Chapter 58 - 55: Don’t Blink, Someone Dies

Chapter 58: Chapter 55: Don’t Blink, Someone Dies

The surrounding crowd fell silent.

It was true.

Anyone with a bit of legal knowledge knew this was indeed indirect murder.

A crime.

One that would land you in jail.

But right now, survival was all that mattered!

Besides, they weren’t the ones committing indirect murder, so what was there to be afraid of?

For a moment, the crowd looked at Zhao Xianghe with dissatisfaction.

Why did he have to be such a busybody?

SWISH.

Xia Yu merely glanced at Zhao Xianghe before flinging the two Sharp Arrows from her hand.

She was exceptionally decisive.

THWACK.

THWACK.

The Sharp Arrows precisely struck the fisherman in the Autumn Mountain Fisherman Painting.

The Autumn Mountain Fisherman Painting vanished.

Two bloody holes appeared on the two ’corpses’ lying on the floor, and blood began to flow.

Only this time, the bloody holes weren’t in their foreheads.

One was in the abdomen.

The other was in the thigh.

"Cough, cough."

"Ah."

They woke up, crying out in pain, but they weren’t dead.

The crowd: "???"

The bald man’s eyes widened as well, and he was just about to speak.

Not bothering to listen to his rambling, Xia Yu explained directly, "Stabbing the fisherman is all it takes to solve the puzzle."

In truth, she had just been taking a gamble.

Luckily.

She won.

Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered if she’d lost. At worst, she could have used her Blood Butterfly and the spare switchblade on Xie Shaokun to try again.

"So that’s how it was."

"Whew."

Zhao Xianghe let out a sigh of relief and said, "Xia Yu, you’re amazing."

The little girl who had come back to life had a bloody hole the size of a middle finger in her thigh. As she applied a simple bandage the way her mother had taught her, she thanked Xia Yu gratefully.

"Thank you, big sister."

"You saved me again."

Although she didn’t know exactly what had happened, she was sharp as a tack and had managed to piece things together from the bits and pieces of conversation.

"Thank you."

The Disordered Man clutched the bloody hole in his abdomen and also thanked Xia Yu.

"Thank you, miss."

"Thank you, pretty lady."

...

The others also chimed in with their thanks.

When they had escaped the threat of the red embroidered shoes, they hadn’t offered any thanks. They couldn’t forget this time—who knew if they would encounter another eerie event?

If they did, they would have to rely on Xia Yu to save their lives.

Xia Yu paid no attention to them. She had discovered a terrifying fact:

She still couldn’t move!

And this time, even her upper body was paralyzed!

Soon, the others noticed the situation as well and cried out in alarm, "Why can’t I move? Can any of you move?"

"This is bad, the danger isn’t over. I knew it wouldn’t be so easy to survive in this damn place. Waaaah..."

"Oh my God... Are more people going to die?"

...

Several people broke down, sobbing hysterically.

Not many could still maintain their composure at a time like this.

Suddenly, someone screamed, "Don’t come over here."

"Stay away!"

While everyone was panicking, one person began shouting as if he’d lost his mind. Covering his eyes and squatting on the ground like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, he screamed for help, "Help me, it’s coming..."

SPURT.

Before anyone could react, the man’s head flew high into the air.

Blood gushed from the wound, quickly staining the ground red.

He collapsed with a thud and began to twitch uncontrollably. His head fell to the ground, rolled once, and came to a stop at Xie Shaokun’s feet.

Xie Shaokun shuddered instinctively, only to find he couldn’t move his body.

Xia Yu’s brow furrowed sharply.

This eerie event had happened so quickly. She had no clues and had noticed nothing out of the ordinary. She could only analyze the dead man’s words. ’Who was coming? Did someone approach him and decapitate him?’

Xia Yu scanned her surroundings. The fog had rolled in again, shrouding the stairway to the first floor and many of the nearby counters.

Her gaze quickly locked onto four paintings and a display stand in the corner.

All four paintings depicted humans, but only one showed a person holding a weapon.

On the display stand was a suit of Armor, consisting of eight parts: a helmet, gorget, pauldrons, battle robe, chest plate, copper mirror, tasses, and greaves. It held a Long Blade, looking majestic and domineering. However, in the darkness, its eye slits appeared deep and unsettling, like a Divine General from a Ghostly Land.

"Stay away, ah... Help me!"

Another person shrieked and turned to run.

"What did you see?"

Xia Yu immediately pressed.

"The Armor! The Armor is walking toward me with its blade, save me! Save me!"

The moment the words left his mouth, before Xia Yu could ask another question, his head flew high into the air.

He died in the exact same way as the previous man.

"Ah!"

The others shivered and screamed again.

Even Xie Shaokun felt a chill run down his spine. Compared to the previous two eerie events, the time between perceiving the danger and dying was far too short this time.

"!!!"

Xia Yu stared intently at the suit of Armor. ’It’s that thing!’

The pressure it gave off was too intense. At this rate, everyone would die, and they would die quickly.

She had to figure out its rules of operation and break the curse as soon as possible!

The pressure on her mounted instantly.

"Next, whoever is targeted by the danger, you must describe in detail what you see and hear. Don’t just scream randomly, or even I won’t be able to save you."

She spoke with extreme speed.

She explained everything in advance to prevent the group from losing their composure when they encountered danger.

"It’s targeting me!"

Just then, a middle-aged man in his fifties cried out in terror. Barely managing to keep his voice steady, he backed away and said, "It’s walking over, step by step."

"It’s raising its blade."

"The blade is falling, save me..."

SPURT.

His head flew high into the air.

Dead.

Xia Yu had no time to worry about the others’ reactions. She quickly analyzed her observations. ’Just now, that suit of Armor didn’t move at all. That means only the ’chosen’ one can see it move.’

BUZZ.

The next instant, her expression changed drastically.

She felt her eyes being enveloped by the Power of a rule. Yes, she was sure it was the Power of a rule; she was all too familiar with it.

’I’ve been ’chosen’?’

She focused her mind and, sure enough, she saw the Armor walking toward her, step by step.

There was no living being inside it, yet it drew steadily closer. Its deep, terrifying eye slits were enough to make anyone panic and fall into despair.

’It seems there’s no way to stop it from approaching?’

Her mind raced. The more dangerous the situation, the calmer she became. The images of the last three victims flashed through her mind:

One squatted on the ground like an ostrich. Dead.

One turned and ran. Died even faster.

One kept backing away. Died the slowest.

’In other words, backing away can buy me some time?’

She took a step back.

However...

This still didn’t stop the Armor’s advance. Besides, she knew the fog was closing in behind her. If she kept retreating, she would die even before the Armor reached her.

Hmm?

’I can move?’

’That’s right!’

’Those three could move, too!’

’How did I overlook that!’

Xia Yu immediately gripped the Blood Butterfly in her hand, her other hand reaching for the Crystal Core in her pocket.

’If all else fails, I’ll fight it!’

"Yu, what’s wrong?"

Xie Shaokun’s voice rang out.

He had clearly noticed something was off with Xia Yu.

"She... she hasn’t been targeted, has she?!"

That was Zhao Xianghe’s voice.

"This... She’s not going to die, is she? If she dies, what are we going to do! Waaaah."

The others grew even more desperate.

Everyone was on edge.

Distracted by their voices, Xia Yu’s gaze flickered. She could see the others, and in that same instant, the Armor lunged forward a great distance, appearing right in front of her. It raised its Long Blade, about to strike.

"!!!"

She snapped her gaze back, her pupils contracting. She instinctively prepared to counterattack.

"Huh?"

Before she could make a move, she noticed something strange. ’The Armor... it’s not moving!’

’Wait!’

’Just now, when the Armor was advancing, it moved in a jerky, start-stop motion. It seemed to have... brief moments where it was frozen. What caused it to pause? Or is that just how its rules of movement work?’

Extremely tense, she didn’t dare even blink, afraid the enemy would use the opportunity to cut her down.

She had once trained herself during the Apocalypse to control her blinking frequency. Going two minutes without blinking was a trivial matter for her.

Although her current eyes hadn’t been trained, holding out for a dozen or so seconds was still easy.

And then...

The Armor remained motionless for over ten seconds.

’Could it be because of blinking?’

The thought sparked a moment of clarity for Xia Yu, like parting the clouds to see the sun. She had figured it all out. Her eyes flew wide as she thought, ’As long as I don’t blink, it will never take its next step?’

’That’s it!’

Having figured this out, she kept her eyes locked on the Armor while moving swiftly toward the third floor.

The stairway to the third floor was blocked by the Power of a rule.

She couldn’t get in!

Meanwhile, the Armor remained motionless and did not return to its original position.

’I can’t hold on much longer.’

Tears streamed from Xia Yu’s eyes from keeping them open for so long.

’At this rate, is a desperate fight my only option?’

She couldn’t get to the third floor without dealing with the Armor.

In that case...

Fight!

The moment she’d be forced to blink was fast approaching. She gripped her Blood Butterfly and charged.

Xie Shaokun and the others watched, completely bewildered, as Xia Yu inexplicably bolted from her spot toward the third floor, then just as inexplicably bolted back toward where she had been standing.

At the same time, their hearts were in their throats.

They all realized this was a critical moment and didn’t dare make a sound, terrified of distracting Xia Yu.

"Hm?"

As Xia Yu passed by the head of one of the recently deceased, she caught a glimpse of its terrified, wide-open eyes in her peripheral vision. The man had died with his eyes open. A stroke of inspiration hit her, and another absurd idea formed in her mind.

’Should I risk it all on this idea?’

She hesitated for only a moment before making her decision.

Gamble!

Her fingers flipped, and the Blood Butterfly danced...