“I… a sacrifice?”
This never ends.
Wu Xiaomi was already tired of being forced forward like this.
This wasn’t the story she wanted to tell Bai Xiaozhi, and it had long since deviated from her original intention of storytelling.
She didn’t want to bring disaster, nor did she want to be controlled by the story, handing over the initiative to it.
[Team Channel – Bai Xiaozhi: Brother, what you just said… what do you mean? What sacrifice?]
“Literally speaking, according to the setting, if I want to stop it, I have to go down.”
Wu Xiaomi stood up. “And no one else can.”
[You…]
“Don’t worry, I won’t die, and I won’t do anything stupid.”
Wu Xiaomi looked at the opened Black Tortoise Fissure in front of her.
A passageway descended straight down toward what she had just learned was the so-called altar, bottomless and unfathomable.
“I know how it feels—people around you self-righteously sacrificing themselves, thinking their sacrifice will buy more value.”
Wu Xiaomi bit her silver teeth tightly, her small fists clenched inside her gloves.
“They think they’re so noble, believing that by dying, others can live better… idiots! That’s just selfish stupidity!”
“They never think about those who survive—they will miss, regret, and feel guilty! They will wonder if they didn’t try hard enough, if they weren’t careful enough, if there could have been other ways to solve the problem back then…”
“So I won’t die. I will never be the selfish fool sacrificed before you! Xiaozhi, don’t worry!”
[……]
“It wants me as a sacrifice, so I’ll go down and see what kind of trick it’s playing. But I’ll come back. I’ll return to Feisi City and find you, so you can see me safe and sound.”
“Xiaozhi,” Wu Xiaomi calmed down, lowering her gaze to the cave entrance before her.
She lifted her foot.
And leapt forward.
“Wait for me, I promise.”
……
Wu Xiaomi was no longer Wu Xiaomi.
She was now the older brother who had grown up with Xiaozhi, not the girl who had met her by chance.
As an older brother, never letting Xiaozhi be hurt or saddened was the basic bottom line for all his actions.
The reason he hadn’t revealed himself to Xiaozhi earlier was because of this bottom line.
He didn’t want Xiaozhi to feel guilty.
And if he died in front of Xiaozhi as her brother, it would violate that bottom line.
So… this time, he had to win, and win without injury.
He had to win heroically!
[Team Channel – Han Nuo: The chicken-foot bears on the mountain have all gone berserk. We have to retreat immediately.]
[Team Channel – Miss Nuo: Retreat, Xiaozhi. Let’s regroup where we came from.]
Xiaozhi felt bitter inside; she obviously couldn’t leave Wu Xiaomi behind alone.
But she also knew that sometimes, she had to trust him. Acting recklessly on her own would only be a hindrance.
“Retreat first. When we hear from him, we’ll come back for him.”
……
The passage was dark and deep, slanting downward.
After sliding down for a long while, the surrounding tunnel began to glow.
Mushrooms of various colors grew between the rocky crevices, casting a dreamlike, blurry light over everything.
“Click—”
Until her feet touched solid ground.
Judging by the distance fallen, Niao Xiaomi estimated she was standing at the very bottom of the mountain’s interior.
Around her was a hall illuminated by all kinds of glowing mushrooms.
“Rustle rustle—”
Something seemed hidden in the cracks of the rocks. Niao Xiaomi activated her Spirit Hunting Instinct to scan it.
Ugh…
That familiar, spine-chilling mask.
A Magical Puppet?
Niao Xiaomi remembered this kind of Magical Puppet from her first encounter with the Sequence Seed – Blossoms.
These Magical Puppets were originally non-aggressive, summoned by the Sequence Seed to act as guardians surrounding it.
They could create illusions, simulating things that would frighten intruders, trying to scare them away to protect the Sequence Seed.
But this Magical Puppet seemed a little different.
Its mask wasn’t white, but a sickly green. Behind the hollow eye sockets seemed to swirl black mist.
“Alright.” Niao Xiaomi rubbed her forehead.
This guy… she recognized.
This time it wasn’t because of the Askley Mountain story setting.
It was from slacking off.
Spending so much time slacking off watching videos wasn’t entirely useless; at least she got intelligence gathered by other district strategists.
Including this green-masked Magical Puppet.
Green-faced Magical Puppet—a unique and rare entity, far more dangerous than the white-faced Magical Puppet.
White-faced Magical Puppets only simulated “what they think you’re afraid of.”
But green-faced ones could truly perceive the enemy’s fear and materialize the enemy’s real fears in hyper-realistic form.
Wu Xiaomi was actually a little curious… even she didn’t know exactly what she was afraid of.
Even Mirror Night—the mirror demons with their twisted appearances and personalities—only gave her a slight shock.
If she had to say what she feared… it still seemed quite far off.
“Are you the only one here? I haven’t heard of green-faced Magical Puppets being this powerful…” Wu Xiaomi pondered.
She continued exploring.
Inside this small mushroom-lit mountain interior, there really was an altar.
The altar was dotted with various mushrooms that glowed, and these mushrooms seemed to be the source of the altar’s energy.
Colorful sticky fluids flowed from beneath the mushroom caps, filling the altar’s grooves and keeping it flowing.
Wu Xiaomi approached the altar.
“Hiss—”
The green-faced Magical Puppet suddenly let out a sharp, piercing shriek.
The altar began to fluctuate.
“Oh? Is it starting? Going to create the thing I fear the most…”
Wu Xiaomi boldly guessed that this altar was the reason the story was manifesting into reality.
And the green-faced Magical Puppet here seemed connected to the altar, much like herself.
Then…
Could this guy be directly creating a real, physical form of my greatest fear?
Like this entire mountain itself.
Hah, bring it on~
Who’s she afraid of!
“Vrrrrr—”
The air inside the altar vibrated, fine beams of light emanating from the altar’s inscriptions, projecting into the center of the air.
Like 3D printing, a body was taking shape in the altar’s center.
Bones, tendons, blood vessels, and finally skin.
Wu Xiaomi had thought this Magical Puppet might copy Bai Xiaozhi, in which case she might not be able to bring herself to act.
But the figure that emerged was not Bai Xiaozhi.
“Uh…?!”
A Demon Hunter??
Wu Xiaomi had almost forgotten about this guy.
She only had one encounter with him—that was when the witch brought him back.
This guy had aggressively demanded to take Bai Xiaozhi away, to bring her to her rightful territory to enjoy wealth and glory.
But Xiaozhi had refused.
Why him? Why this arrogant, detestable guy?
She didn’t like him, but… fear? Not exactly.
“Sigh—”
The Demon Hunter stepped out from the altar.
In his gaze toward Wu Xiaomi was the same disdain as always.
“I don’t understand,” the Demon Hunter said.
You’re not the only one.
He walked up to Wu Xiaomi.
Looking down from above, he spoke:
“You were only created as a tool to heal Princess. So… why are you still alive?”
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