Bai Liu kicked the door of the shrine open, and boundless flames suddenly rushed towards him, followed by ashes and heat waves.

Bai Liu raised his eyes, his dark pupils reflected the orange-red fire, the forest burning into charcoal, and the dazzling fireworks that kept exploding in the sky.

In the distance, he heard the cheers and countdowns from the crowd at the foot of the mountain:

"The Evil God Festival is about to officially kick off, and the fireworks display is also coming to an end. Let us count down together to this once-a-year moment that brings us happiness!"

"ten!"

Magnificent fireworks exploded in the sky one by one, like a bouquet of flowers ignited by sparks, blooming in the night sky as a sacrifice to the gods, opening the beautiful prelude to the story.

Bai Liu held the wounded Tavel in his arms and the bloodied Beiyuan Xiaokui on his back. With his head lowered, he walked very slowly down the mountain, step by step, as if he was holding something that was too heavy for him to bear.

Countless threads were entangled from the shrine around Tavier in Bai Liu's arms. These threads, called "pain," strangled Tavier and Bai Liu who was holding Tavier. Their blood mixed together and dripped onto the scorched land.

"Nine!"

Bai Liu paused, his breathing became slow and forceful, and his whole body leaned forward, as if he was using all his strength to walk down the mountain, away from the shrine.

But the strings attached to him and Tawil would not allow them to go any further.

"Bai Liu." Tavel's face was torn into pieces by the silk thread, but he didn't seem to feel any pain at all. Instead, he gently stroked the wounds on Bai Liu's body, lowered his eyes and looked at him intently, as if he wanted to remember him forever, "Put me down."

"You can't get out of here with me."

"Your hands are shaking while you're holding me."

"eight."

"I don't want it." Bai Liu raised his eyes and looked directly at Tavel, "You have already traded yourself to me, so I naturally have the right to take you away."

Tavel stood up, holding Bai Liu's shoulders. He looked at Bai Liu, then bent down and hugged Bai Liu, saying softly:

"But I love you."

Bai Liu's pupils shrank.

"seven!"

Tawil continued, closing his eyes slightly: "I finally understand what you felt when you came to see me."

"Is it love?"

"six!"

"I want to see you. I want to escape from the shrine and see who you have chosen as your prince charming. I want you to answer me why you don't come in to see me." Tawil buried his head completely in Bai Liu's shoulder. He hugged Bai Liu tightly, so tightly that Bai Liu rarely felt breathless. Tawil's voice was hoarse. "I want you to come to see me every day, talk to me, look into my eyes and tell me your own things."

"I want you to take me away. I want to go with you."

A silk thread is entangled.

"I want you to be with me forever."

Two threads are entangled.

"five!"

Bai Liu's eyes suddenly became clear, and he subconsciously hugged Tavel back: "...You are going to leave me again, right?"

"God once told me," Tawil answered him softly, "that when I create pain and offer it to him, I will become his heir."

“He said that only love can cause God pain.”

The countless threads wrapped around Tawil tightened in an instant.

"Four!"

"The more love you receive, the more pain you will incur as a sacrifice to God, and the easier it will be for God to control you." Tawil, wrapped in silk threads, slowly raised his eyes and looked at Bai Liu in his arms. He smiled softly, as if he was very happy. "I am now a puppet of God."

"I cannot leave the cage that holds me captive, for it is forged by the love and pain that I have created myself."

"three!"

"two!"

"one!!"

"The evil god festival has officially begun!!"

A large number of figures quickly approached from the path behind Bai Liu. They were holding offerings with deathly faces. They were obviously people from the eight great families who came to offer sacrifices in advance. They shouted angrily:

"What's going on? Why is the shrine on fire?"

"Where's the body?! The body in the shrine is gone!"

"Was it a guard of the Kitahara family who stole it, or was it a defector who was a sacrifice?"

Large fireworks exploded behind them.

"I love you." Tavel closed his eyes, lowered his eyes, placed his cold lips on Bai Liu's lips, and whispered softly, "My soul will only exist here for you."

"But you can't exist here."

"Because there is only pain here."

[System prompt: Congratulations to player Bai Liu for obtaining one of the main mission targets (evil spirits). You are about to set off to return to the timeline five years later. Player Bai Liu, please be prepared! ]

All the threads on Tavel's body straightened and pulled him back, and he closed his eyes, hugged Bai Liu, crossed his hands tightly in Bai Liu's long hair behind her head, and his lips moved as if he was saying something.

Bai Liu saw many people behind him holding knives, guns, sticks and running towards him with fierce faces. Fireworks kept blooming and colorful lights and shadows mixed in front of Bai Liu, dazzling him so much that he closed his eyes for a moment.

The moment he closed his eyes, Bai Liu heard Tavel whisper in his ear:

"Goodbye, come save my Rapunzel."

Bai Liu opened his eyes and found himself lying on the ground on his side in the Japanese-style room where the shrine was practicing the sacred dance, as if he had fallen asleep due to exhaustion.

There was no light in the Japanese-style room, it was pitch black, and only the moonlight coming in from outside could vaguely reveal the picture of the Kainanya Shrine hanging on the wall opposite - the picture that Bai Yanagi had found the clue and entered at the beginning.

Everything around Bai Liu, the fire, the hysterical crowd, the bleeding Kitahara Xiaokui, and the "corpse" of the evil god who kissed him tenderly all disappeared, as if it were an unrealistic nightmare.

He sat up and remained quiet for a while, then dressed neatly, put on his coat, stood up, opened the door and prepared to walk out.

There were two servants kneeling by the door. From the clothes they were wearing and the two words "禦船" embroidered on their right collars, it could be seen that these two servants were from the禦船 family.

The moment Bai Liu stepped out of the door, the two servants lowered their heads and quickly raised their hands to stop him from leaving: "Sixth Master Bai, you can't leave here."

"Lord Yufune has issued an order that if you cannot practice the ritual dance tonight for tomorrow night, you must not leave this shrine."

Bai Liu paused when he heard this. He turned his head to look at the two servants, then turned his head to look at the shrine behind him, which no longer looked like the original shrine. He raised his voice and asked, "Is this the Luming Shrine?"

"Yes." The servant looked up in surprise. "You have been practicing dancing in the shrine's worship room. Don't you remember?"

"If this is a shrine," Bai Liu asked calmly, "then where is the evil god who lived in this shrine five years ago? Where did he go?"

When the two servants heard this question, their faces changed, as if they had heard something extremely taboo. They lowered their heads, closed their eyes, put their hands together as if praying, and muttered quickly in a low voice:

"Don't blame me, evil god. We didn't intentionally move you from the Luming Shrine to the Kaihinja Shrine after the fire."

"It's just that the power you unleashed five years ago was so horrific that half of the people in Luming County went crazy and committed suicide in their sleep. They died an untimely death."

"...Please don't blame me, evil god!"

There was no expression on Bai Liu's face. His gaze slowly shifted from the ship-shaped object swaying on the waves in the distance to the mural hanging on the wall inside the house - it was a huge ship-shaped shrine tossed up on the waves of the sea.

Beach houseboat.

After a while of thunder, lightning, wind and rain, heavy rain suddenly fell.

A girl in a wet undershirt hid in the houseboat tremblingly, her lips were pale, her face was purple, and there were obvious scars on her fingers and joints. It was raining so hard, but she did not close the door. Instead, she left it open, knelt on the ground and let the strong wind and heavy rain rush in and hit her bloodless face.

The wind blew the wooden sign she had hung next to the Japanese-style room. On the old wooden board were four words that were almost worn out and could not be seen - [Kitahara Xiaokui].

"Xiao Kui, what are you doing?!" A panicked male voice interrupted Xiao Kui's self-abuse. Kitahara Sota, who was soaking wet, hurriedly went forward to close Xiao Kui's door, put the paper umbrella that was blown upside down by the strong wind next to the door, turned around and said to Xiao Kui in a reproachful tone, "Why didn't you close the door in such heavy rain?"

"Maybe it's because I didn't suffer enough when I was training in the hard room just now." Xiaokui answered with empty eyes muttering to herself.

Sou Tai paused, then looked at his knuckles which also had bleeding marks from being squeezed, clenched them hard, lowered his head and stopped talking.

Xiao Kui rolled her eyes and noticed what Sota did. She asked, "You went to the bitter room too?"

"Yeah." Sota smiled sadly and self-deprecatingly, "Ever since we were found to be involved in the arson of the shrine five years ago, even though the Kitahara family has fallen on hard times and no longer has the ability to build a large house to train and torture us, and our suffering has not met the standard every year and we are inferior sacrifices, they still haven't given up torturing us."

"Of course." Xiao Kui's eyes lit up, and she showed a smug and happy smile on her face, "What happened five years ago scared the shit out of these beasts."

"Yeah." Sota couldn't help but laugh, his eyes filled with memories, "At that time, the shrine was on fire, and Bai Liu had to go save the evil god, so we went back to help him."

"I went back to help him!" Xiao Kui retorted, but soon she lay back and said mockingly, "But anyway, I didn't help much, and I was soon knocked unconscious."

"Later, I vaguely remembered that Bai Liu carried me and the evil god down the mountain, but the evil god was pulled by the silk thread growing out of the shrine and could not leave. The people from the eight great families who came to offer sacrifices came up again."

"The ship dragged Shiroyanagi directly into the shrine and forced him to be sacrificed."

Xiao Kui burst into laughter, her arms and legs fluttering, tears streaming down her face: "It's rare to see the Evil God lose his temper!"

"It didn't want to look at Bai Liu, nor was it willing to sacrifice to Bai Liu, so it closed its eyes tightly and said, 'I don't allow you to do this to it.'"

"So that night." Xiao Kui's smile grew bigger and bigger, "Lord Evil God showed his power and made half of the people in Luming County be buried with his beloved sacrifice, Bai Liu."

"It descended into the dreams of these people and looked directly into their souls. These lustful beasts could not look the evil god in the eye, so they went mad in their dreams and committed suicide."

"This is the first time I've seen an evil god kill someone."