Chapter 12: SR Cards Show Their Power!
Huali ran quickly through the dark passageway.
She quickly looked around, locked onto the iron gate at the corner, and slipped inside.
The black-skinned figure didn't pursue them any further, apparently having been successfully distracted by Ao Bai.
Huali breathed a sigh of relief for a moment, but when she turned around, her scalp tingled again.
The room was quiet, with only a small patch of moonlight shining down overhead. All the women in the room, dressed in identical wedding gowns and wearing red veils, stood silently in the center of the room.
The earliest ones still show traces of dust that has been left unattended on the top of the veil.
She counted them roughly; there were more than a dozen. Remembering what Old Zhang had said earlier, Huali had a bad feeling.
The atmosphere of Chinese horror was instantly heightened, and her heart nearly jumped into her throat.
How could a living person remain motionless in one position for so long? They weren't even breathing.
Suppressing the urge to run away, Huali cursed the ancestors of the card-issuing system for eighteen generations in her heart before mustering her courage to slowly lift the bridal veil closest to her.
"Wait a minute." A faint voice called out.
"Who goes there!" Huali turned around quickly.
A woman dressed in a wedding gown crawled out from the corner of the wall, but unlike the other woman, she was not wearing a veil and was looking at Huali's hand, which was about to lift the veil, with a look of horror in her eyes.
"They were all cursed by that fake goddess; they would go mad if their veils were lifted."
Huali quickly sized up the girl who had suddenly appeared. Although her face was pale, she had delicate features. Upon closer inspection, she even noticed that her eyebrows and eyes resembled Aunt Zhang's.
"Are you Cui Jin?"
Cui Jin's initially terrified eyes lit up. "How do you know my name?"
It really was her. Karin walked around the brides in the middle and came to her, only to find that her feet were chained.
"Don't be afraid, I'm here to help you." Huali took a hairpin from her hair and poked it into the keyhole. "It's done. Can you still walk?"
Cui Jin nodded and stood up with Hua Li's help.
"How did you know I was here? Did you come here specifically to save me?" Cui Jin gripped Hua Li's arm tightly, so tightly that Hua Li gasped in pain.
"That's a long story. Do you know where the others are?"
Cui Jin shook her head, her eyes filled with tears. "They've all been turned into puppets and placed here."
Huali's heart sank.
It's not because the mission couldn't be completed, but because I feel sorry for these once vibrant lives.
She changed the subject, "What about the men who married you? Do you know where they are?"
Cui Jin paused, supporting Hua Li's hand. "You still want to save them?"
The question was strange, and Huali looked at her oddly, while Cuijin burst into tears.
"On our wedding night, that fake goddess made us travel together, but halfway there a tiger suddenly appeared out of nowhere," Cui Jin said, her eyes filled with resentment as she recalled the scene. "And my good husband, in order to survive, actually sacrificed his new wife to the tiger's jaws and ran away himself!"
As she got excited, Cuijin suddenly moved closer. Huali smelled a familiar scent, but couldn't remember where it came from.
"Men in this world are all fickle. When they love you, they're full of sweet words, but when they stop loving you, they can turn around and plunge you into eternal damnation. You need to wake up."
What time is it now, who cares about love? Huali was too lazy to argue with her, and judging from the girl's expression, she probably wouldn't get any information out of her anyway.
To save time, Huali helped Cuijin walk out, saying, "Let's get out of here first."
Cui Jin's body was light and airy, almost weightless. As the two passed through the room and prepared to leave, Hua Li subconsciously turned back.
There was no wind in the room, and the veil she had lifted halfway slipped off.
In a flash, Huali suddenly remembered where she had smelled this scent before.
It was the sedan chair carrier who was burned to ashes.
"What's wrong?" Sensing Huali's sudden tension, Cuijin turned around to look.
"It's alright, I'm just worried that female ghost might come over. Let's hurry." Huali closed the door first, grabbed Cuijin's hand, and quickly ran off.
The corridor was dimly lit. Huali asked calmly, "You've been captured for half a month now. Has that female ghost appeared? Why didn't she harm you?"
Cui Jin shook her head: "I don't know either. I escaped from the jaws of death, and when I woke up, I was trapped there. What about you? Aren't you afraid to come here all alone?"
Huali looked ahead and smiled upon hearing this: "Who said I came alone? I still have a husband who's willing to help me."
“Your husband abandoned you long ago.” Cuijin seemed to hate Huali’s stubbornness to the extreme, her tone becoming urgent and resentful. “Just like me back then, trapped in a dark and hopeless place, hoping day and night that Xiao Lang would change his mind, but what did I get in return? Disappointment day after day. Don’t be silly.”
With the exit just around the corner, Huali quickened her pace, but Cuijin stopped.
With teary eyes, she stared at Huali, "If I had your beauty, would Xiao Lang be able to stay?"
Huali held the fire-type card between her fingers, tilting her head upon hearing this: "So this is why you stole those bride faces?"
Cui Jin's eyes narrowed. "When did you find out?"
"Please, you don't think you're acting so well. If a normal person is trapped for half a month without food or water, do you think she can survive? You don't even know this basic common sense. You're not even playing the goddess properly."
The fake goddess's face contorted with tears, and she said in a coquettish tone, "So that's how it is."
"That's perfect, I'll take your face!"
"Explosive bomb, detonate!"
The flames surged and heat waves rose. Taking advantage of the moment, Huali ran out of the passageway and arrived at the Goddess's Palace where she had started. She took out a signal flare from her Qiankun bag and fired it towards the door.
A dazzling firework suddenly burst into the sky.
The next second, Cui Jinren was already in front of her, reaching out to grab Hua Li's face.
Wow, that's fast!
With her survival skill activated, Huali slammed her earth-type card into the ground and roared, "Jizo Entanglement, go!"
The ground cracked instantly, and the rock spikes transformed into earth dragons, roaring as they crashed into Cui Jin.
Cui Jin's body flew backward like a kite, crashing headfirst into the goddess statue in the hall.
Huali, who witnessed the whole process, gaped and muttered, "Holy crap, that's amazing."
Before she could recover from her shock, Cui Jin had already stood up from the shattered statue, staring at her with venomous eyes, and raised her hand to unleash several streams of black energy, "You're courting death!"
"Buddha's Bone Cage, freeze!" Hua Li snapped her fingers.
The earth-element card instantly formed a circular protective barrier, blocking Cui Jin's attack.
Having successfully shown off, Huali couldn't help but curl her lips into a smile, picked up the card, and kissed it hard.
Upon seeing this, the fake goddess screamed even louder: "How dare you mock me! Once I peel off your skin, I'll make you wish you were dead!"
The black umbrella that had disappeared earlier was summoned by her. The moment she grasped the umbrella handle, the fake goddess's appearance changed, and she became a woman with a face full of scars that made her unrecognizable.
"No wonder you wanted to steal someone else's face, you actually look like this!" Huali, relying on the Earth-type card, spoke with venom: "Sacrificing others to please yourself, don't be so selfish!"
These words clearly struck a nerve with the fake goddess. She screamed like a madwoman, and the faces on the umbrella handle scrambled to bite at her, as if they wanted to devour Huali's flesh whole.
*
Huali only had two moves, yet she fought the fake goddess to a standstill.
"Ksitigarbha Entanglement, emerge!"
"The Buddha's relic prison, freeze!"
After summoning the earth dragon for the sixth time, Huali, who was feeling smug, suddenly stumbled and her ears started ringing. She quickly tapped her head.
The black umbrella in the fake goddess's hand continued to spin, and the faces attacked in ever-changing patterns. Any slight oversight could be fatal.
The red string that Huali used to tie her hair was bitten off without her noticing. As her black hair fell down, a piece of flesh was also bitten off her shoulder. She gasped and quickly retreated, clutching her wound.
The scene before her eyes began to blur. Huali knelt on one knee, struggling to hold on, and slammed the card on the ground, ready to continue summoning.
As soon as she opened her mouth, a wave of excruciating pain surged through her internal organs, causing her throat to burn. She then vomited a large amount of blood.
Damn it, this card actually consumes health points!
This is going to backfire.
Before she could wipe the blood from her mouth, the fake goddess had already flown in front of her, grabbing her face and saying, "You mere ant..."
Karin winced in pain, then grinned, revealing blood-stained teeth. "Even a mere ant... can... destroy a false god..."
The next second, she focused her energy in her dantian and used all her strength.
"Lian Zhuo, save me!!!"
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