Who exactly was behind this meticulous planning?
Was it truly the fake Gong Chen from Golden Lake...
Cao Wanning watched as Mo Ruan battled the ghost king. As time passed, Mo Ruan began to dominate. The sky gradually lightened, and the Skeletal Emperor's power weakened. Soon, he would be unable to hold on; the outcome was clear.
Suddenly, Cao Wanning saw a living face among the ghosts and zombies Mo Ruan had sealed off with his magic curse!
"Who!?"
The person was far away, mixed in with the corpses, wearing a hooded cloak that hid half of their face. Only their sharp chin, rosy lips, and gentle nose were visible.
In just one glance, Cao Wanning sensed that this person's behavior didn't match the virtual scene two hundred years ago—this person made no signs of attack but was eerily hidden under the hood, facing Mo Ruan and himself. When he noticed them, he gave a small smile, then raised his hand to draw a gesture near his neck that resembled "kill."
Cao Wanning cursed silently as he dashed over, intent on capturing this person.
But that person still smiled, with a rosy mouth and sharp teeth, making a gesture like "goodbye" at him.
Cao Wanning didn't move.
"Halt!"
It was useless. The dawn light pierced through, revealing layers of shimmering white fish bellies.
Mo Ruan's battle with the ghost king came to an end in one final strike. When Mo Ruan's hand of seeing ghosts completely severed the Skeletal Emperor's head and blood gushed out, the scene rapidly flickered before their eyes. Cao Wanning and Mo Ruan were suddenly thrown up into the air, with Lin'an's sunrise and ruins from two hundred years ago becoming a series of bizarre illusions.
"Bang!"
When Cao Wanning landed back on the ground, he was in the trial cave again.
Mo Ruan had returned too, falling beside him with battle stains on his body. But he himself wasn't seriously injured; he lay on the ground, unable to get up, only his pitch-black eyes staring at Cao Wan Ning.
After a moment, he raised his hand and gently touched his forehead.
"You're out now."
Cao Wanning hummed in response but looked pale: "... I saw someone inside just now."
"What?"
"Someone suspicious. Likely the one casting the spell."
Mo Ruan sat up quickly, eyes wide open: "You saw it? You saw! Did you see who he was? What does he look like?"
Cao Wanning frowned and shook his head. "He wore a hood, so I couldn't make out much. But from his figure, he seems to be a young man, slender, with a sharp chin..."
There was another half of the sentence left unsaid.
He felt that this face seemed familiar, as if seen before, but dismissed it as an illusion since only half of his face could be seen. There were too many similar people; he couldn't immediately determine who it was.
Just as Cao Wan Ning was pondering, Mo Ruan suddenly patted his shoulder.
"Junior Brother."
"What is it?"
"... Look over there."
Mo Ruan's voice was low and slightly chilling.
Cao Wan Ning raised his head to follow the direction of Mo Ruan's finger.
It was Eighteen.
At the entrance of the trial cave, Miss Eighteen's bulging eyes hung from the ceiling. Her feet in embroidered silk shoes swayed uncertainly mid-air.
She was already dead; there was no wind here, and her movements suggested that whoever killed her had just left not long ago.
But what made Cao Wan Ning and Mo Ruan gasp with shock was the weapon that tightly strangled her neck.
It was a willow vine.
Leaves like blades, shimmering with intense red light, occasionally bursting into flames. Sparks and blood splattered together.
Seeing Ghosts.
The one who throttled Eighteen and suspended her from the cave's ceiling turned out to be the divine weapon Seeing Ghosts!