Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 120

At the same time, He Xiaowei and Qi Liuxing were walking together.

After asking for directions to the quarry, they headed up the mountain path with flashlights in hand.

Qi Liuxing, holding the flashlight in his left hand and gripping the sword hilt tightly with his right, walked ahead of He Xiaowei, ready to face any enemy.

Along the way, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say, “How can I let a younger brother stand in front of me?”

Qi Liuxing replied seriously, “What matters now is capability, not age. If anything happens, just support me.”

He Xiaowei chuckled. “Indeed, in a team… the support has the highest status!”

Qi Liuxing glanced back at him but said nothing.

He Xiaowei continued, “You are too serious. There’s no need to always appear so deep and solemn. At your age, trying to be serious just seems like a youth unaware of the sorrows of the world.”

Qi Liuxing remained silent.

He Xiaowei then reflected, “On the contrary, Qian’er is like that. He’s always smiling, but he has a lot on his mind. He’s only 22, not yet 23, right? How did he become like this? Who is born loving to scheme? I guess he must have gone through great hardships.”

“No way.” Qi Liuxing frowned. “He went bankrupt, but his family is quite wealthy.”

“Does he seem like the kind of young master who doesn’t know the hardships of life?” He Xiaowei asked.

Qi Liuxing shook his head.

“Of course not.”

“That’s it then,” He Xiaowei said. “Although I can never see through what Qian’er is scheming, I can tell… he has suffered a lot. So, Brother Sword God, when you reach Qian’er’s state, you’ll start remarking, ‘ah, the coolness of autumn*’.”

*This is a line from Ugly Slave – Writing on a Wall of the Way to Boshan by Xin Qiji. The poem is a reflection of the poet’s loneliness and isolation. He wants to express his feelings, but he finds himself saying this line, “Ah, the cool autumn!” instead, unable to communicate his true feelings. || In this context, basically, He Xiaowei is remarking that Zhou Qian has reached a state where he can no longer say what he truly feels and instead, like the poet, would say something entirely different from what he truly wants to express.

“I understand what you mean,” Qi Liuxing said while scanning their surroundings and continuing to walk ahead. “I haven’t experienced much, so I can only pretend.”

He Xiaowei laughed. “Well, that’s not entirely true.”

“Your words are rough, but the logic is sound. I understand. Those with deep experiences naturally show it in their demeanor without having to force it…” Qi Liuxing said with some embarrassment, “I indeed lack such experiences and can’t pretend. Well… I just think it’s okay to be casual with you guys, but facing enemies, being a bit serious can intimidate them.”

“Xiao Qi, you’re actually doing great,” He Xiaowei suddenly said.

Qi Liuxing: “Hm?”

“Young people want to mature and grow up fast, not knowing adults wish to return to their youth. Many people envy you. Youthful innocence is precious. Why must one have experiences or force oneself to become deep and complex?”

He Xiaowei patted his shoulder. “You’ll miss your youth once it’s gone.”

Hearing this, Qi Liuxing looked at He Xiaowei and smiled. “Xiaowei Ge, I suddenly realize you might be what they call… ah, I remember the word—’cleverly disguised as a fool*’.”

*(大智若愚) Idiom referring to someone who is very intelligent but doesn’t show it, which makes them seem foolish at times. However, their true wisdom is revealed through their actions and their ability to achieve great things. 

He Xiaowei snickered. “You’re not the first to compliment me like that!”

People like He Xiaowei got along well with everyone.

As they talked and climbed to the quarry halfway up the mountain, the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant.

Unbeknownst to them, Qi Liuxing’s “youth” was about to come to an abrupt end, not due to time but a sudden change in mindset.

Soon, they arrived at the quarry.

He Xiaowei took out a fire-starting device, eager to try. “Qian’er said the glass would likely have the three primary colors. If we encounter a flame that burns with a purple light… Red and blue make purple, so we can’t use a purple flame for red or blue glass, but it can work on yellow glass. Anyway, let’s look for all colors!”

“I specifically bought a lighter that emits a colorless flame from the trade shop, perfect for burning rocks to test the flames!”

After trying several rocks from different areas, they found rocks that burned with a purple flame, likely containing potassium.

They also found rocks that produced a green flame, indicating the presence of ions like copper, lead, or thallium. During the process, Qi Liuxing used a device to detect harmful substances, which didn’t sound any alarm, suggesting the rocks were likely copper ore.

During the experiments, both wore gas masks to avoid inhaling harmful gasses. Within an hour, they had collected enough ore and packed it up.

As they were about to leave, He Xiaowei shone his flashlight towards the mountain top. “Eh, there’s a path leading to the top. Shall we check it out?”

“We have almost 4 hours until midnight, so I think it’s feasible. Didn’t Qian Ge also say to explore around?” Qi Liuxing said. “But we should report our location first, just in case something happens, and he doesn’t know where we went.”

After messaging Zhou Qian, they followed the mountain path upwards, quickly reaching the peak, and indeed made a discovery.

At the top was a peculiar triangular structure, somewhat like a pyramid but made of much cruder material and smaller, resembling a simple mound of earth.

They exchanged glances and walked to the front of the structure, which had “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer” written on it.

“In this instance, there are humans, ghosts, and now gods have appeared,” He Xiaowei commented.

Qi Liuxing immediately frowned. “After ‘Apple Paradise’, I’ve become wary of any god related to wishes.”

“Shall we go in?” He Xiaowei suggested.

“Wait—” Qi Liuxing raised his left wrist and looked at his wristwatch. “Qian Ge replied. He’s taken our stuff into his pack. He came over and suggested we wait for him.”

“That’s probably better,” He Xiaowei said. “A temple like this could be dangerous. It’s better with him around.”

They didn’t wait long before Zhou Qian, Hidden Blade, and Ke Yuxiao arrived, followed by Yun Xiangrong and Yin Jiujiu.

Qi Liuxing took another look at the ladies, then turned to Zhou Qian and asked, “You said you’d come as soon as I mentioned we found a temple. Do you know something?”

Zhou Qian just smiled and didn’t answer directly, merely stating, “The village chief sent stuff, and I’ve collected it for you. The things you two need tonight are with me, not Hidden Blade or Ke Yuxiao. I think it’s better if I keep them.”

Qi Liuxing and He Xiaowei: “?”

Hidden Blade and Ke Yuxiao: “…”

“Let’s go check out that temple,” Zhou Qian said, walking towards the temple.

The “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer”. At first, one might imagine a scene commonly found at scenic tourist spots—ancient trees covered in red silk ribbons with various wooden plaques hanging, bearing people’s wishes. Whether such rituals fulfill anyone’s wishes is debatable, but they add to the ceremonial feel, and at a small cost, they’re just part of the fun.

Before entering the temple, this was what came to everyone’s mind. But after walking in, everyone’s previous notions were shattered.

The temple was devoid of any festive atmosphere; instead, they felt an intense chill, not of fear but of discomfort and innate repulsion.

The cause of this feeling became clear once they saw what was inscribed along the walls of the corridor—this temple’s chill wasn’t about ghosts and gods but about the evil in human nature.

Walking into the temple entrance, the first thing they encountered was a pitch-dark corridor.

Both sides of the corridor were lined with one stone tablet after another. Engraved on each tablet were symbols written in some kind of unknown script, somewhat resembling magical incantations.

As for the symbols below, the content and handwriting on each stone tablet differ from one another. The commonality among all the tablets, aside from the spell-like runes, was one more thing—all the inscriptions were various kinds of curses.

“I hope my wife dies soon so I can marry Alain next door.”

“Neighbor Ann stole my favorite flower. I hope it consumes her!”

“Jul’s wife is pregnant, but I know she’s unfaithful. I adore Jul, yet he married her… She’s ungrateful and betrayed such a good man. I curse her to give birth to a monster that will devour her!”

It became apparent the “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer” wasn’t for fulfilling benign wishes like “I want to be beautiful” or “I want to leave forever” but was filled with malevolence.

“This isn’t a temple for granting wishes.” He Xiaowei noted. “Maybe curses made here are particularly effective, which is why many come to inscribe their curses.”

“Perhaps we’ll find out more as we go deeper,” Qi Liuxing suggested.

Slowly walking down the corridor, curses of all kinds still filled both sides, while the path became narrower and narrower, until it was only wide enough for one person.

The seven players lined up in a long queue, moving forward one by one, and finally entered a temple through the end of the corridor.

The temple wasn’t large, and its floors and walls were covered entirely with various curses and inscriptions.

The furnishings here were simple, with candles burning around, and in the center, there was a statue of a goddess made of pure gold.

The statue was naked, displaying full breasts and a slender waist, with absolutely captivating curves. Her face was also very beautiful, as beautiful as a night-blooming cereus that appears briefly and then vanishes.

The moment Qi Liuxing saw her, he subconsciously turned his head away.

Next to him, Ke Yuxiao noticed his reaction, patted him on the shoulder, and led him to explore the side of the temple with a smile.

He Xiaowei’s face turned red immediately as well. Glancing at Zhou Qian, who was carefully examining the statue, he quickly whispered, “That’s not appropriate of you.”

“It’s only twisted if you think twisted. Appreciate it with an artistic eye.”

Zhou Qian joked with He Xiaowei and examined the statue several times from top to bottom, his gaze finally landing on her ankles.

The goddess’s smooth ankle had a chain on it.

But now, the lock on the chain was open, as if she had been locked up by someone before, and then someone else came with a key to unlock it for her. The person didn’t take the lock away, but let it fall to the ground.

After examining the goddess statue, the players scattered to study if there were any special inscriptions here.

After a while, Yun Xiangrong’s voice came from somewhere. “There’s a rather special inscription here. It mentions the Kingdom of Words, and also mentions a woman named ‘Amei’.”

Hearing this, the players quickly gathered to check the stone tablet.

Walking up to the stone tablet and reading the text, Zhou Qian also felt it was special.

It was still a curse tablet, but the content written down sparked more imagination—

“The golden feathers must have been stolen by that woman named Amei! She took it back to the Kingdom of Words! I curse the people of her hometown to encounter disasters, and for many people in her hometown to die each year until she returns the golden feathers!”

“My most revered Goddess of Prayer, Difu, I request that you make my curse come true and also ask you to help me find the golden feathers. As a reward, I am willing to offer the ‘Key to Freedom’ to you!”

“I heard that Vels, the God of Imprisonment, admires your beauty and, to keep you here, trapped you with the ‘Shackles of Eternity’. I have the most powerful magician who will use the ‘Key to Freedom’ to liberate you, as long as you help me realize the curse!”

Zhou Qian, Hidden Blade, and the others could understand this text. But Qi Liuxing and He Xiaowei didn’t. The two asked in succession, “The Kingdom of Words? Amei? What are these?”

Facing them, Zhou Qian then shared all the information he had obtained from Innkeeper Tartar.

After listening, He Xiaowei was stunned for a moment, before saying, “Qian’er, didn’t you say there’s a very powerful magician in the Land of Silence? The ban on us was imposed by him. He’s called Flowing Water, right?

“Look, the person who carved this curse stone tablet here also claims they have a magician. So…”

“Hiss… then this curse stone tablet we’re seeing… was written by the king of the Land of Silence! It’s him, no doubt!”

Suddenly, he thought of something, clapped his hands together, and said, “I got it. Everything matches up—”

“The most beautiful girl in the Kingdom of Words, Amei, married the king of the Land of Silence, and then stole his golden feathers. Hence, the king came to the temple of the Goddess of Prayers, asking her to cast a curse, persecuting the people of Amei’s hometown.”

“This strange ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ game in the Land of Silence, is probably related to this curse. The people selected to keep the vigil die in large numbers, fulfilling the curse’s content about many people in Amei’s hometown dying each year!”

“Hmm. Sounds quite reasonable. Xiaowei Ge is getting better at making up stories. But there’s a problem behind this.”

Zhou Qian looked at He Xiaowei. “The person in the curse said, if the golden feathers are found, he will help the Goddess of Prayers unlock the shackles. Look at that statue. The shackles on her ankle have indeed been unlocked. This indicates that the golden feathers must have already been returned.”

“Ah, I see what you mean, Zhou Qian. You have a point,” Ke Yuxiao said. “The curse says that Amei’s hometown will keep suffering deaths until the feathers are returned. So, since the feathers have been returned, the tragedies in Nameless Village should stop. But why… is the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ still going on?”

This peculiar stone tablet indeed revealed very crucial information. Perhaps by clarifying a few more details, they could further understand the full story of this instance.

Promptly, everyone engaged in an in-depth discussion about it.

Yin Jiujiu didn’t join the discussion. She was just listening while moving to another corner of the temple.

After a moment, she suddenly said, “Come over here and look. This stone tablet is also very interesting. It’s a very new one. Because the letters on it are exceptionally clear, it’s barely weathered.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian was the first to walk over and look at the stone tablet. The content on this stone tablet was indeed very interesting.

“My stepmother always mocks me for being dumb. I hope she becomes a big idiot,” was the first sentence written on it.

However, what was interesting was the following sentence—”It’s said that you, Goddess Difu, come and go without a trace, possibly disappearing at any moment. It’s such a pity. I hope you’ll come back because I want to bring my friend over. His stepfather is also very annoying, and he wants to curse his stepfather to turn into a big black pig.”

“Hiss… the goddess comes and goes without a trace…” He Xiaowei, after looking at the stone tablet, this time turned back to look at the ankle of the goddess statue in the temple center without blushing or skipping a beat. “Could it be…?”

“This passage, indeed, resolves another doubt in my mind.” Zhou Qian took over the conversation.

“Which doubt?” He Xiaowei asked him.

Zhou Qian said, “The Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words were on good terms, but after Amei married into the Land of Silence and stole the king’s golden feathers, returning after, the two countries began to harbor ill will towards each other. The curse stone tablet just now, indeed, was written by the king of the Land of Silence. I agree with this conjecture.”

“According to Tartar, both countries regard Amei as a criminal. In Nameless Village, it’s even taboo to mention her name. It seems many people in this village died because Amei stole the golden feathers. This information corroborates each other, and there should be no doubt about it. But—”

Frowning slightly, Zhou Qian continued, “The king of the Land of Silence hates betrayal, letting the magician Flowing Water impose the ban in an attempt to have us deserters die. But he didn’t send any troops after us.”

“This shows that, for some reason, people from the Land of Silence absolutely will not set foot on this land of the Kingdom of Words. So, if that’s the case, how did the king come to this temple to inscribe the curse?”

“Ah! I got it!” He Xiaowei’s eyes brightened. “This, it’s related to this lock, right?”

“Right. I think this temple originally wasn’t in the Kingdom of Words, not on this mountaintop. It must have been in a place where many people could reach.”

Zhou Qian said, “The king of the Land of Silence came to the temple to set a curse. Later the curse might have been fulfilled, or maybe not, but he must have found the golden feathers; hence, he let the magician unlock the goddess’ shackles. Since then—”

“The goddess was freed, no longer needing to stay in one place.”

“The temple thus became a moving temple, appearing sporadically somewhere.”

“This is also why the relatively new stone tablet that Yin Jiujiu found, mentioning the goddess, could disappear. This person entered the temple to write this stone tablet after the golden feathers were returned to the king, and the magician unlocked the goddess’ shackles.”

Just as Zhou Qian’s voice fell, the various inscriptions around them, the pure gold goddess in the center of the temple, the deep corridor, and the dark ceiling and ground—all began to fade, becoming transparent.

—The temple disappeared from their sight.

In its place was a green, grassy slope. The grass, illuminated by the stars and moon in the sky, reflected a silver hue, waving in the wind, creating layers of silver waves that connected with the distant starry sky, forming the Milky Way above.

Looking up at the bright moon and stars, Zhou Qian lowered his head and noticed a straight path in front of him. After pushing aside the grass and walking along the road for ten steps, he found that the road had turned a corner.

Having an idea, Zhou Qian summoned the little dragon, which carried him up into the sky.

Seeing him like this, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say, “Wow, it reminds me of the dragon I saw in ‘Last Wish’! But yours is much smaller.”

Zhou Qian just curled the corner of his lips, not saying a word, just commanding the little dragon to continue flying upwards. When the dragon reached a sufficient height, Zhou Qian looked down and found that his judgment was correct—the small path he had seen in the grass was actually strokes of characters.

Just like the mysterious crop circles, when you’re in the middle of the field, you can’t see anything, but from an aerial view, you can discover the enormous anomaly. At this moment, with the help of the little dragon, Zhou Qian saw a line of text.

“Never kill birds.”

—This was the fourth prohibition related to deserters.

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 119

“Actually, it’s not about standing vigil at all.”

After a moment, Alayne suddenly spoke up. “This is… a complete sacrifice.”

“To whom?” Bai Zhou asked.

“The Red God,” Alayne said. “People from the other world… like red. The moment Samhain arrives, the world turns upside down, and they take the opportunity to come over.”

“Are all people from the other world Red Gods?” Bai Zhou asked again.

Alayne shook her head. “No. As far as I know, they are not. There are many Red Gods… Each of them owns an inn, and all the inns are red. Hence, the owners of the red inns are called Red Gods.

“The inns are used to attract passersby. I’ve heard there are countless delicacies and endless banquets held there. Every guest who enters the inn can eat unlimited food. The other world is actually a good place, but only for the people there. For us, going to the other world means death, saying goodbye to our loved ones now…”

Inns? Unlimited food?

Bai Zhou remembered that the owner of the Tartar Inn, Tartar, had said that everyone could freely eat the meat in the seven pots at the inn’s entrance.

So he asked further, “Is Tartar related to the Red God?”

“Tartar?” Alayne blinked, then shook her head. “Oh no… Of course not. She runs a legitimate inn. The inns in the other world should be quite different from here.”

“Then back to standing night watch. What did you mean by sacrifice?” Bai Zhou said.

“Although the Red Gods run inns, providing selflessly for those from the other world, or ghosts… It seems, they are good people, but that’s only towards ghosts. They are not kind to humans. They will consume us to gain energy, to nourish those spirits.”

Alayne said. “I’ve heard our village offended a very powerful Red God. He wasn’t an ordinary visitor from the other world, who could be scared away by the Bone Fire, or by every household’s lights. That Red God is powerful, and if angered, the entire village could be destroyed.”

“Every year… that Red God consumes people from our village. 32 is his maximum demand. Exactly how many he consumes each time depends on his mood.”

“At most, he consumed all 32 people, and at least, he only ate 8. Anyway, these 32 people will be sacrifices. We use their lives in exchange for the safety of everyone else.”

Alayne suddenly paused, then looked at Bai Zhou and asked, “So… are you fast?”

“Being fast can improve the Red God’s mood and avoid death?” Bai Zhou countered.

“I’ve heard the Red God likes to play the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ game. If someone can outrun the Red God and catch up with him, that person will be spared by the Red God. But…” Alayne said, “Who can outrun a ghost that comes and goes without a trace?”

After saying these words, Alayne looked up at Bai Zhou again.

“I’ve told you everything I know. I was practicing running for my parents, for my clan, but now… it’s your turn to answer me.”

Alayne asked him, “If you’ve had my experience, have you ever lost? Tell me, what should I do?”

As the twilight deepened, the outline of the crescent moon became clearer.

Corresponding to it were the torches around the square and the huge fire in the center.

The flames fluttered like a flag in the wind.

The central fire gradually lost its yellow hue, turning into a ghostly blue, like will-o’-wisps dancing in the night—that was the color of the Bone Fire.

Bai Zhou’s tall figure stood against such a backdrop, his expression hidden in the darkness, away from the firelight.

“I haven’t lost, and I won’t lose. Someone like me can’t afford to lose.”

After a long while, Bai Zhou spoke gravely.

“I don’t understand.” Alayne frowned. “You just said it, didn’t you? It’s not fair. Why do we have to bear such a burden from birth? Everyone is just using us. When we’re useful, they praise us. Once we lose and become useless, they discard us and even blame us…”

Bai Zhou looked at her and said, “But your mother didn’t do that, right?”

Alayne frowned and didn’t speak.

Bai Zhou continued, “As long as there are people in this village you want to protect, what you do still has meaning. You’re fighting for your mother and for yourself. My situation is the same.”

“But I’ve already lost…” Alayne said. “What should I do at a time like this?”

“This time, I will stand guard for you. You must survive. As long as you live, there’s a chance to win. Then, next, you just need to become stronger.”

“When you’re strong enough, no one can hurt you. When you’re strong enough, the father who hurt you and even the rest of the villagers will only kneel on the ground, begging for your protection. Talent may burden you, but it also brings you power.”

Alayne thought for a moment, then asked him, “Begging me? Like… like begging a god?”

“Exactly. Just like begging a god.” Bai Zhou nodded.

Alayne said, “If one day the god becomes useless to mortals, will they still beg him? If people abandon the god, would the god be disappointed? Would the god be cursed?”

Bai Zhou continued walking forward.

“When you become a god, you won’t care anymore about how so-called mortals view you.”

Watching Bai Zhou’s back, eight-year-old Alayne fell into deep thought.

—If she truly became like a god, indifferent to all mortals… would she still know how to protect her mother? Would she even forget her mother?

Suddenly feeling something, she looked down and saw a red lotus blooming in the palm of her hand.

……

On the square, Zhou Qian, after a long wait, finally managed to get two offerings for burning for himself and He Xiaowei.

The villagers were lined up to receive the offerings, then went to the side to get the meat soup for the dogs.

The voice of Innkeeper Tartar kept ringing. “I remind you to bring bowls, so don’t forget them. The iron bowls I have here aren’t enough to share with you all.”

After receiving the offerings and meat soup, the villagers began to leave one by one.

Of course, Zhou Qian didn’t leave. Besides him, the remaining players included Hidden Blade, Ke Yuxiao, Yun Xiangrong, and Yin Jiujiu. Bai Zhou had ventured off to explore the night watch line, and Qi Liuhuang, not quite at ease leaving He Xiaowei alone, had gone with him to find flammable minerals and wasn’t present either.

Eventually, even Village Chief Ab temporarily left, leaving only Tartar as the NPC who hadn’t departed. She seemed thoughtful as she looked at Zhou Qian, then scooped out two more bowls of meat from the pot.

Then Tartar said, “You don’t need to take these. There’s plenty more in the inn. It’s just… two families haven’t come to collect yet. I wonder if they haven’t found their dogs yet.”

Naturally, Tartar was referring to Tara and Brega.

Zhou Qian had managed to send them away in the game, as they were looking for extremely important dogs and hadn’t returned yet.

Speaking of which… the deserters from the Land of Silence were under three prohibitions.

Who issued these prohibitions?

Why does it seem specifically targeted at the deserters?

In an instance that clearly involves magic and undead, such prohibitions seem unusual, almost like a curse.

With a vague guess in mind but still unsure of the specifics, Zhou Qian turned to Tartar and said, “We seem to have lost our memories during our escape. Other than the fact that we come from the Land of Silence, we know nothing else.”

Tartar smiled, seemingly not understanding the purpose of Zhou Qian’s question. “So?”

“So, we’ll stay here with you, waiting for those two to return. But just waiting is so boring.” Zhou Qian smiled. “We could chat.”

Tartar threw Zhou Qian a coquettish wink. “Chat? It’s boring to chat here. Maybe you want to date me? I’m free all day tomorrow.”

Before Zhou Qian could respond, Hidden Blade, who was standing by, was taken aback—damn, the god just left, and he’s already moving on? No, as a brother, he couldn’t stand by and watch the god be cuckolded.

With a cough, Hidden Blade stepped forward. Contrary to the tumultuous waves in his heart, his face was cold and almost rigid. He said, “I’ll accompany you! How do you want to date?”

Zhou Qian looked at Hidden Blade in surprise, then back at the innkeeper. “I’m in a hurry. Can’t wait until tomorrow.”

Hidden Blade: “……”

Zhou Qian had a slightly malicious smile in his eyes. “With so much meat and soup in the inn, they’ll still be useful, right? I’m really worried my pet might knock them all over…”

The innkeeper’s expression changed. She looked at Zhou Qian with a somewhat angry gaze. “Are you threatening me?”

“Getting angry makes you age faster, which isn’t attractive. I’m not threatening you. I genuinely want to chat with you,” Zhou Qian said. “You dared to let us stay in your inn, so you must know something about us, right?

“I guess, you don’t want to say because you might want to use our background as leverage later, to make us do more work for you?”

“Don’t worry. We’re very diligent and won’t slack off.”

Seemingly hit by Zhou Qian’s guess, Tartar’s expression fluctuated for a while before she finally said, “This is Nameless Village, which belongs to the Kingdom of Words. People from the Land of Silence certainly wouldn’t dare come here.”

Hearing this, all the players present exchanged glances.

The “Silence” of the Land of Silence and the “Words” of the Kingdom of Words expressed completely opposite meanings.

Is there a story between the two?

“I learned about you from a horseman in the Land of Silence. You are deserters. He took your money and sent you through a secret channel to me. From now on, you’ll be doing manual labor for the villagers, and I’m supposed to get a cut. You’ve made an agreement with the horseman about this, so don’t think about reneging. As for why you’ve lost your memories…”

“I think it was probably the work of a powerful magician,” Tartar continued. “He’s called Liu Shui, always working for the king of the Land of Silence. The king, of course, is furious about deserters, so he would definitely send a magician to punish you.”

“The king probably wanted Liu Shui to kill you. But magic that kills brings backlash, and the conditions are very strict, especially over such a distance. It would be difficult for Liu Shui to directly kill you with magic.”

“So, I think, besides making you lose your memories, the magician also placed other restrictions on you. If you break those restrictions, you will die.”

Tartar’s words indeed answered many questions related to the players’ identities.

At the same time, the origin of the prohibitions was also explained.

The three prohibitions were set by Liu Shui for the players, or rather, the deserters.

He predicted that the deserters would be in the Nameless Village of the Kingdom of Words but couldn’t come to execute them himself. So, he placed a curse of prohibitions, hoping they would violate them and thus die, fulfilling the task given by the king.

This meant he had enough understanding of the customs of the Kingdom of Words and even Nameless Village—

Firstly, he knew that the inn’s glass would turn blue at night, and the bones the village chief asked the deserters to burn would emit blue flames, perfectly visible through the blue glass.

Secondly, he knew about the game of “Drop the Handkerchief” held here at night.

Lastly, he was aware of two villagers named Brega and Tara.

Beyond this, there were other issues.

First, of the three prohibitions related to the deserters, two were obtained by Zhou Qian in the matching center of Blue Harbor City, considered external hints.

If they ignore external hints, where in the story of the instance were the other two prohibitions hidden?

Second, in this instance, players directly saw only one prohibition related to Brega.

It was discovered when they investigated the second floor of the inn and went up to the roof, where the prohibition was inscribed on a stone tablet.

But who was responsible for this?

Likely, they were helping the deserters. But why would they help the deserters, and how did they know about the prohibitions placed by the magician Liu Shui?

Thinking this, Zhou Qian immediately took out his binoculars to look at the stone tablet, wondering if Tartar knew when it had appeared there.

But then he found—the stone tablet was gone. Where the stone tablet used to be, there was now just a wheat field.

The magician Liu Shui from the Land of Silence hadn’t succeeded, so there might still be other prohibitions to be imposed.

Perhaps there was still a chance to find this NPC, who seemed to be helping the players by alerting them to the existence of the prohibitions.

As Zhou Qian was contemplating this, he saw Ke Yuxiao approaching the innkeeper, politely asking, “I want to ask. Are the Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words enemies? After all, magicians from there don’t dare to come here. We, who have completely betrayed the Land of Silence and are deserters, dare to come here to hide, thinking that people from the Land of Silence won’t come here looking for trouble, right?”

“Yes. They are indeed enemies now. But before… it seems these two countries had a good relationship,” Tartar said. “I’ve only been in this village for two or three years, so I’m not clear about the past. I’ve only vaguely heard that the Land of Silence once married the most beautiful girl from the Kingdom of Words.”

Ke Yuxiao quickly followed up. “Who was that girl?”

“It was a girl born in this Nameless Village. Her name was Amei. Amei, the most beautiful flower of the Kingdom of Words.”

Tartar’s gaze showed a hint of longing.

But soon, that longing turned into a sigh. “But later, she became a criminal in both the Kingdom of Words and the Land of Silence.

“Don’t ever mention this name in front of the villagers. I’ve heard they all deeply hate this woman.”

As Tartar said this, Zhou Qian heard footsteps coming from behind him. Putting away his binoculars, he turned around and saw Tara and Brega. They were hurriedly running towards the square, both looking as pale as if they hadn’t found their dogs.

Of course, they hadn’t been able to find it. Zhou Qian thought to himself—the little dragon was still playing with the dogs.

Observing them closely, Zhou Qian noticed that this man and woman weren’t young. Perhaps, then, more of the village’s stories could be learned from them.

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 118

“Alayne, what’s wrong with you?”

Someone from the Sun Family stood up and asked loudly.

“I-I don’t know what happened. My handkerchief is gone! It was just in my hand a moment ago!”

This was the response from the little girl named Alayne.

At this moment, the last glimmer of the sunset was about to burn out.

Traces of a crescent moon had already appeared in the sky.

Many people had gathered in the center and around the square, but because of a sudden accident, there was silence all around, a profound stillness. Only the cries of the little girl in the center were heart-wrenching and pitiable.

However, it seemed that no one actually pitied her.

Those from the Cloud Family in the north circle, closest to her, all showed smiles of relief.

As for her own family in the east, they either showed fear or clenched their fists and stood up, looking at Alayne with anger and disappointment, as if she was a demon who would doom them all.

Zhou Qian sat calmly in his place, his gaze sweeping around, passing over everyone. He first looked intently at the innkeeper Tartar, who was standing not far from the meat-filled iron bowl, quietly watching everything happening in the center of the square, with a mysterious smile on her face.

Then, Zhou Qian looked towards the village chief, Ab, who had rarely left the side of the sacrificial offerings, and walked towards the Cloud Family, all the way to behind Zhou Qian—where the little girl, Alayne, was crying.

Walking up to Alayne, Chief Ab whispered a few questions to her, then summoned one of his men and said something. The man then went to the edge of the square and brought a woman over.

This woman was clearly Alayne’s mother.

The moment she saw her, Alayne immediately knelt down. “Mother, I’m sorry. I… I have let down our family…”

The woman sighed deeply, walked up to her, and after carefully checking her several times, confirmed that the handkerchief was indeed not in her dress, and tears fell from her eyes.

Then, she also knelt down, but unlike her child, she faced the direction of the village chief.

“Lord Ab, please. This… The game has just started. This doesn’t count! Please allow something else to substitute for the handkerchief. We…”

“This is the sacred judgment handkerchief left by the Prophet of Dreams! Only this handkerchief can select the true warrior for us! It is sacred! Now that it’s gone, there’s really no point in continuing the game…”

Chief Ab said sternly and without mercy, then announced to the rest, “The game is over. Now, I will announce the selections for tonight’s vigil—”

“The east circle Sun Family has the lowest score in the game. All 16 participants in the game must take part in the vigil.”

“Of course, these 16 people aren’t enough. We need to go back to the initial rock-paper-scissors stage of the game. The final round was between Awei from the north circle Cloud Family and He Xiaowei from the south circle Moon Family. These two families don’t need to participate in the vigil. But the losing sides must. Among them, the east circle Sun Family has already been determined to participate, and likewise, the west circle Star Family, which also lost, must join the vigil!”

In this game, the Star-Cloud alliance formed by the north-west circles was against the Sun-Moon alliance formed by the south-east circle.

Zhou Qian’s premature end to the game directly led to the instant dissolution of both alliances—

Star-Cloud was disbanded, and so was Sun-Moon.

Now Star and Sun became the losers, needing to participate in the vigil.

While the winning sides became the previously opposing Cloud Family and Moon Family.

As soon as Chief Ab announced the results, people wearing clothes adorned with stars ran to the Cloud side and punched an elder of the Cloud Family hard.

“It was you! The sacred judgment handkerchief is missing! It must have been you! You knew we were falling behind in the rock-paper-scissors game and likely to be sent directly to the vigil… and yet you did this! You betrayed us! You betrayed our alliance!”

“Is that so…” The elder of the Cloud Family wiped the blood from his face yet smirked mockingly. “The deserters from the Land of Silence… It’s said that they are the eight who can’t fight at all on the battlefield. We strongly opposed their joining us, opposed them fighting alongside us, but everyone thought they could participate. When it came to voting… your Star Family voted in favor, didn’t you? So—”

“Will your Star Family really fight with us forever? Probably not. The little girl Alayne is a master, and she was secretly trained… You knew about it all along. Why did you only tell us after the game had started?”

“This, this, this isn’t…” The man from the Star Family was suddenly at a loss for words.

The elder from the Moon Family punched him hard in retaliation, effectively taking revenge, and then said, “Can’t speak now, can you? Ha… It’s your own fault that things ended up this way.”

“Our deserter from the Land of Silence, He Xiaowei, thought that the youngest girl would be the weakest, which is why he targeted her. If you had told us earlier that she was actually the strongest, would we have let him throw the handkerchief behind her? If we hadn’t thrown the handkerchief to her, would she have lost it?”

“So, it was your Star Family that kept secrets first, harboring the intention to betray! How dare you come and question me?!”

The villagers’ conversation was all overheard by the players.

He Xiaowei scratched his head, feeling somewhat emotional. “Losing handkerchiefs, indeed the handkerchief ‘got lost’. Qian’er, this must be your time magic at work, right? Just now, seeing that little girl cry so miserably, I initially felt quite guilty, thinking it was us who caused her trouble. But now, it seems…”

“If you don’t want to be the butcher’s knife, then you can only become the fish*. Besides, they are just NPCs.”

*It’s a metaphor referring to one’s fate being in the hands of others. In this context, he’s alluding to the idiom of becoming the knife (taking charge of your fate and not allowing yourself to be at the mercy of others) or else become the fish.

Zhou Qian stood up, looking towards the other three families. “It seems the Star-Cloud alliance is quite fragile. This way, although we’ve avoided the vigil crisis, we and the Moon Family will inevitably become enemies with the other three families. Plus, there’s the vigil side—”

Before Zhou Qian could finish, Bai Zhou squeezed his wrist.

Turning his head to look at him, Zhou Qian said, “What?”

Bai Zhou said, “Someone needs to watch over the movements of the three families. Moreover, there must be a story behind the vigil. Leave it to me to investigate.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian clasped his hand back, his expression momentarily indecipherable.

Seeing something in Zhou Qian’s expression, Bai Zhou, holding his hand, asked through the private chat tool in a low voice, “What are you thinking?”

Zhou Qian honestly replied, “Thinking about you.”

“Worried about my safety?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Not just that,” Zhou Qian said.

Bai Zhou asked further, “What else?”

Zhou Qian exhaled softly. “Never mind. Saying it out loud makes me seem too sentimental.”

Bai Zhou: “?”

Zhou Qian gave him a deep look. “It’s nothing. Go ahead. This is still a sub-instance of Blue Harbor City. Your abilities will be limited. So, pay attention to your safety. In case of danger, contact me anytime through the intended teammate feature. I can use that butterfly wings thing to find you.”

Meanwhile, the girl named Alayne was still crying on the ground.

Her status in the family had been very high due to her exceptional talent and the training she had received, which made her unbeatably fast and able to secure a chance of survival for everyone.

Because of her talent and diligence, her parents’ status in the family had also risen significantly.

But now her situation had taken a drastic turn for the worse. She was raised high by her clan, only to be harshly let down.

A few people from the Sun Family had already run over to her on the outskirts of the square, throwing cabbage leaves at her and hurling verbal abuse, until the village chief’s men came to maintain order and barely managed to pull them away.

Eventually, Alayne’s father also arrived.

Presumably, everyone recognized him as Alayne’s father, so no one stopped him as he approached.

But what no one expected was that the most harm would come from her own father.

He stepped forward and slapped her hard, knocking her to the ground.

Seeing this, her mother rushed over and hugged her husband’s legs, trying to stop him from approaching their daughter any further. “It’s not Alayne’s fault! What has she done wrong?!”

But the next moment, she was kicked away by her husband. “I’m ruined because of you and your daughter! From now on, I won’t be able to lift my head in the clan!”

Zhou Qian, who was closest to Alayne at this moment, walked over and coldly said, “A grown man pushing his own eight-year-old daughter into this dangerous vigil reserve squad is already cowardly enough. How do you have the face to blame her for your inability to hold your head up? Why didn’t you participate in the handkerchief game yourself?”

The man retorted, “You, a deserter from the Land of Silence coming here, will have to rely on us to live! Watch your mouth!”

At this point, Zhou Qian wasn’t in a hurry to retort, and upon noticing the sudden shift in the atmosphere, he promptly grabbed Bai Zhou’s wrist, then turned to look at the man.

The man’s words had revealed a crucial piece of information—deserters had to depend on the villagers to survive. Zhou Qian was curious to hear if, in his anger, the man would continue to speak without thinking and reveal more critical information.

However, the man soon stopped talking to Zhou Qian, probably realizing he had misspoken. Then, he turned back to continue berating his wife and daughter with harsh words.

“The most useless are men who berate their wives and children!” He Xiaowei couldn’t hold back and blurted out, “Bastard!”

The man no longer paid attention to the players and tried to punch Alayne again. Just as his fist was about to hit Alayne’s face, someone held it back.

It was Bai Zhou.

“You—” He was about to curse at Bai Zhou, pointing at his nose, when Bai Zhou pressed down on his hand, and the man’s wrist was immediately dislocated, causing him to cry out in pain.

Bai Zhou ignored him, letting him fall to the ground, then walked over to the little girl, helped her up, patted her shoulder, and carefully removed the cabbage leaves from her head.

From behind, Bai Zhou’s actions seemed extremely gentle.

Seeing this, Zhou Qian nudged He Xiaowei next to him. “Xiaowei Ge, do you know one reason why I never made things clear with Zhou Ge before?”

He Xiaowei: ???

Zhou Qian: “When we were in school, he wasn’t as indifferent to others as he is now. Generally, he got along well with classmates since he was the class monitor. Although he was probably special to me, he was also friendly to other classmates. So, I wasn’t sure if he was only gentle towards me…”

He Xiaowei thought for a moment. “Oh, so you’re saying… the game has hardened him?”

Zhou Qian: “…………”

He Xiaowei: “Qian’er, I can’t guess when you speak in riddles. But this scene looks like you caused trouble by bullying the girl, and then the God Level boss comes to clean up your mess.”

“…? Me? Cause trouble? Xiaowei Ge, are you confused about something? Who just saved you from the danger of the night vigil?”

“Eh, eh, eh, not that! I’m just making an analogy!”

“Hmm?”

“Damn, Qian’er, don’t glare at me. I’ve decided to follow my master’s advice and talk less!” He Xiaowei hurriedly made a zipping motion across his mouth.

On the other side, Bai Zhou gave Alayne’s mother a tube of ointment and another tube to the girl as well, then led her to the village chief Ab, who was still in the center of the square.

Seeing the chief, Bai Zhou said, “Chief Ab, I’ll keep vigil in her place.”

He stated it directly.

Hearing this, Ab looked at him meaningfully but didn’t object. “You volunteer to keep vigil, contributing to the village… That’s good.”

Bai Zhou asked, “What does keeping vigil entail?”

Ab replied, “As the village chief, I also have the duty to keep vigil. Just follow me tonight. You’re free until one hour before midnight, then please gather here.”

“I’ll take Alayne home first.” Bai Zhou nodded to Ab, leading Alayne past the north circle area, and continued outwards.

Passing by Zhou Qian, he stopped, looked towards Hidden Blade, not far away, and said, “The output position here is yours.”

“Don’t worry,” Hidden Blade said. “I can still help everyone with my intuitive talent at that time.”

Bai Zhou nodded, then asked, “Are you willing to follow Zhou Qian’s arrangements?”

Hidden Blade smiled. “You still don’t trust me? Not to mention my personal experience in the last instance. Just watching his previous videos, I’m fully convinced by his arrangements.”

Actually, Hidden Blade knew that Bai Zhou’s question wasn’t doubting him but needed him to publicly express his support for Zhou Qian, especially in front of the uncertain positions of Yun Xiangrong and Yin Jiujiu. This way, even in Bai Zhou’s absence, with the God Level player Hidden Blade vouching for Zhou Qian, others would think twice before acting against Zhou Qian.

Thus, Hidden Blade looked towards the two girls and emphasized, “I absolutely support every one of Zhou Qian’s plans, all the way!”

Zhou Qian glanced back and forth between the two, smiling and squeezing Bai Zhou’s hand. “Be careful.”

“You too,” Bai Zhou replied, squeezing his hand back, then turned to lead the little girl out of the square.

The gamblers outside were a bit confused.

[Are they really in love? I don’t buy it.]

[Let’s say, it’s like an emperor who falls for a general, and has to send that general to battle. How would the emperor feel?]

[The emperor would definitely be worried and conflicted. If I were the general, knowing my loved one sent me to the most dangerous tasks, I’d be upset!]

[So, their situation isn’t suitable for a relationship. Career is career. Feelings are feelings. They shouldn’t mix! Otherwise, conflicts are inevitable, and it won’t last long.]

[My view is different.]

[How so?]

[In this situation, only 137 is most suitable for the task. Anyone else wouldn’t match up in ability and would easily fail. If Zhou Qian didn’t assign the task to 137, how could he convince the others?]

 [Right, others might think he’s showing favoritism, which would undermine team cooperation in the future!]

[Not just that, others might think he’s blinded by love. How could someone as rational as him assign someone unsuitable for the task?]

[Oh, so 137 not only doesn’t mind but also volunteered to go… There’s also a sense that he didn’t want to put Qian Ge in a difficult position. I think I understand what Qian Ge meant now.]

[Fuck, 137’s feelings for Qian Ge… that’s really something.]

[Damn, no wonder Qian Ge became bent. I’m impressed.]

[?? Something’s off with you upstairs.]

Inside the game, the square inevitably saw some disturbances, likely between those assigned to the night vigil and those who could go home, hurling insults at each other. Eventually, the village chief intervened to calm the disturbances. Then, he lit a part of the pyre made of animal bones, known as the Bone Fire.

Since the pyre was surrounded by wood and straw, which acted as kindling, the flames were still yellow.

The large yellow flames, in contrast with the torches around the square, looked quite spectacular in the night, as if a phoenix might emerge from the fire at any moment.

“The fire here will burn all night, in hopes that the people from the other world will be satisfied…” The village chief told everyone. “Now, those on the night watch may leave temporarily. Please gather here an hour before midnight. As for those who can go home… Everyone from each household, please line up to receive the distributed offerings. Remember, after you take what I give you, light it in your fireplace before midnight. Otherwise, you might be devoured by beings from the other world!”

“Also, I must remind everyone, don’t draw your curtains, or block your windows with anything! I’ll send people to patrol. If the patrollers don’t see the light, they’ll think something’s happened to you and will enter your house. If there’s nothing wrong, wouldn’t that just cause unnecessary trouble? So, please be careful!”

Finally, the village chief looked at Zhou Qian and his group. “Those of you staying in the inn, join the line and take an offering for tonight’s burning.”

The village chief’s men once again maintained order, and people, as if accustomed to this annual event and to accepting death and the departure of loved ones, didn’t make much noise or show excessive sorrow but lined up in an orderly manner.

Looking closely at their faces, villagers who had family members on night watch were silently crying; others who could go home, especially those from the Cloud Family, seemed relatively happy.

The offerings that needed to be burned distributed by the village chief were mainly bones, with small amounts of ordinary firewood and grain.

Seeing this, He Xiaowei became very serious and immediately leaned towards Zhou Qian. “Qian’er, without you, I’d really feel like I’m in danger. Who knows what those animals ate? If their bones contain a lot of phosphorus, the burning could produce blue flames! The designers of this instance are too cunning!”

“The chief also said not to draw curtains or block windows, or they’ll think we’re in danger and just barge in. Then, seeing the light in the house, our little trick with the color would be completely useless.”

“As expected, the method I proposed at the start is ineffective… Being reckless, we’d either die at the hands of ghosts, or we’d violate the order and probably die anyway!”

“Indeed. There’s only a little grain and ordinary firewood, which will burn out quickly. But a large amount of bones can burn for a long time. What we actually need to trace back to is… who exactly issued these prohibitions.” Zhou Qian said, “I hope Zhou Ge can come up with some results.”

“Qian’er, you line up here. My master will protect you.”

He Xiaowei glanced at the long line ahead and rubbed his hands. “I’ll go talk to others and see if there’s a quarry or something. I’ll look for some fuel of a different color. The more, the better.”

Here, a crowd of villagers lined up, one by one, to receive the flammable offerings from the village chief for protection against ghosts at night.

On the other side, Bai Zhou let Alayne lead him towards the gathering place of the Sun Family.

At this moment, Alayne had wiped away her tears, her expression obscured in the darkness away from the firelight.

“Actually, you don’t need to take me back. You and the people from the Cloud Family somehow stole my handkerchief. You will be hated by the entire clan. Once you take me home, they might not let you go.”

“If that’s the case. They wouldn’t let you go either, right?” Bai Zhou said, “It seems I should go even more.”

“Why are you willing to help me?” Alayne wiped her tears again and asked him.

Bai Zhou said in a deep voice, “You should think about one question: why were you born with such a talent, to the point that you had to take on such an important role. When needed, everyone treats you as if you are the moon held in their hearts. But once you disappoint them, everyone will hate you to the bone, trample on you, even wish to kill you.”

Taking a deep breath, Alayne said, “The questions you just mentioned, I have indeed thought about them. It’s not fair. Why would fate be imposed on us like this? Why…”

“I barely slept in the past year. I practiced desperately, just to protect the people of the clan. I did it for them. Now, I didn’t want this result! I didn’t want to lose. But, but why—”

Her angry words abruptly stopped, and then Alayne looked at Bai Zhou. “It sounds like you’ve had a similar experience? What about you? Did you lose?”

Bai Zhou was very tall.

Alayne had to stretch her neck to see his face.

But in the darkness, his expression was inscrutable, and Alayne couldn’t make anything out.

All she could see was the Bone Fire burning in the square behind him, stretching far into the distance, seemingly endless, which outlined his figure as especially lonely and indifferent.

Bai Zhou looked down at her and said lightly, “If you want to know the answer, let’s make a deal.”

Alayne asked him, “What kind of deal?”

Bai Zhou said, “Tell me what you know about the secrets of this village. For example, what exactly happens during the night watch?”

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 117

The color of an opaque object is determined by the light it reflects, while the color of a transparent object is determined by the colored light that passes through it.

The reason blue glass appears blue is, simply put, because it absorbs all other colors of light, or “eats” them.

Yellow fire cannot pass through blue glass, so from the outside, one would only see a dark shadow, which does not constitute the “light of fire” as prohibited. Thus, the problem is easily solved.

After frantically recalling the optics knowledge he had learned before and thinking carefully, He Xiaowei finally figured it out.

However, he quickly thought of a problem and hurriedly asked, “Qian’er, just one question. The last sentence—”

“I still feel something is not right! When we entered the room, everything outside looked normal! Logically, looking from the inside of the room through the blue transparent glass, the houses and fields in the village should also appear black!”

“You’re right, so at that time, the window was still in its normal transparent state. It was when we left the inn that I noticed the glass of the window had turned blue. Not only did it turn blue, but one of the eyeballs of the statue at the entrance of the inn also turned blue,” Zhou Qian said. “Anyway, it’s always good to have some salt ready. After all, it’s the most common and easiest to obtain. Of course, from a more cautious perspective, we should also prepare more minerals that can produce different colors of flame when burned. After all, the color of the glass might change again.

“In fact, I had the little dragon search for this. On Shan Ge’s side, I’ll check his status. If he can still temporarily leave the Rib of God and move within a certain range, he can also help find materials for burning.”

“I got it! I’ll pay more attention too! That… um!”

He Xiaowei glanced back and forth between Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou, then stood up and walked away. “I’ll go ask about my master’s situation!”

As soon as He Xiaowei left, Zhou Qian turned back to Bai Zhou and nudged him with his elbow. “Zhou Ge, any thoughts?”

Bai Zhou said, “Many myths feature the ‘Trinity’ or ‘Three as a Group’ phenomenon. The number three is widely used in various legends and scriptures.”

“The Tao Te Ching* mentions, ‘Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things. Even from ancient times to present day, there have been three divisions concerning man, ghosts, and gods, or the legends of heaven, hell, and earth.”

*A Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi. It is central to both philosophical and religious conceptions of Taoism and has had great influence beyond Taoism as such on Chinese philosophy and religious practice throughout history.

“Furthermore, Christianity has the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father; Hinduism has Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva; ancient Egypt had Osiris, Horus, and Isis; Greek mythology frequently features the Three Fates, the Three Graces, the Three Furies…”

As Bai Zhou spoke, he noticed Zhou Qian looking at him with a smile.

“What?” he asked.

Zhou Qian smiled and said, “Zhou Ge reads a lot of books, huh.”

Bai Zhou stared into his eyes, and the corners of his mouth slightly curled up. “Not as diverse as your reading.”

“Are you implying I have a bad taste in novels?”

“No. It’s a good hobby.”

Zhou Qian was amused by Bai Zhou’s response, then thought for a moment and added, “The number ‘3’ is indeed interesting. Following this angle, blue is actually one of the three primary colors. Also, when I first came here, I saw the eyeball color of the west-facing statue head was red.”

The strange statue made of three heads near the entrance of the village and the inn were facing different directions.

When the players first logged into the instance and before entering the inn, Zhou Qian had specifically observed that the west-facing head’s eyes were red.

He initially thought the material of the eyeball was special, able to be reddened by the setting sun. Later, when he left the inn, he saw the eyeball turn blue, realizing things weren’t as simple as he initially thought.

As for the other two heads on the statue, their eyes didn’t have any special color and matched the grayscale of the statue itself.

Zhou Qian continued, “The three primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. I have seen the statue’s west-facing eyeball display red and blue. So, we could infer from this—”

“Perhaps the eyeball will also turn yellow. Maybe the glass on the second floor of the inn could also turn yellow…”

“When that happens, adding salt to the fire won’t work anymore. So, we do need to find other burning materials. Haa—”

“The night gameplay of this instance wouldn’t be about us watching the window and guarding the fire all night, adding objects to produce different colored flames, would it? That would be really boring.”

Bai Zhou reminded him, “Besides colors, there might also be metaphors related to the number ‘3’.”

“Right… The combination of humans, ghosts, and gods is quite clear in this instance, with humans and ghosts already present but no information about gods yet. Also, how did the glass change color?”

Zhou Qian raised an eyebrow and continued, “No one has come to change the glass, so if we don’t consider magic for the moment, it means there might be an issue with time and space.”

Bai Zhou nodded. “Exactly. Past, present, and future. This is also a classic combination of three elements.”

Zhou Qian smiled. “Now it’s getting interesting.”

As they talked, the sky turned a deeper shade of red, edging closer to dusk.

Many torches were lit in the square, as if trying to extend the daylight.

During his conversation with He Xiaowei and Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian was also paying attention to the situation around them—

The strong man named Awei who first threw the handkerchief was from the south side, and He Xiaowei was the second person to throw a handkerchief. However, he didn’t throw it back to the south side out of revenge but to the east side instead.

This move was quite smart, serving as a way to test where the people from the east side would throw the handkerchief next.

He Xiaowei specifically chose a frail-looking little girl who appeared to be only eight years old, thinking she would have the least physical strength and be the slowest.

Unexpectedly, the little girl moved as swiftly as the wind, more agile than ordinary people. Without the little dragon’s help, He Xiaowei would have continued to lose.

Thanks to the little dragon’s assistance, the little girl ultimately lost this round of the game. Afterward, she slowed down, as if hesitating about who to throw the handkerchief to.

During Zhou Qian’s conversation, she slowly walked back to the east side, seemingly to consult with someone managing her family about something, and then slowly walked towards the north side again.

The choice of the little girl was undoubtedly interesting—

It meant that their side would also deal with the north side.

In this way, the Sun Family and Moon Family represented in the east and south were targeting the Cloud Family in the north.

What about the Star Family in the west? Would it also be hostile to the Cloud Family?

It shouldn’t.

After all, the vigil needed 32 people, but the Cloud Family only had 8 people. Including the player count, it would only total 16. The people from the north side weren’t enough to make up the number of people in the vigil. Since the people from the two southeastern families had already formed a conspiracy, the 16 people from the Star Family would probably choose to cooperate with the Cloud Family.

Just as he thought of this, Zhou Qian saw a person with a star adorning the hem of his skirt in the periphery run over and go to the ear of a man from the Cloud Family diagonally across from him and say something.

The face of this male villager from the Cloud Family instantly became somewhat grave.

Then he looked at the crowd and said, ”The situation isn’t good. This little girl is an expert that the Sun Family has secretly trained this year. None of us are her match.”

“Everyone, listen to my advice. In a moment, no matter who is thrown a handkerchief, just give up. No need to chase her. Just conserve your stamina. If we lose this round, we’ll just deduct two points. We can still win it back again in the next round! So, it’s more important for us to save our stamina and fight to win the next round so that we can still have another draw!”

The information related to this little girl with extremely fast body skills was provided by someone from the Star Family in the west.

With this, the relationship between the four great families was considered completely clear to Zhou Qian.

—The two families, the Star in the west and the Cloud in the north, were in the same wave and were considered to be the Star-Cloud Alliance; the Moon in the south and the Sun family in the east could be the Sun-Moon Alliance.

After seeing that Star Family person leave, Zhou Qian retracted his line of sight and saw that the incredibly fast little girl had officially arrived at the north side and was located right behind Yun Xiangrong, who was across from him.

Immediately afterward, the two people’s gazes collided.

However, the little girl’s gaze quickly shifted away. She didn’t look at Zhou Qian anymore, but rather looked towards the others.

This move of hers, however, backfired and seemed deliberate.

It seemed that after secret training, her footwork was indeed formidable, but her shrewdness was a bit worse.

“Zhou Ge—” Zhou Qian raised half of his eyebrows upward and smiled. “It seems like she’s going to charge at me. That shouldn’t be the case. I’ve been through two very difficult trials, and my agility has clearly improved a lot.”

“I’ve already let the little dragon go to find something. It’s a bit exhausted in the past few waves, so it’s not good to call it back. In this way, I…”

“I’ll give you something.”

Bai Zhou tapped his finger on the system panel and said to Zhou Qian, “Alright, take a look at your traveling bag.”

Bai Zhou traded something directly to Zhou Qian through the teammate system.

As such, Zhou Qian tapped on the traveling bag system and saw that there was one more very interesting prop.

[Item: Never Drunk Butterfly Wings]

[Function: Sprinkle pollen on the tracked person. No matter where he goes to the ends of the earth, you will be able to grow butterfly wings, and when you want to see him, flash your wings and instantly fly to his side]

[Remarks: One-time prop. Please cherish them; in-game only. Cannot be used for different instances]

[Grade: S, extremely rare]

Glancing up at the little girl not far away, Zhou Qian took that prop out from his traveling bag.

It was a translucent glass bottle filled with pollen.

He just needed to dump out the pollen and sprinkle it on someone, then keep the bottle. When he wanted to see that person, all he had to do was break the glass bottle, and he would transform into a butterfly for an instant transfer.

Zhou Qian had just unscrewed the cap of the bottle to take a glance at the pollen inside when he realized that Bai Zhou had spread his palm towards him.

Zhou Qian immediately understood what he meant—the speed of that little girl opposite him had clearly accelerated. It seemed that she would soon be running behind everyone on the north side, leaving only afterimages, aiming to make them realize a little later who exactly she had thrown her handkerchief to. Zhou Qian would most likely not be able to sprinkle the pollen. If the pollen fell to the ground, the prop would be wasted.

Raising his gaze to Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian’s eyes narrowed a little. “I’ll do it myself.”

Vaguely sensing something, Bai Zhou was just about to open his mouth when Zhou Qian had already unscrewed the cap of the bottle and then poured all the pollen inside onto Bai Zhou.

“Zhou Qian?”

“Such a good prop, of course it can only be used on you. Does it have an enhanced version? If there is, I should have used it seven years ago.”

Zhou Qian smiled a little, and then looked at the field—

At this moment, that little girl’s figure had indeed completely turned into an afterimage. She swept past behind everyone like the wind. No matter how vicious their eyes were, the Cloud Family couldn’t identify where she left the handkerchief, and no one even knew whether or not she was still in the north side.

He Xiaowei’s cleverness was in testing out whether the people in the east side would also want to attack the north side; but the youngest and skinniest girl he had chosen also had the most powerful footwork.

At this moment, he had returned to Zhou Qian’s side, and couldn’t help but say, “Crap, how did she—”

Zhou Qian was calm and relaxed, patting He Xiaowei’s shoulder. “This incident teaches you one thing: don’t be sexist.”

He Xiaowei: “Injustice! I didn’t! I-I-That was at most age discrimination.”

Zhou Qian laughed, looking very relaxed, completely unaware that the gamblers watching were already anxious.

[What is Qian Ge up to? That pollen …… doesn’t seem necessary! That’s an extremely rare prop, ah!”]

[I’m so worried. That little girl is too powerful. Our Qian Ge is very strong, but he also has a weakness. He really can’t beat the little girl in terms of speed.]

[I told you he’s in love. We can’t see him in Blue Harbor City. But he must be in love.]

[Love… It really misleads people! Qian Ge is still too young.]

[It’s true that young people are easily overwhelmed by love!]

[Wait, is Qian Ge trying to delay the time?]

[That’s unscientific. The game hasn’t even started yet. It’s not worth it to use up so much mana now, is it?]

At this moment, within the game.

At the moment when everyone didn’t react, Bai Zhou whispered rather seriously in Zhou Qian’s ear, “She’ll be behind you in a second. At her speed, it will only take a mere 3 seconds for her to return to her position in the east.”

“Very good.” Zhou Qian slowly finished these two words, timing them just right.

The moment the words fell, he unleashed his skill with the Rib of God in his hand—

The wind stopped blowing, the white clouds stopped flowing, and the setting sun no longer gradually disappeared…

because time had been frozen.

Zhou Qian stood up and turned back. Just as Bai Zhou had said, the little girl who was incredibly fast had appeared behind him.

Time completely stood still, and unlike Zhou Qian, she was not able to stand outside of time, so she had no knowledge of what was going on around her and just stood frozen in mid-air, as if she had been turned into a stone statue.

The game would continue until midnight, which was still five hours away.

However, due to the unity of the various families and the preparations made, these 5 hours were completely insufficient to completely distance the scores of the 64 people. Ties would exist in large numbers, and many people would have the same score.

In this case, how would the 32 people with the lowest scores be selected?

Zhou Qian guessed that, at the end of the day, it could only be calculated by the total family score.

The family shared the honor, so it would be calculated by adding up the scores of the south-east and north-west. On the losing side, the entire family would be asked to keep the vigil together.

This was why there would only be 8 of the Cloud Family left to compete. It would also further explain why the various circles would be so united.

“Hmm… This handkerchief is really something. It’s got very intricate charms drawn on it and it’s encrusted with gold thread. For this village that doesn’t look wealthy, it should only have one, right?”

Zhou Qian walked in front of the little girl and didn’t care if she could hear it or not, quickly jerking the handkerchief away from her hand.

“I don’t want to waste five hours of my time on this boring game. After all, there are many other preparations I need to make before midnight. Otherwise, ushering ‘Samhain’ straight into the night would be tantamount to death.”

“Besides, I’ve gathered enough information about this ‘Drop the Handkerchief’.”

“So little girl, this game of you chasing me ends here.”

When time resumed its flow, Zhou Qian had already sat back down and was talking and laughing with Bai Zhou.

In the place behind him, the little girl was stunned for a moment before suddenly crying out in shock—her handkerchief was gone!

This meant that she had lost!

She lost by two points, and she could still regain it… But the handkerchief was gone, so the game couldn’t continue!

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 116

After hearing Zhou Qian’s words, He Xiaowei was still uneasy. He felt that Zhou Qian might still be observing something through him.

However, without Zhou Qian, he would have been dead long ago. With this thought, He Xiaowei no longer hesitated. After swallowing his saliva, he prepared to walk towards the three NPCs. But before he could get there, Zhou Qian suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

“Wait,” Zhou Qian said.

“What’s up?” He Xiaowei asked.

“My son is back,” Zhou Qian replied, then fell silent for a moment.

As He Xiaowei turned around to ask what he meant, he saw a deep blue little dragon standing on Zhou Qian’s shoulder, whispering something to him. After a while, Zhou Qian looked up at He Xiaowei and said, “Paper, rock, scissors, scissors, paper, rock. For the first six rounds of rock-paper-scissors, follow this sequence.”

He Xiaowei’s eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together and asked in a low voice, “So, what does this mean? Will I win or lose with this?”

“The final outcome, as I said before, is up to you. But start with these six rounds to buy some time,” Zhou Qian said.

“Just… to buy time?” He Xiaowei frowned.

“Yes. I just need a little time to figure out what’s going on with this game,” Zhou Qian explained. “We still don’t know how many rounds this game will have. No matter who wins or loses at the beginning, eventually there will likely be a need for the players to run around in circles. Just buy some time and leave the rest to me.”

Although He Xiaowei sometimes liked to verbally spar with Zhou Qian after getting to know him, it was all in jest during inconsequential moments.

At this point, he had come to trust Zhou Qian completely in every respect. He immediately memorized the sequence Zhou Qian told him, and as the village chief began to hurry them, he moved towards the final showdown arena.

The other three winning NPCs consisted of two men and a woman. With He Xiaowei joining, it became a rock-paper-scissors game with three men and one woman.

He Xiaowei followed Zhou Qian’s advice for six rounds, and indeed, in these six rounds, rock, paper, scissors all appeared simultaneously.

In the blink of an eye, the seventh round started.

He Xiaowei wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt the gazes from the two men and the woman on him were somewhat abnormal.

He swallowed another gulp of saliva and looked back. The sun had set a bit more, and amidst the bustling crowd, he couldn’t spot Zhou Qian at that moment. He had no choice but to follow Zhou Qian’s advice—just play it by ear, win or lose, and leave it to fate.

In the seventh round, He Xiaowei and a muscular man both threw scissors, while the other slim young man and the only woman both threw paper. Thus, in the eighth round, it came down to a duel between He Xiaowei and the muscular man.

Before throwing, He Xiaowei swallowed his saliva for the third time, his hands shaking with nervousness, until he remembered Zhou Qian’s confident, glowing eyes in the sunset right before joining the final match. This helped calm his nerves somewhat, and he threw his hand simultaneously with the muscular man—

Meanwhile, Zhou Qian went to look for other clues while He Xiaowei was buying time.

The reason Zhou Qian could instruct He Xiaowei to throw accurately and buy time was, of course, thanks to the little dragon.

The little dragon’s gaze, memory, and agility were all quite impressive.

Earlier, during the initial rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Zhou Qian had the little dragon roam around to memorize. It actually managed to remember the throwing habits of the three winners.

Zhou Qian could then predict their next moves and direct He Xiaowei accordingly. His goal was indeed just to create ties and buy time, not necessarily to make He Xiaowei lose or win.

Thus, it wouldn’t matter if those people suddenly changed their habits midway. Because when throwing, the first two choices among rock, paper, scissors are usually fixed. So, the time bought by these two ties was almost enough for Zhou Qian to make use of.

After instructing He Xiaowei, Zhou Qian patted the little dragon’s head and said with a smile, “My little dragon is really impressive. Is it because your dad is just that great, right?”

After saying this, Zhou Qian turned back to meet Bai Zhou’s gaze not far behind.

“I was praising the little dragon. You’re the big dragon.”

With this tease, Zhou Qian noticed the movements of the innkeeper, Tartar, and made a silencing gesture to Bai Zhou with his index finger, then turned around to walk towards her.

Not long ago, at the start of the in-group rock-paper-scissors competition, Zhou Qian had been keeping an eye on Tartar’s movements. He noticed Tartar speaking to three villagers who weren’t participating in the game, seemingly instructing them on something before they headed towards the inn.

Zhou Qian approached Tartar because those three people had returned from the direction of the inn.

Each of the three people was pulling a wooden cart with wheels, bringing three different things.

The first person brought a cart full of Jack-o’-lanterns. The second was hauling a cart with peculiar costumes and monster masks. The third brought over a large pot of meat. His cart not only had a pot of meat but also many large iron bowls that wouldn’t break easily.

When Zhou Qian and the others first arrived for the game, they had seen seven large iron pots for stewing meat at the entrance of the inn. It was presumed that the meat came from those pots. But… who was it for?

Recalling his journey from the Tartar Inn to the square, in addition to noticing the head statue facing west turning blue and the glass on the second floor of the inn also shimmering blue, Zhou Qian remembered another detail—all the households in the village had dogs, all of which were pure white.

When Zhou Qian had a guess in his mind, he happened to see Tartar taking down large iron bowls from the third cart, neatly arranging them at the edge of the square, then using a large iron spoon to ladle the meat into the bowls, one by one.

Walking a few more steps forward, Zhou Qian made his way through the crowd to stand before innkeeper Tartar.

With a smile, Zhou Qian asked, “Beautiful innkeeper, may I ask you something?”

Tartar, seemingly pleased to be called “beautiful”, scooped some meat into a bowl in front of her and asked Zhou Qian, “What is it?”

“Who is this meat for?” Zhou Qian inquired.

Tartar smiled without speaking. Zhou Qian then asked, “The villagers are very kind to dogs. Is this for them?”

Tartar gave Zhou Qian a meaningful look before finally saying, “The villagers believe that animals are spirits that can lead humans into other worlds. The purer the animal’s fur color, the stronger its spiritual power, allowing it to communicate with beings from other worlds.”

Zhou Qian asked, “You’ve taken great care of the white dogs, specially stewing meat for them tonight, so they can communicate with beings from other worlds and thus protect you? So, they are important.”

Tartar said, “Dogs, Jack-o’-lanterns, and these costumes are all very important. Dogs can help us identify beings from other worlds through communication, warning us in advance if there is danger. The jack-o’-lanterns and peculiar costumes can make us appear as beings from other worlds, serving a certain deterrent effect. I’ve already prepared some in your rooms. Now take them, and you won’t have to be afraid on your way back to the inn later.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian’s gaze shifted from Tartar back to the people in the four circles on the square.

If at first he hadn’t noticed anything, now he was increasingly feeling a sense of foreboding.

When he first arrived, everyone was sitting, including men, women, the elderly, and the young, and nothing seemed amiss at a glance. But since the start of the rock-paper-scissors, for the game to proceed smoothly, these people had started to stand up and move around.

From this, Zhou Qian realized one thing—their speed of movement was very fast.

Even the seemingly frail young boys and girls, or the elderly with white hair, moved quickly through the crowds to watch others’ matches. Taking advantage of this time, Zhou Qian discovered that not only were their movements exceptionally swift, but they were also very agile.

Zhou Qian took special note of an old man, so old his back was hunched, who, to get a better view of a neighboring circle’s final match, did a somersault, jumping over three to five people. His movements weren’t clumsy at all; like a gust of wind, he had moved a distance in an instant.

The same was true for the three NPCs currently competing in rock-paper-scissors with He Xiaowei.

When Zhou Qian looked over, coinciding with the defeat of the man and woman, leaving He Xiaowei and a muscular man for the final. The man and woman each returned to the eastern and western sides of the crowd, with the man disappearing in a blink, running back at great speed. As for the woman, she jumped and immediately returned to the west side.

Before noticing this anomaly, just like the unresolved debate between He Xiaowei and the two girls, no one knew whether it was better to lose or win the handkerchief game. Zhou Qian also didn’t know.

But after observing these traits of the NPCs participating in the game, Zhou Qian could undoubtedly make an inference—these people want to win the game.

Therefore, it was highly possible that the “vigil” the losers of the game would face was extremely perilous.

In the center of the nearby square, the final showdown between He Xiaowei and the muscular man was about to unfold.

At this moment, the chaotic crowd returned to their original positions, forming four circles again.

Everyone looked towards the final round with curiosity, excitement, and nervousness, yet their gazes also carried a hint of peculiarity and eeriness.

As the final round was about to start, Zhou Qian didn’t immediately return to his seat.

The reason was that he had noticed something unusual—through the brief movement when those people stood up, Zhou Qian discovered that their clothing had distinctive features.

On the east side, the hem of the men’s shirts and the corner of the women’s skirts were all adorned with a sun.

On the west side, the same parts of the clothing bore stars. The south side had moons, and the north side had clouds.

The groups associated with the sun, stars, and moon each consisted of sixteen people, enough to form a complete circle for the handkerchief game. But the cloud group only had eight people, and it was only with the addition of eight players, or rather, “refugees” from the Land of Silence, that they could make up a circle of sixteen.

Seizing the last moments, Zhou Qian asked Tartar, “Are people from different circles from different families?”

“Yes. The Day Family, Moon Family, Star Family, Cloud Family. These are the four major families in the village,” Tartar responded with a smile, looking at Zhou Qian. “Everyone from each family wishes to win the game to bring glory to their family.”

After saying this, Tartar continued to ladle meat soup, saying nothing more. At this time, Zhou Qian heard the village chief declare, “Alright, let’s congratulate Awei for winning!”

Awei referred to the muscular man.

In the final round, He Xiaowei threw scissors, and the muscular man threw rock.

Moments later, under the village chief’s guidance, everyone returned to their places and sat down. The muscular man named Awei received a snow-white handkerchief from the village chief and then began to walk slowly around the crowd, starting with someone on the east side.

He was from the southern circle, so this time he was circling the southern circle.

“Now, the person throwing the handkerchief is a burly man. Who will he give the handkerchief to? Oh, the anticipation…”

The NPCs began clapping and singing a song. During this time, Awei slowly moved from the south to the north. The northern circle was where the eight members of the Cloud family and the eight players were located.

He Xiaowei, noticing the man’s actions, felt his heart beat like a drum, whispering to Zhou Qian beside him, “Qian’er, I feel like he’s coming for me!”

“Yes, I think so too. Under normal circumstances, you won’t be able to outrun him. These NPCs move strangely fast,” Zhou Qian said.

He Xiaowei: “Fuck, what do I do then? Can I just give up?”

“Losing this time doesn’t matter. The game has just begun, and there’s still a chance to change the score. Losing just means having to do the vigil, which might be very dangerous, but it doesn’t necessarily mean death,” Zhou Qian said. “What you really need to be wary of now are the bans.”

“Yeah. If this muscular man, Awei, throws the handkerchief to me, I’m bound to lose under normal circumstances. Then I have to be the next one to throw the handkerchief. Damn it… How do I know how to run when it’s my turn to throw?”

Sweat dripped down He Xiaowei’s forehead as the muscular man approached closer. He couldn’t help but ask, “What happens if we break the bans?”

“The specific consequences are unknown for now but given that we received this warning before entering the instance, it must be important,” Zhou Qian said.

“We are refugees here. Perhaps these are some restrictions imposed on us by the villagers to prevent us from causing trouble. This instance seems to have a lot to do with magic and mythical legends. Curses, prohibitions—these are common elements in such myths, so we must not take them lightly.”

“I think, after getting through the current three bans, we may encounter other bans later.”

Hearing Zhou Qian say this, He Xiaowei became anxious. “What should we do about this ban?”

Zhou Qian turned back, his gaze sweeping over the village chief in the center of the square and then Tartar, who was standing on the outskirts among the spectators.

By now, she had filled all the iron bowls with meat and soup and was watching the game with a smile.

Zhou Qian retracted his gaze and adjusted his wide sleeves, revealing a glimpse of the Rib of God to He Xiaowei. “You’re using a weapon?”

Zhou Qian nodded. “Yes. I just asked Shan Ge to help with something. He’s in spirit form now, invisible to others, but he can use the life force I shared with him to manifest physically when needed and interact with objects in the real world.”

Their voices were very low, and amidst the hustle and bustle of the crowded square, it was hard for others to overhear their conversation. However, Yun Xiangrong was particularly sensitive to the words “Shan Ge” and immediately frowned at Zhou Qian. Zhou Qian met her gaze with a raised eyebrow but didn’t say much more.

At that moment, he could see Awei approaching the northern circle, and his speed visibly increased. About 10 seconds later, he started moving at an extremely fast pace around the 16 people in the north, leaving almost just an afterimage behind. By the time most people realized what was happening, the afterimage was almost gone.

Just then, an elderly woman sitting opposite He Xiaowei shouted at him with frustration. “It’s you! Hurry up and chase! By joining our group, you represent our group’s honor! Awei is afraid of the color red. Find something red to scare him with! When he sees it, his speed will slow down!”

He Xiaowei hesitated but then immediately chased according to the game rules.

Meanwhile, all the people in the northern circle from the Cloud family began to frantically wave a piece of red cloth, hoping to scare Awei into slowing down as soon as he glanced their way, allowing He Xiaowei to catch up.

After He Xiaowei left, Bai Zhou was sitting to Zhou Qian’s left, and one seat over to the right were Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao, who were discussing something in low voices. Seeing this, Zhou Qian pulled Bai Zhou over one seat to listen to their conversation.

Qi Liuxing spoke first. “Awei threw the handkerchief behind Xiaowei Ge, and Xiaowei Ge was a bit slow to react. The NPCs here immediately reminded him, and everyone helped him against Awei…”

“I think I understand the true essence of this handkerchief game. When the village chief announced the rules, mentioning the final ranking of the 64 participants, plus the preconceived notion of the handkerchief game making us think we’re each fighting alone, it seemed like that. But it’s not actually the case!”

“I think, later, if it’s Xiaowei Ge’s turn to throw the handkerchief, when he throws it into another circle, the people in that circle will also remind each other… and provide ways to catch up with him, just like the people in the northern circle are doing with the red cloth now!”

“Right, Xiao Qi. I completely agree with you.” Ke Yuxiao nodded in agreement. “Within each circle, people are cooperating with each other. So, the final win or loss is likely determined by the circle as a unit, not by individuals. It’s a team game. This means… there might be danger during the vigil. They all don’t want to do the vigil.”

Zhou Qian suddenly interjected, “Then let me test you two further. Besides these points, what else can you deduce?”

Qi Liuxing was reminded of the tense moment in “Apple Paradise” when Zhou Qian calmly questioned him while facing monsters across the lake.

As if not wanting to disappoint Zhou Qian or show that he hadn’t improved, Qi Liuxing crossed his arms and thought hard before speaking. “That old woman knew Awei’s weakness very well… It’s very likely that they have been holding this competition for many years. Also, um, and…”

“And—?” Zhou Qian’s expression became more serious. “Why are there only 8 people in the northern circle?”

“Could it be…” Qi Liuxing frowned tightly. “Maybe, for example, last year, each circle also had 16 people, and the people from the northern circle lost last year. They were assigned to do the vigil, and then… 8 people died last year, so this year they only have 8 people left.”

Zhou Qian indeed had the same guess.

The people from the four major families, competing individually in the “handkerchief” game, sent participants with special skills in speed, agility, and dexterity, hoping to win the game for their family.

No family wanted to lose because the vigil posed great risks. The Cloud Family only had 8 people with special skills left because the rest died in previous games.

Zhou Qian turned his head and squinted at the chase between He Xiaowei and Awei, saying, “However, we can also see something advantageous for us.”

“What’s that?” Qi Liuxing asked curiously.

Zhou Qian said, “This means that standing watch is a risky task, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to death. Therefore, we shouldn’t be too worried about this handkerchief game.”

“I get it now!” Qi Liuxing said. “Taking the vigil is risky, but it’s not restricted by the bans related to windows and firelight, so… in the handkerchief game, winning or losing, for now, doesn’t really matter.”

“That’s how it is for now. Let’s see how this instance plays out. We still don’t know how to clear it. Let’s see how Xiaowei Ge is doing—”

Turning his head, Zhou Qian saw that the Moon Family from the south had temporarily taken the lead.

The Cloud Family from the north had taken out something red to counter Awei. However, Awei was well-prepared and didn’t look back once while running. His speed was too fast, and despite He Xiaowei’s best efforts, drenched in sweat, he couldn’t keep up.

Therefore, the village chief announced that Awei gained two points, while He Xiaowei lost two points.

The next round of throwing the handkerchief fell to He Xiaowei.

He Xiaowei didn’t dare to move. Looking across the crowd and the pile of bone offerings in the center of the square, he looked towards Zhou Qian, waiting for his help.

With the bans against walking clockwise around Tara and counterclockwise around Brega among so many people, he really didn’t know who was who and naturally didn’t dare to run randomly.

Before Zhou Qian could answer him, he shouted out in an attempt to save himself, “Is there anyone here named Tara or Brega?!”

“Don’t say irrelevant words!” Village Chief Ab rebuked him, his tone slightly harsh. “Moreover, it’s not allowed for strangers to inquire about the ladies’ names so casually!”

With that, the village chief completely cut off He Xiaowei’s direct approach to asking names. Besides, whether or not they agreed, it seemed it wouldn’t have worked anyway—if those two people really existed in the game, he wouldn’t dare to run in any direction!

He Xiaowei instinctively looked towards Zhou Qian again. Zhou Qian nodded at him, and soon after, he received a message from Zhou Qian. “Just walk straight ahead for now. Don’t circle around. Buy some time. About half a minute should do.”

Steadying his nerves, He Xiaowei stepped carefully, ensuring he walked in a straight line. And after half a minute, he was indeed saved.

Suddenly, from the periphery of the square, there came the sound of metal falling to the ground. Looking in the direction of the noise, He Xiaowei saw a bizarre scene and quickly realized what had happened—

Two pure white dogs, chasing an extremely agile, deep blue little dragon, ran from somewhere in the village towards the center of the square.

As they passed the peripheral area, the little dragon swiftly flew over a row of iron pots, not lingering at the contents. But the two dogs that followed were different; they rushed over like hungry wolves, knocking over the pots along with the soup.

Just as the dogs bit into the meat on the ground, before they could enjoy their meal, the little dragon returned. With a flick of its tail, two bones flew hundreds of meters away towards the other end of the square. With another flick of its tail, the dragon disappeared from the spot.

The dogs, furious, barked angrily and chased ahead, either to settle the score with the little dragon or in eager pursuit of the meat bones.

People from all four families, regardless of their participation in the game, suddenly erupted in panic.

“Oh my God! The white dogs have run away!”

“Whose white dogs have escaped…”

“Let’s hurry back and check, shall we?”

At that moment, Zhou Qian smiled, pulled out a megaphone from his bag, and shouted through it, “I know whose dogs these two are. They belong to the Brega and Tara families. You two better go chase your dogs now! Otherwise, you might be in danger tonight.”

Zhou Qian’s words immediately calmed the commotion. After all, most people were thinking—just as long as it wasn’t their own dog that had escaped.

In the gaming circles on the field, indeed, one man and one woman from both the east and west sides stood up, their faces pale and panicked, and chased in the direction of the two white dogs.

Even though the village chief looked displeased, he said, “Getting the white dogs back is more important. The rest of you, continue with the game!”

Brega and Tara had run off! The two bans could now be avoided!

He Xiaowei immediately rejoiced and glanced at Zhou Qian. The setting sun cast a red glow on Zhou Qian’s face.

Noticing He Xiaowei’s gaze, he raised his head and smiled distantly at him.

He Xiaowei gave a thumbs up and shouted, “Qian’er, you’re really so cool!”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian’s smile brightened even more. However, soon he could no longer see He Xiaowei, and vice versa—Bai Zhou’s body subtly moved to stand between them.

Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes slightly, tilting his head before continuing to look at Bai Zhou with a smile, “Zhou Ge, are you jealous?”

Bai Zhou smiled, reached out to tousle his hair, and simply said, “The sun shining on you looks particularly beautiful.”

As he said this, the sunset cast Bai Zhou’s eyes a deep red. Zhou Qian, hearing this and looking into his eyes, felt his heart skip a beat.

……

He Xiaowei casually threw the handkerchief onto someone nearby and was about to run when the little dragon, likely due to Zhou Qian’s previous instruction, suddenly appeared in front of him and quickly carried him back to the original northern circle. With this move, He Xiaowei won a round and quickly squeezed next to Zhou Qian to sit down.

“Oh, Qian’er, really, thank you. What would I do without you—” He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say. “By the way, what’s with the salt? Can you tell me?”

Zhou Qian didn’t answer.

He Xiaowei turned his head and saw him staring blankly at Bai Zhou.

“Um, Qian’er? Salt? Sodium chloride?” He Xiaowei tapped his shoulder.

After a moment, Zhou Qian turned his head to look at him and said in a somewhat unkind tone, “Simple. It’s an optics problem.”

He Xiaowei, clearly not good at reading the room, continued to ask, “Optics? Physics, huh?”

Zhou Qian quickly and coldly explained, “Yes, optics. The glass on the second floor of the inn is blue. Sodium ions burn to produce a yellow flame. Transparent objects only allow light of the same color as themselves to pass through. So, if you add a lot of salt to the fireplace, it will produce yellow light, which cannot pass through the blue glass.”

“’You must not spend the night in a house where the firelight can still be seen from outside after sunset’—this ban is thus easily resolved.”

“Oh, so that means—”

“Stop talking for now.”

“Eh?”

“Go find your master!”

---

The author has something to say:

Study your physics and chemistry well~

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 115

You’re not allowed to walk around Tara counterclockwise, nor are you allowed to encircle Brega clockwise.

Anyone would find these two prohibitions bizarre at first glance. However, when the bans were linked with the “Drop the Handkerchief” game, the situation became quite unusual.

The so-called “Drop the Handkerchief” game involves a group of people sitting together. One person runs around them from behind, chooses someone, and secretly drops the handkerchief behind that person.

The person who finds the handkerchief behind them has to pick it up and chase the one who dropped it.

If the dropper makes it back to their seat without being caught, after a full circle, they pass the level; otherwise, if caught, they lose and must perform a show in front of everyone.

Correspondingly, if the person who was supposed to catch the handkerchief either finds it too late or fails to catch the dropper, they lose and become the next one to drop the handkerchief.

Thus, since the game involves running around a group of people, it necessitates the restriction of either running clockwise or counterclockwise. Among the NPCs, could there be someone named Tara or Brega?

If both individuals exist and running around is mandatory, how should one avoid breaking the bans?

Having reached this stage in the game, all players on the scene immediately understood the peril upon hearing the words “Drop the Handkerchief” and anxiously awaited the innkeeper’s answer—what would her name be? Tara or Brega?

“My name is Tartar,” the innkeeper said with a smile, then stood up and led everyone towards the square. On the way, He Xiaowei hurried forward and asked many questions, such as whether she knew Tara or who Brega was. However, Tartar didn’t respond to any questions, simply greeting passersby with a smile.

It seemed she was well-liked and popular here.

When leaving the inn, Zhou Qian specifically looked at the sculpture formed by three human heads and noticed no change; one of the heads still faced west, towards where the sun set, and the village’s heart lay.

Tartar led everyone from the Tartar Inn at the village entrance westward, deeper into the village. Along the way, Zhou Qian thought of something and took a special look back.

First, Zhou Qian looked at the sculpture of the three heads. When he first arrived at this scenario, he remembered the head facing west glowed red in the sunset, including its eyes, which shimmered in the red of the setting sun.

But now, from this angle, the eyes of the head faintly gleamed blue, deep, and bottomless, as if hiding a dark world.

Zhou Qian’s second glance was towards the glass on the inn’s second floor. When he checked inside the room before, he hadn’t noticed anything unusual about the glass. However, looking from this angle at this time, he noticed the glass was actually blue.

The blue, transparent glass shone with a purple light in the sunset, sparkling like a crystal and somewhat eerie.

Having understood something, Zhou Qian said nothing for the moment and continued forward with everyone else.

Shortly after, they reached the central square deep in the village.

Many people were already sitting on the ground, grouped in circles of sixteen, forming three complete circles; an additional eight people formed a half-circle, apparently waiting for players. With the players making up exactly eight people, they sat down to form the fourth circle.

In the center of the square was a large pile of animal bones mixed with straw and other materials, next to which lay some meat, grain, and other items, seemingly for sacrificial purposes.

The four circles formed by the villagers and players were positioned in the north, south, east, and west directions around the pile.

Upon the players’ arrival, a leader-looking figure was pouring oil over the straw and bones.

Tartar, the innkeeper, took the lead to greet him. “Village chief, I’ve brought the people from the Land of Silence over. They’ll join the game.”

“Good, thank you.” The village chief nodded to the innkeeper, then greeted everyone. “Hello, I’m Ab. Please, take your seats! The game will start soon!”

The village chief, a man in his forties, appeared wise, as if his position was based on wisdom rather than age or force.

Zhou Qian took a closer look at the village chief before sitting down with the others. Bai Zhou, of course, sat next to him.

Once seated, Zhou Qian whispered to him through a private chat tool. “If we were playing this game outside, I’d definitely drop the handkerchief for you to chase me.”

Bai Zhou looked at him and smiled faintly. “Okay.”

“Then you’d have to be quick, or you won’t catch me.”

“Mm. I’ll be fast.”

“How fast?”

“How fast do you want it?”

“Well, not too fast, or it won’t be fun. Gotta keep you running a little longer.”

“Okay.”

“Zhou Ge, your patience is really good. You even entertain such boring questions from me.”

“Not boring.”

“Being with me, you’re never bored, right?”

“Yes.”

“Exactly. Am I a fun person?”

“Mm. So, Zhou Qian, do you think—”

Was Bai Zhou worried that he might find him boring?

Before he could speak, Zhou Qian already answered. “Zhou Ge is interesting too. Next time after you transform into a dragon, let me play with your horn again, and I want to touch your tail.”

Above the square, the noise of people was booming.

The two of them were having a secret conversation unknown to others.

Whether the conversation was nutritious or interesting didn’t matter.

For the two of them, being able to have such a long-awaited reunion in another world and to speak so freely and willfully, was already very precious.

After a few exchanges, the village chief raised his voice to speak—

“Alright, everyone is here. Let me explain this year’s new rules to everyone!”

Standing next to the pile of bones, the village chief explained the specific rules of the game to everyone.

The Drop the Handkerchief game in the story was similar to what everyone normally knew.

However, this time the scope of the game was broader—being played in four circles, totaling 64 people.

The person who throws the handkerchief, and the one it was thrown at, could run around the four large circles to chase each other.

Another difference was that the loser of each game would be deducted 2 points, instead of having to “perform a show” like in the real world, and the winner would gain 2 points.

When the game finally ended, the scores of the 64 people would be ranked from highest to lowest, ultimately dividing them into two groups.

The higher-scoring group, the winners, would have the privilege to go home and sleep.

The other 32 people would have to participate in a night vigil arranged by the village chief.

“The moment the sun sets completely marks the arrival of the ‘nonexistent time’, and we will welcome the official festival. Let’s enjoy the game to the fullest before the sun sets!”

The village chief said, “So, where should we start the game… Let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors!”

Under the village chief’s arrangement, the first was a rock-paper-scissors competition within each of the 16-person circles to select one winner from each. Four circles of 16 people would produce four winners, who would then face off in the final showdown.

Of course, even with 16 people playing rock-paper-scissors simultaneously, the likelihood of rock, paper, and scissors appearing at the same time was high. To save time, the village chief had them split into four groups to achieve a tiered selection effect.

Zhou Qian’s group of 16 was divided into four groups of four. NPCs played against NPCs, and players played against players.

During the rock-paper-scissors, He Xiaowei, Zhou Qian, Yin Jiujiu, and Yun Xiangrong were in one group.

He Xiaowei, not understanding the situation of the two girls, turned his head, saw the NPCs at a distance, and quietly advised them, “Let’s not waste our efforts here. We should all try to win, gain points, and if one of us becomes the winner, we absolutely should not throw the handkerchief at each other.

“What we need to do is work together to defeat the NPCs! If an NPC throws the handkerchief at one of us players, we must remind each other quickly so they don’t catch up. This way, our scores will be the highest!”

Yun Xiangrong glanced at him and said, “Have you considered that if you’re outside on night watch, you naturally don’t have to spend the night inside. Thus, the issue of which room someone might die in tonight would be resolved.”

“Eh?” He Xiaowei was stunned for three seconds before quickly responding, “But that doesn’t mean it’s safe. What does that ‘nonexistent time’ mean? We still don’t know!”

“Regarding the meaning of Samhain, our well-read Zhou Qian said it’s the day when the realms of the living and the dead intersect. There will definitely be ghosts coming at night! Inside, the fireplace can ward off ghosts. What about outside?”

Yin Jiujiu thought for a moment and said, “We still know too little. Let’s see how it goes. But I think Yun Xiangrong has a point. There are 32 people on night watch, including many villagers. The village chief wouldn’t send so many people to their deaths, right?”

He Xiaowei, unsure, looked at Zhou Qian for advice. “Qian’er, it seems they make sense. So, should we aim to win or lose points in this game? I’m counting on you.”

Who would have thought, as he turned his head, he saw Zhou Qian asking Bai Zhou, who was playing rock-paper-scissors in the next group, “So, if I throw scissors, will you throw paper?”

He Xiaowei: “……”

As expected, Bai Zhou really threw paper.

And then he lost.

He Xiaowei: “…………”

After a while, feeling a pair of burning eyes on the back of his head, Zhou Qian turned around to see He Xiaowei.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” Zhou Qian asked.

He replied, “There’s a saying that goes, ‘A hero finds it hard to overcome the beauty’s challenge*.’ Now, I want to dedicate this saying to that God Level boss. I never imagined, Qian’er, that you would be the ‘beauty’ in this saying.”

*Idiom refers to how heroes often lose their fighting spirit or reputation because of their obsession with women.

Zhou Qian: “…………”

Three minutes later, the rock-paper-scissors competition among their circle of 16 people quickly ended.

The winner turned out to be He Xiaowei.

The other three circles also finished their games around the same time, selecting three winners, all NPCs.

Under the village chief’s supervision, He Xiaowei was about to step forward for the final rock-paper-scissors contest with them.

Before going up, he asked Zhou Qian uneasily, “Qian’er, something doesn’t feel right. If you wanted to win, I doubt we could beat you in rock-paper-scissors. I don’t understand the tricks and twists of gambling, nor how you guys do it. But rock-paper-scissors is a form of gambling, right? Who are you? You’re the king of gambling! How could you lose?”

“You flatter me too much. It’s not like that,” Zhou Qian said.

“You lost, and you made your partner lose too. Is that really okay?” He Xiaowei asked. “Wait a minute, would it be better to lose? If I win and have to throw the handkerchief, who should I throw it to first?”

Zhou Qian patted his shoulder. “Relax. Just play the game casually. As for tonight… for now, just make sure you have enough salt.”

“…Salt?” He Xiaowei was surprised. “What do you mean?”

“Yes. Salt. Sodium chloride,” Zhou Qian whispered to him. “If you get the chance, go steal some more from the kitchen. It’ll come in handy.”

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 114

The wind was blowing—not too strong, but with a biting chill.

Yun Xiangrong’s hair had been cut short, just reaching her shoulders. The wind lifted her hair, making her figure appear even more slender and gaunt. At the moment of eye contact with her, Zhou Qian felt the knapsack move on its own.

He guessed that it was Gao Shan inside the Rib of God sensing something.

Zhou Qian patted the knapsack, barely soothing the Bone Spirit, and then, without saying anything for the moment, turned and led the way to the inn.

As Zhou Qian walked, Bai Zhou naturally followed closely behind.

Shortly after, all eight players, under the system’s guidance, entered the Tatat Inn together.

The innkeeper was a middle-aged woman wearing a white long dress draped with a woolen plaid shirt, currently sitting in front of the fireplace knitting a sweater.

Upon seeing the eight guests walk in, she looked up, smiled at them, and said, “You can choose your rooms. It’s almost festival time. I’m very busy, so please make your choice within ten minutes. I advise each of you to choose a room; it’s best not to crowd together, as there’s only one bed per room.”

Festival?

The fields had already been harvested, and the foliage was showing signs of withering yellow, indicating that it was deep autumn.

What festival could the people in this instance, in this season, be celebrating?

Zhou Qian looked carefully around the inn’s lobby, noticing dried meat, corn, and chili hanging near the door.

Particularly unusual was the seven large pots placed near the entrance, all simmering with meat, the aroma filling the entire lobby.

In fact, the players had already smelled the meat before even entering the inn.

However, the combination of meat and the inn inevitably led to associations with rumors of cannibalistic eateries, and thus, no one dared entertain the thought of coveting that meat.

Turning back to the innkeeper, Zhou Qian asked, “What festival is it? Is this meat prepared for the festival?”

“Yes. There will be banquets these next few nights. Everyone can eat as much meat as they want.” The innkeeper smiled at Zhou Qian. “Eat as much as you like.”

He Xiaowei, beside Zhou Qian, obviously swallowed. “That meat smells so good. But I dare not eat it. How can you eat meat randomly in such instances?”

“That’s not necessarily the case. Don’t the game designers like to play with people? The more it seems you can’t eat, the more likely you can.” Zhou Qian laughed and walked towards the second floor. “Anyway, let’s find rooms first.”

He Xiaowei sighed. “Qian’er, although I’ve been playing games with you for so long, many times I still can’t tell if you’re joking or serious.”

“Really? Then can Zhou Ge tell?” While walking upstairs, Zhou Qian nudged Bai Zhou with his elbow, asking very pointedly.

Bai Zhou glanced at Zhou Qian, grabbed his hand, and before he could reply, He Xiaowei, following behind, added, “Don’t always ask others. Reflect on yourself!”

“Hey, He Xiaowei—”

He Xiaowei couldn’t continue, as he was knocked on the head by Hidden Blade.

“Master, why did you hit me?”

“Trouble comes from the mouth. Focus on choosing a room.”

“Does it matter which room we choose?” He Xiaowei asked.

Hidden Blade: “You forgot that—”

“Oh right, I remember now…”

He Xiaowei didn’t finish his sentence as Zhou Qian’s hand covered his mouth from behind.

Then he heard Zhou Qian tell the two girls. “Ladies first. You choose.”

By this time, all eight people had already made their way up the stairs to the second floor.

Realizing something, He Xiaowei paused, a bit unclear about Zhou Qian’s intentions.

What is he doing? He surely doesn’t mean harm to the two girls, right?

This Yin Jiujiu had a falling out with everyone last time, and she is somewhat naive and impulsive, but her enemy is Situ Qing. She hasn’t intentionally caused trouble for others. She doesn’t really have a grudge against us. At the beginning of the game, would they really just eliminate her so simply and crudely?

As for Yun Xiangrong, she’s even more of a pitiable girl. Zhou Qian shouldn’t be harming her, right?

What is he trying to do?

Noticing He Xiaowei’s gaze, Zhou Qian roughly guessed what he was thinking but didn’t explain much. When he looked at the two girls, his gaze even carried intentional mockery.

When their eyes met, Yun Xiangrong seemed to understand the provocation and mockery in Zhou Qian’s eyes. She immediately turned colder and said with a mocking tone, “I received that prohibition too—’one must not stay overnight in a house where one can still see the firelight from the window after sunset’. You don’t need to try using the asymmetry of information against me.”

Hearing this, Yin Jiujiu’s gaze shifted back and forth between Yun Xiangrong and Zhou Qian. “Do you two have a grudge?”

She then looked at Zhou Qian and asked, “But Zhou Qian… you won’t trick me, right?”

“You misunderstood. Of course, I’m not tricking you,” Zhou Qian said with a smile to Yin Jiujiu, then walked a few steps closer to Yun Xiangrong, staring into her eyes. “I really thought you didn’t know this information, which is why I let you two choose first.”

“But what I’m doing is not to harm you. I just wanted to play the hero who saves you after you trigger a crisis due to lack of information.”

Yun Xiangrong nodded and continued mockingly, “Oh. A familiar tactic. In the instance where Shan Ge died, didn’t you do the same to Situ Qing? How is it, you played a tactic and won her heart at that time… But after you used her and left the instance… You seemed not to care about her?”

“You two are, of course, different. She was indeed an enemy trying to kill me at that time. But at least you were once a teammate I could trust. This time, it’s just a little trick I played to express my goodwill towards you. Now that you know the prohibition… fine, I can’t play this trick anymore. There’s nothing more to say. But…”

Zhou Qian said seriously, “I want to tell you that Shan Ge has become my Bone Spirit now. He has the chance to be revived. And only I can truly revive him.”

“So, what you should do now is immediately leave the Peach Blossom Legion and come join me. You’ve seen it. My team is growing stronger. My people and I can completely protect you.”

“Is that so? Would you give me your weapon then?”

Yun Xiangrong coldly curled her lip, extending her hand towards him. “Give me your weapon, then I’ll believe you.”

“Rong Mei, that’s not fair. What if I give you my weapon and you turn to kill me?” Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. “I haven’t forgotten. You said I was your first target for revenge.”

“Besides, without the Rib of God, I have no skills. All my skills depend on it.”

“So you see… you dare not give me your weapon.”

Yun Xiangrong turned back, walked into the corridor, randomly opened a room, and walked to the bed, looking through the window at the village outside. “I knew you weren’t sincere.”

“You’re being unfair now.”

Zhou Qian said, “The real insincere one is the Peach Blossom Legion. Can’t you see they’re testing you? If they really wanted to help you kill me, they wouldn’t let you face so many of us alone.

“They’re testing the real relationship between you and me. They want to see if I would harm you in this instance, to eliminate you as a future threat. After all, I have never spared my enemies. So Yun Xiangrong—”

“If I let you go this time, those who want to kill you after we leave this instance might be them.”

Zhou Qian said this was partly a performance for the “traitorous gambler” to watch and for the Peach Blossom Legion to see.

On the other hand, he was genuinely persuading Yun Xiangrong, wanting her to completely abandon the path of being a traitor. After all, the Peach Blossom Legion clearly didn’t trust her, and sending her this time had sinister intentions—

It wasn’t a good opportunity to kill Zhou Qian in this instance. There were eight players, with six on Zhou Qian’s side, and two of them were Rank God players.

The Peach Blossom Legion sending her was obviously testing Zhou Qian’s attitude towards her.

Under such circumstances, she would either die at Zhou Qian’s hand or, due to the fact that Zhou Qian let her go, the Peach Blossom Legion might consider her to be pretending to defect but actually still standing with Zhou Qian and thus choose to kill her.

Thus, no matter the path, Yun Xiangrong seemed to have only one way out—death. Unless—

Unless there were two other possibilities.

The first possibility was that, for some reason, Yun Xiangrong had indeed defected to the Peach Blossom Legion.

In that case, her daring to come here or the Peach Blossom Legion daring to send her here might just be because they calculated that Zhou Qian would let her go. Perhaps Yun Xiangrong’s purpose in coming here was only to get some important special reward from the instance, and she and the legion didn’t plan to kill Zhou Qian in this instance.

The second possibility was that the Peach Blossom Legion still wanted to kill Zhou Qian, but they had other pieces in play, such as Yin Jiujiu, or among the five people with Zhou Qian, there might be problems.

In Zhou Qian’s view, except for Bai Zhou, he trusted no one else.

It wasn’t that he easily doubted his teammates’ character. But someone like He Xiaowei, who was usually less guarded, could be controlled without knowing, which wasn’t impossible.

Zhou Qian was aware that the direct methods of the Peach Blossom Legion had failed, and of course, they would turn to the people close to him that he trusted.

Numerous thoughts flashed through Zhou Qian’s mind when he heard Yun Xiangrong say, “What exactly does your Rib of God do, and what exactly are the souls it produces? It’s still unclear. Maybe you can’t revive Shan Ge at all; you might just create a monster.”

“Shan Ge is a living, thinking, and perceptive soul, but now he’s trapped in that bone day and night. If it were me, I can hardly imagine what that feels like…”

At this point, a brief poignancy appeared in Yun Xiangrong’s words, followed by a sudden icy look in her eyes.

After a while, her gaze continued out the window, showing a bit of yearning as she continued, “But in the Peach Blossom Legion, I’ve seen it with my own eyes… That’s the real power of resurrection. Don’t you have two Rank God players by your side?”

She glanced back at Bai Zhou and Hidden Blade, her eyes shimmering with a certain brilliance. “You’ve heard of the Peach Blossom God, Xie Huaying, right?”

He Xiaowei, standing behind the group, quietly asked Hidden Blade, “Master, who is the Peach Blossom God?”

Hidden Blade replied, “It’s said she was one of the first players to enter this game and achieve godhood. I have indeed heard… she could resurrect people. Not just in the game, but in real life as well.”

“But she hasn’t appeared for a long time. Some say she never existed, and the legend is just a ploy to lure us into training. Others say… she has long been dead.”

“Ah? Did they say when she died?” He Xiaowei asked.

“She disappeared about six years ago,” Hidden Blade replied. “I don’t know the specifics.”

Six years ago?

Wasn’t that a year after Bai Zhou entered this game?

Does he have anything to do with this?

Hearing this, Zhou Qian inevitably linked the matter to Bai Zhou.

From the moment they entered the instance, he and Bai Zhou were equipped with props that allowed them to chat privately without being heard by other players or even the gamblers.

With doubts in his mind, Zhou Qian turned to look at Bai Zhou.

Catching Zhou Qian’s gaze, Bai Zhou guessed what he wanted to ask.

Without waiting for him to speak, Bai Zhou immediately said in the private chat, “I’m not involved in this matter. But I heard from Shao Chuan that he killed Xie Huaying and another Rank God player I don’t recognize years ago. It was also because of that incident he suffered severe injuries.”

This news was somewhat surprising to Zhou Qian.

However, with only ten minutes at his disposal, he had to first solve the first puzzle—”choosing a room” before considering anything else.

The inn was a square building, with the second floor built around a corridor precisely aligned with four directions.

There were four doors on each side, making a total of sixteen rooms.

Four of the rooms were at the corners, slightly larger, each with two windows facing different directions. The remaining twelve rooms each had only one window.

As per the innkeeper’s instruction, now the players had to choose eight rooms to stay in.

Zhou Qian first asked his teammates to quickly open every room door. After taking a glance in each to get a rough idea of the structure, he began to enter the rooms for a detailed inspection.

One thing was clear: all sixteen rooms contained a fireplace, plenty of firewood, and candles. The village had no electricity. If lighting was needed at night, candles would have to be used.

After checking several rooms, He Xiaowei was the first to say, “I have an idea… This puzzle might not be related to which room we choose. We just don’t light any lights!”

Right then, Zhou Qian pulled open the simple wooden wardrobe in one of the rooms, then patted He Xiaowei’s shoulder.

“What’s up?”

He Xiaowei turned his head and saw many odd costumes in the wardrobe, each more bizarre than the last—some with skull and ghost patterns, others with red blood stains.

Suddenly, Zhou Qian picked something from the wardrobe and threw it to He Xiaowei, who caught it only to be startled by what it was—a pristine white skull!

“Don’t panic, Xiaowei Ge.” Zhou Qian stepped forward and picked it up. He tied a plastic rope on the back around his head, donning it, and then, with hands outstretched like grabbing something, he stepped closer to He Xiaowei.

Only then did He Xiaowei realize it wasn’t a real skull but just a skull mask.

Still, He Xiaowei retreated step by step until Zhou Qian had him cornered against the wall.

He Xiaowei, trying to invoke some intervention, said to Bai Zhou, who was rummaging through something on the large bed, “Hey… aren’t you going to do something? Let me tell you, I’ve been in love before, so I have experience. If you don’t intervene now, later he’s going to walk all over you! When it comes to love, whoever lowers their stance first will have a harder time raising their status later on!”

Before he could finish, He Xiaowei saw Bai Zhou also take out a yellow head from under the covers, then looked down at it silently, as if measuring something. Then he turned to look at He Xiaowei. “You want to play with this?”

He Xiaowei: “…………”

Deciding to no longer follow Zhou Qian and giving up on seeking help from Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei turned to find his master in another room.

Just as he reached the door, a chill ran down his back as if someone had blown on him, causing his heart to race.

With a surge of courage, he turned back, only to find a yellow ghoulish face right in front of him.

Unable to hold back, He Xiaowei screamed, “Ahhh, a g-ghost—!”

Then, the yellow head lowered, revealing a white skull mask behind it, which was then removed to reveal… Zhou Qian’s face.

It turns out both ghosts were Zhou Qian.

Somewhat frustrated and feeling wronged, He Xiaowei complained, “Qian’er, you know I’m scared of this!”

“Take a closer look at what this is. You can smell it.”

Picking up the skull again, Zhou Qian didn’t wear it this time but set it aside.

Then he raised something else in front of He Xiaowei, who cautiously sniffed it and recognized it was a hollowed-out pumpkin.

Carved with facial features, it looked somewhat ghostly. But at its core, it was still just a pumpkin.

Pumpkin heads, skull masks, odd costumes…

He Xiaowei suddenly went to the window and looked out.

The sun hadn’t set yet. In the light of the setting sun, he could see many grains, pigs, and sheep, as well as many bones that seemed to be from animals, arranged in circles as if for some ritual.

“This, this…” He Xiaowei suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

Zhou Qian said, “Actually, you should be able to easily associate this with a Western festival.”

“Halloween!” He Xiaowei said. “Odd costumes, skull masks…these are for a costume party, right?! And there are also pumpkin lanterns! Do we need to prepare candy? Will kids come knocking on the door at night to ‘trick or treat’?”

“Halloween, November 1st, the timing does indeed fit. However, the costume party of Halloween can be traced back to an even older festival—Samhain*.”

*A Gaelic festival on November 1st marks the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or “darker half” of the year. Often associated with Irish mythology, early literature says great gatherings and feasts marked Samhain when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the Otherworld. Some of the literature also associates Samhain with bonfires and sacrifices.

Zhou Qian continued, “Some believe November 1^st is the beginning of the new year, and on the night of October 31^st, before November 1st arrives, there is a period of transition between the old and new—a time that doesn’t exist. During this time, the gates between the worlds of the living and the dead open, and Death and ghosts return to the mortal world to find replacements.”

“To avoid being recognized by Death, people would dress up as ghosts and ghouls. Besides that—”

“People welcoming Samhain would light various offerings at sunset, including burning animal bones to appease the spirits. This is what’s displayed in the square.”

“Not only in public areas would offerings and bonfires be burned, but every household must also keep their fire burning. On the night of Samhain, one must light the fireplace at home to prevent ghostly disturbances. So Xiaowei Ge, do you see the contradiction in the solution you just proposed?”

He Xiaowei realized it.

The prohibition related to the players was that they couldn’t stay overnight in a room where firelight can be seen from outside.

He initially thought that not lighting a fire would suffice.

But now it seemed this plan wouldn’t work. If they didn’t light the fireplace at night, they might very well die from ghosts returning from the other world.

“Damn it.” He Xiaowei couldn’t help saying, “So I’ve come to the instance I fear the most… This time, there really are ghosts.”

“We can’t say that for sure. It’s just one possibility,” Zhou Qian said.

“How should we choose the rooms then?” He Xiaowei pondered and suggested another idea. “Why not just completely block up all the windows with bricks and cement!”

“That would indeed be quite a drastic solution. But what if something unusual happens outside the house? Then you won’t be able to see it at all,” Zhou Qian said.

He Xiaowei was at a loss. “Yes. If we can’t see the information, we might miss a lot of it. So what should we do?”

But he heard Zhou Qian say, “Let’s just choose randomly for now.”

He Xiaowei: “?”

“There’s not enough information at the moment, so just choose randomly.”

He Xiaowei saw Zhou Qian smiling and saying, “The prohibition mentioned ‘overnight’, which means as long as the night isn’t truly over, not until the last moment, we’re not considered to have broken the prohibition. So the consequences of breaking the prohibition can’t take effect.”

“Wow… right. Then we can just keep moving!” He Xiaowei said.

“Right. Although the proprietress reminded us, it’s best for each person to have a room and not to stay together. There’s probably some reason behind it. But there’s no specific prohibition saying we must stay alone. So…”

Zhou Qian walked out of the room, just in time to see the two girls coming out of their rooms. They both seemed serious, probably also thinking about how to avoid the prohibition.

Zhou Qian then said to them, “At the beginning of the game, follow my lead. There are eight of us, so every two people will choose a room in one direction. We can adjust as the situation changes later. You two ladies can choose rooms in two different directions for easy support.”

Everyone agreed to Zhou Qian’s arrangement and chose their rooms. With a few minutes left of the innkeeper’s time requirement, they didn’t immediately go downstairs to report but continued to search the second floor.

After a while, Qi Liuxing found a room with a problem with the ceiling. After testing it, he found that several bricks were loose and could be removed.

After removing some bricks, a large hole appeared in the ceiling—large enough for someone to climb onto the roof.

After finding out, Zhou Qian was the first to follow Qi Liuxing. Bai Zhou and Ke Yuxiao followed behind, and the four of them climbed onto the roof together for a better view of the entire village.

After a round of observation, Zhou Qian could clearly see a rather tall stele in the west.

Being so far away, the words on the stele couldn’t be read, so Zhou Qian took out binoculars.

Beside him, Qi Liuxing glanced at him and couldn’t help saying, “Did you use this binocular back when you were like the ‘waiting for your husband stone’?”

Zhou Qian: “……”

Qi Liuxing rarely got a chance to tease Zhou Qian. Seeing him not responding, he mimicked Zhou Qian’s pleased smile.

But soon, he felt that deliberately smiling like that made him feel awkward, almost as if his facial muscles were twitching, so he stopped and just looked up at the stele.

At that moment, he felt a gaze that one couldn’t ignore—a spine-chilling gaze.

Turning his head, Qi Liuxing met Bai Zhou’s eyes.

In that instant, as if enlightened, Qi Liuxing responded, “The person he’s waiting for is probably you.”

“Brother Sword God, have you been hanging out with Xiaowei Ge too much? If you talk too much, you’ll lose your coolness, and your Sword God persona will collapse,” Zhou Qian immediately cautioned him.

Qi Liuxing calmly replied, “Doesn’t matter. My persona has already collapsed a million times in front of you.”

Zhou Qian: “…………”

Then Zhou Qian saw Bai Zhou walk up beside him, seemingly with a smile in his eyes, looking at him.

Zhou Qian didn’t look at him. His ears were tinged red by the setting sun.

Then he cleared his throat and said, “The stele is inscribed with the third prohibition: Do not circumnavigate Brega clockwise.”

……

The ten minutes for choosing rooms ended.

The eight players went to the first-floor lobby to inform the innkeeper of their decision.

The innkeeper put down the sweater in her hands and smiled at them. “Good. Now please come with me to the square. The evening’s festival activities are about to start. I’ll take you to the first one.”

He Xiaowei couldn’t help asking, “Do we need to prepare candy?”

He was still thinking about the “trick or treating” of Halloween.

“No need.” The innkeeper smiled. “Do you like sweets?”

He Xiaowei seemed to realize—so, tonight’s festival is indeed the ancient Samhain?

After a while, Yun Xiangrong asked the innkeeper, “May I ask what the first activity tonight is?”

“A little game. Similar to Drop the Handkerchief*. It’s very fun.”

*It’s a children’s game that’s similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. It involves a group of children sitting in a circle, facing inward. One child is designated as “it” and walks around the circle holding a small handkerchief. As they walk, they drop the handkerchief behind one of the seated children without them noticing. Once the handkerchief is dropped, “it” continues to walk or run around the circle. The child who discovers the handkerchief behind them picks it up and chases “it” around the circle. The goal is to tag “it” before they can sit down in the vacated spot. If “it” is caught, they must perform a task, a penalty, or continue to be “it.” If not, the child with the handkerchief becomes the new “it.” 

The innkeeper said, “There are rewards for the winners of the game and penalties for the losers.”

Drop the Handkerchief?

The kind where a group of people play in a circle?

Zhou Qian immediately caught on to something.

Without waiting for him to ask, Yun Xiangrong seemed to realize too and immediately asked, “So… how many people will participate? Also, what is your name?”

---

The author has something to say:

1. Do not walk counterclockwise around Tara
2. Nor circumnavigate Brega clockwise
3. Do not stay overnight in a room where firelight can still be seen from outside after sunset

All three prohibitions come from: Instructions from Nimueh to King Conall of Cornwall. The story behind seems interesting, but I haven’t found it. I’ll organize the information and tell everyone later~

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 113

For the child in your heart who is fickle and easily bored, don’t give too much candy at once, or they’ll quickly tire of it. It’s better to feed them little by little, enticing and then withdrawing, as if employing the tactics of hunger marketing. Only then will they truly cherish the sweetness for a longer time.

From this perspective, the words Bai Zhou spoke that night—”This can only happen one more time”—seemed to carry a deeper significance.

On this basis, if we were to imagine Bai Zhou’s intentions as somewhat more sinister… Perhaps he’s attempting to manipulate his own senses. In a way, this can be considered a form of control, one related to the senses and desires.

Bai Zhou wants to completely dominate this aspect of himself because he feels his fickle heart will lead to disinterest once he has obtained what he wants, especially if it’s plentiful.

At the moment Zhou Qian realized this, he felt displeased.

Firstly, can sex really be compared to candy?

Secondly, it’s one thing for someone like Wu Ren to misunderstand and tease him, but for Bai Zhou to think this way too?

But then, Zhou Qian thought about how long they had been apart, and that Bai Zhou couldn’t possibly read his mind, so his anger dissipated somewhat. After all, he does seem very good at scheming and sweet-talking others, making it hard for people to discern his sincerity.

Digging deeper, when Zhou Qian considered the true reason behind Bai Zhou’s actions, he wasn’t angry at all—

As for whether or not he truly likes him and how long that affection might last, he was unsure.

Previously, Zhou Qian couldn’t have comprehended why someone as seemingly perfect as Bai Zhou would harbor such almost self-deprecating thoughts. It was only after recalling Bai Zhou’s trembling hand during the ping-pong match and the tightly bound figure in the quarantine ward of Zone X through binoculars that he understood everything.

Zhou Qian was someone who, when mad, acted without care. But not everyone was like him, able to indulge freely in the dreamlike Blue Harbor City. Others certainly cared about what happened when the dream ended.

Bai Zhou, with his slender figure, walked through the neon lights of Blue Harbor City into the teahouse where they first reunited after a long time, carrying breakfast for Zhou Qian as if to place it on the dining table.

Without saying much, Zhou Qian stood up and grasped Bai Zhou’s hand.

“What’s wrong, Zhou Qian?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Nothing. Let’s go home for breakfast,” Zhou Qian said, leading him out, emphasizing the word “home” as if to make a point to Bai Zhou.

Inside the restaurant, Wu Ren, who had witnessed everything, was speechless—wasn’t Zhou Qian just angry a moment ago? How quickly had they made up? Is this what being in love is like? And why were he and He Xiaowei woken up so early for this?

He Xiaowei laughed happily. “That’s the good thing about Qian’er. His temper flares up quickly but also dissipates just as fast. It’s good that they’ve made up.”

Wu Ren laughed at his words and smacked his forehead. “That’s true. They’re about to enter an instance, and it would be troublesome if they were in a bad mood. Hey, while you’re up, can you grab me a Coke?”

“Okay!” He Xiaowei agreed as he walked out, adding, “But I must remind you, don’t let Qian’er see you drinking that Coke! Everything else is fine, but he’s really particular about food and drink.”

……

Meanwhile, in a trial instance in Blue Harbor City.

A waterfall cascaded from the heights of the heavens, a magnificent and majestic sight, as if it were devouring the mountains and rivers with its force. The splashing droplets had transformed into the deadliest hidden weapons; converging into an impenetrable net of lethal beads, they created a vast cavity upon contact with the skin of the players. The key to passing this instance lay behind the waterfall, in a cave; players must swiftly slash these murderous droplets with their swords to reach it.

This was a specialized training instance for swordsmanship, and now Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao had penetrated layer by layer, arriving at this final challenge.

At the moment, Qi Liuxing brandished his sword and created a fierce wind with his sword qi under his control, attempting to cut swiftly through the dense net of droplets but initially failing to completely sever the curtain of beads.

Taking a deep breath, Qi Liuxing focused and then swung his sword again, preparing to unleash a second strike, when suddenly, the melodious sound of a flute began to play—

Ke Yuxiao was standing on a rock beside the waterfall, executing his moves. His fingers rapidly moved over several holes of the long flute, producing moving melodies. The notes undulated, struck against the sword like waves of grain, causing the sword to hum in response as if in harmony with the flute.

As the flute and sword resonated together, Qi Liuxing glanced over, locking eyes with Ke Yuxiao across the distance.

Ke Yuxiao nodded slightly at him. Receiving the hint, Qi Liuxing faced the majestic waterfall again and fully unleashed the stored power in his sword. In that moment, a powerful intent to kill directly charged towards the waterfall from the heavens, as if even the light of the sun and moon paled in comparison, truly living up to the reputation of a Sword God.

In reality, the technique Qi Liuxing used was the same as before, but now it was enhanced with the buff from Ke Yuxiao’s flute play.

But with just a few notes of the flute, the suddenly intensified sword qi struck towards the waterfall, as if forming an invisible wall out of thin air, horizontally placed in the center of the curtain of beads formed by the droplets, temporarily cutting off the continuous fall of water droplets.

“Success!” Overjoyed, Qi Liuxing smiled at Ke Yuxiao, who returned the nod.

Seizing the moment when the overwhelming sword qi hadn’t yet dissipated, they quickly passed through the waterfall curtain to the cave behind it and secured the treasure chest for passing the instance.

As they awaited the ending animation of the trial, Qi Liuxing gripped his sword handle, feeling the sword intent in both the blade and himself, as if he had completely merged with his sword, achieving a unity of man and sword.

“I feel that both my sword and I… are very different now!”

After realizing this, Qi Liuxing’s eyes had an obvious smile in them.

He had always been unable to hide his emotions in front of acquaintances, especially when facing Ke Yuxiao. At this moment, he was almost exuberant and couldn’t help but say, “After getting out, I want to show Qian Ge a good look. Let him mock my swordsmanship again!”

Ke Yuxiao smiled and patted his shoulder. “I’ve always said you have no problems. You belong to the type who’s steady at first but explodes later. Now you’ve completely stepped up to a new level. Given time, I don’t think any ordinary player will be your match. Especially in swordsmanship.”

“Thanks to your buff boost. Our skills really do complement each other,” Qi Liuxing replied, looking firmly at Ke Yuxiao and adding, “Really, thank you. Without you, I wouldn’t have reached this point so quickly.”

Ke Yuxiao simply smiled and replied, “No need for such words. Our skills are complementary and suited for progressing together. Helping your sword move with my music benefits me as well.”

“Right. Together, we’ll be unstoppable in any challenge!” Qi Liuxing said, his eyes shining with enthusiasm, but then a shade of concern crossed his face. “You’ve been alright lately, haven’t you? No more… thoughts?”

Ke Yuxiao understood his concern and quickly reassured, “Don’t worry. I won’t have any more suicidal thoughts. The last incident in ‘The Flower of Evil’ was purely accidental, likely due to memory projection from the swamp nearby amplifying my negative emotions. I’ve truly recovered.”

After chatting a bit more, the ending animation concluded, and they went out for a meal together in Blue Harbor City.

After the meal, they returned to their hotel to rest well in preparation for the new challenge of the instance the next day, rumored to be a new and unpredictable addition to Blue Harbor City. They dared not take it lightly.

Tired, Ke Yuxiao fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow and, unusually, began dreaming of standing on the edge of a cliff again.

“Jump down. Commit suicide,” he heard a voice say.

“You should jump off. Because you were never meant to exist…”

“You still don’t know… Your existence is just to deceive them.”

“False soul… You are just my tool.”

“Unfortunately, you still know nothing—”

“I am your master. I am you, too.”

About a month ago.

Jincheng. Whitewater Psychiatric Hospital.

In the ward, as Priest walked in, the first thing he did was look at Ke Yuxiao’s medical record.

Priest flipped through many pages, reading carefully.

But undoubtedly, the most critical term in the medical record was “split personality”.

Ke Yuxiao’s facial features were still handsome, but at this moment, his expression appeared very distorted, and the look he gave Priest was somewhat provocative, completely unrelated to words like gentle or peaceful.

Looking at Priest, he said, “What? Do you have something for me to do again?”

“Did you watch the video I sent you before?” Priest asked him.

“Zhou Qian playing in ‘Apple Paradise’? Yes, I watched it. So, what do you want me to do? Kill him?” Ke Yuxiao shrugged. “He’s very good. I’m afraid it will be difficult to kill him directly.”

Priest said, “We will try to kill him directly by sending someone else. They are overt operations. But just in case, on the other hand, we want to lay a long line, a roundabout dark line. So, I want to arrange for you to start with someone close to him… Like Qi Liuxing.”

“Got it. You want me to become Zhou Qian’s teammate through Qi Liuxing, right? But I’m already Rank S. How do you expect me to pretend to be a newcomer?” Ke Yuxiao raised an eyebrow.

Priest said, “Of course, it’s not for your main personality to get involved directly. Your special abilities are getting stronger, aren’t they? You can actively control all personalities within the body. So, I want you to split out a completely new personality. I will assist you through hypnosis.”

“We will create a new identity for this personality and make his skills suitable to match with Qi Liuxing. Also—”

“You need to shape this personality’s character according to my requirements. Make him completely compatible with Qi Liuxing, and also ensure that he can definitely gain Zhou Qian’s trust.”

Ke Yuxiao laughed. “Oh, you don’t need to remind me of this. Controlling so many personalities in my body… I certainly know what kind of person is suitable to get along with whom.”

“Hmm… The newly born personality will not know of my existence at all. He will have a complete identity and memory. He won’t know anything. He will have a completely clean memory. He won’t reveal any flaws.”

“Good. Now listen carefully to me. The next instance Zhou Qian is going to enter is ‘Last List’. I will arrange a pair of siblings to deal with him. If they fail, then the next instance opened for him will be ‘Flower of Evil’.”

Priest said, “According to the intelligence I received, there is a place in ‘Flower of Evil’ that will allow everyone to hear each other’s thoughts. So, in that instance, you have to arrange the personality you created, who knows nothing about anything, to go there. That way, you can thoroughly and genuinely gain Zhou Qian’s trust.”

Later, in “Last Wish”, Situ Qing and Mu Sheng’s attempts to kill Zhou Qian, as expected, failed.

Zhou Qian survived and indeed decided to go to the “Flower of Evil” instance.

Before officially entering “Flower of Evil”, Ke Yuxiao met with Priest again.

This time, Priest told Ke Yuxiao all the detailed information related to the instance and their plan, leaving no stone unturned.

After listening, Ke Yuxiao nodded. “I got it. Under your design, when Zhou Qian gets near the swamp, he will most likely fall into a nightmare due to past events and then walk into the marsh and die. Otherwise, Zhu Qiang will take the opportunity to kill him. In any case, I just need to ensure that Qi Liuxing is taken away.”

“Alright, no problem. When going to the swamp, I will lead Qi Liuxing in another direction, leaving Zhou Qian isolated and unsupported. And if—”

“Once Zhu Qiang fails, when everyone gets to the stage of thought communication, I will timely make myself disappear. That way… no one will be able to detect my existence. Right?”

“Correct.” Priest looked at him inscrutably. “After that, your position in the legion will be promoted.”

“Look at you.” Ke Yuxiao smiled. “I do this for the good of the legion. Only if the legion is well can I be well in the future. I see the long term. Besides… my skills are important to the legion, right? You will promote me sooner or later.”

At this point, looking at Priest, Ke Yuxiao tilted his head and said softly, “Dear Priest, I really admire and appreciate you.

“I am willing to be a chess piece in your hand. I will be the most useful one.”

Time returned to the present moment.

Ke Yuxiao’s main personality had completely taken control of the body.

He stretched and rubbed the back of his neck, then sat up from the bed and opened his knapsack.

After arranging the items inside, he returned the extra double experience cards to Priest through the trade line.

Seeing that long flute, Ke Yuxiao thought of the personality he had created, and the first time that personality teamed up with Qi Liuxing—Qi Liuxing opened a flute from the treasure chest and then gave it to another Ke Yuxiao. The innocent smile of the young man… made him feel that it was naively amusing.

With these thoughts, Ke Yuxiao’s normally gentle and jade-like eyes suddenly became as venomous as a viper’s.

Following Zhou Qian for so long… you haven’t made any progress at all. What a pity, you didn’t realize that the double experience cards and the entry ticket to Blue Harbor City were all deliberately thrown out by me?

The time has come.

This time, I will personally see you on your way.

……

The next day.

Zhou Qian, Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei, Hidden Blade, along with Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao—a total of six people—officially logged into “The Red God’s Banquet”.

This was an eight-person instance recently opened in Blue Harbor City, and currently, no one had received any information related to it.

Zhou Qian still logged in through forming a small team, this time as the captain, pulling six people in, and the system didn’t impose any restrictions.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Qian believed that the Peach Blossom Legion wouldn’t send two more people to be easily defeated.

Just as he was wondering about who the new two members would be, he saw two familiar faces.

At that time, just after logging into the instance, Zhou Qian and his team arrived at a quaint village.

It was sunset, and the tall and short houses were cloaked in red by the setting sun.

The statue at the entrance of the village was the same.

The landing point of the instance was right next to the statue, so Zhou Qian turned his head and saw it at first glance. Its unique design made him take several more looks.

It appeared to be a stone sculpture, made up directly of three heads with no body beneath them.

The three heads without a body looked the same; the size of the eyes, the width between them, the height of the nose bridge, and even the opening and closing of the mouth… all exactly alike, as if they were copied and pasted.

At the moment, one head was facing west, the direction where the sun sets. The sunset, burning red in the sky, also reflected a strange red in the statue’s eyeballs.

If you stood beside it and looked forward, the head on its left faced a fountain, beyond which there was a field that seemed to be past the harvest season.

Further out from the field was a large graveyard, with neat tombstones and some tall and short withered yellow trees visible from this spot.

As for the head on the right, it faced an inn.

There was a wooden sign hanging above the inn with the words “Tatat Inn” written on it.

According to the message from the system, this was where the players were going to stay for the night.

This time, the players’ identities were soldiers who had escaped from a place called the “Land of Silence” to take shelter.

They would first stay in this inn and later have to find work in the village, such as farming, blacksmithing, or weaving, among others.

From then on, they were no longer soldiers fostered by the Land of Silence, but ordinary civilians who needed to work for their food.

It was while Zhou Qian finished looking at the statue and turned to look at the name of the inn that he saw those two familiar people—

One was Yin Jiujiu, dressed efficiently and with heroic-looking eyes and brows.

The other was Yun Xiangrong, who looked soft at first glance but was actually braver than anyone else.

Yun Xiangrong’s features were delicate; her face was still gentle, but her eyes faintly bore more vicissitudes, indicating she had a hard time recently.

Yin Jiujiu hadn’t changed much.

Upon seeing Zhou Qian and other acquaintances, she nodded slightly as a greeting.

As for Yun Xiangrong, according to real-time, Zhou Qian hadn’t seen her for not too long ago.

However, despite the short time apart, seeing those vicissitudes in her eyes, he suddenly felt as if they were worlds apart.

Yin Jiujiu didn’t log into the instance with Yun Xiangrong; they logged in one after the other, with any further associations between them yet unknown.

But as for Yun Xiangrong… under such circumstances, the Peach Blossom Legion wouldn’t possibly send her to kill him.

So, they must be there to test Yun Xiangrong’s loyalty.

They wanted to see if he would turn against Yun Xiangrong.

Before reaching Rank S, Zhou Qian had only one gambler, and they could communicate.

But after reaching Rank S, it was normal to have one or two traitors among so many people. Thus, it was normal for the Peach Blossom Legion to know that he had “resurrected” Gao Shan in some sense.

Yet they still sent Yun Xiangrong into this instance. Their underlying intention couldn’t be any more sinister.

---

The author has something to say:

Let me remind everyone, previously in “Flower of Evil”, Zhou Qian suspected Ke Yuxiao. When he suspected, everyone heard it together, and it was only him who felt embarrassed~

---

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 112

When Zhou Qian fully logged out of the mini-instance, Gao Shan, as a Bone Spirit, temporarily returned to the Rib of God, and the small dragon transformed into a scale and burrowed into the bag.

The only one left with Zhou Qian in the ancient museum was Wu Ren.

Looking behind him, Zhou Qian saw a crucible with a hastily written description: [A crucible from the Middle Ages, seemingly possessing magical functions.]

Scanning the surroundings, this small exhibition room didn’t contain any other artifacts, suggesting it was specifically for logging into the “Magic Crucible” instance. The room was square, with strange runes painted on the walls.

Zhou Qian asked Wu Ren, “I wonder if the other artifacts here also correspond to separate instances. How did you enter this one?”

Wu Ren replied, “By touching the crucible three times.”

“It’s not accessible to me; touching it probably won’t do anything. But I’m curious to see the other exhibition halls. Touching different ancient artifacts might trigger some unexpected surprises,” Zhou Qian said, curiously examining the crucible’s surroundings and the murals inside the exhibition hall. It seemed he planned to visit other parts of the museum.

Remembering something, Wu Ren reminded him, “Aren’t you supposed to find… your son’s father?”

“Right, I need to contact him.”

After saying this, Zhou Qian walked out of the exhibition hall, not expecting to see Bai Zhou immediately.

Exiting the hall, Zhou Qian realized the architectural style here was ancient Chinese, quite out of place with the colorful modernity of Blue Harbor City, yet unexpectedly complementing Bai Zhou’s temperament.

Snow fell on the gray tiles of the courtyard, piling up in the quaint yard. Bai Zhou, holding a gray umbrella and dressed in a white shirt, looked even more serene and composed against the backdrop of the falling snow.

The only issue was… he wasn’t looking at Zhou Qian.

……

In the game, for ordinary players, the basic attributes are: HP (red bar) and MP (blue bar). But for Rank God players, there’s an additional attribute: mental energy.

Rank God players consume mental energy when using skills. When it drops to a certain threshold, they enter an uncontrollable berserk state.

However, Turtle Fairy was special. Be it prophecy or mind-reading, many of her skills were beyond her control and often released unconsciously, depleting her mental energy.

She rarely triggered the mental energy preset, and when her mental energy was low, she would unconsciously faint and be pulled into the turtle shell to sleep.

Recently, Turtle Fairy had unwittingly talked a lot, and now her system detected low mental energy. The protective mechanism kicked in, and she began to doze off, falling unconsciously to the ground.

Bai Zhou, waiting for Zhou Qian, was about to ask Turtle Fairy something when he saw her about to fall into the turtle shell. Extending his hand, Bai Zhou caught her arm and transferred some mental energy to her, just as he heard Zhou Qian call out—

“Zhou Ge.”

A moment later.

Time moved to evening.

However, the sky in Blue Harbor City was always night, illuminated only by colorful neon lights. Now, with the snowfall, the neon lights cast multicolored hues on the snow.

Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou walked side by side in front.

Wu Ren and Turtle Fairy followed behind.

Wu Ren was somewhat jittery, constantly ready to prevent Turtle Fairy from falling off the turtle shell. Amidst this, he heard Zhou Qian ask, “Zhou Ge, if Turtle Meimei and I fall into the water at the same time, who would you save first?”

Wu Ren: “…………”

Bai Zhou replied, “I won’t let you fall into the water.”

Wu Ren: “………………”

Damn, brother, you’re awesome.

“You’ve asked me this question many times since we were kids,” Bai Zhou added.

“Have I?” Zhou Qian placed his hands behind his back. “I don’t remember.”

Bai Zhou asked, “Tired? Shall I carry you?”

Zhou Qian laughed. “Tired. Okay.”

Wu Ren: “……Fuck.”

……

That evening, everyone gathered for dinner, and after the meal, the others returned to the hotel, while Zhou Qian went back to a small villa by the sea with Bai Zhou.

Having cleared two instances in a row, Zhou Qian was indeed tired, and having drunk a few beers during dinner, he felt somewhat dizzy while bathing and unknowingly fell asleep in the bathtub.

When Zhou Qian woke up, Bai Zhou was lifting him out of the now-lukewarm water, wrapping him in a towel, and carrying him to the bedroom.

As they went upstairs, Zhou Qian yawned and reopened his eyes, his arms naturally hooking around Bai Zhou’s neck. He didn’t look away, just gazing into Bai Zhou’s eyes with a smile as his eyelashes dripped water droplets as he blinked.

“Zhou Ge, I’ve gotten your clothes wet,” Zhou Qian said. “

It doesn’t matter,” Bai Zhou replied. “Go to sleep. We’ll take a day off tomorrow before heading to the next instance.”

“Do I sense that you’re a bit unhappy?” Zhou Qian asked him.

“No.” Bai Zhou carried him into the bedroom and laid him on the bed. “I’m going to get the hairdryer for you.”

As Bai Zhou turned to leave, Zhou Qian grabbed his hand. Bai Zhou paused, then sat back down on the bed and asked gently, “What’s wrong?”

Zhou Qian shook his head, still staring at Bai Zhou. “At dinner, I asked Turtle Meimei about something.”

Bai Zhou: “Hm?”

“Are you jealous? Or did you get angry because I went to another instance without telling you?” Zhou Qian held his hand. “They are my friends.”

Bai Zhou: “Mm.”

“You’re different from them,” Zhou Qian said with a smile, his eyes shining like stars. “You are my boyfriend.”

“Yeah.” Bai Zhou nodded, looking deeply at Zhou Qian. “I know.”

Zhou Qian glanced at Bai Zhou’s expression, stretched his leg to wrap around Bai Zhou’s waist, leaned in closer, resting his chin on Bai Zhou’s shoulder, and asked softly, “If the title of boyfriend isn’t enough, if you want me to call you—”

Zhou Qian, seemingly tipsy, his eyes and brows tinted red, pressed his nose against Bai Zhou’s ear, his lips close enough to kiss his earlobe. Then, continuing from his previous statement, Zhou Qian called out to Bai Zhou, “Husband?”

He lowered his voice deliberately while stretching out the word, also adding a bit of drunken huskiness. Because they were so close, Zhou Qian could feel Bai Zhou’s muscles tense up.

“So…”

Zhou Qian blew a breath out, turning Bai Zhou’s ear and neck red, and said with a smile, “As those novels say, you do like it when I call you that?”

Bai Zhou asked him, “What exactly are you reading?”

“I won’t tell you,” Zhou Qian said seriously. “There are too many scumbags in it. You can’t learn from them.”

Bai Zhou: “?”

Zhou Qian: “Like those wife chasing crematorium* novels. If it were me, it would be a real crematorium, crushing bones and scattering ashes. How could they be given another chance?”

*Genre where usually the gong wrongs the shou (most likely due to some misunderstanding) and then “chases” the shou by correcting their behavior in order to win him back.

After speaking, noticing Bai Zhou still looked serious, Zhou Qian stopped teasing him, propped his elbow on Bai Zhou’s shoulder, and asked, “Zhou Ge, you really seem off today. Are you…”

Bai Zhou held Zhou Qian’s hand, brushed the hair from his forehead, and said, “You misunderstood. I’m not upset. I was just thinking about the news Turtle Fairy and the others brought.”

“What news?” Zhou Qian became serious.

“Before I entered Zone X and had the surgery, I met someone,” Bai Zhou said. “His name is Shao Chuan. He trained many people. Like Turtle Gairy, Blood Demon, etc.”

Zhou Qian asked, “And Hidden Blade?”

Bai Zhou shook his head. “Hidden Blade hasn’t met Shao Chuan and doesn’t know about him. I first knew Blood Demon and Turtle Fairy. I met Hidden Blade later during an instance. But Shao Chuan has taken an interest in Hidden Blade and might meet him soon. The players Shao Chuan initially assembled all had special skills. Blood Demon excels in assassination—his body can turn into thousands of droplets of blood. Turtle Fairy has a unique prophecy ability.”

“So there are two types of Rank God players. One is like Hidden Blade, leveling up quietly, not knowing how powerful they’ll become; the other is like you, showing immense talent from the start?”

Zhou Qian asked, “Can I understand that Shao Chuan is intentionally gathering people like you? Who exactly is he…”

Bai Zhou said, “He doesn’t seem like a villain. Turtle Fairy predicted this long ago. I haven’t seen Shao Chuan in a long time. He suddenly wants to meet me now, which is worth pondering. Also—”

“I’ve learned from the side that he is paying attention to you.”

“Is he interested in me because I’m your Shepherd?” Zhou Qian asked.

“Not only that,” Bai Zhou said. “No ordinary player has collected three items related to the Seven Elements of Creation as quickly as you. You always enter instances related to hidden achievements. Although this is related to your performance, it seems the system is intentionally guiding you, especially opening these instances for you.”

“Like I said at the beginning, you seem to be chosen by it.”

Zhou Qian thought for a while and asked, “Can I meet this Shao Chuan? He seems very close to the core secrets of this game. At least he knows what your surgery was really about.”

Bai Zhou nodded. “Okay, after we clear the next instance, I’ll take you to meet him.”

With the serious conversation over, Zhou Qian started to be playful again.

As Bai Zhou stood up to get the hairdryer, Zhou Qian grabbed his wrist again.

“Zhou Qian?”

“Zhou Ge, I think… you’re still not quite right.”

Suddenly thinking of something key, Zhou Qian stood up from the bed, pressed Bai Zhou’s shoulders to sit him down on the bed and scrutinized him.

Zhou Qian: “I just realized something—”

Bai Zhou: “What?”

“Maybe I misunderstood something. Zhou Ge, are you…” Zhou Qian’s eyes sparkled. “Then should I do it?”

After a long pause, Bai Zhou understood what he meant. Using his position sitting on the bed, Bai Zhou pressed down on Zhou Qian’s waist, embraced him, and whispered a few words in his ear.

Feeling the warmth of Bai Zhou’s fingertip and listening to his whispers, the scenes from that night exploded in Zhou Qian’s mind.

Bai Zhou didn’t say much, but Zhou Qian understood his meaning—

That night, just being… then… how could he?

Zhou Qian felt a bit embarrassed; he had originally teased Bai Zhou with the help of alcohol, but now he was blushing.

Pushing Bai Zhou away, Zhou Qian slipped into the bed. “I’m going to sleep.”

He was too embarrassed to say that when he was very young, he once attended a romantic wedding with his mother and dreamt afterwards—he dreamt that he married Bai Zhou.

In his dream, Zhou Qian wore a white wedding dress and exchanged rings with Bai Zhou at the ceremony. Then, he went to the bathroom and shockingly discovered he was in the men’s restroom.

Even more astonishingly, when he lifted his dress, he found that he had male genitalia, which scared him awake right then and there.

Afterwards, Zhou Qian felt ridiculously foolish about his dream self and couldn’t bear to think about it. Additionally, he even doubted if he had a gender identity disorder and consulted a psychologist. It wasn’t until he never had such dreams again that the shadow in his heart faded.

“The origin is from your family, since you have a poor relationship with your parents. You couldn’t feel their love, so you yearned even more for a beautiful family and marriage, especially after witnessing a dreamy and beautiful wedding. These dreams are a natural expression of your longing for family life and don’t indicate a gender identity issue.”

This was what the psychologist said at that time.

Zhou Qian asked seriously, “But why did I dream of marrying Bai Zhou? Am I gay?”

Psychologist: “You said he was your class monitor, took good care of you in studies and life, and was very considerate towards you, right?”

“This is ultimately a matter regarding your family issues. You lacked care and affection from your parents, so you projected these needs onto a future partner. You are still young, and this doesn’t necessarily indicate your orientation is towards men. For example…”

“Have you ever had special attention towards any girl?”

Girl? Special attention?

Of course, there was one—the class beauty who sent love letters to Bai Zhou from the neighboring class.

At this moment, a sleepy Zhou Qian hazily recalled the past. He didn’t know if his orientation was definitely towards men, but he was sure that his orientation was definitely Bai Zhou.

……

The next morning, Zhou Qian woke up completely sober. Sounds from downstairs suggested Bai Zhou was making breakfast.

Suddenly, thinking about last night, Zhou Qian felt a bit uneasy. How could he behave like that, yet Bai Zhou didn’t respond in kind?

Alarm bells rang in Zhou Qian’s mind, and a certain percentage skyrocketed to 120%.

After washing up in the bathroom, Zhou Qian shouted towards the kitchen, “I’m leaving now. Got something to do!”

After saying this, Zhou Qian left the villa and headed to the hotel where He Xiaowei and the others stayed, woke everyone up with loud knocking, and took them all to a nearby tea restaurant for breakfast.

Qi Luxing and Ke Yuxiao had gone to a dual challenge instance, fortunately avoiding this scene. Now, only He Xiaowei and Wu Ren were left at the breakfast table.

A sleepy He Xiaowei yawned. “Qian’er… What’s up? You’re not usually an early riser.”

Wu Ren seemed more alert. “Hmm? What’s the situation? Looks urgent. Are we discussing the strategy for tomorrow’s instance?”

Zhou Qian said, “Nothing much. Just a bit upset with Zhou Ge.”

Wu Ren: “……”

Just yesterday, you two were so sweet together. What? Did you have a fight overnight?

Shaking his head, Wu Ren couldn’t help saying, “Zhou Qian, you’re really no exception. People in love are always so fussy.”

Zhou Qian: “……”

He Xiaowei blinked twice and asked, “What happened exactly?”

Then it was Zhou Qian’s turn to be stunned.

It seemed like he really shouldn’t drink. Even though the effects of alcohol should have worn off, it probably had a lasting impact on his nerves, making him impulsive and thoughtless in the morning. Only now did he realize that some questions couldn’t be asked in front of He Xiaowei and Wu Ren.

“Nothing.” Zhou Qian scratched his head. “So, have you two ever been in love?”

Wu Ren decisively shook his head. “I’m blind. How could I trouble a girl?”

Unexpectedly, He Xiaowei nodded. “I have. But we broke up.”

Zhou Qian asked in surprise, “Why did you break up?”

“After graduating from college, we worked in different places and gradually drifted apart,” He Xiaowei sighed. “Ah, life…”

Wu Ren joined in the sigh. “Life… is bitter.”

“No, Xiaowei, how exactly did you break up? Tell me the details,” Zhou Qian asked.

“No, no. It’s too painful to talk about. I can’t open old wounds, not even for you, Qian’er.”

He Xiaowei yawned and stood up. “I’m going to buy some water next door. Qian’er, should I get you… apple juice?”

Zhou Qian immediately shook his head. “No.”

He Xiaowei: “Ah? I’ve seen you drinking it a lot lately. You drank a lot of it last night. Don’t you like it?”

Zhou Qian nodded. “Yeah. I thought it tasted good at first, but I drank too much at once and got sick of it. No more. I can’t even think about the taste without feeling nauseous.”

He Xiaowei was already at the restaurant’s door. Zhou Qian was looking at him as he spoke, which allowed him to see Bai Zhou, who had just appeared at the door, probably looking for him.

Zhou Qian suddenly remembered an incident from his school days.

There was a time when he loved a certain brand of soft candy. Once, when he couldn’t find that candy at the school store, he was upset for a long time. Later, Bai Zhou bought a lot of that brand’s candy and brought him many pieces every day, leading Zhou Qian to eat a lot of it until his teeth hurt from the sweetness.

Three days later, when Bai Zhou brought that candy again, Zhou Qian refused to eat it.

Just like his recent conversation with He Xiaowei, Bai Zhou also asked why, since Zhou Qian clearly liked it.

Zhou Qian’s answer was similar to now; he said he ate too much at once and got sick of it.

At the restaurant entrance, the tall Bai Zhou stood there, his figure casting a large shadow. Looking at his beautiful features shadowed in the dim light and his deep, unfathomable eyes…

Zhou Qian felt like he finally understood something.

---

The author has something to say:

Zhou Qian: “Husband~”

Bai Zhou: “Instance… System… Shao Chuan… Rank God players…”

Zhou Qian: He doesn’t love me.

……

The instance “The Red God’s Banquet”, along with the main event, is about to start~

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

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 111

“Zhou Qian, I know you all must think my eyes are small… but do you know? In reality, I am actually blind.”

Looking up at the dark red sky, Wu Ren said, “Entering this game was the first time I experienced color. So, I’m actually quite addicted to this game. I don’t even want to return to reality. Because once I go back, all I will see is darkness. There’s something interesting though—”

“When I first entered the game, all the instances I went to were specifically for training eyesight. Because I needed to use hidden weapons, it required that my eyes keep up and that my eyesight be good.”

“The more I played… I started feeling that this game is a living entity. It’s a God in itself. It can hear our hearts…”

Turning his head to look at Zhou Qian, Wu Ren said, “Sorry, I wasn’t doubting you just now. I just wanted to see… what kind of method a person like you would think of to persuade me. You did quite well. You really are a character. Let me tell you about myself—”

“I have a younger sister, and we’re very close. She’s getting married in a few months. Our father passed away early, so by right, I should be the one to walk her down the aisle and hand her over to the groom.”

“But I’m blind, which is inconvenient. I’m also afraid her colleagues and friends might laugh at her because of it. Besides that, I really want to see her get married with my own eyes, so…”

“I really want to recover my sight before her wedding, so that I can hand her over at the wedding to…”

Wu Ren chuckled and cursed, “Hand her over to that bastard who’s after our family’s cabbage!”

Zhou Qian casually sat on a corpse, patting the small dragon beside him with one hand and clutching the Rib of God with the other. Then he looked at Wu Ren and smiled. “Wu Ge, remember to send me an invitation.”

Wu Ren was silent for a moment, then looked at Zhou Qian with a suddenly serious gaze. “I only have one request for you.”

Zhou Qian asked, “What kind of request?”

Wu Ren took out an item.

[Item: Oath Box]

[Function: Allows two people to make promises to each other; if someone breaks the promise, the Oath Box will claim their soul.]

[Warning: Use with caution; oaths should not be made lightly.]

Wu Ren said, “Zhou Qian, I’m not using this item to threaten you. It’s just a request. Through this ordeal, I’ve realized I might die in this game at any moment. But I think you will live much longer. You’re smart enough and have the courage.”

“So I will make a promise to the Oath Box: if I die, all my gold and items will be transferred to Zhou Qian through the power of the Oath Box.”

“Zhou Qian, promise me, after I die, occasionally look after my sister. I don’t really understand the kind of person she’s marrying. I just hope she won’t get hurt.”

“Wu Ge—” Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. “Your request is not a simple one. No one can fully take responsibility for another person’s life. Even between lovers, it’s hard to protect each other for a lifetime.”

“I’m not asking you to protect her for a lifetime. Just occasionally check on her and help her out if she’s in trouble.”

Wu Ren became somewhat anxious. “I have a lot of gold and items. I think it’s a fair deal.”

Zhou Qian looked at Wu Ren for a long while, then his eyes curved slightly. “Okay, if I can’t see her, I can’t do anything. But if I happen to see her being bullied right in front of me, I won’t ignore it. However, I think—”

“You won’t die. Playing this kind of game requires belief. As long as you believe you won’t die, you won’t. Trust me.”

……

A few moments later, only 48 corpses remained in the crucible.

Wu Ren, having thrown two corpses out of the crucible, was ready to face death.

Zhou Qian noticed that Wu Ren was indeed a decisive person. After agreeing with him, there was no hesitation. During this time, both of them worked on their tasks without even exchanging glances. This showed that Wu Ren truly trusted him.

Zhou Qian whispered some instructions to the small dragon, checked its condition, and then relaxedly closed his eyes to rest, waiting for the “god” next arrival.

Minutes later, the dark red sky slowly turned blood red, indicating the temporary opening of the passage from the real world to the Crucible World. The familiar red rain fell, and the golden light of the crucible lit up again, ushering in another “resurrection” for the soldiers.

They might not know they were dead or realize they were in the Crucible World. They had only one thought—to sacrifice themselves to protect their general. Thus, the soldiers were about to form a human wall again to withstand the red rain. But this time, Wu Ren stopped them.

Wu Ren hurriedly raised his hand to gather energy, sending countless silver needles to strike the soldiers’ hands and feet, almost depleting his last bit of mana. The injured soldiers couldn’t leave the crucible to form a wall and fell to the bottom.

Afterwards, Wu Ren, using a flying item, quickly dashed out of the crucible towards the sky, ready to meet the myriad red raindrops with his flesh and blood!

The moment the red rain fell, to avoid arousing the god’s suspicion, Wu Ren used many items as if he was struggling for his life.

The defense cloak was burned to ashes by a drop of red rain. The high-level armor shattered before touching the rain, and the bracelets, peeping items, cloaks… everything turned to ashes in an instant.

Lastly, Wu Ren’s own body collided with the red rain!

In this story, Wu Ren was undoubtedly a special existence.

In the real world, he was a general the emperor could rely on and the “god’s” most feared opponent. In this world between life and death, other soldiers lost their memory and consciousness. Only General Wu Ren had the chance to awaken and lead everyone back—

The other soldiers once used their bodies to form a wall to shield him from the red rain. Now, the roles were reversed, with Wu Ren sacrificing himself to protect them!

Wu Ren alone couldn’t withstand the red rain for three minutes. After just one minute, Zhou Qian, disguised in black and hidden behind two injured soldiers, watched as Wu Ren’s body turned to char. At that moment, some soldiers couldn’t hold back.

After a brief rest, they forced themselves from the bottom of the crucible to the top to catch Wu Ren’s charred corpse. They couldn’t speak, but some instinct made them feel immense grief.

In the next instant, their bodies touched the red rain and turned to char alongside Wu Ren.

Soon, more soldiers recovered and wanted to head to the top of the crucible. Seeing this, Zhou Qian promptly commanded the small dragon. The dragon swiftly rose into the air, and on its first swipe with its tail, it struck the soldiers, driven by instinct to meet their general.

On its second sweep in the opposite direction—as it flew to the top of the crucible—its tail swept across, lining up the burning corpses to partially block the red rain from hitting Zhou Qian and the remaining alive soldiers.

With the little dragon’s help, no one else was injured in those three minutes. After that, the god was due to arrive. Before his arrival, the small dragon quickly leaped out of the crucible’s opening, and with a third tail swipe, it threw Wu Ren and the charred bodies back into the bottom of the crucible, avoiding the fate of being scattered by the god later.

Seconds later, the god arrived as promised, immediately firing a strong beam from the front end of his scepter.

On Zhou Qian’s command, the small dragon quickly used its tail to toss an injured soldier into the air, letting him bear the unavoidable first beam. The soldier died again, but this time his body landed steadily at the bottom of the crucible.

Several more beams then fell into the crucible. After estimating that these beams wouldn’t hit him, Zhou Qian didn’t even dodge, only calling the small dragon back to his side, letting it return to its normal small size, and hiding it under his black cloak so the god wouldn’t see it.

No more beams came after that.

Seemingly realizing he hadn’t encountered the feared general’s counterattack, the god stopped, cautiously standing at the top of the crucible, looking down.

His most feared general… must be dead by now. The god was somewhat ecstatic upon this discovery, dancing at the edge of the crucible. Then, without any hesitation, he jumped to the bottom of the crucible, probably intending to find the general’s body.

“You all laugh at my short stature. How about now? Not only did I kill your general, but now I’m going to possess his body! You all praised him for his tall and strong stature, a true man…”

“So I want to take his place!”

So that’s it.

Zhou Qian realized that all the information in this small instance was useful—

This “god” wasn’t some monster, but just an ugly dwarf.

Unwilling to be ridiculed, after the general’s body was pulled into the otherworld, he not only wanted to kill him but also wanted his body to become a tall and imposing man.

Inside the crucible, seeing the god enter, several soldiers suddenly stood up and attacked him directly. The god only feared the general, so he didn’t even bother to look at these small fries, swinging his scepter to kill them all with beams.

“Don’t waste my time!” he said viciously.

The soldiers rushing towards the god became more numerous, and out of desperation, he had to throw his scepter into the air.

Previously, when he stood at the top of the crucible, he had thrown the scepter to release a beam of light, intending to kill the people inside the crucible.

This time, his method of killing was exactly the same—the scepter left his right hand and hovered in mid-air, emitting a lethal beam of light.

While remotely controlling the scepter to deal with the soldiers, the god began to personally turn over one charred corpse after another, trying to quickly find Wu Ren. He could only be in this world for one minute and didn’t want to waste any more time.

The scepter hovered inside the crucible near the mouth, continuously firing beams of light, killing one soldier after another. Hearing the sounds of the soldiers falling, the god smiled relaxedly, searching through the bodies without any guard.

At the moment when he turned his back to the scepter, Zhou Qian directly used his mind to make the small dragon grow larger again!

Just as another beam was about to hit a soldier, the rapidly enlarging small dragon silently swayed its tail and wrapped around the other end of the scepter.

Instantly, the direction of the lethal beam from the scepter was reversed, and the bright red light shot straight towards the god. He never expected such a sudden turn of events.

His eyes widened in shock, but it was too late. The moment he was hit by the beam, he was instantly turned into charred ashes!

“Nicely done!” Zhou Qian said to the small dragon with a smile.

The small dragon, encouraged, seemed very happy and quickly swam to Zhou Qian’s side, rubbing against his face.

Zhou Qian then said, “Throw him out!”

“Yip!” With a flick of its tail, the small dragon immediately wrapped around the god and forcefully threw him out of the crucible.

With the god dead, the uncontrolled scepter no longer emitted lethal beams. Zhou Qian sat back on the small dragon’s back, letting it take him near the mouth of the crucible without completely leaving it.

Zhou Qian held the Rib of God in his right hand and ordered the small dragon to emit purple mist, trying to materialize the spirit within the Rib of God, while his left hand raised the scepter.

The way the wizard in the leather painting controlled the scepter was very clear. Zhou Qian aimed the other end of the scepter at the bottom of the crucible and mimicked the motion.

One end of the scepter could kill, the other could bring life.

At this moment, Zhou Qian seemed like a god with power over life and death. With a wave of his hand, he could resurrect anyone he wished. He was like the ruler of this world!

A golden-white light suddenly shot from the tip of the scepter, autonomously aiming at the dual god with a bull’s horns and serpent’s body on the inner wall of the crucible.

Immediately, the god emitted white light and transformed into a moving spirit, walking along the inner wall. Quickly, the entire interior of the crucible no longer emitted a faint golden light but turned pure white, symbolizing the imminent arrival of true light!

Under the guidance of the dual god, the 51 soldiers carved on the wall also emitted white light and followed the spirit, walking forward along the inner wall.

As the soldiers walked in circles, 51 white beams of light were cast, 48 of them aimed at the 48 soldiers, the 49th at Wu Ren’s body, the 50th at Zhou Qian, and the 51st at the white smoke materializing from Zhou Qian’s Rib of God!

The white smoke turned out to be a living spirit! It was recognized by the scepter as a subject for resurrection!

The 51 beams of light intertwined, growing stronger, and finally converging into a massive beam. It shot out from the inside of the crucible, soaring towards the dark red dome, almost lighting up the entire apocalyptic world.

This powerful light truly opened a channel connecting two worlds. The moment the channel opened, it rose into the air, flying out of the crucible, into the sky, and through the entrance, sending all 51 life forms back to the human world!

In the human world, on an ancient battlefield under the scorching sun, two sides were fiercely engaged in battle. The small dragon had already flown into the bag, and Zhou Qian saw himself in black iron armor, holding a spear, riding a white horse, rising from the crucible. Along with him appeared 49 other cavalrymen, one of whom was surprisingly Gao Shan!

However, at that moment, neither of them could speak. They were undead zombies summoned from another world by the emperor using the crucible, unable to speak.

Leading the 50 cavalrymen into battle was Wu Ren, clad in black iron armor. After his resurrection, he became the mightiest warrior in the human world. His white horse leaped into the air, flying over countless people and plunging deep into the enemy camp.

With the “god” military strategist dead and the main general isolated, Wu Ren raised his sword high, shining like moonlight. But in an instant, this moonlight turned red—stained with the blood of the main general.

In the next moment, Wu Ren threw the sword towards the enemy camp’s flag. With a “crack,” the flag fell to the ground under everyone’s gaze. Behind Wu Ren, his own camp erupted in triumphant cheers.

—”Victory! We have won!!!”

The player-immersive ending animation ended here. Zhou Qian withdrew his gaze and saw the system panel—

[Player Zhou Qian helped player Wu Ren clear the instance: “Magic Crucible”.]

[Player Zhou Qian activated the instance item “Bone Spirit” ahead of time.]

[You can choose to retain the memory of “Bone Spirit” or erase it. Please make your decision within one minute.]

Without spending a minute, Zhou Qian immediately clicked the “Retain Memory” button, then turned his head to look at the cavalryman beside him—

The horse under the person next to him had disappeared, and like a spirit, he floated in the air, unable to land yet.

But his figure and facial features were clearly visible, unmistakably Gao Shan.

Gao Shan looked at Zhou Qian, his eyes showing obvious joy. He immediately opened his mouth as if to say something, but he couldn’t make any sound.

Zhou Qian guessed that this was an effect of the rebirth crucible; probably, Gao Shan couldn’t speak for now.

But the fact that he could come back, continue to exist as a Bone Spirit, was already fortunate.

The game continued. The issue of Gao Shan not being able to speak and finding a way to turn him from a Bone Spirit back into a human would eventually be resolved later.

The ancient battlefield, wrapped in horsehide and flowing with blood, was slowly fading.

Clouds blown by the wind gradually obscured the scorching sun.

The air still smelled of blood, but everyone’s mood was relaxed—the war had finally ended, they had preserved their emperor, and long-awaited peace had arrived!

Standing in such a backdrop, Zhou Qian smiled faintly at Gao Shan. “Shan Ge, long time no see.”

“I’ve always said I hate owing a life to someone. Now, I’ve finally brought part of you back.”

……

Outside the instance. Blue Harbor City.

The climate here was completely different from reality, almost without any pattern.

Suddenly, it began to snow. Bai Zhou, through the spiritual domain’s connection between the Rank God player and Shepherd, tried to locate Zhou Qian, finally finding a lead. He raised an umbrella and went to wait for him at the entrance of the instance.

By this time, Blood Demon had already left.

Turtle Fairy, however, came over using her unique skills.

Holding a small pink umbrella in her left hand, Turtle Fairy drew on the shell of the turtle beneath her with her right hand.

After a long while, she mustered the courage to speak to Bai Zhou. “Big Boss White Dragon, I’ve figured out what’s happening with Zhou Qian. Do you want to know?”

Bai Zhou stood silently in the snow, holding the umbrella with one hand. Its tip and his right elbow were covered with snow, but he seemed not to mind.

Turtle Fairy blinked and added, “Zhou Qian has already cleared the instance. Once the ending animation is over, he’ll be able to come out. Oh, and—”

“He’s bringing two men out with him.”

---

The author has something to say:

Zhou Ge: “………………”

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