“Little Sister Yu, what that person said just now… was it directed at you?”
Zhao Mingyue’s voice echoed in Bai Yu’s mind, filled with confusion.
“Yes, my old alias was ‘Doctor.’ To blend in with them, I disguised myself as a man. I killed quite a few of their kind, so my name carries weight. Some of them know I died and became a female ghost.”
Bai Yu lied without blushing or her heart racing. She could hardly say her previous identity was a gender-swapping, murderous lunatic.
Though, honestly, it probably wouldn’t matter. She felt that if she told the truth, Zhao Mingyue’s eyes would just light up, and she’d look for an opportunity to study Bai Yu’s body.
Furthermore, the Scumbag Game forbade them from revealing their identities. The penalty was severe. Revealing another’s identity was also prohibited. That ‘Underground Boxer’ was already skirting the rules; one more word and she’d likely be executed on the spot.
“Ah, why disguise yourself as a man? Couldn’t anyone tell?”
“No. I carved many wounds into my face with a knife. I wore thick clothes to hide my build. I also shaved my head during that time and rarely spoke to them.”
“I… I’m sorry.” Zhao Mingyue realized she was prying too much.
“It’s fine. It’s all in the past. Now that this group is out here, they have different identities.”
Zhao Mingyue fell silent. Her imagination filled in the blanks. Bai Yu’s situation must have been like a pirate’s den—a den of rough men. A woman suddenly infiltrating them would have been bullied terribly.
Wait. Weren’t all of Bai Yu’s ‘friends’ here girls? Why would Bai Yu need to disguise herself as a man then?
Just as Zhao Mingyue had that thought, Bai Yu added another line.
“Where I was, a man’s identity had more advantages. More training content, faster growth, more dangerous quests, and better rewards. Comparatively, a woman’s growth was too slow. Without grabbing those advantages, you couldn’t become strong and weren’t valued.”
With that explanation, Zhao Mingyue understood.
No wonder they were all girls. The men must have all died on some quest. If even someone as strong as Bai Yu died, the others’ fates were imaginable.
“Why push yourself so hard? Living is the real hope,” Zhao Mingyue lamented. She thought Bai Yu was too desperate, a girl taking on men’s quests. What was the point of strength if you just ended up dead, becoming a Wandering Ghost raised by her? No wonder those girls mocked Bai Yu, mocking her for trying to act tough, only to end up being ‘reformed back into a girl’—meaning becoming a female ghost.
During their exchange, Bai Yu’s movements never ceased.
A Fierce Ghost lunged. Bai Yu stomped a foot on the ground; a blood-red spike pierced the ghost’s calf. Its uncontrolled body toppled forward, practically offering its head for Bai Yu to sever. The long saber keened. The Fierce Ghost’s head was lopped off.
Dark red blood threads shot from the side. Bai Yu pivoted and slashed diagonally, splitting the incoming threads. Her blade crossed in the air, a vertical and horizontal Blade Aura flying out, sending the thread-spitting Fierce Ghost flying.
These ghosts were much stronger than she’d anticipated. Decapitation didn’t kill them. The one she’d cut into three pieces was proof of that. Fine blood threads extended from its waist and neck, stitching the severed body parts back together.
Worse, these things could attack with those threads. It was disgusting.
Claws swiped from behind. Instead of retreating, Bai Yu leaned back and slammed directly into the ghost’s embrace. That was the visual effect. The instant she made contact, her long leather jacket seemed to melt, solidifying into countless spikes that pierced the ghost’s body.
A pained hiss came from behind. Bai Yu was Devouring the ghost within the Wax Corpse shell.
These Wax Corpses were stronger than average Fierce Ghosts because of their immense, near-invulnerable, self-repairing exoskeleton. The trick was to attack the female ghost inside. Do that, and they were easy to deal with. Alternatively, decapitate them enough times to exhaust the ghost’s blood threads.
An elbow strike sent the Wax Corpse flying back. Bai Yu turned and slashed.
Schlick!
The Wax Corpse was bisected at the waist. Behind it stood the girl codenamed Shadow.
Shadow had been about to ambush this corpse, but it was cut down before she could move. Through the bisected body, her eyes met the cold, white mask. She saw Bai Yu already mid-swing.
“Doctor! Friendly, friendly!”
Shadow retreated two steps, her face tense.
Bai Yu ignored her. She kicked the ghost’s upper torso away. The dark red threads stretched taut. She spun and slashed, severing the threads connecting the body.
Stepping on the lower half’s leg, Bai Yu drove her long saber into its back, through the spine. With one hand, she twisted the hilt.
With a sloshing sound, a Bloom of Blood Threads blossomed from the corpse’s backside, only to instantly wither and drain into the ground, flowing into Bai Yu’s body.
She had destroyed the ghost’s internal blood threads. The blossoming lotus shape wasn’t for aesthetics; it created a larger, harder-to-repair wound. On a corpse, it didn’t look like much, but on a living person, this move was ruthless. A wound torn open by such a ‘bloom’ couldn’t even be stitched shut. Recovery would be incredibly difficult.
Bai Yu pulled her blade free and charged towards the large Main Hall in the center of the courtyard complex. A God Statue was usually enshrined there.
“Bai Yu, this place feels a bit familiar.”
“Familiar?”
“Mm, I think it’s the Village Chief’s house,” Zhao Mingyue said softly, then added, “Uh, is my body easy to use?”
That last question carried a hint of ambiguity, enough to spark wild thoughts. Bai Yu considered it seriously but didn’t go there mentally. “Too frail. I don’t dare exert force. I’m afraid of breaking it.”
That was the truth. Even Zhao Mingyue’s body couldn’t handle her past life’s saber techniques. Even her own ghost body couldn’t bear them. She’d tried once and almost ruined her arm. Being a ghost saved her; a living human’s arm would’ve needed a month of recovery. She truly didn’t dare abuse Zhao Mingyue’s body, keeping her explosive power and moves within a controllable range.
Even with her best control, though, Zhao Mingyue would still find her body difficult to use for some time once she regained control. Every part of her would ache, especially her limbs and lower back. But this was a good thing for her, akin to body refinement. Once the pain subsided, she’d find her body far more flexible than before, as if breaking free of shackles.
Just as Bai Yu reached the door, another Fierce Ghost lunged, two hideous claws stabbing straight for her chest.
Instead of chopping the hands, Bai Yu raised her blade and cleaved straight down. With a soft hum, the blood-red saber sank into the Wax Corpse’s face, leaving only the spine visible.
Schlick! Two Blood Thorns burst out from both of the Wax Corpse’s ears, piercing from the inside.
Bai Yu kicked the ghost flying. It slammed heavily into the door.
That was when Bai Yu noticed something was wrong. The lights in the courtyard complex flickered erratically. The air grew frigid. A gale howled, whipping the red paper decorations around. That feeling of being watched by a pair of eyes behind her intensified; the Malicious Intent was closing in.
“Divine Mother of the Tongue.”
Bai Yu retreated two steps. All the other Game Participants in the courtyard had also, with unspoken agreement, stopped fighting, their attention now on her.
It was as if nothing had come and it was just an illusion, yet something profound had clearly shifted.
Everyone present knew the main act had arrived. But it seemed this main act had chosen the wrong opponent.
Underground Boxer shook her fists, a strange grin on her face. “Tsk, tsk, she actually came. Interesting.”
“Good. It picking a monster like her lightens our load,” added the woman named Tuttle, standing to the side.
The Wax Corpse that had collapsed before Bai Yu was lifted by an unseen force, standing rigidly before her. Its originally hideous, ferocious expression vanished, replaced by one of calm, tranquility, and even a hint of eerie sacredness. Such an expression on a Wax Corpse was unspeakably bizarre and terrifying.
The corpse’s empty, eyeless sockets looked at Bai Yu. It opened its mouth and emitted two guttural syllables. Its voice was androgynous and ageless, the meaning incomprehensible. Everyone present felt a splitting headache. Those afflicted by the Curse especially felt as if their souls were being torn from their bodies. Several people stumbled back, wanting to cover their ears.
Bai Yu’s hands brought the long blade slashing down with all her might, unleashing every last shred of her aura.
Aura was tied to one’s body, and also to one’s Will.
She no longer had her old body, couldn’t unleash that aura born of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, yet some residual trace still clung to her.
That aura rippled outward. The Evil God’s Malicious Intent instantly vanished. The curses on Bai Yu were few to begin with, making it simple to break through the Evil God’s influence.
The Evil God seemed slightly surprised. By then, Bai Yu’s long saber was already cleaving down.
A two-meter-long Blade Aura slashed across. She exploded forward, blade chasing after.
The Evil God uttered two more syllables. The Blood Thread Blade Aura visibly dissolved away. Unfortunately for it, Bai Yu had already arrived.
She lashed out with a brutal front kick, her long saber unhindered as it tore horizontally across the Evil God’s face with a sharp ‘shing’. She had aimed for the throat, but the Evil God dodged.
A deep gash split its face, the mouth torn wide open to the back of its head. The Evil God’s body had just stabilized when Bai Yu took a long step forward, channeling all her momentum into her left leg for another vicious kick.
Boom!
This time, the Evil God crashed straight through the wooden door and sprawled before the divine statue inside the Main Hall.
A gaping hole was torn in its stomach, opened by the spike Bai Yu had condensed on her foot during the kick.
Bai Yu strode into the Main Hall. The festively decorated room had an Altar Table pressed against the center of the back wall, and upon it, as expected, sat a God Statue.
It vaguely resembled a Bodhisattva, but all that remained in this one was sinister evil. From the twisted stance to the strange coloration, nothing about it suggested a benevolent god. In its left hand was a pure vase, its right held a baby’s head. The hands behind its back wielded a steelyard scale and a heart.
Blade in hand, Bai Yu glanced up at it before her gaze fell back upon the Divine Mother of the Tongue.
The Wax Corpse had just stood up. A Bloom of Blood Threads erupted from the bloody hole in its abdomen, nearly severing its body.
Bai Yu raised her blade, the tip pointing straight at the Divine Mother.
“Get lost.”
And at that very moment, from a small side room, Lu Liangting poked his head out and saw this exact scene.
