GRMFBS CH314

Relocation District.

This was an industrial park where relocation had just concluded, currently slated for demolition. After clearing the area, the Abnormal Affairs Management Bureau selected this site to set the trap using the Soul-Intoxicating Incense.

Ji Yueming and Gu Jiancheng’s shadow avatar were both stationed here, while Zhan Yunkai was in another sector keeping an eye on the situation.

Although the trap was arranged in the Relocation District, the areas demanding supervision went far beyond this place. They had divided active anomaly zones into sectors and assigned personnel to each, preventing moving anomalies from causing collateral destruction or the Soul-Intoxicating Incense from triggering unforeseen ripples.

Inside a temporarily constructed sealed chamber, Zhuo Xun felt exceptionally secure being surrounded by heavyweights from both titan organizations. Even if the Soul-Intoxicating Incense lured in every single anomaly, his personal safety would still be guaranteed.

“Then I’m going to release the Soul-Intoxicating Incense now; this chamber isn’t too large, so it might get a little cramped.”

Gu Jiancheng’s head filled with question marks: “Just how big did you feed it?”

Under normal circumstances, a stalk of Soul-Intoxicating Incense was merely palm-high.

Zhuo Xun: “Conservation of mass, Boss! It ate that many anomalies; growing a tiny bit larger is perfectly normal, right?”

He brought out the Soul-Intoxicating Incense concealed within the mirror labyrinth.

The enclosed six-meter cube of space was nearly bursting at the seams. To put the plant’s appearance flatteringly, it looked like orchid leaves; to put it realistically, it looked like giant garlic chive leaves. The tips of the leaves were already bent double against the ceiling, though fortunately, its overall posture was slender and upright, sparing everyone from running out of standing room entirely.

The shadow avatar’s eyes widened: “Did you feed it growth hormones?”

Zhuo Xun secretly rolled his eyes: “Every scrap of its feed was personally hunted by your own hands.”

Gu Jiancheng: “Couldn’t you have fed it less?”

Zhuo Xun: …Big brother, who would dare embezzle the things you delivered back then? Back in those days, we were frightened out of our wits just borrowing your name, terrified you’d actually go manic one day.

“If there are no objections, I’ll stimulate it to bloom now.”

The flowering process of the Soul-Intoxicating Incense was quite peculiar. The central vein of each leaf began changing color from the root upward, growing a crimson thread that stretched to the leaf’s tip, where a dewdrop-like blossom dripped forth.

A faint, ethereal fragrance diffused from the flowers, trapped entirely within this colossal cube. As the scent grew progressively richer, the analytical monitors chimed incessantly.

The Traveler smoothly hoisted Zhuo Xun out from inside the sealed enclosure. The edges of the transparent walls shimmered faintly, and Zhuo Xun slipped through as though stepping past a barrier of light.

Zhuo Xun: “This aroma doesn’t harm the human body, but thanks anyway. Staying in there too long really stinks.”

Nie Ling operated frantically across the analyzer console: “It doesn’t propagate its influence through scent; it uses a specialized electromagnetic wave…“

Once everything was verified to be in order, the sealed container slowly slid open.

Gu Jiancheng’s face suddenly shifted: “Something happened to Yan Yan.”

Ji Yueming’s gaze snapped over instantly.

The avatar and the main body shared sensory vision, but ever since his true form followed into the instance dungeon, his connection with that side had been severed. He didn’t know the exact circumstances, yet he could perceive the location of the dungeon.

The Soul-Intoxicating Incense had only just been activated here; the supernatural electromagnetic waves maintained propagation at the speed of light even through physical media. Practically the moment the quarantine was released, reports of anomaly movements poured in from all over.

Ning Xi: “You two head over first. I’ve reserved ample manpower.”

The same went for Chongming Demon King’s side; taking into account their family’s unique situation, Ning Xi had drafted contingency plans beforehand.

Gu Jiancheng spoke at rapid-fire speed: “It’s an instance dungeon constructed by Infinite…“

Blood suddenly trickled from the corner of his lips.

“He’s injured.” Gu Jiancheng wiped away the blood, his expression turning terribly dark.

Yan Yan had a mountain of protective wards on him, and his true body should have been right beside him—under what possible circumstances could he have gotten hurt?

“I’ll head over first.”

Setting aside whatever went wrong with those protective amulets, for Yan Yan to be injured meant either his true body was separated from him, or something had happened to his true body. If the true body met with disaster, the avatar would not be intact right now. Therefore, they were separated.

Fortunately, his avatar could cross over using the shadow he had left on Yan Yan. Regardless of the situation over there, he couldn’t delay a single second longer.

Hurriedly relaying a few lines of what he knew, he melted into shadow, tracing the connection straight into Zhan Yan’s shadow.

…

Zhan Yan’s eyes were reddened with sheer fury.

What on earth was Gu Jiancheng planning? Trading his own life for Zhan Yan’s?

How was he doing after that strike just now? Was he already injured? Where was he right now?

Meow it, this was so infuriating, so infuriating!

Grasping his sword, the structural weak points of the “Judgment Court” dungeon were laid bare before his eyes. That was his own divine ability; as long as he cleaved through it, he could shatter this damned dungeon, yet he didn’t dare strike right now.

He didn’t dare strike, but the dungeon wouldn’t halt.

The stone steps beneath his feet rolled abruptly, dragging him down into another tier.

The moment Zhan Yan entered, he felt his throat being grabbed.

Looking up, the past version of Xiao Gu was glaring at him with a face dripping with venomous hostility: “Did you hand the cipher key over to the Butcher?”

Zhan Yan: …

What in the meowing world was this plotline again?

How was he supposed to get out of this junk? He had zero interest in judging Xiao Gu’s past!

A tiny green dot flared to life on the minimap.

…

“You believe you will triumph?” Atop the balance, Infinite had recovered from its initial shock.

“You fell in with Rong Sui. Last time, I lost my wager against Rong Sui—do you know where I lost?”

Gu Jiancheng did not turn around; he kept his eyes fixed entirely on Zhan Yan inside the stone steps.

Yet Infinite’s voice burrowed into his ears like a venomous curse: “Rong Sui had the resolve to drag the person she loved into death alongside her.”

“Can you?”

Gu Jiancheng could not.

Which was why he had gifted his own substitute to Zhan Yan.

Zhan Yan could not either.

Which was why he could not bring himself to strike, despite knowing full well how to shatter this instance.

Love was the greatest vulnerability of human nature.

It had lost its wager against Rong Sui because it had assumed Rong Sui loved Yang Ran enough to waver.

Yet it would not lose against Deep Shadow.

If their vulnerability was fatal enough, they would never leave this dungeon.

If their vulnerability was not so severe, that worked splendidly as well.

Deep Shadow placed his faith in the brilliance of human nature. The moment he witnessed the fragility of love would be the moment his will cracked, rendering him incapable of resistance.

Would Bai Ze—who had self-destructed his divine abilities for the sake of the world—truly deem the Deep Shadow who slaughtered his way to rank one within Infinite innocent?

…

Zhan Yan: “Listen to my explanation!”

This was merely an illusion of the past; by standard logic, if one didn’t break the dungeon, events would unfold as they originally had…

Deep Shadow: “Fine.”

Infinite: ?

This wasn’t how it was supposed to play out.

On the minimap, the little green dot overlapped with Gu Jiancheng’s past phantom.

Well now. Xiao Gu’s shadow avatar had managed to track him down, but because this was a judicial seat, dungeon rules dictated that he should have been repelled. However, there happened to be another “Deep Shadow” present, allowing Xiao Gu’s shadow avatar to slip directly into his past phantom.

Zhan Yan probed cautiously: “Do you still remember me?”

Deep Shadow looked down at him coldly: “Don’t play tricks. Speak.”

Understood: this was an amnesiac past version of Xiao Gu.

Zhan Yan cleared his throat, feeling troubled.

How was he supposed to know anything about a “cipher key” or a “Butcher”?

Even though he could pull up the records, Xiao Gu had run through far too many instances; he couldn’t dig it up in a short time. Moreover, given Infinite’s cunning, whatever role it assigned him was bound to be one destined for a horrific demise, making an impromptu breakthrough exceedingly difficult to plan.

“I don’t really know how to explain it either…” Zhan Yan furrowed his brows in distress.

Could he disengage from this past memory by dying? But what if he accidentally committed real suicide? And who knew how many segments of the past this obnoxious dungeon would force him to experience… was he supposed to rely on dying repeatedly to break free?

Past Xiao Gu looks so fierce and intimidating, though he’s kinda handsome too.

Deep Shadow stared at him darkly for a moment: “You follow me. I will keep my eyes on you.”

The phantoms of the other players: ???

We all thought you were about to murder him just now.

Zhan Yan: “Oh… okay.”

When Deep Shadow said he would keep his eyes on him, he meant it. While Zhan Yan was still entirely clueless about this dungeon, Deep Shadow hauled him through the mission objectives. Before Zhan Yan could even react, Deep Shadow scooped him up and ran.

Before Zhan Yan realized what was happening, he felt his waist tighten as he was tucked under an arm and carried along at a sprint.

Zhan Yan: …

Was this karmic retribution for scooping Xiao Gu into his mouth and running away in Candle Dragon’s temporal remnant earlier?

Why hadn’t this phantom dungeon broken yet? When would it end? When could he get out? What was he supposed to…

Wait, huh? The dungeon cleared? Why is it even tallying completion rewards for him?

Check the melon entries, check the melon entries.

Oh, I see. Because Xiao Gu’s shadow avatar had entered, the illusion diverged from the true past and could no longer sustain itself. Everything now was being reconstructed based on the shadow avatar’s memories.

No wonder it felt so realistic.

Once the tally completed, Zhan Yan had just exited the instance and hadn’t even gotten a look at what the Infinite lobby looked like when his vision went dark—he was engulfed in shadows and whisked away.

Just before being fully submerged, Zhan Yan faintly caught the voices of other players.

“Is that Deep Shadow?”

“Looks like it… he seems terrifying.”

“It’d be weird if he didn’t; didn’t he slaughter every single player just to clear a dungeon?”

“Shh, do you want to die?!”

“What’s with the person he carried off?”

“Heard he’s a traitor.”

“A traitor walked out of a dungeon alive? Did he bewitch Deep Shadow or something?”

Zhan Yan: …

I don’t have time to listen to your gossip. He still wanted to know how Xiao Gu’s injuries were faring right now.

When he was released from the shadows, he found himself inside a room… he recognized this place. From those years when he was a moth. This was Xiao Gu’s home.

He had remodeled his dwelling inside Infinite to look like his own home.

A pang of heartache involuntarily crept into Zhan Yan’s eyes.

He reached out toward Gu Jiancheng: “Xiao…”

The instant Zhan Yan reached out, his wrist was seized by Deep Shadow and pinned against the wall behind him.

Flowing from Gu Jiancheng’s palm, shadows wrapped around Zhan Yan’s wrist, morphing into handcuffs—one ring cuffing him, the other linked to the wall and merging seamlessly into its surface.

Zhan Yan: …

He knew it! Back during the large-scale escape room event at the Eighteen Scenes of Mount Yin, he had already noticed Xiao Gu had this kind of kink!

Zhan Yan: “Why are you locking me up?”

And now that he was locked up, why hadn’t he let go of him yet?

Deep Shadow slowly raised a brow: “Just now… why were you touching my waist?”

Infinite: ?

I didn’t construct this dungeon for the two of you to indulge in confinement roleplay!

__

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