Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 131

At this moment, in the space-time where Zhou Qian was.

Atop a square, red lotuses bloomed fiercely with strong hatred, covering the sky and the ground in blood in an instant.

When the flowers bloomed at their most splendid, their petals resembled a vast piece of red silk, except this silk was alive. As it fluttered, it swept heads into its fold. The silky and beautiful petals suddenly turned into the most terrifying blades, slicing through skulls so precisely and ruthlessly that hardly a sound was made.

In just a moment, only headless corpses remained beneath the square.

In the night, hundreds of headless corpses didn’t fall but instead all kneeled on the ground, as if repenting their sins.

Adding to the eeriness was a pyre of bones burning in the center of the square after the lotus disappeared.

It seemed that this night still belonged to Samhain, only in another year. The flames cast a ghostly blue light on the headless corpses, making them appear more terrifying than specters from another world.

After a while, a red shadow drifted from another direction. It was Amei.

When Amei arrived at the square, Alayne was swiftly decapitating the villagers and drinking their blood. Seeing Amei, Alayne casually picked up a head, slapped its crown off, and handed it to Amei as if offering a delicious dessert.

“Only by consuming the brains and blood of our enemies can our hatred be completely eradicated,” Alayne says expressionlessly.

Amei was somewhat stunned.

After a while, although she took the head, she didn’t actually consume the brain inside.

She just looked at Alayne and said, “With their death… I suddenly don’t know what the purpose of my life is anymore. What about you?”

Alayne simply said, “I have only just understood the meaning of my existence. I live to kill, to use evil to control evil.”

“Do you want to kill me?” Amei asked.

“No. You’re not the evil I seek to punish,” Alayne replied. “The one I want to kill is Difu. In fact, she is your enemy as well.”

Amei sighed and didn’t speak.

Alayne looked at her and said, “Abu is abhorrent, and the kings of two nations are certainly despicable, lacking in responsibility, always ready to push women forward when trouble arises, when someone needs to take the blame. But sometimes… it’s women who harm other women. Those who harm their kind are even more despicable and foolish.”

“You mean… Difu?” Amei asked.

“Yes, Difu!” Alayne said. “You don’t know her true story, do you? Let me tell you—”

“The God of Imprisonment, Vels, liked Difu and, fearing she would disappear into space-time, used a chain called the ‘Shackles of Eternity’ to bind her, forbidding her from traversing through space-time. Why did Vels do this? Because he knew Difu traversed space-time to commit evil.”

“When Difu absorbed malice in the human realm, she was limited to a certain geographical area. For example, if she stayed in the capital of the Kingdom of Words for a period, she could only absorb malice from that place. If she felt the malice there was insufficient for her consumption, she would return to the past and go to the capital of the Land of Silence to absorb malice during the same period. In this way, Difu managed to absorb malice from two regions separated by thousands of miles at the same time, effectively saving time to absorb as much malice as possible.”

“Even so, she wasn’t satisfied. To consume more evil, she would deliberately create misunderstandings, leading people to betray each other. For instance—”

“She seduced the king of the Kingdom of Words, causing him to be cursed by the queen, then she gave a feather capable of healing all pains to the king of the Land of Silence. It was she who originated your tragedy.”

“She absorbed so much evil… to become stronger?” During the conversation with Alayne, Amei’s tone fluctuates between anger and despair over the complete annihilation of the villagers.

Now, she curiously asked, “As an incarnation of evil thoughts, a god who cannot die or be destroyed, why does she need… such strong power?”

“For a man,” Alayne said. “A great war in the realm of gods is coming. Everything Difu has done was to gather strength for the man she loves.”

“Vels couldn’t stand by and watch her walk a path of no return, so he locked her up. But the king of the Land of Silence used the ‘Key to Freedom’ to unlock Difu, and now she has started to commit evils again.”

“So, Amei… please join me in seeking revenge. You need to go to the king of the Land of Silence and get that key. Only by re-imprisoning Difu within a single space-time can we have a chance to weaken her and truly kill her. She is a foolish woman, harming us to please a man. We must kill her!”

After a long silence, Amei asked, “How do you know so much about the gods?”

Alayne responded with a calm tone, “Because I was sent to the human realm by the gods. The man Difu loves is named Miwa, a malevolent god. If he wins the divine war, everything will perish. He must not receive any more power from Difu.”

“The gods dispatched the strongest intent to kill to the human realm, specifically to eliminate Difu.”

“This intent to kill refers to me. I am the murderous intent born from the gods, and also the knife they sent to the human realm. You asked me what the purpose of my life is. Now I tell you—my only purpose is to slaughter!”

……

Far away, on a hillside, Bai Zhou listened to all that Alayne said. Whether it was a coincidence or not, her words bore a striking resemblance to what he once heard from Shao Chuan.

“Bai Zhou, you are the knife chosen by the heavens.”

“You may call this trial by any name—ascension, cultivation, enlightenment, transcendence… all are applicable. The legends about ascension aren’t entirely fabricated.”

“This world has gods. Invisible yet omnipresent, they can hear our calls and can summon us.”

“This is a game left behind by the gods. They have chosen you to be their knife, and slaughter is the mission bestowed upon you by the heavens. Our battle has just begun.”

The young Bai Zhou looked at his shattered body, at what barely qualified as his abdomen, and noticed a bloodied scale growing out. The scale was half embedded in his flesh and blood, half exposed.

He asked Shao Chuan, “Will I become a god, or will I turn into a monster?”

Shao Chuan replied, “That’s not called a monster. People are just used to calling anything that doesn’t look like them a ‘monster’. But in fact, many of the so-called ‘monsters’ seen by ancient people were actually gods.”

“Was the corpse I saw yesterday a god’s corpse?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Yes,” Shao Chuan answered. “He should be the last god existing in the human world. His name is Shi Hu. He went to hell seeking death.”

“Did you steal his body?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Studying the ‘god’s’ genes is just to make the god-making project smoother,” Shao Chuan said. “The disappearance of the ancient gods happened very uniformly; perhaps they were disappointed in humanity and left this planet at the same time to go to another universe. Apart from Shi Hu, what the gods left us is only this game.”

“So, Shao Chuan—” Bai Zhou looked at him expressionlessly and asked, “Did the game choose me, or did you choose me?”

After a long pause, Shao Chuan simply said, “The heavens chose you. Your talent is not something I gave you. Not everyone’s transformation can be as successful as yours.”

“Now, you have no choice but to follow this path. There are always people in this world you want to protect, right?”

“Sometimes, the way we choose to protect is just a bit more difficult than it is for ordinary people.”

Bai Zhou said, “It sounds like you’re encouraging me to be a ‘hero’.”

“You overestimate me. I really don’t have such great abilities. I’m just a mere mortal…” Shao Chuan said with a smile. “It’s the times that make heroes.”

At this moment, halfway up the hill. Hearing Bai Zhou’s message suddenly stopped, Zhou Qian nudged him with his arm. “Zhou Ge? Are you lost in thought? What are you thinking about?”

“I’m just wondering what the gods want to tell us through this game,” Bai Zhou said softly, summarizing Alayne’s words from the square below in the distance.

Hearing this, Zhou Qian laughed. “Well, now we have a way to deal with Difu. But first, we need to find a way to traverse space-time. The statue is Difu’s magical instrument, so it might not be usable… We…”

His eyes slightly flickered as Zhou Qian said, “Actually, besides Difu, there’s another person who traverses space-time—Amei. Although space-time is constantly changing, no matter which year it shifts to, it’s always the night of Samhain.”

“The moment Samhain arrives is chaotic, with yin and yang reversed and time disordered.”

“Amei’s inn appears in the human realm every year during this chaotic festival. In fact, the inn and Amei exist simultaneously in different space-times. Every year’s Samhain festival in the human realm is the same Amei.”

As Zhou Qian said this, not far away, Alayne and Amei were also conversing.

Bai Zhou looked towards him and said, “You’re right. Amei has agreed to Alayne’s request. They’re now going to the Red God’s inn, trying to track Difu’s traces through the angles of space-time, and then kill her.”

……

On the other side.

After Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao finished their brief conversation, they headed towards the graveyard, where voices were heard.

Before entering the graveyard, both of them donned black cloaks.

Having reached their current level, they could ensure that their footsteps made no sound. Thus, with the cover of black cloaks, they entered the graveyard, unlikely to be easily discovered.

Upon entering, what they thought were “voices” turned out to be the sobbing of a woman.

As they approached her, they realized she was there alone.

In her solitude, the two men relaxed significantly. They positioned themselves behind a row of tombstones near the woman, using them to conceal their presence, and then observed her—she was actually digging a grave with her bare hands!

For some reason, the woman was digging while stifling her cries, presumably over the loss of a loved one.

Then, unexpectedly, the sound of a baby’s cry came from in front of her. Her body blocked the baby from Qi and Ke’s view behind her.

The two exchanged glances, then moved to the other side of the tombstones in front of her to quietly observe her actions.

They discovered a swaddle next to the hole in front of the woman.

The baby in the swaddle had woken up, apparently sensing some danger, and was crying heartbreakingly.

The woman took out a small bottle of alcohol, opened it, poured some on her index finger, and put her finger in the baby’s mouth. The baby immediately stopped crying and fell asleep under the influence of the alcohol.

She probably did this to avoid attracting others’ attention.

But what was she doing? Was she planning to bury the baby alive?

“I’m sorry…” the woman sobbed softly. “But I have no choice. What I saw was too horrifying. You, you would kill everyone. I must kill you now… While you’re still not grown… I have to kill you now.”

Qi Liuxing frowned, and upon seeing her face clearly, he was somewhat shocked—the woman was actually Alayne’s mother.

He remembered Zhou Qian mentioning that statues with eyes of different colors could send them to the future or the past. Could it be that he and Ke Yuxiao had arrived in the “past”?

To avoid alerting the woman, Qi Liuxing immediately used a private chat tool to talk with Ke Yuxiao. “When we were playing the handkerchief game, Qian Ge grabbed Alayne’s handkerchief, and Alayne lost the game, becoming an outcast of the whole clan. At that time, her mother knelt down to plead for her… She clearly loves Alayne, so why would she kill her? Wait, no. This baby might not be Alayne. Maybe she’s Alayne’s sister or brother?”

Ke Yuxiao said, “Regardless of whether it’s Alayne or not, this matter is very strange. From the woman’s behavior at the time, she doesn’t seem like someone who would kill randomly. So, could it be that the illusion has already begun?”

“The reason we see the woman burying the baby alive is because we are hallucinating?”

Hearing this, Qi Liuxing seriously said, “Not necessarily. She’s crying so sorrowfully. So, she must be doing this out of sheer desperation.”

“Mm. You reminded me,” Ke Yuxiao said as he began walking towards the woman. “So we need to talk to her, try to get some story out of her.”

“Yu-Yuxiao, what are you doing?”

At this moment, Qi Liuxing couldn’t help but ask.

Everyone in this village had formidable abilities, even a seemingly weak woman. It was Samhain, and this woman was clearly trying to secretly kill a baby while everyone else was gathered in the square.

She would definitely not let anyone else know about this. If a player rashly approached her now, she would surely kill to silence them!

Ke Yuxiao was always calm and wise. Why would he make such mistakes one after another?

But Qi Liuxing had always trusted him. The two have faced countless dangers together in trials, with Ke Yuxiao risking himself to save Qi Liuxing time and again.

Even aside from this, during “Flower of Evil”, Zhou Qian had doubted Ke Yuxiao. But at that time, everyone’s thoughts were interconnected, and Ke Yuxiao’s thoughts couldn’t be hidden from anyone.

In such a situation, he couldn’t possibly lie. So he must indeed be an ally. How could he…

Just in the nick of time, Qi Liuxing grabbed Ke Yuxiao’s wrist.

After quickly considering a possibility, Qi Liuxing asked him, “Have you been affected by some illusion? Tell me, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere? Let me help you.”

“I don’t feel uncomfortable,” Ke Yuxiao looked back at him and said, “Xiao Qi, I know what you’re worried about. You’re worried she’ll attack us. But we should still have mana, right?”

“No, it’s dangerous to go out rashly because my mana is only enough for—” Qi Liuxing’s words were suddenly swallowed.

He paused and looked at Ke Yuxiao. “You, you’re trying to trick me. You want to know how much mana I have left? You want to kill me? Yuxiao, you, you…”

Ke Yuxiao looked deeply at Qi Liuxing and ambiguously said, “Xiao Qi, it’s all just an illusion. Or in other words, a dream. He never existed, and he should never have existed.”

“As for me, I’m really just trying to gather information.”

Ke Yuxiao pushed Qi Liuxing’s hand away and walked straight towards the woman, raising his voice to ask, “Is the baby you’re killing Alayne? Why are you killing her? You said she harmed everyone…”

“Do you have the ability to foresee, to see her killing all the villagers?”

The response to Ke Yuxiao was a palm wind containing a strong intent to kill!

The palm wind condensed into a knife in mid-air and swiftly stabbed towards Ke Yuxiao’s chest. Surprisingly, Ke Yuxiao didn’t evade. Under the stars and moonlight, his silhouette in the graveyard appeared very gentle and elegant, a figure of a refined gentleman, just like when Qi Liuxing first met him.

He was about to die.

Whether he was real or an illusion, whether he had been deceiving Qi Liuxing from the start, he was now facing great danger…

Perhaps this was the outcome he wanted—to see himself exhausting his last bit of mana in the confrontation with the woman… but if Qi Liuxing really did nothing, he would certainly die immediately!

The knife formed from the palm wind was about to reach Ke Yuxiao’s heart when a flash of cold light appeared, and a long sword suddenly emerged, its qi firmly deflecting the palm wind back and dissipating it.

The woman, both shocked and angry, immediately pulled out a dagger. Qi Liuxing had no choice but to respond.

But this time, no one used the sound of a flute to enhance his attack.

Moments later, the woman lay on the ground.

She was about to revive. But Qi Liuxing had already exhausted all his mana.

Standing still, Qi Liuxing didn’t turn to look at Ke Yuxiao.

In the night, Ke Yuxiao’s tone had completely changed, completely different from his usual self.

He seemed to sigh lightly. “I thought Zhou Qian taught you… In this game, you won’t last long being a good person.”

“Look at you. Even if you keenly sensed something wrong with me, what about it? Even if I admitted to you that I had a problem, what about it? You still saved me.”

“Pity, Xiao Qi. From the beginning I appeared, I was meant to kill you.”

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