"Next time I come to the Snow Mountain, I really shouldn't drive..."
Riding a motorcycle on soft snow was just asking for trouble.
In the end, Ye Qiyan had no choice but to have the Raven Demon push the vehicle from behind.
It took nearly an hour before he finally returned to the third supply point.
The snowstorm continued unabated.
Outside the third supply point, the corpses of those Snow Monsters had disappeared at some point.
The main door was tightly shut, with wisps of cooking smoke gently drifting from the chimney.
He kicked the door open.
The three-headed fused being was curled up in the corner, their faces lighting up with surprise and joy at his arrival.
Ye Qiyan didn't respond, his gaze sweeping across every corner of the room.
When his eyes inadvertently glanced at the pitch-black fireplace, he narrowed his eyes slightly.
Now that he thought about it, the chimney was smoking but the fireplace wasn't lit.
Did that make sense?
No, it didn't.
"This is the place."
He switched the Black Ebony's ammunition, and white explosive rounds blasted the fireplace into fragments.
The snowstorm outside instantly poured into the cabin through the gap.
Within the destroyed fireplace...
A skull emitting faint black energy actually spoke with a human voice.
"Why must you investigate everything so thoroughly?"
"Ah! Demon, it's a demon!"
"No, wait, wait—this voice, it sounds like the Guide? No, it also sounds like my brother?"
"Your brother is the demon!"
Ye Qiyan ignored the three-headed fused being, feeling the Pure Cleansing Stone on his body already heating up.
This was an evil entity.
"Are you the Guide?"
"Or are you his brother?"
The skull nodded in a human-like manner.
"I am both. I am the Guide, I am his brother, I am also the mentor they ate first, and I am all the others too—everyone except those three."
Well now, an unexpected discovery.
Ye Qiyan raised an eyebrow.
Watching the skull with interest, he tightened his grip on the purification stone and motioned for the skull to continue.
"What do you mean by that?"
The skull's pitch-black eye sockets inexplicably cast a look of hatred toward the three beings.
"From beginning to end, only those three ever ate people."
The skull told another version of the story.
"The research team had fifteen people total, sixteen including the Guide. We climbed the peak searching for some legendary secret that could lead to another world. Unexpectedly, heavy snow sealed the mountain, trapping us here. We had no choice but to take shelter at the second supply point."
"We originally thought we could survive at the supply point for some time, but what none of us expected was that one night, someone stole and ate the remaining food. Supplies that should have lasted two weeks were suddenly reduced to this. With no food left and no way down the mountain, I—as the Guide—ventured into the snowstorm alone to find a path down. Then... when I returned to this supply point, everyone had already been eaten by these three devils!"
Devils?
Ye Qiyan silently examined the floating skull.
Then silently looked at the three-headed human body.
If we're talking about demons, there doesn't seem to be much difference between these two.
Both are terrifying enough.
"Don't, don't listen to his nonsense! We, we don't remember anything like this!"
"That's right, sir, this is just a monster! Kill him quickly! Don't let him spout nonsense!"
"We didn't actively eat people, really!"
The three heads spoke over each other, their noisy conversation unpleasant even amidst the snowstorm.
The skull let out a cold laugh, opening its dark mouth.
"Of course you don't remember—because this is the forty-seventh time you've experienced this. After you ate all of us, our grievances merged together and became me! I captured you, controlled that madman from another world, and made you live on in this form! This is punishment!"
Oh ho.
So that's how it is.
So that man who thought he controlled this world was actually just a puppet?
What a pathetic creature.
"Bastard! You're lying to us!"
The three-headed fused being seemed to have a switch flipped, as memories from the past continuously flooded into their minds.
"Damn it, damn it damn it damn it! Why won't you let us go! It was just, just eating you! We had no choice!"
The three-headed body kept twisting and contorting.
The skull made eerie creaking laughter as it floated into the air, looking down at Ye Qiyan and the three-headed being.
"Outsiders like you have appeared more than once before. Unfortunately, you're the only one who insisted on breaking the cycle. Since that's the case, then the cycle begins again. This time, including you, become new nourishment in this endlessly repeating world."
Just as the skull was about to fly away, raven claws grabbed it.
The Raven Demon appeared overhead, letting out strange cawing sounds.
"No?! Let me go! Ah!"
Dark smoke rushed toward the Raven Demon's body.
But it was facing a "demon."
Such petty tricks were meaningless.
"You're overthinking it. I never said I wanted to break any cycle."
Ye Qiyan smiled slightly as the barrel of his Black Ebony began gathering black and white dual-colored light.
Simultaneously consuming 10 stamina points and 10 spirit points, he condensed black-and-white dual-colored armor-piercing explosive rounds.
Aiming at the completely deranged, disintegrating three-headed fused being.
He pulled the trigger.
"However, if breaking some cycle requires destroying something, then it should be them."
BANG—!!
The gunshot echoed.
The snowstorm in the sky suddenly paused.
The three-headed being's body was blown to pieces.
Various parts of the lower body were blasted into the air before continuously falling back down.
The Raven Demon spread its wings, shielding Ye Qiyan from this disgusting rain of flesh and blood.
Beneath its feet, the black skull let out an angry howl.
"How dare you! How dare you kill them! Their punishment wasn't finished yet! Hypocrite! What right do you have to forgive them on our behalf!"
"Forgive? You're overthinking it."
Ye Qiyan blew away the smoke from his gun barrel, took out the Pure Cleansing Stone, and curled his lips into a faint smile.
"I just wanted to kill them, and I want to kill you too, because only then will I have completed my mission at this station. What happens between you has nothing to do with me."
Light radiated out.
The moment it contacted the black energy, the skull let out even more agonized screams.
"Ah!"
One, two, three...
Over a dozen broken human-like souls were liberated from the black energy.
Their grievances had gathered together to punish those three.
But... weren't they also punishing themselves?
Between the punisher and the punished, who was truly trapped?
"Done. Now, this should completely finish the mission, right?"
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