“Are you seriously just going to do whatever that monster tells you to?” the street performer scolded the crowd. “From what I can see, he’s just babbling nonsense. And even if it were true, just because this guy can’t die doesn’t mean this isn’t murder!”
“Buddy, wake up—everyone here is about to die!” a bystander advised him.
“Aren’t I here too? Won’t I die too? But do you see me doing anything?” the street performer shot back.
That shut a few people up, but a second later, someone resorted to hurling accusations. “A guy like you probably doesn’t have any elders or children in your family, right? ‘Every man for himself’ might be fine for you, but a lot of us here have families to look after. How can you compare yourself to us?”
The street performer pointed at the couple who had gone first so quickly. “It’s true that I don’t have a wife and son. But if I did, I would never let my son see me resorting to these methods even if it meant I died—let alone guide him into doing it himself! If a child grows up to be a bad apple, it’s the parents who are to blame. If you were that eager to save him, why didn’t you make your child take a stab at you instead?”
The wife covered her face and wept bitterly. “Don’t curse my son! If you must curse, curse me instead!”
The husband was furious. “Are you listening to yourself? You want my son to kill his own father and mother? What reckless disregard for ethical principles!”
Although the street performer probably didn’t understand what he meant, he retorted, “Murder is murder! At least it’d be courageous to sacrifice yourself for your son. Speaking of which, why don’t any of you guys try going for the weird-looking guy in the mask?”
Upon hearing that, White No-Face burst out in laughter. The crowd was both terrified and furious. Their fear was directed at the monster, and their anger was directed at the street performer. They hushed their voices and chided him, “You…! Shut your mouth!”
What if they accidentally angered the monster?
But the street performer saw through them immediately. “Oh, so you don’t have the balls to kill the big evil guy, so you chose someone else to stab instead?”
Unable to suffer such humiliation from a simple brute like him any longer, someone shouted, “This fella won’t stop preaching at us! Here I thought he might have some bright ideas! But after taking a closer look at that deathly pale face of his, I’d say he probably only has a couple days left to live at most. That’s why he talks so big. If you’re so righteous, why don’t you sacrifice yourself to help get us all out of this predicament?”
“I don’t want to sacrifice myself, but neither does anyone else,” the street performer countered. “Who does? Do you? How about you? But at least I won’t stab anyone.”
“But he’s different,” someone said.
“How so?” asked the street performer.
“He’s a god! ‘Save the common people’—he said that himself. Also…also, he can’t die!”
The street performer was about to keep arguing, but Xie Lian couldn’t hold back any longer. He coughed weakly and called out, “B-buddy! Hey, buddy!”
Because of the stab wounds he’d already sustained, his voice was quite faint. Still, the street performer turned to look.
Xie Lian’s voice was filled with gratitude. “Thank you! But…just forget about it.”
If the street performer kept arguing, he’d probably get beaten up. Xie Lian remembered that the man’s grave internal injuries had been caused by their competition.
Guilty at heart, he repeated, “Thank you! Your injuries from shattering boulders on your chest—have they healed?”
“Huh? What are you saying? How could I have been hurt? Boulder shattering is my specialty!” the street performer exclaimed proudly.
The man refused to lose face even in a situation like this—it was practically the same as claiming to be completely fine while spitting out mouthfuls of blood. Xie Lian wanted to laugh.
Suddenly, a person pointed at the street performer and screamed. “It’s spreading! It’s spreading!”
Xie Lian was stunned, as was the street performer. Following the pointing finger, the street performer touched his face. As expected, he felt something uneven.
The people around him immediately moved away. Xie Lian opened his mouth, wanting to call the street performer over—but to do what? To get him to fatally stab him too?
The words were lost in his throat.
In the moment while Xie Lian hesitated, the street performer stroked his face several more times, then dashed out of the temple. Seeing the action unfold, Xie Lian called after him.
“Where are you going? Come back! If you don’t treat it, it will spread!”
But the man only ran even faster and hollered over his shoulder, “I’m not coming back! If I said I won’t do it, then I won’t do it…!”
Soon, his figure disappeared. The disfigured wretches around the temple somehow knew that the man was one of them now and didn’t block his path. Xie Lian continued to call out until he couldn’t see the man’s shadow anymore.
The people below the altar began to mutter amongst themselves.
“It’s over, he’s gone!”
“That idiot! It’ll spread regardless of where he runs! It’s already too late—he’s already infected!”
“He…couldn’t have gone down the mountain to kill others, right?”
The words that the street performer had said before he left held the people in the temple at bay. Time passed, and no one went forward to pick up the sword. The situation had stalled.
Xie Lian couldn’t tell if he felt joy, worry, or fear, but most importantly, he didn’t know what to do next. As he was fighting to clear his mind, someone stood up.
“Can I say something?”
It was a middle-aged man. Xie Lian looked up and thought the man seemed somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t recall where their paths had crossed.
While Xie Lian was still trying to remember, the man announced, “To tell you the truth, he tried to rob me!”
Xie Lian was shocked into silence. It was that man!
The crowd was stunned.
“Rob?”
“Isn’t he a crown prince? Isn’t he a god? He robbed someone?”
“It’s the absolute truth,” the man confirmed.
“So? What are you trying to say?”
“Nothing… I just wanted to let everyone know that he tried to steal!” The man crouched again after he finished his statement.
The temple fell into a solemn silence again after the outburst. That single statement had planted a seed of darkness within their hearts.
Robbery…
Another scream came from below the altar. “My leg, my leg! It…feels strange!”
Again?! And to their surprise, it wasn’t just one person this time. Another cried out, “Me too! My back! Someone please help check my back!”
No one dared to approach either of them, so they had to show their bodies from a distance. One rolled up their pant leg while the other took off his top. After getting a clear look at the state of their bodies, screams of terror erupted from the crowd.
The disease was so advanced that the lesions on their bodies had fully taken shape!
“How did it grow that fast?!”
“Did you guys forget? We’ve been stuck here for a long time!”
“But how did they not notice?!”
“It didn’t grow in an obvious place and it’s only a little itchy—how could I have known it had turned into this?!”
“It’s over, it’s over. We probably all have it growing on us already.”
“Quick! Everyone do a checkup! Inspect your body!”
It was pure chaos inside the Temple of the Crown Prince. Screams rang out through the air as the inspection went on. And just as expected, quite a few of them already had lesions surfacing all over their bodies that they simply hadn’t noticed. And now that they found them, they saw that the lesions had already formed all five facial features!
Like they had sensed the situation inside, the disfigured wretches outside the Temple of the Crown Prince danced even more wildly, hand in hand. A thick fog of dread had spread rapidly through the temple in all directions. Xie Lian’s heart pounded nonstop like it was about to break through his chest.
