He was puzzled, but decided to explore this level first.
Just as the person took a step forward, a door not far ahead suddenly opened, and a player covered in black and red blood walked out of the room.
The man wore a mask that was originally pure white but was now stained with blood. He exuded a chilling aura, like a moving corpse that had just crawled out of its grave, devoid of any sign of life.
Yin Xiu was stunned for a moment. He recognized the number "1" on the bloodstained prison uniform. What stunned Yin Xiu even more was the knife hanging at his waist, which was very similar to Yin Xiu's, except that the scabbard was white.
Yin Xiu instantly understood why Ye Tianxuan had mistaken him for himself.
This person, bathed in the blood of monsters and players and carrying a knife, looks exactly like Yin Xiu before he retired, who once rampaged through dungeons.
His act of slaughtering all the players and monsters was exactly the kind of thing he would have done in the past.
Looking at the player who was half a corridor away from him, he felt for a moment as if he had crossed time and seen another version of himself.
"Who...are you?" He instinctively gripped the knife tighter and asked, frowning.
The other party did not answer him; silence lay behind the bloodstained mask. A sin gate wearing an orange mask slowly floated out from the side, whispering repeatedly in the man's ear: "Ants, ants, ants, ants..."
The player slowly turned around, facing Yin Xiu, and calmly drew the knife from his waist.
Yin Xiu raised an eyebrow and silently drew his knife. Although he was handcuffed and killing someone would increase his corruption value, he really didn't like being looked down upon by the mere Sin Gate.
The two of them almost simultaneously turned the blades in their hands and then rushed towards each other in an instant.
Almost simultaneously, the ground between the two suddenly turned into a black swamp, sinking them into it.
Almost in the blink of an eye, the two figures disappeared down the corridor, leaving Li Mo standing there alone.
He paused, then stared at the smooth floor and fell silent.
What happened to that mighty Yin Shashen? How could he just disappear like that?
The moment Yin Xiu fell into the dark swamp, he felt a sense of suffocation, his mind filled with negative emotions, and then he fell into a pitch-black space.
There was no corridor around, no other player, and no Li Mo; he was all alone.
Yin Xiu got up, frowned and faced the darkness for a moment. After realizing that there was indeed nothing here, he slowly put away his knife.
He stared around, losing even his sense of space, completely unaware of his surroundings.
"That's really fancy. Is there any other sin level like this?" Yin Xiu muttered to himself, tentatively taking a step forward.
After his feet landed on something that resembled the ground, the surrounding darkness suddenly lit up, instantly pulling Yin Xiu into an environment.
The sound of the crowd drowned out Yin Xiu. In the darkness, he saw the players in the town, and among them, he spotted a more familiar figure.
"Ye Tianxuan?" Yin Xiu called out uncertainly, but neither the crowd nor Ye Tianxuan responded. Instead, they were chatting and laughing, creating a lively and warm scene.
"Are you jealous?" A voice echoed softly in Yin Xiu's ear, floating in his mind.
"Look at him…" Yin Xiu's attention was forcibly focused on Ye Tianxuan in the crowd. The white figure was surrounded by the crowd, his whole body shrouded in sunlight, dazzling and eye-catching, as if he were the sun itself.
"He is so weak, so powerless, so non-aggressive, someone who could be killed with a single stroke, yet he is more popular and has more friends than you. Aren't you jealous?"
Yin Xiu frowned, annoyed by the inexplicable voice in his mind. "That's what he should be like."
"No...maybe without him, these people should actually admire you."
"Look at you, how powerful you are. No one in the town or even in the dungeon can surpass you. They should all know how excellent you are. It is this person who has hidden your brilliance and monopolized everyone else, which is why you have no friends."
"You're so lonely, it's all his fault. He stole your friend, shouldn't you be jealous?"
Yin Xiu raised his hand to press his throbbing head, the handcuffs on his wrists faintly glowing green. He snapped, "Shut up and get out."
But the voice persisted. The scene shifted, and Yin Xiu appeared alone, fishing by the river. The dim sky reflected on the lake, and his reflection in the water looked particularly lonely.
"You've been in this small town for six years, and nobody has come near you. Why? Because of him. He doesn't let anyone near you. He stole your spotlight. You should be jealous."
The surrounding images kept flashing, showing many scenes of Yin Xiu alone in the town at night.
"For six years, apart from the supernatural, no one was by your side. You had no friends, no family, you had nothing. When you looked at him, didn't you ever feel jealous of him for even a moment?"
The sound continued to ring out, slowly and seductively tempting Yin Xiu in his mind. The slightest thought of resistance would trigger a sharp, stabbing pain in his head. His nerves felt as if they were being pulled apart, producing a piercing pain and an endlessly prolonged tinnitus that made Yin Xiu dizzy.
The handcuffs on his wrists turned increasingly green.
"I don't..."
"You're lying." The voice chuckled, with unwavering conviction. "You were jealous of him, surrounded by crowds, basking in the spotlight."
"Because you are human, humans will feel jealousy about what they don't have. You have feelings, so you will feel jealousy."
Cold sweat beaded on Yin Xiu's forehead. He gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "I'm not jealous. I'm a monster, and monsters have no feelings!"
The laughter in his voice grew increasingly flamboyant and sharp. "No emotions? A truly emotionless person should be like a walking corpse, unmoved by anything."
"Just like you were, six years ago, when you were indifferent to them."
The scene around him changed in an instant. Countless skeletons reached out their hands from the darkness at his feet and pounced on him. Black slime overflowed from the empty eye sockets of the skeletons, and they tightly hugged his legs and dragged him down.
"You have no friends; everyone around you has been killed by you."
"You have no family; you killed everyone in the orphanage."
"You are alone, you are a monster, you have nothing, you don't deserve anything."
"You should have died in the final instance back then."
The skull muttered incoherently, its empty eye sockets staring at Yin Xiu's tense face, watching his wavering, his increasingly rapid breathing, and his pale face.
The voice laughed sharply, as if it had found his weakness, and began to repeatedly ask, "Are you scared? Are you scared?"
"You're also afraid of losing everything, so you're jealous of Ye Tianxuan, right?"
"Because he has everything you want."
"Despite being so frail and powerless, he had family willing to care for his body, friends willing to trust him, a resilient heart, and a soul that would never sink into darkness."
The voice was laughing wildly, and the sharp pain became increasingly unrestrained, almost taking over Yin Xiu's brain and making him unable to think.
He gritted his teeth, his face turning completely pale. He squinted at Ye Tianxuan, who was swaying in the light and shadow not far away. That white figure was as bright as the sun.
Yin Xiu closed his eyes and took a slow, deep breath.
"You're right. Ye Tianxuan is completely different from me. I did envy him, but I envied that he was more mentally resilient than me."
He suddenly opened his eyes and abruptly threw a coin from his pocket into the darkness.
The golden coin gleamed in the darkness, reflecting off Yin Xiu's face.
"And I'm not completely without anything. I have Ye Tianxuan as a friend, and a... little family member."
The coin fell to the ground in an instant, and a petite and adorable red figure suddenly jumped out of the air and pounced into Yin Xiu's arms.
"Brother! Are you hurt?!"