Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 60

Xie Nuange silently congratulated herself for entering early. The later someone entered, the harder the deity would be to deal with.

The third drawer held only a register.

The edges of its pages had yellowed and turned brittle, crumbling at the slightest pressure.

Its cover was made of coarse dark-blue cloth, worn white at every corner. Xie Nuange casually flipped through several pages.

Summer, Year Three of Great Qian. Palace candidate Wang entered Yinghua Hall.

Palace candidate Zhao entered Yinghua Hall.

Page after page contained nothing but names.

Some belonged to palace candidates, others to palace maids. A few had no identity recorded at all, only a solitary name.

Xie Nuange remembered what Jiang Yanzhou had told her on the Divine Path.

Across all these years, only two people had made the same choice as him.

With that thought, Xie Nuange began flipping toward the later entries.

At last, she found the information she wanted.

Her finger stopped on a single line.

[Xie Chaoyang: Year Twelve of Great Qian.]

She had seen that handwriting too many times.

The notes Xie Chaoyang had left at home.

The maps he casually drew after clearing scenarios. The reminders he wrote on scraps of paper and slipped through the crack beneath her door.

Every sheet. Every page. All bore this handwriting.

“Nuange, there are cookies in the kitchen cupboard. Remember to eat them. Don’t ration them—your brother can earn more.”

“I’m going west. I’ll be back in three days at most. Don’t run around.”

“Happy birthday, Nuannuan. I might not have time to buy a cake this year. I’ll make it up to you when I come back.”

Xie Nuange’s eyes suddenly stung.

She lowered her head and read every word, one at a time.

The first line was a name: Beilin.

The woman who had posted on the forum that she had lived the life of a great clan’s daughter in this scenario—marrying for an alliance, managing the household, and eventually clearing it.

So Beilin had not lied.

She truly had entered this scenario. She had cleared it. She had gotten out.

But if Beilin returned…

Why hadn’t her brother?

Xie Nuange continued flipping until she reached the list for the current year.

Ye Wan. Zhang San. Liu Feng…

Everyone who had left the scenario appeared here.

After searching the entire hall, Xie Nuange saw that the incense had burned to its end.

She began adding fresh incense.

“Do you want to clear the stage?”

The deity’s voice sounded again.

“Didn’t I already clear it?”

Xie Nuange bowed three times to the statue and inserted the incense into the burner before asking in confusion.

The deity paused briefly. “You can leave immediately. All you need do is kill her…”

It was still trying to tempt her.

Xie Nuange looked puzzled.

“I’m not in that much of a hurry.”

Perhaps it was only her imagination.

This time, the deity’s voice did not possess the same beguiling quality as before. It sounded more divine, yet there was also a trace of impatience in its tone.

After an unknown length of time, Su Ye stirred beside her.

Xie Nuange turned.

Su Ye’s eyelids trembled. Then her eyes flew open and she shot upright, dragging in a great breath like someone breaking the surface of deep water.

“You’re out,” Xie Nuange said.

Su Ye blinked several times as her eyes slowly focused on Xie Nuange’s face.

She opened her mouth, her voice hoarse. “…How long?”

“I don’t know.”

Xie Nuange shook her head. “There isn’t a water clock inside the main hall.”

Almost as soon as they finished speaking, there was a bang.

This time, the main doors did not slowly open. They sprang apart.

As though something was in a foul mood.

Xie Nuange and Su Ye glanced toward the entrance.

“Let’s go.”

“All right.”

Su Ye gave Xie Nuange a complicated look, then slowly walked out beside her.

Night had already fallen.

When Zhao Ning and the others saw them emerge unharmed, disbelief filled their faces.

“Xie Nuange, what clues did Ye Wan give you?”

Zhao Ning hurried over.

Xie Nuange opened her mouth and moved her lips, then frowned slightly.

Zhao Ning frowned with her. “Don’t try to reveal anything important. Just give me a few key points.”

Xie Nuange tried again. Still no sound emerged.

Zhao Ning grew frantic. “Can’t you just give me one ordinary clue?”

After two rounds of this, the eunuch’s voice rang out.

“The deity will protect its believers.”

The young eunuch approached and led the two women away.

[Congratulations to Chosen Players Xie Nuange and Su Ye for successfully passing Stage Two’s Divine Worship trial.]

[The deity will protect its believers.]

When they reached the Banyan Tree, Xie Nuange stopped and raised her head.

The canopy rustled as though bidding her farewell.

Seeing everyone beneath it retreat, Xie Nuange smiled and waved to the great tree.

He had given Great Qian hope, allowing the tree’s roots to sink into his bones and grow upward.

Zhao Ning continued asking questions, but each time Xie Nuange merely opened her mouth without producing a sound.

Growing desperate, she looked toward the tree.

Zhao Ning followed the direction of her gaze, thoughtful.

Only after they passed through the doors did the act end.

The two were taken to the side hall.

Su Ye looked curiously at Xie Nuange. “What clue were you trying to tell her just now?”

“Why did they silence you so many times?”

Xie Nuange turned toward Su Ye, even more confused than she was. “Huh? I wasn’t saying anything. I was only moving my lips…”

Su Ye: …

“Xie Nuange, no one is as rotten as you!”

She glared at Xie Nuange, then looked outside again.

“I wonder if this counts as clearing the trial?”

“Didn’t Beilin say she lived an entire lifetime? Who knows how much longer we’ll have to stay?”

Xie Nuange had just found a clue about her brother.

Three years ago, he had also come to Yinghua Hall.

But in what identity?

A eunuch? No.

Beilin had no identity recorded either. Did that mean they were people from outside the palace?

Why would outsiders be screened here?

Su Ye waited with her in the side hall, one hand unconsciously touching the cord at her chest.

The ghost-item cross she had kissed upon entering was already gone.

She had lied to Xie Nuange.

The moment she entered the main hall, she had activated the ghost item Rewind.

Once activated, if she did not die within twelve hours of real time, the ghost item would enter a three-day cooldown.

It could rewind a single death.

At the beginning of the scenario, she had followed everything from Jiang Yanzhou’s perspective.

At the end, her own consciousness awakened.

Just as on her first attempt, she followed the route to the island.

Acting on Xie Nuange’s warning, she tried to block twice. Both attempts failed.

The first block succeeded, yet she was still wounded and left near death.

The second time, she used Shadow Clone. The Banyan Tree attacked only the clone, and the strike itself was not fatal.

In the end, however, she was still dying.

Then…

Su Ye glanced at the bored Xie Nuange. The deity’s voice had appeared.

It asked whether she wanted to make a sacrifice in exchange for clearing the stage.

The first time, Su Ye assumed Xie Nuange had made the same choice, so she agreed.

When she emerged from the scenario, she and Xie Nuange immediately fought inside the main hall.

What Su Ye had not expected was for Xie Nuange to possess such terrifying combat strength.

That Mom dressed in white. Medusa…

And all those ghost-item abilities.

Her Shadow Clone was useless. Xie Nuange killed her almost instantly.

Su Ye remembered the cold mockery in Xie Nuange’s eyes just before she died.

“Wouldn’t it have been better to stay alive and be my partner?”