Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

Beneath every inch of this world's soil, within the foundation that maintains the instance's independence from reality, the vines of crimson flowers have completely covered it, gradually replacing some of its functions. Faced with this inhuman power, the rules of the [Sacrifice Game] are utterly powerless to stop the blood flowers' infiltration, and can only be gradually dismantled.

He hasn't completely taken over everything yet, but the time is almost up. Maybe it'll be a minute, maybe a second, maybe less than a breath before the [Infant Cry Village] instance is completely absorbed by the Blood Flower and directly sucked into his body.

No wonder I haven't sensed His actions since this playthrough; it turns out He was playing a trick of taking the whole world with him.

No, wait. If that's all there is to it, then even if I were to assimilate with the Mountain God, I shouldn't be able to discover the hidden Blood Flower. The fact that I can sense it now means that the Blood Flower's power has broken through its concealment and manifested somewhere in this instance. Only in this way can I possibly detect its presence.

If He didn't manifest Him on my side... what about on Kaguya and the others' side?!

Realizing something was wrong, Gao Hai immediately tried to teleport away, but the intense aura of the eerie creatures locked onto him from all directions. Turning his head, he saw that everything—from the eerie creature dressed in a dark red wedding gown with its features sewn shut, to the paper figures of various shapes, to the leaping corpses, and all sorts of strange things—had completely locked onto Gao Hai at that moment, forcibly triggering the killing rules to attack him.

Looking down, Gao Hai saw Li Ziyong, who had finally regained some consciousness, glaring at him with a hateful expression, and a certain power emanating from him that indicated he would definitely pay a huge price.

Realizing that he could not possibly survive, he forcibly activated the power of the monster far exceeding his own limits, intending to perish together with it?

Realizing this, Gao Hai raised an eyebrow slightly, somewhat surprised that this thing actually possessed a bit of spirit. Then, a mournful operatic voice drifted from afar, slowly approaching. If Gao Hai turned his head just once, he could see the figures dancing on the stage, see those... actually just strange creatures forcibly created by covering paper figures with peeled human skin, see the desperate sobs of these restless souls.

Half-veiled by crimson gauze, her face is subtly veiled; peach blossoms flutter in the rosy dawn.

A vague and eerie singing voice echoed in my ears, seemingly blocked by something.

Gao Hai saw this impoverished opera troupe, and saw how Mr. Du tricked them into stepping onto the land of Lijia Village, then they were spotted by Li Ziyong, skinned alive, and their souls were forcibly preserved through ritualistic secrets, turning them into puppets without a self, only able to perform again and again under Li Ziyong's orders.

And this is only a part of the various twisted and bizarre creatures present.

Over the years, Li Ziyong, who considers himself the eternal patriarch of the Li family, has done many things for various reasons. Some of these things were more or less for the benefit of the Li family itself, but most of them, like this small opera troupe, were just victims of his desires.

The mental link has received a response. It seems that Kaguya Maki has encountered a lot of trouble, but for now, the problem can be considered resolved, and she is about to be teleported to my side.

It sounded like a rather significant loss had occurred, which made Gao Hai somewhat uneasy, but there was nothing he could do about it right now. So, before the others arrived, he decided to tidy up the place a bit.

"Hehe, do you think this will change your outcome? I'll show you right now what's going to happen to you."

Gao Hai attacked with all his might without the slightest hesitation.

Just a few seconds earlier, or actually more than ten minutes earlier due to the spatial time distortion, Kaguya had successfully obtained the last core artifact brought back by the [Historian] in that eerie space that resembled the Demon Cry Cave.

It was a register imbued with a touch of warmth. Gently flipping through it, one could see the names of every generation of the Zhang family recorded within. Regardless of whether they were from the main clan or a marginalized family, anyone who acknowledged their identity as a "Zhang Family Village resident" could leave their name in this ancestral register. Even though the Zhang family ultimately perished under Mr. Du's influence and their own transformation, this core object of their deepest, most tender memories still remained.

Everyone's here!

Kaguya had to admit that she was a little excited.

Next, all that's needed is to place this item and the 38-sided pendant (the third core obsession item that hasn't been installed yet) into the socket left on the flesh and blood rock statue, and we can answer the last message left by the Black Mountain God and the Fox Queen, and obtain information that makes it highly likely we can successfully crack this dungeon.

However, there is no way to leave this place.

The cave, which had just fallen into darkness, became bright again.

The spatial blockade became incredibly strong in an instant, and the cave was completely sealed off by some force in the blink of an eye.

Boom! ! !

The uneven ground cracked open with numerous fissures in the blink of an eye, then exploded with a deafening roar.

The teacher, whose body had been partially torn apart, emerged somewhat disheveled from the rubble, then vanished. He was then pierced by a sharp stone pillar, crashing into a rock wall and disappearing into the distance. Mr. Du, his face grim, emerged from the rubble, his gaze towards the players incredibly sinister.

"To be alive after all that, and even manage to break free from control, is truly amazing. How did you do it?"

He didn't rush to launch an attack, but instead looked at Chatchai and asked him with great confusion.

"It's just a few tricks like faking death and resetting one's own status. For players, it's only natural to try to increase their margin for error as much as possible."

Chachai spoke calmly, pulling off the monkey necklace from his neck, his expression towards Mr. Du showing no sign of backing down.

It must be admitted that this mission's level of danger exceeded Chatchai's comprehension. While he had faced near-death experiences in previous dungeons, this was the only time Chatchai truly believed he was almost finished. Fortunately, historians are always exceptionally adept at survival; those less capable would have perished long ago. Therefore, Chatchai ultimately managed to recover through an extremely painful process of feigning death and resurrection, and only then was he able to find the opportunity to retrieve the core artifact placed in this enclosed space.

"Really? Then show me what you've got, live again!"

The twisted power struck instantly, and both mental pollution and physical tearing and destruction descended upon the players with an intensity far exceeding that of before.

It's clear that Mr. Du, who thought he had everything under control, still broke down when something unexpected happened.

However, after obtaining the [Form of Origin], all players must admit that in a head-on confrontation, defeating such an opponent is virtually impossible.

Therefore, in that split second, before Mr. Du's power reached everyone, everyone took their own actions.

jingle--

The necklace with four monkeys hanging from it gently bumped together at that moment.

Please do not look at it.

Chachai murmured, and the blindfolded monkey statue began to sway gently.

As a result, the players could not see Mr. Du, and Mr. Du could not see the players' appearance clearly for a moment.

"Please do not listen to this."

He spoke again, and the little monkey statue with its ears covered on the necklace swayed.

The players' voices were cut off at this moment, forcibly separated by the power of this Red Moon-level core artifact.

"Please do not speak of it."

The third monkey statue, which was covering its mouth, began to shake.

The players and Mr. Du lost the ability to understand each other. In an instant, the players' existence disappeared from Mr. Du's mind, and Mr. Du in the players' minds became something they could not recall no matter how hard they tried, like a black box without an index.

"Please do not touch it."

The last one is a small monkey statue wearing a straw raincoat, looking rather sneaky.

After the statue came to life, the players' figures became transparent, and they couldn't even make a sound when they stepped on the ground, as if they had been separated from the real world at that moment.

Four consecutive surges of power were applied to all the players, calming both their mental pollution and physical injuries. Even Cat Brother was surprised by the sheer power of this force, and couldn't help but glance at Chacha a few more times.

{Wow, four monkeys starting up at once, can you handle that?}

Tangyuan frowned and asked anxiously through the temporary mental link.

{...Find an exit as soon as possible; I don't have much time left.}

Standing at the very front, Chatchai spoke calmly without making any physical movement.

He was no longer able to move.

As the individual most targeted by Mr. Du, and having recklessly unleashed the full power of his core obsession, he was now unable to move and had to remain stationary, his breathing almost completely halted.

{Understood. Let's buy some time. Miss Tangyuan, you're better at finding a way out in these situations. I'll leave it to you.}

Cat, already in poor condition, nodded slightly and chose to stay. Xiao Guo followed suit after a moment's hesitation. Seeing that the three had made their decisions, Tang Yuan didn't waste any words and immediately turned to signal the four girls from Gao Hai's team to follow her and flee.

"Do you think you can defy me, who has now obtained divine power?"

Mr. Du's angry voice rang out from behind, but it was quickly drowned out by the ringing of bells and various strange noises.

Chika tried to contact Takahashi again, but as before, she couldn't get a response. Kaguya had already taken out the Soul-Stealing Bow, while Ichiri summoned several clones to follow at the front and rear. The group moved swiftly, covering a considerable distance in the deep cave in less than half a minute.

Rumbling--

The sounds from behind had become muffled, and it was unclear what the battle was going on. Considering the strength Mr. Du had displayed, a direct confrontation was unlikely to yield any good results; they could only try to stall for time. It's worth noting that even after being attacked by the Crimson Moon-level monster [Teacher], he emerged unscathed; such performance was enough to demonstrate the vast difference in their abilities.

But how can we escape from this place?

Chika was thinking hard, Kaguya and Maki were also trying their best, and Yuu was constantly trying as they moved forward; everyone was doing their utmost.

Teleportation-type artifacts were quickly determined to be unusable, and the power of blessings was also insufficient to penetrate the cave area in its current state. Only mental and deep links remained usable. Therefore, the last core artifact had been moved by Maki into the space inside the black watch to avoid the worst-case scenario. Only the flesh and stone statue, being not an artifact, could not be stored in the black watch and had to remain with it.

Perhaps it's time to consider committing suicide now and finding a way to get Ah Hai to start the next cycle?

During the operation, Chika couldn't help but have this thought.

However, she quickly abandoned this idea. Firstly, because the current strange space was clearly experiencing abnormal time changes, so it was completely unknown how long it would take for Gao Hai to discover her death. Secondly, after Mr. Du mentioned some kind of "sacrifice," Qianhua had a vague premonition that if she were to fight against Mr. Du, she would probably be killed and not be able to find relief, but would instead encounter something even more terrible. Therefore, unless absolutely necessary, she should never choose to commit suicide.

But what if these actions don't work?

Boom——

The muffled thuds from behind had clearly begun to weaken, and Tangyuan could also sense that the lives of those players covering the rear were dwindling rapidly.

It hasn't even been a minute yet! Three Red Moon level players working together can only buy them this much time before they're about to collapse? What exactly is that Root Form? It's outrageous! And how does this little girl know? Could it be that this team's in-depth investigation of secrets is even better than the [Historian]'s?

While thinking, Tangyuan subconsciously glanced at Fujiwara Chika, who was following beside her, and just then, the other girl looked up and met Tangyuan's gaze.

{Mr. Du said he made some kind of "sacrifice" here, right?}

Then, Chika thoughtfully uttered the following sentence in the temporary mental link.

Chapter 146: A glimmer of hope amidst the search, and fervent believers

Sacrifice.

Offerings were made as sacrifices in exchange for the attention or reward of something great.

While in most cases, so-called sacrifices are merely ritualistic acts that don't actually achieve any results, that's true for ordinary people. However, when this happens in a "sacrifice game," and with players and monsters possessing extraordinary powers, the situation changes completely.

Qianhua remembered clearly that Mr. Du had previously said that he had already performed a "blood sacrifice" on Chacha. So, since the other party was able to do such a thing, it meant that there must be an "altar" inside this sealed space, a place that might possess the power of communication and could provide a way out for the players who were currently in a predicament.

Of course, considering that this place has likely been managed by Mr. Du for quite some time, searching for the altar could potentially hasten the players' deaths. However, Mr. Du's confidence stems from the fact that he has already devoured the [Form of Origin], gaining extremely powerful supernatural abilities. Furthermore, according to him, he has not been tainted by the causal information of this instance, so he doesn't need to worry about being targeted by anything.

On this issue, Chika firmly believed that Mr. Du was either lying or simply unaware of his true situation. Someone who wasn't even a player, yet orchestrated all this behind the scenes of the instance, claiming to have escaped karmic consequences—that was blatantly treating the Keeper of the Priest (KP) as a joke. Even though Chika had never actually met any KPs, based solely on Gao Hai's descriptions of those beings, she was certain they wouldn't truly let Mr. Du go, especially after learning that the now-destroyed "doll" KPs likely sided with humans.

{I didn't realize you were so bold, young lady.}

Tangyuan frowned slightly, somewhat realizing what Qianhua might be planning to do, so she praised her earnestly and sped up her actions.

Throughout this process, Ichiri continuously plucked the strings of her instrument, causing her clones to appear and disappear repeatedly, flashing like phantoms in front of and behind the players. In reality, Ichiri was using the alteration of her clones' behavior to predict the future, thereby identifying subtle traps and, at crucial moments, rewinding actions to prevent casualties.

Kaguya and Maki took on the task of clearing out and suppressing those things that were truly impossible to rewind and had successfully breached Tangyuan's defenses. Using offensive tools from the fanatics, the two girls launched continuous attacks, repelling the dark entities that attacked from all directions, and occasionally even helping to relieve some of the pressure on Tangyuan in front of them.

Not particularly skilled in combat, Chika didn't contribute much to this operation, merely running alongside the group. Of course, she was also constantly contemplating what to do once they found the altar. Not knowing how much longer Chatchai and the others could hold out, Chika felt she had to be prepared to activate the altar immediately upon discovery. However, how exactly to activate it, and whether activation would produce even worse consequences, were uncertain; she could only try to anticipate the worst possibilities and prepare contingency plans.

Rumbling--

The violent shaking sounded again.

Compared to the last one, this time the tremors were spaced more than 3 seconds apart. During the interval between the two tremors, the players searching for the altar did not hear any sound from their surroundings.

{Brother Chachai... he's still not up to par...}

Tangyuan sighed softly, but her expression wasn't overly sad; she seemed to have grown accustomed to it.

Behind them, in the cave that had become fragmented and seemed about to collapse, Mr. Du straightened his clothes and looked at the three people opposite him with an impatient expression.