Abyssal Distortion Files

Noisy crowds, brightly lit streets.

Zhou Mo walked quietly on the side of the street with his hands in his pockets and his hood up.

Seeing two people arguing on the street, he immediately raised his right hand, and two invisible chains instantly shot out from his fingertips and struck them.

Whoosh!

A breeze blew past, and the two men simultaneously lost consciousness and knelt on the ground, instinctively embracing each other.

Their souls were pulled out of their bodies, held in the palm of Zhou Mo's bone-revealed hand, constantly being flipped over.

"Death is just a momentary feeling, so is beauty, and the relationship between pain and death is actually not intimate."

"Because death doesn't necessarily have to be painful."

"It only needs a slight nod of surrender, but survival is not like that. The process of seeking survival is a struggle that feels like years."

"Because we all know that one day, we will all face death, and all life resists death."

"It is precisely because we resist that we feel pain."

"So Heidegger was wrong. Life is not 'being towards death,' but 'being towards life to die.' Every breath we take only brings us closer to death."

"Cherish your short time. If meaningless things like quarrels and troubles are all there is to your life, then your death will also be meaningless."

With that, Zhou Mo released the two souls he was holding, allowing them to return to their bodies.

"The Sect Master is right. The unwillingness and pain of those people before they die, as well as their memories, are the impurities in my soul."

"The existence of these impurities makes my soul no longer pure, and all my thoughts are affected by them."

"But when there are too many of these impurities, I realize that my own soul is the impurity."

"I have gained three thousand seven hundred years of memories and knowledge out of thin air. In this long corridor of memory, my twenty years of memories are so insignificant."

"It seems that I am the alien."

As Zhou Mo spoke, the hand that had turned into white bone began to spread upward, all the way to his arm.

The flesh on his arm dissipated like dead ashes, leaving only white bones. A new mystery was condensing on his body.

A mystery called 'death'.

「Your consciousness is about to disappear. Do you know what this means?」

"I know."

「You know shit!」

「This is not a change brought about by increased strength. This is called loss of control.」

「Loss of control represents the annihilation of self-awareness, and it also represents your transformation from a human into a monster, becoming a mystery.」

「But you are different from us. You will no longer be you. You are just a monster who firmly believes in self-mysticism.」

The ossification of Zhou Mo's arm stopped, and the black mist surrounding him also dissipated somewhat. "Sect Master, I am not afraid of losing control, just like in our contract."

"After I die, my soul belongs to you, but before that, I only need to do one thing, which is to make those three people like my brother…"

"Step into death."

「I really want to curse you.」

「But after thinking about it, never mind.」

「Life and death are like day and night, and a person's death is like a extinguished lamp.」

「The most important thing you should do now is to set up your own anchor point to prevent further loss of self.」

Anchor point?

「Anchor points of humanity, anchor points of self, are your only reliance on reaching the other shore.」

「Think carefully, there must be something you care about that can get you out of control and stabilize your emotions.」

"I thought of something."

「So fast?」

「Are you sure you thought of something?」

Qi Youluo was puzzled, but looking at Zhou Mo's appearance and mental changes, he didn't seem to be lying.

「What is the thing you are anchoring to?」

「Is it your family?」

"No."

「What is it then?」

Zhou Mo didn't speak, but recalled a vague figure in his mind, and Qi Youluo saw the person he was thinking about.

「Are you… serious?」

「This is really turning things upside down, but… it's not impossible.」

……

Jianghai City, on the streets of Linhai District.

A young man with a wine bottle was walking unsteadily, waving back at the two blonde women across the street as he walked.

"Ha… haha, see you tomorrow, see you tomorrow…"

"That grandson Zhang Huailong, stood me up again. When we killed people together back then, we said we'd be brothers for life, but now he's making excuses when I ask him for some money, damn it…"

As the man spoke, he didn't notice a man in black walking towards him.

The man in black walked past him and then made a hoarse sound, "Li Yongkun… do you remember me?"

Li Yongkun stopped and turned his head with a drunken look. "Are you calling me?"

The man in black turned his head stiffly. His pale face reflected in the light. It was a face that had been mostly eaten away by maggots!

Li Yongkun's brain immediately cleared up when he saw this. A zombie?!

Snap!

Before he could speak, the corpse pressed a palm on his face and used that cold, rotten hand to block his mouth!

"Mmm mmm!!"

Li Yongkun was about to fight back, but then a man in black drilled out from behind and strangled his neck!

The corpse covering his mouth grinned. "Li Yongkun… I've prepared a good… place… for you…"

"You will definitely like it."

With that, Li Yongkun passed out briefly due to lack of oxygen.

……

When he opened his eyes again, they had already arrived at an abandoned construction site.

A group of men in black were digging a pit with shovels, and there were also several men, women, old people, and children nearby, who were also tied up and gagged.

Li Yongkun's hands and feet were also tied up, but he was singled out, while the people next to him were his direct relatives, including his parents, grandparents, and his eldest brother!

And standing in front of him was a man wearing a hood with blue-blue eyes.

Looking at the man in front of him, Li Yongkun twisted his body frantically, "Mmm!"

"Mmm mmm!"

Zhou Mo stood in front of him, looking at him indifferently. "The smell here reminds me of the taste of that day."

"The concrete smell on my brother's school uniform that could never be washed away."

"It's been seven years, and that smell is still so fresh in my memory. You poured quick-setting cement from the construction site into his trachea, and even his body was sealed with cement."

"I've always been curious, how did you three underage students do it?"

"Until I searched your eldest brother's soul, I solved this seven-year-long doubt. So… they were all accomplices."

As Zhou Mo spoke, he stretched out his bone hand and touched Li Yongkun's face. The cold knuckles roamed over his skin, and the rough texture felt like the fingers of the Grim Reaper caressing his face.

"Back then, you were still minors."

"Now, you've all grown so big."

……