“Who's there?!”
Cen Yao's response was a swift and decisive Sleeping Spell.
A pale silver light shot from the tip of her wand, striking the King right between his brows.
Before the King could even widen his eyes, he collapsed to the floor with a thud, as if his bones had suddenly been removed.
The thing in his hands rolled away.
Clack.
The sound wasn't loud, but it sent another wave of nausea through Cen Yao's stomach.
Her face pale, she raised a hand to cover her nose and mouth, casting a scent-blocking spell on herself. Only then did she force down her disgust and approach.
The King lay in the deepest part of the secret chamber.
The ground beneath him was a total mess. Dark red blood seeped into the crevices of the stone—dried, semi-dried, and fresh, layered one on top of another in a sight that made one's skin crawl.
A small pile of bones lay in the corner. They were very small—so small that if one didn't look closely, they would almost be mistaken for a pile of discarded trash.
But Cen Yao knew they weren't.
She stood in place, her fingers slowly tightening.
The guess surfacing in her mind was too sickening, so sickening that she barely wanted to think any further.
But the dungeon wouldn't hide the truth just because she didn't want to see it.
Cen Yao closed her eyes, forcing down the rising nausea in her stomach, and then raised her wand.
“Organize.”
The bones scattered in the corner were lifted by magic, floating into the air one by one.
They slowly aligned themselves within the shimmering silver-white light.
Skull. Ribs. Hand bones. Leg bones.
The incomplete outline of a human skeleton gradually appeared before Cen Yao.
Beneath the shadow of her hood, a touch of disgust finally and uncontrollably welled up in her eyes, which were usually as beautiful as a galaxy.
It wasn't directed at the skeleton, but at the supposedly kind and benevolent King on the floor.
The Horror Game truly never ceased to sink below her lowest expectations.
Every time Cen Yao thought a certain plotline was already anti-human enough, a new one would always find a more sickening way to show her that no, it could get even worse.
It was a woman's skeleton.
Judging by the size and shape of the bones, the deceased must have been an adult female.
The time of death was definitely no more than three days ago. Perhaps even shorter.
Looking at the skeleton, another thought suddenly surfaced in Cen Yao's mind.
She wondered if the woman had turned into a ghost.
After all, the time since death was too short, and she was trapped by all these messy talismans and suppression tools in the secret chamber.
In such an environment, an ordinary soul could easily be shredded to pieces before it even had a chance to form.
At this thought, Cen Yao suddenly remembered the Talent she had drawn when she first entered the Horror Game.
S-rank Medium.
Since obtaining this Talent, she hadn't actually used it.
Previously, her ability to see, sense, and touch ghosts relied mostly on magic.
As for the Talent given by the Horror Game, it had been sitting quietly in her status panel like an unopened starter gift.
Cen Yao glanced at the paper talismans covering the walls of the secret chamber, each ugly in its own unique way.
Might as well try it today. Let's see how useful this S-rank Talent really is.
She cleared her mind and gripped her wand.
A very faint, grayish-white glow emerged from the depths of her eyes.
It wasn't the light of magic. It was more like some sort of resonance from the depths of her soul.
Cold, thin, yet incredibly sharp.
She activated her Talent to sense any newborn souls that might exist in this secret chamber.
At the same time, a soft silver light lit up at the tip of her wand.
Her Talent allowed her to sense the existence of the fragile newborn ghost, while her magic would enhance the ghost's strength.
A few seconds later, Cen Yao suddenly opened her eyes.
Found her. Right next to that pile of bones.
But the soul was too weak, like a wisp of smoke about to be blown away by the wind, being torn apart bit by bit by the paper talismans, cinnabar array, and peach wood swords in the secret chamber.
Her expression darkening slightly, Cen Yao immediately raised her wand.
“Condense.”
Silver-white magic welled out like fine threads, carefully wrapping around the soul shadow that was on the verge of dispersing.
The soul shadow trembled slightly.
In the next second, several paper talismans on the wall suddenly fluttered without any wind, and the cinnabar array glowed with a dark red light. As if sensing that she was snatching something away, they surged toward the soul shadow.
Cen Yao's gaze turned cold.
“Isolate.”
A transparent protective barrier fell instantly, separating the soul shadow from the suppressing forces.
The paper talismans let out a harsh sizzle, their edges charring black.
The bells on the peach wood swords vibrated frantically, yet made no sound.
The red light of the cinnabar array slammed against the barrier like water hitting glass, only able to ripple outward in rings, completely unable to get any closer to the soul shadow.
Cen Yao continued to channel her magic.
“Hold together.”
“I'll pull you out.”
At first, the soul shadow was very blurry, like a shattered reflection on the water's surface.
As magic was channeled into her, her outline gradually grew clearer.
Pale golden hair. A pale face. A slender neck. And a long dress whose original color could no longer be distinguished.
Finally, a pale but beautiful blonde woman appeared in the secret chamber.
Her face was gentle, her features carrying a submissive beauty that seemed to have been carefully cultivated.
If not for the deep resentment and malice that almost overflowed from her green eyes, she would have looked like the most standard queen or princess from a fairy tale book.
Beautiful, elegant, and soft.
But the moment she saw the unconscious King on the floor, all that gentleness was instantly torn to shreds.
“Ah...”
A raspy sound escaped from her throat.
In the next second, a dense black mist surged frantically from her soul.
The black mist climbed up her neck, cheeks, and eye sockets like a living thing, dyeing her soft green eyes a deep crimson in the blink of an eye.
Cracks began to spiderweb across her pale cheeks.
Crimson tears of blood slid down the cracks, drop by drop, before dissolving in midair.
Cen Yao was startled by the speed at which she was losing control and quickly raised her hand to cast a Soothing Spell on her.
A pale blue light fell upon the blonde ghost, but it had little effect.
The ghost stared fixedly at the King, her crimson eyes filled with nothing but ultimate hatred.
“Kill him...”
“I want to kill him!”
She lunged forward violently. The protective barrier shook violently.
Cen Yao's eyelids twitched, and she immediately reinforced the barrier.
“What are you doing? Do you want to destroy yourself?”
The blonde ghost couldn't hear a word.
Her soul had only just condensed and was incredibly weak to begin with. Now, driven forcefully by her resentment, the cracks were spreading faster and faster.
If this continued, she would dissipate completely before she could even touch the King.
“Kill him!”
“I want to kill him!”
Her voice grew increasingly shrill and piercing, as if squeezed out of a torn throat.
The screeching made Cen Yao's ears ring. She had no choice but to block the ghost's line of sight first, preventing her from seeing the King on the floor.
The blonde ghost's vision went dark, causing her to struggle even more frantically.
The protective barrier shook violently under her repeated collisions.
Cen Yao took a deep breath, tapping her wand repeatedly.
“Soothe.”
“Calm.”
“Stabilize.”
“Clear.”
“Rest.”
She cast almost every spell she knew that was beneficial to souls onto the ghost.
Silver-white, pale blue, and light green lights fell layer upon layer like bandages, slowly binding the blonde ghost's crumbling soul together.
After an unknown amount of time, the ghost's struggles finally began to weaken.
The black mist around her was still heavy, and her eyes remained red.
But at least the madness that threatened to tear her apart at any moment had been temporarily suppressed.
Cen Yao wiped away nonexistent sweat.
Saving a ghost was far more exhausting than fighting one.
Looking at the blonde ghost inside the barrier, she asked, “You're the Queen, aren't you?”
Although it was phrased as a question, her tone was almost entirely declarative.
The blonde ghost froze.
She seemed to finally see the person in front of her clearly.
A purple witch's robe. A black wand. Beneath the hood, a pair of eyes that were calm to the point of being cold.
“Yes.”
Her voice was very soft, like a piece of shattered ice.
“I am the Queen.”
Cen Yao looked at her and continued, “Did you die because of the rainbow flower?”
The blonde ghost fell silent for a long time.
So long that the stench of blood in the secret chamber seemed to grow even heavier.
Finally, she answered hoarsely, “Yes.”
With just that single word, Cen Yao had no desire to ask any further.
She could already guess most of what had happened afterward anyway, so there was no need to rip open the ghost's wounds again.
Rate on N.U.
