Chapter 138
Chapter 138
Wei Sen carefully moved the Divine Statue out. It was not as heavy as she had imagined, as though it was not solid inside.
“What are you doing?” the Faceless Woman’s voice suddenly rang out from the woods.
The moment Wei Sen heard it, she pulled the Anomalous Artifact, the Ceramic Doll, from her robes and hurled it hard at the shrine.
With a crash, the porcelain shattered. A Guardian Spirit, pure white from head to toe, clad in armor and wearing a Mask, appeared out of thin air before Wei Sen.
Without a word, the Guardian Spirit stepped in front of Wei Sen.
At that moment, Wei Sen noticed that where the Divine Statue had struck the porcelain, a piece of its black outer shell had peeled away. From within, a faint green glow leaked out.
The corners of her lips lifted slightly.
As expected, the secret of the Aurora was inside!
The Faceless Woman emerged from the fog. After seeing Wei Sen and the Guardian Spirit, she did not attack right away. Instead, she looked at the Divine Statue in Wei Sen’s hands, puzzled. “How did you figure it out?”
Wei Sen looked at the Faceless Woman and said calmly, “I have you to thank for that.”
“Me?” The Faceless Woman sounded baffled.
Wei Sen said unhurriedly, “There are so many rooms on the fourth floor, yet the bedroom balcony you chose just so happened to face the direction of the village entrance.
“At first, I thought you watched from there every day to see whether any new tourists had entered Aurora Village.
“But on second thought, that guess only seemed reasonable. In truth, it wasn’t.
“There is only one inn in the village. No matter when tourists arrive, they will end up staying at the inn, so you had no need to constantly monitor movement at the village entrance.
“That means what you wanted to see from the balcony wasn’t the tourists.
“Then what else is at the village entrance?
“This Divine Statue.”
The Faceless Woman remained patient. She had been here for a full twenty years, and the woman before her was the first person to uncover the secret of the Aurora.
After all, who would have thought the appearance of the Aurora was truly connected to the Divine Statue-and that it had been placed so openly at the village entrance?
“You dared come here based on that alone? Aren’t you afraid you’ll end up like those little girls in the village, stricken with a terminal illness and dead?!”
Wei Sen held the Divine Statue without fear.
In any case, this body was not her body in the Real World. Although she did not know what would happen to her real self if she contracted a terminal illness in the Eerie World, she had to confront this issue head-on if she wanted to achieve Perfect Clearance.
Time was tight, and she could not possibly go searching for a laboratory hazmat suit, so she could only touch it directly.
“Of course, that’s not all,” Wei Sen said. “The old village chief attributed the appearance of the Aurora to the Divine Gift. He enshrined Mahakala at the village entrance and had the Divine Statue’s body molded with black soil year-round.
“Since the material used for the body was black mud and charcoal powder, why did the little girls who had been in contact with the Divine Statue year after year all develop bone cancer one after another?
“As Dr. Li Shuhan from Argonne National Laboratory, someone who specializes in rare materials, you should understand that better than I do.”
“Kekekeke…” The Faceless Woman’s shoulders shook. “You… know too much.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the Faceless Woman suddenly lunged toward Wei Sen.
The Guardian Spirit drew the long blade at its waist and stepped forward, instantly clashing with the Faceless Woman.
Wei Sen immediately opened the map function while holding the Divine Statue. It showed that only two Red Doors remained.
Wei Sen knew a B-Rank Anomalous Artifact could not hold off the boss of an S-Rank Instance for long. Right now, she could only race against death itself.
She did not choose to charge straight into the dense fog, because she had seen the messages the others had just sent in the group chat.
A phone’s Compass was completely useless in the thick fog unless one had an Anomalous Artifact capable of resisting Mental Pollution.
At the moment, she had no new Anomalous Artifact. Walking into the fog would be no different from delivering herself into a trap.
And why had the Faceless Woman been able to find her here with such precision? Most likely, the moment she was exposed to the thick fog, it would know her location.
Wei Sen did not dare stop for even a second. While the Guardian Spirit was holding the Faceless Woman back, she skirted around the dense fog and headed toward one of the Red Doors.
“A mere B-Rank Anomalous Artifact!” The Faceless Woman swung its right hand, and the tattoo on its wrist burst with a blinding white light.
The Guardian Spirit, who had still been swinging its blade, instantly froze. In the next second, cracks spread all over its body. A blast of icy wind blew head-on, and it shattered into scraps of paper.
After dealing with the Guardian Spirit, the Faceless Woman prepared to chase after Wei Sen, only to realize it could no longer sense her presence in the fog.
The Faceless Woman lowered its head to check the footprints on the ground. Snow was falling heavily, and the prints Wei Sen had left while fleeing were already being quickly buried beneath a layer of snow.
If it gave chase now, those footprints would probably be completely covered halfway through, and it would lose her trail.
In that case…
The Faceless Woman smiled eerily and drifted into the thick fog.
It might as well wait for her at the finish line. After all, her destination was the Red Door.
The only problem was that there were still two Red Doors left in this forest, and it could not determine which one Wei Sen would choose.
One was farther away. By the time she reached it, the Aurora might already have vanished.
The other was closer, which gave her the best chance of escape.
The Faceless Woman hesitated for a moment, then made its choice.
Carrying the Divine Statue, Wei Sen chose the nearest Red Door.
According to the map, the Red Door was not far now, but to reach it, she had to cross a stretch of thick fog.
She stopped outside the fog for the time being and looked up at the Aurora in the sky. If the Aurora vanished, the Red Door would vanish with it.
Now that the “Divine Gift” was in her hands, the key question was how to escape from the Faceless Woman.
Wei Sen checked the two Red Doors on the map.
Since the Faceless Woman had not caught up from behind, there was a high chance it had chosen one of the Red Doors and was lying in wait.
It would predict her choice. Which meant… at this very moment, the Faceless Woman must be waiting beside the nearby Red Door!
With that thought, Wei Sen stopped rushing.
All she needed to do was wait quietly for a little while longer.
When the Faceless Woman realized she still had not appeared, it would either leave in frustration, or… it would assume its judgment had been wrong and hurry to the other Red Door while there was still time to continue waiting.
If the Aurora vanished during that wait, Wei Sen could also choose to return to the inn.
Right now, the Skeleton Monster was badly injured and would not come out to hunt any Order Keepers. And once the Aurora disappeared, the Faceless Woman would also be bound by the rules and unable to make a move against her so easily.
Taking advantage of this time, Wei Sen found a branch and drew the directions of the two Red Doors, the inn, and the village entrance in the snow. Then, based on the distances shown on the map, she made a rough estimate.
The distance between the two Red Doors was about the same as the straight-line distance from the nearest Red Door to the village entrance.
Given the Faceless Woman’s speed, it should already have been waiting at the nearest Red Door for some time.
And given Wei Sen’s speed, the Faceless Woman could also estimate that she should be arriving at the Red Door soon.
So, to be safe, she would wait another twenty minutes. If she did not show up during that time, the Faceless Woman would most likely think it had predicted wrong and leave.
Then Wei Sen could use that chance to rush into the thick fog and head for the Red Door. Even if the Faceless Woman, already gone, sensed her presence and immediately turned back, it would be too late.
Time ticked by, minute by minute. Wei Sen watched the time on her Watch. It was already 1:32 a.m.
Time to move!