Blind Spot
Chapter 424: Madness 2

Chapter 424: Madness 2

Soon, a responding neigh was faintly heard in the distance, and a brownish-yellow old horse galloped toward them with haste.

Before long, the two mounted the horse, and on the jostling back of the horse, they sped along the dirt road at full speed.

On the black plains, the sunset had all but one corner left exposed on the horizon.

Night was about to fall completely, and the light rain also began to taper off.

Li Chengyi sat on the horseback, continuously organizing the memories in his body.

In the year 179 of Shaoyin, the dynasty was corrupt, the Emperor indulged in pleasure, neglecting the affairs of state.

The situation in various places deteriorated, making life unbearable for the people.

The level of civilization in this place corresponded to the era of cold weapons.

But all of this wasn’t really important.

What really felt significant to him was the frequent presence of various martial artists within Shaoyin Country.

Compared to the rotten politics, the most dangerous here were those so-called martial practitioners. And then, there were the monsters.

Sitting on the horseback, they raced for a quarter of an hour, just before complete darkness set in.

Directly ahead on the dirt road, a high wall made of black soil finally came into view.

The five-meter-tall wall formed an irregular circle, enclosing the gray buildings inside.

Atop the walls, figures in black leather armor holding long spears could be vaguely seen patrolling back and forth.

A few torches shone faintly on the nearby black earth from afar.

The approach of the old horse caused the officers guarding the gate to become slightly tense. They gripped their long spears and stared hard, on the verge of speaking.

"It’s Yi Chen from Chen Zhong and Head Constable Wang’s family!" an elderly officer shouted.

Suddenly, several officers stepped aside.

The old horse slowed down, striding into the city gate.

A few officers quickly came up to meet them.

"Chen Zhong, what happened? Where are the others!?"

"We went to pick up someone from the Porcelain Merchants Association... ran into a madman... other than the two of us, everyone else is dead..." Chen Zhong dismounted and, with pale lips quivering, spoke.

Li Chengyi got off the horse as well; the blood on his face had dried, making him look extremely frightening.

"I am alright, quickly... get Doctor Fang for Ah Chen!" Chen Zhong shouted loudly.

In shock, a group of officers quickly began to divide tasks, one to fetch someone from the Wang family, another to fetch the doctor.

Without any further talk, they grabbed Li Chengyi and placed him onto a wooden stretcher. Two men began to carry him toward the inside of the city.

As night approached, the streets of the town were deserted, with hardly anyone around.

Here, torches also cost money; common households didn’t have much money, only a dim light shone through some wooden windows.

Meanwhile, in wealthy mansions and towers, the lighting was much brighter.

But overall, the vast majority of the town was shrouded in pitch darkness.

Without moonlight, some places were so dark one could not see their hand right in front of their face.

The two brawny officers placed two torches on the stretcher and hurried along at a jog.

Soon, they arrived at the front of a large compound.

The red-painted gate with its dog-head knockers looked very imposing.

On the left front of the gate was a large tree thick enough to require a person’s embrace to circle it. It was hard to make out the species, but a wooden swing hung from the tree, swaying with the wind.

As the officers approached, the grand gate automatically opened from the inside, and a group of people ran out.

At the front was a tall, two-meter man with a black beard and hair, draped in a black wolf-skin cloak. Wearing only a grey white undergarment underneath, he strode forward with a bright silver large cleaver in hand, hurrying over to the stretcher.

"Ah Chen!!" he bellowed, "Are you alright!? Let me have a look!"

Li Chengyi was set down, and recognizing the burly man in front of him from the fragments of memory in his mind, he identified him.

Wang family patriarch, Arrest Officer Wang Yifeng.

Despite being only an arrest officer, Wang Yifeng had over a dozen constables under his command, all skilled with swords and spears.

Together with the hired temporary defenders, they amounted to nearly a hundred people and represented the main force maintaining order in Xinmeng Town.

Even the military officers and generals at the gate had to show him some respect.

Without the need to pretend, Li Chengyi’s blood-streaked face and his pale cheeks from excessive blood loss were telltale signs of the body’s weakness.

It was only because of his Shadow Replacement that his own essence merged and consumed this body, rapidly improving its physical state.

Otherwise, right now Wang Yichen should still be a corpse.

"Dad... I’m fine..." Li Chengyi feigned the tone of the original Wang Yichen, responding with difficulty.

"It’s just... my vision is a bit blurred, I want to rest..."

"Quick! Bring him inside, the doctor has arrived already, quick have him look at my son!" Wang Yifeng became anxious and instructed the people to carry Li Chengyi inside.

"Just going ten miles out of town to retrieve someone, and still an incident occurred... alas, things outside are getting more and more unsafe."

"Not long ago, the Town General had just patrolled and cleared the roadway, and now in such a short time it’s unsafe again..."

"Those damned creatures... as swift as the wind, impossible to stop. This time even Constable Wang’s son suffered severe injuries... if we common folks encounter them, wouldn’t we..."

"The Wang family has suffered too, could it be... that we really have no choice but to study martial arts!?"

"Studying martial arts is no use either, wasn’t Constable Wang tough? His son was still injured by those madmen and monsters."

"Thank goodness the Wang family is lucky, not infected with the Red Eye Disease... it’s a silver lining in this misfortune."

Li Chengyi, lying on the stretcher, listened with his heightened hearing to the low murmurings of the onlookers around him.

Combining these fragments of memory, he quickly grasped the general situation of this place.

As for calling someone he didn’t recognize "Dad," it was just a disguise, something Li Chengyi didn’t care about given how thick-skinned he was.

Upon entering the courtyard, it became evident that the Wang family was a recently emerged minor clan. Aside from a cook, everyone took care of their own affairs.

A middle-aged woman sporting a mole at the corner of her mouth, dressed in a long dress with a red body and black sleeves, walked briskly toward them accompanied by a young woman.

"What happened to A’Chen? Didn’t he just go out for half a day to meet someone? How did he end up like this? How did he get so injured?" the woman’s voice trembled as she asked.

She wanted to reach out and touch Li Chengyi, but she dared not.

The woman was from Wang Lin’s clan, her given name being Lin Xiuxian, and she was also the biological mother of Wang family’s three children.

The young woman beside her looked upset and stared intently at Li Chengyi without saying a word.

She was Wang Yichen’s sister, Wang Yiheng.

The two also had an elder brother named Wang Yijue, who was not at home.

"Make way, Doctor Fang is here!"

Urgent footsteps approached from nearby.

A group of people accompanied an elderly doctor as he moved closer.

Following a similar examination, Doctor Fang’s diagnosis was quite accurate, declaring that Li Chengyi had lost too much blood, but everything else was fine.

This reassured all the Wang family members present.

"He hasn’t contracted Red Eye Disease, has he?" an official who followed in asked, unable to help himself.

"No. Although Red Eye Disease is mainly transmitted through blood, it requires a sufficient amount," Doctor Fang explained. "The encounter between the killer and Young Master Chen was extremely brief, and there was no display of a Blood Body. The likelihood of transmission is quite small."

"That’s good, that’s good...."

The official let out a long sigh of relief, "I will go right away and report to the Town General."

"Thank you for your efforts," Wang Yifeng bowed with his hands clasped together.

"No need for that, Head Constable Wang, I’m just doing my duty," the official replied and scurried off.

"Let’s get A’Chen to rest first. All his clothes need to be disposed of to prevent contamination," Wang Yifeng ordered.

Consequently, Li Chengyi was escorted back to his room by a group of people.

He removed all his clothes and took a shower. Then, after rubbing his hair dry with a towel, he pretended to sleep.

Despite his efforts to stabilize and integrate with the body, it was still in a state of excessive blood loss and needed rest.

This was the logical course of action.

Also, the large amount of fragmented memories in his mind needed to be properly sorted.

Especially that Red Eye Disease, the contagion, and the Blood Bodies....

These were matters of significant concern to him.

He didn’t believe that Midlane, a place the surrounding Black Sea denizens didn’t wish to enter, could be a simple and backward area.

Lying in bed, he could faintly hear the conversation between Head Constable Wang Yifeng and his wife, of Wang Lin’s clan, coming from outside the window.

Though they spoke softly, Li Chengyi’s acute hearing still allowed him to catch the gist of their conversation.

"More and more people in town are getting infected lately. Just the other day, more than a dozen were killed, and today, several more appeared. This can’t go on... Today, so close to town, A’Chen encountered a case of Red Eye Disease... I wonder if the letter has been sent to the Town General?" Wang Lin’s clan was worried.

"Even if the Blood Guard receives the letter, they can’t possibly arrive so soon. Just the travel will take at least half a month; during this time, we can only rely on ourselves," Wang Yifeng said. "You should focus on taking good care of A’Chen. He only knows some basic martial arts, and yet he dares to wander outside the city; he really doesn’t understand danger."

"Who would’ve thought that so close to here... before, that used to be a place where everyone went for walks and to gather herbs."

"Enough, don’t think too much about it, we will find a way somehow. If it comes to that, I’ll protect you and we’ll head to Yushan County," Wang Yifeng sighed.

"Sigh... Ever since the Junior Emperor practiced the God Limit Heart Technique and went mad, this world has been getting more and more chaotic."

"Only the Blood Guard can use specially made weapons and tools to kill those Blood Creatures. As for the rest, what use is martial arts practice? How can people fight against those monsters?"

"What do you know? That’s hope. Tomorrow I’ll go and talk to the Town General about organizing another patrol around the area and using the aromatic scents to disperse the Blood Creatures.

Enough, let’s not talk anymore, go to sleep... Later at midnight, we still need to check on A’Chen."

"Alright... Be careful tomorrow."

"I know, don’t worry."

Their voices quieted down.

Li Chengyi lay quietly on the bed with his eyes open, watching the mosquito net sway gently in the wind, his mind gradually forming an impression of this world.

’God Limit... Heart Technique?’

The term seemed strangely familiar when he heard it...

A quiet night passed without incident.

Aside from the occasional bizarre howl from a distance, most of the town’s residents entered a deep slumber.

Li Chengyi spent the entire night sorting through his memories thoroughly.

He also roughly grasped the situation in Shaoyin Country.

The entire Shaoyin Country was situated on a vast expanse of the Black Soil Plains.

There was an extremely terrifying infectious disease called Red Eye Disease.

Any person infected with Red Eye Disease would quickly become murderous and savage, with greatly enhanced strength, speed, and constitution.

Moreover, they would adopt a form known as Blood Body, instantly transforming from a human shape into a monstrous creature at least three meters tall.

These monsters varied in form but shared one common trait: they were covered with thick blood.

Wherever they went, blood splattered. Anyone splashed with this blood, whether commoners or expert martial artists, would rapidly turn into new carriers of the Red Eye Disease.

To combat these monsters, the Shaoyin Country established the Blood Guard Bureau, which, using an array of bizarre weapons and tools, desperately fought to eliminate the various monsters.

’This place... doesn’t seem to have any clues about the Illusory Color Dragon...’ With his information sorted, Li Chengyi’s brows furrowed.

His primary objective for coming here was to search for the Heart of the Phantom Rainbow Dragon, but now, it seemed that...