My Strange Tale Love Strategy Simulator

The green lantern phantom shattered inch by inch amidst the ever-increasing resentment behind Li Qing, finally unable to hold on any longer, exploding into countless green fragments of light, which were swallowed up by the overwhelming blood!

Tears of blood gushed from Li Ziqing's eyes, and the blood spread outward from the soles of her feet, instantly flooding the entire floor of the vocal music room.

Before Old Xu and Old Wu could recover from their shock, the soles of their shoes were soaked with a layer of cold, sticky blood.

An extremely ominous premonition suddenly surged up from the bottom of Old Xu's heart. Almost instinctively, he manipulated the surrounding smoke, trying to pull himself out of this layer of blood.

But the smoke between his fingers seemed to suddenly not recognize him. No matter how he tried to urge it, the smoke just lazily dissipated in the air, like an ordinary wisp of water vapor.

"Move! Move!"

Old Xu urged him on frantically, completely unaware that a wooden puppet arm was emerging from the blood.

Then came the second one, and the third one.

Countless wooden hands emerged from beneath the blood-red surface, each hand maintaining a ballet gesture, its fingertips either pinching or curling, their dark wood color gleaming in the blood-red light.

These hands silently reached Old Man Xu's ankle, their fingers tightening and gripping it firmly.

At the same instant, Wu's ankle was also gripped tightly. Before he could even look down, he was pulled down by an irresistible force.

Zhang Ying lay paralyzed on the ruins of the phantom. A wooden hand pierced through the blood and gently grasped his wrist, then he was dragged down as well.

The blood was up to his head.

Glug glug.

His eardrums were filled with the sound of thick water, his nasal cavity was blocked and he was spitting out one bubble after another. Zhang Ying's consciousness suddenly sank in the blood-water, and then he was lifted up by a force and broke out of the surface of the blood lake.

He gasped for breath, his body floating uncontrollably upwards until he finally stood upright on the water's surface.

His hazy consciousness was suddenly jolted clearer by the blood. He raised his head, his pupils widening sharply. Above him was a sky stained crimson, without sun or clouds, only layers upon layers of varying shades of scarlet slowly surging across the heavens.

He lowered his head.

Beneath his feet stretched a blood-red lake to the horizon, its surface as smooth as a mirror, reflecting his own image, as well as below it a wooden doll wearing the same school uniform, standing on the water.

He had seen this scene before in the Lakeview Residential Area. On that occasion, Li Ziqing had also spread out the Blood Lake in the same way, tearing the illusion of the screaming ghosts apart from the inside, and pulling him out of the pile of ghost faces.

This time, however, the space was larger, more concrete, and more terrifying.

"Where am I? No, no, no, no! Damn it, could this be the place I'm thinking of?!"

A frantic, almost broken shout came from beside Zhang Ying. He turned his head and saw the disheveled old man Xu standing not far away on the blood-soaked ground. His white mourning clothes clung to his emaciated body, dripping with a thick, dark red liquid.

He looked around in terror, muttering to himself, "It's not a real calamity, how could it possibly unleash a demonic domain? This must be an illusion, an illusion!"

"Stop deceiving yourself, Old Xu." Old Wu stood beside him, looking solemnly at the churning blood-red sky around them. The yellow paper money floated on the blood-red surface not far below their feet, each bill soaked in blood and sinking to the bottom.

The smile was gone from his lips, and his face appeared calm, but his trembling legs betrayed the fact that he was putting on a brave face.

Old Xu gritted his teeth and suddenly turned his gaze to Zhang Ying.

The fear in his eyes ignited into rage the moment he met Zhang Ying's gaze. He pointed at Zhang Ying, his voice cracking so hard it was almost unrecognizable: "What did you do to that fierce monster?! Why, why did she advance to the Calamity level?!"

Zhang Ying didn't reply, nor did he even glance at Old Man Xu. He was searching for Li Ziqing's whereabouts in this blood-red space that Old Man Xu called the "Strange Domain".

Old Xu was so angry that he almost ground his teeth to powder when he saw that Zhang Ying wouldn't even look at him. He raised his leg to step towards Zhang Ying. But as soon as he took a step, an invisible force was applied to the knee that he had raised.

Click!

In Old Xu's suddenly widened pupils, his right leg was bent at a ninety-degree angle in the opposite direction, and the crisp sound of bones breaking exploded cleanly above the blood lake.

"Ah—!" Old Xu roared in pain, his whole body slumped on the blood, his hands tightly covering his leg that was no longer bending in the normal direction, his whole body convulsing, and large beads of sweat on his forehead splashed into the blood.

Old Wu was frozen in place, completely mesmerized by what he saw. His lips twitched, and he held his breath.

Just then, ripples spread out from the center of the blood lake in front of the three of them.

Blood gushed upwards from the lake surface, and something was rising from the bottom of the lake.

As the blood gradually calmed down, a wooden hand emerged from the blood, its thumb gently pinching its middle finger, the curve of the back of its hand resembling the drooping neck of a swan.

The hand slowly rose, revealing the wrist, forearm, and elbow.

Immediately afterwards, the entire lake of blood quieted down under the guidance of that gesture.

The wooden hand hovered above the blood lake, its fingertips slightly twirling, and slowly surveyed the area like a swan lowering its neck. Finally, it abruptly stopped, facing Zhang Ying and the other two.

The moment it looked at him, Zhang Ying felt a chill run down his spine; his pores tightened, and a sense of absurdity and unease surged to his head. The hand simply watched them silently, without moving or making a sound.

But Zhang Ying felt the air around him getting thinner and thinner, and he was finding it harder and harder to breathe. His heart was pounding wildly behind his ribs.

Click!

A sudden cracking sound came from behind, like bones snapping back into place. Startled by the unexpected sound, Zhang Ying whirled around to see Old Man Xu forcefully straightening his leg, which had been broken in the opposite direction!

His hands were still gripping his ankles, his knuckles white from the force, and cold sweat poured down his forehead, yet he gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound.

He inhaled and exhaled deeply through his nose, his upper teeth biting his lower lip so hard that blood seeped from his lips and trickled down his chin.

Old Xu propped himself up on his knees and stood up from the lake. He stared intently at Zhang Ying with his bloodshot eyes and limped forward.

Old Wu was so anxious that his brows furrowed into a deep frown. He was about to say something, but seeing Old Xu's state, he swallowed his words back.

Old Xu wouldn't listen to reason anymore; his eyes were filled with hatred. Only one thing remained in his world: kill Zhang Ying!

Old Xu closed the distance between himself and Zhang Ying.

Zhang Ying looked at the approaching Old Man Xu behind him, then at the motionless yet chilling wooden hand in front of him. His feet felt like they were nailed to the blood-soaked ground, caught in a dilemma of whether to retreat or not.