A familiar, blood-thick red light descended.
Under Zhou Qi’an’s gaze, the familiar figures covered by the red light gradually disappeared.
Shen Zhiyi and the others had completely entered the relic world.
In their place, Lu Yiyuan stood like a stiff ceramic doll. Within a short minute, he had returned to the state of being ‘viewed.’
At the last moment, the conflict between his subconscious, which wanted to resist Shen Zhiyi’s command, and his behavioral obedience, left a thousand words stuck in his throat. The downward curve of his lips looked extremely strange.
At this moment, he himself looked more like a relic than the object transplanted in his body.
Zhou Qi’an’s gaze passed through Lu Yiyuan, the image in his pupils seeming to be frozen on the moment Shen Zhiyi and the others disappeared. He hadn’t had time to react earlier, but now that he thought about it, he had seen the coin sword, the magic mirror, and the others in the Ridie Pavilion.
The aftereffects of the Soul-stealing Bell, the intermittent throbbing pain in his cranial nerves, made him only now realize what Shen Zhiyi was going to do.
Using the demon-subduing magical artifacts as a transfer medium to swap out the souls lingering in the relic world.
‘Can it really be done?’
Zhou Qi’an wasn’t sure what the situation in the escape channel was like after he left, yet he felt an inexplicable sense of peace. He had always had great confidence in Shen Zhiyi.
He turned his head, and a jarring shadow was cast from the side.
The sheep-headed man was standing under the eaves. After one ‘grand show’ after another, its expression had become extremely cold.
…You’re still here?!
Zhou Qi’an’s expression was filled with disbelief.
Unexpectedly being treated as thin air, the sheep-headed man, who had been waiting to pick up the pieces, its two horns looked even more bent than usual, as if it was about to charge over in the next moment.
You can’t kill me by ramming.
Zhou Qi’an pouted.
The next second, he suddenly took the initiative to step forward, walking past the sheep-headed man without a sideways glance, and jumped onto the sheep cart to rest right under its nose.
The sheep’s horns bent into a question mark, but not as standard as Mr. Si’s.
If not for the rules’ restrictions, the sheep-headed man would have first stabbed Lu Yiyuan through.
Yes, Lu Yiyuan, not Zhou Qi’an.
The sheep-headed man had originally placed high hopes on the former, but in the end, Zhou Qi’an came out of the relic world almost completely unscathed. Apart from the slightly bleeding back, there were no other obvious wounds on his body.
To be this useless, you should have died long ago.
Ignoring the chewing mouth of the sheep opposite, which looked like it was eating grass, Zhou Qi’an rested on his side.
The handprints left by the ghost baby had mostly faded, but the wound on his back was still burning. He hoped Shen Zhiyi could bring out the soul of the newspaper office boss as well. He would repay the wound from that nail properly.
Zhou Qi’an bent one arm and rested it on the edge of the sheep cart, sitting with his long legs stretched out diagonally, his long hair loose, a picture of listlessness.
The most unbearable thing was the unrelenting headache. The moment he relaxed, the chaotic thoughts and pain began to spread continuously.
His wandering gaze made Zhou Qi’an appear even more world-weary. He began to try looking at the mission panel to distract himself.
The sealing mission of the Ridie Pavilion was completed, and the viewing of four relics in the Xishi Pavilion was also finished. Now, all that was left was to purchase the popular cultural and creative products.
He was just one step away from completing the instance mission.
Besides him, the mission progress of the others should be more or less the same.
Lu Yiyuan’s situation was a buy-one-get-two-free deal. As long as Shen Zhiyi and the others came out, it was equivalent to viewing two relics at once. And since they had entered with relics from the Ridie Pavilion, if things went smoothly, they could also complete the ghost collection mission.
Zhou Qi’an rubbed his brow: ‘The future is bright.’
His gaze fell back on Lu Yiyuan.
After several days of running around in slaughter and escape, this was the first time Zhou Qi’an truly examined this face, this face that was already exhausted, its lips stained with blood.
He just looked at it coldly for a while. The lingering sound of the Soul-stealing Bell seemed to still echo in his mind, the forcibly guided memories intermingling with Lu Yiyuan’s questions.
—’You don’t even know her name.’
The originally blurry facial features in his memory gradually overlapped, the missing parts slowly filling in.
Zhou Qi’an’s expression was a little dazed, and some chaotic fragments flashed by.
In the depths of time, he seemed to see himself standing with Lu Yiyuan and his group.
Lu Yiyuan’s face was less sinister, looking more relaxed and open, as he said with ambition, “I believe that the new world will not be our end.”
They had given up their blood relatives, friends… everything in the old world was left behind, so they had to pursue more.
That younger version of himself didn’t respond, just gave a seemingly indifferent smile. The others were looking forward and agreeing. Only a girl standing at the end of the line suddenly looked at him, lost in thought.
When the crowd dispersed, the girl caught up.
“If you hadn’t saved me on the giant ship back then, I wouldn’t have made it this far… We are friends, right?”
At that time, he was busy conceiving the plan for the Holy Relic and nodded casually.
Before continuing to walk, the younger version of himself thought for a moment and turned back to say, “Yu Wan, don’t you have a trauma from passing instances? Maybe going directly to the new world is more suitable for you.”
Yu Wan.
In the shattered image, Zhou Qi’an’s pupils constricted slightly. He remembered. That girl’s name was Yu Wan.
In the end, he had not been able to be considerate of everything. At that time, he had only reminded her to leave this place early, but he had not expected that someone he was not very close to would try to persuade others after he left, to stand on the side opposing Lu Yiyuan.
In a sense, Yu Wan was indeed not too smart. She was too emotional, overestimated the humanity of others, thinking that there would still be people who would agree with her, and at the same time held unrealistic expectations for her former teammates.
Cold sweat soaked his clothes. Zhou Qi’an’s face was pale, and he couldn’t help but close his eyes tightly.
Memories of the past continued to flash by.
He also remembered He Yang. The two of them had once fought side by side in a instance. He remembered the slender woman who had transplanted the jade pendant and died at his hands, remembered her name, remembered that she had once jokingly called him ‘Xiao Qi’an’…
In the mottled memories, familiar faces were becoming unrecognizable bit by bit.
Zhou Qi’an lowered his head and covered his ears, as if to block out the lingering sound of the Soul-stealing Bell.
However, this thing itself was meant to deal with him, to stimulate his memories. The aftereffects could not be eliminated in a short moment.
His rain-wet hair, as he lowered his head, covered his pale, sweat-drenched forehead.
After a long time, when the struggling pain finally subsided a little, Zhou Qi’an managed to raise his eyes, his gaze towards Lu Yiyuan becoming even colder.
This once calm and steady team leader, after transplanting a relic, his thinking was completely assimilated by the monster, to the point of such madness.
After leading the team out of a crisis-ridden instance, he had led everyone to their doom.
‘Madman.’
Zhou Qi’an closed his eyes wearily, able to think of only these two words to describe him.
The rain gradually lessened, intermittently hitting the blood coffin.
Having been tricked by the Soul-stealing Bell, Zhou Qi’an’s head was still a bit dizzy.
After losing their leader, the golden-threaded figure, the army of skeletons quickly disintegrated, unable to withstand a single blow. The noise outside lessened a lot, indicating that the chaos in the town was gradually subsiding.
The wind passed and the rain stopped. The last thick dark cloud in the sky dissipated, and the small town returned to its usual gray and static state.
After an unknown amount of time, while Zhou Qi’an was drowsily resting, a light suddenly appeared around Lu Yiyuan. His body trembled slightly. The light projected from the relic in his body was much dimmer this time.
The one who was like a sickly little lamb earlier, after recovering some energy, Zhou Qi’an jumped off the cart at the first moment.
This was the precursor to leaving the relic world.
Shen Zhiyi and the others were coming out!
Witnessing his vibrant energy, the sheep-headed man’s face darkened to the point of dripping ink.
A moment later, as the light dissipated, Shen Zhiyi and the others reappeared.
Not much different from before entering the relic world, there wasn’t a single wrinkle on Shen Zhiyi’s clothes, let alone any bloodstains, as if he had really just gone for a tour. His light-colored hair and eyes in the misty environment made him seem particularly unreal.
No words were needed. With a single, most ordinary exchange of glances, Zhou Qi’an knew they had succeeded.
The magical artifacts in everyone’s hands were also somewhat different from before.
For example, through the surface of the magic mirror, a blurry figure could be vaguely seen inside, clearly having captured a soul.
Shen Zhiyi’s focus was on the fact that Zhou Qi’an had been rained on, and the faint bloodstain on the back of his clothes. His face, which had not shown much emotional change in the relic world, now furrowed its brow.
However, when he saw Zhou Qi’an’s evasive gaze and his smile that was trying to muddle through, his heart softened again.
“Pfft—” The sound of spitting blood interrupted their eye contact.
Pulling people into a relic world twice in a row, and the second time a whole group, was no small burden for Lu Yiyuan.
Zhou Qi’an looked over, and his first reaction was that this person had a lot of blood, it felt like he could never finish spitting it out.
In the end, he sighed lightly.
Next, this self-proclaimed superior leader of the Whalers’ Association should have, like every failed boss in past instances, madly cursed him while expressing his hatred and unwillingness.
Because many words couldn’t be spoken in Silent Town, the courtyard was unusually silent at this moment.
The sheep-headed man stared silently, Lu Yiyuan glared at him, Ying Yu squatted in a corner studying if there were any building materials he could take, and the remaining teammates were sorting out their personal mission progress.
In the end, it was Shen Zhiyi who threw a pen and paper in front of Lu Yiyuan, letting him write.
“…”
A metallic taste in his throat. This time, Lu Yiyuan almost vomited blood from anger.
In less than an hour, he had lost count of how many times he had been humiliated.
Looking at the university student who was still applying healing to Zhou Qi’an, and the people surrounding him, thinking of his association members who had been killed one after another, the man’s eyes almost dripped blood as well.
On what grounds?
If it weren’t for him, they wouldn’t have been laid off.
Yet in the end, Zhou Qi’an had stepped on the corpses of his former teammates and obtained everything.
The other soul confined in his body had been forcibly taken away by Shen Zhiyi with the help of a magical artifact, which did alleviate some of the damage from the relic world. Since Zhou Qi’an activated the Universal Door Card, Lu Yiyuan’s relic world had been on the verge of being blown apart by the yin energy.
With his intact hand, he clutched his chest, bent over, and vomited another mouthful of blood.
A small white thing appeared before his eyes.
The Universal Door Card could only be used once. Now there was a hole in it. Zhou Qi’an held the card in front of Lu Yiyuan, but the latter’s gaze was only filled with vigilance.
‘Universal Door Card,’ he mouthed the words as a reminder.
Stunned for a moment, he realized this was to say that he had escaped using the door card. Lu Yiyuan almost made a sound, retorting that it was impossible. The Universal Door Card could not be brought out of a instance at all!
Seeing this, Zhou Qi’an couldn’t be bothered to explain. Players and monsters had a natural faction division. They called monsters NPCs. But that didn’t mean they were just a string of data. After suffering a loss at the hands of the powerful ghost from the back mountain, it was clear that the other party had not yet changed his way of thinking.
Lu Yiyuan wanted to say something else, but his body once again became uncontrollable.
…Pick it up.
Under the coercion of Shen Zhiyi’s slight mental suggestion, Lu Yiyuan humiliatingly continued to bend over, as if to pick up the pen.
Ding~
A crisp bell sound suddenly rang out. The killing intent in Lu Yiyuan’s eyes burst forth at the same time.
This time, the mental control was much weaker than when he was previously forced to pull people into the relic world. Perhaps the powerful skill had a usage limit, but for him, it was a perfect opportunity!
The soul in his body had been taken away, but the Soul-stealing Bell was still there. Of the corpses that had been dealt with earlier, there were still two or three that were relatively intact. As the bell rang, the corpses stood up swaying again, their sharp finger bones all reaching for Zhou Qi’an’s exposed back.
At the same time, a flash of golden light appeared. Disregarding the backlash from personally attacking a player, Lu Yiyuan manipulated the Gilt Bronze Buckle, wanting to use the same old trick to devour Zhou Qi’an’s soul.
Shen Zhiyi was very close to Zhou Qi’an, but he only precisely dealt with the reanimated part.
Before being illuminated by the light of the Gilt Bronze Buckle, Zhou Qi’an’s speed was incredibly fast, moving to the other side a step ahead.
Given Lu Yiyuan’s current state, as long as he swung his cane, he could severely injure the other. But Zhou Qi’an instead summoned the Holy Relic. In front of the fishing spear’s inherent golden light, the Gilt Bronze Buckle was like a grain of rice.
Raising his hand to strike, Zhou Qi’an left no room for mercy.
The moment the tip pierced his chest, besides the stabbing pain, Lu Yiyuan could no longer feel much physical pain.
But the next second, his expression suddenly changed. He could clearly feel that it wasn’t just life force that was draining from his body.
“You…” A muffled word came out with the gush of blood.
Lu Yiyuan was certain it wasn’t a hallucination from his heavy injuries.
Opposite him, Zhou Qi’an’s face paled for an instant, a sign of excessive blood loss. Then, his complexion strangely improved a lot. In contrast, his energy seemed to be being devoured madly.
A gust of wind came at just the right time.
On the ground, the paper Shen Zhiyi had thrown earlier was blown up, revealing a few words he had written on the back at some unknown time: Plunderer route.
These few short words were enough to imagine.
