Chapter 90

Nangong Qi bid farewell to the uncle with a sense of loss. In another world, because of her interference, he left his wife and daughter and went to his death, while here he is still alive and well.

She turned around and saw Shao Ji looking at her without any reaction, neither puzzled nor anxious, just staring at her. For some reason, Nangong Qi felt a little creeped out by that look.

"Haha, Sister Shaoji, let's go find the others now." Nangong Qi laughed it off.

Shao Ji nodded, offering neither a comment on her form of address nor objecting to what she said.

She followed Nangong Qi step by step, like a ghost behind her.

Nangong Qi felt something was wrong and started pacing around the base.

After walking around and around until Nangong Qi was exhausted, she let out a series of breaths, "Huff, huff, huff..."

"Not leaving?" The calm tone made even a question sound like a statement.

She did try to shake off him, but no matter how fast or slow she ran, the distance between them was only half a step, no more and no less.

As darkness fell, the panic in Nangong Qi's eyes became more and more obvious. Looking at Shao Ji, she felt that the other party would turn into some kind of demon or monster at any moment.

Shao Ji's face began to change, splitting open from a beautiful face and growing a bright flower from her neck, gradually approaching Nangong Qi. Because of the fear of her approaching, Nangong Qi couldn't even move.

"Beautiful, oh beautiful—" a flower uttered a hoarse and unpleasant sound.

*Snap!* Nangong Qi was bitten off from the neck and head at the root. *Snap! Snap!* "Beautiful—Beautiful—"

"Huff! Huff!" Nangong Qi suddenly realized that she had returned to the moment when she first left the house, when she was still talking to the uncle.

"What's wrong, young lady?" the uncle asked, puzzled.

Nangong Qi turned around and saw Shao Ji standing far away, watching her without moving or saying a word.

"Uncle, can I come to your house? I actually know your wife, so can I meet them first?" Nangong Qi asked nervously.

The uncle hesitated for a moment, but seeing Nangong Qi's nervous expression, he nodded in agreement. Nangong Qi noticed that Shao Ji did not follow but only watched from afar.

Was what just happened just an illusion? No! Absolutely not! Nangong Qi touched her neck, the pain and the suffocating feeling of death still lingering in her mind, reminding her of the pain.

After navigating a series of winding roads, they arrived at a small alley—the very place where she had just died!

She started backing away from her feet when suddenly the uncle knocked on the door beside her, and a gentle voice rang out, "You're here. Why are you back so early today?"

"It's alright. I finished work early today, and a guest has arrived. Please entertain him properly, my lady." The uncle clearly knew that Nangong Qi had just lied, so he didn't repeat what Nangong Qi had said.

Is this really his home? It's beautifully decorated, and the lanterns are even wrapped in red.

Nangong Qi sat somewhat uncomfortably in the chair, carefully accepting the tea from the woman's hand.

"Has he left?" the woman suddenly asked after a while.

"What?" Nangong Qi was taken aback. She noticed that the woman was looking up at her. What was up there? She looked up and saw a lantern covered in red.

"Is he leaving?" The woman shifted her gaze to the lantern above, and upon closer inspection, she could even see the skin-like texture on the lantern.

The lantern swayed and turned around, revealing the face of a three- or five-year-old child, whose skin was stretched so thin it was almost transparent.

"Gone~ Gone~ Gone~ Gone and you can't see the end, gone and you can't see the road, gone and you can't see the skin, gone and you can't see the flesh, gone and you can't see the bones."

With a soft thud, Nangong Qi watched as the "lantern" fell to the ground, and her vision was enveloped in darkness.

"Wake up!" A shout snapped Nangong Qi back to her senses, and she saw Hu Ji standing in front of her.

Tears streamed down her face. She could feel the burning sensation inside her body, as her skin melted away layer by layer until only her bones remained, yet she could still feel that excruciating pain.

Seeing the desolate place gave her a feeling of returning to the human world.

"Was it all a hallucination just now?" she asked urgently, seeking reassurance.

However, Hu Ji did not speak. He said somewhat solemnly, "Don't leave my and A Ji's sight again." With that, he led Nangong Qi away from the alley.

As Nangong Qi turned around, she caught a glimpse of bloodstains on the wall and a ferocious face out of the corner of her eye.

She followed Hu Ji out of the alley in a daze.

"Did I really just die?" Nangong Qi was in great pain but had no way to express it.

"...Don't walk away again. It was my fault for not paying attention to what was happening here. I thought everyone else here was just a person who had been transported here, but now I understand that they were all taken from the original world. They are people who died in another world."

"So, the uncle is the one who died because of me?"

Hongji hesitated for a moment and then nodded. "They are dead now, and nothing can change their malice towards the living. It's just that they are trapped here and think they are alive, so they will stick to their personas when they see me or Aji. But you are different; you are an extra person."

"But why didn't he die?" Instead, he experienced two deaths.

"You did not die; you simply died and were resurrected. To this world, someone like you who comes from another world possesses an alluring power. With each death, you will lose your way until you become an integral part of this world."

She looked around in a panic, as if endless demons were lurking nearby. And what about him? Could the Silence before her be trusted? Was he really Silence?

She took a step back, but unexpectedly, Hongji offered her a hand. When she looked up, she saw Hongji looking at her intently.

"It's too dangerous here. This hand is modified into a small wooden gun, which is enough to deal with those monsters."

Nangong Qi took it, and this gesture relieved most of her tension. She touched it and felt a little more at ease.

"I want to go home." Nangong Qi felt that she shouldn't be so willful, thinking too highly of this place, and that everything here had become worse because of her arrival.

"I just saw Shao Ji. She's the one who killed me the first time. What happened?" She felt she could trust Hu Ji and the others, and that their abilities were definitely stronger than hers.

Upon hearing her description, Hongji immediately realized that this was not Shaoji, nor was it his disguise; it was more like an illusion. The moment Nangong Qi thought of Shaoji, she appeared the next second.

"Let's go back and find Aji first. We'll be safer with him."

They continued forward, surrounded by darkness. Nangong Qi could see almost nothing and could only follow Hongji forward.

Fortunately, since the mortal realm cannot be determined without visual observation, none of this is a problem. Nangong Qi had no choice but to trust him.

As night fell, they obviously took advantage of the fact that they couldn't see and all sorts of things started to emerge. Nangong Qi felt something climb up her ankle. She touched the hand that Hu Ji had given her and fired without hesitation. Sure enough, the thing immediately retracted.

At the same time, she felt a sharp pain in her foot, perhaps from being grazed by a bullet.

They returned to Aji's side without incident, their journey fraught with danger. The lights were on, giving a warm feeling, and everything seemed harmonious and stable.

Looking at Aji, he realized she was already asleep, or rather, her phone had been forcibly shut down by Hongji. In this situation, it was better to let her fall asleep.

"What do I need to do to leave here?" Nangong Qi took out a piece of cloth to bandage her feet. When she looked at them, they were so clean and white that she couldn't see anything. It was as if she had died twice but was still alive now.

"...Go out?" Hu Ji asked hesitantly.

"Yes! I want to leave this damn place! This is a terrible place, I'm going crazy! I don't want to be here! I don't want to go find the director anymore! I don't want to change the outcome! I just want to get out... get out... why me?" Nangong Qi said somewhat frantically.

This is normal. Most people cannot bear the pain of death. The tense atmosphere just now made her suppress the pain of death, but it exploded when she returned to this safe place.

"Waaah... I... I don't hate going to school anymore, I won't yell at the teachers anymore, I... I... I can't stay here anymore."

"I'm sorry, I don't know how to get you out of here. It's my fault; I shouldn't have dragged you into this in the first place." Hu Ji lowered his head.

In the quiet night, Nangong Qi fell asleep without realizing it.

When I opened my eyes again, I saw Huji injecting something into Aji.

When she woke up, he took the initiative to explain to her that "the tranquilizer calmed him down."

"Is there any more? Give me some." Nangong Qi forced an unpleasant smile.

"Okay." He didn't say whether there was too much or not, nor did he ask why.

After typing it in, I calmed down and felt a little drowsy. I pinched myself to wake myself up.

"If we find the divine essence, we can leave this monstrous enemy, right?"

Hongji nodded. Logically speaking, that's how it is. If you remove the energy that is an important component of this world, this inherently false world will naturally collapse.

Those who had already died inside naturally perished as well.

"Where could it be? I guess it's somewhere we definitely won't be able to find, maybe it's on that fake Shao Ji, right? At first, no one else approached me because I was prey being targeted by 'Shao Ji,' so they didn't dare to touch me, right? But my voluntary departure gave them an opportunity instead?" Nangong Qi seemed to have really calmed down and began to analyze.

She was lost in her own thoughts, "Why did she abandon me after I went with someone else? Why?"

"Don't think about this anymore. Let's go find 'Shao Ji'. Once we get the divine spark, we can leave." Hu Ji interrupted Nangong Qidu's train of thought.

Nangong Qi nodded blankly.