In another direction of the small town.
White light entangled in every gap. Extreme white, like extreme black, would strip away one’s vision. Unlike the collapsing mountains and cracking earth on Zhou Qi’an’s side, this place was like a quiet snowfield.
The university student was following Shen Zhiyi, walking in this serene relic world.
The relic they were currently viewing was the Imitation Jade Rice.
According to the plan, before releasing the powerful ghost, everyone had first used a prop to lower their presence to avoid being immediately targeted by it.
Then, the group descended the mountain at the fastest speed, seizing the opportunity of the chaos in Silent Town to start playing the role of bait, luring out the other members of the Whalers’ Association hidden in the small town.
Since the university student’s strength was average, he had been moving with Shen Zhiyi.
While fleeing along a street, the two were forcibly pulled into a relic world.
“Brother Shen…” The university student’s throat moved. He said based on his feeling, “Let’s go south.”
Not long ago, Shen Zhiyi had told him to pick a direction at will.
The monster hidden in this relic world was a Snow Woman. She had already been beaten half to death by Shen Zhiyi, who then let the monster go.
The university student knew the reason.
If they didn’t let the monster go, they would be immediately teleported out of the relic world, making it impossible to find the core of the relic world.
After walking south for a certain distance, Shen Zhiyi’s footsteps suddenly paused. He lifted his eyelids, his cold gaze locking onto an unmoving black dot on a spiderweb.
The university student quickly followed his gaze, shielding his eyes with his hand to block the white glare, and squinted to see.
“It seems… not to be a spider.”
Before he could speak, a shadow had already swum to the spot above.
In the distance, the heavily injured Snow Woman, hiding, saw the outsiders stop in one place and had a bad feeling. Not caring much, her graceful figure swayed like a rippling wind and floated over directly.
However, the Snow Woman’s speed and the shadow’s mobility were on completely different levels.
The black shadow just gently grabbed, and along with the spiderweb used to hide the jade rice, it was swallowed by the darkness. With a mosquito-like light crack, the jade rice was ruthlessly crushed, the jade powder scattering, unable to ever recover.
The Snow Woman’s scream came from ahead. The daylight of the entire area began to shatter like the previously broken jade rice.
“You have successfully viewed the exhibit–Imitation Jade Rice.”
The moment the system prompt sounded, the university student, while excited, remained highly vigilant. No one knew what the situation in the small town was now, or whether the powerful ghost had been dealt with.
It would still take a few seconds from leaving the relic world to consciousness fully returning.
When the university student stood firm again, a warm stream sprayed directly onto his cheek. He subconsciously reached out to touch it, his newly recovered vision filled with a sticky sensation on his hand.
He almost screamed.
The next second, when he discovered the source of the blood was the association member who had pulled them into the relic world, the university student instantly fell silent.
The person opposite was half-kneeling on the ground, a hole in their throat, staring blankly at the cold face before them.
After coming out, Shen Zhiyi had no process of gathering his consciousness. He directly reached out and finished off this member of the Whalers’ Association.
When he delivered the killing blow, he didn’t even look at his target, but kept his gaze fixed on the sky to the south.
Thick dark clouds formed a vortex there, with a large amount of unnatural yin energy churning within. In the high-speed rotation like a meat grinder, the space was divided into several parts.
…Qi’an had used the [Universal Door Card].
The university student also noticed the situation over there at this time.
Wherever there was a spectacular scene, there was Zhou Qi’an.
This was one of the rules the university student had summarized. He could almost be certain that the unique landscape was related to Brother Zhou.
However, when he wanted to go over, he found that Shen Zhiyi did not move.
Shen Zhiyi only sent his shadow to the south side of the town to stand guard. If the situation went wrong, the shadow would forcibly take Zhou Qi’an away.
At the same time, Shen Zhiyi’s overly long finger joints moved. The blood of the previously deceased member flowed on the ground in a regular pattern, reassembling into a few words:
Find the others first, go to the Ridie Pavilion.
The university student was surprised.
What are they going there for?
When he wanted to ask further for the reason, he was startled by the gloom in the man’s eyes. The temperature around the latter was much lower than usual. Under the grayish-white eyes, there was a hint of suppression.
Clearly, this decision was not from Shen Zhiyi’s own heart, and it even put him in a very bad mood.
The university student swallowed. The only person who could sway Shen Zhiyi’s decisions was Brother Zhou.
So, was he now going to do something he himself didn’t want to do, but that Brother Zhou needed him to do?
————
The relic world of the Soul-stealing Bell.
The moment Zhou Qi’an used the Universal Door Card, the entire world suddenly fell silent. The terrifying sounds of the apocalyptic collapse were all blocked outside an invisible barrier.
The eye that had been peeping from the sky seemed to have seen something incredible.
A mysterious white mist surged within the world.
A strong sense of unease welled up in Lu Yiyuan’s heart.
The two superimposed relic worlds allowed him to view everything that happened inside from a god’s perspective. Watching Zhou Qi’an suffer under the apocalypse, this feeling deeply pleased him.
It wasn’t until he realized the other party was starting to stall for time that a subtle unease began to grow.
But the current scene was completely beyond his expectations.
“How could it be…”
Lu Yiyuan could clearly feel something forcibly inserting itself into his relic world.
A white door had, for some reason, descended.
The sealing ability of the Gilt Bronze Buckle was limited. On the premise of devouring one relic, another door was added, and it seemed there was more than one… layers upon layers like a mille-feuille cake were accumulating here.
An indescribable pain and sense of compression brought a suffocating illusion. Lu Yiyuan could no longer even manage to peek into the inner world, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins. Like a mouse that had eaten too much raw rice, his eyes bulged, almost about to fall out.
He began to forcibly try to use the will of the relic world to expel this door.
However, like straw filling cracks, the abundant yin energy or some other indescribable things were still continuously accumulating, swelling his internal organs.
What on earth did Zhou Qi’an do!
“Pfft—” a stuffiness in his chest, and a mouthful of blood gushed from his throat. Even the motionless body that was viewing from outside the relic world trembled slightly.
Below.
Gusts of bone-chilling yin wind continuously drilled out from the cracks in the door. The moment Zhou Qi’an reached out to touch the door, the entire door bizarrely turned blood-red.
A cold system prompt descended:
[You have successfully activated the Universal Door Card]
The yin wind was so thick it was like a viscous shadow. Zhou Qi’an’s palm was almost stuck to the door. Countless negative emotions assaulted him along with the shadow. His body began to tremble uncontrollably, as if it would dissolve into the darkness in the next moment.
Push the door.
Zhou Qi’an no longer hesitated. Following this pulling sensation, he pushed the door with all his might in one go.
Screams, curses, maniacal laughter… the moment the door opened, all sorts of chaotic and strange sounds poured out, almost rupturing his eardrums.
The system prompt sounded again:
[Escape channel has been opened]
[Escape countdown: 00:10:00]
[Please run out of the channel within ten minutes. The Universal Door Card will help you return to the human world.]
The yin wind howled. Zhou Qi’an’s body hadn’t fully squeezed through the door yet. He could only use his hand to block the icy cold wind in front of him, forcing himself to step forward one step at a time.
The introduction of the Universal Door Card itself was not very auspicious: a door card stained with endless resentment. After activation, the survival rate was as high as zero point one percent.
“Why are you even called a Universal Door Card?”
Should change its name to Universal Cursing Bone.
The mortality rate of the Death Cursing Bone was nothing in front of the Universal Door Card.
Steeling himself and moving forward, finally, the fierce yin wind disappeared. When he finally saw the world in front of him clearly, Zhou Qi’an’s expression stiffened for a moment.
“This is…”
Ahead was a bustling city center. In the distance, there was a park and a square.
However, a little further ahead was a rectangular building as square as a coffin. The desolate feeling was completely out of place with the expensive city center. The dozen-story high-rise had been burned down to an empty frame.
…Jinxiang Tower.
The current Jinxiang Tower was like a steel monster with its skeleton exposed.
[Escape countdown: 00:09:40s]
A bad premonition suddenly arose in Zhou Qi’an’s heart. Could it be that the so-called escape channel was set in this large world map, for him to find?
This world was clearly also not normal. It had everything, except people.
Like a bustling dead city.
The countdown continued. Zhou Qi’an frowned slightly.
The female patient had entered his personal data into the chip of the Universal Door Card. Could it all be related to the instance worlds he had experienced before?
Time was limited. Zhou Qi’an could only first analyze the information laid out in the open. Jinxiang Tower had been burned and bombed. The escape channel was unlikely to be inside.
“A door card stained with endless resentment…”
As he tried to connect the Universal Door Card with his instance experiences, he suddenly gasped.
The introduction of his special psychic constitution mentioned that, unlike other psychic constitutions, the bonds he had once formed could give him a chance to see the spirits of the deceased.
“Jin Zhi?!” A name blurted out.
All the information currently pointed to one thing: he might see Jin Zhi again in this map.
If so, where would she be?
Jinxiang Tower was the first to be ruled out. Zhou Qi’an thought of something and rushed to a nearby bus stop sign.
“Sanhua Station, Xinbei Bus Station… Jiangdu University South Campus…”
Jiangdu University South Campus was exactly the station he was at.
With no time to think too much, Zhou Qi’an directly ran in the direction where Jin Zhi had last disappeared, paying attention to the nearby buildings as he ran.
There was not a single pedestrian in the entire world to ask for directions, but the game couldn’t possibly leave no hints at all.
As he searched and ran to the other side of the street, Zhou Qi’an noticed a poster being blown up by the wind along with the fallen leaves. On the thin single page, the large characters for ‘Club Recruitment’ were very eye-catching.
There was more than one similar poster. Every certain distance, one could be found in different places.
Under the sycamore tree, next to the trash can, on the street…
The further he went, the lower the temperature became. While searching for Jiangdu University, Zhou Qi’an was so cold he was shivering. Another poster appeared, floating to the other side of the road. Zhou Qi’an followed it with his eyes, and the uniquely designed school plaque suddenly came into view.
Jiangdu University!
By the stone with the engraved name at the entrance stood a slender figure. The girl’s skin was stiffly pale, and she stood there motionless, as if no different from the thousands of dead things around.
Zhou Qi’an’s pace slowed as he crossed the road.
When he truly saw this figure, a trace of surprise still showed in his eyes. Is she really here?
Different from his memory, the person before him had lost her vibrancy. The resentful soul from before had at least the basic emotions of hatred, expectation, and regret.
But the girl before him was more like a pale wooden puppet. Only a little bit of instinct, or rather, obsession, kept her guarding this place.
“Jin Zhi,” Zhou Qi’an tried to call her name.
The girl did not respond at all.
When he was about to speak for the second time, that stiff arm suddenly reached out.
Zhou Qi’an hesitated for a moment and did not dodge.
It hurt.
Not that the other party had made any harmful move, but the palm that grabbed him was incomparably cold. The cold air penetrated the surface of his skin, making his whole body’s blood feel chilled through.
Without any warning, Jin Zhi suddenly started running. Zhou Qi’an gritted his teeth and forced his old, cold legs, which felt like they were about to freeze into dregs, to run after her.
He didn’t know how long he was pulled along. It felt like a long time, yet also very short. The burden each step brought to his body blurred the concept of time. Zhou Qi’an couldn’t concentrate on looking at the countdown.
Passing through the tree-lined path within the university, the cold wind made his eyelids hurt.
Finally, Jin Zhi stopped. Zhou Qi’an took an extra step due to inertia. Ahead was a white mist. Just as he was about to stop and check, a pale arm appeared from behind and pushed him forcefully.
The mist was as thin as paper. With just a stumble, Zhou Qi’an passed through it. When he turned his head again, his gaze trembled.
There were no trees or school behind him.
The entire world was rotten, the air filled with the smell of blood, just like the legendary hell.
Jin Zhi stood less than a meter away from him, still like a puppet.
“Jin…”
Before he could call out her full name, Jin Zhi had already turned around stiffly.
The girl’s back seemed to merge with the rotten world. Her thin body, which a gust of wind could blow away, turned and walked back the way she came.
The world behind became a black hole. Then, everything before Zhou Qi’an’s eyes underwent a new round of changes.
The air was so humid it could drip water. The sound of a baby crying suddenly came to his ears. In the distance was a dark mountain, and the sound of gurgling water floated over. A quiet mountain village replaced the city center, like an ink wash painting, spreading out right before his eyes.
[Countdown 00:07:20]
Zhou Qi’an couldn’t help but look again in the direction where Jin Zhi had disappeared, confirming that the slender figure was gone.
Suppressing the complexity in his eyes, as he lowered his gaze, a small, purplish hand suddenly pressed against him.
“!”
This hand was even smaller than a normal baby’s fist and couldn’t open at all. Looking further, the baby clinging to him was more like an underdeveloped embryo, about the size of a four or five-month-old fetus, with only the most basic facial shape.
“Waaah…” it cried incessantly.
Zhou Qi’an quickly lifted his clothes to look. Sure enough, half a baby’s handprint was branded on his chilled, painful skin.
“Damn it.”
Misfortunes never come singly. Just as Zhou Qi’an subconsciously wanted to take out his cane for self-defense, another extremely cruel fact presented itself: the panel wouldn’t open. No matter how many times he tried, all his equipment was unusable.
Losing his most basic support and being clung to by a ghost baby, a thin layer of sweat couldn’t help but seep from Zhou Qi’an’s forehead.
He forced himself to calm down and first assessed his surroundings… Fengshui Village.
Zhou Qi’an finally figured out the pattern.
This escape channel, built between the relic world and the outside world, seemed to be using the instance worlds he had passed through as nodes, and he would encounter some monster bosses he had crossed paths with here.
But why did it skip the Good Night Villa?
The villa now belongs to the mistress, and the mistress is still alive, so Xun Er didn’t appear? According to this reasoning, he probably won’t pass through the Huagu City instance later either.
The ghost baby’s cries brought Zhou Qi’an’s attention back.
Seeing the unformed baby, Zhou Qi’an’s first reaction was the priest, but he quickly dismissed the thought. The priest had already been born in the end, and shouldn’t be in this embryonic state.
“The Saintess’s child?” The more Zhou Qi’an thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
Connecting it to Jin Zhi’s state earlier, he roughly understood why the priest and the Saintess hadn’t appeared. Those two had truly disappeared. After the demise of Fengshui Village, the last bit of obsession of the priest and the Saintess had also completely vanished. The ending of dying together seemed to have made them lose any thought of reincarnation.
However, the unformed child in the Saintess’s belly still had the obsession to live.
The ghost baby’s cries were terrifying, vaguely achieving a certain mental pollution effect. Every few seconds, it would press down half a ghostly handprint. If this continued, he would probably die of hypothermia before being trapped in the escape channel.
“This is troublesome.”
It was impossible to communicate with a baby.
The crying soon turned into screams. The headache from being affected by the Soul-stealing Bell recurred, and Zhou Qi’an was in so much pain he was convulsing.
He stared at the ghost baby constantly crawling up his body. Before his blood completely froze and stopped circulating, his stiff throat moved, and Zhou Qi’an managed to hum a note.
The frantic crying weakened a little.
It works?!
