Chapter 253 The Youngest Puzzle Piece

Chapter 253 The Youngest Puzzle

When the blood ghost first appeared, the sudden surge of blood energy in the air caused Qin Yuxuan—who had lost his physical form and strength, teetering on the brink of collapse like a wandering soul—to faint once again.

It wasn't until the temperature around them plummeted due to the appearance of "Grandma Bai" that the intense cold, palpable even to wandering souls, jolted Qin Yuxuan's consciousness back to a slightly clearer state. One could say that, as a mental manipulator, he indeed had his advantages.

It's worth noting that on the other side of the corridor lay Xiao Xiaodie's "wandering soul," but she had remained unconscious the entire time, showing no signs of waking up.

However, waking up wasn’t necessarily a good thing. The moment Qin Yuxuan weakly opened his eyes, he was met with the sight of a massive, white, monster-like giant snake. The snake's silver-scaled body glimmered right before his eyes, as if the slightest movement of its tail—which occupied the entire corridor—would obliterate him in an instant.

Too weak to even speak, Qin Yuxuan wished he could faint again, but the bone-chilling cold emanating from the white snake forced him to stay awake.

Hadn’t he seen Su Bai earlier? Hadn’t he seen the blood ghost?

Why, upon waking, was he faced with a monster-like giant snake?

And Su Bai…

As Qin Yuxuan’s gaze shifted from the snake’s scales, he noticed Su Bai standing before the giant snake. Perhaps because Su Bai had always appeared weakened by the side effects of his abilities during their previous encounters, this was the first time Qin Yuxuan had seen him smile.

That warm, mesmerizing smile… was actually directed at the white snake monster?!

When the snake lowered its head, Qin Yuxuan expected Su Bai to be devoured in the next second. But before he could even process any emotion, he saw the terrifying snake head gently nuzzle Su Bai’s hair with utmost care.

How… how is this possible!

Just as Qin Yuxuan began to question his reality, he saw Su Bai raise his hand and gently stroke the terrifying snake’s head, as tenderly as if greeting a beloved relative. Witnessing this, Qin Yuxuan had no choice but to accept that the monstrous snake was connected to the always sickly-looking Su Bai—and was likely summoned by him.

Since becoming a player in the Nightmare World, Qin Yuxuan had killed many high-ranking players on the seniority rankings, including members of the Nameless Society. He had prided himself on having encountered the most powerful players and grown arrogant due to his mental control abilities.

But in this Nightmare Game, not only were Qin Yuxuan’s mental control abilities useless, he also encountered legendary monsters like Feng Ling—and was even reduced to a drifting ghost by her.

Yet, even so, Qin Yuxuan found it hard to believe that a human could control such a monster. And that human was none other than Su Bai, whom he had once looked down upon for being "weak" and "inexperienced."

Qin Yuxuan’s fading consciousness began to blur.

Before completely fading, his final thought was—if he had known that such terrifying beings existed among Nightmare World players, he would have been better off living quietly as an ordinary player with mental abilities, perhaps even living normally, maybe even going to college…

"Su Bai?"

Like Su Bai, Feng Ling hadn’t noticed Qin Yuxuan’s last moment of clarity. Or perhaps she no longer cared what happened to him. What concerned her was that Su Bai had called the giant white snake "Grandma."

"Miss Feng Ling, this is Grandma Bai," Su Bai said, allowing the elderly woman to check him over. Only after she confirmed he was unharmed did she relax with a sigh of relief, giving him a chance to introduce her to Feng Ling.

The biggest difference between the mirror world and the outside world was that, aside from the blood ghost, the corridor walls here were lined with mirrors of various shapes, just as Yao Qing had prophesied.

Though Su Bai saw a kindly old grandmother, the reflection in a nearby mirror showed not an elderly hand patting his shoulder, but the cold, silvery head of a giant white snake.

Su Bai merely glanced at the reflection in the mirror before turning back to Feng Ling with a smile. "Grandma Bai has always taken care of me. She’s a very gentle and kind grandmother."

"But, but…" Feng Ling’s body stiffened, sweat beaded on her forehead, and her eyes darted about uneasily. She seemed to be considering whether Su Bai was deceived by an illusion or even hypnotized, or perhaps she was unsure how to defend against an attack from such a giant snake.

Su Bai greeted Grandma Bai again, then walked across the frozen remains of the blood ghosts toward Feng Ling, lowering his voice to say, "Don’t look so frightened. Grandma Bai has always believed she’s hiding her true form well in front of me."

"Hiding?" Feng Ling, though shocked, kept her voice controlled. "What do you mean? Does that mean you know that… thing isn’t human but a… snake?"

Feng Ling was no one for riddles; she always asked directly when she had the chance.

"Of course I know. When Grandma puts on her disguise, she doesn’t just hide from me—she doesn’t even conceal her own shadow," Su Bai replied with some helplessness. "Truthfully, I don’t mind whether she’s human, a snake, or something else. But she’s always been cautious about it. Please, Miss Feng Ling, pretend you haven’t seen anything. Consider it a way to make her happy."

"…"

"Won’t she… hear us talking?" Feng Ling remembered that many Eerie Entities had senses far sharper than humans. But when she glanced past Su Bai at the "old grandmother," the latter was tilting her monstrous snake head toward them, and for a brief moment, her terrifying snake eyes seemed almost harmless to Feng Ling.

"It’s fine. Grandma’s hearing isn’t good, and her eyesight is poor too," Su Bai said, completely unconcerned. Though the white snake possessed great power, she was indeed an elderly being with deteriorating senses—only her care for the younger generation remained undiminished.

"…"

When Su Bai turned back to Grandma Bai, the elderly woman was still looking at him with a kind expression, making the eerie space filled with blood-qi and malevolence feel slightly less oppressive.

"Huh?" At that moment, Su Bai noticed a small figure emerging from behind Grandma Bai.

In Su Bai’s eyes, Grandma Bai’s disguised form wasn’t particularly tall, but her true form was that of a giant snake, so he hadn’t initially noticed that a second Puzzle had emerged from the "door."

"Yao?"

The Puzzle stepping out from behind Grandma Bai appeared to be a youth with black hair and red eyes. At first glance, he resembled an older version of Xiao Wu from the Fog Shop, though their facial features weren’t identical. Though this youth had become a Puzzle, he possessed no great power, not even memories or a name. As the youngest and most attached of all the Puzzles, he was named "Yao."

"What were you thinking, coming to a place like this alone?" the youth asked with a stern, grown-up expression, which also bore some resemblance to Xiao Wu.

Or perhaps, initially, it was because Xiao Wu resembled him that Su Bai had lowered his guard a little.