I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 23.1

As for whether the NPCs in this script were human or ghost, Qi Yan couldn’t get a definitive answer everything was just speculation. She had initially believed there were humans among these NPCs because Bai Qing once mentioned that scripted stories were also built by people. She had taken that at face value, but now, upon reflection, Bai Qing’s words might not have been entirely accurate.

Bai Qing wasn’t originally from the script. She had been sealed inside for reasons still unclear. Since she wasn’t a “native” of the script, Bai Qing herself wasn’t entirely familiar with its rules, let alone the specifics of any particular scenario.

Qi Yan felt now was not the time to dwell on the script’s mechanics. Bai Qing in the ring remained silent, while they were already facing the dire predicament of being attacked from both sides.

Red Sister, still perched in the tree, watched the commotion with amusement. Qi Yan’s eyes flickered as she looked up at her. “Red Sister, I think you’ve always seen us as prey. The reason you haven’t made a move yet is that the time hasn’t come, right? So, you can’t act against us now, we’re still only halfway through the seven-day limit.”

“How about helping us out instead? Since we haven’t found the ‘eye’ and can’t leave yet, if you help us deal with Cuilan and Song Yu, you might even get to reap the rewards in the end.”

Red Sister laughed. “You’re quite clever.”

“Flattery won’t get you anywhere.”

“Unfortunately, that cleverness is misplaced.” Red Sister crossed her arms and leaned against the tree, eyeing her disdainfully. “It’s true that guide NPCs can only act when the time comes, but if you die here, it doesn’t hurt me either way, my task would still be completed.”

“Miss Qi, I’ve indeed seen you as prey from the start, but that doesn’t mean I have to be the one to kill you.” Her lips stretched into an exaggerated grin, turning a vivid red as sharp fangs glinted. “In my eyes, it doesn’t matter who kills you! I just want to see the despair and terror on your faces when you’re on the brink of death! Ahahahahahaha!”

Her maniacal laughter was deafening. At this moment, Red Sister was even more terrifying than Cuilan, the knife-wielding boss.

When she finally stopped laughing, her expression turned icy as she glanced coldly at Qi Yan. “The duty of a guide NPC is to lead you through the script’s story and maintain its rules. For these seven days, I can’t act against you that’s to preserve fairness, giving you a chance to clear the scenario. But if you still haven’t cleared it by then, I gain the right to join the slaughter, all to eliminate you as quickly as possible. All of this is just to maintain the functionality of this scenario.”

Qi Yan’s teeth chattered. The air around them grew frigid as Cuilan emerged from the ancestral hall, her entire body radiating cold, her bones cracking like a monster transforming in a horror movie.

She didn’t dare engage with Red Sister any further. Every nerve in her body was taut as her mind raced for a solution.

With Bai Qing silent, Qi Yan didn’t even have a decent weapon. Huo Zheng and Tang Shanshan had their own ways of protecting themselves she was the only one without any means of defense.

Without Bai Qing, she was nothing.

This realization filled Qi Yan with utter despair.

Sister Hong loved watching humans struggle in despair, the sight of them drowning in terror and hopelessness, yet unwilling to give up, was especially delicious. If Qi Yan had been as fragile as the others and collapsed from the start, she would have found it boring.

“Since you’re so amusing, I’ll do you a favor and clear something up.” Sister Hong raised a hand and pointed at Cuilan beside her. “She, her daughter Rongbao, and every single villager in Baishui Town, they’ve all been dead for a long time!”

Qi Yan jolted in shock. When she looked up, she saw thick, inky ghostly energy surging from the depths of the mountains, accompanied by all manner of howls and wails. Without exception, the energy poured into Cuilan’s body, swelling the once-ordinary woman’s form to twice its original size.

The three of them stumbled back in terror, but with Song Yu neither fully human nor ghost blocking their path, they didn’t dare retreat too far.

Sister Hong laughed heartily. “In the real story of Baishui Village, Cuilan and her daughter Rongbao were discovered by the villagers. Those wicked villagers dragged the mother and daughter to the ancestral hall to be tortured to death.”

It had been a bitterly cold winter’s day, snow falling thickly. The ancestral hall, just like now, had been stained red with blood. How much blood could one human hold? How much could two humans hold? Cuilan had wondered about that ever since. She had watched helplessly as her daughter Rongbao was drained of blood, a punishment the Lu clan reserved for rebellious villagers, a private execution method established ever since their ancestors fled the imperial tomb.

Cuilan hadn’t originally been from this village, but she had married into it. In the eyes of Baishui Town’s people, even in death, she would be one of their ghosts! She wasn’t allowed even a sliver of rebellious thought!

That year, her daughter Rongbao had been chosen, and she had no choice but to accept it, even though she had already lost two children.

But after being drained of blood in the ancestral hall, the mother and daughter didn’t turn into withered corpses as the villagers had expected. Instead, their skin became even more radiant than in life. At first, the villagers paid it no mind, preparing to toss the bodies into the Zhong Mountains as usual.

But then, something no one had anticipated happened, the mother and daughter suddenly “came back to life!”

To outsiders, it seemed as though they had simply revived out of thin air!

Yet in the next moment, the elder guarding the ancestral hall had his heart ripped out by Cuilan’s bare hands. The villagers who had come to move the bodies were driven to madness! Cuilan’s hands were drenched in the elder’s blood as she opened her crimson mouth and devoured the still-twitching heart she had just torn out!

That night, Baishui Town met its doom.

The overwhelming resentment forged Cuilan into a powerful ghost, and every villager she personally slaughtered was tainted and drawn in by her ghostly energy, transformed by her own hands into lesser spirits.

This horde of ghosts, great and small, continued to “live” in Baishui Town. They even forgot they were dead, believing themselves still alive, repeating the same days over and over.

“Think she’s pitiful?” Sister Hong finished her tale. “Yet she created even more suffering. After the entire village became ghosts, under Cuilan’s influence, they abandoned the method of sacrificing their own descendants and instead slaughtered countless more!”

Qi Yan felt dizzy, her head spinning. Even though she knew Cuilan was just a fictional character created by this story world, now merely a fictional ghost, she couldn’t help but feel sympathy for her.

Sister Hong stopped speaking, taking in the complex emotions on Qi Yan’s face, which only fueled her excitement. She raised her hand and urged, “Sister Cuilan, hurry up and do it!”

She wanted to see more of the fear, despair, and even the tangled contradictions of human nature that thrilled her. A clever and quick-witted girl like Qi Yan was exactly to her liking. She was desperate to see how Qi Yan would be tortured and killed by Cuilan amidst despair, terror, and inner conflict!

Sister Hong’s urging seemed to flip a switch Cuilan suddenly let out a guttural roar, like a beast that had lost all reason. The knife in her hand and the blood splattered all over her face only emphasized that she was even more terrifying than a wild animal.

Qi Yan instinctively took half a step back, while Huo Zheng tightened his grip on his dagger, alert. But with enemies both in front and behind, and only two hands and one weapon, the odds were grim.

Tang Shanshan’s abilities made her great at escaping, but she wasn’t much of a fighter.

Huo Zheng said grimly, “If things go south, you two run first. I’ll hold them off!”

“Brother Huo!” Tang Shanshan protested. “How can you take on both of them alone? That’s just throwing your life away!”

Huo Zheng gave a bitter smile. Of course, he knew he was practically offering himself up to these two ghosts but what else could he do? Among the three of them, only he had a weapon capable of fighting. He was the man, the oldest, and it was his duty to protect the two younger girls.

If he ran first, he’d feel ashamed just thinking about it later.

But Qi Yan and Tang Shanshan clearly didn’t share his sentiment. Qi Yan suddenly fell silent, standing motionless as if lost in thought, while Tang Shanshan was already arguing, “Brother Huo, forget about your male pride and heroics for now. In this survival game, everyone just wants to live. Running for your life isn’t shameful!”

“…”

Despite her young age, the girl made a fair point.

“Roooar!”

“Aaaah!”

Cuilan and Song Yu suddenly attacked, lunging at them from both sides.

Huo Zheng reacted swiftly, raising his dagger to block Song Yu’s massive cleaver.

But he was only one man while he could fend off Song Yu, he had no way to stop Cuilan at the same time.

Just as Cuilan’s blood-dripping cleaver swung toward them, Tang Shanshan wrapped her arms around Qi Yan, and the crow feathers on her back instantly unfurled. The two of them shot into the air, narrowly dodging Cuilan’s strike.

The moment her feet left the ground, Qi Yan snapped out of her daze. The ring on her left hand suddenly began to glow, and as Cuilan pursued them, Qi Yan raised her left hand to block.

“Sister Qi!”

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