Chapter 567: The Dark Unraveling

Even after the special pollution in Heichao City had just been cleared, most of the city’s inhabitants were still deep in long-forgotten, satisfying sleep. A few early risers had already gotten up, busy with their work.

Some took advantage of the sparse streets, hastily loading cargo and sending it to various parts of Heichao City.

Others, anticipating a surge in demand after that wild celebration, raced toward the plantations, eager to secure a batch of profitable goods before anyone could react.

Still others had barely slept before creeping out of bed, nervously heading to the street in search of their familiar Black Grass dealers—planning to grab a batch of supplies, party hard, and then return to sleep.

There were also those whose already limited funds had darkened their eyes with grim determination.

Sitting on an empty street bench, they stared at one shattered window after another, gripping the knife in their pocket tightly.

……

In several other parts of the city, many people had received the news that had just come from the meeting room.

Whether they were en route to the Administration Hall of the Second Satellite City, traversing the rooftops of various buildings near the Administration Hall, or weaving through shadows with thoughts of causing a ruckus, they all let out a sigh of relief before contacting their spokespersons and stating their demands: “The agreed-upon plan can now be set in motion.”

“You can relax now.”

“Even an Ability User capable of clearing all the special pollution in Heichao City can’t decide its fate with a single word.”

“Go ahead—since he’s spoken up, he can make the final decision.”

“If Qinggang is willing, the largest slice of the cake can be given to them. This is our courtesy and our principle.”

“……”

Meanwhile, in the underground world of Heichao City, countless well-informed people exhaled in relief over these words, while at the edge of one Satellite City, a few figures shook their heads in resignation.

One short-skirted girl furrowed her brows impatiently and muttered, “Boring. A city like this is beyond saving.”

“I thought Qinggang’s guy could do something about it.”

“……”

A bespectacled man chuckled, “It’s normal. He’s no lunatic. He always thinks things through a bit more.”

“Wait…”

At that moment, someone suddenly looked up in alarm and cried out, “Has something appeared?”

……

……

While someone was sucking on a Black Grass cigarette to stay alert and hauling truckloads of cargo to various transit stations, his hand suddenly went limp. The front of his vehicle slammed violently into the roadside, crashing directly into a large tree, spinning the car around.

“What’s wrong? What’s happening?”

……

The person in the passenger seat, both shocked and angry, hurried over to help him, “If you can’t drive, what are we going to do with the cargo?”

But just as his hand was about to reach the driver, something felt awry.

He noticed the driver’s pupils dilating, turning into a void. His body curled up tightly, trembling as if electrocuted; his throat jerked, and muffled words emerged from his mouth.

Listening carefully, one could just hear him shout, “The… the sky is dark.”

……

“What does that mean? How can the sky suddenly be dark?”

The passenger screamed and instinctively looked up to see a dazzling sun in the sky…

Before he could turn back to help, his vision was plunged into complete darkness.

In panic, he looked up only to find that everything around him seemed to have vanished.

Only a thick darkness completely enveloped him. In his fear, he strained forward his eyes.

In that abyss of darkness, a rugged, cold face emerged.

That face filled nearly his entire field of vision.

Its knife-like gaze slowly swept over him, sending a chilling, scraping sensation across every inch of his skin.

“There’s only one chance…”

After that piercing look, a dry, hollow voice broke through the dense darkness.

“The next time you touch Black Grass, you’ll be handing your fate over to me…”

“Of course, I’m merciful…”

The voice gradually grew louder, rapidly echoing through their minds over and over, etching an indelible mark:

“So I’ll give you a choice of horror…”

“Whether it’s being dismembered by blades, having steel rods impale your brain, or being steamed alive…”

“……”

“……”

On the street, those who were about to conduct their shady deals—clenching their knife handles and planning to break into a house with occupants—suddenly froze in place as their hands reached out for what they needed.

Their pupils dilated simultaneously, the blood draining from their faces, and layers of sweat began streaming down their bodies.

Overwhelmed by an inexplicable weakness, they slowly crouched to the ground.

“There’s only one chance…”

As if their bodies had completely lost control, they mumbled the same sentence before everyone around them.

Their muscles convulsed uncontrollably from sheer terror; their voices distorted and stretched out:

“There’s only one chance…”

“There’s only one chance…”

As the repeated shouts grew louder, their eyes and noses twisted grotesquely, while snot dripped from their faces.

……

……

“What are you doing?”

In a secluded room, someone sat comfortably on a sofa, using a lighter to heat a cigar, systematically explaining to the person across from him how much support he could provide for Heichao City’s reconstruction—and how that spokesperson would, in turn, earn enough profit. Suddenly, the spokesperson sensed that something was wrong.

The cigar had been singed by the flame, its large chunk glowing red.

But his eyes wouldn’t blink; he stared fixedly at the spokesperson before him.

The other’s pupils were now maximally dilated, looking emptily hollow. His expression was a bizarre mix of laughter and tears as he murmured in a barely audible, rapid tone, as if reciting some mystical incantation:

“The sky is dark…”

“Terror has descended…”

“Something—it’s watching us…”

“……”

“Who’s messing with us?”

The man holding the cigar reacted instantly. Upon sensing that sudden, spine-chilling presence, he leaped up and, in one swift motion, drew a handgun from his ankle. A single black Special Bullet was pressed against the spokesperson’s forehead as he growled, “Whether you’re an Ability User or a Mental Monster, you’d better stop with your tricks immediately…”

As the gun pointed, the murmuring person’s voice abruptly vanished.

Just as the gunman relaxed slightly, he suddenly realized that the spokesperson’s eyes were fixed on him.

Those eyes kept dilating, resembling two mirrors.

Deep within the mirrors, one or two black shadows had materialized, silently gazing at him.

“Swish!”

In that instant when the shadow caught sight of him, his heart nearly stopped.

“Get lost…”

At that moment, the spokesperson roared sharply. The shadow in his eyes suddenly zoomed outwards.

When that shadow expanded to its extreme, it formed a mass of black darkness that abruptly burst from his eyes—a tidal wave of ebony, clawing and roaring like a demon.

The gunman, utterly defenseless, was flung about three to four meters away.

“Crack, crack, crack…”

In an instant, his wrist turned smooth as a severed fracture; his hand fell to the ground, swallowed by darkness.

Even the gun that hit the pavement was immediately twisted into a lump of scrap metal.

“Devil, devil…”

The gunman, terrified to the extreme, didn’t dare waste another moment—he fled the room for his life.

He ran so far that, even after escaping, he could still hear maniacal laughter behind him, as if it were following him relentlessly.

……

……

Similar chaos began to erupt across the city.

Countless people suddenly went mad, with demonic laughter erupting from the depths of their eyes.

To many, it seemed as though the sky had been draped with a black net, plunging the entire city into instant darkness.

Crack, crack…

Harsh, grating sounds of friction echoed through the ink-black surroundings, like an animal chewing on bone.

“Hehehehe…”

A chilling, eerie laugh drifted in from nowhere, as if a massive stone had been dropped on everyone’s hearts. An invisible terror overwhelmed them, a sensation so dreadful yet impossible to faint from, filling their minds entirely.

“Are you ready?”

In the depths of countless muddled minds, a voice suddenly sounded.

Then, they all became unnervingly clear—more alert than ever before.

“Ah!!!”

A woman, who had been carelessly puffing away in a dilapidated house while ignoring the baby in her arms, suddenly turned sharply. She saw a tall man in a raincoat standing by a cabinet in the shadowed corner of the darkened house, staring coldly at her.

He held his child close while a kitchen knife, shimmering coldly, peeked from his grasp.

Her scream echoed through the entire building, and when her husband burst into the room, he found her cradling her head and trembling.

The baby, right there beside her, coughed from the thick smoke.

“Get out! Get out now!”

Someone desperately clutched a gun, repeatedly pulling the trigger toward the dark corner, but the shadow before them only grew clearer.

Countless dead figures morphed in appearance, creeping closer with mysterious, eerie smiles.

“Weren’t you already killed by me?”

“Ghost! Are you a ghost?”

“……”

Another person threw his cigarette aside, cradled his head, and broke down in tears, “Dad… Dad…”

“I was wrong, please don’t hit me anymore…”

“……”

The entire city seemed to twist in the darkness. In Heichao City, where many had already been severely affected by Black Grass, people with diverse lives and disguises—otherwise too varied to be lumped together—suddenly witnessed the most terrifying scene.

Fear, anxiety, and panic surged uncontrollably.

Deep within countless minds, a towering figure let out an excited laugh.

“Repent…”

“Change your ways…”

“No one will ever forgive you anyway…”

“Hehehehehe…”

“I couldn’t care less if you change…”

“I only care about the moment you fall into my hands…”

“……”

Elsewhere, even those who had neither consumed Black Grass nor participated in these transactions but were on their way to the Administration Hall to ‘meet’ the eccentric Qinggang Ability User suddenly sensed that something was off.

They hadn’t touched Black Grass, so they couldn’t perceive that terror directly.

Yet, they still sensed a vast, intimidating mental power suddenly spreading through the city.

That mental force was chilling, strange, and maddening—like a nimble presence crawling through pores, or as if a pair of malevolent eyes were watching them from every corner of the city…

Creak…

A sedan headed for the Second Administration Hall suddenly came to a halt.

The occupants felt the expanding mental force around them. After a long, silent pause, one said, “Turn back.”

The sedan retraced its path as if it had never arrived.

A red-clad ninja, walking atop a building in Heichao City and overlooking the sea of fear that had formed around her, eventually slid down a nearby utility pole and obediently headed out of the city.

“Has an evil god descended?”

A hidden presence trembling in the shadows finally whispered, “I was wrong…”

Those who admitted their mistakes were largely spared.

But some unlucky souls silently vanished, leaving only the sound of faint chewing escaping from their hideouts.

……

……

“What was that?”

The short-skirted girl felt the shock of the change and, with wide eyes, exclaimed, “How dare he do that?”

A bespectacled man in a suit paused before laughing, “He really is a lunatic. I love it!”

……

……

At the same time these changes were occurring, Lu Xin quietly made his way back to the office where Han Bing and the others were resting.

With a relaxed smile, he said, “See? It wasn’t so hard, was it?”

On a bench, Yin Mao was curled up, his face pale, his pupils dilated, and his body trembling violently.

It was like a nightmare—muttering repeatedly, “I don’t want to be dismembered, or steamed alive. I don’t want my head chopped off or my balls cut… I don’t want any of this, but this is my career. If you love what you do, isn’t that enough?”

“Boo hoo, I really can’t accept this…”

“No, no—don’t let anyone look down on me. Please, no…”

“I’m sorry—I’m so sorry. I’ll never chase after my career again…”

“I swear, I swear I’ll never get involved again…”

“Really, I’m done…”

“……”

Lu Xin’s gaze fell on Yin Mao, and he sighed softly.

He realized he had indeed crushed his dream.

As he sighed, he saw a look of severe contamination on Yin Mao. Han Bing and Red Serpent, clearly terrified, had lifted their heads. Every hair on Red Serpent’s body stood on end like steel needles.

The mental detection device on Han Bing’s wrist had reached alarming readings.

Startled, they looked up to see Lu Xin smiling, and Han Bing shouted in panic,

“Mr. Single Soldier, what… what did you do?”

“……”

“Me?”

Lu Xin could already hear panic and shouts ringing down the corridor and in the meeting room. Coupled with Yin Mao’s demonstration of psychological change, he nodded in satisfaction.

Then, he calmly answered Han Bing, “Strictly speaking, I did nothing.”