EFB Chapter 1: Hell with Open Eyes
Chapter 1: Hell with Open Eyes
pain.
The indescribable pain was the first straw that consciousness grasped when it rose from the cold void.
No, it wasn't straw, but a red-hot iron rod that was driven deep into the skull and violently churning the brain.
Every invisible grinding brings the illusion that the soul is about to shatter.
Xuan Tianyi couldn't tell whether the excruciating pain came from this unfamiliar body or from the inevitable tearing that occurred when two souls were forcibly merged.
Following the excruciating pain came the sound.
A viscous, boiling symphony of death, brewed from countless moments of despair.
A woman's shriek often rises abruptly, only to be replaced by a duller, more muffled "ripping" sound—flesh being torn apart by brute force—after a sickening "crack" sound.
The satisfied growls and hungry howls of wild beasts rose and fell in the distance, like the drumbeats of hell.
The sounds were mingled with the whimpers of dying humans, the cries of orphaned children, and the heart-wrenching thuds of countless feet trampling through the mud and the bodies of their fellow human beings as people fled in a frenzy.
These sounds twisted into a filthy wave, filled with the stench of rust and entrails, relentlessly battering the fragile boundaries of his consciousness, attempting to drag him back into the darkness that represented peace.
"I……"
A simple, fundamental question, tinged with a completely unfamiliar sense of dread, surfaced deep within my consciousness.
Memory is a whirlpool of utter chaos.
Some images, which did not belong to him, yet were incredibly clear, flickered:
A blinding, intense white light that seemed to evaporate the soul; a long, agonizing feeling of weightlessness that made one's soul fly away, as if falling from a great height;
And... scattered, warm fragments—under the orange lamplight, kind, smiling eyes, and gentle voices saying, "Yi'er, come home for dinner..."
"Uh...ha..."
A dry, burning throat forced out incoherent syllables.
The instinct to survive, or rather, the aversion to this endless pain, compelled him to use the last bit of strength left in his body to fight against his eyelids, which were as heavy as iron gates.
A glimmer of light pierced the darkness.
Then, he saw the "sky".
A solidified, suffocating dark red filled the entire field of vision.
That was not a sunset, nor fireworks, but an eternal curtain formed by the coagulation, sedimentation, and decay of billions of tons of blood plasma.
In the center of this oppressively blood-red curtain, a "moon" of unimaginable size and defying all common sense hangs silently.
Scarlet, viscous, eerie.
Its surface texture resembles millions of dried and cracked scabs, or the infinitely magnified texture in the cold pupils of some indescribable supreme being looking down indifferently at the mortal world.
A thick, viscous, crimson glow poured down, illuminating everything in sight—fleeing figures, twisted, withered trees, the filthy earth...
They were all coated with a cruel and ominous glaze, as if the whole world was soaked in the depths of a pool of corrupt blood.
Xuan Tianyi's eyes widened suddenly, and even the excruciating pain in his head was briefly overwhelmed by an even more overwhelming sense of horror.
He found himself leaning against a giant tree that had long since died.
The trunk was thick, but the bark had peeled off, revealing the grayish wood inside. Countless deep, grotesque claw marks, beyond human capabilities, covered the trunk, intertwined with large patches of splattered, oxidized, and blackened unidentified stains. Under the blood moonlight, it formed a blasphemous and terrifying abstract painting.
The withered tree's sprawling branches stretched towards the blood-red sky, casting shadows as dark as ink, as if to completely engulf him.
And beyond the shadow of the dead tree—
It is a boiling, naked, hellish scene called "Doomsday".
As far as the eye could see, there was only a desolate wasteland.
The dark, endless crowd surged forward like ants emerging from a nest doused with boiling water, desperately rushing about under the blood-red sky.
Their clothes were tattered, barely covering their bodies, and their faces were blurred by extreme fear, the grime and blood from their long journey, leaving only gaping black holes distorted by their silent screams.
The crowd was completely disordered, driven only by instinct to surge in some uncertain direction.
People kept collapsing from exhaustion or being tripped up, only to be swallowed up and trampled by the chaotic and merciless footsteps of those who followed. Before they could even let out a complete scream, they slumped down and became part of the muddy earth, becoming another slippery "road sign" under the feet of those who came after them.
But even more shocking than the blindly fleeing crowd are the "sheepdogs" who gracefully and efficiently harvest the "sheep" from the "flock".
It resembles a rotten dog that has been maliciously magnified several times and stripped of all its docile traits, yet it has gnarled, grayish muscles like the root nodules of an old tree, covered by a rough skin that is not fur but rather resembles hardened leather.
Their snouts protrude, and their pale, bone-dagger-like fangs protrude from their lips, dripping with sticky saliva.
Those scarlet eyes reflected nothing but the most primal, purest bloodlust and killing intent.
They moved with ghostly speed, their gray figures weaving through the gaps in the panicked crowd, easily catching and knocking down the lagging refugees.
With a swipe of its claws, the thin clothing and flesh were torn apart like paper, revealing stark white bones and bright red internal organs; the fangs snapped shut with a muffled sound of a broken throat and shattered neck bones.
Warm blood splattered and splashed under the crimson light of the blood moon, drawing brief and eerie arcs before mixing with the mud and staining the earth a deeper, darker red.
The pungent, almost overwhelming stench of blood, the acrid smell of fresh entrails exposed to the air, the stench of incontinence, and the nauseatingly sweet aroma of corpses beginning to decompose under the intense heat and trampling...
All the flavors mixed together roughly, forming the very taste of death itself, which relentlessly poured into his mouth and nose, stuck to his trachea, and sank heavily into his stomach.
"vomit--!"
A strong physical nausea caused his stomach to spasm and convulse violently, his vision to go black in waves, and acid mixed with a very small amount of stomach contents surged up into his throat, which he forced down, bringing a burning pain.
However, what chilled him to the bone and terrified his soul even more than the naked ravages of bestiality was the extremely ugly yet incredibly real "flowers of evil" that bloomed under the pressure of desperate circumstances.
Not far in front of him, a burly man with a face contorted with fear, in order to clear away the slightest obstacle in his path, unhesitatingly used all his strength to violently shove a frail woman who was staggering and running beside him—whose clothes might have been his wife—to a corpse dog that was prowling and searching for its target!
Caught off guard, the woman's eyes, filled with utter shock and despair, were clearly imprinted on Xuan Tianyi's retina under the blood moonlight. Reflected in them were her husband's ferocious profile and the gaping maw of the corpse dog.
The burly man didn't even glance back at the abruptly stopped scream before plunging into the surging crowd and disappearing from sight.
Closer still, two men who had been supporting each other suddenly drew their knives at each other over a bag of dry rations that had been ripped from a corpse and whose original color was no longer discernible. Their eyes were as fierce as wolves, and their former camaraderie was as fragile as a cicada's wing in the face of survival.
In the corner, someone huddled up, hands covering their head, staring blankly at the bloody killing field, a strange, numb smile even tugging at the corner of their mouth, their soul already dead.
There are many people like him who are injured or too weak to move, paralyzed in the mud.
Most of them had dejected eyes, watching the approaching shadow of death, some sobbing softly, some murmuring prayers, and some completely numb, quietly waiting for the end.
But even in this dense, impenetrable darkness and despair, there was a faint yet incredibly dazzling "light" that stubbornly and futilely flickered.
An elderly man with white hair and a hunched back picked up a broken wooden spear from somewhere and waved it around, shouting in a hoarse and broken voice, trying in vain to organize the few terrified young people around him into a small, trembling circle.
Even though his aged body looked as pale and fragile as a candle in a storm compared to even the smallest corpse dog.
A young couple stood facing each other. The man had a deep, bloody claw wound on his back, revealing bone and torn flesh. Blood soaked through his tattered clothes, yet he used his body to shield his wife. Facing the approaching corpse dogs, his eyes were fierce like those of a trapped beast, and he refused to back down an inch.
A gaunt mother, whose age was hard to guess, held her crying baby tightly in her arms, using her back and shoulders to withstand the impact and trampling of the panicked crowd.
Even if kicked down or trampled, they curl up into the strongest fortress, their eyes burning with a wolf-like, frenzied will to protect.
A few people wearing tattered standard leather armor with blurred city emblems on their chests, wielding dulled swords, shouted hoarsely amidst the chaos, desperately fighting off the approaching corpse dogs, trying to tear a tiny gap in the crowd that was blindly fleeing behind them.
Their hoarse roars were as faint as mosquitoes amidst the boundless clamor of death.
Good and evil, courage and baseness, sacrifice and betrayal, protection and abandonment...
The most extreme parts of the entire spectrum of human emotions twist, intertwine, collide, and splatter under the indifferent gaze of this eternal blood moon, staging an apocalyptic drama that is so real it is cruel and so absurd it freezes the heart.
Xuan Tianyi's mind went blank.
Memories of a past life—
The image of that modern world, filled with trivial troubles yet peaceful to the point of being tedious, suddenly surged forth, violently colliding, rubbing, and exploding with every detail of this hellish scene before my eyes!
A strong sense of absurdity, a feeling of being torn apart, and the deepest, most instinctive fear, like cold iron clamps, gripped his heart tightly, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
Was it a dream?
But the pain was so real, the smell so tangible, the cold, sticky earth beneath him so distinct, and the lingering sensation of warm, splattered blood on his face seemed to remain...
More fragments of memories belonging to the original owner of this body surged up from the depths of the soul, stimulated by this extreme scene, carrying the weight, warmth, and... the coldness of the end of another "Xuan Tianyi's" sixteen years of life.
In the quiet evening of Linhai Town, wisps of smoke rose from chimneys. A mother leaned against the door, calling, "Yi'er, come back for dinner!"
His father was sharpening a machete in the yard when he turned around and gave him a simple, honest smile…
Then came a terrifying roar that seemed to shatter the heavens and the earth, sweeping in from the mountains and forests outside the town, engulfing everything in flames and thick smoke. Wooden and stone houses collapsed like building blocks under the giant claws and impacts.
When his father shoved him violently into the cellar, his bloodshot yet resolute eyes, and his mother's heart-wrenching, inhuman screams...
"Live on! Yi'er, you must live on!"...
Then came the dark, stuffy, and suffocating cellar. After an unknown amount of time, I carefully crawled out and was confronted with my home, now a scorched wasteland.
Then came a long, hungry, and cold escape, following the equally panicked and dispersing crowd, like a rootless duckweed, until exhaustion and pain overwhelmed me, until finally, leaning against this withered tree, my consciousness sank into boundless darkness...
Linhai Town... Beast Tide... Parents... Escape...
The memories of two souls, two completely different life trajectories, collide and shatter at this moment, only to be forcibly blended and squeezed into the same body and the same consciousness named "Xuan Tianyi" by an invisible and domineering force.
The overwhelming flood of information, the despair of impending death, and the relentless onslaught of the hellish scene before him nearly shattered and tore his nascent, fragile consciousness to shreds.
He leaned stiffly against the cold, rough tree trunk, unable to think, understand, or even feel the existence of his "self." All that remained was the most primal, deep-seated tremor of a living being, as he gazed at the never-ending bloodbath before him.
This is the world he saw when he opened his eyes.
The only world.
hell.
"roar--!"
A low growl, filled with hunger, murderous intent, and the joy of finding "still prey," suddenly exploded in front of him, and a stench of hot air rushed in, carrying the smell of rotting corpses and the remnants of flesh and blood between sharp teeth.
Xuan Tianyi's unfocused pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints!
A corpse dog, about the size of a calf, with fresh minced meat and dark red blood still hanging from the corner of its mouth, had silently approached within a few meters.
Its scarlet eyes precisely locked onto the "prey" that was leaning against the tree root, motionless and barely breathing. Thick saliva stretched into long strands from between its white teeth and dripped onto the dark red soil.
The powerful hind leg muscles were taut like iron, slightly lowered, assuming the most classic and deadly pouncing stance.
The cold, predatory aura of death, like tangible, slippery tentacles, instantly wrapped around his neck, choking him.
The darkness and fear that devoured everything in the depths of the original owner's memory at the last moment, and the absolute despair that Xuan Tianyi himself clearly recognized, perfectly overlapped, resonated, and then exploded at this moment!
dying.
Having just "awakened," before even fully taking control of the body, it is about to perish in the belly of beasts in the bloodiest and most painful way, becoming yet another insignificant stain in this hellish landscape.
The corpse dog slammed its hind legs into the ground, the solid earth groaning. Its ashen figure, bathed in the blood-red moonlight, transformed into a deadly afterimage, tearing through the murky air as it pounced through the air!
The enormous mouth, rapidly enlarging in his field of vision, filled with interlocking sharp teeth and emitting a strong stench, was aimed directly at his unprotected throat and face!
Time seemed to be infinitely stretched and frozen in that instant.