Viên Cương let go and smiled. “It’s been hundreds of years. How have you been?”
I gritted my teeth and glared at him. “Great. I’m neither human nor ghost—how could I not be?”
At the sight of that face, my memories immediately returned to those dark nights hundreds of years ago.
Back then, I was just an ordinary child. Because of the war, my entire family was killed, and I wandered for who knows how long.
Later, Viên Cương took me in and brought me to the Viên family village.
At first, he treated me very well, giving me whatever I wanted.
Only later did I learn that he was a great master in the Viên family village, specializing in dealing with gods and spirits. Even in those chaotic times, plenty of people sought him out.
In other people’s eyes, Viên Cương was a lofty, godlike figure. But only I knew he was a madman.
Viên Cương’s ancestors were among the first mediums. Back then, the Viên family was extraordinarily powerful, but for some reason, no mediums were born into the family after that.
No matter how powerful Viên Cương was, he couldn’t summon gods and spirits.
He went mad. He wanted to prove that even without the gods and spirits’ recognition, he could still become a medium.
So Viên Cương began experimenting with creating artificial mediums.
Before me, he’d taken in more than a dozen children, but none of them survived his inhuman training.
I was lucky enough to pass the first stage, only to enter another abyss and begin my thirty-nine years as a child in a jar.
Viên Cương locked me in a small jar and poured all kinds of strange things into it every day, until my body stopped growing.
He forced me to memorize every incantation, then tested me with all kinds of poisonous creatures every day. If I failed, I’d die horribly.
After the poisonous creatures came the ghosts. I went from fear to breakdown, and finally to numbness.
Then, one day, I seemed to see things that didn’t belong in this world.
Instinctively, I recited the incantations I’d memorized. Countless gods and spirits appeared behind me, and I broke the jar and crawled out.
Unable to control my emotions, I summoned more and more gods and spirits. Before long, their howls filled the entire Viên family village, and many villagers died at their hands.
I wanted to find Viên Cương and take revenge, but there wasn’t a trace of him within a hundred miles. It was as if he’d vanished from the face of the earth in an instant.
After that, I survived on the thought of revenge, and in the blink of an eye, hundreds of years had passed.
7
Back in the present, I looked at the man before me. He reached out with a smile. “Hạ Hầu Thu, give me the Thi Quỷ Châu and Ác Linh Bội you took before.”
I took out the Thi Quỷ Châu and toyed with it. “Master, what do you want these deadly things for? It’s been hundreds of years. Shouldn’t we catch up?”
Viên Cương paused. “I have something important to do. Give me the Thi Quỷ Châu and Ác Linh Bội first. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up later!”
I stared at him for a long moment, then took out the Ác Linh Bội. “All right, Master. Take it yourself.”
Viên Cương’s eyes lit up, and he reached for it.
I dodged aside, summoned gods and spirits, and smiled. “You gave yourself away.”
“Viên Cương”’s expression changed. He tried to run, but it was too late.
The gods and spirits devoured him. The faceless figure disguised as “Viên Cương” vanished before it could even struggle.
After the faceless figure died, everything around me changed rapidly. When I opened my eyes, I was still on the third floor of the tower.
I sighed. Just as I’d expected.
I’d never left the tower. The so-called fragment of the Khốc Quỷ Liên was nothing but a trick.
The scene I’d just witnessed had also been an illusion.
“Hạ Hầu Thu.”
A Qi approached, her face deathly pale. Clearly, she’d just experienced a different illusion.
“Where’s Tiểu Song?”
We searched everywhere and finally found Tiểu Song in a room. He was dead.
“He probably couldn’t tell reality from illusion and died in there.”
A Qi pulled me outside. “Then we need to find a way out, quickly. It’s almost dawn.”
I caught her hand. “A Qi.”
I smiled and shook my head. “Or should I say… the Khốc Quỷ Liên?”
A Qi stiffened. “What are you talking about?”
I squeezed her throat. “You’re the one who reminded me: beneath human skin, you’re not necessarily looking at a teammate!”
We’d all been blinded by our assumptions, thinking we’d started out as real people. But the truth was, the game’s rules had begun the moment we entered the tower.
Sure enough, I felt something unusual at the back of her neck. I tugged gently, and a layer of human skin came away, revealing the faceless monster beneath. “When did you figure it out?”
“Just now. In the illusion, I saw Viên Cương. Do you know what he called me?” I gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Viên Cương was arrogant. In his eyes, I was nothing but a lowly slave. Why would he have given me a name? Hạ Hầu Thu is a name I chose for myself—he doesn’t even know it. Besides, the clue he left behind was to come to Miao for the Khốc Quỷ Liên, but the first thing he did was demand two other evil artifacts from me. That made no sense.”
“And earlier, that songstress—how could an ordinary person like you have spotted the problem with her hairpin so quickly?”
“You’re clever. You sent me into another illusion, making me think I’d regained my powers. Too bad it was still full of holes.”
“If I’m not mistaken, you’re the Khốc Quỷ Liên’s true form. You wanted to assimilate the Thi Quỷ Châu and Ác Linh Bội to increase your power, so you created this absurd game, didn’t you?”
A Qi flew into a rage, and ghostly energy erupted from her. But she’d forgotten that we were still inside the illusion.
The Khốc Quỷ Liên was powerful, but it had one fatal weakness.
Inside the illusion, everything had to follow the rules of the game—including the Khốc Quỷ Liên itself.
My power was restricted, and its abilities couldn’t be fully unleashed either.
I had to use my final chance to summon the gods and spirits: “By my spirit’s gaze, I bind your soul; I summon the ninth heaven’s thunder and fire to cleanse evil and corruption—burn!”
Thunderfire was the purest and fiercest flame. No corruption could escape it.
As A Qi screamed in agony, dawn broke.
There was another way to escape the Khốc Quỷ Liên’s illusion besides finding the exit by following the rules: kill the one who set the challenge.
The survivors clung to each other and wept. I looked at the thin cord in my hand and breathed a sigh of relief, too.
A hundred people went in. Only seventeen came out.
The tower collapsed, and outside the rubble, mournful cries filled the air.
I contacted the Supernatural Affairs Bureau to handle the aftermath, then took the Khốc Quỷ Liên with me.
So many people had died because of its selfishness. It deserved to be punished.
I gave Đường Hành a bottle of Soul-Burning Water. He soaked the Khốc Quỷ Liên in it, making it suffer the torment of having its soul burned by flames every day as penance to those who had died.
I returned to Miao once more and opened the gates to the underworld for the vengeful spirits there, sending them on to reincarnation.
Everything had been under Viên Cương’s control. I’d obtained the Khốc Quỷ Liên, but knew nothing about his whereabouts. It was as if he were invisible, as if an unseen hand were pushing me forward.
After what happened in Miao, I stayed home, listless, for a long time.
That was until Đường Hành called me again and again, then came charging into my house and dragged me out of bed.
“Ms. Hạ Hầu, something terrible has happened!”
I rubbed my tousled hair and yawned. “You’d better have a real end-of-the-world emergency.”
“How did you know? As expected of Ms. Hạ Hầu Thu!”
Me: “Huh?”
The International Supernatural Alliance had sent out a plea for help. Something had happened in Country R—their sky had fallen.
More than a dozen towns had vanished without a trace. Then a small part of the sky collapsed.
Those who went to gather evidence came back covered in fish scales from head to toe, able to survive only by soaking in water.
I looked at the specimen Đường Hành had brought.
The fish scales shimmered with an eerie light, their color just like that of one of the Ten Great Evil Artifacts…
The Quỷ Lưu Hoàn.
-THE END-