The night swept over Red Raincoat like a curtain that could never be pierced. Two trails of bloody tears ran down her face, strands of hair plastered against it.
"My child, my child, give me back my child..."
Her piercing voice stirred intense hatred. Her sobs mingled with the blood-red raindrops, and the rain grew heavier and heavier. She wanted to find her child, but the ghost gods of Dreamfold Town stood before her, one after another.
"Give me back my child, give me back my child..."
Bloody rain splashed onto the buildings. Red Raincoat lifted her head, tears streaming down her face. She had been delayed in the Execution House for far too long—so long that even the bond through which she sensed her child had grown faint.
The Investigation Bureau had once used her child's clothes as bait. Now that she had left Hanhai, that scent had grown distant too.
Her deepest obsession had been touched. Like the outer walls of the Spirit Shrine, her sanity could shatter at any moment.
"A ghost god ruled by chaos? What method did you cultivate? How did you train yourself into brain damage?" The giant made up of "useful gods" spoke in a rumbling voice. "No thoughts? Perfect. Cast her into a bronze lion and put her outside the Ancestral Hall to guard the door."
"Children are treasures in Dreamfold Town. They can be sacrificed, made into medicine, or kept as pets. You probably won't find yours."
The voices inside the giant were like knives, each sentence gouging into Red Raincoat's heart.
Her red clothes looked like blood, tears clung to her face, and beneath her hood, her bloodshot eyes fixed on the giant's mouth.
"This outsider ghost dresses strangely and looks barely sentient. If emotions affect her this easily, she