Chapter 40: Class Game (Part 6)

Yun Xueqing lifted his gaze and glanced at him twice, his tone flat. “Let’s go.”

The two followed the manager all the way to the back of the casino. There was a hidden passageway with a loft, and they climbed the stairs to the second floor behind the manager.

The second floor had many empty rooms, one of which had its door tightly shut. The manager stepped forward and knocked. A low voice came from inside: “Come in.” The door then suddenly opened.

Yun Xueqing inexplicably felt the voice was familiar, but the manager had already entered first. He followed and saw a figure with their back turned.

The room was empty, with only a desk and an office chair. The person sitting in the chair had their back to them, but even from the silhouette, it was clear they had a slender, graceful female figure.

She had long hair, dyed a reddish-brown with curls at the ends. Yun Xueqing looked at her hair and felt no sense of familiarity, only a vague impression of having seen it somewhere before.

It wasn’t until she lazily rested both arms on the armrests of the office chair and slowly turned around that Yun Xueqing immediately reacted. “San Zhi?”

It wasn’t the appearance from their first encounter in the Weird Domain, but it matched the person named San Zhi on the nobility list that had been announced.

San Zhi smiled at him. “It’s been a long time.”

That single sentence confirmed his identity.

Yun Xueqing didn’t speak. Instead, Fu Wuxuan sized him up. “How did you end up here? And changed into this form again—I see the rumors were true.”

“What rumors?” San Zhi shrugged indifferently. “We Weirds aren’t like you humans, stuck in one form. If I want, I can become anyone.”

Fu Wuxuan asked, “Did Zhongse send you to this hellhole too?”

“As you can see,” San Zhi said with a smile. “That night after you left, I didn’t expect the Spiritual Energy Special Control Bureau to value you so much. Several experts came to capture you, but they failed and caught me instead.”

His tone held some helplessness. “That woman named Wu Xue sensed the Weird aura on me and thought I was an Oracle infected by a Weird Domain. She sent me to the Degeneration Abstinence Institute, and after that, Director Zhongse shipped me here for ‘reeducation.'”

Fu Wuxuan lifted his gaze, his eyes carrying an indecipherable meaning. “Wu Xue might not have seen through you being a Weird—that’s forgivable. But Zhongse, as an S-Rank Oracle, couldn’t possibly fail to notice you’re not human.”

“As expected, I can’t fool you,” San Zhi shot him a disgusted look, then quickly resumed his relaxed expression. “When I was sent to the Degeneration Abstinence Institute, Zhongse did spot right away that I wasn’t human and was about to kill me. But at the last moment, I used my wits and struck a deal with him.”

Fu Wuxuan asked, “What deal?”

San Zhi grinned wickedly. “As if I’d tell you that.”

“I know even if you don’t say,” Fu Wuxuan said casually. “It has to do with Strategy God Heavens and the Weirds themselves.”

San Zhi didn’t respond, his face inscrutable, wearing a profound smile.

Fu Wuxuan hated dealing with schemers like this the most—it was the most mentally draining and yielded the least information. He impatiently scratched the back of his head. “Why did you call us here? What do you want?”

San Zhi smiled, a hint of malice in his tone. “I just happened to learn you ended up in the same place as me. I originally wanted to gamble with you, but after meeting, I don’t think that’s necessary.”

Yun Xueqing lifted his gaze, his expression indifferent. “Out with it.”

“I was going to toy with you, but with you here, if I accidentally got you killed, it’d be more loss than gain,” San Zhi said, pursing his lips as he looked at Yun Xueqing. “After all, our relationship now is the most intimate in the world. I wouldn’t harm you.”

Shared life and death—how wasn’t that the most intimate?

Yun Xueqing understood the implication but didn’t respond. Instead, Fu Wuxuan looked at him in surprise. “You made a private deal with this sly Weird?”

Yun Xueqing had no intention of revealing the Shared Fate Curse and ambiguously replied, “There’s nothing between him and me.”

Fu Wuxuan nodded, his face neutral, unclear if he believed it.

“Looks like your relationship is even worse than I imagined. That’s reassuring.”

Seeing tension between them delighted San Zhi. He clapped lightly, schadenfreude in his voice. “Entering the Blue Castle requires a lot of teamwork. With your lack of trust, be careful not to die.”

Fu Wuxuan said, “You know we’re going into the Blue Castle.”

“Isn’t it obvious?” San Zhi smiled. “This is a Class World. Those at the top control everything for those below. You have to keep climbing to dominate others and gain the freedom you want.”

He smiled faintly. “The same goes for leaving—you can only climb to the very top of this world to earn the right to exit, to reach the other side.”

He had reached the same conclusion as them. “Only by becoming the ultimate top figure can you escape the domain set by Zhongse.”

Fu Wuxuan was noncommittal. “You want to be King too?”

San Zhi chuckled. “Of course. I don’t want to stay here forever.”

Half complaining, half sighing, he said, “Though I have plenty of privileges here, it’s all just a fake ‘Truman Show’ world created by others—utterly illusory. I prefer the real world.”

Yun Xueqing ignored the nonsense and picked out the key information. “You’re going to compete with us for the King’s position.”

San Zhi waved it off. “Don’t put it so bluntly. No competing—once I become King and get out, I’ll hand the position to you and let you leave too.”

He let out a wicked laugh. “Besides, I’m nobility now. From your looks, you’re just low-rank gentry or commoners. You don’t qualify to compete with me yet.”

Fu Wuxuan shot back without mercy. “We’re low-rank gentry, and you’re just bottom-tier nobility. There’s a huge wealth gap to the top noble.”

“You know nothing,” San Zhi said, not annoyed but pitying, with a trace of hidden arrogance. “Makes sense—only nobles learn these secrets.”

“What?”

San Zhi didn’t hesitate to tell them, smirking. “The King isn’t chosen by nobility wealth rankings. It’s determined another way.”

Fu Wuxuan and Yun Xueqing subconsciously exchanged glances.

Fu Wuxuan nodded to Yun Xueqing, finding it credible, and asked gravely, “What way?”

San Zhi curled his lips, lowering his voice mysteriously. “Completing the King’s Challenge Book.”

Fu Wuxuan was surprised. “Challenge Book?”

That meant completing many tasks?

Before he could ask, San Zhi continued. “No one knows the contents of the King’s Challenge Book.”

He smiled oddly. “Because all the nobles who’ve participated are dead—died horribly.”

Fu Wuxuan raised a brow. “You haven’t participated?”

San Zhi shook his head. “I only became nobility at the start of this month. The King’s Challenge is held only in the last week of each month, when the Blue Castle opens wide. Any noble can join.”

“The last week of the month…” Fu Wuxuan calculated. “That’s next Monday?”

Only a few days left.

“Yeah, just days to become nobility. Better hurry.”

While becoming King didn’t depend on wealth amount, becoming nobility did.

The lowest noble had 1.16 million gold coins, while they had only 132—less than 129 after paying debts.

The wealth gap was like a chasm.

Earning over a million gold coins in days was next to impossible.

Seeing them troubled, San Zhi grinned mischievously, pitching his voice high. “Good luck. If you miss the time, it’s another month here—who knows what’ll happen.”

He glanced down, smirking at Fu Wuxuan’s fish tail under the blanket and Yun Xueqing’s slender frame. “A fish and an ordinary guy won’t last a month before becoming some noble’s meal.”

Fu Wuxuan smiled back sweetly. “Mind your own business.”

“No need for your concern,” Yun Xueqing said flatly, lifting his eyelids. “What’s your goal in telling us all this?”

His tone remained mild, unangered by San Zhi’s words.

Few words in this world truly reached his ears.

San Zhi sighed, his eyes resentful like a jilted lover. “What bad intentions could I have? I just don’t want you to die… If you feel bad about it, let me go.”

He still clung to hope, refusing to believe Yun Xueqing’s Shared Fate Curse was truly unsolvable.

Fu Wuxuan looked at Yun Xueqing in astonishment, then back at San Zhi. “What are you talking about? You’re a Weird…”

He couldn’t finish the sentence.

Yun Xueqing ignored Fu Wuxuan and didn’t explain, simply replying flatly, “No solution.”

He wasn’t deceiving San Zhi—the Shared Fate Curse truly had no cure.

Even if it did, he wouldn’t seek or learn it.

A life-gambling curse—if solvable, enemies could exploit and threaten him, potentially leading to death.

Better no solution at all—that was safest.

San Zhi gave up, gritting his teeth and glaring, then suddenly laughed as if remembering something. “Oh, right—that deadweight seems to have entered Zhongse’s domain too.”

Fu Wuxuan asked, “Deadweight?”

Who?

He never remembered irrelevant people.

San Zhi recalled. “The idiot possessed by the Six-Armed Bodhisattva. Pollution Value spiked from Weird possession, so the Spiritual Energy Special Control Bureau sent him to the Degeneration Abstinence Institute too.”

With the reminder, Fu Wuxuan remembered. He waved dismissively. “Li Yulin? If he turned into a Weird here, no big deal.”

Li Yulin as a Weird in this domain was like a fish in water missing a bicycle—zero impact.

San Zhi surprisingly agreed, his tone venomous. “The Bureau Chief is that waste Li An—no Spirit Energy means no guts. He guards against the capable and the useless alike. But his cowardice lets Strategy God Heavens grow.”

Bad mood from the curse talk made San Zhi lash out at everything.

Fu Wuxuan didn’t pursue it. “Anything else?”

Still sour, San Zhi spitefully swept files off the desk toward Fu Wuxuan, who had no legs to dodge.

Yun Xueqing quickly pulled the wheelchair back, sparing Fu Wuxuan.

Fu Wuxuan’s lips curved, eyes darkening as he said to San Zhi, “You’re something.”

San Zhi grinned shamelessly, waving obnoxiously. “See yourselves out.”

The door slowly closed. Yun Xueqing wheeled Fu Wuxuan downstairs. “To the casino?”

Fu Wuxuan nodded.

“Right here—no need to switch.”

He smiled, but his eyes held no mirth. “Since San Zhi’s the house, let’s make him bleed good.”