Global Ghost Stories: I'm Investigating Ghosts in My Nightmare!

Chapter 27 The Feast of the Gods and the Black and White Twins
That grand and chilling voice delivered its final judgment deep within everyone's soul, bringing not a deafening roar, but a deathly silence that stripped away all meaning. Time, space, and even thought itself were crushed to pieces before this will.

An Mu felt his tactical thinking being forcibly stripped away. All the countermeasures he had conceived in his mind, those plans based on experience and logic, instantly became as ridiculous and powerless as a child's scribbles. He wanted to give orders, but found that even the concept of "speaking" itself had become incredibly heavy.

Lanze's glasses flashed with incomprehensible data streams, yet his face was paler than ever. He uttered a voice laced with terror: "Unanalyzable...unmodelable...its very existence negates 'laws'! We...we're not facing an energy entity, but a living 'concept'!"

"Enough with the nonsense!" Mo Fei was the first to forcefully break free from that mental pressure. His body contained no complex logic or analysis, only pure anger and courage. He let out a beastly roar, his muscles instantly bulging to their limit, the rocks beneath his feet shattering with a deafening crash. Like a cannonball launched from a gun, he charged with unstoppable momentum, fiercely wielding his battle axe and slamming it towards the monster's true form on the altar.

However, the monster didn't even move.

Just before Mo Fei's battle axe was about to touch it, one of its hundreds of emotionless giant eyes merely turned slowly, its pupil aimed at Mo Fei.

There were no beams of light, no shockwaves.

Mo Fei's forward momentum came to an abrupt halt, as if he had crashed into an insurmountable wall. Even more terrifying, he felt his power, capable of shattering steel, rapidly "disappearing." Not being neutralized, not being rebounded, but being erased from its very core. His attribute of "power" was being negated by the "gaze" of that eye.

"Pfft—" A mouthful of blood spurted from Mo Fei's mouth, and he flew backward like a kite with a broken string, crashing heavily into the rock wall in the distance, his fate unknown.

"Mo Fei!" An Mu's eyes were bloodshot as he forcefully broke free from the mental restraints and rushed over to help Mo Fei up.

Mo Fei was completely limp, his breath extremely weak.

"The struggles of insects are meaningless, but they are nonetheless an interesting appetizer." The ancient voice rang out again, full of mockery and amusement.

As its words fell, the enormous black roots that had taken root throughout the cave began to thrash wildly. Like giant pythons that had come to life, they surged towards the remaining three members of the team from all directions! On each root, more eyes opened and more mouths opened, and the entire cave transformed into a contracting stomach, ready to completely digest them.

"Baiyu! Use Awan's power!" Anmu roared hoarsely, shielding Mo Fei behind him as he raised his specially made pistol and fired wildly at the oncoming roots. The bullets, carrying purifying energy, exploded into faint white light on the roots, only slightly slowing their advance.

Despite the throbbing pain in his head, Lan Ce reached into his pockets and quickly set up various devices, creating a protective array that formed energy barriers in front of him. However, these barriers, strong enough to withstand a full-force attack from the deep-seated mental nightmare, were easily pierced by those roots, as if they were made of paper.

Despair overwhelmed everyone's hearts like a tidal wave.

Bai Yu stood at the eye of the storm, gripping the wooden ladle tightly in his hand. The soft halo formed by A Wan's obsession had reached its maximum, creating a spherical domain with a diameter of ten meters, struggling to resist the erosion of those roots.

A hissing sound of corrosion emanated from the boundary between light and darkness, and the holy light was being corrupted at a visible rate.

He knew this couldn't last much longer. Awan's love was the ultimate act of protection, but it faced an ancient being that fed on the century-long despair and resentment of the entire village, and even surpassed all of that. This was no longer a simple clash of energies, but a collision of two worlds.

Bai Yu's gaze swept over the fallen Mo Fei, and the struggling An Mu and Lan Ce, a resolute glint flashing in his eyes. He still had one last trump card.

“If ‘protection’ isn’t enough…” he muttered to himself, his eyes hardening with unwavering resolve, “then we’ll have to pave the way with ‘destruction’!”

He closed his eyes, immersing himself completely in the deepest recesses of his soul. There, besides Awan's warm sea of ​​light, lay a black abyss filled with knowledge and rules.

"Black Words!" Bai Yu cried out in her heart, "Time to get to work!"

A soft laugh echoed from the depths of the soul, carrying a hint of languor and arrogance.

"Oh? You finally decided to let me out? I thought you were going to cling to your pathetic obsession and get crushed into dust along with your companions, Little White Language."

"Stop talking nonsense!" Bai Yu's will was as firm as iron. "I need your strength!"

"as you wish."

The next moment, an indescribable pain exploded from Bai Yu's soul!

He felt his existence being forcibly split in two. One half was the warm, sentimental, and hopeful Baiyu; the other half was the cold, rational, and wielding of knowledge and destruction... another version of himself.

A pure black shadow slowly rose from behind Bai Yu, gradually solidifying into a physical form.

He was a young man who bore a striking resemblance to Bai Yu, but with a completely different air about him. He wore a well-tailored black tuxedo, and a smile that exuded intellect and superiority played on his lips. He held a thick, ancient book in his hands, and the space around his heart was a hollow that seemed to swallow all light.

After Baiyu's soul was repaired, Heiyan's power also returned considerably.

His appearance brought with it an aura completely different from the chaotic and evil pressure of the "Mountain God." It was a sense of oppression stemming from absolute order and absolute reason, as if he were a walking library, the embodiment of rules.

"Tsk tsk tsk," Hei Yan glanced around, his gaze finally settling on the terrifying monster atop the altar. He curled his lip in disgust. "What an ugly amalgamation. I thought you were so powerful before. To haphazardly stuff so much resentment and such low-level souls into a single body is like a lousy cook dumping all the rotten ingredients into a pot. It's... utterly devoid of beauty."

The Mountain God seemed to have sensed this new threat as well. Its hundreds of eyes turned to Hei Yan in unison, and for the first time, its ancient voice carried a hint of solemnity: "What are you...? There is no scent of 'fear' on you."

“Fear?” Hei Yan seemed to have heard a joke. “Fear arises from the unknown. But now that I’ve seen you, I understand something. Your level of existence is not enough to make me feel ‘unknown’.”

He turned to look at Bai Yu, whose face was deathly pale and whose body was swaying precariously. Maintaining both A Wan's power and Hei Yan's presence was taking a devastating toll on him. "Hey, little Bai Yu, can you still hold on?" Hei Yan asked.

"Okay." Bai Yu gritted her teeth and squeezed out the two words.

“Very good.” Hei Yan nodded in satisfaction, then refocused his gaze on the “Mountain God.” “Then, let us give this ‘god’ a little trimming of his messy courtyard.”

Before he finished speaking, Hei Yan stretched out his slender fingers and gently turned the pages of the nameless book in his hand.

"Baiyu, use Awan's light to purify the area beneath my feet!" Heiyan's voice clearly entered Baiyu's mind.

Without the slightest hesitation, Bai Yu immediately mobilized the sacred power within the wooden ladle, transforming the area where Hei Yan was located into a pure realm of light.

Hei Yan stood in the light, smiling as he tore a blank page from the book. He held the page in his palm and recited in a cold yet rhythmic voice: "With knowledge as ink, with rules as pen. Hereby declare, the root of all things shall return to the earth."

The paper in his palm spontaneously combusted without fire, turning into specks of black ash.

At the same time, the black roots that were rushing towards them suddenly stopped just before they stepped into the realm of light!

As if choked by an invisible force, their wildly dancing movements became stiff, and then, to Anmu and Lance's astonishment, the tips of those roots began to petrify rapidly, eventually turning into a pile of lifeless black powder that fell to the ground.

Black Words altered the "rules" of this area, forcing these roots to follow their most primal destiny—"to return to dust."

“Interesting insect…” A hint of anger finally crept into the “Mountain God’s” voice. It seemed it hadn’t expected its power to be neutralized in this way.

More roots surged in from all directions, and the huge eyeballs on its body began to flash with dangerous light. Attacks containing negative concepts such as "distortion," "decay," and "chaos" poured down on the two like a torrential rain!

"Protect!" Bai Yu raised the wooden ladle above her head, and Awan's unwavering light transformed into a semi-transparent white dome, blocking all attacks. Each attack that struck the light barrier created ripples, causing Bai Yu's body to tremble violently, and more and more blood to spill from the corner of her mouth.

"Well done, Xiaobaiyu," Heiyan praised, flipping through the pages of his book at lightning speed.

"Now it's our turn."

He tore off another page from the book. This time, instead of reciting it, he gently tossed the page toward the "mountain god."

The paper traced a graceful arc in the air, seemingly slowly, yet it disregarded the distance in space and instantly affixed to one of the giant eyeballs of the "Mountain God's" true form.

"Included." Hei Yan uttered two words softly.

The enormous eyeball trembled violently, and then a magic circle composed of countless runes appeared in its cold, merciless pupil. The magic circle spun rapidly, and the eyeball shrank at a visible speed, eventually transforming into a pure black symbol, which was then absorbed into the thin sheet of paper.

The paper floated back into Hei Yan's hand, now bearing a lifelike eye pattern.

"Roar--!"

For the first time, the "Mountain God" let out a painful roar, no longer the grand sound it once was, but a true howl filled with Lin Sheng's resentment. Losing an eye did not affect its power much, but the feeling of being "collected" and "analyzed" made it feel an unprecedented offense.

The entire cave trembled violently because of its anger.

White Language and Black Language, one white and one black, one defensive and one offensive, are like twin stars relying on each other in a storm in this apocalyptic scene, engaging in a fierce confrontation with the descending deity.

Baiyu uses Awan's love and hope to build an absolute defense, purifying all filth; Heiyan, on the other hand, uses his knowledge and rules to constantly analyze, weaken, and steal the opponent's power.

The battle reached a brief stalemate.

“This can’t go on.” Hei Yan said to Bai Yu while easily dealing with the attacks. “This guy’s power is inexhaustible, and it’s connected to the resentment of the entire space. We can’t afford to keep going like this.”

"What's your idea?" Bai Yu asked with difficulty.

"There is a way... of course." Hei Yan's lips curled into a confident smile as he once again turned his gaze to the core of the monster, where Lin Sheng's body was located.

“When I ‘acquired’ that eye just now, I also gleaned some of its ‘information’.” Hei Yan’s eyes sharpened. “This guy’s power foundation is very unstable. It’s not a perfect fusion with Lin Sheng’s soul; it’s more like a brutal ‘possession’ and ‘parasitism.’ It’s trying its best to maintain this fusion, and the resentment of that kid named Lin Sheng… is its ‘anchor’ for taking root in this world.”

Hei Yan paused, a knowing glint flashing in his eyes.

"At the same time, that's also its Achilles' heel!"

(End of this chapter)