Mutual Redemption with the Villainous Boss [Infinite] - Chapter 39

Qian Kai’s entire body was trembling; he felt a fear that permeated his surroundings.

It was a form of psychological intimidation that welled up from the bottom of his heart, unique to the soul. He glanced back frequently, trying to find the source of his irritable panic, but there was nothing there only that sensation of a gaze following his every step.

Jing Miaozhen looked at his behavior with some surprise.

Ulan was helped up from the ground, regaining her crutch, intending to head down the mountain with the villagers.

“Wait!”

Yan Wenxue called out to her, her halberd held horizontally in front of the woman, blocking her path. “Why did the body disappear?”

“Hahaha, friend,” Ulan laughed out loud instead of panicking, “That wasn’t a disappearance; it was purification. Dead souls cling to the bodies they occupied before death. Only the Great Red Witch can eliminate their karma and grant them the opportunity for reincarnation. This is a good thing!”

Zhu Ci had a doubt in her mind, but Yan Wenxue reacted quickly and asked it for her: “But the High Priestess isn’t present. Where is this Red Witch?”

“Hmm? What do you mean by that?” Ulan shook her head.

As Yan Wenxue was about to continue, Tatalina interjected, “The High Priestess is not the Great Red Witch; of course she isn’t here.”

The villagers had already drifted away, leaving behind a weeping Xue Yaru and the stunned group.

It turned out they had misunderstood a key point from the very beginning.

Because the High Priestess held the Red Witch Assembly and the villagers frequently mentioned the Great Red Witch, everyone naturally assumed the two were one and the same. In reality, from the start, the villagers had been very clear: the High Priestess was the High Priestess, and the Red Witch was the Red Witch.

Zhu Ci thought even deeper.

Could Dilireba, who lived behind the High Priestess’s house and owned that vast field of Blue Feather Flowers, be the Red Witch herself? And just now, her gesture for silence… she clearly didn’t intend to reveal herself in front of the others.

Qian Kai’s condition at this moment was very wrong.

Aside from Xue Yaru, who was crying to the point of fainting, only he and Ruan Liangyan seemed completely out of it. Ruan Liangyan stood there staring at the sky, his mind seemingly blank, while Qian Kai was huddled on the ground, hugging himself and shivering uncontrollably in the rain.

Lu Jun patted Ruan Liangyan’s shoulder. “Hey, have you gone senile?”

For the first time, Ruan Liangyan ignored him.

Lu Jun felt a surge of humiliated anger. He and Ruan Liangyan had once been business partners client and contractor and happened to enter the same beginner dungeon while in the office together. Since they were the only survivors from that dungeon, they had been partners ever since.

Moreover, Lu Jun was naturally arrogant; having obtained an SSR card, his path through dungeons had been smooth, and Ruan Liangyan had always flattered him. Now, this man was showing complete indifference to his concern. Failing to even offer a polite word was simply ungrateful.

Enraged, Lu Jun kicked Ruan Liangyan’s calf, forcing his knee to buckle. Ruan Liangyan lost his balance and fell to his knees.

“What are you, to dare give me attitude?” Lu Jun spat on the ground.

Ruan Liangyan propped himself up and stood, covered in mud. He walked toward Lu Jun with a dark expression. He was taller than Lu Jun, standing at least 1.8 meters, and as he stumbled toward him, his towering presence exerted a sense of pressure.

“What, do you have a problem?” Lu Jun wasn’t afraid at all, summoning a blunderbuss from his sleeve.

The weapon was powerful; it was the SSR weapon card he had obtained, allowing him to cut through obstacles and kill RMs in a single shot. How could he fear Ruan Liangyan, who had always been his dependent and possessed no real skill?

Unexpectedly, while Ruan Liangyan’s glare didn’t falter, the words out of his mouth were entirely different: “Mr. Lu, how could I? Let’s go back. It’s raining so hard; we shouldn’t stay out too long.”

Only then did Lu Jun huff, ignoring the look in the other’s eyes as he retracted his weapon. The two of them left first.

Jing Miaozhen asked the others, “What now? Should we leave too?”

Yan Wenxue glanced at Qian Kai and left of her own accord. Jing Miaozhen helped Xue Yaru up, whispering a few words to her, and the two supported each other as they headed down.

Only three people remained.

Given Qian Kai’s state, he clearly couldn’t pull himself together, and normally, one would just leave him. However, Tong Lexi volunteered to take him down.

“You go back first, Zhu Ci. I’ll wait until he’s a bit better before we go. We can’t leave him alone.”

Zhu Ci gave her a long, deep look but didn’t refuse. If Tong Lexi’s previous lie held true, then Qian Kai was the prime suspect the most likely person to have killed Ye Yang. It was as if she were colluding with him, covering his tracks.

Zhu Ci didn’t want to speculate on their secrets; if Tong Lexi had some necessary reason, she likely wouldn’t talk anyway.

Zhu Ci headed down the mountain alone and returned to the house. Tong Lexi returned an hour later. Upon her return, Tong Lexi merely gave her a faint smile and retreated to her room, not coming out again.

After lunch was delivered, Nuobu tried to chat with Zhu Ci as usual, telling many stories about herself. Most importantly, she mentioned the rainy period. She said the rain stopped every night at exactly 12:00 midnight and started again at 6:00 AM these were the Red Witch’s rules.

This point gave Zhu Ci something to ponder.

As Nuobu collected the trays, she said, “Sister, the rain will stop the day after tomorrow. Then, everyone will accept their karma.”

Does the rain only last three days?

“Do you know about the Blue Feather Flowers?” Zhu Ci asked carefully, her tone flat so her inquiry wouldn’t create karma with the villagers.

“I know, I know!” Nuobu was happy that Zhu Ci was engaging with her. “Our village is the Blue Feather Village; the flower is our symbol. But those flowers don’t grow anymore; we can’t get them to bloom no matter what we do.”

Yet, there was a vast field of them in front of Dilireba’s door.

Zhu Ci asked again, “Why is the Red Witch called ‘Red’? Since this is Blue Feather Village, shouldn’t you worship blue?”

“That…” Once the topic touched upon the Red Witch or the High Priestess, Nuobu became as tight-lipped as Tatalina.

It seemed there was no way to get information out of these NPCs.

Before leaving with the trays, Nuobu turned and whispered, “Sister, don’t think of us as NPCs. If there’s something you want to know, go ask the Great Red Witch.”

Hearing the term “NPC” from the mouth of a character within a dungeon was incredibly eerie.

Zhu Ci called for Xiao Chuang. The assistant shook its head and blinked its large eyes. “Player, what is it? Another emergency?”

“Can NPCs know they are NPCs?”

“No, no, no, that’s absolutely impossible,” Xiao Chuang raised a small hand and wagged a finger. “Our game has regulations. Every NPC is carefully selected cough, I mean, checked for compliance before being placed in a script. They are all data; they can’t break through their limitations.”

“Absolutely not?”

“Absolutely. I swear by the Lord God.” Xiao Chuang spoke with great sincerity, eyes wide.

Asking her was as useless as asking a piece of barbecued pork. Having learned from her previous attempt to ask about humans turning into RMs, Zhu Ci didn’t press further.

After closing Xiao Chuang’s system, Zhu Ci decided to visit Dilireba again. Nuobu had said that if she really wanted to know, she should ask the Red Witch.

It was highly likely that Dilireba was the so-called Red Witch.

Climbing the mountain in the rain wasn’t easy, and there were no umbrellas in this village. Fortunately, she had two uses left on the speed-boosting enchantment card she had bought previously, which was enough for a round trip.

The High Priestess’s bamboo house soon came into view. Rounding the back, the flower field remained unchanged; the Blue Feather Flowers braved the rain, blooming stubbornly. The shorter bamboo house was partially hidden in the woods.

Zhu Ci pushed the door open and entered.

She brought a fair amount of moisture into the room. The sky outside was gloomy, and there were no lights inside. It was completely different from her last visit. The house didn’t look lived-in; it was extremely clean. The mud on her feet stained the floor, making her hesitant to step further inside.

Dilireba wasn’t there.

The interior was simple and sparse with no decorations, save for a piece of jade resting on the table. Zhu Ci walked over and picked it up.

The jade was a translucent pale green, feeling smooth and moist to the touch. Two strange symbols were carved onto its surface. She couldn’t understand them but memorized their shapes.

“Who is there?”

A stern voice rang out behind her. She quickly put the jade back and turned around.

Dilireba’s brow was furrowed, her hand gripping the doorframe, her gaze filled with menace. After seeing who was in the room, her expression suddenly softened, followed by a look of concern.

“Why are you here? Looking for me?”

Zhu Ci quietly pushed the jade a bit further back to its original position before saying, “Yes, I came to return the clothes. But you weren’t here, so I just walked in. I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright. I’m glad you came.” Dilireba stepped forward and moved past her, discreetly putting the jade away a move Zhu Ci noted.

With her presence in the room, the space didn’t seem as dark as before; it brightened significantly, though it was unclear where the light originated. Dilireba took her hand and nudged her toward the bathroom, urging her to bathe first so she wouldn’t catch a cold.

“It seems every time I come here, it’s just to take a bath,” Zhu Ci mocked herself.

After bathing, she wrapped the clothes she had brought to return in a plastic bag but kept the ones she was wearing.

Zhu Ci hesitated. “But I’ll just get wet again when I head back in a bit.”

“Then just leave after 12:00.” Dilireba smiled warmly at her, as if the person with the stern voice from earlier hadn’t been her at all.

Although Dilireba had just come from outside, there wasn’t a single drop of water on her. Her hair was dry, looking as though she hadn’t walked through the rain at all.

Noticing Zhu Ci’s confused expression, she looked down at herself and explained, “The rain won’t wet me, because I have no karma.”

“Is everyone who gets wet a person with karma? But the Village Head isn’t in the High Priestess’s ledger, yet she gets wet too?” For some reason, facing Dilireba, Zhu Ci felt unusually candid, even blurting out the fact that she had peeked at the High Priestess’s belongings.

She immediately shut her mouth, blaming herself for making such a rookie mistake.

Dilireba simply looked at her, a hint of a smile in her eyes.

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