Chapter 2 External Evil

Chapter 2 External Evil

Chapter 2 External Evil
The clepsydra in the northwest corner of the Jinluan Palace ticked twelve times, and the morning court session was over. Li Wuxiang let out a long sigh and said, "The court session is dismissed."

Then he stood up from the throne and walked slowly towards his own bedroom.

This body had been starved to death once before. When Li Wuxiang entered its body, he could feel that it was extremely weak and on the verge of collapsing again at any time.

But he survived because two more balls rolled out from behind the iron plate on the wall of the palace. He guessed that it might be that a dead person suddenly came back to life, which aroused the interest of the "god", so he decided to observe for a while to see what was going on.

This was good news for him. A person who could use 101 children for a decade-long experiment or sacrifice must have an extremely twisted and cruel mentality, but now he showed curiosity, which meant that the "God" was not a complete lunatic and still had some basic humanity - this was his only hope of escaping from here.

He walked back to the wooden bed and sat cross-legged, placing the remaining dumpling in front of him. It should have been noon, and he was very hungry, but he controlled himself to just stare at the thing instead of eating it.

The deep memory left by the cruel punishment in infancy made the original owner and his officials always follow the daily routine precisely: they can eat when they wake up early and before going to bed, but if they eat food or drink water at other times, they will experience unimaginable pain.

So Li Wuxiang slowed down his breathing, sat quietly, focused his eyes on the black ball, and waited.

The original owner was weak and ignorant, essentially no different from smarter animals, but this kind of life also gave him a huge advantage: concentration.

Generally speaking, apart from eating, attending court, sleeping, and defecating, he would spend the rest of his time sitting quietly on his bed. His distorted worldview made it impossible for him to imagine anything other than these four stone chambers, so most of the time he was awake and in a daze, or in other words, extremely focused and empty-minded, meditating.

Li Wuxiang inherited this advantage, so he could sit still on the wooden bed for two hours like the original owner, and gradually hear his own heartbeat, the sound of blood flowing, the subtle sound of air flowing in the cracks of the stone, and -

Footsteps.

In the original owner's memory, the sound of footsteps existed for a long time, light and slow, like a piece of thin paper falling on the stone surface.

Many years ago, after the 102nd person disappeared, he would occasionally hear such footsteps at night, but he did not think there was anything wrong with it, and took it for granted as a natural phenomenon, just like the crackling sound of the wick in the eternal lamp or the sound of air flowing in the cracks in the wall.

But Li Wuxiang realized that this should be the 102nd person - he might never have really left, but was observing everything here in another way that was not noticed by others.

The footsteps stopped in front of Li Wuxiang, and he smelled a very faint smell, similar to the fragrance of bamboo. Normal people would never be able to catch this smell. Only people like the original owner of this body, who have been in a single smell environment for a long time, would notice this subtle difference in the air.

He controlled his breathing and kept himself calm. Since he regained consciousness, the person or thing standing in front of him had come close to observe him seven times. This time was the most recent one - he felt that the other party was almost face to face with him, as if he could grab it with just one hand.

But Li Wuxiang suppressed this impulse. He didn't know the other person well enough, and he didn't even know if he would find that he was grabbing only air if he reached out his hand. He had to further arouse the other person's curiosity in order to find more clues.

——When the "God" wants to kill everyone, the "Emperor" is left last, which means that the "Emperor" is far more important than the "officials", and it is even possible that they are completely serving the existence of the "Emperor".

On the other hand, the "God" does not seem to care whether the "emperor" himself is smart or stupid, weak or healthy, but only wants him to repeat those things that can symbolize the identity of the "emperor" for more than ten years. This means that the identity and symbol of "emperor" should be far more important than the "emperor" himself.

This made Li Wuxiang feel that he could further confirm that this was a ritual, a sacrifice. He didn't know who the object of the sacrifice was, but he felt that the only key to saving his life or even leaving here was the symbol of "Emperor".

Since he couldn't find any possible way to leave here, he had to try to add some ingredients to this "symbol" to see if he could tear a hole in this invisible iron wall. This idea had been vaguely brewing for a few days, and now he could try it. So he suddenly raised his face, opened his mouth and frowned slightly, pretending to hear a sound. After a short pause, he immediately turned his head to look left and right, as if he was looking for the source of the sound.

Next, he let out a loud shout, quickly retreated on the wooden bed, and pressed himself against the wall. Li Wuxiang felt that, for the original owner, "hearing an unexpected sound" was equivalent to having his entire worldview overturned, so it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was terrified.

And this reaction is just to set the stage for the next step——

He suddenly relaxed his expression, which changed from extreme fear to doubt and confusion. Then, he whispered in an unclear tone: "I... I..."

It was as if some invisible person was teaching him to speak.

Taking advantage of the intervals between breaths, Li Wuxiang took a few deep breaths. He could no longer hear the footsteps of the "god", but the faint smell of bamboo was still there. At first, when he retreated to the corner in fear, it retreated a little further, as if it was frightened by his reaction, but now the smell was closer, as if the other party came closer to find out what he was going to say.

Then, he said slowly: "I am the most respected person in the world."

Then he repeated it more clearly and coherently: "I am the supreme ruler of the world."

The smell of bamboo suddenly faded away, and for the first time he felt a slight air current and footsteps that were much lighter than usual - as if the person who had come close to observe him was suddenly frightened and immediately stepped back, and was deliberately tiptoeing!
This reaction was totally unexpected to Li Wuxiang, so he immediately shut his mouth, blinked blankly, as if he had completely forgotten what he had just done, and then sat back down on the bed.

He thought that the other party might come closer to observe him again, but until half an hour later, the room remained quiet, and the smell of bamboo and the sound of footsteps did not appear again.

The other person left. Based on his previous reaction...was he scared away?

Li Wuxiang exhaled lightly to slow down his heartbeat. Now, he felt that his hope of leaving here alive had increased a little.

Now he knew, no matter what the reason was, "God" would be afraid!
In the process just now, the "god" first kept his distance, then moved forward, then retreated again and disappeared. This made the mysterious, powerful, and majestic impression he had left in the original owner's mind collapse all of a sudden, and it also meant that the invisible "god" might have suffered substantial damage, not an illusion, a spirit, or other untouchable things, because when he moved quickly, he would stir up air currents!
Li Wuxiang slowly reached his hand to the bedside and gently touched the bottom board. There was a sharp wooden strip embedded there. It was originally a diagonal crack on the bed board, which he had broken open bit by bit a few days ago.

The footsteps of the "god" usually appear after the clepsydra drips twelve times again and after the "emperor" and the "officials" fall asleep. If he can't suppress his curiosity and returns to the bed again tonight, Li Wuxiang decides to attack him suddenly and try to subdue him.

Because in the eleven days since he "came back from the dead", including today, drinking water has only been supplied three times, and the intervals between supplies are getting longer and longer.

Two hours later, he ate the second dumpling and lay on the wooden bed as usual, waiting for the arrival of the "god". He listened to the subtle sound of air flow and the dripping sound of the clepsydra, and simulated in his mind over and over again how to turn over to the bedside, pull out the wooden stick, throw the "god" down, and then insert the wooden stick into his body once he heard the footsteps again.

But more than an hour passed and there was no additional sound.

After coming back from the dead and being hungry for a long time, his body became quite weak, so his mind was gradually defeated by physiological sleepiness, and Li Wuxiang's eyelids began to close uncontrollably. Just when he was half asleep and half awake, he suddenly heard a muffled voice, as if it came from the narrow passage where the dumpling rolled out of the wall -

"Wake up, hey, wake up!" a female voice said anxiously, "Are you an evil spirit?!"

(End of this chapter)