Volume One, Chapter 15: The Calamity Inn—The Sacrifice

The innkeeper smiled as he led her into the elevator. The elevator ascended slowly, and the electronic display showing the number 4 indicated the floor they were heading to.

The scene shifted once again. From room 444 came the agonized screams of a woman, which soon fell silent. The innkeeper, holding his scepter with leisurely confidence, emerged. Behind him, thick smoke billowed from the room, interspersed with flickering flames.

The five people standing in the corridor watched as the innkeeper passed right through their bodies and entered the elevator behind them, descending to the first floor.

"Taking the elevator during a fire? Doesn’t he fear death?" Qian Baobao murmured.

Before anyone could respond, a woman's voice sounded from behind them.

"He fears death more than anyone, but he will not die. He only makes others die."

They all turned to see the cold and elegant woman standing behind them, accompanied by her sister, who had appeared unnoticed.

The cold woman glanced at the room engulfed in smoke and flames, then turned to look at her sister with sorrow before finally fixing her gaze on Lin Xi.

The scene shifted once more. Their figures reappeared in the devastated lobby on the first floor.

By this point, the place had long been reduced to ruins by the fire.

"Since you’ve shown up," Lin Xi said, looking at the cold woman whose eyes remained fixed on him, "why not tell us what we don’t know?"

The cold woman nodded and parted her crimson lips.

"My sister and I were born into a poor family. Our parents favored boys and saw our births as misfortune, blaming even the family’s poverty on us. We depended on each other; all their attention was on our newborn little brother."

"My sister began working at twelve, not only to support herself but to pay for my education. She often said that knowledge would be our escape, our freedom," the woman in high heels said tearfully, looking at the cold woman. "But I was ungrateful. The year I entered university, I fell gravely ill. Our parents had long since given up on us."

"My sister spent nearly all her savings to save me, borrowing from everywhere she could, but it still wasn’t enough."

"I had no choice but to return home. My brother, whom I hadn’t seen in years, was taller than me now and had forgotten who I was. When I told my parents about my sister’s illness, they kicked me out on the spot," the cold woman squeezed her sister’s hand and continued.

"But I couldn’t just watch my sister die. I knelt at the door begging them for money, promising to repay. They said..."

"What did they say?" Qian Baobao asked instinctively, her eyes filled with despair.

"They said, 'You’re not bad looking. If you’re short on money, why don’t you come back and work? Why not sell yourself?'" The cold woman’s eyes welled with tears of blood. "I was desperate. I sold my blood but still couldn’t raise enough for my sister’s treatment, until I had nowhere else to turn and came to this inn, where I had once been harassed by the boss."

"If it was just lust, why did you disappear after your sister recovered? Were you imprisoned? Or..." Lin Xi trailed off, waiting quietly.

"At first, I thought it was just lust. Did you see the bathtub and the solid wooden furniture in my room before?" The cold woman looked at Lin Xi expectantly. After he nodded, she continued, "It wasn’t until I died there that I realized he was more than a depraved pervert—he was a complete madman. He didn’t just use me as a tool for his desires; he sacrificed me to an evil god."

Listening to her story, Lin Xi pieced together the entire sequence of events.

The cold woman had been boiled alive in that bathtub, turned into a stew. The intricately joined wooden beds and furniture had been used as firewood.

"So your sister was also a sacrificial offering, right? Is that statue the true form of the evil god?" Lin Xi asked, hands in pockets, looking at the cold woman.

Her eyes blazed with anger—far more than when she spoke of being boiled alive.

"Yes. After the sacrifice, our souls were enslaved by the evil god, trapped forever within this inn. Under its influence, the once-fortunate inn became a cursed place where the innkeeper and the evil god wreaked havoc and slaughtered guests."

After speaking, the cold woman exchanged a look of relief with her sister. She removed her shoes, and her sister took off her high heels. They handed these items to Lin Xi, who stood perplexed, feeling the slightly cold shoes in his hands. Behind him, except for the stout man, the other three took a cautious step back.

"What are these?" Lin Xi asked, puzzled, holding the cold feet and heels while gazing at the cold woman’s ethereal form.

"That statue is the evil god’s true form. You destroyed its core, so we are freed. These are our thanks to you. Their purpose will become clear once you leave." The cold woman looked at Lin Xi gratefully, pausing briefly before continuing, "But, benefactor, we must warn you: by destroying its core, you will be cursed by it. The specifics will only reveal themselves after you leave."

Lin Xi nodded silently, lost in thought.

The cold woman addressed the group: "We sisters will hold back the innkeeper, but he is too mad for us to stop alone. You must escape quickly, or else..."

Though she didn’t finish her sentence, everyone knew what was left unsaid.

In an instant, the surroundings shattered like a broken mirror.

Lin Xi realized he was still standing in the ruined lobby, clutching a nearly broken wine bottle.

He pulled out his keys and hurried to the door. The cold woman and her sister were struggling to hold the innkeeper behind the group.

Lin Xi stepped back to clear the doorway, giving Zheng Daqian and the others enough space to flee.

He took the nearly shattered bottle from Zheng Daqian and the stout man, standing silently by the door until all four disappeared into the bloody light outside. Only then did he slowly turn around.

The two women fighting the innkeeper had clearly fallen to the bottom. Limbs and fragments lay scattered everywhere.

Lin Xi pocketed the gifts from the two women, yanked the scepter fixed to the door, fitted the broken bottle into its handle, and gripped the tip of the scepter tightly, swinging it forcefully at the innkeeper.

Everything went as Lin Xi had anticipated: by destroying the shattered statue and opening the inn’s door, the innkeeper lost the power granted by the evil god. Now, he was merely a monster with some strength.

As the bottle shattered, the innkeeper was slammed backward several steps by the immense force.

"Human suffering is beyond my power to fix. Cleaning up trash is my duty. Though I don’t know where this is, when I see trash, I must clear it," Lin Xi said sorrowfully, holding the scepter as he looked down at the two women lying on the ground.