Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 38

Rule Three said to leave immediately if the leaves began to rustle.

Everyone hurried away, unwilling to linger.

A single leaf drifted down over the crowd and landed squarely on Xie Nuange.

She glanced at it. Remembering Rule Four’s warning not to pick up anything belonging to the tree, she initially meant to leave it alone.

Then she caught sight of its surface. Her pupils trembled, and she abruptly changed her mind, taking the leaf in hand.

At worst, she could throw it away afterward.

Or visit the side hall and offer incense.

The leaf was dark green, its veins sharply defined. Lines of text covered its surface.

When the others saw Xie Nuange studying it, they gathered at a cautious distance.

Su Ye immediately stepped in front of her. “What are you doing?”

“What’s written on the leaf?”

“Your name isn’t on it. Let us see.”

More people began closing in.

Xie Nuange skimmed the text, then looked up at the crowd surrounding them.

It was almost funny.

When the leaf fell, no one had cared. The moment she picked it up, everyone wanted a share of the discovery.

“Why don’t you take it and look for yourselves?”

Xie Nuange held the leaf out.

Every person stepped backward in unison.

She gave a derisive laugh.

Standing close beside her, Su Ye glanced at the leaf, then quickly looked away.

“Throw it away later.”

Su Ye frowned, clearly disapproving.

Xie Nuange saw how casually she had looked before making the comment. Her fingers curled slightly.

The others studied the leaf again from farther away.

It looked like nothing more than an ordinary leaf.

The thin palace maid paired with Zhao Ning saw no writing at all and sneered.

“It’s just a leaf. All that secrecy, as if you’d found some important clue.”

Once the others confirmed that it appeared ordinary, they dispersed.

Their reactions confirmed Xie Nuange’s suspicion.

Why had Su Ye looked for only an instant and immediately told her to discard it?

Because none of them could see the writing.

Xie Nuange lowered her gaze. The words remained visible to her, and apparently to her alone.

She looked past the crowd at the massive banyan in the center of the courtyard.

Could she see the text because she had touched the tree?

Did every leaf on its branches carry writing?

The rules discouraged candidates from touching the banyan and ordered them away when its leaves rustled.

So was the text on the leaf true or false?

Xie Nuange slipped it into her sleeve and turned to Su Ye.

“Let’s go. We’ll search somewhere else.”

They left the banyan and followed the covered corridor. After walking a dozen steps and putting some distance between themselves and the crowd, Xie Nuange spoke.

“The rankings changed.”

Su Ye stopped and opened the list.

[Faith Points Rankings: 14 groups.]

[Group One: Zhang Yu, 100. Li Si, 100. Combined Faith Points: 100.]

[Group Two: Ye Wan, 100. Zhang San, 64. Combined Faith Points: 82.]

[Group Fourteen: Xie Nuange, 95. Su Ye, 0.]

Su Ye turned to her. “Did you anger the deity?”

Xie Nuange shook her head. “I don’t know.”

When she touched the tree and discovered its warmth—discovered it was alive—her Faith Points had fallen to ninety-five.

“Su Ye, why don’t you touch the tree tonight?” Xie Nuange suggested. “See whether it drops another leaf.”

Su Ye did not answer. Her dark eyes remained on Xie Nuange.

“What exactly did you discover when you touched it?”

Xie Nuange met her gaze in silence.

“If Rule Two is true, approaching the tree displeases the deity,” Su Ye explained. “We are teammates, at least inside this scenario.”

Xie Nuange nodded in agreement.

“You’re right. Go out and experience the moonlight tonight. See whether your Faith Points rise.”

Su Ye said nothing.

After watching Xie Nuange for a moment, she asked, “You can’t even tell me what you found?”

“Not yet.”

Xie Nuange answered honestly.

“One rule says that if you choose loyalty, you become the maid who accompanied me from my family home.”

“If this stage isn’t the end, then after we clear it, we may remain bound together in the next one as partners who can never betray each other.”

She watched Su Ye fall into thought. “If you want my clue, trade me one of yours.”

Su Ye pressed her lips together. “Are you afraid I’ll drag you down?”

“Why would you think that?”

Xie Nuange blinked. “I only want us to find more clues so we can better understand each other’s capabilities.”

“I’ll keep searching too. I won’t drag you down.”

Su Ye gave a cold snort. Of course she understood Xie Nuange’s meaning.

Before they bound themselves as partners, this stage was an evaluation period.

If Su Ye proved herself, they would cooperate.

If she failed to find clues, Xie Nuange would neither commit to the alliance nor share what she knew.

They would each clear the stage through their own ability.

As the standoff continued, the main chamber doors suddenly opened from within.

Xie Nuange and everyone else turned toward them.

A participant in palace-maid clothing emerged, covered in blood and deathly pale.

The doors slammed shut behind her.

The heavy impact echoed across the courtyard like a hammer striking every heart.

No one spoke.

Every gaze moved from the sealed doors to the blood-covered maid.

Where was her partner?

Xie Nuange opened the rankings.

[Faith Points Rankings: 14 groups.]

[Group One: Zhang Yu (Gray), 0. Li Si, 100 (Gray). Combined Faith Points: 50.]

Gray.

The palace-candidate participant named Zhang Yu was dead.

Xie Nuange let her gaze rest on the gray name for a moment, then looked away.

The surrounding players moved toward the survivor, eager to question her.

Before anyone could approach, the eunuch descended the steps.

“The deity protects its believers.”

His shrill voice was painfully clear in the silent courtyard.

Then he pointed to the blood-soaked maid.

“Take her away to rest.”

Two young eunuchs emerged from the corner, supported the maid on either side, and led her toward the depths of the corridor.

After several steps, she looked back.

Her gaze swept across every person present and lingered on the pairs of palace candidates and maids.

A mocking smile tugged at her lips.

At that moment, the system announcement sounded in every ear.

[Congratulations to Chosen Player Li Si for passing the second-stage trial, Divine Worship.]

[The deity protects its believers.]

Xie Nuange’s pupils contracted.

She had cleared the stage?

Did that mean that when two people entered the main chamber to worship, whoever emerged alive immediately passed?

The announcement fell like a stone into still water, sending silent ripples across the crowd.

Xie Nuange saw Zhao Ning retreat half a step from her palace maid.

Ye Wan still wore her faint, unreadable smile, but the maid beside her clenched her sleeve.

Every pair looked at each other differently.

The two people who had only just managed to bind themselves together now split along a widening fracture.

That fracture was called trust.