Chapter 336: 50 Days

The dark vortex quietly spun on the gray-white dunes, countless grains of sand falling along its edge, disappearing, only to fall again from the sky, forming a thin gray-white line connecting heaven and earth.

“Miss Jiang, please wait!”

Just as Jiang Li was about to leave the No Return Place, the voice of the Big Boss suddenly came from behind.

“What is it?” She turned around with a frown, looking at the man who had approached her from behind, her expression indifferent. “The gambling game is over, isn’t it? Do you have anything else to say?”

“No, no, Miss Jiang, you’ve misunderstood,” the man said, waving his hand. “I just wanted to remind you that you should be aware that our gambling game, the stakes are not equal, right?”

Jiang Li’s eyes trembled slightly at the mention of this, and she nodded with a complex expression.

In this Entertainment City, there lay a vast amount of treasure, not to mention unimaginable magical powers. Accumulating chips to be among the top three indeed granted the chance to compete with the Big Boss, but it was merely a chance.

The Big Boss of the Entertainment City was a stickler for fairness, whether it was towards others or himself, so the stakes of a gambling game had to be at least equivalent.

Jiang Li’s proposed stake was to shut down this Entertainment City, a stake whose value clearly far exceeded the chips she brought each time.

Thus, for each of the fourteen gambling games, she had to pay a price-perhaps a precious memory, a segment of her lifespan, or something else of great importance.

“How much is left?” Jiang Li asked coldly.

“What’s left are your memories related to your mother, your maid, and your engagement…” At this point, the Big Boss paused, his voice temptingly asking, “Are you sure you don’t want to consider using these memories to complete the stake this time?”

“Especially the engagement memory. After all, you’ve never met that person, so letting him disappear from your memory wouldn’t matter, right?”

“Not considering it at all,” Jiang Li replied without hesitation.

This was her final stand.

Ever since her father lost her as a stake, handing her over to the Eclipse Society, her world had plunged into deep darkness.

She managed to endure thanks to the memories of her mother and Ah-Hua.

And that memory of her benefactor was like a ray of light piercing the darkness that trapped her.

Though it was a faint ray, it was enough to awaken her, urging her to chase that light forward, tearing open a larger gap, finally seeing a world bathed in golden sunlight.

“Alright then, since Miss Jiang insists,” the Big Boss shrugged. “I’ll take this stake as agreed.”

“But I must remind you, once you leave here, you’ll probably have about fifteen days left to live. I hope you can secure the Top Prize and return here soon.”

Hearing this, Jiang Li tilted her head expressionlessly, puzzled. “Strange, why would you deliberately remind me of such a thing? You don’t seem to be that kind-hearted, do you?”

When something unusual happens, there’s always a reason.

“Hahaha!” The Big Boss laughed heartily. “Miss Jiang, you’re overthinking things. Don’t always assume I’m so bad, okay? I have feelings too, and I’m interested in certain things.”

“Those like you, be they human or haunting, who can engage in long-term gambles with me, are rare now. I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing you resolve this crisis and survive.”

As he spoke, the Big Boss raised a gloved finger and waved it slightly.

“My personal advice: once you win the Top Prize next time, consider visiting my manager to exchange some lifespan before returning here.”

“Hmph-!” Jiang Li didn’t respond verbally, merely scoffing before turning away to continue towards the swirling black vortex leading out of the No Return Place.

To her, the malicious haunting that treated others’ lives as mere games, even if it held high expectations for her, brought no joy or honor-only an inexplicable anger.

The Big Boss watched as Jiang Li’s figure was swallowed by the vortex, disappearing from sight, and murmured, “What a pity. I thought she could win.”

For a long time, the dead silence of the dunes echoed with a faint sigh.

“Ah-! How long has it been since then? I wish I could lose completely once more.”

In the darkness, indescribable phantom shapes flew by, colors overlapping in a slow dance, stretching into the Void.

There, whispers of confusion filled the air, the last cries of gamblers forever trapped in the No Return Place, unable to escape.

In this environment, Jiang Li felt a sharp pain between her brows, instinctively summoning psychic energy to shield herself.

Soon, a wave of weakness from depleted psychic energy washed over her, finally alleviating the pain.

Gradually, the bizarre images before her faded, revealing the opulent lobby of the Entertainment City.

She squinted, adjusting to the light, then retrieved her phone from her handbag, marking a reminder in her notes for fourteen days later. After putting away her phone, she took out her last remaining chip.

At that moment, a powerful sense of weakness, as if life force was being drained by some eerie power, struck her. Her face turned pale, and she nearly lost her balance.

Leaning against the cold wall for support, she rested for a while before regaining her composure, clutching the chip tightly as she hurried deeper into the Entertainment City.

In the early hours.

Deep within the Lanruo Inn Customs Shop.

A woman in a black dress stood on a spacious terrace, gazing outward. In the dead of night, fleeting gray-white breaths drifted with the chilling wind.

In the darkness, vague, eerie shadows shifted, disappearing when one tried to focus on them.

Beyond the Lanruo Inn Customs Shop’s structures, nothing else was visible.

From afar, the sound of wings flapping came from above. Following the sound, a snow-white parrot flew down, landing steadily on the terrace, transforming into the figure of a girl.

“Madame, I’ve confirmed it. Calamity is indeed connected to the girl who’s been repeatedly challenging the No Return Place at the Entertainment City. I saw her meeting with the girl’s attendant at the Pharmacy’s station.”

“Oh?” Black Peony narrowed her eyes slightly, a faint, elusive smile playing on her lips. “And what did they say?”

“Calamity said…” Hydrangea paused for a few seconds, bowing slightly, “She intends to challenge the Big Boss of the Entertainment City for that girl, and then disband the place right there.”

Even though Lu Yibei had carefully whispered this into Ah-Hua’s ear, Hydrangea, with her innate skill of ‘Parrot Mimicry,’ could easily reproduce what was said just by observing her lip movements.

“Disband the Entertainment City for a girl?” Black Peony chuckled with a meaningful smile. “How romantic and audacious! But then, if the young aren’t bold, what are they?”

Hydrangea frowned slightly, clasping her hands together. “Madame, do you need me to stop her?”

“Did I ever say to stop her?” Black Peony’s eyebrows arched slightly. “Go on, Hydrangea, keep following them. Report back to me with any developments. If necessary, offering them a little help from the shadows wouldn’t hurt.”

“This place has long needed a bit of change.”

Hearing this, a peculiar glint flashed in Hydrangea’s eyes, but she quickly suppressed her doubts, responding with a simple “Yes!”

After all, even if the Madame’s orders were difficult to understand, she only needed to follow them.

With the soft rustle of wings, Hydrangea took flight again, disappearing into the darkness.

Black Peony watched her leave, a wry smile on her face.

“Choosing to meet at the Pharmacy was rather unwise. After all, she’s the only one among the three of us who… Never mind, if she can’t handle even this small crisis, there’s no point in having any expectations of her.”

Muttering to herself, Black Peony drew the golden silk curtains on the terrace and turned back inside.

Deep within the Cinnabar Pharmacy, in this ailing city, stood the only intact and even luxurious building.

It was a factory built into the mountainside, with jagged rock faces and gray-white metal walls forming a massive, imposing structure. Unlike the nearby city, there was no noise or sign of life here, only the roar of giant machines and the drift of thick smoke.

The seamless construction made the entire building resemble a war machine poised to activate at any moment, exuding a cold and menacing aura from within.

From afar, one could smell the acrid medicinal scent wafting from the factory, spreading throughout the city.

Beyond the factory gates lay a pitch-black swamp, teeming with thorny vines like writhing serpents, dragging bloated, pale corpses slowly into the murky sludge.

On these eerie thorns, flowers resembling blue-purple lilies bloomed, glowing faintly, with sinister human-like faces etched into their petals.

Deep within the factory, the searing and dazzling magma cascaded like a waterfall from a massive crevice carved out of the mountain, guided and streaming towards the bases of enormous Alchemy furnaces connected to chimneys.

Gaunt workers, clad in thin coarse cloth, carried heavy baskets on their backs, navigating through the nearly hundred-meter-high makeshift metal walkways. Climbing to the top, they orderly dumped the contents of their baskets into the Alchemy furnaces through various feed ports.

Occasionally, exhausted workers collapsed, and those following would immediately swarm over, scavenging anything of value from the fallen like vultures discovering a decaying corpse.

Soon, the picked-clean corpse was dragged away by the foreman like a worn-out sack, towed into the dark depths.

At the highest point of the factory was a massive platform overlooking the entire operation, enclosed on all sides by thick one-way mirrors. The workers could not see inside, only aware that the owner of the Pharmacy often appeared there, using his eerie powers to monitor everyone.

At this moment, behind the one-way mirror on the massive platform.

A grotesquely huge haunting, seated on a throne made of black iron.

It had blue-gray skin covered with large and small pustules, resembling a grotesquely twisted giant toad, holding a large pipe, occasionally drawing a small puff to its triple-mouthed massive face, then slowly exhaling pitch-black smoke.

If Lu Yibei were here, she would definitely shout, “Plague Taisui! Someone is mimicking your face!”

Though its ugliness was different from the twisted style of Plague Taisui, it was equally repulsive.

This was the master of the Cinnabar Pharmacy, bearing a pleasing name that belied its appearance, called Celestian. It was said that long ago, he was also a graceful and handsome man.

“Puff-Puff-Puff-!”

Accompanied by the sound of flesh bursting, the pustules on Celestian’s body exploded, transforming into countless eyes that covered his body. These eyes constantly shifted, surveying the factory through the one-way mirror.

“Damn, someone over there is slacking off!”

“Hey, someone! Go to C Section Line 1756 and drag that lazy worker down, chop him up for fertilizer!”

As Celestian shouted, two foremen in dark blue work clothes who had been quietly standing behind him stepped forward, bowed slightly, and then left the platform, rushing towards the direction of C Section.

After the foremen departed, Celestian’s thousands of eyes simultaneously rolled, “I’ve told them so many times before, slacking off is stealing my money, why don’t they ever learn? Unforgivable!”

As he spoke, the light flickered, and a small haunting in red work clothes suddenly appeared before him, kneeling on one knee, his voice raspy through a metal mask.

“My lord, we have located the King of Hauntings in Hua City.”

Celestian leaned slightly forward, his tone cold, “Oh? And the preparations I asked you to make-are they ready?”

“Already prepared, right outside the door, please review,” the red-clothed foreman bowed his head.

“No need!” Celestian waved his bloated hand, “Just handle it. By any means necessary, let her fully experience the pinnacle of the Pharmacy’s creations.”

“A King of Hauntings, if she becomes our customer and we drain her, it will be a significant fortune, you understand?”

The red-clothed foreman’s body trembled slightly, quickly responding, “Understood! I will do my utmost!”

With that, he rose, hurriedly moving towards the door to leave, but Celestian called him back.

“Wait, if you fail…” Celestian said, “don’t let those fools reveal that this matter is related to me.”

“You know what to do, right? After all, those wretches, for a bit of wealth, are capable of anything, aren’t they?”

“Yes!” the red-clothed foreman replied.

The red-clothed foreman descended the metal ladder, leaving the vast platform behind. As soon as he reached the area below, a swarm of shadows surged forward, blocking his path.

Among these shadows were both hauntings and humans, all equally gaunt and with vacant, unfocused eyes. Their attire was indistinguishable from the factory workers, except for the silver shackles that adorned each of them.

“Master, please, give it to me!” A man with hair as dry and yellow as wild grass knelt before the red-clothed foreman, pleading, “I beg you, just give me the treasure, and I’ll do anything for you!”

“Is that so? Anything at all?” The red-clothed foreman replied with a knowing smile.

“Yes, anything!”

“Very well, then. Help me kill a haunting, and if you succeed, you shall wear the red.”

The so-called treasure was an addictive substance added to nearly all the medicines and food within the Cinnabar Pharmacy’s domain. It had no specific name or form; “treasure” was merely the term used by the city’s vagrants.

Becoming a red-clothed foreman at the Cinnabar Pharmacy meant unlimited access to the “treasure.”

Upon hearing the foreman’s words, the surrounding hesitant humans and hauntings grew restless, their cries and pleas rising in a cacophony.

“I’ll do it too, as long as you give me the treasure.”

“Leave it to me, I can do it!”

“…”

Observing these pitiful creatures devoid of dignity, the red-clothed foreman sneered, “Since you all wish to go, then go! Whoever brings back that haunting or gets her to consume the treasure shall be the new red.”

“But let me remind you, that haunting is currently at the station.”

His words brought a brief silence to the crowd.

The station, a shared property of three entities, was strictly off-limits for any acts of violence.

However, the desperate creatures soon resumed their clamoring. Driven by desire, they cared little for such prohibitions. Even if they feared the power of the other two entities and dared not storm the station, they had countless ways to launch an attack outside its confines.

Seeing this, the red-clothed foreman wore a satisfied expression. With a swift motion, he scattered a stack of papers, each bearing the image of a red-haired girl, onto the ground before him.

Then, with the crisp sound of metal shackles snapping open, those freed from their bonds-like ravenous beasts unleashed-grabbed the papers and, with ghostly wails, transformed into shadows, racing out of the factory.

Watching the shadows fade into the distance, the red-clothed foreman curled his lips into a smirk.

The King of Hauntings, huh?

Many of these pitiful creatures once held that title themselves.

The sky was growing darker.

Inside the Cinnabar Pharmacy, after the departure of the Giant Train, an eerie silence enveloped the place, as if some ominous presence had awakened in the night, gradually surrounding the station.

Vagrants hidden in the shadows and darkness peered at the two outsiders under the dim station lights.

Lu Yibei sat on the ground, wrapped in a sleeping bag transformed from her jacket, revealing only her delicate face and small hands. She had a spicy strip in her mouth, her head lowered, contemplating something seriously. Suddenly, she noticed Ah-Hua staring at her with a peculiar expression, so she turned around and fumbled out half a pack of spicy strips from the sleeping bag.

“Want some? Don’t be shy, have a bite!”

Ah-Hua shook her head helplessly and said softly, “Wang Buliuxing, you don’t seem like you’re here to trouble the Big Boss of Entertainment City. You seem more like you’re on a self-guided tour.”

Facing Ah-Hua’s indifferent attitude, Lu Yibei withdrew the spicy strips with a pout, saying, “Let me correct you. I told you I’m here to negotiate with that guy.”

“Is there a difference?”

“Of course there is!” Lu Yibei straightened her back and said, “The key to causing trouble is making trouble, while the key to negotiation is talking. If it’s just talking, if it doesn’t work out, I can always come back next time!”

“Honestly, I’m quite confident when it comes to making a quick getaway.”

“…”

She hasn’t even met the Big Boss of Entertainment City yet, and she’s already considering the possibility of negotiations breaking down and planning her escape?

At this point, should I say, this is truly Lu Yibei?

Ah-Hua remained silent for a few seconds, adjusted her glasses, and said seriously, “I advise you not to have such thoughts. If you let your guard down in a place like this…”

“Boom-!”

Before she could finish her sentence, a loud explosion was heard from outside the station.

The ground shook, the rusty metal frame of the canopy above trembled violently, and dust fell like snowflakes, as if the old station could collapse at any moment.

What did I say? I hadn’t even finished speaking, and something happened!

Ah-Hua was startled, about to pull Lu Yibei to find cover, when she saw the sleeping bag on Lu Yibei’s body had somehow transformed into a green-clothed outfit. Lu Yibei walked boldly to the bench and pointed at her nose.

“Don’t worry, it’s a landmine. I planted it.”

The vagrants lurking in the station, “…”

Ah-Hua, “???”

Seeing Ah-Hua’s puzzled expression, Lu Yibei explained with a straight face, “Earlier, you mentioned spending the night here, so I was worried about danger while sleeping. That’s why I went out and took some safety precautions.”

“After all, the locals here don’t seem too friendly, and I’m a pretty heavy sleeper. Looking back now, it seems my preparations weren’t in vain.”

Ah-Hua was baffled. “???”

Earlier, Lu Yibei had claimed she had an upset stomach from eating Beef Noodle and kept running outside. Ah-Hua found it odd since she hadn’t eaten a bite. Was she actually up to something else? Ah-Hua fumed inwardly.

“Next time you do something like this, could you at least give me a heads up? It’s terrifying!”

“Well, I was worried about eavesdroppers. What if some sneaky rat was listening in?” Lu Yibei shrugged. “The key to setting up mines is stealth, you know?”

In the shadows, a parrot clenched its wings tightly.

Ah-Hua rolled her eyes and pressed on, “By the way, why do you carry mines with you?”

That’s just bizarre! What has Lu Yibei been through while we were away? Ah-Hua wondered.

“You’re overthinking it. Why would I carry something like that?” Lu Yibei replied. “I just brought a few bombs for self-defense.”

As she spoke, she leaned closer to Ah-Hua, whispering something in her ear, then raised an eyebrow slightly. “Got it?”

“Earth Fire Lotus… a trigger-type spell formation? So that’s how… wait!” Mid-sentence, Ah-Hua’s pupils suddenly contracted. “Oh no, something’s wrong!”

“What’s wrong now?” Lu Yibei frowned. “Can you stop being so jumpy? Are you a squeaky toy or something?”

Ignoring Lu Yibei’s trash talk, Ah-Hua explained seriously, “The condition to trigger Earth Fire Lotus is contact with psychic energy fluctuation above Class C+. But the area around the station is the most rundown in the city. Any psychic or haunting with some power wouldn’t want to stay here…”

Lu Yibei’s expression grew serious as she gazed at the night sky outside the station.

“So, high-tier psychics or hauntings from the city’s depths have gathered here for some reason?”

“Yes!” Ah-Hua nodded.

“Did you do something to tick them off?” Lu Yibei suddenly asked.

“You always manage to offend people with your words, don’t you?”

Ah-Hua was speechless. “???”

I was going to ask you that!

Everything was fine before you showed up!

Besides, when it comes to offending people, you’re probably better at it than I am!

As Ah-Hua silently ranted, a blinding streak of pale light suddenly shot through the gap in the station’s canopy, heading straight for them…