Chapter 234: [Blessed with Longevity] Instance Concluded
Over on Bai Cha’s end.
As she sent those patients off, she was simultaneously making her move to kill.
To be completely safe, aside from the Dodder Vines, she concealed Overcast Cold Mountain within the tendrils, seizing an opening to drive the sword straight into Qin Fa.
How could Qin Fa be resigned to ending like this?
Disregarding all consequences, he swallowed the Tai Sui inside the box whole.
Even though he knew full well this was drinking poison to quench his thirst.
Yet at this exact moment, only the power of the Tai Sui could be harnessed for his use.
The instant the Tai Sui entered his throat, immense, swelling power hit him, wrecking his human form in a flash.
Countless black threads began sprouting outward, coiling and tangling with the Dodder Vines in reverse.
Precisely matching the dream Bai Cha had made up on a whim, Qin Fa transformed entirely into a lump of white, fleshy mass.
Bai Cha had known right from the start that the Tai Sui would prove exceptionally thorny to handle.
This entity shared similar properties with her Dodder Vines; both relied on absorbing power, locked in a ferocious tug-of-war in an instant.
“Qin Fa is dead.”
Bai Cha used Flower of Lies.
[System Notice: Lie creation failed. Qin Fa cannot be purged via this skill.]
Sure enough.
Bai Cha’s heart sank slightly.
It wasn’t that she truly expected to kill Qin Fa with Flower of Lies—that was indeed impossible.
However, she could use Flower of Lies to test his state.
By all rights, after her blade thrust from earlier combined with the vast absorption by the Dodder Vines, Qin Fa’s life force should have been completely depleted long ago.
Yet the lie still failed to generate.
He had likely bound himself to the Tai Sui completely.
“Qin Fa’s consciousness can be erased.”
Bai Cha altered her phrasing.
[System Notice: Lie generating…]
This generation process proved unexpectedly slow.
[System Notice: Lie has taken effect. Remaining duration: 3 seconds.]
[Two.]
Bai Cha controlled Overcast Cold Mountain instantly, accelerating its absorption of soul power.
The ruby on the hilt of Overcast Cold Mountain flashed violently, radiating a blood-red light.
The moment that light surfaced, Bai Cha’s mind felt as though it were struck viciously by a force, her entire head throbbing with explosive pain in an instant.
[One.]
The lie had ended.
[System Notice: Congratulations! You have successfully purged the anomalous NPC Qin Fa. Next, please escape the nursing home—leave to clear the instance~]
Bai Cha’s expression turned thunderous.
Her head was already throbbing with excruciating pain, and compounded by being tangled with the Tai Sui as they absorbed each other’s power, countless negative impulses flooded into her mind.
Much like when she absorbed the black threads from He Yan.
And the game still pulled a stunt like this on her.
Splendid.
Then again, the game had merely stated that her clearance requirement was altered to purging the NPC—it never said killing the NPC would clear the instance directly; she still had to escape this place to finish it.
“Dog game, I am your father!”
Failing to suppress the frantic irritation in her heart, Bai Cha spat out a curse.
[System Notice: Verbal abuse directed at the game is strictly prohibited~ Of course, if you insist on cursing, I won’t mute you either~ Who told you to be our distinguished player?]
Bai Cha spat to the side and set about forging a path through sheer struggle.
She recalled Overcast Cold Mountain back to her grip.
The blade felt icy cold to the touch, seemingly having returned to normal.
Barring any surprises, Bai Cha wouldn’t use this sword recklessly in upcoming instances; she would need to figure out a way later on to deal with the vengeful spirit residing within it.
Stowing Overcast Cold Mountain back into her backpack, Bai Cha looked at the scene before her, where black threads and yellow vines twisted together in every direction.
The Tai Sui couldn’t be resolved completely—of that she was certain.
Because this entity was indeed almost identical to those products of desire that controlled He Yan.
Desire could never be purged entirely.
She was running out of strength as well, suffering backfires from the sword while being wrapped in this endless sea of negative emotions—she was nearly driven insane.
Thoughts of destroying the world and wrecking the game surged inside her mind.
To be precise, these thoughts inherently existed within her—people being people, who hadn’t wished for the world to burn at some point?
Yet now, those thoughts were amplified beyond measure.
She wished she could wrap Dodder Vines around every single corner of the entire world, harvesting all power for her own use.
That way, she could grow stronger and break free from that Buddha statue.
No, no—she still had to keep it under control.
While locked in a internal tug-of-war with her own mind, Bai Cha had to break free from the Tai Sui’s entanglement. At the same time, she noticed the situation with those patients outside; after a moment’s hesitation, she diverted a portion of her power outward regardless.
At the very least, this served to distract her slightly, preventing her from dwelling constantly on destroying the world for power.
Even if she couldn’t fully suppress the impulse to drain those patients’ power.
Dragging her heavy, struggling steps forward, Bai Cha finally reached the window.
The entire ward building was encased tight, plunged into pitch blackness.
Behind her, something was squirming, crawling toward her.
That entity was causing her Dodder Vines to wither bit by bit.
It was the Tai Sui—it was growing stronger, seemingly retaining a trace of consciousness, or perhaps influenced by Qin Fa’s lingering will.
Its approach was terrifyingly fast.
Furthermore, it had sealed the window completely using countless black threads; separating them with Dodder Vines would require at least a full minute.
Bai Cha narrowed her eyes, utilizing her final lie skill.
“My Dodder Vines can hold off the Tai Sui.”
She offered a precise duration directly.
[System Notice: Lie has taken effect. Remaining duration: 3 seconds.]
“Fuck.”
Bai Cha accelerated her use of Dodder Vines, creating a rift at the window against the Tai Sui while drawing her butcher knife, slashing outward with desperate frenzy.
Three seconds vanished in a flash.
The Tai Sui behind her accelerated once more, reaching right before her back.
And precisely at this moment, Bai Cha sensed a surge of warm power.
That power was rich and substantial—not the hollow force that entered her body only to spark further negative emotions.
A feeling like this could only be experienced during a sacrifice.
She caught the sound of voices.
“Thank you.”
“Take care.”
“Hurry and go!”
“Hello, Sister! Goodbye, Sister!”
These portions of power were perhaps far from formidable, given that the sacrificers themselves had been drained of vast strength by the Tai Sui long ago.
Yet they proved sufficient to dispel Bai Cha’s negative state, expanding the patch of Dodder Vines before her once more.
A gap wide enough for a person to squeeze through was finally carved out at the window; Bai Cha leaped upward instantly, vaulting straight out of the window.
Behind her, sky-blotting black threads lunged straight toward her body.
Before her, delicate vines constructed a rope-thick bridge.
Stepping onto the vines, Bai Cha sprinted downward at full speed.
Countless pale yellow blossoms flew over from the patients in the front yard, soaring past her to block the black threads pursuing behind.
The entire nursing home appeared divided into two distinct colors—one half covered in sky-blotting blackness, the other half fluttering with a sky full of yellow.
As the power from the final patient vanished, Bai Cha leaped straight onto the ground, her feet refusing to pause for even a split second as she bolted toward the main gate.
At the gate, several players were waving frantically at her.
“Quick! Over here!”
The gate had been blown open by them long ago.
Some even drew items in a rush, helping Bai Cha block threads flying from tricky angles behind her.
Chang Yashi tossed out a rope.
Bai Cha grabbed it in one grip; with Chang Yashi pulling with sudden force, Bai Cha’s speed exploded, flying straight toward the entrance.
All the players leaped outward simultaneously.
[System Notice: Congratulations! You have successfully escaped the nursing home. You will be teleported out of this instance in 30 seconds.]
Thirty seconds remained.
Bai Cha turned her head to look back at the nursing home.
Things weren’t over here yet.
Meng Bian and the other two crippled players had been tossed outside the nursing home gate by the players long ago, having left the instance already.
“You guys actually stayed behind,” Bai Cha spoke while redeeming a Golden Bell Shield, encasing the group inside it.
The other players weren’t stingy either.
It was the final countdown anyway—once they held on, it would be over.
“We thought it over—thanks to you, we managed to escape, so we decided to stick around for a bit.”
A few players let out a soft smile.
To be frank… they felt surprised themselves.
By all rights, leaving directly would have been completely fine.
Yet with those patient NPCs willing to sacrifice themselves, if they—living humans—just ran off, it would look far too ugly.
“Charge! Twenty seconds left!”
