Chapter 595: Suicide Ritual

Liu Qingyan froze in place.

“Cough, cough, cough… Ugh, ugh, cough, cough, cough…”

The faint light of a kerosene lamp flickered in the hallway. A rough, pained coughing sound emanated from behind the door next door. It was a man’s voice, but the tone was unusual, like that of some primitive beast, making even the floorboards tremble slightly.

Liu Qingyan’s brow unconsciously furrowed. She glanced at the half-open door, but instead of approaching, she sighed softly and opened her own door to return to her room.

It was, after all, a cheap hotel. The room was narrow and dilapidated, with only a single hard bed in the center, flanked by old, worn tables and cabinets. The soundproofing was terrible; even with the door closed, she could hear the coughing and heavy breathing from next door.

Liu Qingyan’s gaze swept across the room. She casually placed the kerosene lamp on the old, creaking table.

She walked directly to the small, closed window, pulled back the latch, and pushed it open. A light evening breeze wafted into the room, making her black hair flutter.

Liu Qingyan stood behind the window of her dimly lit hotel room. Across the way, the opera house was brightly lit, its faint glow gently caressing her cheeks, like a dreamlike reflection.

A melodious operatic voice drifted from within the opera house.

“...The young couple went to gather intelligence, but there's still no news. Alone in the painted hall, I secretly ponder,Fearing only that treacherous ministers will cause trouble again, damaging the accumulated fame of my Yang family generals through generations…”

Hearing the voice, Liu Qingyan was slightly taken aback. It seemed she hadn't expected Chen Ling to actually be able to sing opera, and so beautifully at that... She had heard others sing this very piece, “Mu Guiying Takes Command,” before, but compared to Chen Ling, it was like the difference between clouds and mud—utterly incomparable.

The crowd gathered outside the opera house immediately fell silent, sitting by the roadside, captivated by the lingering operatic melody. They could only hear the voice, not see the performer, yet it did not diminish their enthusiasm in the slightest.

After Chen Ling finished singing, another actor's voice began. Liu Qingyan found it somewhat familiar; after a moment's thought, she recalled Li Qingshan, whom she had seen in Liuzhen.

Gradually, Liu Qingyan became engrossed. She stood by the window, her eyes gazing thoughtfully at the brightly lit opera house, lost in her thoughts.

“Ugh, cough, cough, cough!!! Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!!!”

A rapid, rough coughing fit erupted from next door again, immediately breaking Liu Qingyan’s immersion. She frowned, looking at the pale wall, her eyes filled with displeasure.

It wasn't just her; the coughing was so loud that even pedestrians on the street below the hotel heard it, involuntarily looking up in confusion at the rows of small, dark windows on the upper floors.

Fortunately, the coughing lasted only a few seconds before stopping. Liu Qingyan could finally hear the sounds from inside the opera house again... She took a deep breath and continued to gaze in the direction of the opera house, seemingly trying to re-immerse herself.

“It's not that I stand by idly in this national crisis, but seeing the marshal's seal brings back so many past memories.The Yang family generals sacrificed themselves, forgot their homes, to secure the nation; they returned with songs of triumph, received favor, while I added new graves…”

“Ugh, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!!!!!!!!”

Before Liu Qingyan could even finish listening to a complete line, the hysterical coughing erupted once more. This time, it was accompanied by the grating sound of fingernails scraping wood and an unsettling thumping of something heavy.

Thump—thump—thump—

The floorboards beneath Liu Qingyan’s feet trembled slightly. The bed, cabinets, and tables and chairs in the room all groaned, as if about to collapse at any moment.

Her expression instantly darkened, her brows almost twisting into a knot. After a brief hesitation, she picked up the kerosene lamp and walked directly out of her room, into the dim corridor.

Without the obstruction of the walls, the sounds in the corridor were noticeably louder. All sorts of strange noises came from behind the half-open door next door, yet the doors of other rooms remained tightly shut, as if they were the only two guests staying there.

As Liu Qingyan reached for the doorknob of the room next door, it, like her own moments earlier, instantly fell off with a clatter, shattering into pieces on the floor.

Witnessing this, an ominous premonition arose in Liu Qingyan’s mind.

One broken doorknob could be attributed to old age and disrepair, but two doorknobs shattering upon touch, one after another, was unsettling... Combined with the inhuman coughing and gasping sounds emanating from the room, Liu Qingyan instantly became alert!

Her fingers gripped the edge of the half-open door. Slowly, she pushed it open, and by the faint glow of the kerosene lamp in her hand, she finally saw the scene inside the room next door.

Inside the narrow, dim room, a figure clad in a red robe knelt on the floor. Beneath the robe was a completely naked body, now entirely stained with blood. The area around the lungs, in particular, had been cut open, revealing a bloody gash!

At that moment, he held a sharp blade in one hand, cutting through the flesh of his left chest, while in the other, he gripped a blood-soaked hammer, pounding at his pale ribs. With the final blow, a second rib snapped with a resounding crack!

Yet, he seemed to feel no pain, kneeling on the ground with a twisted, grinning sneer. Beneath the flesh and broken bones of his left chest, a lung lobe was exposed to the air.

“Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, cough!!!”

Violent coughing accompanied by gushes of crimson blood splattered across the floor. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of the flickering kerosene lamp and slowly raised his head... His eyes, devoid of whites, were strangely sinister.

“So, I’ve been caught, have I...?”

He saw Liu Qingyan standing frozen outside the door, and the smile on his lips grew even more grotesque.

“What a pity... you’re too late... The suicide ritual is almost complete... The ‘Wailing Wilderness’ is about to descend... Everything here will be buried in the Grey World! The world will ultimately return to its origin.”

As he finished speaking, one hand reached between his fractured ribs, grasping the lung lobe, which expanded and contracted like a broken bellows, intending to tear it out of his body!

But the next moment, an iron-grip hand seized his arm.

He froze...

He tried to pull his arm free with force, but found that no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t move it an inch!

He looked up blankly, only to see that Liu Qingyan, who he thought had been stunned by fear at the doorway, had inexplicably moved right in front of him. There was no trace of fear in her eyes at the bloody scene, nor did she scream like other ordinary people; she simply stared at him quietly...

In her eyes, there was no fear, only confusion.

Although the scene before her was extremely bizarre and bloody, it was not significantly worse than flaying Zong Wen alive. Thus, Liu Qingyan wasn’t actually frightened, merely wondering where this madman had come from.

“You... you let go of me!” the man roared furiously.

“Let you go?” Liu Qingyan looked into his eyes, her voice soft as water. “But aren’t you performing some kind of ritual? And you’re going to bury everything here in the Grey World? So why would I let you go?”

Disciple of the Crimson Sky Cult: ...