Chapter 611

Chapter 233 Nirvana Part 2

Rustling sounds—

Dust and black vines fell from the roof, the beams crashing down with a boom, smashing a huge hole in the floor nearby. The table collapsed with a bang, debris scattered everywhere. A dirty earthenware jar rolled to my feet, clattering noisily. The shaking felt like an earthquake, becoming more intense within seconds. Yet, all of this seemed so unreal to me in my dazed state.

I couldn’t comprehend what was happening at all.

My remaining consciousness and all my attention were focused on the pain in my body. Despite trying to ignore it, the more I tried, the clearer the pain became, almost driving me mad.

I felt as if my insides had turned into a mess, ground up into pulp inside my body. My skin felt as hot as a burning furnace, and black smoke rose from it with a hiss, slowly burning the floor. This wasn’t an illusion; I could feel myself sinking.

Something unknown was tearing my skin from behind, growing wildly and brutally. I heard my heart pounding like a drum, beating at a speed far beyond human capacity, contracting over ten times a second. Boom boom boom boom boom— it felt like it would burst any moment. Every bone in my body ached as if being crushed and then restored, over and over, each time more excruciatingly painful. It felt as though the world had moved away from me, and I was no longer alive.

I might really be dying…

At this moment, I wished desperately that I could fall unconscious immediately. But the intense pain stimulated my brain and nerves. In the constant convulsions of my body, any initial drowsiness had long been dispelled. I became incredibly alert, even though I couldn’t move, my consciousness grew more agitated.

It hurts…

It hurts so much…

So much pain…

Unbearable agony gnawed at every part of my body. It felt like countless steel needles piercing through flesh and bones, spreading from every cell to my entire body. The torment in hell consumed my sanity gradually, and slowly, I began to regret my actions.

I regretted why I resisted Angel and those people. I should have just lain there after coming out, falling asleep immediately. Even if they took me back for experiments afterward, even if I woke up not knowing or remembering anything, as long as I didn’t have to experience this pain, I wouldn’t care about anything else.

I can’t take it anymore…

I want to die…

“Ah…”

I stiffened my entire body, curling up on the ground, letting out a barely audible moan. My mouth opened wide but couldn’t exhale any breath. Each finger and toe strained as if doing so could alleviate the pain, but it was futile. The intense pain surged straight to my brain. The next moment, I struggled to spit out half my tongue, biting down hard.

Blood gushed from my mouth, splattering onto the charred floor.

“Cough, cough…”

Almost a piece of my tongue was bitten off. Salty blood poured down my throat, choking me into violent coughing fits. Blood spewed from my nose, mixing with tears, streaming down the scorched marks on the floor.

Let me die…

Let me die soon…

I really can’t take it anymore…

“Gag… cough…”

I continued to vomit blood, coughing violently. My eyes were completely red, losing all sense of reason. I wished desperately to die immediately, so I wouldn’t have to endure such pain. But my tongue hadn’t come off, and not enough blood had flowed. I wanted to bite again to hasten death, but before I could act, the bleeding in my mouth stopped.

Sizzling sounds came from my mouth, and within a second, the wound healed. Blood no longer choked my airway. I thus sank into utter despair.

Why…

What did I do wrong… Why torture me like this…

Why—

Crack…

A tiny sound of rotten wood splitting came from beneath me. Then, with a boom, the charred boards finally gave way under my weight, collapsing suddenly. I fell through the gaping hole, snapping many branches along the way, and then landed on my back with a thud.

“Cough, cough—”

I kept coughing, nearly expelling all the blood that had entered my lungs. Lying there dazed, I felt something like dark mud beneath me. The heat quickly caused the mud to bubble and pop, the bubbles bursting near my ears. Dirty water splashed on my face, but none of this mattered.

Now, whether Angel would find me soon no longer mattered. I lay motionless on the ground, my body trembling uncontrollably. My eyes were wide open, mouth agape, struggling to breathe but unable to. I didn’t know how to make myself pass out. The earlier exhaustion and drowsiness had vanished completely.

“Ah… ah…”

I could only lie there, emitting weak, meaningless sounds. With slightly clearer vision, I stared fixedly at the two crescent moons in the night sky through the sparse, dead branches above.

The moon…

It seemed to turn blood red…

The imagined scene of sunrise never came, and the sky remained…

The scene was once filled with countless stars, but the dark night that greeted my eyes held no trace of dawn. Instead, a blood-red light seeped into the darkness from beyond my field of vision, wisps of it floating in the air like flowing auroras, illuminating the clouds and staining the moon.

Is this… an illusion?

I didn’t know, nor could I think about it.

I vaguely felt that something seemed to be very noisy in the distance, with a dull thumping sound echoing continuously. But as the sound came with the tremor of the earth, it seemed less real, everything felt like it was in a dream.

Time quietly passed in extreme despair and unbearable torment.

Every minute felt like a whole year had passed.

During this process, the terrible pain did not allow me to lose consciousness as I wished; I remained awake.

But apart from being awake, almost everything else was lost.

In the unclear duration of time, I gradually lost my vision, hearing, and even the most basic thinking ability in the midst of pain. The desire to live disappeared. My body felt like an empty shell, enduring what seemed like endless, hellish punishment. Profound despair enveloped me, just like four years ago when I fell off a cliff and couldn’t climb out since then.

“Hehe…”

I seemed to hear my own laughter in a daze.

Just like in a dream, an image suddenly appeared in my mind.

A gentle breeze blew across the grass, carrying dust particles that shimmered in the light. A clear stream flowed gently, and a young girl in a linen white dress carried a basket, walking along a narrow path. Her smooth black hair fluttered loosely behind her.

The girl looked very happy, with a faint smile on her face, humming an unknown tune as she walked towards the village outskirts. Her sister was getting married the next day, and she was going to the forest to pick flowers to make the most beautiful wreath, making her sister the most beautiful bride in the village.

She was only thinking about this.

Back then, the girl’s world was clean and simple, living a life similar to everyone else in the village. There wasn’t much noise or prosperity around her, and her days were monotonous and boring, but her face was free of any worries or troubles.

The girl’s shadow gradually faded away under the midday sun and the gentle breeze.

She reached the village entrance, as if remembering something, stopped and turned back, looking at me and smiling.

“Hehe…”

She laughed so happily.

I wanted to return to that moment…

In that village, staying with Grandma Claire, no one could take me away, and I wouldn’t go anywhere…

I don’t know when I stood up.

Nor do I know when the white branch suspended above my head began to emit a soft glow, like moonlight, enveloping me. After a moment of blurred vision, the scene returned to its true form.

I felt the pain in my body gradually subsiding.

At the same time, the suffocating despair also receded. I regained some rationality, but my mind was still unclear. I staggered forward two steps, approaching the tree where I had fallen, intending to lean against the withered trunk and wait for recovery. But as soon as I touched the trunk, the pain twisted my face, and I gritted my teeth and ran a few steps away, falling into a mud puddle with a “plop.”

“Ahh…”

Unable to hold back, I cried out, reaching my hand to my back, feeling a soft, slightly warm, film-like substance.

!

What is this…

Suddenly alarmed, before my brain could react, my hand instinctively moved upward along the film. The object suddenly twitched, it was very sensitive, perhaps due to its newness, the sensation of touching it was very clear.

It was itchy, mostly painful.

It is part of my body…

Could this be wings?

Still puzzled, I reached my hand behind me, slowly touching my shoulder blades. It grew from this position, and I seemed to feel the hard side of the film wrapped in soft flesh…

This must be bone…

It extends from my back…

My head was muddled for a long time.

Although the pain in my body was easing, it still caused intense spasms. I no longer felt sleepy, but I was still disoriented. Only after a while did I realize I needed to turn and confirm. Just then, a distant rumble of thunder echoed in the night sky.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!

The tremendous sound generated a wave of shock, suddenly hitting me. Instinctively, I lifted my head and looked in the direction of the sound.

Then, I froze there.

It was a scene of blood red.

Almost from the direction I had come from not long ago, large swathes of night had completely receded, and the crimson light, like a large splash of blood on a curtain, obscured the clouds and moon, spreading over the entire sky, almost turning the entire prairie into a blood-red color.

The flowing light extended all the way to the night sky here, illuminating the scorched earth and turning it reddish. This light was what I had mistakenly thought was sunlight; I thought dawn was coming, but it wasn’t.

It was an extremely terrifying force of sin.

Accompanied by the aftershock of the rumbling, a huge crack suddenly tore open in the sky far away, in the area where the red light was most intense. Inside the crack, it was pitch-black, but immediately afterward, a burning skeletal hand emerged forcefully, flames rolling up thick smoke. In the continuous rumbling, the hand gripped the edge of the crack.