Chapter 86: Chapter 80: Herein Breed Myriad Phantoms

Zheng Xiu looked at the Bone Chair.

The first time he sat on it, it had been a bit prickly.

But after he got used to it, it was fine.

Now, before the Game Table, a thick fog crept in. Two horrifying arms extended out of thin air from within the mist.

The arms opened, palms up, as if to say: Please, have a seat.

Or perhaps: Go on and sit, Master.

"Fine, I’ll sit."

Zheng Xiu’s tolerance for strange events was far greater than it used to be.

After plopping himself down, Zheng Xiu sat across the table from the pair of white arms.

"Who are you?"

Zheng Xiu asked.

[You know that your questions cannot be answered here.]

[If you have lived within a mystery from the very beginning.]

[There is no way to begin answering.]

Zheng Xiu froze.

The arms in the fog suddenly raised an index finger.

It was as if between those two hands, within the fog, there was a face with a mouth. The index finger was placed precisely before the lips.

Shhh...

[Who are you?]

[Where do you come from?]

[Where is this place?]

[Why do you exist?]

[There are thousands upon thousands of questions in this world, but the answers are already in your heart.]

[Before you, there is what seems to be a mirror.]

[In the mirror, the strangeness you perceive can become anyone you wish to see.]

The mist distorted, suddenly transforming into a smooth mirror surface, a mirror like black jade.

It resembled the entrance to the Darkness, a gateway to the abyss.

As Zheng Xiu’s thoughts shifted, familiar figures flashed across the mirror’s surface.

Zheng Erniang.

Qing Shisan.

Ji Hong’ou.

Zizi.

Bobo.

Pei Gaoya.

Zheng Haoran.

Zheng Shan.

Zheng Er.

Feng Bei.

Wang Cangyun.

Figure after figure flickered across the mirror.

Finally, it settled on Zheng Xiu’s own face.

Staring through the black mirror surface, Zheng Xiu truly felt as if he were looking into a mirror. The "Zheng Xiu" in the reflection was just as astonished, just as confused, and just as incredulous.

K-K-KRAK.

In his shock, Purgatory struck. Zheng Xiu’s face paled slightly as he hurled the Chain Blade at the mirror surface.

The mirror surface actually gave Zheng Xiu the same ominous feeling as when he faced the Darkness directly.

PLOP!

The Chain Blade sank into the black mirror surface, sending out ripples. Only the chain remained outside the mirror.

[You discover that you cannot obtain the answer.]

"Playing riddle games with me, are you?"

Zheng Xiu quickly forced himself to calm down. He suddenly remembered his Prisoner Path.

The cage before him seemed to grant him control over Extraordinary Techniques, but its more direct meaning was that he was trapped here.

Trapped in the Heart Prison.

’Since it’s a prison,’ he thought, ’that means there must be something outside of it.’

Zheng Xiu had already faintly sensed this. Path Mystic Skills came with Restrictions and followed Rules. But whether it was the Rules or the Restrictions, they had long made it clear that Mystics, Paths, and Miracle Techniques were never without risk.

The two arms gradually retracted into the mirror surface.

K-K-KRAK.

The twin blades of Purgatory traveled an unknown distance within the mirror. Even when the chain reached its limit, it couldn’t touch the end. Zheng Xiu felt a painful tug on his arms and had no choice but to retract the Chain Blade.

At that moment, the other arm raised an index finger.

[Please turn to page thirteen thousand, six hundred and seventy-four of the Rulebook.]

[Please look at the fifth line from the bottom.]

’Damn it!’

Suppressing his disgust, Zheng Xiu stared at the large, rolling eyeball on the purple cover and flipped to page 13,674.

There were countless languages in the Outer Rulebook.

There was even Dog-speak and Cat-speak.

What Zheng Xiu had initially been instilled with was only a tiny fraction of it.

He turned to page 13,674.

The fifth line from the bottom.

A sentence he could actually read was secretly hidden there.

’They can hide it like this?’

With a wooden expression, Zheng Xiu focused his gaze.

It was a single sentence—[All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like dew or a flash of lightning; thus we shall perceive them.]

Zheng Xiu’s mouth hung open. "Bud-Bud-Buddhist scripture?"

[Please turn to page seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-six of the Rulebook.]

[Please look at the fourth line from the bottom.]

Zheng Xiu flipped through the book.

He felt that in this moment, he was just like Dou Xie, who had desperately flipped through books in search of a Path Mystic Skill.

’What goes around comes around. Karma spares no one!’

’I swear, I’ll never bully Dou Xie again.’

’If I break this oath, may I be beaten with clubs and whips.’

After much effort, he found the right page.

The fourth line from the bottom.

[With one thought, a world is born; with one thought, it is extinguished. In this space, ten thousand bubble-like illusions are conceived.]

Page twenty-one thousand and twenty.

The third line from the bottom.

[Only where you intend to go can reality be anchored.]

Page three hundred and twenty-five.

The second line from the bottom.

[The only Path, the only way.]

Page nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine.

The last line.

[Escape the cage.]

The three most conspicuous words writhed like worms amidst a pile of strange languages.

As they writhed, the words vanished from the Rulebook, leaving only a glaring white space, as if those three words had never existed.

Zheng Xiu watched, stunned, as the purple-covered Rulebook gradually dissolved into black smoke.

In the blink of an eye, the purple-covered Rulebook, the gray fog across the Game Table, and those hands all turned into phantoms and drifted outside the cage.

Zheng Xiu could only watch as the hands and everything on the Game Table disappeared.

It wasn’t that he was indifferent; he was powerless to stop it.

Beyond the Heart Prison was a world he did not understand.

"You’re leaving just like that?"

"You damn Keeper!"

"Don’t you know what happens to riddlers? They die horrible deaths!"

"Get back here!"

Angry, Zheng Xiu shot the chain from his palm, but it was repelled by a strange ripple between the rusty bars of the cage.

The purple-covered Rulebook had vanished too.

PAT. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

A white Inner Rulebook dropped from the escaping gray fog.

At least those hands had left something behind.

Although everything that had just happened in the Heart Prison was quite bizarre.

It seemed like he’d had a strange conversation.

But at the same time, it seemed like he hadn’t.

Zheng Xiu quickly calmed down.

"Bo~bo~bo~"

He poked the cheek of the four-heads-tall mini Feng Bei, and his tense mood eased somewhat.

’I’d like to see what this Inner Rulebook is all about.’

Hidden inside the purple-covered Rulebook was an Inner Rulebook.

Righteousness is hidden in evil; a great bird is hidden in the forest.

He inadvertently picked at the lump on his forehead.

He looked at the blood-red Dice resting on the tabletop.

A term slipped from his lips: "A Deceitful Object?"

Feng Bei was a Mystic, and so was he.

There were quite a few similarities between him and Feng Bei.

When Feng Bei seemed to be using his full power, the hundred-zhang-tall shadow that rose behind him—a shadow as dense as a Ghostly Realm, a shadow that resembled Feng Nantian—made Zheng Xiu instinctively connect "it" with the pair of "riddle arms" that had just emerged from the gray fog.

That’s right. Zheng Xiu had decided to name the damn Keeper that had come and gone so quickly, hiding back in the gray fog, the "Riddle Arm."

’One day, I’ll enter the mist outside the Heart Prison, drag that Riddle Arm out, and chop it to pieces.’

Zheng Xiu gave it a poke, then retracted his finger. The small teleportation gate to Post Station Feng Bei opened and closed. Zheng Xiu repeatedly tested the edge of the Post Station Feng Bei portal, like he was tempting fate.

The question "Enter Post Station Feng Bei?" repeatedly flashed before his eyes.

But this feeling of teasing the mini Feng Bei doll was quite amusing.

As Zheng Xiu played, his mood returned to normal.

The Riddle Arm seemed to be conveying some kind of message to him.

Five, four, three, two, one... a total of five sentences.

[All conditioned phenomena are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, a shadow. Like dew or a flash of lightning; thus we shall perceive them.]

[With one thought, a world is born; with one thought, it is extinguished. In this space, ten thousand bubble-like illusions are conceived.]

[Only where you intend to go can reality be anchored.]

[The only Path, the only way.]

[Escape the cage.]

Zheng Xiu thought back on the entire riddle, meticulously analyzing it piece by piece. His thoughts finally landed on the last sentence: [Escape the cage.]

"Alright."

Zheng Xiu’s heart settled, and an idea formed.

He hadn’t been a wealthy merchant for all those years for nothing. Zheng Xiu quickly accepted his current situation and planned his next move.

First, he would open the Inner Rulebook and take a look.

He hadn’t expected much, but the moment he opened it, Zheng Xiu was stunned.

On the first page of the Inner Rulebook was the image of a sword.

A broken Ancient Sword.

Behind the Ancient Sword was a boundless Sword Tomb, filled with the desolate, murderous aura of an Ancient Battlefield.

[Heaven and Earth Sword Intent].

Zheng Xiu rubbed his finger on the page, and the [Heaven and Earth Sword Intent] was actually rubbed off the page by his finger, becoming a ball of golden flame.

"This name... it’s so imposing!"

Compared to ordinary Traits, this golden Trait was like an extremely rare SSR card from a gacha game—dazzling and brilliant, making the other green flames on the Game Table pale in comparison.

In the center of the flame, the shadow of a broken sword could be faintly seen, standing in its heart.

Zheng Xiu was about to slot the golden flame into Zheng Er’s Incarnation, but he failed. It couldn’t be equipped.

Lines of text appeared one after another.

Ten lines in total.

As Zheng Xiu read the hidden rules, he came to a sudden realization.

It turned out this golden SSR couldn’t be equipped casually. It would occupy an independent slot on the Incarnation, and once equipped, it could not be removed.

Furthermore, the Incarnation’s [Birth] had to be related to the "sword."

All this time, Zheng Xiu had thought that an Incarnation’s [Birth] was just a background panel, with no damn use other than for looks.

But the hidden inner rules made Zheng Xiu understand that every single one of an Incarnation’s Attributes and settings had a deeper meaning and could not be underestimated.

’In that case, I can’t just casually create my third Incarnation—not that I was ever planning to, of course.’

Who knows when he’d be able to push open the seventh door. Every Incarnation was one of his precious alternate identities for walking the world.

"Wait a minute."

The Incarnation’s [Birth].

Zheng Shan’s Birth was Painter, yet he didn’t understand Danqing Painting Skill at all.

Zheng Er’s Birth was from a scholarly family, yet his Scholarship was terrifyingly low.

’If the [Birth] category has a deeper meaning, could it be related to Path Mystic Skills?’

Cradling the golden flame of Sword Intent in his palm, an extremely bold idea suddenly sparked in Zheng Xiu’s mind.

’There are Paths in the world, and great Miracles are hidden in plain sight.’

’In that case,’

’when an Incarnation follows the rules and plays a certain role,’

’can it also glimpse other Paths?’