# 932
Chapter 933: The Origin of the Asylum
Billowing smoke rose from the deep crater in the ground, pale blue light flickering through the cracks in the earth. That massive octopedal corpse beast had been reduced to wisps of red dust, dissipating into the air without leaving a single trace of remains.
Seeing that ridiculously over-the-top cannon, Lin Qiye's jaw dropped in shock...
Did you rip this thing off a spaceship? A planet-killer cannon that one-shots a "Boundless" realm corpse beast?
In the sky, Jinian flicked her wrist casually, and the massive cannon disintegrated into countless pixels that scattered like flowing water into a ring on her fingertip, vanishing without a trace.
She stuffed her hands in her pockets, stepped down from the night sky, and the next moment she was standing before Lin Qiye.
The embers of pale blue flames drifted in the air, the panicked screams of fleeing residents echoed in the distance. Jinian grinned at Lin Qiye, waving her hand through the air.
"Hello there, King of Gigolos, Asaba Natsuki?"
Lin Qiye: ...??
"What gigolo?" Lin Qiye turned his head away, his expression blank. "You've got the wrong person."
"Don't tell me, looking more closely, you really do have the aura of a top-tier gigolo..." Jinian studied him up and down, unable to help herself. "Come back to the Oath Society with me. Our Oath Society is in desperate need of talent like you!"
"..." Lin Qiye suddenly felt that the president of the Oath Society didn't think quite like normal people.
"Why are you here?" Lin Qiye steered the conversation.
"Oh, I came out to survey the cultural situation in this 'Human Enclosure' to help plan our operations. Of course, if it happened to be on the way, I'd also like to see what that rich lady who put a billion yen bounty on you looks like."
"...The second half of that was your real intention, wasn't it?"
"Hehe."
Jinian chuckled without denying it. She glanced back at the residents fleeing in chaos, her eyes narrowing slightly. "But the situation here really isn't looking good..."
Lin Qiye looked up at the sky. Beneath the night, it was utterly empty. His brow furrowed tightly.
From what had happened before, Yuzuri Takishiro should have been out there slaughtering corpse beasts and protecting the civilians. But now that this corpse beast had appeared for so long, there was still no sign of Yuzuri Takishiro.
Had he given up chasing the corpse beast and gone home? Or...
Was the frequency of corpse beast descents so rapid that even Yuzuri Takishiro couldn't keep up?
The descents of corpse beasts were random. Although Yuzuri Takishiro could take down a single corpse beast in no time with his strength, if they descended too frequently—if more than one appeared in different locations at the same time—even Yuzuri Takishiro couldn't handle them all immediately.
If it were the former, that was fine. But if it were the latter... that would mean the "Human Enclosure" wasn't far from total collapse.
Lin Qiye's expression turned grave.
BOOM—!
A low engine roar suddenly sounded from beside him. Lin Qiye snapped back to attention. A pixel-assembled McLaren painted in apocalyptic camo had appeared at his side, its low chassis practically scraping the road. The grayish-yellow body, flecked with rust, possessed a raw and brutal beauty in the dusty air.
It was like a beast that had clawed its way out of the apocalypse, crouching on the shattered road, growling low.
Jinian sat in the driver's seat, one hand on the steering wheel, and honked the horn.
"Get in."
"...Where did you get the car from?"
"What's a car? Next time I'll take you on a cruise ship I conjure up." Jinian shrugged.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Qiye opened the door and slid inside, buckling his seatbelt as he did.
He turned his head, only to find Jinian gazing at him with a peculiar expression.
"What are you looking at?"
"...Nothing. I just suddenly thought—if my dad found out there was a King of Gigolos in my passenger seat, he'd probably chase me across the world with a sword." Jinian stuck out her tongue. "Buckle up."
With a roar, the McLaren tore forward and vanished at the end of the road in an instant.
Just a few minutes after they left, a white-robed figure flashed across the sky like lightning and landed in the crater that Jinian had just blasted open.
Yuzuri Takishiro slowly straightened up. His white garments were already stained crimson.
"Didn't make it in time..."
His gaze swept across the surroundings, and his eyes narrowed slightly.
"Hm?" He reached out and caught several wisps of blood-colored dust still drifting in the air, a look of surprise crossing his face. "This corpse beast was already dealt with? By who?"
Yuzuri Takishiro's mind quickly flashed to Amemiya Haruki, then he dismissed the thought.
Brother Amemiya's [Rainfall Collapse] couldn't reduce a corpse beast to ash.
He thought for a long time but couldn't think of anyone else who could do this. He shook his head, about to turn and leave, when a crisp phone ringtone chimed from his chest.
"Hello? Sis?"
"..."
...
On the road beneath the night sky, after gazing out the window for a long while, Lin Qiye finally spoke:
"Actually, I have a lot of questions I want to ask you..."
"I know what you want to ask." Jinian drawled. "What is that asylum? Why are those gods locked inside? Why did it choose you? What is my zodiac sign? And what is my ideal type?"
"...Remove the last two questions."
"Scorpio. I like handsome guys who are over 180cm tall, fair-skinned, good-looking, long-legged, and have abs."
"..." A slight twitch tugged at the corner of Lin Qiye's mouth. "I'm not interested."
"But out of all those questions, I can only answer these two." Jinian said helplessly. "I don't know the answers to the first three either."
"Isn't it yours?"
"No. I just brought it over from some mysterious place. I don't know what it actually is...
After arriving here, it was like it came alive. It dragged me through the mist at breakneck speed. Whenever it released a beam of white light, a figure from the mist would be sucked into the ward and turned into a patient."
"You're saying you weren't controlling the asylum—it was drawing in those patients on its own?"
"Who do you think I am? I was only seven or eight years old back then, just a frail little girl. All I could do was punch through that crooked tree in the courtyard to ease my fear."
"...Then why did it end up in my head?"
"It chose you itself." Jinian turned to look at Lin Qiye, her expression serious. "After collecting all six patients, it guided me to Cangnan to find you..."