Xie Xingchen. Mo Bai committed the name to memory.

What surprised her even more was learning that Neverland possessed cards like Forced Growth, which could temporarily raise a player's level.

Mo Bai asked, "So that's how you became a high-level player. You lied to me so thoroughly. Before, you told me that you had leveled up inside an instance and then interrupted the process, which was why you remained mid-level."

For once, Mo Xiangyou looked a little embarrassed.

"Think about when we first met. You were a player who had only just cleared the beginner stage. You didn't even know what a mid-level player was, let alone that leveling up required three days of sleep. How was I supposed to tell you the whole story while avoiding the information that members of the Observation Group can eventually turn into cards?"

"It would've been difficult," Mo Bai admitted. "But looking back now, your lies were pretty crude."

Mo Xiangyou sighed.

"That was because, at the time, even the part about entrusting my remains to you was partly a lie. In reality, I approached more than ten people. You were the lowest-level one. The others were all mid-level players. How much patience and truth do you think I was willing to give you back then?"

Mo Bai: "..."

So Mo Xiangyou had been casting a wide net. But there she was, thinking that she was special.

Seeing her expression, Mo Xiangyou tried to placate her.

"Don't be angry. I've regretted it for a long time. Back then, I never imagined that you'd survive the Count's Castle, so I just brushed you off casually. Later, I had to invent all sorts of clumsy lies to explain my level. It was troublesome, and the lies weren't even particularly clever."

Mo Bai remembered his earlier explanation about how Plague Garden had actually been split into two instances, allowing him to halt the leveling process midway.

Now that she thought about it, the story was full of holes, but she actually believed it.

At that moment, the flesh-incense in the burner had already burned halfway down.

There wasn't much time left for reminiscing.

It was time for the important questions.

Taking a deep breath, Mo Bai fired off a barrage of them.

"Why wasn't the card you became after death taken away? How were you able to return to Peach Blossom Land and act like a living person after you died? Were the skeletons in Plague Garden affected by you? What exactly are you now? Can you still think normally? And why can this piece of flesh temporarily bring you back to life?"

Mo Xiangyou sighed.

"Those are a lot of difficult questions."

"I'm not finished yet," Mo Bai said.

"Not finished?" he asked in surprise.

Mo Bai spoke solemnly.

"Most importantly, where is your card, and how can I get you back?"

Mo Xiangyou smiled faintly.

"So many questions. Where should I start?

Let's begin with the beating heart I found in Plague Garden.

Because of the Observation Group title, monsters in instances are naturally drawn to me. Everyone in our group was affected by the roses' curse and was in poor condition.

But unlike the others, I heard a voice calling from the basement. It was the voice of a little girl.

At the time, Sheng Lei and Li Ming were hitting it off so well that they were practically about to become sworn brothers, and Xie Xingchen seemed like a genuinely nice person. Besides getting close to me, he also got along well with Sheng Lei's teammates.

I was on decent terms with Xie Xingchen, but I disliked Sheng Lei's idiot friends.

Everyone was resting in the first-floor hall, using cards or abilities to suppress the curse. I suggested that we split up and search for clues to break it.

Then, I arranged for Sheng Lei's foolish teammates to keep Xie Xingchen occupied while I went down to the basement alone.

There was a hidden room in the basement, and there wasn't even a visible door. Without the little girl's voice, I never would have found it.

Guided by the heart, I located the mechanism for a secret entrance and entered the hidden chamber.

There I found a heart covered in countless roses. The heart told me that the diary outside was fake, that her father had forged it.

Officially, he claimed he was protecting her, but in reality, he was using the garden to seal her away.

As long as roses continued growing on her heart, her mother would never be able to find her."

Mo Xiangyou paused.

"The whole thing was so bizarre that, of course, I didn't believe a monster. I suspected that the heart itself was the instance's boss and was trying to trick me into releasing it.

But I was already cursed, and I needed a way to remove it, so I asked her how it could be done.

I expected her to say that freeing her from the roses would break the curse. Instead, she told me that the curse had linked our lives to the roses growing on her heart. If the roses were removed, we would die.

It was the first time I'd ever encountered such an honest instance monster, and that made me interested in her.

She told me that unless we found a substitute sacrifice or possessed some special means of transferring the curse, all of us would die.

She couldn't save us, and anyone who entered the manor was a sacrifice used to maintain her seal. Our deaths were inevitable.

She also said she had no intention of leaving, and she hoped that her father would never break the seal. Because the day the seal was lifted would be the day she and her father would kill each other.

She didn't want her mother to find her either, because she didn't want to do what her mother was forcing her to do.

So I asked her: 'If that's the case, why call me here at all? What do you want from me?'

She told me that this was the clearest-minded she had been since her death. She was no longer completely controlled by her power or driven to do things that even frightened herself.

But she knew it wouldn't last, and sooner or later, the seal would break. When it breaks, she would be driven by evil desires and commit terrible, terrible acts.

She said that if I ever needed her, she would grant me one wish, but the price would be becoming one of her monsters.

She told me that I was a fraudster and that once I reached an advanced level, even as a monster, I would be able to deceive the system's rules and return to Peach Blossom Land.

She wanted me to continuously lure players into Plague Garden for her. The kinder they were, and the stronger they were, the better. Because the positive flow carried by players could neutralize the power inside her that she couldn't control.

As long as the seal remained intact, her mother would be unable to offer new lives as sacrifices, and gradually, the players' positive flow would purify her.

She would become nothing more than an ordinary heart. She might die, but at least she would die while still being herself."

"Did you agree?" Mo Bai asked.

Mo Xiangyou laughed softly.

"At the time, I told her that although I wasn't exactly a good person and didn't particularly like other players, I was still on humanity's side.

If she wanted me to become her servant, she'd have to wait until I died. But once I was dead, I wouldn't have any wishes left.

I wouldn't need to ask her for anything, and she couldn't bring me back to life anyway.

To my surprise, she told me that some deaths create even greater regrets. That obsessions after death can become stronger than they ever were in life.

She said her mother was exactly that kind of person and also that she couldn't revive me. But she could let me move around for short periods as though I were alive.

And after I died, I could still make a wish...

You can probably guess the rest."

By the time Mo Xiangyou reached the part about the heart and their agreement, Mo Bai had already pieced together what followed.

Mo Xiangyou wanted to save Sheng Lei.

Instead, he was ambushed by Xie Xingchen, whom he had trusted.

Li Ming had once told Mo Bai that he and his companion had conspired to kill both Sheng Lei and Mo Xiangyou.

Which meant Li Ming's torture of Sheng Lei had been deliberate.

With Li Ming's strength, he could have killed Sheng Lei instantly. Instead, he tortured him right in front of Mo Xiangyou.

The goal had been to force Mo Xiangyou into using Forced Growth.

Mo Xiangyou was cold and sharp-tongued.

This was probably one of the rare moments in his life when he genuinely wanted to save someone. But it ended in disaster.

Xie Xingchen killed him.

And before dying, he likely watched Li Ming gleefully kill Sheng Lei and celebrate the success of their plan with Xie Xingchen.

In those final moments, Mo Xiangyou's resentment toward Combat Group players must have been overwhelming.

After death, that obsession only grew stronger.

Through the curse as a medium, he accepted the little girl's offer and became one of her monsters.

Unfortunately, Li Ming and Xie Xingchen were both extremely powerful and possessed many powerful cards.

Even after becoming a monster, Mo Xiangyou couldn't stop them, and they still found a way to escape the instance.

"How could I possibly let Xie Xingchen obtain the card made from my remains?" Mo Xiangyou said darkly.

"Even as a vengeful spirit, I wouldn't let them succeed."

Mo Bai sighed.

"What exactly is your real ability? I feel like you still haven't told me the truth."

Mo Xiangyou raised a hand and tapped her forehead.

Mo Bai could feel that what touched her wasn't a fingertip.

It was bone.

A finger bone.

"I only lied to you about my Intermediate Observation Group title," he said.

"My original title, as well as my beginner- and mid-level abilities, were all genuine.

I really do possess both deception and prophecy. As for my actual Intermediate title, it's called Rosemary Incense.

It can cloud people's minds and make them believe my lies. The first time we met, if you hadn't inhaled the fragrance, you wouldn't have trusted me so easily."

Mo Bai remembered smelling a faint fragrance back then, which made her dizzy and muddled.

Only after activating her ability did she regain some clarity, but she hadn't realized that she was still affected.

Though, to be fair, her own ignorance at the time had played a part.

"When you advanced to high level," Mo Bai asked, "your title and abilities merged together. What did they become?"

Mo Xiangyou's power had to be formidable.

Mo Xiangyou replied, "It was called The Legendary Red Spider Lily. It was a flower fabricated from the image of the red spider lily, which by its very nature symbolizes falsehood, fabrication, and deception.

The red spider lily is said to possess the power to guide souls to the underworld. According to legend, those enchanted by its fragrance unknowingly follow the flowers all the way to the end of their lives.

At the same time, it is a flower that grows between two worlds, able to exist in both the realm of the living and the underworld.

That means my power of deception can transcend even the rules of life and death.

I never truly had the chance to use that ability, but it should have been quite powerful. Dealing with Li Ming wouldn't have been a problem.

Perhaps it was precisely because of that special ability that the Heart chose me and wanted me to return to Peach Blossom Land to find players for her."

"You aren't lying to me this time, are you?" Mo Bai asked.

"No," Mo Xiangyou replied with a smile. "I'm already dead. What would be the point of lying now?"

"You've lied far too many times already," Mo Bai said. "When you first found me, you said you'd seen a future where I collected your remains. Was that true or false? Your Red Spider Lily doesn't seem to have any prophetic abilities."

Mo Xiangyou answered, "Prophecy was my beginner-level ability. Gaining a high-level ability doesn't make earlier abilities disappear.

"I really did see a future in which you took away my card. But at the time, my thinking was this: 'I would rather become one of the Heart's monsters, ferrying players to their deaths, than let my card fall into another player's hands.'

Before I met you, my plan was to use information about the Phantom Butterfly to lure you out, then feed you false intelligence to send you to your death."

He spoke about deceiving people and getting them killed with complete casualness.

"But you gave me real information," Mo Bai pointed out.

"I didn't expect you to be sitting in a wheelchair," Mo Xiangyou said bluntly. "You looked so fragile and pitiful that it awakened a sadistic impulse in me.

I wanted you to live. I wanted you to level up. I wanted you to become a high-level player too and experience the pain of being turned into a card.

If I suffered, then others should suffer too."

Mo Bai mercilessly exposed the lie hidden in his words.

"You only thought about it. You never actually did it.

Everyone has dark thoughts. As long as you don't act on them, they don't make you a bad person.

You keep deceiving both others and yourself. You treat your negative thoughts as if they were reality and convince yourself that you're a villain.

You call yourself evil?

Fine.

Then tell me: how many people did you actually lure into Plague Garden? How many players did you sacrifice to that Heart?"

Mo Xiangyou snorted.

"Fewer than a hundred."

Mo Bai almost laughed from frustration.

"Ninety-nine is fewer than a hundred. Zero is also fewer than a hundred. I can give vague answers too. The number of players I've personally killed is fewer than ten thousand!"

She continued:

"Your body kept rotting away, and yet you made up that story about the Bones Beneath the Fragrant Rosebush.

Wasn't that simply the backlash you suffered because you refused to offer players as sacrifices to the little girl?"

Mo Xiangyou said nothing as Mo Bai looked at him.

"Why are you always so determined to be the bad guy?"

"Bad people live freely," Mo Xiangyou said softly.

"I've always longed for freedom, but I've never been free. My given name, Xiangyou, means longing for freedom, and yet my surname is Mo."

"Why must the word that comes before freedom be a negation?"

Mo Bai immediately rebutted him.

"How can a name determine someone's entire life? By your logic, my name is Mo Bai. Wouldn't that mean I'm destined to be black instead of white? Destined to become a bad person?" (T/N: The character/word Mo means "do not" or "none." Read that way, "Mo Xiangyou" negates "longing for freedom," and "Mo Bai" reads as "not white.")

Mo Xiangyou pointed at the incense burner, which was nearly spent.

"Are you really going to give me psychological counseling at a time like this? Would it even matter? I'm already dead."

Mo Bai fell silent.

After a moment, Mo Xiangyou continued.

"After I returned to Plague Garden, the Heart punished me. In an instant, I became a skeleton and died completely.

My soul was taken by the Heart. My card is inside her.

Before I turned into bones, I cut away this last piece of intact flesh. Using the power of deception, I bought myself this little bit of time.

I waited for you to come. I wanted to tell you everything. But someone stole the Heart.

Without her suppression, the entire Plague Garden began to mutate. Even the piece of flesh I left behind started to decay.

Fortunately, that high-level Observation Group player saw me. To preserve the message I left behind, she suppressed the mutation throughout the entire Plague Garden.

And at last...

I waited long enough for you to arrive."

Mo Bai felt her eyes grow wet, but she refused to let the tears fall.

"I'll get your card back," she said.

"And I won't let Xie Xingchen leave this instance alive."

Mo Xiangyou laughed.

"Our Mo Bai really does know how to make grand declarations."

Mo Bai was about to tell him that she wasn't boasting. She truly had the ability.

Even if she couldn't kill the Ultra-Star Rank monster, she could still use Inequivalent Exchange to trade the Heart for Mo Xiangyou's card.

Before she could say anything, however, Mo Xiangyou gently embraced her.

The arms around her belonged to a skeleton, and there was no warmth in them.

In a low voice, he said, "I didn't wait for you because I wanted you to recover my card.

I want you to live. I want you to become a proud and powerful member of the Observation Group. I want those people to see that we are human beings, not tools. I also hope that you'll become a little more ruthless and a little more cruel.

I've already told you how to seal the Heart. There are still a few players here, so offer them up, and you'll survive.

Don't be so kind, and...

Not meeting you while I was alive, that is my regret.

But meeting you after I died, that is my good fortune."

The incense burned out completely, and Mo Xiangyou's body reverted to a skeleton, which soon crumbled into fine white powder.

Just a small pile. Small enough to fit inside the burned-out incense burner.

A faint fragrance lingered in the air, carrying a subtle calming effect.

That was all that remained of Mo Xiangyou.