Life Game In Other World
Chapter 785: Hope I’m Not Too Late (Super Long - , Requesting Monthly Pass)

Chapter 785: Chapter 785: Hope I’m Not Too Late (Super Long Chapter, Requesting Monthly Pass)

The thick fog nearly completely obscured all surrounding vision; the red-haired woman, holding up a disc, looked around, only to be met by the eerily quiet and dense fog where even an outstretched hand would disappear from sight.

Faint orange glimmers of light fell from the disc in her hand, forming a shield-like curtain of radiance around her, enveloping her within and warding off the fog’s erosive advance.

Hisss—

Sounds as faint as flesh corroding rose from those pale orange lights, indicative of the surrounding dense fog attempting to corrode the curtain shield.

The fog here appeared similar to the one encountered earlier in the grand hall of the Inner Church but seemingly weaker.

Even so, the corrosive nature of this fog was fiercely intense, and feeling the trembling of the disc in her hand, the red-haired woman knew it wouldn’t hold much longer.

She carefully surveyed the area ahead, the dim light parting some of the obscuring fog, allowing her to finally glimpse the silhouette of a young boy almost entirely engulfed by the fog.

It was not until this moment that a slight relief settled over her heart.

Her path forward obscured by the fog, she could no longer see any roads ahead; the door from which they’d exited into the dense fog had also vanished.

Without guidance, she might well have become trapped and perished within this fog.

Logically speaking, the young boy likely held no more information than she did about how to proceed deeper, but intuition, drawn from his display of remarkable ability during their brief encounter, convinced her that this boy would surely find the correct direction.

This was also why she had decided to brave the dense fog behind him.

Seeing the boy ahead, she hurried towards him; but before she could catch up, the boy glance around for direction, holding something in his hand as if sensing for something, then, as if guided by some invisible force, he dashed off in a certain direction through the fog.

The red-haired woman stood momentarily stunned but quickly followed suit.

Meanwhile, He Ao, clutching the diary in his hand, ran wildly through the dense fog, his gaze fixed on the increasingly ethereal pages of the diary.

The diary pages themselves were comprised of various distorted patterns, which now appeared to be losing their energy source, causing the patterns to unravel; in the process of their collapse, they were most sensitive to their source of power.

When He Ao directed the diary pages towards a certain direction, their disintegration would slow compared to other directions.

Clearly, the source of energy for these diary pages was likely in that direction.

At this moment, the diary pages served as a sort of compass.

——

In the brightly-lit great hall, a man clad in gold-threaded white robes stood silently in front of a floating little girl in a red dress.

Now, the little girl’s smooth cheeks bore normal, exquisitely cute features; her body seemed bound by some invisible threads as she stared wide-eyed at the man, her blood-colored eyes flickering with strange ripples.

"Alice, your spiritual essence is so strong, and your Talent is so astounding,"

the man quietly observed the girl’s form, as a sharp scalpel appeared in his hand, "even though you have accumulated so much and are muddled with such a multitude of resentful spirits, you still retain some fragment of self-awareness."

His smile was gentle and kind, his voice even, as if dealing with a somewhat rebellious junior,

"Had it not been for those Heretic Sects invading this time, disrupting the original protocol and giving you a chance to escape, we might have been deceived by you forever."

Upon hearing the man’s words, the little girl gave no response but struggled fiercely, viscous blood flowing down her blood-red dress onto the great hall’s elegant and intricate stone floor, seeping into the gaps between the stones.

"With age comes reflections on the past,"

watching this scene, the white-robed man slowly raised the scalpel in his hand, its blade aimed at the front of the little girl, "Fourteen years ago, right in this hall, your blood flowed down and formed the great Church Keystone."

The edge of the sharp scalpel floated a couple of centimeters above the girl’s body, tracing along her form in the air, his peaceful and gentle voice tinged with a hint of melancholic emotion,

"My dear niece, your spirit is so powerful. If it were me now, I would never offer you as a sacrifice, but alas, there are no what-ifs in this world.

"Had I not sacrificed you back then, I wouldn’t have had the chance to enter the Church’s power core and become what I am today."

The sharp scalpel paused right above the girl’s heart, "Fate is always so, capricious and intricate; we never know what the results of a random act may be through the long corridors of time."

Thick blood seeped from her collar, staining her pale clavicle red as she kept her eyes wide,-fixated on the man still donning a warm smile.

"It seems you feel it now,"

the man said, looking up at the immense dome overhead, his voice calm, as if carrying with him memories from long ago,

"After all, you’ve experienced it once before, haven’t you? We indeed cannot kill you completely, now that you have become the keystone of this church, but we can repeat the ceremony that was once held, and completely dismantle the last bit of spirituality you have left into the foundation."

He looked down at the little girl’s pale cheeks, his scalpel slowly pressing down, the sharp blade touching the girl’s heaving chest, "Just a little more, and the time will be right."

Blurry figures appeared in the great hall, layer upon layer, surrounding the two people standing in the middle of the hall. Some whispered secrets, others were silent, but all eyes were fixed on this place.

The man was not surprised by the appearance of these figures; they were the reflections left in the church from the ceremony that took place fourteen years ago.

This church was like a device that captures shadows, recording the events of the past, then projecting them back out when the ’ceremony’ was restarted.

Tick-tock—tick-tock—

Thick blood dripped down the long hem of her dress onto the ground.

"People always repeat things they have done in the past,"

The man watched as the little girl stared at him unyieldingly, "You still haven’t given up hope, still expecting your ’brother’ to come save you, but you’ve realized the truth already, haven’t you?"

He smiled, the sharp scalpel slowly moving downward, "You saw that watch in the wardrobe, you knew long ago that your brother would never come,"

His cheeks slowly drooped as he looked into the girl’s dilated bloody pupils,

"There was one thing I didn’t deceive you about; your brother indeed went mad. He knew about your specialness. If he had chosen to sacrifice you back then, perhaps he would be standing in my place today.

"He went mad, so he chose to keep you with him, forbidding you from going outside, afraid that you would be taken by us.

"But what could he really do? He was just a child after all, just like many others in the world who share similarities with you. Who can change their fate?

"So, he indeed went mad."

The man slowly straightened up, in the soft glow of the church hall, the boundary between his white robe with golden threads and the girl’s bloodstained dress no longer seemed clear.

"Alright, time’s up, your power should have been mostly absorbed by now, and everything should come to an end,"

He glanced at the old-fashioned watch on his wrist, then back at the little girl’s delicate, adorable, deathly pale face, shaking his head gently,

"What’s the use of telling you all this, when you already died fourteen years ago? What remains here now is nothing but a lingering obsession."

The sharp scalpel gradually sliced open the blood-colored dress and touched the deathly pale skin, "The person you’re waiting for won’t come, he wouldn’t come even fourteen years ago."

The little girl looked at the man’s face, any fluctuation in her expression finally becoming entirely still,

The paper butterfly resting on the tip of her hair slowly spread its wings silently.

The sharp scalpel cut through the cold skin, the little girl’s body involuntarily began to tremble.

At that moment, all the overlapping, illusory shadowy figures around them fell silent, every one of them staring at the two people in the center of the hall.

It was as if history from the past was replaying at this very moment.

Boom—

In that instant, a streak of white light, like thunder falling from the heavens with a loud sonic boom, slashed across the sky, hitting the scalpel in the man’s hand and sending it flying away.

Thud—thud—

The sharp scalpel and the pure white scabbard hit the solid stone floor almost at the same time.

The man turned his head to look in the direction from which the light had come.

"Cough,"

A pale-faced young boy stood in front of the open wooden cabinet, supporting himself with a white knight’s sword, silently watching him, "Uncle Lockway, long time no see."

A red-haired woman dressed in a bodysuit stepped out of the darkness of the cabinet almost simultaneously, standing behind the boy. She looked around the hall, "Are we back?"

"No."

He Ao shook his head calmly, his gaze still fixed on the man in the white robe with golden threads not far away.

This hall, though identical in appearance to the first hall they entered, was actually constructed with a completely reversed underground pattern. It seemed as if they had returned to the starting point, but in reality, they had entered ’another hall’."

At that moment, the man in the gold-threaded white robe turned his gaze upon He Ao’s face, slightly squinting his eyes behind the gold-rimmed glasses. After a brief pause, he mentioned with a mild surprise and a gentle smile,

"Yiluo, I didn’t expect to see you here. It’s been many years, and yet you still remember me—I find that quite surprising."

"I do not remember you,"

He Ao shook his head lightly, "I merely remember your mask."

Lockway had once been a neighbor of the Novis family. In Yiluo’s memory, he was a very ’kind and gentle’ man, often giving candies to little Yiluo and maintained good relations with his parents.

Several of the friends that Yiluo played with in kindergarten also had a good relationship with Lockway.

Yiluo had a deep impression of Lockway engraved in his memory. Thus, when He Ao first heard Lockway’s voice in the initial room, he immediately felt a sense of ’familiarity.’

After the Novis family moved away, the two lost contact, but when Yiluo was six years old, Lockway had visited Yiluo’s family, attempting to ’proselytize’ to them.

Just as he had seen in the previous room, the man before him always wore a ’smiling mask’ on his face.

"Interesting,"

Lockway looked at He Ao, eyes narrowing slightly,

"Little Yiluo, I can feel your soul burning as fiercely as a flame.

"I originally thought only your parents possessed such high spiritual nature, and that you brothers did not inherit your parents’ ’Talent’,

"But now, it seems my initial judgment was mistaken. At least you have ’inherited’ some of your parents’ talents and also possess a very high spiritual nature, although it wasn’t so apparent before."

He paused, glancing at the Knight’s sword in He Ao’s hand, "It seems now you’ve successfully acquired transcendent powers, haven’t you?"

He shook his head, "What a pity, such a fine natural gemstone, a veritable gift bestowed by the Eternal Radiance, has already been carved. It’s truly a waste."

"So, how would it not be wasted?"

He Ao, gripping the Knight’s sword, glanced at the red-dressed girl still restrained in midair, "By becoming your Sacrifice to the Eternal Radiance, in exchange for ’Grace’?"

Just as he was running through the dense fog, finding this door and pushing it open, he also overheard some of Lockway’s words.

"Oh, you’ve become unadorable, my little Yiluo. If not for sacrificing my little niece, allowing me to enter the core of the Church, how would I have the money to buy a house near your previous residence, becoming your ’neighbor’?"

Lockway shook his head while still maintaining a gentle smile. He gently raised his finger, and invisible threads spread out from the air, connecting to his fingertips,

"I’m aware of what you’ve done. You seem to have come into contact with some secret powers and attained some transcendent abilities, along with some discreet assistance.

"I can sense the powerful force within you, but such a rapid enhancement of power in a short time, even with your high spiritual nature, must come with a hefty price. Can you really call upon these forces without any consequences?"

He Ao’s expression darkened slightly.

"Although this ’helper’ by your side holds some interesting props,"

Lockway glanced at the red-haired woman beside He Ao, "they hardly seem sufficient to aid you in battle."

The red-haired woman: ?

Bending her head, the red-haired woman whispered to He Ao, "Be cautious of this guy who’s always smiling like a palace eunuch; his attire signifies that he’s the Vice Bishop of the Eternal Secret Teachings, likely one of the two or three strongest people within this Church."

Although she spoke quietly, the actual volume was not low, and both Lockway and the girl in the red dress could hear it clearly.

The smile on Lockway’s face gradually faded away.

The little girl in the red dress blinked softly.

Upon hearing this, He Ao nodded slightly, though it was unclear whether he was agreeing with the ’palace eunuch’ metaphor or acknowledging the warning from the red-haired woman.

"Verbal argument is pointless,"

Lockway, looking at He Ao and the red-haired woman, his gaze cooling, raised his hand, and invisible threads spread across the hall,

"So, my dear little Yiluo, why have you come here today? Is it for your parents’ bodies? Or are you overflowing with kindness, attempting to save this little one standing next to me who has been dead for fourteen years?"

"I have a question,"

He Ao calmly looked at him, "Was it you who arranged for someone to push me off the rockery back then?"

He Ao had obtained all the documents of Kate’s diocese at Kate’s villa, which included a ’plan’ to use children as a threat, but there was no implementation plan for pushing Yiluo off the rockery.

Initially, He Ao thought that Kate might not have recorded the details of the incident, but now seeing Lockway, he suddenly realized that there were others within the higher echelons of the church related to Yiluo’s family, not just Kate.

The ’classmates’ who gave Yiluo the ’plastic medal’ of the Eternal Secret Teachings during his kindergarten years were those very children who got along well with Lockway.

Lockway himself seemed to enjoy ’preaching’ among the children, and at that time, Yiluo had also gone to climb the rockery with a few ’little friends.’

The investigation by Yiluo’s parents afterwards concluded that Yiluo had ’slipped’ and fallen off the rockery.

Only Yiluo himself knew that he was ’pushed’ off.

If not for Yiluo’s good fortune and the amulet hiding the Talent Sequence of the Secret Watcher, he would have died at that time.

"You haven’t spoken, and I’ve almost forgotten,"

Lockway slightly narrowed his eyes, "You are the person involved, you know you didn’t just ’slip’ and fall."

He shrugged slightly and sighed,

"Honestly, I don’t like your parents very much, bright, righteous, kind, always sternly accusing us of this and that, thinking the great Eternal Radiance is a greedy Evil God,

"Every time I think of them, I feel like throwing up uncontrollably. If they didn’t have a bit of usefulness, they would have become my sacrifices long ago.

"At that time, it just so happened that Kate needed to threaten them, so I arranged for a few little darlings to let them experience the taste of losing a loved one, however,"

he smiled looking at He Ao, "you really are quite lucky."

In that instant, He Ao’s figure suddenly disappeared, turning into a streak of light that dashed out.

Still a child, huh.

"Even though it has been tainted by Transcendent power, it is indeed a ’sacrifice’ with a good soul,"

Lockway watched He Ao rushing towards him, his fingers swiftly pulled, and a smile gradually spread across his face as countless invisible threads tensed in the air like a dense spider’s web.

While he was speaking, he was weaving these threads, just waiting for an opportunity to ’infuriate’ He Ao, making He Ao walk right into the trap.

Bang—

The white sword light collided with the invisible threads, then, under Lockway’s gaze, the sword light suddenly changed direction in midair, not attacking him but tearing through a thinner cluster of threads beside him.

The young boy’s figure, like a streak of light, passed through the torn gap, suddenly embracing the little girl in the red dress beside Lockway, and dashed to the other side.

Lockway’s smile froze on his face.

It was not until this moment that he finally realized that He Ao’s target had always been the little girl in the red dress. The previous conversation, even if deliberately indulgent to set his trap, was all a distraction.

To make him think that He Ao was after him.

He was the one who had been played for a fool.

"I am not your brother,"

He Ao put the little girl in the red dress down on the ground, slashed the threads wrapped around her body with his sword, took out the four diaries, and handed them to her, "But I hope I’m not too late."

The girl in the red dress stared blankly at him, the Paper Butterfly at the end of her hair fluttering its wings slowly.

The few diary pages stained with fresh red ink instantly shattered, turning into celestial starlight merging into her body.

A certain shackling that had always enveloped her broke with the slicing of the threads and her departure from the ritual site, shattering with a thunderous noise.

It was then that He Ao turned back to face Lockway, who had lost all smiles, his expression as still as water.

He slowly lifted his Knight’s sword, the tip touching the ground, revealing a somewhat cold smile,

"Uncle Lockway, now it’s our turn."