The next day, the sky was a bit gloomy.
Yue Shi left the inn and continued to wander around Dusk Island.
He called it wandering, but he had no clear direction; he just walked aimlessly. He looked at the cramped buildings, the rusted pipes on the walls, and the expressions on the islanders' faces.
The people here had a very average material life, but their spiritual world seemed incredibly rich.
After all, there were so many religions that one could see believers performing every day.
Kraken followed beside Yue Shi, keeping pace.
Yue Shi didn't mind. There was certainly a reason Kraken was following him for no apparent reason.
Unfortunately, taking advantage of Yue Shi was practically impossible~
“Ahead is the stronghold of the Yishu Sect, one of the local cults,” Kraken said.
It was a large courtyard with gray walls stretching out to either side, seemingly endless.
In the center of the courtyard, a tower rose from the ground. Counting roughly, it was nearly nine stories high, narrowing as it went up, with a spherical spire decoration at the very top.
Yue Shi looked up, his tone flat. “Quite impressive.”
Kraken gave a bitter smile. “The cults here are all like this. They disguise themselves as orthodox religions, being extravagant and obsessed with pomp. Only then will the believers follow them wholeheartedly.”
Yue Shi withdrew his gaze and looked at him.
“How did you originally plan to investigate?”
Kraken paused for a moment, then pointed at the tower. “I wanted to secretly infiltrate the churches or strongholds of various sects to see what kind of conspiracies and secrets they're hiding inside.”
“Oh.” Yue Shi nodded.
“Good. I wish you success.”
Kraken: “...”
He opened his mouth to say something but swallowed it back. After two seconds, he couldn't help himself. “You don't plan on helping me a bit?”
Yue Shi looked at him with a look of disdain.
The disdain was very faint, almost imperceptible, but Kraken still read a clear sense of mockery on Yue Shi's face.
“Why don't you just contact the local official agencies?” Yue Shi asked.
Kraken's bitter smile deepened. “I have. It's useless.”
He sighed and began to explain.
Although Dusk Island was nominally under the jurisdiction of a certain maritime city-state alliance, it was actually in a semi-autonomous state.
The management agencies on the island had long been riddled with holes by various factions. Reports vanished without a trace, and investigators sent here either mysteriously gave up or simply disappeared.
After a few attempts, the Order Alliance gave up on the official route.
“As long as they can hide it, those people will definitely choose to cover it up rather than solve the problem. Only by stripping away the fig leaf and placing the filth right before their eyes, leaving them with nowhere to hide, will those people start thinking about a solution.” Kraken looked melancholy.
Yue Shi nodded after hearing this.
“Hmm, makes sense.”
Officialdom was like that; if they could gloss over the peace, they would. Only when they couldn't hold it back anymore would it explode, then they'd swiftly deal with a few culprits and say righteously, “Justice may be late, but it never fails to arrive.”
How laughable. Late justice is just malice.
No, calling it malice is still giving it too much credit.
It's just a pile of shit.
With that thought, Yue Shi suddenly vanished.
He disappeared into thin air without even saying goodbye.
Kraken stood there, staring at the empty air, silent for a long time.
“Big brother, do you really not plan to help me? It's all for justice!”
No one answered.
The wind blew, picking up a plastic bag from the ground and swirling it around his feet.
When Yue Shi reappeared, he was standing on the roof of a tall building.
This building was quite prominent on Dusk Island, half a head taller than the surrounding structures, with walls covered in electronic lamps and colored signs.
However, most of those lights were broken; some were off, others flickered intermittently, and the light grew dimmer the higher up the building went.
A person was standing on the edge of the roof.
It was a young girl.
She stood at the edge, facing the street below. Her feet were already on the narrow ledge of the rooftop, her body leaning slightly forward, her hair and the corners of her clothes fluttering in the wind.
Yue Shi looked at her and didn't speak.
He lifted his foot and took a step forward.
With that one step, he crossed from the center of the roof directly to the girl's side.
The girl was startled by the figure suddenly appearing beside her. Her body swayed, and she almost slipped and fell, but she quickly regained her balance.
She turned her head and looked at Yue Shi.
She looked about sixteen or seventeen, her face terrifyingly pale, with dark circles under her eyes and dry, cracked lips.
But her eyes were large and clear. She stared straight at Yue Shi, her expression devoid of fear or surprise, showing only a resigned calm.
“Are you here to talk me out of it?” her voice was raspy.
Yue Shi didn't answer, just looked down at the narrow ledge beneath her feet.
“What are you doing standing here?”
The girl froze, seemingly not expecting someone to ask such an obvious question.
“Jumping,” she said crossly.
“Why? Life is good. Even if it's a painful life, at least you can feel the pain. Once you're dead, you won't feel anything,” Yue Shi said.
The girl fell silent for a few seconds.
She thought for a moment before speaking, her voice still raspy, but her words coming out fast, as if thoughts held back for a long time had finally found an outlet.
“I have a very serious illness.”
“At first, it was just a cough, so bad I couldn't sleep. Then I started getting fevers, making me all dazed, throwing up everything I ate.”
“Then, red spots started appearing all over my body, so dense it made me scratch until my skin broke.”
“My parents took me to see a doctor once. They prescribed some medicine that cost a few hundred. After we got back, my mom nagged for three days about how expensive it was and said those doctors were just scams.”
“After that, they stopped taking me.”
“They took me to the Wanling Sect's church instead.”
At this point, the girl's tone changed. It wasn't anger, but a mix of confusion and exhaustion—a complex array of emotions.
“The people at the church said I was sick because I offended the gods. They said as long as I repented sincerely, the gods would forgive me, and my illness would be cured.”
“My parents believed them.”
“They took me to the church every week and made me kneel in front of that statue to repent. I'd be there for half a day at a time until my knees were swollen. They said this was atonement, that I had to be sincere and couldn't be lazy.”
“My illness only got worse.”
“The fevers became more severe; sometimes I'd talk in my sleep. The red spots turned into patches of red rash, painful and itchy. I couldn't sleep at all at night.”
“I told my mom I wanted to go to the hospital. She said the hospital couldn't cure me, that only the gods could save me.”
“I didn't believe her.”
“I started finding my own way.”
The girl's voice paused, her throat bobbing.
“I found a job in town washing dishes. Every day after school, I'd go to the shop and wash until ten at night. My hands were soaked in hot water and detergent until the skin peeled. I could earn a few hundred a month. I saved it all, thinking once I had enough, I'd go to the hospital myself.”
“I saved for three months.”
“I saved two thousand three hundred.”
“Then my parents found out.”
“They asked where the money came from, and I told them I earned it working. They asked where it was, but I didn't tell them. They searched for it themselves, found it, and then...”
She stopped for a while.
Yue Shi didn't rush her, just waited quietly.
After a long time, she spoke again, her voice tinged with despair.
“They took my money and donated all of it to the Wanling Sect.”
“They said they donated it for me, that they were buying atonement coupons for me, saying the gods would be more willing to forgive me and my illness would heal faster.”
“The priest who took the money even praised them for their piety, saying the gods would surely bless our family.”
“My mom was moved to tears right there, saying it was only right, that she'd give any amount of money for my illness. My dad just kept nodding beside her, saying he believed in the gods and that they would surely save me.”
“I stood there, unable to say anything.”
“When we went back that night, my fever hit forty degrees, and I almost died. My mom sat by my bed and recited scriptures all night, until my ears were ringing.”
“The next morning, I woke up, looked at the ceiling, and thought a lot.”
“I thought, my parents really do believe in those things. They weren't trying to hurt me; they truly thought doing that would save me.”
“But I just felt... I felt...”
At this point, her voice choked up.
“Felt what?” Yue Shi asked.
The girl turned to him, her eyes filled with tears.
“Felt, by what right?”
“By what right should their belief in those things mean I have to die?”
“I worked so hard. I washed dishes and worked odd jobs every day until my hands were raw just to save that little bit of money. That was my money, my life. By what right did they take it and donate it without even asking me once?”
“The priest said they were pious, they cried, they felt honored.”
“What about me?”
“Am I just supposed to die like this?”
The wind blew across the roof, tossing her hair and clothes.
Yue Shi looked at her, the corners of his mouth curling up as a subtle malice spread. He pointed toward the street below.
“Little girl, you already have the courage to stand here.”
“Do you know what you'll look like after falling from here?”
The girl froze and didn't speak.
Yue Shi continued, his tone as flat as ever.
“Your bones will break into countless pieces, some of them piercing through your flesh.”
“Your head will shatter, and the things inside will splash everywhere. You'll die fast, though—just a matter of seconds.”
“But in the moment you hit the ground, you'll feel the greatest pain of your life.”
“And then, there is no then.”
He withdrew his hand and looked down at her, his voice softening, filled with manipulation.
“You aren't even afraid of jumping, you aren't even afraid of death—so why wouldn't you dare to do something else before you die?”
The girl's eyes widened slightly.
Yue Shi leaned in closer, his voice sounding ethereal and holy.
“Where are those people now, the ones who traded your life for their piety?”
“Does that priest who took your money sleep well at night?”
“After you die, will they cry? Will they regret it?”
“Or will they just let out a sigh, say you had bad luck, say the gods didn't bless you, and then continue on with their lives?”
The girl's breathing grew rapid.
The tears were still in her eyes, but something brighter was quickly expanding. It was no longer despair, but something else.
“I...”
Yue Shi interrupted her: “I'm not trying to talk you out of it. If you want to die, that's your business; it has nothing to do with me.”
He took a step back and leaned against the rooftop railing in a relaxed posture.
“I'm just curious. Do you want to just jump like this, using your death to make them shed a few tears and repent frantically, playing the tragic heroine?”
“Or do you want them to remember you?”
“Remember what you did?”
“Regret how they treated you?”
Yue Shi's gaze fell on the girl's face. In those pitch-black eyes, a deep, pure malice was slowly flowing.
The girl stood there, motionless, letting the malice ferment in her heart.
The wind continued to blow.
It was a long time before she spoke, her voice raspy but no longer trembling.
“What should I do?”
Yue Shi's face was full of ill intent. “That's something you have to ask yourself.”
“What do you hate most in your heart? How do you most want them to regret?”
“Smash the things they value most? Make them look like fools in front of everyone? Or... let them taste what it's like to wish they were dead?”
The girl's eyes grew brighter and brighter.
Within that light, something seemed to be sprouting.
Yue Shi stopped talking.
He turned around and then vanished.
Only the girl was left on the roof.
She stood on the edge of the rooftop, facing outward, but her posture had changed.
It was no longer that leaning tilt as if she might fall at any moment, but a steady, upright stance, her feet firmly planted on that narrow ledge.
The wind blew her hair, revealing the pale face beneath.
In those eyes, the tears had dried up.
All that remained was a kind of malice that she herself found unfamiliar.
‘My life is miserable, so why should others be happy?’
‘Everyone should suffer in purgatory, unable to live and unable to die!’
A long time later, she turned and stepped down from the edge of the rooftop.
Step by step, she walked back to the center of the roof.
Back to the world that did not belong to death.
...
On the other side, Kraken, who had been left behind, remained silent for a long time.
‘Fine.’
‘Helping is a favor; not helping is his right.’
He passed through several alleys and circled to the side wall of the Yishu Sect's stronghold.
The wall was about two stories high, with glass shards embedded on top.
Kraken looked around to make sure no one was there, took a few steps back to build up speed, and leaped over the wall.
He landed with almost no sound.
The courtyard was more spacious than it appeared from the outside. Several low buildings were scattered about, with stone paths between them.
The most prominent was the tower in the center. Kraken hugged the base of the wall and moved quickly toward it.
He didn't encounter anyone along the way; it was unnervingly quiet.
He felt a bit uneasy, but he continued his mission; the longer he delayed, the more variables there would be.
The bottom door of the tower was slightly ajar, leaving a narrow crack.
Kraken squeezed inside. Beyond was a stone staircase spiraling upward. He lightened his steps, going up one level at a time.
He reached the second floor; no one was there.
The third floor was also empty.
Fourth floor, fifth floor, sixth floor... The higher he went, the more uneasy Kraken felt.
Even if the Yishu Sect didn't have many followers, the entire tower shouldn't be this empty.
He stopped at the landing between the sixth and seventh floors, held his breath, and listened carefully.
There was no sound at all, only his own heartbeat.
He gritted his teeth and continued upward.
Seventh floor.
Eighth floor.
Finally reaching the ninth floor, he pushed open the door.
Behind the door was a spacious circular area that occupied the entire top floor of the tower.
A ring of narrow windows lined the walls, letting light in from the outside. In the very center stood a statue.
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