Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 566: Chapter 566 Beauty (23)_1 Chapter 566: Chapter 566 Beauty (23)_1 “`

All of this isn’t real, or is part of it not real?

In the dimly lit underground space, rather than immediately chasing after the scattered dismembered body, Suzune took deep breaths, forcibly calming herself down.

Possibly influenced mentally, this thought had no sooner appeared in her mind than it uncontrollably began to spread.

The reason was a very practical problem.

If the dismembered body that had just fled in all directions weren’t an illusion created by mental interference, then any Transcendent capable of such a feat was undoubtedly out of her league.

So for Suzune, the choice was either to sit and await death or to carefully consider how to escape if all this were indeed the product of an induced hallucination.

Suzune couldn’t help but rub her face.

However, looking on the bright side, if the adversary resorted to such means to deal with her, it meant they weren’t completely confident in a direct confrontation; otherwise, they wouldn’t have gone to such lengths.

This was, after all, not a bad speculation.

With the powerful physical capabilities of a Transcendent, the numbing sensation on her body soon lessened. Biting her lip, Suzune struggled to her feet and headed to a corner, guided by memory.

This was where the severed head had escaped, flailing its nerves and blood vessels to form two feet.

The head, propped up like a real turkey, had bolted straight for this spot.

There was nothing.

The instant she realized this, Suzune felt an involuntary sigh of relief.

Although there were significant reasons for it, she still felt the torment of awaiting judgment at that moment.

Fortunately, it seemed highly likely that her conjecture was correct.

At the moment, there was not a trace of a walking turkey on the ground, nor a single drop of blood.

But… the next moment, Suzune stood up and looked at a rectangular stone platform close at hand.

The light was dim, and from a distance earlier, she had only faintly noticed that there was something on the platform but couldn’t see clearly what it was.

And now, right in front of her lay a corpse, its belly sliced open and entrails displayed.

Compared to Kisaragi Iketa not long before, this corpse was undoubtedly in a more gruesome state.

Not only was its head missing, but its chest and abdominal cavities were also almost fully splayed open, the ribs on both sides broken. At a glance, one could tell several organs were absent.

“Smoke and mirrors!”

Surprisingly, in the face of such a scene, Suzune simply sneered with little fear.

Stength was one thing; regardless of the reality, attempting to frighten a Night Watchman with such grisly scenes was indeed far too presumptuous.

She did not spend much time observing the corpse, as confirming that she was experiencing mental interference was the top priority, and the key issue was how to break free from it.

After scanning her surroundings and finding no other exits, Suzune picked up the dagger she had dropped earlier from the ground and decisively chose to retrace her original path.

Some details were still unclear. If she was experiencing localized mental interference leading to hallucinations, then the target of the delusion couldn’t be far away.

And if she had fallen into a situation akin to a nightmare, then she would have to try everything to break out of it.

Regardless of the circumstance, moving quickly to seek out weaknesses was undoubtedly a good strategy.

Deep inside, Suzune hoped that this was entirely a dream.

After all, the talisman she had used was a replicated fragment crafted from the valuable material “Birdseye”, a Transcendent item that served as her ultimate protective trump card.

If it hadn’t actually been used in reality, that would definitely be a good thing.

…

“Lady Suzune, what instructions do you have?”

After traversing the long corridor, step by step she ascended into the bedroom and, upon entering the living room once again, Suzune quickly received a greeting that felt eerily familiar.

At the dining table, Fu Qian with the turkey mask was turning to look at her, his voice filled with surprise, as if it were their first encounter all over again.

Hmph!

Her response was swift and straightforward, as she gestured with her hand, and amidst the roaring wind, her dagger once again pierced through the hand resting on the table.

“Of course I came for the banquet, am I not welcome?”

Having thrown the dagger, Suzune didn’t stop for a moment and walked straight up to Fu Qian, dragged a chair, and took a seat.

“How could that be, I am flattered by your presence.”

There was not a single fluctuation in Fu Qian’s tone.

“However, this makes me a little less agile, so you’ll have to help yourself.”

As he spoke, he gestured with his chin towards the side.

At one corner of the table was a sizable pot, filled nearly halfway with milky broth steaming hot, within which familiar objects undulated.

A whole pot of creamy brain soup!

Suzune took a deep breath.

It wasn’t just the soup that startled her—in her line of sight, she could clearly see a long, narrow bloodstain at the base of the neck beneath the turkey mask.

It felt as if the head had been disconnected from the body and then reattached.

It wasn’t only there; his whole body was covered with such crisscrossing cuts, even his clothes were tattered and torn.

In fact, in Suzune’s vision at this very moment, the Man-Eater Demon was nonchalantly pulling his right hand out with his left, then trying to reattach it to the bare wrist.

“Arriving so early, Lady Suzune must be famished?”

“Do not hold back, act according to your feelings.”

The voice that seeped from beneath the mask whispered like a demon.

“Have you never been curious about what it tastes like?”

“Tissue that carries memory, emotion, cognition, torn and separated by boiling water, then mixed together—what kind of flavor would it ultimately create—”

“Never!”

The response to Fu Qian was Suzune’s fierce roar.

And after that shout, using all the strength in her body, Suzune violently turned her head away, forcing her gaze from that pot of soup.

Because just moments ago, as the low whisper continued, she shockingly realized that deep within her, a sudden urge to drink it had emerged.

Even if it was an unrealistic hallucination, this was something she could not accept.

After shouting that line, she forcefully interpreted this as a kind of bodily discomfort—a hunger.

She had been feeling it vaguely since earlier, and now it was quite pronounced; this most primal human discomfort was slowly enveloping her.

Without wishing to contemplate the reasons behind it, Suzune swiftly stood up with a whoosh.

This exchange wasn’t entirely fruitless—in addition to Fu Qian’s bizarre behavior, she had noticed something else.

Before her dagger was plunged in, that exquisite wooden dining table was quite smooth and polished.

But if she remembered correctly, she had already stabbed it before today.

This once again confirmed that everything around her wasn’t quite real, which greatly increased the likelihood that she was deep in a nightmare.

With this in mind, it was very difficult to ascertain the state of her body outside.

She needed to break free from all this as quickly as possible.