Beyond the gate, bodies were strewn everywhere. Even someone as brilliant as Shao Qiming could find no other words to describe it when he first laid eyes on the scene—a place carpeted with mangled flesh and organs, corpses, and pools of putrid blood.
In fact, for any ordinary person in modern society, simply managing not to vomit at this sight and still having the capacity to think was a testament to their fortitude.
"...What happened here?!"
Gagging, he couldn't help but ask, "How did so many people die?!"
The sacred voice didn't answer the question, only continuing its guidance.
[Forward. Two o'clock.]
With no other choice, no matter how terrified he was, Shao Qiming could only pinch his nose and stumble through the piles of corpses and wreckage. To be honest, this was the first time he had ever seen so many bodies outside of a horror movie. His stomach churned, and he felt the urge to vomit, but he was too weak to even manage that. As he walked, his white clothes became stained with black bloodstains.
Shao Qiming felt his feet stepping over flesh and bone. A constant SQUISH SQUISH sound rose up, accompanied by a bizarre sensation underfoot. Yet, despite how gruesome it was, he forced himself to endure it, advancing with his eyes half-shut to keep the stench from stinging them. Even so, the farther he walked in that direction, the more he saw contorted faces, their eyes wide open in death. The fear and trepidation in his heart grew and grew.
He was terrified he would see Su Zhou's body next.
Until the voice spoke.
[Lower your head. Open your eyes.]
The youth opened his half-shut eyes. With his sharp mind, he already had a suspicion, but when he saw the person before him, he couldn't help but gasp.
"Azhou!"
Stunned, Shao Qiming dropped to his knees. He immediately saw the grievously wounded Su Zhou. Even with a missing left ear and hand, his face and body caked in filth and blood, Shao Qiming could clearly recognize his best friend. The strange things were the bulletproof vest on his chest, slashed open by a blade, and the gun clutched in his hand.
But this was no time to worry about such trivial details!
"He's still breathing!"
Shao Qiming couldn't begin to guess what his friend had done, but it must have been something incredibly dangerous. Gritting his teeth, he didn't waste time wondering about the 'why.' He immediately took action, pulling off his own long-sleeved shirt.
Shao Qiming didn't have the strength to rip the fabric into strips, so he decided to use a sleeve as a tourniquet to stanch the bleeding from Su Zhou's upper left arm.
[That won't be necessary. Do as I say, and you can save your friend.]
The sacred voice spoke again, but this time it only made Shao Qiming pause for a moment without stopping his actions. He had already taken off his outer shirt and tied it around Su Zhou's upper arm. Shao Qiming's voice trembled slightly. "Tell me your way. I'm stopping the bleeding first."
[…First, arrange the fingers of his right hand into this Seal Technique.]
For a brief moment, the world seemed to freeze. Then, an incredibly strange and complex Seal Technique appeared in Shao Qiming's mind. The moment he saw it, he subconsciously exclaimed, "Wait, can human fingers even bend like that?!"
But he had no other choice. The voice in his mind proved that the supernatural was real, a fact he had no choice but to accept.
'It was a dark sort of joke. The supernatural world they had so desperately sought, once hidden and veiled, had finally revealed itself to them—and not in a friendly way.'
"But… can forming this Seal Technique really save him?"
Muttering to himself, Shao Qiming reached out to begin. The sacred voice spoke again, its tone unhurried, as if echoing from an ancient, faraway shore.
[This Seal, you cannot form it. No one else can. But this little one... I believe he has the gift.]
[His Compatibility with me is extremely high—higher even than any of the humans or congregations I have made pacts with. If he were my High Priest, what need would there be for Orbits and offerings?]
Shao Qiming had no energy to listen to the voice's words, let alone analyze their meaning. Even if he had, he was out of options. It wasn't that he trusted the voice unconditionally. But by all common sense, Su Zhou's injuries were fatal without immediate medical attention. He didn't want Su Zhou to die. His only hope was to trust in the supernatural.
He wanted Su Zhou to live!
Gritting his teeth and fighting back the nausea, Shao Qiming carefully began to bend Su Zhou's fingers, following the bizarre Seal Technique in his mind. He could feel that his friend's powerful fingers were surprisingly supple. They could be arranged into any shape, completely unlike a normal person's... Sure enough, just as the sacred voice had said, the Secret Seal was soon formed. The four fingers were intertwined, like writhing serpents, creating a Seal Technique that was both sacred and strange.
[Good. A rare and genuine friendship. It has saved me much effort in persuasion and inducement.]
[I must say, your friendship is a stroke of luck for you both.]
The moment Shao Qiming finished forming the Seal Technique with Su Zhou's hand, a gentle force poured into him, engraving a vast Prayer into his mind like a revelation.
[Recite it.]
Before Shao Qiming could even digest the Prayer, the voice came again. As he perceived the 'words' in his mind, he couldn't help but feel a shiver of dread and confusion.
'Recite it? Recite… this thing?'
The characters weren't from any human language. In his mind, they twisted and shifted, constantly undergoing a Reincarnation of annihilation and rebirth, transforming into other shapes... And yet, despite how bizarre they were, Shao Qiming understood their meaning at a glance.
'These are Divine Words, beyond human speech and common sense!'
But he had to believe. Even the best doctors in the world couldn't save Su Zhou now. This was Shao Qiming's only choice.
And so, he began to chant. A feeling washed over him—the feeling of finally witnessing an Anomaly, of seeing a true Miracle.
Suppressing the roiling emotions in his heart and his worry for his friend, Shao Qiming did his best to remain calm. A mysterious power helped him focus his mind, and he began to chant in a low voice, producing a Spirit Sound that no un-Awakened human should ever be able to make.
"OM—Praise be to the Holy Spirit! OM—Praise be to the Holy Snake!"
OM—The primordial sound, linking to the aura of a distant, ancient shore, causing the Celestial Stars to tremble and transform into Divine Light.
"Master of Time, Source of the sun and moon!"
—A phantom of a Dragon Serpent could be vaguely seen, rising and falling. When it opened its eyes, it was day; when it closed them, it was night. Its breath out was summer, its breath in was winter. The phenomena of the heavens were overturned at its will.
"Creator of worlds, savior of worlds, who brings balance to the Ten Thousand Realms!"
—A Giant Serpent biting its own tail could be vaguely seen, turning. It was the World Soul, the principle of the cycle itself. It held the Power of Undying and a body of Perfection; it was the King of Mysteries.
"Whose path follows the stars, whose being endures the end of worlds!"
—A thousand-headed divine serpent could be vaguely seen coiling, its heads the Dominators of infinite stars, supporting the endless earth. Its very existence was the definition of permanence; even as it spewed flames that could shatter the heavens, it remained utterly unchanged.
"Salutations to the Celestial Human Master, bestower of wisdom!"
—A flawless fruit could be vaguely seen falling from a magnificent Divine Tree, only to be caught by a serpent's tail. It gently placed this fruit, the symbol of wisdom, into a distinctly human hand. Then came a soft chuckle.
This was not the voice of a mortal, but the divine tone of a Saint from a place far, far above. This sacred hymn, chanted by his friend, broke through the instinctive defenses of his mind and reached the ears of the dying boy.
As a person nears death, all senses shut down. The eyes cannot see, the ears cannot hear. The mind enters Silent Extinction, retreating into the body.
But in that hazy, deathly silent darkness, a single point of Spiritual Energy glowed with a violet-green light, struggling not to go out.
Then, an even greater light, an infinite radiance, descended.
[Do you want to live?]
[Do you wish to attain true Transcendence?]
[Do you wish to witness a divine miracle, to see the view from the very highest peak?]
[If you do, then let us sign a contract.]
The stagnant Spiritual Light stirred, following its instinct—an instinct that had always been to reject, to attack, to deny. He subconsciously replied, "No."
"I refuse."
[...?]
The sacred voice was silent for a moment.
But soon, the violet-green Spiritual Light reacted. It trembled slightly with some embarrassment, as if in thought. 'Ahem… although I refused…'
"But you can just force me!"
Even the nameless, sacred being was stunned for a moment, then burst into wild laughter.
[Excellent idea!]
[What an interesting human you are! Offer up your blood, your life, your fate, your future!]
[And I shall bestow upon you wisdom, power, Authority, and glory; as well as a new life, a new fate, and a new future!]
"Blood? Life? Fate? Future?"
The Spiritual Light stopped trembling, its consciousness restored. The dying Su Zhou stared up at the radiance and laughed just as wildly, pointing to his own chest. "What's with all the chatter? It's all right here!"
"You want it? Then reach out and take it!"
And so, a voice filled with gratification came, as if something had finally been completed, finally been confirmed.
[This, then, is the covenant I make with you.]
BOOM!
In that instant, Spiritual Qi from an unknown source suddenly underwent a Gathering and then a Burst!
In that moment, Su Zhou saw countless visions—visions of innumerable Celestial Gods and Exotic Beasts. Beings from myths and epics that had vanished millennia ago flickered past his eyes one by one, like shadows cast by the shuttle of Time.
Originally, the phantom of a winged Dragon was supposed to revolve into view before Su Zhou, but a serpent of shimmering Chaos and starlight descended from above, overpowering it and coalescing in the depths of his Soul instead.
And a solemn, sacred voice declared:
[By this blood, this life, this fate, this future, no matter where you go—I will be with you!]
A massive yet concentrated shockwave of Spiritual Qi echoed through the hall, kicking up a furious gale. Shao Qiming saw a violet-green light suddenly erupt from his friend, who should have been dying. The light enveloped the boy's body. Then, the sheer force of the shockwave knocked the already-weak Shao Qiming unconscious.
But in his last moments of consciousness, he vaguely saw Su Zhou's hand beginning to regenerate within the light. Flesh and blood writhed and light gathered, restoring it to its original state.
Meanwhile, a surging power pulsed within the darkness of Su Zhou's spirit. His violet-green Spiritual Light struggled, an Immortal flicker within a radiance so vast it felt like the dawn of creation. He felt a power—immeasurably ancient, vast, and filled with wise Majesty—connecting with him. It came from beyond heaven and earth, beyond the planet, beyond the world itself!
In the outside world, the brilliant light flared for only an instant before it revolved and transformed, contracting abruptly like a receding tide. All of it flowed back into Su Zhou's body, which was now not only intact, but had reached a state of even greater Perfection.
All the Anomalies vanished. Faintly visible on the young man's spine, a black, circular Mark appeared—like a serpent biting its own tail—before sinking into his flesh.
「The next moment.」
Su Zhou opened his eyes.
For a fleeting instant, his pupils were vertical slits, like those of a Dragon Serpent.