The effect was evident. Su Er gently patted the child’s head one last time, then straightened up, ready to leave. Suddenly, the child grabbed the flower snake and started hissing.
Su Er said, “Be good. I’ll come back to see you.”
The child flailed the snake around wildly.
Remembering the child couldn’t understand human language, Su Er’s face darkened. Imitating the butler’s demeanor, he stared coldly at the child’s hand clutching the snake.
The child tilted his head. Past experience told him that if he didn’t let go, he’d get hit. So, seizing the last chance, he smoothed down the snake’s scales a bit before reluctantly releasing it.
The flower snake escaped the devil’s grip and quickly slithered behind Su Er, no longer the intimidating creature it was earlier when hissing for blood.
Just before stepping out the door, Su Er glanced back at the child sucking his finger. It struck him as odd—if the child were dangerous, he seemed somewhat afraid of people. At the very least, he hadn’t tried to snatch the egg from Su Er’s hand. But if he were truly weak… even the flower snake didn’t dare act up around him.
Lost in thought, Su Er stepped outside and immediately locked eyes with Ji Heng and the others approaching from not far away.
“You guys came to see the child too?”
Ji Heng replied, “Something like that.”
Wei Jun wasn’t nearly as calm. Not long ago, he had confidently claimed Su Er was just yearning for familial warmth—now he felt like he’d been slapped in the face. He sighed and pointed something out gloomily: “There are countless dungeons. The chances of running into him again are slim.”
“I know,” Su Er nodded. “Just planting a seed, that’s all.”
Whether it sprouts depends on fate.
Ji Heng offered some reassurance: “Spirits live long lives. There’s plenty of time for reunions.”
Su Er nodded again. “I’ll also try to encounter more Hosts. The sooner I rack up enough points, the sooner I can leave.”
Standing off to the side, Wei Jun was struck by how dangerous people could be—more so than ghosts—and tried to change the topic: “…So what exactly is that kid?”
Su Er shrugged. “I’ve already inhaled several breaths around him, and he’s still not as full of yin energy as the snake.”
Wei Jun then brought up the possibility that the child had tried to poison them.
Su Er, who’d missed lunch, looked genuinely surprised. “He really kept himself busy.”
Starting fires outside his room and trying to poison people… That’s some impressive ‘professional ability’ for such a young age.
“Fortunately…” Wei Jun took a deep breath and glanced toward the house with a complicated expression. “He’s already gotten his retribution.”
Given Su Er’s talent for stirring trouble, the kid would probably get himself killed early on.
The others seemed to share the same thought. The looks they gave Su Er were full of unspoken meaning.
Ji Heng said, “Let’s start by investigating his background.” He paused, then added, “We don’t have much time.”
The brief reprieve was quickly replaced by tension.
The situation was indeed becoming increasingly unfavorable. Two poisoned players were resting in their rooms, and the weaker the player, the more aggressively their snakes eyed them. If they couldn’t recover in time, they’d become food sooner or later. Cao Ledao was even worse—he didn’t even have a snake to ward off danger. Including the players who died in the ruined temple, nearly a third of them were already gone.
In the corridor—
Wang Xun was holding a beautiful concubine while admiring the flowers. Seeing Ji Heng and the others approach, he didn’t have time to greet them before hearing them ask about the child. His face instantly darkened. He waved his hand, and the concubine, sensing the tension, quietly stepped away.
Exhaling heavily, Wang Xun began recounting an old story.
“The child’s birth mother was my first wife. She’d had two miscarriages before, and the doctors said the chances of this one surviving weren’t great either. She often went out to pray to the gods, hoping for a safe delivery.” At this point, Wang Xun’s expression held a trace of fear. “But on the day of delivery, the child lived—while the mother didn’t.”
Song Jiayue couldn’t help saying, “That’s not the child’s fault.”
“I’m not unreasonable,” Wang Xun revealed another part of the story. “When we buried her, her skin had turned blue. A few days later, we heard that the midwife who delivered him had also died. And ever since his birth, strange accidents kept happening around the estate… Thankfully, this month is almost over. Once it is, the bad luck will be gone too.”
They’d heard the servants mention earlier that the child would be sent to a temple next month. Wang Xun now emphasized the timing again. A player quickly asked, “Why wait until this month ends?”
Wang Xun explained, “Two years ago, I wanted to send him away, but Tianyi Gua sent a message saying the child and I still shared unresolved fate. He must stay in the mansion for four full years before he can leave.”
Ji Heng suddenly looked up. “Tianyi Gua?”
Wang Xun nodded. “Back then, strange things kept happening at home, so I went to consult the master. But once I entered the residence, I couldn’t find the main hall no matter how I walked. In the end, it was a snake that led me out.”
He sighed deeply. “The master truly is a reclusive sage.”
Ji Heng seemed to have thought of something else and looked at him. “You invited us here for another reason, didn’t you?”
Wang Xun scratched his head awkwardly.
All that stuff about suspecting his concubines were fox spirits was just an excuse. He simply wanted to ensure that nothing went wrong in this final month.
Ji Heng said, “Unfortunately, our skills are limited. Some things are beyond our power.”
Wang Xun’s smile immediately vanished, and his fingers tensed nervously. “What kind of problem?”
“It’s complicated,” Ji Heng replied. “But we’ll stay a few more days. Since we’ve met, we’ll at least ensure your safety.”
Wang Xun quickly clasped his hands in gratitude.
Wei Jun quietly pulled Su Er aside. “Did you notice it too?”
Su Er was just puzzled why someone like Ji Heng, who rarely spoke much, would go to such lengths to explain things now.
Wei Jun spoke in a low voice: “There’s something off about that kid. The butler and servants have been abusing him for years—something’s bound to happen in that house eventually. And when it does, won’t it make us look incompetent?”
The Wang family looked powerful and influential. If they were to get angry, they would definitely make the players suffer for it.
Su Er caught on: “So if something does go wrong, as long as Wang Xun is still alive, he’ll think it was thanks to us.”
He might even grow more reliant on them, seeking some kind of emotional support.
Wei Jun hadn’t brought it up for no reason—he was still concerned about Su Er after what happened in the haunted house, when the old man attacked him. To reassure him, he added: “Tianyi Gua puts on a holy front, but don’t be too afraid of them. Look at Ji Heng—he acts all calm and collected, but when you compare them, doesn’t he seem even scarier?”
That… kind of made sense.
Ji Heng wasn’t all talk, either. He had Wang Xun move into the room next to his.
While Wang Xun was busy calling for servants to pack and move his belongings, Ji Heng glanced over at Wei Jun and Su Er, as if he’d overheard their conversation.
Wei Jun didn’t flinch at all, calmly continuing their discussion about the dungeon: “The only information the host gave us was to change fate—maybe that’s the condition for clearing the stage?”
The most frustrating part of this dungeon was that the host hadn’t stated the objective clearly.
Su Er pointed at himself.
Wei Jun frowned. He was an exception—even if he didn’t change, he wouldn’t die. He looked at the others, silently asking if anyone had had a similar experience.
Everyone shook their heads in turn. Song Jiayue spoke up: “The host is unpredictable, and the clear condition is so vague. This is the first time I’ve encountered a dungeon like this.”
Su Er had been watching Ji Heng closely and felt that he was hiding something. When one player’s snake suddenly started hissing again, demanding blood, the group dispersed. Su Er quickly caught up to Ji Heng: “You do know something, don’t you?”
“Just a guess,” Ji Heng replied. “I still need a few more things to confirm it.”
After speaking, he let out a low sigh. It was heavy, filled with a mix of emotions—Su Er could only detect a deep sense of helplessness.
Suddenly, Ji Heng reached out and grabbed a snake that was trying to sneak-attack. With a steady expression, he slit his finger and gave the flower-patterned snake two drops of blood. The snake still wasn’t satisfied, but it didn’t try to strike again.
In contrast, Su Er’s snake was much better behaved—it hadn’t recovered from the trauma of being manhandled by the child earlier.
The blood on Ji Heng’s finger quickly clotted. He said, “Come with me to meet someone.”
“You really couldn’t use your brain for once? Good thing we found him—if the kid had disappeared for good, you and I would’ve been finished!”
From a distance, they could hear the butler scolding a servant, jabbing a finger at his nose.
The butler had his back to them and didn’t realize who had arrived. The servant noticed Su Er and Ji Heng and quietly gave him a heads-up.
The butler turned around and nearly jumped out of his skin: “Gentlemen… is there something I can help you with?”
Ji Heng got straight to the point: “We want to ask about something.”
The butler forced a smile. “Please, go ahead.”
Ji Heng’s gaze turned cold and sharp, pressuring him: “Has anything unusual happened with the young master recently?”
The butler’s expression shifted instantly. He looked away guiltily and flatly denied it.
“Think carefully before answering.” Ji Heng narrowed his eyes. “If I let your master investigate this…”
“No, no, please don’t!” The butler waved his hands in panic, checked that no one was around, and then glared at the servant. “It’s all this idiot’s fault!”
The servant didn’t dare talk back and timidly said, “To be honest… the young master did go missing for a while.”
They learned from the servant that it had happened about half a month ago. The butler suddenly realized the child was gone. Normally, this servant was the one delivering food, but everyone in the manor treated the child like a cursed star and only visited once every few days. The boy usually resorted to eating bark and roots when starving. So when he disappeared, they didn’t even know when it had happened.
The butler explained, “There’s a hole in the outer wall meant for dogs. We never got around to fixing it. We found a piece of cloth there and figured he crawled out through it.”
Though the master didn’t care much for the boy—more like loathed and feared him—Tianyi Gua had specifically instructed that the child had to stay in the mansion for four full years. If he’d really run off, they wouldn’t be able to shoulder the consequences.
Su Er found it ironic: “You barely feed him—weren’t you afraid he’d starve to death?”
The butler replied, “You don’t understand. At first, we did give him regular meals. But the child only ever ate the meat. I once saw him eating a dead rat—it had been poisoned! And he was completely fine afterward!”
Even now, the memory made the butler shudder. He patted his chest and continued, “Thankfully, he came back on his own.”
Ji Heng asked, “When did he return?”
The butler answered, “The night you all arrived.” And still didn’t forget to flatter: “Maybe it was fate—your presence brought us a stroke of luck.”
He’d been terrified every day, afraid the master would discover the child was missing.
Ji Heng promised not to mention this to anyone, and both the butler and the servant breathed sighs of relief before going back to their tasks.
Once it was just the two of them again, Ji Heng was quiet for a while. Then, he curled his lips into a faint smile: “Doesn’t it all seem a bit too convenient?”
Su Er nodded.
He hadn’t played many dungeons yet, but even he knew that the game liked to scatter clues, letting players piece things together themselves. But this child’s storyline—it felt like it had been handed to them on a silver platter.
First he disappeared, then returned on his own, and finally even showed up in front of them voluntarily.
Ji Heng led him toward where the child lived, chuckling, “Maybe it really is being handed to us for free.”
As they talked, they arrived outside the courtyard gate. The child was digging up tree roots. When he saw Su Er, his eyes lit up—clearly thinking he had brought something tasty or fun again. “Fa… Father Su Er…”
Another person was standing in the yard—at first glance, dressed in flowing robes with the aura of an immortal.
Su Er hesitated a moment before walking over. The child started stroking the flower snake, which looked completely dead inside.
The Divine Seer’s eyes were dark-rimmed, clearly sleep-deprived. The moment his gaze landed on Su Er, his expression turned terrifyingly cold.
Su Er had no idea how he’d offended the man and could only shoot a questioning look at Ji Heng.
Ji Heng said slowly, “If the only way to leave this world is by changing one’s fate, then your appearance is an anomaly.”
Usually, if players failed to clear the game within seven days, they would die horribly. And those deaths always had a cause—they triggered a fatal condition. In this scenario, the condition was clear: if you didn’t alter your fate, you’d die according to your fortune.
But Su Er wouldn’t die even without altering his fate. In other words, he was basically exploiting a bug.
From the start, Ji Heng had suspected that the Divine Seer’s vanishing act wasn’t for show—it was because he was trying to patch that bug.
Su Er cautiously asked, “So the child appearing on his own is because…”
“You have the fate of solitude and doom in marriage. This child, however, is doomed to bring death to all six close kin—his fate is far more terrifying than yours,” the Divine Seer snapped his sleeve with a whoosh, “If you even have a shred of compassion and form a positive bond with him, his fate can devour yours.”
Su Er was baffled—fates could devour each other? He swallowed. “If the fate gets altered, does that count as completing the condition?”
The Divine Seer had no patience for explanation. He coldly accused, “Don’t you realize I was helping you cheat!”
Tianyi Gua had no ability to change Su Er’s doomed fate. If the fate didn’t change, Su Er would remain stuck in the world, which broke the game’s rules. But as the host of this game, the Divine Seer had to find a way to maintain balance.
At that moment, Su Er finally understood the meaning behind Ji Heng’s earlier sigh. A glaring chance to leave the dungeon had once stood right in front of him.
“But he tried to burn me alive…”
“That was to get your attention.” The child’s fate was inherently twisted; by nature, he was evil and could only do bad things.
“I was trying to help you leave the game early—have him change your fate.” The Divine Seer’s calm façade finally cracked, fury surging in his eyes. “And what did you do? You changed his fate instead!”
Su Er glanced at the child dumbly playing with the snake, remembering him shouting, “Father Su Er! Everyone here is trash!” He lowered his head in shame. “I just… taught him one sentence.”
The Divine Seer’s fingers trembled. “If nothing had interfered, he would have grown into the next Ghost King within ten years—his arrival would overturn this world and evolve it into a brand-new dungeon. During that evolution, this place would temporarily be used as a beginner-level dungeon.”
Su Er’s lingering confusion began to clear. No wonder the child was still so weak.
“But according to the latest divination, before he even got a chance to stir up chaos, he nearly got accidentally killed by a host while it was still being used as a beginner dungeon.”
The Divine Seer had never imagined that in trying to fix one bug, he’d end up tearing a hole in the entire world.
“Pray,” he said, eyes flashing cold and sharp, “If this can’t be patched, you’ll die along with me to atone.”
With that, he snapped his sleeve again and vanished without a trace.
Su Er stood there for a long time. The child kept grinning at him, chanting: “Father Su Er… everyone here is trash…”
Su Er was silent for a moment, then covered his face with a hand. “This is a sin.”
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