Techniques and Dao

Chapter 157 Death Game
In a hazy, dreamlike state, Hana's body seemed to be beyond her control.

He mumbled haltingly, "I want to live... Help... Dad..."

The pain started at her temples and radiated outwards, each wave feeling like a high-voltage electric shock, making Hua Sheng see stars.

Only then did he realize that his consciousness had been scattered. At this moment, his seemingly adrift consciousness began to gradually coalesce. It was as if a scattered, wandering soul had just found its way back to its body.

This intense feeling of being resurrected made him extremely uncomfortable, and Hua Sheng managed to open his eyes a crack. Only then did he realize that his eyelashes were already covered in cold sweat, and his body was soaked through with it.

What just happened?
He tried to shake his head to regain consciousness, but perhaps because his head had been hanging down for too long, his neck ached as if it were about to break.

Hua Sheng realized that she was still sitting in the chair with her hands tied behind her back.

He quickly looked at his legs and realized that his body was no longer that of a child.

What just happened? I'm back in my own body?

At that moment, Hua Sheng immediately sensed the danger and told himself that he had to take immediate action.

"Golden... Golden Cudgel..."

Hua Sheng thought to himself, trying to break free, but there was no response.

He saw a blurry white shape in front of him, and he tried to look forward through his blurry vision.

The white shadow circled around his iron hoop chain, which was floating in mid-air and spinning continuously.

The image gradually became clearer, and the blurry white figure gradually took on a human form, with his magical artifact, the Iron Golden Hoop Chain, floating in mid-air in front of the person.

The man was wearing a long white robe, with the hood pulled down low, almost completely covering his face.

Hua Sheng could sense that the person in front of him was staring at the magical artifact that was floating and spinning in the air.

—The iron headband that Sun Wukong, the Victorious Fighting Buddha, gave himself.

Hanamori recalled the strange scene where she had just turned into a child. Compared to her heavy body before, her current body, though painful, had indeed returned to its original form.

I think I just fainted. Was it all a dream?

But who is this white figure now, and why is it in this room?

Hua Sheng suddenly remembered why he was here!
He, Mieying, and Jane must have fallen into an ingeniously designed trap. Inside this wooden cabin, they were all captured from the shadows.

In fact, the other party did just that.

Hua Sheng strained to focus his pupils on the unfamiliar white-robed man in front of him.

His robes were white, but not Taoist robes. They were more like the magic robes Jane wore.

As Hanamori gradually regained consciousness, the ropes binding her from behind became increasingly difficult to restrain.

He planned to break free secretly and launch a surprise attack on his opponent.

Hua Sheng exerted a little force without making a sound, but the rope on her wrist didn't budge.

The rope has been enchanted!
So Hua Sheng silently recited the Great Strength Mantra, secretly chanting, "Hurry, hurry, as the law commands."

It worked! The rope binding him made a very slight rubbing sound, and the tightly bound hands were pried open a crack by Hua Sheng. His wrists gradually loosened, and if he could just pry them open another inch, he could break free of the ropes.

He carefully observed the white-robed man opposite him, thankful that his subtle movements had gone unnoticed.

Strangely, just as her wrist was about to break free, Hanamori suddenly felt like she couldn't breathe.

It was as if someone was tightening a noose around his neck from behind, forcing him to loosen his grip.

After the ropes on her hands tightened automatically, the noose around her neck loosened a bit. Her trachea cleared, and Hua Sheng was able to breathe.

After waiting quietly for a while, Hanamori tried again. But the situation was exactly the same as before; as soon as the rope on her hand was stretched open, her throat was immediately tightened.

“If you struggle, not only will you die, but all three of you will die.”

A deep, middle-aged man's voice rang out. He spoke Chinese, and like Jane, he had a slight accent that only native Chinese speakers could detect.

The middle-aged man continued, "If any one of you tries to untie the ropes, everyone will be strangled to death."

Hua Sheng understood what he meant. If he loosened the rope binding his hands, the cursed ropes around his, Mieying's, and Jian's necks would tighten until all three of them were strangled to death.

Conversely, the same must be true for Mieying and Jian. Hua Sheng immediately thought that if stretching them didn't work, what about shrinking his size? Or using fire manipulation techniques to burn or cut the ropes?

As he was pondering a solution, he heard the man continue, "You'd better save your energy. Once these ropes are untied, even if you run away, those two girls next door will be dead."

A thought flashed through Hua Sheng's mind: the three of them had probably already been targeted by this man.

But what was that hazy dream? In my memory, I grew up in an orphanage and never met my biological parents, but in that dream, I was a child under ten years old.

Not only that, he was told that his parents were also in that room. It seemed that they wanted his father to hand over something.

The dream she just had was so vivid, so real, that Hua Sheng couldn't doubt it. But if that dream was a memory, then was she really an orphan from childhood?
Could it be that my dream was also related to the man in front of me, and that I had been bewitched without realizing it?

What is the purpose of the other party going to such lengths?
Cold sweat dripped continuously from Hua Sheng's forehead, soaking his clothes. He stared intently at the person in front of him, yet still couldn't make out the other person's face.

Hua Sheng asked, "Who are you, and why are you arresting us?"

The man in white robes replied, "You cannot go to the fallen angels, and you cannot go anywhere."

It turns out the other party wanted to stop them from going to Nice!
Why? What is this person's relationship with the fallen angel, or rather, with the Chrysanthemum Silk...? Could this person be the real thief who stole the Chrysanthemum Silk and framed himself and the Magic Academy?

Hua Sheng immediately reacted and angrily questioned:

"It was you? You stole the Stardust Silk!"

The man in white chuckled dryly a few times and said, "The timeline of this world is already messed up enough. I don't need that thing."

"Then why are you doing this?"

The man in the white robe did not answer, but sat up straight and brought his face slightly closer to Hua Sheng.

"I need the three of you to play a game with me."

game?

Hua Sheng was stunned for a moment.

"Wh...what game?"

"A game that decides life and death."

Hua Sheng spat and cursed, "If you want to kill us, why don't you just do it? What kind of bullshit game are you playing!"

"Once you've played this game, you'll understand yourself better. You'll understand what happened."

"What exactly do you want to do?"

The man in the white robe said, "You'll understand once you've played the game."

Hanako stared at the face she couldn't see clearly, gritted her teeth, and asked, "How do we play?"

“It’s very simple. It won’t even take you a minute. Because you just need to tell me one person’s name.”

"Whose name?"

"Your name and the name of one of the two girls next door."

"What are you going to do?"

"Kill. I'll kill this man." The white-robed man's voice was devoid of any emotion, as if he were reading some useless junk information. "Tell me, who is the person you want to kill?"

Hua Sheng felt a chill run down her spine.

"You want me to kill one of them?"

"Do not."

"Isn't this asking who I want to kill?"

"It's the name of one of the three of you. In other words, you can choose to kill yourself."

Hua Sheng roared, "What right do you have to decide other people's life and death!"

"You're just playing a game. But the true god of fate who decides your life and death..." the white-robed man said coldly, "is me."

(End of this chapter)