Chapter 48 - Doll House (25)

Chu Yi felt breathless.

A slow yet numbing pain traveling up from the tips of his spine.

He seemed to have replaced Mingling in this scene, his emotions substituted into his.

Dark and reeking of death.

It was a familiar feeling.

That haunting pain that reared its ugly head in the darkness of the night.

The same feeling he felt when he looked at a dying patient on a hospital bed.

Hopeless, helpless, pleading but unable to be saved.

The dark shadows whispered around the hospital bed, whispering terrifying words-weakness, failing organs, critical illness ... death. All the words seemed to turn into blank and mocking faces, spinning and curling in in the dark and hidden corners, dancing and laughing.

Like pale, skeleton-like hands hanging down from the side of the bed, countless black shadows spreading  out from all around, entwining tightly like a spiders web.

Can't struggle, can't move, can't make a sound, can't breathe.

Like a helpless prey.

Emotions have never been a tangible thing  for him, so he learned to absorb.

Absorb the emotions of others, feed off of them like a parasite, taking and taking for he couldn't feel on his own.

He immersed himself in the emotions of others and reveled in it.

He loved the taste of despair and pain because it was the purest and strongest emotion.

It was like a lingering aftertaste that you would savor in your mouth, unwilling for it to fade away yet at the same looking for the next delicacy.

And then he would pull them from that abyss, watching the despair fade away and light would penetrate their world.

The darkness fading into a lighter hope.

He was like a god, giving life anew.

And yet that despair was like an addicting drug, so he chooses the dirtiest and filthiest hearts to feed his burning soul

"Tch-"

Chu Yi shook away those trifling thoughts and focused his attention onto the present situation.

"What a fucking scumbag!"

Still immersed in his emotions, Lui Quishi unexpectedly broke out, disgust and forbearance dripping from his voice.

The others showed equal expressions of distaste.

Such a mother was indeed worthy of death.

Nevertheless what was to come eventually would never be a second late and the players quickly gave up struggling and waited for the next results obediently.

Unexpectedly there wasn't much suspense to this ending and after what seemed like a brief tension filled interlude, the young master clapped his hands happily and yelled congratulations under the startled gazes of the players.

"This game was played well spectacularly and one of your fellow peers, had the intelligence and insight to guess all the answers correctly!"

Although the young master didn't mention specifically who did it, they each carried their own speculations in their hearts.

Right now, the most important issue was the piece of paper held in the hands of the young master.

This was related to the survival of the entire group and no one would disregard their own lives.

"As agreed, the Madams most precious treasure will be given as an award for your bravery."

With a snap, the paper flew from his hands and landed securely into the hands of Chu Yi.

The parchment was old and browning ans seemed to be have ripped out of book but he could still vaguely make out what seemed to be a pentagon shaped symbol.

Everyone else hurriedly surrounded Chu Yi, eyes glaring at the paper, this was a life-saving artefact

Chu Yi on the other hand frowned, a flash of restraint turning quickly in his eyes .

Skipping past the symbol, Chu Yi slowly read the words scribbled onto the end of the paper.

The words were almost nonsensical, jumbled and combined together to form a sort of gibberish script.

But he could still faintly make out some of the writing.

[Ingredients

100 liter of pure virgin blood

Ashes of a bearded willow tree

10 ml of a black cats blood

Roots of a locust tree

10 liters of the blood of a child born in the yin cycle sharing the blood of the bearer.

Warning:

The ceremony must be performed on the yin hour, on the yin month, in the yin year. To summon the divine body of the Akgul, a suitable vessel must be sacrificed. If the sacrifice is found unworthy, the caller must bear the devils fate.

If the devil is summoned but the time has passed, the devil will be free from the summoner contract and will become a harbinger of chaos.

The method of siphoning luck must be used with the purest luck from untainted souls.

If resentment stains the stolen luck, the bearer will be cursed and eventually be drained of their luck, and their spiritual bodies will collapse, leading to death.

Therefore the souls must be sealed within a suitable vessel

After the luck is siphoned the souls carrying resentment must be revealed every year on the Candle Lit Festival, otherwise the stolen luck will backlash and kill the bearer.

If the ritual is succesfully completed, a binding contract will be signed with the vassal of Akgul and the bearer will receive a hundred years of good luck. The five elements will be complete and the bearer will succeed in anything that they so desire.]

All the ingredients mentioned were notorious for having connotation with the soul, luck and death but what was even more suprising was the risks of performing the ritual.

There were so many red flags, that just one wrong step would lead to death.

And yet the Madam, delirious in her need for wealth ignored all of this and used the cruelest method to find a way for herself.

But still fell in the end.

Their was already an obvious path pointed out before them and there was only one thing they needed to do in order to break the instance.

Don't worship at the festival.

Then the souls would be freed.

Lui Quishi was the first to exclaim.

"This is it! This is the key to breaking the instance!"

Chu Yi's eyebrows frowned deeper.

Nobody seemed to have realized a crucial point.

The Madam was dead.

The souls weren't freed.

Therefore who was receiving this luck.

And it seemed from beginning to end, the mysterious witch who provided the ritual, never showed up.