At that moment, Qi Si couldn't see his whole body, but thinking of Anna, the monster on the third floor, he figured he probably didn't look much better.
At the very least, vines now wrapped around him from head to toe, making him look just like a monster cultivated from plants.
After time reversed, he was able to maintain his human form while also possessing a monster's traits, which let him move freely. To put it in trendy terms, he was "Schrödinger's Qi Si."
The deadlock had finally been broken.
Power that wasn't his own filled his veins, rampaging violently and with overwhelming force, as though it would destroy everything.
His field of vision shifted between a limited perspective and an omniscient one. The details of every corner of the manor manifested in his mind.
Qi Si suddenly had the intuition that he could now briefly control the entire Rose Manor, even overriding Miss Anna's authority.
Yes, "Miss Anna" was alive, while he was now a monster—and monsters could kill the living.
Qi Si pushed aside the bodies surrounding him and strolled toward the woman in black hidden in a corner of the garden: Annie, who had taken on the identity of "Miss Anna."
He stopped in front of her and grinned. "Annie, you never loved Anna. You just played your part so well that you even fooled yourself."
"You left that red dress in the guest room and wrote all those ambiguous notes. You were so eager for us to see your 'devoted' love. Too bad you were trying so hard that you came off as insincere."
The woman's face twisted into a furious expression, just as he'd hoped. But that was the only thing that changed. Time reversal had left her unable to move; no matter how furious she was, she couldn't even lift a finger.
Her helplessness pleased Qi Si.
He gave a light laugh—three textbook-perfect beats—then headed straight for the manor gate. Beside the stone platform carved with writing, he crouched and lightly tapped the ground with his bent index finger.
The Butler appeared silently behind him, wearing a practiced smile.
Vines bulged along Qi Si's right arm. He thrust his hand straight into The Butler's chest, where there was nothing at all—not even a heart.
Suddenly understanding, he teased with a bright smile, "So that's why a butler appeared out of nowhere in a manor without any servants. You're the brave man who pursued Miss Anna."
The Butler gave no sign of whether he understood. He continued smiling primly, like a wooden doll.
Qi Si seemed to instinctively know what to do. Or perhaps the techniques for using a monster's power had become knowledge in his mind the moment Rose merged with him.
He plucked a rose from one of the branches growing on his body and gently placed it in The Butler's chest. The latter's vacant eyes lit up for an instant, then went blank again.
In a single second, Qi Si took control of the puppet and ordered, "Go to the third floor and bring Miss Anna down."
The Butler chuckled and stiffly entered the old castle.
Qi Si's gaze returned to Annie, his smile edged with mockery. "If I'm right, you only love beauty itself. That's why you distanced yourself from Anna after she became ugly, and wouldn't even go up to the third floor to see her."
"Your pursuit of beauty was nothing more than a pathological displacement of your affections. Your parents favored Anna, making you mistake beauty for being loved. You longed to be loved, so you longed for beauty."
"Yet you knew perfectly well that you couldn't become beautiful anytime soon. All you could do was place your need to be loved in your beautiful sister. You stared at her for so long, hoping you could become just like her."
"You mistook it for love for your sister, but it was nothing but envy. Otherwise, why would you have prayed to the gods to make you look like her?"
Annie couldn't speak. As Qi Si delivered his verdict, her expression twisted in rage and anguish. Her initial fury gradually faded, giving way to a sadness whose cause was unclear.
She looked toward the old castle, just as she had stood silently outside the window on the first night.
Qi Si followed her gaze. From where she stood, she still couldn't see inside the second-floor room.
For a fleeting instant, something seemed to flash between the broken walls of the stairwell.
Qi Si lifted his gaze slightly. Through the translucent glass, he suddenly saw a face covered in roses, visible in a gap between the bricks.
It was Anna's face.
From the garden, she might not have been able to see the guest lying in bed on the second floor, but she could catch sight of her sister wandering the stairwell.
Qi Si narrowed his eyes.
Then he remembered that one last clue remained, and Zou Yan had it.
The vines that had grown wildly sealed off the second-floor landing of the old castle.
Zou Yan stood frozen in place. Her body couldn't move, though her vine-covered arms twitched faintly.
The moment time reversal took effect, she realized her plan had failed. Someone had figured out the key to clearing the stage before her and put it into action.
Who could it be?
Chang Xu, who clearly had official backing? Qi Si, who seemed to be hiding all kinds of secrets? Or Lin Chen, who had appeared completely useless?
There were too few clues for Zou Yan to make an accurate judgment. She could only hope that person still had some humanity and wouldn't kill her outright...
Footsteps sounded behind her. Zou Yan's eyes slowly shifted, trying to catch a glimpse of the newcomer.
But it was no use.
A chill pierced her back, followed by the pain that heralded death.
A hand came through from behind and pierced her heart, stealing the warmth of life.
Blood poured from her chest like a waterfall, leaving winding red trails across her white trench coat that ran all the way to the ground, as if they had joined the earth's veins.
Zou Yan pitched forward helplessly and slammed into the floor, kicking up a cloud of dust.
In the end, she had simply lacked the courage to gamble. She hadn't dared to turn herself completely into a monster, while Qi Si was someone who dared to take that risk.
In the same situation, the one who staked more deserved the greater reward.
Qi Si had always known to pull up the weeds by the roots. Killing Zou Yan to eliminate any future trouble was essential.
He waited patiently for two seconds, then punched a few more holes in Zou Yan's body. Once he figured she was dead, he bent down and turned the newly dead body over, reaching into her jacket pocket to search.
It bulged with a key and an idol.
[Name: (data deleted) Idol] [Type: Item (cannot be taken out of the instance)] [Effect: Pray to the god. Perhaps it will answer (no longer effective)] [Note: The god does not love humankind]
The idol was only palm-sized and ice-cold to the touch.
Qi Si's gaze lingered on its exquisite face: the scarlet in its hands, its eyes lowered. It was unmistakably the idol he had seen in the Dream Graveyard.
Memories connected into a whole. In an instant, emotions that weren't his surged forth like a rising tide.
Countless thoughts churned in his mind, mixed with whispers whose meaning he couldn't make out, as though countless people were praying aloud in unison beside his ears.
"Welcome back," they said.
A pair of scarlet eyes opened at the bottom of his sea of thoughts. Their gaze bathed him from the depths of his soul, then turned into blood that seeped into every pore of his body.
Golden vines, streaked with blood, descended from the sky. Their half-real, half-illusory forms whipped around pointlessly like tentacles.
The strange vision lasted only a few moments. The next second, cracks appeared on the idol, spreading down from its head. Within seconds, it crumbled to dust and fell through his fingers.
Qi Si staggered slightly. In an instant, he lost the memory of those few moments and unconsciously forgot to think about the idol.
Holding the key he had found on Zou Yan, he went to unlock Room 1.
Inside, a third clue lay plainly on the solid-wood desk beside the floor-to-ceiling window.
On the papyrus, crimson writing recorded events from the past, line after line.
[The Lord of Gods, exiled beyond the world's rules] [The Master of Souls, who wields the authority over contracts and transactions] [A great being older than history itself] [I am willing to offer everything in exchange for the fulfillment of my wish]
[After my sister woke up, she seemed to have forgotten who I was. She looked at me with a mixture of unfamiliarity and fear. All I could do was keep my distance so I wouldn't upset her further.]
[I kept that man's body and made him the manor's butler. I wanted him to look after my sister. Perhaps she would feel better.]
[My sister actually remembered him! I hid him away, but she went downstairs and searched for him in room after room!]
[I asked the god why other people were the ones harmed in our deal, while I didn't have to pay any price.] [The god said that love enduring day after day, unchanging until death, was itself a painful price.]
[I'm tired, but I can't let go anymore.]
Before you continue