Chapter 415: Snow Mountain

Infinite Peculiar Games

Blood. All he could see was blood...

Qi Si stood in a pool of it, his head tilted back to gaze into the distance. The continuous mountain ridges lay reclined upon the vast, pale earth, like a sleeping woman.

For a fleeting moment, he saw the white-haired, white-robed Ancestral God crouched like a beast, slowly lifting her head to watch him from the corner of her eye.

The tent behind him had vanished at some point. Golden vines began to drift through the air, descending without root or source from the high heavens, their leaves lightly brushing against his cheeks.

He raised a hand to touch them, but his fingertips passed through the phantom vines as if through empty space. The instant he made contact, the leaves scattered into a fine, golden mist.

Bai Ma stood among her flock of sheep, watching Qi Si from a careful distance. The goats, too, turned their heads, their horizontal pupils cold and unnerving.

"Your hands are stained with blood," Bai Ma and the goats stated in unison, their mouths opening and closing in placid recitation.

Qi Si lowered his eyes to the blood on his palms. It dripped from the sides of his hands like scarlet ribbons—like the ceremonial khata scarves that herders presented to travelers.

A grin spread across Qi Si’s face, revealing a set of chillingly white teeth as he began to laugh. “That’s right. I’ve killed a lot of people. Of course my hands are stained with blood.”

The sharp carving knife pierced the goat’s neck. Fresh blood gushed out, soaking its pure white fleece.

One goat collapsed, but the others remained perfectly still, their gazes fixed on Qi Si, as calm and indifferent as statues.

Qi Si suddenly recalled that, over the long course of his existence, there was a time he had truly detested goats.

They were creatures that lacked the capacity for empathy. Even if you slaughtered one of their own right in front of them, they would simply lower their heads and continue to calmly chew on blood-spattered leaves. Qi Si found it incredibly dull.

When malice was met with no response, when an act of slaughter failed to inspire fear, even a god was bound to lose interest.

Qi Si looked at Bai Ma and asked, "I killed your sheep. Don't you feel angry?"

Bai Ma stroked the soft wool of the goat beside her and smiled. "There is no death here. All living things that die will return to this mountain. I will find it again soon."

The woman turned slowly and began walking toward the deeper reaches of the snow mountain. The flock followed her in a great procession, maintaining a uniform distance from one another with an unsettling regularity.

“Where are you going?” Qi Si asked.

“I’m going to find my sheep,” Bai Ma said.

Qi Si rose to follow her, but after a single step, his ankle was seized. A blue-black hand shot out from beneath the ice, clutching him in a death grip.

He looked down and saw a familiar face. A twelve-year-old boy stared up at him with venomous eyes, the flesh of his body scooped away piece by piece with a spoon, leaving nothing but raw, bloody bones.

This was the first person he had killed with his own hands in his twenty-two years as “Qi Si.” He had also been his first “friend.”

“Do you want me to kill you again?” Qi Si asked with a smile, casually severing his “friend’s” wrist with the God Chisel.

His “friend” watched him through the ice, his features blurred by blood. More and more hands erupted from the ground, a mottled mix of bruised purple and crimson.

Qi Si saw more and more familiar faces: his cousin, his uncle and aunt, Liu Ajiu, Zou Yan, Yang Yundong...

The dead stared at him. Some lay silent and mournful beneath the ice, while others clawed at the surface, pulling themselves out.

One by one, they rose to their feet. Some simply stood in place, others snarled and glared like predators, and still others reached for Qi Si with grasping claws...

“Qi Si, it’s all your fault... Why am I dead while you’re still alive?” his cousin sobbed, her dark hair growing longer and longer, surging toward him like a tide.

“Die... Die... Die with us...” His uncle and aunt shambled forward, their necks and limbs twisting at unnatural angles, emitting strange, creaking sounds.

Qi Si summoned the Straw Tiger. The ferocious, horned beast materialized between him and the ghosts, its massive jaws gaping open.

His uncle’s family shrieked in terror and scattered. The Straw Tiger bounded across the ice after them and clamped its jaws around his cousin’s waist.

Qi Si lowered his head slightly and continued on his way.

Bai Ma was no longer in sight. Ahead lay only the endless snow mountains, their ridges set against the sky like the edge of a blade—long, sharp, and cold.

Qi Si didn't know why he was pressing forward, but he did it anyway, simply because there was no reason to stop or turn in another direction.

The rustling sound of growing vines came from his side. A blood-soaked Zou Yan suddenly appeared before him, a gaping hole where her heart should have been, one half of her body completely overgrown with rose vines.

"We're the same kind of person," Zou Yan said, raising a hand with a gentle smile on her bloodstained face. "I truly understand you. If we'd met at any other time, we might have been great friends."

"I don't need friends, and I don't think we would have become friends," Qi Si replied, taking half a step back. Zou Yan's rose-covered hand met only empty air.

"Is that so? What a pity. But I know. After all, we're so alike." The woman’s beautiful face took on a look of pity as the roses on her body trembled violently and lunged at Qi Si’s face. "So... let's just die together."

Qi Si twisted aside to dodge the thorny vines aimed at him, but he was a fraction too slow. A flowering vine slashed across his cheek, leaving a deep, long gash.

"Are you a ghost or a person right now?" Qi Si asked Zou Yan calmly.

"It makes no difference. There's no difference between people and ghosts..." Zou Yan shook her head, her expression growing ever more tender, but then it froze. The Straw Tiger pounced from behind, tackling her to the ground and snapping her neck.

"Qi Si, over here! I'll help you hide until daybreak!" a cloyingly sweet female voice called from behind a large boulder, laced with temptation. "Sniff... It's so scary, there are so many ghosts... Qi Si, hurry! If you don't come now, I won't help you anymore..."

Qi Si paid it no mind and ran toward the Straw Tiger. The voice instantly turned venomous. "Get over here! Why won't you come over? What went wrong? Why won't you come?"

The voice began to laugh and cry, gradually becoming familiar. It was unmistakably Zhou Yilin’s. A rush of wind came from behind him. Zhao Feng, blood still streaming from his neck, charged at Qi Si with a crucifix in hand, his face contorted in a snarl. "I'm going to kill you, you bastard! You liar!"

The God Chisel was too short. Qi Si drew Poseidon's Scepter, blocked Zhao Feng’s arm, and shoved with all his might. Zhao Feng staggered back a few steps but quickly regained his balance. He was about to lunge again when he suddenly fell to the ground.

Yang Yundong had grabbed his leg, then wrapped his arms tightly around his waist. "There are some things a person just shouldn't do. People act, and heaven watches," he said, the old platitude heavy on his lips. The man’s weary eyes stared at Qi Si. "You’d best watch yourself."

Qi Si acted as if he hadn't heard. He took a few more steps and reached the Straw Tiger. Grabbing a handful of its straw mane, he pushed off the ground and vaulted onto its back. A chill brushed his neck. Shang Qingbei was there, holding an English dictionary and watching him with a ghostly gaze. "I shouldn't have died... It was because of you... Qi Si, you're scum!"

Qi Si casually grabbed the teenager by the collar and flung him from the tiger’s back. But on the other side, Du Xiaoyu's voice piped up, "Qi-ge, I trusted you so much, why did you have to hurt me? I don't want to die, I don't want to die..."

The straw hide beneath him was torn apart from within, and a dense swarm of faces poured out from the tiger’s bloody flesh—Angela, Liu Yuhan, Liu Bingding... Every one of them had died at Qi Si’s hands, and now they had been resurrected as vengeful spirits, come to claim his life.

“Qi Si, run!” a female voice, filled with palpable concern, called out from beside the tiger. Li Yao stood on the snow in a black bodysuit, extending a hand to him. “Come with me! I know a place where we can hide from them. Trust me, I won't hurt you...”

Qi Si trusted no one, human or ghost. He dodged Li Yao’s hand, leaped from the tiger’s body, and continued running deeper into the mountains. The ghosts gave chase. Qi Si gripped Poseidon's Scepter and, with a backward swing, carved a wide chasm in the ice right behind his heels.

The briny scent of the sea suffused the air, rising from the fissure. A warm ocean breeze collided with the frigid mountain wind, and a strange precipitation began to fall from the sky. Fish scales and bird feathers danced in the air, and snowflakes drifted silently to the ground.

Qi Si could no longer see Bai Ma or her flock, nor could he tell which direction he was heading. He only knew that he had to keep moving, that he could not stop.

He couldn't tell how long he had been walking across the endless ice field, nor did he remember how many footprints he had left on the snow-covered mountain path. Time became intangible, impossible to measure. It was as if he were the only person left in this world.

"Zhou Ke!" A chorus of voices roared his name—some angry, some sorrowful, some venomous, some calm.

The path ahead changed. A series of transparent ice walls shot up from the ground. Cynthia stood among the vertical slabs of ice in a black robe, slowly raising her hand. A massive icicle hurtled toward Qi Si. Hansen glared at them both, his face twisted in rage, ice-blue flames igniting at his feet.

He Hui was curled up behind an ice wall. She looked up at Qi Si, her pupil-less eyes reflecting his face. "Zhou Ke, I'm so scared. Can you take me with you? Please, save me..."

"I can't." Qi Si wound his way through the forest of ice sculptures. At the last wall, he saw his own face. He thought it was a mirror, but the man in the reflection smiled at him.

“Hello, Qi Si. I’m Zhou Ke,” the man said.

Only then did Qi Si notice that the man was sitting cross-legged in a golden cage, surrounded by flickering, golden-red flames. It was a scene straight from the “Grand Performance” instance, yet there was something subtly, indefinably different about it.

"You seem to have run into some trouble. A dead end, in fact. And I just so happen to have a way out." A wicked smile, like that of a dark god tempting a follower, played on Zhou Ke’s lips. "Care to make a trade?"

“No,” Qi Si said, turning to leave.

"You'll be back," Zhou Ke sneered. "After all, I'm the one who knows you best."

Qi Si didn't look back. He had only walked a short distance when two pairs of icy hands clamped down on his shoulders.

Zhou Datong and Chen Lidong stood on either side of him, yellow butterfly larvae squirming beneath the skin of their flower-covered faces. They stared at Qi Si and said in unison, "You lied to us! You lied to us!"

"I'm sorry. I did deceive you, but I had no choice." Unable to break free, Qi Si gave up the struggle and feigned a look of apology.

The moment their grip on his shoulders loosened, he flicked his wrist almost imperceptibly.

Lingzi's Prayer Ribbon shot from his sleeve, the bright red silk wrapping around Zhou Datong's neck. Chen Lidong rushed to pull it off, and Qi Si shoved them both aside and sprinted away.

"Cheng An, do you think you can survive just because you fooled us? You're going to die. You're definitely going to die here!" a venomous voice shrieked from below as the world suddenly flipped upside down.

Qi Si found himself lying in an ice pit. Huang Xiaofei and Lu Zimo stood hand in hand, looking down at him with eyes full of resentment and sorrow. He was bound in paper chains as Lu Zimo used a shovel to dump scoop after scoop of snow on his head.

Cold, darkness, suffocation...

Lingzi’s ghost flew at Huang Xiaofei, her sharp nails digging into the woman’s flesh. The Luo Haihua couple climbed out of the ice pit beneath him, pulled him to his feet, and frantically pushed him forward. “Run, child! Run and don’t look back!”

Qi Si ran a few more steps before his legs gave out, feeling as if they were filled with lead. He pressed a hand to his forehead and dragged himself forward, stumbling through the deep snow.

The blizzard ahead obscured the path, smearing heaven and earth into a uniform gray-white. A colossal shadow loomed in the haze, like some man-eating beast.

Qi Si saw the Straw Tiger once more, but this time it was whole, not torn apart. And sitting on its back was a girl: Nian Fu.

Nian Fu rode the Straw Tiger over to Qi Si and held out her hand. "Get on. I'll give you a ride."

Qi Si took the girl's hand and settled onto the tiger’s back. "You're dead too?" he asked.

The girl giggled. "That's right. And I died because of you."

"I don't remember killing you in the Colosseum instance," Qi Si said.

The girl’s smile widened. "But a certain liar killed me because I had met you."

Before Qi Si could press her further, the girl suddenly pointed ahead. "There's a tricky one coming up. Good luck. This is as far as I can take you."

The tiger and the girl vanished from beneath him. Qi Si looked up and saw the figure of Chang Xu. Dressed in black, Chang Xu stared at him coldly, raising a pitch-black scythe high. He brought it down with the force of a bitter winter wind.

Qi Si dodged back. A mad laugh suddenly echoed on the wind, accompanied by words dripping with malice.

“Qi Si, there’s something I’ve always wanted to tell you: you wear my face and dare to think you are me—are you even worthy?”

Qi Si realized it was his own voice. He raised a hand to his lips, but he hadn’t spoken a word.

The voice continued: "You hesitate, you're cautious, you resist risk and change. You no longer chase what's interesting, you no longer gamble, you just want to survive... When you’re this mediocre, are you still worthy of being Qi Si?”

Qi Si glanced in the direction of the voice and saw that he was somehow back in front of the ice wall. Zhou Ke sat in the golden cage, clutching the bars and howling with laughter.

"Hahahaha! You're afraid! To think that Qi Si could actually feel fear!"

"I see the game's conspiracy now. It knew you and I would enter the game again, that we would reclaim our divinity, yet it turned a blind eye... It wanted to use a game to teach you fear, to give you desire!

"Are you worthy of being a god when you can feel fear and have desires? Just go die, be a mortal, and stop disgusting me by wearing this face and using this name!"

Qi Si laughed too. "Desire? I don't even know what my desires are..."

In an instant, Zhou Ke's smile vanished. He stared at Qi Si with an expression of pity and mockery. "Qi Si, just admit it. You want to live."