High priest

Basil Town, located in the outermost area of ​​New York, exists at the junction of Buffalo and Philadelphia. It has a history of 80 years and is a place rich in apples.

It has thousands of miles of fertile fields, tens of thousands of acres of farms, and American-style villas scattered among the mountains.At the junction of the mountains, there are roads extending in all directions, and also a street market with dense buildings.

Not so long ago, the town's population of 8000 lived in relative peace.There is wine in the bar, meat in the restaurant, and fruit in the cold room. Even though the outside world is in dire straits, Basil Town can still be called a "Taoyuan".

But now, Xanadu has become an abyss of hell.

The soil smelled fishy, ​​very thick, like soaked in blood.A large area of ​​houses collapsed, and corpses that could not be excavated were pressed among the broken walls.

There are scrapped vehicles lying on the side of the road, and there are traces of crop burning in the fields.It was empty and desolate, and there was no sound everywhere, only the wind in the forest, blowing the breath of death.

There was no one alive, not a single one.

In the perception of Ji Si and Sino City, Basil Town seems to have been lowered a few layers of tone, filled with a fluid, gray thing.Sometimes it forms a human-shaped phantom, and sometimes it collapses like a landslide domino.They are walking beside them, floating more and more.

"Is this resentment?"

"En." Ji Si nodded, "People who die unexpectedly cannot take their last breath. Some die, but they don't know that they are dead, and they just walk around the world like a living person. Some die, and erupt before death. Strong emotions will resonate with the magnetic field of the earth, and then condense into grievances."

"Before they took shape, they were all a kind of 'qi'. Because they are dead things, they yearn for the living. They instinctively approach, plunder, and possess, forcing humans to fulfill their unfulfilled wishes for them, and then expand step by step. Desire, reduced to a ghost."

"And after becoming ghosts, their 'future' can be seen at a glance."

There are many black shadows, and the illusory black mist turns into dry hands. I don't know whether to ask for help or to keep them, and they clung to them again and again.Gathering after parting, and parting again after reuniting, it can be called perseverance.

Si Nuocheng leaned over, stretched out his fingers to lightly touch the mist: "What are you going to do, purify?"

"Why do I need to work hard to help others clean up the mess?" Ji Si raised his eyebrows, "You don't allow others to take a cent from you, so do I allow others to take a share from me? Whoever made the mess, of course, cleaned it up .”

Sino City was silent for a moment, and muttered: "If you peel off your skin, you will be a devil at the core..."

"what are you saying?"

"It's nothing, I just feel that the person wearing human skin is not necessarily a person, maybe a devil." Sinocheng changed the subject in a decent manner, but he didn't know that his words came true, "Some people look much scarier than devils."

Ji Si gave him a meaningful look, and said with a smile: "Indeed, human nature is far more terrifying than ghosts and gods. According to legend, the ghosts living in Rashomon chose to flee to hell because they were afraid of the cruelty of human nature."

Sinocheng was taken aback for a moment, always feeling that Ji Si was implying something.But soon, he pulled back his thoughts and was completely attracted by what Ji Si was doing.

I saw Ji Si walking slowly up the mountain and into the fruit forest.He picked a blood-stained, half-cut apple tree, and reached out to pluck the unripe fruit.

The fruit is only half the size of a palm, one side is immature blue, and the other side is dark red.Someone dies by this tree, and the fate of the tree is the fate of that person.The other party watered this living fruit with intense hatred, hoping to use it to "reincarnate".

It was refined into a demon fruit, by accident.

Holding the fruit, Jisto called softly: "Come here, come to my palm."

Suddenly, a dark wind rolled up, blowing his loose white robe.The black mist covering Basil Town began to rotate, slowly centered on the apple, and continued to condense.

When the wind blows, Ji Si's black hair flies.He holds a scepter in his left hand and a fruit in his right hand, which is half holy and half demonic.Thick dimensional barriers are superimposed, and the invisible things slowly show their original shape.

Sino City "saw" a child standing up from the stone, a man with only half of his head crawling forward, an old man who lost his head groping forward, a woman who had been split in half and walked around him...

They walked towards Ji Si and stretched out thousands of hands.In the next second, they were incorporated into the fruit and disappeared without a trace.

And this young apple lost its prototype almost immediately, became rosy and round, and became full of fragrance.Immediately afterwards, it withered at a speed visible to the naked eye, shriveled into balls, and fell into mud.

In the end, there was only a small seed left in Ji Si's palm, he rubbed it between his fingertips, and held it in front of Sino City: "Intuition tells you what this is?"

Sinocheng was in a daze: "One tree, one bodhi..."

one flower one World.

The seed fell, and the apple tree grew; the branches blossomed, and the green apple grew.Peanuts have fruit, and the fruit contains the entire Basil Town, isn't it just a world?When the fruit bears seeds, the seeds will become a big tree, isn't it just the bodhi that all things are born of?

The cause makes the effect, and the effect affects the cause.The small cycle in nature is endless, and the big cycle in the universe is endless.

Head to tail, tail to head.Like a Ouroboros, but also like a... Möbius ring!

In a trance, Sino City's perception seemed to penetrate the gap of time and touch the boundary of truth.New cognition led to new understanding, he felt his soul was boiling and his whole body was sublimating!

The iceberg in his subconscious cracked and melted, and slowly turned into warm water, nourishing his body and mind.

This feeling... It seems a long time ago, did you experience it?

This is?

"Hey..." Unusual, Ji Si let out a light snort, "It's actually been upgraded."

Changed to the saying of cultivating immortals, it means "Friends of Taoism have crossed the catastrophe", which made a qualitative leap in both cultivation base and body.It's just that today is not the era of major repairs. In the doomed world that lacks aura, the assimilation of the body with the soul is called "dimensional ascension".

Seeing an apple withering can raise the dimension, he really can't get along with the son of luck!

Although the mouth says no, but the body is always very honest.Ji Si raised his hand and patted Sinocheng on the shoulder, "ordering" him to sit cross-legged, and then sat cross-legged beside him to protect him.

Ji Si: "Tsk, once your skin is peeled off, your core is a devil..."

……

Somon brought back Captain Ryan's body and a badly damaged jeep.He was covered in blood, and amidst the exclamations of his teammates, he hugged himself tightly with his bloody hands stuck in his hair, rubbing frantically.

The slightly long nails scratched across the face, digging out a few bloodstains.

"...Mon! Somon!" The red-haired young man grabbed his hand, "Calm down, Somon! Listen, in this changed world, everyone will die. It's not your fault that Captain Ryan is gone. .”

"No, no, if I go faster, faster—" Somon looked ferocious, as if he had changed, and grabbed the shoulder of the red-haired young man, "When I found him, his blood was still hot Yes! Just dripping on my forehead, it's human temperature, just a little bit less! I could have saved him!"

"You tried your best, but that's a monster..."

"It's not a demon!" Somon shouted loudly, but lowered his voice abruptly. "The demon will not leave his own food, and it is impossible for me to let me deliver it to my door. Do you understand what I mean?"

He whispered: "Someone faked the scene of the demon attack and killed Uncle Ryan like a demon. Eddie, New York is not safe, there are traitors among humans."

Eddie's face tightened, he looked around, and quickly pulled him into the corner: "The bump mark on the front of the car is so big, you tell me it's not a monster?"

"But the footprints in the grass are not messy." Somon took a deep breath. "From the open car door to the depths of the jungle, there was no sign of running. I followed the footprints and found his body. Do you understand? Uncle Ryan ——He was stopped by someone and introduced into the woods. If he encountered a monster, then the grass could not be preserved so completely."

Hearing this, Eddie's face turned even paler.

"Do you trust me, Eddie?"

"letter……"

"Okay, listen!" Somon spoke quickly, "The traitor didn't have time to rectify the scene, and I was the first witness. If I can guess, he must be able to guess, so they will find me sooner or later, I'm not safe."

"But I want to lure them out!" Somon solemnly urged, "If you act with me, they may not necessarily do it. I must be alone. And you, go to Li Casa, he is the safest place."

"But you..."

"No but!" At this moment, Somon's logic was very clear, completely devoid of the usual escapism and unreliability, "This is not only for Ryan, but also for New York. They will kill one, or two, and they will kill each other." Hundreds of thousands. If I don't do it, maybe we will all die."

"Licasa's a strong man. It's cold like the North Pole, but I trust him like I trust you. Eddie, go to him! It's the safest place in New York."

Not long after the words fell, the police department responsible for managing the awakened took Somon away.As the first witness at the scene, Somon will inevitably be taken away for questioning, but it is unknown who he will meet and whether he will be safe.

New York is not safe anymore, and Eddie breaks out in a cold sweat.

He didn't hesitate anymore, and ran to Licasa's villa instead of Somon.But he never expected that what he saw was not a strong man who was "cold on the outside and hot on the inside" at all, but an out-and-out devil.

There are even more terrifying existences than devils...

Captain Ryan's best friend Aoli, one of the new high-level executives in New York, is standing in the lobby of the villa with several middle-aged people, watching Li Casa on the sofa with a little restraint.

On the table in front of Licasa, there was a copper plate on which lay a fist-sized heart.

"Please accept it." Aoli smiled. "This is our sincerity. We are willing to send you and work for you. As long as you are willing to stay in New York, we will..."

Licasa looked at him and smiled.

Smiling stiffly, with some inexplicable interest: "What a dirty soul." Like the magic maggots in the underground of the dark field, they exude the same smell as them, and they seem to be of the same kind.

Li Casa suddenly turned his gaze away, and met Eddie's eyes directly outside the window.

At that moment, the expressions of the people inside and outside changed drastically.

……

Somon of the New York Police Department was being interrogated, but suddenly, he felt a pain in his heart, as if he had lost something important.

Inexplicably, he murmured, "Eddie?"