar on the ground shattered simultaneously, turning into a nothingness of surging sea. On the sea surface was a huge totem identical to the one in the outer altar in the sea curtain just now.

“Didn’t you want to know what I came here to do?” Shen Shu threw away the safety box, glanced at the heart clinging to his left hand, and moved his body, which had become stiff from being confined. “I’m telling you now.”

The blood-red color of the lines devoured all the balls on the totem as Shen Shu spoke. The balls, large and small, expanded and contracted like breathing for several rounds before cracking open from the middle, revealing misshapen mangxing symbols.

A low chanting echoed through the central altar.

As the chanting began, the heart clinging to Shen Shu’s left hand grew black, vein-like tendrils, gradually growing upwards along his arm.

Shen Shu’s pupils twisted, gradually turning into the same shape as the mangxing symbols on the altar totem. BloodTexture twisted and wriggled on his face, and the hair he had cut off before leaving Kui City grew wildly again.

“What exactly are you? Why can you activate the Summoning Ritual!” Ksylla’s angry questioning echoed from all directions. The nothingness of the surging sea surface on the altar exploded, as if something was trying to struggle out but was confined below.

“Didn’t you say that I have your race’s bloodline? Then why can’t I activate this ritual?” As Shen Shu walked towards the place in the center of the totem that was lighting up, he raised his head and looked blankly at the top.

At this moment, a small vortex appeared there. As the vortex spun rapidly, it became larger and larger. He could vaguely see a light in the middle lighting up.

“You want to destroy my father’s Summoning Ritual, you damned worm!”

With Ksylla’s roar, the nothingness of the sea surface on the altar suddenly bulged. The next moment, it was torn apart. A huge, blood-colored body withpaintblack ring patterns crawled out of it, extending more than a dozen tentacles with hooked claws and rushing straight towards Shen Shu’s location.

“This is what you sent yourself.” Shen Shu said softly, “Anger is indeed the best nutrient for impulsiveness. Even if you claim to be a god, you are no exception.”

Just as Ksylla’s tentacles were about to touch Shen Shu, the center of the altar suddenly exploded with a sound of zhengming. Before Ksylla could even react, his entire body was quickly enveloped by the totem on the altar and sent to the center of the altar.

At this moment, the heart clinging to Shen Shu’s arm and constantly growing suddenly throbbed. Shen Shu’s mangxing-shaped pupils instantly dilated, engulfing and devouring his eyes.

“Actually, if you didn’t appear, this ritual might have stopped soon, because I alone am not enough to support its full operation.” Shen Shu looked woodenly at Ksylla, who was struggling to escape the totem’s restraints in the center of the altar, and explained with rare interest, “But it’s different now that you’ve come in. As the original main body of the ritual, you are now the core of this ritual.”

Ignoring Ksylla’s struggle in the center of the altar, Shen Shu instinctively raised his head, feeling that he was about to lose consciousness completely. In the fragmented inscriptions floating in the air and gathering towards Ksylla, his gaze, which was about to be annihilated, caught a familiar figure.

Xie Yi fell from the vortex. While floating uncontrollably with the inscriptions, he met Shen Shu’s gaze, and his head exploded.

His gaze fell from top to bottom on Shen Shu’s left arm, which had been completely occupied. He cursed and, almost without thinking, used the bodies of the monsters around him to pounce towards Shen Shu.

Finally, just before Shen Shu was about to reach the center of the altar, he grabbed him!

“Shen Shu!” The moment Xie Yi grabbed Shen Shu, a terrifying aura instantly occupied his entire mind. Scenes of bizarre and grotesque images flashed before his eyes, including huge monsters, vast star seas, and countless ancient and long chants.

In a daze, he seemed to be dragged into a long and beautiful journey, until a series of tearing pains came from his arm, and he suddenly woke up.

Xie Yi came back to his senses and subconsciously looked at the hand he was holding Shen Shu with. His left arm, which had turned completely black a long time ago, was now bursting open, but no blood was flowing out. Blood plasma filled the cracks in his left arm, constantly flowing, like lava.

He only glanced at it quickly before looking away, refocusing on Shen Shu. He called out to him several times in a row, but received no response.

At this moment, most of the surrounding inscriptions had already sunk into the behemoth in the center of the altar. Xie Yi only glanced at the behemoth, which was close at hand, and felt uncomfortable enough to look away.

What should he do?

He hadn’t brought Abyss with him, and even if he had, the current situation probably wasn’t suitable for taking it out.

Xie Yi felt that his arm was already numb. He glanced at the widening cracks on his arm, then reached out towards the throbbing black heart on the back of Shen Shu’s hand, towards the black, vein-like tendrils that were almost covering Shen Shu’s left shoulder.

However, before Xie Yi’s hand could get close to the heart, Shen Shu suddenly moved. The next second, he directly raised his hand and intercepted him!

Xie Yi looked up and met a pair of blood-colored eyes. Those eyes were like a pool of stagnant water, completely without any breath of life.

His breath stagnated involuntarily. After a few seconds, he tried to call out, “Shen Shu!”

For a long time, the person in front of him did not respond. Xie Yi’s expression darkened. He looked at his hand, which was being held by Shen Shu, and was about to force himself to break free when he suddenly felt his hand being clenched tighter.

Xie Yi was stunned. When he looked up again, he saw Shen Shu’s eyes, which had just been like a pool of stagnant water, move. His wooden expression softened with this movement, “Captain, what are you doing?”

Hearing the familiar voice, Xie Yi couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Then, he sneered, “What am I doing? I’m doing the backup plan you told me about.”

Shen Shu heard his words, his eyebrows just arching, the next second his expression changed drastically, grabbing Xie Yi and retreating several steps violently.

A surging aura erupted from the center of the altar. Xie Yi felt all parts of his body crack open in an instant. He suppressed his discomfort and looked at the behemoth in front of him, “What is that thing?”

Shen Shu replied in a low voice, “Ksylla.”

Xie Yi was stunned, “This is Ksylla?”

Shen Shu “hmm” said, looking ahead, “The ritual is at the end, now there is still one last thing missing.”

Hearing this, Xie Yi subconsciously looked at the beating heart on the back of Shen Shu’s hand.

Shen Shu reached out and grabbed the heart, tearing it roughly from the back of his hand, along with the black, vein-like tendrils on his arm.

Then, without any hesitation, he threw the heart towards Ksylla, and grabbed Xie Yi into his arms!

The moment the heart entered Ksylla as if pulled by aTraction, the entire altar emitted a deafening humming sound. The blood-colored totem extended outward from Ksylla as the center, but broke inch by inch halfway!

The next moment, the entire altar collapsed in an earth-shattering tremor.

At this moment, in the Kui City Safety Zone.

The entire security team was forced to shrink their defensive perimeter constantly by the continuous attacks of the alien organisms, and now there was nowhere else to retreat.

Amid the deafening roar of artillery fire, Gu Xingjian finished the last magazine of bullets in his hand. Taking advantage of the time to reload, he asked Fang Ganlang, who was next to him, “I say, do you regret trusting those two kids? Now they’re nowhere to be found, and the sea fog has landed ahead of schedule. We’ve dragged it out until now, and we can’t even get into the underground city. The security teams in other safety zones are also facing various problems.”

“Regret what?” Fang Ganlang leaned against the bunker, drank a nutritional supplement to replenish his almost exhausted strength, “It was a gamble to begin with, and besides, it’s not the end yet, is it?”

Gu Xingjian shook his head, “You, you!”

“The alien organisms seem to be retreating!” Suddenly, someone shouted at the top of their lungs, and the same voice spread from around them.

The two looked at each other and immediately got up and looked outside, and sure enough, they saw that the alien organisms that had been constantly attacking their defense line were retreating.

At the same time, the situation that happened in Kui City also appeared in other surviving safety zones one after another.

In Jin City Safety Zone, which was closest to the East Sea coastline, after the alien organisms had all retreated, they also found that the sea fog, which had already approached the vicinity of the safety zone, had also stopped spreading.

Everyone looked at each other in confusion at this sudden situation, but it did not prevent them from cheering for the brief respite they had gained.

Sulem Line, on the beach of a certain island.

Xie Yi dragged Shen Shu out of the sea step by step. After throwing the person on the beach, he sat down, exhausted.

He looked at the setting sun on the distant horizon, which had almost sunk by more than half, and after a long time, he realized belatedly that it seemed that everything was over.

Six months later, Kui City Memorial Cemetery, Area A.

You Xue, Shang Mengzhou, and Shang Zhouzhou successively placed bouquets in front of two tombstones.

The kind smile of Hu Xianwei on the tombstone was completely different from the serious face of Fei Yuelan on the tombstone next to him.

Jiang Li stood beside them, “If the teacher knew that you made a special trip back to see him, he would be happy.”

Shang Mengzhou, “Unfortunately, we still didn’t make it in time to see Professor Hu’s last face.”

“The teacher wouldn’t care about this kind of thing.” Jiang Li smiled, “How is it? Do you have any news about them this time?”

“No.” It was You Xue who answered this time. She looked depressed when she mentioned this, “The investigation and cleanup near the East Sea coastline and the Sulem Line are the last time this time.”

Half a year ago, the alien organisms suddenly stopped attacking and all retreated, and a few days later, the sea fog that had spread to the land dissipated.

In addition to Kui City, the security teams in various safety zones, although a little confused about the sudden changes, still responded quickly and carried out targeted confirmations around the safety zone. Later, after all the high-level officials of the safety zone held a conference for several days, they temporarily lifted the surrounding alerts and finalized a series of follow-up investigation and cleanup tasks.

During that time, Shang Mengzhou and several others learned the specific reasons for this from Hu Xianwei and immediately jointly applied to join the vanguard team near the East Sea coastline and the islands near the Sulem Line.

Until today.

“I think no news is good news.” Shang Zhouzhou rubbed You Xue’s head, “Brother Yi is so strong, he must be alive. He’s probably just unable to come back for some reason. As for that Shen Shu, based on the incident at theTarmac and the ominous signs, he could still live even after becoming thatChange, let alone now.”

“Xiao Ze is right, no news is the best news.” Shang Mengzhou looked at the adjacent two tombstones again, then turned to look at them, “Okay, let’s go, I’m going to go over there, you guys go down and wait for me first, we’ll have dinner together later, it’s been a long time since we got together.”

Separating temporarily from Shang Mengzhou, they came down from Memorial Cemetery Area A to the parking lot.

You Xue walked in front and asked Shang Zhouzhou curiously, “Who is Sister Meng going to see?”

Shang Zhouzhou, “I don’t know.”

“You, a sister-con, actually don’t know?” You Xue was surprised, and then asked Jiang Li behind her, “Sister Jiang Li, do you know?”

“I know.” Jiang Li looked at You Xue’s bright eyes, “But I won’t tell you, little kids shouldn’t be so curious every day.”

“…I’m already in my twenties, I’m not a kid anymore!” You Xue retorted.

Shang Zhouzhou interjected, “Since you’re not a kid, you shouldn’t be so curious.”

“I see that you just don’t want to tell me! Hmph, I’ll ask Sister Meng myself later!” You Xue rushed forward angrily, muttering, and suddenly said strangely “Huh”, “What’s on the car?”

She squinted her eyes and stared at the car not far away, running over in three steps and two steps.

“Who put so much alcohol on our car? And it’s been drunk! Who’s so…” You Xue looked at a lifted draft beer on the hood of the car, and then looked at the two cans that had been opened and drunk beside it, babbling and muttering as she approached, but suddenly fell silent.

“Who’s so lacking in virtue?” Shang Zhouzhou, who came up one step later, leisurely interjected, “Why did you stop talking halfway?”

You Xue turned her head to look at him suddenly, her red eyes startled Shang Zhouzhou, “You…”

He just opened his mouth when he saw You Xue point to the beer placed on the hood of the car, and he subconsciously followed her gaze, and then froze.

“What are you looking at?” Jiang Li, who had temporarily received a communication, walked over and asked strangely.

“Sister Jiang Li!” Hearing Jiang Li’s voice, You Xue grabbed something that was pressed down by the beer on the hood of the car, turned around and raised it to her, “Look!”

It was a square card, and everyone was very familiar with the handwriting on the card.

It said: As promised, I’ll buy you drinks.

Jiang Li opened her mouth, then raised her head and looked at the two people in front of her, and the next second, the three of them rushed back to the cemetery together.

When they ran halfway up, they happened to meet Shang Mengzhou coming down.

Shang Mengzhou looked at them strangely, and before she could ask, she saw You Xue squeeze up from behind, holding the card in her hand and rushing over, “Sister Meng, it’s Xie Yi and them! Did you see them up there just now? They must have come too!”

“What?”

Shang Mengzhou was also stunned when she saw the handwriting and content on the card, “I didn’t see anyone when I came down.”

Although she said so, she turned around and ran towards the place where Hu Xianwei and Fei Yuelan were the first time.

You Xue and the three followed closely.

When the four of them returned to the row of tombstones where Hu Xianwei and Fei Yuelan were, there was no one around.

They only saw that in front of the two tombstones, in addition to the flowers they had just brought, there was also a bouquet of white chrysanthemums.

At this time, a black car left from the west entrance of the cemetery nearby, bypassing the restricted area, brushing past the commercial area that was gradually recovering its vitality, running counter to the hustle and bustle, and speeding south all the way in the face of the autumn wind.

Perhaps there are still many things in this world that need time to heal, but mankind has once again seized its unique new future, hasn’t it?