"What if I don't want to play with you?" Ye Tianxuan slowly probed.
The dark figure opposite remained unmoved. "You will be trapped here forever."
"Forever, I suppose?" Ye Tianxuan smiled and sat down opposite him. "Don't forget there's someone in this instance that you can't handle on Yin Xiu's side."
He smiled meaningfully, his blue eyes shining brightly in the darkness, like jewels.
In the scene that appeared around him, Yin Xiu was talking to the sticky mess in his hand.
The shadowy figure shifted, one of its tentacles pointing towards the table. "You're right, but you still have to play the game with me, otherwise..."
The scene in Ye Tianxuan's space changed, and a group of people appeared in the darkness, covered in slime and floating in the air. They were sleeping and struggling in it, powerless against their environment.
Ye Tianxuan could recognize them at a glance; they were people from the small town.
A fleeting hint of anger flashed in his eyes, but he quickly regained his composure and looked at the dark figure opposite him. "You're really something, aren't you? You even managed to get to the small town."
"But if you're so good, why are you playing games with me?"
The shadowy figure stared intently at him. "I'm going to learn from you how to be human, and then leave him here."
Ye Tianxuan was naturally aware that his ultimate goal was Yin Xiu, but he was completely unaware of the connection between Yin Xiu and the necessity of becoming human.
"So what if I learn to become human?" Ye Tianxuan stared at it in confusion. Monsters don't need to completely imitate humans.
Its tentacles pointed to Yin Xiu in the picture, "I want to become like him, to stay by his side. I don't know why I want to do this, but I just want to do it."
Ye Tianxuan stared at it thoughtfully, and murmured softly, "You've been influenced by it quite a bit."
The shadowy figure trembled. "What are you saying?"
"It's nothing," Ye Tianxuan smiled. "If playing the game with you will help us complete the game, I will follow the rules. But why was I chosen to play with you?"
The shadowy figure stared at him. "You're different from other players. You're special."
"I have observed you. You have a contract with a monster, which is your ring. The contract is linked to your lifespan, and your tongue mark is your contract tool. The words or things that come out of your mouth can control people's consciousness and change their thoughts silently. This ability is somewhat similar to mine. I think maybe they come from the same source."
Even though his entire fortune had been exposed, Ye Tianxuan remained unmoved, twisting the ring on his hand and smiling, "You know me quite well."
The tentacles around the dark figure slowly slid through the air, reaching towards Ye Tianxuan. "I also know you're about to die. Your time and lifespan are running out. How would you describe yourself in human terms?"
The monster's voice was laced with laughter, "You're already a candle flickering in the wind, aren't you?"
Ye Tianxuan responded with a kind smile, "Yes, your description is quite good."
"But you don't smell of sadness on you, and you don't seem to care about it at all. That's what interests me the most. I think I have to watch you die. I'm curious about what kind of death someone like you will ultimately die, so I brought you here."
"Actually, I had already foreseen this. Now that I see you, I'm even more certain of what 'not much time left, but a long lifespan' means." Ye Tianxuan casually placed the toy figure in his hand on the table. "Come on, don't waste my precious time, let's play a game."
After he placed the toy figure on the table, the route map on it lit up, offering various directional options, and text floated in the air.
[Please proceed.]
Ye Tianxuan seemed to be deep in thought. Staring at the end of the route map, he chose the shortest route and pushed the little figure that looked like Yin Xiu forward by one node.
The dark figure opposite slowly reached out and placed a monster chess piece on the node where Yin Xiu was. The surrounding scene changed instantly. The dark space where Yin Xiu was was transformed into a valley in the blink of an eye. In the narrow path, a huge monster was blocking the way.
It was a monster's head consisting only of a head and a spine, with bloodshot eyes beneath messy, sticky hair, staring intently at Yin Xiu, radiating murderous intent.
Yin Xiu ignored the monster and instead looked around, completely unaware of how he had triggered the scene change.
"This is my support piece, used to block the path of your pieces, and the support pieces you can use are all about him." The shadowy figure pointed to Yin Xiu on the chessboard, explaining the rules.
"Everything about him?" Ye Tianxuan tried to analyze this inexplicable rule.
Before he could figure it out, the monster chess piece placed at Yin Xiu's node turned to ash and vanished into thin air. Turning his gaze to look at the space where Yin Xiu was, he found that he had already killed the monster, and the monster on the chessboard disappeared as well.
The text reappeared on the desktop.
[Please proceed.]
"Just remove anything that's in Yin Xiu's way and let him move forward, right?" Ye Tianxuan was still half-understanding, but he roughly grasped the ultimate goal. Looking at the not-so-long route map, he sensed that the game wasn't making things difficult for him, but for Yin Xiu.
Ye Tianxuan pushed his piece forward by one node, and his opponent immediately placed a piece to block the way.
"This place is really strange." Yin Xiu wiped his knife and looked around. He had just finished killing the monster and was walking forward, but he hadn't left the so-called valley. It felt like he was just standing still. But as he walked, the scenery around him changed again. In an instant, it was as if he had walked a long way and sped past the valley.
This time, the path was narrow again, with swamps on both sides and a desolate landscape all around. There was nowhere else to go but this path in front of them.
Yin Xiu looked around and could only walk forward. As he walked, he suddenly spotted a figure in a swamp not far from the roadside.
This time, instead of a ferocious monster, a little girl lay in the swamp, covered in blood. She looked no more than fifteen or sixteen years old, her pale cheeks were covered in bright red blood, and she was so fragile that she was on the verge of death. Half of her body was already sinking into the swamp.
Yin Xiu froze the moment he saw the little girl. The little girl looked so familiar that he wondered if he was hallucinating.
"Xiaoxiao?" he called uncertainly in the direction of the little girl, and slowly took a step forward, as if he had forgotten that he was in a swamp.
"No, don't go!" The little tentacles wrapped around Yin Xiu's wrist tugged at his hand frantically, but Yin Xiu was unmoved by its cries, his gaze fixed on that direction.
"So there are all sorts of things that can hinder progress." Ye Tianxuan looked at Yin Xiu, who was trying to step into the swamp in the scene, and said thoughtfully, "The weakness of the God of Slaughter is well known. It seems that you also think that this is a link that can stop him."
He turned to look at the dark figure opposite him, his fingers moving in the air as a small chess piece gathered in his hand. "I hope you understand that a resolute person will never be trapped in the same cage."
"His past cannot stop him from moving forward."
As Ye Tianxuan spoke, a small chess piece was placed next to Yin Xiu.
The bright red figure stood out brilliantly in the desolation, like a flame, rushing swiftly to Yin Xiu's side.