Chapter Forty-Eight: Breaking the Deadlock and Resolving the Crisis

“Eh?” At the very moment Chen Qing’s pen left its trace on the paper, his gaze was fixed intently on the world outside the window. Yet contrary to his expectations, the wind and sand outside still raged on.

He leaned closer to the window, a clear look of surprise on his face.

“Eh? That doesn’t make sense. The only rule that can satisfy both conditions... it must be this one.” Chen Qing frowned, unable to make sense of it all.

But behind him, Jiang Wan’s expression was tinged with disdain.

“Seriously?! If there were a bunch of ten-meter-wide donuts rolling around outside, that’d be a whole different horror story! Even Five Nights at Freddy’s isn’t as terrifying as you!”

She gritted her teeth, her brow pinching in frustration, but despite Jiang Wan’s reasoning, Chen Qing remained convinced his deduction was correct.

He turned around, grabbed the bedding from the bed, wrapped it over his head, and prepared to storm outside.

Jiang Wan, seeing this, couldn’t help but ask in surprise, “What are you planning to do?”

He shook his head, his eyes fixed on the swirling sand, “Either at the shrine, or at the main entrance.”

His tone was resolute: “Something must have changed. Follow me.”

Jiang Wan listened to Chen Qing’s words and shook her head helplessly, but since he was so determined, what harm was there in following him?

Together, they spread the bedsheet, the patter of falling sand echoing around them.

They walked to the shrine, and it seemed the tendrils on the shrine had multiplied.

“The shrine hasn’t changed...”

His expression remained steady, “Then it must be the door...”

He murmured softly, the bedding growing heavier in his hands, and strode decisively toward the entrance.

After a brief pause, the two returned to the door. It was still tightly shut, the latch securing it firmly.

He tossed aside his bedding, his face growing stranger.

Chen Qing stepped forward, and at that very moment, he heard voices from beyond the door.

The voices were faint, but unmistakably clear. Each word was discernible, distinct.

Chen Qing pressed his ear closer and caught a few words from outside.

“War... failed...”

He pressed his eye to the crack in the earthen building’s door, and saw a woman hurriedly approaching. She stretched out her hand, her fingertip forcing itself into the gap, pushing. In that instant, her thumb was only two or three millimeters from Chen Qing’s eye.

Chen Qing recoiled instinctively, his neck snapping back, but after more than two seconds, he saw no sign that the door would open.

He frowned, dissatisfied with his own reaction. Jiang Wan, witnessing this, was more curious than anything.

“What’s wrong?” She leaned in to listen herself.

But by the time she pressed her ear to the door, the sounds from outside had faded, leaving her hearing nothing at all.

“Someone just tried to open the door.” Hearing Jiang Wan’s confusion, Chen Qing answered naturally. But seeing her puzzled expression, he pressed himself back to the door, peering through the crack once more. This time, he saw a grotesque, bloodshot eye, crawling with veins thicker than hair, pulsing visibly with each beat.

Those veins wriggled like worms across the eyeball, searching for their next path. Staring through the door, Chen Qing’s eyes locked fiercely with the other’s.

Then, he heard the man’s voice from outside.

“I know... you can see me...”

But before he could finish, Chen Qing quickly interrupted, his words sharp and venomous: “You filthy wretch! Maggots grew in your ancestors’ graves to birth you! Your own mother died and you weren’t there! Why are you still here—that funeral wasn’t yours?!”

---

Jiang Wan’s face was in shock, her eyes wide as she looked up at him.

She parted her lips, but no words came forth.

Clearly, she too had seen the person outside the door.

But even so, the man outside seemed not to hear at all, continuing in his own monologue: “Your Foundation... has been corrupt for too long. You have no idea what’s happening in the world... Your headquarters should’ve been burned by me ages ago... How are you still alive...?”

He grinned hideously, the skin on his face unnaturally slack, his neck riddled with steel needles—perhaps the reason for the black dots scattered across his skin.

He pulled at the corners of his mouth, forcing a smile from his sagging lips.

Then, supporting the corner of his mouth, he stood up, gradually letting go, pushing open the door.

This time, as Chen Qing watched the man’s fingers press through, his expression was much calmer.

Having confirmed that he entered just as the woman had before, Chen Qing’s frown deepened.

He closed his eyes, recalling everything he’d seen.

Too many factions had entered here... too many people, and too many forbidden relics...

Their power was unequal to his own... they seemed even more deranged.

“I fear we won’t be able to leave here anytime soon,” he said, looking to Jiang Wan.

“Because of those people?”

Chen Qing was silent for a moment.

“We might be able to leave first! We could seek reinforcements!”

“Spend a thousand lives, tens of thousands of bullets, or two little fat boys, and take down the backbone of these ‘organizations’?”

He looked up and asked again, “Do you really believe that, before you find your resources, they haven’t already grabbed what they want and are coming for you? You don’t even know who’s whose mole. You—”

Chen Qing shook his head before continuing, “We need to come up with a plan... a way to move between all the organizations, inciting them to turn against each other...

What advantages do we have...”

He closed his eyes, counting carefully: “They still don’t know the rules of this backroom... As long as the rules aren’t deciphered, we’re safe.

Conservatively, there are Foundation and Divine Grace Church people here... Dao Court and Club members should be present too... but their conflicts aren’t deep.

Those people are useless... Who was that man just now? His condition was off, and considering the woman’s frantic entry earlier, they must have used powerful forbidden relics.

F-class? E-class, or D-class? Three to five seconds...

He chased the woman to the door. He won...”

Chen Qing tapped the stone tiles beneath his feet, his mind still racing.

“Maybe... we’ll need to make some sacrifices.”

He muttered softly, this time opening his eyes to meet Jiang Wan’s.

“This time, if our luck’s bad, we’re done for. And not even a burial will be left for us.” He chuckled quietly. Seeing her nod gently, he pulled out the document in his pocket.

“All the dead shall return to the place of their birth after death.”

The ink on the document was visible, and Chen Qing felt an unspoken tension.

He had yet to verify his hypothesis, but he had to proceed based on it.

He took Jiang Wan’s hand, and together they picked up the bedding from the floor and returned to their room.

---

On him, the forbidden relics that had lain dormant for so long finally shone within the backroom.

He did it—he had to do it, committing what could only be called a taboo within this place.

But it was necessary.

He bound Jiang Wan tightly to the bed, thick ropes cinched around her wrists and ankles.

He took out the wooden awl he carried, his vision shifting gradually.

...

Three hours later, Jiang Wan and Chen Qing left the dusty earthen building, just as he had guessed from the start—when Chen Qing wrote that line, they had already been able to leave.

They pushed open the door. Previously, the outside world was full of birdsong and blossoms, fish in the river, trees along the banks. An old man took a child fishing, and even if he fished for ages, his bucket was empty.

Now, the world before their eyes was blanketed in dust and decay.

The grass was withered, the grand willow now only half a trunk, the river dried up, though the riverbed remained moist, like a mud pit.

In the few remaining pools, a handful of fish fry survived, but barely.

Chen Qing scanned the surroundings for the old man, and after searching a while, found a hanged middle-aged man by a desolate grave.

The man’s face was sallow and emaciated, his trousers dripping liquid now and then, the stench overpowering even the odor of decay.

He had hanged himself, yet his fingers were spotless; he had starved to death, yet his abdomen was stuffed and bloated.

Chen Qing frowned, slowing his pace as he approached.

Around the corpse, a zone two or three meters wide was completely free of dust.

The area formed an almost perfect circle, far beyond what human effort could achieve.

Someone must have used a forbidden relic to protect this place.

He furrowed his brow, and after ensuring it was safe to step inside, gently shook the dead man’s pant leg.

The liquid was trapped in the trousers; the movement produced a sloshing sound.

“Looks like... my guess was right.”

Chen Qing’s tension eased, and he looked up at the earthen building—its color was no longer pure yellow, but tinged with darker, sinister red.

He glanced at Jiang Wan, and after confirming their intentions, the two moved toward the door.

They reached the entrance, but before they could push it open, a tremendous noise erupted from within.

Thunderous rumbling.

Thunderous rumbling.

The two exchanged glances, pressed themselves to either side of the door, their arms tensed slightly. As the door swung open with a burst of dust, a huge cloud billowed out from within.

The dust was unusually thick, and something seemed to be mixed within it.

Chen Qing scarcely had time to look before a pure white object flew straight toward him.