absurd deduction game.

Emily shuddered and almost collapsed.

She had just received three church deacons downstairs for a "final visit," and was about to call her husband when the moon suddenly turned red.

A sense of unease enveloped her, and she immediately went upstairs, only to witness this bizarre scene.

Her husband could actually "hear" sounds from downstairs from the second floor? No, is this really her husband?

“Yes…yes, Riel…” Emily answered, her voice trembling, “It’s Father Grove and the others…who want to talk to you…”

“Very good…” Riel’s grin widened, and his eyes, reflecting the blood moon, slowly turned toward the door. Although his back was to the door, his gaze seemed to penetrate the wooden floorboards. “Please invite them up. Come directly to our bedroom.”

"Ah...but?" Emily thought she had misheard.

Under social norms, it is extremely impolite and improper to let a strange male visitor—even a clergyman—directly into a couple's bedroom, but the current situation seems to disallow her to care about etiquette.

“Please have them… come up.” Riel’s tone remained calm, yet carried an undeniable, almost hypnotic power. “Come here. I want to… share some… important discoveries with them.”

The crimson light of the blood moon seemed to ripple slightly with his words.

Looking at her husband's completely abnormal state and feeling the invisible pressure from the eerie moon outside the window, Emily's reason told her that this was not right, but a deeper sense of submission, stemming from fear and confusion, overwhelmed everything.

She practically scrambled to her feet and staggered downstairs.

The image in the mirror blurred for a moment as Emily's perspective shifted, then became clear again, focusing on the master bedroom doorway.

Soon, footsteps and whispers could be heard outside the door.

"...Mrs. Emily, are you sure Mr. Riel wants to meet here?" A slightly older, doubtful voice rang out.

Yu Xing listened, and for some reason, perhaps because he had now become a "witness," even though they had never met, information about the owner of the voice appeared in his mind.

That must be a butler named Grove.

“Yes…yes…he insisted…” Emily’s voice was weak and flustered.

The door was pushed open gently.

Three church deacons dressed in simple white robes appeared at the door.

Leading the group was the older Deacon Grove, with a serious face and sharp eyes.

Behind him were two relatively young deacons, one tall and thin named Allen, and the other somewhat stocky named Thomas.

The three men wore professional caution, but when they saw the scene inside the room, their expressions froze instantly, turning into shock and horror.

Blood-red moonlight streamed through the window, turning the room into a hellish color.

Riel stood by the window with his back to them, his figure appearing somewhat distorted in the red light.

An indescribable, unsettling energy fluctuation permeated the air, along with... a faint, eerie odor, like ozone mixed with rust.

“May Mother Goddess protect us…” Deacon Grove subconsciously drew a symbol on his chest, his voice slightly tense. “Mr. Riel? Are you feeling unwell…”

Riel finally abandoned his stargazing telescope and slowly turned around.

When the three deacons saw his face clearly, they all involuntarily gasped!
Riel wore a smile that was both peaceful and eerie, but his eyes were empty and lifeless, like two bottomless blood-red vortexes.

His skin took on an unhealthy, ashen hue under the blood moon, and the aura he exuded was no longer that of human madness, but rather a chilling tranquility and terror that was closer to some inhuman existence.

“Deacon Grove…Deacon Allen…Deacon Thomas…” Riel called out their names accurately, his voice still carrying that hollow echo, “Welcome…Welcome to…the edge of reality.”

Deacon Grove suppressed his unease and stepped forward, attempting to speak in a gentle but firm tone: "Mr. Riel, you look unwell, and this moon is quite unusual. Please allow us to examine you and offer our prayers. May the Mother Goddess protect us..."

“The moon?” Riel interrupted him, his smile deepening as he pointed out the window. “Don’t you think… it’s beautiful? So… pure… so… powerful… it is… the true gift.”

His words sent a chill down the spines of the three deacons.

Deacon Allen couldn't help but whisper, "Head Deacon, something's wrong. The contamination on him is much more serious than the report said! We'd better—"

“Pollution?” Riel seemed to hear his whisper, tilting his head, his movements stiff as a puppet. “No…not pollution, it’s…enlightenment. It’s His gaze…cast through the stars.”

He took a step forward, and the blood moon's light seemed to focus even more intently on him: "Don't you... want to see it with your own eyes? To see... what the real... stars look like?"

Deacon Grove's expression was grave, his hand already on the holy emblem hanging at his waist: "Mr. Riel, please remain calm! Do not approach those dangerous thoughts! Come back to the church with us, the High Priest will help you."

“Help?” Riel let out a contemptuous sneer, the sound particularly jarring in the Blood Moon room. “You know nothing…like frogs at the bottom of a well…thinking that the sky above your heads is everything.”

His gaze shifted to Thomas, the somewhat stocky young deacon, who felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively took a half-step back.

“Butler Thomas…” Riel’s voice carried a seductive magic, “Do you crave knowledge? Do you yearn to understand… the truth of the world?”

Thomas opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but looking at Riel's blood-red eyes that seemed to suck away souls, and the eerie red moon outside the window, his will began to waver.

A strange, intense curiosity mixed with fear burrowed into his mind like a venomous snake.

“Look…” Riel pointed to the empty telescope stand by the window, “Look with your hearts… there… you’ll find the answers you seek…”

Deacon Grove knew something was wrong and shouted sternly, "Thomas! Don't listen to him! Keep your mind focused!"

But it's too late.

Thomas seemed mesmerized, his eyes glazed over, and he murmured, "The answer... I want to know..."

He found himself walking step by step toward the window, making a move to get closer to the stargazing telescope.

"Thomas! Come back!" Deacon Allen shouted anxiously, trying to grab him. However, just as Thomas "looked" into the void—

“Aa ...

Thomas let out a scream that was absolutely inhuman and extremely shrill!
He suddenly clutched his head with both hands, his eyes instantly becoming bloodshot and bulging violently, as if he were seeing the most terrifying sight in the world. His body began to twist and twitch unnaturally, and his skin surface was covered with a dense array of eerie red spots, resembling a starry sky!

Even more terrifying, an indescribable, vast, and ancient will, accompanied by a maddening torrent of knowledge, seemed to suddenly descend upon this room through Thomas's "port"!

The air became thick and viscous, like mercury, and the invisible pressure almost suffocated Grove and Allen.

As Riel stood to the side, his body also began to change the moment this terrifying will descended!
His figure seemed to have grown taller, and something seemed to be wriggling beneath his skin. The shadows gathered and stretched at his feet, no longer resembling human shadows.

The polluted aura emanating from him increased tenfold, a hundredfold. It was no longer the aura of a mad scholar, but rather a kind of... indescribable feeling of despair, closer to that of the ancient rulers in mythology!

"Let's go!" Deacon Grove made a quick decision. He knew that things were completely out of control, far beyond their ability to handle!

He grabbed Allen, who was still trying to save his companion, and turned to rush towards the door.

"Don't rush off..." Riel—or rather, some being occupying his body—said in a deep, resonant voice that shook the very soul, "Everything is only just... beginning..."

He didn't move, but Grove and Allen felt as if their feet were nailed to the floor, unable to take a step.

An incredibly powerful spiritual force forcibly twisted their will and took control of their bodies!
"Look...look at the night sky, look at the stars." The terrifying being commanded again, its voice carrying an irresistible majesty.

Grove and Allen's faces were filled with extreme fear and struggle. Their reason screamed in refusal, but their necks, uncontrollably, stiffly, little by little... turned towards the window, towards the void, towards the high-hanging blood moon.

Their eyes went from struggle to despair, and then to... the same empty and frantic daze as Thomas's, before letting out the same screams.

Yu Xing narrowed her eyes.

The scene in the mirror became extremely unstable after Deacon Thomas let out an inhuman scream and the pollution descended, like a television screen with a strong signal interference, filled with snow and distorted stripes, but Yu Xing could still barely capture the details of the image.

All three of them began to mutate.

As “Rieel” murmured, the screams of the three deacons came to an abrupt halt, replaced by a “hoarse” sound as if their throats were being choked.

Their fingernails, which were gripping their heads, turned black and long, digging deep into their scalps and leaving dark red marks. On the exposed skin, the star-shaped red spots began to wriggle and connect, as if something alive was crawling under their skin.

The joints made a teeth-grinding "crack" sound as the church deacons' bodies bent and stretched at angles that defied ergonomics, their spines taut like bowstrings, their whole bodies resembling a strange insect undergoing metamorphosis.

The three men's white robes fluttered and rustled without wind, as if something inside them was expanding. Their bodies twisted, swelled, and contracted under the blood moonlight, no longer maintaining a stable human form. Sometimes they stretched out like shadows, and sometimes they curled up into indescribable lumps of flesh, emitting a strange stench mixed with ozone, decay, and stardust.

The air was filled with the sticky, writhing sounds and muffled thuds of their mutated bodies and dislocated bones.

Just as the extreme distortion and pain reached their peak, the movements of the three mutated bodies suddenly stopped for a moment.

Then, they made a synchronized movement—they simultaneously raised their twisted, deformed arms…or limb-like parts, and reached towards the thick oak beam above the room.

There was no rope.

But the moment their fingers touched the roof beam, the shadow beneath it seemed to come alive, like a living black liquid that automatically wrapped around their necks, forming a rough and sturdy "noose."

The next moment, an invisible, enormous force suddenly lifted upwards!
Three mutated bodies, still twitching slightly and in an unpredictable state, were suddenly lifted off the ground by the shadow noose and hung from the roof beams!
Their bodies swayed helplessly in the air, their necks stretched extremely long, and the ends of their deformed limbs were still twitching slightly.

Dark red blood and some indescribable viscous fluid seeped from their orifices and cracks in their skin, dripping onto the floor with a "drip...drip..." sound.

Young Emily heard the baby crying in the cradle. She went to comfort the baby halfway, but she couldn't bear to leave her husband, so she had to take the baby, whose crying had subsided, and go back upstairs.

The first thing she saw when she peeked out was three swaying figures beside the bed.

Emily: "..."

"what……"

"what--!!!"

The woman's terrified screams were shrouded in the blood-red moonlight, attracting a glance from "Rail".

Seeing her terrified expression, "Rail" slowly revealed a strange smile. Right in front of her, the shadow on the roof beam fell again, encircling his neck.

Then, it was lifted up.

Another person has hanged themselves.

Even in death, Riel wore a terrifying, empty smile as he gazed at his wife.

Amidst the sounds of Emily vomiting, the baby in her arms giggled, as if amused by something.

At this moment, the scene in the mirror began to fluctuate violently, all the figures became blurry and distorted, and the light of the blood moon flickered wildly in the mirror, fading and dissipating like the tide.

In the end, the mirror returned to its original state, covered in dust, vaguely reflecting the eternal blood moon illusion outside the window.

Yu Xing still stood in the cold, silent, and polluted master bedroom, the notebook in her hand no longer hot.

His consciousness returned to his body, he closed the notebook, and exhaled.

In the bedroom, only the rhythmic creaking of the old woman's rocking chair and the cold, deathly red light cast by the eternal blood moon illusion outside the window remained.

“This moon…” Yu Xing said, “is it an ancient god?”

“He was drawn to Riel’s gaze—drawn to it under the aurora on the snowfield—and eventually responded to him. After that night, even though Riel died, He never left, did He? Mrs. Emily.”

The rocking chair stopped creaking. (End of Chapter)