Starting as dockworkers, they swept through Chongqing.

The wind blew in through the broken window, scattering the medicinal smoke from the attached room.

Immediately following, a suppressed cough suddenly rang out.

It's a child.

The coughs were thin and short, yet they came one after another, like shards of glass stuck in the chest cavity.

Edwin's expression changed: "I can't hold on any longer."

Samuel strode over, pried open the child's mouth, and seemed to pour something into it.

But after a few breaths, the child suddenly curled up again, making a strange sound that was half crying and half singing.

Siron's pupils constricted!

That's not a sick cough; it's pollution rising upwards.

"We can't wait any longer!"

Edwin stepped forward, roughly wiping the rain from his face. "The thunder you wanted, we'll have plenty tonight! The rain you wanted, we'll have enough too! If we don't act now, they'll be dragged in first!"

Samuel stood there, his fingers trembling.

It wasn't fear, it was hesitation.

He knew better than anyone what he was afraid of that had kept him lingering by the well for so long.

What I'm afraid of isn't not being able to get the item.

What he fears is that once the old seal at the bottom of the well loosens, what will climb out will no longer be the illness he can suppress, but something older, deeper, and dirtier.

But the child in the side room had already started rolling his eyes.

The old woman was tightly embracing another emaciated little girl in the corner, her lips trembling, but she dared not cry out.

The rainy night made every breath feel heavy.

Samuel closed his eyes, and finally, as if resigned to his fate, took out a narrow-mouthed silver bottle from his pocket.

"Step back."

"Everyone, step back."

Edwin immediately led two grey-robed men to clear the entrance to the annex.

Samuel walked to the well, squatted down, and first slowly sprinkled a ring of grayish-white powder around the edge of the well. Then he took out three pieces of rotten root sealed with wax from the box, broke them up, and threw them into the well.

As soon as the rotten root entered the well, a "hissing" sound came from the sound of the rain.

It was like boiling water being poured into an ice bath.

The next moment, the damp, cold, and sticky "singing" from down the well suddenly rose half an inch.

Xilun's gaze sharpened.

It's not an illusion.

Something at the bottom of the well was indeed awakened by being fed.

Samuel took a deep breath, poured the clear liquid from the silver bottle into the well, then raised his hand to his chest and clenched his fist so hard that he drew five bloody marks.

Blood dripped through his fingers and into the well.

On a rainy night, he spoke softly, reciting a prayer that had been soaked and rotten.

The moment the first sentence was uttered, all the broken bells by the well trembled in unison!

Without further hesitation, Xilun shifted his body, and the Soul-Suppressing Nail silently drove into the crack at the base of the clock tower.

hum-

An extremely subtle tremor surged down the brickwork.

Samuel's expression changed drastically, as if he had sensed something, and he abruptly looked up into the darkness.

However, it was too late.

boom!

Suddenly, a ring of black and white water burst open at the wellhead, scattering pebbles everywhere. Cold, foul-smelling sewage, wrapped with hair-thin strands, surged outwards like a nest of venomous snakes awakened by being stepped on!

A chorus of screams erupted from the annex.

Edwin cursed and lunged to block.

Samuel, however, froze on the spot as if he had seen a ghost, staring intently at what was churning out of the well, his voice trembling.

"wrong……"

"This isn't a side paddle..."

"The seals below have already been lifted?!"

Another muffled clap of thunder struck.

The lightning flashed through the rain, illuminating the old well.

Below the well, it was clear that the water was not simply black.

Instead, it was a series of pale, fleshy roots wriggling upwards, mixed with black mud, as if countless things were squeezing and gnawing at each other in the well's throat, desperately trying to climb out from below.

Xilun stood behind the broken wall, slowly gripping the golden spear.

This is the moment he's been waiting for.

When the well was blown up, the entire ruined church seemed to awaken at the same time.

In the eastern burial mound, several small bells that had been pressed down by the rain suddenly began to vibrate wildly, jingling sharply and piercingly, like someone drilling an awl into someone's head.

The patients in the annex room instantly descended into chaos.

Some people were gagging, some were crying with their heads in their hands, and a child was about to scream when his voice suddenly turned into a long, thin hum, which sent chills down everyone's spine.

"Hold them down!"

Samuel shouted, but instead of going to the annex, he pulled out a short staff wrapped with silver thread and slammed it into the powder around the edge of the well.

The grayish-white pink ring immediately lit up with a dim light, barely pressing back the thin roots that were creeping outward by half an inch.

But it was only half an inch.

There are too many roots.

Like an illness that has been trapped underground for decades, it finally found an outlet to rise to the surface on this night, and it cannot be suppressed by a few prayers or a circle of old powder.

Edwin had already rushed out, his gray robe swung back to reveal the black leather short armor underneath, and with a shake of his arms, the muscles in his shoulders and back bulged instantly.

He stared intently at the darkest curtain of rain, like a wolf that had caught the scent of blood.

"Get out here!"

The voice just fell.

A dark golden spear shadow came crashing down from the rain!

Too fast, too heavy, it didn't feel like a person making a move in the rain at all, it felt more like an entire tomb wall being swung at!

Edwin's pupils contracted, he crossed his arms to block, and kicked hard with his feet.

boom!

The flesh and bones exploded with a muffled thud.

Edwin was knocked back seven or eight steps by the gunshot, his boots carving two deep furrows in the mud before he finally came to a stop after crashing through half of a stone railing.

Before he could even stand properly, Siron had already stepped out of the rain with his gun.

The black trench coat clung to his body, outlining his muscular and austere figure.

Rainwater streamed down his hair, dripping over his brow bone, over the bridge of his nose, and then down the gun barrel into the mud.

"No entry to the outer ring."

He didn't turn around, but his voice steadily cut through the rain and reached the cemetery to the east and the barren slope to the north.

"Hold on for the second lap, then quit when you hear the song."

A low reply came immediately from afar: "Understood!"

Samuel stared at him intently, his face alternating between pale and flushed, as if he were both shocked and angry, or as if he had finally confirmed his suspicions.

"It really was you."

Siron's gaze swept over the well, then over the patients trapped in the annex, and finally landed on Samuel's face.

"You weren't waiting for me."

"You're waiting for this well to open."

Samuel gasped for breath, rain streaming down his face and wrinkles, making him look like rotten old tree bark.

"If I said I only wanted to save people, would you believe me?"

"I don't believe it."

Xilun answered very readily.

Samuel's eyes widened.

"Saving lives shouldn't involve testing deep wells with living people, using an entire old parish as a gambling table, or sewing pollution into someone's neck."

"If we don't do this, who will take care of them?!"

Samuel's voice suddenly rose, as if his most rotten layer of skin had been pierced, "The parish doesn't care, the families don't care, the sheriffs don't care, even the choir only treats them as well feed! If I hadn't gambled, they would have been dead long ago!"

Xilun didn't respond to that statement.

Because Edwin has already moved.

The shot had left his right arm numb, but it had also ignited the fire burning in his chest.

He let out a low growl, gripped a short hook knife in each hand, and lunged forward, skimming the ground and stomping through the mud at an astonishing speed.

It's not just for show.

It's a close-quarters fighting style that was developed purely for the purpose of killing.

Xilun's gaze remained unchanged. He lowered the butt of his spear, and with his palms one in front of the other, he gripped the spear in a circle.

A dragon coils around its body!

The golden spear suddenly shrank into a coiled shadow in his palm, the shaft horizontal, diagonal, blocking, and parrying, like a giant python coiling its body, protecting everything tightly, yet hiding a backlash force in every gap.

clang!clang!clang!

The short hook knife slashed repeatedly at the gun barrel, sparks flashing and then extinguishing in the rain.

Edwin attacked with extreme ferocity, his knife slicing through flesh, armpits, throats, and ribs—all dirty tricks honed in the streets and piles of corpses. Even a single blow was enough to disembowel a person.

But every time he slashed, it felt like he was cutting into a living lump of iron.

Xilun took only half a step back, but the force of his gun tightened in circles.

The gunfight zone widened dramatically in the next instant!

boom!

The spearhead, instead of a thrust, was used like a hammer, slamming hard into Edwin's chest.

Edwin grunted, twisted his body, and pressed himself against her. With his left hand, he slashed at Xilun's abdomen with a short knife, while with his right hand, he pulled out a bone needle wrapped with black thread and stabbed it into Xilun's ribs!

This move is extremely insidious.

It's obvious they weren't aiming for the injury, but for the contamination of the stitches.

Xilun had anticipated this move.

As the reverberation chamber opened, Edwin's subtle pause in his breathing was clearly audible to him.

The gun doesn't retract; the left elbow sinks first!

Boom!

The elbow slammed into Edwin's shoulder socket, causing the bone needle to deviate by half an inch. However, the short knife still managed to tear open Xiren's right side trench coat, leaving a long, bloody gash in his ribs.

Fresh blood immediately mixed with the rainwater and flowed down.

Edwin's eyes flashed with a fierce light, and he was about to make another cut when a chill suddenly rushed towards him.

Within Xilun's chest cavity, the Xuan Yin Breathing Technique suddenly began to operate.

Rainy nights are inherently damp and cold, and this breath of cold air felt like a fish in water in the downpour.

With a flick of his wrist, the cold energy traveled up the metal section by section, rushing straight towards Edwin's arms.

哢.

A very soft sound.

A thin layer of frost instantly covered Edwin's wrist, which was holding the knife!

"What—"

His expression changed, and before he could even pull away, Xilun had already released his spear and turned his palm, his five fingers like knives, pressing against the other's chest.

Mysterious Yin Condenses the Meridians!

It wasn't a head-on collision.

Instead, it seeps in.

The chilling sensation wasn't like a blow, but more like countless fine needles, piercing into the blood vessels through the gaps in the skin and flesh. Wherever it passed, the blood and qi seemed to be suddenly stagnant for a moment.

Edwin felt a tightness in his chest, and the fierce energy that had just surged up in his heart was abruptly shattered by this palm strike, causing his legs to slip.

Xilun gave him no chance to catch his breath.

The gun barrel flipped back, its tip drawing a cold, golden arc in the rain, aimed straight at the throat!

Edwin roared and drew his sword to meet the attack.

boom!

He was launched into the air again.

But just as he flew out, Samuel by the well finally made his move.

The old man slammed his short cane on the ground, and the silver thread wrapped around it instantly snapped into more than a dozen strands, which sprang out in all directions like live snakes. The ends of the threads did not nail people, but instead nailed into the mud, stone crevices, and tombstones.

Each time a nail is nailed in place, a soft, fragmented humming can be heard from underneath.

In just two breaths, the entire ground around the well seemed to have turned into a singing leather.

Xilun's mind sank.

It wasn't cut by swords or axes.

Instead, countless chaotic sounds rushed into my ears, drilled into my throat, and pressed against my chest.

Crying, laughing, coughing up blood, begging for help on their deathbed...

It's a complete mess, like a pot of boiling water.

His vision even went black for a moment.

Samuel wasn't the kind of knife that Edwin used to lunge forward.

He is the thread that is wrapped around people's hearts and minds.

Once this old man gets his hands on the terrain, he's more troublesome than a knife.

"Edwin, retreat!"

Samuel yelled, "Don't get too close to him, just hold him off!"

Edwin also understood the situation, swallowed the blood in his throat, and took advantage of Xilun's momentary pause to pounce again.

This time, the muscles in his arms swelled up again, with a faint bluish-red tinge beneath the skin, as if something pressed down inside the flesh had been forcibly pushed out.

The speed is even faster.

Xilun raised his eyes, his gaze cold and utterly devoid of emotion.

"court death."

The next moment, instead of retreating, he rammed into it!

boom!

The two bodies collided violently, like two wild beasts charging head-on.

Edwin's dagger plunged half an inch into Siren's left shoulder, the blade scraping against the bone with a teeth-grinding screech, yet Siren didn't even flinch.

Iron Armor forged through bones, rise!

His shoulder and back muscles suddenly tensed into a solid iron plate, forcefully blocking the blade, and then he raised his knee to push upwards!

Boom!

Edwin felt as if he had been hit in the abdomen with a hammer, and he bent over.

Xilun released the gun barrel with his right hand, grabbed the back of his neck, and with a burst of strength from his five fingers, he slammed the man to the ground, still holding the knife stuck in his shoulder!

boom!

The mud and water exploded about ten feet wide.

Edwin's face slammed into the mud, and blood and foam had just risen from his throat when Siron drew his sword and retreated.

Blood splattered.

His left shoulder and the wounds between his ribs were bleeding, but under the high pressure of the blood and qi and the binding of the bone-forging iron armor, the edges of the wounds were visibly tightening, the blood flow slowed down a lot, and the exposed flesh even wriggled slightly, as if trying to close up on its own.

Edwin's pupils contracted sharply.

"You monster..."

"each other."

Xilun uttered two words and flicked his hand.

A Soul-Suppressing Nail burst forth from the rain!

puff!

The nail didn't penetrate Edwin's chest, but rather a small section of gray line attached to the back of his neck.

The thread was so thin it was almost invisible, but it suddenly taut as if it had been scalded by fire.

Edwin froze instantly, and the dark red in his eyes vanished for a moment.

Samuel's expression changed for the first time.

The next moment, a muffled thud came from the well opening.

It's not an explosion.

It's more like a door that's been sealed off for many years, slowly pushed open from the other side.

Clang—

The gray-white powder line around the well rim cracked inch by inch.

The previously suppressed black and white roots suddenly surged, bursting out of the well and fiercely engulfing Samuel, who was closest to them!

The old man hurriedly dodged, but his clothes were still grazed, instantly leaving a large, black, damp stain.

He looked down and his face turned pale.

"It's not a pollution spill..."

"It's that layer below; I can smell life in it!"

Boom!

A section of the ground next to the old well suddenly collapsed.

Gravel, mud, and broken bricks all sank down together, revealing half of the old stone steps that spiraled into the ground.

The end of the stone steps was dark and heavy, with a sickly white tinge, as if countless damp tendrils were slowly crawling along the deeper walls.

Further down, a faint, yet incredibly powerful aura slowly rose to the surface.

That's nothing compared to the scattered noises on the ground just now.

Samuel stared at the cracked well throat, his lips trembling.

"Remains..."

"It really got pushed open."

As soon as the crack appeared, all the sounds around changed.

It's still raining.

The wind is still the wind.

But beneath that, it was as if an invisible layer of tide had suddenly appeared.

It slowly seeps out from the well's throat, not quickly, yet it seeps into every nook and cranny.

In the blink of an eye, the crying in the annex room became disordered, and two gray-robed men knelt on the ground, covering their ears, with blood seeping from between their fingers.

As Rena and her men approached the cemetery on the east side in the distance, her face suddenly turned pale.

"Back to the second lap!"

Xilun let out a low shout, which seemed to make the rain curtain tremble.

Reina gritted her teeth and forced a wave of her hand: "Everyone, back off! Light incense, drink your medicine, and leave!"