There was no daylight in the Nightmare World, and towering trees covered the mountains. The farther Lan Xingchen and the others descended, the more forks and caves they encountered. Ghost Creatures even sprang out of the darkness, trying to devour them. Without Ning Yan's fighting prowess to protect them, and without Fang Xiujie recording their route the entire way—even drawing maps on cloth to calculate their direction—they might have all failed the game before reaching the halfway point.
But Lan Xingchen was different from the others in the group. The evil ghost that called itself the "Mountain God" kept telling him the way to a certain cave. All he had to do was light incense there and worship the "Mountain God," and he would gain its power. Afterward, the "Mountain God" would send its followers down the mountain.
Although this would also give Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie the "Mountain God's" power, Lan Xingchen was confident he could surpass those two veteran players in no time. As for the others in the group... the Lan Xingchen of three years ago had never considered how they would clear the game.
It was just like how, after rising to a position of power in the real world, he had always looked down on his employees.
At first, Fang Xiujie objected to letting Lan Xingchen lead without any evidence to support his choice. But once the others noticed they encountered fewer Ghost Creatures along the routes Lan Xingchen chose, Fang Xiujie's objections and Ning Yan's hesitation ceased to matter.
Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie continued protecting the newcomers and everyone else, but Lan Xingchen, with his lofty, high-minded words, had become the center of the group.
In the end, they all safely reached... the cave described by the "Mountain God" whispering in Lan Xingchen's ear.
"That wasn't a cave for worshipping some 'Mountain God' at all." Sister Yao glared bitterly at Lan Xingchen, who stood with his head bowed in silence. "It was where the mountain's original villagers had sealed an evil ghost after subduing it. There was no memorial tablet for any 'Mountain God' inside, only a huge rock covered in all kinds of talismans none of us could read. Even the cave walls were plastered with talisman papers.
"Everyone felt there was something very wrong with that cave. Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie could have simply turned around, left, and gone down the mountain themselves. But that idiot Ning Yan, who never had anything nice to say, couldn't possibly abandon the other players who stubbornly insisted on following Lan Xingchen. Fang Xiujie could only stay as well, hoping to work out the right way down by calculating their route.
"Lan Xingchen ignored everyone's attempts to stop him. Using the excuse that they needed a fire to keep warm, he lit one with the flint left in the cave, but he never found any incense or candles to offer to the 'Mountain God.'
"Or rather, that 'Mountain God' never wanted offerings in the first place. Almost the instant that tiny flame was lit in the cave, it shot upward and set the first talisman paper alight."
"And then... the outcome was obvious, wasn't it?" Sister Yao gave a bitter laugh. "The flames spread in the blink of an eye. All the talisman papers on the walls and all the talismans on that rock caught fire in an instant! Since that 'Mountain God' still had the power to bewitch Lan Xingchen, of course it also had the power to control the flames. All it had lacked from the start was a pawn and an opportunity."
"You idiot!!"
According to another survivor, once all the talisman papers had burned to ashes, the evil ghost inside the cave truly awakened.
Only when the black smoke in the cave began frantically attacking every player, himself included, and Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie did everything they could to get the others out, did Lan Xingchen, standing stupidly inside, finally realize that the voice whispering in his ear had never belonged to any "Mountain God"!
But while Lan Xingchen stood in a daze, the black smoke had already taken possession of his body. Although the evil ghost had whispered many lies in his ear, there was one thing it had told the truth about: it really had taken an interest in Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie. It took direct control of Lan Xingchen's body and used the power of the black smoke to drag both of them into the smoke inside the cave.
Just as the evil ghost had promised, it would share its power with all three of them. The price, however, was that it would swallow them into its "belly," fusing them into a single entity with no distinction between them.
Under its control, Lan Xingchen lost consciousness for a time. A burst of excruciating pain brought him back to his senses.
When Lan Xingchen regained consciousness, he found that he, Ning Yan, and Fang Xiujie were all trapped inside the black smoke. Unlike him, however, Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie hung in midair, suspended by something resembling vines. Ning Yan still held a short knife, but it clearly could not cut through the vines binding them.
Because they were hanging in midair, Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie could not wake the unconscious Lan Xingchen no matter what they tried. In the end, they could only cut his face with the short knife, using the intense pain to bring him back to his senses.
Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie knew they could no longer escape.
Even the lower halves of their bodies had already merged with the black smoke, becoming twisted clouds of it.
If this continued, they might not merely become food for the evil ghost, but also become its ghostly thralls, stripped of human form. They would become the ugly, barely conscious Ghost Creatures the group had encountered along the mountain paths, slaughtering the next batch of players who entered the mountain.
"So they..." Sister Yao struggled to continue.
"..." Lan Xingchen, who had kept his head bowed the entire time, spoke with great difficulty. "Ning Yan said she'd always been afraid of pain. If she tried to do it herself, the pain would make her stop. So Fang Xiujie killed her with that short knife first, then took his own life. By the time I woke up, that thing had already assimilated them halfway. With my abilities, there was nothing I could do. Even at the end, when they wanted me to put them out of their misery, I couldn't do it."
"I couldn't do anything... anything..."
Even if the other survivors had told them the broad outline of the story, no one might ever have learned what happened to those last three people inside the cave unless Lan Xingchen spoke of it.
"They died as humans," Lan Xingchen said firmly.
During the earlier fight against the Butcher Ghost, Lan Xingchen had also used an ordinary short knife, returning it to his waist pouch after landing his attack. If Su Bai's guess was right, Lan Xingchen had always kept that knife-the one that had stayed with Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie until the end-on him.
"The other survivors saw Lan Xingchen stumble out of the cave in a daze, so they used the notes Fang Xiujie had left behind and took him down the mountain with them. When the evil ghost realized it hadn't finished assimilating Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie, it went mad and chased them along the mountain paths, trying to kill them. But by then, following the directions Fang Xiujie had left, they had already reached the foot of the mountain and cleared the game. They were lucky to escape with their lives."
"Those survivors said that bastard Lan Xingchen was still in a daze when he reached the foot of the mountain. Only when the notification announcing they'd cleared the game sounded did he finally tell them about the 'Mountain God' and what had happened in the cave." Sister Yao sneered. "Those survivors said that if they'd known sooner what you'd done, they would have left you on the mountain path for the lesser ghosts to gnaw to pieces, and then for the evil ghost to assimilate you, never to find release for all eternity!"
"So, Lan Xingchen, you should have died long ago!"
"You're still alive now not because you're so capable, you bastard, but because you're afraid to die! You're afraid of meeting Ning Yan and Fang Xiujie in the world beyond death. Afraid they'll voice the disgust at your selfishness that they never had the chance to express while they were alive!"
"You deserve to die!"
Before you continue