6: Chapter 6 Am I pretty?

Secret Room No. 3 was at the end of the corridor.

As Su Bai pushed the door open and entered, a faint blue light had already lit up on the metal platform in the center of the room. It was a sign that the portal was about to open.

A staff member in an association uniform was adjusting the equipment. Hearing the door open, he looked up.

"Conqueror?"

He glanced at Su Bai's school uniform and frowned slightly, but said nothing more, simply pointing to the center of the platform.

"Stand on it. The portal opens in thirty seconds. Remember, the portal only lasts for 24 hours. Don't miss the time to return."

Su Bai nodded and stepped onto the platform.

Thirty seconds.

He closed his eyes, and his consciousness sank into the Underworld.

The grayish-white Yin Qi surged like a sea.

The Ghost Bride was floating in mid-air, boredly tugging at her hair. The Slit-Mouthed Woman stood quietly to the side, holding those massive scissors like a statue.

A hundred Yin Soldiers stood in a neat formation, waiting in silence.

"Master!"

Sensing Su Bai's consciousness, the Ghost Bride instantly floated over.

"You're finally here! I'm so bored by myself! That Slit-Mouthed Woman won't say a single word. I ask her ten things and she ignores me every time!"

Su Bai looked down at her.

"Prepare for battle."

The Ghost Bride's eyes lit up. "Battle? Are we going to hit people?"

"Yes."

"Great!" The Ghost Bride spun a circle in the air excitedly. "I want to take on ten!"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman remained silent, though her grip on the scissors tightened slightly, and a faint glint flashed in her hollow eyes.

Su Bai scanned these one hundred and two beings.

It was enough.

He opened his eyes.

The faint blue light had reached its peak intensity, tearing a pitch-black rift in the center of the platform. The rift expanded further and further, eventually forming a gateway about three meters high and two meters wide.

On the other side of the gateway, a dusky sky and cracked earth were faintly visible.

Su Bai took a deep breath and stepped inside.

The Ghost Bride followed closely behind him. As she floated into the gateway, she didn't forget to look back and wave at the Slit-Mouthed Woman: "Hurry up, hurry up!"

The Slit-Mouthed Woman stepped forward in silence. Behind her, a hundred Yin Soldiers marched out in unison.

The moment he crossed the portal, Su Bai felt a drastic change in the environment.

Cold.

Dry.

The air was thick with a decaying stench, like the smell of countless rotting corpses mixed together.

He steadied himself and looked up.

The dusky sky hung low, like a piece of filthy, tattered cloth draped overhead. There was no sun, no moon, only eternal dusky light spilling from an unknown source.

The ground was cracked into countless pieces, each fissure as thick as an arm and bottomless. The cracks were filled with dark red vines covered in tiny thorns, emitting a nauseating odor.

In the distance, a weathered castle stood on the horizon.

The castle had long since lost its former grandeur. Most of the walls had collapsed, and the remaining structures were covered in cracks, standing alone on the wasteland like the picked-clean skeleton of a giant beast.

There was almost no energy flow to be felt in the air.

No spiritual energy, no battle qi, no magic elements.

Only dead silence.

And despair.

"Is this a dying world?" The Ghost Bride floated to Su Bai's side and looked around curiously. "It's so dilapidated, far worse than our home."

Su Bai didn't speak, his gaze sweeping across the surrounding ground.

Countless skeletons were scattered across the cracked earth.

Some skeletons were massive, clearly the remains of the Yaksha Clan; some were smaller, like those of wild beasts; and some were so broken from being gnawed on that it was impossible to tell what they originally were.

He crouched down to carefully observe a relatively intact Yaksha skeleton.

There were clear bite marks on the ribs.

Those were marks left by cannibalism.

Su Bai stood up, a trace of coldness flashing in his eyes.

Internal strife, plague, cannibalism.

The Yaksha Clan of this world had gone completely mad.

"Master."

A raspy voice suddenly sounded.

Su Bai turned to look at the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

She was still wearing that white mask and holding those massive scissors, but her gaze was no longer hollow; instead, she was staring straight at the weathered castle in the distance.

"Over there."

She raised her scissors and pointed toward the castle.

"There are living ones."

Su Bai narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction the scissors pointed.

In the ruins of the castle, some moving black dots were faintly visible.

They were too far away to see clearly, but the movement patterns of those black dots were chaotic—sometimes clustering together, sometimes scattering—as if they were fighting over something.

"Let's go."

With a wave of his hand, Su Bai took the lead and walked toward the castle.

The Ghost Bride floated on his left, the Slit-Mouthed Woman walked on his right, and behind them, a hundred Yin Soldiers followed silently with synchronized steps.

The Yin Soldiers' footsteps on the cracked earth didn't make a single sound.

They weren't living things to begin with.

Five hundred meters.

Three hundred meters.

One hundred meters.

The ruins of the castle drew closer, and the outlines of those black dots gradually became clear.

Yaksha Clan.

More than thirty Yakshas were gathered in a circle, frantically tearing at something.

They were indeed burly, with an average height of over 2.2 meters. Their dark green skin was covered in scars and filth. Some wore tattered animal skins, while others were simply naked, holding crude stone axes or bone clubs in their hands.

Their faces were hideous and distorted, with protruding fangs and dark red liquid dripping from the corners of their mouths.

It was blood.

Surrounded in their midst was the corpse of one of their own.

The corpse had been torn out of shape, limbs scattered everywhere, and the chest cavity ripped open, its internal organs nowhere to be found.

The thirty-plus Yakshas fought over the remains like wild beasts, letting out low growls from time to time, pushing and biting each other.

Su Bai stopped and narrowed his eyes at the scene.

Over thirty.

Just right for testing their blades.

"Let me go first, let me go first!"

The Ghost Bride's voice carried an uncontrollable excitement. Her red dress cut a ghostly arc through the air as she instantly floated above the group of Yakshas.

The Yakshas finally noticed something was wrong.

They looked up and saw the woman in red floating in mid-air.

That breathtakingly beautiful face looked as pale as paper under the dusky light. Her black hair cascaded down like a waterfall, fluttering slightly in the wind.

The Yakshas were stunned.

They had never seen such a being.

The Ghost Bride looked down at these thirty-plus hideous Yakshas, her lips slowly curling into a smile.

"Do you..."

Her voice was cold as ice, yet carried a faint, lingering hint of charm.

"...want to marry me?"

The moment the words fell, the red dress on her body suddenly erupted with a blinding red light.

The red light seemed to have a life of its own, instantly enveloping the surrounding area for dozens of meters. The thirty-plus Yakshas were swallowed by the red light. Before they could react, they felt an icy chill rise from the depths of their hearts.

Fear.

Boundless fear.

It was as if they were seeing the thing they feared most in their lives.

Darkness, death, and the corpse of the kin they had just shared, staring at them with hollow eye sockets.

"Aaaah!!"

One Yaksha dropped his stone axe and clutched his head, screaming frantically.

Then came a second, and a third.

In just three seconds, all thirty-plus Yakshas collapsed. Some knelt on the ground trembling, some rolled around clutching their heads, and some even began to attack the companions beside them, as if those companions had turned into the most terrifying monsters.

Floating in mid-air, the Ghost Bride admired her masterpiece, laughing like a child who had received a new toy.

[Soul-Claiming Red Makeup: Uses one's own resentment to trigger the deepest fears in the target's heart, causing them to fall into a state of collapse. Duration depends on the target's mental strength.]

Su Bai nodded in satisfaction.

He looked at the Slit-Mouthed Woman.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman stepped forward silently, walking up to a Yaksha trembling on the ground.

That Yaksha was a full 2.5 meters tall, a whole head taller than the Slit-Mouthed Woman, yet he was currently curled into a ball, letting out whimpering moans.

The Slit-Mouthed Woman crouched down, raised her hand, and slowly took off her mask.

It was a slit mouth.

From the base of the left ear to the base of the right ear.

Bright red gums and forest-white teeth looked shocking against her pale face.

She split her mouth open and smiled.

"Am I pretty?"

The Yaksha looked up and saw that face.

His pupils suddenly contracted to the size of pinpoints, and his mouth opened as wide as possible, but he couldn't make a sound.

A second later, his body slumped over, never to get up again.

[The Slit-Mouthed Woman's Eerie Gaze: Targets asked "Am I pretty?" will suffer a powerful mental shock if they cannot answer or give the wrong answer. Those with weak will can be killed instantly.]

Su Bai watched this scene without a single ripple in his eyes.

He raised his hand and waved it forward.

A hundred Yin Soldiers stepped forward in silence, walking toward the collapsed Yakshas.

There were no battle cries, no roars.

Only the dull thuds of rusted spears piercing flesh.

One.

Two.

Three.

In just one minute, all thirty-plus Yakshas lay in pools of blood.

The Ghost Bride floated back to Su Bai's side, her face flushed as she looked at him.

"Master, am I amazing?"

Su Bai nodded and praised: "Amazing."

The Slit-Mouthed Woman put her mask back on and walked back behind Su Bai without a word.

Su Bai looked down at the Yaksha corpses.

Their bodies were shriveling up at a visible rate, as if something was being extracted.

It was resentment.

These Yakshas had experienced internal strife, plague, and cannibalism in life, and then died in battle; every corpse contained dense resentment.

And that resentment was flowing toward the Ghost Bride through some invisible connection.

The Ghost Bride closed her eyes, a look of satisfaction appearing on her face.

"So comfortable..."

Her aura was strengthening at a faint but clear pace.

The corners of Su Bai's mouth curled up slightly.

As expected.

The Yaksha Clan of this world was the best resource for him.

He looked up toward the scattered ruins and black dots on the distant wasteland.

Eight hundred to a thousand Yakshas.

If all of them were converted into resentment, how many ranks would the Ghost Bride rise?

"Let's go."

He set off toward the depths of the wasteland.