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Time passed by slowly and Han Fei noticed his character profile page had changed again. When his reputation reached 100, Han Fei put down the music box and slowly walked towards his altar. Pulling back the heavy black cloth, his figurine sat inside the altar. It was Han Fei who was laughing madly, it felt familiar and strange.

‘Finally the first stage is over.’ With only 1 Life Point, Han Fei managed to survive for days in the cryptic world. This was something he wouldn’t dare to imagine in the past. No one could have done this, not even Fu Sheng. Although to be fair, Han Fei had already done many things Fu Sheng couldn’t, Han Fei merely hadn’t noticed it.

Han Fei reached his arm into the altar. When his fingers touched the figurine, the memory fragments inside his mind started to tremble. A terrifying cackle came from the deepest end of his memory. The figure who stood alone at the blood red orphanage lifted his head, he attempted to escape from his prison.

“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve satisfied the requirement to level up the altar, will you level up the altar?”

Yes!” After he pressed the yes button, Han Fei could feel his finger being drawn to the figurine. The bond between Han Fei and the altar was thickening, it was like they were bound by some kind of invisible thread. At that moment, Han Fei noticed the figurine inside the altar appeared to have come alive. Harming the figurine would be equal to harming Han Fei. The afterlife karma in his profile drained rapidly. When the afterlife karma reached zero, the figurine radiated an indescribable liveliness. After consuming Han Fei’s 100 afterlife karma, the figurine opened its eyes!

The eyes were filled with madness and the flame of despair, it was like looking at the madly laughing Han Fei! ‘It’s so similar…’

The bond between the figurine and Han Fei consumed both of them like fire, burning their memories. The shapeless flame spread through Han Fei until it was just about to reach the black box.

“Notification for player 0000! Your altar has reached level 1! The player will receive a random ability of an Unmentionable depending on the player’s constitution and property of their soul.

“Notification for Player 0000! Your altar has unlocked its first ability—Soul Mist.

“Soul Mist: Your soul is forever shrouded in mist, no one can see the real you, not even yourself.

“After this ability is activated, the area around the altar will be surrounded by mist. Even Unmentionables can’t see through the mist. With this ability, your physical condition, character profile and soul will be obfuscated by mist, no one can see through you.

“Notification for Player 0000! The second leveling up of the altar requires 500 reputation, 500 afterlife karma. Please level up as soon as possible because the spreading mist might attract the attention of the scariest presence in the cryptic world!”

A light mist drifted out from the altar. It covered the figurine, the ancestral hall and continued to spread. Standing in the mist, Han Fei didn’t feel out of place. If anything, he felt comforted. After his altar increased to level 1, Han Fei gained his first Unmentionable level ability but it was once again a passive ability. ‘Soul Mist can influence Unmentionables, even Unmentionables can’t read through me, but… what’s the point, I still can’t beat them anyway!’ The type of ability a player could own was based on 2 criteria. The first was the player’s constitution. Han Fei was only level 16, even though his stamina was 26, that was still too low to sustain an intense attack by an Unmentionable. The second was the player’s soul property. Han Fei had no idea what that was and the system didn’t provide much elaboration. As the mist dissipated, the tenants from Ziggurat rushed into the hall, they were worried about Han Fei.

“Boss, did you create this mist?” Drake carried the Mirror God and stood inside the mist. They noticed with surprise that even though the mist looked normal, it could eclipse the senses of the spirits. “This is strange! You are standing before me and I can see you but I cannot feel your presence! Is that the power of this mist? It can affect Lingering Spirits?”

“Even Unmentionable will be affected, much less Lingering Spirits.” After the altar was upgraded, Han Fei took out the food left behind by Xu Qin from his inventory. He feasted on them to heal. As his Life Point returned to normal, Han Fei was no longer that worried.

“The most difficult period is over, it’s time for retaliation!” Han Fei’s eyes glowed wickedly.

“But… no one has really attacked us.” Drake blinked.

“The Ziggurat belongs to us. The trespassing by ghosts from other areas is a blatant provocation.” Han Fei tightened his fingers. A bladeless knife appeared in his palm. “With the spreading mist, the outsiders will have no idea what has happened here. We should use this opportunity to deal with all the trespassers. This way the others would be more cautious and wouldn’t send in more people blindly.”

Han Fei gained a basic understanding of the hospital from real life. The area had at least 3 Pure Hatreds, however even if they had 3 Pure Hatreds, they didn’t dare to storm into Ziggurat, this meant that they were still weaker than Butterfly. “Butterfly has prepared for years to evolve into an Unmentionable but it was defeated during the Night of Resurrection. However, if we failed, the Butterfly who had 2 altars would become even scarier.

“The ghosts from the other areas only knew that a giant change had happened at Ziggurat. The black mist had disappeared but they still have no idea what has happened to the Butterfly. Now that my Soul Mist is covering up this area, the more aggressive we are, the more afraid they’ll be. They will have the false impression that the Butterfly has not died but has become stronger.” Han Fei shared his thoughts. Before they possessed power that could really rival the Butterfly, they had to rely on psychological warfare.

“I haven’t encountered a mist like this before. Looks like your altar is very unique.” The Mirror God leaned on the mirror and widened his eyes to look outside. The mist stuck to the mirror surface and turned the Mirror God blurry too.

“The Soul Mist will continue to spread. We’ll kill every trespasser that is enveloped by the Soul Mist. That way, the ghosts in other areas will be afraid and cautious, buying us more time.” Han Fei had no idea how far the mist would spread. He just wanted to muddle the waters. To be honest, Han Fei was forced. Normally people wouldn’t dare to approach the altars in the cryptic world, but Han Fei’s was a unique case. If someone stumbled across his altar, Han Fei wouldn’t even be able to defend it. The mist had shrouded everything and the outsiders wouldn’t know the mist actually came from the altar.

With the aid of the tenants, Han Fei started a second cleansing around the Ziggurat. Soul Mist was Han Fei’s ability. It didn’t affect him, if anything, it appeared to buff him. For example, he could tell the general direction of the enemy caught in the mist. Also when he was inside the mist, his Life Point recovery, speed and strength had great increase. Furthermore, Han Fei noticed that the friendlier the spirit was with Han Fei, the lesser they would be impacted by the Soul Mist. The mist itself was harmless but all the outsiders trapped inside the mist were killed.

The life threads snapped. The Pure Hatreds hidden in the other regions were worried. But when they turned to the Ziggurat and saw the mist, they were concerned. They couldn’t see through the mist so rushing into it blindly would be a great risk.

In just one night, while the other Pure Hatreds hesitated, the soul mist had spread throughout Ziggurat and had swallowed a street on the plastic surgery hospital’s side. Only then the Soul Mist stopped spreading. ‘The spreading speed and the coverage of the Soul Mist appear to be related to the intensity of the laughter’s soul and consciousness.’

With the help of Zhuang Wen, the trespassers were cleaned up easily. But they were not yet done. Han Fei stood at the edge of the hospital. “If I were the Butterfly, I would seek revenge.” Covered by the Soul Mist, Han Fei and his neighbours entered the territory of the plastic surgery hospital.

In the past, Han Fei didn’t want the jumper woman to come this way because once she left Ziggurat, she would be discovered. Her presence couldn’t be eclipsed but with the Soul Mist, that problem had been solved. “We need to hurry up, we mustn’t give them the time to react!” Han Fei’s Soul Mist only had the power to obscure but he planned to create the impression that the mist was equal to death.

The territory of the hospital was completely different from the Ziggurat. The buildings here were twisted and slanted like there were constant earthquakes. The deeper they went, the more absurd the environment was. There were almost no human-shaped spirits around the plastic surgery hospital. All the Animated Regrets and Lingering Spirits had lost their human shapes. Some of them had no face, others had ruined bodies. Plastic surgery was to make oneself look prettier and handsomer but the ghosts around the hospital looked uglier than normal.

They were incomplete and grotesque like the most beautiful part of their souls had been taken away. If Ziggurat still had some semblance of a neighbourhood, the plastic surgery hospital was like the nightmare of a patient.

Han Fei only reached the outermost street of the area but he had already seen many horrifying images. In this area, humans had lost their most basic humanity and were treated more like an object. ‘The Ziggurat contains the memory fragment of the previous manager so it preserves some kind of humanity. This area is what the real cryptic world should look like, no wonder Fu Sheng would choose the path of destruction.’

Even after seeing many acts of cruelty, Han Fei’s conviction was not shaken, this was his biggest difference with Fu Sheng. They didn’t venture deep into the hospital area. Han Fei and his neighbours cleaned out the street consumed by Soul Mist. Under the protection of the Soul Mist, they left behind the imprint of the Butterfly.

“The Pure Hatreds from the hospital will come to investigate, I have to confuse them somehow.” Spider was gone, the senior monster had moved into Rest in Peace, the strongest spirit at Ziggurat was Zhuang Wen but Zhuang Wen was not even a real Pure Hatred. “The hospital is situated between Ziggurat and the theme park. I need to turn the conflict towards the theme park.” With his neighbours’ help, Han Fei’s name was widespread. His plan now was to disguise himself as a Pure Hatred from the hospital to provoke the theme park, the Soul Mist was perfect for that.

“I should meet up with Xu Qin and find Big Sin first.” Han Fei’s reputation was still rising, he was honestly quite afraid. Using the tenancy chat group, Han Fei tried to gain contact with Laughing and the rest but there was no reply. Han Fei frowned.

He waited for about 10 minutes when he received a reply from another Ziggurat tenant, “We are being chased by something and we’ve separated!”

“Where are you now?”

“We’re inside the mall at the intersection of Happiness Street and Longevity Street! You better stay away, the thing is covered in hatred!” The tenant stopped replying. Han Fei thought back to the map left behind by the previous manager. The mall mentioned by the tenant was between the theme park and hospital. The place was marked out with a question mark by Fu Sheng.