Chapter 103
Chapter 103
Seven women crouched on the floor, holding hands with their eyes tightly shut.
Cuts were clearly visible on their wrists, and waist-length hair lay scattered carelessly over the ground.
Every inch of their bodies was covered in intricate black designs.
Even their faces had been carved full of them, obscuring their features entirely.
Without a word being spoken, the players could all guess that these were the legendary witches.
Soulbugs crawled over the walls, through the corners, and all around the women.
The soulbugs seemed to be asleep. Their blue light brightened and dimmed in a rhythm like breathing.
The players held their breath, their hearts lodged in their throats as they examined every detail of the witches’ faces.
But no matter how long they stood in the doorway, the women’s eyes remained firmly closed.
No one had spoken for so long that the system was already warning them their Sanity had begun to fall.
At last, Xiao Huai approached the women and crouched beside one of the witches.
“They’re already dead,” he said.
But the word “dead” needed quotation marks here.
Their death was not the destruction of the flesh, but the disappearance of the soul.
Xiao Huai had unlimited access to Soul Contracts.
The Soul Contract had one hidden condition: both parties had to possess a soul.
Yet when he approached the witch, the Soul Contract interface was grayed out.
That meant their souls were gone, and they would sleep here forever.
Sun Xingye frowned deeply. “They’re dead? That can’t be right. Why can’t I read their brains?”
He could read the brains of the dead, yet here, he could not read a single person’s mind.
That meant they were still alive.
Lu Zhi’s brows drew together. “Some people look alive even though they’re already dead. Other people die, but go on living forever. I think that’s what this means.”
Cheng Shan patted Lu Zhi on the shoulder. “Never knew you were the philosophical type, little brother.”
Lu Zhi looked at Cheng Shan. “No, what I mean is, do you remember the system warning about the Soul-Sacrifice Ruins?”
Everyone nodded.
Lu Zhi said, “My brother told me about Soul-Sacrifice Ruins before. It’s an extremely rare kind of ritual. Even he hasn’t encountered it many times. But NPCs who take part in a soul-sacrifice ritual almost always lose their souls.”
He looked toward the witches. “They trade their souls for their hearts’ desire. Once someone’s soul has perished, how can they still be considered alive?”
After Lu Zhi finished explaining, the players could not help widening their eyes. A moment later, they gave him a thumbs-up.
“Lu Zhi, that’s impressive. You even know about this stuff. Heh, by the way, who’s your brother? You’ve never mentioned him before.”
Praise made the tips of Lu Zhi’s ears flush hot and red. “Uh… that’s a secret. Unless my brother decides he wants to meet you, you’ll never be able to find him.”
“Tch, what’s with all the mystery? Don’t tell me your brother is some big shot in the upper ranks.”
“Um… can I not answer that? My brother will yell at me.” Lu Zhi’s head spun as questions came at him from every direction.
The problem was, he did not really know how to refuse.
Xiao Huai grabbed him and yanked him away, then swept a cold gaze over the crowd surrounding him.
“They’re dead. That doesn’t mean their corpses can’t move.”
The moment he finished speaking, a bone-chilling cold crawled up everyone’s spine.
Had they all lost their minds? They had actually started gossiping in here.
They immediately shut their mouths.
Had they forgotten Rule Two–the witches’ nightly roaming began at nine o’clock at night. They must not disturb the witches without good reason.
Do not disturb them without good reason.
Every player understood what “disturbed” meant.
The witches’ nightly roaming would happen whether they were alive or dead.
“But has the nightly roaming really begun? Why can’t I see anything?” All he had heard were plenty of strange sounds.
Cheng Shan spoke in a whisper, and the other players nodded in agreement.
“Just because you can’t see it doesn’t mean it hasn’t begun,” Xiao Huai replied quietly as he started searching the room.
He could vaguely make out the outlines of several “people.” They resembled ghosts, their contours blurred and flickering in and out of sight.
The witches might roam at night, but it was more likely that this procession had been caused by the witches’ power.
Those ghosts included men and women, old and young. They were definitely not a parade of witches.
Like a memory caught in a cycle, they repeated the same event over and over.
If Xiao Huai wanted to see them more clearly, his Sanity would have to fall further.
The more contaminated his Sanity became, the closer he drew to the contaminated world.
And the closer he came to those beings, the fragments hidden in the shadows would slowly reveal themselves, like grains falling through an hourglass.
It was dangerous and deadly, yet it was also one of the quickest ways to find answers.
Before that, however, he wanted to see whether the room contained any more clues.
When the others saw Xiao Huai searching, they remembered that it was indeed still treasure-hunting time and began to imitate him.
Xiao Huai casually turned over the room’s contents, while the players searched with great care.
Some crouched down and began digging in the dirt. After all, many of the treasures here had been buried underground.
“Hey, what’s this?” someone suddenly exclaimed after unearthing something that resembled a sheet of paper.
“I found one too.”
“There’s another in the corner.”
“Uh… there’s even one hidden under this witch’s hair.”
They were certain they had found the same thing because every sheet was made of gold.
Though thin, the golden sheets had been exceptionally well preserved.
The same line was written on every one: “You gave me a peach; I repay you with fine jade.”
Lu Zhi frowned. “You gave me a peach; I repay you with fine jade? Doesn’t that mean…”
“Repaying kindness.” Xiao Huai and Lu Zhi spoke at the same time once again.
This time, they had reached a tacit understanding. The moment their eyes met, they conveyed mutual trust.
At Xiao Huai’s signal, Lu Zhi drew a deep breath and said,
“That line expresses gratitude for a kindness. If these were buried here, could it mean the purpose of the soul-sacrifice ritual was to repay a debt?”
“What? That’s ridiculous. Did you forget how Rule One describes witches? Witches are rotten to the core. Why would people like that repay anyone’s kindness?” Several players immediately rejected Lu Zhi’s theory.
In the stereotypes people carried, witches were invariably portrayed as evil.
Many games on Earth liked to depict them as ugly villains who brewed poisons.
Wasn’t the witch in *Snow White* the classic example? She had even left a childhood shadow in many children’s memories.
In the Middle Ages, there were also countless religious cases in which witches were burned alive.
For most of the players present, it was difficult to connect the word “witch” with repaying a kindness.
Because once they admitted the witches were repaying a debt, they would also have to admit that their own prejudice was wrong.
Xiao Huai picked up a golden sheet hidden in a secluded spot. His fingers traced every character etched into its surface.
He seemed to be trying to feel what the women had felt when they carved those words.
“They shouldn’t be defined by others.” Xiao Huai raised his eyes. His voice was cold, without the slightest ripple of emotion.
Yet a trace of tenderness hid within his gaze.
He looked at everyone. “No one has the right to judge good and evil.”
After all, no boundary had ever truly separated the two.
One thought could make a Buddha; another, a demon.