19: Chapter 19 The New Federation Forces, The Blood and Tears Illusion

Lin Chuan did not directly obliterate Xu Lan and the others.

That would be too boring.

And too wasteful.

Lin Chuan planned to let them live a little longer, until their fear value was completely drained, and then let them die bit by bit in despair.

In a split second, Lin Chuan directly activated his Rule Ability—[Blood-Tear Illusionary Realm].

In an instant, an invisible ripple of rules spread out, enveloping Xu Lan and the others like an invisible tide... outside the city gates.

Xu Lan was looking at Zhao Linfeng, who had fallen to the ground, with an arrogant expression.

Behind her, three terrifying phantoms were baring their fangs and claws, ready at any moment to tear this reckless D-Class Ghost Controller into pieces.

“You ungrateful piece of trash.”

Xu Lan let out a cold snort and raised her right hand, preparing to kill Zhao Linfeng directly.

“Kill them all, and then—”

However.

Her voice suddenly stopped.

An indescribable sense of trance instantly surged into her heart.

The originally noisy sound of the wind, the roar of engines, and even Zhao Linfeng’s heavy panting around her...

All of it vanished at this moment.

There was a deathly silence.

Xu Lan snapped back to her senses and looked around alertly.

“What’s going on?!”

She discovered with shock.

The originally towering walls of Rebirth City were gone.

Zhao Linfeng, who had been coughing up blood on the ground, was also gone.

Even the off-road vehicle convoy behind her had disappeared without a trace.

In its place...

Was a vast, ancient, and massive temple filled with the mottled traces of time.

Bluestone paved the ground, and ancient trees reached toward the sky.

The air was filled with a thick scent of sandalwood.

“Where is this?!”

The thirteen team members behind Xu Lan were also completely flustered now.

“Captain! Where are our cars?!”

“We were just at the city gate, how did we get here in the blink of an eye?!”

“It’s a Ghost Domain! We’ve been pulled into a Ghost Domain!!”

A team member who controlled the “Ghost Socks” screamed in terror.

Xu Lan’s face was grim, but she quickly steadied herself.

“What are you panicking for!”

“It’s just a mere Ghost Domain!!”

Xu Lan said coldly, while her hand quietly reached for a golden box at her waist.

That was her trump card.

Just then.

Creak!

Deep within the temple, the vermilion gates slowly opened.

The originally dead temple suddenly became bustling with people.

Countless pilgrims poured in from all directions.

Some held tall sticks of incense, others bowed every three steps, their faces all brimming with pious and happy smiles.

“na mo Buddha of Rebirth...”

“May the Buddha protect this believer’s family and keep them safe...”

The sounds of chanting, prayer, and wooden fish intertwined.

“Careful! Don’t let these things get close!”

Xu Lan barked. She controlled three abominations to instantly activate their rule abilities, shielding herself tightly.

But those pilgrims seemed unable to see them, passing directly through their bodies.

“As expected, it’s an illusion.”

Xu Lan sneered in her heart, the contempt in her eyes growing even stronger.

“Just cheap tricks.”

Just then.

An old monk wearing a tattered cassock with a benevolent face, fingering a string of prayer beads, slowly walked out from the Great Buddha Hall.

He came straight to Xu Lan and the others, pressed his palms together, and bowed slightly.

“amitabha buddha.”

“Since you benefactors have entered this sacred mountain, why not offer a stick of incense?”

The old monk’s voice was warm and mellow, carrying a strange power that soothed the heart.

“Get lost!”

A team member beside Xu Lan roared irritably, directly using the ghost power within his body to throw a punch at the old monk.

However.

Something bizarre happened.

The moment that team member’s fist touched the old monk, it actually became limp and powerless.

The Fierce Ghost inside him seemed to have encountered some great terror, instantly shrinking into a ball and falling into a deep sleep.

“This... what’s going on?!”

The team member looked at his hand in horror.

“My ghost... has crashed?!”

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was terrified.

They hurriedly checked their own conditions.

Immediately after, cries of alarm rose one after another.

“Mine too! That Sticker Ghost that’s been torturing me actually stopped moving!”

“My recovery agitation has disappeared!”

“That cold feeling... it’s gone?”

Normally, this would be a cause for great celebration.

What Ghost Controllers feared most was the revival of their Fierce Ghosts.

Being able to make a Fierce Ghost sleep or even crash meant they could live like normal people, no longer threatened by the erosion of ghost power... but here.

In this Ghost Domain filled with the unknown.

This sudden “happiness” made one’s skin crawl.

Before an abomination, if they lost their ghost power, they were just ordinary people.

Lambs to the slaughter!

Xu Lan’s expression changed as well.

She could feel that the three C-Class Abominations she controlled were also becoming drowsy at this moment.

“Damn it!”

“What kind of rule is this? Forced suppression? Or assimilation?”

For the first time, a trace of panic rose in Xu Lan’s heart.

She looked at the old monk who was still smiling, her palm holding the golden box covered in cold sweat.

“Benefactor, will you really not offer incense?”

The old monk spoke again, handing over three sticks of burning incense.

The incense smoke curled upward, forming a bizarre skeleton shape in the air.

Xu Lan took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm.

“Fine.”

She didn’t dare refuse the old monk again.

Xu Lan took the incense and, leading her thirteen uneasy team members, followed the old monk toward the Great Buddha Hall.

Along the way.

The number of pilgrims around them grew.

Although their faces were smiling, the smiles became increasingly stiff and eerie.

Some pilgrims’ heads suddenly fell to the ground while they were walking, but their bodies continued forward, hands still pressed together in prayer.

On the backs of some pilgrims, seven or eight hands grew out, each holding a scripture made of human skin.

“Captain... this... this isn’t right...”

The teeth of one timid team member were chattering.

“Shut up.”

Xu Lan scolded in a low voice, her eyes fixed on the hall ahead.

Of course she knew something was wrong here.

But as long as she found the source of the Ghost Domain and used the item in her hand... she could break the situation!

Finally.

Everyone crossed the high threshold and entered the hall.

In the very center of the hall.

What was enshrined was not some benevolent Buddha statue.

But a... pitch-black, crack-covered, bizarre mountain of flesh with countless eyes!

Every single eye on that mountain of flesh was weeping blood tears.

They all turned in unison, staring intently at the entering Xu Lan and her group.

Seeing this, Xu Lan’s pupils constricted violently.

In that very instant.

The old monk who had been leading the way suddenly turned around.

His originally benevolent face had now become completely unrecognizable.

His features had vanished.

All that remained was a massive mouth full of sharp teeth that split all the way to the back of his head.

“Benefactor...”

“Since you’ve come, then don’t leave.”

“Stay... and become incense oil!!”

Roar!!

The old monk let out an inhuman roar, and that massive mouth gaped open, swallowing the team member closest to him in one bite.

Crunch! Crunch!

The sound of bone-chilling chewing echoed in the silent hall.

Blood splattered everywhere.

“Ah!!!”

The rest of the team members instantly broke down.

“A ghost! It’s a ghost!!”

“I can’t use my abilities! Help!!”

“Run!!”

Everyone turned to run.

Only to find that the hall door had disappeared at some unknown point.

The surrounding walls began to writhe, turning into wailing human faces.

Despair.

Suffocation.

No way out.

[Gained fear value from Xu Lan +500!]

[Gained fear value from Chen Laoqi +200!]

[Gained...]

Inside the Desolate Temple.

Lin Chuan looked at the notifications rapidly refreshing on the panel, his heart cold.

“It’s not enough.”

“This level of despair isn’t enough.”

“I need to give them a little... hope.”

...In the hall.

Just as the old monk was about to pounce on the second person.

Xu Lan finally moved.

“Go to hell!!”

She violently opened the golden box at her waist.

An old, bronze oil lamp lay quietly inside.

It was a strategic-grade anomaly item of the New Federation—[Delusion-Breaking Ghost Lamp]!

Lighting it...

Could dispel all illusions and Ghost Domains below B-Class!

Xu Lan did not hesitate to cut her finger and drip blood onto the wick.

Whoosh!!!

A ghastly green flame instantly ignited.

A dim yellow light centered on Xu Lan rapidly spread in all directions.

“Break for me!!”

Xu Lan roared hysterically.

Everywhere the light touched...

The terrifying old monk, the bizarre flesh mountain Buddha statue, and the writhing walls around them...

Melted and dissipated like snow under a scorching sun.

“Huff... huff...”

Xu Lan panted heavily, looking at the surroundings that had returned to normal.

The temple was gone.

They were back at the city gate of Rebirth City.

“We’re out?!”

“Hahaha! We’re out!!”

The surviving team members wept with joy.

Xu Lan also breathed a sigh of relief, a ruthless glint flashing in her eyes.

“As expected, it was an illusion.”

“Since your Ghost Domain is broken, next is your time to die!”

However.

Before she could be happy for long.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out.

The head of a team member standing beside her suddenly exploded.

“Who?!”

Xu Lan turned her head in terror.

Only to see not far away...

A man wearing a Rebirth City uniform, his face full of a sinister grin, was pointing a golden pistol at them.

That was... Qin Yao!

“You pieces of trash from the shitty New Federation.”

“Die!!”

Qin Yao laughed maniacally as the gun in his hand spat fire again.

“You’re asking for death!!”

Xu Lan was fuming with rage.

A mere E-Class Ghost Controller dared to attack them?

“Kill him!!”

Xu Lan ordered the team members beside her.

But those team members seemed to have turned stupid, standing in place without moving.

“Useless trash!”

Xu Lan cursed and raised her own golden pistol, firing a barrage at Qin Yao.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Bloody flowers bloomed all over Qin Yao’s body.

The smile on his face froze, and his body fell straight backward.

“This is the price for provoking the Federation.”

Xu Lan snorted coldly and walked forward, wanting to inspect the corpse.

However.

The moment she flipped the body over.

She was struck as if by lightning, frozen in place.

That face... was not Qin Yao at all.

It was... one of her lieutenants, Li Ming, who controlled the “Ghost Paper Figurines”!

“Li... Li Ming?!”

Xu Lan’s mind went blank.

“How can it be you?!”

“The one I killed was clearly that—”

Just then.

The surrounding space distorted again.

The body of “Li Ming” that had been lying on the ground suddenly turned into a cloud of black smoke and dissipated.

Immediately after.

A gust of cold wind blew.

Countless “Qin Yaos” walked out from all directions.

They had identical faces and identical eerie smiles.

In their hands, they all held various bizarre weapons.

“Come on...”

“Kill me...”

“Let’s see how many you can kill?”

Xu Lan felt her sanity on the brink of collapse.

“Fake! It’s all fake!!”

“Delusion-Breaking Ghost Lamp! Burn for me!!”

She frantically channeled power into the bronze oil lamp in her hand.

The ghastly green fire flared up again.

The surrounding “Qin Yaos” screamed and dissipated in the firelight.

But very quickly.

Even more distorted abominations rushed up.

There were vicious dogs with three heads, giants oozing pus, and... her own teammates.

“Captain! It’s me! Don’t shoot!”

A team member screamed in terror as he ran toward Xu Lan.

“Monster! Don’t come over!!”

At this time, Xu Lan’s eyes were bloodshot; she could no longer distinguish between reality and illusion.

In her eyes...

The person rushing over was not a teammate at all.

But a Fierce Ghost with its bloody maw wide open, wanting to devour her!

Bang!

The gun fired.

The team member was shot in the forehead, looking at Xu Lan in disbelief before falling into a pool of blood.

“Kill! I’ll kill you all!!”

Xu Lan seemed to have gone mad, her golden pistol frantically pouring out bullets.

She even used the ghost power within her body.

Three terrifying C-Class Abomination phantoms rampaged through the area.

Tearing!

Devouring!

Destroying!

Blood stained the ground red.

Screams of agony rose one after another.