The Eldritch Files

In a flash, Drunkard, seething with rage, charged in front of Pot Lid Head.

Sharp, pointed nails grew from his ten fingers as he viciously clawed at Pot Lid Head’s chest.

At the same time, his all-out lunge activated an invisible power.

Han Su and Wei Lan, who was beside him, could both see a crimson glow materializing behind Pot Lid Head.

They could vaguely make out what looked like a vast, lengthy scroll unfurling in the depths of space.

It stretched on endlessly, covered in all sorts of bizarre script. They could faintly see countless quills hovering over the red scroll. Using blood as ink, they wrote line after line of encrypted, twisted text, which exuded a strange and mysterious aura.

The Crimson Scroll!

Anyone who shook hands with another using Zero Sequence Number 12, ’The Name of the Crimson Scroll’, was effectively entering into a contract.

Violating the contract would result in punishment from the Crimson Scroll.

The most common punishment was having one’s skin peeled off by the Crimson Scroll to become part of the scroll itself.

Drunkard knew exactly how severe this punishment was. That was why, even though he’d grown wary of Pot Lid Head, he had still treated him as his trump card after the contract was made. He had still summoned him at this critical moment in the fight.

Now, Pot Lid Head had successfully tricked Drunkard and seen the look of utter shock on his face.

But this also meant he had violated the contract, and the punishment of the Crimson Scroll descended upon him.

At that moment, large cracks appeared all over his skin, and blood gushed out as if he were being carved up by an invisible butcher’s knife.

Drunkard struck at that very instant, taking advantage of the backlash to rip Pot Lid Head’s heart out.

SHLICK!

But just then, Pot Lid Head raised his hands and grabbed both of Drunkard’s.

The sharp nails pierced through Pot Lid Head’s palms. With the points crisscrossing through his flesh, his hands resembled bloody hedgehogs. Despite this, Pot Lid Head gripped Drunkard’s hands tightly. With a fierce squeeze, a series of CRACKS echoed from Drunkard’s ten fingers.

”You...”

Drunkard looked at Pot Lid Head in disbelief. Every one of the man’s reactions was completely different from what he had imagined.

”Such a clear sensation... It’s been a long time...”

The corners of Pot Lid Head’s mouth began to curl into a grin. This wasn’t just his naturally upturned lips; he was genuinely excited.

It wasn’t the excitement of tricking Drunkard—that had already passed.

Now, his happiness seemed to stem from the genuine sensation of pain. ’This stuff is almost addictive...’

The skin on his body peeled off piece by piece, but fresh skin immediately grew to replace it. In the blink of an eye, an entire layer of his skin had been stripped away, only to be instantly replaced by a new one.

After one cycle of this regeneration, he appeared completely unharmed, aside from being covered in blood.

”The pain of being flayed?”

Pot Lid Head looked at Drunkard’s astonished expression and let out a low, cold laugh. ”I started peeling my own skin for fun when I was seven...”

’He started peeling his own skin for fun at seven? So he’s naturally resistant to Number 12? Is the backlash from the Crimson Scroll completely useless against him?’

Drunkard understood every word but couldn’t comprehend the meaning at all.

’What in the hell am I dealing with?’

At that same moment, as Pot Lid Head restrained Drunkard’s hands, Han Su immediately pressed forward.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! He stabbed Drunkard three times in quick succession, then clenched his left hand into a fist.

Gathering all his strength and focusing what little Spiritual Power he had left, he landed a solid Abdominal Liver-Splitting Fist on Drunkard.

Drunkard swayed and let out a muffled groan, forcefully wrenching his hands free.

The nails on all ten of his fingers shattered.

But he paid no mind to the pain. A whisper escaped his lips, and his body was rapidly enveloped in a gray shadow as he prepared to flee.

But Pot Lid Head had already closed the distance. With a flick of his toe, he kicked the fallen dagger into his hand. A flick of his wrist sent a chain wrapping around Drunkard. He yanked hard, pulling Drunkard close, and simultaneously drove the dagger straight toward his chest.

Even now, he was still obsessed with gutting Drunkard.

Drunkard didn’t care much about his other injuries, but he was extremely wary of Pot Lid Head’s dagger. Even so, he remained composed. With a twist of his body—a movement of refined beauty—he deftly dodged the entangling chain, and his form began to flicker.

[Ladder of the Abyssal]

Even at this stage, his only thought was to escape his predicament.

But with a loud CRACK, he slammed into what felt like an invisible mirror, even though there was clearly nothing there.

Accompanied by the sound of shattering glass, he staggered, caught in Wei Lan’s trap.

Han Su lunged forward with a roundhouse kick, sending the Drunkard—whose Flashing escape had failed—flying toward Wei Lan.

Not to be outdone, Wei Lan’s Spiritual Power surged, manifesting mirror after mirror to trap Drunkard. She then stepped aside, clearing a path for Pot Lid Head.

Pot Lid Head bent low and charged, rushing straight at Drunkard once more with a horizontal slash of his dagger.

None of the three underestimated Drunkard. At this critical juncture, they inflicted as much damage as they possibly could, refusing to believe he was truly immortal.

Under their vicious assault, Drunkard was almost instantly reduced to a pile of mangled flesh.

But unexpectedly, the pile of mangled flesh that was Drunkard instantly liquefied, like a puddle of sludge. It melted away, and upon hitting the ground, it spread out as blood and gore that quickly merged into the shadows.

Sensing this change, Wei Lan grit her teeth. ”Life Code!”

Han Su registered her warning, and a thought struck him: ’So this is the effect of the Life Code?’

Logically, Drunkard should have been dead. The damage he had sustained was far beyond what any normal person could endure. Even someone who had mastered terrifying Mysterious Powers was still, at their core, a mortal. No mortal could survive such grievous injuries.

But Drunkard was clearly different. He had Mastered the Life Code. The process of breaking it down, step by step, was the process of transcending mortality.

’How can he possibly still be alive in this state?’

”You...”

Han Su could even hear Drunkard’s voice rising from the shadows. It began as a weak tremble but quickly grew clear and furious. Stronger than the fury, however, was a tone of self-mockery and frustration:

”How did I get tangled up with a bunch of lunatics like you...”

”...”

The moment the voice rang out, Han Su leaped high into the air and slammed his right palm downward. A jet of eerie blue flame shot toward a patch of strange shadow as he said in a cold, hard voice, ”If you’re supposed to be dead, then die. We’re not giving you a chance to make a speech!”

His words seemed to answer Drunkard’s question, yet at the same time, they answered nothing. His attitude, however, was perfectly clear.

’We came here to take your life.’

”I admit I underestimated you, but aren’t you underestimating me a bit too much?”

As Drunkard roared in fury, all the surrounding shadows began to squirm. An eerie Spell echoed from all directions as vast swathes of shadow coalesced, churning like the waves of a lake.

His voice, however, was surprisingly calm. ”I... I’ve always been someone capable of becoming an Independent Investigator on my own merit...”

”If it weren’t for that report, I might have already been promoted...”

”...”

Han Su felt something sticky and slick beneath his feet, as if he were standing in a swamp.

The black shadow—or tide, rather—seemed to be trying to grab his feet and drag him in.

He immediately activated Giant’s Eye with his right eye. A vast white light spread out, and the tide receded.

But dark shadows roiled and surged all around. The Giant’s Power could force back the tide, but not this much of it all at once.

”Be careful!”

Wei Lan’s warning came at once: ”This is the seventh Encrypted Spell of the Banshee Sequence—one the Qinggang Disaster Management Bureau was never able to complete!”

”The Hidden School held something back! The seventh Spell was actually completed; they just kept it from the Disaster Management Bureau...”

”...”

’The Hidden School again...’ Han Su couldn’t help but frown.

The Disaster Management Bureau possessed three major Sequences, but they didn’t just fall from the sky. The Hidden School had helped lay their foundation. Each Encrypted Spell pointed to a different surreal source, and each source, in turn, corresponded to multiple Encrypted Spells.

The Banshee Sequence pointed to the Midnight Banshee.

She was one of the most famous local grotesques in Qinggang’s legends, an entity that had once truly lived in the region.

More than two thousand years had passed. The development of technology and modern society had long since caused such grotesque creatures to vanish into the mists of history. However, the fear of these aberrant beings remained deeply ingrained in the very genes of Qinggang’s natives.

The Encrypted Spells of the Banshee Sequence, one of the three major Sequences, were discovered through research on this grotesque, archaeological excavations, and analysis of historical documents. By chanting these Encrypted Spells, one could tap into the Mysterious Power this grotesque had left behind in the real world.

The Disaster Management Bureau’s Banshee Sequence had cataloged seven Encrypted Spells, such as Number 2 [Vaporization], Number 4 [Howl], and Number 6 [Shadow of Swift Movement]. Each differently numbered Encrypted Spell could unleash one of the Banshee’s powers.

Wei Lan had already investigated these Spells and formulated strategies to counter them.

But the Hidden School had held one back. The spell Drunkard was now unleashing was an Encrypted Spell unknown even to the Disaster Management Bureau.

In other words, this was an Encrypted Spell beyond the Bureau’s known Sequence.

And it was the most critical one—the Banshee’s most fundamental ability: Black Lake!

”Lawless youngsters must always pay the price for their ignorance!”

Having summoned the Black Lake and concealed his form, Drunkard felt a certain cathartic pleasure as he watched the reactions of Han Su and Wei Lan.

”Opposing me is the same as opposing the knowledge of the Hidden School...”