Night Journey

Chapter 95 Promised Land
Deep within the Lighthouse, amidst a complex network of pipes.

Wearing a gas mask, Dai Lin's voice sounded particularly hoarse through the thick filter.

"is it here?"

Bruce carefully examined the rusty sign by the dim light overhead.

"That's about it, this is it."

As it spoke, it gently tapped the outer casing of the pipe with its front paws, the dull thud echoing in the cramped space.

Bruce inspected the pipes, explaining, "They connect to the surface river, providing irrigation for the vertical farm while also serving as part of the cooling system."

"So we're going to stuff all this stuff in?"

Dailin turned around and saw Anya following behind them, struggling to pull a heavy trailer. The trailer was piled high with heavy metal cans, which gleamed coldly in the dim light.

"uh-huh."

Bruce searched for inlets around the pipes, staring at each valve on them. "Once these are all poured in, they'll seep into the vertical farm system through the circulation pipes. As for what happens after that, that's up to Cillian."

Dai Lin swallowed hard, his eyes full of doubt. "Is it really possible? Just him alone?"

Even if you can't, can you stop him?

Bruce said casually, his paws still moving, "A man with that kind of personality can't be persuaded with just a few words. It's better to let him do it. If things go wrong, we can always go and rescue him later."

"You really are..."

Dai Lin didn't know what to say for a moment, and shook his head helplessly.

Bruce urged, "Alright, alright, let's get to work. We need to time it right, based on the flow rate in the pipes, so that they can function in the right place."

As he spoke, Bruce adjusted a bypass valve on the pipeline.

Anya laboriously carried over a metal can and, following Bruce's instructions, carefully aligned the connecting pipe on the can with the inlet of the circulation pipe.

"What's in here?" she asked, panting.

Bruce pondered for a moment and explained, "These are all solutions I mixed haphazardly, with many flammable substances added, as well as extraordinary materials with similarly flammable properties, and soul essence extracted from Cillian's blood."

"You can probably think of it as... compressed soul essence fuel?"

Guided by the source energy, they will multiply for a period of time, like a chain reaction, one triggering many, continuously amplifying, and eventually undergoing a violent combustion reaction until they are completely burned away.

As Bruce spoke, he gently tapped the tin can, listening to the sound of the solution sloshing inside to judge the amount of solution remaining.

Anya briefly imagined that scene and couldn't help but sigh.

"That's crazy!"

“I think it’s fine, it’s quite in line with his style.” Bruce still looked nonchalant, casually sitting on the cart and gesturing with his chin at Dalyn. “Hey, Dalyn, don’t just stand there, come and lend a hand.”

Anya asked curiously, "Bruce, how long have you known Cillian?"

“Actually, it hasn’t been that long.” Bruce thought carefully for a moment, “about the same time you’ve known him.”

"Huh?" Dai Lin looked up, his face full of surprise.

"Don't look at me like that. I met Cillian in the wilderness. He was in a sorry state, like a refugee, covered in wounds and with tattered clothes."

I helped him, and he helped me; that's how we started traveling together.

Bruce recounted, "You all know what happened next. Cillian encountered you and was taken in for questioning, while I obediently lay down to the side..."

Anya thought for a moment, then realized, "So, you don't know what kind of person Cillian used to be?"

“Yes,” Bruce thought for a moment, then added, “but the old Cillian certainly wasn’t as neurotic as he is now. He must have gone through something not so good.”

It then asserted, "This is very bad."

Anya and Dalyn both cast expectant glances at Bruce, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

"how to say?"

Faced with expectant eyes, Bruce gathered his thoughts, "At first, I thought Cillian had some self-destructive tendencies."

Anya pressed further, "For example?"

"For example... some nights, he won't sleep."

Bruce recalled, "He would happily fight the monsters for the entire night, and it was like a bloody carnival."

Then, he would sit down and meditate, as if reflecting on what he could improve during the killing, such as the angle and force of his sword strikes, and the timing of dodging demon attacks.

Tireless and unconcerned about injuries, as if engaged in some meaningless ascetic practice.

Anya and Dalyn exchanged a glance, both recalling Cillian's performance during the Night of the Tide.

Everyone else avoided the demon tide like the plague, but Cillian followed it closely as if he were chasing death, rampaging through the demon horde with a maniacal excitement in his eyes.

"There are quite a few people with self-destructive tendencies these days, but I didn't take it too seriously. In the end, I'm not much better myself."

Bruce scratched his ear with his hind leg and chuckled self-deprecatingly.

"But one night, I heard laughter."

Bruce met the eyes of both men, his gaze revealing a hint of confusion and fear.

"It was Cillian's laughter. He was like an innocent child, laughing wildly as he slashed at demons. His laughter was particularly jarring in the silent night."

At that moment, I realized that this madman didn't have a self-destructive mentality at all; even if we all committed suicide, he wouldn't.

Cillian drew his sword against the demon, not to vent his anger, nor to seek destruction, but simply because his hands itched to kill; he was so happy that he couldn't suppress his laughter.

Bruce affirmed, "That's Cillian, a mad killer. After something happened, he came to terms with himself, stopped suppressing himself, and fully embraced his true soul, like a wild beast breaking free of its cage, unleashing the madness deep within him."

Bruce's words reminded Dalyn of her previous conversation with Cillian, who had said something similar.

Chilling.

After chatting for a while, the work of the two people and the dog was also completed.

Dai Lin slowly turned the valve, and with a hissing sound, the liquid in the pipe began to gush out, the sound like the prelude to an impending storm.

Before long, they will infiltrate the vertical farms, and what happens after that is beyond their consideration.

Bruce led the two outside, saying as they walked, "Actually, I quite like Cillian."

"You know, people have desires, and desires are incredibly diverse."

Bruce said in a serious tone, "Some people will stop at nothing to gain power and scheme against each other; some people will go bankrupt for beautiful women and even start wars; and there are those twisted guys who crave pure and selfless love, and so on."

Sigh, don't you think people are just too hard to satisfy?

Bruce said enviously, "Look at Cillian, he just wants to kill some things, and in this crazy world, there's no shortage of people and monsters to kill."

Looking at it this way, the world seemed like a paradise tailor-made for him, like a giant amusement park.

Bruce paused for a moment, then said finally.

"I hope he has fun."

……

Tania and Haven looked up, staring in disbelief at the scene before them.

The Soul Essence Bullet struck the top of the vertical farm, piercing the main pipeline. Immediately, the entire pipeline burst into flames and exploded. The raging fire burned along the complex route, pushing the continuous explosions to all parts of the vertical farm.

They couldn't understand what was happening. This was their stronghold, but now it seemed like Cillian's stage, and everything was under his control.

"Everyone, what are you waiting for!"

Cillian was overjoyed and danced with excitement, saying, "Let's dance together!"

The violent tremors propagated along the building's foundation as longitudinal waves, causing the already cracked load-bearing structure to collapse further.

Amidst the sickening crack of metal breaking and the muffled thud of concrete collapsing, the truss structure atop the vertical farm deformed, the steel beams bent into dangerous arcs, and finally snapped completely in another explosion—the entire dome module collapsed with a deafening roar.

"Do not……"

Tania's mind went blank as she watched the scene of destruction.

The burning outer shell glowed with an incandescent light in the high temperature. The hundreds of tons of debris plummeted down, smashing the protruding platforms and the sky corridors that spanned it into a spiderweb of fragments.

"Don't be stunned!"

The armor on Haven's abdomen split open, and the grotesque gash swallowed Tania whole. At the same time, layers of mycelium wrapped around her body, shaping it into a hard cocoon.

Destruction is imminent.

High-pressure mixed gas gushed out from the torn pipeline network, triggering a secondary explosion upon contact with an open flame. An orange-red fireball, carrying semi-molten metal droplets, expanded into a spherical shape, instantly vaporizing several nearby wicked offspring.

The survivors staggered toward the escape route. Overheated steam mixed with soul essence spewed out from the condenser pipes. Their running bodies suddenly stiffened, and then melted into a pool of rotten flesh and blood amidst desperate screams.

The muffled sounds from deep within the building grew more frequent; the liquid nitrogen tanks in the cooling system were exploding one by one.

The cryogenic fluid poured out, its volume expanding wildly, forming a white, tornado-like cryogenic cloud, and thick frost quickly formed on the metal surface.

Some people unfortunately collided with the cold air mass, and their bodies were frostbitten and brittle at a visible speed, and then pulverized into dust.

In the end, a few lucky ones escaped this series of dangers. Before they could even marvel at the beauty of life, they heard the sound of rushing water.

"Water... flood!"

The main control valve of the cooling loop was severely deformed in the explosion, and tons of river water surged in.

The instantaneous impact generated by hydraulic pressure tore the floodgate into twisted metal petals. Turbid water flowed into the vertical channel under the action of gravity, forming a rotating vortex with a diameter of ten meters, which swept up all movable objects along the way.

Numerous figures struggled in the deep water, their alveoli ruptured by the water pressure within minutes, their eyeballs bulging out of their sockets like drowned goldfish.

Death and fear filled the vertical farm, and the culprit behind it all was that figure still dancing gracefully.

Cillian opened his arms and savored the moment.

The scorching fire mixed with the icy river water, turning into a torrential downpour of hot and cold rain.

As the collapsing dome structure plummeted, Cillian, as if foreseeing it, calmly slipped through the gaps, swiftly swung out his grappling hook, and hoisted himself high into the air.

At this moment, Cillian could no longer see Haven's figure. He had swallowed Tania and was then buried by layers of burning ruins.

The two of them did not die, and the Ouroboros Seal reveled in joy, but had not yet tasted the true main course of the night.

"I'm so happy..."

Cillian sighed sincerely.

Vertical farms are experiencing a catastrophic chain reaction, with planting platforms collapsing one after another and structures being destroyed by fire.

The fungi cultivated by the Claw were first drenched by the fiery rain, and then completely swallowed up by the rushing river. They overflowed from all directions, cascading down in small waterfalls.

In the blink of an eye, the bottom was filled with water, and it was still rising.

Cillian landed on a protruding piece of wreckage. The stinging sensation from the Ouroboros Mark gradually weakened. It seemed he had almost wiped out everyone in the vertical farm.

Except for that cocoon that is emerging from the puddles.

(End of this chapter)