Chapter 282: Wraith (29) Life Ends in an Instant

Amidst the Bamboo Forest, the tiger demon’s massive body kicked up thick layers of dust and smoke, spreading toward the heights and the distance like a rolling tide.

Tang Yu saw the dust and smoke like a drop of thick ink falling into clear water, quickly spreading out and enveloping the entire Bamboo Forest, staining everything in sight black.

More accurately, it wasn’t that the Bamboo Forest was being stained black, but that his vision was being obscured by darkness.

Lin Chen’s figure faded by degrees, blurring into a mist within seconds, taking on a gauzy texture; his expression was a blank daze.

Tang Yu jumped off the tiger demon’s back and walked over, asking, “Lin Ya, are you okay?”

Receiving no response, Lin Chen stared blankly at the void ahead, as if searching for something unknown.

After a while, he opened his mouth as if shouting, but no sound reached Tang Yu’s ears.

Tang Yu walked up to Lin Chen and stood still. He noticed that as he approached, Lin Chen’s gaze didn’t shift in the slightest, staring straight through his body as if he were completely invisible.

He looked into Lin Chen’s eyes but saw no reflection of himself.

A terrifying suspicion arose. Tang Yu reached out to grab Lin Chen’s sleeve, but his fingertips passed through the form, grasping at nothing.

He couldn’t touch Lin Chen, Lin Chen couldn’t hear him, and couldn’t see him… The suspicion became reality. Tang Yu froze, watching helplessly as the surrounding dust and smoke grew thicker, rolling back and forth until it completely submerged Lin Chen’s figure—or rather, painted his entire world into total darkness.

Everything was gone. Sound, color, and touch vanished. The mountain wind and the ground beneath his feet seemed to no longer exist; everywhere he was was a void.

Silver-white text refreshed before his eyes:

【main quest completed. Please follow the guidance of the Guiding Green Lantern to leave the instance.】

【Note: Each Guiding Green Lantern can only open one exit and guide one person through.】

【Remaining Guiding Green Lanterns: 5】

Tang Yu knew that the Guiding Green Lantern was the lantern held by the players.

Five lanterns remained, which could allow five people to leave the instance.

But hadn’t Luo Haihua and her husband knocked over two lanterns? Logically, only four should be left. Why was there an extra one?

Could the instance have been kind enough to leave a spare for a player who lost their lantern to take?

Tang Yu didn’t know that Qi Si had killed someone on the first day, resulting in an extra lantern.

Anyway, no matter how many lanterns there were, it had nothing to do with him. He was destined never to leave this instance… Tang Yu carried his lantern and walked toward the direction where he remembered the Residence to be.

In the pitch black, there were no points of reference, but fortunately, there were no obstacles either. He was able to walk straight ahead unimpeded.

After walking for an unknown amount of time, pale green text faintly appeared beneath the silver-white text:

【The instance is about to end. faction quest settlement in progress.】

【”Wraith” Faction: 5 people】

【”Human” Faction: 1 person】

The head count was roughly what Tang Yu had expected.

Though he hadn’t said it out loud, after learning the transformation rules between “Ghost,” “Zhan,” and “Nothingness,” he was basically certain that Luo Haihua and her husband were both Wraiths.

A Zhan dies to become Nothingness, and the “Zhan” in the instance, unless formed by suicide, could only be Wraiths.

The pale green text continued to refresh:

【Your faction is “Human.” faction quest failed.】

【You will remain in Yanghua Town forever as “Nothingness.”】

This was the result Tang Yu had long known.

He continued forward. The surrounding darkness seemed to dissipate slightly, and a scorched smell gradually entered the air.

A few charred wooden frames were scattered sporadically in the void. A nightstand with pages of paper on it hung at a height of two stories. Other places were dotted with sparks of various sizes, clearly the remnants of a fire.

This scene matched the description given by Luo Haihua and her husband. Tang Yu knew this was the world through the eyes of Nothingness.

He controlled himself to float up high and stopped by the nightstand. He picked up a ballpoint pen with great effort, wanting to write something down, but in the end, he didn’t put pen to paper.

—Death is already certain. Why leave troubles for the living?

Physical objects seemed to weigh a thousand pounds to Nothingness. Tang Yu could only hold the pen for a short while before he could no longer grip it and had to put it back in its original place.

He headed toward the east of the town. Along the way, he saw countless scorched buildings and stepped over ground crawling with ash and ruins, but he didn’t encounter a single soul.

It wasn’t until a massive mirror stood across his path, blocking his way, that he saw his own form in the mirror—frightened and wretched, drifting like a lonely ghost.

Luo Haihua and her husband had written on the paper that passing through the mirror to reach the east of the town was the world belonging to Nothingness.

Tang Yu no longer hesitated and stepped into the mirror.

As if passing through a layer of water film, suddenly emerging from a suffocating situation, the world brightened up in an instant.

Clear-cut black and white wooden buildings rose from the ground like an ink wash painting. Bright natural light illuminated every corner, leaving not an inch of blind spots or shadows.

Men, women, young and old were coming and going on the streets. Some had long hair and long robes in ancient attire; others had short hair and light clothing in modern dress.

Tang Yu looked down and saw that the ancient black clothing he was wearing had turned back into a black T-shirt, which was his outfit before entering the instance.

By extension, those wearing modern clothes were likely players who had stayed in the instance.

Tang Yu looked around, searching for Luo Haihua and her husband in the crowd, but failed to find them for a long time.

A few players had already noticed him and gathered around, one after another offering words of persuasion.

“You’re a player too, right? Just stay here peacefully. Once you’re here, you basically can’t leave.”

“Look at how good this place is. No injuries, no illness, you never die, and no scary Ghosts dare to disturb us.”

“There’s nothing good outside the instance either. Once you leave this one, you have to enter the next one in seven days. It’s better to just stay here and live a stable life…”

Tang Yu felt it was a bit strange. If he were trapped here and met a new player, the first thing he would ask would be about what was happening in reality.

Did these people no longer have anyone or anything they cared about in reality?

The doubt flickered for only a second before dissipating, never to be recalled again, as if the cognition had been forcibly erased by the high-dimensional rules.

Tang Yu listened blankly to the heartfelt words, and a faint sense of agreement actually rose in his heart, as if that was indeed the way things should be.

Staying in Yanghua Town, not having to run himself ragged between instances, not being disturbed by Ghosts, not having to worry about the future of humanity… it seemed not bad?

Even so, Tang Yu still remembered his business.

He looked at a player who seemed relatively honest and asked, “I have two teammates who also became Nothingness. I wonder if you’ve seen them?”

The player looked left and right, then said with some hesitation, “You must have been sent here because your faction quest failed, right?

“To tell you the truth, to avoid being disturbed by the instance’s progress, the time point of this space we’re in is fixed after the instance ends, which is the seventh day after the instance started.

“If your teammates didn’t lose the faction quest and only became Nothingness, they wouldn’t be sent directly to the future of Yanghua Town. As long as they have a Guiding Green Lantern, they can still leave.”

Tang Yu fell silent.

In the east Residence, the words left by Luo Haihua and her husband clearly stated that they had already gone to the future of Yanghua Town, while other players were left in the past, and the lines hinted for players to follow their lead and knock over their lanterns.

It seemed now that they had lied.

First hiding their identities, then providing false information, all because they happened to become Nothingness by chance, they were trying every possible way to drag others down with them… Tang Yu truly didn’t want to believe that Luo Haihua and her husband, fellow members of the Jiuzhou Guild, were such people.

But facts were facts.

“What if they don’t have a Guiding Green Lantern?” Tang Yu asked.

“Without a Guiding Green Lantern, they’re in trouble.” Hearing this, the honest-looking player showed a schadenfreude smile. “Then they’ll have to wander in the instance and endure until the seventh day before they can come over.”

“I see. Thank you.”

Tang Yu looked down at the still intact lantern in his hand and closed his eyes.

He let go, allowing the lantern to fall to the ground and tip over… “Lin Chen, I’m on the second floor of the east Residence.”

In the Bamboo Forest, Lin Chen was searching everywhere for Tang Yu’s figure. Just as he was feeling panicky, Qi Si’s voice rang out in the depths of his mind.

A sentence without context, merely giving a location, its intent unknown.

According to the established rules, since they entered the instance as a team, if conditions allowed, they needed to meet up at the end of the instance to ensure everyone was present before leaving.

This was a puzzle instance. The puzzles had been solved, the main quest was complete, and the danger was largely cleared. By all rights, he should go and regroup with Qi Si so they could leave together.

But Qi Si hadn’t explicitly told him what to do. It seemed not impossible for him to leave on his own… Previously, they had a disagreement over Tang Yu. Although they hadn’t had an internal conflict considering they were still in the instance, it didn’t mean the matter was over.

Lin Chen knew that Qi Si was now requiring him to make a choice.

If he left on his own, the two of them would part ways from then on.

If he was willing to go to the Residence, they could still continue to be teammates in the future.

‘I told you on the first day that I would let you live until the end.’

‘Ultimately, my choice to let you live is only out of consideration for my own interests.’

‘You’re my guild leader, and we have a mutual understanding. If you suddenly die, it would be very troublesome for me to find someone else to replace you.’

The words Qi Si had said echoed in his ears. Lin Chen clenched his fists, feeling a layer of fine sweat in his palms.

Judge by actions, not by motives. Qi Si had saved him twice before, and including this time, it was three times.

His life was given by Qi Si. When Qi Si saved him back then, he had also made up his mind that he could return his life to Qi Si at any time in the future.

And now, he had even co-founded a guild with Qi Si, bearing a greater responsibility.

What right did he have to slip away without a word and abandon Qi Si?

“Brother Qi has never wronged me, and I can’t wrong him either…” Lin Chen muttered to himself, the words Tang Yu had said echoing in his heart once more.

‘If one day, one of you really manages to clear the Final Dungeon, remember to mention it to the Eerie Game and resurrect those of us who died on the way. Don’t you ever forget.’

Tang Yu’s life or death originally had nothing to do with Qi Si. The reason Qi Si intervened was only because of him, Lin Chen.

In the final analysis, Tang Yu died because of him. This debt could not be counted against Qi Si no matter what; he had to carry it himself.

“I will clear the Final Dungeon.” Lin Chen had made his decision, speaking each word deliberately to himself, his gaze bright as fire in the dark night.

He spoke in a more certain tone: “I will resurrect everyone.”

…At the east Residence, Qi Si and Qiu Xin stood on the second-floor wooden balcony, looking down.

“Why did Teacher Luo and the other lie to us?” Qiu Xin asked. “They’re members of the Jiuzhou Guild, and their character doesn’t seem like Slaughter-path players.”

“Who knows?” Qi Si’s tone was full of malice. “Maybe they just died one day and found that death is truly terrifying and their death was truly unjust. In a moment of despair, they wanted to drag more people down to be their cushions, so that hell would be a bit more lively?”

Qiu Xin failed to understand Qi Si’s sense of humor, so he didn’t laugh.

Neither of them was bored enough to leave a message on the paper asking Luo Haihua and her husband why they had lied.

After all, even if they asked, they likely wouldn’t get a true answer.

Even if they got an answer, with Qi Si’s spirit of skepticism, he wouldn’t believe it.

In that case, it was better to leave it as a mystery and guess at will. After all, the dead can’t testify.

Qi Si had just trashed someone else’s lantern. At this moment, he took out his own lantern and toyed with it in his hand.

Although he hated being used and hated being lied to, fortunately, the result this time was not bad.

Meng Fang’s Yanghua Town was basically ruined. Luo Haihua and her husband had lost their lanterns, so their end would be nothing more than being trapped to death in the instance.

“Aren’t you leaving?” Qiu Xin suddenly asked.

Qi Si smiled with downcast eyes and said, “I’m waiting for someone.”

“Oh.”

“Why aren’t you leaving?”

“If you don’t leave, I’m afraid there’s a trap.”

“…”

An awkward atmosphere spread on the second floor of the Residence. The embers after the fire below danced with the wind, blown drifting toward the high sky.

Charred Human figures lay crisscrossed, collapsing into one pile of ash after another, merging into a single puddle.

Golden sparks nimbly embroidered the ashes, and soon the dying earth was carved with root-like cracks.

Qi Si rested his arms on the railing, his wrists hanging naturally. The lantern he held swung back and forth, leaving clusters of shadows on the ground.

He looked toward the distant main road and wondered for no reason: would Lin Chen come?

A naive and simple guy with a sense of justice like that, suddenly knowing someone died because of him, his worldview collapsing—it would probably be hard for him to calm down in a short time.

He might prefer to find a place alone to digest the information, or simply break off relations with the culprit and continue being a self-deceiving saint… Qi Si could control a person’s thoughts through the Soul Leaf. If he wanted Lin Chen to come, he actually only needed to give a command in Lin Chen’s mind.

But he didn’t intend to do that.

The Soul Contract might have hidden dangers, on one hand from the contract itself, and on the other from the instance rules.

He preferred that Lin Chen could follow his orders from the heart and trust him unconditionally.

That was a sentiment only a fanatic would have for the deity they believed in. Qi Si had no interest in religious superstition, yet he was greedy enough to hope to possess a similar tool.

The 【Crimson High Priest】 toys with the faith of the world, playing the role of a sufficiently base savior, enticing fools to erect a statue for him in the mud.

Even if that god is covered in mud and filth, in the eyes of the fool, He is still supreme; even the filth is an expression of beauty.

—But what if Lin Chen didn’t come?

Qi Si began to think seriously.

Directly manipulate and take over all his thoughts, turning him into a puppet that completely follows orders?

Always operating on two lines would be a bit too tiring.

Maybe he should just kill him and find a more obedient tool. Although that wouldn’t be easy to find, there would always be a chance.

So how should he kill him?

Extract the soul, cut off life, or do it slowly, like a cat playing with a mouse for a while longer?

Should he arrange a well-designed way to die?

A figure in grey robes carrying a lantern appeared on the distant main road, walking quickly toward the Residence, the breeze blowing his sleeves loudly.

The newcomer was completely unaware that he had been designed with multiple ways to die by someone, and stopped steadily in front of the Residence.

The flickering lantern shadows fell on his youthful face, making his features appear blurred in the light and dark.

He looked up at the second floor and immediately saw Qi Si next to Qiu Xin.

The young man in red on the balcony, like a phantom, lowered his crimson eyes and gave a ghostly, toothy grin: “Lin Chen, you’re here. Let’s go.”