Koi still looked haunted. “I’ve been stuck in this site for God knows how long. No exit, no sign of anyone. I was exhausted, so I holed up in a hidden attic for some sleep. Then she appeared. At first I thought she was there to save me, but she set the bed curtains ablaze, laughing all the while. She wanted to kill me!”
Qian Duoduo pressed on. “What happened next? Have you seen the madam since?”
“The last time was ages ago. Time’s all blurred here.” Koi murmured, “She’d changed into something eerie. And she said… she said she was going to kill our child.”
“Child? What child?” Zhao Meiyou blurted, stunned. “You and hers?”
“Zhao Meiyou.” Qian Duoduo interrupted. “Get down. My arms are going numb.”
Zhao Meiyou had grown quite comfortable being carried—even settling into a cozy position—but he hopped down reluctantly. He watched Qian Duoduo pull out his pack of “cigarettes” and offer one to Koi. “You’ve earned this. Take it to steady your nerves.”
“Thanks. Thank you.” Koi took the cigarette, but in the next instant, Qian Duoduo snatched it back, lit it up, and took a single drag.
Zhao Meiyou had a good guess what was happening—this was “Borrow Smoke,” Qian Duoduo’s way of stealing an ability.
True to form, Qian Duoduo didn’t smoke. He exhaled once and stubbed it out, then clapped Koi on the shoulder. “You’re safe now. We’re here to get you out.”
“R-Really?” Koi gushed with thanks. “Thank you so much. I feel like I’ve been trapped here for an eternity…”
“Go straight ahead.” Qian Duoduo pointed into the inky depths. “The exit’s that way. Count to ten thousand seconds, and you’ll be there.”
“C-Can’t you guys escort me?”
“We still have to handle that madam.” Qian Duoduo said. “Or you could wait here until we finish the mission and leave together.”
Koi flinched, plainly terrified of her. “N-No, no need! I’ll head out first. The rest is up to you!”
Zhao Meiyou watched the goldfish lantern fade into the gloom. “Brother Qian, who knew you had such a silver tongue.”
As if there was really an exit.
“Duty calls.” Qian Duoduo’s voice flattened out again. “That archaeologist’s beyond saving. Better he dies quick and moves on to the next life.”
“How could you tell?”
“The child he mentioned.” Qian Duoduo explained. “It was probably his child with the Butterfly Madam.”
“No way?”
“Do you know the story of the opera Madame Butterfly?” Qian Duoduo turned and headed in the opposite direction. Zhao Meiyou hurried after him. “An American naval officer marries a Japanese woman known as the Butterfly Madam. When she becomes pregnant, he sails home, promising to return soon. But she bears their son alone, only to face abandonment.”
“Oh.” Zhao Meiyou let out a sigh. “What happens next? Does she grab a samurai sword and lop off the guy’s head?”
“The ending’s just abandonment. Don’t over-romanticize ancient operas.” Qian Duoduo said. “The officer marries a new wife back home but returns to Japan to claim his son. The Butterfly Madam can’t face the truth: she blindfolds the child and takes her own life.”
“…Why put herself through that?” Zhao Meiyou fell silent.
“The mistress of Site S86 is the Butterfly Madam. My first visit, everything played out like the opera script. She was waiting for her husband’s return. Every guest who entered, she’d ask if they were him.”
Zhao Meiyou ventured, “What if you said yes?”
“She’d be thrilled. She’d serve you on fine china, attend to your every need, even tuck you into bed.” Qian Duoduo replied. “But you’d never leave.”
“So the archaeologist plays husband forever?” Zhao Meiyou said. “Like some twisted game of house?”
“Not at all. Becoming her husband is just step one. Then she gets pregnant—and like a praying mantis, devours her mate. But you don’t truly die. When she gives birth, she rebirths you.”
Zhao Meiyou: “…”
Damn, that was wild.
“The archaeologist code-named Koi must have run the full cycle.” Qian Duoduo’s voice drifted from ahead. “No ability registered when I borrowed his smoke. The site’s dissolved and absorbed him.”
“Then why’s the Butterfly Madam still after him?”
“Because he’s not the ‘husband’ anymore. Now he’s the ‘son.'”
“To spite her unfaithful husband, the mother kills the son?”
“Exactly. Site S86’s Overseer shifts identities with the site’s phases. When hosting guests, she’s the Butterfly Madam. Pregnant, she’s the raving madwoman in the attic. After giving birth, with no sign of her wayward husband, she becomes Medea.”
Medea—wife to the hero Jason, who won the Golden Fleece. Betrayed by him, she slaughtered their two sons with her own hands.
“So why’d Koi let her seduce him?” Zhao Meiyou couldn’t wrap his head around it. “Asking to die?”
“That’s one reason Site S86 rates so high on danger. Few can resist the Butterfly Madam’s charms. It demands ironclad mental discipline from any archaeologist.”
Zhao Meiyou’s interest piqued. “So how’d you resist her, Brother Qian?”
“I told the Butterfly Madam I prefer men.” Qian Duoduo said. “Old Japan took a dim view of that. She booted me out before dinner.”
Zhao Meiyou thought: Damn, that’s brilliant.
They trudged on for what felt like ages when faint screams echoed from far behind, mingled with the grisly sound of teeth grinding flesh.
One of Qian Duoduo’s abilities was “Scan.” The path he’d directed Koi toward led straight to the Butterfly Madam.
“Stringy meat. Sounds tough and chewy.” Zhao Meiyou caught the echoes and asked, “So with him done for, Brother Qian, how do we escape?”
“Something doesn’t add up.” Qian Duoduo veered at a staircase and bounded up it with swift steps. “Archaeologists tackling Site S86 always do their homework first. Even if one falls victim, the Metropolis Government wouldn’t post a rescue call this late…”
“Maybe the prior rescue team bit it too?” Zhao Meiyou suggested. “Abilities don’t work here. Not many can hang with you, Brother Qian.”
“If casualties happened earlier, word would’ve reached me…” Qian Duoduo halted abruptly.
“Brother Qian?”
Qian Duoduo fell quiet for a moment, deep in thought.
They stood atop a sheer, vertiginous staircase when a voice floated down from ahead: “Sorry.”
The sudden apology caught Zhao Meiyou off guard. “What for?”
“I’ve been gearing up to probe a particularly tricky site. Might’ve tipped off the Metropolis Government.” Qian Duoduo admitted plainly. “Archaeologists rarely lose access to abilities inside sites—unless the government’s sealed it externally.”
Zhao Meiyou caught his drift, even without the full picture. Like any handler and operative, when a tool grows unpredictable, the simplest fix was disposal.
One thing he kept to himself: maybe the government wasn’t gunning for Qian Duoduo, but for him and Diao Chan.
Speaking of which—what if Diao Chan ended up sealed in a site, abilities nullified?
“Site S86 is a natural slaughterhouse. No archaeologist’s playground. Without the Butterfly Madam’s blessing, we’re not getting out.”
“What about killing her?”
“That backfires hard. S86’s architecture is one-of-a-kind. Lose the original Overseer, and the site seals shut from the inside out.”
“Think we could talk her down?”
Butterfly Madam, lost in her Medea state, had no rationality left to speak of… Perhaps Koi was just bait, a sacrifice the government was willing to make to set this trap. Qian Duoduo fell silent for a moment before remarking, “Clever scheme.”
“Brother Qian, don’t overthink it.” Zhao Meiyou stepped forward and patted his shoulder. “This might be killing two birds with one stone. A guy who can’t keep it in his pants could have pissed off the government at any time without it being a surprise.”
Zhao Meiyou wasn’t panicking. He watched Qian Duoduo spin his conclusions out of thin air. For one thing, Qian Duoduo was incredibly strong—might made right, after all. For another, something about his own experiences felt off.
Maybe it was his background from the Lower District, but Zhao Meiyou was always wary of overly attentive treatment. Qian Duoduo had been good to him—too good. Could one incident in Site S45 really fill someone with that much guilt?
Qian Duoduo didn’t even know exactly what had happened between him and Diao Chan in the site, yet he had volunteered to be Zhao Meiyou’s guide without hesitation. Sure, his own Undying Bug played a part in that, but even so, Zhao Meiyou had a gut feeling.
Everything Qian Duoduo did felt like a performance tailored for him, as if to say: “I’m trustworthy—hand over your trust to me.”
Zhao Meiyou wasn’t exactly pure-hearted himself. He and Diao Chan had their own schemes, and his partnership with Qian Duoduo was mutual exploitation at best. Still, something about Qian Duoduo’s behavior struck him as strange. Even for a guide, the style he was used to was more like The Lead Actor’s—toss him into the site and let him fend for himself. Fine, maybe he was just a wild boar who couldn’t handle fine feed.
In any case, Zhao Meiyou resolved to stay vigilant. Someone who showed up at just the right times, who matched his tastes almost perfectly—what were the odds? A quick glance in the mirror reminded him: who deserved that kind of heavenly luck these days?
The more likely scenario was that Qian Duoduo had ulterior motives of his own.
Zhao Meiyou waited leisurely, thinking to himself, Come on, show me your next act.
Qian Duoduo had already revealed one flaw in his story. If he knew the full progression of Butterfly Madam’s evolution, there had to be an archaeologist who survived it firsthand to spread the word. So how had the first survivor escaped?
They just needed to copy that homework. If Qian Duoduo refused to share, that would be a huge red flag.
As Zhao Meiyou’s mind raced with wild theories, Qian Duoduo suddenly spoke up. “…There is a way out.”
Huh? You’re actually going to tell me?
“But it’s… unusual.”
Now that’s more like it. Spill it—how do you plan to use me? I’ll decide if I play along.
“There was a pair of archaeologists who successfully escaped from Site S86—a husband and wife. The husband fell to Butterfly Madam’s temptations, but only the wife made it out.” Qian Duoduo paused before continuing, “And that wife was pregnant.”
Pregnant?
“The underlying logic of Site S86 revolves around Butterfly Madam’s opera. The site assumes only the Overseer—’Butterfly Madam’—can bear a son. ‘Gestation’ is the root of her authority as Overseer. When that female archaeologist went into labor, the site briefly recognized her as the Overseer, granting her the power to open the exit.”
So…?
“So.” Qian Duoduo took a deep breath. “Zhao Meiyou, are you sure you can’t use your Transformation ability?”
Zhao Meiyou felt like he had tried it a hundred times in those few seconds. He finally managed to croak, “…No.”
“We’re not likely to find a woman around here.” Qian Duoduo snapped his fingers. Using Creation, he conjured a person—a woman, or at least the attempt at one. She melted into a grotesque, unrecognizable mess, then dissolved into a puddle of slime.
Zhao Meiyou could have sworn he heard Qian Duoduo mutter “Damn it.”
It wasn’t surprising; he’d curse too. If this was all an act, the sacrifice seemed a bit much. Heaven couldn’t be that cruel, right? Brother Qian, say something—
Then he saw Qian Duoduo snap his fingers again.
Qian Duoduo transformed into a woman.
“This is about the limit of what I can manage right now.” Zhao Meiyou could see the resolve in Qian Duoduo’s eyes, the look of a man facing death unflinchingly. “Zhao Meiyou, you heard that, right? Our only way out now is to get a woman pregnant, usurp Butterfly Madam’s authority as Overseer, and open the door.”
“Do you get what I’m saying?”
It hit Zhao Meiyou like a volcanic eruption. The neglected Brain Tank overflowed with algae-choked snails devouring blue-handed comet shards from an exploding star the second before—a whirlwind of dizziness shattered every theory he’d built.
He stayed quiet for a long moment before blurting out, “Uh, I don’t know how to deliver a baby.”
Qian Duoduo: “So?”
“…But I’ve studied postpartum care for sows.”
![Hundreds of Assassination Attempts on the Immortal Venerable [Transmigration Book]](https://i1.wp.com/dobynovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/tr.jpg?resize=151,215 "Hundreds of Assassination Attempts on the Immortal Venerable [Transmigration Book]")
