Looking at the people inside the cargo elevator, Bai Sinian was struck with a strange feeling. Even though they too were strapped by despair, sadness and pain, they were distinct from the normal locals of the cryptic world. Bai Sinian didn’t know how to describe it, but he knew that he wanted to be a part of that world. Hearing Han Fei’s invitation, Bai Sinian’s legs move involuntarily. When he came to, he was already beside Han Fei. He became one of them and stood beside them.
Pressing the down button, the silvery grass door closed and the elevator started to descend.
“Erm… I don’t even know your name yet.” Standing among the crowd of ghosts, Bai Sinian didn’t even dare to speak too loudly.
“The name’s Han Fei. I’m the building manager of Happiness Neighbourhood Building 1 as well as the patrol teacher at Yi Ming Private Academy. I own a small business too.” Han Fei signalled for Bai Sinian to calm down. “They are my neighbours and colleagues, they will not harm you.” The red number on the panel kept changing. As the number dwindled, the strange smell in the air thickened. But the passengers inside the booth didn’t care, they followed behind Han Fei and strode ahead. The mottled elevator wall started to bleed. The black blood vessels started to crawl like worms and the booth was dyed red.
Blood dripped to the ground. Xu Qin reached out to use her hand to block Han Fei’s head to stop the blood from hitting him. The spirits looked like they were standing at ease but a close observer would realize that these monsters dominated by despair and pain were all guarding Han Fei. They would protect Han Fei the moment there was danger. Bai Sinian couldn’t believe his eyes. Just what kind of charm this man had that he could have so many monsters and spirits follow him so willingly?
He lowered his head and thought about the way Han Fei looked when he offered him the invitation. The man had an expression that he had never seen before. His senior never told him that there was such brilliant hope and light in a person in the cryptic world.
The temperature in the booth dropped and they were suffocated by blood and stench. Soon the number became negative 4, the elevator groaned before it stopped. The elevator door opened and a taboo location appeared before them. The walls were covered with plants that mimicked arteries. Occasionally unknown bugs crawled between them. Large amount of blood and flesh spotted the ground. Every few steps there was a bloody guard uniform. “This is the real appearance of Yi Ming Security Company, everything on the surface is just an illusion.”
Chills came in unrelenting waves from the landlord’s ring. A lot of things were hidden here. “I suggest we stay close to each other.” As they exited the elevator, they observed the passage ahead. This part of the 4th floor basement looked like a large trash processing centre. There were holes dug out from the concrete walls everywhere. Some of the holes had carts, others had cutting instruments.
“Many guards will come here to complete the ‘last procedure’ before they are sent out to work.” Bai Sinian now had more memories coming back. He was wrapped in regret. “My senior was responsible for leading the newbies. He didn’t have to go to Ziggurat, he did it for me.”
Han Fei couldn’t imagine what this last procedure was. The faded red lights on the wall darkened. Han Fei and Bai Sinian were soon lost in the underground maze. They could only work off of experience and headed down the direction where the stench was strongest. After a few minutes of walking, Weep suddenly stopped. He titled his head at a spot on the wall and then extended his finger. The wall was crawling with artery-like vines. They grew in layers on the wall. Weep used his fingers to part the vines to reveal a captivating flower behind the complicated patchwork of vines. The flower was miniscule, about the size of one’s fingernail but it was very delicate.
His finger caressed the flower and the small red flower responded to his touch. Weep was about to pluck the flower when Drake stopped him. Drake lifted the flower from below and the flower’s slender stalk was growing out of a rotten eyeball. Once they parted away more vines, it was revealed that a body dressed in guard uniform was ‘planted’ into the wall. The red flower grew out from the body’s eye socket. “This place is purposely made like this. The flower is nothing good.” Drake pinched and snapped the flower off by its stalk. Instantly the red flower wilted and the broken stalk dripped with atrocious bloody liquid. The flower looked so pretty but the nutrient sustaining it was horrendous.
“I’ve seen this flower at Cattle Street before, they grow on flesh and blood, sustaining on the nutrients of the dead. They are loved by cursed bugs.” Xu Qin stared at the wilted petal and stomped over them. After living for so long in the cryptic world, she preferred the freshness of meat rather than the romance of flowers. The stench in the air thickened but the number of flowers on the wall increased. When they reached the end of the corridor, everyone was stunned. There was a giant hole dug out at the end of the passage. The hole contained a small hill that was blooming with red flowers. At the middle of the hill where the flowers had the brightest blooms, was a blood pool the size of a sink.
“The red flowers need flesh and blood to grow, so this small hill should be filled with rotting bodies and broken spirits.” Ever since he entered the cryptic world, Han Fei had not seen something so pretty, it was arrestingly breath-taking.
“I just remembered something. My senior told me that the guards have to drink some kind of blood, I believe he meant the blood inside that small pool.” Before Bai Sinian finished, Big Sin suddenly leaped out from the urn and rolled into the deep hole. Its body soon disappeared among the sea of flowers. This happened so suddenly that no one was ready for it. The neighbours turned to Han Fei but Han Fei didn’t really understand what happened either.
But he was not that worried about Big Sin. Technically speaking, the sea of flowers was not that different from Big Sin’s place of birth. Big Sin was born inside the mass grave under the pet shop, the grave was filled with the spirits of dead animals and pets. This deep hole didn’t have the bodies of animals but it should have the bodies of many security guards.
“Big Sin is an anomaly born through animality when normally, to morph a human cocoon into a butterfly, one would need a lot of humanity.” While Han Fei contemplated, a row of red flowers was pushed aside as Big Sin flew up the hill towards the blood pool in the middle. Just as it attempted to wade into the blood pool, the blood red flower sea suddenly lurched like a wave. The whole hill shook and a snake-like tail whipped Big Sin back down the hill.
Petals were plucked off and they wilted in the air. The ground slowly rose and one after another children's heads poked out from the sea of flowers. The shrill cackle of children laughing echoed inside the hole, and Han Fei got to see the full view of the monster.
It had the heads of 8 children while its lower body undulated like a snake. But instead of scale, a strange butterfly wing pattern covered its body.
“What is that thing? Can I keep it as a pet?” Only by touching the thing that the system could provide Han Fei with an answer.
“Octo-Crown? Why is it here?” Drake recognized the monster and his face was of plain shock. “When I accompanied the previous boss to make delivery to the Ziggurat, I saw it there before. But at the time, it hadn’t grown to this size yet.”
