Chapter 60 Voting Begins

Hua Sheng could feel that the bound person had been struggling against the ropes for quite a while, only to stop eventually due to exhaustion.

He knew in his heart that this was a sign of panic. Yet the ropes were not pulled too tightly, which meant the bound person was actually not relying on much celestial magic to try and break free.

In other words, that was Shadow-Slayer Number Five, whom Shadow-Slayer Number Seven called "the Stick" due to her lack of proficiency in celestial arts.

Number Seven had once told Hua Sheng that the reason they were accustomed to calling Number Five "the Stick" was simply because she could only stand there stiffly, unable to be of much help.

In terms of mastery of celestial arts, Shadow-Slayer Number Five was even inferior to many mortals within the Saint-Penning Immortal Realm.

That being said, Hua Sheng guessed that Number Five could at best light a torch or occasionally phase through a wall. Any celestial art she could manage would at best fall into the lower-middle range of the Profound-Bright tier.

Putting it that way, Shadow-Slayer Number Five would already be doing a tremendous favor just by taking care of herself.

Yet, in this game, how would Number Five choose? If she had absolutely no celestial magic to rely on, Number Five must be feeling exceptionally terrified.

What should he do?

Thinking of this, Hua Sheng felt that although he and Shadow-Slayer Number Five were not very familiar with each other—having only had a brief meeting when facing Leizhenzi in the Red Prefecture of Saint-Penning—Number Five's face was, after all, identical to Number Seven's.

At the thought of that face, Hua Sheng's heart felt as though it had been pricked by a needle.

He had to protect Shadow-Slayer; for the sake of Number Seven, he had to protect Shadow-Slayer's sisters as well.

Although the man in the white robe had his eyes shaded by the brim of his hat, Hua Sheng knew he was gazing directly at him.

Hua Sheng could not see the other man's eyes, yet he could feel that icy gaze.

It was like a bottomless abyss.

Hua Sheng raised his head, as though staring into a relentless, endless abyss.

It was like looking back at some distant and desperate memory.

The man in the white robe broke the silence and said, "Now that all three of you are awake, it is time to give an answer."

Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Hua Sheng asked, "If you wanted to kill us all, you could have simply done it yourself. Why play this game?"

"The one playing this game is not me." The man in the white robe intentionally leaned forward a bit. "It is you."

"What do you mean?"

The man in the white robe let out a raspy laugh. "Don't you understand? Nine... No, there's no need to recall those useless things. You only need to tell me: whom do you choose to kill?"

Hua Sheng countered, "Why offer a chance where everyone can survive?"

He understood that, according to the game's rules stated by the other party, if the three of them happened to choose each other, all three would be set free.

Yet if that were the case, what on earth was the white-robed man going through all this trouble for?

"Because the rules of the game must be the same."

The white-robed man's reply was hardly an answer at all.

Hua Sheng asked, "You mean to say, this isn't your first time playing this game?"

The man pondered for a moment, then posed three words in return:

"And you?"

Hua Sheng was taken aback, failing to grasp what the other man meant.

Before he could speak again, the man said, "I will not answer any more of your questions, and time is running out. When you speak again, if you fail to give me a name, I will kill you all. Because..."

He paused briefly before continuing, "Because Jane and the other girl have both given me names. You are the only one left who hasn't."

These words caused a tight knot to twist in Hua Sheng's stomach. Both Shadow-Slayer and Jane had actually provided a name.

Now he was the only one missing!

His mind began to race.

At present, the Golden-Hooped Rod was in the other party's hands; moreover, Shadow-Slayer and Jane—especially Shadow-Slayer Number Five—were essentially acting as hostages for the enemy.

He could not act recklessly right now, nor did he know what kind of magic array they had fallen into, so he had to follow the "rules of the game."

It was just like... For some reason, he abruptly thought of the Heavenly Eye Trial from long ago; his current predicament was identical to that situation. Back then, there had been the same strange illusion, and back then Tianjizi's explanation was that the celestial array of the "Ingenious Box Contention" had been tainted.

Later, he believed that might have been because of Wei Yu, also known as Mingyou.

Mingyou had spent a long time at the Academy of Daoist Arts. Therefore, some uncontrollable element brought from the future had caused him to unknowingly taint the Black Tortoise Celestial Array of the Academy of Daoist Arts. That was why Hua Sheng had experienced that bizarre dream within the tainted "Ingenious Box Contention."

In the dream, he had seen Wei Yu sitting alone atop the summit of the Black Tortoise Divine Mountain.

Wei Yu had been startled upon seeing him, asking why he had come here. This indicated that their minds had been connected by something at the time; her surprise meant that she herself was most likely unaware of the taint.

Now, since Mingyou Wei Yu was not present, why did such a similar feeling still persist? Now and back then... could it be himself?

No, besides himself, Shadow-Slayer had also been there during the Heavenly Eye Trial.

He had been called a monster by Lü Dongbin, so if a monster could taint a celestial array, perhaps it could also taint a magic array, only the Eight Immortals were unaware of it.

Although he himself did not think so, the possibility could not be entirely ruled out for Shadow-Slayer either.

Yet all of this, for some reason, reminded him of the "Ingenious Box Contention." There ought to be no connection between the two—one was in the East, the other in the West; one in the mortal world, the other in the Saint-Penning Immortal Realm. Why would there be such a sense of familiarity?

Hua Sheng was certain this was no mere illusion. It portended something... something he could not quite name. But whatever it was, his intuition told him it was definitely akin to the "contamination" of that time.

Wait! Hua Sheng hurriedly reined in his train of thought.

Now was not the time to ponder these things; the pressing matter was how to escape! He quickly sorted through the "rules" he had just deduced.

Since choosing to kill oneself or refusing to choose would result in death for all three, Shadow-Slayer and Jane surely would not choose either of those options. They would not intentionally let the "game" end with the death of all three.

The fact that the game was still ongoing proved this point.

This meant Shadow-Slayer and Jane had chosen different people; otherwise, had it been the same person, the condition of "two votes" would have been met, and the game would have ended. Whom Hua Sheng chose would then no longer matter.

As for whom Shadow-Slayer and Jane had chosen, that was crucial, highly vital information for Hua Sheng.

Because at the beginning, there were ten possible combinations of choices among the three. Taking voting as an example, the ten scenarios were as follows:

1. Hua Sheng receives 3 votes;
2. Shadow-Slayer receives 3 votes;
3. Jane receives 3 votes;
4. Hua Sheng receives 2 votes, Shadow-Slayer 1 vote;
5. Hua Sheng receives 2 votes, Jane 1 vote;
6. Shadow-Slayer receives 2 votes, Hua Sheng 1 vote;
7. Shadow-Slayer receives 2 votes, Jane 1 vote;
8. Jane receives 2 votes, Hua Sheng 1 vote;
9. Jane receives 2 votes, Shadow-Slayer 1 vote;
10. Hua Sheng, Shadow-Slayer, and Jane each receive 1 vote.

Among these ten possibilities, the scenarios where two people each held two votes had the highest probability, while the scenario where each received one vote had the lowest probability. Furthermore, choices where everyone voted for themselves could be ruled out, as that would yield the worst outcome, and surely no one would make such a choice.

The dilemma facing Hua Sheng was not how he should choose.

Rather, he had to immediately deduce—whom had Shadow-Slayer and Jane each chosen?