Volume 2, Chapter 25 (Chapter 63): A Brave Idea

‘Again?’

‘Just why are they so obsessed with this damn game?” Lu Yibei frowned.

Not long ago, Yibei had a vision when she encountered an oil painting. She saw a boy named Zhao Ke being bullied, and through this game, he summoned a strange entity and asked it to help kill his classmates who bullied him.

And Zhao Ke’s wish has indeed been fulfilled.

But then what?

Lu Yibei felt something was missing.

The closure of this high school must be inextricably linked to the game.

Yibei’s eyes were still scorching hot, and her sense of hunger was getting stronger. Strangely enough, she didn’t burst into a blazing heat as she did last time.

She wasn’t sure if her power had been exhausted or if it was purposely keeping itself at bay.

‘I knew it! I can’t rely on something like this,’ Yibei cursed silently. ‘If I meet that girl in my dream again, I’m going to request several changes!’

As Yibei was cursing her powers, Sixian watched Pharoah and the others with trepidation.

Although they looked the same, the more Sixian looked at them, the more she felt that they were acting unusually.

Ordinary people would be terrified to see that many shadowy figures rushing down the corridor.

However, they didn’t panic. Instead, they walked into the classroom with them and prepared the setup for a game of Plate Deity!

Yibei was right. They became urban legends themselves.

“Shall I explain the rules of the game?” Pharoah spoke. “Alright, calm down!”

The scene before Sixian was all too familiar to her.

The ground was covered with white paper scribbled with writing, and a porcelain plate was placed on the white paper. Four people sat around the plate, their backs facing different directions.

Behind them, there was a circle of desks and chairs. Dim, yellow candlelight shone from the four corners of the classroom, casting shadows on the ground.

This was the exact scene when they were playing the Plate Deity game more than an hour ago.

Daydream asked about trifling gossip… brightly interrupting Pharoah from time to time… Brazil is doing warm-up exercises by the side…

Sixian felt as if she had entered a time machine.

It was as if the things she had experienced the past hour were just a nightmare, and she was back in reality with her acquaintances, no, friends…

Sixian anxiously looked to her side, and after seeing Yibei studying the situation, she knew that what had happened was real and not just a silly old nightmare.

“For the game, it’s best if there are five or six people. Too many people will disrupt the ritual. After all, the plate can only hold so many hands, haha! When the game starts, everyone must close their eyes and softly recite, [O’ Plate Deity, please reveal yourself!]”

Sixian’s heart trembled as she listened to the eerily similar explanation.

“Mistress?”

Mistress? Yibei thought.

“What’s wrong?” Yibei whispered back.

“This is the exact scene when we first came here… It’s like time has flowed backwards.”

She felt a sense of urgency to tell Yibei this information.

Yibei remained silent and turned her head towards the sandbag puppet known as Pharoah.

She didn’t know what to do, but she knew that she had a delicious meal when she posed as the Plate Deity.

As for the true nature of the game, you won’t know until it starts.

“Let’s see what happens,” Yibei whispered to Sixian.

It’s not like they could do anything. Hundreds of shadowy figures lurked outside the classroom—one against one hundred or one against four—and Yibei knew what the best option was.

“So, those are the rules!” Pharoah spoke. “Ready? Everyone sit down and put your hands on the plate.”

The four sandbag puppets crept closer towards the plate, and countless arms sprawled out of the sandbag, stacking on top of the plate.

Seeing that many disjointed, disfigured arms piled up like a hill, Yibei couldn’t help but shudder.

Even her coat trembled.

“Don’t worry,” she said as she stroked her coat. “I won’t let them get you.”

If the coat becomes too uncomfortable, it could break the current façade.

Sixian heard Yibei’s whispers and nodded, “Come on! Let’s get started!”

Yibei looked at her quizzically and said, ‘My god, she’s brave.’

Seeing that Yibei was hesitating, the sandbag known as Pharoah turned towards her and growled, “Don’t be afraid; it’s just a game! If anything happens, we’ll protect you.”

The sandbag known as Daydream nudged Pharoah, “Excuse me! You’ve got a girlfriend here! You aren’t allowed to flirt with other girls!”

As she spoke, she cast a malicious look towards Yibei, saying, “You have to watch out!”

‘I don’t like men,’ Yibei sighed internally. ‘Besides, I don’t think… I’m interested in urban legends like you.’

Resisting the bile accumulating in her throat, Yibei stepped forward and put her hands on top of the pile of countless palms.

The hands were strangely rough, and Yibei’s eyelids couldn’t stop twitching.

Legend has it that when the left eye twitches, fortune occurs; when the right eye twitches, misfortune occurs.

But what if both eyes twitch?

“We’re starting,” Pharoah said. “O’ Plate Deity, please reveal yourself…”

“O’ Plate Deity…”

As soon as Yibei spoke, she could feel her powers being sucked away, like when the statue of Acala, the Immovable, syphoned her magic out.

She was stunned and glanced at Sixian. Sixian seemed to be enthralled once again; her complexion was pale, and a hazy mist flowed from her body and rushed towards the centre of the plate.

Yibei continued to chant.

“O’ Plate Deity, please reveal yourself…”

As she continued chanting, she felt a strong pain in her eyes.

In her vision, the piece of paper under the plate suddenly burst into flames.

The voices of the four suddenly became distorted and weird, and their chants turned into screams.

Beyond the screams, something seems to whisper out, like a woman’s mournful weep.

“On the previous night, there was a woman with a straw hat and noodles. She had a handkerchief, a shirt, and a skirt. She is known as Zigu.

An inexplicable sense of familiarity rushed into Yibei as she heard the whispers beyond the screams.

The screams gradually became more and more intense.

And it stopped.

The moment of dead silence seemed like an eternity, and suddenly, the screams returned, and the volume increased tenfold.

The screaming blinded Yibei for a while, and once again, beyond the screams, she could hear the whisper again, and another whisper…

A whisper erupted from within her body.

“There is a mountain, and there is a woman. Look, there is a severe drought that spreads across the land. She is called Nuba, and she is the goddess of droughts.”

The ancient whisper was exceptionally loud within her body, like a bell that rang in an empty school.

Lu Yibei was stunned. She suddenly understood why the whispers felt so familiar.

Because those were the exact words used in the incantations to stop her own transformation!

The whispers fought for dominance as if they were trying to overpower one another.

At this moment, she had a bold idea.