"That monster can actually summon other anomaly creatures too?!"
Terrified by the Nightmare Beast's demonic aura, Xia Xiyang and Fu Yang were dumbstruck.
Atop the skyscraper,
the Nightmare Beast looked down from on high, its crimson-flame-burning eyes locked dead on Gui Yu—as if the slightest movement from the man would trigger an attack.
"Gui Yu! Why didn't you hold Nyx back?!"
Seeing the demon spider and the two humans disappear, Jianxin couldn't hold back any longer and sharply demanded answers from Gui Yu.
"The Secret Keeping Bureau sent you specifically to deal with that anomaly creature—that means you must have some trump card!"
At these words, the grace on Gui Yu's face vanished completely. Frost surfaced in his eyes—cold as if it were tangible—and he shot Jianxin a searing glare. "Silence! Bai Zhi's anomaly is far beyond my imagination. Furthermore, you are not qualified to question me."
"Roar!"
A great swarm of yin spirits and Enforcer mechs chased in the direction where the demon spider had vanished, but the Nightmare Beast's furious roar shook them to a halt. Many of the yin spirits outright disintegrated.
Its great maw opened wide like an abyss, crimson firelight flickering within, colossal energy brewing. One breath later, a sky-covering torrent of scarlet flame poured forth, crashing down upon the remaining yin spirits and Enforcer mechs like an ocean-spanning tsunami!
Boom boom boom boom!
Beneath the night sky, a chain of dazzling, colorful fireworks bloomed.
Pfffrrrt. The Nightmare Beast snorted, as if mocking humanity's incompetence.
Then, its form began to turn transparent, illusory...
Despite their boundless unwillingness, the humans could only watch helplessly as the Nightmare Beast slowly dissipated from the mortal world.
Those who bore witness to the Nightmare Beast's descent had no idea what misfortune and terror would haunt their dreams in the coming days.
...
On the other side,
Bai Jie, using transparent spider silk to bind Lin Binbin and Wang Miaoyin, swiftly carried them far away from the Southern District, heading toward the back mountain of Xingchuan University.
After reaching the destination, the silk threads unraveled, but Lin Binbin still did not see the eight-legged figure he had been anticipating.
He knew that Lord Bai Zhi's avatar had returned to the darkness once more.
"Lord Bai Zhi, why didn't you just kill Gui Yu?"
"That man dared to offend you so brazenly! A death worthy of ten thousand deaths!"
Lin Binbin voiced the question he had been holding in the entire way. He had been itching with fury at that insolent Gui Yu from the start. If not for the electric net blocking him, he would have already lost control and stormed forward to beat Gui Yu senseless.
Bai Jie merely chuckled softly. "That man... is not entirely our enemy..."
Leaving it at that, Bai Jie did not elaborate further, and instead transmitted to Lin Binbin:
"You've worked hard. Had you not been staking out and investigating the Southern District these past few days, this operation might not have gone so smoothly."
Lin Binbin bowed deeply and pressed a hand to his chest. "To be able to offer Lord Bai Zhi my humble strength is my honor as a subordinate. Once Lord Bai Zhi makes a move, no human can possibly obstruct you."
"Now then... Wang Miaoyin, is it?"
The demon spider shifted its attention to Wang Miaoyin—the woman it had been staking out fruitlessly for over ten days—and transmitted with keen interest: "Do you know what awaits you next?"
At the same time, Wang Miaoyin's information data appeared before the demon spider's eyes.
[Target]: Wang Miaoyin (Symbiote)
[Vitality]: 42
[Body Length]: 174cm
[Status]: Stable
(Detected: weak spiritual essence reaction)
Wang Miaoyin had been staring at a certain treetop in the darkness all along. That the demon spider knew her name didn't surprise her too much.
Hearing this, she suddenly bloomed with a seductive smile—even the dried bloodstains on her face couldn't dim her radiant allure.
She said sweetly, "With Lord Bai Zhi's abilities, killing me would be effortless. Surely there's no need to go through the trouble of bringing me all the way here to do it."
"I imagine I must still hold some value to Lord Bai Zhi."
She had overheard Lin Binbin's form of address for the demon spider and simply adopted it herself.
The demon spider let out a pleasing, captivating laugh. "Correct. I have some questions I wish to ask you."
Wang Miaoyin tilted her head. "If my answers satisfy Lord Bai Zhi, can I survive?"
The demon spider replied flatly, "If you can satisfy me, why would surviving be a problem?"
A flicker of panic and helplessness passed through Wang Miaoyin's eyes. She understood clearly that the other party's words were highly ambiguous and could not be taken as any kind of promise to spare her life.
Suddenly, a snow-white strand of spider silk tore through the night sky, carrying specks of pink-purple liquid light as it pierced into Wang Miaoyin's snowy-white neck.
"Th-this..."
Wang Miaoyin's pretty face shifted slightly, but she dared not move recklessly, for she sensed immense danger from that strand of silk—if she tried to leave, it could sever her neck at any moment.
As the mutated venom was injected into Wang Miaoyin's body, her expression immediately grew hazy.
Watching this scene unfold, Lin Binbin unconsciously licked his lips, a trace of fascination hidden deep in his eyes.
"Very well. Next, I will ask you some questions. In the meantime, I strongly advise you not to lie—otherwise, you would certainly not wish to learn the consequences."
Wang Miaoyin slowly regained clarity, also realizing that some kind of transformation had occurred within her. Most noticeably, her abilities and physique seemed to have grown stronger—even her wounds appeared to be healing. At the same time, facing Lord Bai Zhi, an irrepressible sense of reverence and awe welled up in her heart.
"First: what connection do the human disappearances within Xingchuan University and the dried corpses in the Southern District have to you?" Bai Jie asked.
Wang Miaoyin didn't seem too surprised by this question. After a moment of deliberation, she spoke directly: "Due to a certain reason, about two months ago, I became very..."
"Very what?"
Wang Miaoyin hesitantly said, "I needed men..."
A flash of disgust crossed Lin Binbin's eyes. The demon spider's head drooped with three black strands... lines.
"Not just that kind of need—I had to drain their vital essence, because only that way could I avoid losing control. The campus disappearances and the Southern District incidents... are connected to my loss of control while draining vital essence."
Draining vital essence?
Bai Jie instantly linked this to what Zheng Yueling had once said—that she had kidnapped A Xiao to harvest 'sanity.'
Bai Jie asked darkly, "Zheng Yueling—surely that name is not unfamiliar to you?"
Hearing those three characters, Wang Miaoyin's pupils contracted faintly, and then she replied in a complicated tone, "I know her. Although we're in different grades, we've always been best friends."
"Oh? Best friends?"
Bai Jie silently remarked: More like 'beast friends,' don't you think?
Aloud, it responded: "I understand. You've both been affected by some kind of anomaly."
Wang Miaoyin's face shifted. She pursed her lips. "You're right."
"Ever since that day, Zheng Yueling has become like a different person entirely. And my... desires in that regard also grew very strange."
Bai Jie continued, "That day... was when the meteorite fell, wasn't it?"
Wang Miaoyin gave a slight nod. "As expected, nothing escapes Lord Bai Zhi..."
"After the meteorite fell, some kind of mutation occurred in both of us. We needed to take different things from other people in order to maintain our current state—to avoid losing control."
"She needs to harvest people's 'sanity,' while I need to drain men's 'vital essence.'"
Why is it always the men who suffer... Bai Jie silently grumbled.
But in reality, the reason Zheng Yueling targeted all her 'sanity' harvesting victims at men—the spider could roughly deduce—was perhaps driven by the betrayal of Long Xiaofeng, leading her to target males as objects of revenge.
At the same time, it also understood that humans parasitized by the anomaly purple light likely all faced the risk of losing control, and therefore needed corresponding 'safety valve' measures to keep it in check.