Chapter 550: The Monster in the Plaza

In a gentle tone and with an excited expression.

Lu Xin walked step by step through the plaza, his gaze roaming over the remaining living beings.

On the plaza, only a small group of people remained.

Some wore wrinkled suits, others sported flamboyant women’s dresses, while still others were clad in armed uniforms.

If you stripped away the panic and chaos on their faces—and a lingering daze—you could still see a refined habit and noble aura born of long years in high office, far beyond what ordinary people possess.

Lu Xin’s gentle eyes swept over their faces, examining every detail.

That monster had to be somewhere in this plaza; he could feel it.

And that monster must be hiding within someone’s mind, or he would have sensed it more unmistakably.

On a mental level, monsters exposed directly to reality are as clear as the sun.

……

……

By the time Lu Xin scrutinized them, the group was clearly terrified, their faces etched with dread as they stared at him.

Based on the current intelligence, they were high-ranking officials from the Heichao City Administration and the masterminds of that special operation in Ghostfire Marsh. Naturally, they had been subdued immediately when the monster from the abyss emerged.

Surprisingly, there were hardly any signs of corruption on them, and their minds remained alert.

It appeared they hadn’t even been robbed of sleep.

Yet, their mental traits had still been compromised. Perhaps the monster from the abyss intended to use them to control the city, which is why it hadn’t rendered them as dull as ordinary people.

“Help me… please save us…”

Suddenly, one of them shouted loudly.

It was a middle-aged man whose hair had clearly fallen out by 95%, leaving only a few deliberately retained long strands combed to the center of his head. As if mustering courage, he bellowed at Lu Xin:

“You… you’re the one sent to back us up, aren’t you?”

“Hurry, save us! I am Lu Da Wang, the head of Heichao City Administration. You… get us out of here now…”

“……”

Lu Xin found it somewhat amusing as he cast a sideways glance at the man.

“What are you waiting for? Hurry and get us out…”

“Aren’t you here to help us?”

“……”

Seeing that Lu Xin only glanced at him, the head official became both shocked and enraged.

After nearly a month of living in terror, they were utterly exhausted by the torment and had come to see Lu Xin as their only lifeline, shrieking hysterically, “Stop standing there—get us out now…”

“Isn’t it just money? You need money, right? I can give you any amount…”

“……”

“Hmm?”

Lu Xin, his curiosity piqued, focused his gaze on him and said, “How much?”

The head administrator’s face lit up with delight—this could work!

He almost shouted out an astronomical sum, but at the last moment, driven by a subtle hesitation, he refrained from specifying a number. Instead, while shouting, he struggled to stand and crawled toward Lu Xin, yelling:

“Any amount will do…”

“……”

“Hmm…”

Hearing this, Lu Xin frowned slightly and stepped back.

The head administrator, now both shocked and furious, shouted harshly, “Save me now; take me to safety immediately…”

“Or I’ll report you to your Administration Hall…”

“……”

At these words, Lu Xin’s expression suddenly darkened.

He glared coldly at the head administrator crawling toward him; even the other officials, who had eagerly advanced upon hearing his cry for help, suddenly became frantic, jostling toward Lu Xin.

This time, he didn’t retreat; instead, when the head administrator reached his feet, Lu Xin pulled a gun from his bag…

and silently aimed it at the official’s forehead.

The plump head official’s face froze instantly as he looked up, cold sweat streaming down, and stammered, “What are you doing?”

Lu Xin, looking down from above, met his gaze calmly.

“What… exactly do you intend to do?”

Nearby, trembling voices arose from the other Administration officials, who had initially crawled toward Lu Xin in desperate hope. But when they saw him point a gun at the head administrator, they were struck with shock. An elegant woman in her forties, dressed in a black professional suit and impeccably maintained, cried out in panic.

But she stopped mid-sentence.

Because Lu Xin reached into his Black Bag and drew another gun, aiming it directly at her face.

The Black Bag dropped softly, and an eerie silence fell over the area.

“You…”

The fat head administrator’s voice trembled as the muscles in his face twisted uncontrollably: “Are you insane…?”

“I am the head of Heichao City Administration. Weren’t you sent here to help us?”

“You want money, don’t you? Hurry up and save me and I’ll…”

“……”

“Heh…”

Listening to his words and seeing the mix of guilt and eagerness on his face, Lu Xin’s own expression broke into a smile.

“Money doesn’t mean anything to me.”

“You’re worthless…”

“……”

“Bang!”

As the last word left his mouth, a burst of flames suddenly shot out from the muzzle.

The flames illuminated the head administrator’s sweat-drenched face and his expression of utter terror.

The next moment, as if a bullet had burst a black balloon, endless darkness began to swallow the surroundings.

It was as though the entire world was plunged into a night devoid of even a glimmer of light. Countless eerie murmurs echoed, and razor-sharp psychic threads scraped against skin, with the sound of dense, scaly friction resonating in the ears…

When Lu Xin lifted his head, he saw that the ground was undulating like a restless sea.

Massive rubble and bricks jutted upward like mountains, gradually stretching into the distance to form towering ridges.

It was as if a gigantic python was slowly slithering beneath the stone slabs.

What was even more shocking, this python wasn’t only burrowing underground—it was also crawling over adjacent walls and buildings.

Its body, whether on a wall, a building, or even glass, bulged unnaturally, as if these structures had come to life, writhing in a most uncanny manner.

If you counted all these parts as its body, it was at least several hundred meters long.

It coiled over most of the plaza, trapping Lu Xin inside.

A gigantic face appeared on the Administration Hall Building before Lu Xin; two windows lit up like eyes.

The bright lights within those windows formed what looked like pupils, positioned around the tenth floor of the Administration Hall Building—ominous yet searing with brightness as they looked down from above.

Lu Xin also looked upward, slowly lifting his bag and tossing both guns inside.

With such massive guns, they were clearly unwieldy.

……

……

“Have you gained the ability to see me?”

On the Administration Hall Building, the face that had swollen from the wall and the myriad windows seemed to express irritation.

“Heh heh…”

Lu Xin offered no direct response to its words.

He didn’t feel the need to explain that he fired his gun not because he was certain the monster dwelled within the head administrator.

He was simply curious as he looked up at the creature.

No wonder—having crawled out of the abyss—its form was indeed very different from that of other mental monsters.

“You’re too high up.”

He looked up at the face on the Administration Hall Building and said, “I don’t like it. You should be lower.”

“I seem to have made a mistake…”

The face on the building slowly twisted into an expression of cold indifference: “You will never be Him!”

“I am indeed avoiding you, but not out of fear…”

“It’s just that unless absolutely necessary, I refuse to bear the guilt of regicide…”

“……”

As these words were spoken, the air around them grew unusually thick and oppressive.

It felt as though a heavy storm was imminent, and the world itself darkened.

A damp aura suddenly enveloped the entire plaza, transforming it into an endless marsh; even the once solid stone slabs beneath their feet had turned soft, and Lu Xin’s foot sank as he felt a powerful tug.

“Pfft pfft pfft pfft…”

A series of dull thuds echoed as countless long arms suddenly stretched out from underground.

These arms were exceptionally long—nearly seven or eight meters each—with densely jointed segments. Rather than hands, they resembled twisted tree branches growing in a contorted, painful manner from the marsh.

Lu Xin’s pupils narrowed slightly.

A marsh.

Before arriving in Heichao City, he had seen vast marshlands teeming with danger and mystery.

Now, this monster had actually brought the marsh into Heichao City.

“Well, since you’ve fallen into my grasp…”

All around, the sound of that gigantic python echoed through the marsh: “I don’t mind keeping your traits.”

Before the sound could fade, those withered, tree-like arms suddenly lunged at Lu Xin.

They surged in from all directions, moving with a bizarre and twisted motion.

The black particles in Lu Xin’s eyes trembled slightly, and the mental power around him began to spread instantly.

But then, he suddenly paused.

It was as if he blinked, and in that moment, countless withered, bony hands clutched him.

Moments before, those hands had been far away.

Yet in an instant, those branch-like arms had grabbed Lu Xin.

Their touch was icy, almost as if it could seep straight into bone, trembling and contorting as they entwined densely around him.

Even his body was being dragged into the marsh, with his calves already submerged.

……

……

Even Lu Xin was taken aback—where had the process of time-stealing gone?

Had his time been stolen?