Chapter 29
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The girl whose eyes were covered with a blood-seeping gauze had a stunned expression on her calm face. “Why are you crying? Are you scared too?”
She stretched out her left hand and gently touched Ye Zun’s wet face with worry and comfort.
Ye Zun: “Am I crying? Because you don’t have eyes to cry, someone has to cry for you.”
The girl was slightly confused. “Are you crying for me?”
She stopped talking, and her small hands gently wiped his tears.
Ye Zun lowered his eyes, moved his shoulders slightly, and said softly, “I never knew that there are so many hidden and terrible misfortunes to encounter if you are born into the world as a girl.”
He said, “I don’t have parents, and sometimes I also envied the children who had parents who loved and protected them. I would imagine, what it would be like if they were by my side? Most of the time, I couldn’t think of such a life.”
He raised his head, lightly covering his eyes with his fingers. His Adam’s apple rolled and tears silently seeped out along the gaps between his fingers. For the first time,his voice was shaky, revealing a little sadness. “It turns out that with parents by your side, they may not be a protector, but a terrifying ghost.”
The girl who lost her eyes and right arm ‘watched’ him and comforted him like she was an adult. “Kaoru, don’t be scared. You are a boy now. That ghost probably doesn’t eat boys.”
Ye Zun slowly lifted his fingers and saw——
The phantoms attached to Ye Zun’s back, those translucent, fuzzy, hazy figures, slowly solidified, turning a thin young man.
With short hair and wearing the same white shirt and black uniform as Ye Zun, even if Ye Zun couldn’t see his facial features, he felt the person was sullen and uncommunicative.
The thirteen year old Kaoru stood up, walking away from Ye Zun and towards the phantom boy, becoming smaller as she walked, turning into a seven year old girl who had lost her left eye.
The boy knelt on the ground, where he was around the same height as her, and like a big brother, he gently stroked her missing left eye, then opened his arms and hugged her wearily.
And then, the little girl disappeared, along with the boy.
There was only a thirteen year old girl in a white dress, with a beautiful pale face, pursing her lips pessimistically and coldly.
The princess in the dress cut her hair short, changed into boy’s clothes, and wiped her face until it was dirty.
A distant, empty, voice berated, with insulting sarcasm.
……”Psychopath…is she a pervert? Dressing up like a man every day, do you see any other girl acting like her?”
She curled up in the corner of the bed, covering her ears, face blank and stubborn, repeating over and over again.
“I am a boy.”
……”Is your daughter a freak? She’s a freak, right? Having such a freak in the family, I’m ashamed every time I go out.”
“I am a boy. I am a boy.”
…..”The bedroom is like a garbage dump. There’s no girl who lives as filthy as you. Why haven’t you taken a shower today?”
“I am not a girl. The ghost can’t see me, the ghost can’t find me.”
Hugging the knees and clothes while sleeping in bed, in the surrounding darkness, suddenly waking up at random times all throughout the night. Opening a pair of empty and frightened eyes, looking left and right, alert to everything around.
That pitter patter, there or not, near or far sounds of footsteps, roaming around in the bedroom all night long.
The ghost was looking for the hiding girl. Looking in from outside the bedroom window, looking in through the crack between the door and the wall, looking for a chance to bite into bones and soul and turn her into a ghost as well.
Until, gradually, the room was illuminated by a dim light.
The day finally reached sunlight, and a sigh of relief was let loose. The ghost did not find her that night. She escaped again.
But, the sky soon became dark again.
Like this, one night, 365 nights a year, seven years of 2558 nights, the annual rings* of the cherry blossom graveyard went around and around.
[T/N: rings in a tree trunk, dating the age of the tree]
Every night, living, dying, and hiding from ghosts in nightmares.
Ye Zun slowly walked into the shadow of falsehoods and reality, coming to a stop in front of the young Nogawa Kaoru who was hiding at the corner of the bed, not daring to touch the girl who was like a frightened bird.
“How long will this go on? Will you hide like this for the rest of your life?”
In this tiny corner, there was not only the teenage boy Nogawa Kaoru, but also the seven year old Nogawa Kaoru with no left eye, as well as the thirteen year old Nogawa Kaoru with no eyes or a right arm.
The boy Kaoru slowly put down the hand covering his ears, looked at Ye Zun with no hope, and said, “It is said that every seven years, the cells of the human body are completely replaced, and the cycle repeats. Then, the seven year old Kaoru and the thirteen year old Kaoru are two completely different bodies.”
The seven year old Kaoru, whose left eye was eaten, said, “Let’s make a promise ba, until the day Kaoru turns twenty-one, that new Kaoru must escape ah.”
The thirteen year old Kaoru, whose eyes and right arm were eaten, said, “I will try my best to sustain myself until that day comes. When it comes, I will leave the job to the 21 year old Kaoru. Please, you must take us to escape from here ah.”
But the truth is, Ye Zun already knew the ending from the first day he entered the game. She did not make it out of this place.
Ye Zun wiped his eyes hard and gritted his teeth. “Why wait until twenty-one years old? I can take you out of here now.”
He grabbed Nogawa Kaoru’s hand, making sure he was holding Nogawa Kaoru’s sole body in the shadows, and pulled her out from that corner.
Nogawa Kaoru, who was pulled away from the corner by him, was wearing a black shirt and white trousers, with short hair. She had no eyes, with the sockets where her eyes were covered with bloody bandages, nor did she have her right arm.
Ye Zun grabbed her only intact left hand. “Let’s run ba, and if we fail, let’s try to kill it! Before we’re completely eaten and buried, at the very least, we must resist.”
She was dazed for a second, then immediately nodded without hesitatation.
They began to run, starting with the cherry blossom tree and running in the opposite direction of those phantoms.
After running for a long, long time, the scenery did not change, but Nogawa Kaoru’s footsteps suddenly staggered.
Ye Zun turned back and saw that she looked like a prison inmate. A black chain appeared on her festering ankle, and the other end of the chain extended into the darkness at the end of the enclosed area.
Ye Zun only furrowed his eyebrows and immediately pulled her along, running back.
In just a few steps, they were back inside the familiar house.
Ye Zun pulled Nogawa Kaoru into the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife and went to chop off the shackle around her ankle.
“If you can’t hack it off, then just chop off this foot ba!” Nogawa Kaoru raised her head, firmly expressing her thoughts.
“Wait a moment.”
Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in one hand and pulled Nogawa Kaoru’s hand in the other, then walked quickly along the chain to the other end.
Then, Ye Zun was surprised to find that even though they clearly set off along the trunk of the cherry blossom tree, the thing at the end was a room inside the cherry blossom tree, and the door to the room’s exit was the trunk of the cherry blossom tree.
The whole space was like a Klein bottle*.
[T/N: like a mobius strip, if you start from a point and travel along it, you will first reach the ‘outside’ before returning to your original point.]
This discovery only shocked Ye Zun for a second. He didn’t give up in despair, quickly regaining his spirit and calmed down.
He looked at Nogawa Kaoru. “It seems that we can’t find an exit, then, let’s go meet the ghost together ba. Let’s face your fears together.”
On Nogawa Kaoru’s pale and feeble face, her panic and daze disappeared. She nodded firmly. “If we can’t escape, before I’m eaten, I want to at least try to kill it!”
The two held hands and turned to walk back into the dark and oppressive house.
Cold sweat beaded on Nogawa Kaoru’s face. “It’s coming!”
Even if they couldn’t see anything, that sticky, terrifying feeling in the darkness could not be mistaken; those faintly discernible footsteps, those feelings of malicious peeping and ghosts laughing lingering everywhere.
Suddenly, Ye Zun’s entire body lifted into the air and slammed into the cold, hard wall.
The instantaneous violent impact caused the brown pupils to become out of sorts and empty. Where the head smashed into the wall, blood immediately oozed and dripped from the point of contact.
The invisible thing was still attacking him, hoisting him up by the neck, repeatedly slamming him into the uneven surfaces on the wall.
Ye Zun leaned against the wall, his absent-minded eyes gradually coming back into focus. There was no fear, only a cold ferocity.
He raised his hand to hold his wounded head. A hefty amount of blood turned his palm sticky and wet. He only spared it a quick glance, and the next second, his blood-stained fingers quickly grabbed at something in the void.
The corners of his pale lips rose, and he said calmly, “Caught you!”
“Since it’s a ghost that eats human flesh and drinks human blood, blood really can pin-point you ba!“
He didn’t hesitate to slash in that direction with the kitchen knife in his hand. He clearly hacked into something, but that invisible thing was unaffected.
Ye Zun was grabbed by his hair and slammed into the wall again. He gritted his teeth and pressed his fingers against the wall to cushion the impact.
“You really aren’t afraid of dismemberment? Right, being beheaded in the kitchen doesn’t affect your cannibalism, I get it.”
In the next moment, he reversed the direction of the kitchen knife that was tearing into the void and controlled his strength, slashing into the heart of his left palm without hesitation.
The dull knife cut into flesh. With a fast enough speed, you will only feel numbness and no pain, but a large amount of blood will pour out, and as time goes on, the pain will become more obvious.
The blade of the kitchen knife was engulfed in Ye Zun’s palm, allowing his blood to fully soak the blade.
“Human blood is something that has a sense of existence to you, right? Want a taste of my blood? I’m not scared of you at all. How about we see what you can get from here?”
The blood-stained kitchen knife slashed into the void again. He finally felt that the thing was dodging. After getting wounded, the ghost became more and more ferocious.
“En, I’m not scared of you at all. I already understand what you ghost things are. You obtain your power by taking advantage of people’s fear, that’s why you only dare to bully and scare women and children at first. How is it, isn’t my blood delicious?”
His injuries were also not light. His hair was completely wet and knotted with blood, but his pale and handsome face smiled indifferently, his brown eyes sharp and clear, baring his white teeth viciously.
It hurt so much. His body hurt so much. All the bones and flesh in his entire body seemed to be trembling uncontrollably with pain.
But, he was happy!
Ye Zun looked to the side, at the girl who was stiff and frightened. He obviously wasn’t someone with an aggressive personality or appearance, but at this moment, he smiled in an almost arrogant and provocative manner, calmly saying, “Don’t be scared. After hiding and running away for so long, the pain from killing yourself so many times, you’re very angry too, right? Try it, when you think of the pain and anger, you will not be scared a single bit. As long as you are not scared, what will that thing become?”
The girl who was shaking and stiff ‘looked’ at Ye Zun through the bloody gauze. Her fingers covering her ears trembled but were steadily lifted away.
Ye Zun instinctively avoided the attack that was scented and smeared with his own blood, looking at the girl with a clear and bright smile. “Anyway, the worst outcome is dying here. At the very least, we should bury it with us ba! This is the grave you were imprisoned in for at least ten years, shouldn’t you be very familiar with this place? Even without eyes, you can still find the kitchen accurately, right?”
The girl nodded firmly.
The youth’s voice was calm, carrying the cold and refreshing feeling of popsicles in summer. “Very good, go to the kitchen and turn on the gas stove, let’s blow this place up ba! Ever since I was a child, I have never stepped out of line. Let’s take this opportunity, you should also step out of it ba.”
The girl immediately groped along the wall and walked quickly towards the kitchen.
Ye Zun slipped his fingers into the bangs, tilted his head back, and pushed his blood-soaked hair back. The jut on his throat rolled, and he revealed a smile.
Although the ghost smeared with his blood was hidden in the darkness, the trajectory of its actions were finally traceable. As expected, it let go of Ye Zun, who had been persistently attacking it, and headed towards the kitchen.
“Do you want to stop her? It looks like bombing this place really will deal some damage to you ba! Since you’ve run away, it’s my turn to fight back! I’m going to be honest, you hit me so many times, and it hurts so much. If I don’t hit you back, my heart will not rest, and I will always feel that I got the worst of it!”
Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in both hands, basically acting without any judgment, and followed the direction to the kitchen, slashing along his path.
Even if there were misses, there will always be a few slashes cut deep into that thing’s vitals.
“Let’s die here together ba! What, can ghosts be scared too? Your arrogance at the beginning seems to be a lot weaker now ah. Is it because even the girl who was eaten by you is not scared of you now?”
His body was covered in blood. Blood and sweat dripped down his pale cheeks, dyeing his white shirt red. The young man who was as clean and beautiful as the warm wind brushing through the tall grass in the late summer, now looked more like a ghost than the ghost itself.
“Do you think only you can be vicious? I am the same; everyone’s the same. Once hurt and angry, anyone will be more vicious and ghost-like than you! You’re not the only one who can bully people!”
Naturally, he was badly wounded. His feet staggered, but he still made his way towards the kitchen.
In the kitchen.
The girl without eyes was hanging in the air, as if her neck was being strangled and hoisted up above the ground. Her face was pale, but at this moment, there was no fear. With gritted teeth, she used all her strength in her only to protect her neck, persistently kicking into the void.
“Lighter…on…top of the water storage.”
Ye Zun threw away the kitchen knife in his hand. Instead of immediately looking for the lighter, he picked up a half a bag of flour from the kitchen and tossed it directly in her direction.
White powder scattered in a thick cloud, taking up the entire kitchen.
Ye Zun grabbed the lighter lying on top of the water storage. Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, he flatly said, “There is enough powder in the air to blow this place up. Can ghosts die in an explosion? Maybe not in general, but this is your domain ba. As far as I know, in the world where the ghost’s body is located, it is possible to employ physical methods to kill ghosts. What does a dead ghost look like? Do you know why I am not scared of you? Because I have been thinking, if I die here, depending on how annoyed I am with you, I’ll just have to turn into a more ferocious and terrifying ghost than you. At least I won’t become a waste that only dares to attack women and children! At that time, who knows who will kill who!”
[T/N: when in the air, flour can ‘explode’/catch fire when coming in contact with a flame. (I believe?) Any powder will do (finer the better; cornstarch would also be very good)]
The girl fell to the ground, then the thing that attacked her came in Ye Zun’s direction.
Ye Zun paid attention to the direction of the airflow within the white flour, quickly dodging and swinging the kitchen knife by his hand, bringing it down heavily. The blow was too deep and could not be pulled out for a while, so he immediately gave up on the kitchen knife and instead took the girl’s hand, running out.
Running out of the kitchen door, he turned back and flicked the switch of the lighter, and in the next second, he threw the entire lighter into the kitchen behind him.
Bang!
The dense dust cloud ignited instantly when it encountered the open flame.
While throwing the lighter, Ye Zun grabbed Nogawa Kaoru’s hand and ran towards the living room as fast as he could.
Nogawa Kaoru turned back and ‘looked’ in a panic. Across the blood-soaked gauze, a ferocious beast in the flames chased after them. It was a terrifying monster, more terrifying than she had imagined.
The living room became a narrow and long corridor, an endless darkness, with no exit and no light on the path ahead.
But that person pulled her and ran, not even turning his head back to look. Even though there was no hope in the road ahead, he had no intention to stop and give up. He just ran with all his strength.
Sweat and blood washed away the stray powder that had adhered. The young man’s profile was frail yet cold, but he was like the deity she imagined in the other world when he spoke to her.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s no exit. Before we get caught, eaten, and die, let’s just run like this ba. All this time, you’ve just been hiding in that corner. After hiding for so long, how about you try to run as hard as you can. Jumping from the highest floor to die is not an escape. This is. Just keep running in the direction of hope.”
Nogawa Kaoru was pulled by him, and she finally gave up looking back at the terrifying ghost that couldn’t be beaten behind them. She forgot about the pain in her ankles and ran desperately towards that endless darkness.
“I’ve always wanted to try it once, running away recklessly like this. But I never really tried, not even once. This feeling, regardless of whether or not there is a path ahead of me, at least during this moment I’m running, I feel like I’ve escaped!”
“Thank you. If I am destined to die, I want to die on the path that represents hope, just like this.”
The chain at the end of the ankle was attached to the huge grave-like cherry blossom tree. After pulling, the cherry blossom tree began to tremble.
In the endless canopy of trees that covered the sky, countless corpses of Nogawa Kaoru, who had been hanged above, fell. With the collapsed cherry blossom graveyard, the bodies all fell into this dark and frightening room.
The bodies filled Nogawa Kaoru’s room, filled the master bedroom, filled the kitchen, and filled the living room.
The endless corpses fell like a tide. They filled the rooms that had caught fire, filled the escape corridor, and caught up with that enormous, ferocious ghost.
Countless bodies fell on the ghost’s body.
One was flung away, two, three…countless bodies.
An endless wave of Nogawa Kaoru’s bodies, all who had been killed by the pain Nogawa Kaoru felt in the past, buried the ghost that had chased them. The corpses, with their empty eyes, threw themselves on it, dragging it, crushing it, and burying it.
Bang!
The explosion sounded like fireworks, completely lighting up the darkness, and the burst of fire broke the black chain.
The wind blew away the blood-soaked gauze in front of her eyes, and a dazzling light appeared in front of Nogawa Kaoru. It’s true. There really was light and an exit at the end!
She raised her face, touched the light, and for the first time, revealed a smile. She said to the young man beside her, “Thank you!”
Ye Zun could only see a blurry expanse in front of him. He didn’t know whether it was because he had lost too much blood, or if the constant running had exhausted all his strength.
After the white light in front of him dissipated, he gulped down deep breaths after deep breaths, and pulled open the door in front of him. He stood there for a moment.
His right hand was empty. Nogawa Kaoru was already gone.
He stood outside Nogawa Kaoru’s door. In front of him was no longer a scenery that seemed to be a mixture of reality and falsehood, but a living room that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
There were old traces of abandonment everywhere, like the remains after having been inhabited for many years.
The ordinary remains were different from the old house shrouded in ghosts. Except for plants and insects, there were no traces of life, nor any emotions formed from a human.
It was just quiet and outdated, with sunlight and wind entering through the gaps, with mottle scattered peacefully across the surfaces.
“Did you escape? Did we succeed?”
“She said thank you. Does that mean, she finally escaped this time?”
The time on his phone showed that it was Friday morning.
He walked through the old, dilapidated house. There was nothing at all, nothing that pushed the brain to think of anything fearful.
The neighbour’s door on the left of the corridor had a seal stuck on from a long time ago. It was also run down, with no life inside.
The whole building was like this, like an idle decrepit house, waiting for a developer to deal with it, but there was no value to come out of it being demolished.
From inside the building, the embarrassed Ye Zun walked out and was met with other people’s surprised eyes.
“That kind of old house, it really is easy to get hurt ah.”
“Be careful ah, do you need us to take you to the hospital?”
The dazzling sunlight shone through the vast cloudy sky and scattered across the street. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
Everyone was friendly. No one had black stitches on their skin.
This is the human world.
……
There were three paced knocks on the door.
Soon, the door was opened from the inside.
The priest looked up and saw Ye Zun outside the door. His clear and mellow eyes suddenly paused for a moment, and his gaze held a gentle, restrained tenderness and pity.
“You are wounded very heavily ah.”
Ye Zun stood by the doorway with his hands behind his back. His white shirt was dripping with blood, but he was neatly dressed. The young man’s features were frail, thin and pale, and his handsome face had a thin layer of cold sweat. His brown eyes were covered with a touch of baby blue, and they watched him quietly and obediently.
Slowly, he revealed an unguarded smile at him, pure, weak, and bright. “I successfully cleared the game, Father.”
Lin stood there, eyes lost in thought as he stared at him. The corners of his lips raised in a warm curve, and he gently praised, “En, you are really strong.”
The young man raised his chin slightly, not as stiff and restrained as he used to be, and calmly accepted his praise. Those eyes were slack and powerless but bright, glittering like wet grass blades after the rain, and they looked at him softly. “In the future, I will be even stronger, so that I can…”
Even just standing there, his body was already wavering.
——So that I can, I can also protect Father.
The knot on Lin’s throat rolled imperceptibly. He held the other man, letting Ye Zun lean against him, not caring at all about the blood pooling out of the other’s body that stained his meticulously-kept snow-white shirt.
“I’m sorry, I scared you, Father. I wanted to tell you as soon as possible, because I said before that I would come to see you…”
“Don’t talk yet, I will help you stop the bleeding.”
Although it looked scary, the wounds that were actually the source of his bleeding were mainly at the place where his head was repeatedly bashed hard into the wall at the beginning, as well as the cut he gave himself on the palm of his left hand.
Lin carefully used a tweezer and cleaned the wound with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, helping him apply the medicine, then wrapping a bandage around it.
“The wound on your head will not be able to come in contact with water for a few days. Except for a slight concussion and a little dizziness, it won’t set you back. On the contrary, the position of the wound in the palm of the left hand is not good. You must restrain yourself and not move around, otherwise the wound easily split open. If it splits again, it will be very painful.”
Ye Zun looked at his fingers that were carefully bandaged. “Are my eyes seeing wrong? The wound seems to be much better than it was initially.”
Lin was not surprised. “Because your physique was strengthened, the healing speed of your injuries has indeed increased.”
Ye Zun was slightly shocked, but because of his head injury and excessive blood loss that led to him feeling abnormally fatigued, the change in his expression was very small. Only his eyes shifted slightly to look at the priest.
Lin packed the medical kit away and said in a low and gentle voice, “Do not worry. In the Demon God’s Amusement Park, this kind of change will always exist with the games you experience, and it will be helpful after you clear the games. It’s not something to alienate you, nor something bad.”
“En.”
Lin had him lie down on the sofa cushions and began to carefully treat the wounds on his upper body.
The young man’s stature was slender and pale but he didn’t look very skinny after taking off his clothes, with his figure still in the transitional stage of a teenage boy to a young man. The delicate bones were covered by a thin layer of muscles with smooth outlines. Even if he was injured, there was no loss to his beauty.
The cotton swab followed along the lines of the body, gently drifting, stopping occasionally at a wound.
The scars destroyed the perfection of this body, but it also added a somewhat shaky and contradictory beauty.
Like a blade of grass that curls open while in pain, simultaneously full of vitality and destruction, vulnerability and strength, abstinence and sensuality.
The cotton swab paused slightly, and the knot on someone’s throat restrained itself, only rolling faintly.
“We can leave the wound for now. Can you let me sleep a little? It’s so cold ah.”
The oppressive and dark spring water was once again clear and harmless.
“You lost too much blood, that is why you feel cold.”
Lin put down the cotton swab and covered him with a thin blanket, then gently touched his head. His clear eyes were quiet and made people feel at peace. “Sleep ba, I’m here. I will wake you up later.”
Ye Zun didn’t really want to sleep, but he had lost too much blood and was very tired.
The man’s fingers gently stroked his head over and over, and his swollen head also seemed to be soothed.
In the past and present, this was the first person who would stroke his head so gently and comfortingly like this. The warmth of those fingers let him be at ease.
He blinked several times, and in the warm and low murmurs of the priest, he gradually sank into the depths of a dream.
Lin’s fingers slowly drifted down, fingertips tracing along the side of his face. Once they reached those slightly pursed lips, he lightly caressed them.
The cool voice murmured in a low voice, “What a good boy. Did you want to see me as soon as possible? I am very happy. Today, we can leave things like this for the time being.”
At least for today, he can hold back his urge to eat this delicious dessert for a while.
The author has something to say:
2333333* As soon as he fights, he gets talkative. But if he is not talkative, it may really be impossible for him to control his fear.
[T/N: I think it means lolololol (?)]
Talking can help increase combat power~
Tomorrow’s chapter is very important, after all, there is still a Shen Yuan to deal with.
Please report us if you find any errors so we can fix it asap!
The girl whose eyes were covered with a blood-seeping gauze had a stunned expression on her calm face. “Why are you crying? Are you scared too?”
She stretched out her left hand and gently touched Ye Zun’s wet face with worry and comfort.
Ye Zun: “Am I crying? Because you don’t have eyes to cry, someone has to cry for you.”
The girl was slightly confused. “Are you crying for me?”
She stopped talking, and her small hands gently wiped his tears.
Ye Zun lowered his eyes, moved his shoulders slightly, and said softly, “I never knew that there are so many hidden and terrible misfortunes to encounter if you are born into the world as a girl.”
He said, “I don’t have parents, and sometimes I also envied the children who had parents who loved and protected them. I would imagine, what it would be like if they were by my side? Most of the time, I couldn’t think of such a life.”
He raised his head, lightly covering his eyes with his fingers. His Adam’s apple rolled and tears silently seeped out along the gaps between his fingers. For the first time,his voice was shaky, revealing a little sadness. “It turns out that with parents by your side, they may not be a protector, but a terrifying ghost.”
The girl who lost her eyes and right arm ‘watched’ him and comforted him like she was an adult. “Kaoru, don’t be scared. You are a boy now. That ghost probably doesn’t eat boys.”
Ye Zun slowly lifted his fingers and saw——
The phantoms attached to Ye Zun’s back, those translucent, fuzzy, hazy figures, slowly solidified, turning a thin young man.
With short hair and wearing the same white shirt and black uniform as Ye Zun, even if Ye Zun couldn’t see his facial features, he felt the person was sullen and uncommunicative.
The thirteen year old Kaoru stood up, walking away from Ye Zun and towards the phantom boy, becoming smaller as she walked, turning into a seven year old girl who had lost her left eye.
The boy knelt on the ground, where he was around the same height as her, and like a big brother, he gently stroked her missing left eye, then opened his arms and hugged her wearily.
And then, the little girl disappeared, along with the boy.
There was only a thirteen year old girl in a white dress, with a beautiful pale face, pursing her lips pessimistically and coldly.
The princess in the dress cut her hair short, changed into boy’s clothes, and wiped her face until it was dirty.
A distant, empty, voice berated, with insulting sarcasm.
……”Psychopath…is she a pervert? Dressing up like a man every day, do you see any other girl acting like her?”
She curled up in the corner of the bed, covering her ears, face blank and stubborn, repeating over and over again.
“I am a boy.”
……”Is your daughter a freak? She’s a freak, right? Having such a freak in the family, I’m ashamed every time I go out.”
“I am a boy. I am a boy.”
…..”The bedroom is like a garbage dump. There’s no girl who lives as filthy as you. Why haven’t you taken a shower today?”
“I am not a girl. The ghost can’t see me, the ghost can’t find me.”
Hugging the knees and clothes while sleeping in bed, in the surrounding darkness, suddenly waking up at random times all throughout the night. Opening a pair of empty and frightened eyes, looking left and right, alert to everything around.
That pitter patter, there or not, near or far sounds of footsteps, roaming around in the bedroom all night long.
The ghost was looking for the hiding girl. Looking in from outside the bedroom window, looking in through the crack between the door and the wall, looking for a chance to bite into bones and soul and turn her into a ghost as well.
Until, gradually, the room was illuminated by a dim light.
The day finally reached sunlight, and a sigh of relief was let loose. The ghost did not find her that night. She escaped again.
But, the sky soon became dark again.
Like this, one night, 365 nights a year, seven years of 2558 nights, the annual rings* of the cherry blossom graveyard went around and around.
[T/N: rings in a tree trunk, dating the age of the tree]
Every night, living, dying, and hiding from ghosts in nightmares.
Ye Zun slowly walked into the shadow of falsehoods and reality, coming to a stop in front of the young Nogawa Kaoru who was hiding at the corner of the bed, not daring to touch the girl who was like a frightened bird.
“How long will this go on? Will you hide like this for the rest of your life?”
In this tiny corner, there was not only the teenage boy Nogawa Kaoru, but also the seven year old Nogawa Kaoru with no left eye, as well as the thirteen year old Nogawa Kaoru with no eyes or a right arm.
The boy Kaoru slowly put down the hand covering his ears, looked at Ye Zun with no hope, and said, “It is said that every seven years, the cells of the human body are completely replaced, and the cycle repeats. Then, the seven year old Kaoru and the thirteen year old Kaoru are two completely different bodies.”
The seven year old Kaoru, whose left eye was eaten, said, “Let’s make a promise ba, until the day Kaoru turns twenty-one, that new Kaoru must escape ah.”
The thirteen year old Kaoru, whose eyes and right arm were eaten, said, “I will try my best to sustain myself until that day comes. When it comes, I will leave the job to the 21 year old Kaoru. Please, you must take us to escape from here ah.”
But the truth is, Ye Zun already knew the ending from the first day he entered the game. She did not make it out of this place.
Ye Zun wiped his eyes hard and gritted his teeth. “Why wait until twenty-one years old? I can take you out of here now.”
He grabbed Nogawa Kaoru’s hand, making sure he was holding Nogawa Kaoru’s sole body in the shadows, and pulled her out from that corner.
Nogawa Kaoru, who was pulled away from the corner by him, was wearing a black shirt and white trousers, with short hair. She had no eyes, with the sockets where her eyes were covered with bloody bandages, nor did she have her right arm.
Ye Zun grabbed her only intact left hand. “Let’s run ba, and if we fail, let’s try to kill it! Before we’re completely eaten and buried, at the very least, we must resist.”
She was dazed for a second, then immediately nodded without hesitatation.
They began to run, starting with the cherry blossom tree and running in the opposite direction of those phantoms.
After running for a long, long time, the scenery did not change, but Nogawa Kaoru’s footsteps suddenly staggered.
Ye Zun turned back and saw that she looked like a prison inmate. A black chain appeared on her festering ankle, and the other end of the chain extended into the darkness at the end of the enclosed area.
Ye Zun only furrowed his eyebrows and immediately pulled her along, running back.
In just a few steps, they were back inside the familiar house.
Ye Zun pulled Nogawa Kaoru into the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife and went to chop off the shackle around her ankle.
“If you can’t hack it off, then just chop off this foot ba!” Nogawa Kaoru raised her head, firmly expressing her thoughts.
“Wait a moment.”
Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in one hand and pulled Nogawa Kaoru’s hand in the other, then walked quickly along the chain to the other end.
Then, Ye Zun was surprised to find that even though they clearly set off along the trunk of the cherry blossom tree, the thing at the end was a room inside the cherry blossom tree, and the door to the room’s exit was the trunk of the cherry blossom tree.
The whole space was like a Klein bottle*.
[T/N: like a mobius strip, if you start from a point and travel along it, you will first reach the ‘outside’ before returning to your original point.]
This discovery only shocked Ye Zun for a second. He didn’t give up in despair, quickly regaining his spirit and calmed down.
He looked at Nogawa Kaoru. “It seems that we can’t find an exit, then, let’s go meet the ghost together ba. Let’s face your fears together.”
On Nogawa Kaoru’s pale and feeble face, her panic and daze disappeared. She nodded firmly. “If we can’t escape, before I’m eaten, I want to at least try to kill it!”
The two held hands and turned to walk back into the dark and oppressive house.
Cold sweat beaded on Nogawa Kaoru’s face. “It’s coming!”
Even if they couldn’t see anything, that sticky, terrifying feeling in the darkness could not be mistaken; those faintly discernible footsteps, those feelings of malicious peeping and ghosts laughing lingering everywhere.
Suddenly, Ye Zun’s entire body lifted into the air and slammed into the cold, hard wall.
The instantaneous violent impact caused the brown pupils to become out of sorts and empty. Where the head smashed into the wall, blood immediately oozed and dripped from the point of contact.
The invisible thing was still attacking him, hoisting him up by the neck, repeatedly slamming him into the uneven surfaces on the wall.
Ye Zun leaned against the wall, his absent-minded eyes gradually coming back into focus. There was no fear, only a cold ferocity.
He raised his hand to hold his wounded head. A hefty amount of blood turned his palm sticky and wet. He only spared it a quick glance, and the next second, his blood-stained fingers quickly grabbed at something in the void.
The corners of his pale lips rose, and he said calmly, “Caught you!”
“Since it’s a ghost that eats human flesh and drinks human blood, blood really can pin-point you ba!“
He didn’t hesitate to slash in that direction with the kitchen knife in his hand. He clearly hacked into something, but that invisible thing was unaffected.
Ye Zun was grabbed by his hair and slammed into the wall again. He gritted his teeth and pressed his fingers against the wall to cushion the impact.
“You really aren’t afraid of dismemberment? Right, being beheaded in the kitchen doesn’t affect your cannibalism, I get it.”
In the next moment, he reversed the direction of the kitchen knife that was tearing into the void and controlled his strength, slashing into the heart of his left palm without hesitation.
The dull knife cut into flesh. With a fast enough speed, you will only feel numbness and no pain, but a large amount of blood will pour out, and as time goes on, the pain will become more obvious.
The blade of the kitchen knife was engulfed in Ye Zun’s palm, allowing his blood to fully soak the blade.
“Human blood is something that has a sense of existence to you, right? Want a taste of my blood? I’m not scared of you at all. How about we see what you can get from here?”
The blood-stained kitchen knife slashed into the void again. He finally felt that the thing was dodging. After getting wounded, the ghost became more and more ferocious.
“En, I’m not scared of you at all. I already understand what you ghost things are. You obtain your power by taking advantage of people’s fear, that’s why you only dare to bully and scare women and children at first. How is it, isn’t my blood delicious?”
His injuries were also not light. His hair was completely wet and knotted with blood, but his pale and handsome face smiled indifferently, his brown eyes sharp and clear, baring his white teeth viciously.
It hurt so much. His body hurt so much. All the bones and flesh in his entire body seemed to be trembling uncontrollably with pain.
But, he was happy!
Ye Zun looked to the side, at the girl who was stiff and frightened. He obviously wasn’t someone with an aggressive personality or appearance, but at this moment, he smiled in an almost arrogant and provocative manner, calmly saying, “Don’t be scared. After hiding and running away for so long, the pain from killing yourself so many times, you’re very angry too, right? Try it, when you think of the pain and anger, you will not be scared a single bit. As long as you are not scared, what will that thing become?”
The girl who was shaking and stiff ‘looked’ at Ye Zun through the bloody gauze. Her fingers covering her ears trembled but were steadily lifted away.
Ye Zun instinctively avoided the attack that was scented and smeared with his own blood, looking at the girl with a clear and bright smile. “Anyway, the worst outcome is dying here. At the very least, we should bury it with us ba! This is the grave you were imprisoned in for at least ten years, shouldn’t you be very familiar with this place? Even without eyes, you can still find the kitchen accurately, right?”
The girl nodded firmly.
The youth’s voice was calm, carrying the cold and refreshing feeling of popsicles in summer. “Very good, go to the kitchen and turn on the gas stove, let’s blow this place up ba! Ever since I was a child, I have never stepped out of line. Let’s take this opportunity, you should also step out of it ba.”
The girl immediately groped along the wall and walked quickly towards the kitchen.
Ye Zun slipped his fingers into the bangs, tilted his head back, and pushed his blood-soaked hair back. The jut on his throat rolled, and he revealed a smile.
Although the ghost smeared with his blood was hidden in the darkness, the trajectory of its actions were finally traceable. As expected, it let go of Ye Zun, who had been persistently attacking it, and headed towards the kitchen.
“Do you want to stop her? It looks like bombing this place really will deal some damage to you ba! Since you’ve run away, it’s my turn to fight back! I’m going to be honest, you hit me so many times, and it hurts so much. If I don’t hit you back, my heart will not rest, and I will always feel that I got the worst of it!”
Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in both hands, basically acting without any judgment, and followed the direction to the kitchen, slashing along his path.
Even if there were misses, there will always be a few slashes cut deep into that thing’s vitals.
“Let’s die here together ba! What, can ghosts be scared too? Your arrogance at the beginning seems to be a lot weaker now ah. Is it because even the girl who was eaten by you is not scared of you now?”
His body was covered in blood. Blood and sweat dripped down his pale cheeks, dyeing his white shirt red. The young man who was as clean and beautiful as the warm wind brushing through the tall grass in the late summer, now looked more like a ghost than the ghost itself.
“Do you think only you can be vicious? I am the same; everyone’s the same. Once hurt and angry, anyone will be more vicious and ghost-like than you! You’re not the only one who can bully people!”
Naturally, he was badly wounded. His feet staggered, but he still made his way towards the kitchen.
In the kitchen.
The girl without eyes was hanging in the air, as if her neck was being strangled and hoisted up above the ground. Her face was pale, but at this moment, there was no fear. With gritted teeth, she used all her strength in her only to protect her neck, persistently kicking into the void.
“Lighter…on…top of the water storage.”
Ye Zun threw away the kitchen knife in his hand. Instead of immediately looking for the lighter, he picked up a half a bag of flour from the kitchen and tossed it directly in her direction.
White powder scattered in a thick cloud, taking up the entire kitchen.
Ye Zun grabbed the lighter lying on top of the water storage. Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, he flatly said, “There is enough powder in the air to blow this place up. Can ghosts die in an explosion? Maybe not in general, but this is your domain ba. As far as I know, in the world where the ghost’s body is located, it is possible to employ physical methods to kill ghosts. What does a dead ghost look like? Do you know why I am not scared of you? Because I have been thinking, if I die here, depending on how annoyed I am with you, I’ll just have to turn into a more ferocious and terrifying ghost than you. At least I won’t become a waste that only dares to attack women and children! At that time, who knows who will kill who!”
[T/N: when in the air, flour can ‘explode’/catch fire when coming in contact with a flame. (I believe?) Any powder will do (finer the better; cornstarch would also be very good)]
The girl fell to the ground, then the thing that attacked her came in Ye Zun’s direction.
Ye Zun paid attention to the direction of the airflow within the white flour, quickly dodging and swinging the kitchen knife by his hand, bringing it down heavily. The blow was too deep and could not be pulled out for a while, so he immediately gave up on the kitchen knife and instead took the girl’s hand, running out.
Running out of the kitchen door, he turned back and flicked the switch of the lighter, and in the next second, he threw the entire lighter into the kitchen behind him.
Bang!
The dense dust cloud ignited instantly when it encountered the open flame.
While throwing the lighter, Ye Zun grabbed Nogawa Kaoru’s hand and ran towards the living room as fast as he could.
Nogawa Kaoru turned back and ‘looked’ in a panic. Across the blood-soaked gauze, a ferocious beast in the flames chased after them. It was a terrifying monster, more terrifying than she had imagined.
The living room became a narrow and long corridor, an endless darkness, with no exit and no light on the path ahead.
But that person pulled her and ran, not even turning his head back to look. Even though there was no hope in the road ahead, he had no intention to stop and give up. He just ran with all his strength.
Sweat and blood washed away the stray powder that had adhered. The young man’s profile was frail yet cold, but he was like the deity she imagined in the other world when he spoke to her.
“It doesn’t matter if there’s no exit. Before we get caught, eaten, and die, let’s just run like this ba. All this time, you’ve just been hiding in that corner. After hiding for so long, how about you try to run as hard as you can. Jumping from the highest floor to die is not an escape. This is. Just keep running in the direction of hope.”
Nogawa Kaoru was pulled by him, and she finally gave up looking back at the terrifying ghost that couldn’t be beaten behind them. She forgot about the pain in her ankles and ran desperately towards that endless darkness.
“I’ve always wanted to try it once, running away recklessly like this. But I never really tried, not even once. This feeling, regardless of whether or not there is a path ahead of me, at least during this moment I’m running, I feel like I’ve escaped!”
“Thank you. If I am destined to die, I want to die on the path that represents hope, just like this.”
The chain at the end of the ankle was attached to the huge grave-like cherry blossom tree. After pulling, the cherry blossom tree began to tremble.
In the endless canopy of trees that covered the sky, countless corpses of Nogawa Kaoru, who had been hanged above, fell. With the collapsed cherry blossom graveyard, the bodies all fell into this dark and frightening room.
The bodies filled Nogawa Kaoru’s room, filled the master bedroom, filled the kitchen, and filled the living room.
The endless corpses fell like a tide. They filled the rooms that had caught fire, filled the escape corridor, and caught up with that enormous, ferocious ghost.
Countless bodies fell on the ghost’s body.
One was flung away, two, three…countless bodies.
An endless wave of Nogawa Kaoru’s bodies, all who had been killed by the pain Nogawa Kaoru felt in the past, buried the ghost that had chased them. The corpses, with their empty eyes, threw themselves on it, dragging it, crushing it, and burying it.
Bang!
The explosion sounded like fireworks, completely lighting up the darkness, and the burst of fire broke the black chain.
The wind blew away the blood-soaked gauze in front of her eyes, and a dazzling light appeared in front of Nogawa Kaoru. It’s true. There really was light and an exit at the end!
She raised her face, touched the light, and for the first time, revealed a smile. She said to the young man beside her, “Thank you!”
Ye Zun could only see a blurry expanse in front of him. He didn’t know whether it was because he had lost too much blood, or if the constant running had exhausted all his strength.
After the white light in front of him dissipated, he gulped down deep breaths after deep breaths, and pulled open the door in front of him. He stood there for a moment.
His right hand was empty. Nogawa Kaoru was already gone.
He stood outside Nogawa Kaoru’s door. In front of him was no longer a scenery that seemed to be a mixture of reality and falsehood, but a living room that was both familiar and unfamiliar.
There were old traces of abandonment everywhere, like the remains after having been inhabited for many years.
The ordinary remains were different from the old house shrouded in ghosts. Except for plants and insects, there were no traces of life, nor any emotions formed from a human.
It was just quiet and outdated, with sunlight and wind entering through the gaps, with mottle scattered peacefully across the surfaces.
“Did you escape? Did we succeed?”
“She said thank you. Does that mean, she finally escaped this time?”
The time on his phone showed that it was Friday morning.
He walked through the old, dilapidated house. There was nothing at all, nothing that pushed the brain to think of anything fearful.
The neighbour’s door on the left of the corridor had a seal stuck on from a long time ago. It was also run down, with no life inside.
The whole building was like this, like an idle decrepit house, waiting for a developer to deal with it, but there was no value to come out of it being demolished.
From inside the building, the embarrassed Ye Zun walked out and was met with other people’s surprised eyes.
“That kind of old house, it really is easy to get hurt ah.”
“Be careful ah, do you need us to take you to the hospital?”
The dazzling sunlight shone through the vast cloudy sky and scattered across the street. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.
Everyone was friendly. No one had black stitches on their skin.
This is the human world.
……
There were three paced knocks on the door.
Soon, the door was opened from the inside.
The priest looked up and saw Ye Zun outside the door. His clear and mellow eyes suddenly paused for a moment, and his gaze held a gentle, restrained tenderness and pity.
“You are wounded very heavily ah.”
Ye Zun stood by the doorway with his hands behind his back. His white shirt was dripping with blood, but he was neatly dressed. The young man’s features were frail, thin and pale, and his handsome face had a thin layer of cold sweat. His brown eyes were covered with a touch of baby blue, and they watched him quietly and obediently.
Slowly, he revealed an unguarded smile at him, pure, weak, and bright. “I successfully cleared the game, Father.”
Lin stood there, eyes lost in thought as he stared at him. The corners of his lips raised in a warm curve, and he gently praised, “En, you are really strong.”
The young man raised his chin slightly, not as stiff and restrained as he used to be, and calmly accepted his praise. Those eyes were slack and powerless but bright, glittering like wet grass blades after the rain, and they looked at him softly. “In the future, I will be even stronger, so that I can…”
Even just standing there, his body was already wavering.
——So that I can, I can also protect Father.
The knot on Lin’s throat rolled imperceptibly. He held the other man, letting Ye Zun lean against him, not caring at all about the blood pooling out of the other’s body that stained his meticulously-kept snow-white shirt.
“I’m sorry, I scared you, Father. I wanted to tell you as soon as possible, because I said before that I would come to see you…”
“Don’t talk yet, I will help you stop the bleeding.”
Although it looked scary, the wounds that were actually the source of his bleeding were mainly at the place where his head was repeatedly bashed hard into the wall at the beginning, as well as the cut he gave himself on the palm of his left hand.
Lin carefully used a tweezer and cleaned the wound with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, helping him apply the medicine, then wrapping a bandage around it.
“The wound on your head will not be able to come in contact with water for a few days. Except for a slight concussion and a little dizziness, it won’t set you back. On the contrary, the position of the wound in the palm of the left hand is not good. You must restrain yourself and not move around, otherwise the wound easily split open. If it splits again, it will be very painful.”
Ye Zun looked at his fingers that were carefully bandaged. “Are my eyes seeing wrong? The wound seems to be much better than it was initially.”
Lin was not surprised. “Because your physique was strengthened, the healing speed of your injuries has indeed increased.”
Ye Zun was slightly shocked, but because of his head injury and excessive blood loss that led to him feeling abnormally fatigued, the change in his expression was very small. Only his eyes shifted slightly to look at the priest.
Lin packed the medical kit away and said in a low and gentle voice, “Do not worry. In the Demon God’s Amusement Park, this kind of change will always exist with the games you experience, and it will be helpful after you clear the games. It’s not something to alienate you, nor something bad.”
“En.”
Lin had him lie down on the sofa cushions and began to carefully treat the wounds on his upper body.
The young man’s stature was slender and pale but he didn’t look very skinny after taking off his clothes, with his figure still in the transitional stage of a teenage boy to a young man. The delicate bones were covered by a thin layer of muscles with smooth outlines. Even if he was injured, there was no loss to his beauty.
The cotton swab followed along the lines of the body, gently drifting, stopping occasionally at a wound.
The scars destroyed the perfection of this body, but it also added a somewhat shaky and contradictory beauty.
Like a blade of grass that curls open while in pain, simultaneously full of vitality and destruction, vulnerability and strength, abstinence and sensuality.
The cotton swab paused slightly, and the knot on someone’s throat restrained itself, only rolling faintly.
“We can leave the wound for now. Can you let me sleep a little? It’s so cold ah.”
The oppressive and dark spring water was once again clear and harmless.
“You lost too much blood, that is why you feel cold.”
Lin put down the cotton swab and covered him with a thin blanket, then gently touched his head. His clear eyes were quiet and made people feel at peace. “Sleep ba, I’m here. I will wake you up later.”
Ye Zun didn’t really want to sleep, but he had lost too much blood and was very tired.
The man’s fingers gently stroked his head over and over, and his swollen head also seemed to be soothed.
In the past and present, this was the first person who would stroke his head so gently and comfortingly like this. The warmth of those fingers let him be at ease.
He blinked several times, and in the warm and low murmurs of the priest, he gradually sank into the depths of a dream.
Lin’s fingers slowly drifted down, fingertips tracing along the side of his face. Once they reached those slightly pursed lips, he lightly caressed them.
The cool voice murmured in a low voice, “What a good boy. Did you want to see me as soon as possible? I am very happy. Today, we can leave things like this for the time being.”
At least for today, he can hold back his urge to eat this delicious dessert for a while.
The author has something to say:
2333333* As soon as he fights, he gets talkative. But if he is not talkative, it may really be impossible for him to control his fear.
[T/N: I think it means lolololol (?)]
Talking can help increase combat power~
Tomorrow’s chapter is very important, after all, there is still a Shen Yuan to deal with.
The girl whose eyes were covered with a blood-seeping gauze had a stunned expression on her calm face. Why are you crying? Are you scared too?She stretched out her left hand and gently touched Ye Zun's wet face with worry and comfort.Ye Zun: Am I crying? Because you don't have eyes to cry, someone has to cry for you.The girl was slightly confused. Are you crying for me?She stopped talking, and her small hands gently wiped his tears.Ye Zun lowered his eyes, moved his shoulders slightly, and said softly, I never knew that there are so many hidden and terrible misfortunes to encounter if you are born into the world as a girl.He said, I don't have parents, and sometimes I also envied the children who had parents who loved and protected them. I would imagine, what it would be like if they were by my side? Most of the time, I couldn't think of such a life.He raised his head, lightly covering his eyes with his fingers. His Adam's apple rolled and tears silently seeped out along the gaps between his fingers. For the first time,his voice was shaky, revealing a little sadness. It turns out that with parents by your side, they may not be a protector, but a terrifying ghost.The girl who lost her eyes and right arm watched' him and comforted him like she was an adult. Kaoru, don't be scared. You are a boy now. That ghost probably doesn't eat boys.Ye Zun slowly lifted his fingers and sawThe phantoms attached to Ye Zun's back, those translucent, fuzzy, hazy figures, slowly solidified, turning a thin young man.With short hair and wearing the same white shirt and black uniform as Ye Zun, even if Ye Zun couldn't see his facial features, he felt the person was sullen and uncommunicative.The thirteen year old Kaoru stood up, walking away from Ye Zun and towards the phantom boy, becoming smaller as she walked, turning into a seven year old girl who had lost her left eye.The boy knelt on the ground, where he was around the same height as her, and like a big brother, he gently stroked her missing left eye, then opened his arms and hugged her wearily.And then, the little girl disappeared, along with the boy.There was only a thirteen year old girl in a white dress, with a beautiful pale face, pursing her lips pessimistically and coldly.The princess in the dress cut her hair short, changed into boy's clothes, and wiped her face until it was dirty.A distant, empty, voice berated, with insulting sarcasm.Psychopathis she a pervert? Dressing up like a man every day, do you see any other girl acting like her?She curled up in the corner of the bed, covering her ears, face blank and stubborn, repeating over and over again.I am a boy.Is your daughter a freak? She's a freak, right? Having such a freak in the family, I'm ashamed every time I go out.I am a boy. I am a boy...The bedroom is like a garbage dump. There's no girl who lives as filthy as you. Why haven't you taken a shower today?I am not a girl. The ghost can't see me, the ghost can't find me.Hugging the knees and clothes while sleeping in bed, in the surrounding darkness, suddenly waking up at random times all throughout the night. Opening a pair of empty and frightened eyes, looking left and right, alert to everything around.Thatpitter patter, there or not, near or far sounds of footsteps, roaming around in the bedroom all night long.The ghost was looking for the hiding girl. Looking in from outside the bedroom window, looking in through the crack between the door and the wall, looking for a chance to bite into bones and soul and turn her into a ghost as well.Until, gradually, the room was illuminated by a dim light.The day finally reached sunlight, and a sigh of relief was let loose. The ghost did not find her that night. She escaped again.But, the sky soon became dark again.Like this, one night, 365 nights a year, seven years of 2558 nights, the annual rings* of the cherry blossom graveyard went around and around.T/N: rings in a tree trunk, dating the age of the treeEvery night, living, dying, and hiding from ghosts in nightmares.Ye Zun slowly walked into the shadow of falsehoods and reality, coming to a stop in front of the young Nogawa Kaoru who was hiding at the corner of the bed, not daring to touch the girl who was like a frightened bird.How long will this go on? Will you hide like this for the rest of your life?In this tiny corner, there was not only the teenage boy Nogawa Kaoru, but also the seven year old Nogawa Kaoru with no left eye, as well as the thirteen year old Nogawa Kaoru with no eyes or a right arm.The boy Kaoru slowly put down the hand covering his ears, looked at Ye Zun with no hope, and said, It is said that every seven years, the cells of the human body are completely replaced, and the cycle repeats. Then, the seven year old Kaoru and the thirteen year old Kaoru are two completely different bodies.The seven year old Kaoru, whose left eye was eaten, said, Let's make a promiseba, until the day Kaoru turns twenty-one, that new Kaoru must escapeah.The thirteen year old Kaoru, whose eyes and right arm were eaten, said, I will try my best to sustain myself until that day comes. When it comes, I will leave the job to the 21 year old Kaoru. Please, you must take us to escape from hereah.But the truth is, Ye Zun already knew the ending from the first day he entered the game. She did not make it out of this place.Ye Zun wiped his eyes hard and gritted his teeth. Why wait until twenty-one years old? I can take you out of here now.He grabbed Nogawa Kaoru's hand, making sure he was holding Nogawa Kaoru's sole body in the shadows, and pulled her out from that corner.Nogawa Kaoru, who was pulled away from the corner by him, was wearing a black shirt and white trousers, with short hair. She had no eyes, with the sockets where her eyes were covered with bloody bandages, nor did she have her right arm.Ye Zun grabbed her only intact left hand. Let's runba, and if we fail, let's try to kill it! Before we're completely eaten and buried, at the very least, we must resist.She was dazed for a second, then immediately nodded without hesitatation.They began to run, starting with the cherry blossom tree and running in the opposite direction of those phantoms.After running for a long, long time, the scenery did not change, but Nogawa Kaoru's footsteps suddenly staggered.Ye Zun turned back and saw that she looked like a prison inmate. A black chain appeared on her festering ankle, and the other end of the chain extended into the darkness at the end of the enclosed area.Ye Zun only furrowed his eyebrows and immediately pulled her along, running back.In just a few steps, they were back inside the familiar house.Ye Zun pulled Nogawa Kaoru into the kitchen, picked up a kitchen knife and went to chop off the shackle around her ankle.If you can't hack it off, then just chop off this footba! Nogawa Kaoru raised her head, firmly expressing her thoughts.Wait a moment.Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in one hand and pulled Nogawa Kaoru's hand in the other, then walked quickly along the chain to the other end.Then, Ye Zun was surprised to find that even though they clearly set off along the trunk of the cherry blossom tree, the thing at the end was a room inside the cherry blossom tree, and the door to the room's exit was the trunk of the cherry blossom tree.The whole space was like a Klein bottle*.T/N: like a mobius strip, if you start from a point and travel along it, you will first reach the outside' before returning to your original point.This discovery only shocked Ye Zun for a second. He didn't give up in despair, quickly regaining his spirit and calmed down.He looked at Nogawa Kaoru. It seems that we can't find an exit, then, let's go meet the ghost togetherba. Let's face your fears together.On Nogawa Kaoru's pale and feeble face, her panic and daze disappeared. She nodded firmly. If we can't escape, before I'm eaten, I want to at least try to kill it!The two held hands and turned to walk back into the dark and oppressive house.Cold sweat beaded on Nogawa Kaoru's face. It's coming!Even if they couldn't see anything, that sticky, terrifying feeling in the darkness could not be mistaken; those faintly discernible footsteps, those feelings of malicious peeping and ghosts laughing lingering everywhere.Suddenly, Ye Zun's entire body lifted into the air and slammed into the cold, hard wall.The instantaneous violent impact caused the brown pupils to become out of sorts and empty. Where the head smashed into the wall, blood immediately oozed and dripped from the point of contact.The invisible thing was still attacking him, hoisting him up by the neck, repeatedly slamming him into the uneven surfaces on the wall.Ye Zun leaned against the wall, his absent-minded eyes gradually coming back into focus. There was no fear, only a cold ferocity.He raised his hand to hold his wounded head. A hefty amount of blood turned his palm sticky and wet. He only spared it a quick glance, and the next second, his blood-stained fingers quickly grabbed at something in the void.The corners of his pale lips rose, and he said calmly, Caught you!Since it's a ghost that eats human flesh and drinks human blood, blood really can pin-point youba!He didn't hesitate to slash in that direction with the kitchen knife in his hand. He clearly hacked into something, but that invisible thing was unaffected.Ye Zun was grabbed by his hair and slammed into the wall again. He gritted his teeth and pressed his fingers against the wall to cushion the impact.You really aren't afraid of dismemberment? Right, being beheaded in the kitchen doesn't affect your cannibalism, I get it.In the next moment, he reversed the direction of the kitchen knife that was tearing into the void and controlled his strength, slashing into the heart of his left palm without hesitation.The dull knife cut into flesh. With a fast enough speed, you will only feel numbness and no pain, but a large amount of blood will pour out, and as time goes on, the pain will become more obvious.The blade of the kitchen knife was engulfed in Ye Zun's palm, allowing his blood to fully soak the blade.Human blood is something that has a sense of existence to you, right? Want a taste of my blood? I'm not scared of you at all. How about we see what you can get from here?The blood-stained kitchen knife slashed into the void again. He finally felt that the thing was dodging. After getting wounded, the ghost became more and more ferocious.En, I'm not scared of you at all. I already understand what you ghost things are. You obtain your power by taking advantage of people's fear, that's why you only dare to bully and scare women and children at first. How is it, isn't my blood delicious?His injuries were also not light. His hair was completely wet and knotted with blood, but his pale and handsome face smiled indifferently, his brown eyes sharp and clear, baring his white teeth viciously.It hurt so much. His body hurt so much. All the bones and flesh in his entire body seemed to be trembling uncontrollably with pain.But, he was happy!Ye Zun looked to the side, at the girl who was stiff and frightened. He obviously wasn't someone with an aggressive personality or appearance, but at this moment, he smiled in an almost arrogant and provocative manner, calmly saying, Don't be scared. After hiding and running away for so long, the pain from killing yourself so many times, you're very angry too, right? Try it, when you think of the pain and anger, you will not be scared a single bit. As long as you are not scared, what will that thing become?The girl who was shaking and stiff looked' at Ye Zun through the bloody gauze. Her fingers covering her ears trembled but were steadily lifted away.Ye Zun instinctively avoided the attack that was scented and smeared with his own blood, looking at the girl with a clear and bright smile. Anyway, the worst outcome is dying here. At the very least, we should bury it with usba!This is the grave you were imprisoned in for at least ten years, shouldn't you be very familiar with this place? Even without eyes, you can still find the kitchen accurately, right?The girl nodded firmly.The youth's voice was calm, carrying the cold and refreshing feeling of popsicles in summer. Very good, go to the kitchen and turn on the gas stove, let's blow this place upba!Ever since I was a child, I have never stepped out of line. Let's take this opportunity, you should also step out of itba.The girl immediately groped along the wall and walked quickly towards the kitchen.Ye Zun slipped his fingers into the bangs, tilted his head back, and pushed his blood-soaked hair back. The jut on his throat rolled, and he revealed a smile.Although the ghost smeared with his blood was hidden in the darkness, the trajectory of its actions were finally traceable. As expected, it let go of Ye Zun, who had been persistently attacking it, and headed towards the kitchen.Do you want to stop her? It looks like bombing this place really will deal some damage to youba!Since you've run away, it's my turn to fight back! I'm going to be honest, you hit me so many times, and it hurts so much. If I don't hit you back, my heart will not rest, and I will always feel that I got the worst of it!Ye Zun held the kitchen knife in both hands, basically acting without any judgment, and followed the direction to the kitchen, slashing along his path.Even if there were misses, there will always be a few slashes cut deep into that thing's vitals.Let's die here togetherba!What, can ghosts be scared too? Your arrogance at the beginning seems to be a lot weaker nowah. Is it because even the girl who was eaten by you is not scared of you now?His body was covered in blood. Blood and sweat dripped down his pale cheeks, dyeing his white shirt red. The young man who was as clean and beautiful as the warm wind brushing through the tall grass in the late summer, now looked more like a ghost than the ghost itself.Do you think only you can be vicious? I am the same; everyone's the same. Once hurt and angry, anyone will be more vicious and ghost-like than you! You're not the only one who can bully people!Naturally, he was badly wounded. His feet staggered, but he still made his way towards the kitchen.In the kitchen.The girl without eyes was hanging in the air, as if her neck was being strangled and hoisted up above the ground. Her face was pale, but at this moment, there was no fear. With gritted teeth, she used all her strength in her only to protect her neck, persistently kicking into the void.Lighterontop of the water storage.Ye Zun threw away the kitchen knife in his hand. Instead of immediately looking for the lighter, he picked up a half a bag of flour from the kitchen and tossed it directly in her direction.White powder scattered in a thick cloud, taking up the entire kitchen.Ye Zun grabbed the lighter lying on top of the water storage. Covering his mouth and nose with his sleeve, he flatly said, There is enough powder in the air to blow this place up. Can ghosts die in an explosion? Maybe not in general, but this is your domainba. As far as I know, in the world where the ghost's body is located, it is possible to employ physical methods to kill ghosts. What does a dead ghost look like? Do you know why I am not scared of you? Because I have been thinking, if I die here, depending on how annoyed I am with you, I'll just have to turn into a more ferocious and terrifying ghost than you. At least I won't become a waste that only dares to attack women and children! At that time, who knows who will kill who!T/N: when in the air, flour can explode'/catch fire when coming in contact with a flame. I believe? Any powder will do finer the better; cornstarch would also be very goodThe girl fell to the ground, then the thing that attacked her came in Ye Zun's direction.Ye Zun paid attention to the direction of the airflow within the white flour, quickly dodging and swinging the kitchen knife by his hand, bringing it down heavily. The blow was too deep and could not be pulled out for a while, so he immediately gave up on the kitchen knife and instead took the girl's hand, running out.Running out of the kitchen door, he turned back and flicked the switch of the lighter, and in the next second, he threw the entire lighter into the kitchen behind him.Bang!The dense dust cloud ignited instantly when it encountered the open flame.While throwing the lighter, Ye Zun grabbed Nogawa Kaoru's hand and ran towards the living room as fast as he could.Nogawa Kaoru turned back and looked' in a panic. Across the blood-soaked gauze, a ferocious beast in the flames chased after them. It was a terrifying monster, more terrifying than she had imagined.The living room became a narrow and long corridor, an endless darkness, with no exit and no light on the path ahead.But that person pulled her and ran, not even turning his head back to look. Even though there was no hope in the road ahead, he had no intention to stop and give up. He just ran with all his strength.Sweat and blood washed away the stray powder that had adhered. The young man's profile was frail yet cold, but he was like the deity she imagined in the other world when he spoke to her.It doesn't matter if there's no exit. Before we get caught, eaten, and die, let's just run like thisba. All this time, you've just been hiding in that corner. After hiding for so long, how about you try to run as hard as you can. Jumping from the highest floor to die is not an escape. This is. Just keep running in the direction of hope.Nogawa Kaoru was pulled by him, and she finally gave up looking back at the terrifying ghost that couldn't be beaten behind them. She forgot about the pain in her ankles and ran desperately towards that endless darkness.I've always wanted to try it once, running away recklessly like this. But I never really tried, not even once. This feeling, regardless of whether or not there is a path ahead of me, at least during this moment I'm running, I feel like I've escaped!Thank you. If I am destined to die, I want to die on the path that represents hope, just like this.The chain at the end of the ankle was attached to the huge grave-like cherry blossom tree. After pulling, the cherry blossom tree began to tremble.In the endless canopy of trees that covered the sky, countless corpses of Nogawa Kaoru, who had been hanged above, fell. With the collapsed cherry blossom graveyard, the bodies all fell into this dark and frightening room.The bodies filled Nogawa Kaoru's room, filled the master bedroom, filled the kitchen, and filled the living room.The endless corpses fell like a tide. They filled the rooms that had caught fire, filled the escape corridor, and caught up with that enormous, ferocious ghost.Countless bodies fell on the ghost's body.One was flung away, two, threecountless bodies.An endless wave of Nogawa Kaoru's bodies, all who had been killed by the pain Nogawa Kaoru felt in the past, buried the ghost that had chased them. The corpses, with their empty eyes, threw themselves on it, dragging it, crushing it, and burying it.Bang!The explosion sounded like fireworks, completely lighting up the darkness, and the burst of fire broke the black chain.The wind blew away the blood-soaked gauze in front of her eyes, and a dazzling light appeared in front of Nogawa Kaoru. It's true. There really was light and an exit at the end!She raised her face, touched the light, and for the first time, revealed a smile. She said to the young man beside her, Thank you!Ye Zun could only see a blurry expanse in front of him. He didn't know whether it was because he had lost too much blood, or if the constant running had exhausted all his strength.After the white light in front of him dissipated, he gulped down deep breaths after deep breaths, and pulled open the door in front of him. He stood there for a moment.His right hand was empty. Nogawa Kaoru was already gone.He stood outside Nogawa Kaoru's door. In front of him was no longer a scenery that seemed to be a mixture of reality and falsehood, but a living room that was both familiar and unfamiliar.There were old traces of abandonment everywhere, like the remains after having been inhabited for many years.The ordinary remains were different from the old house shrouded in ghosts. Except for plants and insects, there were no traces of life, nor any emotions formed from a human.It was just quiet and outdated, with sunlight and wind entering through the gaps, with mottle scattered peacefully across the surfaces.Did you escape? Did we succeed?She said thank you. Does that mean, she finally escaped this time?The time on his phone showed that it was Friday morning.He walked through the old, dilapidated house. There was nothing at all, nothing that pushed the brain to think of anything fearful.The neighbour's door on the left of the corridor had a seal stuck on from a long time ago. It was also run down, with no life inside.The whole building was like this, like an idle decrepit house, waiting for a developer to deal with it, but there was no value to come out of it being demolished.From inside the building, the embarrassed Ye Zun walked out and was met with other people's surprised eyes.That kind of old house, it really is easy to get hurtah.Be carefulah, do you need us to take you to the hospital?The dazzling sunlight shone through the vast cloudy sky and scattered across the street. Everyone seemed to be in a good mood.Everyone was friendly. No one had black stitches on their skin.This is the human world.There were three paced knocks on the door.Soon, the door was opened from the inside.The priest looked up and saw Ye Zun outside the door. His clear and mellow eyes suddenly paused for a moment, and his gaze held a gentle, restrained tenderness and pity.You are wounded very heavilyah.Ye Zun stood by the doorway with his hands behind his back. His white shirt was dripping with blood, but he was neatly dressed. The young man's features were frail, thin and pale, and his handsome face had a thin layer of cold sweat. His brown eyes were covered with a touch of baby blue, and they watched him quietly and obediently.Slowly, he revealed an unguarded smile at him, pure, weak, and bright. I successfully cleared the game, Father.Lin stood there, eyes lost in thought as he stared at him. The corners of his lips raised in a warm curve, and he gently praised, En, you are really strong.The young man raised his chin slightly, not as stiff and restrained as he used to be, and calmly accepted his praise. Those eyes were slack and powerless but bright, glittering like wet grass blades after the rain, and they looked at him softly. In the future, I will be even stronger, so that I canEven just standing there, his body was already wavering.So that I can, I can also protect Father.The knot on Lin's throat rolled imperceptibly. He held the other man, letting Ye Zun lean against him, not caring at all about the blood pooling out of the other's body that stained his meticulously-kept snow-white shirt.I'm sorry, I scared you, Father. I wanted to tell you as soon as possible, because I said before that I would come to see youDon't talk yet, I will help you stop the bleeding.Although it looked scary, the wounds that were actually the source of his bleeding were mainly at the place where his head was repeatedly bashed hard into the wall at the beginning, as well as the cut he gave himself on the palm of his left hand.Lin carefully used a tweezer and cleaned the wound with a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol, helping him apply the medicine, then wrapping a bandage around it.The wound on your head will not be able to come in contact with water for a few days. Except for a slight concussion and a little dizziness, it won't set you back. On the contrary, the position of the wound in the palm of the left hand is not good. You must restrain yourself and not move around, otherwise the wound easily split open. If it splits again, it will be very painful.Ye Zun looked at his fingers that were carefully bandaged. Are my eyes seeing wrong? The wound seems to be much better than it was initially.Lin was not surprised. Because your physique was strengthened, the healing speed of your injuries has indeed increased.Ye Zun was slightly shocked, but because of his head injury and excessive blood loss that led to him feeling abnormally fatigued, the change in his expression was very small. Only his eyes shifted slightly to look at the priest.Lin packed the medical kit away and said in a low and gentle voice, Do not worry. In the Demon God's Amusement Park, this kind of change will always exist with the games you experience, and it will be helpful after you clear the games. It's not something to alienate you, nor something bad.En.Lin had him lie down on the sofa cushions and began to carefully treat the wounds on his upper body.The young man's stature was slender and pale but he didn't look very skinny after taking off his clothes, with his figure still in the transitional stage of a teenage boy to a young man. The delicate bones were covered by a thin layer of muscles with smooth outlines. Even if he was injured, there was no loss to his beauty.The cotton swab followed along the lines of the body, gently drifting, stopping occasionally at a wound.The scars destroyed the perfection of this body, but it also added a somewhat shaky and contradictory beauty.Like a blade of grass that curls open while in pain, simultaneously full of vitality and destruction, vulnerability and strength, abstinence and sensuality.The cotton swab paused slightly, and the knot on someone's throat restrained itself, only rolling faintly.We can leave the wound for now. Can you let me sleep a little? It's so coldah.The oppressive and dark spring water was once again clear and harmless.You lost too much blood, that is why you feel cold.Lin put down the cotton swab and covered him with a thin blanket, then gently touched his head. His clear eyes were quiet and made people feel at peace. Sleepba, I'm here. I will wake you up later.Ye Zun didn't really want to sleep, but he had lost too much blood and was very tired.The man's fingers gently stroked his head over and over, and his swollen head also seemed to be soothed.In the past and present, this was the first person who would stroke his head so gently and comfortingly like this. The warmth of those fingers let him be at ease.He blinked several times, and in the warm and low murmurs of the priest, he gradually sank into the depths of a dream.Lin's fingers slowly drifted down, fingertips tracing along the side of his face. Once they reached those slightly pursed lips, he lightly caressed them.The cool voice murmured in a low voice, What a good boy. Did you want to see me as soon as possible? I am very happy. Today, we can leave things like this for the time being.At least for today, he can hold back his urge to eat this delicious dessert for a while.The author has something to say:2333333* As soon as he fights, he gets talkative. But if he is not talkative, it may really be impossible for him to control his fear.T/N: I think it means lolololol ?Talking can help increase combat power~Tomorrow's chapter is very important, after all, there is still a Shen Yuan to deal with.
