I Became a Witch in a World Full of Urban Legends

After throwing Zhang Dexian towards the beasts, Lu Yibei turned and ran as fast as she could. She took refuge on the roof of a factory building far away from both Jiangli and Dexian.

Peeking out from behind her cover, she could see Zhang Dexian stabbing himself in the chest, and she couldn’t help but clap in admiration.

“Oh wow, self-harm-to-win¹? Even then…”

She felt scared chopping vegetables, so to see somebody stab themselves with no regard in the world…

Of course, even though Dexian was using powerful psychic items to increase his own strength, it was very admirable.

Blood gushed out of his chest and morphed into a fascinating golden lightning, like golden snakes that danced and slithered around his body as if he was Brahma, the Hindu God himself. They morphed into incomprehensible runic symbols, and the psychic fluctuations rose steadily, reaching a terrifying, thunderous level of power.

Seventeen, no, eighteen Mr. Rabbits’ worth of power, or half a Serpent. How interesting!

She found herself coveting for Zhang Dexian’s ancient Vajra slightly, but the more she thought about the downsides, like his ability taking way too long to charge, or having to self-harm to activate it, she lost interest.

It takes a lot of willpower to use something like that!Can’t risk it!

But! Why does the lightning on his body look so similar to Acala, my statue?

She found herself missing the days she spent with the statue.

The dark sky was illuminating with bright and righteous, divine lightning. The beasts seemed to stiffen, and the black fog that surrounded them at all times seemed to be suppressed by some strange force as it was forced back into their bodies.

“O’ Vajra, imbue me with divine powers of Buddha himself to smite these evildoers down!”

His voice boomed across the slaughterhouse, and a golden shower of starlight rained down from the sky, like the Milky Way was crashing down onto the Earth.

It was as if the Heavens were being ripped open as he gathered starlight on his fist, and he surged downwards like a drill.

“What the fuck? That’s so fucking cool!”

Yibei couldn’t help but applaud and praise the scene before him.

The air surged with violence as it swept in all directions, and her ears were filled with bursts of the chanting of a sutra.

She found herself feeling uncomfortable the more she listened to the meaningless, monotonous chanting. Looking at the other side of the roof, she saw Mew Mew fighting with a pig-headed man.

Mew Mew is Jiangli – I’m so sure of it! At least 90% sure!

When she woke up at Flowers and Sunshine Resort, she saw Jiangli’s powers manifesting in reality.

She remembered how majestic Jiangli’s centaur-like form that donned silver armor, etched with azure-blue runic symbols, with fur as pale-white as the moon.

When she was kidnapped by Cicada, she remembered dreaming about Jiangli on a white steed, galloping relentlessly to save her-

Wait! No, no, not that! That was all in my head!

Mew Mew’s tanned face was trained in on the battle before her, and her golden pigtails bounced with each gallop like a battle flag. Although this sultry image of a bratty school girl didn’t fit Jiangli’s cold, yet graceful image, almost everything else screamed Jiangli.

At least, Yibei was 90% sure it was Jiangli.

Jiangli and the King fought viciously with one another, like myths of a mythical centaur fighting against a disgusting beast from Hell.

Through the flashes of lightning, Jiangli left behind countless afterimages with each rapid, moonlike gallop she took, and iron hooks shot out endlessly, as with the silver arcs of sword slashes that tore through the air.

The King’s body was as large as a hill, and piles of human-like tumors squirmed and undulated on its body, with lips opening and closing with resentment of falling victim to the slaughterhouse dripping from their lips.

There was no fear in Jiangli’s eyes – she slashed her sword calmly and gracefully, pushing back the black smoke with silver arcs of light.

Invisible to the naked eye, the psychic waves collided and crashed with one another, like nuclear bombs.

The Witch held her chin with one hand as she looked at Zhang Dexian’s fight, then at Jiangli’s fight, “Well, I don’t think there’s any room for me to do anything here, and it doesn’t seem like they need my help…”

“…no!” she yelled to herself. “I must do something at least! I don’t want to look useless! Is there anything else hidden in this slaughterhouse? I’m here to deal with urban legends, yes, I need to participate – I’m helping! Yup!”

As she spoke, she put on her Imitation Divine Horse Armor, and it galloped her away faster than her mind could process. When she reappeared, she found herself at on the domineering roof of the office building of the slaughterhouse.

She stepped to the edge of the building and watched over the entire slaughterhouse. She crouched down and swept her eyes back and forth, looking for any urban legend that she could bully.

Huh?

She saw a figure sneaking towards a remote hut in the distance, and he carried a dark body bag on his shoulders.

The body bag seemed to be containing something – something big enough that one could vaguely see a rotten pig’s head bulging out the zipper, with its blood dripping, leaving a trail behind him.

Isn’t that the guy I met earlier while I called for a taxi? He must be here for the review, right? But what is he doing with that pig…?

Levi stood at the door of the hut as it opened. Somebody greeted him, but most of their body was obscured by the door, and Yibei couldn’t see their face close enough.

Levi exchanged a few words with the person, looked around, and threw the body bag into the hut as he hurriedly shuttled in and closed the door behind him.

Something’s off here! She cursed to herself as she quickly left the office building.

She wanted to see what he’s up to – coming early to the slaughterhouse only to not appear when it was time to meet up…

Doing something shady? Not on my watch!

…

Outside the slaughterhouse.

By a manhole cover, bones and fur were scattered across a battle field.

Strange skeletons that formed an image of dogs, monkeys, bears… one might think they stumbled into a museum.

Their bodies were fully made of bones, with reinforced bone attached onto them like armor.

In sharp contrast were the cats that hissed at them.

The cats were skinny, and held various degrees of physical disabilities, as if they had been abused. They were wrapped and cradled by the fog, and their scarlet eyes flashed with an eerie light.

And strangely enough, they fought against one another. With each bone that was shot, one cat would explode into gore.

However, the more the cats were slaughtered and torn apart by the bones, they seemed to divide and swoop menacingly over the pile of bones.

And, invisible to the naked eye, their psychic fluctuations fought against one another in a violent war, and the cats were starting to overwhelm the bones.

Meanwhile, Shu’E and the cat girl fought against one another on the branches of the vast forest surrounding the slaughterhouse.

After a hard blow caused by the cat girl, his bone armor shattered into pieces. Taking advantage of the chaos, he hurriedly retreated through the mahogany woods and landed on a branch.

From the corner of his eye, he could see his skeleton army being devoured by the large tsunami of cats, and shuddered.

After acquiring that [Soul Detox] potion, he felt himself becoming stronger.

However, he was still no match for the cat girl. He felt himself becoming overpowered with each fleeting moment, but she treated this like a game of cat-and-mouse.

Thankfully, he thought. The ritual is about to begin.

Meow!

The cat girl leapt up the branches and was about to pounce, but she heard Shu’e sneer, “You’re strong, but aren’t you worried about the people in the slaughterhouse?”

Her ears shifted slightly as she tilted her head, “What is there to be afraid of? We made sure to suppress every dangerous urban legend in the slaughterhouse. If anything, the remaining urban legends roaming about in there should be afraid.”

As she spoke, the violent roars of a battle not far away stopped, followed immediately by the wails of a woman.

The tone was… strange – it was trembling, rapid, erratic; as if something ancient, primal, human, lewd, was being carried out…

“Get away from m- agh! Mmph…!”

“Oh… the more you push me away, the more excited I get!”

“Get the fuck away from m- agh…”

The cat girl scratched her ears with disdain, and turned back to Shu’E, “Instead of worrying about us, consider worrying about your little friend there. She might, uh, be defiled soon.”

“I’m not worried about her,” Shu’E sneered, but he couldn’t hide the slight red tinge on his cheeks.

To be honest, he couldn’t care less if Miss Rabbit perished in battle. They just have a cooperative relationship. Nothing more.

“By the way,” he looked away. “Rumor has it only one person is leaving the slaughterhouse alive tonight, and that person is me!”

“…what are you talking about?”

The cat girl raised her eyebrows, and an uneasy feeling rose in her heart.

She could feel something awaken and opening its eyes, deep within the recesses of the slaughterhouse.

The terrifying slumber stirred, like evil incarnate being born out of a malicious womb, growing, festering, spreading its ominous shadows in all directions to defile and corrupt this very land.

Flickering her ears, she noticed psychic energy fluctuations belonging to none other than Levi, and something else.

The two energies were weak – weak enough to avoid detection if they were deliberately hidden from view. It was probably why both she and the lanky man were not able to detect Levi.

Her heart tightened at the implication, “You bewitched Levi.”

“Correction,” he interrupted, wagging his finger. “He voluntarily did so. He wants revenge, and he will soon be a part of the great ritual.”

The word ‘ritual’ echoed in her ears, and she turned pale.

She remembered that her boss had mentioned to them that the Eclipse Society had mastered evil rituals capable of forming urban legends.

One way was to split the core of the urban legend, then recombine it to mimic the powers of a much more powerful urban legend.

The four beasts within the slaughterhouse – one master, three dependents; all of them have roots to the Great Beast, Beelzebub. Pigs, or more accurately, swine, are often referenced in ideation to Beelzebub, and through this ritual, Beelzebub’s abilities could be stimulated to form Gluttony incarnate.

We have to stop the ritual now.

Just as the cat girl was about to leave, a sudden tremor formed under her feet, and large walls of bone closed in around her.

“You’re not going anywhere!” he roared as the walls closed in on them. “It’s too late, kitten. You can’t rescue you and your friends, so enjoy your final moments and fight me!”

The flesh on his back broke open, revealing pale skeletal arms that merged into the wall of bones. In the next moment, the towering wall of bones squirm in the rhythm of his breathing, and moved as if they were one with him.

The cat felt as if she was trapped in an arena, and she could only leave if she killed her opponent.

However…

She didn’t seem panicked. Instead, she smirked, “That’s not true. There is one other person left in the slaughterhouse.”

She couldn’t figure out why the Witch was hiding and attempting to avoid the review tonight, even doing as much as watching Zhang Dexian and the Mahjong Girl fight and doing nothing.

However, she could now sense her psychic energy fluctuations approaching the source of the ritual, and she felt enlightened.

The Witch must have noticed that something was amiss from the very start – she wanted to get right down to business and deal with the biggest problem.

Since she was the strongest person to be reviewed, it makes sense that she would choose the most powerful opponent!

…

The dim hut radiated a rancid odor.

Three huge pig specimens, and a human skull were placed in the center of the house. Levi took advantage of the chaos outside and gathered the necessary materials to begin the ritual.

On the floor, complex runes were drawn with mercury, mixed with complex, unknown alchemical materials.

Candles were then set up around the corners of the room. They flickered with a green light, forming an invisible force field to prevent the dissipation of psychic power.

Two figures knelt in the two corners of the room in a strange posture. Their mouths moved gutturally as they babbled strange syllables, as if muttering a strange prayer.

As they prayed, a Black Sun Totem tattoo formed on their naked backs.

And underneath the light, the mercury began to boil, creating a toxic cloud of steam in the room.

The bones and corpses in the center of the room began to melt as they were wrapped by the toxic steam, and they soon formed a mass that exuded a pungent odor.

The remaining plasma from the mass was suspended in mid-air, like a breathing embryo. It squirmed, radiating a faint, bloodied light. Cloudy eyes from a distant plane soon became clearer, and they got closer, closer, and closer…

The eyes turned restlessly – they flashed with a dreamy, alluring light, like hallucinations as flies buzzed around the room.

Levi and a member of the Eclipse Society, who volunteered to be a sacrifice, raised their arms together as they picked up the ceremonial dagger, slashing their own wrists as they fell to the floor.

Hot blood sprayed out their wrists like geysers, and the candles were immediately extinguished, leaving the eerie, red light of filaments that swayed in the air.

They hovered over the two people in the room, wrapped around them like spider with their prey.

At this moment, a large rock broke through the window.

“You bastards! I know you’re in there up to no good! Justice is here to be served!”

With a loud yell, several charms and glass bottles containing Disaster Liquid were tossed in like grenades, and thick smoke flooded the room, polluting the ritual.

And the intense waves of psychic energy that grew and grew festered into nothing.

TRANSLATOR NOTES:

Note 1, from “Oh wow, self-harm-to-win? Even then…”: [t/n: original TL here is ‘Kryptonian’, which is Chinese Internet slang for sacrificing something to obtain a reward (e.g., in gacha, you sacrifice your time and sanity to obtain something you want. In this case, Zhang Dexian self-harms in order to be imbued with great powers.). Yibei implies that Dexian isn’t actually using his own strength to beat the urban legends.]

Woah, a direct reference to Beelzebub! I find this really fascinating that they refer to it as the Great Beast, and the implication that it exists in Yibei’s world… very intriguing indeed! As always, if you’d like to support me, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/slicedbreadsbakery! Any amount helps to support the translation!