Chapter 654: Nightmare Descent

Shut up, shut up, shut up…

Under Number Two’s relentless barrage, Lu Xin’s fury was palpable.

While straining to block out Number Two’s incessant jabber, he dashed to grab Xia Chong. Relying on his Sister’s mimicking ability, his body became agile and nimble as he leaped desperately through a bizarre, unfathomable world.

He looked just like a fly that had mistakenly wandered into a meat grinder.

Countless surreal monstrosities surged toward him.

A blood river soared skyward before crashing down on him. Just as he found a fleeting refuge, a grotesque human face suddenly appeared, its razor-sharp teeth sinking into his leg. And in mid-leap, countless sharp needles materialized in the air.

In his frantic escape, Lu Xin felt as if he were riddled with wounds—flesh and blood merging into a grisly mess.

Even more terrifying was his refusal to abandon Xia Chong, straining with every ounce of strength to evade his attackers together.

After what felt like an eternity of jumping, he finally exhaled in relief. Glancing down, an icy dread washed over him.

He saw that he was clutching only an arm.

The torn, jagged flesh was ghastly. Xia Chong’s whole form seemed to have been shredded in that endless maelstrom.

His heart pounded painfully, and Lu Xin felt his eyes well up.

Was Xia Chong… just dead?

A surge of defiant, angry determination welled up as he abruptly looked up at the shattered world.

High above, in the gaps of this broken world, countless towering shadows loomed, gazing down at him. Their forms remained blurry and dark—beyond what human Mental Power could fully grasp.

Buzz…

Black particles jittered wildly in his eye sockets, filling them in an instant.

Lu Xin jerked his head up to stare at them, his facial muscles twisting into a ferocious grimace that revealed bright red gums.

“You dare mess with me?”

He roared as he kicked off the wall with both feet, charging toward the looming entities above.

But then, with a sudden crash, just as he had leaped, something enormous descended from the sky. Or rather, the whole sky transformed into one giant, cold eye that blinked slowly at him.

No sooner had Lu Xin surged upward than his body felt as though it had been struck hard.

He plummeted from the sky, crashing into the earth and carving out a massive, fissured crater.

Gritting his teeth against the pain, he crawled upward even as the ground suddenly split, unleashing countless blood-colored tentacles that coiled around him.

They tore and entwined him, hurling him into a vast, inky ocean. The dark water overwhelmed him, and to his horror, he saw sharp, grasping hands rising from below to seize his body.

His mind felt as if it were about to explode, assaulted by a barrage of stinging sensations.

It was as if countless voices had burrowed into his head, tugging at him to share in their twisted tales.

“Get lost…”

Lu Xin bellowed in anger as a surge of powerful Mental Power erupted from him, instantly evaporating the lake around him.

With his bloodstained wounds, he stormed forward.

In an instant, a towering, scarlet mass—hundreds of meters high—emerged ahead. It was a writhing heap of people, scrambling upward like a rolling mound of flesh. The figure at the top caught sight of Lu Xin and flashed a greedy, bright gaze, accompanied by a stiff smile of surprise as they surged upward.

In moments, Lu Xin was engulfed, with countless hands reaching out from all directions.

He felt his flesh being torn away, his heart ripped from its place, and his blood vessels shredded into endless strands…

Reduced almost to a skeleton, he staggered helplessly in the river of blood.

Lu Xin’s body was nearly obliterated, leaving only the pure, immaculate black particles in his eyes.

They pulsed violently, their frequency reaching unprecedented heights…

He clenched his fist tight.

Then, everything around him began to tremble subtly.

“Number Nine…”

Number Two appeared not far from Lu Xin. For reasons unknown, his face was pale yet flushed bright red, but his eyes burned with an unnatural excitement and expectant light. “I knew you could do it…”

“Are you going to shatter this world?”

“I’ve always believed that only you can break… despair!”

“Yes… I’m sorry…”

“…”

“Sorry?”

Just as Lu Xin, stubbornly struggling to break free, sensed something,

the illogical, nightmare-like phenomena around him continued to manifest.

Countless streams of mental aberrations relentlessly interfered with his thoughts.

He could feel that he had almost nothing left—only a raging anger approaching its final breaking point.

A power was building, ready to shatter even his last limits.

But just before he reached that critical point, Lu Xin paused briefly.

He was no longer the man he once was; before, his rage would have obliterated everything without hesitation.

But this time, he hesitated.

In that pause, clarity struck—and the fist he had been clenching slowly relaxed.

He looked ahead and whispered, “Number Two, that’s enough.”

……

……

As soon as the words left his lips, the crashing forces and indescribable clamor around him abruptly ceased.

When Lu Xin opened his eyes, he found himself still on the bridge.

His hand reached out involuntarily, grasping something soft.

It was Number Two’s neck—firmly gripped by him.

Yet Number Two only stared vacantly, as if some hidden tide in his eyes was rapidly receding.

At the same time, his expression turned utterly desolate, laced with helplessness as he looked at Lu Xin.

Turning his head, Lu Xin saw Xia Chong slumped beside him.

She kept her eyes closed, her little legs twitching as if caught in a nightmare.

Yet, undoubtedly, she remained whole—her arms and legs all intact.

Lu Xin slowly released his grip and looked up at Number Two, their eyes locking in a quiet exchange.

Number Two sank to the ground, head bowed, with a deep, unmistakable bruise on his neck.

Glancing at his own hand, Lu Xin appeared deep in thought.

After a moment, he whispered, “So what you said earlier was true.”

“You really can control others’ thoughts and perceptions at will. You can make them act and think just as you want—show them what you want them to see, let them feel what you want them to feel…”

“You can even force them to experience the nightmares you’ve endured…”

After a pause, Number Two replied softly, “Not everything.”

“For instance, you, Number Nine—I can influence part of your body, but not the other half.”

“…”

Lu Xin recalled the bizarre scenes and his own seething anger—the sensation of tearing everything apart.

It all explained why his hand had clutched Number Two’s neck.

He had nearly killed Number Two by accident.

“So, you did all this just to force out my other half—so you could kill it, and you?”

He paused before asking, “Why not control the half of me that’s easier to manipulate and let me kill you directly?”

“Because by controlling you, the part that wants to kill me is also me…”

Number Two murmured, “So, I can only incite your other half, so that it will come and kill me…”

Lu Xin fully grasped the truth in his ordeal, a sense of unutterable absurdity welling up inside him:

“So, all of this was just a setup by you.”

“That you claimed at the Flame Building that the Abyss’s seal was unbreakable… was that also a lie?”

“I can’t imagine that your power couldn’t even break a seal of that magnitude…”

“You said it all to lure me into the Nightmare of God.”

“Entering the Nightmare of God was meant to force me to kill you.”

“The pressure from this nightmare world—the torment you inflicted—was to drive me to unleash my other half, so that I could shatter this world and finally kill you…”

At that moment, Lu Xin paused slightly and said, “You’re lying to me, Number Two.”

Number Two lowered his head; after a long silence, his pale hand gently cupped his face as he murmured, “I’m sorry, Number Nine.”

“I had no other choice…”

“…”

His voice sounded muddled, as if he were straining to hold back his sobs.

But Lu Xin could still hear an unmistakable despair in his tone: “I’m out of time…”

“I sense that I’ll soon be devoured by this world.”

“So, to me, you are my last chance at escape. I truly, truly don’t want to hurt you…”

“I only want you to help free me—I won’t hurt you…”

“…”

Listening to Number Two’s mournful sobs, Lu Xin fell silent for a moment before softly saying, “What you’ve done has hurt me all along.”

“…”

Number Two suddenly looked up, his eyes reflecting confusion and bewilderment.

Lu Xin said, “You nearly made me a murderer.”

“…”

Number Two bowed his head again, overwhelmed by deep fatigue and helplessness.

“Besides…”

After a brief hesitation, Lu Xin whispered, “Killing you would sadden me…”

Number Two looked up at Lu Xin, startled.

He saw the earnest look on Lu Xin’s face, which gave him a hint of shock.

“You’re really different from before…”

After a moment, Number Two whispered, “But you can’t help me. I can’t escape this world, nor resist it. It’s been this way from the start, and it will only worsen. What you just experienced is what I endure every day, Number Nine. Believe me, there’s no way; no one can defy the Nightmare of God…”

“Here, there’s only despair…”

“…”

Lu Xin wanted to retort but found himself at a loss for words.

His heart teemed with pent-up anger he couldn’t articulate—when suddenly, laughter rang out.

It was an insanely excited laughter echoing from the upper stream under the bridge:

“Ha ha, let’s see who dies first…”

“Left, pull left—the raft is about to capsize…”

“…”

Chaotic shouts pierced the oppressive, monotonous clamor of this world.

Out of the blue, Lu Xin looked up and saw a raft drifting down from the upper reaches of the “Human River.”

This river, composed of countless people, cascaded downward—and that raft was woven from human bodies.

Twisted forms had been intertwined to create the raft, which slid swiftly as several individuals atop it wielded unknown monster bones as oars, shouting as they propelled it from the upper to the lower stream.

In an instant, both the sorrowful Number Two and a shaken Lu Xin found their attention captured by them.

With jostling to the left and right, the raft careened downward as if in a wild ride.

At the front was a skinny, bare-backed monkey adorned with chaotic tattoos, yelling and directing. Behind him was a creature in a suit with a head of nine snakes, and another who looked like an honest, portly man. They slid rapidly down from the upper stream and soon spotted Lu Xin and Number Two standing at the edge of the bridge.

The figures on the raft furrowed their brows before pulling hard to slow down, and then shouted sternly at Lu Xin, “Tian Wang Gai Di Hu?”