Chapter 341: The Grand Mansion and Expressionless Beauty Configuration Upon Waking

’The impact feels harder than last time.’

’Or maybe the force hasn’t changed, and I’m just more perceptive now that I’m stronger?’ Qi Suian briefly recalled the phantom pain at the back of his head.

Unfortunately, the sensation vanished completely after he teleported here, which was why Qi Suian had labeled it phantom pain.

So he wasn’t entirely sure if the pain he’d felt at the back of his head had been real.

Next, Qi Suian took a look at his surroundings.

He appeared to be in an old mansion, one that looked long abandoned.

Judging by the architecture, it seemed to be ancient Chinese in style.

"Looks like they’ve dropped me into some rich family’s home," Qi Suian muttered.

Whether in modern or ancient times, a place with this kind of style wasn’t something an ordinary person could ever afford.

For now, he didn’t know what kind of world this was, so Qi Suian decided to play it safe.

This was mainly because he didn’t have his intercontinental missiles on hand, and his number of Floating Cannons was insufficient.

Otherwise, Qi Suian would have just waltzed right out the door to investigate.

’As a rule, there’s a boss and some kind of opportunity here. If I’m not greedy for the opportunity, my first priority should be to escape.’

As he thought, Qi Suian opened his game panel and glanced at the number of survivors.

He needed the number to determine the overall situation of this batch of survivors.

’Holy shit, 12 billion people???’

’This round is a total bust.’ Qi Suian could tell that he could forget about finding any Extraordinary systems.

’Maybe I can figure out the principles behind some talents?’

The stronger the Extraordinary system in a world, the fewer survivors the Apocalypse Game could pull into it.

But with 12 billion people this time, their quality could only be described as roughly equal to the very first batch of survivors.

And Qi Suian knew exactly what that batch of survivors was like.

Only a handful of them had any real value, and encountering them was no easy task.

Qi Suian was lucky, but the Apocalypse Game would never let such valuable assets spawn anywhere near him.

So they were bound to be far away. Scattered among so many people, they would be incredibly difficult to find.

"What’s the situation?" Qi Suian asked the AI.

Just a moment ago, the Tai Sui God had deployed its satellite projections, and the AI was now processing the data.

Outside the mansion, the world was gray and dim. There wasn’t even a sun in the sky; the only light came from the moon.

He instinctively wanted to make a snarky comment about how the moon only shines because it reflects sunlight, but he held his tongue, knowing this was a different world.

Who knew what the rules were here? What if it didn’t follow the familiar structure of a universe with stars and planets?

[Reconnaissance network and satellite projections are affected by an unknown influence. Unable to generate an effective report.]

[Confirmed: The current area is partitioned in some way. For now, data can only be acquired for your immediate location within the mansion.]

[Furthermore, the data is subject to interference. If our analysis is correct, this world is likely similar to the Sacred Artifact World.]

Qi Suian’s brow furrowed when he heard this.

’The difficulty is this high?’ Qi Suian realized the Apocalypse Game must have a death wish, throwing him directly into such a dangerous world.

’In other words, this world has already fallen into its own apocalypse. So, what exactly *is* that apocalypse?’

Qi Suian looked at the data report. It included a 3D image of the mansion, which was mostly clear, though it was sporadically peppered with black spots.

These black spots were the areas subject to interference.

One of them was located in the courtyard well, not far from his current position.

After thirty seconds of thought, Qi Suian pulled a white phosphorus grenade from his Subspace Pocket and tossed it straight in.

The grenade exploded, and flames began to billow out from the well.

’No energy reaction.’

’Then what’s causing the interference?’ Qi Suian would have to be crazy to stick his head over the edge for a look.

The fact that even the Tai Sui God’s reconnaissance and sensory modules couldn’t detect anything meant the problem was huge.

As he mulled it over, Qi Suian took out a Floating Cannon. He figured that if a non-Extraordinary weapon was useless, he might as well just use an Extraordinary one.

Just as he was taking aim, a sudden chill ran down his spine, as if something was breathing on the back of his neck.

What was illogical was that Qi Suian was inside a space created by an expedition-grade ecological circulation system within the Tai Sui God. He could accept that the Apocalypse Game could somehow smack him on the back of the head through the Tai Sui God.

’But what the hell could be powerful enough to penetrate this space just to breathe cold air on me?’

’That’s insane. Wouldn’t it be better to just snap my neck?’

Qi Suian turned his head, and his eyes fell upon a woman dressed in ancient attire.

"Holy shit, your skin’s as pale as mine." Qi Suian’s eyes widened. "It looks like you’ve been dead for ten years. Very fitting for the Underworld."

CRACK...

The woman didn’t answer. Instead, she reached out, grabbed the Tai Sui God’s neck, and twisted, snapping it.

Simultaneously, Qi Suian’s own neck was twisted a full one hundred and eighty degrees.

The movement wasn’t fast, just the speed of a normal person. Back when Qi Suian only had a Physique attribute of 0.5, he could have easily dodged it.

But the terrifying part was that neither the Tai Sui God nor Qi Suian had been able to dodge. Worse, she had twisted the Tai Sui God’s head, yet the effect had synchronized with Qi Suian’s body.

’What the hell is this thing...?’

Qi Suian twisted his head back into place, and the Tai Sui God recovered along with him.

One was an energy-based, virus-type, humanoid life-form, while the other had a transformation module, so neither of their necks was remotely normal.

They wouldn’t die even if their heads exploded, let alone from a broken neck.

’It’s not strong, but it seems like a Sacred Artifact? No, it’s more extreme than a Sacred Artifact. It’s like some kind of predetermined program combined with an absolute rule.’

’She breathes cold air on my neck, and if I turn my head, she snaps it.’

’As soon as the conditions are met, the rule is executed.’

Qi Suian was certain of one thing: that woman wasn’t human, or even a ghost.

"Don’t tell me this is some kind of anomaly, like out of a ghost story," Qi Suian muttered.

Come to think of it, that was a real possibility.

If the Apocalypse Game wanted to eliminate Qi Suian now, its only option was probably to use a rule-based world like this one, which completely ignored attribute strength.

Otherwise, it would be quite difficult indeed.

Qi Suian’s resistance to this kind of threat was admittedly not high.

He had never dealt with "rules" before. There had been Sacred Artifacts in the Sacred Artifact World, but he hadn’t been able to analyze them.

And now, he was facing a similar difficulty.

Qi Suian looked back again, but the woman didn’t appear. He suspected it might be because he had bombed the well.

’The points of interference must be the triggers for these kinds of rules.’

’So, how about we just leave this mansion?’ Qi Suian thought. ’If I can’t provoke it, surely I can avoid it?’

He then headed straight for the mansion’s main gate.

He was met with a tightly shut gate that, at first glance, resembled the gaping maw of some great beast.

’The good news is that this isn’t an interference point.’

’The bad news is that this thing won’t open.’ Qi Suian reached out and yanked on the gate.

Normally, with his and the Tai Sui God’s combined strength, they could have torn down the entire house, let alone a mere gate.

But now, not only was the gate completely undamaged, it wouldn’t even budge.

"I refuse to believe it. Floating Cannon, charge a Dark Energy Beam," Qi Suian said, confidently playing his trump card.

The Floating Cannon charged for thirty seconds before the Dark Energy Beam struck the gate.

However, it was as if the beam had hit a curtain of water; it simply dissipated on impact.

Qi Suian’s eyes bulged at the sight.

"WHAT THE FUCK!!!" This time, Qi Suian was truly shocked.

This was the first time he had ever seen something take a Dark Energy Beam without a scratch.

Even top-tier entities like the Blood Moon or the Golden Light Man, while not fearing the Dark Energy Beam, would still take damage from it.

Yet here, in this unremarkable mansion, was something so powerful.

"AI, see that Chastity Archway? Aim for the floor tiles beneath it." After a moment’s thought, Qi Suian didn’t dare target the archway itself.

If the beam disintegrated it, he might provoke some even greater horror, and that would be a huge problem.

Of course, if it *wasn’t* disintegrated, that would be even more troublesome. It would mean the mansion was protected by some kind of rule that granted it immunity to the Dark Energy Beam.

The Floating Cannon fired again. As expected, nothing changed.

"Fly straight up. See if we can get out," Qi Suian ordered. The Tai Sui God shot straight up like a rocket.

It easily ascended a hundred meters into the air.

[Reconnaissance network feedback: After reaching an altitude of one hundred meters, the Tai Sui God’s ascent has ceased.]

[There appears to be an altitude ceiling, preventing further ascent. Advise changing vector?]

"Switch."

The Tai Sui God changed course. It stopped trying to ascend and instead began flying horizontally.

[Results are consistent. Upon reaching a distance of one hundred meters from the mansion, all forward progress ceases, despite remaining in flight. We are effectively stationary.]

"A supernatural barrier," Qi Suian suddenly realized.

’And it’s not an ordinary supernatural barrier, either. It’s more like a rule-level invisible wall.’

’It’s pretty user-friendly, though. It just makes me run in place instead of having me crash directly into an invisible wall.’

’Let’s head back for now. Maybe there’s a clue somewhere.’ Qi Suian knew that if he wanted to leave, he would probably need to find some kind of catalyst.

Such as resolving a specific event.

’And then... I need to find a chance to see if I can stuff that neck-snapping ghost woman into the Melting Furnace.’

’A thing like that is basically a rule incarnate. I could definitely burn it for a ton of evolution energy.’

’Sacred Artifacts can be burned, so why not this ghost?’

[The Tai Sui God cannot perform an effective scan. The entity may not be viable as fuel.]

[Alternatively, the Tai Sui God has not evolved enough times to enable the Melting Furnace to initiate combustion.]

[Compared to the Sacred Artifact World, this world is far more bizarre.]

Qi Suian’s heart sank at the AI’s words. If he couldn’t burn it, and it was this bizarre, then there was a real chance he could die in this world.

’Wait, something seems off about the survivor death count.’ Qi Suian’s gaze shifted to the number of survivors.

It was decreasing, but not by much—about the same as the normal death rate.

After all, people died and were born every moment.

’What’s going on?’ Looking at the constantly fluctuating number, Qi Suian suspected the Apocalypse Game had repeated what it did in the Cold Winter World and simply abducted the native population to serve as survivors.

But that raised a very important question.

How could an environment this hostile support so many people?

’So... where exactly did the Apocalypse Game throw me?’

’One thing is for certain... I’m definitely not in the Mortal Realm.’

He suspected the Apocalypse Game had thrown him into some kind of special region, like an alternate dimension or a Secret Realm.