Chapter 621 - 400: Martial Artist

Chapter 621: Chapter 400: Martial Artist

Each district in Sinful City is an independent zone, separated from the others by a bottomless Abyss. Any attempt to fly across the Abyss is punished by the Rules of Sinful City. To enter a more Advanced district, one must take the Cross-Abyss Bridge.

Zhou Chen and his two companions arrived before the Cross-Abyss Bridge. The area was deserted, with only a few scattered figures loitering nearby.

The crime value required to enter the Central District was five thousand points. Ninety percent of Corrupters could never farm that many points. Those who did manage to meet the requirement were, without exception, ruthless characters. Naturally, the local thugs didn’t dare gather here, terrified of being taken out by one of these killers at the slightest misstep.

Guarding the Cross-Abyss Bridge was a giant stone statue of a goat-headed Demon. A pair of enormous bat wings grew from its back, and it clutched a spiked trident several meters long. Impaled on its prongs were several fresh corpses, their faces twisted in agony. Blood dripped steadily from them, only to vanish bizarrely upon contact with the statue, as if devoured by the stone itself.

As Zhou Chen and his companions approached the statue, its six pairs of tightly shut eyes suddenly snapped open. They stared intently at the trio, their gaze filled with a bone-chilling malevolence.

After studying them for a moment, the goat-headed Demon statue spoke in a deep, muffled voice:

"Passage granted."

It then closed its eyes, once again sinking into slumber.

Zhou Chen and his companions exchanged a glance before walking around the goat-headed Demon statue and onto the Cross-Abyss Bridge.

The Cross-Abyss Bridge was ten kilometers long, stretching out empty as far as the eye could see. Li Xiye grabbed Zhou Chen and Erin by the shoulders, took a single step, and instantly transported them to the far end of the bridge.

The Central District side of the Cross-Abyss Bridge was just as sparsely populated, and there was no goat-headed Demon statue standing guard.

The environment here was worlds apart from the Undercity. There was none of the Undercity’s pervasive stench. The buildings were intact, with no crumbling ruins. The streets were comparatively clean, with none of the garbage and corpses that were a common sight below. Vehicles on the street even seemed to be following traffic laws, and pedestrians weren’t attacking each other on sight like the thugs in the Undercity. It looked just like an orderly society, far removed from violence.

"Come look at this." Zhou Chen walked over to a utility pole, beckoning to Erin and Li Xiye.

Taped to the pole was a color-printed poster. It depicted an infant drawn in monotonous shades of black, white, and gray, curled into a ball. The image gave off an indescribably eerie and horrifying feeling.

Below the image was a line of conspicuous text: An infant born from the collected dregs of countless sins, crowned with the name "Sin Beast," it is the incarnation of sin and evil, the source of all vice.

Further below, there was more text: All residents of Sinful City must memorize the appearance and profile of the "Sin Beast." The Residential Committee will conduct random checks daily. Those who fail will be executed!

As far as the eye could see, similar posters were plastered over every street and alley in the Central District. An airship hovered in the sky, its loudspeakers endlessly broadcasting the "Sin Beast’s" profile while its screens displayed the creature’s image—a relentless, all-encompassing brainwashing campaign.

’So it’s true...’ Zhou Chen’s heart sank. Jiang Che’s previous theory was confirmed.

’Dupe’s faction has the Ability to manifest things based on collective belief. They’re using that very technique here in Sinful City to create the nonexistent "Sin Beast"!’

’It’s definitely too late to stop them. Dupe must have started preparing long ago. For all I know, the "Sin Beast" has already been created, which means the activation ritual is just a matter of time.’

Just then, a deafening BOOM echoed from the distance. The ground shook violently, and the surrounding skyscrapers trembled, shedding clouds of dust. High-rise construction workers swayed in the air, and one unlucky soul who hadn’t secured his safety line screamed as he plummeted, hitting the ground with a sickening SPLAT and turning into a puddle of gore.

Li Xiye grabbed Zhou Chen and Erin by the shoulders and brought them high into the sky. In the distance, they saw thick smoke billowing upward. A powerful Essence Fluctuation surged from that direction. Someone was fighting!

"It’s some of the Star Association’s grunts," Li Xiye said. With a mere thought, she teleported the three of them to the battlefield.

Three Ascenders in Star Association uniforms were locked in a fierce battle with more than a dozen grotesque Abyssal Demons.

Lightning flashed in Li Xiye’s stern, cyan eyes. BOOM!

A bolt of Cyan Thunder, surging with destructive Energy, tore through the sky. It plummeted downward at Rapid Speed, then split halfway into its descent, branching into more than a dozen chains of forked lightning that struck each of the Abyssal Demon Beasts with unerring precision.

A blinding light flared and vanished. In the crackling Thunderbolt, the dozen-plus Abyssal Demon Beasts were vaporized into dust. Only the scorched marks left on the ground proved they had ever existed.

Flames flared into existence, and Zhou Chen appeared before the three Star Association Operators. He got straight to the point: "What’s your mission?"

The Operators all recognized Zhou Chen, so they answered without hesitation. "Our mission is to go to the Inner District and set coordinates for an Any Door."

’Why wasn’t I told about this...?’ Zhou Chen grumbled to himself, but he didn’t dwell on it. The Star Association usually assigned the right people to the right jobs, and everyone’s mission was different.

"Besides us, there are two other covert teams. They should be out farming crime value right now." The young Operator wiped the sweat from his forehead and pointed to the scorched marks on the ground. "We were farming crime value just now when this pack of Demon Beasts suddenly showed up. They were well-trained and perfectly coordinated. It felt like someone was pulling the strings from behind the scenes. If you hadn’t intervened, we would have been in grave danger."