Capítulo 1166: Chapter 6: Land of Obsession (Part 6)
6. Death
Death is the end of all things, the truth of the universe, a terrifying conclusion that even the stars deep within the cosmos cannot escape, just like ants. As everything starts, everything also inevitably ends.
The dim light of the oil lamp dispersed the darkness shrouding the depths of the mist. Arriving in the unfamiliar environnt, Lu Li suddenly fell heavily. His body lost coordination, with a prank-like inversion of sensation manifesting upon him: lifting his left hand beca his right hand, lifting his right leg beca his left leg. After Lu Li reluctantly adapted to this disarray and climbed off the “floor,” he found the ceiling was beneath his feet, the floor above his head, along with tables, chairs, doors, windows, and stairs. He bypassed the ceiling fan hanging from the ceiling and approached the window, seeing the inverted houses hanging from the rock ceiling, with the abyss below revealing no depth.
Lu Li had already realized where he was: one of the forbidden territories, the Corrupted Sewers, a forgotten land. He guessed if the first level was the Swamp, and the second level the Corrupted Sewers, then would the third level be the Mysterious Dense Forest? Lu Li attempted to call the rchant and the Evil Parchnt, which had stopped responding since arriving here, but only the rchant appeared on the “ceiling” and could not communicate. The only thing Lu Li could understand in the entire house was a note on the table:
[Congratulations on reaching the second level]
[I hope you can still understand this note, or you might miss this hint]
[What you need to do is simple. Stand before the window, do you see the exit of the Corrupted Sewers in the distance? Reach it and you will enter the third level]
[Rember, eliminating other contestants will yield no rewards; this is a cooperative level]
At this mont, a noise ca from the floor above, and Lu Li followed the sound to the second floor, hearing the sound of breaking glass from the room at the end of the hallway. The malicious neighbor who broke the glass stood on the ceiling just like Lu Li, but they couldn’t understand each other’s language at all despite their identical predicant—this neighbor subsequently made an astonishing move: he slashed his own throat with a dagger as if gone mad. Yet instead of blood spurting everywhere, he disappeared in place like a popped bubble, as if death had granted him relief. The Evil Parchnt then murmured to seduce Lu Li into suicide, making Lu Li believe it. Coincidentally or not, Dean Chris had prepared a potion for the Exorcist containing an Eternal Sleep Tablet. Then, finding nothing in the search of the house, Lu Li, due to trust, took the Eternal Sleep Tablet.
…
The dim light of the oil lamp disturbed the darkness enveloping the mist. Lu Li stood on the ceiling of the upside-down house—or the upside-down Lu Li stood on the ceiling. The inverted world helped Lu Li identify this place: the Corrupted Sewers, one of the forbidden territories. Bypassing the ceiling fan at his feet, he went to the window; the inverted world made the house beneath his feet resemble a lone island in a vast deep sea. The Evil Parchnt did not respond, and the arriving rchant could not communicate, but the note on the table bore recognizable words.
After reading the note, Lu Li heard a rolling sound from the second floor beneath his feet. When he went upstairs and entered the room at the end, he saw a figure before the window of the neighboring house, eagerly prompting Lu Li, as if waiting for him, that “death can be reversed,” and then slashed his own neck with a dagger. The ditative Exorcist searched the house, then under the temptation of the Evil Parchnt took the “Eternal Sleep Tablet.”
…
The darkness deep within the mist was like a veil lifted by the dim light of the oil lamp. Lu Li stood in the neglected old living room; the floor was thick with dust, the note on the table bore unrecognizable words, and the ceiling was littered with chaotic footprints. Lu Li stepped onto the dining table to examine these footprints—they were so familiar, yet the Exorcist had no mory or impression of this place. The Evil Parchnt was silent, while the rchant told Lu Li that this was the Corrupted Sewers.
Following the extended footprints, Lu Li went upstairs, where the ceiling footprints lingered at the end of the corridor, and he patrolled the room with scattered stones and shattered glass on the floor. After checking every room, he finally verified with the rchant his suspicions: Lu Li had been here twice, standing on the ceiling—the traces indeed were left by Lu Li himself. Now it was the third ti, but Lu Li could not confirm whether there would be a fourth. All he could do at the mont was write the note, place it beside the one possibly left for his next self, and walk onto the long, desolate street blown by ghostly wind. In a not-far-off building with a wooden sign, Lu Li encountered another group of people. Contestants from various factions had ford alliances, so were normal like Lu Li, others stood on the ceiling—just as Lu Li had before.
From them, Lu Li learned that with each death, he would be assimilated into the Corrupted Sewers: losing mories of the outside world in the process, and gradually becoming part of the Corrupted Sewers, like the people who once lived here. This team, united and with an Exorcist, instinctively sought to escape this place, but were killed by a chilling, long-fallen beings who had long since sunk into the corrupt, having died countless tis before, including the Exorcist.
…
The dull yellow light of the oil lamp dispersed the darkness deep within the mist. Lu Li stood in the old, dust-laden living room, with shoe prints on the dining table, and upon it was a note left by the one claiming to be his third self. Then, Lu Li searched, left a note, and left the house he may have searched four tis, went to the supposedly visited building with the wooden sign, encountered the perhaps already-t twins and the figure they had tied up, from whom he learned the perhaps already-known information, and finally died in the biting cold that he perhaps had already encountered.
…
The roiling dark mist brightened with the dim light of the oil lamp, outlining the Exorcist’s form appearing in the old house’s living room for the sixth ti. All the notes spread before him—they pieced together the truth of the Corrupted Sewers: So invisible force was pushing Lu Li forward. Not just this forbidden land, but also the competition, Midnight City, and the faintly whispering Evil Parchnt. They collectively told Lu Li: Death is the only chance to approach the Cursed Title of the Corrupted Sewers. But to grasp that enticing fruit requires not only trust but an unyielding will that borders on terrifying—what could prompt soone who hasn’t fallen into despair, who isn’t a pessimist, to choose to end their own life?
The Parchnt usurped all the credit of Midnight City, only letting Lu Li believe everything was at its behest. After ending his life over and over again, Lu Li finally felt the summons from sowhere in the Corrupted Sewers, arriving on an empty, silent street. Now the Exorcist, like the Fallen wandering in the forbidden land, perhaps even more elevated—because they were imrsed in useless slaughter, with no one to release them. An ethereal call guided Lu Li to a dimly tall church. Here, he encountered the real inhabitants of this place, an unnad coronet appeared above his head, celebrating Lu Li becoming one of them—
Then, the erging mist shrouded Lu Li, as if the Evil Parchnt had stolen the credit of Midnight City, it snatched away the new resident of the Corrupted Sewers.
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