Chapter 1 What Happened?

“Nothing much.”

Chai Chai narrowed her eyes, her tone still light and breezy. “Just pondering some age-old world mysteries that have plagued me for years.

Like, is an oyster still an oyster after it’s cooked?

If someone commits suicide, does the world have one more suicidal person, or one less?

When Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei were in the Peach Garden, did they have to kowtow to a statue of Guan Erye before swearing brotherhood?

I feel like if I can decipher these world mysteries, the Nobel Prize isn’t far off.”

Right now, she was replacing Li Ang's identity, inheriting all of Li Ang's interpersonal relationships (although there were only a few contacts), and also inheriting Li Ang's speaking style and vocabulary habits.

According to the analysis of the brainworm think tank, the degree of similarity in a short period of time can reach about 90%, which is fully capable of dealing with most situations.

“…”

Wang Congshan's voice on the other end of the phone paused for a moment.

“What’s wrong?”

Miss Chai’s eyebrows instantly furrowed. “Is there something you need to tell me?”

“No,”

Wang Congshan took a breath, her voice sounding somewhat low. “It’s just that recently, I’ve been feeling a little down…

Could you come out and have a meal with me?”

————

Far away in the script mission, Li Ang was unaware of what was happening in the real world.

The moment the feeling of weightlessness from stepping into the halo disappeared,

He released the Swamp Divinity and Mind Power, sweeping out in all directions to map the terrain and detect potential hostility.

No suspicious targets were found…

Li Ang opened his eyes. The subtle shift in balance relayed by his body reminded him that he should be standing upright on the ground.

Where is this…

The place he was in right now seemed to be a metal container.

The container was cramped and narrow, shaped roughly like a human figure.

The inner wall was inlaid with a dense array of metal spikes, positioned precisely at the eyes, shoulders, arms, thighs, and other locations.

An Iron Maiden?

Li Ang frowned slightly. The Iron Maiden was a torture device from medieval Europe, consisting of hinges, nails, and two door covers that could fit a person inside, resembling a mummy sarcophagus.

In use, the executioner would lock the victim inside the Iron Maiden, closing the two door covers and causing a large number of nails to pierce the victim’s body, inflicting continuous pain and terror to achieve the purpose of interrogation or torture.

Li Ang didn’t know what material this Iron Maiden torture device was made of, but the nails inside could actually pierce through the Dragon Head White Lab Coat and the Mirage Dragon Red Mane outer garment.

The Mirage Dragon Red Mane outer garment had a very high absorption efficiency for energy attacks, and could also absorb kinetic energy impacts. However, since Li Ang wove it himself, there were narrow gaps between each strand of Red Mane.

The sharp spikes on the inner wall of this Iron Maiden were slender and sharp, like yarn needles piercing through a sweater. Some of them had already pierced into the Mirage Dragon Red Mane outer garment.

If Li Ang’s skin and muscles couldn’t automatically change shape, actively shrinking inward by an inch or two, he would have already been riddled with holes.

These nails, they actively extend forward?

Li Ang frowned. In order to enhance the torment, real Iron Maidens had movable iron nails installed in various parts of the interior, which could change the piercing position and force, prolonging the victim’s suffering.

And at this moment, in the Iron Maiden he was in, the spikes on the inner wall were slowly and steadily extending inward, with no intention of stopping.

Fully automatic torture device? Or is this being controlled from the outside?

Various possibilities intertwined in Li Ang’s mind.

His lowered palm slightly opened, and a massive amount of vine fibers was released from the tips of his ten fingers.

First, they wrapped around his body to prevent him from being pierced by the nails.

Then, they rapidly proliferated, weaving through the gaps between the spikes and filling the entire torture device.

Crack—

The massive vines gathered immense power, supporting outward.

Accompanied by the teeth-grinding sound of the metal bolt turning, the two door covers of the metal torture device were forcibly pushed open a crack.

“Hoo…”

Amidst the wildly dancing vines, Li Ang leisurely climbed out of the metal torture device. He casually patted his body, and the holes on the outside of the Dragon Head White Lab Coat instantly returned to their original state.

“The Red Mane outer garment’s defensive performance against this kind of purely physical, sharp piercing damage is still a bit lacking…”

He sighed. Underneath the white lab coat, the skin that had automatically evolved into pore-like depressions (to prevent being pierced by the spikes) gradually returned to normal,

No longer resembling the strawberry-like form that could trigger screams from sufferers of trypophobia.

“Where are the others…”

Li Ang stood in place and looked around.

This was roughly a dimly lit, square room with a large area, filled with a large number of identical Iron Maidens placed on the ground.

All the torture devices were neatly arranged like pieces on a chessboard,

Some were tightly closed,

While others were open, revealing the hollow interior.

With the aid of the Night Vision Enhancement spell and his biologically modified eyes, Li Ang could clearly see that many of the open torture devices had long-dried black bloodstains,

With withered, shriveled flesh residue remaining on the tips of the spikes.

There were also large pools of dried bloodstains on the floor of the hall.

What is this, a place specifically for storing torture devices?

Li Ang frowned slightly. After stepping into the halo, he was directly teleported into a torture device.

The wide-range detection of Mind Power also didn’t detect any intelligent creatures like him in this room.

In other words, the halo teleportation array teleported everyone to different locations.

“Strange, could it be that the purpose of the halo teleportation is to kill the players? Or is this just a part of the trial? But placing so many coffin torture devices here doesn’t seem to fit the definition of ‘Holy Mountain’…”

Li Ang muttered to himself. Suddenly, a chaotic and indistinct sound rang out in his ears, neither male nor female, but revealing a solemn and sacred aura.

【Seek… the path… to ascend, complete… your… trial】

The voice seemed to have some poor contact, intermittent, but it was certainly not a spiritual energy or other power system faking the commotion.

The path to ascend?

Li Ang looked around the room. There was no obvious trapdoor on the ceiling, but there was a door at the end of the room that looked like it could be opened.

Li Ang didn’t rush to leave. Instead, he picked up the Eleven Lightning intercom that Hohenheim had given him and pressed the button. “Hello? Hello? This is Li Risheng, can you hear me?”

A crackling sound came from the intercom. After a moment, Ding Zhensi’s voice rang out on the channel, “Yes.”

Being able to hear meant that the straight-line distance between them was less than ten kilometers.

Li Ang felt relieved and asked, “Did you hear the prompt just now? Where are you now?”

“I heard the prompt just now too. It told us to find the path to ascend. That shouldn’t be a system prompt, but some kind of mechanism automatically triggered in this area.

Right now, cough cough, I should be in a closed room with a large number of human-shaped stone statues. These statues are probably to commemorate the brave who came to the Holy Mountain in the past…”

Ding Zhensi said, “Some of them have already been destroyed. The remaining ones total four hundred and seventy-seven.

Wait, the statues of the team of brave warriors that we saw on the murals in the underground palace are also here, placed at the very front of all the statues,

And in the middle of the entire statue formation, there are also statues of them…”

“Wait a second, someone’s coming here.”

Li Ang’s ears twitched. He pressed the intercom’s off button and silently flashed to a half-open torture device, shrinking his body and hiding.

Tap, tap, tap.

A streak of orange light appeared at the end of the room,

Accompanied by a rather strange sound of footsteps,

As if someone was wearing an extremely large pair of boots, soaked in water, and stepping on a marble floor, giving a sense of sticky, dragging unease.

The room was still dimly lit. With the enhancement effect of the Group Night Vision spell, Li Ang could clearly see,

A pair of sturdy and thick legs slowly stepped out from the end of the room, flashed out of the blind spot of the torture device, and appeared in Li Ang’s eyes.

This visitor’s appearance was extremely… bizarre.

Its lower half had two legs comparable to a muscle man’s,

The legs weren’t wearing pants or shoes, but were inlaid with a large number of sharp metal sheets, deeply piercing into the skin and muscles, forming brownish-yellow pus scabs at the wounds.

Some of the scabs had already fallen off, and purulent blood was sliding down, which was unsettling to look at.

Its feet were covered with octopus-like suckers, which secreted a viscous and constantly emitting irritating transparent liquid,

Making a “zzt” sound when stepping on the ground.

And its upper body was even more grotesque,

Basically a spherical aggregate of human arms, nearly two meters in diameter.

The arms came from various sources, with different skin colors and shapes. One green arm was even as sturdy as an industrial crane arm,

Seemingly originating from different hosts.

A dozen arms extended from the sides of the spherical aggregate, holding different things,

Including but not limited to a particularly old and dilapidated kerosene lamp, a slightly rusty sword, a flintlock gun, a set of tools for detaining criminals (handcuffs, leg irons, etc.)…

Most notably, among the green, sturdy arms, was a dark key ring,

Hanging from the key ring were dozens of keys,

Constantly making a wind chime-like sound as this uniquely shaped creature walked.

Did it run out from the Silent Hill set?

Li Ang hid in the Iron Maiden torture device, with vines extending from his fingertips to steadily fix him in place, so he wouldn’t touch the spikes inside the torture device.

The spikes inside these open torture devices wouldn’t extend actively like the previous one,

But one thing was the same.

The tips of all the spikes were coated with some kind of mineral powder…

Li Ang quietly raised his arm, and lightly touched the spike through the Mirage Dragon Red Mane outer garment.

After the powdery substance on the tip of the spike came into contact with his fingertip skin, it began to absorb energy at a slow rate.

So that’s how it is.

Li Ang’s heart stirred. If ordinary braves were teleported in and pierced by the spikes, the energy in their bodies would be slowly absorbed by these mineral powders.

If they were weak, they might not even be able to break free from the torture device, and be directly trapped and killed in the Iron Maiden—the open, blood-stained torture devices in the room silently proved this point.

However, why is this?

Is the meaning of the halo teleportation to harm the braves? Or is the entire Holy Mountain trial a lie…

Li Ang’s eyes narrowed slightly, gazing at the deformed creature.

He saw it holding the kerosene lamp and walking seemingly aimlessly in the room.

After walking a certain distance, as if suddenly thinking of something, it took a tattered mop from one of its arms,

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Dipped it in the viscous liquid from its feet, and began to mop the ground with the dried bloodstains.

The bloodstains on the ground had been left behind from an unknown era, firmly attached to the surface. The tattered mop couldn’t clean it at all, and instead made it dirtier the more it mopped,

But the deformed creature seemed oblivious, silently mopping the floor.

After about three minutes, the deformed creature slowly put away the mop. As if reacting slowly, it carried the mop on its shoulder (that is, above the arm spherical aggregate), and walked towards the Iron Maiden torture device that Li Ang had escaped from.

It stood still in front of the torture device, and reached out its arm,

Gently touching the torture device that was opened a crack, but had no bloodstains inside.

A sound that could perhaps be considered a “doubtful” gurgle rang out from the spherical aggregate.

After pausing for a few seconds, it slowly turned around and walked towards the end of the room.

In another Iron Maiden torture device, Li Ang, who had been watching the deformed creature’s behavior pattern, narrowed his eyes.

That monster, although not very intelligent, and looking particularly clumsy and slow, should be a servant, or rather, a janitor, of this area.

Responsible for cleaning the area, detaining the prisoners who appeared in the Iron Maiden, and using the handcuffs and leg irons it carried to confine the prisoners to another location.

Interesting.

Li Ang quietly flashed out of the torture device, and his figure, hidden in the darkness, stepped on the invisible stairs formed by the Cloud Stepping Skill, suspended above all the Iron Maiden torture devices.

Approaching the wall,

Keeping a distance, he hung behind the deformed creature, tracking it.

He wanted to see what other behavioral patterns this creature would have.

The deformed creature didn’t know that there was a tracker behind it. It silently walked out of the room, passed through a dim corridor, and arrived at another spacious room.

The entire building that Li Ang was in, at the moment, seemed to be somewhat similar to a grand castle.

The new room that the deformed creature arrived at should be the castle’s dining room, with a long wooden dining table in the middle.

The deformed creature took a pile of fruits similar to potatoes from a cabinet next to the dining room, and casually washed the fruits under the constantly dripping water pipe on the dining room wall.

Then, it returned to the dining table, cut open the fruits with a rusty longsword, and began to eat.

After finishing eating, it even cleaned the longsword and the plate it used, stood up unsteadily, and continued to the next room covered with mud and planted with some kind of crop, and began to water and cultivate.

“…”

Li Ang watched the deformed monster’s relatively slow movements, and frowned slightly. Finally, no longer hiding,

He casually let go of the vines that were clinging to the ceiling, and fell from the air, landing in front of the deformed monster that was watering the farmland.