Chapter 44: A Glimpse into the Secret
The evil goddess, the Witch of Destruction!
I, the brave savior!
Xia Feng felt that the people of this world should truly thank him.
If he hadn't bewitched—no, if he hadn't guided the Witch of Destruction's thoughts, what would the future of this world look like? He didn't even dare to imagine it.
"I cannot kill this girl." Mu Qingtong lowered her head, quietly observing the girl at her feet, who appeared no older than eleven or twelve. She frowned in confusion. "Though she won't harm others when she wakes, she'll still self-destruct under the influence of the evil disease. It might be better if I end her now."
"Don't." Xia Feng's eye twitched slightly. "Besides, can't we just cure her evil disease when she wakes?"
"Cure evil disease?"
Mu Qingtong glanced at him with her striking golden eyes. "Do you think evil disease is some ordinary mental illness? Mild cases are manageable, but her evil power value has reached a high concentration of 58 Aoc. Sending her to a hospital now would only sustain her life—it wouldn't heal her."
"She has only two paths left: either continue transforming into a half-human, half-evil creature, or be locked in a mental hospital under strict surveillance."
Xia Feng said nothing. Instead, he crouched and pressed his right hand against the girl's forehead. Slowly, wisps of gray mist seeped from her features, dissipating into the air like vapor.
Mu Qingtong paused mid-sentence, her eyes narrowing as she leaned in and checked with her bracelet.
"The evil value plummeted… Only 0.3 Aoc remains?!" She stared at Xia Feng in shock. "How did you do that?"
Xia Feng clapped his hands and stood, grinning. "Want to know? Then let me copy your spiritual weapon."
Mu Qingtong glanced skyward before turning away. "Someone's coming. We should leave."
"Tch, what's the big deal? So stingy." Xia Feng muttered under his breath.
Before departing, Mu Qingtong destroyed the phantom evil bug, freeing those trapped in its illusion.
The gentle man who had tried to save the girl tore the paper from his forehead.
[The girl's mother was killed by her stepfather—an evil man who escaped. The bag contained the corpse of the phantom evil, worth a fortune.]
...
Mu Qingtong and Xia Feng had no need for the phantom evil's bounty, so they kept the corpse.
The girl would likely be sent to an orphanage, but that was no longer Xia Feng's concern.
He glanced back at Aunt Lu's Baozi Shop in the distance, lost in thought.
Truthfully, he'd already realized the girl's stepfather was the owner of the instrument holding the Infinite Stone in the photo. The scar on the wrist in the picture matched the stepfather's exactly.
It seemed the man wasn't just some ordinary criminal. Whether he still possessed the Infinite Stone remained unknown.
"Hey, where are you going?"
Xia Feng noticed Mu Qingtong wasn't heading toward Bloodnight Street's exit.
Both had donned their masks again. Mu Qingtong gazed north and replied softly,
"Since you won't let me kill the girl, I need a substitute. The stepfather fits—high evil power value, likely a stable evil entity."
"What kind of experiment requires an evil person's soul?" Xia Feng sighed.
Mu Qingtong turned with a faint smile. "Do you want to know?"
"Heh. Not really."
"Then I won't tell you." She nodded lightly and resumed walking—but halted abruptly, as if struck by a thought.
[Through the wind's whisper, your comprehension of wind-controlling spirit clothes deepens. Mastery of the D-rank spirit clothe "Treading Air" achieved.]
With a step, she soared into the distance.
"Wow, impressive." Xia Feng's eye twitched before he, too, stepped into the air. "You seem to know where the stepfather is?"
"Of course."
"Is that your spiritual weapon's ability?"
"No. It's your spirit clothe's."
"Sure, sure. Like I'd believe that."
The two probed each other's secrets as they traversed the desolate streets, soon arriving at their destination.
The area, near the suburbs, was thick with fog—an unmistakably ominous sign.
Xia Feng looked up and froze. "Huh?"
Before them stood a hospital, its sign bearing four stark characters: Pingshan Hospital.
What the—? Found it just like that?
Xia Feng's pupils narrowed. "The evil energy inside is intense. Something's off."
Mu Qingtong mused, "A place like this likely harbors a disaster-class entity. Not an easy foe."
Evil beasts were categorized into four ranks: evil, disaster, calamity, and void.
Phantom evils, capable of illusions but defenseless, fell under the most common—evil-class.
Disaster-class, also called "evil beasts," operated within rule-bound spaces. Enter their domain, and survival meant adhering to their laws.
Calamity-class, rarer, wielded natural disasters—blizzards, floods, droughts, locust plagues. Some, like the black hole calamity Xia Feng encountered in the Evil Dragon Forest, left lingering devastation.
Lastly, the void.
Not a species, but a singular existence: the emperor of the evil race—the Void Sovereign.
"If there is a disaster-class inside, can you handle it?" Mu Qingtong asked.
Xia Feng shook his head, but before he could speak, he sensed two evil presences approaching from the left.
"Shh." He pressed a finger to his lips and vanished.
Mu Qingtong understood, masking her presence as she, too, disappeared into the fog.
...
"We hit a snag. Only nine perfect souls. Make do."
The gaunt-faced man tossed nine stones. A clown-masked figure caught them with a grotesque chuckle.
"Nine's plenty. You're efficient, Boss Yu."
"Just remember the payment. Ninety million. Not a cent less." Yu Lin's voice was ice.
"Relax. The Divine Evil Society values loyal clients."
After inspecting the goods, the clown tilted his head. "Oh, a warning—leave Bloodnight Street before midnight. Wouldn't want our allies caught in the crossfire."
Yu Lin stiffened. "The invasion's in two days. Are you moving early?"
"Thanks to you, Boss Yu. We didn't expect other suppliers to lag so far behind."
Listening in, Xia Feng's blood ran cold.
Invasion of Area 51? What's happening?
To repel evil incursions, the empire shielded each region with the "Infinite Realm," a defensive barrier preventing the Gray Realm and Disaster Realm from breaching their world.
The Gray Realm—a war-torn wasteland between their world and the Disaster Realm—harbored criminals and cults.
Most evils in Area 51 had slipped through accidental rifts in time and space, an unrepeatable fluke.
For the Divine Evil Society to invade, only one method existed:
Destroy the Infinite Realm—exposing Area 51 to the entire Evil Race.
(End of Chapter)