Burning Paper Offerings

One by one, the black cloths were lifted, revealing four corpses and four faces, no different from the people standing there now.

It's simply that makeup makes it look normal.

Yu Wan saw all the corpses, her expression became a little strange, as if she was somewhat happy, but not really.

It's time to go. The liberation I've been pursuing for so long is finally within reach, but the separation has come so suddenly and irreversibly.

"That's enough, let's end it here."

After standing there in silence for nearly three or four minutes, Yu Wan finally spoke, a barely perceptible smile appearing on her face.

The moment she spoke, Yu Xing saw the attic light up. Although there were no lamps or lights, it inexplicably lit up.

Yu Xing could suddenly see all the furnishings here. In the empty pavilion, apart from the five corpses, there was a strange circle drawn with blood at their feet. Some broken pieces of flesh were placed in various positions of the circle, and a head was placed in the very center of the circle.

Everything else was on the verge of collapse and disintegration, but this circle formation remained firmly in place, like the last line of defense suppressing this place.

That was my father's head; presumably, the other parts were also made of my father's flesh and blood.

"Please do me one last favor, Ye Qin." Yu Wan looked Yu Wan at the disgusting things and said softly, "I can call you that one last time, right? Destroy it, disrupt this thing that has harmed us for so many years, so we can leave. But none of us can touch it, so I can only ask you for help."

Ye Ming and Ye Ting turned their heads at the same time, their gazes fixed on Yu Xing like lifeless puppets, their eyes filled with a hint of excitement and urging.

Yu Xing nodded. So the deduction wasn't finished yet; this might be the last difficult point in his deduction process.

He stepped forward and examined the array carefully. He couldn't understand the patterns on the array, but he knew that if the flesh and head had just been placed randomly on the array, his mother would have made a complete mess of the furnishings when she was frantically scratching at the door. But the fact was that it wasn't messed up, and even after who knows how long, it still maintained its original appearance.

Yu Xing bent down slightly, reached out and pulled on the hair on the head, and sure enough, the head was stuck to the array and did not move at all, no matter how much force Yu Xing used.

"I can't figure it out. Is there some specific method to break this seal?" He tried for a while without success, then turned to ask Yu Wan.

Since everything he's doing now is Yu Wan wants to see, he can directly utilize the deduction subject instead of having to explore it himself, which would be too wasteful and foolish.

"When he sealed it, all his blood, flesh, and bones became part of the seal. After the seal was completed, this place became unshakeable." Yu Wan sighed, his tone turning sinister. "To loosen this seal again, blood is needed."

Yu Xing raised an eyebrow slightly. "Whose blood?"

Yu Wan: "The blood of the living."

Needless to say, Yu Xing, the outsider, was the only living person present, and had no other choice.

"How much blood is needed?" When Yu Xing asked this question, she already had a good idea of what was going on. According to the normal procedure, the person performing the deduction would probably need to donate all of their blood, or at least a lethal amount, in order to loosen the seal.

The final test for the strategist is a balance between life and survival, as well as a keen ability to find a way out.

"You can only bleed it until it loosens before stopping the blood supply. If you can't hold on..." Yu Wan glanced at him, her gaze unchanged, but her words were enough to freeze the blood of any living person, "Since you've chosen the so-called true ending, there's no turning back. If you give up halfway, I'll help you persevere."

As soon as they finished speaking, Ye Ming and Ye Ting raised their hands, still holding the two knives that they had somehow pulled out of nowhere.

Who can I complain to about this?

One second they were enemy forces, the next they were allies. Now, in order to help them find peace, after the diviner chose the correct path to the true ending, these ghosts have all united again, including Yu Wan, becoming the diviner's final threat.

"Is this telling me never to trust the kindness of ghosts?" Yu Xing's lips curled into a smile, then she laughed out loud. "So, if I don't want to help you break the seal now, you'll force me to cut open my skin with a knife, splatter my blood on it, until I die, and then you'll be free, is that it?"

"How dare you call me Ye Qin just now, asking me for help?" He looked at Yu Wan with a half-smile.

The ghosts didn't speak, but they all stared at him with the same sinister gaze, as if forcing him to make a choice that seemed to be cooperative but was actually coerced.

Yu Xing remained calm and composed, seemingly in no hurry, and simply stared back at them.

"Please!" Finally, the ghosts couldn't hold back any longer. Ye Ting said, "Second Brother, please help us! Haven't you been helping us all along? Now that it's come to this, you're not willing to help anymore?"

The little girl had a pitiful expression; her weak and pale body was very thin, making her appear even more fragile.

Yu Wan's expression turned serious, tense and making it impossible to tell what she was thinking or whether she harbored any selfish malice towards the living.

"Sigh," Yu Xing sighed softly, "Why bother?"

Yu Wan a straight face. Since regaining her memories, she has developed more and more ghostly features. Her skin is now bluish-white, and even her eyes are shrouded in darkness, like a stagnant pool of lifeless water.

"Yu Wan, this step isn't important at all," Yu Xing, walking up to Yu Wan. "At a time like this, instead of thinking about leaving quickly, you're trying to trick me. Are you happy?"

"This isn't the real world, but a world you created. The so-called seal is just a seal in your mind. I'm afraid that after so many years, this seal is no longer as effective as it used to be. The reason you're still stuck in the room and can't go out is simply because you're lost." With each word he Yu Wan's expression became more and more relaxed.

"You are all lost souls in the real world, the spiritual world, and this created world. Since this is the root of your predicament, how can I perpetuate this error?"

Yu Xing observed Yu Wan's expression, becoming more certain of his final guess. His smile widened, "You don't really want me to die, but are testing me, right? If I actually do as you say, it means I've confused reality with illusion, and then I'll fail."

"That's great, you're very clever." Yu Wan's face was irreversibly becoming more and more like the marks left by Ye Ming and Ye Ting after being slashed with an axe, but the aura around her gradually brightened from its previous oppressive state. She even bowed to Yu Xing, "I didn't want to do this either, but I had to."

This statement is ambiguous. If it were a newcomer, they would probably just find her incomprehensible, because she is the subject of the deduction, and it is up to her to decide what to do.

However, any veteran who participated in this simulation and persevered to this point could probably understand the true meaning behind her words. She didn't want to do this, but perhaps due to some force of the system, she was forced to make such a move at this time, in accordance with some unseen rule, to make the final selection of the simulation participants.

In that instant, Yu Xing thought of more things, and a subtle joy welled up within him.

The fact that this situation occurs largely suggests that the Yu Wan and the three siblings live in is not entirely fake, because their relationship with the system is in a "transactional" state. Clearly, Yu Wan is now doing something she doesn't want to do due to some influence, which can only be explained by her making a transaction with the system.

If this world were a fake world created by a real system, then Yu Wan would not possess such independent thinking, much less the objective consciousness of "must abide by the rules."

In other words, his blessings for Yu Wan and Ye Qin just now could actually come true, right?

He glanced at Ye Ming and Ye Ting, the two completely Ghostification young people who had silently put down their knives when he exposed their scheme. Ye Ting even had a twisted smile on her face.

Yu Xing laughed and said, "Now that I've exposed you, the final step should be complete, right?"

Everything created by the ghosts is false, including this seal. Here, only five corpses and four black shrouds can prove the past reality; everything else is unimportant.

"I'm truly glad you didn't fall into this trap, because no matter who you are, you helped me and us a lot through Ye Qin's body," Yu Wan said softly. "Thank you. Now, it really should end this."

After the once bright and cheerful girl finished speaking, Yu Xing's vision became blurry, and all the scenes blurred and changed. In a daze, he felt disconnected from the world, like the feeling of his soul leaving Alice's Park.

This time it's really time to leave.

Yu Xing wanted to complain. Even at the very last moment, the system still wouldn't let the strategists off the hook, insisting on setting up such a trap. If a strategist actually bled out, or turned against them on the spot without pointing out that it was a trap, all their previous efforts would probably be in vain.

Fortunately, it wasn't difficult to discern the system's intentions, as Yu Wan's expression had already provided a significant hint to the strategists.

The final scene probably won't fool too many people.

He felt his soul floating upwards, gradually detaching from his body. His perspective began to shift to that of God, and now he was looking down at everything in the attic.

Yu Wan, Ye Ming, Ye Ting all raised their heads, as if they could see "Yu Xing" fading into the distance through nothingness.

They stood still, raising their battered bodies—or rather, "dead shells"—and waved goodbye to Yu Xing.

Hearing such a heartfelt farewell from the three ghosts, Yu Xing lost all interest in speaking for a moment. He silently watched the scene and memorized it.

When he gets back, he might draw this scene when he has nothing else to do.

Suddenly, another somewhat unfamiliar soul and emotion passed by him. Yu Xing's pupils contracted, and he clearly felt that the unfamiliar soul was being peeled off from his body. He watched as a semi-transparent shadow that did not belong to him floated down and came to Yu Wan's side, transforming into the silhouette of a somewhat aloof young man.

The boy loosely put his arm Yu Wan's shoulder, then, like them, looked up and waved goodbye to Yu Xing.

The face was completely unfamiliar, bearing a resemblance to both Ye Ming and Ye Ting, but bearing a striking resemblance to Yu Xing herself. Yet, Yu Xing recognized it instantly; this was likely the real Ye Qin.

The next instant, Yu Xing lost sight of the attic and her soul drifted into a white mist.

He tried it and found that he could move again, although he was floating.

Suppressed sobs came from the thick fog ahead. He raised an eyebrow, floated forward, and quickly parted the fog to see the back of a hunched man.

The man was wearing a wrinkled suit, seemingly not bothering to fix it. He knelt on the ground, with a burning flame in front of him, stacks of paper money scattered all over the ground, along with many paper effigies.

Yu Xing leaned closer, but the kneeling man seemed not to see Yu Xing. Tears streamed down his face as he muttered, "Xiao Ming, didn't you say you wanted to get into a good university and find a good job so I could see if you'd grown into a real man...? Why did you leave me behind?"

"A real man should have his own car. This is the car you've been talking about for so long." As he spoke, he tossed a beautifully crafted white paper car into the fire. The car quickly caught fire and curled up, sparks rising involuntarily, just like Yu Xing had earlier. "Even down there, you can't forget your younger siblings. Take good care of them, don't let them be bullied..."

"Xiaoqin, I know you and that girl from the Yu family have a good relationship. Dad doesn't care if you two are dating too early. You can keep each other company on the Yellow Springs Road. Don't cry before she does down there, or people will laugh at you."

"By the way, you and Xiaoting both really like that school, so I'll bring it to you too. Whenever you miss your teachers and classmates, just go visit." The man took out a paper sculpture much larger than a paper car. Yu Xing looked at it; it was a model of a school, exactly the same as the one he had attended in the simulation.

"Xiaoting, Daddy is so sorry. I couldn't give you a healthy body. You were the cutest, and you were always the closest to Daddy, but you're gone now." The man sobbed uncontrollably, throwing many paper effigies of the little girl's favorite things into the flames.

Yu Xing's gaze gradually became strange. This man was clearly the father of the three siblings, and his face was the same as the head in the deduction. But judging from this situation, this father did not think that his three children would become evil spirits after death. He even thought that his three children would be happy and joyful in the afterlife. He was indeed a father who loved his children very much.

Why did he say those things to the priest in the church?

Yu Xing stood still when she suddenly heard footsteps behind her.

He turned around and saw a person completely shrouded in a black robe.

The man's head, face, and even his entire body were completely concealed by a black robe. His voice, deep and steady, carried a hint of seduction as he spoke to the kneeling man, "Do you really want them to leave like this? I have a way to salvage the situation. Would you like to hear it?"