Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 17

Xie Nuange could more or less guess why Liu Feng, the newly promoted Rank Ten, had come looking for her.

Before Rank Six died, Liu Feng had been Rank Eleven and temporarily safe.

But Xie Nuange and Cheng Luo had just killed Rank Six.

Jiang Fan’s next target might be Rank Ten—or Rank Twelve.

Liu Feng had become a target again.

“Xie Nuange.” Her voice was hoarse. “Can I join you?”

“Could you kill one more person ahead of us?”

Before Xie Nuange could answer, Cheng Luo laughed.

“Lady, get a grip. The top ten aren’t cabbages waiting around for us to chop.”

“But you just killed one!” Liu Feng’s voice rose to a hysterical pitch. “It wouldn’t only be for me! Your rankings would go up too!”

Then she turned to Xie Nuange.

“Xie Nuange, I know you have a good heart. When Rank Fourteen was about to die, you were the only one who tried to save her.”

With every sentence, she took another step forward.

“This morning, everyone ignored me. You were the only one who came over to comfort me.”

Then she looked at Cheng Luo. “And you—you’re Rank Eight now. It doesn’t matter who stands behind you anymore, does it? Xie Nuange has nothing, but I have a skill. I’m stronger than she is. I can protect myself…”

Liu Feng turned back to Xie Nuange before finishing her appeal to Cheng Luo. “So if you need someone behind you, I’m more useful than she is.”

Cheng Luo glanced at Xie Nuange, then at Liu Feng, and silently took a step back.

Liu Feng’s argument made sense. At the very least, she didn’t need Cheng Luo’s protection.

Meng Shi came after Liu Feng. Both women could fight. Either one was far more useful than Xie Nuange.

Delight flashed in Liu Feng’s eyes when Cheng Luo stepped away.

Xie Nuange wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

“The rankings just refreshed.”

That single sentence stopped Cheng Luo in her tracks. She moved back to Xie Nuange’s side.

“Even if you kill me, then what?” Xie Nuange asked Liu Feng. “The rankings won’t refresh again for more than three hours. Your rank won’t rise immediately.”

Liu Feng stood there in a daze.

“You can come with us,” Xie Nuange offered, dangling another piece of bait. “I may not be strong, but you know we just killed Rank Six.”

“She’s strong, and she has plenty of ghost items. Even if Jiang Fan comes for you, we can help.”

Liu Feng froze for two seconds, then began calculating.

There were more than three hours until the next update.

As long as she survived those three hours—if Jiang Fan didn’t come to kill her before then…

She could fight for Rank Nine.

“All right.” Liu Feng nodded.

Cheng Luo walked beside Xie Nuange, wearing the same cheerful smile as always.

“You’re really bringing her along? She wants to kill you.”

Xie Nuange lowered her eyes and murmured an acknowledgment.

“Don’t you want to learn Jiang Fan’s pattern? How she chooses her victims?”

Until they uncovered the rule behind Jiang Fan’s killings, killing Liu Feng would only move both of them one step closer to death.

Xie Nuange couldn’t allow anyone to kill her.

Even with Liu Feng ranked behind her, Xie Nuange didn’t dare relax.

Who knew? Perhaps Jiang Fan would be in a good mood today and decide to skip around again.

The three women crossed the corridors of the Palace of Gathered Elegance, passed a rockery, and entered the small garden behind it.

Quite a few people had already gathered there.

From a distance, Xie Nuange saw one palace candidate use a skill to pin a smaller woman in place.

The victim was covered in wounds, her body trembling from blood loss.

Her attacker searched her, found something, and walked away without another glance.

The slight woman collapsed onto the ground and covered her face as she wept.

Xie Nuange looked away and kept walking.

They passed at least three more scenes like it.

Higher-ranked candidates surrounded and attacked those below them, stealing their ghost items.

They traded the stolen items for clues.

Those near the bottom of the top ten searched for chances to ambush the women ranked above them.

The lower ranks had also begun clustering in groups of two or three, watching everyone who approached with wary eyes.

No one spoke of clues anymore. No one mentioned cooperation.

By now, rules and ghosts were no longer the greatest threat to the participants.

They were merely the hands pushing the candidates toward slaughtering one another.

Everyone wanted to fight the rules. Everyone wanted to fight the anomalies.

But first, they had to stay alive.

“There’s an archive room up ahead.” Cheng Luo pointed. “We checked the palace servants’ records yesterday. Want to look through the candidates’ files today?”

Xie Nuange nodded.

The three entered the archive room. The light inside was dim, and rows of wooden shelves sagged beneath dust-covered registers.

Xie Nuange went to the row labeled “Year Three of the Great Qian Dynasty” and began searching.

Liu Feng remained by the door. She did nothing except stare at Xie Nuange.

She also kept a close eye on the ranking countdown, ready to kill Xie Nuange the instant it reached zero.

Cheng Luo kept busy too. She searched the records while monitoring Liu Feng’s every movement.

If Jiang Fan appeared, Cheng Luo intended to observe exactly how she killed.

Exactly how she did it.

Xie Nuange ignored them both and continued searching on her own.

She knew perfectly well what each of them was thinking.

That was why, before the ranking countdown ended, she would use her skill to protect herself if she had to—even if it exposed the fact that she possessed one.

And if Jiang Fan appeared, Xie Nuange would use that skill on her at the first possible moment.

Time sped past. Xie Nuange searched through countless records, but found nothing about the palace candidates from Year Three of Great Qian.

She did uncover a fair amount of other information. The Noble Consort, for example, had entered the palace through the selection held that year.

She had risen all the way to the rank of Noble Consort.

But the candidates had no way to approach a consort of such high standing in the inner palace.

“Found it.”

Xie Nuange pulled a thin booklet from the bottom shelf. The cover read, *Register of Palace Candidates, Year Three of Great Qian*.

She opened it and went through the entries page by page.

Name. Place of origin. Family background. Result of the preliminary selection…

Her gaze stopped on the last page.

[Zhang Lanyi, age sixteen, native of Huizhou. Bestowed the rank of Noble Lady. Three days after her selection, she was convicted of deceiving the sovereign and banished permanently to the Cold Palace.]

The Cold Palace stood not far from the Palace of Gathered Elegance.

“Deceiving the sovereign?” Cheng Luo leaned in for a look. “Shouldn’t that have gotten her executed? Why was she only sent to the Cold Palace?”

Xie Nuange closed the register and turned toward the exit.

“Where are we going?” Cheng Luo hurried after her.

“The Cold Palace.”

Xie Nuange looked at the ranking countdown. It was almost over.

Before it ended, she had to reach the Cold Palace and ask about Jiang Fan.

“Xie Nuange.”

Liu Feng watched the countdown. They had spent the entire three hours searching through records.

“There are only a few minutes left. Stop struggling. Aren’t you supposed to be kind?”

She blocked Xie Nuange’s path.

“Think of it as doing a good deed. All right?”

Liu Feng activated every skill she had and deployed all her defensive ghost items as well.

Whether she killed Xie Nuange or Jiang Fan came for her in these final minutes, she had to make sure she survived until the rankings refreshed.

“Xie Nuange! Just die!”

Xie Nuange retreated at once and shouted, “Cheng Luo!”

“There are only minutes left until the rankings update. Hold her off, and I can find the clue that will get us through this scenario!”