Wicked Grace

Is Qu Xuanqing a ghost?

Obviously not.

She possesses an impeccable social identity and a complete and clear life trajectory. She has parents and classmates. Her life does not require Yu Xing's power to sustain it, and she has never experienced a situation where she is out of control.

She was different from Zhu Yan. In the kidnapping case ten years ago, Zhu Yan died, but she did not.

Qu Xuanqing was a complete human being from beginning to end.

So...

What's going on with the physical puppet and the ghost woman that Han Yan is seeing now?

The crimson longsword emitted blood-red patterns, Qu Xuanqing's newly opened eyes in his ghostly state, a figure in a white coat was reflected.

Endless darkness was the dominant color in her vision; apart from that, only her current goal was clearly imprinted.

Qu Xuanqing's consciousness shifted from her physical eyes to her ghostly form almost the instant blood and tears fell from her physical eyes and her ghostly form opened its eyes—perhaps that's not quite the right way to put it, but in fact, her consciousness was usually divided into two parts, one half in her physical body and the other half in her ghostly form, which no one else could see.

Now, however, half of his consciousness has been transferred to his ghostly body, turning his physical body into a complete puppet.

She felt her five senses completely open. Except for her vision, which was still limited by "night blindness", she could hear the ticking of the clock, the heartbeat of another person, smell the breath in the air, and feel the tremor when the blood droplet hit the ground.

But in her eyes, there wasn't nothing left; at least, she could "see" the people her sword was about to cut from a very strange perspective.

Her hair spread out, connecting to some unknown space. Her ferocity finally found a perfect vessel, and the calm on her face was gradually replaced by bloodlust and rage. She "stared" at Han Yan, her long sword pointing at him from afar.

Han Yan did indeed see the witch.

He could sense that the killing intent and power emanating from that sword far exceeded any description in the documents, enough to make his desperate state feel cold to the touch and immensely threatened.

He even had a feeling of confronting something sinister. His heart was beating faster and faster. Ten seconds later, he knew what it meant for his heart to pound like a drum, and for his blood to scream in terror and resistance, as if he were about to explode and die.

This was only the power of Qu Xuanqing's sword before it was even unleashed!

Even though Qu Xuanqing had concealed his strength and caught him off guard, he wasn't too flustered, because the outcome would still be the same. Due to the rules, Qu Xuanqing couldn't kill him at all, and the initiative remained in his hands.

Sure enough, when he felt his breathing was almost suffocating, his body was burning hot, and his heart was pounding so hard that it was about to cause his body to collapse and die, a strange power descended from the darkness and calmed his mind.

[You have been fatally attacked. Due to your status as the perpetrator, you are immune to all death threats except for failing the third-stage mission and being identified as an outcast!]

Ha...

Han Yan looked at Qu Xuanqing with a pitying gaze. He seemed extremely merciful, not even using his own offering to neutralize the attack, but instead allowing Qu Xuanqing to reveal more of his previously unseen trump cards.

How interesting! The strength that was revealed before was just the tip of the iceberg for Qu Xuanqing.

Han Yan greedily absorbed this new intelligence, shifting his focus from how to kill Qu Xuanqing in a way that would bring him pleasure to Qu Xuanqing himself.

From his perspective, Qu Xuanqing at this moment resembled the act of summoning a deity, a weak human pleading with a powerful being to descend and borrow strength to deal with a formidable foe.

The only difference is that Qu Xuanqing is now in the position of being "invited".

"Wicked Grace..." he murmured, his eyes gleaming with excitement, "This is the true Wicked Grace. I never imagined you were actually a core sacrifice-type predictor..."

He figured it out.

In the past, everyone thought that [Wicked Grace] was a sword with terrifying killing power. Because Qu Xuanqing herself was an outstanding swordsman, she was like a demon when she possessed Wicked Grace. Provoking her would mean the most direct killing.

But now Han Yan felt a real sense of power bestowed by an evil being from the ghostly Qu Xuanqing.

Therefore, [Wicked Grace] is not a sword, but a status-type sacrifice, just like his daughter Han Xinyi's [Smiling Angel], which is also a status-type sacrifice that is neither real nor illusory. The probability of such sacrifices being fused together is extremely small. They may not be strong, or they may be extremely strong, but no matter which aspect of ability they tend to have, they all have one thing in common, which is that they are extremely easy to hide.

Even if you wear it from the day you receive it, very few people will notice.

Han Xinyi's "Smiling Angel" shattered just before she died.

The same goes for Qu Xuanqing in front of me...

After receiving the [Wicked Grace], Qu Xuanqing probably wore it on her person the whole time. As a result, she was in a state of being blessed by the evil being, which caused most of her five senses to be closed off. She could not feel pain and there were ghosts behind her at any time.

The longsword that was mistaken for [Wicked Grace] was merely a physical sword formed from the overflowing energy of the Grace state; it was just one of [Wicked Grace]'s abilities.

Qu Xuanqing relies on this sacrifice at all times. She is definitely a core sacrifice type deducer. However, while other people's core abilities come from physical or illusory objects, her core ability is this terrifying state.

Even Han Yan had to admit that this offering was too powerful; only someone with a personality like Qu Xuanqing could fuse with it. After all, among the deducers, there were always some who could possess offerings that the system rated as "very strong" or even "too strong." This was both luck and inevitability.

Within half a minute of seeing the ghost form Qu Xuanqing Xianqing, Han Yan had guessed most of the nature of the Wicked Grace. Apart from not understanding the ability of the mask tied to her hair and the ghost form's ability to control her body, he felt that he had seen through her.

How foolish! If you have a trump card, why not keep it to yourself and wait until the next round when you have a better chance to kill me? Why expose yourself when you can't kill me? It's pointless except for being competitive.

Han Yan sighed. Indeed, the main responsibility for his daughter's death lay with Yu Xing. This Qu Xuanqing was merely a tool of Yu Xing. Her own thinking ability was completely incomparable to Han Xinyi's, completely incomparable!

"You've been distracted for forty-three seconds." Suddenly, Qu Xuanqing at him, spoke. It has to be said that Qu Xuanqing in this state was like a high-level evil being. Every word she spoke made Han Yan's head throb and his heart race. Moreover, this Qu Xuanqing was much larger than his body. She was like a proportionally enlarged version of his own body. Under the influence of the evil aura, she almost occupied Han Yan's entire "world." Apart from the ghostly form emitting a faint glow, the surroundings were pitch black.

Even Han Yan, who doesn't have night blindness, can't see anything except Qu Xuanqing.

Han Yan realized this a little too late; the darkness had solidified and could no longer be dissolved. Without hesitation, he raised the barrel of the ghost gun in his hand and pulled the trigger.

"Bang!"

With the muffled thud of the bullet being fired, a sharp, agonizing scream also came from the bullet, as if someone's soul had been carried onto the bullet's surface, experiencing the cruel burning of gunpowder in that moment.

He wasn't aiming at Qu Xuanqing, but at the darkness beside him. After the bullet flew a distance, it hit something, causing the space to tremble and breaking off a few long, thin strands of hair.

Han Yan's pupils contracted. The surrounding darkness was actually an encirclement formed by Qu Xuanqing's hair without his noticing!

Black hair itself has no physical form, so bullets have no effect on it; at most, they might break off a few strands of hair that have been shaken out from another dimension.

He believed that he had gathered enough intelligence in this round, and there was no need to waste any more time. The more time he spent in the morgue, the harder it would be to lie without giving away a clue during the identification process.

His gun barrel moved to the space between Ghost Qu Xuanqing's eyebrows.

In fact, Qu Xuanqing's best option at this moment was to take advantage of this powerful ability to escape, and then find a way to join forces with Yu Xing to refute him during the identification process.

But Qu Xuanqing clearly didn't want to run; instead, she was fighting him with the intensity of someone wanting to kill him.

But he won't die, so the only benefit Qu Xuanqing can gain from doing this is to buy time.

Han Yan's lips curled up; all of Qu Xuanqing's thoughts were within his expectations.

Look, he can arrange everything for these people.

Qu Xuanqing's delay increases the likelihood that his lies will be exposed. When allies like Yu Xing or Zhao Mou arrive, it will not only further increase suspicion against him, but Yu Xing might also take advantage of the absence of outsiders to list his crimes one by one, and mention Han Xinyi again, trying to make him feel guilty or impatient. In this way, his Personality Assimilation Degree will increase, and the chances of him making a mistake in the third round of twilight will be even greater.

After all, with so many of them ganging up on him, they must have wanted to kill him in one fell swoop.

If you're being greedy, you might want to expose his true colors in front of the entire audience... But if there's no good opportunity to reveal it, then let him lose three matches. In short, get rid of him first to avoid endless trouble later.

Han Yan's smile grew wider and wider. With a flick of his index finger, the bullet shot towards Qu Xuanqing's brow.

It's pointless.

Guessing these is no problem at all.

These people couldn't do either expose him or kill him; on the contrary, he had a way to make the guest who hadn't failed three times truly die...

He began to think--

Please, Yu Xing, give me a challenge, okay? At least use your brain a little and figure out a way to achieve one of your two goals?

If you're still this naive, don't blame me for pushing you into hell.

Qu Xuanqing watched the bullet fly past, her ears, eyes, and even her senses blended together, unfolding a bullet trajectory in her mind.

It wasn't a fatal attack; she couldn't kill Han Yan. To be honest, with Han Yan's attack power, he couldn't kill her either.

Qu Xuanqing finally unleashed his sword strike.

Blood shot into the sky, mixed with the endless expanse of hair, making it hard to breathe.

[Holy crap, what happened?]

[Qu Xuanqing was led outside the morgue. I really want to see what happens next. Can I pay to see what happens next?]

[The new Despair Level expert definitely wants to use Qu Xuanqing as his debut. If he kills Qu Xuanqing in this match, who knows how much his Star Deducer level will increase!]

[Just wait and see, it's not certain. Medusa and Qu Xuanqing, the Lingren, were also taken down. These two are veteran Despair-level characters; they can't be weaker than the new Despair-level characters, can they?]

[Exactly, Qu Xuanqing has provoked more than one person to the Despair level, and they're still alive and kicking. Even if they can't kill them this time, they should be able to escape, right?]

[I think you've all lost your minds. Is provoking someone the same as confronting them directly? If you let the Lingren stand directly in front of Qu Xuanqing, he'd probably be torn to pieces in an instant.]

[Another mythological Lingren has arrived]

[Another mythological Lingren... Damn, Lingren are just so powerful!]

[Count me in, Lingren are really something!]

[The Lingren is forever a god]

The comments section was still easily derailed. Even though many people wanted to see Qu Xuanqing and that mysterious, desperate clash, it couldn't stop the popularity of Lingren, a person who had been demonized or even mythologized.

It seems that even though he is on the Fallen Path Lingren, he still has many, many fervent fans, including both those who have strayed from the path and those who follow the righteous path.

This is probably the absolute submission that comes from absolute power.

Only those watching the live stream with a specific purpose completely ignored the barrage of Lingren's names on the screen, focusing instead on calculating every single second.

Inside the Research Institute's system exchange area, Zeng Lai fiddled with his dice, his expression somewhat grave.

The Research Institute is located in a solemn and meticulous old European castle-style building. There are dedicated rooms on both sides of the winding corridor for a guild member to work in. There is a conference hall on the first floor, as well as a high-ceilinged hall that can accommodate nearly 300 people at the same time without feeling crowded.

A dozen or so people were scattered around the hall, dressed in their own usual clothes, looking quite out of place. But their gazes were all focused on the same thing—a projection screen hanging on one side of the hall, showing a live broadcast of the Fear Hospital incident.

As a base for exchanging information with the system, it's not surprising that they have a screen for everyone to watch live streams or paid videos together. The Research Institute itself often needs to record data and make inferences by watching videos. Moreover, they are a guild with more than fifty people, which is different from a small team like the Widow Investigation Team.

Zeng Lai was watching the main live stream from Ren Yi the big screen while simultaneously watching the various sub-live streams in his Persona Mask system. He could see that Shafuri was doing a mission in a hospital room on the second floor where there were ghosts, so he turned on the split screen. The screen in the morgue hadn't lit up since it was turned off.

"Tsk, not Shafuri." Zeng Lai sat in a seat near the front of the hall, the dice rolling unconsciously in his hand. He tried to find the possibility of a desperate identity. After carefully comparing the list and information of the nine surviving guests after the first round of identification, Zeng Lai finally focused his attention on the information of "Han Zichuan" after much hesitation.

"Could it be this person?" He threw the dice on the ground, where they spun slowly until their speed gradually decreased.

Finally, a "three" appears.

Zeng Lai was extremely disappointed because the dice roll was in the form of a question, and three meant ambiguity, indicating that he had not received a valid answer to his question.

He's not qualified to talk about the level of despair.

On the big screen, Ren Yi had already gone down from the fourth floor to the second floor. As expected of someone who had been researching the Fear Hospital, he took a stroll around the director's office and actually found clues that previous guests had never found.

Following the clue, Ren Yi stopped outside a ward on the second floor, which, coincidentally, was the very ward where Shafuri was staying.

Ren Yi's hand was already on the doorknob, and he was about to bump into Shafuri when someone suddenly patted his shoulder.

Zeng Lai became nervous for Ren Yi until she heard a clear and familiar voice patting Ren Yi's shoulder. "Wait a minute, are you in a hurry to get into the ward?"

Ren Yi turned around and Yu Xing, dressed in white, standing in front of him.

His expressionless face remained unchanged as he asked, "What do you need my help with?"

"There is something," Yu Xing said, looking somewhat troubled as he was alone. "I asked Qu Xuanqing to go to the morgue and find a body for me, but it's past her designated time to stay."

"I'm afraid something might have gone wrong. Could you come down with me to check?"