"Uncle Markel, how much longer will the renovations take? How's the collection coming along?"
After obtaining the crystal ball, Wu Heng returned to the manor overnight and finally felt at ease.
Over the past week, while keeping a close eye on Kirsty and the others, he had also been supervising the renovation of the cabin in the backyard.
His life depended on that cabin. He could only feel at ease by overseeing the work himself.
Wu Heng was now asking about the arrangements he had previously tasked the butler with.
"The main structure is finished. Only the interior work remains."
"Also, we've obtained a ton of blood through our connections. We paid for it, and the collection is still ongoing."
Butler Markel looked at his young master with some concern. What was he planning to do? Was he going to sacrifice someone to the devil?
He had already tried to talk him out of it, but Dean was firm. As a butler who had served the family loyally his whole life, all he could do was cooperate to the best of his ability.
"That's fine as long as the main structure is done. There's no need for interior work, and we have enough blood. Tell everyone they're off today and have them leave the manor."
Everything was proceeding according to plan.
The most important thing, the crystal ball, was already in his hands. Next came the moment that would decide his fate.
In the comic, this Ice Crystal Ball had been handed over to Father Marcus at the church by a vagrant who served as a Hell Mediator.
In this world, the underlings of Hell and the Cenobites treated churches like their own backyards.
They would casually smash the statues of Jesus and kill people inside. God had never seemed to do anything about it.
In Hellraiser, only people consumed by intense desires and chosen by a mediator could open the Puzzle Box.
Even if Wu Heng got his hands on an ordinary Puzzle Box, he might not be able to open it.
Only this Ice Crystal Ball could be opened just by reciting a single phrase. It required no desire or gesture.
This crystal ball was Wu Heng's primary target.
Once he had confirmed that Father Marcus existed in this world, Wu Heng had already narrowed down the search area for the Ice Crystal Ball. He had also widely publicized the meaning of his own creation, the "Blazing Crystal Ball."
He had done so to attract the Hell Mediator who might be near the Glass Church by promoting a crystal ball whose meaning was the exact opposite of the Ice Crystal Ball.
He believed that if the mediator of the Hell Priest of Ice heard about someone loudly proclaiming a crystal ball that represented a blazing hell, the exact opposite of ice, the mediator would definitely come knocking in anger and let him experience what the cold of Hell was like.
It was like someone suddenly announcing through every news outlet that salted tofu pudding looked disgusting, that salted tofu pudding should be banned nationwide, and that from then on only sweet tofu pudding should be sold.
Everyone would have to get a bowl of salted tofu pudding and force-feed it to him, making him taste it before he spoke again.
Once he had confirmed that all the equipment was ready,
Butler Markel had all the servants leave the manor, then followed them out himself.
Wu Heng carried the wooden box containing the crystal ball and made his way along a tree-lined path,
reaching the backyard of the manor and stepping into an unremarkable cabin.
He opened the floor hatch and descended a shadowy staircase to a point twenty meters underground.
This was an apocalypse shelter, the kind British Empire's wealthy liked to build in order to escape nuclear bombs.
A pipe about as wide as a bowl ran through the center of the shelter's ceiling,
piercing all the way to the surface and extending from the cabin out beyond the window.
Wu Heng sat on the carpet in the middle of the room.
Candles encircled him, forming a square.
He sat cross-legged inside it, bare-chested, quietly waiting for the agreed-upon time of 12:20.
Wu Heng's first goal was to use the Ice Crystal Ball to open the gates of Hell and summon the Cenobites.
Then, after dying and entering Hell, he would escape back to the human world as a newly dead Cursed Disciple, using the blood to make his way out as quickly as possible.
Wu Heng had never expected to become a Cenobite in one step.
The souls of transformed Cenobites were firmly controlled by the Lord of Hell, Leviathan, who also rewrote their memories.
Leviathan wouldn't care about an ordinary Cursed Disciple, let alone bother to control one.
In theory, if he escaped fast enough, he could avoid being driven mad by the environment of Hell.
This world was insane. To succeed, he had to be ruthless.
If he didn't seize the opportunity and take a chance, he was as good as dead. If he wanted to survive, he had to be insane.
He checked his watch: 12:19.
The appointed hour had arrived!
Wu Heng gave a self-deprecating laugh and took a deep breath.
He pulled the dagger from the box beside him and set it in front of himself, then picked up the crystal ball and held it in his palms.
The snowflakes swirling inside the crystal ball grew more and more lively, whirling and howling as if urging Wu Heng on, or perhaps celebrating.
"Hell is not sulfurous flame."
"It is winter."
Wu Heng softly recited the words.
As soon as he finished, the crystal ball in his hands changed.
A frigid wind poured down from the ceiling, and heavy snow fell into the room from nowhere.
A blade of ice and snow tore through the Crucifixion Painting hanging on the wall, as though even God mourned the sight.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs. Wu Heng quickly picked up the dagger and plunged it into his chest, then turned to look.
What kind of face was that? It looked just like a skeleton frozen beneath the earth. The dried wound on its chest lay open, and the wails of countless souls echoed within it.
Its fanged mouth struggled to open as it rasped out each word:
"I heard your prayer. I have come to correct your dreams."
"Hell is the remnant of Heaven left behind after God departed."
"There is no God here, no demons, only endless cold, emptiness, loneliness, and silence."
The Hell Priest of Ice snarled as it slowly approached Wu Heng.
A prompt rang out deep in Wu Heng's mind:
[Plot Mission 1: Open the Lemarchand Configuration (Mission complete, obtain 5,000 Survival Points, exploration progress 10%, plot rating increased)]
Wu Heng had no time to care.
He felt only endless cold. His body was like cracked ice, breaking into pieces that slid to the ground.
Before his body had completely shattered, Wu Heng was already dead. Everything fell silent again, leaving only the Ice Crystal Ball on the ground.
Wu Heng felt himself falling into endless darkness.
Memories drifted around him without end. The previous owner's most painful memories surfaced again and again, vividly, trying to torment Wu Heng's soul.
Another prompt rang out deep in Wu Heng's mind:
[Plot Mission 2: Enter Hell (Mission complete, obtain 5,000 Survival Points, exploration progress 35%, plot rating increased)] [Exploration progress has reached 30%. Obtained one ticket to this world's plot.]
Wu Heng had no energy left to pay attention to these prompts. He guessed he had entered the Mind Cage in Hell. He had thought that an unqualified soul like his, lacking any extreme, dark desires, would end up in the Rock Pit on the outskirts of Hell.
He hadn't expected to end up somewhere even higher. Fortunately, these tormenting memories belonged to the original owner, not to his previous life. The pain was still bearable in the short term.
In fact, they made his already-fuzzy memories of his previous life clearer. He recalled all kinds of plot details he had forgotten.
The butler waiting outside the manor checked his watch: 12:30. It was time.
He gestured to the confused-looking man beside him who was driving a small water truck, then led him around to the cabin at the back.
"Connect the hose to this pipe. Yes, just like that. Open the valve."
As the butler finished speaking, blood surged out, flowing through the pipe and all the way down to the shelter twenty meters underground.
The blood poured straight onto the carpet in the middle of the room.
As soon as it touched the blood, the carpet bubbled up with something like amniotic fluid, as though scalded skin had blistered.
The blood congealed into a lump of flesh. The flesh began to grow, and in the blink of an eye it had formed a beating heart.
Two bones gradually grew out on either side of the heart. They lifted it off the ground, suspending it as they stood on the carpet.
A skull grew from the floor. A section of spine emerged above the heart and jabbed toward the skull, connecting to it. It was the upper half of a skeleton.
As it absorbed the blood, the skeleton quickly filled out, growing muscles and skin.
Wu Heng looked down at his newborn body. The pain of having his muscles exposed to the air faded as his skin formed.
"Ha ha. Ha ha."
Wu Heng laughed. He had won the gamble.
He had become a Cursed Disciple who had escaped from Hell back to the human world.
His quick and effective escape and brief journey through Hell had not changed or twisted his soul.
He felt the strength in his body, far beyond human limits. The sensation of ease and comfort filled him with immense pleasure.
It was like the satisfying ache after scratching a mosquito bite,
or the relief of suddenly being able to breathe again when your nose cleared after a cold,
magnified a million times. That was what Wu Heng felt now. The sensation of growing stronger enthralled him.
He could also feel that he had acquired the two essential abilities of a Cursed Disciple: Siphon and Skin Graft.
[Siphon]: Unless the clump of flesh at the heart's core is completely destroyed, no matter how severe the injury, the body can quickly recover by siphoning blood.
It was like being a vampire, except he couldn't fly. But he didn't have the vampire's weakness to sunlight, either. Like Frank after becoming a Cursed Disciple in the movie, he could eat, drink, and enjoy himself normally.
The other ability,
[Skin Graft]: The user can use the skin of the dead to make a wearable suit. A Cursed Disciple can use it to imitate the dead person's appearance and voice.
After checking the abilities he had gained, Wu Heng immediately sent out five messages.
He informed the five teams lying low in different places that the plan was canceled and that they no longer needed to sneak into the manor at their assigned times.
Since his resurrection plan was at stake, Wu Heng hadn't put all his eggs in one basket and relied solely on the butler's cooperation.
He had secretly arranged for five teams who knew nothing about one another to sneak into the manor at different times and deliver blood.
Fortunately, nothing had gone wrong. Uncle Markel was trustworthy.
Wu Heng picked up the crystal ball, rolled up the carpet, and headed up toward the cabin.
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