Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 137

The Kingdom of Words, Royal City.

It was the moment between night and dawn when the sky wasn’t clear yet.

The moon was still high in the sky, and every household’s courtyard was adorned with jack-o-lanterns and ghost masks, while fireplaces burned with flames that never died, warding off invaders from the other world.

From afar, the city was enveloped in a myriad of flickering lights, as if a giant fireball had descended upon it, breaking into millions of sparks scattered across the land.

Due to the special Samhain festival, the city transformed into a sleepless royal capital.

Everyone anxiously awaited the arrival of daylight.

Fortunately, their wait came to an end as a hint of light appeared on the horizon, signaling the passing of the perilous season.

Zhou Qian and others, with the help of the queen, gently landed in a secluded corner of the street. They then traversed the entire city, excluding the royal palace, to get a good grasp of its layout.

The city wasn’t very large, and with a basic attribute speed boost, their journey through the city took just over an hour.

After their initial exploration, as dawn covered the city, they found an open breakfast shop at the street corner. They walk in, bathed in the morning glow, and head upstairs to a window-side table.

With the Red God temporarily gone, only Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei, Yin Jiujiu, and Yun Xiangrong, along with an NPC named Alayne, remain.

Having been through quite an ordeal without proper food, they now order plenty to eat and drink, using the NPC Alayne’s money.

He Xiaowei barely managed to swallow a few bites of dry and hard bread, then looked towards Zhou Qian, who was gazing out of the window. His chin was slightly raised, and his eyes were indifferent, seemingly having no intention of touching the shoddy food provided by the breakfast shop.

Next to him, Bai Zhou seemed to have developed culinary skills or found something in the trade shop—

He was able to cook shrimp with boiled eggs for Zhou Qian in this instance.

Bai Zhou’s actions were meticulous and cold, resembling a scientific experiment more than cooking.

As Zhou Qian waited for his shrimp and eggs, he leaned his cheek on his hand and stared towards the city gate, narrowing his eyes as if plotting something.

“What are you thinking about, Qian’er? Do you have a plan?” He Xiaowei asked.

Previously, He Xiaowei would have thought such a task impossible.

According to the queen, the king of the Land of Silence came in peace. His personal arrival in the Royal City of the Kingdom of Words signified sincerity. Yet, to protect himself, he brought numerous magicians and a strong guard contingent.

The king’s magician alone was capable of imposing deadly commands in minutes, indicating strong abilities, not to mention the other magicians accompanying him.

How could the players confront so many magicians and snatch something from their king?

It wasn’t that the players couldn’t defeat these magicians.

But spells like prohibitions and curses were the magicians’ forte; a barrage of such spells against the players would be overwhelmingly difficult to counter.

Moreover, this place was the heavily guarded Royal City of the Kingdom of Words, filled with countless guards and court magicians.

With both countries negotiating peace, the king of the Land of Silence personally visited, demonstrating both nations’ sincerity.

If he faced danger, the Kingdom of Words would naturally assist him. The players would then face the threat of both countries’ armies and magicians.

With merely five players, possibly not entirely united, to confront the forces of two entire nations…

No matter what He Xiaowei thought, this felt like an impossible task.

They might not survive until Di Fu appears.

However, by now, He Xiaowei fully trusted Zhou Qian’s intellect, so unusually, he didn’t express any fear or difficulty.

He took another bite of his bread and waited for Zhou Qian’s response.

At this moment, Bai Zhou offered Zhou Qian a spoonful of egg-wrapped shrimp. Zhou Qian smiled at him before he ate it. He Xiaowei shivered and watched as Zhou Qian turned back towards the city gate and said, “The hidden achievement wasn’t specified by the system. But our current mission is clear: we stand with the queen and Alayne against Difu.”

“Even if we put the mission aside, for Xiao Qi’s sake, we must proceed.”

“And obtaining the ‘Key of Freedom’ is one prerequisite for confronting Difu. Are we all in agreement?”

“No doubts,” He Xiaowei replied.

Zhou Qian continued, “The Red God Queen isn’t here now, but she hinted at something.”

He Xiaowei, puzzled, looked at Zhou Qian, who turned to him. “She brought us here to cooperate with Alayne in killing Difu. But why does she believe Difu will appear here?”

He Xiaowei was taken aback.

Zhou Qian explained, “There are several possibilities, and we must prepare for them. First, the kings of both countries might not really be negotiating peace. A war could break out here soon. If the meeting between the kings involves great lies and betrayal, along with bloodshed and killing, Difu, anticipating this, would certainly come to absorb energy.”

“The second possibility is that the kings are indeed negotiating peace. But for Difu to miss such a significant event to create chaos would be illogical. She might deliberately cause confusion, making each king believe the other has betrayed him.”

After a pause, Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes, and his gaze became ominously serious.

He said, “But just in case, we need another plan. It is already dawn. Today is likely our last chance to complete the mission. If neither possibility occurs and Difu doesn’t show up all day, we won’t be able to save Xiao Qi or complete our task.”

“What do you mean then…?” He Xiaowei asked, frowning with a foreboding feeling.

“If Difu doesn’t appear, we’ll have to lure her here,” Zhou Qian declared.

He Xiaowei: “You…”

“Exactly.” Zhou Qian nodded. “If the kings are truly seeking peace, we must incite betrayal between them, thereby drawing Difu out.”

“This approach serves multiple purposes, not only to draw Difu but also because we stand no chance against the powerful forces accompanying the kings. Only by pitting them against each other can we benefit*—seizing the ‘Key of Freedom’ when the power around the king of the Land of Silence is greatly diminished. If we’re lucky and he also brings the golden feather, we can directly use it to save Xiao Qi.”

*The snipe and the clam fight while the fisherman benefits. It comes from a fable describing a situation where two parties are locked in a struggle that exhausts them both, allowing a third party to swoop in and take advantage.

Hearing this, He Xiaowei fell silent for a moment, sharing Yin Jiujiu’s sentiment.

She hesitated before asking, “Is there no other way? I feel… this involves the safety of both nations’ people… If we do this, and it leads to years of war, how many will die because of us?”

Zhou Qian’s expression was stern as he remained silent. He Xiaowei couldn’t help but speak up at this moment. “I definitely want to save Xiao Qi, but Jiujiu’s words also resonate with me. I feel… uneasy about this.”

After a long silence, Yun Xiangrong spoke up. “They are NPCs, not real people.”

“Even so…” He Xiaowei sighed deeply. “Well, let’s just say I’m being sentimental. That Qian’er… anyway, the people from the Land of Silence haven’t arrived yet. Before they do, can we think of any other way?”

“Or at least, should we try to warn the citizens of this city, let them evacuate first? If the magicians and soldiers of both countries are going to fight, let them fight, but the civilians are innocent…”

“We can’t warn the civilians. We don’t have the opportunity to reset and must ensure absolute certainty of success. Doing anything extra now could expose us to the people of both countries, resulting in complete mission failure. Then we won’t be able to save Xiao Qi, and we’ll all die here.”

Zhou Qian immediately rejected He Xiaowei’s suggestion. “The king of the Kingdom of Silence likely has spies in the Royal City of the Kingdom of Words. If a spy learns of this and informs the Land of Silence, their king might not even step foot here.”

“But… then…” He Xiaowei could no longer bite into his bread, letting out a heavy sigh.

Zhou Qian looked at him and said, “Xiaowei Ge, you really don’t need to feel burdened. I haven’t finished speaking. Let me ask you. What point in time have we arrived at?”

He Xiaowei was stunned for a while, then his eyes widened. “You mean…”

“What I mean is—” Zhou Qian said solemnly, “‘What has happened cannot be changed,’ this is a constant setting throughout this instance.”

“The queen doesn’t truly have the ability to foresee the future, as can be proven from the conversation between Alayne and the queen relayed by Alayne. The queen didn’t know Alayne’s true fate or whether she could kill Difu. But the queen sent us here because she knew beforehand that Difu would appear here.”

“The only explanation for this—”

“’Difu’s appearance’ is something that has already happened, belonging to the ‘past’. ‘Whether Di Fu will be killed by Alayne’ is unknown, belonging to the ‘future’.”

“It seems that the time difference between this ‘past’ and ‘future’ is very small, possibly all occurring within today. Meaning, the time we are currently in is very close to the real ‘present’, just less than a day apart.”

He Xiaowei started to understand, and his expression gradually became less despondent.

Zhou Qian continued to explain, “In short, ‘Difu’s appearance’ belongs to the ‘past’, and her appearance itself is accompanied by lies, betrayal, chaos, hatred, and slaughter. This indicates—”

“The animosity and betrayal between the two countries also belong to the “past’, and it is something that will definitely happen.”

“How the peace talks between the two countries fail could happen in many ways. If not guided by us, there would be other triggers. But if we completely control the situation, we can ensure every detail serves our needs, not just ‘historical progress’.”

Yin Jiujiu seemed persuaded, nodding her head. “I understand. We’re only changing the specifics, not the course of history or everyone’s destined fate. If someone is destined to die, regardless of what we do, they will still die; the only difference is whether they die an hour earlier or later…”

“It’s like… like Alayne’s good friend, Qi Yunsi—during Samhain when Alayne was 8, in the original history, he died in her place during the vigil. We went back to the past, intervened in history, and neither he nor Alayne went to the vigil. But in the end… he still died!”

“Exactly. All the story set-ups before this imply this point, which is very important and can be seen as a hint from the system on how to clear the instance.”

“So, we can guide the two countries to hostility without any guilt because it has already happened.”

Zhou Qian glanced at He Xiaowei’s expression and added, “Moreover, setting aside this, Amei, Beilan… and many others we don’t know about, in every corner, have died because of Difu’s evil.”

“Today, there is only the Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words. If we don’t eliminate Difu and allow her power to grow stronger, in the future, countless countries around the world will go to war under her influence, and then people all over the world will suffer. So, even looking at the bigger picture, we can only make the choice we are making now.”

“Between the civilians of two countries and the entire world’s populace, I can only choose the world.”

“Between NPCs of no importance and Qi Liuxing, I can only choose Qi Liuxing.”

“I understand, Qian’er… I actually get what you’re saying.” He Xiaowei scratched his head. “I just wanted to lament a bit. Sometimes wanting the best of both worlds… is really hard.”

“The world never conforms to one’s desires. That’s the normal state of life.”

Zhou Qian said, “Everyone wants to find a perfect, flawless solution that doesn’t let anyone down. But before we can save everyone, we also have to weigh our own capabilities. We’re not omnipotent gods; we can’t take care of everyone and have to make choices. We… must accept the imperfections and flaws we carry.”

At this point, Zhou Qian didn’t look at He Xiaowei but turned towards Bai Zhou, who was close by.

Bai Zhou was preparing a second shrimp and egg dish, seemingly nonchalant, but Zhou Qian knew that Bai Zhou had already prepared for many complex situations in his heart.

He was composed because he was strong.

Yet, at the same time… he also demanded too much of himself.

When Bai Zhou handed over another shrimp and egg, Zhou Qian grabbed his wrist, looked into his eyes, and spoke through the private chat tool. “Zhou Ge, the last thing I said was really meant for you to hear.”

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 136

Two minutes later, everyone, including the NPC Alayne, had arrived in the cellar.

“Are we here looking for Xiao Qi and Xiao Ke? Why would they come to the cellar? Is there some secret hidden here?” He Xiaowei muttered as he jumped down into the cellar.

He was the last person to enter the cellar, which, despite being filled with many people, was eerily quiet. He Xiaowei was surprised at this silence when he saw the scene that completely froze him in place, his eyes immediately reddening.

Zhou Qian turned around, glanced at He Xiaowei, who had just entered, then looked at the others. In front of them, he closed the lid of the freezer holding the head and placed it into his backpack.

“Ke Yuxiao is still in this time-space. He might head up the mountain, trying to find a way out through the Red God’s inn. But as the inn serves as a connection point between spaces, there’s only one such prop, and now that we have it, he can’t escape.”

“What we need to do first is obtain the golden feather to heal Qi Liuxing’s body. After that, I can use the Tick Tock Clock to resurrect him.”

“Then we will settle the score with Ke Yuxiao.”

“Also, we need to be cautious about one thing. When we came over here, we specifically checked, and the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers is still next to the Tartar Inn. Probably because of the spy situation, there are now many people in ghost masks stationed there, and villagers keep entering, likely to carve curse tablets.”

“Under such circumstances, it’s less likely for Ke Yuxiao to get through. But we still need to be vigilant later on to prevent him from directly entering the temple to curse all of us.”

Hearing this, Hidden Blade frowned and said, “Ke Yuxiao… his situation is very abnormal. Xiao Qi’s talents have already been activated, making him very powerful. But after thoroughly understanding Ke Yuxiao’s skills, he doesn’t have any significant offensive capabilities.”

“Normally, even if Xiao Qi had spent a lot of mana, he shouldn’t have died so easily at Ke Yuxiao’s hands. Ke Yuxiao must have hidden his attack power and life force. But that’s almost impossible…”

“Indeed, some disguise items can completely transform one person into another, with attributes adjusted accordingly, but this adjustment is limited and cannot turn someone from a hundred thousand health to ten thousand.”

“Moreover, the attribute panels of ordinary players and Rank God players are worlds apart. It’s impossible for them to disguise as each other.”

“So, you suspect Ke Yuxiao is a Rank God player?” Zhou Qian asked.

“Yes. But even Bai Zhou and I probably don’t know why he could disguise as an ordinary player. This might be…” Hidden Blade looked at Bai Zhou. “Some new item researched by the Peach Blossom Legion, or a new skill they’ve developed for Rank God players? After all…”

Hidden Blade’s following words were left unsaid, but everyone present understood.

This matter was likely related to the Peach Blossom Legion. They put up such a big show just to have Ke Yuxiao kill Qi Liuxing, and there must be a deeper conspiracy behind it.

They certainly weren’t targeting Qi Liuxing alone, but Zhou Qian. But what could be the reason that made them believe killing Qi Liuxing would also kill Zhou Qian?

Bai Zhou’s gaze darkened. “There are some things that Shao Chuan has never told me. After we get out, I will ask him for clarity.”

Zhou Qian glanced at Bai Zhou, then said, “I’ve had my suspicions about Ke Yuxiao since our time in ‘Flower of Evil’. But during the brain interconnection, I didn’t notice any anomalies from him, as if he could completely hide his thoughts…”

“We can verify this later. Let’s go get the golden feather first.”

Hidden Blade stepped forward. “You guys, go get the feather. I’ll stay here and guard the temple to prevent Ke Yuxiao from cursing all of us.”

“Master, it’s very dangerous for you to be alone!” He Xiaowei immediately said, “We now don’t know his capabilities—”

“Indeed, we don’t know the extent of his abilities, but if he is a Rank God player, which is almost certain given his unique disguise skill, then—”

“Guarding this time-space’s temple to prevent him from cursing us must be done by a Rank God player. Difu is too powerful, and Bai Zhou is indispensable in dealing with her. So, it’s best for me to stay here.”

He Xiaowei: “Then I’ll stay and help you!”

“No need,” Hidden Blade interrupted He Xiaowei, as he conjured his curved blade, shining like a crescent moon.

Holding the blade handle, Hidden Blade smiled at He Xiaowei, “The title ‘Master’ shouldn’t be taken lightly. Since you’ve acknowledged me as your master, you should trust me.”

Hearing this, He Xiaowei still looked worried, so Zhou Qian stepped forward and patted his shoulder. “If Ke Yuxiao really can control thoughts at will and switch identities freely… his skills are indeed special. But on the other hand, it shows he specializes in these abilities rather than others like output.”

“Thus, from a one-on-one fight perspective, Ke Yuxiao definitely isn’t strong. Otherwise, he could’ve easily disguised as an ordinary player to approach me and kill me effortlessly with his Rank God player identity in the instance.”

Zhou Qian looked at He Xiaowei and further explained, “Bai Zhou’s identity was exposed in front of the Peach Blossom Legion only towards the end of ‘Wish List’. It’s not something they knew in advance, nor did they know he would secretly protect me.”

“At the start of ‘Wish List’, the people they sent to kill me were Situ Qing and Lu Mengmeng, not Ke Yuxiao. Perhaps they underestimated me, but they also didn’t dare to send Ke Yuxiao without absolute certainty.”

“Ke Yuxiao’s skills are highly valued by them, and they couldn’t afford to let him die easily, so they didn’t risk sending him to kill, even fearing he couldn’t pass such a difficult hidden instance.”

“Their step-by-step strategy has told us, aside from that special skill, whether in terms of one-on-one fighting ability or the ability to find clues and pass instances, Ke Yuxiao isn’t strong at all. So—”

Approaching Hidden Blade, Zhou Qian also solemnly patted his shoulder. “I believe you’ll be fine. But still, be careful.”

“Sure. Don’t worry,” Hidden Blade said.

Zhou Qian looked at him, then added, “Before we leave, we’ll explain to Alayne and ask her to find a way to help you. In case of an emergency, regarding Ke Yuxiao, kill if necessary. Don’t insist on capturing him alive. Preserving your life is the most important.”

“No problem,” Hidden Blade said.

Zhou Qian then said, “I’ll give you an item. I think it’ll be very useful.”

Looking down at his wrist, Hidden Blade indeed received an item: a combination of a pen and paper—

[Item: Starting with a Picture, The Process Depends on Imagination*]

*It’s an internet phrase that refers to a lot of relevant information can be fabricated with just one picture. For instance, someone posted a picture and then added their own caption to it describing the event (but it could be completely made up).

[Function: The map you draw, the story you imagine, might one day become reality… Perhaps everyone has had such a beautiful dream? This item can satisfy all your imaginations! Go on, defeat your enemies with your imagination!]

[Note: Please try to draw accurately. If it’s not recognizable, it’s not the item’s fault; those with poor drawing skills use with caution. Beware of injuring oneself]

Zhou Qian also sent a message with tips on using the item.

After reading it, Hidden Blade: “……”

Subsequently, Hidden Blade’s wrist received another notification, this time from Bai Zhou, giving him some self-defense and escape items.

Lowering his wrist, Hidden Blade looked at Bai Zhou. “Thanks.”

Bai Zhou shook his head. “Be extra careful.”

Minutes later, Zhou Qian and the others left Alayne’s house and headed down the mountain path away from the village.

He approached Alayne first, asking, “Do you know how to find Difu?”

“I don’t know. I was hoping Amei would tell me… I didn’t remember at the time, and I wanted her help to find Difu, which is why I let her take me to her inn.”

Alayne looked at Zhou Qian. “I thought you knew the way, seeing as you were leading.”

Zhou Qian said, “If you don’t know, then pretend I know.”

Alayne: “?”

Zhou Qian turned back to the other players, explaining, “If the NPC has information, it should be considered accurate. But since Alayne doesn’t have any clues, we have to deduce from the information we’ve collected.”

“We eight were separated by the statue at the entrance of the Tartar Inn into different time-spaces—three groups, each with an eight-year gap according to this pattern. Using the mini time prop we got from the Red God’s Inn, we indeed managed to go back eight years.”

“So, the three colors on these two props are temporarily set to an eight-year interval. However, Zhou Ge previously heard about Alayne’s near sacrifice by the village chief when she was ten, and we don’t know exactly from what time we returned to when Alayne was eight.”

“These two incidents don’t necessarily relate to the number ‘eight’. What we can be sure of is that the different times the time prop can adjust are not entirely based on eight-year units.”

Looking into the distance, Zhou Qian said, “Right now, just by manipulating this prop, there are two possible ways. One is to return to the Red God’s Inn and find that golden bird to see if a reaction can be triggered between the two. After all, the golden bird is quite special. Even though it’s a statue, it might actually possess a part of Difu’s power.”

“The second way… is to go back to the village entrance and see if the two time-controlling props, one large and one small, will work together.”

“Of course, if neither of these ways work, there’s a third option—” Zhou Qian looked at Alayne. “And that is for you to wake up Amei, who you’ve knocked out, and force her to lead us to Difu.”

Alayne: “…………”

“Young man, why not choose the fourth and simplest way?”

The speaker was a strange woman’s voice. Zhou Qian looked in the direction of the voice and saw a woman in red coming from the depths of the woods.

He heard Alayne whisper softly, “The queen?”

This person was indeed the wife of the once King of the Kingdom of Words and the Red God, who had once shown Alayne the way in the otherworld.

Looking at Alayne, she said, “I’ve calculated… It’s about time. Samhain has brought me to the human world, and I’ve met you. As I once said to you, I will provide help when necessary. Now is the time.”

“Can you teach us how to traverse space and find Difu?” Alayne asked. “I can only feel the strength of her power, but it envelops me. She is everywhere, and I really am…”

“When Samhain arrives, each inn exists in multiple spaces. Of course, I also know the way to traverse space.” The queen raised her hand, and a red circle appeared in front of everyone’s feet. “Go to my inn. I will take you to the royal city. However, be careful. The royal city is especially crowded today, and the guards are extraordinarily vigilant. The king of the Land of Silence has arrived.”

“The Land of Silence?” Zhou Qian asked.

“Yes. The two countries have been at war for a long time. It’s time for peace talks. But he’s obviously still wary of the Kingdom of Words, bringing countless magicians to protect him…” The queen said, “Well, if you’ve made up your mind, step forward. I’ll take you there.”

Alayne didn’t hesitate and stepped directly into the red circle, disappearing in an instant. At this moment, the players finally received a clear prompt for progressing through the game—

[Congratulations to the players for surviving until now. You have triggered the regular ending mode: Alayne has left, and the Red Lotus will soon lose its effect, unable to trap Amei. Players will face Amei’s attacks.]

[You need to find a way to survive under Amei and the spirits she can summon and find a way to return to your true timeline as deserters.]

[At dawn, all dangers will end, the deserters can return to normal life, and you can leave the instance.]

[If you choose the regular ending mode, do not step into the red circle.]

[Stepping into the red circle will trigger a hidden achievement, which, upon completion, grants a rare reward.]

[The success rate for achieving the hidden achievement is 3%. Players, please choose wisely.]

This time, without Zhou Qian needing to say much, everyone stepped into the red circle, including Yin Jiujiu, whom Zhou Qian couldn’t fully trust yet.

Lastly, Zhou Qian gave Yun Xiangrong, who was standing inside the red circle, another look, but didn’t say more, simply gripping Bai Zhou’s hand next to him.

Soon after, Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou together entered a world bathed in red.

It was as if someone had paved a road with blood for them, forcing them to step on it and keep moving forward.

Then, Zhou Qian felt Bai Zhou’s palm cover his eyes.

Lifting his arm, Zhou Qian held his wrist. “I’m okay, really. I was mentally prepared when I saw the name of this instance.”

Bai Zhou simply said, “This color is harmful to your condition. Better to see less of it.”

“Okay.” Zhou Qian nodded, thought for a moment, and then said, “Zhou Ge, I’ve just realized… Hidden Blade is indeed a good person. You see, you’re a good person, and the friends you make are also good people. This is called ‘birds of a feather flock together’.”

Bai Zhou told him, “You’re also very good.”

Facing the oncoming wind, Zhou Qian smiled. “That’s something no one would believe if it got out. They’d only say you see me through rose-tinted glasses or that I’ve bewitched you.”

Bai Zhou gave him a look and shook his head. “That’s because many people don’t understand and only see the surface.”

“When did you see the ‘inside’?” Zhou Qian asked him.

“A long time ago.”

“How long is a long time?”

“Probably around the third grade in elementary school.”

“Huh? Elementary school? We were just kids then. What could you see? It’s just that you’re too good, so you think I’m good too.”

Bai Zhou laughed softly and reached out to smooth Zhou Qian’s hair.

Despite the eerie scene of both of them wearing ghost costumes and surrounded by red light, the atmosphere between them was unexpectedly warm and tender. When Bai Zhou’s hand moved away, Zhou Qian looked at him deeply and took his hand.

The smile on his lips gradually faded, and he said, “Zhou Ge, having you by my side at times like this feels especially good.”

“We will bring him back,” Bai Zhou said, his tone not much different from usual, but it carried an undeniable force to Zhou Qian’s ears.

“I know.” Zhou Qian smiled and said, “Normally, when I do this kind of thing, my confidence is 99.9%. Now with you here…”

Bai Zhou: “It seems I haven’t brought much of a bonus.”

Zhou Qian said seriously, “No. With you here, my confidence is 200%!”

“Actually, if from a mathematical perspective—”

“How can you view this from a mathematical perspective?”

“…Then what did you mean by 27.6% that one time you saw me?”

“I won’t tell you. Just guess.”

……

Elsewhere, on a hillside five hundred meters east of the graveyard.

Ke Yuxiao, dressed in a black robe, hid his figure under the cover of trees.

From his vantage point, he could clearly see the surroundings of the temple. When necessary, he would enter to attempt a curse.

After all, leaving here would mean he could clear the instance.

Whether the curse born of hatred and betrayal he casts for Difu would increase her power significantly, he didn’t care.

Just then, an unusual figure flashed in the distance, clearly not an NPC but the speed only a Rank God player could have.

With the sharp senses of a Rank God player, Ke Yuxiao quickly recognized him as Hidden Blade.

Hmm… He’s alone?

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 135

About thirty years ago, there was turmoil caused by a Red God in the royal city of the Kingdom of Words. The people were protected by the branches of the four great guardian armies: Sun, Moon, Star, Cloud. Beilan bravely fought against the Red God, exhausted her strength, and died.

After an unknown period, Beilan opened her eyes to find herself in complete darkness, with the only light being a faint red glow in the distance.

Approaching the red light, Beilan discovered it was a sign. It was an inn.

Beilan immediately realized where she was—she had died, her soul had arrived in another realm, and now she was wandering near the Red God’s inn.

It was said that the inn offered endless delicacies, and if you wished, you could live there forever, free of worries.

But Beilan didn’t want to live there forever; she wanted to return to the human world.

After entering the inn, Beilan met the Red God and was surprised to find she had the same face as the queen.

Seeing that Beilan wasn’t interested in the meat soup in the meat pool or the wine in the wine pool like the other ghosts, the Red God asked her, “You don’t like it here?”

“I just don’t want to indulge in it like they do. I want to go back,” Beilan said.

After a long look at Beilan, the Red God suddenly said, “I actually know who you are. You are a member of the guardian army of the Kingdom of Words. And me… I utterly despise those four guardian armies.”

Hearing this, Beilan immediately frowned.

The Red God smiled, saying with a rather gentle tone, “But to me, you are different from them. See, among those who fought me to the last moment in the human realm, only you remained.”

“In a way, you were abandoned by them. We share the same fate. The four guardian armies serve the royalty, including the king and queen. Yet, they seem to have forgotten all this and even helped the king and his mistress against me…”

With a sigh, the Red God continued, “As a woman, I pity you. If you want to go back, I can show you the way.”

“Can I go back? Can I be resurrected?” Beilan asked incredulously.

The Red God quickly shattered her illusions. “Of course you cannot be resurrected as Beilan directly. You can only return to the human realm according to the rules here—as a newborn.”

When Beilan was alive, there was an old maid in one of the four great families who had never married. She had heard a fortune teller say to her, “Oh, what’s this? There are three souls ‘in heaven’ waiting in line for you. Only when you marry and have children can they come to the human world. They like you and have been waiting for you. Don’t let them wait too long. Otherwise, they might leave and be born to someone else’s family. Then you would miss the connection, which wouldn’t be good for you. Hmm… It should be within these two years.”

Whether the fortune teller said this just to urge the maiden to marry, to match her with someone else, or if it was true, Beilan didn’t know at the time. She was merely curious about the idea of a dead soul being reborn as a newborn in the human world.

She didn’t expect the notion that a dead soul could return to the human world as a newborn to be confirmed by the Red God today.

“I-I’m not afraid to start over. But when can I go back?” Beilan eagerly asked the Red God.

Amei was young and could live for a very long time. Beilan didn’t want to wait alone in another realm for decades or even centuries; naturally, she hoped to return to the human world sooner to have a chance to reunite with her.

The Red God said, “The other realm is vast. This dimension is far broader and deeper than you can imagine. What I have is just an inn that can host lost souls.”

“You’ve seen it; many people indulge in the life here and forget to move forward. Such people can never return.”

“How can I go back?” Beilan asked.

Afterward, Beilan learned some secrets of the other realm from the Red God.

Upon death, souls first arrive in this inn area. This was a vast region that even many Red Gods didn’t know the full extent of. It was filled with countless roads, intricate crossroads, and innumerable inns, each offering endless delicacies.

Initially, everyone wanted to leave this area because they were told there was a road leading to the human world. Finding the right path would take them to a queue area, and then one by one, they would be reincarnated as humans.

But very few could truly leave this place.

Walking around, they would only find themselves lost in a maze, unable to find a way out. Most would give up after experiencing this numerous times.

They would turn to indulge in the dreamy life of the inns—since there were endless delicacies here, why bother being human? If they found this life boring, they might as well drink until they forget everything. Once drunk, boredom would disappear, and everything forgotten.

“The inn is a haven for souls. On Samhain, when the doors between two realms open, they can briefly return to the human world to enjoy themselves… Many are content and choose not to leave. If they tire of it, they can simply move to another inn. But they hardly have a chance to be human again. I can tell you’re different from them.”

After saying this, the Red God stood up, led Beilan out of the inn, and walked along a dark path for a long time.

At a crossroads, illuminated by the red light from another inn’s sign, the Red God pointed Beilan to a road. “I cannot guarantee this road leads to the human world. But from my observations over the years, the few who left my inn and never returned all took this road.”

Beilan’s eyes lit up. “Thank you!”

After thanking the Red God, Beilan was about to leave, but the Red God stopped her first. “Wait. I have something else to say.”

“Yes. Please speak,” Beilan said.

“Even I don’t know what lies ahead. But reincarnation isn’t so simple. Even if you leave the inn area, you may face many challenges and trials ahead. After all, so many wish to be human, but the number of babies born each year is limited. Consider carefully if you’re truly ready.”

Beilan didn’t hesitate at all. “I’ve thought it through. I’m ready. I need to return as soon as possible.”

The Red God continued, “You won’t remember anything from this life, nor will you remember me. Moreover, I can’t guarantee where you will be reborn or what kind of person you will become.”

Beilan thought for a moment, then replied, “It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.”

“Then, my guidance to you is considered a kindness I’ve shown you, agree?” the Red God said. “Otherwise, you might spend decades, even centuries, wandering aimlessly in the inn area.”

“I agree. I’ve said it before; I’m very grateful to you,” Beilan frowned. “I’m serious. I resisted you… to save the people, not because of the four great families. Now I know, you actually never harmed any of the common people’s lives…”

The four great families had separated Beilan and Amei, declaring their love a disgrace to the families and the Kingdom of Words. Beilan had always harbored hatred towards them.

And the Red God in front of her, despite causing several disturbances, had only ever killed those from the four great families and the royalty who had betrayed her.

Glancing at Beilan’s expression, the Red God then said, “Since you’re grateful to me, in exchange, promise me one thing.”

“What is it?” Beilan asked her.

The Red God said, “I can’t control your fate. I can’t guarantee you’ll return to the human world, nor do I know what you will become once you do. These are the truths.”

“However, that doesn’t mean I know nothing about your future. I can see a remarkable talent in you. This talent may be proven on your journey forward to the human world, where you’ll face trials and become stronger…”

“If you manage to return to the human world with this talent, I hope you can find a way to do something for me.”

With that, the Red God opened her hand, and a golden bird appeared in her palm.

It flapped its wings, looking beautiful and lively, as if it could fly out of the Red God’s hand at any moment and into the outside world.

It wasn’t until the Red God closed her hand into a fist that Beilan realized it was just an illusion.

“Many secrets about this world were revealed to me after I became a Red God. Who created this vast world… I do not know. But what I’ve learned is that the operation of this world is based on certain codes. These codes grow and change from their original form, gradually developing the world into its current state.”

“The ancient spells are actually a form of these codes. Spellcasters can break dimensional constraints through incantations, performing feats beyond the ordinary; fortune tellers can predict the future by training their brains to connect their thoughts with the universe through the codes, seeing events in different dimensions…”

“Color runes are also a way to connect with the codes.”

Hearing the Red God speak, Beilan said, “I understand this. Our family likes to keep white dogs. The purer the white of the dog’s fur, the easier it is to contact another realm, the easier it is to communicate with beings from another realm.”

“Right. The purer the color of an animal, the easier it becomes a spirit. And there has never been an animal that is pure gold, except for the one you just saw.”

The Red God said, “It’s a pity… When it evolved, it absorbed the purest form of malice from the human world. Lies and betrayal are its favorite elements. Such things are abundant in the human world, so much so that it has become powerful enough… to go to worlds that are difficult for all others to reach.”

“Are you saying… the divine realm?” Beilan asked.

“Yes. It entered the divine realm. Isn’t it ironic? Why would the divine realm accommodate such malice? I can’t see through it.”

The Red God stared into Beilan’s eyes, her gaze suddenly filled with sorrow and anger. “I only found out recently that the person who harmed me was actually her! This bird must be familiar to you, right? Amei was forced into marriage, precisely to steal this feather. But this feather… was deliberately offered to the king of the Land of Silence by this golden bird.”

Seeing the hatred clearly reflected in Beilan’s eyes, the Red God emphasized. “Remember, she is now called Difu. For my sake and your own, you must kill her. When necessary, I will help you.”

Following the road pointed out by the Red God, Beilan indeed left the inn area and embarked on a long journey of trials. Only by surviving these trials could she have a chance to be reincarnated as a human.

In the years that followed, Beilan walked a long and arduous path of trials. This trial lasted for ten years. The more difficult the journey, the more Beilan hated Difu and her former family—the four great families of Sun, Moon, Star, Cloud.

She resolved to kill Difu and all members of the four great families to avenge herself and Amei.

Along the way, Beilan grew increasingly powerful, and her hatred deepened. She returned to the human world as quickly as she could.

Many would spend decades or even longer. But she managed to return to the human world in just ten years.

What Beilan didn’t know was that in the tenth year, Amei died and became one of the many Red Gods. She also didn’t know that after becoming a Red God and failing to find her, Amei went to the temple and cursed all the villagers to death.

After being reborn as a human, Beilan lost the memories of her previous life, but the hatred and killing intent towards Difu and the villagers had already merged into her bones.

At the same time, at the moment of her rebirth as a human, Amei’s curse took effect—Nameless Village needed a complete slaughterer. Beilan, who harbored hatred for the village, was naturally chosen by fate.

The innate red lotus was the power bred from the strongest curse. It would devour all the villagers of Nameless Village, including Beilan, or the person now known as Alayne.

……

Inside the inn, the sounds of killing suddenly rose.

These were the spirits from eight years ago in the time-space, rushing over again. Fortunately, those who have been lingering in the inn for years, indulging in eating and drinking, didn’t have strong attack power, and so far, the players hadn’t faced too much danger from them.

Bai Zhou, Hidden Blade, Yin Jiujiu, Yun Xiangrong split up to fight, while He Xiaowei monitored everyone’s health bars and called out to Zhou Qian. “Qian’er? Shall we retreat together?”

“Give me half a minute.”

After saying this to He Xiaowei, Zhou Qian stepped forward, grabbed Alayne from the ground, and looked into her eyes. “What’s your decision now? Do you regret it? Are you ready to give up, thinking you might somehow survive, or do you still intend to find Difu and fight her?”

Alayne didn’t hesitate and met Zhou Qian’s dark pupils, saying, “I’ve fought in the darkness for ten years to find a way back from the other realm to the human world. I won’t regret it—never! I will still kill Difu. Amei’s power is growing stronger, and I’m afraid she will continue to be exploited…”

Taking a breath, Alayne walked out. “She doesn’t need to know about this. She has always been looking for me. But under these circumstances… there’s no need to let her know I am Beilan.”

“Now, let’s go save your companions. Then we’ll find a way… to eliminate Difu!”

……

Elsewhere. Moments before.

Alayne’s mother woke up in the graveyard. For some reason, the surroundings were full of noise. After casually grabbing a villager to inquire, she learned that spies from the Land of Silence had come—two in total.

Alayne’s mother couldn’t remember why she fainted, but she vaguely remembered seeing those two people.

Before tonight, she had secretly taken her daughter to see a fortune teller in a distant city. The fortune teller, after seeing Alayne’s future, bled from the eyes and nose and said she would bring doom to Nameless Village and kill everyone.

The fortune teller suggested that to avert the tragedy, Alayne’s mother should kill her while she was still young; otherwise, once the calamity brewed, it would be too late to save her.

Thus, that night, during the handkerchief game, Alayne’s mother intended to kill Alayne in the graveyard discreetly and bury her.

But she knew she couldn’t go through with it. When faced with the dug pit, she couldn’t imagine actually placing her daughter inside.

She was about to abandon the plan when two strangers appeared.

She suspected they were from the Land of Silence and knew they had seen everything.

If they spread what they saw, whether the villagers would suspect her intention to kill her daughter was one thing, but if it led to further investigation into Alayne’s fate, resulting in her execution, everything would be over.

With this in mind, of course, Alayne’s mother had to act against those two “spies”.

However, what happened next, she now had no memory of.

She could only guess that she was injured during the confrontation and fainted.

Now, she couldn’t be bothered with that much. Her only concern was the most crucial matter—where had her daughter gone in her absence?

As she followed the noisy crowd toward the square, Alayne’s mother kept asking everyone if they had seen her daughter. By the time she approached the square, she finally eased her worries—her daughter was being carried over by the young village chief Ab, who said someone found her behind a haystack not far away. Her crying was loud, making it easy for everyone to find her.

In reality, Qi Liuxing took her daughter to use the infant’s cries to attract other villagers to deal with Ke Yuxiao. After successfully drawing the villagers’ attention, he hid her behind a haystack on his way past it.

Soon, Ke Yuxiao would come to kill him, and perhaps a fierce battle with the villagers would ensue. Before that, he hid the baby to prevent her from being trampled to death.

Even under the influence of the curse, the infant wouldn’t really die, but Qi Liuxing, in a desperate escape, still unhesitatingly did this.

Having almost been killed by her own mother, she had suffered enough. Despite Qi Liuxing’s young age, despite the betrayal by his most trusted friend, and despite the infant knowing nothing… he still wished she could feel more of the world’s kindness and tenderness.

Of course, Alayne’s mother didn’t know the full story.

But the fact that those two men took her daughter without killing her was right in front of her.

They not only didn’t kill her, but they likely took her because they thought she intended to kill her. They were trying to save her!

When Alayne’s mother reached the square with the crowd and saw the head lying next to the large iron pot, she thought she understood the whole truth—

Perhaps those two were indeed from the Land of Silence, but not all were spies.

Clearly, one of them killed the other. The one who was killed… might not have wanted to be a spy, hence his companion killed him.

Under these circumstances, the one who attempted to save her daughter and hid her behind the haystack before being beheaded, preventing her from becoming another soul under the sword of a Land of Silence soldier, could only be the person who now lay decapitated before her.

The head lay on the ground—the pale and thin face of the young man was smeared with blood and mud.

Due to its proximity to the fire under the iron pot, his hair even showed slight signs of being singed.

Village Chief Ab was discussing with others how to deal with the head.

“What’s the situation here?”

“No matter the situation, he’s a person from the Land of Silence. In my opinion, we should just throw his head into the fire, especially since Samhain is coming. Just use his head as a sacrifice!”

“No, I think that’s inappropriate. He was killed by his companion, which means there’s something fishy going on. Could he be carrying some information on him? Maybe he wanted to reveal something to us but was killed before he could succeed?”

“I think we should invite a powerful fortune teller tomorrow. His brain is still there; maybe the fortune teller could see something through spells and magic!”

“If he had relatives here, I could understand his actions. But he’s a complete stranger. Why would he leak information about the Land of Silence to us?”

……

Opinions among his subordinates weren’t unified. As Ab was pondering what to do, Alayne’s mother stepped forward and said to him, “We haven’t been at war with the Land of Silence recently. This kid looks young; he probably hasn’t spilled our people’s blood. The person is dead, so there’s no need to burn his head.”

“I just felt unwell and came out for a walk with Alayne when another slender person snatched Alayne away. Alayne is still alive now, so it seems this boy saved her, so…”

“Perhaps you can discuss it first. There’s no rush to decide. Before you make a decision, how about we keep him at my place? I have a lot of ice stored in my cellar, which can prevent his head from rotting.”

……

On Zhou Qian’s side. After the other players temporarily controlled the spirits, he confirmed Alayne’s decision—she would still kill Difu.

However, when the group decided to leave the Red God’s inn of this time-space, they found the inn’s main door seemed to be enveloped by a layer of mist, with individual spirits walking in from outside, but the players couldn’t exit.

Subsequently, everyone received a notice—

[Attention: The area ahead is an unknown region and cannot be explored.]

“What the hell?” He Xiaowei’s forehead dripped with sweat.

The energy from the outside area emitted a strong sense of horror and weirdness, making him instinctively feel something was wrong.

Glancing outside, Zhou Qian said, “It’s probably because Samhain in this time-space hasn’t officially arrived. The time-space prop should allow us to traverse freely, but currently, we only know how to use it to go eight years back or forward.”

“Additionally, I think, although we can return to eight years ago, there’s a certain margin of error when it comes down to the exact hour or minute. Just wait a bit longer, and we should all be able to get out.”

“The system says the area ahead cannot be explored because the outside is another realm, hell, not included in the map of this instance. We wait for Samhain to officially start, when this place can connect with the human world. Then we can go through this door to the human world.”

Zhou Qian was right.

Five minutes later, the thick fog outside the main door had indeed dissipated.

Stepping out of the door, they found themselves on a mountain, with Nameless Village lying at the foot of the mountain below.

Taking a few steps, Bai Zhou reached out to Zhou Qian. “Let me carry you. It’s faster.”

“Okay.” Zhou Qian nodded, grabbed Bai Zhou’s shoulders from behind, and was lifted onto his back.

As Bai Zhou was about to proceed, Alayne spoke again. “It’s not effective to search blindly like this. I now remember some things from my childhood. Sometimes, I felt my mother would kill me. She looked at me with conflicted and complex eyes. She was struggling. She probably knows something about me. So, she might understand why she could see ‘the future me’.”

“Let’s go to my house first. I’ll ask my mother if she has seen your companions.”

With Alayne willing to help, it couldn’t be better.

As she suggested, they first rushed to her room.

Bai Zhou, carrying Zhou Qian, and Alayne were the first to arrive.

Alayne entered first, briskly walked into her parents’ bedroom, simply knocked her father unconscious, and then covered her shocked mother’s mouth in one swift move. After briefly explaining who she was, Alayne didn’t say much else but asked her mother if she had seen any strangers.

With her mother’s eyes full of suspicion, she pointed towards the kitchen. Alayne then signaled Bai Zhou and Zhou Qian outside the window.

Outside, following the hint, the two men immediately headed to the kitchen and found the cellar, jumping down into it.

In the dimly lit cellar, a faint light illuminated the dust floating in the air.

Zhou Qian turned on a flashlight towards a small table and then saw Qi Liuxing’s head.

Qi Liuxing’s complexion was already turning blue. His eyes were closed, and the frown on his brow hadn’t relaxed.

Despite this, Zhou Qian, who had been keeping a heavy feeling in his chest, finally let out a sigh of relief.

He had prepared for the possibility that they might not find any part of Qi Liuxing’s body.

Even so, he would still confront Difu.

If necessary, after obtaining the golden feather, he would return to this time-space to continue the search, regardless of how low the chances might be of finding any remains.

Now, things had turned out much better than the worst-case scenario he had imagined—

Qi Liuxing’s head remained intact.

As long as they got the golden feather, there was still hope for resurrection.

Taking out a portable mini freezer from his pack and placing it on the table, Zhou Qian lifted Qi Liuxing’s head with both hands. Before placing the head into the freezer, Zhou Qian stretched out his thumb and firmly rubbed the young man’s tightly furrowed brow.

Then, with a light-hearted tone, he chuckled, “Still trying to be a deep, old soul after death? Didn’t you say you’d stop pretending in front of me?”

Exhaling softly, Zhou Qian then spoke more seriously. “Xiao Qi, I promise that I and everyone else will get the golden feather for you. My promises always count. I’ve never truly lied to you, right? And—”

His gaze suddenly became terrifyingly solemn, and with a hoarse voice, Zhou Qian solemnly said, “The hatred for being dismembered… after you’re resurrected, you can personally return it a hundredfold, a thousandfold! If you can’t bring yourself to do it, leave it to me. I’ll make sure Ke Yuxiao suffers beyond measure, wishing for death!!!”

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 134

Finally seeing Zhou Qian, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but immediately share his experiences with him.

Not long ago, he felt as if he had made eye contact with the blue pupils on the statue. When he closed and then reopened his eyes, he saw several players instantly disappear from their spots.

He counted carefully: Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, Yun Xiangrong, and the “Sword Qi Xiao Heart” duo—a total of five people were gone, leaving only Hidden Blade and Yin Jiujiu by his side.

Just as He Xiaowei got to this part, Zhou Qian interrupted him. “Are you sure it was just the three of you?”

“Yes, for sure.” He Xiaowei didn’t understand why Zhou Qian would ask this question, showing a somewhat puzzled expression, then continued, “Oh, Hidden Blade and Yin Jiujiu were dealing with people from the other world inside the inn. They should be coming out soon. I came out first to scout which time and space we’ve come to and unexpectedly ran into you!”

It seemed that Qi Liuxing was in the same time and space as Ke Yuxiao.

Indeed, it was Ke Yuxiao…

With this thought, Zhou Qian frowned, and his expression became very serious. His appearance made He Xiaowei unavoidably nervous. After all, it was rare for Zhou Qian to show such an expression.

“Qian’er? What’s, what’s wrong?” He Xiaowei didn’t wait for an answer but looked towards Bai Zhou instead.

Bai Zhou didn’t answer immediately but shook his head at him.

Then Zhou Qian changed the subject. “It’s nothing. Continue.”

“Oh. After we noticed you all disappeared, the three of us quickly discussed and guessed that you had traveled through time. But the three of us didn’t travel; we were still in the original time and space because those villagers immediately revived and chased after us again. Then we ran up the mountain!”

“Let me interrupt again,” Zhou Qian said. “Are you sure you saw a blue light?”

“Yes! It was a blue light!” He Xiaowei asked, “So—?”

Zhou Qian then said, “We can make a conclusion now. The red light takes people ‘back’, the yellow light ‘forward’, but this so-called ‘future’ and ‘past’ are relative. The baseline for relative calculation is the blue light, which signifies ‘now’.”

Zhou Qian was now completely certain of the time rules corresponding to the three colors.

When the players first arrived at the instance, before staying at the Tartar Inn, that was the real, historical moment. At that time, the eyeballs on the statue facing west were red.

Later, under the invitation of the innkeeper transformed into Difu, they went to the second floor to choose rooms and found a prohibition during this period.

While they were choosing rooms, the statue outside the inn turned unknowingly. The red eyeballs looked in every direction, thus taking everyone back to the past—to the time when Alayne was eight years old.

When the players walked out of the inn, they had already returned to the past.

Under Difu’s guidance, they went to the square to participate in the handkerchief throwing game. At that time, the eyeballs of the statue facing the square turned blue, but in that situation, that paradoxically meant “now”.

The red eyes of the statue rotated once, taking everyone back to the past, followed by the appearance of blue eyes, which then fixed that segment of time as the present.

Next, if continued to be illuminated by “red” eyes, players would go even further into the past.

Thus, “relative time” was the real meaning of the three colors on the magical tool.

Thinking this, Zhou Qian asked He Xiaowei, “How did you get here then?”

“This!” He Xiaowei took out a silver artifact. “Found it in the inn.”

The silver artifact He Xiaowei took out was as big as a palm, with three skulls on it.

The base of the three skulls resembled a Tibetan Buddhist prayer wheel, engraved with a dense array of incantations. Twisting the base would rotate the skulls, and the color of the eyes would change accordingly.

“Actually, I still haven’t figured out exactly how to use it. I just tried it, and unexpectedly found you!” He Xiaowei slapped his forehead. “Hey, my luck is really good!”

Zhou Qian took the silver artifact to examine it, then asked him, “Okay, now you can tell me what you discovered about Beilan.”

……

After Zhou Qian and the others disappeared, the players illuminated by blue light remained in the current time and space.

Hidden Blade was the first to notice that the villagers were reviving one after another, perhaps soon finding their way here.

Relying on his sharp hearing to judge the speed of the villagers’ revival and the direction they were heading, Hidden Blade then led everyone to run up the mountain.

But the villagers weren’t easy to shake off; their special origins and training quickly allowed them to detect the players’ location and swiftly pursue.

Chased by the villagers, the three of them hid here and there, accidentally reaching a valley and then seeing a grave with “Beilan” inscribed on the tombstone.

Such a character, who lived only in the story and was hardly discussed or mentioned from start to finish, actually had a grave in the instance, with a tombstone to boot…

Moreover, he wasn’t buried with the other villagers of Nameless Village but was laid to rest on a mountain outside the village’s boundaries. This information was enough to form a very obvious hint.

The name “Beilan” inscribed on the tombstone seemed not just a name, but a glaring message: “Come dig me up!”

Having been playing this game till now, no one shied away from digging graves anymore. They immediately began to dig up the grave, only to find that there was no body underneath—just a ceremonial mound.

He Xiaowei deliberately left a cliffhanger at this point, asking Zhou Qian, “Guess what we saw after we dug up the dirt?”

Zhou Qian cooperated very well, asking him, “What did you see?”

“Underneath were buried a dress and hair accessories!”

He Xiaowei seemed quite good at telling stories. The tone of shock in his voice suddenly intensified, almost exaggeratingly saying, “Beilan was actually a girl!”

In all stories related to Amei, Beilan’s gender was never explicitly mentioned.

Everyone knew she had been a guard, had escorted Amei to her wedding, and had heard that Amei loved her, so they automatically assumed she was a male.

After hearing He Xiaowei’s narration, Zhou Qian glanced at Amei, only to see her already asleep under the constraint of the red lotus.

There were some questions Zhou Qian couldn’t directly ask Amei, but he had already guessed the general idea in his heart.

He Xiaowei then said, “Actually, when we reached the ceremonial mound, the villagers didn’t continue to come after us. We guessed that area was already Red God Amei’s territory, so they dared not come.”

“So, thinking along those lines… since the ceremonial mound was established by Amei, she obviously built it near her base. Indeed, after leaving the ceremonial mound, it didn’t take us long to find this inn.”

Previously, Bai Zhou had been to the Red Gods Inn, but he took a different route and didn’t discover the tombstone.

Entering the inn, he found that Difu was likely the golden bird.

But at that time, Red God Amei had already gone to Zhou Qian’s side, and he, concerned for Zhou Qian’s safety, didn’t have time to explore further and immediately returned.

Now, recalling the details he saw related to the golden bird statue, Bai Zhou asked He Xiaowei, “The golden bird stretched out one claw to the ground, with three fingers on it, one of which had dust around it that seemed off, showing slight signs of movement. So, the mechanism is on that?”

“Yes!” He Xiaowei looked at Bai Zhou and replied, “We moved that finger, and the golden bird’s wings opened, then it revealed another claw holding the prop in my hand!”

Zhou Qian asked him, “Did you use the prop in front of the golden bird?”

“Yes!” He Xiaowei said, “The golden bird seemed to light up for a moment…”

“This world has three-dimensional spaces… It seems that even if the powers of the Red God and the Goddess of Prayers are great, they cannot traverse freely but need a medium, or rather, a spatial connection point.”

“These two inns are the spatial mediums.”

“Also, our travels back and forth all happen on the day of Samhain, which must be some kind of agreement between Amei and Difu.”

When Zhou Qian said this, he took the lead towards the inn, asking Alayne beside him, “When did you feel that you are the embodiment of the gods killing intent?”

Alayne was silent for a while, then followed Zhou Qian’s steps.

“When I was very young, I had a fierce energy about me. My mother said I’ve been hostile and wary of the people around me since I was a child, and they all said I was a difficult child to get along with.

“When the red lotus appeared, the thoughts of killing in my mind became clearer. And when… when the red lotus fully bloomed… I could clearly understand my mission.”

“At that moment, a thought just appeared out of nowhere in my mind—I have to eliminate all the villagers and Difu.”

“In other words, it’s like you were born with a murderous urge towards the villagers and Difu. But this urge was sealed and suppressed at first. As you grew up, it gradually became clear and exploded?”

“In a sense.”

“Hmm, when the red lotus was in full bloom, that’s when the killing intent fully formed. But besides that—” Zhou Qian asked her, “Do you have any memories, like from a past life?”

Alayne frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You seem to be quite good to Amei. Why?” Zhou Qian asked her.

“Because we were betrayed by the same group of people. I thought we could understand each other,” Alayne said. “But now I realize I was wrong.”

Zhou Qian suddenly said, “But just like Amei said, if we look solely at your experiences in this life, your hatred seems a bit excessive.”

“What do you mean?” Alayne was puzzled.

Zhou Qian continued, “The moment the red lotus was in full bloom, you felt the killing intent transmitted by your brain. You thought it was the killing intent bestowed upon you by the gods. But what ‘gods’ does this refer to?

“Is there really a war in the realm of the gods? Is there really a god guiding you?”

“Or let me rephrase the question. Does Difu really have a lover, and her lover is a malicious god, and she is so love-struck that she concocted all these conspiracies and schemes to help the malicious god?”

Alayne’s tone suddenly became somewhat panicked. “What… What exactly are you saying?”

Zhou Qian simply said, “What I mean is, what you believe to be ‘divine will’ might just be the power of a curse.”

“The gods who you believe are conveying killing intent to you might not be the ones from the so-called god wars who want to eliminate Difu. It could actually be Difu herself.”

After saying this, Zhou Qian arrived at the inn’s entrance, just as Yun Xiangrong finally got there, and Hidden Blade and Yin Jiujiu were coming out of the inn, both bearing significant injuries.

After coming out, they quickly performed a unanimous action—moving the seven pots of meat soup farther away.

Zhou Qian immediately understood their intent. “Did you hear our conversation?”

“We did. We were dealing with ghosts just now and couldn’t come out in time.” Hidden Blade wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. “Luckily, the prop allows the inn to exist in different time dimensions at the same time, so the ghosts were dispersed, and we didn’t have too many to deal with.”

“Are those inside now trapped by you?” Zhou Qian asked.

“Yes. I used my secondary control skills to trap them for a minute. Once they break free, hopefully, these pots of meat soup can divert their attention, so they won’t attack us again.”

As Hidden Blade answered Zhou Qian, he and Yin Jiujiu had already moved all seven pots out.

“Just to be safe, everyone put on the ghost costumes that Difu brought earlier. Save as much mana as possible now.”

Zhou Qian turned and spoke loudly to everyone. After changing into a ghost mask and a long black robe himself, he threw a set to Alayne.

After a while, everyone was dressed up, and they walked in together. Indeed, all the otherworldly beings were frozen in place, temporarily unable to move.

As Zhou Qian fiddled with the prop trying to traverse time, some ghosts freed themselves first but didn’t attack the players dressed as ghosts; instead, they were drawn away by the meat soup. The rest still couldn’t break free.

Before Zhou Qian operated the prop to traverse time, he asked Alayne a question. “How old are you now?”

Alayne frowned and said, “16.”

“When we met you, you were 8, so the time difference for each color is exactly 8 years,” Zhou Qian said. “Qi Liuxing and the others returned to 8 years before that. Maybe that’s when you were just born.”

With this, Zhou Qian looked at the other players. “Let’s first go back 8 years to find Xiao Qi.”

Among those present, only Bai Zhou and Zhou Qian knew that something happened to Qi Liuxing.

Yun Xiangrong, although in the same time space, had been following them from a distance. The rest, such as He Xiaowei, came from another time space and had no idea about the condition of their teammate.

Zhou Qian, with a serious expression, didn’t explain further. After asking He Xiaowei how he had used the prop before and confirming its pattern was the same as the statue at the entrance of the village, he operated it, making one of its pupils turn red.

As the red pupil rotated around, everyone went back 8 years.

“It should work now. Let’s go.”

As Zhou Qian turned to leave, he saw Alayne suddenly kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down her eyes.

Just then, Zhou Qian received a message from the [Memory Eyeball].

The Temple of the Goddess of Prayers contained countless cursed tablets, with too much information for players to read and memorize quickly, so Zhou Qian used this item to help remember everything in the temple.

When Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou were watching Alayne massacre all the villagers, they used this item to search for information stored about the temple, with the keywords [Alayne] and [Amei].

Searching for words related to Amei was, of course, to further clarify her story and verify whether she truly cursed all the villagers as she claimed.

As for searching for Alayne, it was because Zhou Qian wanted to know if she had also gone to the temple to inscribe a cursed tablet. After all, being betrayed by the villagers and harboring hatred, it would be easy to attract the temple’s appearance.

The [Memory Eyeball]’s search function took some time, so Zhou Qian only now received its answer, which contained no curses related to Alayne, but quite a few about Amei.

The content of Amei’s curses matched the information obtained by the players through their investigations—she cursed herself to become a Red God, cursed Nameless Village to live in her shadow with many dying every year, cursed the villagers to betray each other for a chance to live…

The last was about the curse related to the death of all villagers.

Regarding Amei’s ultimate curse, Zhou Qian and the others previously learned about it through eavesdropping, but at that time, they didn’t know the specific content of the curse until now—

“I originally thought to spare them. Watching the play of betrayal year after year, I’ve actually had enough. But now I’ve found that I can’t even find Beilan’s soul. She has never visited my inn. Why? Is she hiding from me?”

“I thought becoming a Red God would at least let me wait for her… but things turned out contrary to my wishes. My separation from Beilan in life, in death, and even not meeting after death… It’s all their doing.”

“I curse them all to die!”

“I want to use all my power to curse them! For this, I’m willing to give up everything! I have nothing left to cherish… Goddess Difu, take whatever you want.”

Putting away the [Memory Eyeball], Zhou Qian looked again at Alayne, who was in tears. In the moment the prop was activated, the overlap of multiple timelines must have brought all past events to her heart, causing her to show such an expression.

Zhou Qian couldn’t help wanting to test her current attitude.

After all, if she decided not to kill Difu anymore, then the difficulty for Zhou Qian to obtain the golden feather would further increase.

Thus, Zhou Qian asked, “Have you remembered everything? You’re 16 now. If we calculate based on the timeline you’re in, Amei’s visit to the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers to curse, happened exactly 16 years ago. Which means—”

“Right after she inscribed the cursed tablet in the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers that would lead to the death of the entire village, you were born.”

“Alayne, you are not the incarnation of divine killing intent descended into the human world. You are Amei’s killing intent.”

“You were born from Amei’s curse. But at the same time, I think… you are also the reincarnation of Beilan. Thus, by some twist of fate, Amei’s killing intent also included you.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 133

In this time and space, the time had reached 1:10 in the morning.

Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou stopped 300 meters away from the Red God Inn because the Red Gods, Amei and Alayne, stopped and turned their heads to look at them.

Perhaps the inn and a certain power of the Red Gods were closely related, so that when they were near the inn, the Red Gods could sense their presence.

When their gazes met Zhou and Bai, both Amei and Alayne showed murderous intent.

Before they could act, Zhou Qian spoke while stepping down from Bai Zhou’s back. Looking at the two ladies, he said, “You should be chasing after Difu. You should be able to feel her power, right?”

Alayne extended her hand, and the lotus in her palm gathered and dispersed, but soon it gathered again, about to strike Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou.

Bai Zhou quickly drew his Tang sword, but Zhou Qian pressed down on his wrist and looked at Alayne again.

As the red lotus was about to burst into bloom in mid-air, Zhou Qian timely asked, “Has Difu’s power increased?”

Indeed, Alayne countered, “How do you know?”

“You really don’t remember me. I snatched your handkerchief when you were eight,” Zhou Qian said.

“Handkerchief? Are you talking about the one used for Samhain…” Alayne’s gaze was quite cold. “No, I have never seen you before.”

“That’s because, under the curse of Difu’s power, you remember nothing. Or should I put it another way—” Zhou Qian looked at Amei. “Actually, it’s your curse. You once cursed that everyone in the village would die. Now, Alayne has killed everyone, and it seems that everything has come true. But in fact, one person is still alive.”

His gaze then shifted back to Alayne. Zhou Qian said with a smile, “You haven’t died yet.”

Hearing this, Alayne’s expression became more serious, and her complexion was slightly pale. Zhou Qian smiled and said, “Time has actually gone much farther than you think. The fate of Nameless Village and yours has been predetermined, and everything that should happen has already happened. The ‘you’ now is actually still living in the ‘past’ you. You can’t know your ‘future’ fate.”

“Although you are the killing intent sent by the gods to the human world, essentially, you are the same as us, all human. Even if we have great power, we cannot transcend time.”

Changing the topic, Zhou Qian continued, “But Amei and Difu are different. Heaven, the human world, and hell make up the three dimensions of this world. We are in the human world, so we can’t escape the time of the human world.”

“But Amei and Difu aren’t mortals; they can stand outside of time to watch us and move freely within our time.”

“That’s why you want to use Amei and her inn to find Difu’s whereabouts. Without the Red God Inn, a medium that transcends worlds and time, you would have no idea where Difu is.”

Many gamblers in the hall seemed not to understand Zhou Qian’s words at this point.

[Wait, after checking my notes… After the handkerchief tossing game, 137 went to keep watch, while Zhou Qian and the others returned to the second floor of the inn to stay. Then Red God Amei went to find Difu, saying she wanted to curse everyone in the village to die. She specifically mentioned that she was different from the Red Gods. She couldn’t stand outside of time!]

[Right, then Amei can’t traverse time! Since she went to the inn to find Difu to curse everyone in the village to death, how could she be from the future and know they all died?]

[But what Qian Ge said also makes sense. Have you guys noticed that there haven’t been many ghosts along the way? Could they have gone to a different time and space?]

[I’ve been wanting to say, this village isn’t very big, but theoretically, there should be many people from other worlds. It turns out they went to Nameless Village in different times and spaces, so they’re dispersed and can’t meet…]

[Hey, actually, there’s no need to analyze this. Amei herself has already admitted to Alayne that her inn can indeed track Difu. So, just like Qian Ge analyzed before, the Red God Inn also exists in multiple time-space dimensions, and Amei, like Difu, can freely traverse time and space!]

[So what exactly happened that night at the inn? Amei’s words and her abilities contradict each other! She clearly said she couldn’t stand outside of time. This means she stayed in the time space where Ab and others were still alive, so she cursed them all to die…]

[I got it! There are two possibilities—]

[First, the conversation between Amei and Difu that night didn’t happen in real-time in the inn’s hall!]

[Amei must have gone to the inn to find Difu before, to talk about cursing the whole village.]

[The conversation we and Qian Ge heard might just be because Difu “played” back a conversation she had with Amei at some point in the past through the statue’s eyes, specifically for the players to “hear”!]

[As for Difu’s purpose, of course, it was to make the players doubt Nameless Village, then hate the villagers, and even lie to find out everything. These are the negative factors Difu needed.]

[Do you remember, Hidden Blade Boss said Difu’s attitude towards players was “chaotic”. She had no murderous intent towards them. Now I understand. She indeed had no direct murderous intent at that time. After all, living people can provide negative emotions for her to feed on!]

[Wait, let me interrupt. Your answer has a bug. At that time, Amei was already speaking in an incomprehensible language, indicating she had become a Red God. If she is a Red God, not belonging to the human world, and can transcend time, why would she say she can’t stand outside of time?]

[That leaves only the second possibility—Amei was lying.]

[Damn, I also realized, there’s only one answer that explains everything that night—Amei said that deliberately. She was misleading the players!]

[Isn’t it? How could two such powerful gods, able to exist beyond human dimensions, not know the players were ‘eavesdropping’? Amei did it on purpose!]

[Shit, holy shit, so Amei has always been Difu’s person?!]

In the game.

Looking at Zhou Qian, Alayne said, “I of course know they can traverse time and space. But what about you? If you are also a mortal and cannot ‘transcend time’, how did you travel from what you call ‘my future’ to ‘my present’?”

Zhou Qian said, “You already understand Difu well. You know she has a magical tool, right? It’s the statue at the village entrance. We were brought here from your ‘future’ to this moment by her using that magical tool. I know her power has increased because the ‘betrayal’ she anticipated happened.”

“Difu brought us back to the past of Nameless Village using the magical tool, to let us feel the betrayal of the villagers and then generate hatred and slaughter, so that she can absorb power from it.”

“Now she has sent our companions to different times and spaces, aiming to further provoke our mutual betrayal. As far as I know, my companions died because of her design. So, we should cooperate.”

At this point, Zhou Qian’s eyes glinted in the night, as if he was making an irresistible proposition.

His expression wasn’t that of someone seeking to survive from a powerful person, nor was it negotiating; rather, he was making a demand.

“Alayne, if my companions continue to betray each other, Difu will become stronger. Consequently, your chances of winning will decrease. Therefore, the first thing you need to do is help me find out where my companions are in the vastness of time and space.”

“In return, we will help you. We can not only help you deal with Difu but also help you steal the ‘Key to Freedom’. After all, we are deserters from the Land of Silence. We know it very well. As for Amei…”

“Amei can’t be trusted…” Zhou Qian hadn’t finished speaking when a sudden change occurred—

Countless red and white ghostly auras rapidly gathered together, aiming not at Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou, but striking at Alayne’s back!

By the time Alayne reacted and turned her head, it was already too late. But fortunately, a flash of sword light zipped past her spine even faster, acting like an indestructible wall, pushing all the ghostly auras away.

Alayne was half a step slow, not because she lacked power, but because she truly did not want to believe that Amei would make such a move!

Amei stood on Difu’s side. For this, even though Zhou Qian had hinted at it, knowing rationally was one thing, but actually seeing it was another.

Alayne incredulously looked at Amei. “You…”

Responding to her was Zhou Qian’s ruthless words. “She has been cooperating with Difu for many years—even her inn enshrines Difu’s idol.”

“Do you really think she would believe you with just a few words?”

“She probably wants to find an opportunity to deal with you later, or simply throw you into the vortex of time, trapping you forever. Unfortunately, I’ve told you the truth ahead of time, so she had to take action. Anyway, she won’t help you steal the key. You can only rely on us now.”

Alayne didn’t pay attention to Zhou Qian, just continued to look at Amei. “You…”

“I have enough reason to hate the villagers. But you don’t. At least you shouldn’t hate to the extent of slaughtering the village. You say you are the killing intent sent by the gods—I believe this. Now you can kill the villagers in the name of the gods, and in the future, you can also kill me and the spirits living in my inn in the name of the gods.”

Amei said. “So I have a need to cooperate with Difu.”

Seeing a subtle expression emerge on Alayne’s face, Amei continued, “Additionally, regarding everything you said, I don’t agree. Regarding what I’ve experienced, maybe Difu is a disaster, or perhaps she played a role in exacerbating the situation, but in fact, the real betrayal and hatred come from my home and country.”

“Difu came to the human world with evil intentions, perhaps similar in nature to earthquakes, tsunamis, and diseases. But as a god, she’s too powerful. She doesn’t need to betray me. If she can’t absorb power through me, she would simply find the next person. She doesn’t need to betray me.”

“Those who would betray me are always humans.”

Alayne was almost startled by these words. “What about you? Aren’t your current actions a betrayal of me?”

Amei was silent for a while before saying, “No. You and I were never on the same side. Maybe I was human once. But now, I am a Red God from another realm. I will forever hate humans, including you. Even if you were born with inhuman power.”

After saying this, Amei turned around and walked towards the inn. Her speed was very fast, but the red lotus was faster.

Red, silk-like petals quickly wrapped around her wrists, ankles, and neck.

But that was all.

The petals didn’t twist her head off like they did with the villagers. The flower just took root, trapping Amei in place.

Afterward, Alayne finally looked at Zhou Qian, yet didn’t speak, as if still weighing something.

Zhou Qian said, “Lies and betrayal will increase Difu’s power. If Amei betrayed you, you could feel Difu’s power increasing, right? But at this moment, my words haven’t increased her power. So, you know I’m not lying.”

Alayne didn’t respond, but her complexion turned even paler.

Good. It seemed that in these few seconds, no one else nearby had lied, so Difu’s power had indeed not increased, allowing him to fully convince Alayne.

With this thought, Zhou Qian fixed his eyes on Alayne’s and continued, “Whether it’s the Tartar Inn opened by Difu at the village entrance or the Red God Inn that connects two worlds, they both hide the secrets of time and space. They are the link points of the three dimensions in this world.”

“You should now fully believe me. Once we enter the Red God Inn, perhaps with the effect of all dimensions being interconnected and various times and spaces linked, you will remember everything—

“You will remember that I once stole your handkerchief, that my companions had kept watch for you.”

“You might also remember your future.”

At this point, Zhou Qian paused, and his eyes gave a meaningful look before he continued, “For example, in your future, like the other villagers, you also died.”

Just at this moment, from the direction of the inn with the bright red sign, suddenly came a familiar voice.

This even surprised Zhou Qian—

Looking towards the voice, he immediately saw He Xiaowei running towards him.

“Qian’er! Is it really you?! This isn’t an illusion, right?!”

“I have a big discovery to tell you!”

“Remember Beilan? There’s a problem with his identity! A big problem! Totally unexpected!”

---

The author has something to say:

To prevent everyone from forgetting, Beilan is Amei’s childhood sweetheart. They were forcibly separated.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

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.”

---

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: ???

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

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.”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 130

Beside the inn, in front of the statue, a yellow light quickly swept past Zhou Qian’s eyes, and he noticed many players had disappeared, clearly indicating he had been sent to another timeline.

Along with him, Bai Zhou and Yun Xiangrong were also transported.

When the incident occurred, the players were actually all gathered in one direction. Based on the previous range covered by the eyes of the three heads on the statue, even if they were to be sent to different timelines, all players were supposed to be together.

However, the sudden rotation of the statue heads and pupils broke the original pattern, managing to lock onto different players more precisely and sending them to different timelines. This seemed a bit unfair.

Zhou Qian could guess why Bai Zhou was sent with him—probably because the two were too close at the time, making it difficult for the statue’s “gaze” to separate them. However, why Yun Xiangrong appeared here warranted further consideration.

After all, besides Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei and Hidden Blade were the closest to Zhou Qian, yet neither of them came along.

Turning his head, when Zhou Qian saw the temple, he found his answer—Difu could read the guard and hostility among the deserters. She deliberately placed two or several people with hostility towards each other together, obviously to further lead them to “curse” and kill each other through curses.

After a brief moment of daze, Yun Xiangrong looked around and then took a step towards the temple. At the same moment, sensing that Bai Zhou beside him seemed to be making a move, Zhou Qian timely held his hand. Though he was looking at Bai Zhou, the words were clearly meant for Yun Xiangrong. “She wouldn’t dare. Her speed of running there is definitely not as fast as your sword.”

After Zhou Qian said this, Yun Xiangrong’s gaze turned over, and the two briefly made eye contact. At this moment, both faced the same question—how to continue the act in such an instance, under the watchful eyes of the gamblers?

The power of Goddess Difu would grow positively with the increase of negative factors like lies and betrayals.

This meant if Zhou Qian and the others continued to lie and act, it would further strengthen Difu’s power, thereby increasing the difficulty of clearing the instance.

With Difu’s true form being a golden bird and already in a state that couldn’t be killed, if her power was further strengthened, what the conditions for clearing the game would be, and how to achieve them, became even more elusive.

Glancing at Yun Xiangrong, Zhou Qian said, “Us killing each other will only make Difu stronger. Let’s cooperate for now. I guess you don’t want to perish together with me. Besides, with Bai Zhou by my side, you can’t kill me.”

Yun Xiangrong, seemingly frustrated, stopped and frowned without saying anything.

Zhou Qian no longer paid her any attention, instead turning to Bai Zhou. “Finding a way to clear the level together is more important. What do you think? How can we eliminate her power without killing Difu?”

Bai Zhou said, “Difu’s true form is a golden bird, born from the utmost evil of the world and has lived for many years. Her power is too strong, and we can’t confront her directly. We can only think of roundabout ways.”

Glancing at the statues, he continued, “What we need to do now is, first, find a way to use such a magical instrument to return to our true timeline; second, find a way to lock up the temple with the chains that once bound Difu.”

“Then let’s go into the temple and take a look.”

As Zhou Qian walked towards the temple, he looked back at Yun Xiangrong. “You don’t have to come in. I’m afraid you’ll curse me in the chaos. You keep watch here. ‘Yellow light’ represents the future, but we don’t know at which point in the future we’ve been brought. Beware of accidents. We need someone to keep watch here.”

After speaking, Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou walked into the temple together.

Using a private chat item, Zhou Qian said to Bai Zhou, “Actually, I’m quite lazy to act with her. It’s meaningless. In my view, the Peach Blossom Legion wouldn’t believe she would truly betray.”

Bai Zhou replied, “Then you need to consider the significance of the Peach Blossom Legion sending her under these circumstances.”

“Yes, so I’m cooperating, am I not?”

Zhou Qian blinked, picked up a flashlight, and shone it down the corridor.

The stone walls on both sides of the corridor were still inscribed with various curse inscriptions. Although Zhou Qian didn’t have time to read and remember all the inscriptions during his first visit to the temple, he still had a deep impression of many inscriptions.

Now, the same inscriptions were carved in the same places. It seemed he indeed entered the same temple. However, according to Difu, this temple exists in many different timelines simultaneously.

Perhaps the chaotic phenomenon would end once Difu was locked up again—the temple and the goddess would no longer be able to travel through various timelines.

But soon Zhou Qian noticed an anomaly—the corridor had become wider and longer than his first visit.

Shining the flashlight forward, Zhou Qian quickly shared this discovery with Bai Zhou.

Near the end of the corridor, he asked Bai Zhou to stop and then slowed down, taking steps towards the temple entrance. Each step Zhou Qian took was deliberately even, and he found that from the point he asked Bai Zhou to stop at the temple entrance, he took ten steps.

Thinking of something, Zhou Qian, from ten steps away in the dark corridor, looked at Bai Zhou’s perfect features with the faint light from the flashlight and suddenly said, “Zhou Ge, I have something to tell you—”

“Actually, I later inquired. The class beauty next door never sent you a love letter. But why did you receive one? Because I sent it to you.”

Bai Zhou looked at him. “?”

Zhou Qian: “I drew a ghost face on the letter. Actually, I just wanted to see if you would open the love letter. If you really opened it, found it strange, wanted to discuss with me, who was a brother to you at the time, or even wanted to ask the class beauty next door why she drew a ghost face for you, it meant you were interested in her.”

Hearing this, Bai Zhou smiled faintly.

After a while, he asked Zhou Qian, “So, is there anything else?”

“Anything else? What else… let me think,” Zhou Qian laughed, walked back to Bai Zhou from the temple entrance, and then looked at him meaningfully. “I took only nine and a half steps when I walked back from there.”

Between them was a distance of ten steps. With each lie dispelled, the distance between them grew closer as the temple shrank.

This situation created a mystical image—

As if the long years that had stretched between them could indeed be gradually erased. In this imagery, Bai Zhou’s gaze towards Zhou Qian gradually deepened.

Then he looked deeply at Zhou Qian and said, “Hmm, try admitting something else.”

Zhou Qian sighed in feigned helplessness. “This instance really isn’t suited for someone like me. I can only speak the truth in front of you. For others… let Difu’s power increase then.”

Smiling at Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian turned around, his back to him, and said, “Zhou Ge, you’re really overthinking some things. I truly like you. How can liking someone be compared to liking food and drink? I’m actually quite loyal. Don’t disbelieve.”

At that moment, Bai Zhou’s body stiffened for a moment. After a while, he seemed to be able to move again and immediately reached out to grab Zhou Qian’s hand.

But Zhou Qian deliberately withdrew his hand, took a few steps forward, then turned back and made a stop gesture to Bai Zhou, “Hey, the experiment isn’t over yet. Don’t move.”

Bai Zhou really didn’t move. Zhou Qian raised his eyebrows at him, then turned around and continued forward. Step by step, he walked back to the temple entrance and said, “This time it’s only nine steps. So you see—”

Turning back, Zhou Qian smiled at Bai Zhou. “I didn’t lie to you, Zhou Ge. What I just said was the truth.”

The golden light seeping out of the temple outlined a golden ray along Zhou Qian’s body.

He stood in the backlight, and his expression should have been hard to see. But at that moment, Bai Zhou felt his smile was more brilliant than the most beautiful clouds in the sky.

Zhou Qian always had the most eye-catching ability.

Bai Zhou had felt this way the first time he saw him, even though they were both so young at the time.

Following the path Zhou Qian had walked, Bai Zhou stepped forward, gripping his hand tightly. After a moment of eye contact, Zhou Qian didn’t delay further, pulling him into the temple.

In the center of the temple, the golden statue of the goddess was still there, with the chain at her feet still in an open state. Zhou Qian walked up to the statue, squatted down to pick up the chain, and tried to lock it back onto the goddess’s ankle, but he found he couldn’t do it. Every time he locked it, it would spring open after a moment.

“There must be clues we haven’t found yet.” Zhou Qian looked up at Bai Zhou. “We need to find the magic, spell, or perhaps a key to lock the goddess up again.”

“Yeah. Actually, we could go back to the village and have another look around,” Bai Zhou suggested, lifting a flashlight to scan the various inscriptions around them.

“Did you manage to read all of these before?”

“No, we didn’t have the chance before the temple disappeared,” Zhou Qian replied. “We can indeed take another look together now.”

A moment later, the sound of Yun Xiangrong’s voice came from the direction of the corridor.

Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou exchanged glances. To prevent the temple from disappearing again, Zhou Qian took out an item—a remarkably large eyeball, almost the size of an adult’s palm, with extremely dark pupils, looking quite eerie.

[Item: Memory Eyeball]

[Function: More powerful than a camera and video recorder. Who is the king of memories? It’s this! It can record everything it sees.]

[Note: Not a consumable item but can only be used once a day, with up to three memories retrievable per day.]

[Level: S; Extremely Rare]

With this eyeball, Zhou Qian quickly made a round around the temple, then left with Bai Zhou.

As they passed through the corridor, Zhou Qian let the eyeball record the inscriptions on the walls while he called out, “Yun Xiangrong? Did you find anything?”

Yun Xiangrong’s voice came from the direction of the corridor exit. “There’s some activity in the direction of the square.”

……

A minute later, Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, and Yun Xiangrong headed towards the square together.

They were already familiar with the route from the statue and inn to the square.

Not long after setting out, Zhou Qian noticed something unusual—a massive red light was emanating from the direction of the square, almost turning the sky red.

As Zhou Qian wondered if this was related to the Red God Amei, he heard Bai Zhou say, “It’s Alayne’s power.”

“Alayne?” Zhou Qian knew Bai Zhou said this because, as a player with Rank God hearing, he could hear specific voices from the square.

The previous suspicions about Alayne resurfaced, and sure enough, Zhou Qian heard Bai Zhou say, “She’s punishing all the villagers. We need to be careful.”

Afterward, the three didn’t continue towards the square but instead turned to climb the hillside next to them. They found a hidden spot halfway up the hill, concealed by rocks, and looked down at the square.

From this position, they could clearly see what was happening on the square. Zhou Qian couldn’t hear what Alayne and the others were saying clearly, so Bai Zhou relayed it to him.

On the vast square, a huge lotus flower bloomed in mid-air, the red light coloring the ground and even the night sky, like the red clouds spread across the sky.

Alayne sat on the red lotus, overlooking everyone, like a god watching over mortals from above the clouds.

She appeared to be only about thirteen or fourteen years old at this time. Her features were still youthful, but her eyes showed a maturity beyond her years. In front of her, hundreds of villagers all knelt down, including Ab and even her biological father.

Ab was leading everyone in begging Amei.

They kept kowtowing to her, as if worshiping a god, regardless of bleeding from their heads. “Please, don’t kill us!”

“Yes, spare me!”

“You grew up before our eyes!”

“You’re a descendant of the four major families. You can’t commit such a heinous act!”

Alayne didn’t even glance at the people, coldly saying, “When Brother Qi Yunsi died, when my mother was driven to death by you… even when my biological father betrayed me, asking me to die for the entire village, you weren’t saying this. I’ve been forced into this by you all.”

“Lord Ab, didn’t you say that the oracle indicated that I was the hope for saving Nameless Village?”

“I think I’m fulfilling the oracle now. Killing you evildoers, Nameless Village will be clean from now on! Only when you all die, there is a possibility for this place to recover its light and hope!”

From behind a rock halfway up the hill, looking down at the scenes on the square, Zhou Qian said to Bai Zhou, “So, the role played by Qi Yunsi also had its purpose.”

Bai Zhou nodded. “The history of Nameless Village doesn’t include our presence. So, you didn’t steal the little girl Alayne’s handkerchief, and I didn’t stand guard for Alayne.”

Zhou Qian added, “Right, considering Alayne and Qi Yunsi were so close, we can boldly assume… that night it was actually Qi Yunsi who participated in the vigil for her and died.”

“That night, perhaps, was the first step of Alayne’s hatred towards Nameless Village.”

In the real history, during the year Alayne was eight, on the eve of the Samhain festival, the square traditionally held a “Drop the Handkerchief” game.

Despite the Sun-Moon alliance, Alayne’s family, the Sun Family, lost.

As a result, Alayne had to stand guard.

Although there was no incident of Zhou Qian stealing her handkerchief, she might still have made a mistake that led to her family’s loss, and she was severely punished by her family.

Furthermore, that night, Qi Yunsi stood guard for her and never returned, dying at the hands of the Red God. That year’s Samhain festival became a nightmare for Alayne, the starting point of her hatred for Nameless Village.

The players’ presence in this part of history indeed affected the course of events in a short time—Bai Zhou stood guard for Alayne, so Qi Yunsi didn’t die at the hands of the Red God.

However, what had happened couldn’t be changed.

The more than thirty people standing guard that night couldn’t find Bai Zhou and failed to solve the “1 or 31” proposition given by the Red God. Thus, some turned back to the village, attacked Qi Yunsi, who lived alone, intending to bring his body to the Red God.

 With Qi Yunsi’s death, the remaining 31 no longer had to fight over who would be the sacrificial offering that night.

Village Chief Ab probably knew who the real culprit was, or which family had conspired to do it.

As the village chief, he had to minimize the losses of the four major families; he couldn’t push out another, or several, murderers from the families. So, he blamed the “deserters”.

Now, although the players temporarily affected the course of events, in the long run, everything still followed the original trajectory of history.

All logic formed a closed loop.

Qi Yunsi still died, and his body was still sacrificed to the Red God.

History really didn’t change by a single detail.

Two years later, Alayne was ten.

That year, many details related to the Samhain festival were accidentally overheard by Bai Zhou while fulfilling the “night watch” task.

From what he heard, Ab tricked Alayne into going up the mountain alone to see the Red God, intending to sacrifice her to the Red God, trading her life for everyone else’s.

Somehow, Alayne’s mother told Ab about the lotus on her body. At that time, Alayne almost thought her mother had also betrayed her.

As for Ab’s reason for sacrificing Alayne, it probably wasn’t due to any oracle; that was just a pretext he made up. The real reason behind it most likely had to do with the Red God—Red God Amei specifically demanded the death of someone with a lotus on their body.

Alayne, of course, didn’t want to die and escaped the village chief’s clutches.

The village chief ordered people to guard all the paths down the mountain, intending to drive her into the Red God’s territory and ultimately sacrifice her to death.

Bai Zhou had no way of knowing what happened after that.

It wasn’t until now that he confirmed that Alayne hadn’t died that night.

Everything that happened that night probably constituted the second step of Alayne’s hatred towards Nameless Village.

Now, based on what Alayne said on the square, her mother also died.

So, this might have formed the third step—she eventually reached a level of power beyond everyone’s reach through her talent. Now, filled with hatred, she decided to kill all the villagers.

Zhou Qian squinted at the square and said, “Alayne was betrayed by Nameless Village that raised her, betrayed by her family, betrayed by her father… Such a person like her is very likely to attract the Prayer Temple of the Goddess of Prayers…”

“Could she have cursed someone there?”

Bai Zhou replied, “Yes, that information should be crucial. Let’s use that eyeball to search.”

“Right. Zhou Ge, you keep listening to the information from the square. I’ll search,” Zhou Qian said. “The temple can appear in various timelines, but the information it records must be synchronous. If Amei’s curse is there, then there must also be records.”

…..

On the other side.

Qi Liuxing was understandably a bit panicked when he discovered his teammates had disappeared, but upon turning around and seeing Ke Yuxiao, he immediately felt much more at ease. “We’ve traveled through time and space.”

Ke Yuxiao nodded. “Yeah. Let’s first go check out the Prayer Temple together, then explore the village.”

Qi Liuxing readily agreed to his suggestion, and the two proceeded to do something similar to what Zhou Qian and his group were doing. They first entered the temple, meticulously examined all the inscriptions they could, and also tried to relock the chain on the goddess statue’s ankle. Upon finding that they couldn’t, they left the temple to look for clues in the village instead.

Not long after leaving the temple, as they were discussing which direction to go first, they faintly heard voices coming from the direction of the graveyard on the hill.

The two exchanged glances, instantly understanding each other without needing to speak, then took out their weapons and headed towards the source of the voices.

Along the way, Ke Yuxiao whispered to Qi Liuxing, “I have an idea.”

“What kind of idea?” Qi Liuxing asked him.

Ke Yuxiao replied, “Negative emotions like lies, betrayal, and hatred will make the goddess stronger. I agree with what Zhou Qian said.”

“Then, think about it. Why were we placed in the same group?”

Qi Liuxing thought for a moment and said, “It’s probably because we stood the closest to each other. We were observed by the same color of eyeball on the statue.”

“Right. People who have the best relationship naturally stand closer together and then are sent to the same timeline,” Ke Yuxiao said. “But think about it. For the goddess to feed, or to become stronger, she needs to absorb negative emotions. However, in reality, when people who have good relationships are together, how could they possibly harbor hatred, betrayal, or even curse each other through the temple?”

“Under these circumstances, the goddess couldn’t achieve her goal. So, what’s the purpose of her actions? Why would she send the two of us to the same timeline?”

“If I were her… to achieve the purpose of absorbing negative emotions, I would only be able to deliberately create some traps that cause two close people to misunderstand, doubt, and then hate each other,” Qi Liuxing said.

“Exactly. That’s what I’m thinking—”

Having said that, Ke Yuxiao looked at Qi Liuxing with concern.

Not knowing what the future holds, only the moonlight tonight was gentle, casting a particularly soft glow on Ke Yuxiao’s face.

In this gentle tone, he said to Qi Liuxing, “Perhaps the Goddess Difu will create many illusions and mirages. In these illusions, we might betray or even hurt each other.”

“Xiao Qi, if you see me doing something like that, please don’t believe it could ever be real.”

Hearing this, Qi Liuxing smiled at Ke Yuxiao and responded naturally, “Of course, I wouldn’t believe it. If such an illusion really appeared, I would never fall for it. You’ve saved me so many times. You’re the last person in this world who would harm me. I will always trust you.”

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 129

The starlight fell on Zhou Qian’s fingertips as he removed his mask, as well as on the corners of Bai Zhou’s eyes and eyebrows.

Smiling, Zhou Qian finished speaking only to find Bai Zhou’s expression cold, and his gaze seemed to carry a hint of disapproval.

Before Bai Zhou could speak, Zhou Qian quickly grabbed his hand, laughing in his usual tone. “My God has arrived. Let’s escape quickly.”

Bai Zhou: “……”

After a deep look at him, Bai Zhou didn’t say anything. He grabbed Zhou Qian’s hand with his left and pulled him behind him, holding the Breaking Dawn in his right hand, and then looked at the crowd.

The player closest to Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou was He Xiaowei.

He Xiaowei was in a dire situation, showing signs of defeat under the attack of three people. Just as their daggers were about to stab into him, he closed his eyes in despair.

Unexpectedly, death didn’t come. When He Xiaowei opened his eyes, he saw the daggers in their hands had turned around and were instead plunged into their own chests!

Overjoyed, He Xiaowei guessed what had happened and turned his head to see Zhou Qian. “Qian’er! Was that your doing? [Bone Nightmare]? Eh—”

After saying this, he looked at Bai Zhou. “Holy shit. Boss, when did you get back?”

Zhou Qian shook his head without speaking but seriously looked behind him.

Realizing something might be happening behind him, He Xiaowei quickly turned around and saw that the three men on the ground had quickly stood up again, and the blood on their chests had disappeared.

In an instant, they picked up their weapons and charged at He Xiaowei again, more ferocious than before.

While defending himself with his qin, He Xiaowei glanced around and saw that the situation was equally grim for the other players!

Not far away, Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao were bloodied amidst a sea of corpses.

These corpses were rising from the ground again. After a large amount of mana consumption by Qi and Ke, these people revived with full health and charged at them again, becoming several times more ferocious!

The situation was similar for Hidden Blade.

He had just cut down ten people. Now, after these ten people revived, they charged at him regardless of how many cuts they received, as if they weren’t afraid of death at all.

The situation was also extremely dangerous for the two girls.

They grouped together to fend off enemies. Yin Jiujiu continuously tanked the villagers while Yun Xiangrong controlled a flute, commanding countless catkins to kill the attackers.

As the revived villagers charged at them in waves, each wave would fall to the catkins, only for the next wave to immediately follow, recklessly.

Yin Jiujiu was running low on mana and health. When another wave charged at Yun Xiangrong, she tried to pour out more alcohol from her gourd, but there was hardly any left.

Unable to tank anymore, the aggro immediately shifted back to the DPS, and the mass of people directly bypassed Yin Jiujiu and charged at Yun Xiangrong!

The villagers’ behavior was naturally related to what they had witnessed.

Initially cautious, seeing their companions die and then revive gave them boundless courage—since they could revive, why fear death?!

Thus, after several rounds of revival, all villagers became tougher to deal with, effectively forming a death squad of several hundred people!

“Everyone, come behind me.”

It was Bai Zhou who spoke.

Releasing Zhou Qian’s hand, Bai Zhou stepped forward, holding the blade with both hands towards the crowd.

Hearing Bai Zhou’s words, the other players fought while retreating towards Zhou Qian, inevitably leading all the enemies to him.

Bai Zhou held his long sword horizontally, the blade shining snow-white under the moonlight. Leaping into the air, he faced hundreds of villagers. After a brief moment of gathering strength, a mist emerged from the blade, astonishingly condensing into a huge, semi-transparent white dragon in the air!

Seeing this, Hidden Blade couldn’t help but exclaim excitedly, “Holy shit, this is the Boss’ signature move [White Dragon Slash] from when he ascended to godhood! When I saw it back then, I felt like my swordsmanship was nothing!”

“Is that why you call him White Dragon?”

Zhou Qian said, squinting at the air. Where the sword qi condensed, the white dragon had almost taken a physical form, its beauty surpassing the color of snow and moonlight.

This sword qi condensed white dragon, almost a hundred people long, briefly circled in the air. Its long tail swept out, and a powerful murderous intent descended from the sky, sweeping towards the hundreds of villagers.

Wherever the sword qi passed, the ground was upheaved, plants were blown away, and all the villagers were ground to dust! All the sounds of combat disappeared at that moment.

After a moment, the white dragon vanished into thin air.

Bai Zhou, with the sword in hand, landed without a drop of sweat on his forehead.

The players were almost breathless, probably stunned by the scene before them.

Glancing at everyone’s expressions, Hidden Blade couldn’t help but boast about his idol. “See, I told you the Boss is awesome! And that’s even when his power is heavily suppressed. Zhou Qian, I still can’t figure out—”

Hidden Blade looked at Zhou Qian incredulously. “I still can’t figure out why you refused to be his apprentice!”

At this moment, He Xiaowei winked at Hidden Blade and said, “Master, that’s not right. They don’t want to be master and apprentice. They want to be lovers. No wonder—”

He patted Zhou Qian’s shoulder. “I was wondering what kind of person could catch Qian’er’s eye. Now I see! Wait…”

Realizing something, He Xiaowei suddenly widened his eyes at Bai Zhou. “This scene seems familiar… Ah, the dragon from ‘Last Wish’—it was you? Holy shit! Then I…”

Did I just spill the beans about that dragon kissing Zhou Qian?

Fuck. Am I going to get retaliated against!

Zhou Qian tapped He Xiaowei’s head and then told everyone, “These villagers are just meant to deplete our mana. The real danger in this instance is still ahead. Everyone, be very careful later.”

“Now that the villagers have turned to dust, their revival will be much slower. Let’s take this opportunity to head to the village entrance!”

Turning around, grabbing Bai Zhou’s arm, Zhou Qian walked with him at the forefront.

Along the way, they quickly shared their experiences through private chat.

Zhou Qian briefly told Bai Zhou about his side of things, and Bai Zhou did the same. In the end, he said, “Besides that bird, I also found out about a story.”

“What story?” Zhou Qian asked.

“It’s related to the queen of the Kingdom of Words. She’s also a Red God, but her rebellion wasn’t here. It was in the royal city,” Bai Zhou said.

Zhou Qian pondered. “The queen became a Red God, causing disaster in the royal city; Amei became a Red God, causing disaster in Nameless Village. These two stories are very similar. Amei did this because Nameless Village wronged her. On the queen’s side… did the king betray her?”

“Yes,” Bai Zhou said. “According to the story I learned at the Red God Inn, the king of the Kingdom of Words fell in love with another woman and was so infatuated that he wanted to demote the queen to a commoner. This happened a long time ago when the Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud families were the king’s guards.”

Zhou Qian felt he had guessed something and asked for the key detail. “What’s that woman’s name?”

Bai Zhou said, “Tartar.”

Zhou Qian immediately responded, “I knew it… She didn’t even change her name.”

Bai Zhou continued, “After being abandoned by her husband, the queen went to the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers. She cursed three things: first, that her husband would suffer from an incurable disease; second, that the Kingdom of Words would face war, and the Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud families, who helped the king hide the truth, would all be severely injured and never serve as guards again; third, that she herself would become a Red God after death.”

“To fulfill these three curses, she was willing to sacrifice her life to the Goddess Difu.”

“In the other world, ordinary ghosts have a chance to return to the human realm. But once one becomes a Red God, they can only remain a ghost forever. The queen made such a resolute choice probably for the same reason as Amei; they both wanted to retain their memories of this life and see the downfall of those who betrayed them with their own eyes. It’s quite ironic—”

Zhou Qian said, “The queen’s husband found a mistress, so she went to the temple to curse her husband, but she wouldn’t know that the god she pleaded with… was actually that ‘mistress’.”

In Zhou Qian’s perspective, he had only heard the villagers’ version of the past story: Amei, the ugly woman, sacrificed her parents’ lives for beauty, using magic to obtain her looks; afterwards, she married the king of the Land of Silence but had an affair with a man named Beilan from the four major families.

Beilan was taken to another realm by a Red God, and in her eagerness to see him, Amei stole the golden feathers, forcibly opened the space between two realms, leading to the Land of Silence crusade, putting numerous people of the Kingdom of Words in danger, bringing shame to the four major families, who were expelled from the royal city and lived by farming in the borderlands.

From Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian learned the other side of the story.

Amei married the king of the Land of Silence because, during a war between the two countries, the Kingdom of Words lost, and all the skilled warriors from the four families were injured and, for some reason, their wounds couldn’t heal. At the same time, the king also contracted an incurable disease, putting the Kingdom of Words in a dire situation.

Under these circumstances, they coerced Amei to use her beauty to seduce the king of the Land of Silence, in hopes of stealing the golden feathers with healing powers from him, to save the kingdom from its doomed fate.

Amei successfully stole the golden feathers and healed everyone but was then accused of “stealing the national treasure of the Land of Silence to save her lover that she had an affair with.”

The ones who betrayed her were her homeland and the Kingdom of Words that raised her.

Walking side by side in the night, Zhou Qian said, “So, in the real story, the man named Beilan was actually Amei’s childhood sweetheart. At that time, the four major families were still in the royal city. And you said that after the queen became a Red God, she caused trouble in the royal city…”

“So, Beilan might also have been sacrificed for the greater good for the Kingdom of Words. Yet, he and Amei became the targets of everyone’s curses.”

A pair of lovers, in order to save the Kingdom of Words, one married into the Land of Silence to steal the national treasure, while the other died in the fight against the Red God.

However, to clear their own names and eliminate unfavorable rumors, the king of the Kingdom of Words and the four major families blamed everything on this couple, creating a lie that their affair led to all the tragedies.

Thinking of this, Zhou Qian looked towards the pyramid-shaped temple near the graves, saying, “The story stops here, but it’s still not clear enough. Until you found the hidden story of Tartar.”

With the hidden story Bai Zhou found, the missing piece of the whole story was finally filled.

Why the Land of Silence suddenly attacked the Kingdom of Words, why the king fell ill, why the royal city and the families of Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud were harassed by the Red God, leading to the subsequent story of Amei stealing the golden feathers from the Land of Silence, now finally had a clearer answer—because of Tartar.

The Goddess Difu, disguised as the beautiful woman Tartar, seduced the king of the Kingdom of Words, forcing him to demote the queen to a commoner. In her anguish, the queen went to the temple to curse the king and the four families protecting him, and after her death, she became a Red God, returning to the royal city every Samhain, bringing various disturbances.

In order to protect the royal city and the four major families, the young man Beilan died at the hands of the Red God the queen became.

Amei, in her quest to heal everyone, went to the Land of Silence and took the golden feathers with magical healing abilities…

The Goddess Difu was the real cause of the trouble.

Continuing to stare at the temple, Zhou Qian’s gaze became sharp. “Red God Amei was grateful to Difu because the goddess fulfilled her curse. Amei wanted the entire village to die. To achieve her wish, she would continue to worship the goddess in the other world. So, the golden bird statue is—”

Bai Zhou took over, “Yes, I agree with you. Difu’s true form is a bird.”

“So, the golden feather…” Zhou Qian said, “is likely given to the king of the Land of Silence by her. With this, the story becomes more complete.”

Difu gave the healing feather to the Land of Silence, then seduced the king of the Kingdom of Words, leading to his wife’s curse and the series of events like Amei stealing the feathers…

What exactly did she want to achieve?

Zhou Qian pondered, “Behind her orchestrating these events, one of the purposes is easy to guess. It was because of the theft of the golden feathers that the king of the Land of Silence prayed for her to cast a curse. In return, the king helped her break her shackles.”

“Actually, before this point in time, she had already been capable of transforming into Tartar to seduce the King of the Kingdom of Words. So… we all misunderstood the meaning of ‘freedom’ before.”

“The locked statue of the goddess in the temple is just a metaphor, misleading us about the meaning of ‘freedom’. The true meaning of moving the temple doesn’t refer to whether the goddess can move freely, but to the constraints related to time and space. Her previous lack of freedom merely meant she couldn’t travel through time at will.”

“Indeed, I agree.” Bai Zhou nodded. “Because of the key sent by the King of the Land of Silence, Difu gained freedom. Since then, she has been able to move freely across different times and spaces. Such ability greatly enhanced her power, allowing her to cause even greater chaos.”

“This is also why she was able to send us ‘deserters’ from the future to here.”

“Exactly. The truth of the matter is just as I had guessed,” Zhou Qian said. “Especially what you just mentioned—that Amei had explicitly mentioned to you—history cannot be changed. We must have been sent back from the ‘future’.”

“The channel that brought us here should be the statue with three heads. It must be the goddess’ magical instrument. So, if we want to return to the normal timeline, it’s mostly likely through that statue. The decision to go to the village entrance was correct. We need to find if there’s any mechanism on that statue.”

On the real timeline, everything that was supposed to happen had already occurred, including Red God Amei achieving her ultimate wish—all the people in Nameless Village died.

The people of Nameless Village died. The deserters from the Land of Silence were brought over by Difu, told they could find ways to subsist here, like farming, mining, and so on.

But when they actually arrived, they didn’t live peaceful lives. Instead, they were sent into “history” by the statue.

Which villagers would die during the Samhain festival had already happened in history; it was all predetermined.

The actions of these “future” deserters wouldn’t change any villager’s fate. As for their own fates, they didn’t belong to the history related to Nameless Village. So, once they broke the prohibitions, they would still die.

After a while, all the players arrived in front of the statue.

Zhou Qian circled the statue, focusing on its eyeballs. Seeing him get very close to the statue, even reaching out to touch it, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but warn, “Qian’er, be careful of any traps.”

“The only trap and risk is that it will take us to different times and spaces, spreading us apart,” Zhou Qian said. “However, this isn’t a risk that can be avoided by not getting close to it. The range its eyes can illuminate is very wide, covering the entire instance map, and even its eyes might rotate.”

“That makes sense. Wait, look over there—”

He Xiaowei raised his voice, pointing in the direction of the graveyard.

Zhou Qian’s gaze left the statue and followed the direction pointed by He Xiaowei, only to see the pyramid-shaped temple flicker once and then suddenly disappear.

But then it suddenly appeared very close to the players. The players all looked over, seeing its doors open on their own.

A woman walked out of the deep corridor with the door open. Tartar had previously disguised herself as an inconspicuous middle-aged woman in front of the players.

But the woman who walked out this time had flawless beauty—quite different from the middle-aged woman before—but her face still retained a few familiar expressions, allowing people to recognize her as Tartar without a doubt.

This was indeed the true form of Goddess Difu.

Difu smiled at the players. “You came here supposedly to help the villagers, yet they deceived you into being sacrificed. You did nothing, yet the villagers slandered you as murderers… How does it feel, to be wrapped in lies and betrayal? Isn’t it awful?”

“You can punish them. Just go into the temple and curse them. Your hatred is sufficient. The power needed for the curse is also sufficient. They will die.”

Zhou Qian stepped forward, lazily looking at Difu. “They will die, but not because of our curse, but because of Amei’s curse. And that was your plan, wasn’t it?”

Beside him, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “What do you mean? She-she’s the mastermind, isn’t she?”

“Everything started with the betrayal of the King of the Kingdom of Words towards his wife, all orchestrated by Difu. The golden feathers were just a huge lure she gave. Healing powers?” Zhou Qian’s gaze was coldly fixed on Difu. “It’s the root of all evil. It’s clearly meant to kill everyone.”

He Xiaowei asked, “What’s her purpose…?”

Zhou Qian replied, “She has already told us her purpose. I guess the Prayer Temple moves automatically. It smells the scent of evil emotions like hatred, betrayal, lies, and then it moves towards that scent, appearing there, waiting for people to go in and curse.”

“With the key brought by the King of the Land of Silence, Difu obtained complete freedom, henceforth, the Prayer Temple could move between different places and even travel through time freely.”

“Difu, I’m afraid, feeds on negative factors like lies and betrayal, becoming increasingly powerful.”

“But what if there are no lies or betrayals?” He Xiaowei asked.

“If there are no lies, she creates lies. If there’s no betrayal, she creates betrayal.”

Zhou Qian coldly said to Difu, “When we deserters arrived at Nameless Village, the people here were already killed. You had no new food to use. You could only forcibly create food.”

“But what conflicts could we have just by farming and mining? How could strong negative emotions for you to devour be born?”

“You could only bring us to the past—the past filled with killing and betrayal in Nameless Village.”

“You let us participate in the Samhain festival, let us be betrayed by the villagers, let us be treated as murderers… just to make us produce negative emotions, and then devour these emotions. Even now, you come with the Prayer Temple, wanting to see us kill each other, right?”

With a slight sigh, Difu softly began, “I have wandered the world for thousands of years, listening to all sins, absorbing all sins. But I actually did it for your sake. The more evil I eat, the less evil remains in this world.”

At this point, Difu smiled again, her smile tinged with bitterness and undisguised mockery.

She continued, “Along the way, I’ve tasted the utmost evil of humanity. You’ll never understand how heavy my burden is. You only need to know one thing… The evil thoughts of humans lie within your hearts. For instance—”

“I indeed appeared before the King of the Kingdom of Words. But him falling in love with me and betraying his wife were his choices. The evil within his bones led him to make those choices.”

“And another example. I indeed sent the feathers to the King of the Land of Silence and showed its healing powers… but what happened later was far beyond my expectations. Turning the heroic figure Amei into a sinner for eternity, even making her a horse for ten years… those weren’t my deeds. When I sent the feathers, I only wanted to deceive him to unlock my constraints. I never imagined humans could be so evil. Of course, thanks to this… I’ve become more and more powerful.”

“I was born from lies and betrayal, entirely forged from the evil thoughts of you humans. So, instead of seeing me as evil, it’s more accurate to say that humans themselves are evil.”

At this point, Difu suddenly smiled, raising her hand towards the direction of the statue, her gaze becoming profound.

She continued in a bewitching tone, “Humans will never disappoint me. I just do something… and you start killing each other. Now let’s see. What surprise can you few deserters give me— the negative elements related to evil thoughts on you are already sufficient to truly open the temple. No matter where you go, the temple will be with you.”

“Please, enter the temple… As long as you curse your teammate inside, the curse will certainly come true.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian immediately turned back to look at the statue.

The statue quickly started rotating! At the same time, the three pairs of pupils on the three heads began to display red, yellow, and blue colors. Then the pupils also started rotating, directly shooting small beams of light at the players.

Thus, no matter how close the players stood, they could be observed by the different colored pupils!

“I was right. We’ll be separated.” Zhou Qian hurriedly told everyone, “First, do not randomly kill Difu—she is a bird. If we kill her, we’ll die directly for violating the prohibition!”

“Second, she feeds on betrayal and lies. All these negative factors will only make her stronger. So, no matter what you see, hold on to your heart. Otherwise, she’ll only become harder to defeat.”

“Third, whoever dares to curse a teammate in the temple, even if you survive, the first thing I’ll do after leaving the instance is to get rid of you!”

Beside him, Qi Liuxing felt his eyes struck by a red light. The moment the red light flashed, it stimulated him to instinctively close his eyes. He quickly reopened them within half a second and found his surroundings had completely changed.

Difu was gone, and so were most of his teammates.

He turned back, only to see the Prayer Temple and Ke Yuxiao standing beside the temple.

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Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 128

Semi-Open Instance No. 3. This was the main base of the Peach Blossom Legion. Peach blossoms bloomed all over the mountains and fields. In the central area of the map stood a rather luxurious large palace.

At that moment, seven floors below the palace, unlike the warm embrace of spring outside, the place was covered in frost from the ceiling, walls, to the ground.

At the center of the hall, a bed was piled up with snow and ice.

On the bed lay a man. His skin was frozen to a snow-white, almost transparent hue, with distinctly frozen eyelashes, suggesting he must have been a very handsome man.

He lay there, his eyes tightly closed, with no breath escaping from his mouth or nose, clearly looking as though he had been dead for a long time.

Next to him sat a man and a woman. It was Priest and the Peach Blossom God, Xie Huaying.

Priest was intently staring at a tablet, while Xie Huaying seemed less interested, only occasionally glancing over and then musing, “The territory of instance No. 3 has expanded. It seems Master is recovering well. Despite being dead for so long, his spiritual power has still been well-maintained.”

“So when can you resurrect him?” Priest asked.

“Of course, it’s in the plan. Just in these next few days,” Xie Huaying replied.

“Resurrecting such a powerful person isn’t easy. After resurrecting him this time, you will turn into a peach blossom, and I will have to keep planting you,” Priest said. “I will water you on time.”

“Thank you. Actually, when I think about it… I’m quite content with this,” Xie Huaying said with a smile.

Priest asked her, “Oh? Turning into the nurturing soil for flowers?”

“For me, there is never eternal death,” Xie Huaying stated, her eyes revealing a trace of melancholy. “I will dissipate my spiritual power, vitality, skill points, and even my physical body will undergo actual death in reality. But here, I will turn into a peach blossom. When it blooms again, I can come back to life.”

“I have lived longer than many. I have already lived too long.”

“I’ve always wanted to ask you something.” Priest looked at Xie Huaying and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “Was your name given by Master? He is called Xie Huai, and you are called Xie Huaying. Did he consider you as his daughter?”

“Rather than saying I am his daughter, it’s more accurate to say I am his other life, or… I am a medicine he created for himself. I was created for the purpose of saving him at all costs when he dies. That is the meaning of my existence,” Xie Huaying explained.

“Do you feel wronged?” Priest asked.

“If I only had one life, perhaps I would. But I will never die,” Xie Huaying said, her lips curving into a smile, amused by the thought.

“You’re right. Ha—”Priest laughed. “Each being exists in its own way. It was narrow-minded of me to judge your feelings by conventional wisdom.”

“I know you’re asking because you’re worried I might develop feelings for Master. You think too much, but I don’t mind. Instead, I’m relieved that Master has someone like you to help him.” Xie Huaying shook her head. “Of course, I don’t hold any grudges against Master. I was personally created by him. Although—”

She looked toward the frozen corpse of Xie Huai, and Priest interjected, “You mean to say, although Master actually betrayed his own master, right?”

“The situation is certainly different,” Xie Huaying said. “Master was good to me. But it wasn’t the same with Shao Chuan towards Master. Shao Chuan told Master more than once that he had created a monster. He said he would kill this monster.”

Priest smirked, looking through his glasses at the frozen corpse in front of him. “But I see Shao Chuan didn’t learn his lesson, eh? The Master he created is a monster. Wouldn’t the Bai Zhou he created also be a monster?”

“According to your plan… Bai Zhou’s time is also coming soon, isn’t it?”

At this point, Xie Huaying glanced down at the tablet in Priest’s hands. “The instances that ordinary players participate in are much more interesting than ours. Hmm… A little game of finding the murderer. Quite intriguing. What do you think about the conversation between Yun Xiangrong and Zhou Qian? Have they really fallen out?”

Priest said, “Their pointing out a murderer here has no meaning. Because even if they don’t point out anyone, the village chief wouldn’t let them go. They will fight against the NPCs no matter what, so Yun Xiangrong is just acting. Zhou Qian is actually putting on a show. If Zhou Qian really wants to deal with someone, will he use this trick?”

Xie Huaying: “Is it possible that Zhou Qian really thought she had defected, but just didn’t want to deal with her? As you said, identifying her as the murderer is meaningless. But he still did it, maybe just as a childish way to vent his anger? He seems like someone who enjoys playing around.”

“The Zhou Qian you see is just on the surface. He acts naughty but is smarter and more ruthless than anyone.” Priest said, “I think now, no one understands Zhou Qian better than I do.”

“If Zhou Qian and Yun Xiangrong are both putting on an act… You know she can’t possibly betray Zhou Qian and the others; what’s the point of sending her over?” Xie Huaying asked. “Actually, I think after I demonstrated the resurrection technique, she trusted me. Besides… wait ten or eighteen years, or even a few decades if luck isn’t on our side, and when I have my next life, I really can help her resurrect Gao Shan.”

Priest said, “Yun Xiangrong came to the Peach Blossom Legion to gather intelligence and work with Zhou Qian from the inside to avenge Gao Shan. Knowing her plan, I simply kept her here to use her against Zhou Qian.”

“When she first decided to come, it was probably a decision made on impulse. Gao Shan had just died, and she was eager for revenge and wouldn’t listen to Zhou Qian’s persuasion. But I guess she must have regretted it by now, realizing she was irrational—she doesn’t understand what this game is about, and doesn’t understand the Peach Blossom Legion. How dare she come?”

“The few words she said in the instance was to deceive Situ Qing, but how could she deceive me? How could she truly gain our trust?”

Xie Huaying nodded. “Mm. After she realized, she should have left. She should have gone directly to Zhou Qian. You didn’t stop her. She was free.”

“Of course, she is free, but why didn’t she leave in the end?” Priest said.

Xie Huaying asked, “Yeah, why?”

“Of course, because you played a role,” Priest answered.

Glancing at Xie Huaying, Priest further explained, “‘Girls, they always put love above everything. If she values resurrecting her lover more than the teammates she meets by chance in the instance, it’s very normal. So, when she found out that the Peach Blossom God really has the power to resurrect, from pretending to defect and being a spy, to truly betraying Zhou Qian and becoming one of us, it was only natural—”

“Seeing that we sent you to demonstrate the resurrection technique to her, she guessed we would think this way.”

“So, our sending her to the ‘Red God instance’ in her eyes, is the final test we set for her. As long as she passes the test, she can truly gain my trust, gain the trust of the Peach Blossom Legion.”

Xie Huaying nodded with realization. “Mm. I understand. She thought that by showing her the resurrection technique and sending her to the instance, we were actually trying to win her over. Initially, she thought there was no chance she could earn our trust and was ready to give up.”

“You saw her hesitation and guessed she might no longer want to be a ‘spy’, so you took these next two steps. This way, she felt she had a chance to gain our trust, so she continued being a ‘spy’.”

“Yes.” Priest laughed. “Of course, I can’t appear too calculating in front of her. Otherwise, she might not have been deceived. Including this time in Blue Harbor City, why did the Peach Blossom Legion decide to kill Zhou Qian through a bounty? Isn’t it also to hide our strength, to hide our true purpose?”

Xie Huaying exhaled, then patted her chest. “Fortunately, I’m not your enemy. You are too terrifying. I don’t know how Master managed to win you over in the first place.”

Priest didn’t respond to that.

Xie Huaying then asked him, “So, what is the real purpose behind your move with Yun Xiangrong?”

Upon hearing this, Priest’s eyes behind his glasses seemed profoundly deep. He said, “Zhou Qian’s upbringing has made him trust no one. But he was lucky. The people he met in this game have been good so far. That’s why he temporarily trusts Yun Xiangrong is still on his side.”

“But all this will end soon. How can you completely destroy a person? Of course, by erasing all the trust he has painstakingly picked up. Of course, by… shattering the beliefs he has rebuilt. Then, we can easily defeat him, even win without a fight.”

“So, let’s start with Zhou Qian. Hypnosis and brain control, through experiments on Yin Jiujiu. I’m confident.”

……

In the game.

Nameless Village, in the central square.

Zhou Qian’s hands were bound by a semi-transparent rope, and the more he tried to break free, the tighter the rope bound him. Not only that, but it also grew longer and quickly climbed up Zhou Qian’s shoulders, neck, back, and down to his thighs and ankles, completely binding his body.

This rope must be some kind of magical item, specifically used to deal with people of the Land of Silence bloodline.

Zhou Qian was tightly bound. His face briefly turned pale before getting congested, and his eyes became a little bloodshot and his cheeks flushed. At the same time, his collar was grasped by Ab’s hands, making him look extremely pitiful.

In such a predicament, facing Ab’s fierce gaze, Zhou Qian just smiled and said, “The one who will die isn’t me, but you. I’ve seen your tombstone in the graveyard. Not just yours, but almost the entire village’s. What despicable things did you do to cause the whole village to die?”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Ab extended his hand.

“Where did that statue at the village entrance come from?” Zhou Qian suddenly asked.

“What are you talking about?” Ab asked.

“Haven’t you guys ever seen the future here? Or let me change the question, have you ever seen some hallucinations or something? Like seeing another version of yourself?” Zhou Qian threw several questions in a row.

Ab seemed truly unaware of what Zhou Qian was talking about, giving him a strange look before stopping talking. He continued to hold Zhou Qian’s neck with one hand, while the other hand drew a dagger and stabbed towards his neck.

Suddenly, the sound of a qin string struck up. Invisible sound waves surged out, striking Ab’s wrist hard.

Feeling pain, Ab released the dagger that dropped to the ground. Zhou Qian seized the opportunity to sit down on the ground, kicking the dagger far away with a strong push of his legs.

Temporarily avoiding the killing intent, Zhou Qian did fall a bit painfully. His feet and wrists were bound together, so he had to use both feet to jump up, relying on his waist’s strength to stand up again.

“Hmph, just a dying struggle!” Ab sneered, and his subordinates immediately rushed over with weapons.

In an instant, He Xiaowei and other players were surrounded.

Yin Jiujiu took out the gourd from her waist, drank a few big gulps, and her HP and damage resistance tripled. She was surrounded by a semi-transparent barrier of alcohol vapor, taking the lead in front of everyone to block. “I’ll tank them. You do the damage!”

After saying that, with a single step, countless streams of alcohol vapor burst out from her, attacking the village chief and the seven weapon-wielding subordinates.

In an instant, the village chief, who had just taken out another machete to kill Zhou Qian, and the seven villagers who rushed towards different players were all forced to inhale the alcohol vapor, immediately shifting their aggression towards Yin Jiujiu, forming a circle and attacking her involuntarily!

The weapons, such as knives, spears, swords, and halberds, all stopped half an inch from Yin Jiujiu before hitting her, as if they hit an invisible barrier.

Yin Jiujiu was surrounded by layers of alcohol vapor like a golden bell barrier and could block all killing intent outside.

Taking a deep breath, she shouted to her teammates, “Hurry up! I can’t hold on for too long!”

Seeing this, Qi Liuxing gripped his long sword tightly, looking at Ke Yuxiao beside him.

Ke Yuxiao nodded at him, held the short flute in his hand, flipped it with one hand, and put it to his mouth to play.

Suddenly, the swordsman’s long sword sounded without a scabbard, and a strong sword intent immediately gathered on the blade.

Qi Liuxing leaped into the air, his movements as fast as if he himself had turned into a sword. The sword’s momentum quickly formed, and several sword qi immediately attacked the direction of the eight NPCs.

The fierceness of the sword qi and the strong killing intent contained within, made even Yin Jiujiu, who was facing away from Qi Liuxing, feel a bit fearful. She couldn’t help but shout, “Aim carefully! Don’t hit me!”

As soon as her words fell, Yin Jiujiu saw a star appear above the heads of seven NPCs.

Immediately, each star turned into a sword light, stabbing fiercely at those seven people, causing them to be disarmed and seriously injured on the ground.

The seven sword lights didn’t disappear but gathered into an even more powerful sword light, all stabbing towards Ab!

“Lord Ab, be careful!”

“My Lord, be careful!”

A few people ran over from a distance, trying to pull Ab away. But the sword light was so tyrannical that it cut across, causing them all to fall to the ground. Unable to get up, they all clutched their chests and vomited blood continuously.

Seeing this, Zhou Qian smiled, looked at his teammates with a somewhat gratified look, and said, “Not bad—”

“Qian’er, be careful!” Suddenly, He Xiaowei shouted out.

But Hidden Blade was obviously faster. A blade light grazed Zhou Qian’s ear, and the sound of three people falling to the ground in shock came from behind him.

Seeing this, He Xiaowei let out a sigh of relief, then turned to Yin Jiujiu with a bit of surprise. Despite being shielded by alcohol vapor, Yin Jiujiu still lost 10% of her health. He Xiaowei then held the seven-stringed qin and plucked the strings. The sound waves carrying healing power instantly sprinkled on the female warrior Yin Jiujiu, almost immediately restoring her to full health.

Considering these people might be birds, the players didn’t use their killing moves.

However, suddenly, Village Chief Ab jumped up, reciting a magic spell out loud.

Instantly, the ropes binding Zhou Qian began to move, tightening around his neck more and more, almost suffocating him!

Seeing this, Qi Liuxing didn’t hesitate for a second. He immediately thrust his sword into the village chief’s back. Ab was killed by a single sword and fell to the ground. Glancing down at Ab’s corpse, Zhou Qian turned to Qi Liuxing thoughtfully. “Xiao Qi, aren’t you afraid—”

Qi Liuxing twisted awkwardly, then just nodded lightly and coldly said, “You’re welcome.”

Zhou Qian smiled at him and asked, “Putting on airs again?”

“No. I just…” Qi Liuxing said, “I wasn’t brave enough to save you without fear of death. I just thought they weren’t birds. Birds are related to the Land of Silence, right? But the Kingdom of Words is their enemy. Besides…”

“Besides, if something were to happen, you could still save me with the Tick Tock Clock.”

After a brief exchange, more people rushed over.

Perhaps the villagers couldn’t directly conclude that the players were the murderers without them making a move before.

But now, displaying such formidable abilities, in the villagers’ eyes, it seemed certain that they were responsible for quietly killing Qi Yunsi, a young man with great potential.

Qi Yunsi and Ab were dead, and the fate of the others injured was still uncertain. All these tragedies were caused by these deserters from the Land of Silence. They weren’t their kind, so their hearts must be different. This was a saying that was indeed true. To prevent being killed, the only option was to strike first!

With this mindset, influenced by the external enemy, the four great families of Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud had no choice but to unite and attack the people in the square.

Suddenly, the players faced a combined attack from hundreds of people!

A chaotic battle began.

Yin Jiujiu acted again, transforming into a tank by drinking again, barely trying to pull aggro; Ke Yuxiao provided team buffs, mainly supporting Qi Liuxing to enhance his sword’s attack value, but also brought considerable benefits to other attackers; as for offense, they relied on the Hidden Blade, Qi Liuxing, and Yun Xiangrong, with Yun Xiangrong mainly attacking from a distance, and Hidden Blade and Qi Liuxing switching between close and long-range attacks, maximizing the efficiency of the sword coordination in a short time.

He Xiaowei played the healer. He carried Zhou Qian on his back while chasing after teammates everywhere, trying his best to keep everyone’s health at a stable ratio.

While Zhou Qian was being carried around the square by He Xiaowei, he also took the opportunity to give commands—

“Xiao Qi, three o’clock direction, hidden weapon.”

“Hidden Blade, that powerful elder’s right leg seems injured. Focus on his right leg!”

“There’s someone with incredible speed using a bow and arrow. He’s well-hidden. Everyone, be careful.”

It took about ten minutes for the players to kill thirty people.

But this was far from enough, as they were facing hundreds of villagers!

To make matters worse, suddenly, a bizarre incident occurred: among these thirty people, some started to rise from the dead, climbing up from the ground—Village Chief Ab was among them!

Carried by He Xiaowei, Zhou Qian quickly surveyed the situation as they passed by—27 of the resurrected people in total, with 3 not resurrected, all from the Cloud family.

Could it be…

In a flash, Zhou Qian realized something and immediately shouted, “Everyone, change the strategy. Don’t waste mana on killing them anymore, prioritize retreating and escape towards the entrance of the village, to the statue with three heads.”

He Xiaowei dodged a flying knife and counterattacked the attacker with a wave of sound from his qin. Then he asked Zhou Qian, “Why? What’s happening?”

“History cannot be changed,” Zhou Qian said. “If we don’t come here, the Cloud family would still lose the handkerchief toss this year, and then someone in their family would die.”

“30 people have been resurrected, but three from the Cloud family are exceptions. These three who haven’t been resurrected were now just killed by us. But in the history that had happened, they were supposed to be killed by the Red God, as they were the night watchers in the normal timeline!”

“That means…” In a flash, He Xiaowei thought of something but couldn’t fully grasp it.

Zhou Qian continued, “That means, out of the hundreds we killed, at most 32 will truly die. This is because, in ‘history’ this year, they were eaten by the Red God, which is the limit of people the Red God can kill annually.”

“But all the others will keep dying and resurrecting until they reach the year they are supposed to die. In short, those who shouldn’t die tonight will keep being resurrected infinitely, but our mana is limited. When the time comes—”

His gaze drifted to the suddenly appearing Temple of Prayers not far away, and his eyes turned exceptionally cold as he thought of the now-missing face of Innkeeper Tartar.

“Don’t wait for the real boss to show up when we’re out of mana, or we’ll just be sitting ducks.”

No sooner had Zhou Qian finished speaking than he was violently thrown out.

It was He Xiaowei, who, caught off guard, was hit by an arrow in the knee and fell to the ground. The distant archer who successfully ambushed moved on to the next target; meanwhile, three villagers using close-range attacks approached and subdued He Xiaowei, causing his qin to fall heavily to the ground, producing a sudden cacophony of noise.

Just as Zhou Qian fell, he was quickly lifted up again.

Looking up, Zhou Qian saw a person with a bloodied face from a forehead wound—remarkably, it was the resurrected Ab.

Ab, looking coldly at Zhou Qian, recited that ancient spell again.

Instantly, Zhou Qian felt the restlessness in the Rib of God in his bag.

It was Gao Shan sensing his danger, eager to come to his aid.

“No, you’re still supposed to be mad at me. The gamblers are watching,” Zhou Qian stopped him with his mind.

He couldn’t hear Gao Shan’s voice but felt the Rib of God become more agitated.

It was probably Gao Shan expressing disapproval—What are you doing? Your face is turning purple. You’re about to be strangled to death by the increasingly tight rope, and you’re still worried about acting? You want me to save you! Life is much more important than putting on a show for gamblers!

Zhou Qian ignored the Rib of God and looked fearlessly at Ab in front of him.

He was already feeling suffocated.

It was the sensation of carbon monoxide poisoning. His health was dropping below 10%.

He saw a world of dazzling colors, entering a realm of illusion and reality…

He couldn’t differentiate between reality and illusion, and then a dragon appeared before him.

Zhou Qian smiled.

At the critical moment, a sharp blade light descended from the sky.

In the next instant, Ab’s body was split into two halves.

Someone, bathed in blood, took the suffocating Zhou Qian into their arms. With a slight movement of the blade light, the ropes that countless teammates couldn’t untie for Zhou Qian were turned into dust by the invincible blade.

“I knew you would come.”

In the night, Zhou Qian spoke softly.

Leaning on Bai Zhou’s shoulder, his eyes still carried a bit of the dizziness from suffocation.

Raising his hand, he touched the ghost mask on Bai Zhou’s face and said, “Zhou Ge, this doesn’t suit you. It covers your beautiful eyes.”

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