Chapter 62 - 61: You Think You Can Just Leave a Pyramid Scheme Den?
Chapter 62: Chapter 61: You Think You Can Just Leave a Pyramid Scheme Den?
The "Fall of the Red Demoness" Secret Realm Sealing Technique certainly lived up to its reputation as a highly acclaimed Technique.
Its unfriendliness to beginners was only because its Magic Power quality requirements were a bit excessive.
But this made it a tailor-made practice piece for Qin Xiaoxia.
Although there had been some unexpected incidents, it was going well overall.
This was one of the benefits of choosing the association’s old house as the location.
The surroundings were desolate. Who would come out here in the middle of the night? And who would be foolish enough to come looking for trouble at this infamous haunted house deep in the fields?
As the weaving of the Secret Realm became more complete, its area of coverage expanded rapidly.
Qin Xiaoxia closed his eyes, perceiving the Secret Realm’s expansion. When it covered the room of South Wind and the other two, he saw their state and the corners of his mouth curled into a smile.
Doudou wiped away his tears and snot, his attention shifting from the Red Demoness back to his Big Cousin.
Ever since arriving in this strange new world, the only human Doudou admired was his Big Cousin, and now he couldn’t help but feel that admiration surge for the Nth time.
His Big Cousin was just too amazing. This wasn’t about absolute power, but about a perfect match between confidence and strength, a powerful adaptability.
Not only had he succeeded on his first try as a Secret Realm Weaver, but now the Secret Realm was nearly complete, and the repair work Doudou had been anxiously anticipating had yet to be needed.
Even if the "Fall of the Red Demoness" was as good as the rumors claimed, this level of control was enough to leave all the Fairies of the Magson Tree Sea dumbfounded.
For one thing, Doudou couldn’t believe he had succeeded with such crude Shaping Material.
This was a Secret Realm, after all!
In an ignorant, primordial age, some of Magson’s lower-level beings had exaggeratedly called it the magical art of creating worlds.
Finally, after more than twenty minutes of tense and exciting weaving, Qin Xiaoxia’s first personal Secret Realm was complete.
As the edge of the Secret Realm rose along the outer courtyard and completed its circuit, something inside the bounds of the old association house changed in an instant.
...
In the room, Gu Hao and the others snapped out of the illusion at the same time.
They were bewildered by what they had just seen.
From the looks on their friends’ faces, it was clear they had seen something too.
"Did you guys just see a..."
Zhang Ruliang immediately jumped in.
"A beautiful, red-haired, uh, Elf?"
"On the sea?"
South Wind quickly added.
The three men exchanged a look and swallowed hard.
If they all saw it, then it wasn’t just a personal hallucination.
But for the moment they didn’t know what to do. The illusion hadn’t harmed them; instead, it had shown them a rather sad story.
The three of them, wrapped in their quilts, had now huddled together on South Wind’s bed.
It wasn’t until a minute later that Gu Hao suddenly noticed something.
"Do you guys feel how quiet it’s gotten? It’s too quiet!"
South Wind and Zhang Ruliang weren’t stupid; they immediately understood what he meant.
At this time of year, although it was still a bit cold, it was the season when nature was reawakening.
Especially in their location, surrounded by fields and ditches.
It absolutely shouldn’t be this quiet. On the contrary, the air should be filled with the noisy croaking of frogs.
At this, South Wind suddenly remembered Qin Xiaoxia’s joke during dinner, about how the people from the surrounding villages called this house haunted.
He had thought it was just a harmless joke before and hadn’t mentioned it to his two friends, but now, given the situation, South Wind couldn’t help but whisper it to Gu Hao and Zhang Ruliang.
Zhang Ruliang fiercely grabbed South Wind by the collar and hauled him up.
With sweat beading on his forehead, he whispered-roared.
"What the hell else are you hiding from us!!!"
Gu Hao also glared at the cowering South Wind.
The contract this guy had negotiated was already a huge rip-off, but they needed the money and had no other options, so they’d made do. But to have their personal safety ignored? That was going too far!
Of course, neither of them considered that even if South Wind had told them, they would have at most just laughed it off. They might have had some reservations, but they definitely wouldn’t have given up the job over it.
But getting angry was pointless. They were already in the house and, lacking the courage to leave, the three decided to just endure the night and wait for dawn.
「The next morning.」
"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK~~"
The abrupt knocking startled all three awake. Except for South Wind, who was in the middle of the bed, Gu Hao and Zhang Ruliang nearly rolled onto the floor.
"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK..."
The knocking came again.
The three looked at each other, dazed, then were relieved to see it was already light out.
"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK..."
"Open up, open up! Isn’t the lock on this door broken? What are you guys doing? Big Cousin says it’s time for breakfast!!"
"Open the door if you dare!"
Doudou’s childish voice chattered on from outside the door, along with the knocking.
"It’s Doudou."
South Wind said with relief. The other two also felt much more at ease.
After they moved the table barricading it and opened the door, Doudou, who was standing outside, saw three men with bloodshot, bleary eyes.
"What were you guys doing? Why couldn’t I push the door open just now? Breakfast is ready. You start work today, the power’s on now."
Doudou was about to leave after saying his piece, but Gu Hao stopped him.
"Um, Doudou, wait. About this job..."
"If you have a problem, talk to Big Cousin. What’s the point of talking to me, I’m just a kid. Eat breakfast or don’t, your choice. More for me if you don’t."
With that, Doudou shot them a glance and skipped away.
Breakfast was still in the empty hall, except now, a large, translucent, crystalline substance occupied the center of the room.
It looked less like a crystal and more like a giant block of jello.
The dining table, meanwhile, had been moved to a corner.
Four high-wattage lamps had been set up in the hall, with several power strips on the floor. Wires were simply dangled in from a gap in the ceiling.
’When did they do all this?’
The three men felt like they hadn’t heard a thing, yet the place had completely changed.
The wires and lamps were one thing, but how did that massive object in the middle get in? It looked bigger than the hall’s entryway. That just didn’t seem possible.
On the table in the corner was a breakfast spread large enough for at least twenty people. Doudou was already hard at work on two bowls of tofu pudding.
"Come on over. How can you have the strength to work if you don’t eat? The main body of the sculpture is this thing in the middle. Its texture is pretty soft, which should be convenient since you guys are good with pottery."
Aside from being a bit mercenary, the duo of Qin Xiaoxia and Doudou seemed pretty normal.
The three men walked awkwardly to the table, not quite having the nerve to eat.
"Um... Mr. Qin, we have a... disagreement about this job. Yes, a disagreement. So we’re planning to..."
"You saw the Red Demoness last night, didn’t you?"
Qin Xiaoxia looked up with a smile, his first sentence taking the three men completely by surprise.
He patted the stool next to him.
"Come on, sit. Let’s eat and talk. Since I already told South Wind this isn’t a haunted house, I naturally have my reasons."
"The Gorgeous Sea Shore, the fall of the beautiful Red Demoness... aren’t you curious about the story behind it all?"
Hearing Qin Xiaoxia say this, the illusion from last night naturally surfaced in their minds. The three men found their feet rooted to the spot, but they still didn’t sit down.
"This is probably the first supernatural event you’ve ever encountered in your lives. Are you really content to miss out? If so, the door is behind you. You know the way out."
Qin Xiaoxia’s voice was as calm as still water as he sipped his soy milk.
The three men looked at each other. After a few seconds of silence, Gu Hao finally stepped forward, said, "Sorry," and pulled his friends to turn and leave.
There was no paper contract anyway, and as the saying goes, curiosity killed the cat.
Doudou gnawed on a fried dough stick and glanced at his Big Cousin, only to find that Qin Xiaoxia hadn’t moved at all, still calmly sipping his soy milk.
’One step, two steps, three steps... ten steps, stop!’
Just as the countdown in his mind finished, the three men also stopped at that exact moment.
Doudou looked toward the boundary of the Secret Realm, which even he could no longer see. He had been looking forward to seeing their reaction when they bumped into the barrier and couldn’t get out.
’Sigh, no fun!’
P.S. Thanks to readers Yue Se Jiang Chu, Wu Kong Ling, I’m not sure, and lostkim for the 500-coin donations, and thanks to readers Mou Chao, Reader 160712214731468, and Dan Mo Hong Chen for the 100-coin donations~