Even blind box hunters don't choose their partners? I got Su Daji from my blind box!

(There were indeed three chapters yesterday, but I set the timer wrong. The last two chapters were set for tonight. I was so lucky!)

(The content of those two chapters has been merged into the previous chapter. If you see this message, please go to the previous chapter to read it again to avoid the story becoming disjointed. Sorry.)

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Inside the survival instance.

A cold wind swirled the withered yellow paper money along the desolate street.

The nauseating, rotten, sweet, and fishy smell suddenly intensified, instantly filling the nasal cavity and rushing straight to the top of the head.

"Now that you've come, why don't you come and find me?"

The sound was like air being blown right up against the eardrum, cold and resentful, with a hint of cat-and-mouse teasing.

"If you cannot find the bridal sedan chair within half an hour, you two will stay here and be made into a pair of paper effigies for me, never to be reincarnated..."

Before the words were even finished, the thin mist around them suddenly turned pitch black, as if splashed with ink.

The visible distance was forcibly compressed to within half a meter, and even the teammates next to them became shadowy figures, as if they could be swallowed by darkness at any moment.

"Watch out! This is the rule-bound territory!"

Xia Chaoyue reacted extremely quickly. With a "clang," her long sword was drawn, and the sword energy surged, forcing the approaching black mist back half an inch.

Her face was pale, her palms were sweaty, and she stared intently into the void.

"Peak seventh tier... no, in this dungeon, the Ghost Bride, empowered by the rules, can even contend with a ninth-tier opponent! Lin Xiao, hold on tight to me, don't get separated!"

Lin Xiao stood with one hand in his pocket, his expression calm, as if he were strolling in his own backyard. He even had the leisure to shield Xia Chaoyue from the floating paper money.

He tilted his head slightly, and in the depths of his dark eyes, a faint golden dragon shadow seemed to roam.

In his view, the layers of black fog were nothing more than poor special effects, unable to conceal the truth at all.

"Don't waste your energy."

Lin Xiao said calmly, "We're going around in circles, which is commonly known as being trapped in a maze."

"Impossible! I've been calculating the number of steps and the direction!" Xia Chaoyue retorted instinctively, her voice tense.

To verify, she bit her fingertip and slashed a bloody line on the mottled blue brick wall beside her.

This is the secret blood-drawing technique passed down at Yanjing Martial Arts University.

The two continued their frantic run through the black fog.

Ten minutes later.

Xia Chaoyue suddenly stopped in her tracks, her heart feeling as if it had been squeezed tightly.

On the wall right next to her, a bloodstain that had not yet dried was a shocking sight.

It was left by her ten minutes ago!

"It really is like being trapped in a maze..."

Xia Chaoyue's voice was hoarse, and a sense of powerlessness overwhelmed her.

"And it's a rule-based system. If we can't find the key to the formation, we'll be exhausted to death here until the appointed time comes, and then we'll be turned into paper dolls."

That's what makes the Purgatory-level dungeons so disgusting.

Here, force is not the only way to solve problems; rules are the supreme authority.

"The core of the formation?"

Lin Xiao chuckled softly, his eyes gleaming with golden light.

In his omniscient vision, this seemingly unsolvable black mist maze was actually woven from countless gray energy threads.

In the southeast corner, several threads intertwined, forming a very obvious energy node.

Cutting off that area would be a game-changer.

Lin Xiao raised his right hand, golden light swirling around his fingertips, preparing to give this so-called rule a little shock from the human emperor.

Sudden.

A red figure, as if startled, darted out from the shadows behind Lin Xiao.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please wait!!"

The red-clad ghost, who had been terrified by Lin Xiao before, now seemed to have found courage from who-knows-where.

He slid down to Lin Xiao's knees in a perfect slide, grabbed his leg, and started howling.

"Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut, Your Majesty! This low-class trick is hardly worthy of your dirty hands. I know this place like the back of my hand! I could walk around here with my eyes closed!"

Xia Chaoyue's jaw nearly dropped to the ground as she watched this scene.

Is this some kind of sixth-tier vengeful ghost?

That humble and obsequious posture, that practiced sliding kneeling motion—it's exactly the face of a traitorous translator from a war film!

All that's missing is a folding fan in his hand!

Lin Xiao glanced down at her, the golden light at his fingertips slightly dimming, a half-smile playing on his lips.

Are you sure?

"Absolutely certain!"

The red-clad ghost pounded its chest loudly, and its originally ferocious and terrifying face now forced out a chrysanthemum-like smile.

"I know this woman's... no, I know this ghost bride's tricks best! She likes to create mystery and hide behind the most yin energy core of the formation to watch the show."

"Your Majesty, please follow me. We'll take a shortcut and strike straight at the heart of the enemy!"

After saying that, the red-clothed ghost immediately got up from the ground and, like a dutiful tour guide, bent over and led the way.

"Your Majesty, please come this way. Watch your step. Oh, right, there's a pit here. People used to be buried there. It's bad luck. Please step over it..."

Xia Chaoyue followed behind blankly, watching the red-clad ghost bowing and scraping in front of her, dispelling the mist.

I feel that the martial arts worldview I've built up over the years is collapsing.

Is this Lin Xiao's strength?

Without firing a single shot or even using any contract items, you can make the monsters in the dungeon turn against you and become "traitors"?

What kind of monster was this person reincarnated from?

Led by the red-clad ghost, the three's route became extremely bizarre.

Sometimes it walks backwards for three steps, sometimes it hops sideways for two steps, and sometimes it even bows to the air.

But miraculously, as these seemingly absurd steps were completed, the thick, inky black fog around them actually began to dissipate.

The desolate and gloomy scene of the mortuary receded like the tide, revealing a long corridor adorned with red silk and lanterns.

The mournful wailing of ghosts disappeared, replaced by a festive yet indescribably eerie suona sound.

The phoenix, though surrounded by a hundred birds, plays a mournful tune.

After passing through the corridor, the view suddenly opened up.

In the center of a vast open space, a bright red sedan chair carried by eight men, as red as blood, was suspended in mid-air.

The sedan chair was ridiculously large, with no porters around it, and its body was embroidered with intricate depictions of a hundred demons at night in gold thread.

The red sedan curtains moved automatically without wind, and with each sway, they exuded a suffocating and terrifying pressure.

Xia Chaoyue's hand holding the knife trembled slightly, and her breathing became rapid.

"Found it... but this aura is stronger than before. Lin Xiao, be careful, it might be a trap."

Lin Xiao didn't speak, but just quietly looked at the bridal sedan chair.

Sensing the provocation, the Human Emperor Bone within his body began to surge with golden blood and energy, producing a roaring sound like a mighty river.

Just then, the red-clad ghost in front of him rolled its eyes and blocked Lin Xiao's path again.

"Your Majesty! Your Majesty, stay here!"

The red-clad ghost, with an expression of loyal loyalty to its master, spoke urgently.

"This ghost bride is cunning and treacherous; who knows what deadly traps she might be hiding in her sedan chair. I'm thick-skinned and a ghost myself, so I'm not afraid of her underhanded tricks. Why don't I go in first to scout things out and maybe even try to persuade her to surrender!"

Persuade?

Xia Chaoyue's lips twitched.

You, a ghost, trying to persuade a dungeon boss to surrender? Did Lin Xiao burn your brain?

Lin Xiao raised an eyebrow with interest.

He saw through the red-clad ghost's little scheme at a glance.

They were simply trying to hedge their bets, or perhaps sneak in to tip off others and find a way to survive.

But so what?

Faced with absolute power, any conspiracy or trickery is merely a seasoning to add interest.

"Go ahead," Lin Xiao said calmly. "You have five minutes."

"Alright! Just you wait and see!"

The red-clad ghost, as if granted a pardon, straightened its tattered red clothes, took a deep breath of ghostly energy, and floated towards the bridal sedan chair with its head held high.

The moment she lifted the sedan curtain, she glanced back at Lin Xiao, her eyes revealing a tragic grandeur, like the line from the poem "The wind howls, the Yi River is cold."

Then he plunged inside.

……

Inside the sedan chair, there was a hidden world.

It wasn't some cramped sedan chair; it was an extremely luxurious Chinese-style boudoir!

The space was over a hundred square meters, and thick red dragon and phoenix candles were lit all around, illuminating the entire space as bright as day.

A captivating fragrance wafted through the air, and amidst the swaying gauze curtains, a huge canopy bed could be vaguely seen.

The moment the red-clad ghost entered the sedan chair, the obsequious, servile demeanor he had displayed before Lin Xiao vanished instantly.

She straightened her back, tidied her messy hair, and walked with an air of nonchalance to her family to the dressing table in the center of her boudoir.

There sat a red figure with its back to the camera.

Facing the bronze mirror, she carefully drew her eyebrows.

The red-clad ghost cleared his throat, a complex expression of shrewdness, cunning, and ingratiation spreading across his face, and said in a low voice.

"The Imperial Army... Bah! His Majesty asked me to deliver a message to you!"

The person in the back paused slightly in the eyebrow pencil in their hand.

Seeing this, the red-clad ghost quickly seized the opportunity and stepped forward, appearing to be very open and honest with the person in front of him.

"Bride, we're all ghosts now, we all know each other, don't we?"

"That gentleman outside, he's a true god!"

As she spoke, she gestured with her hands as if counting money, spittle flying everywhere.

"As long as you surrender... cough, submit to the King, I guarantee you'll live a life of luxury and wealth! You'll have plenty of freedom!"

"Besides, that guy is incredibly handsome! And his masculinity is off the charts! If you were to marry him, wouldn't that be..."

"Are you done talking?"

A cool, clear voice interrupted her incessant chatter.

The red figure in front of the dressing table slowly turned around.

It was a stunningly beautiful face, yet as pale as paper.

Adorned in a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe, with a touch of cinnabar between her brows, she was breathtakingly beautiful, yet carried a chilling aura of death.

The ghost bride did not become angry as the red-clad ghost had predicted.

She slowly stood up, her red sleeves fluttering, stirring up a gust of cold wind.

She walked up to the red-clad ghost, extended a long, slender, icy finger, and gently traced its face, which was contorted with tension.

The movements were as gentle as caressing a cherished piece of porcelain, yet also as if carefully choosing where to make the cut.

"I knew it... how could that human have broken through my ghost wall so quickly and found this place so precisely?"

The ghost bride sighed softly, and a chilling smile appeared in her dark eyes, which had no whites.

"turn out to be……"

"You're the one who brought them here..."

Her fingers slid down the red-clad ghost's cheek, finally stopping on its cold neck, her nails growing three inches long, gleaming coldly.

"mine……"

"Good sister."

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There are two more chapters tonight. Including the chapter I missed yesterday, I've read five chapters today, which is pretty awesome!