The temple was dark, and all the plaques appeared to be staring at Han Fei. Han Fei moved the table and noticed a tattered book of lineage under the table. Most of the content was lost. Only a few words could be recognized. “Cocoon of Longevity, Well of Immortality, Ageless Meat, and ghosts that can feed on age.”
The book recorded some very scary things. The ancestors of the Fu Family didn’t seem to die. They had turned into some kind of half-human, half-ghost existence through mysterious methods.
“The black box… is bleeding?!”
Han Fei was looking through the book when he felt a chill run up his spine. He turned around and realized the temple doors had closed. The plaques shivered. The door guardians on the door slowly walked out. Normal temple doors were defended by door guardians. However, the guardians of this temple had rotten faces and bony bodies.
“How can humanity’s base rely on ghosts to guard the doors? This place has completely turned to ghosts. There’s no need to save these people.” Black mist leaked out. The headmaster grabbed the two door guardians and dragged them into the abyss. Han Fei didn’t stop there. He turned to the table. “And you. None of you are getting away tonight.” Han Fei swallowed everything inside the table into the abyss. Han Fei toyed with the black box and noticed something interesting. This black box was made, mimicking the black box in his mind. The material used was very unique. Even Pure Hatred couldn’t harm it. “I can’t open the real black box, but I think I can open you.”
The starlight shone on the black box. Han Fei observed it carefully. The faith of many villagers surrounded the fake black box. It represented both salvation and destruction. When the healing persona tried to invade it, the box would deter Han Fei with the villagers’ faith. When the greed persona tried to consume it, the evil energy inside the box would awaken. “This is quite an interesting design. But the creator probably didn’t think I would be able to open the box from both sides?”
When the starlight covered the box fully, a gap opened in the greed abyss. The Executioner raised the giant axe. The black box resisted with faith, but the next second, it had to defend against the Executioner’s axe.
There was the sound of a bubble popping. The black box was forced open. A person’s pure black memory was caught inside. It was like water flowing through fate. It changed everything in the village. Han Fei was curious about what was inside the box. He saw the possible content of the real box through this fake one. It was a person’s memory. It was a lifeless and despairing black color. His past was filled with negative emotions. The smell of rot drifted out. Every second was clearly felt. Time slowed down. His world appeared to have frozen.
The plaques Han Fei had swallowed seemed to have gone insane. They fought to consume the black blood that came out of the box. They drank the person’s despair so they could have a better life.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered a one-time use Grade C Altar Unique Item—Part of my Sadness.
“Part of my Sadness: Part of my sadness has been placed into the box. No one can see it, and no one is allowed to see it. The people outside kept staring other people’s sadness into the box until the box was full, and a dark, cryptic world would appear.”
Han Fei was startled by this sudden system notification. He felt the dark, flowing memory.
The plaques cried so hard that the whole temple was shaking.
“The longevity of the villagers is built on the death of others?”
Their endless greed and selfishness made them copy the black box. They served this box like God. Many eyes looked at it greedily, waiting to drink its blood. The book contained the method for creating the Cocoon of Longevity and the reason the Well of Immortality was created. However, sacrifice was needed in all these processes.
The black box shattered. Han Fei tried to capture the black memory, but he couldn’t do it with his current ability. He could only watch as the memories disappeared into the air. They morphed into black dust and fell into the well outside.
“The real black box contains more than one person’s sadness?”
Han Fei tried to open the box from both sides more than once, but the box was like an unsolvable puzzle. Inside the box was another box.
The sudden knocking interrupted Han Fei’s thoughts. He opened the door. The villagers from the village stood in the forest, holding white lanterns and wearing red clothes. They surrounded the temple. Their faces were frighteningly pale.
“All the living humans here have been taken over by ghosts.” Han Fei scanned the elders. Their bodies had mutated a lot since they drank the well water for a long period of time. Some of them had human faces growing out of their heads. “They’ve killed others to gain longevity. That’s why their victims’ features are growing out of their bodies. Is this the secret to longevity?”
The family who welcomed Han Fei was among the crowd. The elder’s neck was covered with a band-aid. The band-aid fell to remove a young man’s face on the back of his neck. Han Fei recognized the young man as a messenger the center sent to the village! “Are you still humans?” The whole village was part of the dark design. They lost their humanity to live longer. The ground shook. The village started to change. The graves were dug open, and hidden family members came out of the ground. There were so many of them. Most of them were incredibly old. Their eyes had no human light. They only showed fear of death and intense hunger.
“I wanted to give you a chance, but it looks like there’s no chance for any of you.” Han Fei didn’t like to kill people if there was a chance to save them. However, there was no reason for him to hold back anymore. From the villagers, it was clear that they had chosen to give up being humans. In that case, Han Fei had to clean them up. Mist rolled out of his body. Fishes swam in the dark. The hostile villagers were reaped. Their souls were absorbed into the abyss. When the village returned to normal, all the villagers disappeared. They drank the water from the Well of Immortality. Their desire for immortality destroyed their humanity.
“This might cause some misunderstanding with the center. They might want to come to investigate, but the village is gone.” The ghost territory hadn’t been destroyed, so the Pure Hatred was still there. “Let me guess where it would be hiding.”
The other center members preferred to work during the day. Ghosts were weaker in the day. However, Han Fei was different. The ghosts in the greed abyss were his main fighting power.
Han Fei walked towards the well. He cut it with Rest in Peace. Blood leaked out of the bricks. This well consumed many living humans. Han Fei didn’t hold back. He wanted to level the well!
The knife made many wounds. The thing deep inside the well couldn’t stand it anymore. Piercing screams came from under the well!
The ground around the temple started to crack. The trees around it grew wildly. Blood red vessels grew under the tree barks!
Blood gushed out of the well until the ground in the middle of the temple was hollowed out. The complicated underground river system was exposed. He saw that the rivulets underground had twisted to form a giant, ugly monster!
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered Pure Hatred still gathering black flame—Longevity!”
The blood vessels connected a large beating heart. The crying came from the heart. “This Pure Hatred is quite cute. My abyss lacks decoration. This will do just fine.”
The underground rivers connected the Village of Longevity and Gu Yang Tian Nian Old Folk’s Home. The black flame danced around Han Fei. The lost girl switched places with the fish in the mist and appeared right beside the heart. However, she still had trouble getting close to her heart. The time flow around the heart was different from normal. Everyone’s movements would be slowed once they got close to the heart.
“The Pure Hatred at the Old Folk’s Home should have power related to time. This is quite scary.” There could be more than one Pure Hatred at a Strange Building. Longevity should be the weakest. Its main power wasn’t to fight but to connect the different areas. This meant that it was not good for Han Fei to drag this out lest the Pure Hatred from the Old Folk’s Home rushed over.
Tong Xin opened its ghost territory. It overlapped over Longevity’s ghost territory. With the cooperation of two Pure Hatreds, they managed to take down the large beating heart.
“This Pure Hatred can control time. Perhaps it can construct this altar world is made possible by its power.”
The greed mist leaked out. Han Fei used his full focus to pull the heart into the abyss. The heart wouldn’t move. Han Fei pulled out Rest in Peace. Since the heart wouldn’t enter the abyss in whole, then he’d eat it in pieces!
Han Fei used the fastest speed to cut off all the vessels connecting the heart. He resisted the piercing cries, and finally, he swallowed the heart into the abyss.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve successfully trapped the Pure Hatred with unlit black flame—Longevity.
“Longevity (Pure Hatred): There are four special Pure Hatreds in this city. They are Longevity, Immortality, Undead, and Natural Lifespan!”
