"Clang..."
Ji Li pressed his only remaining left hand against the handle of his cane and drew a Slender Long Sword no wider than his thumb.
The blade was long and slender, its edge razor-sharp. Crisp raindrops struck its thin silver surface like Wind Chimes swaying in the night rain.
The Riverside Stage drifted nearer and farther within the thick fog. The Female performer, singing her one-woman play, advanced step by step, killing her way toward the sole audience member beneath the stage.
She wailed her grievances and sang in a low voice, her performance flowing with emotions that were both moving and terrifying.
For some reason, an old nursery rhyme suddenly surfaced in Ji Li's mind, one he had not heard in so long that he had nearly forgotten it.
"Black sesame, poppy flowers, no food to eat, so eat mud and sand. Even your own children must be sold, guts pierced and belly rotted, hating Mother;
Black sesame, poppy flowers, no food to eat, so eat mud and sand. Sins committed in a past life, reborn only to be seized by ghosts.
Bronze Pipa, Washing Colorful Gauze, tall lamplight legs, short sweet potatoes. Golden locks and silver rings torn apart, blood flowing, head broken, yet still babbling;
Bronze Pipa, Washing Colorful Gauze, tall lamplight legs, short sweet potatoes. No marriage fate in this life to begin with, flesh shaved and bones picked clean to marry her home."
It was a nursery rhyme he had inexplicably sung during his first Manager Mission. Back then, he had believed it was some sort of hint meant for him.
Yet it had never appeared again, and amid the increasingly chaotic circumstances, he had gradually forgotten it.
But at this moment, it crowded back into his mind, surging in like a tide.
Now,