Chapter 31: Even Earlier

Meanwhile, Ning Jing fell from above and returned to the normal spiral staircase. Soon, Qian Cangyi’s voice came from overhead.

“How is it?”

His voice was filled with concern.

“I’ve made it over here. Be careful,” Ning Jing called back before beginning to search for Mastermind.

Rather than go downward, she ran toward the palace. Since the spiral staircase seemed to have no end, Ning Jing believed Mastermind had already left it. If she failed to find him outside, she could always come back and search the staircase afterward.

As she made her way out, she focused all her attention on her hearing, remaining alert for any sign of the headless brute.

The headless brute would be running down from above, while she had to run upward to get out. That meant they were bound to meet face-to-face. If she truly encountered him, she would almost certainly die. Thus, she could do nothing but pray.

“Please, don’t let me run into him. Please, don’t…”

After running for a while, Ning Jing spotted the backpacks lying on the ground.

“These are the backpacks we abandoned when we fled earlier. Wait… why are there fewer of them?”

She noticed it at once.

“Could it be…”

If someone had taken the backpacks, it could only have been one of the actors. The headless brute had no interest in them whatsoever.

“He must still be alive!”

Having realized this, Ning Jing quickened her pace.

More than ten minutes later, she saw the entrance to the spiral staircase—a perfectly ordinary door. She rushed out, then bent over slightly, bracing both hands on her knees as she gasped for breath.

Those ten-odd minutes had seemed extraordinarily long. Every second had stretched her nerves to the breaking point. The oppression radiated by the headless brute had been far too intense, especially the image of him tearing Xiao Tian’s head from his body. Even now, it continued to surface in her mind from time to time.

Five seconds later, Ning Jing let out a long breath and walked toward the palace entrance. There, she saw Mastermind sitting by the door.

He was leaning against the doorframe, his head lolling to the right, his lips pale.

Ning Jing’s heart lurched with worry. She hurried to his side and gently nudged his shoulder.

“Zhang Sibo, Zhang Sibo, wake up. Wake up!”

As she spoke, she gradually increased the strength of her grip.

Mastermind still did not respond.

Ning Jing placed her right hand beneath his nose and felt for his breath. A faint warmth stirred the fine hairs on her fingers.

“He’s alive!”

Her eyes brightened. She lightly slapped Mastermind’s cheek with her right hand, gradually increasing the force.

The index finger of his right hand twitched faintly. His eyes slowly opened, their gaze unfocused. Two seconds later, clarity returned to them. He lifted his head and looked at Ning Jing, then glanced around before raising his right hand and pressing hard against his temple.

“What’s the situation now?” he asked weakly.

He tried to stand, but halfway up, he sank back down.

“My leg’s numb…”

He spread his hands and gave an embarrassed smile.

“When I came looking for you, you were sitting here. As for the situation, things are very bad for Mo An.” At that, Ning Jing turned her head away, her right hand curling slightly into a fist.

Mastermind raised his head, confusion in his eyes.

Ning Jing continued, “Earlier, we reached the other side of the spiral staircase and went upward to search. We found a doorway marked with symbols representing the phases of the moon. Then some things happened. I’ll explain briefly. Inside the doorway—”

He interrupted her.

“—you were told what happened a year ago.”

Mastermind drew a deep breath and pushed himself to his feet with both hands.

“How did you know?” Ning Jing asked, astonishment written across her face.

“Could you pass me the water? I’m feeling a little unwell.” Mastermind pointed toward the bottle that had rolled to one side.

Ning Jing walked over, picked up the bottle of mineral water, and handed it to him.

“Thank you.”

Mastermind unscrewed the cap and began drinking. He stopped only after finishing a third of the bottle, then raised his right hand and wiped the corner of his mouth.

“I guessed from your expression. Of course, the more important reason is that what happened a year ago may have been why we made our wish.”

Ning Jing sighed and nodded.

“You’re right. What happened a year ago was indeed the reason for the wish, but it was somewhat different from what I imagined.”

“The person who planned all of this wasn’t Yan Ruoxuan. It was Ning Jing—that is, me.”

“Ning Jing’s parents once joined a church devoted to the Moon God. They came to Hefang Island perhaps to make a wish, perhaps to worship. In any case, nearly all of them died there. Afterward, Ning Jing’s parents chose to withdraw from the church.”

“Later, Ning Jing found a book called The Moon God’s Funeral in her parents’ trunk. It recorded how to reach Hefang Island and the means of making a wish.”

“Then, a year ago, the five of them went out onto the lake to play in the middle of the night. As a result, one of them drowned…”

At those words, she gave Mastermind a complicated look.

Mastermind froze when he saw her strange expression, then nodded to show that he understood.

Ning Jing had deliberately refrained from saying who had drowned. The meaning could not have been clearer.

“Go on.” Mastermind extended his right hand in an inviting gesture.

Ning Jing continued from where she had left off.

“In any case, a series of events followed. The survivors fell into profound guilt, and everyone’s life was changed. Ning Jing didn’t want things to remain that way. She wanted to change everything, so she decided to go to Hefang Island.”

“I don’t know what happened in between, but there’s no doubt that the other three agreed to go with her. And so, they all came to Hefang Island.”

“Later, we saw the Moon God!”

Her voice suddenly grew heavier. The scene she had witnessed moments ago rose before her eyes.

Behind the enormous pit filled with corpses, the Moon God depicted in the mural gazed up at the pure white moon in the sky.

Mastermind did not reply. He merely waited for Ning Jing to continue.

“The Moon God looked almost exactly like the figure in the mural. Oh, and there was a huge pit there, filled with countless corpses. Their heads had been separated from their bodies. Then, perhaps the Moon God discovered us, because the corpses began crawling out of the pit and chasing us. We escaped afterward.”

“Mo An may have been injured and unable to make it here, so he gave me the only chance to escape.”

“After that, I found you. By the way, Zhang Sibo, what day of the week is it now? How much time do we have left?”

When Ning Jing finished speaking, she let out a breath, as though she had expelled the heaviness in her heart along with it.

Mastermind shook his head.

“I don’t know. It should be sometime after Friday, but I don’t know whether it’s Saturday or Sunday. It doesn’t matter, though. In essence, we can leave only after finding the Moon God’s altar.”

“Wait. The shadow. We can use the curse effect of the Moon Shadow Curse to determine the time.”

His tone suddenly became excited. He walked to the center of the doorway.

Ning Jing watched his shadow. At the point where its head joined its neck, the angle had become perfectly vertical, and more than a dozen thin strands connected the severed section.

Mastermind glanced at his own shadow, then at Ning Jing’s. The condition of their Moon Shadow Curses was nearly identical.

“It seems we don’t have much time left. We must hurry and find the Moon God’s altar.”

Suddenly, Ning Jing saw the head of Mastermind’s shadow fall to the ground.

“Ah!”

She cried out in shock.