Shackles of Humanity

At night, the small town was deathly quiet; not even a dog could be heard barking. Luo Kai stood at the window, gazing silently outside. A dense, black Evil Qi had blotted out even the moonlight, plunging the entire town into endless Darkness.

Something seemed to be floating in the air—infinitesimally small, almost like dust. The particles gathered into clumps, drifting gently past his eyes.

Luo Kai’s expression shifted. He swiped his hand through the air. The putrid stench hit his nose again, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. ’This stuff seems toxic.’ He quickly shut off his sense of smell. His palm was coated in black dust—no, not dust, but spores. The spores of some kind of fungal life-form.

Specks of green light flickered in his eyes as he pushed his Qi and Blood Circulation to them, maximizing his night vision. Black clouds floated in the sky above the town, each containing a massive amount of ferocious Evil Energy. These black clouds were the fungal spores.

An itching, numbing sensation spread across his palm. The black spores stuck to his skin were actually burrowing through his pores, following his bloodstream to infiltrate his body.

Luo Kai jumped in fright. He immediately cut off the blood circulation to his arm, drew the tactical knife from his waist, and slashed viciously at his palm. His gray skin tissue was incredibly tough; only a white line appeared. He quickly relaxed the muscles in his palm and, after slashing several more times, finally managed to open a small wound. A jet of blood shot out, carrying with it a large number of fungal spores.

Luo Kai’s heart pounded, and he broke out in a cold sweat. ’This is clearly a parasite. It would be a disaster to let it take root inside my body. But these spores are so tiny they can even burrow through your pores—how is anyone supposed to defend against that!’

The people in town had likely already been infected by these spores. A knot of anxiety tightened in his chest as he slipped into the room of the portly owner next door.

The portly owner lay on the bed, seemingly fast asleep, but his breathing was incredibly faint, and his heart beat only once every long while. Upon closer inspection, Luo Kai realized the man wasn’t just fat—he was bloated, the kind of swelling caused by prolonged starvation.

He placed a hand on the man’s wrist, carefully feeling for a pulse. The man was on the verge of death, yet some other Power within him was sustaining his life signs.

Luo Kai rose and walked out onto the street. Clouds of black spores drifted on the wind. The moment he resolved to actively defend himself, his Spiritual Will Power formed an incorporeal barrier around him, blocking anything from the outside from getting in.

He followed the auras of life, investigating them one by one. Most of the town’s residents, like the portly owner, had been infected. The difference was that some were still lucid, while others were like walking corpses. The person in the detached house ahead of him was very much lucid; he had an oil lamp lit and was writing furiously at his desk.

Luo Kai silently pushed open the door and approached. The man was very thin, his age impossible to guess, but he was full of a frenetic energy, as if caught in a state of fanaticism. He was completely oblivious to Luo Kai’s arrival.

Luo Kai peeked over his shoulder and was immediately startled by what the man was writing. The man was actually researching a method for achieving long life!

Sometime earlier, a hunter from the town had brought back a millstone-sized fungus from deep within Tieheng Mountain. Afterward, the townspeople were all infected. The infected no longer needed to eat; they could survive on just water and sunlight. Moreover, they wouldn’t get sick—they couldn’t even die!

The only drawback was that the host’s consciousness would become sluggish, gradually turning them into a walking corpse. And to overcome this flaw, one had to kill—or rather, take a life. According to the man’s notes, it was necessary to devour the Life Force of the dead!

Luo Kai understood in an instant. ’No wonder the town is so desolate. It’s because so many people have been killed. The ones who are still conscious must constantly kill to preserve their own awareness. This fungus has to be a product modified by Evil Energy. By forcing its hosts to kill, it ensures a continuous supply of Evil Qi. The so-called method for long life this man recorded is nothing but a recipe for becoming the living dead!’

Anger flared in his heart. Without hesitation, he smashed the man’s head in with a single punch. The shattered skull didn’t bleed; instead, it was filled with large clumps of fungal spores!

Even with his head destroyed, the man’s body still moved. It swayed like a puppet, a hand reaching up as if to touch its head.

A chill of revulsion went through Luo Kai. He kicked the body onto the bed, grabbed the oil lamp, and tossed it on top. Flames instantly roared to life.

Once his killing intent was ignited, Luo Kai cast aside all restraint. Following the auras, he killed every one of the infected townspeople and set their bodies alight. Before long, the entire town was a sea of flames.

The black spores in the sky sizzled and popped in the heat of the flames. The dense Evil Qi churned violently, as if enraged.

Luo Kai stood in the center of town, staring coldly at the black Evil Qi that hung in the sky like storm clouds. ’To solve this problem for good, I have to find the source of the fungus. The Evil Energy here is immense, but it’s nothing compared to Ironwood Castle. Even if I were to resonate with it, I should be able to withstand it.’

Unlike the masterless, chaotic Evil Qi at Ironwood Castle, the Evil Energy here was already under the control of another creature. The moment he extended his conscious frequency, it was violently repelled, and a surge of Evil Energy swept toward him.

Anyone else would have struggled to withstand the impact of the rampaging Evil Energy, but Luo Kai already had experience. He had even begun to grasp the true meaning of the Little Cosmos. To put it simply, guided by his own formidable will, as long as he guarded his true self, any energy that entered his body had to submit to his Spiritual Will!

Moreover, he didn’t need to resist the influx of Evil Energy. He just had to guide it out of his body after it entered. His body became a conduit; rampaging Evil Qi continuously surged in, only to be immediately expelled.

By now, Luo Kai had perceived the source of the Evil Qi. His heart hammered in his chest, and he sprinted toward the northwest corner of the town. As he ran, he steadily accelerated his Qi and Blood Circulation. His gray skin began to flush red, and his eyes once again turned as black as ink.

In the northwest corner stood a solitary courtyard. A millstone-sized fungal creature grew in the yard. As if sensing Luo Kai’s arrival, its massive cap suddenly contracted, then snapped open, spitting out a wisp of Black Flame that shot forward with the speed of a bullet.

An intense sense of danger washed over him again. Luo Kai quickly sidestepped, dodging the seemingly flimsy wisp of Black Flame. He drew his pistol, aimed at the bizarre plant, and pulled the trigger.

BANG! The bullet hit the cap, but it was like a drop of water in the ocean. Ripples spread across its surface, but the creature was unharmed.

Luo Kai didn’t dare get close to the strange plant, so he circled it, firing continuously while dodging the Black Flames it spat out.

The pistol only held seven rounds, and he quickly ran out of ammunition. He had no choice but to pick up a thick wooden stick from the ground. Edging slightly closer, he swung it down hard.

The fungus spat a wisp of Black Flame that struck the stick in Luo Kai’s hand. The thick piece of wood was visibly burned and corroded away.

Luo Kai hastily dropped the stick and watched it dissolve into a wisp of acrid smoke on the ground. Anxiety welled up inside him. ’Now what?!’

All the Evil Energy in the town had now gathered overhead. Part of it continued to surge toward Luo Kai, while the rest flowed into the fungus. Replenished by the Evil Energy, the entire creature was wreathed in Black Flame. The flames it spat were also noticeably larger; what was once the thickness of a little finger was now the size of a fist. This stuff was practically omnivorous—even bricks and soil turned to acrid smoke on contact. It was horrifying.

Luo Kai dodged and weaved, desperately thinking of a solution. ’All my combat abilities are physical. I’m helpless against a prickly foe like this. It looks like I have to retreat for now. If all else fails, I can go get some explosives. It’s not like this thing can move, anyway.’

Just as he was about to leave, he spotted a well in the courtyard. His expression flickered. ’How could I have forgotten my most important tool!’ His consciousness extended from his body. The moment his conscious frequency touched the water in the well, it erupted violently. Streams of water shot out from the well, forming a Water Tornado in mid-air that rushed toward the fungus.

To his astonishment, the water couldn’t extinguish the Black Flame. Instead, the flame corroded it into acrid smoke.

Luo Kai summoned more water, and the surrounding Water Element began to gather as well. The air grew humid, and a thin mist began to rise.

Although the water couldn’t extinguish the Black Flame, it was steadily draining its Energy. Soon, the Black Flame on the fungus was depleted. The torrent of water continued to wash over it, rinsing away countless microscopic spores. Before long, the millstone-sized fungus had shrunk and appeared listless.

Luo Kai grabbed a wooden stick and approached cautiously. After circling it once and seeing no further danger, he swung the stick and smashed the creature to a pulp. Without the protection of its Black Flame, the thing was incredibly fragile. He gathered some wood, piled it on the remains, and set it ablaze. As the flames roared high, he let out a sigh of relief. ’Finally killed the damn thing.’

He stood up and looked around. Several emaciated skeletons were scattered about the yard. ’The original residents here must have been pretty well-off,’ he thought, noticing the piles of moldy grain inside the house. ’A shame they met such an undeserved end.’

He got up to leave, but after only two steps, he felt something wasn’t right. The black Evil Qi in the sky was still swirling about, showing no signs of dissipating. Logically, without a resonator to anchor it, the Qi should have dispersed back into Heaven and Earth.

Just as a sense of alarm rose in him, a searing pain erupted from his chest. The scene before his eyes suddenly shifted. The fungus was still there, right in front of him. The fire he’d lit was burning off to the side, having never touched the creature at all.

A wisp of Black Flame burned on his chest, rapidly corroding his tough skin as it began to spread. It was all an illusion! He hadn’t killed the creature at all!

Luo Kai let out a muffled groan. In this life-or-death crisis, he instantly pushed his Qi and Blood Circulation to its absolute limit. His scorching blood began to boil. Ignoring the Black Flame consuming his body, he lunged at the fungus and pummeled it, instantly smashing it to a pulp. He felt the clouds of Evil Qi in the sky fall into disarray and start to dissipate. ’This time, I really killed it!’

But his entire body was now wreathed in Black Flame; he was burning alive. The pain surpassed anything he had ever endured, a pain that felt as if it was incinerating his very soul. His Spiritual Will began to burn and crumble under the Black Flame’s assault. The feeling of falling into eternal Darkness surfaced once more.

His conscious frequency radiated outward, completely unrestrained. Water from the well surged toward him but was unable to extinguish the Black Flame on his body. The Evil Energy in the sky reconverged, swarming into his body and assimilating the Black Flame. At last, the fire’s spread halted. His life was saved, but he could only allow the Evil Energy to once again begin transforming his body.