Chapter 120: Night Parade of a Hundred Demons (11)

“Where is this place?” Selina startled, finding herself standing in a strange space.

The place was fairly dark, and beneath her feet lay a thin layer of water barely under 1cm deep, reflecting her image back at her.

Selina looked down, and then she saw an image suddenly appear on the water’s surface — one she knew all too well.

She saw a dark and filthy slum. In the middle of a trash-strewn road stood a little girl around 8 or 9 years old, her body covered in grime, her hair matted from going unwashed for far too long.

Yet her eyes were extraordinarily bright, like the two most precious pearls in the entire world.

She watched a woman standing not far away, cigarette in hand, laughing and chatting with a strange man.

Then the woman and that man went inside the house, and from within came shameful sounds that echoed for a long while before finally going quiet.

A moment later, the man came back out. Spotting the little girl, he grinned and said, “This kid’s not bad looking. One day she could be just like her mama — a whore, hahaha…”

“Get lost.” The woman came out and snapped at him, voice low.

The man laughed it off, seemingly unbothered, giving the woman one last glance before walking away.

Throughout all of it, the little girl just stood there in silence, not saying a word. Her face was calm, her eyes completely still — as though this had happened countless times before.

The woman walked over to the girl and reached out as if to touch her, but then seemed frightened by something and quickly pulled her hand back.

The girl looked up at the woman, her childlike voice carrying a trace of confusion: “Mom, why won’t you touch me?”

The woman pressed her lips together. Sadness and disappointment flickered plainly across her face, but then she forced a smile and said, “Because… my hands are dirty.”

“Dirty?” The girl tilted her head, glancing at the woman’s clean hands clutching a few crumpled bills, feeling thoroughly confused.

The woman caught her gaze and quickly adjusted her clothes, then crouched down and smiled. “Selina, I’ve got money now. We can have meat today.”

Selina heard that, and those normally hollow eyes flickered with a small spark of joy. “Okay. Mom’s the best.”

Just then, the water’s surface rippled, and the image shifted.

Now Selina was 15. She wore a set of clothes so washed-out the color had faded, yet even that couldn’t hide how beautiful she had become.

But beside her, the woman from before now lay in bed, her body so thin it looked like nothing but skin and bone.

She struggled to breathe, as though even that simple act was draining the last of her strength.

Selina pressed her lips together, her eyes glistening like she was on the verge of tears. One hand held her mother’s tightly; the other clutched a few bills she had crumpled in her grip.

But no one noticed the few red spots on that faded skirt — as if to say that the most precious thing she had was traded away for nothing more than a handful of cash.

The woman managed to speak, her voice labored: “Selina… you… must find… a man… who truly… loves you…”

“I’m sorry… Selina… I… I…”

She never finished the sentence. Her body went still, her breathing stopped. Her eyes fell half-shut, gazing off into the distance, two tears spilling silently down her face.

Selina bit her lip until it bled, dropped her head, and wept — her entire body shaking violently.

The water rippled again. The image vanished. Selina showed no fear, only a furrowed brow.

Then the images on the water returned once more — this time showing when she was taken in by a foster family.

But Selina hadn’t escaped hell. She had only traded one hell for another.

The family took her in to make her a wife for their intellectually disabled son.

Not only did she have to prepare every meal for him, she had to clean up after him — and endure his brutal beatings.

When Selina turned 17, her foster father noticed her looks. Unable to restrain himself, he used some strange drug, and then…

She woke up. But the first thing the man did was beat her — because she wasn’t his first.

He flew into such a rage that he beat her unconscious.

Back then, Selina had found it genuinely hard to understand.

Men always wanted more women. So why, the moment they discovered they weren’t the first, did they get so furious?

But the fact that she had been raped by her foster father was discovered by one of his rivals, and afterward, a social welfare fund helped her start a new life.

The images kept cycling — all the way up to when she stepped into the entertainment industry, became a model, and then became a plaything for those twisted men.

Through every moment of watching these memories she had buried deep inside herself, her expression remained disturbingly indifferent.

Selina frowned and said, “Done yet? What’s the point of making me watch all that? Trying to make me feel hopeless? Miserable?”

“How pathetic.”

But right then, the image on the water changed. Selina froze — and saw Rover.

Yet the look in his eyes as he gazed at her no longer carried that teasing warmth or indulgence. It was disgust. Revulsion. Like he was staring at something lower than dirt.

Thud.

She dropped to the ground, face blank, her body suddenly trembling violently — cold, as though she were sitting inside a freezer.

“No! Master… don’t, don’t look at me like that.” Selina began shaking uncontrollably. “Please! Please… don’t hate me!”

At that moment, a familiar voice rang out.

“Selina. I never thought you were that kind of woman.”

“Disgusting. How many men have you been through?”

“Should I call you a whore, or just a public bus?”

“Your mom was a whore, so you’re the same, aren’t you?”

Selina covered her ears, her eyes trembling and rolling back, lips murmuring, “No! No! Master… please… please…”

Tears poured down her beautiful face like two streams, and she looked both desperate and unhinged — her mind teetering on the very edge of collapse.

Just then, her body began slowly sinking into the thin layer of water beneath her feet, as though it had become a pit of quicksand.

Strangely, Selina didn’t seem to notice at all. She let herself sink deeper and deeper, her face twisted in absolute, unbearable despair.

….

Outside, Selina stood perfectly still while the spirit of that woman slowly merged into her body, just a little more away from becoming one with her completely.

Suddenly, a pale, skeletal hand — nothing but skin over bone — came to rest on Selina’s shoulder.

Then came a head, long hair curtaining the face entirely, revealing only a pair of blood-red eyes fixed on the spirit that was gradually fusing into Selina’s body.

Yes. It was the female specter that had followed Rover all the way from the psychiatric hospital to this apartment building.

Selina’s shadow suddenly convulsed violently, then spread outward like an oil spill, slowly engulfing a vast area — a radius of over 20 meters in every direction.

The specter’s hair abruptly lengthened, flowing like a waterfall as it dissolved into the shadow below.

Then, countless black tendrils surged up from the massive shadow beneath, coiling around the souls drifting past and absorbing them instantly — making them vanish at a terrifying speed.

Those tendrils were like a decomposition machine, rapidly reducing every soul that tried to rush into the building to nothing but ash.

More precisely, the specter’s tendrils were devouring them, leaving only dust behind.

Most critically, the spirit that had been just a breath away from fully merging with Selina suddenly froze in place — as if turned to stone.

At the same moment, the specter’s dress, which had been completely white, began to change. The red stain at its hem suddenly spread, bleeding outward wider and wider, as if trying to dye the entire dress crimson.

Woo! Woo! Woo!

The soul orb suddenly let out a piercing shriek — like the screams of countless people crying out in desperation.

But the specter’s black tendrils immediately shot toward it, coiling tight around it.

TUUU!!!

The holes across the soul orb’s surface blasted out a shrill, alarm-like wail, sending sonic waves sweeping outward in all directions.

The specter’s black tendrils were instantly shattered by the sonic blast — but new ones immediately lunged forward, wrapping around the soul orb again.

TUUU!!!

The alarm sounded again. The same scene played out once more.

TUUU!!!

The soul orb unleashed its wail again — but this time, when it fell silent, the specter’s tendrils did not dissolve.

Instead, more and more tendrils coiled around the soul orb, tighter and tighter.

The soul orb began to dissolve as though submerged in concentrated acid, slowly melting away into droplets of transparent liquid that dripped down into the shadow the specter had created.

Woo! Woo!

It cried out in agony, but its body kept melting, until there was nothing left.

Then something strange happened.

More than half of the specter’s white dress had turned red, and her body was no longer skeletal and riddled with the marks of decay.

In its place was a normal body — still extremely thin, like someone who had been starved for days, severely malnourished.

Yet the long hair that had previously hidden her entire face now only covered her eyes, leaving the lower half exposed.

Just that lower half of the specter’s face — skin as pale as a corpse’s — was enough to make anyone who saw it sense they were looking at a breathtaking beauty.

A kind of beauty laced with frailty and strangeness pushed to the extreme, enough to make anyone who laid eyes on it shudder with unease.

She suddenly broke into a smile — slightly unhinged — and her body slowly walked forward into Selina’s.

Then merged with her, becoming one.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep