Death Game: Starting as a Trickster, Pretending to Be a God

”To understand why Xie Chong was special, we must return to the limitation of the ’Causality Silk’ ability—as I said before, the deeper and heavier the causal connections involved, the harder it is for the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord to exert its power against that person.”

”So, based on this limitation and each time it used its ability, I deduced that the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord’s ’Causality Silk’ usually finds a marginal, unimportant person as a breakthrough point first. Through their weak connection to the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord itself, it modifies their past, and then through this person’s ’past,’ it gradually encroaches on those who interact with them.”

As Mystic Cloud Master spoke, Lin Yu nodded, pondering inwardly.

”This ability is like some kind of plague spreading through interpersonal relationships...”

This fit perfectly with the pattern he had observed—the escort team members were affected starting from unimportant figures, gradually reaching the key members of the escort team.

Li Nian murmured aloud: ”Sounds a lot like a spider weaving its web...”

Hearing this, Lin Yu glanced at Li Nian.

Although Lin Yu initially thought the process resembled contagion, Li Nian’s words made him realize her metaphor was actually more fitting.

This really was more like a spider weaving its web—and the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord truly was a giant spider.

The silk threads connected into a web, and every node on that web was a living person.

”I see. So, besides staying true to one’s heart, those with heavy personal karma naturally have high resistance to it. It also depends on how close one’s relationship is with those already manipulated.”

When Lin Yu finished, the other players understood as well.

Gao Shan thought for a moment and spoke up: ”That doesn’t add up, though. Based on Xie Chong’s background, he should be someone with extremely deep karma. So why... unless he has some connection with the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord?”

Mystic Cloud Master nodded: ”Correct—Xie Chong’s ancestor was the sole survivor of Willow Town back in the day!”

”I didn’t know this at first. I only learned it two years ago,” Mystic Cloud Master said solemnly. ”When my Taiqing Sect’s founder suppressed the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord, his benevolent heart left a fatal loophole for the demon!”

”In Willow Town back then... there was an abandoned infant of unknown parents. The founder found him and brought him back to the mountain sect.”

”After prolonged observation, the infant seemed unaffected by the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord’s ’Causality Silk,’ so the founder personally named the child and raised him in the mountains.”

”That child, after completing his training, descended the mountain and left. Following the founder’s advice, he found a place to live incognito, enjoying a peaceful and prosperous life... and he was Xie Chong’s great-great-grandfather.”

Mystic Cloud Master said this calmly. Lin Yu, hearing it, immediately understood what was going on. He rubbed his forehead and sighed.

”Let me guess. The Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord has been biding its time, not using this hidden move, waiting until this bloodline passed down to Xie Chong. Am I right?”

Mystic Cloud Master said seriously: ”Correct. When Xie Chong was very young, he displayed extraordinary martial arts talent, so he was sent to Xuanjiang Martial School. Sensing that his future would surely be remarkable, the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord began its scheme.”

”It tampered with fate and the past, turning Xie Chong’s originally certain-to-be-famous future into something even more earth-shattering... but unfortunately, that wasn’t the future Xie Chong wanted to see.”

Seagull couldn’t help interrupting: ”Don’t tell me the destruction of Xuanjiang Martial School was actually...”

”Correct. It was done by confusing Xie Chong’s mind,” Mystic Cloud Master said painfully. ”Overnight, he went from a promising martial arts prodigy to a deranged demon who murdered his master and massacred his sect. The worst part is, Xie Chong himself probably believed he did it—because he would have the memories of that massacre.”

Just as Mystic Cloud Master finished, Lin Yu suddenly realized something.

”Elder Mystic Cloud Master, could you be ’Mountain Guest’?”

”I’ve heard that two years ago, Xie Chong reappeared in the world, cutting down several martial arts experts who surrounded him. Finally, a reclusive master named Mountain Guest intervened, resolved Xie Chong, and cut his corpse into five pieces.”

”And that ’Mountain Guest’... rumors say he’s a venerated elder of your Taiqing Sect!”

Hearing Lin Yu’s words, Mystic Cloud Master let out a long sigh: ”Young friend, your mind is incredibly sharp. You pieced together so many connections in an instant.”

”Correct. I was the one who called out to Xie Chong two years ago, and I am the ’Mountain Guest’ of martial arts lore,” Mystic Cloud Master paused, then continued. ”But I wasn’t the one who killed Xie Chong back then. I merely sensed the aura of the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord on him and told him the whole truth.”

”Brother Xie Chong... after learning the truth, he understood he would become the key to reviving a demon. He also realized that demon was the one who had slaughtered his sect. So, rather than accept such a fate, he chose to end his own life.”

”As for why his corpse was shattered with cutting marks—I don’t know that either, old Daoist that I am.”

”Honestly, I’m not even sure how Brother Xie Chong actually died.”

Hearing Mystic Cloud Master’s words, Lin Yu frowned: ”You don’t know? How could you not know?”

Li Nian also rubbed her chin: ”That’s a bit strange, isn’t it? Weren’t you the one who called him over?”

”Yes, but there was a third person present back then—an uninvited guest interrupted my conversation with Brother Xie. Before he could take his own life, this person knocked me unconscious,” Mystic Cloud Master said helplessly. ”To this day, I don’t know that person’s identity. All I can tell from my vague perception at the end is that it was a human martial artist.”

”Perhaps it was that person who killed Xie Chong.”

Hearing this, Lin Yu suddenly realized something.

”Wait. Since this spider demon’s method of manipulating people is ’Causality Silk,’ and Causality Silk works through the ’causal connections between people’...”

And now, although Xie Chong was torn into pieces, he was still ”alive”!

Most importantly—Xie Chong’s five parts of the mutilated body had already reconnected with countless people across the martial world—even becoming more famous than when Xie Chong was alive!

You could think about this with the nail of your little toe and still figure out who benefited most from this situation.

Undoubtedly, it was the Thousand-Eyed Thousand-Silk Demon Lord underground.

If that was the case, the initial connection that affected Yue Zhenqiao’s group was likely because they came into contact with Xie Chong’s mutilated remains.

They were dart masters transporting ”Xie Chong’s mutilated remains,” so of course they could be influenced by the Causality Silk.

Li Nian also caught on.

”I get it now—there’s someone still active in the Prison Mountain Realm, someone who’s been working tirelessly to bring that spider into the world as soon as possible!”