by Feng Yue
The messenger on the horse seemed to sense his eyes. Sighing, he turned the horse around and uttered the final command, “Kill everyone who attacks the checkpoint!”
—
The fires of the burning buildings along the street had been put out. The only sound in the deathly silence was the wailing that had melted into the wind. The chilling melody wormed into the people’s ears.
A lonely figure stood in the heart of the blood-covered road. He gazed around in silence. Other than he and the Butcher, every other living thing was now lying on the ground. Some were shaking. The horrifying pain from the deepest part of their soul attacked their minds, and now they would forever be submerged in a nightmare, drowning in the black river.
Some had dared to approach the Butcher and now they were broken, scattered all over the ground. He was in the distance, finding the ones who he had missed the first time. He would gently caress the back of their head before wrenching it off. In the end, he gazed toward another street as if he still wanted more…
“Enough, we still have our own thing to do. Avalon is too big for us to take care of everything.” The youth’s voice traveled over and the Butcher stopped.
He turned and saw the youth walking in the direction of their final destination, no longer stopping here. The wind carried his hoarse murmur.
“But I think I can understand the Shaman now.” The voice was quiet, but cold and resounding. “This city needs to be cleaned up.”
—
Ye Qingxuan quickly discovered that having a beast like the Butcher really helped save time and effort. Ghosthand was old and could not perform some physical tasks, but they were all no problem for the Butcher. With his donkey mask, it was clear that he was not a good guy. Ye Qingxuan did not feel bad about ordering him around either. He had paid, after all! The money was from the Shaman, but Ye Qingxuan was still the direct boss.
After he calculated the location of the sewers, the Butcher used his inhuman strength to punch a hole in the ground without much effort. He stuck a head in to look around and then jumped in. Following right behind him, Ye Qingxuan slid down a rope into the darkness.
It was undoubtedly Avalon’s sewage tunnel. There was even a nameplate on the wall with a raised serial code. But it seemed as if it had been abandoned for years.
This was not strange, or rather, Ye Qingxuan had expected this. Ever since Avalon was created, the underground sewage system had been continuously expanded into a vast and complex system. Sometimes even the construction workers would be lost.
When a new tunnel was created, the old one would be abandoned. Some of the abandoned ones were sealed, while others were simply forgotten. After centuries of additions and changes, this place had become a complete maze. No one knew where the water would flow. This was heaven for rats and trash. It was used specifically for hiding dirty secrets.
Hariti’s old lair had been made from an abandoned well in the system. The smuggler that the Professor had killed had something to do with this, too. Being tortured to death was partly his fault.
“It should be here.” Ye Qingxuan ran a hand over the moss on the walls. He could feel the powdery texture through his glove. “I don’t know what the Professor is trying so hard to find, but if we go down this trail, we’ll discover something.”
As he searched in silence, Ye Qingxuan suddenly halted and lowered his head. He seemed to be able to see something clearly through the heavy darkness.
In the corner was a weathered and withered skeleton on the ground. The skull had rolled into its arms after the neck snapped. Its mouth was open wide to the sky in a leering smile. For some reason, there was something raised subtly on the skull like a broken horn.
The bones before its chest had been broken entirely, as if the man had ran here with the last of his strength after being stabbed by a sword and had finally ran out of strength. And so he had died here in this dark corner.
Ye Qingxuan reached over to pick up a fallen bone fragment. The fragile thing snapped between his fingertips and fell to the ground.
“It’s been at least ten years.” The silent Butcher had suddenly spoken in his scratchy voice. The eyes behind his donkey mask shone blood-red in the darkness, as if he could see everything clearly in the dark.
“Ten years?” Ye Qingxuan was stunned. He did not understand how a tunnel that had been abandoned for so long would have a ten-year-old skeleton. He waved his hand and a breeze appeared to blow away the thick dust on the skeleton. It revealed the ragged clothing underneath. It was a thin coverall with a strange design, like the uniforms given to prisoners. Was this a dead prisoner?
Quickly, Ye Qingxuan went further down the tunnel. For some reason, the further he walked, the more unsettled he felt. There was a strange smell in the wind.
“Wait.” Ye Qingxuan raised his hand, motioning for the Butcher to stop. He gazed around and his brows furrowed. The smell was not right.
In the tunnel, a breeze came from the distant darkness, bringing with it a pungent smell. It was neither a vile nor fragrant scent. It was the smell that often lingered in a dream. “Disinfectants?” Why would a long-abandoned sewage tunnel have this kind of smell?
Suddenly, Ye Qingxuan felt dazed. Bits of scenes flashed past his mind as if the memories sleeping in the darkness were finally awakened. The ghastly white light, the cold metal bed, the men wearing white robes, the sharp lancet blades in their hands and…the pungent smell of disinfectants. In that unique smell, there was also the smell of blood. Blood.
Suddenly, the hair on the back of Ye Qingxuan’s neck rose and he spun around. Before he could move, the darkness began dancing, disturbed by the wind created by a giant figure. It was the Butcher.
The Butcher stepped forward and expanded his bone saw. When folded up, it was like a giant razor. But after expanding, the bone saw became a terrifying weapon that could split bodies.
Chop! The bloody bone saw swung in Ye Qingxuan’s direction. The sharp edge practically grazed his head!
Boom! As if a bag of water had suddenly split open, something that had fallen from the top of the tunnel was cut in half by the bone saw. It smashed against the wall with a piercing screech.
159 Welcome to Arkham
It should have pounced straight towards Ye Qingxuan, bit off his head, and enjoyed the meal. The plan should have been flawless, but the only mistake was that it had overlooked was the monster that was hidden beside them.
It smashed against the wall and it fell to the ground. Its chest was split wide open by the bone saw. The plate-like ribs collapsed, even the internal organs were exposed. Before it could climb up from the ground, the plaintive melody sounded out of thin air, as if a black river rushed in from the void, pulling it into endless nightmares. It screamed as its body twitched. Soon its eyes rolled to the back of its head, but it only became even more ferocious and full of madness. It had no heart, so it did not fear madness.
But then a palm covered the ferocious face. Ye Qingxuan clenched that face and lifted it from the ground. The thing tried to struggle and reached out, trying to tear at the youth’s face, but between the fingers, all it could see was the youth’s sneer
Bang! Like an illusion, the whole sewer seemed to startle suddenly. The invisible tremors spread from the youth’s hand, raising a cloud of dust, dancing disorderly. The thing lost consciousness instantly.
Ye Qingxuan deliberately suppressed the power of the “sigh shock.” The aftershock rushed into its body and echoed throughout. All one could hear was the cracking and popping. The frantic shaking actually loosened all its bones from its sockets. It shattered! Now, Ye Qingxuan had the ability to take a look at its face…
“What the h*ll is this?” He stared at it, his eyes dilated. Now he finally understood what was going on with that skull in the sewer.
In his hand was a humanoid body. It was bent and small like a child, but its fingers were sharp as knives. On its bony face were two horns, one long and one short. This was a demon.
&nbs
p; In the dark, screams could be heard occasionally. Ye Qingxuan cast down the demon in his hand and the cane in his hand unfolded. Jiu Xiao Huan Pei made a ringing sound.
The Butcher raised his head in silence, looking up at the dome in the darkness. The pair of bloodshot eyes reflected dozens of bony-faced demons walking on the dome. Gripping the seams in the stone tightly with their fingers, the deformed bodies moved quickly like a beast walking on the ground.
When Ye Qingxuan and the Butcher entered this deserted sewer, they had been surrounded by these kinds of creatures without even realizing it. In the distant darkness, there were constant screams that could be heard from all directions. The sharp sound of the teeth scratching the slate came faintly. There were countless of them.
Even a monster like the Butcher had never thought that there would be such a large group of demons living in the sewers of Avalon.
“Tut-tut, this feels really uncomfortable.” Ye Qingxuan frowned. “I’m afraid that we were tricked by that professor guy.”
There was no more time for conversations. The bony-faced demons on the dome had been attracted by the blood of their own kind, and they seemed to be starving. They screamed at each other, urging their companions to go up against the d*mned monster, eager for a feast of gluttony.
The Butcher silently clenched his bone saw, his muscles bulging. A music note appeared faintly on the muscles under the blood-stained apron. He was going to transform into a beast.
But at this time, the cold voice of the youth sounded beside him. “Stand firm.”
At that moment, the boy squatted on the ground, his right hand pressed on the floor. Bang!
In an instant, the violent shaking spread downward from the iron bone in his palm and smashed into the sewer ground. The invisible shaking spread like waves, sweeping in all directions.
For a moment, the checkered slates struck each other, sending out a sharp sound, and emitting a huge cloud of dust from the seams. The slabs, walls, domes, the entire sewer, and even the burning buildings above the sewer were all affected by this horrible shaking.
Bang! Above the burning hut, the flames burst, rising up into the night sky. It illuminated the black clouds, and then collapsed.
As the hut collapsed on the ground, the demons in the sewers were swept off the dome. Losing their footing, they fell to the ground.
Even the Butcher was dazed for a moment, but soon, his pupils lit up again—they were bloody red! The monster had arrived!
Facing all the falling demons, the Butcher roared. His originally bulging muscles expanded even further. He swung his bone saw with force! Cracks sounded constantly, like a water sack breaking, like a mouse being crushed, like a worm being pounded down into powder.
He chopped, swept, and spun his bone saw wildly, set off shrill screams. Even the air was cut apart, revealing a white trajectory. Blood splattered and sprayed from the bone saw. Blood flowed from the blade, spilling in the air. It grew more ferocious as bones broke and flesh separated.
Dozens of demons were chopped into pieces before they had even landed. The plaintive melody sounded out of thin air and sipped on their sanity, temporarily plunging them into a trance.
Faced with a monster, even a temporary trance could be a VIP ticket to hell! This time, Ye Qingxuan could finally appreciate the Butcher’s terrible madness. The violence and ferocity from deep in his bone marrow was enough to send chills down one’s spine, even without using aether or music scores.
In an instant, the fallen demons were sawed, smashed, and trampled in two…they were torn apart as if they were thin pieces of paper.
Ye Qingxuan was attracted by the berserk actions and forgot what he was doing. But in his moment of inattentiveness, a monster which was split in half on the ground suddenly shot back up. The bone-faced demon with only its upper body crawled with its claws, leaving behind a trail of blood, and suddenly pounced at the youth! In the blink of an eye, it went from a few meters away to right before his eyes! It was impossibly fast!
Ye Qingxuan’s pushed his palm forward suddenly. The steel bone inside his body brought with it an impact of hundreds of kilograms. It was like an axe swung by a knight riding on a galloping horse!
Bang! The demon flew back, its bony face smashed into two with a deep dent in the center. After struggling for a bit, it never moved again.
Even so, in its final attempt, its claws grazed Ye Qingxuan’s face, leaving a narrow and cold wound on his cheekbone. One more inch and it would have pierced his bone. One second later and the claw would have pierced into Ye Qingxuan’s brain and churned his brain matter into a clump of mud.
In a sudden, cold sweat trickled down Ye Qingxuan’s back. He no longer dared to be careless in such a fatal fight. Even if he had the full upper hand, he still would not stay in one place and wait for the demons to come. Instead, they followed the pungent smell of the disinfectant in the air and rushed forward along the dilapidated sewer. The demons in their path were turned into corpses by him and the Butcher. They had no intentions of retreating, even if Professor Moriarty’s trap was right in front of them.
Ye Qingxuan’s eyes darkened. He had to understand the relationship between the pungent smell, the picture that had flashed through his own mind, and this d*mned place…
In the end, the sounds from behind became closer together. The monsters in dark caught up by sniffing the smell of blood.
The youth’s footsteps stopped suddenly. Before him, the road had come to the end. The end? No, there were only exits in Avalon’s sewer. How could there be an end? But there was a huge black iron gate before him.
-
There were no marks or patterns on the solid iron door, nor a keyhole or complex mechanism. It was as if the designer had left no way to open it. Beside it, there was only a giant winch that was wrapped in layers of chains and locks. The handle had been taken away as well.
Ye Qingxuan was stunned, but he processed it quickly. In somewhere as damp as a sewer, any metal with a precise structure would be corroded by the water. Only pure and basic structures could be preserved for a long time.
The way to open the door was obvious. Dozens of people would have to turn the handle by using special machinery and mechanical force to then turn the winch. That was the only way to pull open this mighty and heavy door.
The pungent smell of disinfectant came from a gap above the iron gate that was no wider than a finger…
The heavy machinery that had been here before had been disassembled. There was no time for Ye Qingxuan to find another solution. He hesitated for a moment, unwillingness flashing past his eyes. He was ready to lead the Butcher out of here, but he did not expect for the Butcher to shove him away.
The Butcher stuck his bone saw directly in the ground, and then clenched the heavy chain attached to the door tightly. The chain was as wide as man’s waist. Now, it was pulled taut in his hand. The chain loops rubbed against each other, creating sparks and a harsh sound. The gate did not budge.
The Butcher’s body shook abruptly and suddenly swelled, growing about a half meter taller. His feet sunk deep into the stone slabs. Over the distant shrill screams, he roared and jerked his arms backwards. The iron gates made a screeching sound and surprisingly began to tremble, dust falling. Then, the meter-thick iron gate was pulled open by his strange force?!
Ye Qingxuan was shocked, but he reacted quickly and stopped wasting time. He rushed into the narrow gap between the iron gates. Then he felt cold wind blowing into his face.
He could feel that there was a vast space behind the iron gate, and even the perception threads ten meters long could not sense the end. The Butcher quickly came through the gate and pulled it with force.
The iron gate slammed shut, crushing a charging demon into mush. Through the door, one could still hear the demons pacing outside but not daring to come closer.
When the Butcher turned around, his blood-red eyes opened wide in shock. Before him, Ye Qingxuan’s expression was solemn. He had finally found ou
t the source of the pungent odor.
In the darkness, Ye Qingxuan snapped his fingers emotionlessly and uttered a short syllable. The rune Light sparked at his fingertips and glowed. The glaring light illuminated the darkness, the huge underground square, as well as the numerous hooks hanging from the ceiling.
In the vast space behind the gate, hanging from hooks were men and women, old and young, beautiful and ugly, complete and broken…Bodies, bodies, bodies!
In the wide underground square, hanging from the countless hooks were…naked bodies!
The ghastly pale bodies swung slightly in the pervaded cold wind, emanating the pungent smell of disinfectants. This was a forest of corpses!
-
The Butcher quickly processed everything. He looked down at the Ye Qingxuan with a clear message in his eyes. “What the h*ll is this?”
Where was this? Where else could it be?
Ye Qingxuan recalled the map in his mind and the tracks they had covered to pinpoint their location. Finally, he could not help but laugh coldly. “This is the Arkham Asylum.”
The soft words seemed to be the trigger for bad luck. The next moment, a shrill alarm wailed.
-
It was late at night in the clock shop. In the duskiness, a single candle on a candlestick was lit. It illuminated the darkness, but the quiet and old clocks had disappeared in its light.
As if the candlelight brought an illusion, the chaotic streets of downtown as well as images of thugs fighting appeared where the light shone. It always showed the burning buildings and piles of bodies…
“When there are too many crows, they have to be killed; when there are too many monkeys, they need to be controlled; now there are more and more people, but the number is still increasing.No matter how we pray to gods, no one has ever seen a god, have they?”
The seemingly-youthful blond man sat in a chair, surrounded by the chaotic illusions. He carried a seven-stringed harp in his arms and sang with gusto. The music was broken and its ups and downs were irregular, but there was a kind of beauty in the hysteria. The singing was hoarse but full of youthful innocence, and it echoed in silence.