Chapter 61: The Mysterious City Appearing in the Sky

“La~ la la la~ la…”

Shar’s heart lurched as an eerie, indistinct sound echoed by his ear, like the murmurs of countless people, or the rustling of leaves, or the waves stirred by the wind. It made his scalp prickle with unease.

Above the heads of those two giant beasts, he suddenly saw strange, dangling threads—like the strings of marionettes—connecting them to the monstrous creatures below.

“No wonder this fight has become so desperate,” Shar bit down savagely on his tongue, and the taste of blood filled his mouth, helping him shake off the edge of that paralyzing control. “There’s some kind of mysterious force at work!”

But the others lacked his mental fortitude. Each one seemed to become a mindless zombie, attacking each other with wild abandon.

In an instant, the scene became a bloodbath. The previously courteous, refined nobles seized whatever weapons were at hand and fell upon each other with brutal savagery.

Someone, wielding a brick with ruthless force, smashed it again and again on a young girl’s head, tearing away chunks of scalp and spattering blood everywhere!

It was like something out of legend—a demon puppeteering human souls, driving them to commit unspeakable acts of madness they would regret forever!

What in the world is this thing?

Shar searched through his memories of the future storyline, but could find nothing like this.

In the established future, the High Priestess of the True God, Yolanda, and the evolved warriors of Morent Academy would clash over irreconcilable differences, resulting in massive casualties.

Righteous-hearted Roddy, in order to protect the innocent, would be forced into a catastrophic battle that verged on the third level of escalation.

In the end, Yolanda would temporarily evolve her totem into its ultimate form by borrowing some outside power, crushing the evolved warrior Leslie.

Roddy, in a desperate counterattack, would have his own totem—at the evolutionary stage—face off against the wounded ultimate form, slaying it and saving hundreds of ordinary people, making him a hero.

But now, everything had veered wildly off course, and this incomprehensible event was unfolding before his eyes.

Following the threads upward, Shar saw an enormous shadow flash across the sky, vast as a mountain, looming oppressively over the horizon.

It was an ancient, mysterious city, overgrown with moss and vines, the gray-black stones of its walls etched with the marks of ages—as though it had endured for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of years.

This city was so immense that it dwarfed even Stormport; just a corner of it, peeking through the clouds, filled the entire sky!

Even more horrifying, from the weathered walls, dozens of thick, dark-green tentacles extended downward. Peering into the distance, he could just make out their origins—a colossal form, mountain-like in scale, vanishing into the clouds above.

Each of the threads was stretching down from a tentacle, connecting to every person’s head.

What made his scalp crawl was that there was one such thread above his own head, silently passing through the protective spiritual light that shielded him!

The little white fox abruptly leapt to his shoulder, its eyes boiling with purple light as it desperately unleashed its psychic powers.

But it was in vain—the faintly gray-white tentacle pressed inexorably toward Shar’s brow, but the instant it touched a certain forbidden threshold, it snapped apart.

A sudden, resonant hum filled the air—a strange wave, invisible to the naked eye but perceptible to the spirit, swept through the entire estate.

Threads everywhere snapped under this wave, instantly ignited, and transformed into fiery serpents that shot up toward the ancient city in the heavens.

A monstrous cry echoed from the city above, sending an icy chill through Shar’s body. His head spun as a cacophony of voices rang in his ears, noisier than the rowdiest bazaar.

A gigantic fleshy wing appeared on the city wall, blocking out the sun, only to vanish in the next moment as if it had never been there.

The sky-spanning city wall disappeared, the mountain-sized creature was gone, the uncanny threads vanished, and the strange mist that had enveloped the estate dispersed!

One by one, the people slowly regained their senses, only to scream in terror—for at some point, the stone walls of the estate had been replaced by towering trees and tangled vines, over ten meters high, and the original gate was nowhere to be found.

One by one, the plants in the estate came alive, pulling their roots from the soil and scuttling toward the crowd on leg-like tendrils.

These plant-monsters began attacking with abandon, strangling people to death, then plunging their roots into the bodies and making horrific swallowing sounds.

Crack!

A guard drew his dagger and hacked through a tentacle—only to see bright red blood well up from the wound.

The monster shrieked piercingly, and immediately several more pounced, devouring the guard in seconds—leaving not a scrap of flesh behind!

“It’s out of control,” Shar muttered, his brow furrowing as he glanced worriedly toward the most violent part of the battlefield. “That woman must have suffered the worst shock—she can’t control her power anymore.”

The massive vine had suddenly grown several times larger, as if supercharged, each tendril dozens of meters long, writhing like giant pythons and covering nearly a third of the estate.

The once-opposing fire-breathing dragon was now completely overpowered, utterly suppressed. Its flames could not ignite the vines; instead, unable to dodge, its leg was ensnared by a tendril, and others immediately followed, binding it tightly.

The six-meter-tall fire-breathing dinosaur bellowed in anguish and struggled madly, but it was to no avail.

The vines, like constricting serpents, tightened further, carving deep grooves into its flesh.

Eventually, with a thunderous roar, the dragon exploded, a wave of searing fire engulfing dozens of meters and devouring all the vines.

Dozens of wounded people were also consumed, disintegrating like crumbling stone!

The flames devoured everything—even hundreds of people huddled near the estate’s walls felt the suffocating heat, and the physically frail fainted at once, only to be swiftly seized and swallowed by the plant monsters.

Clutching the white fox, Shar dodged through the chaos, making no move to intervene.

He was unarmed; even his spiritual companion, Firefly, was ill-suited for battling these plant beasts. As for the fate of the others—what did that matter to him?

He had no ties to these people, and had no intention of exposing himself for their sake—especially since his trump card had yet to arrive. All he could do was wait in silence.

Shar was indifferent—but someone else was not.

Not far away, Roddy had gone berserk, commanding his own totem to charge fearlessly into the fray, slaying plant monster after plant monster.

He himself was even more formidable, his protective spiritual light allowing him to wade in without fear, grasping the monsters with both hands and tearing them in half—the display of raw strength left Shar secretly amazed. No wonder Roddy was destined to become the King of Strength.

Yet someone was even more savage. Shar’s eyes narrowed as he saw a massive figure emerge from the ruins of a collapsed house.

The man was nearly three meters tall, his body encased in a layer of blood-red armor, as though forged from coagulated blood. Two horns sprouted from his head; his frame had swollen to rival that of the green giant from Shar’s previous life’s movies—an almost grotesque exaggeration.

He reached out casually, seized a vine, and tore it apart with his bare hands. Roaring in rage, he charged straight into the flames:

“You filthy whore! Did you really think I’d be afraid of you?”