Chapter 132: Shuangxi Town (End) Sacrificial Victim

Many years ago, Xu Yao once asked the “Old Woman Xu” of that time: “Our family is already so wealthy, why must we continue to do things that harm others?”

Old Woman Xu said: “If we don’t do it, they will let others do it. If we cannot give them what they want, they will no longer respect and love us, and we will be unable to maintain our footing here.”

Once the engine of sin is started, it cannot be stopped. For the sake of a comfortable life, generations of Xu family descendants discarded their own names and took up the mask named “Old Woman Xu,” sacrificing innocent victims like the shaman in ancient Rituals.

If nothing unexpected happened, Xu Yao would also become the new “Old Woman Xu” on some day in the future, enjoying the wealth brought by sin with a clear conscience, and under the daily influence of years of exposure, become accustomed to benefiting herself at the expense of others and living a barbaric life.

But Xu Yao did not want that.

Call her naive or call her stupid, she deluded herself into thinking she could end the cycle of sin in her generation, even going so far as to use “love at first sight” as an excuse to save a County Magistrate’s Assistant who had come to investigate Shuangxi Town from the hands of the townsfolk.

She and that County Magistrate’s Assistant used the pretense of preparing for marriage to stall for time, finally gathering enough evidence.

She sent the County Magistrate’s Assistant out of the town while she actively drew away the pursuers.

While being chased by the townsfolk, Xu Yao was forced into a dry well out of desperation.

She thought that things would end like this, but she discovered with horror that death was not the end of everything.

Her soul was trapped at the bottom of the well, enduring the washing of the bone-chilling well water day and night, watching helplessly as her own corpse rotted into withered bones.

Some do not fear death because they have ideals and persistence in their hearts, possessing enough courage to endure the outcome of death; others do not fear death because they do not know what death is, blinded by a false sense of self-moved emotion, impulsively and hastily giving up their lives.

Xu Yao was undoubtedly the latter.

When she decided to redress the grievances for those victimized girls, the worst result she could think of was nothing more than losing her comfortable and affluent life and fleeing to the ends of the earth with the County Magistrate’s Assistant.

When she was being cornered step by step by the townsfolk, the thought of ending it all with death arose in her desperation.

On one hand, the Xu family had caused so many innocent people’s families to be destroyed, so it seemed reasonable for her to pay with her life; on the other hand, she secretly felt that her death might make others feel guilty.

And now, she began to regret it.

Why did she have to endure so much pain and torture when she had done nothing wrong?

Why, even though she was clearly dead, did those people not only feel no self-reproach but even refuse to let go of her soul?

When she first died, Xu Yao was ultimately just a sixteen-year-old girl who understood a bit of everything but didn’t really understand anything at all.

For the first few years, she cried day and night. As her cultivation gradually deepened, she used ghostly aura to permeate the surrounding ground, creating anomalies and nightmares.

Later, more and more corpses were thrown into the well, and she, along with countless wronged souls, was suppressed at the bottom of the well, unable to do anything.

In the long years, she absorbed enough resentment and gradually stopped pitying herself, instead learning resentment and hatred.

She resented the townsfolk’s cruelty and Old Woman Xu’s heartlessness, thinking every day about how to take their lives.

In the endless waiting, she heard the voice of a god.

The god promised her she would become the ruler of Shuangxi Town. Old Woman Xu and the townsfolk would all be manipulated by her like walking corpses, and Xier and Xu Wen, who had recently been killed, would also be reborn and drawn into a seven-day cycle together.

Xu Yao playfully let the townsfolk die time and time after again, allowing the players in the first few rounds to easily clear the instance, until she felt bored and began to seriously execute the deal with the god—

Kill the outsiders who entered Shuangxi Town.

Undeniably, she indeed felt a long-lost pleasure from the slaughter:

Why should she be dead while those people could live?

Why should she be trapped at the bottom of a cold well while those people could pass by and leave in a hurry?

A hundred years of imprisonment made Xu Yao accustomed to hating; she even came to hate that County Magistrate’s Assistant she had personally sent out of the town.

Why didn’t he come to find her? Why didn’t he come to save her?

When they parted, he repeatedly said he loved her. Why had not even a shadow of him appeared during these hundred years?

If it weren’t for him, she wouldn’t have ended up in such a state… Qi Si sighed after listening to Xu Yao’s narration: “That County Magistrate’s Assistant did not abandon you. He came back and searched for you for a long time, but under the concealment of the townsfolk, he was never able to find a trace of you. After he died, his soul was trapped in another world, asking everyone he saw about your whereabouts.

“I guess although you were trapped at the bottom of the well, you could not move freely within the territory of the Sangshen Temple, nor could you see the faces of all the ghosts, right?”

Xu Yao nodded stiffly.

Qi Si understood: “If I’m not mistaken, that Evil God wanted you to hate, so He blocked the path between you and him, deliberately making you miss each other. May I take the liberty of asking about the image and honorific name of the Evil God you made a deal with?”

Xu Yao’s face was so pale it looked like it was about to drip putrid water, her eyes completely hollow: “He wears a black robe, I don’t remember His specific appearance clearly, I only remember His eyes were golden… His honorific name is ‘The Master of Time and Space who drifts on the border of life and death, the Sovereign of Destiny who governs calamity and blessing, the Immortal Existence who heralds the end and the apocalypse.'”

At the moment the last word fell, Qi Si felt a gaze descend from high above like something substantial, staring fixedly at him.

Inspiration transmitted the ‘crack’ of shattering glass, but then there was no follow-up. The barrier of the world cracked a sliver and then the damage process stopped. The high-dimensional existence blocked outside could only watch from afar.

Qi Si knew that this was the 【Unaffected by Gods】 Contract clause taking effect.

The rules are supreme. Logically, gods should not descend to deal with players. Whether it was Qi or that Evil God, intervening in the instance was taking advantage of loopholes in the rules.

He attracted the attention of the rules by signing a Contract, and then used the sunk costs on himself to coerce Qi into the fray, believing that an existence who was also a god should know the method of utilizing the rules.

As it turned out, Qi succeeded. All hands reaching toward the gambling table were forced back, and the “No Gods Allowed” effect was naturally achieved.

The rules maintained their authority, the Contract terms were fulfilled, and the certain-loss situation of the Gods Gamble was saved… Hmm, this is a triple-win.

Qi Si stroked his chin calmly and used a god-stick-like attitude to bring out a certain line from his memory: “Xu Yao, as far as I know, the one you traded with is the most cruel and terrifying Evil God in heaven and earth.

“He harbors the same malice toward all living beings. What He loves most is inducing them to commit crimes and watching them struggle due to original sin.

“Things having come to this, He certainly will not let you and the County Magistrate’s Assistant find happiness, unless…”

Qi Si swallowed the subsequent words and then leaned close to Xu Yao mysteriously: “You might not know that there is actually more than one god in this world. As far as I know, there is a great existence named ‘Qi’…”

For the next three minutes, Qi Si used all of his meager reserve of positive vocabulary to package “Qi” as some kind of understanding, meddlesome benevolent god, and indicated that Xu Yao was welcome to pray at any time. The only price to pay was to find a way to kill Xu Wen.

Xu Yao was noncommittal, lowering her head in thought.

Qi Si said no more.

On the system interface, the silver-white prompt text was long overdue.

【Except for you, all players are dead. The “Minimum Death Count” mechanism has been triggered】

【It has been detected that you no longer possess the conditions to complete the main quest. Do you wish to give up the main quest?】

Qi Si said listlessly, “Yes, give up.”

The result was as unsatisfying as expected, but it could only be this way.

The main quest was to take Xu Wen out of Shuangxi Town, but Xu Wen had already clearly taken a stand on the enemy’s side and seemingly didn’t need player rescue at all.

The most troublesome thing was that as long as she stayed within the territory of the Sangshen Temple, Xu Yao couldn’t get over there for the time being and couldn’t kill her, so naturally, there was no way to bring her corpse out… Qi Si couldn’t possibly go down the well again and thick-skinned enough say to her, “The guy you made a deal with has been kicked out, come with me one more time,” right?

【You have given up the main quest. Your evaluation grade will be significantly reduced】

【Congratulations to the player for clearing the team survival instance “Shuangxi Town”】

The system voice was cold as always, and the word “congratulations” sounded full of irony.

Qi Si narrowed his eyes, watching the light dim, just like the screen before a movie starts, and then in a certain moment, there was sound and light.

First was a passage of classical text.

【Under the well was a small opening, as if there were light. Zhang Sheng, in a panic, knew not where to go, so he entered through the opening, and it suddenly opened up into a wide space.】

【The land was flat and vast, the houses were neat. Men and women, young and old, were all dressed in shrouds, believing themselves to be in the underworld.】

【Entering the Sangshen Temple, they burned incense to voice their grievances. The divine oracle said: “On the sixth day, guard the temple and avoid the Paper Effigies; on the seventh day, find your companions and help carry the Coffin out.”】

【Zhang Sheng did as he was told and finally returned to his hometown. Upon reaching the county, he went to the Magistrate of Pengcheng and told him so, who then sent the County Magistrate’s Assistant to go with him.】

Then came a scene of modern imagery.

In an office with white walls, two men were heatedly discussing the matter of Shuangxi Town.

“Director, someone has gone missing again in the territory of Shuangxi Town. At present, it can basically be confirmed that Shuangxi Town is a regional Eerie event. I went to measure the Eerie fluctuations around it; this is at least a B-rank Eerie.”

The speaker was a young man with tied-back hair wearing a white uniform. His face couldn’t be seen clearly, but the words written on the Identity Card on his chest could be—【Eerie Investigation Bureau】.

Behind the desk the young man was facing, a middle-aged man asked as steadily as a mountain, “Xiao, did those missing people enter the range of Shuangxi Town of their own accord?”

“Yes,” the young man said with no small amount of self-reproach. “If we had moved faster and set up the forbidden zone earlier, they wouldn’t have…”

The middle-aged man interrupted him: “At least now we know how this Eerie works. As long as one doesn’t enter the specific range, they won’t be affected. Report to headquarters immediately, designate Shuangxi Town as a forbidden zone, and then build a concrete wall.”

“So? What about those missing people?”

The middle-aged man sighed: “Do you know what a B-rank Eerie means? Even if we throw our entire branch office in, we might not be able to handle it well, and it might even cause an anomaly! This is the best state right now. If you don’t go near it, nothing will happen. If it has a need to periodically swallow a few people, I will request the council to throw in a few criminals.”

“Director, are you joking? Four people have already gone missing, and their parents and children are sitting in protest at the Security Bureau. If Old Lin were still here…”

“Don’t mention him; he’s already a thing of the past. Let the Security Bureau stall for a while. If it really doesn’t work, transfer a few people without families from the army to fill in; it can be considered giving them an explanation. They just want some money. If they still won’t settle down, treat them as a resistance organization.”

“…”

“Xiao, you need to know that we cannot save everyone, and we cannot afford pointless losses. In the face of the fate of all humanity, a small sacrifice is necessary…”

The image slowly faded, and the voices gradually receded as lines of silver-white text refreshed in sequence.

【The suffering of the individual is not worth mentioning compared to the comfort of the group. Those who benefit weave and advocate for benevolence and morality, cherishing their own reputation while standing by with folded arms, and calling it “necessary sacrifice.”】

【”Shuangxi Town” Normal End – “Sacrificial Victim” has been recorded】

【Automatically teleporting out of the instance in three minutes】

After seeing the glaring “Normal End” words, Qi Si made up his mind that as soon as he left the instance, he would record that Evil God who called himself the “Master of Time and Space” in his notebook.

However, what he cared about more right now was the “Eerie Investigation Bureau” that appeared in the imagery.

Did this organization only exist in the background of the instance, or could it also appear in reality?

…In the world under the well, Li Yao walked aimlessly through a hazy white alleyway, mingling with the flickering souls, her figure as blurred as mist.

She remembered that she had already died, but her memory of death had been erased, and she had been wandering endlessly in Shuangxi Town as an NPC providing clues.

And now, although she had recovered her past memories, she also knew that once this instance ended, the players would either die here or go their separate ways, and only she would return to the starting point, turning back into an NPC who knew nothing.

The past was muddled, and the future would also be muddled, with no hope and no end in sight.

Li Yao sighed to herself when she suddenly caught a glimpse of a beam of golden light from the corner of her eye, rising into the sky from the distant Sangshen Temple.

This was a scene never encountered in any previous cycle. Li Yao followed the golden light as if possessed, walking all the way to the front of the Sangshen Temple and pushing the door open.

There was no Idol in the temple, nor was there a single figure, only a massive casket placed in the center of the hall.

The golden light was leaking out from the gaps of the casket.

Li Yao stepped forward and pushed open the lid with difficulty. All light vanished the moment the lid hit the ground, leaving only a pale corpse lying in the Coffin.

“Qi Wen?” Li Yao recognized the identity of the person in the Coffin and cried out.

She half-dragged and half-pulled the person out of the Coffin. Feeling his cold skin and stiff muscles, she judged that the young man had been dead for a long time.

Despite knowing she was an NPC and “Qi Wen” was a player, their identities being completely different, Li Yao still felt a bit of sadness.

She knew that the taste of death was not pleasant, so she always hoped that others could live well and not have to endure the bitterness of death.

“If you die here, you’ll probably become a Paper Effigy too, right? Unfortunately, I’ll forget you very soon, and in the next round of the game, I’ll probably be chased all over the place by you,” Li Yao muttered to herself with a bitter smile.

Perhaps because her memories had just returned and there were too many words with nowhere to say them, she actually leaned against the Coffin and began to chatter away.

From being killed to saving people, saving people, saving people… If the living Qi Si were lying here, he would probably be so disgusted he’d bang his head against the ground. Fortunately, Qi Si was currently mocking the hypocrisy of “humanism” while watching the NE clear imagery and couldn’t hear Li Yao’s glorious past from across a world.

“The last instance… um…” Li Yao’s mind wandered as she spoke, and her lowered hand brushed against the pad of the corpse’s right little finger.

The next second, a string of prompt text popped up before her eyes:

【Name: Evil God Finger Bone】

【Type: Item】

【Effect:…】