"Are you sure this is something we can handle?" Gao Ming pointed at the deformed mass of living flesh that was still swelling. "It looks like it twisted together all the ruined lives in the entire city."
"I can't handle it, but aren't you here?" Ci Nian glanced at Gao Ming's clothes. "Even Wansheng's famous White-Browed Marquis serves you. You couldn't have subdued that vicious tiger without some extraordinary abilities."
"Why does that sound like a backhanded insult?" Gao Ming walked toward the cakes scattered all over the platform. Many had been smashed without anyone taking a single bite, but most had cards bearing wishes tucked into them. Weird Wish had probably offered hope to people with nowhere left to turn, infiltrating their memories and taking the form of someone they wanted to see, or something they couldn't bear to hurt, to enter the Forbidden Zone.
Cakes littered the platform, and An Luan's body was covered in densely packed wish patterns. It seemed Weird Wish also wanted to seize An Luan's will.
"Scared now? What were you doing before?" Ci Nian thought Gao Ming was trying to avoid the task. Clinging to the pastor's back, he told him to follow Gao Ming. "I'm not mocking you. We really do need your help if we're going to get out. When we first arrived at the Refugee Camp, I saw the White-Browed Marquis hand you a bottle with an ear drawn on it. That's a taboo object forbidden from appearing in this dark city, a necessary sacrificial offering for dispelling the darkness. The Mercy Society has been secretly collecting them too."
"The Mercy Society has other bottles?"
"To put it bluntly, the Mercy Society is just something the Municipal Council Hall uses to fool the public. It operates in the name of