The Hand of Confession – Chapter 340

Volume 10: Days of Cultivating in the Republic of China

The Eve of the Final Battle

The ghost monster isn’t dead; it just survived in another form.

There was a time when Shen Maomao was just a little girl who would be scared to tears by the sight of a corpse, but now, they were actually gathered together discussing how to kill someone…

Shen Maomao was filled with a thousand emotions.

Considering her younger sister was useless, the older sister never woke her up. She discussed the matter with them alone. “You’d better make your move as soon as possible. Otherwise, by tomorrow, the five temples will become one, and the powers from the other people will be reclaimed by him. When that time comes, we’ll all be finished.”

Sisi nodded to show she understood. “Okay, we’ll make our move tonight.”

The older sister added, “We won’t go. We’d only be a hindrance if we did.”

But how to kill Kang Yuanhuai—that was the question.

Judging from the situation with the black shadow, Kang Yuanhuai had already reclaimed some of his power, but they couldn’t be sure how many River Earls he had dealt with, nor could they guess what percentage of his power had been restored.

Pitting a human body against a jiaolong¹… Shen Maomao felt like she might have transmigrated from a horror/supernatural drama into a Xianxia drama. In a moment, she might even be able to shout, “My fate is up to me, not the heavens²!” and scare it into immediate submission.

She chuckled at the thought and quickly shook her head to drive out these unrealistic ideas.

Seeing her laughing so happily, Sisi thought she had a good idea and quickly asked, “What did you think of?”

Shen Maomao blanked for a moment before coming to her senses. “Nezha³?”

Sisi: “…”

After saying that, Shen Maomao also fell silent for a second, then quickly tried to salvage the situation. “I don’t have any good ideas for now, either. Should we ask Ah Nan to come out and talk? He’s the only man among us now. Maybe he can help us think of something.”

Beside them, Golden Retriever silently lowered his head.

Sisi sighed. “Across so many instances, I’ve actually never gone head-to-head with a ghost monster.”

Shen Maomao said, “I, on the other hand, do this sort of thing often. But that was because I had a powerful big thigh⁴ to cover for me. Now I don’t. I don’t dare court death too much either.”

Sisi didn’t look surprised. “I could kind of tell, actually. But you’re so calm in the instances. You don’t seem at all like someone braving them alone for the first time.”

Shen Maomao grinned, baring her teeth. “My backer taught me well.”

Golden Retriever silently turned away, thinking to himself that if he could talk, he’d immediately tell Shen Maomao to shut her mouth.

With little time to spare, the three of them devised a crude assassination plan, preparing to make their move in the middle of the night and send Kang Yuanhuai on his way. As for who would go, they hadn’t decided yet.

But it was already getting late, and they had to head back, or they might not make it to the Western-style house before dark.

The older sister didn’t see them off. Instead, she carried her younger sister to the riverbank to rehydrate. The three of them crossed the bridge again. This time, there were no incidents, and they reached the other side safely.

By the time they reached the town center, the sky hadn’t completely darkened. The three, who hadn’t eaten lunch, sat at a street-side food stall and each had a bowl of noodles before returning to the Western-style house, smelling of noodle soup.

The little Western-style house was pitch-black. No lights were on, and it was impossible to see what was going on inside from the outside.

Shen Maomao’s attention wasn’t on the house at first. Her gaze swept past the swing in the flower garden, and she suddenly saw a white figure on it. Looking closely, she realized it was An Jing, who had vanished for some reason that morning. She was sitting quietly on the swing, her half-peeled face aimed directly at them. The sight gave Sisi a huge fright. She grabbed Shen Maomao’s arm and sucked in a sharp breath, as if that could calm the shock and fear in her heart.

Shen Maomao was being pinched so hard she wanted to cry out in pain, but she forced herself to endure it. She pried Sisi’s hand off, walked to the spot where she remembered the barrier being, and stopped. “An Jing? Aren’t you unable to leave this place? Where did you go this morning?”

An Jing didn’t speak. She just watched her quietly, her hands gripping the two ropes of the swing as she began to rock gently, the tips of her toes pushing off the ground.

“Creeak—”

“Creeak—”

The aging parts of the swing seemed to be singing a bizarre song, making the hair on the three people in the courtyard stand on end. They didn’t know whether to retreat or stay.

A figure slowly emerged from the dark hall of the Western-style house. The three of them retreated in unison, on guard, watching as the person walked out of the darkness and into the moonlight, revealing an unfamiliar face.

“Who are you?” Sisi asked warily.

“She’s Mingyue!” Shen Maomao said. “What in the world is going on?!”

Mingyue lowered her head slightly to look at the floor. After composing herself for two seconds, she said, “During the day, you can’t see us.”

Shen Maomao was shocked. “Why?”

Mingyue’s shoulders trembled slightly, and her voice took on a sob. “I don’t know why it’s like this either. All day today, no matter how I tried to greet you or call your names, you couldn’t hear my voice. I followed you for a long way, but I was worried about An Jing’s condition, so I had to come back first… But An Jing has changed, too. She won’t even look at me. All she does is rock on that swing, and from time to time she even hums a few lines of a strange song… She’s never learned that kind of song…”

As soon as she finished speaking, as if to prove her words, An Jing immediately began to hum. The hoarse notes carried far in the night.

Her voice was neither high nor low, but she drew out the tune, like a dying old woman using her last breath to say something. It inexplicably brought to mind the dusk of the sun setting behind the western hills⁵—the fall of light, the dissolution of all things, filled with a strange aura of death.

The person in the shell now was clearly not An Jing. Perhaps from the moment she ate that ghost monster’s heart, she was no longer purely An Jing herself. The ghost monster wasn’t dead; it just survived in another form.

Under the moonlight, Mingyue’s face was as pale as paper. She staggered step by step to An Jing’s side and gently placed her hand on hers, tears streaming down her face. “What should I do? What should we do?”

Setting aside the matter of why no one could see them during the day, just considering An Jing’s case, she couldn’t leave the small courtyard. Unless the exit was in the courtyard, she could only be trapped in this instance until she died.

Sisi was clever. The thoughts only had to spin in her mind for a moment before she understood the twists and turns of the situation. Her eyes darted, and she said, half-opportunistically and half-sincerely, “We’re preparing to kill Kang Yuanhuai. Once he’s dead, we can leave. Why don’t you join forces with us? We can kill him first and then figure out another way. The feeling of being able to see the exit is different from not being able to. Maybe once the exit appears, all our problems will split as they meet the blade’s edge⁶.”

Mingyue didn’t actually hold out much hope, but having something to cling to was far better than despair. She didn’t ask why they had to kill Kang Yuanhuai, only reconfirmed Sisi’s words with the intention to stake everything on a single throw of the dice⁷. “Are you sure? We’ll find the exit as long as we kill Kang Yuanhuai?”

Sisi, imitating Shen Maomao, didn’t give a definite answer. “I can’t be sure. But if we don’t try, there will be absolutely no way out. Rather than wait for death, we might as well fight for a chance.”

Mingyue lowered her eyelids, then looked up at Shen Maomao and asked, “Is your offer still on the table?”

Shen Maomao paused, realizing she was referring to the matter of lending them Simon Peter. She nodded and replied, “It is. But you’d better make a decision quickly. The moment the exit appears, I’m leaving immediately. I won’t wait for you.”

Mingyue agreed. She was worried about An Jing, so she stayed in the small flower garden to keep her company. The other three went inside the house, lit a lamp, and prepared to check Kang Yuanhuai’s room while he was away.

When they reached the door to Kang Yuanhuai’s room, Sisi couldn’t help but look at the locked room next to it again. She was a little curious about what was kept inside.

When Shen Maomao wasn’t looking, she had already walked to the door and reached out to touch the bronze lock on it.

“Click!” With a snap, the lock broke in two. The sound startled Shen Maomao and Golden Retriever. They turned their heads to see that Sisi had already pulled the door open a crack!

Shen Maomao quickly reached out, yanked her behind her, and asked, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Sisi snapped back to her senses, her face turning pale with fright. “I don’t know why… I just feel like there’s something inside, and that thing should be very important to me…”

Shen Maomao said, “This instance couldn’t have something to do with you, could it? I just feel like there’s something bad in that room… Maybe if you go in, you won’t come out.”

Sisi pressed her lips together, her expression still very grim.

Shen Maomao turned and pushed open the door to Kang Yuanhuai’s room, walking in with the lampstand.

The next second, with a “poof,” the lamp in her hand suddenly went out, and the place where the three of them stood was instantly enveloped in darkness.

Immediately after, as if in a chain reaction, with a series of “poof, poof, poof, poof” sounds starting from them, all the lights in the house went out one after another. Bluish moonlight shone on the three of them, and a damp presence brushed against their ankles like tentacles.

“Run!” A sound of surging water came from behind them. Shen Maomao yelled and immediately bolted forward.

Sisi and Golden Retriever scrambled to follow, rushing toward the door pissing their pants and crapping their shorts⁸.

A great tide of blood surged out from Kang Yuanhuai’s room and the room next door at the same time—the scene was straight out of The Shining. The blood seemed to have a will of its own, roaring as it shot down the hallway, trying to engulf all of them.

Seeing they wouldn’t make it to the door, Shen Maomao turned, leaped onto the windowsill, and kicked the not-so-sturdy window until it fell apart. Then she jumped out.

Golden Retriever quickly followed her example and jumped down after her. Only Sisi lacked the physical strength. She knew that jumping out the window would just waste time, so she could only grit her teeth, pump her legs, and run for her life.

“Boom—” The flood of blood swept through everything in the hallway like a plague of locusts passing through⁹, including Sisi, who hadn’t managed to escape in time.

Sisi let out a single bubble. Before she could even make a sound, she was submerged by the blood.

The torrent of blood advanced mightily, bursting through the side wall of the little Western-style house and carrying Sisi and a chaotic mess of window frames and wooden planks straight toward Lake Ye.

Shen Maomao wanted to chase after her and save her, but her path was blocked by a long saber. The blade reflected the moonlight, its glare so painful she couldn’t help but take a step back. And without another word, the saber’s owner attacked.

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The author has something to say:

Missing Lou-jie _(:3」∠)_ Getting ready to end this instance.

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