Mortal Dawn and Dusk, My Eternal Life - Chapter 27

October, the twenty-sixth year of the Republic of China, late autumn, Shanghai-Nanjing front.

The thunder of artillery shook the earth, and gunpowder smoke filled the sky, dyeing the once azure firmament a desperate, gloomy grey. Amidst the shattered ruins and broken walls, corpses lay scattered across the fields. Blood stained the scorched earth. The air was filled with the pungent smell of gunpowder, the metallic tang of blood, and the putrid stench of death. This was a living hell.

Beside the half-collapsed ruins of a civilian house, a young Nationalist soldier lay face up in the cold mud and water. His military uniform was so stained with blood and dirt that its original color was unrecognizable. A gruesome bullet hole in his chest still oozed blood. His eyes were wide open, pupils dilated, completely devoid of life. His name was Gu Mingxuan, twenty-three years old, a Huangpu Military Academy graduate, filled with patriotic fervor to serve his country. However, in this cruel war, his young life, like countless other hot-blooded youths, withered prematurely on this ravaged land.

He was dead. He died silently, died… unknown. Like the tens of thousands of souls lost on this battlefield, his death seemed to cause no special ripple in this immense tragedy.

However, just as Gu Mingxuan’s body gradually grew cold, and the last trace of life was about to completely dissipate—

A faint, almost imperceptible dark golden light, carrying a hint of confusion and ancientness, like a solitary soul drifting for a thousand years, quietly emerged from the void, and then… slowly merged into Gu Mingxuan’s already breathless body.

Time, at this moment, seemed to stand still. He didn’t know how long passed, perhaps just an instant, or perhaps a long few hours.

“Cough… cough, cough…”

A violent cough suddenly came from the body that should have been dead! Gu Mingxuan, or rather, the soul that had taken over Gu Mingxuan’s body, violently opened his eyes!

What kind of eyes were they! Initially, they held a hint of blankness and emptiness, as if he had just awakened from a boundless nightmare. Immediately after, that blankness gradually receded, replaced by a deep, bone-chilling coldness and… savagery! As if towering resentment and endless bloodlust surged in the depths of those eyes!

“I… where am I?”

A hoarse and unfamiliar voice emerged from “Gu Mingxuan’s” throat. He (we’ll temporarily call him “Newborn A-Mu”) struggled to sit up from the cold mud and water, examining this unfamiliar body. A tattered military uniform, blood-stained hands, and that gruesome bullet hole in the chest…

A bullet hole?! He instinctively reached out to touch his chest. There, where there should have been a fatal wound, now, apart from the torn clothing and congealed bloodstains, his skin was as smooth as before, without even a single scar!

“This… what’s going on?” Newborn A-Mu’s heart was filled with confusion. His mind was a blank slate. Apart from endless darkness and some vague, painful fragments, he couldn’t remember anything. He didn’t know who he was, where he came from, or why he was here.

Just then, a commotion of footsteps and garbled Japanese shouts came from not far away. Several Japanese soldiers, carrying Arisaka rifles and wearing khaki military uniforms, were searching through the ruins cautiously. They were clearly clearing the battlefield, scavenging supplies, or… performing execution shots.

When they saw “Gu Mingxuan” sitting up from the mud, they were initially startled, then grotesque smiles spread across their faces.

“Yōshi! Still a live one!” a Japanese soldier shouted in broken Chinese, simultaneously raising his rifle.

“Kill him!” another Japanese soldier simply pulled the trigger!

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Piercing gunshots rang out in the ruins! Several bullets, carrying the aura of death, whistled towards Newborn A-Mu! Newborn A-Mu seemed to still be reeling from the shock and confusion. He didn’t even make any dodging movements, merely instinctively raised his arm, blocking himself.

However, the next scene made the Japanese soldiers’ eyes nearly pop out! The bullets, capable of piercing steel plates, upon contact with Newborn A-Mu’s body, oddly clinked as if hitting an invisible wall, and then… disappeared into thin air!

Yes, disappeared into thin air! No bullet heads fell, no blood splattered. The bullets just bizarrely vanished without a trace! And Newborn A-Mu, apart from a few shallow red marks on his arm, was completely unharmed!

“Na… Nani?!”

The Japanese soldiers were stunned. They rubbed their eyes, wondering if they had seen wrong. They then raised their guns again and frantically sprayed bullets at Newborn A-Mu!

“Tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—!”

Dense bullets rained down on Newborn A-Mu! However, the result was still the same as before! All the bullets bizarrely vanished the moment they touched his body! He was like a monster that could devour all metal, no matter how dense the bullets, they couldn’t harm him in the slightest!

Newborn A-Mu looked at the enemies frantically shooting at him, feeling the slight stinging sensation of the bullets hitting his body. His eyes, which had initially been somewhat bewildered, gradually became replaced by a cold killing intent. He didn’t know why he possessed this invulnerability to blades and bullets, nor did he know why he felt such intense aversion and killing intent towards these khaki-uniformed people. But his body, his instincts, were telling him—kill them!

A surge of resentment and savagery, stemming from a thousand years ago and suppressed for too long, erupted from the depths of his heart like a volcano!

“Roar—!!!”

Newborn A-Mu let out an inhuman roar, looking up at the sky! His pitch-black eyes were instantly filled with an eerie dark golden glow! His body also began to change at a visible speed! His fingernails became sharp and long, his skin became pale and tough, and a powerful, suffocating demonic qi burst forth from him!

The Japanese soldiers were terrified out of their wits by this horrifying scene! They finally realized that what they had encountered was not some ordinary Nationalist soldier, but a… monster! A true monster!

“De… Demon!”

They screamed in terror, dropping their weapons, and turned to flee. However, it was already too late. Newborn A-Mu’s figure shifted, and like a black bolt of lightning, he instantly charged into the group of Japanese soldiers! His sharp claws, shimmering with a cold light, like the sharpest blades, easily tore through their bodies!

Blood, severed limbs, internal organs…
Splattered everywhere!
Screams rose and fell, then quickly vanished.

In just a few breaths, the Japanese soldiers who had been so arrogant moments ago were reduced to a blurred mess of flesh and blood on the ground. The entire process was clean, brutal, and bloody, filled with a primal aesthetic of violence.

Newborn A-Mu stood in a pool of blood, his chest heaving violently, heavy breaths escaping his mouth. He looked at his blood-stained sharp claws, a hint of confusion flashing in his eyes, but more than that, a bloodthirsty pleasure and… emptiness. Slaughter seemed to bring a momentary peace to his restless heart.

Just then, an intense pain, like a tidal wave, surged into his head! Countless chaotic, fragmented memories, filled with pain and despair, flooded his mind like a breaching dam!

Imprisoned darkness…
Excruciating screams…
Cold chains…
And… a blurred, pitch-black, yet incredibly familiar female back…

“Ugh—!!!”

Newborn A-Mu clutched his head, collapsing to his knees in pain, letting out suppressed roars. His body trembled violently from the sudden冲击 of these memories. He tried to grasp those memory fragments, tried to see who that figure was, but the memories were like sand slipping through his fingers; the harder he tried to grasp them, the faster they slipped away.

Ultimately, his mind was left blank, with only that… familiar yet unfamiliar pitch-black female back.

“She… who is she?”

Newborn A-Mu gasped for breath, his eyes filled with confusion and… a hint of inexpressible longing. He didn’t know his name, didn’t know his past, and didn’t even know where he was now. The only thing he could feel was the strong obsession in his heart for that pitch-black female figure.

He had to find her!
He absolutely had to find her!

It was as if only by finding her could he find the meaning of his existence, only then could he fill the boundless emptiness and… loneliness in his heart.