Chapter 17: The Carousel Incident (Part 1)

As Chen Yi grew more animated, he reached back and grabbed the horn of the unicorn behind him, then plopped himself onto the horse’s back.

Wang Ping’an’s scalp instantly went numb. “Get down!”

With uncanny urban legends, even if you knew the rules, you still did not know when you might step into a trap. Knowing full well that something would happen if you sat on the carousel, who would be careless enough to climb onto it anyway?

Wang Ping’an had been strong since childhood, once the king of the village kids. He had led Chen Yi and the others to catch loaches and raid bird nests, and they were all like his own younger brothers.

When Wang Ping’an saw Chen Yi do this, he rushed in without thinking, intending to pull Chen Yi down.

Chen Yi sat there calmly, but his hand moved as fast as lightning. He reached back and grabbed Wang Ping’an’s wrist.

Then he wrinkled his face, tilted his head up, and sniffed carefully. “The smell’s coming out.”

Wang Ping’an looked baffled. “What smell?”

The moment he finished speaking, a blood-red mist appeared before Wang Ping’an’s eyes, as though it had a mind of its own, and surged over to cover them head-on.

Abnormal meant uncanny.

Under normal circumstances, how could there possibly be red mist? And how could it appear so suddenly?

Wang Ping’an moved Chen Yi behind him with one hand, shielding him, while using the other to pull a gleaming golden dagger from his tactical vest.

“We’re finished. Why did it wake up early?”

“Don’t move around. Stay close to me.”

“This is the aberrant domain. Terrifying things will appear next. They may not all be real. The aberration will use the images we fear most in our hearts to present the most terrifying scenes. Once you lose mentally, the aberration may appear at any moment and kill.”

“We have to tell apart what’s real and what’s fake.”

Wang Ping’an was actually a rookie too. It was obvious he was extremely nervous. He recited the contents of the training camp almost word for word, sweat dripping from his forehead.

But the most prominent thing about him was his steadiness.

As he spoke, the red mist rapidly thickened. The surrounding scenery could no longer be seen. They were encircled on all sides, and even the wooden horses an arm’s length away had vanished.

Only the two of them remained, along with the unicorn Chen Yi was sitting on.

Only then did Wang Ping’an realize that the unicorn’s eyes were extremely terrifying. There was more white than black in them, and its pupils had contracted to pinpoints. The face that should have been full of childlike charm gradually became sinister.

Suddenly, its eyes moved.

Those bean-sized eyeballs looked sideways at Wang Ping’an at an angle that seemed almost about to roll back into its eyelids…

It was alive? Alive!?

Wang Ping’an’s heart pounded like a drum.

At some unknown point, the ground beneath his feet had also gradually become sticky. There was a rusty smell in the air. When he lowered his head, he saw blood flowing along the ground, swiftly coating the soles of their shoes.

A rank stench was everywhere. Something twisted in the depths of the red mist, and indescribable mutterings sounded by their ears. They could not be heard clearly. If one truly shifted one’s attention onto those mutterings, one’s head would feel as if it were splitting apart.

Wang Ping’an was still mechanically repeating the words, both for Chen Yi and for himself. “Do not listen to an aberration’s mutterings. An aberration’s form cannot be grasped. Do not listen to an aberration’s mutterings. An aberration’s form cannot be grasped…”

Over and over again.

Behind him, Chen Yi was very calm.

Of course, this was only relative.

The current situation, to him, was as if he were standing inside a rural dry toilet, with the pit below being a cesspit. The environment stank beyond description, and he also knew that the aberration was down in that cesspit, working hard to crawl out.

First of all, Chen Yi was not going to jump into the “cesspit” to kill the monster.

Second, because he was too fragrant, this aberration had been stimulated the moment it awakened and could not wait to trap him inside. However, there was still quite some time before it could truly move around and climb out of the pit to eat him.

Lastly, reading could make a person wise, and cultivation could brighten a person’s spirit. The aberrant domain contamination that made Wang Ping’an feel as if he were facing a great enemy amounted to almost nothing in Chen Yi’s eyes. Only one word remained: stink!

So while he waited for the aberration to reveal itself, Chen Yi’s attention fell on Wang Ping’an’s hand, on that golden dagger.

Looking closely, this dagger had been forged from ancient coins: round with square holes, five coins in total, delicate and small, tied together with red string.

Chen Yi had also learned about this before. Among them, copper-coin swords were one of the evil-repelling objects said online to drive away evil and avert misfortune.

It was said that ancient copper coins had passed through the hands of countless people and gathered the yang energy of many households, allowing them to resist evil spirits and ghosts. Like peachwood swords, they belonged to folk legends.

Chen Yi’s peachwood sword had been made from the peach-tree branch rewarded by the system, and its killing power against aberrations was very strong.

Ordinary peach-tree branches had absolutely no effect on aberrations.

Whether copper-coin swords were useful, he did not know.

Ancient coins were valuable, but with the state stepping in to make them, it was still easy.

And judging by the position where the copper-coin sword fit onto the tactical vest, this was clearly a standard weapon. It should have been confirmed effective through actual combat.

He just did not know how powerful it was.

When Chen Yi came back to himself, he saw Wang Ping’an’s body trembling.

He sensed something was wrong and raised a hand to pull him over.

Blood was flowing from Wang Ping’an’s nostrils, and his eyes were so bloodshot they looked as if they were about to burst. His distorted, flushed face was particularly frightening.

Oh no!

He had been contaminated this quickly?

Chen Yi’s expression changed. He had still been waiting for the aberration to come out. He had not expected that an aberration that had pounced on people before would be so infectious to ordinary people.

Wang Ping’an also knew his current state was terrible. He gritted his teeth, unable to stop them from chattering, but he still struggled to speak. “Don’t listen. Don’t think. Chen Yi, don’t listen. Don’t think. Wait for the captain to save us. Don’t…”

His eyes were bloodshot, his vision entirely crimson. He did not notice at all that Chen Yi, let alone being contaminated, had not even changed expression in the slightest.

In truth, it was like telling yourself not to think about why “the elephant is pink.” The more you reminded yourself, the more deeply you would sink into it.

Chen Yi grew anxious.

He himself was indeed fine, but Wang Ping’an was not.

He jumped down from the carousel, pulled Wang Ping’an with him, and walked forward, wanting to bring him out of the aberrant domain.

In the end, this aberrant domain was spiritual energy stirred into chaos by an aberration, forming a unique magnetic field. It was not hard for him to get out.

But Wang Ping’an staggered along as he was dragged. After fewer than two steps, he spat blood onto Chen Yi’s back with a retch.

Chen Yi’s footsteps abruptly stopped. His eyes widened with fury as he watched Wang Ping’an collapse backward.

He grabbed the falling man in his arms.

“Third Brother!”

…

Chen Yi and Wang Ping’an had been dragged into the aberrant domain outside the rule’s set time.

This was something no one had anticipated.

Night had only just fallen. The streetlights in the guarded area had not yet been turned on. Dusk closed in from all directions, the hour when monsters were said to appear.

No one was controlling the carousel, yet it suddenly began operating on its own.

The neon lights abruptly lit up.

The wooden horses, full of childlike charm yet mottled, embroidered with crimson rust and cracked in patches, slowly moved forward, rising and falling.

Round and round they turned. The wooden horses’ eyes seemed to come alive, meeting people’s gazes, their eyeballs rolling until they moved farther away and the eyes turned behind their lids, leaving only pale whites.

Lights came on, and childish music creaked as it sang, “Round and round, little wooden horse, carrying my head, carrying my hands, to find Papa and Mama…”

“Round and round, little wooden horse…”

The carousel was encircled by a faint blood mist, as though a space of its own had formed inside.

That cold, creaking sound drifted faintly into their ears, making everyone shudder.

In an instant, the sky became pitch-black.

Some of the members responsible for guarding the perimeter were so frightened they took several steps back, their faces ugly and their hearts uneasy.

In everyone’s understanding, aberrations had to obey their killing rules when killing people: the three iron laws of “time, location, and act.”

In the past, this understanding had never been violated.

No matter how terrifying an aberration was, it still had to follow its killing rules. As long as humans avoided the rules, they could survive smoothly.

An accident had happened.

The captain was the first to react. He gripped his copper-coin sword in one hand, while his other hand pulled a scroll from behind him and shook it open.

This was a hand-painted scroll of Zhong Kui. His head reached the nine heavens, and his feet stepped upon hell. Beneath his feet were starving corpses spread everywhere, while above his head were nine layers of towers, auspicious clouds curling around them.

As soon as it was shaken open, a dense corpse stench surged out.

The smell was so powerful that it was actually much stronger than the smell coming from the carousel.

Zhao Gang and Pang Sen had both entered Qi Refining and could distinguish aberrations through smell.

The smell was too strong.

Not only was it foul, it was also like methane, making people dizzy.

So there really was something inside!?

Zhao Gang and Pang Sen reacted at the same time, circulating the Spirit Nurturing Art with all their strength. Zhao Gang even gripped his peachwood dagger and went on alert.

They looked warily toward the scroll.

This was not their first time seeing it.

The Zhong Kui inside the scroll was hard to judge as righteous or evil, but the severed remains and mountain-like malicious ghosts being stepped on beneath Zhong Kui’s feet seemed as if they were all still alive, slowly moving.

This was clearly not anything good.

Yet before Chen Yi’s appearance, it was the only type of tool humans had that could harm aberrations, also known as an “aberrant tool.”

Using aberrant tools always came at a price.

The price of this scroll was the user’s lifespan.

Who could have imagined that its holder, Captain Ye, was actually only thirty-two years old and in the prime of his life?

Over these two months, even though he had used it carefully, his lifespan had already been devoured. His hair had turned gray, his face was covered with wrinkles, and he had become an old man in his sixties.

On the other side, Vice-Captain Jiang also moved.

As his left eye opened and closed, it turned golden. Deep within the pupil was a ghost-face mask, which could help him see through illusions and find where aberrations existed.

This was also why he had been arranged as support.

The cost of using it was trading away body tissue, calculated by the second, in exchange for an aberration’s ability. After using up all the hair on his body, Vice-Captain Jiang had also sacrificed his fingernails.

Things sacrificed could not be reversed.

In other words, they would not grow back.

The Special Action Team and the related units had always believed that any item related to aberrations would come with a price when used.

This principle had even continued all the way until the novel began and the protagonist appeared.

Of course, after Chen Yi’s appearance, this principle was destined to be broken.

But right now, they did not know that.

After discovering that Chen Yi and Wang Ping’an had both been dragged into the aberrant domain ahead of time, their first reaction was to charge into the aberrant domain, activating their aberrant tools.

At that moment, Pang Sen grabbed the two of them, one in each hand.

He stopped their attempt to save the others.

“Brigade Captain!?” Captain Ye frowned at him.

Pang Sen said, “Wait a little longer.”

“Wang Ping’an has no experience, and he hasn’t awakened either. There’s no way he can remain in a B-rank aberrant domain for more than a minute. We have to…”

“It’s fine. Sect Master Chen is there.”

Sect Master Chen?

What kind of strange title was that?

Captain Ye frowned.

Then he discovered that Brigade Captain Pang was gripping both of them firmly, one in each hand, preventing them from moving forward.

Setting aside the fact that Brigade Captain Pang had retreated to the second line for many years, after the two of them awakened, their physical fitness had doubled from what it had been before. An ordinary person should not have been able to hold them back at all.

Could it be that he himself had not used strength?

The moment Captain Ye used force and tried to break free, Pang Sen held him with even greater force instead.

At the same time, Pang Sen said, “If even he can’t bring them out, then you two going in would only add two more lives to the count.

“Wait!”

Military orders were as heavy as mountains.

Captain Ye and Vice-Captain Jiang could only grit their teeth and put away their aberrant tools.

This time, the aberrant tools were unwilling to be put away. Especially the scroll in Captain Ye’s hands—it trembled violently, as though something inside wanted to jump out.

The atmosphere grew even more tense.

Zhao Gang’s peachwood dagger was already pressed against the scroll.

The scroll seemed somewhat wary of the peachwood dagger, and in the end, it was forcibly tied shut.

In that short span of time, Captain Ye looked as though he had aged a few more years.

No one spoke again. They watched the powerless carousel spinning on its own in tense silence.

Creak, creak.

“Round and round, little wooden horse, carrying my head, carrying my hands, to find Papa and Mama…”

Chen Yi and Wang Pingyuan had completely vanished into the aberrant domain.

Half a minute passed.

One minute passed.

Two minutes… They still had not come out. The entire carousel was wreathed in a terrifying aura. It was a great terror that even ordinary people could sense.

After such a long time, the people inside were probably…

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