Chapter 77

Luo Jia Bai asked, “The Prison we entered at the start of the Instance?”

The moment of wits and struggle with the Bone Fish had left a deep impression on him. As soon as Mirella mentioned it, he remembered.

“How long was that child locked up in the Prison?” Luo Jia Bai said in surprise. “Such a huge wall, all painted by one person?”

“There were paintings not only in the Prison where we were held,” Lu Li recalled. “On the way out, every cell had murals on the walls.”

“The villagers said the Prison held the most heinous criminals. Clearly, the child had already followed the Hunter Adoptive Father into the Rich District, and was even about to become one of the Nobles thanks to the Red Coral. Why was he sent back to the Poor Village?”

What crime did this child commit?

[Congratulations, Player, you have discovered Key Clue 2.]

[The resisting body and bloodstained hands are your first mistake. Later, the secret you hid for so long was finally uncovered. Everyone realized this was not an ordinary mistake, but a monstrous crime!]

[People see you and feel fear and disgust! Even those who come into contact with you are guilty of the same crime. Thus, you are condemned by all, spat upon by the crowd!]

[What crime did this child commit?]

Mrs. Qiao’s voice rang out loudly from outside, “Guests, you don’t have much time left! Have you found the Red Coral?”

“Lately, there have been damned Mice in the house. Maid, have you been slacking off again! Go catch the Mice right now! Chop them up and throw them into the river near the Poor Village. A single wall can’t keep filth out-let them roll back to where they came from!”

After Mrs. Qiao finished roaring, a hole was suddenly hacked into the wall closest to the three of them.

“Ka”

“Ka”

A knife tip poked through the hole.

The Maid’s face was outside the hole, holding a kitchen knife, hacking at the wall again and again.

She pressed her eye to the hole, peering inside, the tip of the kitchen knife glinting with a sharp, cold light.

“I see you, little Mice.”

The Maid hacked even more frantically.

The hole grew larger and larger, the wall trembling and cracking, about to collapse. Luo Jia Bai felt his scalp tingle as he watched.

“Red Coral, Red Coral, Mrs. Qiao insists on finding the Red Coral!”

“Besides this painting, where else is there Red Coral? The room is so empty, there’s nowhere to hide anything!”

Lu Li pondered, “The Bone Fish in the mural swam out of the wall.”

Could the Red Coral in the painting also be taken out?

The wall was completely hacked open, and the Maid rushed in with the knife.

Every step she took,

the floor caved in and cracked, falling away as if there was a bottomless abyss beneath the room.

“Shit!! Danger!” Luo Jia Bai saw the Maid raise her knife to strike at Mirella, and he yanked Mirella over, shielding her with his own body. His raised arm trembled, but he did not lower it.

Luo Jia Bai silently recited in his heart: It’s fine, I’ll only hurt for a while, my flesh and bones will grow back.

Mirella was pulled onto the piano bench, looking up at Luo Jia Bai’s trembling, thin back, stunned.

Lu Li reached out, his fingertip touching the surface of the card.

This card did not have a waterproof film.

What he felt was not paper,

but damp seawater.

His hand slipped easily into the image.

He touched that blazing expanse of Red Coral and broke off a small piece.

[Key Item Exploration Progress: +0.4]

When Lu Li took the Red Coral from the card,

the Maid’s movements stopped. The tip of the knife halted against Luo Jia Bai, having already cut his clothes and left a thin wound.

A slight sting came, but the wound was small and healed quickly.

Lu Li looked at the frozen Maid and exhaled in relief.

Luo Jia Bai’s back was soaked in cold sweat. He slumped to the ground, confused. “Why did everything stop moving?”

Mirella looked at Lu Li. “Because he found the real Red Coral.”

Though the Maid was motionless, the places she stepped still crumbled and fell away. One corner of the piano collapsed, and the whole piano began to shake violently, sliding toward the hole.

Mirella grabbed the booklet just in time.

Before the booklet could fall into the black hole with the piano, she also took Red Coral from the painting.

Luo Jia Bai tried to get up, but his legs gave out and he fell again. He asked, “Where’s the Red Coral?”

Mirella lowered her eyes, broke her piece of Red Coral in half, handed one to Luo Jia Bai, and reached out to help him up.

“Red Coral, for you.”

“Thanks.” Luo Jia Bai stood up happily and patted Lu Li on the shoulder. “As expected of you, where did you find it? I didn’t see it just now… Hey! What are you doing!!”

The Red Coral couldn’t be stored in the Evil Spirit Bracelet, so Lu Li had to put it in his pocket.

But he accidentally knocked the White Flower out of his pocket.

The White Flower tumbled toward the black hole where the piano had slid.

Lu Li’s mind went blank.

He had used an Item to secure it; the White Flower shouldn’t have fallen.

The next second, his body moved faster than his mind, and he jumped off the piano bench.

He couldn’t lose it.

“Damn! Why did he jump down!?” Luo Jia Bai panicked. “This hole is so deep you can’t see the bottom! If you want the flower so badly, I have one too, I’ll give you mine! Lu Li!”

Luo Jia Bai grabbed Mirella and slid down from the piano bench leg.

But when they landed, they found Lu Li was also on the ground.

Everything in the room seemed to have reversed in time, returning to its unbroken state.

Lu Li landed with the bouquet.

But he watched helplessly as the flower turned into a Small Mirror, lying alone by the piano leg.

He picked up the mirror, put it down, and searched everywhere.

He checked every corner, but the flower was gone.

The Wristband vibrated, delivering a piece of good news.
[Congratulations on Discovery: Mirror of True Self]

[Key Item Exploration Progress: +1]

Luo Jia Bai ran over, anxious and flustered. “I have a flower too! It’s just like yours! Why don’t you take mine instead?”

He reached into his pocket, only to find it empty. Stunned, he exclaimed, “Huh? Where’s… where’s my flower?”

The Maid was no longer motionless. She took two steps forward, lowered her head to examine the three of them closely, and said in surprise, “Turns out I was mistaken! You’re not Mice, you’re honored guests!”

“Guests! You really found the rare Red Coral! Madam will be so pleased. Please, follow me back!”

Lu Li held a Small Mirror that could be grasped in one hand, looking disappointed.

“The flower turned into a Key Item.”

Mr. Qiao and Mrs. Qiao had clearly said they could pick whatever they wanted.

Feng Shan had also used his device to check that Items in the Instance could indeed be taken.

He had brought them back to give to Bosi.

It was a promised gift.

Now, it had vanished forever, transformed into an Item.

How could the Instance go back on its word?

Isn’t this just cheating?

–

Morning in the Underworld.

The Horned Evil God was holding a bouquet of flowers for the Underworld King.

Treasures sent from the ten Evil God Palaces were being delivered one after another. Bosi was picking out a vase from among them.

“Return this one, it’s dirty.”

“No, this one’s ugly.”

A bead of sweat trickled down his temple. The Horned Evil God hurriedly flicked it half a meter away, afraid it would touch the flowers.

Just now, the King had told him to face the flowers with the human half of his face, and turn the bony half away.

When the King spoke, his tone was icy, as if a knife was pressed to his throat.

He had no doubt that if a drop of corpse water accidentally fell on the petals, he’d be dismissed tomorrow for stepping into the Underworld King’s Palace with his left foot first.

After a long time, he still hadn’t picked out a vase.

Suddenly, the flowers in his hands vanished into thin air.

Horned Evil God: !?

His hands were still cupped as if holding the bouquet, sweat pouring down half his face as he looked at the Underworld King, at a loss. “My King, the flowers… are gone.”

Bosi’s gaze was so cold it could freeze the entire Underworld.

He narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, “Where did they go?”

With a thud, the Horned Evil God was so frightened he dropped to his knees. “I really didn’t touch them!! Could it be that the Underworld environment isn’t suitable for living things, so they disappeared?!”

Fortunately, the case was solved quickly.

The Horned Evil God had nearly failed to prove his innocence.

Kneeling, he saw the King receive a message, and then the oppressive atmosphere in the Palace dissipated. The King turned away from him and opened a screen to go online.

Even though they were far apart,

His eyesight was just too good! He accidentally saw that the King wasn’t just browsing online, but had opened the Necromancer Game icon, and then clicked into a Live Stream Room!

The King watched the stream with his back to him. The more he watched, the lower the air pressure became. Then he even raised his hand and reported a Bullet Comment!

The Horned Evil God felt the world spinning.

Browsing the internet, watching a Streamer, reporting Bullet Comments…

So it wasn’t a problem with the flowers.

Nor was it a problem with the Underworld.

“It must be my brain that’s the problem,” the Horned Evil God muttered. “Too scary. After being an Evil God for so many years, I’m actually starting to dream today.”

He looked at his own hand, broke off a piece of bone to see if it hurt, and muttered to himself,

“Am I at work right now, or am I dreaming?”

–

Bosi entered the Live Stream Room and saw the bouquet reappear in Lu Li’s hand, thoughtful.

Items in the Instance have their purpose during clearance, so Players can’t keep them for themselves.

In the end, the bouquet disappeared from Lu Li’s hand and turned into a Mirror.

That made sense.

Bosi thought, even though the gift was gone, Lu Li’s intention to give a gift remained. Shouldn’t he return the favor as well?

Looking at Lu Li holding the Mirror on the screen, Bosi guessed he must be in a bad mood now.

It seemed the loss of the flower was a big blow to Lu Li.

In the message just now, Lu Li had sworn he would bring the flower back for him tonight.

Now he could already foresee what would happen tonight.

The atmosphere tonight would definitely be cold.

Bosi tapped his fingertips lightly, thinking.

He had never returned a gift before.

He didn’t know what to give.

Maybe he should give one exactly the same.

Or something similar.

Lu Li liked flowers so much, finding a flower should be right.

Then the atmosphere tonight wouldn’t be so cold.

Bosi turned off the screen, turned to the Horned Evil God and said, “Go find the best flower in the Underworld.”

“Why are you kneeling on the ground?”

“My legs aren’t good,” the Horned Evil God chuckled dryly, patted his knees, and stood up. “I’ll go look for you right away.”

News of the Underworld King’s carpet search for flowers spread throughout the Underworld.

Some Evil Gods came in the afternoon to claim credit and offer flowers.

“My King, I used polished bone to assemble a bouquet for you! Look, every piece can be taken apart and put back together. Not only can it be assembled into this Bone Flower, but also that Bone Flower. It’s very versatile!”

The Evil God’s twenty fingers moved nimbly, taking apart and reassembling the bouquet in front of Bosi. Another Evil God squeezed him aside.

“You liked playing with Building Blocks when you were alive, and now you’re still playing with them in front of the King after death? Go, go, go, this thing definitely won’t do!”

“My King, look! This is a Blooming Eyeball Flower made from ninety-nine Eyeballs! Is this the flower you’re looking for?”

“You get out of here! What a lousy thing with such a tacky name! The floor of the Royal Palace is covered in eye gunk, there’s no beauty of a flower at all. I think you haven’t seen a real flower in ages and don’t even remember what one looks like!”

“Look at mine! This is carved from crystal, and looks exactly like a rose from the human world! It doesn’t grow, it doesn’t wither, and it preserves this perfect moment forever. My King, is this the flower you want?”