Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 169 Bloodstained Treasure Chest

Inside the Black Crow Hotel.

Inside the room, the curtains were drawn tightly to avoid making eye contact with the balloons as much as possible.

After careful consideration, Jiang Jin finally decided to send Deathstroke over.

“There’s a Hunter class Reincarnator on the other side,” Yu Tianlun warned. “You can see Deathstroke at a glance.”

"I know."

But compared to Tomie, Jiang Jin trusted Deathstroke more. Besides, expecting Tomie to do the surveillance and tracking? Forget it!

“Don’t forget, we can’t be sure if Chen Yao is dead yet. They could use divination to pinpoint our location at any time.” Jiang Jin knew that the area outside the hotel was filled with their balloons. “We need to take out Shadow Blade first, otherwise, once they find us and destroy our balloons…”

Yes, this is what everyone is most worried about.

They must protect their balloons, but their balloons will do anything to kill them.

“I’ve tried it too,” Liu Yan said somewhat dejectedly, “Even using Gu worms, there’s no way to protect the balloon.”

The curfew announcement echoed in the distance, a mechanical female voice with static repeating: "All residents, please return home immediately within half an hour. Repeat, please return home immediately within half an hour. Curfew is about to begin..."

Yu Tianlun then said, "Are you planning to have Deathstroke infiltrate deeper into the Lost Layer to ensure they don't detect him? But that would be a bit dangerous for Deathstroke."

"We have no choice but to take the risk." Jiang Jin also felt bad. "I'll feed it more resentment crystals afterwards."

“Hmm…” Yu Tianlun nodded and said, “We really can’t wait any longer. We must wipe out Shadow Blade before the Crimson Team arrives, and capture Qin Mei alive if possible.”

Yu Tianlun felt immense pressure whenever the "Scarlet Team" was mentioned.

Blood Lord valued Zhou Chen highly, appointing him as the branch leader to gain management experience so he could become the deputy leader of the main branch and his right-hand man. Those assigned to Crimson were also highly capable reincarnators; the entire branch numbered sixteen.

The pressure on the Nirvana team was immense.

In fact, most of the Samsara camps knew that the Bloodthirsty Team had received instructions from above to eliminate the Nirvana Team as a warning to others, ensuring that the imperial court could successfully recruit most of the Samsara members.

In this battle, no one was optimistic about Nirvana, believing they were doomed to lose. On the black market, the odds for Nirvana to defeat both teams were as high as 300 to 1.

Before Yu Tianlun entered, he placed a bet on a crystal of resentment on the black market, betting on himself to win.

Anyway, if he loses, Nirvana will be over, and he will definitely die, so it doesn't matter how much he loses.

If you win, you'll directly receive 300 Resentment Crystals!

At this moment, in front of the Yamamoto family's house.

The door creaked open, and Li Zhen and Lin Ping squeezed together in the doorway like two startled birds.

They shared a silver thermal blanket, the fabric completely covering their heads and faces.

After taking the blue pills, they could no longer see the head-shaped balloons.

"Hurry up," Li Zhen's voice muffled from under the blanket, "get to the regimental commander before the patrols arrive."

Lin Ping's Eye of Incantation began to activate.

He could tell from the shadow on the ground that his own balloon had appeared and was directly above him. It looked like it had inflated to a diameter of more than three or four meters, hovering silently like a dark cloud.

Even more frightening was that although Li Zhen's balloon was only one meter high, the rope had already dangled to less than two meters off the ground, almost touching his shoulder.

The two moved along the wall like conjoined twins. While the thermal blanket blocked the balloons' attacks, it also severely limited their vision.

Lin Ping had to lift the corner of the blanket every few seconds to check the direction. Each time he looked at the shadow on the ground through the Eye of Zhuyou, he could see that his balloon had gotten a little closer.

Deep in the alley, the death knell crouches beside a trash can, its eerie blue flames flickering in its empty eye sockets.

It tilted its head slightly, as if calculating the best angle to pounce.

The Death Knell can share what it sees and hears with its master in real time. At this moment, in the room of the Black Crow Hotel, Yu Tianlun and the others already know that Lin Ping and Li Zhen have gone out.

"It seems they are preparing to meet up with Qin Mei."

Yu Tianlun then looked at Liu Yan and asked, "Are the Spirit-Eating Bees in position?"

Liu Yan nodded: "It's all ready. The Gu worms can easily capture the human head balloons located in the contaminated layer."

The human-head balloon is a product of meme contamination, and the Gu worms are also a product of ominous contamination, capable of easily capturing and locating the balloons. As long as Liu Yan gives the command, the Soul-Eating Bees will quickly sting and puncture the balloons.

Tomie leaned against the window, listlessly trimming her nails: "Why bother with all that? Why not just pop the balloon?"

“We need to find the remaining members of Shadow Blade,” Xu Yinqiu said. “And we also need to capture Qin Mei alive before Zhou Chen comes in.”

Tomie leaned back and said, "Sigh, even though you told me to leave a clone there, you still don't trust me."

Tomie was watching with a spectator's mindset. The Nirvana team's struggle for survival under the dual threats of the balloon and other reincarnators was a source of great pleasure for her.

Jiang Jin learned from the message conveyed by the death knell that Li Zhen had suddenly stopped!
Could it be that the sorcerer's intuition alerted Li Zhen to the danger?

Lin Ping's eyes began to rage uncontrollably due to prolonged mental tension, and his temples throbbed.

As he and Li Zhen turned the last street corner before reaching the Oda family's residence, they saw only a mirror standing in the middle of the road.

The mirror was exceptionally clean, clearly reflecting the comical sight of the two people wrapped in thermal blankets.

Similarly, what was reflected behind them was the skeleton hound Deathstroke slowly approaching, while a swarm of bees hovered above its head in a vortex.

"Behind you!" Lin Ping screamed.

Li Zhen turned around abruptly, and the amulet dart slid from his sleeve into his palm.

But even faster than him was Deathstroke—the hounds of the dead pounced swiftly!
"Damn! It's Jiang Jin's undead hounds!"

Li Zhen tossed out three copper coins, which ignited with green ghost flames in the air: "Lin Ping! Zhuyou Barrier!"

Lin Ping frantically pulled off the thermal blanket, revealing his face covered in cold sweat. He was about to form a hand seal when he suddenly froze—

Prolonged use of the Eye of Invoke caused it to go berserk.

"No, no." Lin Ping's SAN value plummeted, and the Eye of Zhuyou went berserk.

Countless bizarre and terrifying images flooded his mind: Toshihiko Fukasaku hanged, deflated human skin, ancestral heads strung together like centipedes.
The most terrifying thing was that he saw his own balloon in the mirror—the thing had somehow gotten stuck to the back of his head, the noose swaying slightly, waiting for a chance to make eye contact.

"Li Zhen," Lin Ping turned his head mechanically, "Is my balloon still here?"

"Don't look!" Li Zhen roared, but it was too late.

Lin Ping's gaze met that of his balloon.

At the Black Crow Inn, Jiang Jin immediately shouted, "They've found Deathstroke!"

Even though they had already infiltrated deep into the Lost Layer, they were still discovered! Was it because of the Eye of Zhu You?

"Make your move!" Yu Tianlun ordered.

Lin Ping's balloon rope wrapped around his neck like a living thing, and the huge pulling force instantly lifted him into the air!

"save"

When Lin Ping's toes were more than 20 meters off the ground, his throat bones were already making a "clucking" sound as if they could no longer bear the weight.

Ignoring the struggling Lin Ping, Deathstroke instead lunged at Li Zhen—this sorcerer's balloon was too small to kill immediately.

"Get out of the way!" Li Zhen pulled out a handful of blood-red glutinous rice and threw it at the death knell.

The glutinous rice grains stained with black dog blood were quickly devoured by the bronze runes on Deathstroke's skin upon contact with it.

Just then, the swarm of bees arrived.

Liu Yan's Soul-Eating Bees split into two waves: one wave rushed towards Lin Ping's balloons, and the other wave surrounded Li Zhen's balloons.

The moment the first bee pierced the balloon, a hissing sound of air leaking out quickly followed—

"Pfft—!" Lin Ping's balloon deflated rapidly, like a tire punctured by a needle. Then, his head also began to "leak" in sync—his facial skin wrinkled and twisted like melted wax, until finally, he stopped moving like an inflatable doll that had been emptied.

Before Li Zhen could recover from the shock, his balloon was also attacked by a swarm of bees. When the first stinger pierced his skin, he felt his facial muscles suddenly lose control—

"no, do not want!"

He touched his cheek in horror, but it felt like touching a cheap rubber mask.

With just a little pressure, a dent appears when you press your finger down, as if the bone beneath the skin has vanished.

The reflection in the mirror showed that his facial features were slowly withering away like a candle under high temperature.

Deathstroke strolled over to the two of them, lowered his head and sniffed Lin Ping, who had turned into a "human skin balloon".

It suddenly opened its mouth and bit Lin Ping's corpse, tearing off a piece like ripping a rag—no blood, no internal organs, only a thin layer of polyamide fiber material.

Li Zhen knelt on the ground, futilely covering his leaking face with his hands. His vision began to blur, and the last thing he saw was Deathstroke picking up Lin Ping's "human skin" and then picking up the bloody key that had transformed from his watch.

The streets fell silent again, with only Li Zhen's hissing sound echoing through the air, like a flattened inflatable toy.

Immediately afterwards, Deathstroke ran over and grabbed his bloody key as well.

The Bloody Key in the team battle dungeon is different from the Skull Key. Once opened, it will grant you all the items in the watch!

After returning to the Black Crow Inn, Deathstroke handed over the torn "human skin" and the key to Jiang Jin.

"Two bloody keys!" Jiang Jin said to Yu Tianlun, holding the keys, "Captain, this is a huge win! If there are good items inside, it can further increase our combat strength before the Crimson Team comes in!"

“Give me that piece of human skin,” Xu Yinqiu said, taking the “human skin” from Lin Ping’s face. “It will be perfect for analysis.”

She took out the microscope she had brought with her from the Reincarnator's Watch.

The material analysis results came out shortly afterward.

Xu Yinqiu looked up from the microscope and said, "This is polyamide fiber—that is, nylon 6, but the molecular structure is arranged in an unnatural way, so it no longer belongs to the material layer."

She held up a sample of Lin Ping's "human skin" and said, "These fibers are woven with the residue of meme pollution. We can resynthesize new resentment fragments through resentment crystallization."

Jiang Jin took out a finger bone arrow made of resentment crystal and pierced it into the human skin.

Then the reincarnation system began to prompt that the success rate of synthesizing resentment crystal fragments was about 10%, and to begin the synthesis process...

Synthesis failed.

"Alright, since there are only three Shadow Blades left now. Let's open the treasure chests!"

Everyone got excited when they heard about opening the treasure chest.

This time, thanks to the Nirvana team's scheme, Shadow Blade suffered four deaths and lost more than half of their strength before they even encountered them. They also obtained two Bloody Keys!
No one could have predicted this outcome!
"Jiang Jin, Liu Yan, you two open it," Yu Tianlun said. "Logically, the spoils should belong to you. However, there are some things that your professions might not be able to use..."

“I know,” Jiang Jin said, looking at Xu Yinqiu. “Lin Ping is a healer, so if the items in his treasure chest are only usable by the healer class, give them all to Sister Yinqiu!”

The surface of the bloody key is covered with fine, blood-red lines, resembling congealed blood vessels.

Jiang Jin took the key, and the moment his fingertips touched it, the key trembled slightly, emitting a low hum as if it were alive.

This Bloodstained Key is unlike the Skull Key. Whether you're incredibly lucky or incredibly unlucky, opening it grants you everything the reincarnated soul placed in their watch during their previous life! This benefit is only available in team battle dungeons!
Liu Yan took the other key and said, "The key from the sorcerer is filled with more resentment, while the key from the incantation master carries the fluctuations of Yin magic."

Soon, the first thing they found was the Bloodstained Treasure Chest of the sorcerer Li Zhen.

The treasure chest was a decaying locust wood box, its surface studded with copper nails for warding off evil spirits. A yellowed talisman was pasted on the keyhole, with the words "Yansheng Fengling" (meaning "warding off evil spirits and sealing away evil") written on it.

When the key was turned, the talisman spontaneously combusted without wind, revealing the blood-red lock cylinder underneath.

After the box was opened, all five people, including Tomie, looked over.

"There's quite a lot of stuff..." Jiang Jin looked at the item descriptions provided by the Reincarnation System.

A handwritten copy of "One Hundred Solutions to Amulets": a collection of amulet-making techniques, recording 108 methods for creating talismans, including the "Copper Coin Soul-Locking Array" and the "Blood Glutinous Rice Exorcising Technique." Dried blood fingerprints are visible along the edges of the pages.

The Five Emperors' Cursed Nails (a set of five): Each nail is engraved with one of the five characters: "诛" (zhū), "戮" (lù), "禁" (jìn), "镇" (zhèn), and "灭" (miè). Inserting them into a living being will trigger the corresponding curse. The nails are wrapped with knots woven from black dog hair and virgin hair. Only those in the curse-casting profession who are reincarnated can use them.

Human Skin Lantern: Made from the back skin of a person who died a violent death, it can expel spirits when lit. The inside of the lampshade is covered with dense incantations written in corpse oil. Once lit, it deducts 5% of your SAN value per minute.

The Bone Dice: Three dice carved from the finger bones of children who died young. They can predict good or bad fortune after being rolled, but each use will randomly deduct a portion of the user's SAN value.

Bloodstained Glutinous Rice (three bags): Glutinous rice soaked in black dog blood and corpse poison. Sprinkling it on evil spirits can cause them to be corrupted by spirits. The bags are tied tightly with red thread, and when they are untied, they will make a sound like a baby crying.

Resentment Scarecrow: Attach the birth date and time of the cursed person and drive in curse nails. Each nail reduces the target's SAN value by 5%. Only usable by those specializing in curses.

Note: If you find the entrance to the [Shuangyi] instance in Red Rust Town and find Shuangyi himself, you can upgrade the vengeful scarecrow, thus enabling you to curse the spirit.

"Souichi?" Jiang Jin exclaimed, "Another classic character from Junji Ito's works, on par with Tomie?"

"Huh?" Tomie immediately became annoyed upon hearing this. "Who is it? Why is he on par with me?"

"Well," Liu Yan said, seeing that Tomie was unhappy and wanting to tease her, "if you run into him, you'll probably get really badly treated."

"I don't believe it! If you're so capable, call me out when you run into him in the future!"

Liu Yan nodded: "Then it's a deal."

Souichi is a boy from Junji Ito's novel who spends his days hammering nails into scarecrows to curse others, and this boy is an absolute genius at curse-casting. He never fails when he takes action.

This boy, without any formal instruction, mastered a host of terrifying spells and even created a walking, jumping, and talking puppet teacher.

In terms of moral depravity, Souichi and Tomie are absolutely on par, it's hard to say who is worse.

Although they are both characters created by Junji Ito, they have never met in the same scene. Liu Yan is looking forward to seeing what would happen if they met.

Then, Lin Ping's Bloodstained Treasure Chest was opened.

Lin Ping's Bloodstained Treasure Chest was a jade box with excerpts from the "Scripture of Salvation" engraved on its surface, but all the words "pardon" were crossed out with cinnabar.

When the key was inserted, black viscous liquid seeped from the seams of the box, emitting a smell of sandalwood mixed with rotting flesh.

The text prompts from the reincarnation system reappeared.

The fragment of the "Thirteen Branches of Zhuyou" records Zhuyou secret techniques such as "observing evil spirits," "distinguishing the yin," and "communicating with the underworld." The latter half was torn, and there are scorch marks at the broken pages.

Yin-Yang Compass (Damaged): The pointer is made from the hyoid bone of a hanged ghost and can point to the area with the heaviest resentment. However, the glass cover is cracked, so be careful not to be cut by the bone needle when using it. Each use deducts 2% of SAN value per minute.

Corpse Oil Candles (3): When burning, they will make the spirit feel like it is being burned, and will deduct 5% SAN value per minute of burning.

Blood Talisman Paper (one stack): Talismans drawn with Lin Ping's own blood, containing three types: "Soul Suppression," "Illusion Breaking," and "Spirit Exorcism." Now that Lin Ping is dead, a blood ritual is needed to recognize him as its master.

The bronze mirror used to communicate with the underworld (fragment): Only the size of a palm remains, capable of reflecting hidden ghosts. The frame is inscribed with the warning, "Those who see ghosts will also be seen by ghosts."

There were also more than twenty crystals of resentment inside. Needless to say, they now belong to the Nirvana team.

Yu Tianlun spread the items out on the tatami mat, and the Bagua mirror floated above, projecting the spiritual energy fluctuations of each item.

"Distribute according to contribution." He said calmly, "Liu Yan's Soul-Eating Bees are the main force in killing enemies, so prioritize them."

Liu Yan picked up the bronze mirror and the corpse oil candle: "These two are truly good things."

Tomie pouted and then picked up the Bones Dice to play with: "How about I play with this for a while?"

Jiang Jin accepted the human skin lantern and the blood-fiend glutinous rice: "Melee replenishment."

He looked at Xu Yinqiu: "Sister Yinqiu should take the incomplete scroll of incantation and the blood talisman paper."

The crystallized resentment was collected by Yu Tianlun as a team reserve, but Jiang Jin and Liu Yan could use it first. The rule of Nirvana is that those who contribute eat meat, but others also need to have some soup.

No one objected to the distribution process—the rules of Nirvana have always been fair.

Outside the window, the curfew announcement rang out...

(End of this chapter)