Players, Please Board the Train

When the beauty spoke, Duke Tal naturally agreed enthusiastically. He attentively escorted her back into the ancient castle, had someone bring her bedtime beauty food, and even personally picked a bouquet of flowers for her, so she could fall asleep accompanied by their fragrance.

Madame Butterfly kept his probing at arm’s length. Duke Tal also paid no mind to Xu Huo, who was accompanying them on the side. Stroking his chin, he entered the adjacent room. Not long after, a bodyguard left the ancient castle.

Xu Huo’s bedroom was on the third floor. After seeing them off, he returned to his own room.

With Mr. Dong present, he of course knew the bodyguard had left the castle. However, the bodyguards around Duke Tal were clearly all players with considerable skills. He couldn’t entertain the thought of tailing them.

But this Madame Butterfly was quite interesting.

”Sir, I’ve found two more notebooks left behind by the previous master.” Mr. Dong came in holding the booklets and food.

”Just leave them on the desk,” Xu Huo said. His bedroom also had a writing desk.

Mr. Dong complied and set them down. As he was about to leave, he said, ”Sir, you should go to bed early tonight.”

Xu Huo couldn’t help but glance at him, but the other man said nothing more. He went out and gently closed the door.

After a brief pause, Xu Huo opened the Umbrella of Justice and placed it on the balcony. He returned to the desk to continue reading He Pu’s notes only after it began to rain outside.The maids and Mr. Dong retired one after another. In the rainy night, several lights within the ancient castle went out one by one. The vast structure, apart from a faint glimmer on the third floor, seemed to completely merge with the darkness elsewhere.

An indeterminate amount of time later, an unusual sensation enveloped the castle.

Xu Huo, who was reading the notes, stopped. He looked up towards the window. Through the curtains, he saw pairs of red lights, like eyes, staring into the room.

He put down what he was holding, stood up, and walked over. Pulling open the window, the red lights outside vanished. The night breeze blew in, causing the hanging sheer curtains and the flowers in the garden below to sway with the same rhythm. Shifting his gaze downstairs, he saw Madame Butterfly, who should have been asleep long ago, standing alone before the maze garden. She glanced back in his direction, then turned and walked into the maze.

After she entered, a glowing butterfly flew out from among the flowering trees, fluttering unsteadily up to his window.

Reaching out to catch it, the butterfly scattered into points of light and dissipated into the air.

There was no other movement in the castle. After a moment’s hesitation, Xu Huo took his umbrella and went downstairs.

The castle now seemed different from when Mr. Dong was controlling it. Although lights were left on in the corridors and the first-floor reception hall, everywhere else was plunged into darkness. As he walked, he occasionally felt the sensation of being watched from within the shadows, making his scalp prickle uncontrollably.

This feeling was not unfamiliar to Xu Huo. Relying on his memory, he went downstairs, circled around the side corridor to the outer walkway behind the main building, and passed through the botanical garden towards the maze garden.

However, before he could get close, things hiding in the darkness rustled and crawled out. The ground, tree trunks, and even the branches and leaves were densely covered with small, hairy, spiky creatures. Their appearances varied slightly, but each had an abundance of legs. Some were non-venomous, others highly toxic. After surrounding him for a few seconds, they all began crawling towards him.

Xu Huo didn’t stop walking. Ignoring the spiders climbing up his trouser legs, he walked straight into the garden maze, circumvented two giant spiders blocking the path, and followed the maze passageway towards the center.

He had entered this maze once before and roughly remembered the layout of the initial section. Therefore, he wasn’t hindered by the visually altered passages and soon found Madame Butterfly inside the maze.

She stood alone. Her light purple silk nightgown was stained with dark purple droplets from the rain, and her beautiful face was dotted with water droplets. However, she herself didn’t seem to mind any of this, nor did she mind being watched. She looked up slightly at the space above, extending both hands as if to catch something.

Xu Huo followed her gaze and carefully looked at her hands. Only after several seconds did he see a pair of semi-transparent wings flash briefly as they fluttered. But this fleeting glimpse was incomplete. In the blink of an eye, there was nothing in her hands again.

”Your brain has undergone Secondary Evolution?” Madame Butterfly now clapped her palms together. To the naked eye, it looked like she was lightly patting the air, but an invisible force rippled out.

Xu Huo knew he shouldn’t expect to see that butterfly again. Holding his umbrella, he looked at the woman. ”You want to kill me.”

”Who told you to see it,” Madame Butterfly said with a smile. ”I don’t like being spied on.”

”This counts as spying?” Xu Huo raised an eyebrow. ”In my own place, can’t I look at my own garden? Perhaps you should reflect on why you happened to walk into my line of sight.”

Madame Butterfly seemed unwilling to waste words with him. With a casual wave of her hand, the flower walls on both sides suddenly demonized. Dense, pus-oozing vines crowded together and lunged towards him!

This was a mental attack.

Xu Huo didn’t know if she had reached this level by using a Special Item, but since they were both within the illusion, he could also materialize his own Mental World.

He raised his hand and pulled at the space in front of him. The first and second attempts failed, but on the third try, he successfully opened a door before himself. Stepping through, he stood behind Madame Butterfly.

Even with her back to him, Madame Butterfly didn’t turn around. Instead, her body disintegrated into countless butterflies. These butterflies swarmed over his face and body like moths. Suddenly feeling a hand touch his right arm, the Crimson Sword he had already drawn immediately fell to the ground as his hand went limp.

Xu Huo frowned and immediately swung his umbrella, forcefully pushing forward. The woman hiding within the swarm of butterflies took a step back, revealing her form. With a flick of the small folding fan in her hand, both of his legs turned as stiff and dead as stone.

Seeing him rooted to the spot, Madame Butterfly waved her fan. ”Aren’t you leaving?”

”Why should I leave?” Xu Huo pressed the umbrella handle. The two legs that had lost sensation recovered. He then threw out the Fair Wallet and the Dual-color Magic Cube, swiftly pulling open another door in front of him. This time, he arrived directly in front of the woman and reached out to seize her throat.

However, as his hand closed, Madame Butterfly transformed into a butterfly swarm again.

His eyes searched among the chaotically flying butterflies. From their exchange, he knew the other’s mental evolution was stronger than his own. Therefore, he couldn’t accurately locate the person within the illusion she had created. But this was a good opportunity.

Relying on intuition to sense someone behind him, he quickly turned around, opened a door, and grabbed the hand reaching for him, pulling hard!

Madame Butterfly appeared half-hidden, half-visible within the butterfly swarm, but Xu Huo’s left hand lost sensation at that moment. After only a brief contact, the other broke free. Simultaneously, a metal collar that appeared out of thin air snapped around his neck, and the surrounding air began to constrict towards the center. The compression and squeezing brought on an intense feeling of suffocation.

Xu Huo moved his hands and feet, finding some strength had returned to his right hand. He turned his palm upward, and a stopwatch and a pen appeared in his hand simultaneously.