The 60th floor of the skyscraper looked no different from the old city after midnight in real life.
“People from below floor 50 think it’s heaven above floor 50, but when they’re here, they’ll realize they’ve merely moved from one hell to another.” Ji Zheng used his camera and took pictures. The corridor in the lens was different from the one they saw with their naked eyes.
Plant veins hid under the walls. Many human flowers bloomed on the ceiling. There were holes in the ground. They were homes for giant bugs. The 60th floor in Ji Zheng’s lens was a bloody garden.
“Compared to humans and animals, God prefers plants. That’s why he’s the garden owner.” Mr. Mo stood between Han Fei and Ji Zheng. He was very nervous, “Do not underestimate these strange things. They feed on soul and flesh. They are not pants anymore. They are killing machines.”
A light fragrance lingered in the air, and dust fell from the ceiling. It was very comforting.
“Is there any living person on this floor?”
“The higher we go, the fewer humans we’ll encounter. In God’s eyes, humans are no different from animals. They are just fertilizers.” Ji Zheng kept his eyes on the boy. He was worried that the flower dust might trigger the boy. “These plants will kill at any notice. They are scary, but they produce fruits that are extremely useful.”
“Fruits?”
“That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to come to the floors above 50.” Ji Zheng held the boy’s hand. “The boy is on the edge of becoming a Taboo. Only the fruits can help him lessen the pain.”
Han Fei nodded. “Then do you know where we can find those fruits?” “I’m not sure, but I’ve heard people mention that there will be a core ‘plant’ on the floors covered with plants. God calls the main soul. They are personally planted by God and have the best location. They are surrounded by fertilizer pools filled with dead bodies. The scent of the pools is something even flower fragrance can’t cover up. Therefore, we only need to follow the scent to find them.” Ji Zheng walked ahead with the camera. For the boy, he was not afraid.
“Erm… I can sense the general location of this fertilizer pool.” Li Rou said softly. Ever since Xu Qin appeared, she didn’t dare to speak too loudly, “Deviants are very sensitive to the flesh. Ever since we arrived here, I can smell the horrible stench underneath the flower fragrance.” She carefully walked around Xu Qin and led the way.
After they walked down a few corridors, Ji Zheng’s hands started to shake. The world in the lens changed. The floor was carpeted with flowers that looked like mouths, sticks that looked like human arms dangled from the ceiling, and intertwining roots that covered the walls like nets.
“Keep on going. Leave the rest to me.” Xu Qin opened her fingers. The black flame was hidden in the curses and spread through the roots. They looked like plants, but they screamed when they were scorched by flames. Han Fei’s House of Death acquired plenty of resources. The human-faced flowers were destroyed. Xu Qin’s appearance helped a lot. They burned a way through to the core of the 60th floor.
“This floor is rather similar to the gardener’s villa. Flesh and souls are used to cultivate flowers unique to the cryptic world. They are mutated until they bloom.” Han Fei had learned gardening from the gardener. Whenever he saw a rare flower, he would ask Xu Qin to pick it.
Ji Zheng saw Xu Qin giving Han Fei many flowers, and he frowned. He had seen this on tv before.
Han Fei could communicate with flowers thanks to Flower Language. Every flower here was a soul. They were similar to the paper dolls on the 51st floor. They tried their best to come up from the floor below to end up like this. Humanity was complicated, and so were the flowers made from humanity. The human-faced flowers had different emotions. They only dared to show their real emotions after they were plucked. To preserve themselves, they guided the way for Han Fei. The fragrance in the air thickened, but the scent made people feel nauseous and heady.
“This should be the place.”
The black flame burned away the disguise of the plants. The true form of the core of the 60th floor was revealed before them. All the plant and flower roots were connected to the main pillar at the center of the building. It was like the heart controlling the plants on the whole floor.
“Strange. No. 2’s brain fragment appears to be hidden in the pillar too.” Han Fei stopped. He still remembered the human pillar on the 49th floor. That was the closest he came to death inside the skyscraper.
“Stay here.” Xu Qin said. The fair fingers held the table knives. Ten Pure Hatreds’ curses morphed into a giant ghost. “I’ve consumed a lot of Pure Hatred’s curses. To grow further, I need to taste Unmentionable’s poison.” The sea of flowers wilted. Xu Qin stabbed the table knife at the center of the main pillar!
The vines started to bleed. It had consumed many people and used their hope to grow.
“The flowers are blooming souls. God built this floor to cultivate one specific flower.”
Vines crawled on the main pillar. Ugly faces peered out of the dark leaves. There were a lot of poisonous bugs around the main pillars. They were large and were half-human and half-bug. Compared to the soul flowers, they were ugly and dirty. No woman liked bugs, and Xu Qin was no exception. She cut her fingers on the table knife. Her blood slid down the blade. The curse attacked the garden owner’s worms. Xu Qin didn’t care about these small fries. She stared at the main pillar.
The curse of death bound with the blade. The presence of the table knife was much stronger than Rest in Peace. Xu Qin didn’t attack suddenly. Her fighting style was different from Han Fei’s. She went with a full assault, not giving the enemy any chance.
“What a scary woman…” Ji Zheng stole a glance at Han Fei. He was both envious and impressed.
The vines were torn off, and the leaves were burned away. The main pillar revealed its true form. A bright manjusaka flower grew out of the human-faced pillar. The flower grew out of a brain fragment. Its roots reached into the mouth of every human face on the main pillar. God used all the nutrients on this floor to cultivate this flower.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered Grade D Rare Flower—Dearly Beloved.
“Dearly Beloved: This is a flower the garden owner once loved. He loves that woman, or at least that was a lie they told themselves.”
Han Fei was reminded of something else. Before the fat kid died, he told Han Fei that Big Ghost was named Dearly Beloved, so this flower probably had to do with Big Ghost. The pressure from the top floor intensified. Han Fei shouted at Xu Qin, “Other than the brain fragment, destroy everything else!”
When Han Fei said that, he felt a chill run down his spine. His breath seemed to freeze. He had touched the taboo in God’s heart.
Xu Qin couldn’t care less about God. She sliced through the roots. A woman’s scream came out of the falling manjusaka flower!
Han Fei’s ears bled. The others fell to the ground. Only Xu Qin and Big Sin were not affected. When Xu Qin put her knives away, Big Sin charged at the human pillar excitedly. It rammed into the human faces covered in roots and vines. Han Fei always accidentally touched God’s taboo, and Big Sin always liked to taunt God. It had done a lot so that its master had the least chance of survival. The roots on the human pillar pierced into Big Sin’s body. It injected Soul Poison into the pillar happily.
The root system collapsed. Xu Qin picked up Dearly Beloved. Xu Qin’s curses crawled over the flower. She wanted to turn the flower into the form she preferred.
The petals fell. Various noises came from upstairs. The elevators seemed to lose control. They plummeted, and the whole building was screaming. Everyone froze from this pressure. Xu Qin held the flower and looked up. The screaming approached. When one of the elevators stopped on the 61st floor, the pressure was at its height.
Bloodred flowers bloomed on the charred walls. A strange fragrance filled up the 61st floor. The footsteps came down. The next blood, the core area was covered in red. A woman stood at the entrance. She wore a long dress made from souls and a Queen mask. The woman looked surreal. She seemed to come from God’s imagination.
“Is she the Big Ghost?” Han Fei took out Rest in Peace.
“No. She is just a flower in the garden. She’s far from being the beloved.” Xu Qin snapped the flower stem and placed a petal between her lips. “But I like the fragrance of this flower.”
Hearing Xu Qin, patterns of red roses appeared on Queen’s skin. God’s patterns would appear when she was agitated.
“I’ll stop her. Use this time to destroy the thing inside the pillar.” Xu Qin tossed the flower to Han Fei and stood between Queen and the human pillar. Han Fei didn’t waste time. He had Kind Soul pull the third brain fragment out of the plant roots.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve acquired Grade D Rare Fragment, Brain.
“Brain: The main fragment of an Unmentionable’s brain. It is powerful enough to suspect the soul flowers of an entire building. It has inherited his strongest power! You’ve gained his approval, so you can utilize its power.
“Usurpation (Unique power of the Grade D Rare Brain Fragment): Sacrifice a lingering spirit and everything you are to force an entry into an Unmentionable’s altar. Start from nothing to usurp the ownership of the altar!
“Warning! This power can only be used once per night. When you touch the figurine, you can force yourself to enter the Unmentionable’s memory. After losing all of your powers, you will enter the memory world, and God cannot pinpoint your location.
“Warning! The survival chance of using this power is close to zero!”
When Kind Soul handed the brain fragment to Han Fei, the last chain in his mind shattered. A powerful force sucked Han Fei’s blank soul into the brain fragment.
All three chains that bound the Red Orphanage shattered. Han Fei’s mind instantly turned red. Shadows appeared on the windows of the Red Orphanage. The bell chimed. The strange song sung by the 30 children came out of Han Fei’s mouth.
