WTNL Chapter 268

Changsheng Building
Chapter 268: The outcome was already decided?

A sharp guttural sound pierced through the darkness, echoing in the eerie, ghostly courtyard. 

At the same time, the countdown for the final main mission began. 

There were only ten seconds left, but the outcome was already decided. 

The courtyard was shrouded in a strange red light. Orange Candy, Su Cheng, and Qi Qian were blocking the shaky door tightly. Outside the door stood the reappearing woman in red, while inside the courtyard, it was packed with paper figures. They were attacked from both sides with no escape. 

Wen Jianyan, who had rushed out, was swallowed up by the pile of paper figures and disappeared from sight.

In the “Changsheng Building” live broadcast hall, only a few anchors were still broadcasting, and among them, the four anchor’s channels had the worst signals. The screen flickered with static, and both the visuals and sound were intermittent. However, almost 90% of the viewers were gathered in these four broadcasts with the worst signals.

[This round is basically over… There’s no way they can turn the tide now.]

[Ah, these four anchors were pretty much all my favorites to win; what a pity.]

[And now there are only three left, right? One of them just blacked out.]

[Don’t jump to conclusions so quickly!]

[Huh? Really? Only ten seconds left, and you still call that ‘quick’? Do you have some misunderstanding about the word ‘quick’?]

Five seconds remaining. 

The camera in the live broadcast turned to focus on one person’s face.

The little girl was holding a long knife in one hand, blocking Su Cheng behind her with the other, her gaze fixed on the spot where Wen Jianyan had vanished. Her expression was strangely calm, while the red light in the courtyard fell on her face, making her appear ghostly.

There were three seconds left.

3, 2—

【The Ultimate Main Task Has Failed—】

*

“!!!”

Wen Jianyan sharply gasped for air and suddenly opened his eyes. 

His face was pale, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead, as if he had just been fished out of water. 

The sensation of the paper figures’ grasp still seemed to linger on his arms, shoulders, and calves. The cold, hard black ceramic urn he was holding tightly in his arms caused a faint pain from his torso to his limbs.

His eardrums were buzzing, and the echo of “the auspicious time has come” still seemed to linger in his ears, making his heartbeat sound like a drum, and the silence around him as still as a grave. 

His vision was shrouded in red.

Wen Jianyan raised his hand and felt a familiar soft fabric—

The red bridal veil. 

He tightened his fingers and abruptly tore it off.

What appeared before his eyes was a small wedding chamber.

At the bedside, red candles were burning high, illuminating the blood-red-decorated room. 

The thick wedding quilt beneath him was embroidered with the pattern of mandarin ducks playing in the water. There was only a single large red pillow on the bed, looking lonely and desolate. 

The room was filled with dowry furniture: a blood-red painted table and chairs, a red comb on the table, and a brand-new shiny copper mirror.

Wen Jianyan gasped for breath; his rapid panting echoed in the vast room, syncing with his equally rapid heartbeat, like the pressing beat of a drum drawing closer.

His memory was still stuck in that terrifying moment in the courtyard just now. 

The pale, stiff faces of the paper figures closed in on him, countless eerie smiles swirling before his eyes. Then, he heard the sharp chime of “the auspicious time has come,” and the next thing he knew, everything went black, and he found himself in this eerie, empty wedding chamber.

Not only had his surroundings disappeared, but even the clothes on his body had been replaced with a blood-red wedding outfit.

Wen Jianyan attempted to open the live broadcast room. All the buttons were greyed out, completely unresponsive. Clearly, the space he was now in had entirely surpassed the Nightmare’s control.

He frowned but hadn’t had time to think deeply when suddenly, something black in his arms entered his vision.

…Right! The urn!

Wen Jianyan was startled and quickly lowered his head, looking at the black ceramic urn in his arms. 

The lid was sealed tightly. It took a great deal of effort before he finally managed to pry it open. A foul, rotten smell came out with the dust, causing Wen Jianyan to cough violently.

He carefully looked inside the urn.

As expected, it contained human bones… identical to the soul-locking urn in the “Antai Community.”

So, besides the human bones, there should be something else inside…

Without hesitation, Wen Jianyan reached in and rummaged around. Soon, his fingertips touched something cold and metallic. He pinched it between two fingers and pulled it out.

But, unexpectedly, what appeared in his palm was not the familiar eight-trigram mirror with a talisman attached, but a small brass mirror that fit perfectly with the overall style of this instance.

The back of the small mirror felt rough to the touch, as if something were carved into it.

Wen Jianyan was stunned.

He raised his hand, lifted the curtain, and brought the small brass mirror closer to the red candle. Under the faint candlelight, he carefully made out the text on it.

A few words were engraved on the back of the brass mirror:

“Born here, buried here, and bounded here.”

Wen Jianyan slightly furrowed his brow, feeling that the clues he had just begun to piece together had once again slipped away, leaving him back at square one, knowing nothing.

He stood up and paced around the wedding chamber. The door was tightly shut, and outside was pitch black, as if—

In other words, he could not leave.

Suddenly, at that moment, a familiar heat rose from his hip bone. The scorching heat brewed beneath his skin and gradually intensified with time.

Wen Jianyan was stunned for a moment. 

Ever since he made a deal with Wu Zhu, the mark had rarely burned like this, and every previous time it did, it was when he encountered one of Wu Zhu’s fragments…

Fragments?

Mirror?

Wen Jianyan suddenly realized something. He looked up toward the table not far away, where a small copper mirror stood upright, looking not much different from the copper mirror that sealed the woman in red on the second floor.

He stood up and walked toward the copper mirror. 

With each step he took, the mark on his lower abdomen burnt hotter. By the time Wen Jianyan reached the mirror, the skin there was so hot that it was almost unbearable.

He frowned and stared intently at the copper mirror before him. 

Compared to the rusty copper mirror on the second floor, this one was new and bright, but it seemed to be filled with some boundless, chaotic presence. It was hazy, no matter what, he could not see his own reflection in it.

…Might as well give it a try.

Wen Jianyan took a deep breath, bit his finger, and pressed the blood-stained fingertip onto the mirror.

The wound split open, and thick crimson blood flowed out, instantly absorbed by the mirror.

Like a starving beast, it devoured and licked the human blood. Over time, it began to emit a faint red glow.

“Crack–crack-crack–”

A faint sound of metal cracking echoed.

Under Wen Jianyan’s gaze, spiderweb-like cracks gradually appeared on the smooth surface of the mirror, growing more numerous and dense until they reached a critical point…

The mirror suddenly shattered from the inside out!

The next second, darkness surged from the mirror like a flood breaking through a dam, without any warning!

Wen Jianyan gasped and instinctively turned his face away, raising his arm to shield himself from the sharp flying fragments.

When he opened his eyes again, he realized that the light had completely vanished.

The solid darkness wrapped around him from his ankles, climbing up his calves. Cold tentacles clung to the warmth of his skin, gliding slowly along his body’s contours, sending a shiver through him.

This is…

As Wen Jianyan stood there, shocked, a pale, slender hand suddenly reached out from the darkness and grabbed his wrist.

“!”

Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted, and he quickly looked up.

What emerged from the darkness was an eerily beautiful face. Golden eyes gleamed with a cold metallic sheen, ancient and wild. 

Soft, pitch-black hair flowed down, cascading from the side of his neck to his broad shoulders. 

From his neck downward, large patches of skin were covered in strange curse marks, like black vines, intricately coiling around his strong, slender limbs, displaying a kind of primitive, terrifying beauty.

His eyelashes fluttered, and he lowered his gaze, his eyes landing on Wen Jianyan’s bleeding fingertip.

The man lowered his head, pressing his cold lips against it. A scarlet tongue curled around the warm, thick blood, licking and sucking. The wet, rough surface of the tongue slid over the wounded, scarred flesh around the injury, sending a tremor through Wen Jianyan’s fingertips.

His movements were slow and refined, like a gentle, affectionate lover, but what he was doing was the exact opposite—bloody, savage, and unsettling.

Was this Wu Zhu…?

Or a fragment of Wu Zhu?

Wen Jianyan stood still, allowing the other to lick his blood, his scalp tingling as he waited.

A few seconds later, the man reluctantly released his wrist.

He licked his lips, a trace of blood-red light reflecting in his golden eyes.

“…You’ve done well.”

…It was Wu Zhu.

The main body.

Wen Jianyan stood motionless, his eyes flickering, unclear whether he was tense or relaxed.

Wu Zhu leaned down, his cold fingertips touching Wen Jianyan’s cheek, sliding down along the smooth lines of his jaw, and finally resting on the side of his neck.

He pressed against the soft skin of Wen Jianyan’s throat, slowly rubbing, feeling the pulsing, boiling blood underneath.

“You have entered the fifth floor and released part of me.”

“…The most important part.”

Wu Zhu narrowed his eyes, showing a rare hint of amusement.

His voice was calm and gentle, like the intimate whispers of a lover in someone’s ear:  

“From now on, there’s no need to worry about anything.”

Wen Jianyan opened his mouth, but there was a subtle time lag between his voice and actions. Half a second later, a sound finally came from his throat. 

He took a deep breath and calmly asked, “What do you mean?”

“It means the task is complete.”

Boundless darkness surged from all directions, wrapping around the human body like an ocean, sliding into his sleeves and collar, stroking every inch of his skin.

Wu Zhu raised his hand and wrapped it around Wen Jianyan’s waist, pulling his possession into his embrace. His movements were extremely gentle, almost tender. His voice was low and light, as though he were merely reciting a preordained fact, or perhaps bestowing a prophecy from a position of superiority:  

“I will finish everything you’ve already started, and as for you…  

All you need to do is lie in my arms and wait.”

“I will fulfill your wish, and in return, your soul, your faith, your body… everything will belong to me.”

The tall man lowered his head, his lips brushing against Wen Jianyan’s neck, gently biting and licking with sharp teeth, marking his ownership in a way that allowed no refusal.

He curled his lips into a smile:  

“Just like we agreed from the beginning.”

“You will offer me everything, and I will grant you eternal life.”

Wu Zhu licked his lips, a deep and primal light flickering in the depths of his golden eyes.

The young man in his arms seemed like a marionette who had lost the ability to move.

The red wedding robe hung loosely, revealing the young man’s pale neck like a lamb to the slaughter. His collarbone and chest stretched into beautiful arcs, rising and falling with his rapid breaths. Blue veins snaked beneath his too-pale skin, faint red bite marks barely visible above them.

The stark contrast between the red wedding robe and his pale body was sharp and jarring.

Everything felt chaotic, hot, and damp, radiating a fragile aura of helplessness, unable to resist what was being done.

Wu Zhu leaned down, and behind him, countless shadows intertwined and manifested, controlling the young man’s body, sliding up his limbs, and snaking along like serpents.

He leaned in closer, his eyes never leaving the young man in front of him, and said softly:  

“You said you’d teach me something more interesting this time.”  

“Now, you can begin.”

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