Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 54

Xie Nuange stood before the town. The wind carried the stench of blood and charred flesh.

She looked down at the jade pendant in her hand. There was no mistake. It was the pendant from the mural.

So she would die in the end?

But could she perhaps… bring the seed home without dying?

She had to survive.

There was no food left in town.

Jiang Yanzhou had acted too quickly and burned the entire place down.

Xie Nuange waited for the fire to die, then spent ages searching the ruins. She found half a sack of mixed grain that had escaped the flames.

There were also several flatbreads as hard as stone and a chipped short saber.

She tucked the flatbreads inside her clothes, strapped the saber to her back, and headed south.

There was a city to the south.

Her father had said that a great city stood a hundred li away. Its walls were high, its garrison large, and demons could not breach it.

A hundred li.

In the past, using a transportation formation would have made it no more than a day’s journey.

Now, however, those hundred li crossed several wastelands infested with demons, two mountains, and a river.

There was no telling how many demons she would have to kill.

She had barely left town when she encountered several lesser demons on the road.

They were dingy gray, like wolves crossed with dogs. Green eyes watched her from the roadside.

The Jiang family’s arts had not vanished when she awakened.

She traced a line through the air with one fingertip. Golden light burst out, and the lesser demons shrieked and scattered.

Xie Nuange dispersed them effortlessly.

Just as she started walking again, a tearing pain ripped through her shoulder.

Yet the shoulder itself was completely unharmed.

“You’ve got to be kidding me!”

Xie Nuange hissed through the pain. So the force of the story could not be changed.

She had not been wounded, but she would still suffer phantom pain?

On the first day, Xie Nuange barely covered a little more than twenty li.

There were too many demons. By the time she cleared them away and found somewhere safe, she could only lean against a rock and drift into a fitful sleep.

Even then, she did not dare sleep deeply. Danger might find her at any moment.

On the second day, she covered fifteen li.

Not because she was tired, but because the demons grew more numerous along the road.

To avoid them when they gathered in groups, she had to take several detours and cross an extra mountain.

At least she could still use her skills here.

That night, Xie Nuange stared at the bloody blisters covering the soles of her feet. She passed the short saber through a flame, lanced the blisters, then tore a strip from her clothes and wrapped her feet.

She could not continue like this.

On the third day, she ran out of food.

The half-sack of moldy grain was gone. Two hard flatbreads remained, but she did not dare eat them.

They were her last provisions. She had to save them for an emergency.

Xie Nuange lit a fire and, suppressing her revulsion, began eating demon-beast flesh. It was sour, rank, and bitter, but to fill her stomach, she forced it down through her nausea.

That night, she lay on a rock and stared at the ink-black sky.

Her thoughts wandered. Jiang Yanzhou was not even ten. How had he endured this?

This was already so difficult for her, an adult. How had a seven-year-old crossed so much of a world overrun by demons in search of refuge?

What did he do when he was hungry?

Had he been too afraid to sleep at night, able only to clutch his jade pendant and cry for his mother?

There were not even stars in this world. He could not comfort himself by pretending that his parents, his brothers and sisters, and the people of his town had become stars.

How had he endured long enough to find the seed?

Qingming… Did it mean what she thought it did?

Xie Nuange thought of her own brother again.

Had her brother not taken her through one scenario after another when she was small, she would probably have died too.

He had only been a teenager then. Clearing scenarios was already difficult enough, let alone doing so with a child who understood nothing.

Even though Xie Nuange no longer possessed those memories, she did not have to remember to know how hard those years must have been for him.

“Brother… Where are you?”

On the fourth day, Xie Nuange found a demon beast resembling a wolfhound. At last, she had a mount!

Her good fortune did not last. She soon encountered another demon beast.

Not a lesser demon, but a true demon beast. It was the size of an ox, with pitch-black fur, four horns, and bloodred eyes.

It lay on a dry riverbed, gnawing on something with loud cracks.

Xie Nuange could not go around it.

The riverbed was the only way forward, and steep slopes rose on both sides, impossible to climb.

She tightened her grip on the short saber, drew a deep breath, and used her belt to tether her mount to a rock.

The demon beast caught her scent and raised its head. Its bloodred eyes fixed on her as it chewed a bone—a human skull.

White and red mashed together. Xie Nuange’s empty stomach heaved.

The tip of her saber traced a golden path through the air. “Heed my command! Demons, begone!”

The talisman flew into the demon beast’s face. It inflicted little damage, but enraged the creature.

“Roar!”

The demon beast bellowed until her ears rang. Its four hooves tore at the ground, then it charged.

Xie Nuange twisted aside. Her short saber raked across its foreleg, leaving only a white mark.

Too strong!

Jiang Yanzhou’s spells could not harm this demon beast at all!

“Mom!!!”

In desperation, Xie Nuange activated her own skill and summoned Mom.

A woman in a white doctor’s coat appeared.

“Mom! Kill it!”

Xie Nuange pointed at the demon beast charging again.

Mom did not hesitate. She lifted one slender, pale hand. A glass test tube appeared above her palm, filled with green liquid.

The demon beast seemed unable to see her. The instant it reached them, Mom thrust her hand forward. The tube shot ahead and shattered before the beast.

The green liquid transformed almost instantly into an explosive, blasting the demon beast into pieces.

Xie Nuange stared at Mom’s handiwork.

So Mom was a chemist?

She had killed such a powerful demon beast… instantly?

“Mom…”

She watched Mom turn toward her, a mask covering her face, and smile.

“I’ll find my brother. I promise I’ll let him meet you too.”

Xie Nuange withdrew the skill, making her promise in a whisper as Mom’s figure gradually faded.

She walked over to the demon beast’s remains and looked down at the half-eaten skull. For a long time, she said nothing.

“Human lives are as cheap as grass.”

She crouched, gathered pieces of demon-beast flesh, lit a fire, and began her meal.

The meat was still rank and foul, with the taste of rot.

Suppressing her nausea, she took a bite.

The stench surged straight through her skull. When she remembered the human the beast had just been eating, her stomach churned violently. She retched several times and spat the meat out.

She leaned against her mount and rested for an hour before continuing.

Along the remaining road, she killed two more demon beasts, ate a piece of half-raw meat, and drank from a river once.

The water was murky and filled with grit, but when she swallowed it, it was still easier to stomach than the meat.

At dusk on the fifth day, she finally saw the city wall.

Black banners streamed in the wind, each embroidered with the character for “Guard.”

The city gates were shut.

She killed her demon-beast mount and slowly approached the wall.

The moment she came close, someone on the battlements peered down.

“Halt! Who goes there?”

Xie Nuange raised the jade pendant. Using almost the last of her strength, she shouted in a hoarse voice, “I am the thirty-eighth-generation heir of the Jiang family of Rongxi Town! Fifth among my siblings, Jiang Yanzhou!”

“I have come seeking refuge! Rongxi Town… is gone.”