Strange game designer.

Chapter 766 Martial Arts and the Gut

Gao Ming, Yan Xizhi, and Gui Yuan, three dream ghosts from the Vast Ocean, each possess different abilities, and their methods of infiltrating the Dark City also differ.

This is the first time Gao Ming has become aware of the existence of Gui Yuan.

“No wonder I had a smooth life before I was seven. It turns out all the calamities were meant for you.” Ci Nian told Gao Ming to go east, but Gao Ming insisted on going west. The child’s mentality completely collapsed. However, he was no ordinary person after all. Even at this point, he still did not give up on saving himself. He took out a small bottle from under his white priest’s robe. The bottle seemed to contain the tears of refugees.

Pushing away the priest who was trying to protect her, Ci Nian opened the bottle and poured all her tears over herself.

Black smoke billowed out repeatedly, and the forbidden memories that had quietly seeped into Ci Nian's clothes vanished into nothingness. He decisively took out an exquisite little box containing two pure white pills that looked like eyeballs. Gao Ming discovered that the aura emitted by the pills was very similar to the eyeballs in the forbidden bottle.

Although there were two pills, Ci Nian didn't think of sharing them with Gao Ming and the priest. He ate one of them and held the other tightly in his hand.

The entire subway was undergoing a transformation, but Ci Nian remained unaffected. His body slowly faded, as if he were forcibly returning to reality.

Blood flowed from his three pupils, and Ci Nian's expression became increasingly ferocious. He swallowed another pill, and just as his body was almost completely fading, dead limbs that grew from An Luan's body crawled toward Ci Nian. The dead men's fingers crawled densely, like fleshy centipedes, grabbing Ci Nian from all directions, causing his pure white clothes to be stained with darkness again.

"Bastard, bastard! It was Li Sansi who provoked you! I was just a bystander! You violated the rules of the forbidden area! An Luan! You will die a horrible death!" The childish voice turned sharp, and two of Ci Nian's three pupils were completely stained black, with thin black lines instantly filling his eye sockets.

An Luan blocked the planned escape route, and Ci Nian was furious. He seemed to have lost his mind and began to attack An Luan: "Don't get out of the car! You've become like this because you believed the nonsense from the Municipal Council! You selfish beast! Think about others!"

In order to prevent An Luan from getting off the car, Ci Nian displayed extremely aggressive behavior.

"What do you have to suffer for?! You coward! Without your master saving you, nourished by the blood and flesh of others, you would still be living like a dead dog in the slums. He changed your fate and gave you a chance at a new life! Now that you can control your own destiny, you start to disobey your master's words and start to demand of yourself human morality?"

"Now that I'm grown up and married, do I start to worry about my wife and daughter?"

"Why don't you take a piss and look at your own face! Without your master, you'd be nothing but a stinking rat! You'd be dead in the slums by now! You grew up eating your master's flesh, your life was given to you by your master! You have to repay him!"

Gao Ming, who was lying on the ground, was also somewhat surprised. If Zhang Yan had even half of Ci Nian's ability to express himself, An Luan would probably have hesitated for a while longer.

Stopping at the car door, An Luan listened to Cinian's words, but he didn't argue with her. It seemed that being insulted was just the most insignificant hurt in his life.

Holding his wife and daughter's hands, An Luan stepped out of the train. As he made this decision, all the passengers and belongings on the entire "train of life" surged towards his back. Each carriage was merely a segment of his life's experience, and all of them constituted the complete person he was. "Damn it! We're getting off too! Or he'll swallow us whole! An Luan, that big bastard!" Ci Nian cursed, jumping onto the pastor's back. They dragged Gao Ming and rushed out of the carriage before An Luan and his family could leave.

Arriving at the platform, this is not only the end of An Luan's life, but also the end of all the subway lines in the entire dark city. Countless fallen lives converge here, and the tracks intertwine and weave together to form a terrifying monster. It is located in the center of the darkness, and it seems to be the darkness itself.

The final stop gave Gao Ming a feeling similar to the deep pool at the center of the underground water network, but with subtle differences.

He stood beside the deep pool, the incomplete Blood City tattoo suppressed by something, awakening the boundless malice within him. He couldn't even muster the thought of resistance; his only thought was to escape as quickly as possible, to avoid disturbing what was within the pool. Near the terminal station, the Blood City tattoo functioned normally, completely unsuppressed, as if the terrifying entity that should have resided in the subway terminal had already departed.

“You two must remember what I’m about to say, especially you!” Ci Nian lay on the pastor’s back, pointing her little finger at Gao Ming: “We have now reached the end of darkness.”

What lies at the end of darkness?

"Listen to me first!" Ci Nianzhen wanted to choke Gao Ming: "I've seen many things I shouldn't have seen with these eyes. The purpose of that city on the ground is to nourish darkness. All malice, pain, and torment will eventually be poured into the end of darkness. I don't know what's at the end of darkness. It's beyond my understanding. It must be gods, but I don't understand why gods are so cruel?"

"So we've now come across the city's most crucial secret?" Gao Ming's eyes darted around. "Isn't the city council hall responsible for providing nourishment to the gods on a regular basis?"

“Yes, they’ll stop at nothing, but they’re divided into many factions, not a monolithic entity.” Ci Nian clenched her fist tightly. “Don’t bring up anything else! What I’m saying is, we must get away from that twisted railway track, find a life train heading here, stop it from being swallowed up, and then we can ride it away!”

Ci Nian's face was filled with fear, but her eyes were firm: "This process will be very long, perhaps several weeks or even months. We must not break down during this time, and we must not go deeper into the darkness out of curiosity!"

Normally, no one would be so outrageous as to explore the darkness, but Ci Nian was really worried about Gao Ming, so she specifically gave him this instruction.

"It takes that long?" Gao Ming narrowed his eyes. "Are there any other ways to leave?"

"***! Isn't it all your fault that we're in this state now?!" Ci Nian wanted to say a few more words, but Gao Ming had already turned to look at An Luan and the discarded cakes in the darkness.

"Daddy, is this our new home?" The little girl's voice carried far in the darkness, clear and melodious, much better than the little brat Ci Nian's.

The train of life revealed its true form: a giant, writhing, blood-red worm extending from An Luan's back. As it reached its final destination, human faces emerged from the worm's body. These were the people An Luan had killed or devoured; they were the ingredients for tiger bone soup and a part of An Luan's martial arts prowess.

(End of this chapter)