Chapter Seventy-Five: The Condemned

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The exhibition hall was shrouded in gloom, with scarcely any light source; the curtains by the windows had all been drawn tight, and several spaces on the display walls, hung with various paintings, were still without exhibits. Thanks to the formidable night vision ability of the Eerie Walker, Qi Chen discerned that most of the paintings already on display were portraits. What sent chills down one’s spine was that the figures within these portraits seemed almost alive, stealthily regarding him, the unfamiliar visitor.

As he casually glanced at one painting, Qi Chen had no idea who the depicted character might be. Perhaps, even across all of City No. 3, few could say anything about them. After all, the majority of these works were relics from the old era, salvaged from the mist-laden ruins beyond the city.

Gazing at the mysterious portrait, Qi Chen slowly advanced toward it. With each step closer, the sensation of being watched intensified. When he finally stood before the painting, he stared intently at the oil painting just inches from his face and spoke:

“What are you looking at?”

To an ordinary observer, Qi Chen’s actions would have seemed mad—actually questioning an oil painting—yet his expression was utterly earnest, as though he were facing not a canvas but a living soul.

Silence brewed in the air. Qi Chen continued his unwavering gaze until, quite suddenly, he broke into laughter.

The instant his laughter rang out, the imposing form of the Overlord abruptly materialized behind him. The mask of black and white bore eyes as large as copper bells, filled with a fierce, deadly aura, fixing upon the portrait.

What happened next would be even harder for anyone to comprehend. The man in the painting, dressed like a medieval nobleman, actually gulped, his hands trembling as he held them before himself, and unmistakable human terror flickered in his eyes.

Qi Chen’s smile grew ever more brilliant. He remained silent, continuing to stare at the figure before him.

It was clear the training materials from the Eerie Affairs Division were not mistaken; the situation with this portrait was exactly as described in the internal documents—a phenomenon Qi Chen had found particularly intriguing during his studies.

Under the influence of eerie powers, art from before the Age of Mist—be it paintings or sculpture—sometimes underwent uncanny phenomena straight out of fantastical tales, becoming spiritual conduits. The Research Institute had yet to unravel the underlying principle, and could only tentatively classify these as a kind of derivative product, born under the shadow of the eerie powers.

Yet these influences remained elusive. The Institute had once conducted experiments, deliberately placing old-era artworks beside contained eerie weapons, but even with the weapons activated, the paintings did not display spiritual phenomena.

Like the eeries themselves, the pattern of their awakening defied summary to this day.

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Some of these spiritual derivatives can be dangerous, but more often, they provide the Eerie Walkers with valuable intelligence during missions—though how one extracts information depends on the individual’s methods.

Qi Chen believed that this portrait would appreciate his approach to communication.

A guttural growl rumbled from the Overlord’s mouth. Under immense pressure, the eyes of the painted figure darted frantically from side to side. With a trembling hand, he pointed to the side.

“Thank you,” Qi Chen said with a gentle smile, turning to walk in the direction indicated by the portrait.

No sooner had he turned than a spectral figure shot out of the painting, claws bared, as if to pounce upon his back. The apparition was unmistakably the very man depicted in the painting.

Bang!

The figure froze in midair, confronted by the tower-like form of the Overlord. Bit by bit, it slunk back into the painting, reverting to an ordinary portrait once more.

Only—the smile that had once graced his face was gone.

...

Following the direction indicated by the painted figure, Qi Chen continued ahead, the air growing ever colder and more oppressive.

He was long accustomed to the scent of the eerie, but this chill was unlike the creeping sense of revival he’d known before. This was a suffocating heaviness, ruthlessly suppressed.

He soon located the source of this strange sensation: a bronze statue in the deepest recesses of the art museum.

The statue’s main body was a column, to which was chained a man with his head hung low—at least one meter ninety tall, taller even than Qi Chen. The man was naked, arms bound and hauled high atop the bronze pillar. His exposed skin bore a multitude of shocking wounds. Even cast in bronze, the sculpture seemed so vivid that one could almost feel the agony carved into its form.

The oppressive aura emanated from this bound man.

“So this is the museum’s eerie weapon?” Qi Chen scrutinized the statue, which possessed a beauty both indescribable and suffocating. Though his aesthetic knowledge was not profound, he could sense a spirit of struggle and a religious air of judgment woven into its form.

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Perhaps the old era of this world was also a time of flourishing civilization.

“Something’s not right...” Drawing upon the knowledge imparted by the Eerie Affairs Division, Qi Chen furrowed his brow after a moment’s thought.

Judging by the current aura, the bronze statue was at most E-level. Yet even the portrait at the museum entrance had manifested spiritual phenomena under the influence of the eerie power. The distance between the two far exceeded the radius within which an E-level entity could exert its effect.

Suddenly, Qi Chen looked up, staring directly at the statue.

He had the distinct impression that the bronze statue, like the portrait he’d encountered earlier, had come alive—could it too be a spiritual derivative?

But he dismissed the idea at once. Rather than a derivative, he believed the statue before him was an eerie weapon—its mechanism simply hadn’t yet been triggered.

There was still some time before Old Li left the city. According to their earlier deductions, the enemy could not have arranged for all the eerie weapons to activate prematurely.

This bound prisoner statue, then, was likely an eerie entity set to erupt right on cue.

With this in mind, Qi Chen scrutinized the statue even more carefully.

This inspection soon revealed something unusual.

The human-shaped statue was, in fact, secretly untying the ropes binding its hands!

“Let me help you,” Qi Chen said, wearing a harmless smile. The Overlord floated over, his thick fingers deftly twisting the bronze ropes—soft as real cords—and tying them into a dead knot.

Looking cheerfully at the statue, whose head had suddenly lifted, Qi Chen said with a twinkle, “You’re welcome.”

...