Chapter 8: The Great Catastrophe

[The Ghost Cry Thrush is an A-rank Anomaly.]

[It is adept at peering into the human heart; whenever it targets someone, it appears in the image of the person they care about most, thereby achieving a charming effect.]

[Furthermore, its cry possesses the ability to lure people into illusions and drive them to madness.]

[If no one stops it, it can destroy a village in an instant.]

[Of course, its strength is not considered top-tier among anomalous creatures.]

[The reason it is rated A-rank is due to its seniority.]

[Its existence can be traced back several hundred years.]

[As various anomalies have emerged frequently in recent years, every time a new anomaly appears, there is a need to determine its rank.]

[In these cases, the Ghost Cry Thrush serves as an excellent unit of measurement—only anomalous creatures with a more detrimental impact than it are qualified to be rated as A-rank.]

The system dutifully fulfilled its obligation from the sidelines, educating its High Priest on the characteristics of this anomalous creature.

Si Qingxuan, however, acted as if he hadn’t heard a single word, only letting out a cold sneer.

“I’m going to pluck every single one of its feathers.”

The system: “……”

‘You should reflect on yourself instead!’ the system complained inwardly.

‘Since the image the Ghost Cry Thrush projects is the person you find hardest to let go of in your heart, why did you feel the urge to stab them the moment you saw them!’

It was bad luck that the anomalous creature they encountered this time happened to be a Ghost Cry Thrush; yet it was fortunate that the Ghost Cry Thrush was the weakest monster among A-rank anomalies, giving Si Qingxuan a fighting chance.

The system didn’t know what else to say.

It chose to remain silent.

Si Qingxuan stared unblinkingly at the “person” before him.

He was completely naked, with red, vein-like patterns covering his entire body, and dark red flames flowing within them.

Even so, it didn’t diminish the beauty of that physique in the slightest.

On the contrary, a burning sweetness brewed in his eyes, as if he wanted to pass the flames on his body to Si Qingxuan with a kiss, letting the roaring passion incinerate Si Qingxuan’s internal organs.

Generally speaking, the Ghost Cry Thrush was best at stirring the most secret desires within a person’s heart and then turning them into a prairie fire.

This way, its prey would be powerless to resist.

To fill the hunger in their hearts, they would embrace it, kiss it, be ignited like dry tinder, and then willingly become its sacrifice.

But today, the human it encountered seemed a bit different…

The naked “man” tilted his head in confusion, finally choosing to pose even more provocatively.

At the same time, the Ghost Cry Thrush’s song grew even louder, showing a persistent and unrelenting stance.

Si Qingxuan: “……”

‘My eyes hurt.’

He gave a soft hiss, his gaze instinctively avoiding the scene before him.

He swung his sword to cleave through the flames floating in front of him, and then—

He thrust the sword into the man’s chest without hesitation.

Scolding hot blood splashed onto the corner of Si Qingxuan’s eye, but he only stared coldly at the other.

“I could overlook you turning into him… but you aren’t like him at all,” Si Qingxuan said.

“This only makes me angrier, do you understand?”

The pierced phantom reverted into the shape of a giant bird.

It was pinned to the wall by the longsword, wailing incessantly.

At the same time, the Ghost Tamer, who had regained consciousness, collapsed to the floor with a thud.

Not a single inch of good skin remained on his body, his appearance several times more terrifying than before as he vomited large amounts of blood.

[This man is dying. Tsk, tsk, tsk. It seems he was deeply poisoned by the Ghost Cry Thrush. No wonder he became so heartless.]

“The human heart is difficult to fathom to begin with. The mistakes he made can’t be entirely blamed on the Ghost Cry Thrush,” Si Qingxuan replied.

He gripped the sword with both hands and exerted force.

The Ghost Cry Thrush let out a short cry and completely lost its life.

Following that, a small, silver, transparent sphere slowly rose from the corpse of the bird.

“What is this?” Si Qingxuan asked.

[That is its ‘Origin,’ the source of all its power. Once you possess its Origin, you will be able to exert one hundred percent of all the talents belonging to the Ghost Cry Thrush!]

The system had mentioned the concept of “Origin” to Si Qingxuan before, but this was the first time Si Qingxuan had seen what an anomalous creature’s “Origin” looked like with his own eyes.

[I explained it to you once before: all things have their own imprints, which symbolize unique talents; they also possess their own unique Origins. Only by devouring the Origin along with the imprint can you perfectly exert the power a talent should have.]

For example, the “Talent: Judgment” Si Qingxuan currently possessed… was a fragmented version without an “Origin.”

That was why the system said he could only exert a quarter of the power Caligula had in his prime.

[Yay! More new imprints to collect!]

The system happily began its work.

The familiar transparent book materialized in front of Si Qingxuan.

The pages flipped rapidly, extending several silver chains that grunted as they pulled the silver sphere from the Ghost Cry Thrush’s corpse into the book.

After a flash of white light, an image of a crying black bird appeared on the page, looking as if it would flap its wings and fly out of the paper at any second.

[Origin: Ghost Cry Thrush has been collected! The talent imprints obtained are—]

[Talent: Insight. Instructions: Peer into the deepest desires of a person’s heart, whether they be beautiful or ugly.]

[Talent: Visual Mimicry. Ten thousand changes, free to follow your heart. Whether it is imitating or fabricating an appearance, no one in this world will be able to see through you.]

[Talent: Night Cry. The wail of the night thrush is the sound of disaster and curses, capable of plunging people into endless madness.]

[This is fantastic, High Priest! We’ve collected three talents at once! Oh, wait, maybe it’s four…]

Because the Ghost Tamer was also about to draw his last breath.

Si Qingxuan: “……”

“Didn’t you say the Talent of Ghost Taming brings about severe side effects?” Si Qingxuan asked the system helplessly.

[That is for humans. You aren’t human, so how can you be compared in the same way?]

Si Qingxuan finally understood that as soon as this system saw an imprint, its eyes turned green with greed.

It had become arrogant and bold, even daring to make snide remarks about him, its master.

Si Qingxuan: “Say one more word and I’ll mute you.”

This was a new ability Si Qingxuan had discovered not long ago.

When he found it truly annoying, he could mute the Phantom Library System.

The system immediately behaved itself upon hearing this.

Si Qingxuan sighed, put his sword away, and walked forward a few steps, looking down at the Ghost Tamer lying on the floor.

“Do you have anything else you want to say? I’ll give you a chance.”

Si Qingxuan could tell that even if he didn’t act, the Ghost Tamer wouldn’t live much longer.

The chance Si Qingxuan gave him was the chance to leave his last words.

“My parents… have both passed away. But my girlfriend… is still waiting for me.”

Black blood overflowed from the Ghost Tamer’s nose and mouth, dripping onto the floor.

“I thought the power of the Ghost Cry Thrush could let me return to my former self, so I could go see her…”

One of the Ghost Cry Thrush’s talents was “Visual Mimicry.”

If the Ghost Tamer offered enough sacrifices to it, it was indeed possible to obtain that talent.

Perhaps for the Ghost Tamer, the descent of the Ghost Cry Thrush to his side was not a curse, but rather a stroke of luck—a way to survive.

However, it was seemingly too late now to worry about why the Ghost Tamer had chosen the path he was on.

“Do you know… our world is truly about to end… Many sealed monsters are awakening, and their world is constantly eroding ours… In the future, the human world will become… even more riddled with holes. Except for the Awakened Ones, the remaining people will have almost no chance of survival… This is the information the ancient god passed to the Ghost Cry Thrush…”

The Ghost Tamer coughed again, his breath as light as willow catkins drifting slowly in the wind.

He fumbled in his chest pocket for a long time, pulling out a small, blood-stained photo and handing it to Si Qingxuan.

It was a photo of a young couple.

Both were handsome and beautiful, with sweet smiles.

“On account of me giving you a hint…”

“I beg of you, send the old me… back to her side…”

The young Ghost Tamer gradually stopped breathing.

Si Qingxuan stared at him for a long time before finally tucking the photo into his palm with an expressionless face.

[Do you intend to help him? He isn’t exactly a good person.]

“I was the one who proactively let him say his last words,” Si Qingxuan said.

“Besides, it’s not like we aren’t receiving any compensation.”

The system understood Si Qingxuan’s hint and was instantly ecstatic.

With a clack, it opened the library system and collected the Ghost Tamer’s imprint into the book.

[The Talent of Ghost Taming is indeed quite useless. However, with your current spiritual energy and the Origin of the Ghost Cry Thrush, you might be able to summon a new Ghost Cry Thrush for your own use.]

“Forget it.”

At the mention of the Ghost Cry Thrush, Si Qingxuan seemed to recall some bad memory, and his face turned pale again.

“Instead of that, think about what the words the Ghost Tamer said before he died meant…”

[Ah? I didn’t expect you to have forgotten even this. It’s likely that a once-in-a-millennium meteor shower has arrived, and anomalous creatures that were once in deep sleep or sealed have entered their awakening phase.

Earth is about to enter a period of catastrophe… something along those lines.]

Si Qingxuan: “……The apocalypse is coming? Shouldn’t you have told me such an important thing immediately?!”

[Calm down, High Priest. It’s the end of this world that is coming, not our end. How do you think I woke up? It was all thanks to the arrival of the catastrophe period.]

[For Earth, this catastrophe is like the Ice Age that descends every so often—for example, about one million years ago, Earth entered a glacial period, and many species were forced to disappear, but some species managed to survive in a few areas, such as the dawn redwood and the giant panda…]

[From a certain perspective, the Ghost Tamer’s view on survival was correct. During a catastrophe period, one only has the confidence to survive if they possess great power or depend on the strong.]