Chapter 78

Bosi pinched his brow and raised his hand, “Put everything aside. Leave.”

The Evil Gods shuffled out, pushing and shoving.

The Horned Evil God stood beside him and whispered, “My King, have you forgotten? There are no living things in the Underworld.”

And there can’t be any flowers.

What the Evil Gods could piece together now was merely something that resembled a flower.

Bosi said, “You go out too.”

Only he remained in the Palace.

Bosi looked at the fake bouquet that looked like roses, his gaze deep and somber.

No matter how similar, it wasn’t real.

No ghost could produce a flower that satisfied him.

What kind of gift would make Lu Li happy?

A cheap Pillow.

A piece of durable clothing.

He didn’t know about anything else.

Lu Li treasured the Pillow, hugging it every night to sleep. It would be hard to replace.

But the clothing could be swapped for something new.

The piece he exchanged for Lu Li yesterday had serious issues.

Bosi opened the screen, watching the live stream while browsing the Shop for clothes.

This time, he wanted to pick something waterproof.

[User Cat-Walking Sundae]: Compressed file-Top Secret.zip

[User Cat-Walking Sundae]: Boss! I’ve packed and sent you the Streamer’s fifty consecutive shots from the bathtub stage, the ultimate god-tier pics! Please check! I guarantee, no one in the entire Live Stream Room is faster than me! You bought out the rights twice with such high Points, so no matter who comes asking for screenshots, I won’t give them out!

[User01]: Okay.

[User Cat-Walking Sundae]: [Handshake/][Fist/][Flowers/] If you need anything else, just let me know, I’ll get it for you right away!

Bosi closed the chat window.

What needs could he possibly have?

Buying screenshots was just to help him study this strange, unkillable human more thoroughly and intuitively.

Only by understanding Lu Li completely could he kill him more effectively.

The time for Game Night was too short, and he didn’t know Lu Li well. Buying some photos to look at was perfectly normal.

He was simply a ghost who was meticulous in everything he did.

Bosi picked out the clothes and closed the Shop interface as well.

He glanced at the time.

Still early.

Returning to the high seat in the Palace, Bosi flipped a page of documents, but his mind was elsewhere.

What if Lu Li gave him another bouquet next time?

What would he do if there was nowhere to put it?

There were no beautiful vases in the Underworld.

Now that he had time, he could make one.

Bosi murmured, “What should I use to make a vase?”

He walked to the wall of the Palace, pressed his hand against it, and a huge, intricate, and ornate magic array slowly emerged on the wall, then began to rotate.

A “click” sounded.

Like a lock being opened.

The wall retreated to both sides, revealing a long, deep staircase descending below.

At the end of the stairs was a basement filled with treasures.

Treasures from both the human world and the Underworld adorned the place, sparkling brilliantly.

Colors competed to show off: pink diamonds, blue crystals, red glass…

Bosi thought, they’re all about the same.

All the colors were similarly ordinary.

Finally, he walked to a corner.

He picked up a heavy, unassuming gray gemstone-the least attention-grabbing color.

“This one will do.”

–

Before night fell.

Bosi finished making a pale gray, crystal-clear vase.

There were no flowers yet.

He got up and walked to the other side of the Palace, where an entire wall was lined with bookshelves from floor to ceiling, containing thousands of small compartments. The ones nearest to him had been cleared out and were empty.

These compartments used to hold frequently used reference books, magic array manuals, and recent Underworld newspapers.

Now, he moved all those things elsewhere.

Bosi opened the glass and placed the vase inside the cabinet.

In the freshly cleaned central spot, besides the vase, two other compartments held items: one was the Black Robe he had worn, wrinkled by Lu Li.

The other was Lu Li’s Heart.

Bosi looked at the Heart placed in the central compartment through the glass.

His slender fingertip tapped lightly on the glass.

It seemed a bit drier than yesterday.

Bosi pondered, “Is it lacking water?”

He left the Palace to fetch water and quickly returned.

He opened the cabinet and watered Lu Li’s Heart.

The Heart became moist and vibrant again.

Bosi closed the cabinet.

He returned to his desk and continued working.

Lu Li thought the Heart was trash, but Bosi found it fascinating and incomprehensible.

It needed to be kept as close as possible.

He would study it carefully whenever he had time.

Bosi glanced at the time again.

How absurd-after doing so much, there was still an hour until night.

–

When Lu Li and the other two returned to the dining hall, they saw Feng Shan and Song Changrong arguing with the male Player who was supposed to be their teammate.

Feng Shan said, “I told you, I don’t have any extra Points for you! Ye Jiachen, you’re not dead yet, so what are you panicking about?”

“How am I any different from being dead now?!” Ye Jiachen was on the verge of collapse. Lu Li followed the Maid over and only then noticed that Ye Jiachen’s face was gone.

Lu Li moved closer.

He discovered that Ye Jiachen seemed to have lost all his skin.

“In Mrs. Qiao’s stage, you guessed the wrong way to clear it! She found out that the child in the stroller was a skeleton, insisted that we stole her child’s skin, so she had to rip the skin off someone and stick it onto the bones! There were only three of us, you two are a team, and you voted me out!”
Ye Jiachen, in a frenzy, lunged for Feng Shan’s shoulder, but Song Changrong stepped forward, twisted Ye Jiachen’s arm, and pinned him to the ground.

Ye Jiachen seemed to be crying, but with his skin gone, his face was hideously deformed-his features had become ghastly holes, water spouting from his eye sockets. He yelled, “Your Master is a Heavenly Ranking Player, and you have a loyal dog by your side helping you, of course it’s easy for you to clear the Instance! At first you even said you’d be our captain and lead every one of us out of here! Liar!”

“And now? Everyone’s dead! I’ve spent all my Points, and who knows what else is waiting in this damned Instance!”

Feng Shan said coldly, “Didn’t you get the Wristband notification? This is a Bug Instance. For me to clear it and escape on my own is already hard enough. How would I have time to worry about everyone else?”

All his Points and Items, he had to save and use sparingly.

“Enough! Stop arguing!” Mrs. Qiao, clutching the dead infant, stomped hard on the floor. “You’re disturbing my child!”

“Hiss.” Luo Jia Bai glanced at the dead infant, drew in a sharp breath, and whispered to Lu Li, “This is nuts. The kid’s face really has turned into Ye Jiachen’s face.”

“Red Coral!” Mrs. Qiao stared, holding out her hand toward them.

“Hurry and give me the Red Coral! Do you have any other wishes? Or want to take any other treasures from this house? As long as this Red Coral can extend my child’s life, my husband, Mr. Qiao, will grant all your wishes!”

Lu Li asked her, “How do you know the use of Red Coral?”

“On the wall leading to the Noble District, there’s a tree that grows from inside the wall into the Rich District. This tree is the wishing tree for all the residents of the Rich District, because on the night of the full moon, as long as you make a wish under the tree, there’s a good chance the Tree Demon will respond and grant your wish.

I asked the Tree Demon how to find my child, and it said I needed to use Red Coral.”

Lu Li looked at her. “Did the Tree Demon tell you that Red Coral can also get you out of the Rich District and let you become a true Noble?”

“Don’t you want to become a Noble?”

Mrs. Qiao’s expression was conflicted. Her hands, holding the dead infant, began to tremble. “I-I… My loving husband is here, and my adorable child. Such a perfect family… Having love is enough for me! I don’t need to become a Noble!”

“Any wish will do?” Ye Jiachen shook off Song Changrong, raised the Red Coral high and offered it to Mrs. Qiao. “Earlier, to save myself, I threw away the Gold Brick I picked. Now I want to trade this Red Coral for a new Gold Brick.”

Even his ruined, featureless face couldn’t hide his greedy expression. “I want the biggest, most valuable Gold Brick you have!”

If this was the last round, then he could exchange it for the most Points in the Instance.

As long as the Gold Brick could be traded for Points.

His festering skin could be saved.

Even if he deducted the Points for a Life-Saving Item, he could still keep a lot.

“Don’t say just one-you can have two, or three, as many as you want! Qiao! Hurry and bring these precious Gold Bricks to our esteemed guest!” Mrs. Qiao joyfully accepted the Red Coral.

She pried open the dead infant’s mouth and stuffed the Red Coral inside.

The dead infant didn’t move. Mrs. Qiao anxiously pressed its cheeks, trying to help it chew. “Chew! Hurry and chew! Swallow it and your sickness will be cured!”

Luo Jia Bai frowned deeply. “She’s trying it without even knowing if it’ll work. She’s completely out of her mind!”

Mirella sighed softly. “That child has been dead for a long time. What she’s holding is just a handful of bones.”

“Red Coral is our pass to the Noble District. Each of us only has one. If we give it to her, we can’t enter the Noble District.” Luo Jia Bai was torn. “But if we don’t give it, she won’t let us go.”

Mr. Qiao’s heavy footsteps echoed in the room.

He brought in three huge Gold Bricks, dropping them onto the dining table with a bang. He asked Ye Jiachen, “Which Gold Brick do you want, or do you want them all?”

Tears no longer flowed from Ye Jiachen’s eye sockets-now it was golden liquid.

When he opened his mouth, golden fluid dripped from the corners.

Gazing longingly at the three Gold Bricks, Ye Jiachen swallowed. “Can I really take all of them?”

Mr. Qiao laughed heartily. “Of course you can.”

Luo Jia Bai clicked his tongue and said to Lu Li, “Three minutes. He’s only got three minutes left before he dies.”

Lu Li, holding the Red Coral, looked at Ye Jiachen as he lunged for the Gold Bricks.

With no skin to protect him, his body touched the Gold Bricks directly.

He was scalded, blisters forming everywhere.

But Ye Jiachen seemed to feel no pain, stretching out his arms as wide as he could, trying to gather all the Gold Bricks to his chest. The burns grew larger and golden pus began to ooze out.

Finally.

Ye Jiachen turned into a layer of bright, brand-new gold liquid that coated the Gold Bricks. A cold wind blew, and it solidified.

The Gold Bricks grew a size bigger.

Even heavier now.

Mr. Qiao took a Scraper, smoothed out the uneven surface of the Gold Brick, then picked it up to leave.

“Why didn’t it work!” Mrs. Qiao, holding the dead infant, broke down in tears. “Was the Red Coral not enough? Yours, yours! All of yours! Give them all to me, quickly!”