Chapter 84

Chapter 84

Xiao Huai raised his head, the faintest curve touching his lips.

“I wager everything I have, my body and heart, my soul and spirit. I bet that one day, you will want to exist because of me, breathe because of me, and have your heart beat because of me.”

From that moment on, time seemed to slow. Breathing, wind, the flow of blood… Everything gradually slowed until it almost came to a standstill.

A Soul Contract glowing with golden light appeared in his hand.

It was a Soul Contract of the highest order.

Once it was signed, there would be no going back.

There would be no winner in this wager.

Lu Yuanshi suddenly burst out laughing.

Xiao Huai looked up at him, only for Lu Yuanshi to flick him on the forehead.

“Ow!”

Xiao Huai stumbled back a step. Forehead flicks hurt more than anything. He covered his forehead, and the instant he opened his eyes, he saw Lu Yuanshi smiling brilliantly.

It was a pure smile.

There was not a trace of falsehood in it.

“A gambler can’t steal it.” Lu Yuanshi laughed until tears gathered at the corners of his eyes. He rested his knuckles there, eyes half narrowed.

Lu Yuanshi leaned closer and seemed to say something, but at that exact moment, the flock of crows was released from the backpack.

Their caws, the beating of wings, and the players’ shouts echoed across the desert.

Xiao Huai stared at Lu Yuanshi, but his voice had been swallowed by the din.

“What did you just say?”

Once the crowd quieted down a little, Xiao Huai asked in a low voice.

Lu Yuanshi shook his head. “I never meant for you to hear it.”

Xiao Huai was speechless.

He narrowed his eyes and studied Lu Yuanshi. He was certainly curious, but now was not the best time to satisfy that curiosity.

They had a long future ahead of them.

Perhaps Lu Yuanshi had only appeared in his life by coincidence.

He had almost taken it seriously just now.

He had nearly wagered on something he knew nothing about.

How could someone who understood nothing about romance so easily make another person want to exist because of him, breathe because of him, and have his heart beat because of him?

Xiao Huai’s heart abruptly sped up, and inwardly, he sucked in a sharp breath.

What on earth had he just said?

He felt an inexplicable wave of embarrassment.

Yet his expression remained perfectly composed.

Only the tips of his ears turned faintly pink.

Without giving it another thought, he put away the contract and walked toward the crowd.

Meanwhile, Cheng Shan had already released nearly a hundred crows.

Everyone caught them in a large net, gazing at the flock with unmistakable hunger.

They were on the verge of dying from thirst and starvation.

If this continued, they truly would lose their humanity.

Cheng Shan panted, a satisfied smile on his face. “Great. Now we won’t have to worry about dying of thirst on the road.”

Night fell, and everyone shared the crows. Every face carried at least a hint of a smile.

Even players who had been afraid of Xiao Huai before asked, “Um… A-Zhuolang, would you like some too?”

Perhaps because Xiao Huai had turned out to be far better than they had imagined, some of them were beginning to warm to him.

Lu Zhi most of all.

He had even prepared a crow in advance and brought Xiao Huai a wineglass filled with blood.

“I… I prepared this. If you don’t mind, I’d like you to have it.”

Xiao Huai looked at Lu Zhi. Why was his face still so red?

Could this also be one of the soulbug’s lingering effects?

He accepted the glass and said calmly, “Thank you.”

The corners of his lips lifted slightly, lending his features a beauty that made it difficult to look away.

The other players had been sneaking glances at them. Their eyes widened despite themselves.

So A-Zhuolang could smile in such a normal, beautiful way too.

The atmosphere among the group eased considerably that night.

As long as their interests did not conflict, humans could maintain the appearance of kindness.

But the moment those interests came under threat, they would turn on one another.
In only an instant.

* * *

Deep into the night, everyone was asleep.

Xiao Huai felt no desire to sleep that night. He left the group alone and looked up at the vast, boundless sky.

The stars flickered ceaselessly, as though they meant to swallow everything whole.

The wound on his left hand had clearly stopped bleeding earlier, but now a sharp pain stabbed through it.

It was as if invisible knives had grown from the air and were slowly tearing the wound open.

Xiao Huai unwound the bandage around his left hand. A drop of blood fell to the ground.

The instant it struck the sand, it seemed to awaken sleeping spirits. The ground within a three-foot radius of him began to glow with a dim blue light.

It resembled pure moonlight.

The moon.

Xiao Huai raised his head. A bright full moon hung high in the sky.

Rule Four: [Do not stare at the moon for too long. It is dangerous.]

He kept his eyes fixed on the moon, and the blue glow around him deepened.

Xiao Huai steadied himself as every detail around him became infinitely magnified.

He caught a faint scent.

That strange fragrance.

[Warning: Sanity decreased by 1. Current Sanity: 90.]

Since entering the Witch’s House instance, Xiao Huai’s Sanity had naturally recovered by only one point.

Staring at the moon actually caused his Sanity to fall.

Rule Four was most likely true.

But what would happen if he kept staring?

All at once, he heard rustling sounds from every direction.

The eerie blue light wrapped around him.

His ears twitched. He heard it.

He heard people talking.

They were not the voices of the players, but the raw, bustling sounds one would hear only in a marketplace.

“Fruit! Three coins a pound!”

“Give me two pounds of these.”

Xiao Huai abruptly snapped back to his senses and looked around. Aside from the dim blue light, there was nothing there.

Then what had he just heard?

It had definitely not been an auditory hallucination.

He glanced down. A tiny blue insect the size of a finger clung to his leg, its two antennae trembling without pause.

Xiao Huai caught it by its antennae and lifted it in front of his face.

He narrowed his eyes and examined the blue insect.

Under the moonlight, even its internal organs were visible.

Was this a soulbug?

In the next second, the soulbug seemed to shed its soul. Its shell shriveled as a thread of white smoke drifted out and slipped into the wound on Xiao Huai’s left hand.

Xiao Huai’s pupils widened slightly.

The voices in his ears grew increasingly chaotic.

“They’re here! Help! Run!”

“Live. You have to survive…”

“So beautiful…”

The children seemed to laugh bitterly. “Here… we never grow up.”

Some unseen force seemed to drag Xiao Huai away. He was many times more sensitive than Lu Zhi, and dreamlike images overwhelmed his five senses and flooded into his mind.

Numbing hallucinations followed.

They were more dizzying than eating countless hallucinogenic mushrooms raw. For a moment, he could not even tell one direction from another.

In the hallucination, a blazing sun hung in the empty sky above a prosperous ancient city, where children ran and played.

He raised his head and stared directly at the sun. Without warning, an entirely black three-legged crow plunged from beneath it and shot toward Xiao Huai with the speed of a bullet.

Xiao Huai’s pupils contracted, and he bit down hard on his lip.

The instant blood welled out,

the hallucination vanished.

What followed was an overwhelming wave of dizziness and nausea.

System alerts filled his ears. [Warning: Sanity is decreasing… Current Sanity: 87.]

[Warning: Sanity continues to decrease. Current Sanity: …85.]

Xiao Huai raised his hand.

Countless green insects covered his left hand, desperately trying to burrow into the wound.