Rules of Horror: Survival Begins in the Haunted Harem - Chapter 9

The shadow of death hung over everyone.

This was entirely different from punishment for breaking a rule.

According to Rank Fifteen’s roommate, none of them had violated anything. Fifteen had simply died.

Now the same thing had happened to Fourteen.

They had completed the breakfast trial and returned safely to the Palace of Gathered Elegance, yet Fourteen had died without anyone knowing why.

The candidates gathered around the place where she had fallen. When no ghost item appeared, they turned and left one after another.

Her death was hardly surprising. She had not possessed a single lifesaving ghost item.

After obtaining the clue from Fifteen’s roommate, Xie Nuange sought out Cheng Luo and Ye Wan.

If the ghost truly intended to kill its way upward from Rank Fifteen, she needed powerful protection.

“I have a theory.”

She approached the two women. “Rank Fifteen died last night. Rank Fourteen died today. Could Thirteen be next?”

Ye Wan and Cheng Luo looked at her.

Cheng Luo frowned. “But someone came into our room last night too.”

“One correction. The thing in our room only attacked because you broke a rule,” Xie Nuange said. “I just spoke to Fifteen’s roommate. Like Fourteen, Fifteen was killed without cause.”

“If the deaths really are moving up from Rank Fifteen, none of us are safe.”

She lowered her eyes. “I don’t have a useful combat skill, but I am good at thinking.”

“Could you protect me when it is within your power? If I die, both of you will move one place closer to the killing rank.”

Ye Wan looked around at the candidates gathered in small groups to discuss the deaths.

“Why is this Jiang Fan killing us? Fifteen, then Fourteen. If she started at Fifteen, does the number have some special meaning?”

“What logic do ghosts need?” Cheng Luo did not seem concerned. “They only have one goal—stop us from clearing the scenario.”

She sighed. “Too bad we don’t have any new rules to learn today. Otherwise, we could deliberately perform worse and push our ranks down.”

Xie Nuange watched several women who had been isolated by the way the others positioned themselves.

One of them had been the first to put down her chopsticks and clear the breakfast trial.

They were probably among the top thirteen.

“If we can think of lowering our ranks, don’t you think everyone else can too?”

Xie Nuange took a breath and turned to Ye Wan.

“What worries me is that Twelve and Thirteen will try to survive by killing the people ranked above them.”

Ye Wan and Cheng Luo both went still.

The competition for food in the dining hall had not yet turned the candidates completely against one another.

But if Xie Nuange was right, this might be the final straw that shattered their surface peace.

Those closest to the death rank would band together and seek opportunities to kill the leaders, hoping to push themselves upward as the rankings shifted.

And what would the highest-ranked candidates do in response?

Ye Wan and Cheng Luo exchanged a glance and reached the same decision without speaking.

Until the rankings changed, they would protect Xie Nuange.

To Cheng Luo, Xie Nuange was the final buffer between her and the edge of death.

As long as Rank Ten held, her position at Nine remained safe.

As the three headed back to their room, Xie Nuange inspected the data she had extracted from last night’s nameplate and from the jade pendant she had just scanned.

[Nameplate of Palace Candidate Jiang Fan. Made in Year Three of the Great Qian Dynasty.]

[Jade Pendant of Palace Candidate Jiang Fan. The jade contains many impurities, and the carving is of average quality. Its surface is exceptionally smooth from handling, suggesting that its owner treasured it.]

The information sounded useful and useless at the same time.

“What year is it?” Xie Nuange asked Ye Wan and Cheng Luo.

“2270,” Cheng Luo replied without lifting her head.

“Year Fifteen of the Great Qian Dynasty,” Ye Wan answered.

“Jiang Fan must have been a palace candidate from an earlier selection,” Xie Nuange said, combining the two clues. “And her family was probably poor.”

“How do you know that?” Cheng Luo asked.

Xie Nuange looked up. Both women were watching her.

She sat on a stool and propped her chin on one hand.

“First, the jade is poor quality. On its own, that could mean several things. Perhaps her family did not favor her, or perhaps they treated her badly.”

“But second, the pendant is extremely smooth. That means she handled it often, loved it, and wore it for years.”

“If her family had deliberately given her something inferior, she would have hated it. It would have been an insult—a constant reminder of how little she meant to them.”

“Instead, she cherished it. That suggests her family had very little, but still gave her all the love they could.”

Cheng Luo and Ye Wan nodded as they listened.

Cheng Luo smiled brightly at her. “Your fighting ability may be hopeless, but you have a good brain.”

“That’s why we call her the strategist,” Ye Wan teased. “She’s just a little too softhearted.”

Xie Nuange sighed. “I thought that if I could save Fourteen, we could ask what happened to her.”

Not long after they finished speaking, someone knocked on the door.

“Ye Wan, Cheng Luo, Xie Nuange?”

The candidate at the head of the group was Zhao Ning, Rank One.

“Well? Want to cooperate?”

The three women exchanged a look, rose, and went outside.

Zhao Ning was a woman of few words. A sizable group stood behind her, all ranked within the top ten.

When they realized Xie Nuange was the useless beauty who had tried to save Fourteen, several faces showed immediate reluctance.

“Let’s hear your clues first,” Cheng Luo said with her usual smile. “If you want our cooperation, shouldn’t you show some sincerity?”

“Join us or don’t. Our ranks aren’t near the bottom anyway.”

“Exactly. Why should we talk first?”

“And they even brought a completely useless Rank Ten…”

As the others turned their hostility on her, Xie Nuange bit her lip and lowered her head, looking wounded.

They rolled their eyes with even greater disdain.

There were no men here. Who was she putting on that fragile act for?

Zhao Ning glanced at Xie Nuange, then returned her attention to Cheng Luo and Ye Wan.

“One clue each.”

Only after Cheng Luo nodded did she continue.

“We believe the ghost is killing upward, starting from Rank Fifteen.”

Cheng Luo’s smile did not falter. “We reached the same conclusion. We also know Jiang Fan was a palace candidate from a previous selection.”

Zhao Ning inclined her head. “We know that too. We also know there has never been an imperial consort named Jiang Fan in the harem.”

Xie Nuange’s eyes shifted.

Then Jiang Fan had died in the Palace of Gathered Elegance.

“Can we cooperate now?” Zhao Ning asked, her gaze resting mainly on Ye Wan.

“If our theory is correct, the next deaths will be Thirteen, Twelve, Eleven…”

Her eyes moved from Ye Wan to Xie Nuange.

The woman was pale, but forcing herself to remain composed.

“If those candidates want to survive, they will have to kill people ranked above them before the rankings update.”