Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 47

In the other room, Su Ye watched Xie Nuange stand at the window and wave outside.

She walked over and glanced in that direction, just in time to see Ye Wan.

“Since you can read the writing on the leaves,” Su Ye said suddenly, “why don’t we find more people and get a few more leaves down?”

The smile on Xie Nuange’s face gave way to faint surprise. She turned to Su Ye.

“No need.”

She looked puzzled. “I can’t see the writing on the leaves at all. Who told you I could?”

Su Ye froze. “Huh? Then the information on that leaf…”

“She told me herself.”

Xie Nuange made it sound perfectly obvious. “I only asked what she made of the information on the leaf.”

“And then she told me.”

She turned back toward the tree in the middle of the courtyard.

“Curse Points. Have you ever heard that term before?”

“No.” Su Ye shook her head.

“Then which are they—Faith Points or Curse Points? Or, if one hundred is the maximum, are Curse Points whatever remains after you subtract your Faith Points?”

It was impossible to tell whether Xie Nuange was asking Su Ye or simply thinking aloud.

“I think they’re Curse Points too.”

Su Ye looked toward the main hall, worship plain in her eyes. “People used to talk about cutting off one’s own flesh to feed an eagle. I never thought much of it.”

“People have instincts. The moment you know you’re about to cut off your own flesh, pain sends out a warning and makes you stop hurting yourself.”

Her expression was solemn, and the reverence in her voice was almost impossible to hide.

“But the deity dragged its ruined body all the way home, step by step. That couldn’t have been easy.”

Xie Nuange arched an eyebrow. “Something’s not right here. You were the one who said there was no deity before, and now you’re its most devoted believer.”

“That’s different…”

Su Ye shook her head.

Neither convinced the other. Xie Nuange looked at the Banyan Tree in the courtyard again.

“At noon, once we’re allowed out, we’ll ask the eunuch about it.”

Their clues remained vague. Nothing pointed anywhere, and they had found no clue at all about how to clear the scenario.

The two looked outside once more. For some unknown reason, Zhao Ning knocked on Ye Wan’s door.

She left soon afterward, then knocked on the neighboring door. This time, she stayed longer.

“Su Ye.”

Xie Nuange abruptly changed the subject. “Have you noticed that we haven’t felt hungry at all in this scenario? We don’t even need to use the toilet.”

“What’s strange about that?”

Su Ye did not think much of it. “A lot of the scenarios I’ve entered before were like this.”

“Unless it was one with special rules about eating.”

She glanced at Xie Nuange and sat down, teasing in her voice. “What you should be wondering is whether it’ll actually end when this scenario is over.”

“If it doesn’t, and this life continues, how are all you imperial consorts going to attend the emperor in bed?”

Xie Nuange’s heart tightened. She lowered her head and thought hard. Only after a long while did she slowly answer, “Then I hope the emperor is handsome…”

Su Ye lurched sideways and nearly fell out of her chair. “That’s what you spent all that time thinking about?”

“Noon has arrived. The deity will now begin its selection…”

The eunuch’s voice rang through the courtyard. Xie Nuange and Su Ye looked at each other.

Why was it different this time?

Why was the selection happening on the spot?

Yesterday, two groups had drawn lots. This morning…

Had the deity made its choice last night?

“Do you feel anything?”

Su Ye and Xie Nuange studied each other, each asking the other the same question.

“No.”

Xie Nuange shook her head, then asked Su Ye something else. “Did you hear the deity speak to you last night?”

When Su Ye shook her head again, Xie Nuange persisted. “What about when you offered incense? Nothing then either?”

“Nothing.”

Su Ye looked at her. “You heard it?”

Xie Nuange frowned.

She had clearly heard a voice when she was attacked last night.

That man had called her a fool who had forsaken the deity and said she had been deceived by a false god.

As she pondered this, a loud curse suddenly came from the room next door, carrying almost all the way across the courtyard into their room.

“Fuck! She set me up!”

Xie Nuange and Su Ye both turned toward the window.

A palace candidate stood in her doorway, her face livid. The palace maid behind her looked no better.

It was the room Zhao Ning had entered second.

Everyone looked over.

The eunuch acted as if he had not heard the curse. Drawing out his words, he continued, “The deity has made its choice. Those selected by the deity, enter the hall.”

The palace candidate gave a cold laugh. She turned toward Zhao Ning, naked hatred in her eyes.

“Zhao Ning!”

Her shout was loud enough for the entire courtyard to hear.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

Zhao Ning emerged from her room and stopped in front of the main hall, looking confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“What am I talking about?”

The palace candidate advanced a step, and the aura around her abruptly surged.

The ripples of an activating skill burst around her body as the light of a ghost item gathered at her fingertips.

“Now this should be entertaining.”

A cold smile tugged at Su Ye’s lips. “I knew it couldn’t—”

Before she could finish, the palace candidate unleashed her skill.

But before it could touch Zhao Ning, something suppressed it.

“Your Ladyship, please enter the hall for the sacrifice,” the eunuch urged.

Su Ye had no time to keep watching someone else’s spectacle. She opened the door and walked outside.

The palace candidate and her maid looked around at the others, then back at Zhao Ning.

“You’d all better be careful.”

She raised her voice as she walked toward the main hall.

“That woman was the one the deity originally chose. She deliberately came into my room and offered to exchange clues.”

As she passed Zhao Ning, she glared at her. “Then she planted the token the deity gave her in my room!”

Zhao Ning’s expression did not change. She still looked as though none of it mattered to her.

“You’ve misunderstood. I only went to exchange clues with you.”

“Misunderstood?”

The palace candidate wanted to say more, but the eunuch spoke again. This time, impatience edged his voice.

“Those selected by the deity, enter the hall.”

The palace candidate closed her mouth and sneered. “I’ve said my piece!”

She and her maid walked toward the main hall, one behind the other.

The doors opened.

The two went inside, and the doors slammed shut behind them with a bang.

The courtyard fell silent for a moment before buzzing discussions broke out.

Xie Nuange noticed that no one was willing to stand beside Zhao Ning.

She glanced at Ye Wan’s room across the courtyard.

Had Zhao Ning taken the token to Ye Wan as well, only for Ye Wan to see through her scheme?

Or had the token originally belonged to Ye Wan, who had planted it on Zhao Ning?

Whichever it was, asking would get them nowhere. No one would admit to it.

They could confirm one thing, however: perhaps the deity’s selection came in the form of an object.

[Faith Rankings (Eleven Groups Total)]

[Group One: Jiang Ling (100), Wang Yu (100)… Combined Faith Points: 100.]

[Group Two: Zhao Ning (100), Li Li (100). Combined Faith Points: 100.]

[Group Seven: Xie Nuange (70), Su Ye (100). Combined Faith Points: 85.]

“So Zhao Ning deliberately targets groups near the middle of the rankings.”

Xie Nuange took one last look at Zhao Ning standing outside, then withdrew her gaze and turned toward the wall.