The burly man carried the intimidating Gatling Gun, walking ahead.

Occasionally encountering the scattered wandering Dissectors, he used the gun to pulverize them.

Always expressionless, like a robot that only executes slaughter commands, Xu Xiaoyou thought of the T800 from the Terminator series.

Could it be that he had long been transformed into a metal robot, with alloy bones and integrated circuits beneath that flesh exterior.

Xu Xiaoyou began to fantasize unrealistically.

It wasn't until following him for nearly an hour that Xu Xiaoyou couldn't help but ask, "Where are we going?"

"To find a junior disciple."

Still in that flat, unwavering tone.

Junior disciple?

Xu Xiaoyou forced herself to recall.

She remembered; it was that young Daoist she had seen on the street more than half a month ago.

Thinking that although people from Qingfeng Office are unreliable, they are quite loyal.

Her brain might not even be functioning normally, yet he still thinks of finding his fellow disciples.

"It's been so long, he might have already..."

"No, he's still alive." The burly man said.

"So sure?"

"Hmm."

"Then, where is the exit?" Xu Xiaoyou tentatively asked.

"Find the junior disciple and leave together."

Xu Xiaoyou endured.

After all, she's been here in this dark place for more than half a month; staying a bit longer doesn't matter.

As long as he truly knows where the exit is, what's the harm in patiently accompanying him to find someone for a while?

Perhaps after searching for a few more days, he would accept reality...

After that, however much Xu Xiaoyou tried to find topics, the burly man ignored her, always with a poker face, walking forward aimlessly.

Ultimately, Xu Xiaoyou gave up, knowing that given the current state of the man, speaking more was futile—there was no possibility of communication.

She wrapped her arms around her head, emptied her mind, and followed Anya behind him.

Unaware of how much time passed, the two entered a park. This memorial park at the center of Zone Nine covers a large area, with dense shadows of trees extending from both sides of the path, resembling gnarled, ghostly hands reaching out.

As she walked,

Xu Xiaoyou stopped.

In the center of the park, she witnessed a scene she would never forget in her life.

Under the bizarre red moonlight.

Thousands of corpses piled into a mountain, their limbs intertwined, forming faces full of pain, despair, and horror.

Some of them were even alive, their chests rising and falling, snapped necks twisting like snakes, finally looking at her, mouths slowly widening, as if desperately wriggling, their throats emitting hoarse, unpleasant, ecstatic notes.

It was as if they were calling out intensely, urging her to stay, to merge with them, to become one of them.

Their blood trickled down from their kin beneath them, descending the steps, onto the lawn, and eventually flowed to Xu Xiaoyou's feet.

The Corpse Mountain and Blood Ocean moved, resembling countless Evil Ghosts crawling out of Hell, reaching out to her, wanting to drag her into the same abyss.

She finally knew where those missing people had gone.

Near the Corpse Mountain, countless Dissectors could be seen, nearly a thousand, almost all the Dissectors from Alley Five were there.

They carried corpses, throwing them into several-person-high Pill Furnaces. Vaguely dozens of people could be seen churning inside those furnaces, continuously churning, eventually being refined into a viscous, blood-like red liquid, released from the furnace base, merging with the red tide, flowing in the extended red tide...

They were chanting something together, prayers obscure and hard to understand.

The literary artist initiated.

Xu Xiaoyou barely understood a few syllables.

'Mother'

'Mama'

"Are they... performing a ritual?" Xu Xiaoyou's internal alarm buzzed, wanting to leave with Anya.

At that moment, the burly man moved.

Without saying a word, he raised the Gatling Gun and opened fire on the group of Dissectors, the blazing light reflecting his face continuously in the night.

"Are you crazy?"

As she had thought inside, this person seemed normal but had long lost his sanity!

Alerting those gathered monsters at such a time was tantamount to self-destruction!

This guy was specifically here to seek death!

The thousands of wandering Dissectors inside the park were startled by his actions.

Their crimson eyes filled with bloodlust, they surged towards the burly man's direction.

She watched helplessly as the burly man was slashed into two by a Sharp Axe and torn to pieces by countless Dissectors.

His muscular body fell, the gun in his hand dropped on the ground, the head attached to his shoulder dropped to the ground, looking at her with complete exhaustion.

He said something with his last breath,

Xu Xiaoyou read it clearly.

It was an address.

The burly man gave a final address.

She cast aside all thoughts and fled from that place with all her might.

She couldn't remember how she left that park, nor how long she ran.

All she remembered was from a certain moment, the sounds of those Dissectors faded bit by bit, farther and farther away until they disappeared completely beyond the horizon, swallowed by the city's night.

Suppressing her inner nausea and discomfort, she arrived at the address mentioned by the burly man.

It was an alley seemingly no different from others in the city, mundane to the utmost.

Holding a restless heart, Xu Xiaoyou stepped in.

At the end of the alley was a high wall marked with an 'emergency exit' symbol, identical in shape and appearance to the wall at the entrance to Alley Five, equally towering and suffocatingly oppressive.

Like childish pranks, this emergency exit symbol resembled those found at malls or emergency exits in kindergartens.

Just as Xu Xiaoyou reached out to the wall, Anya beside her triggered Danger Perception, baring her teeth, her spirit sharply tense as she looked towards the alley entrance.

"Hey, wait for me!"

A youth dashed from the darkness at the alley entrance, his silhouette becoming clearer in the dimness.

In tattered Daoist robes, his eyes shone with hope, brandishing a Peach Wood Sword, he hurriedly ran towards Xu Xiaoyou.

He reached Xu Xiaoyou's front, panting heavily, "Didn't think I really had a chance to get out, haha."

"When I got thrown into that Pill Furnace, I thought I was dead for sure."

"I ran out too, really did, those monsters were terrifying…

"Luckily, this Jade Talisman my senior gifted me, it brought me luck."

The young Daoist spoke, carefully taking out the talisman from his bosom, pausing slightly.

The Jade Talisman had already shattered.

He stared for a long while before muttering, "So my senior has already met with misfortune too?"

The young Daoist muttered to himself, unaware that the blonde girl's face beside him was shrouded in gloom.

"Senior said this wall is the exit of Alley Five."

"The exit that appears only once a month."

"Shall we go?"

"Why are you still standing there dumbly? Miss this chance and you may never get out."

Just then, the blonde girl moved, stepping forward, stabbing a dagger into his chest.

The young Daoist jerked, his face full of disbelief, his body collapsing weakly, not understanding why the girl turned on him.

Xu Xiaoyou was silent.

She looked at the figure on the ground, almost no longer human, with most of its body covered in red Alchemy Armor, her gaze complex.

The young Daoist's whole face was sprouting metal shards, his flesh merged with this peculiarly characteristic Alchemy Armor. Only now did he dumbly raise his hand, looking at the deformed arm, finally realizing something.

"So... I've already become a monster too?" His lips trembled, "How did this happen..."

He wanted to tear the Alchemy Armor growing with his body but couldn't do it. The metals clung like skin, tightly adhered to his frame, even if torn off, would continuously regrow, encroaching and devouring his intact parts until fully integrated.

"Kill me... I beg you." He pleaded. "I don't want to be a monster, I don't want..."

Bang—

Xu Xiaoyou's last bullet ended his torment.

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