Fu Liu I?
What did the symbol at the end mean? It looked like both the English letter 'I' and the Roman numeral 'I'.
A normal person's name wouldn't have a suffix like this. Was it an identity marker, or something else?
Bai Ci was more inclined to believe it was a Roman numeral rather than an English letter. If it was indeed a Roman numeral 'I', did that mean she would encounter Fu Liu II and Fu Liu III next?
Could this instance be some kind of clone battle royale?
Countless other speculations flashed through her mind, but without any supporting clues, she couldn't jump to conclusions. In the end, Bai Ci could only suppress her doubts for now and shift her gaze to the ellipsis in the "Relationship with Player" section.
She clicked to expand it.
A passage of text that was brief yet packed with information appeared, unfolding before her eyes.
The text recorded a past event:
Years ago, a wandering master had accidentally stumbled into this forest cemetery. At that time, the resentment here was heavy, and the souls beneath the twelve gravestones were all bound by a certain rule, unable to leave.
Seeing this, the master felt pity. However, limited by his own abilities, he could only perform a ritual whose outcome remained unseen.
Before leaving, he spoke to the twelve gravestones, saying that he wished to find a way to free them. But since his own power was limited and he could not directly break the binding of this place, he could only borrow a path from heaven. At the cost of his own cultivation, he established an agreement.
He said that one day in the future, someone would enter this domain as a bride or groom to one of them, bringing the possibility of liberation.
“You may prepare a gift for this person in advance. If they accept the gift, it means they have accepted the agreement.”
“At that moment, a red thread will connect you. The one whose gift was accepted can use the red thread to escape this confinement, and the others will also gain more opportunities because of that escape.”
However, even the master could not be sure when this person would come, or if they would even appear at all, let alone what their personality or appearance would be.
All he could do was sacrifice his own cultivation to leave this agreement behind and quietly depart, leaving the souls in this cemetery to wait for a response day after day.
As Bai Ci read the text word by word, the confusion in her eyes gradually cleared.
Setting aside all the supernatural elements, this was basically a story of a marriage of convenience.
It was similar to those novels where the female lead's family is on the brink of ruin, so she enters a marriage contract with the male lead, using his influence to revive her family.
She looked down at the entrenching shovel in her hand, then at the excavated grave mound and the scattered gift boxes.
She was the one prophesied by the master to enter this area.
Perhaps it wasn't intentional, but rather the arrangement of the Anomalous Infection system that placed her here, even providing a free entrenching shovel to fulfill this agreement established years ago.
“Borrow a path from heaven?” Bai Ci murmured softly. Was this “heaven” the Anomalous Infection system? Or could this “heaven” communicate with the system?
If each instance was considered a part of a real world, and the system threw players in batches into areas where anomalous events occurred, wasn't that, in a way, an act of saving the world?
The leniency of the Anomalous Infection toward death gave Bai Ci a somewhat positive attitude toward it for now.
But these were just speculations. There was no actual proof yet, and it wasn't appropriate to think too far ahead, so Bai Ci didn't dwell on it too much.
Her first instinct was to try and contact that master, but on second thought, there probably wouldn't be a chance in this instance anyway. Finding such a wandering master was entirely a matter of luck—harder than hitting the 160-pull pity in a gacha game.
No matter who the master was or what lay behind this agreement, her main quest was now clear. The baseline was to free this Fu Liu, and the side quest was to free all twelve gravestone owners from their bindings.
When she tried to check Fu Liu's skill information again, she couldn't click it.
Aside from that riddle-like description, there were no detailed explanations.
Regretfully, Bai Ci closed the Rain's Message panel.
Just then, the urn in her hands suddenly twitched. Following that, there were a few more light thuds—not very strong, as if something inside was pushing against the lid of the urn.
Was it finally going to reanimate?
Bai Ci placed the urn on the open ground in front of her and pried open the lid at the cost of a bit of her fingernails.
The moment the lid was cracked open, a faint scent resembling old wood drifted out. Immediately after, a light white phantom slowly rose from the urn, gradually condensing into the shape of a young man.
The man had neat, short black hair, with stray strands hanging slightly over his forehead, partially obscuring his eyes. The most prominent feature was the tiny tear mole below his right eye, adding a touch of coquettishness and an indescribable air of femininity.
He wore an outfit that was instantly recognizable as a theatrical costume: a black velvet shirt with delicate silver threads embroidered on the cuffs, accentuating his tall and upright posture. However, the entire outfit had a slight transparency to it, clearly due to his soul form.
Floating in mid-air, the man tilted his head slightly, his gaze landing on Bai Ci. A playful smile curled the corners of his lips, and his voice was light, like a breeze brushing across harp strings, carrying a hint of laziness. “So, that means you're my future wife?”
Bai Ci could somehow empathize with the male leads of some marriage-of-convenience novels—specifically, the ones who didn't have a pre-existing crush on the female lead. Looking at him, she didn't know what expression to make, so she simply showed no expression at all.
She corrected him in a flat tone, “To be precise, our betrothal will only last until you are freed. Once you escape the confinement here, there will be no relation between us.”
Hearing this, the man wasn't disappointed at all. Instead, his smile widened, and he even winked at Bai Ci, his tone deliberately intimate. “Alright, darling. My name is Fu Liu. 'Fu' as in to pay, 'Liu' as in willow. Remember that?”
“Bai Ci,” she introduced herself simply, skipping any unnecessary pleasantries and cutting straight to the point. “Tell me about your situation. And what do I need to do to free you all?”
Fu Liu floated down to Bai Ci's eye level. “Of course I know how to escape. But right now, I'm in someone else's hands. My soul is being held in a death grip; even the slightest hint of resistance would cause massive ripples. That's why I can't say it.”
“I will draw you into my play. Once the curtain rises, it will be out of my control. As for what exactly needs to be done, you'll have to figure it out yourself.”
“If you really don't know what to do, then just muddy the waters. The messier, the better. Maybe you'll find a way out in the chaos.”
Hearing this, Bai Ci nodded, raising no objections. “Understood. How do we start?”
Rate on N.U.
