Chapter 35: Not as Powerful as You Think

The redhead and his two teammates stepped onto the shore.

Seeing the man standing alive on the bank, Wen Su’s face lit up with a smile. She said to Huan Xiao with a proud air, "See? I’m clever, aren’t I? I came up with a solution that so many others couldn't."

Huan Xiao nodded with a smile and replied, "Yes, you’re very clever. Let’s row over now."

"I’ll do it, I’ll do it!" Wen Su hurriedly snatched the oar from beside Huan Xiao, as if fearing that Huan Xiao might compete for the task. Huan Xiao naturally didn't mind; she was quite happy to be lazy.

Seeing the redhead’s success, the others, unable to contain their restless anxiety, began to row their boats toward the shore with frantic energy, as if they were parched travelers finally finding a spring.

As their boat drew near the bank, Huan Xiao looked at the coffin bearers again and realized they were not following the boats, but the people themselves. Furthermore, the coffins belonging to the redhead and his two companions were already closing in on them. Neither the others on the river nor the redhead and his friends had noticed.

Huan Xiao sighed after realizing this.

"What’s wrong, Xiao Huan? You’re too young to be sighing like an old woman all day; you’ll get wrinkles," Wen Su teased, completely oblivious to the approaching danger, her smile bright.

After a moment of silence, Huan Xiao murmured to herself, "Falling into despair after finding hope—that seems truly miserable."

"What was that?" Wen Su hadn't heard her clearly, but her smile remained. Their boat was almost at the bank. Soon, they would be able to land and stop looking at the nightmarish things on the river.

Huan Xiao pointed toward the twelve coffin bearers and three coffins behind the redhead’s group and said to Wen Su, "Look."

"Look at what? They can still—!" Wen Su’s voice cut off abruptly. She had clearly seen the three coffins closing in on the redhead and his companions.

"Danger! Get away!" the girl in the sun hat, who had already reached the shore, screamed at the trio.

She, too, had spotted the approaching bearers. Perhaps these creatures were just ordinary people; they could escape if they ran fast enough.

"What?" The redhead turned around, confused.

Over a dozen figures wrapped in black cloth appeared in his field of vision, carrying coffins. Up close, he noticed that the skin around the eyes of the bearers—sunken into deep shadows beneath the black fabric—was entirely dark purple. Their eyes were almost solid white, with pupils as small and red as pinpricks.

They were definitely not human! Damn it, he had completely forgotten to watch for the coffin bearers on the shore.

At that moment, the eerie bearers were only half a meter away from the redhead. He had no chance of escape. In fact, he found he could not move at all. The others watched in horror as the bearers placed the coffins on the ground and opened them. The redhead and his two companions, looking as if their souls had been ripped away, lay down into the coffins with dull, vacant expressions.

The bearers then methodically closed the lids and carried the coffins into the wooden building.

"Wuwuwu, Xiao Huan!" Wen Su stopped rowing and clung to Huan Xiao, sobbing.

Seeing the redhead's fate, the remaining people slumped in their boats in despair, tossing their oars aside and giving up on landing. They were like air-filled balloons suddenly punctured by a needle, utterly deflated and hopeless.

The girl in the sun hat stood up and addressed them, "We have no time to be depressed. Is everyone willing to listen to me for a moment?"

"Big sister, have you thought of another way to survive?"

The river reflected the people who were beginning to regain a glimmer of hope, though the images rippled and blurred in the water. Even the weeping, disheartened Wen Su looked up at the girl in the sun hat.

"That's right, we cannot give up. We still have hope!"

The remaining dozen people did not yield to fate. It was just a game, after all. They had participated in countless similar life-or-death traps before; how could they lose their fighting spirit over a single setback? Besides, they had two "Qi-Users" on the boats. Aside from the girl in the sun hat, there was another quiet girl in a striped jacket who was also a Qi-User. With two of them, they were bound to find a way to survive.

The girl in the sun hat hadn't expected her words to pull everyone out of the shadow of the redhead’s death so quickly. Looking at their eyes filled with pure trust, she felt a pang of guilt. She didn't want to tell them that Qi-Users weren't as useful as they imagined, nor did she want to admit that the plan she had devised might be a dead end.

But the arrow was already on the string; she had to fire. She had to gamble once more, betting that her hypothesis was correct.

"Based on my observations just now," the girl in the sun hat said, "the coffin bearers are slow—slower than our running speed. If we land and stall for time, perhaps we can wait until the boats pass through the wooden building before boarding again. It might work."

Before she could finish, however, she was met with skepticism.

"That’s easy for you to say. Aren't you a Qi-User? Why don't you just fight these water ghosts and coffin bearers directly?" Chen Sheng, who had been on the same boat as Brother Qiang, spoke with a sharp tone. Having been treated with caution by the others on his boat, he felt a simmering resentment. He didn't believe he had done anything wrong; in a life-or-death game, one should do whatever it takes to win.

These simple-minded fools would never understand. They were like parasites who always preferred to beg others for help rather than think for themselves. The audacity of these useless people to look down on him! Under Chen Sheng’s gloomy gaze, his own teammates didn't dare look at him, fearing they might offend him and be pushed into the river to join the water ghosts.

Chen Sheng’s words resonated with many. The players expressed their support, looking imploringly at the only two Qi-Users present.

"Big sister, you know how dangerous this is. How could we dare to lure the ghosts? Do we have a death wish? ...Why don't you two experts handle it? Surely, with such fragile bodies, the coffin bearers can't pose a threat to you."

Perhaps seeing that the girl in the sun hat seemed reasonable, someone else added, "Why don't you two help us lure the bearers away? With great power comes great responsibility, right? Have a heart."

The people on the boats grew increasingly anxious as they realized they were less than a hundred meters from the building. Inside, the moving, black-clad figures were like demons from hell, waiting for them to jump into their mouths.

"Sis, you’re my only hope! I’m begging you, help us!" Someone even began to kneel and kowtow on the boat.

The girl in the sun hat pressed her temples, feeling a headache coming on. She hadn't expected the players this time to be so troublesome—afraid to face danger and looking for a free ride. They were far worse than the people she had encountered in her last round.

She no longer hesitated and stated bluntly, "I won't lie to you: I am no match for the ghosts in this world. And it’s not just me—to the malicious spirits here, any Qi-User below Level 6 is nothing more than an ant with a nail clipper. We pose no real threat."

"If you are waiting for me and this girl to save you, then I’m sorry to say, you’ll be waiting in vain."