A Psychiatrist's Bizarre Game Journey / Dream of the Mist

Hiding in the shadows, Zhou Ke'er pondered, "Four heads turned into one, isn't that too much of a loss? How come they're taking a cut?"

However, judging from the appearance... this kind of monster, which might be a bit strong in terms of mental pollution but moves incredibly slowly and doesn't seem to have any offensive capabilities... might be worth trying to capture and kill.

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er turned to look at Long Aotian—but he was now a little bat hanging on the wall, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.

Coward, such a damn coward.

Hmm? Wait a minute...

Zhou Ke'er suddenly frowned, as if she had thought of something, and quickly looked at the monster—sure enough, she knew she had missed something before—the missionary's head that appeared on the monster's body was staring intently at the direction where Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian were hiding, with empty and venomous eyes.

The monster has clearly spotted them, but why is it still standing still, without making a single move? This doesn't make sense...

Unless, it had already taken action, but Zhou Ke'er hadn't noticed!

Thinking of this, Zhou Ke'er decisively closed her right eye, then suddenly opened it. As the double pupil appeared in her right eye, everything in her vision turned gray and black.

"屮!"

Upon first glance, Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but curse inwardly and immediately retreated several steps without thinking. Sure enough, he was right. The monster had already made its move, and it was very well hidden. It even managed to deceive Zhou Ke'er's sense of evil. If Zhou Ke'er hadn't been able to look directly at the evil, she would have almost been fooled by it.

Almost at the same moment Zhou Ke'er retreated, the wall he had been leaning against while hiding suddenly began to writhe like flesh and blood, violently splitting open a gaping hole, like a gaping maw, from which countless tentacles instantly emerged and swept towards Zhou Ke'er's original location.

Fortunately, Zhou Ke'er was one step ahead and narrowly escaped the attack of the tentacles.

"Stop hiding, stop hiding, we've been spotted, let's make our move."

Zhou Ke'er frowned, called out to Long Aotian, and instantly conjured the Jade Trace Sword in her hand. Before the tentacles could retract, she slashed down with the sword, cutting most of the tentacles to the ground.

The monster immediately let out an angry roar, and then the entire wall turned into a bloody mess, from which arms, as if skin had been peeled off and only muscles remained, stretched out and viciously grabbed at Zhou Ke'er.

"Shh!"

Two red lights flashed, and the arms were severed at the root, falling to the ground with a disgusting, sticky clattering sound.

But then he saw Long Aotian, who had transformed back into human form, holding a blood-soaked dagger in each hand, standing beside Zhou Ke'er, raising an eyebrow at her, "With me here, you don't need to be afraid."

Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but twitch her lips, but then she shamelessly revealed a sweet smile, "Okay, since you say so, then this monster is all up to you to solve~ I'll cheer you on."

Ugh, that's kind of disgusting.

Zhou Ke'er felt that this was quite similar to how Lengchitu (a popular cold-cooked rabbit brand) initially clung to a powerful figure. Yes, it was indeed a good role model to learn from.

Anyway, Zhou Ke'er should be able to handle this monster herself, no problem. If that's the case, why bother doing it herself? Why not just hand it over to someone else first, and then slack off? If all else fails, she can always step in herself.

Long Aotian seemed quite pleased, smiling with satisfaction. He then transformed the blood-stained dagger in his hand into a blood-stained longsword and charged towards the monster's main body, saying, "Then you'd better watch carefully!"

It must be said that Long Aotian, as the leader of a guild, is quite capable. Although he still suffers from the sanity-reducing debuff when facing such monsters, he is still able to respond effectively and inflict considerable damage on them.

Furthermore, when there's no way to avoid it, he can transform into a bat, and his agile fighting style gives him a significant advantage in close combat. In addition, his weapons are formed from his own blood, so he's completely immune to the risk of them being stolen or knocked away. He's versatile, capable of both offense and defense, making him quite well-rounded.

They are a decent fighting force.

As Zhou Ke'er thought this, she secretly released flames to burn the wall that had been corrupted into flesh and blood, so that the monster would not be tempted to attack her from the other side.

However, even so, Long Aotian's side quickly became mired in a protracted battle.

It wasn't that Long Aotian only had three tricks up his sleeve and lacked follow-up attacks, but rather because... he didn't know where to start to inflict real damage on this monster!

No matter what kind of damage is caused, the monster can heal its wounds quickly with just a slight movement, and it will not be injured at all.

Although such recovery would certainly have its limits, Long Aotian didn't know exactly where those limits lay. Therefore, he absolutely couldn't act as he had before, as that would not only cause ineffective damage but also deplete his own stamina and energy.

Therefore, Long Aotian had to change his approach, starting to use defense and evasion instead of attacking, in order to find out the opponent's weakness or fatal point as soon as possible, and then kill him with one blow.

But this was indeed too difficult for Long Aotian, who couldn't see the evil itself.

Zhou Ke'er began to consider whether she should ask him to lend a hand.

Just then, a cold light flashed from the distant sky and struck the monster.

A figure then floated down.

## Chapter 526, Section 521: Hidden Dangers

Suddenly, a bolt of lightning appeared in the clear sky and struck the monster directly, instantly causing a huge injury. The edges of the monster's wound continued to carbonize, severely delaying and preventing it from healing itself.

Immediately afterwards, a middle-aged man dressed in a yellow Taoist robe and wearing a Celestial Master's crown flew swiftly from afar on a paper crane. When he got close, he put the paper crane away in mid-air, picked up a talisman in his hand, and flew quickly toward the location of the monster.

Zhou Ke'er scratched her head and muttered softly, "Have you ever seen a palm strike that falls from the sky?"

Seeing the Taoist priest approaching menacingly, Long Aotian, though seemingly a friend rather than an enemy, still chose to retreat swiftly. After all, one should always be wary of others—and seeing him jump from such a height to do a no-rope bungee jump, he might accidentally crash and break into pieces, and it would be quite disgusting to have all that soup and water splashed all over him.

Fortunately, Long Aotian did not encounter the situation he had anticipated. The Taoist priest landed precisely on the monster, using its body as a cushion to absorb the impact, and then quickly affixed the talisman to its body.

"boom!"

The moment the talisman touched the monster, it emitted a soft sound and spontaneously combusted without warning, spewing forth a clear yellow flame that quickly spread.

Before the flames reached the Taoist's location, he had already pushed off with his feet, using the momentum to leap lightly backward a short distance. At the same time, a small sword made entirely of copper coins suddenly appeared in his hand, and a few drops of blood instantly welled up from the tip of his index finger on his other hand, which he quickly smeared on the copper coin sword.

Before long, the copper coin sword began to emit a faint light.

The monster was injured by the talisman, and immediately all the heads on its body roared and howled. This time, it was not a silent wail, but a real scream. The sound was so piercing that even Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but frown.

The Taoist priest suddenly hurled the copper coin sword, then lightly touched the ground with his toes and leaped backward, landing steadily in front of Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian.

At the same time, the moment the copper coin sword struck the monster, it was swallowed by the crack in the monster's body. But less than two seconds later, the monster's body twisted and bulged, and with a "bang," the monster exploded from the inside out, accompanied by copper coins and flesh scattered everywhere.

Even so, the monster did not seem to be completely dead. The scattered, even charred and carbonized pieces of flesh were still wriggling on the ground, slowly crawling in the same direction, as if trying to reassemble.

However, the Taoist priest did not stop him. Instead, he staggered without warning, reached out to support himself against the wall, and looked very pale.

After catching his breath for a moment, the Taoist turned to look at Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian, forcing a smile as he said, "If I may ask, have you two seen a man dressed as a missionary?"

Zhou Ke'er scratched her cheek and then nodded.

When the Taoist priest saw Zhou Ke'er nod, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, his eyes brightening slightly. Just as he was about to ask again, he saw Zhou Ke'er point to the pieces of meat scattered on the ground.

The Taoist's expression froze instantly.

Without hesitation, Long Aotian assumed a defensive stance. He had clearly seen that after the Taoist saw Zhou Ke'er's movements, there were instantly wriggling and protruding marks under the exposed skin, which was almost identical to the premonition of the missionary's strange change just now.

Zhou Ke'er could also see that the Taoist priest, who was originally light gray in her eyes, suddenly turned into an extremely deep black color, and kept changing between the two colors.

"I see... I'm still a step too late, what a pity."

The Taoist's voice trembled slightly, but his hands moved quickly. He hurriedly pulled out a slender jar from his clothes, opened it swiftly, took out a syringe, and injected himself without hesitation.

With the injection, the strange symptoms on the Taoist priest quickly subsided, and his emotions returned to normal.

Seeing this, Long Aotian narrowed his eyes, seemingly about to say something, but Zhou Ke'er asked directly, "Excuse me, where is this place? Do you know what these monsters are all about?"

When Long Aotian heard such a direct question, he almost widened his eyes, but fortunately he reacted quickly and did not reveal any major flaws.

Upon hearing Zhou Ke'er's question, the Taoist priest was taken aback, seemingly not understanding her meaning. After a moment's hesitation, as if realizing something, he earnestly replied, "This is Earth, China, Shanghai. May I ask where you two fellow Daoists come from?"

"I was just a rogue cultivator, originally in seclusion in my cave, when suddenly the restrictions were broken. I thought some enemy had come looking for me, so I rushed out, only to find that the city had not only changed drastically, but was also full of these monsters..."

Zhou Ke'er explained with certainty, "For a moment, I thought that the world had changed drastically in the past hundred years, or that I had accidentally messed up my cultivation and ended up in another world with my cave dwelling. But now it seems that's not the case... What exactly happened?"

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er activated the Yanran Technique, releasing the aura of spiritual energy to support her claim.

The Taoist priest could naturally sense the pure spiritual energy released by Zhou Ke'er. The Yanran Technique was indeed a bug-level technique created by Mo Bugui. Even though Zhou Ke'er was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, the purity of her spiritual energy was already comparable to that of an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator. Even fellow cultivators, unless they observed carefully, could not see any flaws and would only think that Zhou Ke'er simply had too little spiritual energy. Not to mention the Taoist priest, whose cultivation system was different. He could only barely recognize the spiritual energy and naturally could not see any mistakes.

"So that's how it is. It's actually a fairy in person. This humble Taoist greets you."

The Taoist priest bowed slightly to Zhou Ke'er, glancing at Long Aotian. Although still somewhat suspicious of his identity, seeing him beside Zhou Ke'er, he wisely refrained from further questioning. Instead, he explained, "The fairy has been in seclusion for a long time and may not be aware... Not long ago, a great catastrophe occurred all over the world, and these monsters appeared everywhere. But the most terrifying thing is not this. If it were just these monsters, it would only result in more sacrifices. With our strength, we will be able to eliminate them sooner or later..."

The Taoist priest paused, sighed, and continued, "But the problem is, besides being incredibly difficult to kill, these monsters are also relentlessly corrupting and assimilating anyone who approaches or attacks them with an inexplicable ability. Those of us with cultivation are relatively fortunate and can barely resist, but ordinary people mutate upon seeing them and are completely powerless to fight back. Even we, after prolonged contact with them, gradually become unable to resist this corruption..."

## Chapter 527 522. Total Annihilation?

"I see... So that's how it is. I understand now."

Zhou Ke'er looked enlightened and nodded, but then continued to ask, "By the way, what is your purpose in coming here? Or were you originally stationed in this city?"

"...Alas, it wouldn't hurt to tell the two fellow Daoists."

The Taoist hesitated for a moment, but finally sighed and shook his head, saying, "Some time ago, when our fellow Taoists in the reconnaissance department were conducting routine reconnaissance on the outskirts of the city, they suddenly detected a high-intensity gathering of evil energy."

So they immediately used ultra-long-range imaging equipment to film the area where the energy was gathering. Even after the second transcription, the powerful malevolent force still had a significant impact on the investigators, but fortunately, they didn't encounter any monsters on their return journey, allowing them to hand over this valuable data to their superiors.

After a pause, the Taoist priest seemed to reveal a hint of fear in his eyes, and continued, "Then we discovered that what caused the massive gathering of evil spirits was not some powerful monster, but merely a book, an ancient book with illegible words on the cover that looked quite old. But for this alone, many fellow Taoists have already died."

Zhou Ke'er scanned her surroundings and glanced at the sky. She did find that the color in a certain direction was darker than in the others, but it wasn't as outrageous as the Taoist priest had described.

Hearing this, Long Aotian couldn't help but ask, "Someone died? Why? Does seeing a photograph of that ancient book mean you'll die? Or does that ancient book fly up and move on its own, killing people?"

Upon hearing this, the Taoist shook his head and explained, "No, that's not how it is. From the beginning, after discovering this situation, the higher-ups took it very seriously, believing that the ancient book was likely the source of the anomaly here. Even if it wasn't, it might have accelerated the process of the anomaly. Therefore, they sent people to try to bring it back for research. But so far, none of the people sent have been able to return alive. They either died or mutated."

"And then, before someone died, they sent back the last footage they had taken. We discovered that as long as you get within a certain range of that ancient book, the mutation will accelerate rapidly. So the higher-ups changed their plans and could only try to destroy it remotely. But the problem is... even so, none of the people sent there were able to succeed."

The Taoist priest glanced at the still-wriggling, but far from being able to reassemble, pieces of flesh and blood scattered on the ground, closed his eyes, and shook his head. "The missionary I came to find was the last survivor of our team besides me. I never imagined he wouldn't even make it until I arrived to help him..."

The Taoist priest did not complain about why Zhou Ke'er or Long Aotian did not help even though they had discovered the situation. After all, it was too late to do anything about it, and he had no reason to force Zhou Ke'er and Long Aotian to do so.

Zhou Ke'er ignored the dejected Taoist priest and instead moved closer to Long Aotian, whispering, "Shall we go take a look at that thing?"

In fact, he already had some guesses in his mind. The so-called ancient book should be something similar to the "Seven Chapters Secret Scripture of the Mysterious Monarch" that he had obtained not long ago. Moreover, since it appeared in the suburbs outside the main city, it could not possibly be left for Zhou Ke'er. The most likely possibility is that those beings deliberately left it here for Long Aotian.

Long Aotian raised an eyebrow and smirked: "Of course. I was just thinking about how to convince you to agree to do this, but I didn't expect you to bring it up first."

Zhou Ke'er shrugged upon hearing this. "Oh, then I retract my previous statement. I disagree now, so you'd better convince me. I won't agree to do this without some benefit in return."

Indeed, at this point, Zhou Ke'er's arrogance has been fully revealed.

Although the two lowered their voices, as if they were whispering, they didn't actually intend to hide it from the Taoist priest. Naturally, their words fell clearly into his ears.

The Taoist priest stared in surprise, then quickly dissuaded them, saying, "Fellow Daoists, are you going to search for that ancient book? Absolutely not! You two have just finished your seclusion and may not yet know, but the terror of the evil is not an exaggeration. Even cultivators at the Golden Core stage or even the Nascent Soul stage can be affected by it. Please consider this carefully!"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ke'er first secretly gave Long Aotian a meaningful look. Before Long Aotian could react, Zhou Ke'er put on a sinister expression, her face darkening, and her voice low and hoarse: "We've already come this far, what are you pretending for? We're in the same situation. Do you really think I can't see it? Or are you just too oblivious to notice..."

As she spoke, Zhou Ke'er watched the Taoist priest's expression gradually become solemn, while subtly revealing an eerie aura.

Sensing the aura emanating from Zhou Ke'er, the writhing pieces of flesh on the ground froze in fear, feigning death. The Taoist priest before him, naturally, also showed a look of horror.

Under the eerie influence of Zhou Ke'er, the Taoist priest was unable to control the abnormal changes that began to occur all over his body. Even though he had just received an injection, he was still unable to suppress the abnormality.

The Taoist priest was terrified and immediately turned around without hesitation, staggering away as fast as he could.

Seeing this, Zhou Ke'er couldn't help but frown. From the beginning, he could see that the Taoist's skin was much darker than the missionary who had just undergone the transformation, so he instinctively assumed that he was some kind of evil spirit in disguise and had ulterior motives...

But judging from the current situation, it seems he guessed wrong? The high concentration of evil within that person's body, yet without mutation, is because his strength and endurance are greater than that of the missionary?