Exorcist's Self-Cultivation

Freddy was in agony.

He had thought that Du Wei giving him freedom right before dying would be a wonderful thing.

He had even planned his future.

He would live in Tom's dreams, experiencing a life of fantasy beyond anything he could have ever imagined, with all dangers forever unrelated to him.

Moreover, he deeply realized.

As long as he wasn't in Du Wei's dreams, then Ryan could not possibly dial up to harass him.

Because Ryan's purpose in making calls was to reach Du Wei.

Unless he went crazy one day and wanted to scream at himself, he certainly couldn't keep pestering him.

But just like the old saying goes.

Ideals are plump, reality is stark.

The stark reality for Freddy was that the freedom he had acquired wasn't freedom at all.

"fuck! I've already said my goodbyes to Du the Devil, so why can't I even leave Massas City?"

"Du the Devil above, give me some enlightenment."

"What the hell is going on here?"

Freddy looked at the dark area closing in on him and felt like weeping but had no tears.

As a Nightmare Evil Spirit.

He didn't have a physical body and could move regardless of space and distance.

But in reality.

He simply couldn't leave.

The entire Massas City was like a giant trap.

Once inside, there was no exiting.

Freddy couldn't even enter Tom's dreams to escape this place.

"I knew it, nothing good ever comes from following Du the Devil."

"The madman perished, and now I'm being dragged down as a cushion for his fall."

"fuck! Fuck!"

Freddy knelt on the ground, hands clasped together, and said sincerely, "God, save me."

Dying at the hands of other Evil Spirits would have been fine.

At most, that would be the real end.

But now he found that even dying was difficult.

Massas City was now being assimilated in another way by a combination of the bus, Horror House, and the Demon Nun; by that time, Freddy would become part of it too.

Perhaps he would be a part of the Horror House.

Forever like a Puppet, governed by the Horror House.

Of course, if he was lucky, maybe he would become the bus driver as well.

And it was at this moment.

Suddenly.

Freddy felt something and sharply turned his head to look up at the sky above Massas City.

He saw a huge red balloon rapidly ascending.

Inside the balloon, there was also a vague human silhouette.

The figure was pitch black, and its two hands seemed to be holding two knives, one long, the other short and thin, like a scalpel.

Freddy's eyes widened.

"Isn't that the Demon Spirit's shadow under Du the Devil? How is it inside the balloon?"

"And what the hell is this balloon?"

"Why do I feel like I'm being targeted by it?"

Every time Du Wei used Pennywise, Freddy was tortured in the dreams, so he was unaware of Pennywise's existence.

Seeing this scene now,

He couldn't help but feel shivers, as the red balloon gave him an awful feeling, inexplicably instilling a profound fear within him.

It was like the time he had been hypnotized in Du Wei's dreams, endlessly nested within dreams.

Boom...

A tremendous tremor suddenly erupted around Freddy.

The ground shook.

The dark area seemed to be agitated by Du Wei's actions, and it also began to transform.

Before Freddy's eyes,

The earth was cracking open, something appeared to sweep through the darkness, and it was speeding towards him.

In the blink of an eye.

The darkness had arrived before Freddy.

It frightened him so much that he hastily vanished.

Yet, this was merely a case of drinking poison to quench thirst.

Unable to leave Massas City, he would sooner or later become a part of it.

No...

To be precise, there was no sooner or later.

Because at this moment, the darkness enveloping Massas City was spreading towards the central area.

Wherever it passed, only the sound of the pouring rain could be heard.

Besides that, there were no other sounds.

Though it should have been noisy, what reached the ears was a profound silence.

...

Within Massas City.

Many hidden Strangeness, Evil Spirits, Demon Spirits were also stimulated.

Apart from the oppression brought by assimilation.

They were under the influence of the red balloon thousands of meters above their heads.

Fear is a terrifying force.

That red balloon overhead, like a red moon, unabashedly radiated malice, because within it, there were a pair of bloodshot eyes.

All those who saw it, were also seen by it.

At the same time, they were influenced by it.

Wherever that gaze traveled, there existed fine black threads, intertwining those who felt fear.

Unfortunately, the red balloon was still moving...

Within Massas City.

Du Wei rode his bicycle, clutching the string and dragging the red balloon towards the city center.

He felt as if he were flying a kite.

The difference was,

On the back of his right hand, the pointer pattern was spinning wildly, not the reversal of time Du the Devil once did, but the Marking Ability taking effect.

This ability, with the dark shadow inside the red balloon as an intermediary, marked all those touched by the fine black threads in an extreme manner.

He was playing with fire now.

And it was the kind that could burn him to ashes too.

"It's about done," he said.

"Now, all the beings in Massas City that have seen the dark shadow have been successfully Marked by me."

"They will be with me."

Du Wei rode his bicycle, his voice growing colder.

He roughly estimated that he had Marked about eleven Strangeness, four to five hundred Evil Spirits, and a couple of Demon Spirits, along with other assorted things.

In a sense, these were all his trump cards.

But if there were a better way, he absolutely would not have done this.

The more trump cards he had, the faster he would die.

However, if he didn't do this, there would be no way out at all.

Plans had changed again and again.

The fundamental reason was that Du Wei had no capacity to resist directly; his life and death depended solely on his own gambles and his dance with swords to find a sliver of chance for survival.

If he didn't Mark these terrifying things, the combined entity of buses and other Strangeness would assimilate them as well.

Awakening Du the Devil also required enough Sacrifice.

"Let's see who's one step ahead," he said.

At this time, Du Wei had already arrived at the central area of Massas City, where most of the ground had collapsed, and the wheels of his bicycle were deformed, basically unable to be ridden any further.

He got off the bicycle outright.

Then, Du Wei took a deep breath and stood amid the darkness, activating his Marking Ability.

Overhead...

The dark shadow within the red balloon shifted its gaze onto Du Wei.

Those fine black threads all changed with the direction of its eyes.

In an instant...

With Du Wei as the epicenter, the surrounding temperature plummeted, and terrifying entities appeared around him.