Chapter 676: Clear!

While Chen Ge was lost in thought, the battle outside had already shifted dramatically.

The commotion had grown louder and louder. Under the combined assault of Zhang Ya and Dr. Gao, the Shadow was gradually showing signs of exhaustion.

A body composed of curses was formless and intangible. When ordinary ghosts touched it, not only would they fail to hurt the Shadow, they would suffer tremendous damage themselves.

With this advantage alone, the Shadow could roam freely among Red-clothes. Unfortunately, he had run into Zhang Ya and Dr. Gao.

These two top-tier Red-clothes could endure massive amounts of curses on their own. Their formidable strength was one thing—their special abilities happened to be the perfect counter against the Shadow.

Dr. Gao's confinement and Zhang Ya's binding could both restrict the Shadow's physical advantages, leaving him unable to flee and forced into a head-on clash.

The fighting between Red-clothes was extraordinarily brutal. Tearing resentment off each other to replenish themselves—a scene that would seem almost inconceivable to the living was everyday business for vengeful ghosts.

The Shadow's entire body was covered in curses, but the two top-tier Red-clothes couldn't care less. Dr. Gao had shouldered far too many things and had gone completely insane. Zhang Ya looked relatively normal on the surface, but after actually exchanging blows, the Shadow realized that woman's madness was in no way inferior to either of the previous presidents of the Weird Talk Association.

His pitch-black body was scattered again and again. Black blood wept from the infant's facial features. Everyone present heard a strange sound—as if the blood-red sky overhead was crying, or as if this land where nightmares had taken root was screaming.

Weeping. Low laughter. Everyone seemed to see a child clutching a knife, standing in a back alley drowned by a downpour.

A rope tightened around a neck. A head was pressed into mud. Tears and rainwater blended together. Crying out, crying over and over, until the corners of the mouth slowly split apart and a smile emerged.

Sinking to the bottom of the water. A raging fire. A blade piercing through a body with no flesh. Buried in a freshly dug pit.

Unable to breathe. Unable to see sunlight. The only thing within reach were ugly scars of every kind.

"Why do you want to kill me? What did I do wrong?"

The Shadow's body was disintegrating. The remaining curses clung like blood vessels, plunged into the infant's heart.

The face that had never yet been born grew clearer. Soft bones were crushed into strange shapes, the body filled with curses and malice. The infant's eyes snapped open, gazing at Chen Ge, who was protected at the center of the black hair.

Its chest pulsed once. Blood rain fell from the sky. Chen Ge's reflection shimmered in its eyes. The infant's heartbeat thudded heavily, faster and faster.

It was gasping violently. Right now, the infant didn't look like a monster forged from curses at all—it looked like a living, breathing human.

It had gained its own body, but its organs were pounding as though they were about to burst. Yet even under those conditions, the corners of its mouth cracked into a wide grin.

Its gaze grew increasingly alien, stripped of cunning and deception, replaced by something that was pure malice and resentment.

"Those aren't the Shadow's eyes!"

Its pupils contracted. Through the gaps in his black hair, Chen Ge stared at himself reflected in the infant's eyes.

A version of himself he didn't recognize at all—but he was absolutely certain it was him.

"I've died in your place countless times. Now it's your turn to die once for me."

The blood vessels exploded. The Shadow's body shattered completely. The disfigured ghost infant burst from his chest and charged at Chen Ge through the downpour of blood rain, moving ten times faster than before.

Layer after layer of black hair was torn apart. Even wrapped in chains, nothing could slow the ghost infant's advance. Its body was constantly losing parts, but Chen Ge's image in its pupils grew sharper and clearer. The curses covering its body transformed into black threads that surged into its eyes, writhing around Chen Ge's reflection.

Despite the distance between them, Chen Ge found himself unable to move. He felt as though something had bound his entire body.

"No physical contact? What kind of ability is this? Resentment? Curses?" Unable to control his body, the ghost infant had drained the Shadow and was now using what appeared to be the original Netherwomb's powers.

The black threads wrapping around the reflection of Chen Ge in its eyes began to burn. Pitch-black flames scorched the image of Chen Ge within those eyes, and in the real world, Chen Ge felt the pain just the same.

It was as though countless ants were crawling onto his body from every direction, burrowing inward, gnawing and burning bit by bit.

"All your happiness will become fuel for despair. I'll be waiting for you at the very bottom of the abyss..." The ghost infant's mouth split wide as it stared intently at Chen Ge. "My shadow."

*Bang!*

Black hair surged to block Chen Ge's vision, wrapping him completely and shielding him behind them. Strand after strand of black hair drilled into Chen Ge's body, devouring all the curses—this was Gluttony's ability.

The ghost infant had been wielding the Netherwomb's original powers. Even for Red-clothes, this kind of curse would be difficult to bear, yet the ghost infant had used it against a living human.

"Just now it said I'm its shadow?" Unable to control his body, and with Zhang Ya busy devouring the curses, Chen Ge relied on willpower beyond what a normal person could muster to keep from collapsing. Through the gaps in the hair, he stared at the ghost infant with open eyes.

Chains and black hair wound around his body. The ghost infant hovered three meters away from Chen Ge.

Zhang Ya's arm had pierced through both of the ghost infant's eyes. Dr. Gao gripped its heart.

"So close, were we?" A chilling voice issued from the split mouth. The ghost infant laughed wildly in the rain of blood, its chest heaving even more violently, its body swelling irregularly. "Chen Ge, I will remember this day. In return, I will make sure you remember every day that follows."

At last, the ghost infant averted its gaze, looking toward somewhere in the eastern suburbs. Its bones were forced apart as this "one-time-use" body swelled once more. Strange black symbols appeared across the infant's surface—these were seemingly the original curses born within the nightmare.

"Watch out!"

Chen Ge's warning came too late. Black threads split flesh from the inside out. One by one, the black symbols shattered, and the ghost infant's body exploded from within!

His eardrums felt as though they had been ruptured. For one instant, all sound vanished. His mind went blank. All Chen Ge could feel was his body hurtling backward, then falling, and finally being caught by something.

When Chen Ge opened his eyes again, he saw that he was suspended outside the ninth floor, wrapped in the last remaining strands of black hair.

"Zhang Ya?"

The black hair was still there, but among the strands above the tenth floor, symbols of curses had begun to appear.

"She threw me down?"

The blood rain had stopped. Centered on the Nether Tower, the shrieks of vengeful ghosts echoed from every direction around them.

They had made too much of a commotion and attracted the ghosts and monsters from the other buildings surrounding Liwan Town.

"Those screams don't fear the Shadow in the slightest. Just how terrifying is the world behind this door?"