Bizarre Honkai, a Wife-Chasing Crematorium

The moment those four words landed, the Grief Seed stopped shaking. After a brief stiffness, it disappeared from Li Mo's sight.

Li Mo looked down. The bizarre omamori on his neck had completely turned black.

This meant that his cognition had been contaminated on a large scale, and what he saw and heard was no longer the appearance of things themselves.

When Li Mo shifted his gaze to the altar, the human corpses of Chiyo's parents had already turned into the bodies of demonic beasts.

This was the best proof.

Li Mo stretched out his hand, letting the drizzling rain fall on it.

His vitality seemed to have stopped dissipating, and the pollution on his body was no longer rapidly accumulating.

After being satisfied, the Grief Seed would stop harvesting life for a period of time.

The reason was unknown.

After a while—

The villagers set up a rain shelter and arranged the dishes, taking their seats one after another.

Eating a feast in the rain was a very strange thing, at least Li Mo thought so.

But the people eating the feast didn't think it was strange, as if it were a very normal thing.

Not only the natives of Yae Village, but also outsiders like Grandma Chiyo and little Chiyo, as well as the nearby outsiders who raised chickens and planted peach trees, were all like this.

He didn't know if it was because they were used to it, or for some other reason.

They didn't eat the pork at the center of the table, but other than that, there were no taboos.

On the altar, Yae Sakura stood to the right of Yae Guji, holding an umbrella.

Yae Guji mourned with a strange eulogy.

What Li Mo found strange was—

he couldn't understand what language Yae Guji was speaking, or perhaps Yae Guji was just putting on an act, and it wasn't a language at all.

But when the rainwater flowed from the bodies of the deceased to the ground, and the blood and rainwater merged, the image of that half-body reappeared in his mind.

"Save her..."

"Save her..."

"I know... you're here..."

"You're here... you're in front of... me."

Li Mo stared at this scene in a daze, standing there woodenly, his pupils slightly contracting.

Who was calling him?

In a trance, Li Mo felt that his lower body had no support.

He looked down and saw that he had been cut in half at the waist, with only his upper body remaining, like water droplets in a cloud colliding and merging, continuously transporting scarlet rainwater to the ground.

Li Mo did not panic.

He noticed that the omamori was still white.

His cognition was not contaminated, or—

the fact that his cognition was not contaminated was already a form of cognitive contamination.

"Mo-kun... what are you thinking about in a daze?"

The ritual ended. Yae Sakura came to Li Mo's side with an umbrella. The scarlet blade had returned to a cherry blossom color.

Li Mo examined his own state again; there was no major issue.

It was the same illusion again.

Was it the same kind of event as when he had mistaken Chiyo's bedroom for a guest room in a haunted house?

No, I don't remember being cut in half at the waist.

It was impossible to be certain.

"I was thinking about the mistakes I've made in my past life."

"And the result?"

"Mistakes made in the past may be made again in the future. Humans are limited by the form of their existence, so there is naturally a limit."

"I believe Mo-kun is special."

"No, all people are like this, without exception."

Yae Sakura was perhaps just comforting herself by comforting Li Mo.

Just like many people, in order to beautify their own actions, would sympathize with people who made similar actions.

But Li Mo was different. He was just objectively stating his current situation.

He had to deal with the bizarre source in this world as soon as possible and return to the primeval world to deal with the troubles in his memory.

The pollution of the Bizarre was particularly fatal to the consciousness level. Apart from using a bizarre rule of the same nature, there was no way to resist.

But using a bizarre rule to protect one's consciousness was in itself a kind of destruction to the consciousness.

Any rule carried pollution. Pollution would not disappear, but would only exist in another form, in people, things, concepts...

The Misfortune Ghost was parasitic in his mind, only ensuring that his consciousness would not be replaced by other Bizarre Things, but it was helpless against the expansion of Li Mo's own memories.

Just like when an organ transplant would be rejected by the body, but one's own organ changes would not cause much reaction.

"Where is the main keep?" Li Mo suddenly asked.

Yae Sakura shook her head, "I have already told Mo-kun that the main keep is already a forbidden area. No one is allowed to enter, unless they become the Guji."

Faced with Yae Sakura's obstruction, Li Mo just replied calmly, "Is it in the bamboo forest to the west of the shrine?"

Yae Sakura: "..."

After a silent silence, Yae Sakura nodded gently.

"Why does Mo-kun know where the main keep is? The outsiders in the village don't know, and the people in the village won't say it."

This time it was Li Mo's turn to be silent.

He didn't need to answer, because—

the moment the Grief Seed had absorbed the vitality of the sacrifices and disappeared, there was only one spider web in the sky.

That spider web connected to the westernmost part of the shrine. Li Mo had been there. It was a dense bamboo forest.

Although he hadn't found the main keep, it was undoubtedly true that the main keep had a deep relationship with the Grief Seed.

Yae Sakura would not tell anyone that he had guessed the geographical location of the main keep and was preparing to go there, because Yae Rin would not live long without him, so Yae Sakura could only turn a blind eye.

He had thought that the conversation would end here, and Yae Sakura would choose to remain silent and ignore it.

But the Sakura Blizzard in her hand suddenly turned into Crimson-Dyed Sakura. A blood-red light lingered around the scabbard, as if malevolent ghosts were wailing.

"Mo-kun, this time, Sakura is not advising you as a miko, but as... a benefactor."

"Don't go to the main keep, for two reasons. The first has already been mentioned."

Li Mo recalled for a moment and stated the reason, "Actually, it's not that only the Guji can enter, but that after entering, one will become the Guji, right?"

Yae Sakura did not deny it, "That's just the first."

Li Mo asked again, "And the second?"

Yae Sakura did not speak, but turned to look at Yae Guji on the altar.

Li Mo had long expected this result. He didn't expect Yae Sakura to tell him everything she knew. Being able to reveal a little was already out of gratitude for saving Rin.

But in the next second, something even more confusing happened to Li Mo.

Yae Guji stood on the stage and swore loudly.

"Three days later, the next festival will be held. The sacrifices for the festival will no longer be demonic beasts, but living people."

Instantly, the audience was in an uproar.

Especially outsiders like Grandma Chiyo were terrified. Yae Guji was setting a precedent. They, a group of outsiders, were probably not far from death.

Dying of famine or war was fine, but dying on the altar was so pitiful and shameful.

An old man in his sixties didn't matter, but if it was a child...

"Grandma, why is your hand trembling?" Little Chiyo was held tightly by her grandmother's small hand.

The outsiders whispered to their children, seemingly making plans for the future.

The villagers were not afraid, but they were also confused.

"Isn't the festival held only every few months? Why is it starting again in three days after just finishing?"

"Who knows? Maybe the demonic beasts are more rampant this time."

The audience was in a heated discussion, until Yae Guji finished the last sentence.

"The person chosen for the festival is—"

"The Yae Guji."

"..."

"..."

The outsiders were stunned, and the villagers were also stunned.

The children, with their innocent words, directly asked their adults why the Yae Guji wanted to sacrifice himself?

Only Li Mo stood there, his eyes sharp.

Yae Guji's last sentence seemed to have become the absolute rule of Yae Village. A bizarre aura spread out without any concealment.

This also meant that within three days, anyone who went to the main keep would become a sacrifice in the festival, have their head cut off by Crimson-Dyed Sakura, and their life ended.

He had not expressed the thought of having to go to the main keep. The conversation between the two of them was only at the level of "idea," not something that had to be put into "practice."

It didn't matter whether Yae Guji had heard the conversation between the two of them or not. He would never say that the sacrifice three days later would be the Yae Guji for no reason.

A very simple logic. If he had said this after hearing his conversation with Yae Sakura, then he would only need to wait three days for Yae Guji to die before going to the main keep. By then, the rule would disappear, and the sacrifice could be changed back to the previous demonic beasts.

What was it that made Yae Guji so sure that he would go to the main keep within three days?

With the protection of the blood peach orchard, the danger at night was greatly reduced, and the pollution on his body was more than enough to last for three days.

He had absolutely no need to go to the main keep within three days. This did not conform to behavioral logic.

Li Mo was still trying hard to think of the reason, but Yae Sakura casually said, "Mo-kun is thinking from the wrong angle."

Li Mo: "..."

The wrong angle?

"..."

"..."

After a brief silence, Li Mo proposed a strange point of view, "So your father doesn't want to stop me from going to the main keep. All the rules here can be changed for one purpose, and that is to make me go to the main keep. The speech on the stage is not a warning, but an expectation."

No wonder Yae Sakura said he was thinking from the wrong angle.

The behavior of the Bizarre could not be measured by human logic.

"Why me? If it's a living person, little Chiyo and the newborn babies in the village are better choices."

"If it's someone about to fall, a withered old man is also a target that can replace me."

"If it's someone who has already fallen, all the natives in the village meet the conditions."

"Why me?"

Faced with Li Mo's questioning, Yae Sakura's gaze gathered on the blood-red scabbard, her cherry-pink lips moving slightly.

"Is Mo-kun still thinking about the mistakes in his life? And the result?"

Her words were irrelevant. Yae Sakura just repeated the conversation the two had had not long ago.

Li Mo recalled that after this sentence, Yae Sakura had said—"I believe Mo-kun is special."

"I don't understand what you're talking about."

Many mysteries, like layers of haze, obscured his vision, filled his line of sight, and blocked the full picture of the truth, allowing him to only vaguely glimpse a blurry corner of the iceberg.

An obvious, undisguised trap.

From a human behavioral logic point of view, one would avoid it upon seeing it.

But often, the truth was behind the trap. There were always monsters spawning near the treasure chests in a dungeon.

No one was willing to put too much effort into something meaningless.

"I'll give it a try. I need to know the truth," Li Mo stated his thoughts.

"Is... that so," two expressions appeared on Yae Sakura's face.

One was the joy of hearing Li Mo's answer, and the other was the sorrow after the joy.

The crimson pupils closed slightly.

She turned to look at Li Mo seriously and said word by word, "I'm very happy to meet Mo-kun again."

"No matter how many times it takes, Sakura is willing to become your blade."

"The bullet fired tomorrow will fill the chamber in the next tomorrow."

"For whom the bell tolls, the bell tolls for thee."

Yae Sakura slightly drew her blade. The blood-red blade reflected the vermilion eyes, whose color was gradually fading.

Compared to reality, the appearance in the blade was as if it were a more real self.

The blood in the bottom of her eyes surged, boundless, stretching to the horizon, filling the world with the only color.

"May you grieve."

"May you still be able to grieve."

The blade was sheathed, and the vermilion pupils completely lost their vivid color.

In its place was a hazy cyan, and a youthful green.

"The festival is over. Mo-kun, please eat at the banquet."

"Mo-kun? Why are you looking at me with such a strange gaze?"

"I'll go back to accompany Rin first. Mo-kun, don't catch a cold."

Yae Sakura handed the umbrella in her hand to Li Mo and then hurried away, leaving Li Mo holding the umbrella, watching the tens of thousands of raindrops fall like stars in the night sky. The blood on the ground became the only color between heaven and earth.

But soon, this color also gradually faded.

"A script..." Li Mo murmured.

It was as if it were a script set up when Yae Village was established, waiting for him to come to Yae Village and start this drama.

What was the curtain call? And what was the ending?

For whom the bell tolls.

The bell tolls for me.

Li Mo took out the notebook.

"Everything seems to be developing according to your narrative."

"Then soon, I will 'voluntarily' become a sacrifice, bound by chains, and burned by a fierce fire."

"Crimson-Dyed Sakura waves Yae Sakura to cut off my head. What a strange description."

"You said the same thing at St. Freya High School: I am dying, and I am also about to be reborn. This is also the second most frequent thing you've said. The first is—my name is Li Mo."

"Then I performed a suicidal ritual, although I was reborn without a hitch every time."

Li Mo paused for a few seconds, because this kind of self-destructive practice was tantamount to walking a tightrope. A slight misstep would lead to a complete end.

The notebook's purpose was not yet clear, and Li Mo did not dare to make a final conclusion on whether its predictions would come true.

Especially when the notebook was keen on offering advice.

"Yae Sakura said I was special. Her second personality had met me."

"She said—no matter how many times it takes, she is willing to become my blade."

"You said—I hope I can change something this time, or perhaps, I can never change the predetermined course."

"You, you all... what are you trying to tell me."

The notebook did not respond. Li Mo was like talking to himself, talking to a notebook in the surprised gazes of the crowd.

Breaking the script was very simple. He just needed to wait three days for the festival to end before going to the main keep.

But it was also possible that he would miss the only chance to know the truth.

To advance, or to retreat.

The problem of the haunted mansion world had once again come before him.

But the answer, Li Mo had already given.

—to advance by any means necessary.