External Evil

Chapter 2 External Evil

The clepsydra in the northwest corner of the Jinluan Palace ticked twelve times, and the morning court could be over. Li Wuxiang let out a long breath and said, "Resign."

Then he stood up from the throne and slowly walked towards his bedroom.

This body had been starved to death once before. When Li Wuxiang came into the body, he could already feel that it was extremely weak and on the verge of collapse again at any time.

But at that time, two more balls rolled out from behind the iron plate on the wall of the bedroom, and he was able to survive. He guessed that it might be that a person who was already dead suddenly resurrected. This kind of thing aroused the interest of the "god", so he decided to observe for a while to see what was going on.

This was good news for him. A person who could use one hundred and one children for an experiment or sacrifice for more than ten years must have an extremely twisted and cruel mentality, but now he showed curiosity, which meant that the "god" was not a complete lunatic, and still had a little basic humanity - this was his only hope to escape from here.

He walked back to the wooden bed and sat cross-legged, placing the remaining ball in front of him. It should be noon, he was very hungry, but he controlled himself to stare at the thing instead of eating it.

The deep memory left by the cruel punishment in infancy made the original owner and his officials always follow the daily action rules precisely: you can eat when you get up early and before going to bed, but if you eat food or drink water at other times, you will experience unimaginable pain.

So Li Wuxiang slowed down his breathing, let himself sit quietly, focus his eyes on the black ball, and wait.

The original owner was weak and ignorant, and in essence, he was no different from a smarter animal, but this kind of life also gave him a huge advantage: concentration.

Generally speaking, except for eating, attending court, sleeping, and excreting, he would sit quietly on the bed for the rest of the time. The distorted worldview made him unable to imagine anything other than these four stone chambers, so most of the time he was in a daze, or in other words, he was extremely focused and meditated.

Li Wuxiang inherited this advantage, so he could sit still on the wooden bed for two hours like the original owner, and gradually hear his heartbeat, the sound of blood flowing, the subtle sound of air flowing in the cracks of the stone, and -

footsteps.

In the original owner's memory, footsteps existed for a long time, light and slow, like a piece of thin paper falling on the stone surface.

Many years ago, when the 102nd person disappeared, he would occasionally hear such footsteps at night. But he didn't think there was anything wrong with it, and regarded such footsteps as a natural phenomenon, just like the wick in the ever-burning lamp that would never burn out might make a crackling sound, and the sound of air flowing in the cracks of the wall might make a sound.

But Li Wuxiang realized that this should be the 102nd person - he might never really leave, but observe everything here in another way that is not noticed by others.

The footsteps stopped in front of Li Wuxiang, and he smelled a very faint smell, similar to the fragrance of bamboo. Normal people would never be able to catch this smell. Only people who have been in a single smell environment for a long time like the original owner of this body would notice this subtle difference in the air.

He controlled his breathing and kept himself calm. Since he regained consciousness, the person or thing standing in front of him has come close to observe him seven times. This time was the most recent one - he felt that the other party was almost face to face with him, as if he could grab it with just one hand.

But Li Wuxiang restrained this impulse. He didn't know the other party well enough, and he didn't even know if he would find that he was only grabbing air once he reached out his hand. He had to further arouse the other party's curiosity and find more clues.

- When the "God" wanted to kill everyone, the "Emperor" was left to the end, which meant that the "Emperor" was far more important than the "Officials", and it was even possible that they were completely serving the existence of the "Emperor".

On the other hand, the "god" didn't seem to care whether the "emperor" was smart or stupid, weak or healthy, but only wanted him to repeat the things that could symbolize the "emperor" identity for more than ten years, which meant that the identity and symbol of the "emperor" should be far more important than the "emperor" himself.

This made Li Wuxiang feel that he could further confirm that this was a ritual and sacrifice. He didn't know who the object of the sacrifice was, but he felt that the only key to saving his life or even leaving here was the symbol of "emperor".

Since there was no way to leave here, he had to try to add some ingredients to this "symbol" to see if he could tear a hole in this invisible copper wall.

This idea had been vaguely brewing for a few days, and now it could be tried. So he suddenly raised his face, opened his mouth and frowned slightly, pretending to hear something suddenly. After a short pause, he immediately turned his head to look left and right, as if he was looking for the source of the sound.

Next, he screamed, quickly retreated on the wooden bed, and leaned against the corner of the wall. Li Wuxiang felt that for the original owner, "hearing an unexpected sound" was equivalent to having his entire worldview overturned, so it was not an exaggeration to be terrified.

And this reaction was just to set the stage for the next step.

He asked his expression to suddenly relax, changing from extremely frightened to doubtful and confused. Then, he whispered in an unclear tone: "I...I..."

It was as if someone invisible was teaching him how to speak.

Taking advantage of the gap to breathe, Li Wuxiang took a few deep breaths. He couldn't hear the "god's" footsteps now, but the faint smell of bamboo was still there. At first a little further away as he cowered into the corner in horror, as if frightened by his reaction, but now the scent came closer, as if the other person was leaning closer, trying to figure out what exactly he was going to say.

So, he slowly said: "I am... the most... noble person in the world."

Then he repeated it more clearly and coherently: "I am the supreme being in the world."

The smell of bamboo suddenly faded away, and for the first time he felt a slight air current and the sound of footsteps that was far lighter than usual - as if the person who had been observing him closely was suddenly frightened and immediately moved away. And he was still very sneaky on purpose!

This reaction was completely beyond Li Wuxiang's expectation. So he immediately shut his mouth, blinked blankly, as if he had completely forgotten what he had just done, and then sat back on the edge of the bed.

He thought that the other party might come closer to observe him again, but until half an hour later, the room remained quiet, and neither the smell of bamboo nor the sound of footsteps appeared again.

The other party left. Based on his previous reaction... was he scared away?

Li Wuxiang breathed out gently to stop his heartbeat from beating too fast. Now, he felt that his hope of getting out of here alive was getting a little bigger.

Now he knows that no matter what the reason is, "God" will be afraid!

In the process just now, the "god" first kept a distance, then came forward, then retreated again and disappeared. This caused the mysterious, powerful, and majestic impression he had left in the original owner's mind to suddenly collapse. It also meant that the invisible "god" might have been substantially harmed, and was not a phantom, a spirit, or something else that could not be seen. Something to touch, as he stirs up air currents when he moves quickly!

Li Wuxiang slowly stretched his hand to the bedside and gently touched the bottom board. There was a sharp piece of wood embedded there. It was originally a piece of bed plank that was split diagonally. He had broken it apart bit by bit a few days ago.

The footsteps of "God" usually appear after the clepsydra drips twelve times again and after the "Emperor" and "Hundred Officials" fall asleep. If he can't restrain his curiosity and returns to the bed tonight, Li Wu will The prime minister decided to strike violently and try to subdue him.

Because in the eleven days since he "resurrected from the dead", including today, water has been supplied only three times, and the intervals are getting longer and longer.

Two hours later, he ate the second dumpling and lay on the wooden bed as usual, waiting for the "god" to arrive. He listened to the subtle sound of airflow and the dripping sound of the clepsydra, and simulated over and over again in his head how to roll over to the bedside, pull out the wooden bars, and throw down the "god" in the smoothest movements once he heard the footsteps again. The wooden bars were then inserted into his body.

But more than an hour passed, and there was no additional sound.

Resurrection from the dead and long-term hunger made his body quite weak, so his mind was gradually defeated by physiological sleepiness, and Li Wuxiang's eyelids began to close uncontrollably. While half asleep, he suddenly heard a sound, muffled, as if coming from the narrow passage where the dumplings rolled out of the wall——

"Wake up, eh, wake up quickly!" A female voice said urgently, "Are you an evil spirit!?"