Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

They were waiting…

Waiting for Li Mo to open his eyes, waiting for him to look at them.

Time ticked by. The entire Taixu Mountain trembled, as if undergoing a massive transformation.

Every plant and tree sprouted countless empty, human skin-like eye sockets, pitch black, like bottomless pits.

The darkness was boundless. The entire Taixu Mountain was enveloped in Bizzare gazes, searching for living people who could see them.

The black holes twisted and deformed, appearing in every corner of Taixu Mountain.

It was 10:00 pm. Having waited a long time without finding a suitable target, the human skin effigies of the Seven Swords of Taixu stiffly stood up and shuffled back to the slaughterhouse.

Two plates of fresh, plump meat, cut into various sizes, had appeared on the butcher's block. Half of it was immediately ground into mince.

This was meticulously prepared for the guests, for tomorrow's ghost banquet.

The living who consumed the food at the ghost banquet would become food themselves, feeding the next batch of living.

Every night, the Seven Swords of Taixu would process the meat, continuing this gruesome cycle.

The peeled-off human skins were hung from the ceiling.

Countless human skins filled the small room, the pungent stench permeating every crevice of the slaughterhouse.

Here hung the skins of countless self-proclaimed geniuses, elites of the martial world, chosen ones, and emperors…

Each had believed themselves special, capable of reaching the summit of Taixu Mountain, meeting the Immortal, and earning her recognition.

But they had all failed, utterly.

Yes.

No living person had ever left this Bizzare Taixu Mountain alive.

From the moment they reached the summit, their only path was death.

The earth was silent, the stars quiet.

Li Mo's throat twitched, the discomfort jolting his nerves, forcing him awake.

"Ah…"

Li Mo let out a groan, his eyelids struggling to open.

He pushed himself up with his hands, sitting up with effort.

He tried to stand, but the lack of food made him lightheaded, and he almost fell.

"Ugh… what happened?"

"I was walking deeper inside, and then I suddenly lost consciousness…"

Li Mo murmured softly, forcing himself to think despite his hunger.

Like staying up for two days straight and then having to go to school for an exam on the third day.

Self-inflicted pain was always so unbearable, yet unavoidable.

Li Mo recalled the moment he lost consciousness.

He couldn't have fainted from hunger, as that would have been a gradual process. Everything had been normal right before he lost consciousness.

He had blacked out completely without warning.

"I triggered a Bizzare rule, that's why I lost consciousness instantly," Li Mo deduced.

His face was sticky and uncomfortable. He reached up and touched it, finding it covered in the blood of some unknown creature. The metallic smell was strong, and the color was strange.

"Ugh…!"

Before Li Mo could recover, he felt something moving in his throat, blocking his airway, causing him intense pain.

He quickly reached into his mouth, grabbing something that felt like a rope in his throat.

But it was much smoother than a rope, with something that felt like scales.

Li Mo pulled most of it out of his mouth and stared at it in disbelief.

"MOBIUS?!"

Li Mo froze, staring incredulously at MOBIUS in his hand.

How could he have pulled a living person out of his throat?

Realizing something was wrong, Li Mo quickly looked away, avoiding eye contact with MOBIUS.

As expected, once he averted his gaze, Li Mo finally saw what he was holding.

A dark green snake, seemingly venomous, its sharp fangs dripping with deadly toxins.

This snake had crawled into his mouth? What the…

"Hiss… hiss…"

The snake made sounds Li Mo couldn't understand.

Li Mo didn't hesitate, pulling the entire snake out of his mouth and throwing it on the ground.

Looking closely, it only had half a body, the other half seemingly severed recently, not yet decayed.

"Again?! Ugh…!"

Unbearable choking and stinging sensations followed. Li Mo opened his mouth, reaching in with his Bizzare Bud left hand, frantically searching his throat.

He pulled out a butterfly, a spider, and half of a dying rabbit.

"What are these?"

"APONIA, Vill-V… and who's the rabbit?"

"When did these things get into my stomach?"

Clearly, like Elysia he had seen earlier, they were all imprisoned and tortured on Taixu Mountain.

It seemed someone was constantly dismembering them, but…

"You're also Bizzare Entities," Li Mo said coldly.

If they weren't Bizzare Entities, even fusion soldiers wouldn't be able to withstand such prolonged torture.

The fact that they were still alive, even with most of their bodies missing, could only mean one thing: they were Bizzare Entities.

Bizzare powers were keeping them alive.

Even if all signs of life disappeared, as long as the Bizzare contamination remained, they wouldn't die.

Looking around, he saw they were all half-dead. Bizzare Entities could regenerate, but these creatures didn't possess complete Bizzare characteristics.

Derivatives? Or simply imbued with Bizzare rules?

He looked at the blood trails on the ground.

Although Li Mo didn't know why they had crawled into his body, there was no doubt that a ghost had been here.

"Continue forward, or turn back?"

Li Mo pondered. In such a short time, he had encountered at least three ghosts, and there were probably more lurking in the shadows.

Moving forward could trigger more dangerous rules, repeating the same outcome as before.

"So how did I survive just now?"

"Hey, Misfortune Ghost, are you there?"

Li Mo asked casually, but there was no response from his mind.

Only a chilling coldness echoed within him.

He took out his phone. The time was 10:01 pm, twenty-nine minutes until 10:30 pm.

Li Mo estimated the distance. It would take him no more than five minutes to reach the slaughterhouse, and he wouldn't stay long.

Therefore, it was unlikely he would die exactly at 10:30 pm.

But the first page's predictions had never been wrong. He couldn't jump to conclusions.

Continuing forward would put him in greater danger, likely costing him his first life. It wouldn't be worth it if he couldn't obtain any useful clues.

His only gains tonight were confirming the approximate identities and behavior patterns of the Seven Swords of Taixu, and the overall rules of Taixu Mountain.

Eye contact: Making eye contact on Taixu Mountain was forbidden. This seemed to trigger some kind of taboo.

Li Mo didn't know the origin of this general rule, but he was certain that if he could find the reason, he could likely find a way to deal with the Bizzare source.

But his primary concern wasn't this, but Hua.

Where was Hua?

Did he really have to endure for three days and meet the Bizzare-corrupted Jingwei the Immortal to learn Hua's whereabouts?

The Fenghuang Down hadn't contacted him either…

Li Mo's eyes dimmed.

Hua was very good at protecting herself during Bizzare incidents. At the first sign of trouble, she would store her consciousness within the Fenghuang Down and emerge only when it was safe.

Losing her physical body wasn't a big deal. If she couldn't leave the Fenghuang Down for a long time, he could retrieve the Divine Key carrying her consciousness and bring her back.

She could create as many bodies as she wanted then.

He had been on Taixu Mountain for a day now, and the Fenghuang Down hadn't appeared.

There were only two possibilities:

One, Hua's actions were restricted, and she couldn't control the Fenghuang Down to escape the dangerous situation. He would have to search for her, checking every Bizzare-tainted place on Taixu Mountain until he found her.

But this was extremely dangerous.

Two, Hua was dead. A dead person couldn't contact him.

Then his current rescue efforts were meaningless. Continuing to search would only lead to his own demise.

He had narrowly escaped death several times already.

Li Mo understood that most of the Bizzare Entities here had instant-death rules, specifically targeting consciousness.

Whether it was Granny Cat-Face's assimilating gaze, the scholar tree with his human skin effigy that instantly shut down his consciousness upon eye contact, or the strangest of all, the targeted forgetting of Changle, for which he still had no explanation…

They all manipulated memory and consciousness. It was hard not to think about Hua, who possessed the Fenghuang Down in this world, the protector of Shenzhou, the Jingwei the Immortal. What had she become?

How corrupted had she become to contaminate the entire Taixu Mountain?

Should he give up?

…

Li Mo seriously considered this question. Logically, Hua was most likely dead.

The rules on Taixu Mountain, targeting consciousness… one wrong step, and your consciousness would be erased, turning you into another Bizzare Entity.

He had almost died after just one day on Taixu Mountain, let alone Hua, who had been here for over six months.

The fact that his consciousness hadn't been erased was largely due to the Misfortune Ghost's curse, which had prevented other Bizzare Entities from invading his mind while he was unconscious.

But what about Hua?

She didn't have the Misfortune Ghost's protection…

"..."

"Keep searching. I need to see her body with my own eyes before I can confirm her death. And after that, I'll bring her body back."

Li Mo's resolve hardened.

From the moment he rescued them from that shattered world and invited them to join his team, he was responsible for every one of them.

In the eyes of politicians, lives were just numbers.

But Li Mo wasn't a politician; he was their companion.

Having made up his mind, Li Mo walked towards the slaughterhouse, where the Bizzare aura was strongest.

He swore he would bring Hua back.

The decaying building, constructed from rubble, emitted a sewage-like stench in the night.

Shadows flickered beneath the scholar tree. An invisible hand manipulated the darkness, reaching towards the half-dead animals on the ground.

The enormous black hand gently scooped up the animals, its actions filled with tenderness and care.

As if worried they might die.

The next second, the black hand tightened its grip.

"Squish!"

Blood spurted from between its fingers, splattering on the ground, leaving behind a gruesome mess.

The soft, fleshy bodies were instantly crushed and mangled.

The black hand slowly retracted, disappearing beneath the scholar tree.

A figure stood under the tree, only a blurry silhouette visible.

White hair, like frost, cascaded down her back, ruffled by the eerie night breeze.

She stood with her back to Li Mo, her red dress billowing in the wind.

However, whenever Li Mo moved, her back would subtly shift, always facing away from him.

Perfectly concealing her face.

That hidden face was perhaps youthful and beautiful, radiating warmth like the morning sun, or perhaps grotesquely distorted, torn and mangled beyond recognition.

She had no eyes; Taixu Mountain was her eyes.

"Li Mo… Mingyue…"

Hua whispered softly, but her faint voice was quickly swallowed by the boundless darkness.

Even her gentle voice became sharp and piercing as time stretched on.

Li Mo was looking for her, but not for her.

But why wasn't he looking for her?

Why?!

She had been waiting…

Hua extended a hand, her bones twisting unnaturally, her arm forming a ninety-degree angle with her back.

Her pale hand slowly reached towards the direction Li Mo had disappeared. Gradually, Hua's figure blurred, eventually vanishing beneath the scholar tree.

Like the lives of most people, fleeting and ephemeral, gone in an instant.

"Creak…"

Li Mo pushed open the rusty door of the slaughterhouse. The iron door was cold and damp, its screws mostly exposed, covered in rust.

The sight inside made Li Mo's stomach churn.

Countless human skins were separated from their flesh. The flesh was cut, minced, and then haphazardly thrown into large buckets that resembled trash cans.

The human skins hung from the ceiling, connected not by ropes, but by taut tree branches.

"That's…"

Li Mo kept his gaze lowered as much as possible, avoiding eye contact with the human skins.

The slaughterhouse wasn't tall, but Li Mo still had to keep his head down to avoid direct contact.

Near the iron door, Li Mo saw two familiar faces.

Although they had been made into human skins, Li Mo was certain he recognized them. They were the martial artists who had consumed human flesh during the banquet.

When had they been brought here?

"No, I need to leave the doorway. The noise of opening the door was too loud. The ghosts will be here soon."

The ever-alert Li Mo quickly moved away, hunching over, placing a hand over his eyes to prevent eye contact with the human skins.

He then saw an execution platform, covered with various types of minced meat, the stench incredibly strong.

"Drip… thud…"

Footsteps and dripping sounds echoed from the corner behind Li Mo.

The sounds were very clear, the ghosts very close. The sheer number of footsteps made Li Mo abandon any thoughts of resistance.

He had to hide. If he was seen, he would likely become another piece of meat on the butcher's block.

If they had the same ability as the human skin effigy on the scholar tree, the ability to shut down consciousness, even his restart ability would be in danger.