Chapter 159
The blood-red vortex flickered a few times before shrinking down to nothingness.
In the dark alley, only Xiu remained, frozen in place, utterly bewildered by what had just transpired.
Before her lay an empty space, devoid of even a drop of blood.
Even her own insignia had been taken from her.
**Chapter 106: Slaying Demons, Exorcising Evil.**
The moment Xia'er was dragged into the Otherworld, two bony hands pressed against her eyes, completely blocking her vision.
Even so, the incessant whispers continued to gnaw at her sanity, the cacophony in her mind reaching a level where she could hardly hear anything at all.
Xia'er felt herself gradually losing control of her body, sensing it being pulled along at a rapid pace.
It was a peculiar sensation.
She felt no wind, nor could she sense her heartbeat or breath, yet she was acutely aware that her body was being tossed about like a kite.
But she had no idea where these hands were taking her.
The summoned... creatures of the Otherworld...
Weren't they supposed to be harmless...?
Why were they...
Xia'er's mind struggled to process the situation, and before she could think through what had gone wrong, she suddenly felt a fierce wind rushing from behind.
The wind was so strong it felt as if it would tear her hair and skin apart, like opening a window on an airplane.
Xia'er squinted, but her flailing hair obscured most of her view.
The silver mask that had tightly covered her face lost all its power upon entering the Otherworld, separating from her flesh.
After a dizzying spin, Xia'er felt the terrifying hands that had been holding her dissipate rapidly until they vanished completely.
Though she had tried to slow down, her body shot forward like a cannonball, tumbling across the ground, every part of her screaming in agony as if her bones were being crushed.
"Cough, cough..."
Xia'er coughed up some bloody internal fragments, trembling all over, utterly devoid of strength.
After lying on the ground like a corpse for a few minutes, her figure flickered, and the "Instigator" Xia'er became ethereal.
Her red hair began to turn a grayish-blue, and her injuries and broken bones healed in an instant. Xia'er suddenly sat up, but her eyes remained tightly shut, too afraid to open them.
However...
At that moment, the buzzing whispers in her ears had not yet faded, but at least Xia'er had regained some clarity of thought, feeling only a slight dizziness.
Had she... left the Otherworld?
Xia'er raised her hand to touch the ground, feeling the soft grass beneath her fingers. She grasped down hard and could feel the loose soil beneath the grass.
It was then that Xia'er confirmed she had indeed left the Otherworld.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked around.
She found herself on an open stretch of barren land, seemingly on a grassy hill, and in the distance, she could see the faint glow of lights marking the city skyline.
This place is...
"Oh, Mother Goddess..."
Xia'er murmured.
Had she really made it out of the city?
She pushed herself up and brushed the dirt off her palms.
It had only been a few seconds from being dragged into the Otherworld to emerging here. In that brief time, those hands had pulled her directly from the heart of Boren City to the outskirts?
The speed of her escape was astonishing, almost akin to teleportation.
What kind of power had those hands used in the Otherworld?
This was bad!
She was outside the city!
Suddenly, Xia'er remembered the curse that still lingered upon her.
The curse had already begun to take effect, and she had left Boren City... Xia'er could almost feel the weight of the curse accumulating on her...
No, she had to get back to Boren City quickly... Even though the coin had landed on tails twice, as long as she returned to Boren City and prevented the curse from stacking further, there was still a glimmer of hope.
After picking up the scattered items around her, she dashed toward the city under the cover of night.
Right now, Xia'er regretted landing on the "Gambler" save file, feeling utterly incapable of making any progress.
Moreover, she couldn't just enter the city openly; she had to avoid the Bell Tower District, or she risked being caught by Xiu.
She had no idea when the curse would strike again, so Xia'er could only push forward blindly.
She desperately wanted to flip a coin to determine her luck for the next hour, but she didn't have a single ordinary coin to toss.
Following the familiar path toward Boren City, Xia'er’s heart remained heavy until her feet finally touched the black gravel road within the city.
She wanted to rush through the Gem District to reach the Bell Tower District and find Ai Mi—only she, a faithful servant of the Mother Goddess, could help her, a fellow believer.
Just as Xia'er planned to bypass the Bell Tower District and enter the city through the gem factory in the Gem District, she suddenly felt a flicker in front of her.
**Is the Time Distortion about to start again?**
Xia'er slowed her pace. The save file switch would come with a few seconds of flickering, something she had grown accustomed to, so she prepared to wait for the transition to finish before moving on.
As long as it didn’t switch to the "Instigator" save file where she was too injured to move, she could accept it.
But soon, Xia'er noticed something was off.
She slowly raised her hand, extending it in front of her.
Her palm faced herself, the lines clear and visible, still bearing traces of dirt—remnants from when she had grasped the ground.
But... her hand was still solid.
It was the entire street in front of her that was flickering.
Unbeknownst to her, blood-red mist had enveloped the entire street, rendering the dark path eerily silent, as if she had stumbled into a no-man's land.
This blood-red mist severely limited Xia'er’s vision; as the fog thickened, she could barely make out objects just a few steps away.
The moon, filtered through the blood mist, appeared a sinister dark red, and sharp, piercing laughter mixed with distant, fragmented whispers began to echo relentlessly in her mind.
Who... who did this?
Xia'er halted, turning back to see the path she had come from completely obscured by the blood mist, rendering the other side utterly opaque.
The sharp pain in her head twisted her expression, and she could only repeatedly murmur the name of the Mother Goddess, praying for the protection of the Mother Goddess Sadana.
But now, the "Gambler" Xia'er had completely lost any whispers of Sadana in her mind, as if they had been drowned out by stronger, more insistent murmurs, causing the "Sadana Mark" on her to begin to crumble and fade.
"Guh..."
Pitter-patter—
A series of fragmented sounds echoed at Xia'er’s feet. She looked down to see a horrifying creature, the size of a fist, made of flesh and gray fur, crawling toward her with its twisted limbs.
Its dozen or so green pea-sized eyes turned to Xia'er, and its mouth, filled with jagged teeth that couldn’t even fit a finger, opened wide, letting out a shrill, screeching roar.
A flash of silver light appeared, and the deadly Blood Roland manifested in Xia'er’s right hand. She gripped it with both hands, aiming at the terrifying creature on the ground.
"Guh—"
Upon seeing Xia'er’s movement, the creature let out a strange howl and turned to flee, disappearing into the blood mist.
Xia'er fought against the dizziness and the chaotic whispers in her mind brought on by the Blood Roland's side effects, her hand trembling slightly as she held the gun.
In her line of sight, black, slender tendrils had already wrapped around the barrel of the Blood Roland, binding Xiaer's hands to it.
Blood-red roses bloomed along those tendrils, their crimson petals reflecting faces Xia'er didn’t recognize, some filled with anger, others with gentleness—the only commonality being that those faces looked as if they had been shattered, torn apart.
Blood dripped from Xiaer's hands, and the dizziness from blood loss began to wash over her. She took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down.
No, she couldn’t stay here any longer... There were extraordinary beings nearby causing trouble!
It was highly likely that the one who had imposed the curse upon her was lurking in the shadows!
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