Chapter 23: Rose Manor (Twenty-Two) The Price of the Transaction

At this moment, Qi Si could not see his full appearance, but thinking of the form of the Ghosts Anna on the third floor, he figured he couldn’t look much better.

At least now, he was wrapped in vines from head to toe, looking exactly like a monster cultivated from plants.

After time reversed, he was able to maintain his human state; at the same time, he possessed the characteristics of a Ghost and could move freely; in the parlance of trending topics, he was “Schrödinger’s Qi Si.”

The original checkmate situation had been revived.

His blood vessels were filled with a power that wasn’t his own, rampaging violently and boundlessly.

His field of view switched between a limited perspective and a God’s Eye View, visualizing the macro and micro details of the entire manor in his mind.

Qi Si suddenly had an intuition that he could temporarily control the entire Rose Manor, even bypassing Miss Anna’s authority.

Yes, “Miss Anna” was a living person, and he was now a Ghost. Ghosts could kill living people.

Qi Si pushed aside the corpses surrounding him and strolled leisurely toward the woman in black hidden in the corner of the garden, who was Annie, the one posing as “Miss Anna.”

He stopped in front of the woman and grinned: “Annie, you never truly loved Anna. You only envied her beauty and yearned for the excitement of the banquets she frequented.

“You were afraid of loneliness, so you acted recklessly in the name of love, playing the role so deeply. Unfortunately, the world cannot be summed up as a stage play…”

The woman’s face became ferocious, but under the effect of the time reversal, she couldn’t move. Even in her extreme fury, she couldn’t lift a finger toward Qi Si.

This feeling of powerlessness greatly pleased Qi Si.

He chuckled and walked straight to the manor gate, squatting beside the stone platform inscribed with epitaphs, and gently tapped the ground with his bent index finger.

The Butler appeared silently before him, a programmed smile on his face.

Powerful vines covered Qi Si’s right arm. He plunged his hand straight into the Butler’s chest, which was empty, without a heart.

He suddenly realized, and teased with a smile: “I wondered how a manor without servants suddenly gained a Butler. So you are the brave man who pursued Miss Anna.”

The Butler didn’t seem to understand, yet he continued to smile meticulously, like a dull puppet.

Qi Si seemed to know instinctively what to do, or rather, the techniques for using the Ghosts’ power had melted into his sea of consciousness as mastered knowledge the moment the rose merged with him.

He broke off a rose from the branches covering his body and gently placed it into the Butler’s chest. The latter’s originally vacant eyes brightened for a moment before returning to blankness.

Qi Si gained control over the puppet in one second and ordered: “Go to the third floor and bring Miss Anna down.”

The Butler chuckled happily and, with a stiff body, entered the Ancient Castle.

Qi Si’s gaze fell upon Annie again, his smile sarcastic and barbed: “If I’m not mistaken, what you love is beauty itself. Your parents’ favoritism toward Anna created the illusion that beauty equals being loved. You craved love, so you craved beauty.

“However, you clearly knew you couldn’t acquire the trait of beauty quickly, so you could only project your need to be loved onto your beautiful older sister. You stared at her for a long time, hoping to become like her.

“You mistakenly thought this was your love for your sister, but it was nothing more than jealousy. Otherwise, why would you pray to the Gods to make your appearance the same as hers?”

Annie couldn’t speak. As Qi Si’s words sounded like a verdict, the resentment on her face gradually faded, replaced by an inexplicable sadness.

She looked up toward the Ancient Castle, just as she had stood silently outside the window on the first night.

Qi Si followed her gaze, but from her angle, the situation inside the second-floor room was still invisible.

In an accidental glance, something seemed to flash in the crevices of the brickwork a face covered in climbing roses, belonging to Anna.

Standing in the garden, one might not see the guest lying on the second-floor bed, but one could see the older sister wandering in the corridors.

Qi Si suddenly remembered that there was one final clue remaining, with Zou Yan… The staircase entrance on the second floor of the Ancient Castle had been sealed off by wildly growing vines.

Zou Yan maintained a standing posture, her body unable to move, only her vine-covered arms twitching slightly.

The moment the time reversal was triggered, she realized her plan had failed. Someone had figured out the key to clearing the instance before her and put it into action.

Who could it be?

Chang Xu, who clearly had an official background, Qi Si, who seemed to hide many secrets, or Lin Chen, who appeared to be completely useless?

There were too few clues for Zou Yan to make an accurate judgment. She could only hope that the person still possessed some humanity and wouldn’t kill her… Soft footsteps sounded behind her. Zou Yan’s eyes slowly rotated, attempting to catch the approaching person in her peripheral vision.

But it was futile.

The footsteps stopped nearby. She felt a chill in her back, followed immediately by the pain signaling death.

A hand pierced her heart from behind, carrying away the heat of life.

Blood flowed like a waterfall from her chest, leaving winding red streaks on her white trench coat, extending all the way to the ground, looking as if they had connected to the veins of the earth.

Her strength drained away with the blood. Zou Yan collapsed forward powerlessly, smashing heavily onto the floor and kicking up a cloud of dust.

From beginning to end, she simply lacked the courage to gamble, not daring to fully transform herself into a Ghost; Qi Si, however, was a person who dared to gamble.

Under equal circumstances, the person who placed the bigger bet should naturally reap the greater benefit.

Qi Si always understood the principle of nipping trouble in the bud. Killing Zou Yan and eliminating future problems was imperative.

He waited patiently for two seconds, then added a few more holes to Zou Yan’s body. Estimating that she was thoroughly dead, he bent down, flipped the freshly killed corpse over, and reached into her jacket pocket to search.

It was bulging, containing a key and a Idol.

【Name: (data deleted) Idol】

【Type: Item (Cannot be taken out of the instance)】

【Effect: Pray to the Gods, perhaps He will respond (Ineffective)】

【Note: God does not love the world】

The Idol was only palm-sized and felt cold like ice.

Qi Si’s gaze lingered on the Idol’s delicate features. The fresh red blood on his hand and his slightly lowered eyes clearly resembled the statue he had seen in the dream Graveyard.

His memories linked together in fragments. In an instant, various emotions that weren’t his own surged out like a tide.

Countless streams of thought churned in his mind, mixed with incomprehensible ravings, as if countless people were praying in unison by his ear.

“Welcome back,” They said.

A pair of scarlet eyes opened at the bottom of his sea of consciousness, bathing his entire body with their gaze from the depths of his soul, then transforming into blood water that seeped into every pore of his body.

Blood-stained golden vines descended from the sky, their semi-real, semi-illusory forms waving randomly like tentacles.

The strange phenomenon lasted only a few breaths. The next second, cracks appeared on the Idol, spreading downward from the top, and it instantly shattered into dust, sifting through his fingers.

Qi Si was momentarily dazed, instantly losing the memory of the past few seconds, and subconsciously forgot to think about the Idol.

He took the key retrieved from Zou Yan and went to unlock the door of Room 1.

Inside the room, on the solid wood desk beside the floor-to-ceiling window, the third clue was prominently displayed.

On the Papyrus, scarlet handwriting recorded lines belonging to the past.

【The Lord of All Gods, banished outside the World rule】

【The Master of Soul, wielding the Authority of Contract Transactions】

【The Great Existence, older than the genesis of history】

【I am willing to offer everything in exchange for the fulfillment of my long-cherished wish】

…【After my older sister woke up, she seemed to have forgotten who I was. The way she looked at me held fear mixed with unfamiliarity. All I could do was stay away from her, so as not to cause her more distress】

…【I left that man’s corpse to serve as the manor’s Butler. I wanted him to look after my older sister; perhaps she would feel a bit better.】

…【My older sister actually remembered him! I hid him, but she came downstairs and searched for him room by room!】

…【I asked God why only others were harmed in the transaction, while I did not have to pay any price.】

【God said that love, day after day, until death, is itself a painful price.】

…【I am tired, but I can no longer let go】