APP: Chapter 168

[The soul chasing arrow is almost ready. Xie Chi will be cold even if he hides. Isn’t it said that the arrow can chase you to the ends of the earth?]

[So it is good to burn it. If Xie Chi is shot to death and Jiang Shuo comes in, he would’ve obtained the key parchment paper clue without any effort.]

Xie Chi no longer spoke to the hermit. The hermit had no information other than what was on the parchment paper he destroyed. The tarot reincarnation method was eccentric to the point of creating a game but it didn’t write down the complete rules of the game for the sacrifices.

Everything was hidden in the game and the sacrifices needed to explore and discover it on their own.

The hermit calmed down, closed his mouth about the previous scene and pointed to the surroundings. “This is the room I chose to live in before. After death, it became a short-term shelter for the next players.”

Xie Chi was consolidating the information obtained to think of a way to escape and live. He heard this and wondered, “What are the other two rooms?”

The hermit smiled with rare ease. “The devil on the Devil card. In other words, as long as they aren’t brought in by me, they will encounter the Devil if they enter any of the three locked rooms.”

***

“Help me!!”

Outside the room, Jiang Shuo heard Gu Yu’s scream and immediately used the Void Crossbow to shoot an arrow at the darkness. Countless black arrows were shot at the monster in the room, making a metallic collision sound.

The powerful arrows didn’t seem to hurt it. The monster in the depths of the darkness was extremely hard and invulnerable. Jiang Shuo was outside the door and with his extraordinary hearing, he could hear the slight flapping of wings inside the room.

Thanks to the arrows as a buffer and a movement item, Gu Yu finally escaped from the monster’s hand and rushed to the door. Behind him, a sharp claw grabbed at him in order to drag him into the endless abyss. Thanks to the help of the light, Jiang Shuo could clearly see that it was a human-like monster with huge wings like a bat and antelope-like horns. The face was fierce and evil, its mouth was like a basin, it had a big belly like a pig and its two toes were like pheasants.

It had a rusty thick chain wrapped around it and the other end of the chain was inserted into Gu Yu’s shoulder. It seemed the monster was unable to come out but it gripped the chain tightly and pulled it back frantically. For a moment, the sound of the chains colliding was deafening.

Gu Yu who was about to escape was pulled in again. He grabbed at the door while blood and flesh flew from his shoulder. “Save me!”

He was slowly dragged back by the chain inserted in his shoulder and more blood and flesh was removed. Jiang Shuo decisively cut at the shoulder and the tension disappeared. There was an overwhelming pain as Gu Yu fell straight to the ground and panted like a dying fish.

The door behind them slammed shut. Then the lock that had been damaged by humans spontaneously locked again.

Gu Yu immediately healed himself using his last life-saving item. He was better but he was still in a state of shock. “It is the Devil! Xie Chi must be dead!”

The monster was so powerful and fierce that he had been severely injured. Then what about the extremely weak Xie Chi? The monster didn’t kill him because it was controlled by the witch. It wasn’t Gu Yu’s turn to die yet according to the death order. For a certain reason, the witch temporarily didn’t want to kill him so she just told the monster to hit him hard.

However, Xie Chi was different. According to the death order, he was originally the next to die. If he encountered the Devil in a locked room, the witch would never tell the Devil to let him go. Gu Yu muttered angrily, “He is stupid, voluntarily going into this type of room to die.”

Jiang Shuo stared at the quiet room in front of him. “No.”

“What?”

Jiang Shuo didn’t answer and instead asked, “The blood on your body before, does it belong to Xie Chi’s two followers?”

Gu Yu only just recalled this matter. “Yes!”

“What happened?”

“I happened to run into them before and we fought, but Ye Xiaoxiao used a live saving item to run away. However, she was seriously injured and almost died. Ren Ze was almost caught and killed by me but the witch ran out to rescue him at the last moment. It is because it isn’t his turn to die according to the death order. It seems the witch doesn’t want to break the death order so she spared no effort to save people…”

Gu Yu’s voice became smaller and he didn’t dare look into Jiang Shuo’s eyes. He hadn’t done well and he was just going to admit to it when Jiang Shuo questioned, “What were they doing when you found them?”

Gu Yu thought back and opened his mouth a few seconds later. “It seems to be… looking for a crow… yes, I remember! They found a crow and Xie Chi’s sword flew in. The strange thing is that when Ren Ze saw me, his first reaction wasn’t to ask the sword to deal with me to buy time for him to escape. Instead, he put the crow on the sword and let the sword take the crow out the window. Then he greeted me and simply sent himself to death..”

Gu Yu realized that Jiang Shuo’s face was cold. Jiang Shuo gritted his teeth. “Xie Chi isn’t dead.”

“That crow is the hermit.”

“He is now hiding in this space to heal his wounds and there is a good chance he has obtained a key clue.”

Jiang Shuo’s face was so cold that Gu Yu didn’t dare do anything. Then Jiang Shuo suddenly laughed. It was a gloomy laugh. His left hand touched the Void Crossbow in his right hand where a red arrow covered in strange patterns was completely ready. Jiang Shuo recalled the wonderful scene of the soul chasing arrow hitting Shen Yi and there was a small grin on his face. “He is smart but that is all.”

“This is the end.”

Gu Yu put down his worries. He didn’t know when it happened but he was already afraid of Xie Chi. If Xie Chi wasn’t dead then he was always restless, afraid his head would fall to the ground in his sleep.

He knew a bit about the relationship between Jiang Shuo and Shen Yi. Jiang Shuo hated Shen Yi but didn’t fear him. Xie Chi was a more terrible enemy than Shen Yi. He grew too fast. Fortunately, he would reach his end here.

***

The emergence of the hermit didn’t bring him a breakthrough as Xie Chi expected. The safety period of six hours was too useless. He was like a prisoner clearly sentenced to death, only to be told that the execution had been delayed by six hours.

However, this didn’t change his situation. Six hours later, he still had to face Jiang Shuo. He had to use all his means to face Jiang Shuo who would have returned to the peak of his strength. By then, his situation would be even worse than it was now. At least now, Jiang Shuo’s strength hadn’t fully recovered.

Xie Chi was dying a slow death. He knew this very well. In addition…

Xie Chi secretly clenched his hands together, lips pressed tightly together. He was in hiding. Then where were Ren Ze and Ye Xiaoxiao?

Xie Chi’s fingertips were slightly white from the force. He couldn’t go out. He couldn’t do anything. The hermit would dissipate at the end of the first hour of the safety period. At that time, he would be the only one left in this dark room. It was like a prison and he would have to wait in despair for someone outside to pick him up for execution.

Xie Chi rubbed his hair in a restless manner. He could only sit and wait for his death. This was his predicament. The only way to break free of this dead end was to die.

Just then, he heard the sound of an arrow firing from the crossbow. Jiang Shuo seemed to be shooting at the stone door with an arrow again to enter. Xie Chi was about to let go of his worry when he found that the sound was strange.

The arrow was faster and more powerful than the previous arrows. It instantly hit the stone door but the arrow didn’t break when it struck like the other arrows. Instead, it spun like a drill bit and squeezed hard through the stone door with no gaps. The movement made people’s ears and teeth sore. However, the stone gate that was hit was actually being drilled through.

Xie Chi closed his eyes and immediately saw the bloody scene where he was nailed to the ground by a red arrow.

“What do we do? It is coming in soon!” The hermit was pale with terror. He didn’t know if it was his illusion but he felt that the place where the thick stone door was shot had been drilled very thinly and light could almost penetrate through.

Xie Chi just indifferently stood in place like a wooden stake.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and think of a way!” The hermit rushed over and shook Xie Chi’s shoulder in an anxious manner. He had a strong hunch that Xie Chi would die as long as the arrow was fired.

The parchment was destroyed and it was over! The hermit could only tell one player the witch’s secret. This was the rule of the game! The first one to find him was Xie Chi and he was forced to give his treasure to the suppressed Xie Chi who couldn’t even raise his head.

Now… it was too late. The hermit regretted it and felt despair again. He yelled in Xie Chi’s ear, trying to wake him up and ask him to do something to change the decline. Just then, the silent Xie Chi looked up, a strange light in his dark eyes. It was just that his words were absurd. “I am going to die?”

The hermit had red eyes as he wanted to strangle this person. “Yes, you are about to be shot to death!”

Xie Chi wasn’t angry. Instead, he repeated the hermit’s words. “Yes, I am going to die soon. I can’t do anything and can only sit and wait for death.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!” The hermit trembled with anger.

Xie Chi was a coward! At times like this, he could only run away! He could only pretend to be crazy!

“You can live when you die,” Xie Chi murmured softly.

He had found the answer to the hidden game rule of the sacrifice’s side, the correct guidance that the Wheel of Fortune could give, one of the three endings of the sacrifice’s victory written in the tarot reincarnation method and the reason why finding the hermit turned him into a trapped beast in a cave.

It was because he could only save himself by becoming a trapped beast. It was because the road to life was so close at hand that he could reach it even when trapped here. It showed that the threshold of this road was very low. The only thing he could do now was…

“Be sober! What are you talking about?” The hermit was anxious.

Xie Chi’s eyes were clear and bright as he slowly laughed. “The theme of this movie is to die… and then live.”

The laughter seemed to cut through the silence of the darkness, cutting through the countless long nights in the past and guiding people to the unknown to embrace the slim possibility of hope. The hermit watched in horror as Xie Chi bent down to pick up the Blood Demon Sword, stabbing his abdomen without hesitation.

“You’re crazy!” The hermit screamed and wanted to grab the sword, but it was too late. Xie Chi had been pierced by the Blood Demon Sword and fell on his back in a pool of blood. His eyes were calm as the light in them faded little by little. His face was pale as paper and he looked fragile like a transparent man. He had difficulty breathing but he was relaxed.

The servant once said that the Wheel of Fortune would give them the correct guidance. He always thought the correct guidance needed to be obtained by them asking questions. However, the Wheel of Fortune had long given the answer.

On the Wheel of Fortune, the side of the snake represented Set and death. Thus, it symbolized the crisis when the moon was in the sky. Meanwhile, the other half symbolized the safe and bright stars. In addition, the one representing the stars was Anubis, the dog-headed man. On the tarot card, he was a teacher in ancient Egypt for… dead souls.

He was the guide of the dead. He allowed those who were willing to die and abandon everything in the past to start over and gain a new life.

Set represented death while Anubis represented new life. It was the cycle from death to new life. Life was a circle connected from beginning to end so the Wheel of Fortune went from Set to Anubis. It was from the dangerous moon to the shining stars, from the apparent danger to apparent safety.

However, this was just superficial. Those who tried to survive using any means were quietly walking to their deaths. It was because if they couldn’t see the path to life, on the seventh night, all those who survived would die and they would become the sacrifices. Only those who were willing to die would be born again.

Die… and be reborn.

The tarot reincarnation method clearly recorded that the sacrifices could use the rules of the game to escape the castle, defeat the witch or even seize the power of the witch to become the next tarot witch or magician. It clearly pointed out the way of life for the sacrifices but it didn’t say how they should embark on the path full of vitality.

To die and live again was the answer. The witch took risks with her life and only then could she have a next life. The sacrifices voluntarily went to death and sacrificed themselves so there was a ray of life.

He had no other path to go so what didn’t he dare to do? He had to thank Jiang Shuo for forcing him to this point. Otherwise, he might not be so cruel to himself.

In the endless darkness, a monster with a dog’s head was looming but it wasn’t frightening. The corners of its mouth were raised a bit as it seemed to smile at him. A strange and pleasant spell floated around the room, leading him to life.

Those who were willing to die could get rid of the disturbances in front of them and move toward another light that was rarely seen, gaining insight into the truth behind the crisis and truly understanding the truth behind this treacherous world.

Xie Chi watched openly as his transparent soul separated from his broken body and became substantial and bright. The pain and torment imposed on him disappeared in an instant.

Just then, the arrow finally squeezed through the stone door and shot directly into the abdomen of his corpse on the group. It pierced his corpse with a bit of scarlet on its end like it was showing off.

It was as he predicted.

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