"Hello there, young man."
Madam visibly froze at Fu Qian's sudden greeting, then let out a giggling laugh.
Her eyes held a strange, hazy look, like a beast lying in wait.
She had been staring at the five of them with that exact look since they walked through the door.
Listening to the bloody water gurgling in her mouth, Fu Qian had no doubt she might lunge forward and take a bite out of someone at any moment.
Fortunately, after responding to him, her eyes cleared a fraction, as if she were remembering her humanity.
She could still talk. There was a chance!
It seemed she hadn't completely lost her mind.
Seeing his judgment was correct, Fu Qian's interest spiked. He decided to proceed with his plan to hold her attention.
"Madam, you are truly beautiful. Any interest in some negative-distance contact?"Afraid a boring pickup line wouldn't hold her focus, he chose to get straight to the point.
"Heehee!"
The beautiful woman covered her mouth. Her eyes rolled slowly as she let out a thin, breathy laugh.
"Your question is incredibly rude, but you're so energetic... and you look so very appetizing, too."
"But are you sure... you would still like it—like this?"
Madam leaned back gently, exposing her bulging lower abdomen. She stroked it softly with one hand, her gaze turning tender.
"It's fine. I like kids."
Fu Qian's expression didn't waver in the slightest.
"Is that so? Wonderful..."
The beautiful woman's smile grew sickeningly sweet.
"I like them too... especially the young ones."
...
This guy stopped them from attacking just so he could flirt?
And with the evil entity he was just talking about?
The four Night Watchers in the distance stared dumbfoundedly, their sanity and morals violently battered by the scene unfolding before them.
In just that brief window, the bloody water and porcelain shards dripping from Madam's face had already stained her chest red.
The contrast of red and white only made her look more alluring.
Fu Qian turned a completely blind eye to this, however. His gaze remained tender and affectionate, his words vulgar and obscene.
This kid could not be left alive!
Witnessing this, the buzz-cut man couldn't help muttering to himself, his fists itching to punch someone.
To be this perverted at such a young age... give him time, and he would definitely become a destabilizing factor in society.
This guy really had come prepared. He knew way too much information that they didn't.
The captain beside him was a bit more mature. He knew Fu Qian was buying time for him, but his stomach still churned violently.
Churning stomach aside, the captain still pulled out his ultimate weapon at the first opportunity.
"Cover me!"
With a low shout, the captain aimed at the target and began to charge up.
With Fu Qian holding her attention, locking onto the target couldn't have been easier.
Madam had even been guided into turning her back to them!
If he couldn't finish this, he might as well smash his head into a wall and die.
As arcs of lightning flashed and converged frantically, the captain grew increasingly tense.
Finally, under the protection of the other three, the electrical energy in the captain's hands swelled to its absolute limit.
The next moment, an endless torrent of lightning completely engulfed Madam.
Separated from her by only a table, Fu Qian felt as if he would go blind in that instant.
Madam's body was like a bundle of straw in a hurricane, shattering on impact without the slightest resistance.
From skin to bone, she was annihilated into ash.
Only then did a mass of gray shadow at her lower abdomen begin to struggle violently.
Layers of barriers materialized and instantly shattered, finally blowing apart silently into a cloud of black mist that slowly faded away.
Was it dead?
The incomparably brilliant Lightning Railgun finally ceased.
The four Night Watchers let out long sighs of relief.
The captain had reached his limit. He practically collapsed to his knees.
It was obvious that controlling the weapon consumed a massive amount of energy.
"Check our surroundings—"
Struggling to stand, the captain only got halfway through his sentence before a hand pierced right through his chest.
Everyone froze, staring in disbelief at the old man standing behind the captain.
The old man flashed a strange smile. In the next breath, streaks of Bone Blades thrust out from that withered hand, completely severing the captain's life force.
[evil god progeny Descent, Containment Failure]
It actually survived that?
Back in the Warehouse, Fu Qian deeply understood what made an evil god so tough to handle.
Earlier, when Madam was reduced to ashes, he hadn't received a mission completion prompt, which had made him a little suspicious.
Unfortunately, the old man had moved far too quickly.
Thinking back on it now, could it be that even if the host body used for its Descent was destroyed, the thing could still possess another person's body to complete the Descent?
Impossible!
If it were truly immortal and could possess anyone at will, the thing could have simply slaughtered everyone one by one. Why would it have reacted so strongly to the Lightning Railgun?
But the old man had definitely been possessed. What was so different about him?
That notebook!
Fu Qian's eyes lit up as a thought struck him.
He remembered the old man saying that the notebook had been found nearby, and the ritual cipher text had come from it as well.
In a sense, it made perfect sense for the notebook to be connected to this "brother" trying to descend.
Considering the old man had kept it tucked against his body the entire time, it was highly likely that the entity had used it to achieve possession and rebirth.
But if that was really the case, the situation was far more complicated.
[SAN Value -1, entering the Containment Scenario]
Frowning, Fu Qian chose to enter once again.
Playing the expert once more, he led the group all the way into the Underground, then stepped forward to flirt, creating an opportunity for the captain to unleash his ultimate attack.
Only this time, after the captain launched his attack, Fu Qian didn't stay where he was to admire the evil god's destruction. Instead, he retreated immediately.
The split second the black shadow struggled and dissipated within the beam of lightning, Fu Qian didn't hesitate. He fired five consecutive Air Bullets directly at the ultimate weapon in the captain's hand.
Under the utterly horrified gazes of the group, the lightning beam—which hadn't yet stopped—reacted instantly.
Following a violent tremor, the beam of lightning detonated from its source, and a blinding blue-and-white electrical storm instantly swallowed the entire hall.
Caught in the terrifying blast, Fu Qian was unsurprisingly sent flying.
A moment later, the electrical storm dissipated. Fu Qian scrambled up from the ground and looked at the others lying around him.
The old man, who was closest and the weakest, had already been reduced to a charred lump of coal.
The captain and the buzz-cut man were clinging to their last breaths.
The only one left standing was White Porcelain Girl Su Gao.
Right now, she was leaning heavily on her sword planted in the ground, staring at him with a highly complex gaze.
Her entire body was covered in those glass-like fractures, looking as if she might shatter into pieces at any moment.
It was a truly tragic sight!
... It still wasn't over?
Covered in cuts and bruises himself, Fu Qian still hadn't received a prompt for a successful Containment.
Squinting as he scanned the area, Fu Qian noticed a notebook glowing brightly not far from the old man's corpse. Its pages were even turning on their own.
It had fallen out?
Fu Qian's heart stirred. Staring at the crimson, bloody light on the notebook that looked as if it were about to come alive, he reached out and snatched it directly into his hands.
The next moment, a sharp pain pierced his palm.
Almost instantaneously, an icy, sinister presence enveloped him.
Fu Qian felt his thoughts rapidly flooded by a frenzied bloodlust as his sanity plummeted.
Just as he expected, this thing was trying to possess him through the notebook.
Truly worthy of being an evil god—its vitality was absolutely tenacious.
Sighing in admiration, Fu Qian raised his right hand.
He felt around and found a wound just beneath his ribs.