Plague Doctor

Translator: Lonelytree

The yellow light in the sky dimmed, the single star appeared to be swaying, like the transmission tower underneath it. The heavy-duty tires which had already dug deep into the ground were still rolling, causing a storm of sand and dust. The truck continued to push forward, bending the frame even further. The tower eventually tumbled towards the direction of the truck. The children stopped singing. Confusion colored Holly’s young face before she crawled into her mother’s embrace. “Mummy, I had a nightmare.”

That sent renewed hope to the citizens as well as the land’s travellers. They knew the strange ritual had been disturbed!

The transmission tower appeared to be the anchor of the ritual.

“This, this…” Kathlyn stammered in shock. “Who exactly is this nightmare man?”

“That is what we wish to know as well.” Peacock sighed. They knew they would not be able to replicate the nightmare man’s heroics because they did not possess sufficient mental power. The closer one got to the transmission tower, the greater its influence. If they attempted this, the truck would only veer from course but this nightmare man…

The normal citizens gasped and turned towards each other. “He has stopped it?””That brother is awesome.””Thank God we’ve listened to him.” Even the most idiotic among them could tell by now that this group was not the culprit, if anything, they were there to help them so they better wised up and followed their instructions. Thankfully, none of the citizens who were inside the protective circle had been lured out into the desert. Those who refused to listen to Kathlyn’s advice earlier saw this and quickly hurried over while screaming, “help, help!””Let us in there, please!” Peacock’s group did not stop them because the greater the resistance to the ritual, the likelier the chance of it being interrupted.

“How about we push on the horns altogether?” Kathlyn suggested, “That should interrupt the singing right?” Peacock already understood what car horns were, it was as loud as the shout of ten thousand people. She agreed immediately, “yes, let’s make everyone’s car scream!”

Thankfully, the others had gotten used to the strange vernacular of these people so they quickly crawled back into their cars. The car horns of all the vehicles inside the circle rang noisily. It was shrill and loud, causing their eardrum to buzz. The children all closed their eyes and pinched their faces in pain. But it was clearly working, with this din, the already weak singing voice was almost drowned out. Ironically just like the lyric, her voice was dying.

Beep, beep! The car horns echoed through the night. Some of the citizens who were kneeling in the desert suddenly came to. They staggered up from the kneeling position when they noticed the headless bodies flanking them. They screamed and started to run.

“Come over here!” Kathlyn and Tom shouted, “Stay at the outer perimeter.” Out of concern for contagious disease, these newcomers were not allowed inside the circle. At the same time, at the transmission tower, the truck was still pushing, it did not appear like it would stop until the tower crashed. Hearing the noisy car horns, a chill smirk rose on Gu Jun’s face. ‘That’s right! Make all the noise you can to disturb this ritual!’

Gu Jun was getting closer to the centre of the tower and it was now unwise to remain inside the truck. He picked up some random trash on the dashboard and placed them leaning on the gas pedal. He unhooked the safety belt and squeezed his shaking body out through the distorted car door. His body fell with a thud on the ground. He took a deep breath before climbing up and shuffled back to the circle.

Gu Jun looked up at the night sky, the yellow light was fading. Regardless of the purpose of the ritual, it had been temporarily stopped.

“Secret Spell Appear, Death Follow Suit, Shadow Demon Dance, Madness Reign Supreme.” The secret spells, the song and yellow papers, had appeared but death had not followed suit, they had done enough to stop the prophecy… right? But what did the second half of the prophecy mean? The space around them was still rippling and cracking through dimension, Gu Jun’s heart skipped violently…’I wonder what is happening back at the Phecda headquarters…’

…

The stars returned to the night sky, even the crescent moon winked at them from behind the clouds. The glow of Rohini was fading. Suddenly different sounds entered the experimental field, it sounded like car horns mixed with emotional human voices.

“Hold your firearms, people…” Xue Ba ordered with difficulty, “Our minds are being influenced…” The people with the firearms looked up with confusion. Lou Xiaoning cursed loudly before she released her grip on the rifle. She uttered back in the same difficulty, “We’ve been tricked… this is not Gu Jun, not even the path to Dreamlands…”

‘Huh?’ Wu Siyu was startled by this sudden sentience of her friends but she knew to latch onto the opportunity, she screamed, “Everyone, stop channeling the tome’s power, the ritual is consuming your mind, you have to sever the connection now! Cut it off! Zheng Jialiang is a traitor, be careful of him!” Hearing that, the group quickly made use of this temporary weakness in the ritual to pull back their mental connection.

“Siyu…. Confiscate the guns…” Wang Ruoxiang said weakly, as Siyu expected, there was still some consciousness of the girl within her. Wu Siyu moved to oblige. She hurried to confiscate the weapons from Wang Ruoxiang, Xue Ba, Lou Xiaoning and the rest. She armed herself with one while disarming the others. Her legs were turning into noodles but at least she had a weapon to protect herself now. She aimed the pistol right at the head of the angered and confused Zheng Jialiang.

After a while, those who did not study in depth into the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan were slowly snapping out of it.

“Ah!” Cai Zixuan howled. Despite the cold sweat on his face, he was the first to sever the connection but he could barely stand up from the exhaustion. He was filled with indignation and disappointment… his best friend was still dead and this mission was a failure to begin with. Looks like the soup had been prepared for nothing. Cai Zixuan suddenly charged at Zheng Jialiang and punched the latter right in the face, knocking him to the ground.

“How dare you…” Zheng Jialiang shrieked like a caged beast. He growled in anger, “How dare you! I am the descendent of Hastur, your future king, how dare you treat your king like this!” Everyone could now see how madness had gotten hold of Zheng Jialiang. They tried to connect this madman with the polite Xiao Liang but that only muddled their mind further.

“You have ruined everything, you bunch of idiots, pigs…” Zheng Jialiang stood up unsteadily. Blood poured out the corner of his lips. Seeing the yellow light fade away, veins popped on his forehead. He wailed in anger and pain. “You’ve stopped the arrival of Carcosa, tragedy will befall you…”

“Don’t you worry about us.” Wu Siyu pulled the trigger and spark flew. “because yours is arriving now.” The bullet hit Zheng Jialiang’s right calf. He collapsed back to the ground. Fresh blood gushed out but there was no fear on his face. He kept on mumbling incoherently. “Ha ha ha… You have angered the brotherhood… You could have been royalty in the new kingdom, Sister Ruoxiang, Sister Siyu, you could have been my concubines! But you do not know how to treat your king correctly. People like you do not deserve a place in my kingdom…” Zheng Jialiang started to laugh. “Have you seen your yellow secret spell? That shall usher in your death tonight.” The man was truly mad, even his words made no sense but for some reason, Wu Siyu, Cai Zixuan could not help but feel the truth in his words. Was it because there were still others like Wang Ruoxiang who had not severed their connection to the rituals? Or their minds were too muddled to make sense of anything?

Even though the stars had returned, Rohini still shone the brightest. The ritual had been disrupted, but the brotherhood behind it… they were still doing something…

“Take a look.” Zheng Jialiang uttered with a cackle. “Witness your guillotine. Nowhere in the Seven Cryptical Book of Hsan does it tell you pigs that you are the only one who can assess its power, right…? In fact, among its many benefactors, you’re the weakest bunch…”

Right then, the female voice returned with vengeance. This time, it was backed up by many different sounds and voices. Wu Siyu instantly whipped the pistol around. Cai Zixuan and Xue Ba looked around with alertness. “Be careful, the dimension is shifting!””Something bad is happening!”

‘Is this the power of nothingness? There is no explosion but the cracking, twisting and rippling of dimension happened so quickly.’

Zheng Jialiang laughed crazier and crazier. He raised his arms high and sang along to the song! The demons from the brotherhood were here!

“Hmm…” Wu Siyu looked around at the illusion around them. It felt like several dimensions were overlapping over each other… there were mountains, forests, deserts… But in that chaos, she seemed to sense a familiar taste… A taste of salt…

Suddenly night turned into day. The starlight faded but there was no sun either. The world was dim.They could confirm that their surroundings had changed. They were no longer at the experimental field but inside an open-air arena that bore resemblance to a coliseum.

An open-air arena? There were layers of stone-carved seats that surrounded them in the pattern of a spiral triangle. The seats were filled with people, they were all dressed in tattered earthy yellow robes and their faces were painted with yellow signs. The arena was gigantic, the seats rose into the sky. The yellow-robed audience members amounted to tens of thousands. They clustered close together and their faces were hidden behind the robes. It was hard to tell whether they were real or not. There was no cloud in the sky but a seriousness settled over the crowd. They were eerily silent considering their number.

Brotherhood… it was the members of the brotherhood…

The Phecda members had no idea where they were but they did notice they were placed on a stone stage in the middle of the arena. Not far from them were normal-looking citizens who appeared as confused as they were. There were vehicles beside them. Many had children with them. The Phecda members now understood that the ritual back at the headquarters was just a piece of the overall picture but for all appearances, it was the most significant one.

Like Zheng Jialiang had claimed, the ritual was occurring all over the world. And now, the different ritual locations were overlapping at this large arena stage.

“Ha ha ha…” Zheng Jialiang started to guffaw. Looking at the endless rows of robed audience as well as several figures who were slinking their way, his eyes were dancing with so much excitement that he felt like fainting, “My slaves, they’re here…”

Seeing this, Wu Siyu immediately pulled the trigger and fired at Zheng Jialiang.

Click, click… no bullets fired. She frowned to realize the gun had been transmuted into a plastic one.

“Are you sure that is not a stage prop?” Wang Ruoxiang asked. Her eyes shone with a dangerous glint. Other than Wang Ruoxiang, most members of her team including Gao Yi, Zhang Zuodong, Yu Xiaoyong and the rest had all moved to stand beside Zheng Jialiang.