Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 132

The long-term instances had sharpened Qi Liuxing’s senses to a fine edge. At this moment, he could feel a killing intent from behind him that was far more intense than that of the woman before, by more than a thousandfold.

Ke Yuxiao was truly determined to kill him!

When he turned around to look at him, Qi Liuxing’s movements were somewhat stiff, and at the same time, his eyes were red, as if he couldn’t believe that all of this was really happening.

The next instant, he saw Ke Yuxiao picking up the flute that both of them were extremely familiar with.

Now, the bamboo flute’s outer shell was rapidly shedding, revealing a thin, long sword.

At the same time, Qi Liuxing saw that Ke Yuxiao’s health points suddenly increased more than tenfold.

Qi Liuxing was utterly astonished. “You, you’re a Rank God player too? But how could you enter before reaching S rank…”

Because split personality is my special ability. Each of my personalities can exist independently and start the game as a new player.

All personalities will obey my commands. I decide whether they live or die.

I am the master of this body and soul. The other personalities are my pawns and chess pieces.

But Ke Yuxiao didn’t reveal the truth to Qi Liuxing. He simply said, “It’s because of a special item.”

“Are you also a member of the Peach Blossom Legion?” Qi Liuxing asked him.

Ke Yuxiao replied, “Let me tell you a secret. Actually, Blue Harbor City was built by Shao Chuan, and many of the NPC citizens there were once players like you. This is one of Shao Chuan’s foolish plans. He said—they failed in their quest for immortality, but there’s still a way to exist in another form.”

“Blue Harbor City will collapse along with Shao Chuan’s wishes. As for you… rather than letting you witness such a cruel scene, it’s better for you to die by my hand now. Consider it my benevolence. You’ve seen, with my ability, I could kill you at any moment.”

“Why wait until now to act?” Qi Liuxing gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, staring coldly at Ke Yuxiao, still appearing calm. But only he knew that his arms were trembling slightly, and his palms were soaked with cold sweat.

“It’s not because you’re afraid Zhou Qian would find out, right? If it’s just the two of us in the instance, killing me would make you too suspicious.”

“But now he can’t confirm whether we are in the same space-time. So you—”

Ke Yuxiao sighed again. “Xiao Qi, you’re still too naive. You’re indeed a decent swordsman now. But when I first met you, you were quite mediocre. Why did I approach you so early?”

“So, of course, it’s not just about killing you. My and the Peach Blossom Legion’s goals have always been focused on Zhou Qian.”

“If you hadn’t met him, maybe you could have lived much longer. Unfortunately, look… being mediocre from the start has its advantages. You wouldn’t attract my killing intent too early like Zhou Qian did.”

Qi Liuxing’s gaze suddenly became sharp. “You’re killing me to get to Zhou Qian? What is your real plan?”

Hearing this, Ke Yuxiao narrowed his eyes, and his look towards Qi Liuxing suddenly filled with incredulity.

After a while, probably finding the situation in front of him too ludicrous, he almost couldn’t help but chuckle. “Your hands are shaking, but I can see it’s not out of fear. You just can’t believe I would deceive you. You’re reacting with disappointment and anger, right?”

“Look at you. You’re about to die, yet you don’t feel tense or afraid. But why, when I mention Zhou Qian, do you become tense and murderous?”

“Qi Liuxing, I can deceive you. Zhou Qian can also deceive you. Even your death now is because of him. Don’t you—”

At this point, Ke Yuxiao suddenly became somewhat frustrated, his voice dropping several octaves as he asked with emphasis, “Shouldn’t you hate him?!”

“It’s different.” Qi Liuxing suddenly said, “Zhou Qian and people like you are completely different.”

“Hasn’t he ever lied to you?” Ke Yuxiao asked.

Qi Liuxing replied, “He has tricked me, and he’s good at scheming. He’s not a perfectly good person. He may have many faults. But he’s not malicious! He wouldn’t deceive me in such a way. He wouldn’t want my life!”

“Oh. Then, when you see him in hell, you can pledge your loyalty to him all you want. The time has come. The arrangements, link by link, have reached their final critical stage. Zhou Qian can’t escape anymore.”

With those words, Ke Yuxiao launched an attack without any mercy, his short sword swiftly striking towards Qi Liuxing’s face!

At the critical moment, Qi Liuxing lifted his cloak, and the S-grade defensive cloak immediately absorbed 70% of the damage, causing the short sword to bounce off.

Despite the cloak’s protection, Qi Liuxing couldn’t help but spit out a mouthful of blood.

After a series of chaotic battles, his health had plummeted to 19%!

Qi Liuxing threw a flashbang, and the brilliant lights momentarily illuminated the graveyard.

Using the smoke to obscure Ke Yuxiao’s vision for that moment, Qi Liuxing scooped up the unconscious baby and ran off.

On the run, Qi Liuxing didn’t care for anything else. He pinched the baby’s arm hard as he headed towards the square.

The baby woke up crying in pain immediately.

Qi Liuxing was filled with sorrow and rage. He intended to shout to attract attention, but when he opened his mouth, he realized he could no longer make a sound.

Fortunately, the baby’s crying was loud enough to draw people from the direction of the square.

Seeing this, Qi Liuxing quickened his pace. But suddenly, a very strange wind surrounded him. It was probably Ke Yuxiao using some kind of item or skill that drastically reduced his movement speed.

Thus, before he could reach the crowd with the baby, three short swords struck Qi Liuxing’s back, stabbing into his neck, spine, and heart with irreversible momentum.

Qi Liuxing had no chance of survival.

His health dropped to 1%, and as his body issued a red warning, he received that system-generated ad for an upscale tombstone, which made him want to cry without tears.

In his dying moments, Qi Liuxing thought of the scene in reality where he accompanied Zhou Qian to buy a tombstone.

“I want the most expensive and best one you have!” Zhou Qian had said.

Qi Liuxing had asked him later, “Really, when a person is dead, what’s the point of all these ceremonies? If your high school classmate really died, could he see these tombstones? Would he actually rest in peace?”

Zhou Qian looked at Qi Liuxing and said, “Xiao Qi, let me tell you something. There are many things in this world that we can’t grasp, like time or feelings. So, if there’s something we can buy with money, we shouldn’t hesitate to spend.”

Qi Liuxing was skeptical. “Your words sound quite like ‘why not eat meat paste.’ You don’t understand frugality because you’ve never been poor. You’re just talking without understanding the pain.”

Zhou Qian seriously replied, “I’ve been poor. My family went bankrupt!”

Qi Liuxing shook his head. “A starving camel is still bigger than a horse*.”

*Idiom referring to when something is in decline, it’s still better than something that is just starting out. || In this case, Zhou Qian going through bankruptcy is still better than someone who was poor from the start.

“You’re too young to understand what I mean,” Zhou Qian said. “I’m not telling you to waste money recklessly, nor am I advocating for spending beyond one’s means. I’m just saying that when you can afford it, there’s no need to be stingy. Money is a good thing. Spending money is the easiest thing to do in this world, so why not enjoy it?

“But money is also the most useless thing. Can I use money to buy back Bai Zhou’s life? No.”

“So, what’s the use of money?”

Qi Liuxing remembered giving Zhou Qian a huge eye roll at the time and saying, “If you posted this online, you’d definitely get tens of thousands of hate comments.”

Even at the end of his life, Qi Liuxing still couldn’t understand Zhou Qian’s values.

Even in the last phase of his life, he didn’t splurge, opting for the simplest tombstone given by the system.

Afterwards, he used the system’s legacy gift function to leave all his money and items to Zhou Qian with a note: [Ke is with the Peach Blossom Legion. Be careful. Their target is you. Visit my parents when you can. Thanks. And my brother… I still believe he exists. Spend the gold coins I gave you wisely.]

That was all Qi Liuxing managed to type out. Before his consciousness completely faded, he vaguely sensed Ke Yuxiao approaching.

“In this space-time, the villagers don’t know our identity and might think we’re spies sent by the Land of Silence. By drawing them here, did you hope to die together with me?”

“Pity, Xiao Qi. I can’t die now, and I won’t take them seriously. As for you—”

What followed was the sound of a dagger being drawn. Ke Yuxiao’s merciless words echoed in the wilderness, but Qi Liuxing could no longer hear them.

Ke Yuxiao said, “I guess Zhou Qian will use the [Tick Tock Clock] to save you. But to use it to save someone, the person’s body needs to be intact. Actually, I’m not a sadist, I’m not heartless, nor do I have a taste for cruelty. Unfortunately…”

Not far away, the villagers had already arrived. Lifting Qi Liuxing’s body, Ke Yuxiao, with his extremely fast movement technique, played hit-and-run among the tombstones with the villagers. His speed was something neither Zhou Qian nor Qi Liuxing had ever seen before. At this moment, Qi Liuxing was carried by Ke Yuxiao but could no longer sense anything.

Unexpectedly, behind a row of tombstones, Ke Yuxiao encountered two villagers.

He swept past them like a gust of wind, and by the time he left, both men lay on the ground with long, thin cuts on their necks. Silently taking down these two, Ke Yuxiao looked around and quickly fled towards the square.

In this space-time, the game of throwing the handkerchief before the eve of Samhain had just begun not long ago.

The incident in the graveyard interrupted everything, and the villagers temporarily left to chase after someone. Therefore, when Ke Yuxiao arrived at the square, there was no one there but just large pots of meat stewing, intended to feed dogs.

Ke Yuxiao quickly took out a sharp machete, dismembered Qi Liuxing’s limbs, and threw them into the large pot, leaving behind a bloodied head with eyes closed.

Glancing at the head indifferently, Ke Yuxiao was about to throw it into the pot when his hand uncontrollably shook and then moved away from the direction of the pot. Finally, his fingers uncontrollably loosened, and the head fell to the ground.

“You can actually come back to life?”

Ke Yuxiao muttered to himself, his features suddenly contorting as if he was fighting for control with someone.

Then, his grim expression faded, his features softened, and his tone changed significantly. His eyes showed another kind of hatred and murderous intent. Speaking with a hoarse voice trembling with extreme fear, he said, “Don’t you dare touch him again. Get lost!”

“It’s you who should fucking get lost! You should have disappeared a long time ago!” Suddenly, Ke Yuxiao’s originally gentle features became twisted again as the dominant personality regained control.

He quickly took out something resembling a silver needle from his bag and stabbed it into his own head, then coldly said, “Hiss, I didn’t manage to kill you last time… Why don’t you just hide like my other personalities?”

“You’re just a pawn. How dare you even dream of killing your master? How dare you think you could be a hero? Ha—”

Ke Yuxiao laughed. “He doesn’t even know you exist. How does it feel, ridiculous? Alright, now I’ll completely kill you. No need to thank me.”

After that, Ke Yuxiao’s expression never changed again, as if the gentle personality that Qi Liuxing knew had never existed.

Twisting his neck as if shaking off a persistent soul, Ke Yuxiao then crouched down, preparing to pick up Qi Liuxing’s head to throw it into the pot. But by then, he was already sensing the immense killing intent coming from behind him.

“Hey, who are you?!”

“My God, what’s with the head on the ground?!”

“I just found two bodies on the ground. It was him!”

“Let me cast a spell to check… He’s indeed not right. He has the aura of someone from the Land of Silence!”

“Catch him. Catch him! He must be a spy. We can’t let him escape!”

Amidst such chaos, Ke Yuxiao swiftly fled.

He didn’t engage in a prolonged fight for a simple reason: he might have to face the big boss later, as well as Hidden Blade and the formidable Bai Zhou. He needed to conserve his mana.

The mission was already complete; there was no need to confront those people head-on. He had to save his skill points and escape.

……

Elsewhere.

Zhou Qian, carried on Bai Zhou’s back, was able to follow Alayne and Amei to the Red God’s inn unnoticed, thanks to Bai Zhou’s Divine Breath Technique.

Midway, Zhou Qian received a notification alert and looked at his system panel, only to see a large sum of gold coins and items transferred to him. He immediately realized something had happened, and then he saw Qi Liuxing’s note.

Zhou Qian’s expression seemed unchanged at first glance. But Bai Zhou, carrying him, immediately felt his body stiffen. “What’s wrong, Zhou Qian?”

After a moment of silence, Zhou Qian said, “Zhou Ge, we need to change our strategy.”

“What do you want to do?” Bai Zhou didn’t even ask why.

“We might need to confront Goddess Difu head-on,” Zhou Qian said. “I want to force her to show herself and take a golden feather from her.”

Outside the game, in the virtual lobby, the gamblers hearing Zhou Qian’s plan were baffled and expressed their confusion and concerns.

[What does that mean? Damn, Difu is a goddess in this instance, with unimaginable power. Why would Qian Ge…?]

[I’m wondering the same thing. According to the storyline and game design, players aren’t supposed to fight NPCs of such level! Alayne and Amei will team up to kill Difu, so Zhou Qian and his team just need to assist at key moments to clear the instance!]

[Wait, look at Qian Ge’s system. He received so much money… Who died?]

[The Sword God, the Sword God Brother died! I have a friend who bets on him. I just got the news, he… Damn Ke Yuxiao, that son of a bitch! (The system has automatically blocked discordant terms)]

[I get it now. The “golden feather” has the power to heal anything. Zhou Qian must want it to heal the Sword God Brother.]

[But if the person is already dead, what’s there to heal?]

[Did you forget? The brother gave Zhou Qian the [Tick Tock Clock].]

[But the [Tick Tock Clock] has a condition for use—the body must be intact! Ke Yuxiao knows he has the [Tick Tock Clock], so to prevent revival, he would definitely destroy the body completely!]

[You’re not getting it. That’s exactly why Zhou Qian wants the “golden feather”. It can heal anything. I guess… even if the brother is missing limbs, it could heal him.]

[But if I were Ke Yuxiao, I’d completely destroy the body. There are fires everywhere for Samhain, and the fire from the bone pyre could be used to burn bones. By the time Zhou Qian gets the golden feather and finds the brother’s body in the vastness of space-time… there might not even be ashes left! In such a case, without any trace of the person left, the golden feather might be powerless, right?!]

[Indeed, Qian Ge wouldn’t have overlooked this. His actions are basically futile!]

[Ah, this really isn’t a rational choice!]

[This is too hard. My heart’s racing…]

[Ever since I started betting on Qian Ge, I’ve aged a lot… he’s going to scare me to death.]

Inside the game, on a desolate mountain.

Because Bai Zhou was moving so fast, Zhou Qian, lying on his back, could feel the autumn wind cutting through his skin like a knife. In the darkness of the night, Zhou Qian’s pupils were bottomless.

Facing the wind, he asked Bai Zhou, “What I’m about to do is a huge gamble, with maybe only a one in a thousand chance of success. Are you in?”

He then heard Bai Zhou’s voice, “You just need to tell me the plan.”

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The author has something to say:

Taking a moment to lighten things up.

When Qianqian meets Epoh: I’m going to pluck his hair.

When Qianqian meets Difu: I want to pluck her feathers.

The gods: ???

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