Chapter 632: The Ominous March in Flame City

“What is that?”

At the moment the sound of boots echoed, Lu Xin abruptly looked up and turned his gaze toward the other end of the street.

Flame City was still the same Flame City; its streets and streetlights appeared no different than before.

Yet with each heavy, regimented step, an overwhelming sense of oppression suddenly shrouded the city.

Lu Xin noticed that at the far end of the street, a hazy substance—resembling fog—had appeared.

But he quickly realized—it wasn’t fog.

The air itself was growing murky, twisting into strands that interwove to create a vision as blurred as fog.

Deep within the haze, he could barely distinguish a gathering of human heads rapidly approaching.

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

The sounds grew louder and more insistent, nearly deafening, as if the entire city trembled.

No—it wasn’t the city trembling at all.

It was his own mind, resonating with those steady steps, that made him feel as though he were shaking.

……

……

Lu Xin took a deep breath, realizing that something formidable had emerged.

He rose from the bench, tossed his cigarette butts to the ground and stomped them out, then placed his suitcase on the bench.

Clutching a black bag, he stared intently into the darkness at the end of the street.

At that very moment, his sister—who had been leaning on his back—instantly became alert.

Climbing from his back onto his shoulder, she curiously peered toward the opposite side of the street.

The vague shadow at his feet, cast by a nearby streetlight, suddenly became sharply defined.

Like a sheet of paper slowly folding upward, it transformed into a tall, silent figure standing beside Lu Xin.

“Woof woof…”

A skinless dog emerged from the shadows, its lidless eyes glowing with a sinister light as it fixed its unblinking stare ahead.

Further back, four indistinct little figures, holding hands, huddled behind the dog.

……

……

“Ah…”

As the steady, heavy footsteps drew nearer, a pungent odor suddenly filled his nostrils.

It was damp and chilling, carrying a stench that evoked sheer terror.

Usually, a smell might be pleasing or repulsive, but this one made his heart skip a beat, sending his entire body into an uneasy state.

Immediately, a cacophony of chaotic sounds assaulted his ears, and every hair on his body stood on end.

Lu Xin’s vision blurred for a moment, as the glow of the streetlights stretched into long, ominous shadows.

In the next instant, his pupils contracted as he looked ahead, confronted by a scene that stole his very breath.

Within the twisted, blurred air, accompanied by those uniform footsteps and blood-curdling shouts, individual figures began to emerge one after another.

The cluster of heads he had caught sight of in the shadows turned out to be real—actual human heads.

They were men and women clad in black suits with impeccably polished leather shoes.

Some were young, some old, some sturdy and others slight.

Hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder, they marched in perfect unison from the far end of the street.

Every step, every movement was executed with eerie precision.

Each person wore a black top hat, beneath which lay a pale, emotionless face.

They advanced slowly and steadily, their number stretching endlessly behind them.

As Lu Xin observed this procession, a strange illusion began to form in his mind.

He felt as if he were watching a river.

A river made of people—marching in unison, clad in identical attire, radiating a strangely oppressive aura—that flowed relentlessly from the dark, quickly engulfing the empty street.

Everywhere they passed, the black brim of their hats seemed to drown out everything.

Lu Xin observed that the corpses, which had been quietly appearing around the city, now wore expressions of panic and terror as this ‘human river’ neared—some fleeing into the distance, others crawling away.

Yet the ‘human river’ remained impassive, catching up to them and engulfing them without a sound.

There was no biting or slashing; they simply absorbed those lost souls into their mass.

Once overtaken by the regimented group, the individuals were swallowed up and vanished without a trace.

……

……

“Is this Flame City’s trump card?”

“Are they trying to deal with these troublemakers by using this method?”

Lu Xin silently watched the flowing crowd, his mind racing with questions.

He had never witnessed such a sight and couldn’t comprehend the nature of this mental entity.

While he mulled it over, the street was already packed with this ‘human flow.’

At the rear, the end of their group was nowhere to be seen.

Across the street, another flow appeared; the two converged as they advanced, meeting not far from Lu Xin as their steady steps merged into one continuous rhythm.

Then, they all turned simultaneously toward Lu Xin, who sat beside a bench on the lawn by the small river at the roadside.

For a brief moment, time seemed to stand still.

The regimented footsteps abruptly fell silent, and in that pause one could almost hear the heartbeat of the city.

In the next instant, as if pressed by an invisible force from behind, the figures resumed their march. Their synchronized steps suddenly quickened; pale faces beneath black hats swayed as they pushed forward toward Lu Xin.

“Woof woof…”

The skinless dog hesitated and stepped back slightly, only to be met by a stern glance from the paternal figure lurking in the shadows.

With a surge of resolve, the dog lunged forward, its blood-speckled body trembling as it opened its unrestrained, gory maw.

Normally, being bitten by the skinless dog would send a person into uncontrollable panic.

One could easily spiral into an obsessive frenzy.

For a mental entity, however, the bite meant its very core would soon be overrun by the bloody hue of muscle.

It was as if the entity’s own mental power was being subsumed by this grisly extension of itself.

No one could ascertain the true nature of this ‘human river.’

Yet when the skinless dog bit into them, nothing changed—no one lost control, nor did their blood begin to run in a spreading wave… nothing happened.

Instead, the skinless dog was shoved back by the sheer force of the advancing human river.

It nearly tumbled into the river, collapsing onto the grass while emitting pitiful whimpers.

“Hmm?”

Lu Xin frowned slightly, sensing something amiss.

He could detect an unusual surge of excitement emanating from the skinless dog.

Every time the skinless dog was injured, it would become unusually exhilarated.

This time, it was so overwhelmed with excitement that it almost lost control—collapsing onto the ground, rolling its eyes as if in delirium.

…Oh, it had no belly.

But even so, it was clear that the dog was utterly overjoyed.

Was this a sign that the brief contact had inflicted an unprecedented injury upon it?

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

As Lu Xin marveled, the human river before him showed no sign of halting and continued its relentless charge.

This time, without any prompting from Lu Xin, those little figures from the shadows attacked simultaneously. Whether it was the 12-layer puzzle cube, the black playing card, the memory hourglass, or even the six senses mask, all released their mental tendrils forward.

In the darkness, various bizarre manifestations of mental power assumed distinct shapes.

Some were swift and forceful; others, sneaky and insidious; and some only revealed themselves upon contact.

But the result was utterly ineffective.

Each one carried the unique mental traits of its ability user.

Yet when these traits collided with the group, they were immediately repelled.

It was even different from when Lu Xin had been affected by contamination.

While Lu Xin had diluted the pollution with his mental power, the human river seemed immune. No type of contamination had disrupted their formation or slowed their pace—they surged forward like an untainted tide, their synchronized steps and linked hands driving them straight toward him.

“Brother, let me go…”

His sister, perched on his shoulder, was already bursting with excitement, leaping high to charge at the figures in black.

Her little hands spread wide as if defiantly reaching out to touch the faces of the men in black.

In the next moment, she was bounced back, ending up dazed on his shoulder, tears silently streaming down her small face.

Wiping her tears, she murmured, “You go ahead…”

……

……

“How can there be a mental entity unaffected by this?”

Even without his sister’s final test, Lu Xin could sense the peculiarity of these men in black. Unable to grasp the logic, he turned slightly, exchanging a glance with the paternal figure in the shadows before pushing forward.

With that motion, vast swathes of black shadow surged ahead.

The black human flow reached within two meters of Lu Xin, instantly colliding with the mass of shadow.

Rip—

Suddenly, a series of distinct ripping sounds, like coarse fabric tearing, erupted around him.

Marks of slashes from sharp blades appeared simultaneously on the concrete, trees, and grassy screens.

The air seemed to be torn apart piece by piece, becoming instantly murky.

It felt as though human minds were pounded into pulp, as a taste of iron rust surged through his nostrils.

In Lu Xin’s mind, countless indistinguishable auditory and visual hallucinations burst forth.

The only clear sound was his father’s startled shout, “How can this be?”

……

“Buzz…”

As his father’s shadow collided with the group of men in black suits, Lu Xin suddenly felt an electric shock-like sensation.

Countless voices rang in his ears.

Some gasped heavily, their breaths growing shorter by the second.

Others sounded as though electric shocks were striking a patient’s chest, pulsating with a heartbeat.

There were also faint murmurs, tinged with terror, and brief cries marking the loss of life.

Sobs of despair, hopeless and dejected, intermingled with these sounds.

That damp, chilling odor returned, the taste of iron rust embedding itself in his nasal passages.

Lu Xin finally understood—it was not merely the scent of blood.

To describe it, it was the smell of death.

……

……

“Damn it, damn it…”

In that moment, a barrage of hallucinations nearly overwhelmed Lu Xin until his father’s furious shouts jolted him awake.

Forcing his eyes open, Lu Xin looked ahead and witnessed a scene he’d never imagined.

He saw his father’s shadow surge forward, only to be halted by the twisted, murky aura emanating from the men in black.

The two sides were locked in a standoff.

What was most striking was that his father’s shadow remained untainted, while the chaos and distortion from the enemy seemed to seep into his own body—beginning at his feet and gradually creeping upward.

His father had remained pure, yet the enemy’s traits were beginning to infect him.

This stalemate was due to his father’s mental power taking effect.

……

“How can this be?”

Lu Xin watched intently, his shock and bewilderment mirroring that of his father.

His father hadn’t been tainted by those mental entities; instead, they had managed to pollute him through the black shadow.