Remnant Rules of the Fantasy Ghost

Staying outside Yae Village at night would trigger the killing rule. From a generally rational point of view, no living person would return alive.

Those who could survive would inevitably be closely related to ghosts.

For example, him, Yae Sakura, and the blade in her hand.

Li Mo took the white omamori. The moment he touched it, the omamori turned from white to black.

Grandma Chiyo's eyes narrowed, but after Li Mo put it on, the omamori seemed to recognize him as its master and returned to white.

Based on the content described by Grandma Chiyo, Li Mo roughly understood how to use this thing.

When the color of the omamori changed, it meant that an invisible ghost had appeared nearby.

And the wearer could see it.

The reason was also very simple. Grandma Chiyo's grandfather, while watching the festival, had changed the color of the omamori. He had stared unblinkingly at the sky, where nothing existed in the eyes of ordinary people, his expression panicked and bewildered.

Three days later was the festival. Yae Sakura had warned him to avoid contact with the dirty things in the village recently.

"Don't go out these few days," Li Mo reminded them.

Grandma Chiyo shook her head, "I can stay in, but little Chiyo must go out."

Li Mo: "Why?"

There must be a reason for the rebuttal, not just a baseless or subjective assumption. Something must have happened that made it necessary for little Chiyo to go out.

Grandma Chiyo looked at the sleeping little Chiyo behind her, then turned to face Li Mo.

His sensitivity far exceeded her imagination. She didn't even need to deliberately remind him; just answering and explaining was enough.

Grandma Chiyo sighed, her expression quite helpless, "All the children in the village must go out every day. This is a rule of the village."

"I also tried to hide little Chiyo, but Yae Guji personally came forward with the villagers to ask about little Chiyo's whereabouts."

"I couldn't win against them. I was afraid they would force their way in and snatch little Chiyo away, so I had to compromise."

"..."

Li Mo thoughtfully analyzed. Did Yae Village have such a rule? He had never heard anyone mention it.

What was the purpose of this practice?

"What do you think their purpose is?" Li Mo asked directly.

Grandma Chiyo: "I don't know. This kind of rule has existed since I first came here. My son has followed this rule since he was a child. It's probably to make the children more attached to Yae Village, to cultivate a sense of home."

"..."

"Where is my room?"

"Turn left after going out and the second room."

Li Mo walked out of the room, without answering the question before leaving.

Because there was no need to answer.

Cultivating a sense of home? This kind of statement would only be ridiculed.

They were just cultivating sacrifices.

As for whether this guess was true, he only needed to see who the sacrifice was at the festival three days later to verify it.

The night wind was extremely cold, and the moonlight, like a promise, fell on the windowsill, becoming a startling crimson.

The air was not important.

Li Mo closed the window and stared blankly in the room.

He didn't need sleep. Instead of sleeping, he should leave his time for more meaningful things, such as: thinking.

In just one day, after coming to Yae Village, he had encountered too many ghosts.

Setting traps, hiding their figures, feigning departures, the bear hiding on the eaves.

Interfering with perception, switching identities, the sheep whose assimilation process could not be resisted.

The giant rat silhouettes with unknown rules, and the rat swarms that crushed everything in their path and tried to drill into the bodies of the living to hunt them.

The Yae Guji who had no shadow and suddenly appeared.

The spiritual blade Sakura Blizzard with unknown rules, the cursed blade Crimson-Dyed Sakura that easily devoured other ghosts, and their wielder, Yae Sakura, whose identity was unknown.

Counting the hunters, butchers, and shepherds as well...

"This village is indeed very strange, but this alone cannot explain why the Impostors chose to avoid this area."

"Ghosts and humans can coexist. If the Impostors regarded themselves as humans, then there would be no reason for them to ignore it."

"This is the place where the black fog disappeared the earliest. What exactly caused the black fog to disappear so quickly?"

Throughout the long night, Li Mo sat in his chair and constantly thought and analyzed.

He came up with guesses, refuted guesses, then came up with new guesses, and refuted them again.

Until a guess appeared that had no logical problems but lacked evidence to prove it, and then he memorized it.

"Is it related to the festival?"

Li Mo muttered to himself.

"The festival has rules, Grandpa Chiyo mentioned this before."

"I previously guessed that the sacrifices were outsiders who had turned into livestock. Based on this assumption, then the choice of sacrifices would be those outsiders who had become livestock."

"Yae Sakura reminded me to be careful recently, not to repeat what happened tonight. What happened tonight was that I almost became a sheep in the sheep pen. This is the basis for choosing the sacrifices."

"However, it was because I was too radical that I directly triggered the rule and became a sheep."

"So, the rule of Yae Village that children must go out every day is actually to speed up this process."

Li Mo glanced at his right hand, which had already recovered.

Ghosts always attacked the most vigorous life force first...

Whether it was the bear in the suburbs hunting little Kallen, or the rats in the village drilling into little Chiyo's body.

Even though he was within attack range and his threat was the greatest, the intelligent ghosts couldn't have not seen it.

But they still all chose to kill little Kallen and little Chiyo first, even if it meant exposing their true forms to him.

Suddenly, Li Mo thought of the process of entering the cave.

In his state of one death, he had complained that this process was similar to the description in "The Peach Blossom Spring."

Starting from the entrance of the cave, it was like entering a grave.

In the grave, there were only dead things. Things full of life would only gradually lose their color in the coffin, becoming as pale and dead as everything else here.

A Bizarre was like a black hole. It would devour all existences that approached it, whether they were things or concepts.

"Vitality... Then I'm really safe."

Li Mo looked down at his gray-green arm, on which patches of livor mortis vaguely appeared.

When his fingers touched his arm, a chill permeated his bones, presenting itself to his fragile and sensitive nerves.

His vitality was far inferior to girls like Kallen and little Chiyo.

Even the elderly Grandma Chiyo had more vigorous life force than him.

This was the price of death restarts. If the pollution from the restarts could not be cleared, it would gradually accumulate. Even if he did nothing, it would grow bit by bit over time.

Li Mo didn't think much of it. As long as he dealt with the Bizarre in this world, he could return to his original world and clear the pollution, and nothing would happen.

At least... that was the case at present.

"Elysia is really amazing, being able to dispel the Bizarre as a Herrscher. That's good."

"MEI said that after two missions, she would tell me the truth about the Bizarre. What exactly did she find out?"

"Forget it. It should be related to the final Bizarre. Otherwise, MEI wouldn't have kept it so secret. Was she afraid that I would become complacent and act rashly because I knew this information?"

"There is a certain possibility. When I know the truth, I can completely end this tired and oppressive tragic life."

Li Mo squinted his eyes. After everything had settled, he would properly...

Enjoy a peaceful and quiet life with the people around him.

Leisure time, warm sun, gentle breeze, and people he liked...

Just like the ending of most HE novels—

Happiness filled the small heart.

Shigure Kira would learn from Cecilia how to raise children, working on her own business while looking after her children's growth. Occasionally, she would sneak into his room at night, eventually ending in a defeat with a scream, leaving him alone to clean up the filthy battlefield. Feeling aggrieved, she would take a "special collar" and put it on his neck, take off his clothes, kneel on the ground, and make a light and charming "meow~"

Pardofelis would bathe in the sun on the balcony during the day and sneak into the research institute's small treasury at night, swiping some unimportant but expensive valuables. Then she would be caught by MEI and obediently hand over all the stolen goods.

Elysia would make many pretty girl friends, act spoiled and ask MEI for money, and would occasionally make outrageous remarks like, "MEI~ my Mei-neechan, I like you more than little Mo!" After getting the money from MEI, she would turn around and play with other pretty girls, taking all sorts of beautiful photos as souvenirs during her travels, and then meet more lovely girls.

Hua would finally have time to find her own value, opening a martial arts gym like her father? Or try to communicate and interact with others to ease her loneliness.

Little Mei would be inseparable from MEI, but it was estimated that she would most likely be pestered by the original Kiana. Later, she would be arranged by MEI to go to school. If she had to choose a school... she should choose a good school that was far away from Chiba Academy. With MEI as her backer, she would not repeat the experience of the original Raiden Mei. As for bullying? A reverse wish would make the bullies lose face.

Kiana...

Li Mo's thoughts suddenly wandered, and he stared blankly at the moonlight trying to seep in.

When would his promise be fulfilled?

Separating Kiana and the Corrupted Kiana, even the Herrscher of Corruption couldn't do it, let alone him?

Their completeness differed too much. Those who could do this were probably only Irene Adler, the most complete Bizarre Thing mentioned by the notebook.

The woman who possessed complete humanity.

According to MEI, it wouldn't be long before he met her again.

That woman said that next time they met, she would tell him everything about her, all her rules and abilities.

Li Mo didn't think that was true.

He only hoped that she would keep the promise she had made with him, supplement the Bizarre pistol, and ask about Kiana's matter...

The Corrupted Kiana's personality was clearly difficult to erase. What he could confirm now was that both Kiana and the Corrupted Kiana were in pain.

"I don't want you to leave... I don't want you to leave..."

"If I kill you... you'll leave..."

"I don't want you to leave... Mo... don't leave me..."

"It's always like this... it's always like this..."

"..."

His encounter on the Night of Return was still vivid in his mind. If he ruled out the possibility of Kiana's consciousness influencing the Corrupted Kiana, then what was suppressing the Bizarre's instincts, forcibly suppressing the urge to follow the rules and keep Li Mo from leaving, was the Corrupted Kiana's own will.

Millions of years, anything could happen.

Bizarre Things could not produce their own will apart from their creators; that was only because most Bizarre Things had not reached a certain age.

Just like the Bizarre Sprout was still Mei's will, only it was twisted.

The Bizarre Hua had also not produced a new will.

This was probably why Kiana and the Corrupted Kiana could not be completely separated. It was because the Herrscher of Corruption's ability was to divide one thing into two; rather than divide two things into two.

But Li Mo didn't know whether it was Kiana or the Corrupted Kiana in the soul-crossing channel that day.

From the way she acted and spoke, it was more inclined to be the latter. Only the Corrupted Kiana would have only him in her eyes, constantly expressing pure and innocent love.

This reckless emotion had briefly suppressed the Bizarre's instincts, preventing her from eating him.

Love had been unequal from the beginning, in terms of time, material, and emotions.

Li Mo fell into thought. Why were the memories of alternate versions so unforgettable, even to the point that he thought these were experiences he had "personally gone through"?

Shigure Kira: "It's so cold."

"I'm lying to you. It's actually very warm."

"Then... what if I say I love you? Is it true?"

"Hehe! So cunning. But... thank you for choosing me."

Kiana: "Dummy Mo, why didn't you come home last night? You sat on the riverbank all night, I was freezing!"

"You declined? What menstrual period? And that stinky old man too! When this lady needed them the most, they were nowhere to be found. Now that I've finally managed to have a good life with my own efforts, they suddenly pop up!"

"This lady doesn't need anyone's charity! And you, dummy, dummy, dummy, dummy, big dummy!!"

"You sat outside all night, it must have been cold... It's precisely because you don't cherish yourself that I'm worried about leaving... It's all your fault. Hear that? It's all your fault, this lady is not wrong! So you have to listen to me, and I will always, always be by your side!"

Sudden memories surged up, crowding his dormant icy mind.

In his state of two deaths, he shouldn't be thinking too much about emotional matters, but for some reason.

Ever since he dealt with the Fantasy Ghost, this rule had been faintly broken.

Whenever he thought of those warm memories, his heart would involuntarily soften... becoming fragile, becoming pathetic.

"Ugh...!"

Li Mo grabbed the table, his body arched, his forehead resting on the edge of the table.

A strong dizziness filled his mind, his consciousness was a bit blurry, but at least he could still think.

The Misfortune Ghost was not cursing, which meant there was no sign of his consciousness dissipating.

For some reason, Li Mo thought of someone who should absolutely not appear.

Fantasy Mei: "I don't want to eat it."

"Because if I said I wanted to, you would definitely kill me before I ate it... I don't want to die right now. I want to stay with you a little longer... I'll die after you've used me up..."

"Li Mo... Li Mo... Li Mo..."

"You're back...!"

"I am a complete being created by rules, and I know all her memories and possess all her emotions. The only thing I can tell you is—"

"I don't want to die... she is also afraid of disappearing from this world."