The Heart of Slaughter

Alarm after alarm jolted Li Yèlái awake from his groggy sleep.

He couldn't count how many alarms there were.

Thirty? Forty? Or even more?

Just how many Forbidden Items had broken containment?

Among them were even Class B Forbidden Items from the lower level. Had something happened to the captain and the others as well?

He had woken from one sleep to find the whole world changed!

Was this reality, or was he trapped in a nightmare?

Li Yèlái instantly sat upright in bed and felt a chill.

The icy air filled his nostrils, clearing his head somewhat.

Suppressing the shock in his heart, he immediately asked, "What happened?"

At the same time, he reached out and fastened the buttons at the collar of Cheese's pajamas, covering up the dazzling glimpse of spring.

Cheese also belatedly realized what was happening. A hint of embarrassment flashed across her face, and she immediately jumped barefoot out of bed.

"You were guided into a deep sleep by the Dream Eater. Combined with the out-of-control Ice Witch, the temperature in Black Prison has already dropped to more than ten degrees below zero. It's dangerous!" Cheese grabbed a piece of saccharin and stuffed it into her mouth before quickly explaining, "I noticed that you didn't come out when the alarms went off, so I knew you'd been affected."

The rapidly dropping temperature caused white mist to appear whenever she spoke.

That made Li Yèlái feel a lingering fear.

The Dream Eater was a living Forbidden Item. Its danger level was C-Rank.

When it lost control, it caused nearby humans to fall into a deep sleep.

A single Dream Eater would be easy enough to suppress, but combined with the Ice Witch below, it formed a fatal combination.

Forced into sleep in such a low-temperature environment, one could freeze to death at any time.

If nobody had noticed, Li Yèlái estimated that he would have slept to death in the room.

Moreover, even Li Yèlái, a second-awakening psychic, had been affected without realizing it. Wouldn't the clerical staff have it even worse?

"Hurry, get dressed and take your weapons. Go assemble at the command center!" Cheese urged him, throwing the clothes Li Yèlái had left at the bedside toward him.

She herself was about to run back to her room to put on her clothes.

The moment she noticed something was wrong, she had broken down the door and called for help. She hadn't had time to put on her equipment.

However, just as she was about to step out the door, she suddenly stopped and stared outside in shock.

Li Yèlái, who had just thrown on his clothes, looked at her strangely.

Following her gaze out the door, he saw an unfamiliar corridor and a containment room that had already been opened. The Forbidden Item inside had vanished without a trace.

This... Was this a containment unit on the upper level?

That couldn't be right. The lounge was in the rest area.

The containment units should have been more than a dozen meters underground.

Had space become disordered?

Or was this a ghost wall?

Despite his astonishment, Li Yèlái immediately put on his clothes.

He picked up the Crimson Longsword and summoning bell, then slung the Jet Axe onto his back.

"What's going on? A ghost wall?" Li Yèlái grabbed the thick coat he had brought with him and handed it to Cheese.

After draping the coat over herself, Cheese slowly shivered. "It's the Mobius Ring Diagram. It broke containment too!"

Then Cheese looked at Li Yèlái. "My communicator is in the room. Contact the command center."

Meanwhile, on the square that had once been crowded with people, many clerical workers were wearing thick coats and supporting one another as they moved forward.

Some had only taken a few steps before suddenly collapsing and falling into a deep sleep.

Others forcefully inflicted wounds on themselves, using pain to resist the drowsiness.

Some Iron Guards were arranging the clerical workers, dragging them beside relatively warm bonfires.

Inside the command center, dozens of clerical workers had already fallen asleep, while the dozen or so remaining ones struggled to keep their eyes wide open.

One bald man held a small knife and stabbed it into his arm. The intense pain roused his spirits.

He couldn't fall asleep. He had to hold on until the very last moment and prepare for the worst!

At that moment, a communication message came through.

The bald man quickly glanced at it. Seeing that it was the Night General, he immediately connected the call.

"Night General, are you all right?" the bald man asked.

"What's the situation?" Cheese's voice answered instead.

"Cheese? Are you together? That's great! A large number of Forbidden Items have broken containment. The forty-eight Handlers on the upper level, two hundred seventy-three clerical workers, and three teams of Iron Guards have all lost contact. You're the only ones who can reach me!"

The bald man quickly spoke while bandaging his wound. "The Mobius Ring Diagram also broke containment. Everything within its area of effect has become a maze. On the upper level, only the square and the black elevator weren't affected. Everywhere else has become a maze."

[C-Rank Forbidden Item, Mobius Ring Diagram]

It possessed powerful reality-warping abilities. Once it lost control, it altered the surrounding space and created spatial paradoxes.

In simple terms, it created a ghost wall.

The containment unit had already turned into a maze-like building.

Even the entrance to Li Yèlái's lounge had been connected to the containment unit.

On the other side, Li Yèlái asked into the communicator, "Have you contacted the branch? Mobilize a team to support Black Prison!"

The bald man on the other end sucked in sharp breaths from the pain. "A large-scale distortion caused by a loss of control has appeared in the giant city. That Fantasy Band is problematic. Some kind of music they played caused the audience at the scene to begin twisting into madness.

"Those beasts! There were tens of thousands of people there! All twisting out of control at once!

"Handlers from every branch, even the headquarters, have practically all been dispatched. The Forbidden Items must have noticed that and dared to break containment collectively! We can only hold the command center and the black elevator. We can't provide support, and we can't even find you."

Fantasy Band? Was that where Starfire and the others had gone? Li Yèlái's heart jolted.

Fortunately, Li Yúnyān couldn't leave the house and was still at the Family Apartments. She should be safe.

"So, we won't have reinforcements for the time being?" Cheese sighed. "We'll have to rely on ourselves."

"Unfortunately, that's exactly right. I hope you can regroup with your teammates," the bald man replied. "If possible, suppress the Mobius Ring Diagram as soon as you can. Once the Mobius Ring Diagram affects the lower level..."

Li Yèlái replied solemnly, "I understand!"

He understood how serious the situation was. The most dangerous thing wasn't the combination of the Dream Eater and the Ice Witch, but the Mobius Ring Diagram!

If its maze expanded into the deeper Black Prison on the lower level, even Class B and possibly Grade A Forbidden Items could break containment!

Fuck, I might really have to make a deal with Mr. Shadow this time, Li Yèlái thought.

"Also, watch out for the Zhelan King's Banner!" The bald man's voice was full of warning.

"The Zhelan King's Banner, that accelerating Forbidden Item?" Li Yèlái asked. "What happened to it?"

"Its danger level has risen. Stay away from it." The bald man's voice became intermittent, and in the end, only the static of electricity came through the communicator.

It seemed the signal had been completely lost.

After ending the call, Li Yèlái couldn't help feeling heavy-hearted.

At that moment, Cheese had also put on the clothes and shoes Li Yèlái had brought.

Because of their difference in height, they fit her poorly.

The good news was that Li Yèlái had brought a bag of saccharin for her earlier, preventing her from being restricted by her inability to use her powers.

Cheese picked up the saccharin and said calmly, "Do you remember the Forbidden Items we saw before?"

"Of course." Li Yèlái nodded.

"Good. Don't put pressure on yourself. When you encounter a Forbidden Item, suppress it step by step." Cheese encouraged him. A smile appeared on her slightly pale, delicate face. "You've got me, the carry, here. Just hold on tight!"

"Don't worry. I'm pretty brave too!" Li Yèlái replied in a low voice, gripping the longsword.

Both of them were lying. Faced with this situation, neither Cheese nor Li Yèlái could possibly feel confident.

All they could do was their best.

Thus, the two of them left the room and began feeling their way along the corridors.

The Mobius Ring Diagram's ability was extremely strange. Any intersection or security gate could lead to any location.

When Cheese opened the door to a lounge, she found a containment room on the other side.

The Forbidden Item inside the containment room had already escaped. Three clerical workers' mangled corpses lay on the floor.

The guns in their hands had already run out of bullets. Their bodies looked as if some giant beast had trampled them back and forth. Blood had splattered across the walls and floor.

They hadn't given up resisting until the very end, but their enemy had been terrifying beyond measure. None of their resistance had worked.

Looking at their painful, enraged, ruined faces, Li Yèlái's heart grew heavier.

Cheese stepped forward, closed their eyes, and calmly examined their wounds.

"Their bones were crushed by hooves. They were trampled to death," Cheese said with a frown. "Which Forbidden Item could it be? Is there a Forbidden Item like that on the upper level?"

As far as she remembered, the East City Branch didn't seem to have a Forbidden Item with such brutal killing methods.

The Class B centaur counted as one. It had hooves, and it was a Forbidden Item from the lower level.

At that thought, her expression grew even uglier.

"Could the Mobius Ring Diagram have already infiltrated the lower level?" Cheese's voice carried a trace of despair.

That meant they might soon run into a Class B Forbidden Item.

Only Captain Yáng Chén and the elite Night Watch in the Third Team could contend with that level of Forbidden Item.

"No." Li Yèlái waved his hand. "It definitely hasn't. Otherwise, with my luck, I'd have encountered a Class B one the moment I opened the door."

Indeed, if the lower level had also been thrown into the maze, then with Li Yèlái's luck, he might have opened the door only to receive a Class B Forbidden Item's greeting—Hello—before being swallowed and torn apart.

"You haven't even activated your ability. It shouldn't be possible for you to run into something that terrible." Cheese forced a smile.

The next moment, they suddenly heard several gunshots, along with faint vibrations.

"Pistols!"

Li Yèlái and Cheese exchanged a glance, and both saw delight in the other's eyes.

They immediately charged out of the containment room and sprinted toward the direction of the gunshots.

Most psychics didn't use guns. In Black Prison, the people equipped with pistols were basically clerical workers.

When necessary, they would use the pistols to try to suppress Forbidden Items—or give themselves a quick death.

Since they had confirmed that clerical workers were involved, they had to join up with them immediately!

Perhaps other Handler colleagues would reach the location as well.

But just as they were about to arrive, the previously dense, heated gunfire gradually thinned out.

Li Yèlái and Cheese's hearts sank, and they prepared for battle at the same time.

When they rushed out from around the corner, they saw a clerical worker covered in blood, his upper body bare.

He was chasing two clerical workers who were firing back.

Several clerical workers whose fates were unknown lay at his feet.

The man had his back to Li Yèlái and Cheese as he rapidly approached the two clerical workers in the distance.

What was going on? A clerical worker was attacking clerical workers?

Cheese's expression changed when she saw this. Without time to ask what was happening, she said solemnly, "Listen to Me: Cardiac Arrest!"

The naked man's body paused, then he suddenly turned to look at the two of them.

Only then did they see a scarlet heart attached to his chest. Scarlet blood vessels merged into his skin, while the scarlet heart beat violently.

C-Rank Forbidden Item, Heart of Slaughter!

When carried, it continuously strengthened the body's physical power. The longer it was carried, the greater the physical enhancement.

But the price was that it bred greed in the heart.

The holder would grow increasingly desirous of power and become unwilling to give up the heart. A little stronger. Just a little stronger.

In the end, they would lose their rationality and become killing machines!

That was why the authorities were extremely cautious about using this Forbidden Item.

If Handlers wanted to use it to strengthen their bodies, they not only had to pay Merit Points, but also had to do so under strict protection.

The heart had to be removed as soon as the time limit was reached, to prevent accidents.

Clearly, this clerical worker had already been turned into a killing machine. He had begun slaughtering his own colleagues in a frenzy.

"Can he still be saved?" Li Yèlái advanced with his sword.

"No. It's too late." Cheese spoke in a hollow voice.

"I understand." Li Yèlái exhaled. "I'll put him down!"

On the other side, after noticing the two of them, the killing machine immediately changed targets.

He quickly bent down and grabbed a fire axe from beside his feet before charging toward them.

His powerful physical strength already rivaled that of a second-level True Martial.

The distance of several dozen meters was closed almost instantly.

He raised the fire axe high, seemingly intending to use a mountain-splitting strike on Li Yèlái!

At the same time, Cheese spoke. "Listen to Me: Close Your Eyes!"

The killing machine immediately shut his eyes, and the mountain-splitting strike swept through empty air.

When he opened his eyes again, all he saw was his own headless corpse collapsing limply.

The instant he closed his eyes, Li Yèlái had swung his sword across and cleaved through his neck.

Even a strengthened body couldn't withstand the sharpness of a Psychic Weapon.

Within the fraction of a second that he lost his vision, Li Yèlái had directly beheaded him.

But a mutation suddenly occurred!

As the headless corpse fell, the Heart of Slaughter suddenly detached from the body and shot toward Li Yèlái at tremendous speed.

Li Yèlái and Cheese were terrified at the same time. This had never happened before! It could continue losing control even after being suppressed? What was this, getting back up again and again? Was it never going to end?

At such close range, Li Yèlái had no time to dodge.

The Heart of Slaughter pierced through his Psychic Barrier and adhered to the back of his hand.

The next moment, the Heart of Slaughter merged into his arm.

Li Yèlái only felt a chill rise from the depths of his heart. He immediately undid his clothes and pulled open his collar.

Then he saw a scarlet heart beating powerfully in the center of his chest.

Golden-red blood vessels spread like a spiderweb, clinging to his skin.

At the same time, some powerful force surged into his body. It was as if he were undergoing an Awakening again, and his flesh began to grow stronger.

"Holy shit, this heaven-defying fortune is more than I can handle."

Book recommendation: This World Really Has No Supernatural Weirdness

He watched his little sister crawl on all fours up the door like Spider-Man, then onto the ceiling, before crawling over the heads of Fù Tiānqīng and the other man toward her own bedroom.

Fù Tiānqīng turned back and shrugged at the terrified tenant. "She just has especially well-developed motor skills. There's no supernatural weirdness in this world at all."