Chapter 108
Chapter 108
One soulbug after another crawled from their bodies, burrowed into the ground, and disappeared.
The process repeated without end. There was no telling how many soulbugs had emerged.
Only when the women’s dance gradually slowed did their heads droop lower, not a trace of light in their eyes.
“Not enough. It still isn’t enough.”
The voice came from behind Xiao Huai’s ear.
In the next second, a strange force surged from underground. It became an invisible hand that yanked him violently into the midst of the women.
When he looked up, Xiao Huai found himself at the center of their dance.
Their smiles turned eerie. “Food. The food is here.”
Xiao Huai gave them a cold glance. A ring of black vapor coiled around each of them.
Anyone else might have died of fright beneath the women’s stares. Xiao Huai, however, calmly took something out.
“Does this belong to you?”
The moment he spoke, the women’s dancing faltered.
It was the golden sheet engraved with the words, “You gave me a peach; I repay you with fine jade.”
Xiao Huai raised a languid brow and said evenly, “Repaying kindness is admirable. But if you shoulder burdens that never belonged to you, won’t you become exhausted?”
Green eyes began sprouting across his body. It was one of Joseph’s blessing skills: Immobilization.
The women stopped dancing. All of them froze in place and stared at Xiao Huai in a trance.
To be safe, Xiao Huai had no intention of letting them rush him while he conducted his experiment.
Immobilization had a chance of putting players or NPCs into a trance.
He had been somewhat concerned it would not work against non-NPC entities.
But now it appeared to have the same effect on them.
A complex black sigil covered the floor beneath Xiao Huai’s feet. Without hesitation, he drew his dagger and was about to slash his wrist when a woman’s voice suddenly came from behind him.
“You truly are strange.”
Xiao Huai turned his head slightly.
“Ji Yelin” stood in a corner. There was no telling how long she had been hiding there.
Xiao Huai’s fringe stirred faintly, and candlelight swept across his lashes. When his eyes met “Ji Yelin’s,” he looked less like a mortal than a forest spirit, not a ripple within his gaze.
Then he smiled, like sunlight breaking through a fissure.
The sight was so beautiful that it was impossible to look away.
“Hello. My name is Xiao Huai, and I’m one of the players in this round. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Witch.”
“Ji Yelin’s” pupils widened slightly. Xiao Huai had already sliced open the skin at his wrist, and blood streamed down to drip onto the black sigil.
All seven witches had wounds on their wrists.
If he wanted to know what had truly happened, the fastest method was to try it himself.
The sigil suddenly radiated blue light, and a silver-blue vortex appeared beneath his feet.
The light reflected in his eyes, silver-blue blending with red. His lashes trembled faintly, making him resemble a lazy cat.
It was almost as though what he had opened was not the gate to the Lost Land at all.
“Ji Yelin” trembled all over and whispered through clenched teeth, “Do you know how likely your soul is to be damaged if you enter the Lost Land?”
Strands of hair brushed her face in the wind. Xiao Huai nodded lightly, not the least bit concerned.
“I can make a reasonable guess,” Xiao Huai said quietly. He raised his eyes to meet hers. “But don’t you want to reclaim the treasure that belongs to you?”
“That thing doesn’t exist!”
“Ji Yelin” suddenly screamed, “I don’t need any treasure! I only want all of you to stay here forever and become food for the soulbugs!”
Xiao Huai fell silent for a moment. He could already feel something opening beneath his feet. The moment he chose, he could enter another place.
But he still said what he wanted to say.
“If I died, I wouldn’t want to live on this way.”
Soulbugs carried the souls of the dead, while the departed themselves lived forever in memory.
As the words fell, the silver-blue vortex enveloped his body, and he vanished in an instant.
“Ji Yelin’s” eyes widened. In all these years, he was the first player she had seen successfully enter the Lost Land.
She clenched her fists. So what if he had entered? He would never emerge alive.
Countless curses filled the Lost Land.
Her treasure had been lost there, and she no longer possessed the strength to retrieve it herself.
The game had judged that she had lost her treasure. That meant she had no right to personally recover what had once belonged to her.
Only a player could help her retrieve it.
Yet not one had succeeded throughout all these years.
They had all chosen the side mission.
Even the power required to enter the Lost Land was slowly fading.
At the last instant before Xiao Huai disappeared, he tossed a golden sheet into her hands.
She jerked her head up, but Xiao Huai was already gone.
His voice still reached her ears.
So very softly.
“The people who gave you those peaches would never want you trapped here forever.”
Nor would they want the witches to preserve everyone through a sacrifice of souls.
“Ji Yelin’s” pupils shook violently. Xiao Huai had vanished completely.
She clutched the golden sheet, her entire body trembling.
One after another, her kin had left. Had their obsession ultimately run too deep? Had they been wrong?
Her voice shook with tears. “Your Highness, were we wrong to do this…?”
* * *
Xiao Huai opened his eyes and saw a string of numbers displaying the time.
[0:32]
Twelve thirty-two in the morning.
The surrounding darkness gradually cleared, as though the sun were climbing over the horizon and illuminating the earth.
“Fruit! Three coins a catty!”
“Give me two catties of these.”
He had appeared in a marketplace, sand beneath his feet and a happy smile on every face.
In the distance, a massive three-legged crow totem had been carved into a magnificent building.
He tried to stop someone, only for his hand to pass straight through the person.
Xiao Huai could only remain an observer and watch everything happening around him.
“I heard witches can turn stone into gold. How amazing.”
“Exactly. They’re so powerful, yet they still have to wander from place to place.”
“Lande will take them in. Our prince is the best person in the whole world!”
“That’s right! That’s right!”
Xiao Huai walked all the way to the palace. Everyone he passed wore a smile. The people lived and worked in peace, surrounded by harmony and joy.
When he reached the palace, he saw eight filthy girls dressed in rags. They watched their surroundings warily, afraid of every gaze turned upon them.
At that moment, a young man emerged from the palace. Sunlight fell across his short brown hair and lent it a soft sheen.
He wore splendid black aristocratic clothes, and every movement carried an air of nobility.
Yet none of the arrogance of privilege touched him. His eyes held only gentleness.
He signaled to the knights at the gate, and they immediately cleared a path before retreating far away.
With both hands hidden behind his back, the young man crept carefully toward the girls on tiptoe.
“Boo!” He suddenly stuck out his head and shouted, startling the girls into screams.
When they saw the young man, they immediately covered their mouths, afraid to make another sound. Several took out a piece of gold and said cautiously, “This is for you. Please… please don’t burn us…”
The young man froze, then shook his head and brought his hidden hands into view.
He had been concealing a box. He opened it.
Inside lay one key and eight badges bearing a three-legged crow.
“From this day forward, you are citizens of the Kingdom of Lande. You don’t need to be afraid anymore. We will protect you forever, no matter who or what you are.”