Chapter 26 The Nightmare Begins, Harvesting the Dark Night
The winding road up Yunding Mountain Villa snaked like a serpent, flanked by dense black pine forests.
The night wind passed through the pine needles, emitting a wailing sound like a ghost's cry.
Jiang Chen walked with his hands in his pockets, appearing leisurely as he strolled through the shadows stretched long by the streetlights.
Yet, the rhythm of every step he took carried a strange cadence.
The black sedan that had been tailing him all this time cut its engine five hundred meters behind him.
"Since you've arrived, don't bother hiding anymore."
Jiang Chen stopped abruptly and pointed at a long wooden bench by the roadside meant for visitors, speaking as if to the air, "I happen to be tired from walking and would like to sleep here for a while. Are you all coming at me together, or will you line up to die?"
Rustle, rustle, rustle.
Responding to him were several sharp, rushing sounds of wind being broken.
Five black shadows, like hungry wolves hunting, darted out from the pine forests on both sides, instantly sealing off Jiang Chen's front, back, left, and right.
They wore identical black combat uniforms and full-face masks, revealing only pairs of emotionless eyes.
Each of them gripped a specially made alloy battle blade that glinted with a chilling blue light under the moonlight—a sign that they were quenched in deadly poison.
"Jiang Chen, the Family Head has ordered."
The leader of the black-clad men had a raspy voice, as if his vocal cords had been injured, "Sever your tendons, and bring you back to be a living sacrifice for the Young Master. We originally intended to let you live a few more minutes, but since you are seeking death yourself, you can't blame us."
"People from the Zhao Family?" Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow. Instead of defending himself, he lay down on the bench, adjusting to the most comfortable side-lying position, "You Zhao Family members are truly like cockroaches; no matter how many I kill, you're never finished."
"Do it!"
Killing intent flashed in the leader's eyes; he didn't bother with any more nonsense with Jiang Chen.
Five Bone Forging Realm death warriors erupted into action simultaneously, their five battle blades sealing off all paths of retreat, the blades pointing directly at Jiang Chen's limb joints!
Such coordination, such killing intent—even a master at the sixth level of the Bone Forging Realm would have to temporarily avoid the brunt of it.
However, facing this fatal blow, Jiang Chen made a move that no one could understand.
He pulled out the "Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade" he had just obtained from his pocket and pressed it against his face like a facial mask.
"Mmm... it's cool and feels so comfortable."
Jiang Chen closed his eyes, his breathing becoming long and deep in that instant.
"Is he crazy?!"
A sense of absurdity flashed through the leader's mind, but the blade in his hand sped up even more, "Go to Hell!"
Just as the blade was only an inch away from Jiang Chen's skin.
Hum—!
An extremely eerie ripple erupted, centered on Jiang Chen!
That was not the power of Qi and blood, nor was it ordinary Mental Energy, but a kind of... fear from the abyss!
【Ding! Fatal threat detected!】
【Environment assessment: Excellent (Late night, outdoors, Warm Jade assistance).】
【Skill "Nightmare Clone (Elementary)" has been activated!】
【Constructing materialized mental entity...】
The air seemed to solidify.
Those five death warriors realized with terror that their bodies couldn't move!
It was as if they had been stuck in the air by some invisible glue, and the battle blades in their hands could not advance even a fraction of an inch further.
Immediately after, in the corner of their vision, they saw a scene they would never forget for the rest of their lives (if they had any life left).
From the body of Jiang Chen, who was originally sleeping soundly on the bench, a black shadow suddenly "sat" up.
That shadow was pitch black, its outline identical to Jiang Chen's, but it had no facial features, only a pair of eyes burning with faint purple fire. It was like a malevolent ghost crawling out of Hell, exuding a suffocatingly violent aura.
"What is this monster?!" The leader wanted to scream, but found his throat gripped as if by an icy hand.
The black shadow slowly stood up, stretched its neck, and made a "crack-crack" sound of bones popping (that was the sound of pure Mental Energy vibrating).
It looked at the five battle blades hovering in mid-air, its mouth slowly stretching open to reveal a hideous grin that extended exaggeratedly to its ears.
"Shh..."
The black shadow extended a pitch-black finger, holding it up before its lipless mouth, and emitted a raspy, overlapping voice like a demon's whisper:
"Be quiet... the main body is asleep. He has Waking Up Anger; if you wake him up, the consequences will be very serious."
Before the words had even faded, the black shadow moved.
No, that wasn't movement; that was teleportation!
It merged directly into the shadows on the ground, and in the next second, appeared directly behind the nearest death warrior.
Pfft!
A pitch-black claw penetrated the death warrior's tactical vest without any resistance, protruding from his chest.
The death warrior couldn't even let out a scream; his whole body instantly went limp on the ground as if his Soul had been drained.
"Damn it! This is a mental-type Demonic Technique! Retreat! Retreat quickly!"
The leader finally broke free from the shackles of fear, his Soul trembling. This was not a battle between Martial Artists at all; this was a supernatural event!
He pulled out a modified submachine gun and pulled the trigger frantically at the black shadow.
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Tongues of fire spat out as specially made armor-piercing rounds poured out.
However, the black shadow only tilted its head, looking at him as if he were an idiot.
The moment the bullets shot into the black shadow's body, it was as if they had passed through air, causing no damage at all. Physical immunity!
"Too noisy."
The black shadow seemed somewhat displeased. It raised its hand and made a gentle grasping motion toward the incoming bullets.
A bizarre scene occurred.
All the bullets froze in mid-air, and then, as if having lost their momentum, fell to the ground with a "clatter-clatter."
"For this kind of noise, I have reason to sentence you to... death."
The black shadow's figure disappeared again.
This time, it was a massacre.
In the Domain of dreams, fear is the best fuel.
The more afraid these five death warriors were, the stronger this Clone of Jiang Chen became.
It had severe "obsessive-compulsive disorder" and "misophonia" (noise aversion).
Every time it killed someone, it would first use telekinesis to seal the person's mouth to prevent them from screaming, and then elegantly snap their neck or crush their heart.
One minute later.
The black pine forest returned to dead silence.
Five corpses were laid out neatly in the deep ditch by the roadside, with no blood splattered anywhere (because they were killed internally by the vibration of Mental Energy), only extreme terror remaining on their faces.
On the bench.
The black shadow slowly dissipated, turning into specks of purple light that drilled back into Jiang Chen's glabella.
"Hoo..."
Jiang Chen let out a long breath of stale air, his eyelashes trembling as he slowly opened his eyes.
The first feeling upon waking up was hunger.
That feeling of hunger wasn't because his stomach was empty, but a cry from every single cell. It was the side effect of Mental Energy overdraft, transformed into an extreme sense of physical deficiency.
"Damn... this Clone might be cool, but it really burns fuel."
Jiang Chen quickly pulled a high-energy compressed energy bar (stolen from the Su Family) from his pocket and swallowed it in a few bites, only then feeling like he had come back to life.
He sat up and picked up the "Shadow Guard Token" and a black gold card that the leader had dropped on the ground.
【Ding! Nightmare Clone debut was perfect.】
【Obtained experience points: 8000.】
【Reading death warrior memory fragments...】
【Intelligence obtained: The Zhao Family's last stronghold in Jianghai City has been cleared. That card contains fifty million in secret funds that Zhao Tianba prepared for his escape.】
"Fifty million?" Jiang Chen's eyes lit up, and the previous fatigue was swept away.
"I was worrying about not being able to afford top-tier calming incense after going to the Imperial Capital, but now Boss Zhao has reimbursed it all. Boss Zhao is truly a great person."
Jiang Chen shoved the card into his pocket, didn't even glance at the corpses, and brushed the dust off his backside.
"Job done, time to go home and catch up on sleep."
He hummed a little tune as his figure gradually disappeared into the morning mist.
And this black pine forest would become the last trace the Zhao Family left in this city.