Even Li Mo couldn't help but scoff at himself.
Others carried weapons to kill their enemies; he carried one to kill himself.
It was rather ironic.
But the goal was the same: to survive.
Soon, Li Mo reached the perimeter of the fence.
The fence was made of natural materials like branches, straw, and stones, meant to contain the creatures within and protect them from outside threats.
However, without ventilation, the stench was incredibly strong. The smell of food, waste, and other things mixed together, creating a strange odor.
Li Mo recoiled, covering his nose as he approached.
"Li Mo."
A raspy voice suddenly emerged from the darkness. Li Mo instinctively wanted to turn around but immediately remembered the notebook's warning: Avoid being called to turn around…
Wait, hadn't he already triggered the rule? Was this the price?
Amidst his racing thoughts, Li Mo remembered that he had triggered two rules:
[At Xu Shi (7-9 pm), avoid being called to turn around, avoid standing under trees, avoid lighting lamps…]
He had stood under the scholar tree and turned on his flashlight to illuminate its top…
Perhaps his human skin effigy hadn't been there originally, only appearing after he triggered the rule.
Neither of these were instant-death rules… but the notebook had warned him that triggering any of them would lead to his death.
The appearance of his human skin effigy on the tree meant he would definitely die tonight; it was only a matter of time.
Wasn't it supposed to be 10:30 pm?
The situation had changed subtly, and Li Mo had to be extra vigilant.
"Prepare for the worst."
"Or should I just kill myself now?"
Restarting by suicide could indeed prevent him from triggering the rules again. At least, he had memorized what was on the scholar tree. Restarting could prevent him from being attacked by the Bizzare Entity he had provoked.
Li Mo placed the combat knife against his throat. Whether it was his heart, brain, or throat, these vulnerable vital points… in his once-dead state, a fatal blow to any of these would kill him quickly.
He was still essentially human.
"Wait a little longer. Wasting a life like this is too much of a pity. The human skin tree is strange, but that scholar tree appearing so suddenly can't be without reason. The clue might be inside."
"Don't turn around. Keep moving forward."
He only had this one chance. Li Mo suppressed the urge to kill himself; he wanted more information.
Even if he had another chance, he would still risk triggering the rule to see what was on top of the scholar tree.
Because after tonight, the tree might not be there, or it might not be the same. He would miss his chance. Bizarre phenomena were fleeting, constantly changing.
Even if he died, he had to die inside.
"Ignore the voice. Go deeper inside."
"Be ready to kill yourself."
Li Mo gripped the combat knife tightly, ignoring the source of the female voice, and walked deeper into the fenced-in area.
Suddenly, a pair of withered, decaying arms appeared behind him.
The arms extended from the top of the scholar tree, as if countless limbs were hidden within it, arm after arm emerging from the darkness.
The darkness obscured his vision. From his blind spot, above him, the dead hand from the scholar tree touched his head.
And with that touch, Li Mo collapsed, his eyes losing focus, unable to even cry out for help.
In the unresponsive space, he seemed to have fainted, his tense hands relaxing, the thermometer and combat knife falling to the side.
Thick clouds gathered, partially obscuring the moon.
The enormous scholar tree, appearing so unnaturally, seemed to have materialized solely to block the moonlight.
The bright moonlight turned crimson, almost solidifying, spreading like blood.
The crimson moonlight grew brighter and brighter.
However, no matter how bright it became, it couldn't reach Li Mo in the shadow of the scholar tree.
"Li Mo! Li Mo!"
The voice grew shrill, revealing its true, grotesque nature. But Li Mo could no longer hear. His vision was the first to go.
He was being attacked by a one-hit kill rule.
The heavy price followed. His hearing, his sense of touch, all five senses were stripped away in an instant. His consciousness faded, becoming hazy, blurring.
Li Mo was like a drowning man, sinking into the depths of the sea, entangled by countless grotesque tentacles.
Sinking slowly, silently…
There was no room for resistance, his mind emptied, leaving only a soulless shell of flesh and blood.
Silently, meter by meter, he sank to the bottom of the sea.
Without any sense of time, like a fleeting dream, he continued to fall into the deepest depths.
Long tentacles, like countless distorted images, transformed those they entangled, making them as erratic and twisted as themselves, sometimes existing, sometimes disappearing.
Like a broken black-and-white television from the 90s, displaying only fragmented images, flickering and glitching.
His pupils turned grayish-white. Li Mo vaguely heard a familiar yet strange voice from the sea—
It seemed to be his own voice, yet it wasn't.
"You are Li Mo."
"Li Mo" heard his own voice, but his mouth hadn't moved.
"You are me."
"Li Mo" heard his own voice, but he had no ears.
"You will not die."
"Li Mo" heard his own voice, but he was already dead.
"So, I'm already dead."
"Li Mo" heard his own voice, but he was clearly still alive.
Who is speaking to me, and to whom am I speaking?
Who is speaking?
…It's me.
It's me…
Is it… me?
As he fell, Li Mo could no longer grasp the concept of existence. In the blurry images, phantom bubbles floated past him, bursting and disappearing as they reached the light.
He was under the Finality's cocoon, blue-violet flames consuming his body, until only a dead head remained, floating within the cocoon.
A long time later, a white-haired girl found him, holding his head.
Heart-wrenching sobs and cries.
But this time, there was no boy to wipe away her tears.
He was on the beach of a certain tribe, embracing Cang Xuan and Dan Zhu, his expression wooden and stiff, causing the girls to giggle.
Hidden in the shadows of the reef behind them, a white-haired, red-eyed girl huddled in a corner, hugging herself, unnoticed.
Even her departure went unacknowledged.
He was in a room on Taixu Mountain, a blue-haired girl confessing her feelings for him. They descended the mountain together, leaving the white-haired, red-eyed girl alone in the temple.
Returning home under the moonlight, surrounded by green mountains.
He was in a simple inn, unconscious, like a corpse, carried on the back of an ice-blue-haired girl.
The girl had no right hand, and her face was covered in purple-black erosion marks.
…
…
Each bubble flashed images of Li Mo's past, present, and future.
In reality, the lifeless human skin effigy no longer hid its intentions. It opened its grotesque, empty eyes, turning to look at the collapsed Li Mo with a sinister smile.
The consciousness within his soul, carrying all his memories, was being pulled out like threads, the human skin on the scholar tree becoming increasingly complete. The dead face suddenly formed a strange smile, its empty eye sockets staring excitedly at the unconscious Li Mo.
The human skin effigy grinned, new flesh and organs growing beneath the skin. The bright red branches transformed into blood vessels and bones, connecting to the nascent body.
Soon, the human skin would completely strip Li Mo of his flesh and soul.
However, this was not rebirth. The revived human skin Li Mo was not the real Li Mo.
Li Mo's soul would be torn apart and fragmented during the transfer process, then pieced together into a grotesque existence, granting the human skin effigy a new life.
This process wouldn't happen instantly, but with his consciousness dormant and unable to resist, death was only a matter of time.
Physical death could be reversed through regeneration and restarting.
But the annihilation of the soul meant the complete disappearance of his true self.
The muscles in Li Mo's collapsed body atrophied, his skin drying and losing moisture, like a withered, old piece of paper.
Without the support of bone and muscle, his skin sagged.
Except for his head, which remained unchanged, his body had almost completely transformed into the human skin effigy hanging on the scholar tree.
There was no change in Li Mo's head.
The human skin effigy on the scholar tree, except for its head, had a normal human body, but it was bloodless and cold, a pure corpse.
"Crack…"
A crack appeared on the branch, as if it was about to break, sending the human skin Li Mo falling to the ground, replacing the real Li Mo.
The scholar tree was a Bizzare Entity. The crack wasn't caused by weight but by a special "rule."
Once the rule was fully executed, the branch would break, and the human skin would fall.
The scholar tree was illuminated by the crimson moonlight as if it were daytime, but Li Mo, in its shadow, remained shrouded in darkness, not a single ray of moonlight touching him.
Soon, Li Mo's head began to change as well, his muscles atrophying, his skin drying…
The contamination of the human skin effigy was spreading through Li Mo's brain.
It was this mental contamination that awakened a certain Bizzare Entity within his consciousness from its endless slumber. After a brief recollection, it suddenly realized the desperate situation Li Mo was in.
The Misfortune Ghost's rule was triggered. It seemed to sense Li Mo's impending death.
It manipulated Li Mo's mouth, uttering a vicious, dark curse.
As if celebrating some great event, its voice thundered, almost tearing the human skin effigy on the scholar tree apart.
"Hahaha! You're finally dead! You're finally dead! I've been waiting for this day… I've finally waited for this day! Good riddance! Haha! You deserve it!!"
As soon as the words were spoken, the head of the human skin effigy on the scholar tree exploded.
Li Mo's head rapidly returned to normal.
"What's going on? Why aren't you dead?! Why are you still alive?!"
The Misfortune Ghost was shocked. Just a moment ago, it had judged that Li Mo was on the verge of death.
But now, not only was his soul intact, but his body was also regenerating.
Li Mo's consciousness hadn't returned yet, but due to the Misfortune Ghost's curse, he had gained the power to resist the human skin effigy.
Both were rules operating on the level of consciousness and soul.
However, their level of completeness was vastly different.
The Misfortune Ghost was born from millions of years of forcibly altered and twisted fate. Its origin could be traced back to Kiana Kaslana, trapped in loneliness and despair for millions of years.
Although it was just a rule, without any physical form, it was a remarkably complete Bizzare Entity.
In contrast, the human skin ghost, despite its ancient existence, was far less complete than the Misfortune Ghost, which had been continuously contaminated for millions of years.
It was ultimately just a piece of incomplete human skin. Only a complete forest of ancient scholar trees could contend with the Misfortune Ghost.
Therefore, the Misfortune Ghost's rule took precedence over the human skin ghost, preserving Li Mo's consciousness and even counter-invading the human skin effigy, reclaiming the flesh and blood that belonged to Li Mo's true self.
Meanwhile, rustling sounds came from the fenced-in area. A green snake, its body mostly severed, slithered forward, eventually stopping in front of the collapsed Li Mo, struggling to raise its head.
Its emerald green eyes flickered. Its lower body was missing, fresh blood oozing from the wound.
The snake looked back, seemingly wary of something in the slaughterhouse behind it.
It quickly lunged forward, burrowing into Li Mo's mouth, only stopping when it was completely hidden in his throat and esophagus, then it began to examine its injuries.
At the same time, a butterfly, which should have been fluttering, lay on the ground, next to a spider with only two legs remaining and a rabbit with half its body missing.
Blood of different colors continued to flow from their wounds.
"Thud… thud… thud…"
Heavy footsteps approached from behind, hurried and chaotic, their number indistinguishable from the sound alone.
Seven withered, black figures slowly walked towards the animals that had "escaped from their cages."
The figures moved in a grotesque manner. Without flesh and blood, they could only shuffle forward, like paper dolls, constantly shifting sideways.
They were very slow, but compared to the injured, almost immobile animals, they were significantly faster.
In their dry, paper-thin hands, they clutched blood-soaked cleavers, their movements stiff.
The figures drew closer to the animals. Finally, as the animals reached Li Mo, the figures revealed their true faces.
Seven lifeless human skin ghosts: Lin Chaoyu, Su Mei, Jiang Wanxi, Jiang Wanru, Qin Suyi, Cheng Lingshuang, and Ma Feima.
The elegance of martial artists was no longer present on their faces, replaced by grim, terrifying expressions. Their thin faces were twisted and distorted, pressed flat.
The shadows of the human skin effigies loomed over Li Mo. They slowly raised their cleavers, cold blood dripping onto Li Mo's cheek.
The animals quickly burrowed into Li Mo's mouth, disappearing from the Seven Swords of Taixu's sight.
The cleavers froze in midair, as if having lost their target.
Su Mei's human skin effigy bent its body at a bizarre angle, its empty eye sockets staring at Li Mo's closed eyelids.
Not just Su Mei, the other six human skin effigies imitated her posture, their horrifying eye sockets fixed on the unconscious Li Mo.