Yes, before Kiana was twisted into a Bizarre, that Stigma was the beginning of all calamities.
The Bizarre Stigma was the first source of pollution.
...
I feel like I've overlooked something...
"Is that what you think?" Beichen asked back.
Li Mo said with certainty, "Yes. Bizarre things may have a source, but at least, the first Bizarre was not Kiana. That Bizarre Stigma is the best proof."
"Then who gave you the Stigma?"
"Otto Apocalypse. Although I don't know where this Stigma came from, he was a living person. In the end, he died to reach the Imaginary Tree for Kallen."
"Is that so... I want to ask, did you see his body with your own eyes?"
"..."
Beichen's sudden question made Li Mo stunned on the spot, and he began to think about the meaning behind her words.
In the state of three deaths, Li Mo's thinking was very active. He soon realized that he had subconsciously thought it was the original plot.
Indeed, in the original work, Apocalypse had reached the Imaginary Tree and created a time and space where Kallen survived.
But... in that world, no one had seen Otto die. Even Kiana had only said that Otto had run away. As for where he had run, it was naturally the rented house where Kiana and he had lived for several years.
...
...
Rented... house...
Why would I think that?
Shouldn't Otto have entered a new timeline after reaching the Imaginary Tree?
Li Mo felt an unprecedented sense of familiarity. Strange memories kept surfacing in his mind, but they were only blurry outlines that he could not see clearly.
But for him, who could extract memories at any time, this was an extremely absurd thing.
Li Mo's tone was calm, and his speech was hurried, "What do you mean? I need to know the answer, right now."
Li Mo's reaction made Rin on his back very surprised, because she had felt her heart beat for the first time in a long time. Although it was only once, it was indeed a beat. She had not misheard.
Beichen lowered her head and looked at her faintly revealed rotten skin. Her lips moved, "I don't know much. My memories are intermittent and I can't figure it out. If you find Irene, she can tell you the complete answer. After all, she has never changed, just like you."
"Tell me everything you know now."
"I'm not sure if what I'm saying is definitely correct, but there's one thing I can remind you of—when you came here and woke up, whose identity did you appear with? Were you really you at that time? Don't forget, an Impostor can be reborn at any point in time. A notebook certainly won't lie, but the truth is often the biggest lie."
"A notebook won't lie. I will judge for myself if there are any traps."
"I hope so. This is all I can remind you of. And... you can only walk the rest of the way alone. Go to the Fire Moth and find MEI. She will give you all the information related to ghosts in this era."
Beichen took out a black-red pass from her sleeve, on which was carved a vivid moth.
Li Mo guessed that this should be an identity certificate. He decisively took it, turned around with Rin on his back, and prepared to leave the house.
Seeing this, Rin immediately reminded, "Brother, don't you want to say something to Sister Beichen? Sister Beichen has done a lot for you to live..."
Beichen shook her head, "No need, Rin. Li Mo has more important things to do. You can't last long in this state. You must go to the Fire Moth immediately. There's a situation at the Fire Moth. MEI can't delay for too long."
"What's more, whether it was before, or the him now, they are just similar but not the same flower... the person I love is already dead."
Beichen's voice was particularly low in the silent night. Every word was like a stone soaked in sorrow, heavy and powerless. Her deep purple eyes flashed with a dim light, just like the bygone years.
The person is gone, but the deep thoughts remain.
Her fingers trembled slightly, as if she wanted to touch something, but stopped in mid-air.
She remembered that person's smile, that person's eyes. It was just that all the warm and beautiful things had long been buried in the golden stream under the afterglow of the setting sun.
The person she loved was a piece of writing that appeared in a pool of scarlet blood, a piece of paper made of shriveled human skin.
Li Mo carried Rin and walked towards the Fire Moth. The attentive Rin found that Li Mo's pace was not as brisk as before the conversation.
"Brother, why don't we go back and say goodbye to Sister Beichen properly? You're actually very reluctant, aren't you?" Rin clasped her hands and snuggled on Li Mo's back, her voice hoarse.
Hearing this, Li Mo just replied faintly, "There's no need."
"But once we miss it, we may never have a chance to meet again."
"No, as long as I keep moving forward, there will always be a chance. The answer I want doesn't allow me to retreat. And I have no way to save her. The top priority is to deal with the supernatural event at the Fire Moth."
The first moment he had entered the door and seen Beichen, Li Mo had subconsciously thought that Beichen was a ghost. If it weren't for the fact that Beichen had always been like this in his memory, Li Mo would probably have drawn his sword and attacked immediately.
He didn't know what method Beichen was using to suppress the bizarre rules, but it was clear that she could no longer hold on. From her uncoordinated movements, it could be seen that she was trying her best to restrain her limbs from falling silent, but the impulse of the rules was like a flood dragon about to break free from its chains. Once it was liberated, the consequences would be unimaginable.
She had not looked for a way to prolong her life at the last moment of her life, but had waited at home for her return to inform her of the necessary information, which further confirmed this point.
As for whether he would meet the bizarre form of Beichen again in the future, or whether she had a way to deal with her loss of control, it was meaningless.
As long as his life force was sufficient, Li Mo could kill all the ghosts he could touch.
"Supernatural event? Ghost? Brother, are you saying that the Fire Moth has been invaded by ghosts? How is that possible? Isn't the Fire Moth a very powerful organization?" Rin was a little surprised. In her opinion, the Fire Moth was mostly composed of capable people with strange abilities, and their military discipline was strict. How could they be so easily entangled in a supernatural event, even to the point where they had to ask for individual outside help.
That was the Fire Moth, the largest military organization sponsored by all the countries on this planet.
"The problem lies in this point. For supernatural events, numbers have never been an advantage. On the contrary, the dead are very likely to become derivatives that kill people."
"The Fire Moth is not a small organization. Even if a situation arises internally, they will not ask for help from the outside and can handle it themselves. Now there is only one possibility that can put the disciplined Fire Moth in a deadly situation, and that is the appearance of ghosts."
"And... the number is definitely not small. Be mentally prepared."
With that, Li Mo's speed became faster. He shuttled through the shadows the whole way, avoiding the neon lights.
His left hand couldn't help but tighten its grip on Crimson-Dyed Sakura. The situation of the Fire Moth... was probably much more difficult than he had imagined.
————
————
In the dim base of the Fire Moth, the firelight flickered, illuminating the scarlet graffiti and scratches on the walls.
Tonight, a strange atmosphere enveloped this once solid fortress. The sentry posts were deserted, and the main gate was also unguarded.
Deep in the base, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded in the silent corridor. Several figures quickly ran towards the deeper parts.
But the untimely appearance of fireworks outside the window, layered red and purple, were a flash in the pan, and did not last long in the night sky, or leave more information.
"She's dead," MEI's pace slowed down, and she murmured in a low voice.
Before everyone could run to the agreed place, the heavy and regular footsteps appeared not far behind. Ghostly shadows swarmed from the dark corners. The walls, floors, and ceilings in the darkness flickered with a strange green light.
"Doctor, I'll stay here to cover the rear."
"No need. Let's go together."
MEI unhesitatingly rejected the "Poisonous Cocoon" member's idea of sacrificing herself, and dragged her frail body to run towards the "Poisonous Cocoon" base of the Fire Moth.
Although the members of the "Poisonous Cocoon" were puzzled, Beichen had told them to unconditionally obey MEI's orders before the next "king" appeared.
"Tsk! You're like a ghost that won't leave," MEI clicked her tongue and complained for the first time.
The ghosts behind them were getting closer and closer, and their speed was sometimes fast and sometimes slow, as if they were always a little faster than them.
They moved a hundred meters, and the ghosts moved a hundred and fifty meters; they moved fifty meters, and the ghosts moved seventy-five meters.
But right now, there was no time or opportunity to prove this point. They could only escape from the headquarters of the Fire Moth at the fastest speed, praying that the conjecture just now was just a conjecture and not reality...
The Fire Moth had already fallen, in just ten minutes.
There were no signs, no indications.
The only piece of information that could be confirmed was from the surveillance video, where a headless female corpse was seen swaggering towards the wall.
The sentinels and the soldiers on night watch had noticed this. After confirming that the headless female corpse had no head, they immediately opened fire, but the bullets passed through her body, and the headless female corpse continued to move forward without any hindrance.
The soldiers reported layer by layer. Before they could explain the situation clearly, the headless female corpse had already come to a place about ten meters away from them.
And then... the moment the headless female corpse took the first step within ten meters, all the soldiers on the wall, their heads rapidly rotted, and their bodies fell straight to the ground.
There was no chance to resist.
And the wall was just a decoration.
The headless female corpse seemed to have become ethereal, passing through the first wall and arriving at the surface of the Fire Moth.
Fortunately, the killing range had not changed and was still ten meters.
But the problem was that the speed of the headless female corpse was particularly strange. After locking on to a high-level official who was fleeing in a vehicle, her speed suddenly increased by dozens of times. The soldiers and civil officials on the surface did not even have time to react before their heads rotted and they died.
What was even more fatal was that there were other ghosts, not just one.
The problem was that the appearances of the other ghosts had not been confirmed. It was only from the different states of death of the internal members that this point was concluded.
And now, there was a headless female corpse following behind, and there were a large number of ghosts wandering outside the passage, searching for traces of living people.
Seeing this, that "Poisonous Cocoon" member said with a look of certain death, "I can stay here to delay for some time. Ghosts need to satisfy the killing rules to kill people. If I stand still, I might be able to delay its advance."
"No need," MEI refuted again. "It's not that I pity your life, but if you go to delay now, you won't be able to do it for even a second. That ghost kills indiscriminately. As long as you get close, you will die. No matter how many people are in the range, how high their combat power is, unless you can still live after your head is gone, otherwise you will only die."
"If we don't try, we will all die like this."
"Then let's split up and bet that it can't be in two places at once. I've seen the video. It will only follow a target in a straight line before the target dies. There is a secret passage in the next area, and there are branches in the secret passage. The last four people will enter and disperse. If we can still live... we will meet at the 'Poisonous Cocoon' base."
MEI glanced at the seven people around her, arranged for three people to follow her, and the other four to disperse.
In this way, the probability of her being locked on was only one-fifth.
The other two were to prevent other ghosts from suddenly appearing and locking on to her immediately if there were no other living people.
Even if the headless female corpse still followed her, it didn't matter. She just needed to use the exclusion method again. If the headless female corpse had locked on to her, then she could only wait for death. There was no other way.
The execution ability of the "Poisonous Cocoon" members was very strong. They separated in the next area.
MEI, on the other hand, continued to move forward with two other members. Gradually, the footsteps behind them disappeared.
"It's not us three who are locked on," MEI heaved a sigh of relief. She glanced at the bottom of her feet, which were already blistered.
The incident had happened suddenly. She had originally been wearing high heels in the conference room and discussing with the staff. The first moment she had learned that the Fire Moth had been invaded by ghosts, she had wanted to contact Beichen.
It had always been like this. As long as there was a problem, Beichen would come over to eliminate it immediately.
After preparing to dial Beichen's number, MEI had put it down again.
Beichen had only said one word, "Run."
In terms of dealing with ghosts, although MEI knew a lot, compared to the prescient Beichen, her instantaneous judgment and decision-making were still insufficient.
Without any hesitation, MEI had taken off her high heels, called on a few "Poisonous Cocoon" members who were secretly protecting her, and fled the conference room.
"Doctor, I'll carry you."
One of the two female "Poisonous Cocoon" members with better physical strength said.
MEI did not refuse. She really couldn't run anymore.
The three of them set off again. Before long, they arrived at the underground "Poisonous Cocoon" base.
It was empty inside. Most of the members of the "Poisonous Cocoon" were hiding all over the world, living in various social circles with false identities.
But the base would definitely not be empty. At least there were dedicated people here to check the instruments and contact other members.
"Something has happened. There might be... a ghost in the base."
A member said seriously. The originally relaxed nerves tensed up again.
Ghosts were immortal. Not to mention whether they could be killed, it was difficult to even destroy their limbs. They had to be destroyed to a certain degree. But after destruction, there was basically no possibility of survival.
Ghosts did not rely on their limbs to kill people, but on rules that transcended reality. Destroying them would most likely trigger the killing rules, resulting in sudden death.