Defend the Carrot (Part 2)

Urban legend, file no. 193: Soul Binding and Corpse Raising.

Summary: This story really happened. In the 1980s or 1990s, a man confessed his love to a woman, and she rejected him. Humiliated and enraged, the man broke into her home, killed her, and violated her corpse. Then he used a forbidden art to seal her soul inside her body. The woman became a walking corpse, and the man kept her by his side, defiling her body every day until the police discovered him.

Criteria for a strange tale to form:

1. Ensure the story is plausible.

2. Lead others to believe the story is true.

3. Keep the story concise and widely transmissible.

4. Stir the deepest fears in the hearts of modern people.

Analysis of "Soul Binding and Corpse Raising":

Story plausibility: 3

Story authenticity: 3

Story transmissibility: 5

Story horror: 2

"Soul Binding and Corpse Raising" basically met all four criteria. The strange tale had formed.

The instant Su Bai's right arm struck the camera, it was as if he had slammed into a truck. His shoulder was wrenched out of its socket, and the flesh of his right arm split open, blood pouring from the wounds. Bone gleamed faintly through the torn flesh. A piercing pain shot through him, and Su Bai grunted. Seizing the opening, he quickly scooped up Carrot and rolled away.

Bang!

The camera equipment, weighing hundreds of pounds, crashed heavily onto the stage with a tremendous bang.

The entire stage seemed to be enclosed by a black city wall. People outside could not see what was happening within. Cries of alarm rose from the audience below the stage, surging like ocean waves. They couldn't understand it: one moment, they were watching their idol perform, and the next, darkness had swallowed the stage.

Inside the wall, the absolute darkness sharpened the senses of smell and hearing. The scent of blood instantly filled the stage.

Carrot clutched Su Bai's hand and said in a trembling voice, "Y-you're hurt?"

"No kidding!"

Su Bai tore off some cloth and tied it tightly around his right arm to stop the bleeding. As for the ghastly wound at his elbow, there was nothing he could do about it for now.

It seemed he could only wait for Lin Luo to come down and help tend to the wound.

Whoosh-

A cold wind rushed at him, sending a chill through him.

Su Bai narrowed his eyes slightly and lowered his voice. "Hold on tight and don't move."

As he spoke, he reached into his pocket with his other, still-functional hand and pulled out the Reaper Desert Eagle, which was already loaded.

Suddenly, two blood-soaked arms reached for Su Bai's neck.

Su Bai keenly sensed two gusts of chilling wind coming at him. Expressionless, he raised his hand and fired.

Bang!

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Nine silver-white bullets pierced the bloody hands in quick succession. As the bullets passed through them, faint explosions sounded.

Back in the car, Su Bai had replaced the conventional bullets in the magazine with alchemical bullets. Although alchemical bullets were less powerful than conventional ones, only alchemical bullets could be used against ghosts.

The owner of the bloody hands clutched both of them, rolling on the floor and howling in agony as bluish smoke began to hiss from the wounds.

That wisp of smoke showed Su Bai the way.

Su Bai chose not to change magazines, since doing so with one hand would be too troublesome. Instead, he slipped the Desert Eagle into his pocket, shook his sleeve, and drew out the alchemical bone knife he had kept hidden there all along. Then he strode toward the spreading smoke.

The bone knife's "burning" attribute made it highly effective against ghosts.

Carrot held tightly onto Su Bai and said tearfully, "D-don't go. I'm scared."

"You're hurt. Take a break and let me handle it."

Lin Luo walked over to Su Bai and took the bone knife from his hand. With a gentle flick, he made the blade burst into scorching crimson flame.

This darkness belonged to Dark Night, and Lin Luo was its master.

He took a step and, moving with the speed of a cheetah, instantly crossed several meters to reach the ghost. Gripping the knife in both hands, he brought it down fiercely.

The ghost let out a low roar and raised its arms to block. Both arms were chopped off in an instant, flying away like strips of apple peel.

Empowered by the "burning" attribute, the severed arms blazed fiercely and were soon reduced to ashes.

"A mere ninth-tier strange tale," Lin Luo said, his face cold but his gaze as calm as still water. He stomped hard on the ghost's chest. "What are you to dare hurt my brother?"

Thrust!

The bone knife plunged into the ghost's chest. Amid its agonized howls, crimson flames flowed slowly along the edge of the blade and into its chest like a stream.

As the flames burned it, black smoke billowed from the ghost's body, and it convulsed wildly, like a grass carp flopping on the bank.

A few seconds later, the ghost finally stopped convulsing and vanished into smoke and ash.

Lin Luo watched the smoke dissipate, but the deep furrow between his brows remained for a long time.

The next morning.

Third People's Hospital, Sanya.

Lin Luo walked into VIP ward 12 carrying a bag of apples.

Su Bai was wrapped in bandages from head to toe and looked miserable. When he saw Lin Luo arrive, he struggled into a sitting position and waved him over. "Wasn't Carrot supposed to take part in a variety show today? You didn't see her there?"

Lin Luo put the apples on the table, picked up a fruit knife, and started peeling one. "After what happened last night, how could she be in the mood for a variety show?"

"Where is she?"

"She's next door talking to a psychologist. I told her to stay for an hour before coming over. Otherwise, it wouldn't be convenient for us to talk."

Lin Luo handed the peeled apple to Su Bai.

Su Bai took it and had a bite. "Good thing you used Dark Night in time. Otherwise, I couldn't have kept my trip to Sanya secret. I don't want people trying to assassinate me while I'm stuck in the hospital. By the way, what exactly was that thing yesterday?"

"Strange tale no. 193, Soul Binding and Corpse Raising." Lin Luo smiled. "I looked it up. Two conditions have to be met before Soul Binding and Corpse Raising can kill someone. First, it confesses its love to a beautiful woman. Second, the woman rejects it. Only when both conditions are met can it appear."

Su Bai nodded. "So... those two letters weren't threats. They were love letters. Carrot didn't respond to their contents for so long that the condition of 'rejection' was treated as having been met. That's why it tried to kill her yesterday."

Lin Luo smiled. "Dealing with it was actually simple. All Carrot had to do was say 'I accept' or 'I love you too' to the letter with deep affection, and it would never appear. But I didn't think of that at the time. I only found out after looking it up. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been hurt."

Su Bai grumbled, "I never would have dreamed that the word 'simp' could apply to a strange tale too. Killing someone because its simping failed? That's ridiculous."

Lin Luo pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose. "When did your bloodline rank break through to the eighth tier? Why didn't you tell us?"

Su Bai froze for a moment, then explained:

"A few days ago, Chu Ning, Qingxue, and I handled a Transcendent incident together. Then, somehow, I broke through to the eighth tier. I remember you saying before that breaking through from the ninth tier to the eighth took more than ten days at the very least. It had only taken me four or five days, so I thought it was my imagination. It wasn't until I fought yesterday that I realized I really was an eighth-tier Transcendent."

Lin Luo stared into Su Bai's eyes and said slowly, "I know you're cautious by nature, but I need to remind you that we're your teammates. Being teammates means you can trust each other with your backs in battle. So, whatever it is, you don't need to hide it from us."

Su Bai fell silent for a moment, then nodded gently. "Sorry."

Lin Luo chose to drop the subject and said calmly:

"Strange tales fall under the Transcendent category. Their methods must follow the Nine Transcendent Laws, and the lower their bloodline rank, the more strictly they must follow them. If the strange tale we killed yesterday had been sixth tier, I could have accepted it targeting an ordinary person. But it was only ninth tier. You should understand what I mean."

Su Bai lowered his head and thought for a while before saying:

"Most Transcendent creatures can only develop intelligence upon reaching the sixth tier, and strange tales are no different. Ninth-tier strange tales are themselves a kind of emotionless, unconscious pattern, so they only seek out Transcendents under the pull of the Law of Devouring.

"In other words, before reaching the sixth tier, they definitely won't target ordinary people. But it really did try to kill Carrot yesterday. As I see it, there's one and only one possibility: this kind of strange tale wasn't born naturally. It was created by someone."

Lin Luo gave him an approving look. "You're right, but you should explain it from a Transcendent perspective: a Transcendent creature with a high-tier bloodline used its Oracle to contaminate someone listening to a story by composing that story."

Su Bai summed it up:

"So the truth is that Carrot heard the story of 'Soul Binding and Corpse Raising' and was contaminated by Transcendent power. That's why 'Soul Binding and Corpse Raising' kept pursuing her. Let me think... Of the 154 Oracles, the only one capable of meeting those conditions is Divine Oracle Sequence 39-Adam. To use Adam to achieve this effect, the Transcendent creature's bloodline rank must be at least fifth tier... or perhaps fourth tier?"

Lin Luo nodded gently. "By killing Soul Binding and Corpse Raising, we've unwittingly attracted this Transcendent creature's attention. In other words, Carrot is safe now."

Su Bai smiled helplessly. "Carrot's safe, but we're in danger... It won't let us go."

Lin Luo shook his head and said, enunciating each word, "We are the ones who won't let it go."

Divine Oracle Sequence 39 (Adam): The user can obtain the unique attribute "Creation" within a range of x (unknown). The user can alter the life forms of macroscopic matter for a duration of x (unknown), within the rules. Note: I am a painter, and also a creator.