The Demon Lord is My Dark Moonlight [Transmigration Novel] - Chapter 25.2

Finding the exit during an execution was obviously going to be difficult. Gu Jinli’s heart wasn’t quite steady; she knew the tropes, but being the one on the altar was a different story.

Shen Chigui really is the biggest hurdle of my life! If it weren’t for her, I’d have more options! But time was up. Gu Jinli had spent the last two days memorizing the layout of the main hall. She had identified several suspicious spots and planned to investigate them during the ceremony.

However, the ceremony was nothing like what she expected. Her bonds were removed, and the people holding her shoulders stepped back.

She was left alone beneath the golden Buddha statue—unbound, unguarded, and free to move.

When the heavy doors of the main hall slammed shut, Gu Jinli was left standing alone, caught in a bizarre staring contest with the massive, shimmering golden Buddha.

She didn’t know this Buddha, and the Buddha certainly didn’t know her.

Wait. What is this? Is this sacrifice a joke? They just toss a person in and call it a day?

Forget it. Find the exit.

Just as Gu Jinli suppressed her confusion and began scouting the hall for a “Gate of Life,” a faint rustling sound drifted from behind her. Before she could even turn her head, she saw a shadow stretch across the floor, completely enveloping her own.

Something massive was standing right behind her.

“…”

Beads of sweat instantly broke out on her brow. Staring fixately at the floor, she made a terrifying deduction.

1. Aside from herself, only the golden Buddha was in this room.
2. The villagers had untied her but didn’t stay to watch, simply locking her in with the statue.

It wasn’t hard to guess what was now towering over her.

“!!!”

Am I really trapped in the most clichéd horror movie plot right now?! Her survival instincts redlined. The moment she felt the shadow move, Gu Jinli threw herself into a frantic roll across the floor.

When she scrambled to her feet and looked back, the sight nearly made her pass out.

Dear God! What is that thing?!

—THUD!

The golden Buddha, once so serene, was now unrecognizable. It had grown legs and “stepped” down from its pedestal. It had seemingly thinned itself out; its previously robust frame was now long, skeletal, and spindly. That merciful, kind face had twisted and stretched into a grotesque, terrifying mask.

Gu Jinli, a modern girl who never even watched horror movies, had never experienced anything like this—let alone at point-blank range. For a second, she desperately wanted to faint. But the raw instinct to stay alive kept her brain sharp. Despite her legs feeling like jelly, she began to sprint wildly around the hall.

Only now did she understand why the villagers hadn’t bothered to tie her up. Faced with a monster like this, a normal person would be paralyzed with fear.

“H-h-help!”

HELP ME! AAAAGH! As a stutterer, she realized with a pang of despair that she couldn’t even scream for help properly.

Behind her, the golden Buddha flailed its long, thin arms, relentlessly chasing her silhouette.

—BANG!

Perhaps due to its sheer size or some unseen restriction, the monster wasn’t particularly agile. Gu Jinli realized, with a surge of hope, that its dry, bony arms usually slammed down exactly where she had been a split second before.

—BANG! BANG! BANG!

Am I really going to die here? She didn’t even know if her “immortality” cheat code worked inside an illusion. If she had known the sacrifice meant facing a physical monster, she would have knocked the female lead unconscious and dragged her in here as a shield!

Too late for “what-ifs.” Gu Jinli’s survival drive peaked as she performed another desperate roll, successfully slipping past the monster’s side toward the entrance. She lunged for the doors and pulled.

Huh? It’s not locked.

Did the villagers really not care if she ran out? The thought flickered through her mind, but she didn’t stop to ponder it. She scrambled out of the hall and into the courtyard.

That was when she saw the most horrifying sight of all.

The villagers who had “locked” her in hadn’t left. They were standing in the courtyard, heads bowed, perfectly motionless. Not a word, not a breath. But that wasn’t the worst part.

The worst part was their eyes.

Their pupils were gone. Only the stark, milky-white of their eyeballs remained—like a horde of zombies. Hearing her emerge, they raised their heads in unison, staring directly at her.

Gu Jinli felt a chill climb from her heels to her spine, making her shudder violently. In the eerie silence of that courtyard, the impact of these mindless “zombies” was far more terrifying than the monster inside.

If she recalled correctly, nearly every resident of Pear Blossom Village was here. From the Village Chief down to the local children. Nearly a hundred people… and none of them were normal.

Monsters. All of them.

“Catch her…”

“Sacrifice her to the God…”

She didn’t know who spoke first, but suddenly voices were coming from every direction. The villagers began to move, their gait stiff and robotic as they closed in on her, muttering nonsensically.

“!!”

How is this possible?! Is the whole village undead? Gu Jinli wanted to cry. She had no way to escape so many of them. Just as she was about to give up in despair, a flicker of orange light erupted from outside the courtyard walls.

A gust of wind carried the scent of smoke, and a massive fire suddenly roared to life.

“Fire! It’s fire!”

“Get out! Get out!”

“FIRE! IT’S FIRE!!!”

The previously robotic villagers suddenly began to shriek in terror. Like true zombies, they seemed deathly afraid of the flames. If it weren’t for their white eyes and the way they stood screaming in place rather than helping each other, they might have looked like normal humans.

Why did a fire start so suddenly?

Seeing the flames licking over the walls, Gu Jinli didn’t wait to see what the villagers would do. She bolted.

She ran from the front yard to the back, searching for an exit, but found nothing. Was the main gate the only way out? But the gate was guarded by monsters and surrounded by fire. Only the backyard was relatively calm, but there was no gate—only a high wall and distant trees.

She looked at the towering wall and felt a wave of hopelessness. How was she supposed to get over that?

“HELP! HELP!”

“AAAAAGH—”

“God! Please, God, no…”

As the screams intensified, the situation shifted again. The golden Buddha had emerged from the hall! The villagers were now being treated as the very sacrifices they had provided.

Even from a distance, Gu Jinli saw it clearly. The golden Buddha snatched a villager and, with the cold efficiency of an executioner, tore them in half.

The human body was like a rag; organs and flesh showered the ground like a grisly rain, staining the courtyard crimson. Gu Jinli’s head spun. Everything she was witnessing was pushing her to her absolute limit.

If I hadn’t run out just now, that would be me. The fear of being shredded was far greater than her fear of death itself. Even if her “immortality” worked here, she didn’t want to die like that. She had to escape.

“H-h-help… save m-me…”

Her stuttered cries were lost in the chaos. To survive, she had to climb that wall. There were no trees near the wall here, so she had to find something—anything—to help her scale it. She didn’t care about the fire outside; she just couldn’t stay in this courtyard for another second.

After “finishing” its meal of one villager, the golden Buddha seemed satisfied. It turned silently and walked back into the hall, returning to its pedestal and resuming its holy, golden pose. If not for the chunks of flesh stuck to its frame and the blood coating its feet, everything would have looked perfectly normal.

But Gu Jinli knew. The Buddha was a monster, and the villagers were monsters too.

“The sacrifice was a success…”

“May the God protect us.”

“It is over.”

As the golden monster settled, the white-eyed villagers began to roll their eyes back into their heads as if a program had been reset.

Soon, Gu Jinli noticed that the villagers’ consciousness was slowly returning.

Shit. I can’t wait any longer. Once they fully wake up, they’ll realize something is wrong. After all, I’m still standing here, breathing.

“…”

Run! Run if you want to live!

Human potential is a terrifying thing. Using the pear tree in the courtyard, Gu Jinli—who had never climbed a tree in her life—clung to the trunk like a madwoman, inching her way upward by sheer force of will. The bark scraped the skin off her arms, leaving them raw and stinging, but she was too numb with terror to feel the pain.

She climbed until she was higher than the wall. Gauging the distance between the branch and the stone, she gathered every ounce of desperate courage and leaped.

Thud!

She made it, but her body was a map of bruises and scrapes as she clung to the top of the high wall.

Beyond the wall was a wall of flame, but the monster inside was far worse. She scrambled over the edge and fell—right into a patch of burning debris. The fire licked her already broken skin, forcing a shrill scream from her throat: “Aaaagh—!”

It hurt. It hurt so much her vision flickered to black. But she didn’t stop. She crawled out of the dirt, dragged her battered body through the heat, and bolted toward the dark silhouette of the mountain.

Only one thought remained: Live. Leave this village. Leave this nest of monsters.

“…”

Ultimately, she was still too weak. Even though she broke through the fire and found the treeline, she didn’t make it far. Her legs gave out, she stepped into a hidden hollow, and it felt like she was falling into an endless abyss. Darkness swallowed her whole.

“Tch.”

In her final moment of consciousness, she heard a familiar voice of pure disdain.

“She’s actually still alive.”

…And with that, strangely, she felt at peace.

*****

What was the truth behind the sacrifice? Were those villagers even alive? No one knew.

When Gu Jinli woke up again, she was deep in the forest.

“Xiao Wu. Xiao Wu.”

Before she even opened her eyes, she hissed through her teeth in pain. Her first thought was a grim realization: her “immortality” cheat didn’t work in this illusion. She had survived by the skin of her teeth.

“Xiao Wu, are you okay?”

She opened her eyes to see Nangong Jinyao’s worried face. Gu Jinli blinked and whispered raspy, “W-w-where… is this?” She looked up at the canopy of leaves and slowly sat up with Jinyao’s help.

“We’re in the mountains,” Jinyao said, leaning her against a tree trunk. Her face was pale. “I found you by accident.” She paused, then asked tentatively, “What happened yesterday? How did you end up so badly hurt?”

Jinyao doesn’t know? How could she miss a fire that big?

Gu Jinli narrowed her eyes, checking her wounds. She didn’t answer. Instead, she asked, “Wh-wh-where is… X-x-xiao Qi?” She remembered seeing Shen Chigui before the darkness took her. If Jinyao found her later, then Shen Chigui must have been the one who dragged her this far.

She scanned the area. There was no sign of the lead.

“Xiao Qi? She’s here too?” Jinyao’s eyes flickered. “You were alone when I found you.”

“…”

What is that brat playing at? Dragging her to safety and then vanishing? What is she, some kind of anonymous guardian angel? Unlikely.

“Is… the v-v-village… okay?”

Gu Jinli cared more about the village right now. Yesterday’s horrors had changed her understanding of this illusion. Even if the sacrifice was over, she had a feeling this wasn’t the end.

“The village…” Nangong Jinyao’s expression turned bizarre. She looked like she wanted to say something but didn’t know how. Finally, she squeezed out: “Everything is back to normal.”

She lowered her gaze. “Everyone seems to have… forgotten about the sacrifice.”

“W-w-what do you m-m-mean?”

“She means the villagers have collective amnesia.”

A familiar voice cut through the air. A figure emerged from the brush. Gu Jinli and Jinyao both turned at once. Shen Chigui walked toward them, using a sturdy stick to clear her path. Nangong Jinyao’s brow furrowed.

“What are you doing here?” Jinyao asked.

“Why shouldn’t I be here?” Shen Chigui didn’t even look at her. She stepped up to Gu Jinli’s side. “I’m the one who saved this creature. I know the situation best.” She looked at Jinyao with an ambiguous smile. “The real question is, why are you here? Still planning to trick her?”

“I am not tricking her!” Jinyao snapped.

“What… happened?” Gu Jinli forced herself to speak slowly, trying to keep the sentences coherent. “What… did you… do?” She felt like she was missing a piece of the puzzle.

“The villagers have become very strange,” Jinyao said, sighing as she realized Shen Chigui wasn’t going to play nice. “If you escaped the altar, you know there was a fire. It burned all night and only went out this morning.”

Through Jinyao’s explanation, Gu Jinli learned that the fire she’d jumped into had supposedly raged until dawn, nearly turning the central manor into a ruin. But strangely, shortly after the flames died, the manor restored itself as if by magic. And the villagers—who should have been charred husks—walked out of their homes with perfectly normal faces, beginning their daily chores.

According to Jinyao, they didn’t have so much as a singed hair on them.

“H-h-how… h-how is that p-p-possible?!”

“I told you already,” Shen Chigui said, leaning casually against a tree. “Only we are real. No one can enter the village now; anyone who does is immediately marked.” She looked at Gu Jinli sharply. “So, tell us. What exactly happened inside that hall yesterday?”

*******

Gu Jinli spoke slowly, recounting the events of the previous day. She was too tired to worry about why the lead had realized this was an illusion; she just wanted to find the “Gate of Life” and get out. Now that she knew her cheat code was disabled, the stakes were terrifyingly real.

“So you’re saying the villagers are already dead, and what we see are just puppets controlled by that golden Buddha monster?” Shen Chigui let out a short, dry laugh. “Sounds like a story you made up.”

Gu Jinli: “?” I literally write stories for a living, but do I look like I’m joking right now?!

“I believe her,” Jinyao said firmly. Her face was white, but her gaze was steady. “I’ve always felt the sacrifices were wrong. Everyone acts so strange afterward… I’ve never agreed with it…”

“Enough.”

Before Nangong Jinyao could finish, she was cut off with an impatient sneer.

Shen Chigui mocked, “Do you really have to keep up this act even now? You were the one who orchestrated the entire sacrifice from behind the scenes, weren’t you?”

What? This had something to do with Nangong Jinyao too?

“What do you mean, ‘orchestrated by me’?!”

Nangong Jinyao’s expression turned cold instantly. Always the picture of gentleness, she showed genuine anger for the first time. “How could I possibly have that kind of power? This is a tradition of your village, isn’t it?!”

“Speaking of which, everyone in Pear Blossom Village has turned into a monster now. Why are you, a local, perfectly fine?!”

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