The Real Mastermind

<| QINGFENG TEMPLE | COURTYARD |>

Fifteen minutes later. The mountain air was thick with decay. Curved temple roofs broke through the sulfurous haze.

"Her limo!" Wang pointed to a bulletproof sedan. "RAM THE GATE!" Ethan commanded.

CRUNCH-KABOOM! Steel collided with centuries-old timber. The doors EXPLODED inward.

Dust swirled like ghostly veils. One figure knelt before a gilded Buddha, their back turned. The spine was rod-straight.

There were no guards. No monsters. Just… her.

"Is—is that Lin Yingge?" Wang whispered. "Yes."

Ethan did the unthinkable. He stepped into the temple.

Gasps erupted in the cabin. Even Wan'er held her breath.

Ethan closed the distance and halted three paces behind the kneeling woman.

"Commit atrocities by dawn, beg forgiveness by dusk?" His voice lowered to a frozen whisper. "Mrs. Lü… who exactly are you praying to?"

The woman rose and turned.

"JESUS FUCK—" Wang recoiled.

Where beauty once existed, maggots seethed in eye sockets. Rot gnawed through her jawline tendon. Bone glistened where cheek flesh had sloughed away.

SHLUCK! A skeletal hand shot for Ethan's throat. "WRETCHED HUMAN VERMIN!"

Ethan didn't flinch. The 「Terminus Shard」 appeared in his palm, glowing like captured starlight.

Lin Yingge SCREECHED, scrambling behind the Buddha. "YOU HAVE IT?!"

Inside the vehicle, jaws dropped. He had carried the key item all along?

Ethan spun the blade. "Almost had me. Tell me, Mrs. Lü—did you order Lu Wan's kidnapping six years ago?"

Silence. Wan'er's knuckles turned white against the viewport.

"That brat deserved worse!" Lin Yingge spat, baring her rotten teeth.

"Lu Wan became Chengdu's most vengeful grudge entity. And you call her deserving?" Ethan advanced. "You paid men to rape her, break her fingers, dump her in a sewage ditch. Every death anniversary, you crawl here, sobbing at Buddha's feet."

THUD-THUD-THUD! Moss-beasts POUNDED the shattered temple doors. Wang slammed the vehicle into barricade mode—SCRREEEECH!

"HURRY!" he screamed.

Ethan didn't turn. "You hated her, but never knew why, did you?"

Confusion spread through the cabin.

"Because—" Ethan WHIRLED—blade leveled at WAN'ER'S HEART.

"You're just a wound wearing dead skin." His voice cracked like thunder. "The REAL mastermind IS YOU, WAN'ER!"

[ FINAL BOSS REVEALED ]

ENTITY: LU WAN (GRUDGE SPECTER) 

THREAT CLASS: CATASTROPHE 

The Terminus Shard blazed in Ethan's grip. Wan'er's serene mask shattered into a thousand fractured smiles.