Chapter 46: Class Game (Part 12)

The masked man laughed upon hearing this. “You know me? Looks like I’ve really become something of a celebrity.”

His speech was slick and sleazy, completely at odds with the terrifying mask on his face.

Fu Wuxuan chuckled softly. “So it really is Ji Tongsheng.”

Ji Tongsheng, the bard from the Strategy God Heavens organization, appeared amiable on the surface but was actually insidious and vicious.

Running into someone like him here was bound to spell trouble.

Ji Tongsheng gave him a couple of glances and saw that, despite the man’s shocking appearance, the fluctuations of Spirit Energy within him were not strong. He stopped paying attention to Fu Wuxuan and turned his gaze to San Zhi behind him instead. “You’ve turned into this, and I didn’t even recognize you. Very beautiful, very alluring.”

He pulled a folding fan from his pocket and leisurely unfurled it. “Your beauty more enchanting than before—how can one tell if you’re male or female?”

San Zhi smiled. “Ji Tongsheng, go die.”

Ji Tongsheng smiled faintly. “Now that you’ve become a great beauty, don’t spew such foul words. It ruins your image.”

As the two bickered, a few more people trickled in one after another.

Yun Xueqing immediately noticed Jiang Yiyue among them. She had told them about the Mountains and Rivers Comparison in the previous Weird Domain, but he hadn’t expected her to be dragged into this domain set by Zhongse as well.

Her heterization wasn’t severe—only her ears had turned into black cat ears. It seemed the mental Pollution Value from the previous Weird Domain had been high, polluting her mind.

Jiang Yiyue saw the two of them but didn’t greet them. Instead, she awkwardly turned her face away.

The noble man who had come with her took her arm and led her to sit down together.

More people arrived steadily afterward until all thirteen chairs were filled. Only then did Yun Xueqing withdraw his gaze.

After memorizing the faces of these dozen or so people, he turned his attention to Fu Wuxuan, who had grown quieter since entering the room.

Fu Wuxuan had been keeping his head down the entire time. Yun Xueqing followed his line of sight and discovered that he was staring at his own hand.

Fu Wuxuan’s hand was fair and slender, with distinct joints—pleasing to the eye, no different from usual. Yet Yun Xueqing noticed that the hand was trembling slightly.

Fu Wuxuan’s fingernails had turned a watery blue, as if coated with a layer of light blue nail polish.

Yun Xueqing asked, “Has the heterization worsened?”

Fu Wuxuan wasn’t in the mood to respond. It took a long time before he mumbled a reluctant “Mm.”

This was the trial domain set by Zhongse, which could suppress or even eliminate heterization symptoms. Yet in a domain capable of suppressing heterization, Fu Wuxuan was showing symptoms instead. The situation was far from optimistic.

Yun Xueqing furrowed his brow. “You haven’t used your Oracle powers, nor have you come into contact with any contaminants. How could the heterization accelerate?”

Fu Wuxuan shook his head. “I don’t know either.”

It was just too strange.

Yun Xueqing wanted to ask about the others’ symptoms, but among those present, he only knew San Zhi and Jiang Yiyue. San Zhi wasn’t an infected individual and thus had no reference value. The only one he could ask was Jiang Yiyue.

Though her behavior was a bit odd, Yun Xueqing still felt he should give it a try. “Miss Jiang, after entering this ancient castle, have you felt anything off about your body?”

Jiang Yiyue heard him call her and, though somewhat tense at first, couldn’t help but laugh at the address “Miss Jiang.” Most of her tension melted away. “You mean the degree of my heterization?”

Yun Xueqing nodded.

Jiang Yiyue wasn’t the sharpest; after two Weird Domains together, she saw Yun Xueqing as a good person and had no intention of hiding anything. She nodded. “After entering this ancient castle, my sanity hasn’t been affected, and it’s not very obvious, but the heterization has indeed worsened.”

She pointed to her ears. “I only had one cat ear before, but as soon as I came in, the other one grew out.”

Yun Xueqing pondered this. Does this ancient castle have the side effect of accelerating heterization in the infected?

If that was true, they couldn’t stay long—they had to complete the King’s Challenge and get out as soon as possible.

As he thought this, a loud bang suddenly echoed through the room.

He looked toward the sound and saw a pear wood chair appear abruptly in the center of the room, its back facing them, flanked by two guards.

Yun Xueqing was baffled when the guiding maid suddenly pushed the door open. Two more maids followed her, each holding a massive two-meter-long flower fan, fanning gently as they retreated.

Yun Xueqing stared fixedly at the fans and saw a pair of feet emerge from behind them—a person standing there.

Before he could get a good look, the person sat down on the pear wood chair, back still to them.

The fans parted to the sides as the maids fanned him. The crowd could only see his head and his head of graying hair; his face remained hidden.

But from the gleaming golden crown atop his head, pure gold, it was clear he was the legendary King.

The maids stood one to his left and one to his right, gently fanning him. He said nothing to the group, merely waving his hand.

His accompanying guards immediately understood and fetched a small table from the next room, placing two books atop it.

Yun Xueqing took the chance to glance at the spines: the top one was Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the one beneath it was Boccaccio’s Decameron.

The King’s somewhat weathered hand picked up the Divine Comedy from above and quietly flipped it open.

Everyone in the room held their breath, none daring to interrupt. They simply waited silently for him to speak.

Yet he seemed truly immersed in the book, flipping through it as if no one else was there, completely forgetting the thirteen challengers.

Yun Xueqing knew this was the King’s way of asserting dominance over these presumptuous intruders.

After all, in ancient times, wouldn’t these thirteen be rebels plotting usurpation?

Who could feel comfortable with such people before them?

He had no intention of speaking up, and the others who had made it here weren’t fools either. No one played the fool’s role; they all waited quietly.

After who knew how long—sitting in their chairs, watching the light through the room’s small window shift from white to black, even veiled in faint moonlight—they had waited two hours when the King finally set the book down.

He said nothing, merely tapping the table with a fingertip. A Goatman walked in from outside, holding a thick stack of letters, which it distributed one by one to the thirteen people.

Yun Xueqing looked at the snow-white letter paper and the three characters “Challenge Letter” written on it in brush strokes. He opened the envelope thoughtfully and took out the letter inside.

The content was brief. He read every word carefully, not daring to miss a single detail.

“Life was not meant to be lived like beasts, but to pursue virtue and knowledge.” —Dante

Yun Xueqing read this famous quote and instinctively looked up at the King seated in the chair.

The King was very fond of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

Was this a hint, or a warning?

The Goatman suddenly spoke. “Please finish reading within five minutes. I will then announce the rules.”

Yun Xueqing stopped looking at the King and lowered his head to continue reading the letter.

Dante journeyed through three realms: Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. You are currently in Hell.

Hell has nine layers. Experience them one by one, and you will be purified—from beast to human.

The content was sparse. Yun Xueqing finished reading, but it left him utterly confused—no concrete rules at all.

Just these few lines didn’t require five minutes, yet none of the thirteen lifted their heads. They kept their eyes buried in the text, frantically pondering its meaning.

A few minutes later, the Goatman said abruptly, “Time’s up. Now, I have a question for everyone: as a human, what is most important?”

It was a broad question with no clear answer. Yun Xueqing had no confidence in guessing what it wanted.

The people whispered among themselves, discussing, trying to figure it out.

Yun Xueqing and Fu Wuxuan stayed silent, waiting for the Goatman’s next words.

The Goatman continued suddenly, “You don’t need to answer now, because you are still beasts. You don’t know how to become human yet. After experiencing the Nine Layers of Hell, you will naturally know what is most important for a human.”

Ji Tongsheng, seated nearby, fanned himself and couldn’t help laughing. “A goat-headed thing that hasn’t even fully become human itself is trying to teach us how to be human?”

His brazen words made the others tremble in fear, but the Goatman wasn’t offended. It replied calmly, “This noble lord is correct. I am not human—nor are you, currently.”

Ji Tongsheng raised an eyebrow. “If we’re not human, then what are we?”

Aside from the Weird San Zhi mixed among them, the others—even the NPCs—should be human in this world’s identity.

What did this Goatman mean by saying they weren’t human?

He wasn’t deliberately provoking it but testing its ferocity this way—and if he could glean some information from its mouth, all the better.

The Goatman laughed. “Of course you’re not human. You’re polluted beasts.”

If it called them beasts, they could ignore it—it wasn’t true.

But when it mentioned pollution, they were all indeed infected. What role was this Goatman playing? How did it know they were polluted?

Was it human, or a Weird?

The Goatman was unsurprised by their shock. “I can sense your auras and energies. You all have more or less harmful things clinging to you. Demons entwine your hearts—you’ve lost beauty.”

Its words were vague and mystical; the crowd dismissed them as pretentious nonsense and didn’t take them to heart.

It paused, then suddenly pointed at Yun Xueqing. “But this gentleman is different. No filth clings to him; his heart retains beauty.”

It smiled. “Perhaps this gentleman could be the only one to pass through the nine layers of Hell.”

Ji Tongsheng shook his fan. “So, he’s the most likely to become King? Then I should latch onto that thigh properly.”

His tone was frivolous, an evil grin on his face as he looked at Yun Xueqing and drawled, “Speaking of which, you’re quite the beauty, and a kind one too, right? If you become King, I won’t object.”

The Goatman shook its head. “Passing through the Nine Layers of Hell doesn’t necessarily make one King.”

Ji Tongsheng’s fanning stopped. “What do you mean by that?”

The Nine Layers of Hell already sounded complicated. Even passing them didn’t guarantee becoming King? Then how did one become King?

The Goatman offered no further explanation. “The challenge begins now. Please proceed, noble lords, to the First Layer of Hell.”