The dead

"They said ten days from now, so this should count as 'day zero,' right?" Lin Qin switched hands to cover her nose and mouth, then added, "If you go out now, you won't be able to see the road before long. There aren't any streetlights here, after all."

Qi Xia knew Lin Qin had a point, so he quietly moved aside and found a clean shelf to sit on.

He really had grown impatient. He had even forgotten to check the time.

But he couldn't wait to leave this hellhole and see his wife.

To see Yu Nian'an.

To see the girl who loved wearing white.

"An, I'll escape this hellhole soon," he murmured to himself. "Just wait. We'll have money soon."

Qi Xia's expression had remained different from everyone else's. He wasn't panicked or grieving, just a little impatient.

As the sky darkened, everyone found clean places to sit.

Fortunately, the nights here weren't cold. They were just hungry. After almost a whole day without food or water, none of them had any strength left.

No one spoke again. They simply watched the ocher sun slowly sink from the sky until the world plunged into darkness.

The day's events had felt like a terrible nightmare to all of them. Everyone dreamed that, when they opened their eyes again, all the strange sights before them would be gone.

The entire city seemed to have fallen silent, as though something were brewing. They could hear what sounded like rustling in the distance, but couldn't make it out clearly.

It was too dark here, so dark they couldn't even tell whether their eyes were open.

They had all grown up in cities and had never experienced a night so dark they couldn't see their hands in front of their faces.

"Con man, are you asleep?" Qiao Jiajin suddenly asked from a short distance away.

"What is it?"

"Do you think there are... other 'participants' here?"

Qi Xia fell silent for a moment before answering, "I've thought about that too. Human Dragon said tens of millions of people had come through those doors. By that logic, there should be more than just the nine of us here..."

Qiao Jiajin was silent for a moment too, then asked, "Could that shop assistant be someone who came through the doors before?"

"Hm?" Qi Xia paused in surprise. He had never considered that possibility. After all, the woman looked as though she had lived here for years.

But on closer thought, there was no contradiction. Whether someone had been abducted ten years earlier or ten days earlier didn't matter. What mattered was that, according to Human Dragon, this place would be annihilated in ten days.

They might have had different starting points, but their destination was the same.

Thankfully, they probably wouldn't go completely mad like the shop assistant. After all, they only had to stay here for ten days.

Whatever happened, they would see the "result" in ten days.

"Liar Boy? Are you asleep?" Qiao Jiajin asked.

Qi Xia ignored him. Instead, he turned his head aside and carefully pondered what had happened that day.

What was behind all these bizarre circumstances?

When Qi Xia didn't answer, Qiao Jiajin stopped pestering him and gradually fell quiet.

Before long, two more people began speaking in the darkness. They sounded like Doctor Zhao and Officer Li.

"Doctor Zhao..."

"What is it?"

"I wanted to ask... can a woman carry a child if she's been malnourished for a long time?"

Doctor Zhao paused briefly, understanding what Officer Li meant. The shop assistant inside looked as though she hadn't eaten in a long time, so how had she given birth to a baby?

The others seemed interested in the question too. They all waited quietly for his answer.

Doctor Zhao gathered his thoughts and said, "It's a complicated question. Prolonged malnutrition in women can cause irregular periods, or even menopause or amenorrhea. In other words, a lack of essential nutrients can prevent them from ovulating, which naturally makes conception impossible."

"So... this is another thing science can't explain?" Officer Li asked in a low voice. "That shop assistant looked to be in very poor physical condition."

"We can't draw a conclusion without knowing the specifics. In some parts of Africa, people have very low nutritional intake, yet birth rates are still relatively high..." Doctor Zhao sighed. "But this isn't my specialty, after all. It involves each person's constitution and their intake of key nutrients. I don't know much about it either."

After hearing that, Officer Li said nothing more and fell quiet.

Everyone inside sank into silence again.

Qi Xia hadn't intended to sleep, but with his vision completely cut off, his awareness grew hazy, and his thoughts gradually came to a halt.

Accompanied by the soft rustling from the street, Qi Xia's eyelids grew heavy.

He didn't know when he fell asleep. In his dream, he saw Yu Nian'an.

"Xia, do you know? There are many paths in this world, and everyone has one of their own."

"Yes, An, I know." In his dream, Qi Xia nodded. "I'll be out soon. Wait for me."

After an unknown amount of time, an enormous bell rang out like an explosive thunderclap, almost right beside his ears.

Qi Xia opened his eyes and scrambled to his feet, discovering that it was already light outside.

He turned around. Everyone was still shaken, looking around just as Qi Xia was. The deafening bell had startled them awake.

"What's going on?!" Xiao Ran instinctively ducked behind Officer Li.

Before anyone could react, a strange coughing sound came from a corner of the room.

It sounded as though the person coughing had a mouthful of water.

Doctor Zhao realized the sound was coming from behind him. He slowly turned around and saw a horrifying sight.

Han Yimo lay on the floor with an enormous, pure-black sword driven through his abdomen. Like a nail, it pinned him firmly to the ground. The blade seemed to have been thrust down with tremendous force, leaving more than half of it buried in the floor.

Blood spurted from his mouth as he coughed incessantly.

"Hey! Writer!" Qiao Jiajin hurried over to check on him.

"Cough... Qi... Qi Xia..." Han Yimo reached out. His voice sounded unnatural-not pained, not frightened, but more confused than anything.

Qi Xia frowned slightly, then walked over, crouched down, and took Han Yimo's hand.

"I'm here," he answered, raising his head to examine the building's ceiling.

The entire ceiling was intact. The enormous black sword didn't appear to have fallen from above.

Han Yimo's lips moved faintly, and his eyes glistened. After a whimper, he began to sob.

"This... this place is wrong... Qi Xia... cough... this can't happen... this Seven Black Sword... absolutely... cough... impossible... Qi Xia... the Seven Black Sword isn't..."

His coughing grew louder and louder. He couldn't get a single complete sentence out. Blood sprayed from his mouth, then flowed back into his nose.

Han Yimo coughed loudly a few more times. Then his entire body stiffened, and the life left him.

Unable to breathe properly, he had exhausted all his strength on those few words.

Yes... how could someone truly on the verge of death have so much time to deliver their last words?

What followed was silence.

A long, long silence.

They knew Han Yimo must have had much more to say, but clearly he hadn't been given enough time. A living, breathing person had died right before their eyes.

Seeing Han Yimo's lifeless eyes, Qi Xia frowned. Suddenly, a splitting pain tore through his head.

He clutched his forehead and crouched down, feeling as though something were trying to burrow out of his mind. Then he let out an agonized scream.

"Aah-!!"

The others had yet to recover from Han Yimo's death when Qi Xia's scream gave them another fright.

"Liar Boy, are you all right?" Qiao Jiajin asked cautiously.

After half a minute of silence, Qi Xia finally steadied his breathing and said, "I'm fine... check on Han Yimo first..."

Once they saw that Qi Xia really didn't seem to be showing any other signs of trouble, they turned toward Han Yimo's body, their hearts filled with conflicting emotions.

One thought kept circling in their minds.

Were they really dead?

Could someone die again after death?

"Han Yimo... was murdered..." Xiao Ran said quietly.

The words "was murdered" snapped everyone back to their senses.

Yes, what they needed to consider now wasn't whether they could die after death, but who the murderer was.

Han Yimo had still been conscious when they found him, which meant the enormous sword had only just been driven into his abdomen.

In other words, whoever killed him hadn't gone far. More likely still, the killer was hiding among the remaining eight.