Ye Yuzhi didn’t spare the person in front of him a second glance. He simply stepped around her and prepared to leave.
But how could Du Yun possibly allow Ye Yuzhi to go and look for Anthony? Since Anthony intended to summon the King in Yellow, there was absolutely no way he would be acting alone.
Aside from the other fanatics, there would very likely be a considerable number of Byakhee involved as well.
On top of that, given Ye Yuzhi’s current mental state, Du Yun could almost picture it clearly, him rushing back on his own, only to be captured on the spot.
He was so clear-headed during the day, knew to investigate everything carefully. How had he ended up like this at night?! What on earth had Shaun experienced?! Du Yun felt herself spiraling internally.
She moved to block Ye Yuzhi’s path and said firmly, “In any case, you’re not allowed to go right now!”
Ye Yuzhi glanced at her, then suddenly said, “Your face is melting.”
All the words Du Yun had been about to say instantly got stuck in her throat. She subconsciously covered her face and stared at Ye Yuzhi in shock. “How did you, no, wait.” She quickly collected herself. “Just wait a moment, Shaun.”
This was no time to worry about whether her face was melting or not. Stopping Ye Yuzhi from throwing himself into certain death was the real priority. Even if she had to lie through her teeth, she had to keep him here.
“I have a plan. Can you listen to me?” she shouted. “Just treat it as listening to a friend’s advice!”
Ye Yuzhi’s footsteps finally came to a stop.
A friend’s plan… should be listened to.
He looked at Du Yun. “What kind of plan?”
Du Yun felt her scalp go numb under his gaze. “A plan to kill Anthony.”
“You think about it, if he really is the mastermind, then he definitely won’t be someone who can be easily killed, right?”
Ye Yuzhi recalled what Alide had said about Anthony’s death and resurrection and nodded in agreement. “That’s true.”
“So first, we should calmly discuss Anthony’s daily routine,” Du Yun went on, forcing herself to continue fabricating on the spot. “His habits, his schedule and whether there’s any way to lure him out while he’s alone. When he’s isolated, we strike together.”
“And Samuel… Samuel, you still remember him, right?” she added quickly. “He’s still at Anthony’s manor. He can help coordinate with us.”
Ye Yuzhi seemed to react only then. “Samuel isn’t with you.”
“Right, that’s because he…. ”
Ye Yuzhi moved again. “Then we need to get him out. Staying there will get him killed.”
Du Yun felt like she was on the verge of prostrating herself before him and calling him father. “I’m begging you, please just stay in the church for tonight, okay?”
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Jiang Xing coming out. She hurriedly signaled him with her eyes to circle around behind Ye Yuzhi.
“Aren’t we friends?” Ye Yuzhi asked, puzzled. “Aren’t friends supposed to help each other?”
Du Yun let out two awkward “haha”s. “Of course we’ll help. We’ll wait until tomorrow morning and then… ”
Before she could finish speaking, something jabbed into the back of Ye Yuzhi’s neck. In the next instant, his body went slack as he immediately lost consciousness.
Du Yun turned to Jiang Xing with an expression of pure relief, as though she had just been saved from disaster itself. “He’s really impossible to deal with! Why is he this difficult?! Is this all because of my major failure?”
Jiang Xing silently supported Ye Yuzhi’s body. He didn’t say a word but his expression made it very clear: You know exactly why.
Meanwhile, back at the manor,
Xia Jienan lay tossing and turning on the bed, unable to fall asleep.
Although earlier in the day he had successfully fooled Anthony with his acting, making him believe that losing three points of Sanity had turned him into a true believer, leaving Anthony with no time to concern himself with Shaun’s situation, Shaun’s appearance continued to drift through Xia Jienan’s mind.
He couldn’t help but worry whether Anthony would send others to capture him, whether Du Yun and the others had managed to find Shaun at all.
The King in Yellow… Shaun… that photograph…
Xia Jienan truly couldn’t sleep any longer. He sat up on the bed and made a Stealth attempt. As expected, it succeeded once again. He quietly got out of bed, opened the door to his room and moved through the silence toward the third floor.
Earlier, due to an unfortunate coincidence, Anthony had delayed him for quite some time. There were still two rooms he hadn’t managed to inspect.
Carefully, he stepped to the door of the second room. Judging from the sounds of the butler retrieving items there earlier, this room wasn’t a bedroom. Xia Jienan first tried gently turning the handle. It didn’t budge, locked.
He took out a thin wire from his pocket, twisted it slightly and inserted it into the keyhole. After a few faint clicks, the lock came undone.
Xia Jienan softly let out a breath, thinking how fortunate it was that he didn’t need to roll for this. He pushed the door open just a crack and cautiously peered inside.
Though he was mentally prepared, the moment he saw the state of the room, his expression still darkened considerably.
It was a temporary ritual space. A connecting magic circle had been drawn on the floor in blood, emitting a strange, unsettling yellow glow.
The instant the door opened, Xia Jienan felt a sensation of being watched. He pressed his lips together, slipped sideways into the room, quietly closed the door behind him, then turned on his flashlight and tucked it into his sleeve, relying only on the muted light that wouldn’t spill outside as he surveyed the scene.
Aside from the array itself, there were several animal carcasses piled in one corner of the room, some already beginning to rot. Xia Jienan walked over to take a closer look, then froze.
Mixed in among the bodies was a human hand.
The strange, uncanny voice did not let him off. It immediately followed with a mechanical announcement: 【san check 0/1】
Fortunately, this time his Sanity did not drop. Xia Jienan let out a quiet breath of relief. If this were an actual tabletop session, he thought wryly, the KP would probably say something like “You’re well-traveled and experienced, seeing a human corpse no longer shocks you.”
Finding a bit of bitter humor in the situation, he gave a small, helpless smile and moved over to the other corner of the room where more items had been piled up.
This area seemed to be where Anthony spent most of his time. The floor was scattered with all kinds of messy documents and there was a chair placed nearby, as if someone had just risen from it in a hurry.
Xia Jienan pulled a single sheet from one of the more neatly stacked piles and held it up to his flashlight. It was the doctrine the butler had handed to him earlier. Judging from the thickness of the stack, it was likely that all of these were the same thing.
He put it back carefully, then reached toward another pile, this one far messier, as though it had just been rummaged through not long ago. From it, he pulled out what appeared to be a notebook.
The front pages of the notebook had clearly been burned, charred edges curling inward. Starting from the first page where the text was still legible, Xia Jienan read the following:
“…all things considered, he is still not a qualified believer.”
His gaze paused there. After a moment of silence, he continued reading.
“He is clearly just a child yet he understands hypocrisy better than most adults. He refuses to pray and once the ritual begins, he starts vomiting violently. If I had not, during treatment, felt my lord’s gaze upon him, I would never have been willing to attempt to guide such a stubborn, unyielding stone. A new method must be tried.”
“November 24th. I have come up with a rather good idea. Since he was originally willing to call upon my lord’s name only due to physical suffering, then if he were made to experience pain once more, wouldn’t he finally learn to behave properly?”
“Stubborn and unyielding, stubborn and unyielding…”
These words were scrawled repeatedly across an entire page, the handwriting growing increasingly frantic and chaotic.
After turning the page, the writing returned, still legible, though faint.
“January 9th. Why does my lord cast his gaze upon such an existence? Why not me? Is there truly anyone in this world more devout than I am?
“Through my servants, I have learned of certain ‘technologies’ from elsewhere. Yes, technology. That is what they call it. They claim the child’s condition stems from fear, from memories that have formed resistance toward my lord and that this is why such symptoms appear. They demonstrated the technologies of other races and assured me they could help resolve this issue but… if one cuts open a human brain, can the person truly survive? I cannot risk using him for such an experiment.”
“January 21st. No. It failed. Even with thirteen living sacrifices, it was still not enough. These pieces of trash cannot evoke even the slightest ripple from my lord. It seems, after all, that only that method remains.”
“February 3rd. Hahahaha. He listens to me now. Obedient, adorable, such a devout lamb, how wonderful! The infusion ritual has been activated once more! Time is running short. I hope it will be in time.”
After that, many blank pages followed. When words appeared again, the handwriting was strained and awkward, as though the writer hadn’t held a pen in a very long time and had forgotten how to form letters.
“Alide, that woman… she has no right to witness the glory of my lord. A heretic!”
“I have a new plan now. Thanks be to my lord’s servant.”
Xia Jienan flipped through the notebook all the way to the last page. On the inside of the cover, he saw several lines that looked as though they had been written quite recently.
“He has returned, answering my lord’s call. It seems scattering that kind of liquor across different areas was indeed effective.”
“The people of Greiro Town should thank him. He has spared them from the shadow of death, allowing them to witness my lord’s arrival with their own flesh and blood. Of course, they should thank me even more.”
“Because it is I who will use heretics as sacrifices, to perform the final consecration of the vessel!”
Xia Jienan slowly closed the notebook, his fingertips cold. The faint yellow glow from the ritual array continued to pulse behind him like a living thing, beating softly, endlessly, waiting.
✦ ✧ ✦
Nycreth
[Translator]
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ChaptersChapter 1 · Guerrero’s Lair (1)Chapter 2 · Guerrero’s Lair (2)Chapter 3 · Guerrero’s Lair (3)Chapter 4 · Guerrero’s Lair (4)Chapter 5 · Guerrero’s Lair (5)Chapter 6 · Guerrero’s Lair (6)Chapter 7 · Guerrero’s Lair (7)Chapter 8 · Guerrero’s Lair (8)Chapter 9 · Guerrero’s Lair (9)Chapter 10 · Guerrero’s Lair (10)Chapter 11 · Guerrero’s Lair (11)Chapter 12 · Guerrero’s Lair (12)Chapter 13 · Guerrero’s Lair (13)Chapter 14 · Guerrero’s Lair (14)Chapter 15 · Guerrero’s Lair (15)Chapter 16 · Guerrero’s Lair (16)Chapter 17 · Guerrero’s Lair (17)Chapter 18 · Guerrero’s Lair (18)Chapter 19 · Guerrero’s Lair (19)Chapter 20 · Guerrero’s Lair (20)Chapter 21 · Guerrero’s Lair (21)Chapter 22 · Guerrero’s Lair (22)Chapter 23 · Interlude (1)Chapter 24 · The interlude (2)Chapter 25 · The interlude (3)Chapter 26 Part 1 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 26 Part 2 · Calling in the Wind (1)Chapter 27 · Calling in the Wind (2)Chapter 28 · Calling in the Wind (3)Chapter 29 · Calling in the Wind (4)Chapter 30 · Calling in the Wind (5)Chapter 31 · Calling in the Wind (6)Chapter 32 · Calling in the Wind (7)Chapter 33 · Calling in the Wind (8)Chapter 34 · Calling in the Wind (9)Chapter 35 · Calling in the Wind (10)Chapter 36 · Interlude (4)Chapter 37 · Interlude (5)Chapter 38 · Interlude (6)Chapter 39 · Interlude (7)Chapter 40 · Interlude (8)Chapter 41 · Interlude (9)Chapter 42 · Welcome to Doville (1)Chapter 43 · Welcome to Doville (2)Chapter 44 · Welcome to Doville (3)Chapter 45 · Welcome to Doville (4)Chapter 46 · Welcome to Doville (5)Chapter 47 · Welcome to Doville (6)Chapter 48 · Welcome to Doville (7)Chapter 49 · Welcome to Doville (8)Chapter 50 · Welcome to Doville (9)Chapter 51 · Welcome to Doville (10)Chapter 52 · Welcome to Doville (11)Chapter 53 · Welcome to Doville (12)Chapter 54 · Interlude (10)Chapter 55 · Interlude (11)Chapter 56 · Interlude (12)Chapter 57 · Interlude (13)Chapter 58 · Interlude (14)Chapter 59 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (1)Chapter 60 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (2)Chapter 61 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (3)Chapter 62 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (4)Chapter 63 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (5)Chapter 64 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (6)Chapter 65 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (7)Chapter 66 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (8)Chapter 67 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (9)Chapter 68 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (10)Chapter 69 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (11)Chapter 70 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (12)Chapter 71 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (13)Chapter 72 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (14)Chapter 73 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (15)Chapter 74 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (16)Chapter 75 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (17)Chapter 76 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (18)Chapter 77 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (19)Chapter 78 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (20)Chapter 79 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (21)Chapter 80 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (22)Chapter 81 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (23)Chapter 82 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (24)Chapter 83 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (25)Chapter 84 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (26)Chapter 85 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (27)Chapter 86 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (28)Chapter 87 · The Tunnel in the Dark Night (29)Chapter 88 · Tunnel in the Dark Night (30)Chapter 89 · Interlude (15)Chapter 90 · Interlude (16)Chapter 91 · Interlude (17)Chapter 92 · The Promise of Hamelin (1)Chapter 93 · The Promise of Hamelin (2)Chapter 94 · The Promise of Hamelin (3)Chapter 95 · The Promise of Hamelin (4)Chapter 96 · The Promise of Hamelin (5)Chapter 97 · The Promise of Hamelin (6)Chapter 98 · The Promise of Hamelin (7)Chapter 99 · The Promise of Hamelin (8)Chapter 100 · The Promise of Hamelin (9)Chapter 101 · The Promise of Hamelin (10)Chapter 102 · The Promise of Hamelin (11)Chapter 103 · The Promise of Hamelin (12)Chapter 104 · The Promise of Hamelin (13)Chapter 105 · The Promise of Hamelin (14)Chapter 106 · The Promise of Hamelin (15)Chapter 107 · The Promise of Hamelin (16)Chapter 109 · The Promise of Hamelin (18)Chapter 110 · The Promise of Hamelin (19)