"I just felt I had to save you."
“That’s it. You can save them if you want, or not if you don’t. Whoever makes the request is the one who is humble. They are begging you, not the other way around,” Shi Jinzhe said. “It has nothing to do with whether someone is human or a god. Once a relationship of need is established, there is no equality. There will always be one side in a subordinate position, it’s just that it’s more obvious in some cases than in others.”
"Is that so...? Then what about you and me? You need me, don't you?"
"I absolutely need you. I can't live without you." Shi Jin leaned forward, his upper body hunched. "So, how much about me have you remembered?"
Shekh grabbed the fabric from his shoulder and said slowly, "You'd better not ask."
"...There's nothing about me at all?"
"No."
"Then why are you hugging me so tightly... Your body's memories have returned, but your brain's haven't, right?"
"What memories does the body have?" Sheh instinctively raised his tail, then shook his leg before remembering that he didn't have a tail now.
Shi Jinzhe deliberately tried to divert her attention, saying, "So I'm not that important to you after all."
"I don't have you in my heart right now."
Shi Jinzhe covered her mouth, "I won't listen, don't say it."
Shekh removed his hand. "I want to know more, about myself, and about you."
Shi Jinzhe agreed with her, saying, "Then let's go now."
[All members of faction KA2564 have perished; the Old Capital exploration mission is terminated.]
Shi Jin folded up halfway and sat back down. Why was there no one in the camp again?
There are nine factions. He and Zhou Qiyu are here. If two more factions die, there will only be five factions still active outside.
I wonder how things are going with Ji Huipu and Yan Ruoying...
Capital city.
The three, who had traveled back and forth between the fourth district and the royal palace several times, heard the announcement but did not react, burying themselves in fiddling with the teleportation array.
Yan Ruoying: "Are you sure you've completely dismantled the communication towers in District Four?"
Pu Sheng: "I'm absolutely certain, I've already dug up all the floor tiles. The Queen isn't coming back, so we have plenty of time to fix this."
Ji Hui asked, "Will it really be useful?"
They tried everything – items, people, even the natives – but the teleportation array in the maze wouldn't activate. They captured everything and tried it, but nothing worked.
Yan Ruoying rested her chin on her hand, a slice of bread dangling from her mouth. "Oh dear, what are we going to do? Do any of you have any keepsakes related to Shi Jinzhe or Shehe?"
Ji Hui: "When Shekh's snake shed its skin, it was completely retracted, leaving only the gold leaf."
"Try this..." Yan Ruoying felt heartbroken just listening to this; it was a life-saving item.
“Take mine to try,” Pusheng said. “This is my suggestion. Keep yours. We can’t get close to the Queen; we definitely can’t bring ourselves to hurt her.”
"I want to go on another raid of the palace." Yan Ruoying stuffed a whole piece of bread into her mouth, patted her hands twice, and said, "Let's go to the Queen's current residence again. Which of you two will come with me?"
"Let's stay together, the three of us, and not separate." Ji Hui wanted to eliminate any possibility of an accident.
“Alright, let’s go.” Pu Sheng slapped down a talisman and, together with Ji Huiyan and Ruoying, arrived at the Queen’s palace for the second time.
They knew this place better than their own home, heading straight for the closets, bedside tables, and other hidden spots.
This time, Yan Ruoying turned the place upside down, leaving all the noise she made to Pusheng and Ji Hui to handle, while she was just responsible for finding it with good luck.
The vast palace was searched from day to night, until finally something amiss was discovered in the crevices of the bed frame.
Yan Ruoying pressed her ear against the top and tapped back and forth with her bent fingers. "Right here, the hollow sound is obvious. Quick, pry it open."
Ji Hui drew his knife, inserting the blade into the crack in the wooden board. His face turned red as he exerted force. "...What's hidden inside? The wood is so thick."
“I’ll help you.” Pu Sheng took out four talismans and stuffed them into the four corners of the bed board. “Stuff all your knives in there, let them transform and form a net, then pry it open!”
Ji Hui controlled the throwing knife, increasing the force several times, and finally the fixed bed board showed signs of moving.
Four hours later, the top wooden board of the mezzanine was finally removed, and Ji Hui pulled the entire board off in one go.
"Cough cough!" Yan Ruoying coughed with her eyes closed, quickly fanning away the ashes with her hand in front of her mouth.
“…Stop coughing, there’s no ash. Look at this, what is it?” Pu Sheng’s voice trembled as he clenched his fist against his mouth and bit his knuckles hard.
Yan Ruoying opened one eye and, after seeing what was in the hidden compartment, got goosebumps all over her body.
Only Ji Hui remained calm. He walked over slowly and held his breath.
This isn't a mezzanine; it's more like a coffin placed under the bed.
Two shriveled corpses lay in the middle and on the right, one an adult and the other a child. The adult's body had been desiccated and looked exactly like the tanned mummies in horror movies.
And the child's body...
His face was covered with a dark purple film, making him look like a living person at first glance.
Ji Hui swallowed hard, then gently pried open the membrane with the tip of his knife, revealing the child's true face beneath.
She was seven or eight years old, very cute. Her head was sewn on later, but the stitches were very well done. Her skin was a little bluish, and she had a happy grin on her face. Her big blue eyes were exactly like those of the queen in the portrait.
Pu Sheng approached and said, "This woman... is terrifying."
"Is this the head guard and her child? A family of three?" Yan Ruoying covered her mouth. "This isn't about whether it's scary or not. I feel that someone who can do something like this has serious mental problems."
“Then we need to know what she went through.” Pu Sheng wanted to take a closer look, but as the purple membrane was peeled away, the boy’s face began to rot rapidly, soon revealing his bones.
He stared wide-eyed and quickly covered the body with a thin film, but the decay was irreversible. After the boy's body turned to bones, it began to turn to ash.
"This thing kept his body from decaying?" Ji Hui's eyes darted around. "It's purple! Doesn't this look like Shekh's snake skin?"
Yan Ruoying: "But I didn't find any trace of scales."
This is such a large sheet, so flat and smooth like a compressed plastic film, with not a single trace of growth. Just how big must these scales be?
Ji Hui reached out and touched the purple membrane, rubbing it a few times before confirming, "It's the texture of a snake's molt. I've touched her snake's molt before, that's right!"
Yan Ruoying broke out in a cold sweat. "What you said is a little scary."
Ji Hui didn't understand: "...What are you afraid of?"
"I don't know. Now that we have Shekh's snake molt and Shi Jinzhe's gold leaf, let's hurry up and leave. I have a bad feeling."
"Hmm!" Ji Hui carefully put away the snake molt and quickly led the two away. The three of them jogged out of the palace and left through a side path.
Yan Ruoying hunched her shoulders. "Faster, faster! I'm so cold. Let's go back quickly."
White breaths kept coming out of her mouth, and in the rising smoke, a figure appeared at the end of the path.
The Queen raised her head, her eyes expressionless, as if she were looking at three dead men.
"Where do you want to go back to?"
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