Chapter 190: Nightmare

Seeing Jing Shanxin leave so suddenly, Xiao Fen was momentarily stunned.

Although he knew that in the Trial World, whether completing tasks or surviving, Trialists truly relied on themselves rather than help from others, seeing two Native experts take action yesterday, and today, this monk who looked equally imposing turned and left, the contrast was somewhat hard for Xiao Fen to understand.

Compared to Xiao Fen’s confusion, Lycaon on the other side was more direct. He strode towards the courtyard on the other side while asking in a low voice: “Hey, Palin, do you feel that this place has changed?”

Xiao Fen heard Lycaon’s question, looked down, and only then realized that the black energy at his feet had scattered considerably without him noticing. Moreover, the Black Mist in the entire backyard had become thinner. Occasionally, one or two beams of light penetrated through the mist. Seeing it suddenly was like seeing the light of Paradise in Hell.

Xiao Fen frowned, said nothing more, and quickly followed Lycaon towards the rear courtyard.

The two bypassed a small garden. Soon, Lycaon saw a girl sitting in a pavilion in the courtyard, seemingly reading a book. This scene was vastly different from those humans in the previous courtyard who had lost themselves and walked around, causing Lycaon to take a closer look.

“What is that?”

Lycaon pointed to the pavilion and asked: “Looks like a human who remains sufficiently awake? Why do I smell the bloody scent of a Hell Creature on her?”

Xiao Fen shrugged and said: “Sounds like your sense of smell is also very developed, able to smell the other party’s scent from such a distance.”

After speaking, Xiao Fen walked with large strides to the pavilion. The girl, hearing Xiao Fen’s footsteps, raised her head, glanced at Xiao Fen, suddenly revealed an indescribably tired smile, and said: “You have come.”

Xiao Fen stared at the girl, who had black hair, pale amber eyes, and abnormally pale skin, with fresh blood occasionally overflowing from the corner of her mouth and then magically disappearing, and asked: “Have we met?”

“That time with Mother, you were saving her in the room, and I was outside. We spoke a few times too.”

Xiao Fen nodded and said: “So it was you. Why have you come here?”

“That day you saved Mother and wanted me to follow you, but the Pan Family had many affairs, and I could not leave immediately. I was about to leave the residence to explain to you, but your aura was so strong that I could not approach for a while, so I had to return to the Pan Residence to see the consequences.”

“Unexpectedly, as soon as you left, the Pan Residence acted chaotically. They first secretly poisoned Mother’s medicine, then dug up that Buddha statue in the backyard. Once the Buddha statue was destroyed, those children kept appearing, and the entire courtyard fell into a sea of suffering.”

“Even so, I could not escape. When those children saw me, they all called me a bastard and said I could not be with them. They jumped up and tore at me, seemingly wanting to tear me into pieces.”

The girl raised her hand, coughed twice, and said: “Although I was not carried by Mother for ten months and born through induction, but was formed by Mother’s thoughts trembling in this world, I am completely different from those children. I remember them, but they view me as an enemy.”

“Fortunately, these children had just arrived in this world, with soft bones and weak bodies, unable to compete with me. Although they disturbed endlessly, they could not harm me. However, reaching this point, I could no longer stay in the residence. I had no choice; after the Hour of Chou, taking advantage of the sky brightening slightly, I hurriedly left the residence and wandered around the city.”

“The sky was already somewhat bright, which harmed my body greatly. I could not find where the Immortal had gone, so I wandered the streets and was seen by a Young Master of this residence. He said I was very beautiful and that wandering the streets alone at the Hour of Chou was surely not good, so he had people capture me.”

Hearing this, Xiao Fen could only smile bitterly. No wonder Jing Shanxin said that the calamity in this residence was mostly an evil cause planted by themselves; it turned out it started with someone from this residence forcibly capturing a common girl. As the saying goes, misfortune and fortune have no gate, only people summon them; this likely refers to this.

Pausing, the girl continued: “That day, upon arriving at this residence, the Young Master wanted to indulge in lust during the day and mate with me. I told him that I have an extremely Yin body, covered in blood filth, and that ordinary people sharing a room with me would be harmed, let alone mating with me. I feared it would bring bloody disaster to his whole family, so how could that be good?”

Xiao Fen smiled bitterly again. This Duke’s Manor belonged to the Ming Dynasty nobility; if ordinary sons captured common girls and there were no plaintiffs, it would be let go. Naturally, many sons were arrogant and domineering, so how would they believe this girl’s one-sided story? The Young Master probably thought it was just an excuse and naturally tried to force himself on her. This back and forth led to such a family-destroying disaster.

Thinking it over, Jing Shanxin probably saw through this cause and effect long ago, knowing it was not his place to intervene. Even if he wanted to subdue this Monster, it would ultimately fall on Xiao Fen, so he simply left directly to avoid being disturbed by such Mortal World matters.

Sure enough, the girl continued: “My body was originally weak. By morning, the Yang energy was abundant, and I had no strength. The Young Master forcibly dragged me into the room, and my condition improved slightly, but I could no longer control the Yin coldness in my body, so it was released.” “Coincidentally, this Young Master did not want to be seen, so he locked the door tightly. The Yin coldness accumulated in the mist and did not disperse. The Young Master’s body was originally weak; stimulated by this Yin coldness, he stopped breathing within moments and died on the ground.”

“Just then, the lady of the house came to the room looking for the Young Master. Seeing the person dead, she was about to throw a tantrum, accusing me of murdering her husband, and came up to tear at me.”

“But by then, one person had already died in the room, and the Yin coldness was even stronger. The lady took a few steps, just grabbed my clothes, and her body could not withstand it. She stood there panting, and shortly after, she could no longer support herself and died.”

Staring at Xiao Fen, the girl asked, pausing after each word: “I tell you this, it is absolutely true. From beginning to end, I never actively killed anyone. Do you believe me?”

Xiao Fen rubbed his nose, looked at the girl equally, and said: “To say I believe you completely would be a lie. To say I do not believe you is also wrong. These things are in the past for me. I just want to know, are you an enemy or a friend to me?”

The girl smiled slightly and said: “If you wish me to be an enemy, I am an enemy; if you wish me to be a friend, I am a friend. The choice between enemy and friend lies in the heart, not in me, but in you.”

Xiao Fen nodded slightly, turned his head to look at the surroundings, and asked: “Is this black poisonous miasma your arrangement?”

“With two people dying in succession in the room, the residence was naturally in chaos. Someone directly locked the door, saying they wanted to burn me to death.” “They did not know that my body can change. Under sunlight, my body is weak and cannot change. But in this room, there was no light, and the door was locked tight, making it pitch black inside. My body naturally recovered, so how could this trap me?”

“Hearing the people outside hurrying about, I was about to leave and not entangle with them, but unexpectedly, I suddenly felt a familiar aura here, so I rushed over from the room.”

“The bright sun shone high in the sky, and my body began to struggle to bear it, but I saw many people digging endlessly here. The surrounding Black Mist was gloomy; somehow, no one entered this courtyard. The digging continued, yet no one knew.”

Xiao Fen frowned. From these words, he seemed to outline a rough framework, but what was inside was still unclear.

“Those people did not know I was watching from the side, but the Black Mist and poisonous miasma seemed familiar to me and gradually surged over. By then, I no longer feared the light from the sky.”

“I stayed here in this pavilion, watching and watching. I saw those people digging and digging in the courtyard, until finally, they dug out two skeletons. These two skeletons were tightly entangled; when lifted up, their bodies were twisted into a ball, seemingly having died a miserable death.”

Xiao Fen’s body shook, and he hurriedly asked: “Wait, you say those people dug out two skeletons?”

“Yes, two skeletons similar in size to adults, piled on top of each other, adhering to one another. Presumably, when they died, they were directly buried in soil, and then people trampled repeatedly on the soil, trampling the two inside to death, resulting in their bones growing together.”

Xiao Fen let out a long breath. How those two skeletons died had nothing to do with him; he cared more about those who dug them up. If he guessed correctly, these were his next mission targets, the Gravediggers.

Various clues were now slowly linking together. The previously loose tasks seemed to finally have a unified ending. If he guessed correctly, these Main Quests would eventually converge.

This process was like Trialists appearing randomly in various places, solving the enemies in front of them, and then gradually coming together along the mission threads to jointly complete the final Main Quest.

Thinking of this, Xiao Fen asked: “What happened after?”

“Below those two skeletons, there was a large stone chest. Those people opened the chest, and inside was a Buddha statue. However, this Buddha statue seemed to grow underground; no matter how they tried, they could not remove it.”

“I saw clearly from here that beneath the Buddha statue was the source of all the Black Mist and poisonous miasma. Although those people could not remove the statue, they loosened it, causing more black smoke to surge out, gradually no longer staying in this courtyard but spreading outside.”

“Seeing this, those people said, ‘Forget it, forget it, wait for the Buddha to awaken, then come to retrieve the statue,’ and then they climbed over the wall using a human ladder and left.”

“The mist here grew thicker, and before long, it filled the entire house. Fearing the poisonous miasma would spread outside the residence, I stayed here to suppress the aura until now, finally waiting for you.”