Doomsday Jigsaw Puzzle

Chapter 245: Chapter 49: Puzzle Master·59

He looked up, but all he could see was the dark silhouette of a figure with thick black hair that flashed past.

It seemed an extension of the choking sensation and eerie coldness he felt, which was not just about being in this place, but as if he had never left.

This time, there seemed to be no way to conceal the vagueness that was setting in...

The distance to that hidden threat grew increasingly closer, as white arms reached out from the silty depths of the lake...

And yet, it was a continuation of God Granny’s memories, not a new segment of his own... The sudden realization was terrifying.

The black hair strands twisted around him once again, their power growing stronger, pulling him down, compared to earlier

It was only an instant, swallowed again by the lake, a repeat of the prior scene...

The shocking inverted reflection opened up once more.

God Granny could only control the new groom, powerless to extract any affectionate response from the strange old woman.

For God Granny, who did not appear to take much interest in this newcomer, the entire scene was extremely ominous.

From the holes in the entire skull-like face, which looked out with an uncanny resemblance, oozing black hair could be faintly seen; there were only holes, one after another, no eyes. There was no groom, no new husband, for this wedding couple.

What on earth was that thing called God Granny?

If God Granny had indeed experienced being dragged into the depths of the lake and entangled in those strands of hair, then she couldn’t possibly still be alive...

This God Granny might not be half alive for all Wu Jiu knew; her memories revealed too much information to be sure.

"What exactly is this demonic thing coming to our village?"

There was a pair of resentful eyes staring directly at him, under that red head covering on the path below, but Wu Jiu could just barely sense it.

Dressed in the red bridal gown, the young bride slowly turned around, masked by a red head covering that obscured her face, which was unable to be seen properly within the silent courtyard.

And in the midst of worshipping as a married couple, he found her, the God Granny, whom he did not want to provoke again, a chilly memory of God Granny.

Unaware of what he had already done, Wu Jiu had violated a taboo.

The word "danger" floated above your head only when you were in imminent danger, not during a game.

White mist’s every word was different from what God Granny said to Wu Jiu.

"Only the dead can lead you out of here, it will definitely lead to death, wherever it is, an evil curse."

"A choice?"

"Walking is not the same as leaving... *cough cough cough* you must make the choice... walking in from the outside... a foreigner."

"How can you tell me how to leave, what is it?"

"Have you lost your way, foreigner?"

A grotesque smile surfaced as God Granny watched Wu Jiu.

He recognized this street, this village with no end in sight, once again.

Wu Jiu unraveled the shocking reversed image, from choking on the resentful coldness and suffocation in front of him.

...The water plants, tightly wound around him, completely shattered... the lake water and its resentful thoughts dissipated with countless disappearing hands.

The outcome was the same, although the two individuals had distinctly different approaches to investigation compared to the white mist; eventually, they all came to the same conclusion.

"Is this world just a strange thing in my head?... Is this originally a spirit world?"

Because Wu Jiu was being gradually overtaken by these elements, still able to hold onto reasoning for the time being, he could quickly come to think of something else as he was in the depths of the lake.

Suffocation, an eerie cold, sadness.

The white arms of grief came closer and closer; as his body sank deeper, being pulled by the water grasses, Wu Jiu was terrified. Even at this very moment, he remained very calm.

"Why does this happen every time I fall into this fragment of memory? What on earth has God Granny gone through?" ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom

He would very rarely let himself fall into such a dangerous realm.

No matter how hard he tried over the past seven hundred years, he couldn’t let his wounded heart feel the faintest touch of fear and terror from such occurrences.

He was able to fully grasp his emotions; his emotions were not the same as the dense fog around him.

These ghastly pale arms entwined around his body, his hands being pulled inexorably into the lake... it would inevitably lead to horror if he sensed it directly, bound by these countless resentful thoughts.

Evil spirits reach out their arms through the cracks, stretching into the human world.

...Countless hands emerge from the sludge...

They would never stop dragging Erleipu into the depths of the lake, entangling his ankles with their numberless hair strands; in the lake where there is no watergrass, only the resentment has transformed the water into something bizarre.

Erleipu was in the cold shadow of the lake waters, his surroundings transforming into something entirely different... but within a second, he realized something horrifying.

He really wanted to know what this ugly old woman had been through, what she might know about something.

The God Granny startled Erleipu with her sinister upside-down reflection. This time it was accidental.

It seemed like he was just one of those dark memories from the outside world, a bystander or a stranger, not someone who would get himself trapped.

Erleipu has always been roaming within the memories of the crowd, all along...

Although he was not fully capable of resisting at times, even without the proper restraints and twisted words and sequences,

Erleipu had gained no small amount of strength from the deception of the 32 sequences, never giving up on these types of memories bringing negative emotions.

He could make one recall the darkest, most sinister memories of evil and, perhaps the memories that bring the utmost fear and sorrow.

Sinister inversion.

He could not have imagined such a situation, not at all... it was not death.

To him, death was just a chance to start anew, a change of identities; the Soul Transfer always left something behind for him.

Erleipu was full of emotions, though still very unfamiliar with things that inspired fear, despite this condition.

He liked to toy with the hearts of the derisive; to him, rules were meaningless, he was mad, evil.

He clung to this person very persistently, convinced himself that he was this other person, that his mortal enemy, ultimately, was the sickness of death. Sadly, the other person also had himself as an archenemy. freēwēbnovel.com

He seemed to be modeled after someone who had once been a swindler – the one Erleipu enjoyed most – but he himself had forgotten.

Erleipu’s own true side had completely disappeared.

Every revealed side of Erleipu was different from the other; he still had a following of disciples at Bai Chuan School, such as Dedan, Violet, Lily, and Elyria.

The most distinct trait was that he would see ghosts when he talked, and see people when he chatted.

Erleipu and the white fog seemed very similar in many places.

He stepped into a scene where the white fog by comparison had something even simpler and more straightforward, without the slightest suffering – this position had a very good lineage.

This thread was already very evident; the spirit hall had only one coffin.

Wu Jiu walked into the spirit hall, thinking...

"Certainly, I must delve deeper into this area, I have to find that little girl, the White Fog will surely not leave here," said Wu Jiu.

Wu Jiu felt this paper person was himself returning, but the smiling face was genuinely terrifying; suddenly, the paper person’s bland face turned into one that makes someone’s skin crawl with goosebumps.

"The thought is, moving forward to that lake... just entering the white house? Leaving here? Just entering the red house?"

Wu Jiu said:

Although the red mansion was filled with the cheery sound of suona music, the atmosphere was the same. Standing outside the red mansion, Wu Jiu pointed at the paper doll of the night color.

But that very sound of suona music instilled a sense of panic in one’s heart, for despite the obvious absence of anyone in the spirit hall, a paper doll stood outside the white spirit hall, pointing north toward the lake.

One paper doll pointed southward into the night, while another pointed northward toward the lake—two paper dolls at this time.

Guiding them step by step, Wu Jiu led them between the red mansion and the white mansion.

The moment Wu Jiu walked out from the paper mansion, one could catch a glimpse of a gloomy-faced paper doll wearing a red cotton-padded jacket, its hand pointing in a certain direction with a panic-inducing whiteness.

These paper dolls were actually starting to help Wu Jiu, which was even more thought-provoking.

The very reason for this mimicry was... talking to the paper dolls in line would have been an unfathomable thought, not even a guess at the head of the white fog—a complete brain-teaser.

He had only known of paper dolls to bring joy to the River God; they were but a sight to see. But the vendetta of a strange creature in the lake...

These paper dolls had all actually come from somewhere, and although one might guess the white fog was the origin based on their appearance, it did not matter where the street or the paper doll’s head was. Erleipu had underscored a key observation within the white fog.

"...Perhaps I can help you merge with my companions or enable me to leave, if I could," said Erleipu, looking out for the white fog.

"Perhaps you can help me find a way out of here, as you are indeed capable of movement, but there’s no scent of evil on you," he addressed the paper dolls.

Therefore, Wu Jiu placed the paper dolls inside the rooms instead of leaving them outside the door, as he sensed rain was about to fall within the cloudy night sky.

Wu Jiu had long since decided to commence studying the white fog, unlike the present fog.

"...The white fog seems always able to communicate with the evil fallers, even possibly allowing passage through," he murmured.

Wu Jiu’s attitude had changed long ago; following the friendly Liu under a curfew bell, who transformed into one of many evil fallers, he could have explored much more with the white fog.

Evil fallers are simply evil fallers, people are people, that was what Wu Jiu always said after the first time he emerged from the Tower with the white fog. You can’t forever befriend an evil faller.

Wu Jiu had come to understand that evil fallers are not necessarily the absolute evil; he could emerge from the Tower with the white fog many times.

These paper dolls are indeed too shadowy to consider. Originally, Wu Jiu thought very much like Liu Hu to draw the sword and slash at the paper dolls.

"Would there be some abnormal behavior at this time, if it were about the white fog?" he pondered as he began substituting for the white fog.

They need not worry about him at all... He was only Wu Jiu, in the end.

The white fog worried much about Wu Jiu.

What was that queue? Why was there a queue?

Having eyes like Erleipu certainly made the white fog very intriguing; one could easily slip into the scene of that mysterious hidden figure, especially since it was so capable of bewitching people, it had to have some inexplicable power.

In fact, the mystery was not only that of the hidden figure but also of the white fog itself.

...

...

The white fog and Wu Jiu should still be undergoing their ghostly trials against the wall, as he watched.

The hidden figure was utterly unimaginable, lacking any clear clue, and Wu Jiu, along with the white fog, were determined to find out.

"This place is much more dangerous than I had anticipated, far beyond my predictions. The fact that this is also a manifestation is indeed a fog of water, and I fear my two vessels," Dedan admitted, a clear understanding of the information gap.

He was still in search of the correct answer; a twofold leap in his tumbling strength only confirmed that the hidden figure indeed possessed extraordinary abilities, not less than those of the white fog and the hidden figure’s cryptic process.

Although Erleipu was not a con man like those swindlers, he was capable of outwitting the opposition with his strength—simply a complete victory over some deception, in the comparison between the white fog and the hidden figure’s intricate process.

This damn body... it’s no use anymore, he decided to give coffin-making with pear wood a try, looking at this pear wood coffin material.

There’s no photo in the spirit hall that showed any sign of experiencing the madness-inducing pressure of those two dangerous underwater trials, the spirit medium concluded, not necessarily having to reveal everything.

He had come to organize the funeral at that white mansion, leaving the red one far behind.

Chu Qing was not necessarily the connection, but somehow it was related.

All these people, the paper mansion owner, the newlyweds, God Granny, these people... they all have something mysterious with the lake.

One could be certain that something horrifying must exist in the lake, given this point of concealment.

She was like a rigor mortis corpse, mechanically moving, continuing with her husband’s worship without speaking a word, the new bride.

"The answer of the spirit hall being a partition is not the correct answer, because only with death can you evade it, that’s why you don’t really exist, the God Granny told me... all of your memories are from the same person."

The concealment did not necessarily mean he had collected anything good.

He feared there’d be no return, and he was definitely not doubtful of using this power again.

But he dared not use that terrifying power again, and when he realized the actual situation, he found his ankle was perfectly intact without a scratch.

Erleipu felt a mocking intent though he was clearly motionless, without any visible expression.

Staring at Erleipu were the eyes of the new groom, hollow as if they were pits, while the new bride’s red headdress was facing Erleipu, just like old times, worshipping the sky and earth in that manner.

Erleipu had returned to the original scene once again.

This could finally resolve the terrifying, evil shadow.

But even though the distance to the lake seemed unchanged and eternally constant, he was almost breaking down, feeling very far from the lakebed.

Distorted as if the world was spinning, he couldn’t swim out no matter how, the distance to the lakebed and the lake’s surface wasn’t that far.

Erleipu began to swim upwards desperately, ignoring the unbearable pain.

In an instant, his ankle was cut off; he was actually a ruthless person, Erleipu realized his way of thinking was wrong.

"Such abilities are absolutely troublesome and are definitely wrong terms. It’s immediately perfect jargon."

... those heads will heal very quickly, filling in.

... even though they seemingly had their own will, those heads that were cut might just be tied up and entwined around his ankle, as though they had intentions.

Very soon he realized that the original plan was to cut those heads... his arm was like a scythe in an instant, dangerously sharp.

Using the strange clause to make a definitive cut, Erleipu acted decisively; otherwise, all abilities would become ineffective.

Convinced that he was facing an extremely powerful supernatural entity, a being far stronger than himself, relying on his rich experience and the spirit layer power, Erleipu recognized the evil shadow as a presence.

The more he neared this lakebed, the weaker his own power felt, Erleipu sensed as his consciousness started to unravel and disperse.

The landscape before his eyes had not changed at all; no matter what he did, the evil shadow would not allow Erleipu to desperately want it to be gone.

"Resolve! Resolve!"

He had to find some weaker bodies to inhabit, relying on the soul-shifting art, as his original perfect physique was now badly damaged to the point of being unbearable, having directly permeated the soul energy in that baptism.

He recalled what he had experienced before reaching the Sixth Level at this very moment.

It felt as though he could visibly seep soul energy through... especially the icy lake water, it was like his lungs were about to burst with the agony.

He couldn’t even breathe underwater, he wasn’t holding onto any human-like body; what kind of body did he have? Erleipu couldn’t think further.

"Release!"