CH 530

530: Death God’s Wishing Stone

They huddled close and took turns telling stories. There were one or two screams and much laughter throughout. Even Ning Bi, who had been frowning for a month, had a relaxed smile on her face.

The smile put everyone at ease. At least now she was in a better mood and they wouldn’t have to worry about her trying to slit her own throat when no one was looking.

The one with a good relationship with Ning Bi had been the original Feng Wu. The current Feng Wu didn’t know Ning Bi and wasn’t close to her, so she wasn’t worried. The times Feng Wu followed Madam Lan’s request to go and visit with Ning Bi, Ning Bi had ignored her; so it was impossible for a friendship to exist between them.

From an outside perspective, the story was quite different. What they saw was Feng Wu bringing stewed herbal supplements every time she visited. Then she would sit with the dazed Ning Bi quietly in silence. They thought she was a true and honest friend. Even Ning Bi’s parents talked about what a good and patient friend Feng Wu was to Ning Bi. In reality, it was just two girls gazing off into space blankly because Feng Wu didn’t know what to say and Ning Bi was still grieving.

Feng Wu didn’t even know when she became Ning Bi’s friend.

The group of girls stayed out until evening before returning home.

Less than half an hour after they left, a beautiful girl walked into the cave.

“Great! I finally found it; this is the place where the god of death left the stone.” It was Ai Lin.[notes] She had tried desperately to remember all the various opportunities from the novel.

After some thinking, she remembered there was something hidden in Qui mountain outside the imperial city of the ancient eastern countries.

The novel mentioned a girl, Ai Lin couldn't remember her name, who wasn't so much a supporting character as a passerby cannon fodder. The girl had found a black stone inside the cave. The stone itself was called Death’s Wishing Stone.

Anyone could use the stone and make a wish to resurrect someone dead. The girl in the story had used the stone to wish her fiancé back to life. To grant her wish, the god of death wanted the souls of seven people close to her. She chose seven of her friends as sacrifices to the god of death.

Once the souls were taken, the girl’s fiancé came back to life. Unfortunately, the girl did not live a happy life with her fiancé. The seven people she sacrificed weren’t ordinary girls – all of them came from good backgrounds. After some investigation, their families became suspicious of Ning Bi.

The seven families were enraged when they discovered the truth. They executed everyone in the girl’s family and her and her fiancé were eventually hunted down as well.

Zi Cheng learned about it and had planned on finding the stone for some time. She eventually did get her hands on it, so later when the hero died saving her, she was able to use it to bring him back to life.

She used seven “friends” who had reached 90% with her. She was the heroine, so she didn’t have to worry about any family members coming to avenge them. The seven people only got a few crocodile tears when they died.

Most of the chapter was spent describing how sad and helpless Zi Cheng felt at her friends dying.

Ai Lin wanted to find Death’s Wishing Stone before Zi Cheng could use it to make a wish. The novel mentioned it was around here somewhere.

Ai Lin searched all over the cave but couldn’t find it. She even removed all the straw on the ground only to be shocked to find something that shouldn’t have been there.

“Soul Sacrifice formation!”

...

Feng Wu had no idea about what happened in the cave; she was already snuggled comfortably under her quilt in her bed chatting with Ming Xi about her day.

When Ming Xi heard about Ning Bi, he felt quite sorry for her. He had never been in that position before, but he could imagine how painful it would be.

Though he sympathized with Ning Bi, he didn’t want Feng Wu to tire herself out over other people’s affairs.

They didn’t talk long and went to sleep after a short while because Feng Wu was tired from the day’s excursion.

Feng Wu’s life was still just as leisurely and filled with fun two days after returning from Qui mountain.

Noel continued hooking up with beautiful women and only occasionally getting chased by their exes. At this point, Feng Wu’s family were used to Noel’s proclivities.

Feng Wu had just returned with Little Bun from playing at the beach when Juntian told her something big.

One of the girls she had gone to the mountain with had died strangely. She drowned after falling into the water, but the weird thing was how she kept laughing the entire time. It was odd.

Many people went to her funeral, including Feng Wu and her mother. She and Madam Lan left after comforting the mother of the deceased and sending the dead girl off one final time.

Feng Wu didn’t know it, but it was just the beginning. Every few days another person would die – they were all girls who had gone to Qui mountain with her. In less than half a month, five of the girls were dead. The only ones left were Shui, Feng Wu and Ning Bi.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, Shui went to see Feng Wu.

Inside Feng Wu’s room, Shui saw Little Bun for the first time. He was a beautiful child and could make a heart melt. A pity though, no matter how cute he was, Shui just didn’t have the heart to admire him.

She immediately poured herself a glass of water as soon as she sat down and drank it dry in a few gulps. Her face was very pale.

“You’re not afraid; how can you be so calm?!” Shui said angrily.

Feng Wu tilted her head. “Afraid of what?” Was there something she was supposed to be afraid of?

“An’an and the others are all dead. Don’t you feel some way about that? Don't you think they died too strangely.” Shui took a breath. “Do you remember the ghost stories we told that day, that day in the cave? The way everyone died, they died in the same way the protagonists died in the stories. All of it is the same! We’re next!”

Shui rubbed her hands and a cold sweat broke on her forehead. She couldn’t understand how such a terrible thing could happen just because of a trip to Qui mountain.

Feng Wu hadn’t thought much about it before, but upon thinking about it now, she realized. . . it. . . was. . . true. She stood up abruptly and startled Shui.

“What are you doing?” Shui crossed her arms.

“Go to look for my brother.” If she had any problems, she should ask her brother. He would help.

Shui watched as Juntian’s expression turned serious after Feng Wu approached him about the situation.

“Why didn’t you say anything earlier?” Five people were already dead. Such a big thing and she was only telling him about it now?

“I hadn’t noticed.” Feng Wu was honest. She hadn’t noticed the deaths followed along with the stories. If she had, she would have gone to her brother sooner.

“What about you? Have you told your brother?” Juntian turned and asked Shui.

She shook her head. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but her brother had been so busy recently her paternal grandfather, who was at a retreat, wouldn’t allow her to disturb him. She had wanted to tell her father, but her father had not been at home and her mother was at her maternal grandmother’s house. She had no one to talk to about it.

She was so scared that she went to Feng Wu, another fellow girl who was also likely waiting for death.

“I see. I’ll help you contact him later. Have you been to Ning Bi’s yet?”

“I went but she wasn’t home. According to her parents, she’s been missing for the past two or three days, so they are also out looking for her. I’m worried Ning Bi may. . . have. . . ” Shui couldn’t continue and ended up crying. She couldn’t help it; everything was too scary.

If she knew what was going on, she wouldn’t be so scared, but the not knowing was terrifying to her.

“You two, come with me.” Juntian turned around and walked out the door.

The girls followed obediently behind.

“Brother Juntian, where are we going?” Shui asked.

Juntian didn’t look back but said, “To the cave you guys told your story in.”

They reached the cave on Qui mountain after a great deal of effort.

Shui felt the cave was different as soon they found it.

“That’s strange! What is that? It wasn’t there the last time we were here.” Shui swept the dry straw out of the way to reveal a black formation underneath.

If someone hadn't recently disturbed the straw, Shui would never have discovered the black formation underneath.

Juntian inspected the formation carefully. It was a strange one he’d never seen before.

The entire formation was black and just looking at it gave you chills. Such a sinister formation couldn’t be anything good.

Five of the girls with Feng Wu died in such a short period of time. Could their deaths be related to the formation?

Juntian found a piece of paper and copied down the formation. He couldn’t figure out what it was, but he was sure someone would. They would be able to crack its secret once they deciphered its meaning. Feng Wu would be safe once they did that he was sure.

He planned to leave after drawing the circle, but Ai Lin came running in just as he got up.

She dropped something behind the last time she was there and had returned to get it.

“Xiao Wu?” Ai Lin had not expected to see Feng Wu in a place like this.

“Ai Lin!” Feng Wu was also surprised.

“You know her?” Juntian asked his sister.

“Classmate, Ai Lin.”

Another classmate. Juntian thought of Noel, who was still hanging around their house. He hoped this classmate wouldn’t be as troublesome.