The Eldritch Files

”You...”

Seeing Bai Shi madly scrambling toward the Mother Divine Tree, Han Su had no time to stop him.

He had only just seized the initiative within the Copper Domain. In terms of Level, he had only reached the Tier Two category of ”Understanding,” still a considerable distance from the truly high tiers. He never expected Bai Shi to be the one to break down first.

As if he had become a madman.

Or rather, he had been mad all along.

When his body backed up against the Mother Divine Tree and countless blue arcs of electricity began to erupt from him, extending into the trunk, Han Su watched the entire Mother Divine Tree begin to grow wildly.

The trunk visibly thickened. The crown grew so tall that from Han Su’s perspective, he couldn’t even see it clearly. One by one, the leaves on the tree rapidly enlarged.

All he could sense was that the entire sky seemed to have turned dark red. This single Mother Divine Tree blotted out half the heavens.

Standing beneath the tree, he couldn’t see how vast it was, but he could feel an immense contamination descending from above.

The air filled with a dense cacophony, like ten thousand, a hundred thousand people all speaking at once, their voices drilling into his ears.

As Han Su faced this descending contamination, his heart sank.

’This guy... isn’t he leaving himself any way out?’

...

...

’This is bad...’

Meanwhile, as Han Su entered the contaminated area to perform the special cleanup, Zhang Chiguo and the others waited anxiously outside.

They knew this special cleanup wouldn’t be over quickly, but they still stared hopefully at the Mother Divine Tree ahead, waiting for the moment it would disappear.

But they never imagined that instead of disappearing, the Mother Divine Tree, accompanied by massive, intense blue arcs of electricity, would begin to grow at a frantic pace.

Its enormous crown began to push against the clouds in the night sky.

Between the massive, human-faced leaves, flower buds quickly emerged and began to release drifting spores.

”The Mother Divine Tree... it’s starting to release spores?”

Everyone present felt their hearts clench as they shot to their feet.

Zhang Chiguo immediately turned to Miss Ai. ”What’s happening?”

”Investigator Bai Shi is attempting to use himself to construct a reality anchor, accelerating the Mother Divine Tree’s descent into reality.”

Miss Ai’s mechanical voice replied, monotonous and swift, ”Although the hidden power within him is not of the same species as the Mother Divine Tree, as a high-tier sacrifice, this will still intensify the Mother Divine Tree’s contamination, allowing it to reach a level capable of contaminating Qinggang.”

Zhang Chiguo’s fists clenched. ”Then Qinggang right now...”

Miss Ai replied, ”The contamination has begun. Current number of contaminated individuals—35!”

The Doctor, who had been observing from the side like a novice, frowned slightly upon hearing this number:

”Only 35 people?”

Before the thought had even finished, he heard Miss Ai continue to recite: ”101... 256... 749...”

”Warning, the number of contaminated has exceeded one thousand!”

...

’The threat Level is rising this quickly?’

Zhang Chiguo’s nerves tightened, and he turned to look in the direction of Qinggang.

At this moment, Qinggang was a sea of lights, its order undisturbed.

No one paid any mind to the dark red patch in the western night sky, nor could they make out what it was.

However, that dark red patch suddenly grew larger and clearer, faintly taking on the shape of a tree.

The first to notice was a girl reading on her balcony at home. She spotted the red shadow on the horizon, saw that it looked remarkably like a tree, and, intrigued, decided to take a picture with her phone.

But her phone couldn’t capture the tree’s shape, or even the red color.

She frowned and kept looking, and the more she looked, the clearer the shadow became.

It wasn’t just *like* a tree; it *was* a tree.

This realization astonished her, and she stared intently at the shadow.

Then, her pupils began to turn faintly red. She started to lose her senses, forgetting what she was doing.

She simply rose slowly and knelt down toward the tree.

She was the first, but countless other infected individuals like her quickly began to appear.

”Quick, look! There’s something over there...”

”Is that... a tree?”

...

People who hadn’t seen the tree rushed over to look, and the moment they saw it, they immediately knelt.

And so, large crowds began to gather, halting the flow of traffic. Vehicles lost control and crashed wildly. All across the city, swaths of people knelt, their eyes turning blood-red. The contamination in Qinggang had begun to take over entire buildings, entire streets, entire districts.

The Qinggang Council Hall was already full.

Unlike when Zhang Chiguo had just come to report, both sides of the long black table were now filled with figures calmly watching one another.

”Penetration of the third reality defense line has begun. Everyone, shall we deploy high-lethality weapons?”

...

In response to the question, a low murmur of discussion swept the room before someone spoke up:

”It’s too early to deploy high-lethality weapons!”

”The threshold for the third defense line being breached is thirty million people, roughly one-third of Qinggang City’s total population.”

”If that warning threshold is exceeded, we must eliminate them all together!”

...

”Are we really going to push it to that threshold?”

Someone frowned. ”At that scale, the cleanup will be extremely difficult. I need a reason.”

The person who made the initial proposal chuckled. ”Because the targets currently inside the contaminated area are all very valuable. For the sake of their value, we can let the third defense line hold for now, observe a while longer, and then decide whether to deploy the final weapon!”

...

...

SPLASH...

Standing beneath the Mother Divine Tree, Han Su suddenly felt as if he were at the seaside.

Wave after wave of Spiritual Power crashed against him, like a person facing the endless Tide beating against the shore.

The immense pressure was overwhelming.

He raised his left hand to shield his head, but the surging contamination still pushed him back, making him stumble two steps.

It was crushing, agonizing. The Mother Divine Tree’s contamination was something even Copper’s Will could not withstand; they were not of the same Sequence.

Faced with this supremely powerful contamination, he could only rely on his own Spiritual Activity to fight back.

’So it’s come to this, has it?’

He forced himself to look up at Bai Shi melting into the body of the Mother Divine Tree, his face a mask of madness, rage, and venomous hatred.

The guy really didn’t want to live anymore. He just wanted to drag all of Qinggang down with him.

But could he do it?

As this question crossed his mind, he felt a delicate, crystalline color emerge around him, shielding him from the contamination.

A small Barrier had enveloped him.

It was a crystal-like color, originating from a small Crystal Skull. He had been carrying this Crystal Pendant with him ever since the D7 incident.

’It’s pretty useful. Normally, I have to activate it with my Spiritual Power, but for some reason, it’s now created a barrier on its own.’ A faint voice, accompanying the weak crystalline light, reached his ears:

”Mr. Butcher, the Mother Divine Tree’s contamination has begun to breach Qinggang’s third defense line.”

”To prevent the deployment of high-lethality weapons, please either separate him from the Mother Divine Tree or retreat from the battlefield immediately.”

”I repeat: our strategic objective has been met. You may retreat from the battlefield and wait for the Qinggang Council Hall to clean up this area.”

...

’So even this little Crystal Pendant being delivered into my hands wasn’t a coincidence?’

Han Su couldn’t help but laugh. He looked at Bai Shi, whose body had already half-merged with the Mother Divine Tree, and thought, ’It won’t be easy to tear this guy—who’s completely lost his mind and is practically begging for death—away from it with my power alone.’

As he thought this, he lifted his briefcase.

Bai Shi was a crazed avenger. He hated his own father, he hated the Ancient Castle, and he hated himself.

He had risked everything to set this trap, wanting to seize the Copper’s Will from him and get his revenge in the process.

But he didn’t know that his every move was all part of someone else’s calculations.

Now he had committed this insane act, and even Miss Ai was advising him that he could give up.

He thought for a moment, then slowly looked up and said to Bai Shi, ”Didn’t you want to know why I hit you back at the Ancient Castle?”

Bai Shi’s eyes snapped open, and he stared coldly at Han Su.

Han Su forced a relaxed smile. ”Actually, the servant who died in your house wasn’t a relative of mine or anything. I didn’t even know you back then. I hit you simply because I didn’t like the look of you.”

”You...”

At this point, Bai Shi was willing to sacrifice himself to the Mother Divine Tree just to make Qinggang bleed.

Nothing could interrupt him.

Except for the words Han Su had just spoken.

He, who had already closed his eyes before the Mother Divine Tree, suddenly snapped them open. Blood-red, they locked onto Han Su. An uncontrollable, frenzied thought seized him, and with a guttural roar, he lunged out from the Mother Divine Tree.

Countless blue arcs of electricity still connected him to the Mother Divine Tree, filling him with an uncanny, violent energy.

He leaped viciously into the air and threw a punch at Han Su.

What he excelled at most was the power of Copper.

Even though he hadn’t obtained the highest-tier Copper Will, the power he Mastered in the Copper Domain could still suppress countless people.

But his Copper power had been stripped away. Now, he was acting on pure instinct, throwing a simple punch.

Yet it was this very punch that seemed exceptionally terrifying. Potent Spiritual Activity, combined with the Mother Divine Tree’s contamination, crashed down like a dark cloud, instantly shattering the Crystal Barrier around Han Su.

The Crystal Pendant was now covered in cracks.

But at that very moment, Han Su suddenly took a step back and, right in front of him, opened the briefcase.

An intricate, bizarre, and strangely beautiful Mechanical Fragment appeared before Bai Shi’s eyes. His pupils contracted, his expression a mixture of a sob and a laugh.

”The Crystal Skull... the Crystal Skull actually gave you this Mechanical Fragment...”

”Then what has my whole life been for?”

...

Looking at his crazed, twisted face, Han Su didn’t say much. He just gently activated the Mechanical Fragment.

Meeting Bai Shi’s dazed and shocked expression, he sighed softly and said, ”You just wait here for a moment. I’ll be right back.”

CLICK, CLACK, CLICK...

Han Su heard the sound of machinery whirring. This time, he was voluntarily summoning the Flashing!