Translator: Dj22031
Editor: Dj22031
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After uttering this declaration, which was almost a challenge, Li Yuebai watched as Gao Chengyu’s phantom gradually disappeared before his eyes, turning into grains of sand and scattering in the air.
The first floor returned to silence.
Without hesitation, Li Yuebai walked directly to the steps, stepped onto them, and walked upwards step by step.
At the end of the steps was an open door, and inside was complete darkness; nothing could be seen.
From the darkness came a strange crying sound.
A crying sound?
Li Yuebai frowned, puzzled, and unconsciously quickened his pace, passing through the thick black mist at the doorway and entering the second floor.
The second floor looked no different from the first, empty everywhere, with a crow perched on the window, perhaps the same one as before.
The biggest difference was that there was a girl in the corner.
The girl looked only five or six years old, her back to him, facing the corner of the wall. She wore a cute, light pink dress, her hands raised to cover her face, sobbing uncontrollably. Her cries were no different from those of other little girls Li Yuebai usually saw— other children would cry because they didn’t get pretty clothes, didn’t get the cake they wanted, or didn’t go to the amusement park they wanted, but their parents would either comfort or scold them. No one would come to this strange tower alone in the middle of the night, crying alone in the corner.
Li Yuebai approached slowly, and after seeing the girl’s figure and clothing clearly, he felt his heart stop.
This was the girl captured on camera.
The last scene captured on camera after Ye Qing became a vampire and drove away from the community’s underground parking garage was him grabbing this girl, splattered with blood, and leaving behind a blood-stained teddy bear…
Li Yuebai would never forget this image.
According to the city police’s subsequent investigation, the girl was indeed Xiao Wan— the same Xiao Wan who had almost been kidnapped by a female vampire in the same underground parking garage. Her mother had even called him.
For a moment, Li Yuebai couldn’t understand why Xiao Wan was here.
Xiao Wan heard footsteps behind her and slowly stopped crying, turning around.
In that instant, Li Yuebai wanted to avoid her gaze, but he held back.
Fortunately, nothing strange happened. The girl’s face was cute and normal— big eyes, long eyelashes, her cheeks and nose were red from crying, and messy tear tracks made her face wet.
“Waaaaah, officer brother…” The little girl saw Li Yuebai’s appearance clearly and burst into tears again: “Save me! A vampire wants to eat me! It’s so scary, waaaaah…”
“Xiao Wan?” Li Yuebai hurriedly stepped forward, squatted down, and wanted to wipe her tears, but then realized that his hands were too dirty, covered in dust, and he didn’t have any handkerchiefs or tissues with him, so he couldn’t do anything.
“I’m so scared…” Xiao Wan cried so hard she almost passed out.
“Don’t be afraid, I’m here,” Li Yuebai said, trying to soften his voice.
He had nothing on him that could truly comfort the girl, except for his gun and a bottle of drinking water. In desperation, he took out the water, poured out a capful, and wanted to wash the girl’s dirty little hands and face, but he hesitated to actually do it.
He was afraid the water would pass right through the girl’s body, fall to the ground, and then the girl would disappear into thin air, never to exist again.
Li Yuebai suppressed the chaotic thoughts in his mind and quietly took out the parchment to glance at it— it showed nothing.
Li Yuebai simply wrote the question directly on the parchment— What is she? Is she a phantom?
The parchment did not answer.
Not long after, new footsteps sounded.
Li Yuebai stood in front of the girl, turned around, and once again saw the most familiar person— it was Ye Qing.
It was still the fake Ye Qing from the first floor, walking towards the girl step by step.
Upon seeing Ye Qing, the girl immediately stopped crying and smiled, “Officer brother!”
Indeed, from the beginning, Xiao Wan liked Ye Qing more than Li Yuebai, because it was Ye Qing who took her home, while Li Yuebai, having shed too much blood, was too ruthless and didn’t get close to her.
“Don’t come any closer.” Li Yuebai composed himself, warily eyeing the fake Ye Qing.
“Why not?” The fake Ye Qing completely ignored his protest and continued to approach step by step: “When I became a vampire, you didn’t kill me, so isn’t this the result you were waiting for?”
Li Yuebai took a deep breath and put his arm around Xiao Wan’s shoulder. Her body was warm and soft, as if a gentle squeeze could kill her, and it was this feeling that made him want to protect her with all his might.
But the touch in his hand quickly disappeared, and Xiao Wan’s body instantly dissipated into a phantom, then quickly solidified again, using this method to evade his control and unconsciously walked towards Ye Qing.
“Vampires have mind control abilities, but Vila don’t,” Ye Qing smiled. “So she’ll only listen to me.”
“You…” Li Yuebai stood up and rushed forward, trying to separate the two, but found that his hands couldn’t touch their bodies at all.
“Officer brother.” Xiao Wan looked up hopefully and tugged at Ye Qing’s clothes. “You can save me, right?”
Ye Qing bent down and touched her head, a smile completely unlike his usual self appearing on his lips. “Yes.”
The next second, he picked up the girl, then leaned close to her neck and bit down.
The girl’s body trembled violently, and she began to struggle desperately in his arms, her slender arms flailing wildly as she tried to push him away, but to no avail. She let out shrill cries and screams, but it was useless. Soon, her struggles became weaker and weaker, her once rosy skin quickly turned pale, and her soft body gradually stiffened.
After an unknown amount of time, Ye Qing finally put down the girl’s cold body and wiped a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth.
The girl was thrown into the corner in a bizarre posture, her eyes wide open, her face filled with panic and fear, her skin ashen and pale, utterly terrifying.
Throughout the entire process, no matter what Li Yuebai did, he couldn’t stop Ye Qing’s actions. It was as if they were in different times and spaces.
On the parchment, the words of the answer finally gradually appeared: She was not a phantom, she was a lingering ghost in the world, reliving her death over and over again.
Li Yuebai realized that he had unknowingly drawn the pistol from his pocket, pointing the muzzle at Ye Qing.
“Shoot, you should have shot long ago.” Ye Qing stared at him coldly: “If you had shot on the first floor, then what happened on the second floor wouldn’t have happened.”
Yes, if he hadn’t let Ye Qing go in the museum, Xiao Wan wouldn’t have died…
Li Yuebai felt his hands trembling.
In the end, he lowered the gun: “It’s not your fault.”
“If it’s not my fault, then whose fault is it?” Ye Qing narrowed her eyes: “Yours?”
“…”
“Do you know how many people’s blood I’ve drunk after Xiao Wan?” Ye Qing had no intention of letting him go, pressing closer step by step, pointing upwards: “The next six levels are all like this, each more cruel and unbearable than the last… So… why don’t you kill me?”
“No.” Li Yuebai gritted his teeth, putting the gun back into his pocket.
If he shot Ye Qing, what he held dear would be gone, and he would fall under the vampire’s control.
The illusion was just an illusion; what truly tormented him wasn’t the illusion, but the reality that had already occurred.
“If you insist, please continue upwards.” Ye Qing bowed and disappeared.
The staircase leading to the third level opened.
Each subsequent level was a living hell.
Li Yuebai had seen many depictions of hell in books and documentaries— mountains of corpses, seas of blood, cauldrons of boiling oil, guillotines… Yama’s little devils, flames, tongue-pulling… all of it was being reenacted here.
On each level, Ye Qing would kill one or a group of people using some cruel method, then drain their blood, and then provoke Li Yuebai: Why don’t you dare kill me?
It’s not his fault, it’s not his fault… Li Yuebai repeated this to himself over and over until he no longer understood the meaning of the words.
Until the seventh level.
“Is he that important to you?” The fake Ye Qing stood in the thick blood, a mocking smile on his face, toying with a bleeding head: “Now, have you abandoned all your principles for him?”
Perhaps so?
The dead cannot be brought back to life, dust to dust, ashes to ashes— this is the law of the universe.
But he had used the existence of a dormant vampire to defy fate and bring him back to life.
Thus, he had become this kind of vampire, forced to transform into a demon to survive.
Even so, he could only watch helplessly from afar, doing nothing, neither stopping him nor revealing any information about him.
Gu Xisha had always been a person who clearly distinguished between good and evil, advocating the complete eradication of evil.
Li Yuebai himself, of course, always hoped to protect innocent people.
But was his current approach truly contrary to that principle?
Perhaps, but there was no other way.
He was now on the seventh floor; if he just persevered a little longer, he would win.
“I won’t kill Ye Qing.” Li Yuebai stood amidst the blood-soaked ground, staring intently at the fake Ye Qing opposite him. “Don’t waste your time, get out of the way.”
“You won.” The fake Ye Qing clapped his hands, making a helpless gesture. “You’ve passed the test. Please continue upwards.”
He vanished into thin air for the seventh time.
This was the seventh floor.
Li Yuebai looked around but only saw a staircase leading upwards.
The seventh floor was already the top floor; why could he continue upwards? Was the exit at the top of the tower?
In any case, the torment of the phantoms and the undead was over.
Li Yuebai wanted to leave, but his legs felt as heavy as lead.
His back was already soaked with sweat, and he felt terrible; all his strength had been exhausted in the internal struggle.
Even though he knew the scenes he saw were illusions, the thought that Ye Qing might have actually done these things, just without him witnessing it… weighed him down with a heavy sense of guilt.
So many sins, impossible to atone for.
If he were to see those illusions again, he might truly break down, suffer a mental breakdown, develop depression, and do all sorts of insane things…
Thankfully, it was over.
Li Yuebai struggled to calm himself and stepped onto the upward staircase.
At the end of the stairs, there was still a doorway hidden in darkness.
Going out through this doorway, perhaps he could see the night sky, perhaps he could even see the stars, perhaps he would find himself standing atop a tower, looking down at the chaotic city— perhaps not, the Seven Star Tower was only seven stories high, too short for the city, and despite being situated on a hillside, it couldn’t offer a panoramic view.
The moment he passed through the doorway, Li Yuebai closed his eyes.
He had imagined a thousand times what he would see when he opened them— perhaps Gao Chengyu and his menacing subordinates, perhaps nothing at all, perhaps… but none of this was what he had expected.
Before him was an empty tower room, devoid of any decoration or furniture, just a large, bare space. A winding staircase led upstairs. The walls were black brick, with a single window— an empty, glassless archway. A crow perched on the windowsill, cawing mournfully. Beneath its claws lay a piece of parchment.
Li Yuebai stepped forward, picked up the parchment, and read: “Welcome to the First Floor.”
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