Lu Zhaozhao ran out. There were many demons in the area, and people would come from time to time, but she was in a bad mood. She apologized in a low voice and ran away again.

She ran aimlessly for a while until a stream appeared in front of her, blocking her way, and then she stopped.

Lu Zhaozhao bent over, panting heavily, and it took her a long time to open her tear-filled eyes.

The moment she learned of the Eight Clans Plan, she could have gone along with it, pretended not to hear, and reaped the benefits in the end. But at that moment, an indescribable nausea rushed into her nasal cavity.

Since arriving in this world, she had killed many strange beasts and dealt a fatal blow to those who tried to assassinate her. But when she heard the thought of blatantly setting up a selection process and killing over a hundred people, her subconscious reaction was still that she could not accept it.

She knelt by the stream, cupped her hands and splashed water on her face. The biting cold seeped into her bones, making her much more awake.

She rejected the methods of the eight clans, so now she must use her own methods to successfully advance in the selection.

If we don't kill anyone, what should we use as a chess piece? Lu Zhaozhao buried her head between her legs, rubbing her hands together, trying to come up with a feasible solution.

But before she could figure it out, a strong smell of blood filled her nostrils.

She raised her head, and the clear, trickling stream before her eyes had turned blood red, gushing forward.

Just as Lu Zhaozhao was about to get closer to take a look, a severed hand floated down with the water and came into her view.

She froze, looking up in the direction of the water flow, and saw more and more remains being carried downstream by the blood.

Their plan... has begun?

Lu Zhaozhao shuddered and immediately got up and rushed upstream.

She ran as fast as she could, and the more she ran, the more horrifying the sights became.

The ground was covered in blood, and the broken wreckage seemed to indicate the massacre that had just taken place. Weapons made of iron were broken and stuck haphazardly in the ground.

The higher you go, the more bloody and foul the smell becomes.

Lu Zhaozhao held her breath and began to slow her pace. Her intuition told her that she was not far from the scene of the incident.

The hem of his blue robe was stained with blood, and the Buddhist prayer beads on his wrist were also stained with dirt. One of the beads obscured the Buddha statue, seemingly foreshadowing something.

Upstream, the space expands further, with lush trees and overgrown shrubs and weeds, but now they are all broken in half, with large patches of blood splattered on them.

The ground was littered with corpses. Demons turned into their true forms after death, while monsters withered quickly after death, their bodies densely covering the open space.

Two people were standing in the center.

Nan Rongrui and Xie Yi.

Large swaths of blood blossomed at their feet, just like last September when the spider lilies at Futu Temple were in full bloom, their vibrant red petals dazzling the eye.

Nan Rongrui saw her and waved excitedly.

Under the veil, Lu Zhaozhao's face was pale, and the smell of blood rushed to her head, leaving her frozen in place, unable to react.

"Having exhausted all evil deeds, I am no longer hindered from the mortal world; I will now go to the Pure Land..."

"What are you muttering to yourself?" Nan Rongrui walked over to Lu Zhaozhao and couldn't help but be curious as she listened to her softly talking.

“…The Rebirth Mantra.” Lu Zhaozhao’s tone was calm.

"Hahahaha, the Rebirth Mantra? Jie Yi, she's chanting the Rebirth Mantra! Hahahaha." Nan Rongrui laughed wildly, slapping Lu Zhaozhao's shoulder hard, laughing so hard she couldn't breathe.

"What reincarnation do demons have? I heard that the Nüba clan lives in seclusion near the Northern Region. You weren't fooled by those bald monks, were you?" Nan Rongrui calmed down a bit, laughing until tears streamed down her face.

"Oh right, there seem to be sixty or seventy chess pieces here. Aren't you happy? We'll be able to get out soon." As she spoke, she called out in Jie Yi's direction, "Quickly ask Chang Yu Lanshan and the others how many chess pieces they got. This godforsaken place doesn't even have a place to lie down. I can't stay here any longer."

A response came from afar: "If you turn back into your original form, you won't need to lie down anymore."

Nan Rongrui spat at him in anger.

But her emotions came and went quickly. She reached out and brushed aside Lu Zhaozhao's veil, laughing smugly, "I'm leaving, Guan Nan. We'll meet again."

After saying that, without waiting for a reply, she released the veil and turned to walk away into the distance.

Throughout the entire process, Lu Zhaozhao did not utter a single word.

Her hands, hidden beneath her wide sleeves, clenched tightly, even trembling slightly, as she stood alone amidst the pools of blood, her expression unreadable.

I stood there for a long time, until the clear water flowed down again, washing away the crimson stains and diluting the viscous blood, until the water became clearer and clearer, as if nothing had happened.

She then resumed reciting the scriptures that Nan Rongrui had interrupted her from earlier.

Inside the main hall of the Ming Palace, the two were playing chess and watching the scene in the competition arena.

"They've gone a bit too far. Aren't you going to do something?" A white jade chess piece fell from the chessboard between slender fingers. Looking up from the hand, one could see Wen Sheng, whom Lu Zhaozhao had met several times.

Directly opposite him, another player placed a black piece, captured a large area of ​​white territory, and then replied, "I have been making moves the whole time."

“But the action is slow and the effect is minimal,” Wen Sheng interrupted bluntly.

The person opposite him wasn't angry; he simply took another white piece and said, "It may seem that way now, but Wen Sheng, you can't just look at the present moment when playing chess. Just like how you had such a smooth start, but now you're at your wit's end."

"The change of fortune can happen in the blink of an eye. I have won this game."