Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 195: Chapter 195: Xie Yingjie’s Mastery

At four o’clock in the morning.

Countless shadows surged out of the mirrors like cockroaches once again.

When these shadows saw Jiang Yimi, although their expressions were not visible, the sight of a large number of ghostly figures piling up in front of Jiang Yimi indicated that they were clearly surprised.

Even more surprisingly, Bai Wu opened the door.

Outside the door, there were no patrolling security guards or the terrifying Lantern Bearer, and it was pitch-dark outside in the pre-dawn hours, but the act of opening the door signified to these people that some kind of future was about to arrive.

The ghosts moved swiftly, and soon they reached the doorway; as one shadow ventured out, the rest quickly followed suit.

For a moment, all the "cockroaches" that had gathered in the dormitory headed toward the corridor, staring into the darkness yonder.

Before long, the shadows returned to the dormitory en masse.

Jiang Yimi and the souls she had saved seven hundred years ago looked at each other wordlessly. She watched as quite a few of the shadows waved at her, feeling somewhat sad.

The experiences of the past two days felt like a dream. Holding that lantern, she had become like a new Lantern Bearer, guiding each shadow back to the world within the mirror.

Because of what Bai Wu had said earlier, Jiang Yimi knew that it was not yet time to release all these people.

They would have to continue staying inside the mirrors until one day, Bai Wu purified the entire area, resolving the region’s issue with living resources.

And once a completely purified area truly emerged, many wheels of cause and effect would start to turn.

Bai Wu himself was unsure what the High Tower would do in response.

In the end, he could only make a strategic compromise, following the original plan.

That is, to leave the "exam rooms" of the twelve teachers, a place designed to forcibly trap opponents.

As for other areas, he would purify most of the uninhabitable physical rules.

He was reckless in certain matters because he was confident, but he could also become very cautious due to intuition.

The tragedy at Baichuan Middle School did not lie with its principal as the evilest mastermind. The area could not exist in a state of purity.

The truly evil person was the doctor.

The seven-day destruction of Baichuan City and what exactly happened during that time remained to be investigated.

Fortunately, Jiang Yimi could understand.

The next tasks became very simple for Bai Wu. He was very efficient in his work, with no delays, taking Jiang Yimi to various places around the school.

As long as he collected the fragments, it felt as if everything in the area was under control.

All the bizarre rules and strange campus tales seemed to be fully comprehended in an instant.

After collecting four fragments, Bai Wu felt a strong sense of being the ruler over the region.

In the canteen, all sorts of strange objects seemed to turn into food by some rule, as long as they were placed in certain spots.

There weren’t many students in the canteen, but each was in a terrible state.

The issue of wanting but not obtaining, inherently related to desire, saw some students with extreme resentment towards the canteen food being permanently left in the canteen, consuming even worse-than-food... things not fit to be called food.

Now, finally, they were liberated. If this were an RPG game, Bai Wu had no doubt that the goodwill of all the Evil Fallen in the canteen towards him would be off the charts.

Everyone was focused on the violence in the eastern district, the Cursed Woman infesting the area, the endless exams in the teaching building.

Yet, no one had truly understood that it was the Evil Fallen in the canteen who suffered the most, consuming food even darker than nutrition meals, doomed to that fate for seven hundred years. What counted the scary dorm tales? What counted the exams? If they dared, they should come to the canteen to fill their stomachs!

Watching those Evil Fallen hysterically escape the canteen and vomit frantically... Bai Wu recalled the process in which Lin Wurou dissected Elijah.

The stomach of an Evil Fallen seemed very special, with consumed items flowing through their bodies, becoming part of their strength...

With such thoughts, they were truly too pitiful.

"Come to think of it, just like the people in the mirrors, they won’t turn back into humans, will they..." Jiang Yimi said as she looked at the group of Evil Fallen.

"Evil Fallen won’t die of hunger, but humans will. This place only needs you; they... will have to continue living for a while as Evil Fallen. However... it shouldn’t be too long. At least compared to seven hundred years, the time will be very brief."

Jiang Yimi nodded. As Bai Wu had said, she also believed that the day when the school would be "bustling with noise" was not far off.

After eliminating the strange rules in the cafeteria, Bai Wu went to the soccer field and the gymnasium.

Only by approaching did he discover that the two teams on the soccer field were headless. In the basketball hoops, what was stored were their heads.

There might be some thrilling and interesting stories here, but Bai Wu was no longer interested in learning about the past of these beheaded masters.

After he canceled the self-fulfilling rules and the curses of the gymnasium and soccer field, the beheaded masters began playing the Doomsday Head Puzzle game, each starting to search for their own true heads.

Having repaired the central area, Bai Wu moved on to the East District.

A certain sound echoing in the old buildings of the East District dissipated entirely under the influence of the Doomsday Fragment.

These violent individuals finally did not have to live in wrath every day. It was as if someone had suddenly shouted something, and everyone woke up from a dream, like a rude awakening, dropping their weapons.

Evil Fallen can feel sadness and grief; they are entities that pursue their own desires even more than humans do.

At this moment, all the Evil Fallen were rooted to the spot. This area had a strange rule that allowed the Evil Fallen to come back to life after dying, with the purpose of making them fight endlessly.

However, Bai Wu felt that this rule had another use.

"Suppose the Evil Fallen die; as long as their bodies are transported here before they disperse, wouldn’t that be equivalent to... a Hero’s Altar?"

With this in mind, Bai Wu preserved the rules within the East Campus’s teaching buildings.

With that, Baichuan Middle School was considered purified. However, the Evil Fallen were still Evil Fallen, and some areas still had a few strange rules.

To be completely purified, there were just a few final steps to go.

But Bai Wu did not know when those last steps could be realized.

Six o’clock.

The sky was a dark blue, and the street outside the gates of Baichuan Middle School was silent and desolate, devoid of life.

But no one knew exactly how many Evil Fallen were lurking in there.

"Uncle, when will you come to see me next?"

Jiang Yimi had already sensed the separation.

After a serious reflection, Bai Wu said:

"There are many, many places like this school. My purpose lies in making these places as suitable for human habitation as possible. I will be very busy in the future, but I will set aside time occasionally to come and see you."

Bai Wu took out the bird fragment, the flower fragment, and the fish fragment from the Doomsday Fragment.

"These three fragments have the capabilities to initiate regional boundaries, command respect from other Evil Fallen, and purify Evil Fallen. I am giving them to you. You must take good care of them. We are both Guardians in this area we have collectively striven to purify." Jiang Yimi nodded.

Bai Wu gave Jiang Yimi the three fragments, also harboring his own concerns.

If this area faced an external enemy, with the help of the three fragments, at least if the enemy was Evil Fallen, Jiang Yimi would be unbeatable.

After giving all his advice, Bai Wu activated the Return Roulette.

[Current area exploration level, ninety-seven percent. All Doomsday Puzzle fragments in the area obtained. My rating: from one birth two, two begets three, three generates everything. However, philosopher Yan, I must tell you a fact, it is not only the beginning of everything that is difficult, but the middle, the end, and the finish are also difficult.]

How can everything be difficult just at the beginning?

This time, the Enigmatic Eye was very clear in his speech, comparing the exploration outside the Tower to the souls in the mirror.

They survived like cockroaches.

Even with the ability to build refuges, Bai Wu dared not create them, for the unknown power was too terrifying.

Jiang Yimi bid farewell to Bai Wu:

"I really want to go to the High Tower with Uncle and meet more people. You must come to see me."

"I will. Next time I come, I might even bring other people from the High Tower."

"Good, it’s a promise!"

"It’s a promise."

...

...

The High Tower, fifth level.

After the Black Tower meeting dispersed, the ruler of the Xie Family returned to his residence.

Unlike the other families, the Xie Family’s manor was not designed as part of the Black Tower or a garden.

Following the will of the Xie family’s ancestors, their manor was designed as a technological building from the Pre-Tower Era.

And the real ruler of the Xie Family, the ancestor Xie Yingjie, occupied the twentieth floor of this building.

Unlike the other families, whose ancestors hid themselves like monsters, leaving behind only a manor legend.

The descendants of the other seven families all knew one thing: there was a presence in their respective manors, more frightening than the Family Head, but no one aside from the Family Head had ever seen it.

Xie Yingjie was different.

He did not hide in the shadows, nor did he mind being visited by later generations. Instead, he took the role of an enlightener, constantly guiding his descendants from the twentieth floor.

Starting from the seventh generation, the descendants knew nothing of this old ancestor. After all, the ancestor appeared very young and was completely different from what they had imagined.

All they knew was that on the twentieth floor of the Xie Family building resided a learned man of transcendent status.

But most did not associate this person with the true Family Head of the Xie Family; they simply thought his elevated status came from his scholarship.

As for who he really was, why he possessed such profound knowledge, and why he lived on the twentieth floor? These were secrets known only to the Family Head of the Xie Family.

Not long after the meeting ended, Xie Yingjie returned to the twentieth floor.

This was once a level where many scientists had lived together, but now he was the only one here.

Remembering the great purge plan discussed in the meeting, Xie Yingjie’s heart was inclined to refuse it.

The tragedy that occurred ninety years ago had directly set back humanity’s exploratory progress outside the Tower to the very beginning stages.

The deaths of a vast number of top combat forces outside the Tower meant that for the following years, the High Tower’s investigative reports contained almost no information on the blue zones.

It was only after a dozen years that a new batch of experts emerged, and human exploration outside the Tower finally made some progress again.

But now, because of an interference in "business", the other rulers decided to begin a purge. Once the purge was complete, it would mean the combat power of the High Tower would be significantly reduced once again.

Ninety years ago, because of a certain "business" deal, Xie Yingjie had expended too much effort in the research of a key device.

As a result, he was too late to deal with the aftermath of that purge meeting, leading to a loss of combat power from the High Tower.

After over a hundred years of tuning, research, and even "business", Xie Yingjie’s creation was nearing the testing phase.

It was soon to be put to use, so facing the purge plan once again, Xie Yingjie decided to try to change things.

If someone from the High Tower could really reach the red zones and obstruct transactions between the powers outside the Tower and the rulers, it would mean humanity’s civilization had reached a new milestone. He would certainly not purge at such a time.

So Xie Yingjie paused for a moment and dialed the first phone call.

The female ruler of the Wang Family.

The call was answered quickly.

"Seeing the Xie character, I wondered if I had seen it wrong. It’s quite rare for you, a weapon research fanatic, to actually find the time to call me."

The ruler of the Wang Family, with the single name Jue. Among the eight rulers, she might be a woman, but her say in the group was extremely significant.

The survival battle from the seventy-two to the final eight years ago, her tactics had sent shivers down the spines of many men.

"Is it about the meeting?"

"Yes," Xie Yingjie replied calmly.

"If you had different views during the meeting, why not express them then and there?"

"It’s not that I had different views, rather that I’ve come up with a more secure plan, which I hadn’t thought of at the time," Xie Yingjie maintained his steady tone.

Wang Jue asked:

"Why call me?"

"You’re just the first one I called, because your opinion is quite important."

"I heard Professor Xie was quite the straight man back in the day. It seems that’s not quite the case."

"In seven hundred years, people inevitably change."

"Let’s hear it then, what’s this plan?"

Xie Yingjie didn’t respond directly but instead posed a question:

"Do you think trading with external forces beyond the Tower constitutes a win-win situation?"

"Not really; it’s just replacing part of what we already have with something else we haven’t owned before."

"I think so too. We’re all trading with external forces. The Zhong Family’s fat pig likes wealth and pleasure, the Yan Family’s perverts enjoy human experimentation, and I like weapons."

Before Xie Yingjie could finish, Wang Jue actually laughed:

"A fat pig? A pervert? Now I see why you called me first, because you know I detest them."

"I detest them too. In fact, there’s no need for us to directly cleanse the High Tower’s strength, because we all know that ninety-nine percent of the High Tower’s strength can’t interfere with our business, and the external forces are even more aware of how weak humanity is, hence their demands are always exorbitant."

"Indeed, but we’re powerless. They hold the dominance. We are the demanders, they are the suppliers, and we have no chips to improve our standing."

"No, we do. If we insist on cleansing the High Tower’s strength, then we will never be able to negotiate on equal terms with the external forces."

"So what are you suggesting?"

"Finding out who disrupted the casino business isn’t hard, because whoever has such capacity must be among the top figures of the two forces, and then we recruit them."

Wang Jue fell silent for a while; there were indeed some unreasonable aspects to Xie Yingjie’s suggestion.

"What if we can’t recruit them?"

"Recruitment is just a ruse, the real aim is to thwart our business partners. Aren’t you curious about how they managed to destroy the casino? Could they possess some secrets? If we also knew these secrets, it would mean we’d hold the opportunity to be on an equal footing with our business partners, and perhaps our dealings could proceed more smoothly." frёewebnoѵel.ƈo๓

Xie Yingjie’s tone remained even, as though he was discussing something extremely mundane yet utterly correct:

"We can even dispatch our own team to track and observe certain High Tower forces. If we anger the external forces... heh, who can prove it? They will only resent Qin for not cleansing his own strength, which doesn’t affect our business. On the contrary, we can use this opportunity to thoroughly understand our business partners’ ’weaknesses’."

(The next Chapter is the final one of this volume, with the second volume following, but it won’t be available until tomorrow morning.)