Chapter 109
Lu Chuan’s plan had always been simple.
Even if Xi Jiangyuan was suspicious, as long as he could clear Whistle safely with the others, they’d part ways afterward. At worst, his dungeon evaluation would be a bit lower.
That was fine.
Xi Jiangyuan was clearly not someone to trifle with. Rather than risking his life fighting him just to earn a slightly higher evaluation, it would be better to use that time to clear a new dungeon. There was nothing shameful about backing down when necessary — just play dumb and let things pass.
But unfortunately, things had already gone beyond the point where pretending ignorance could solve anything.
Lu Chuan’s teammates had either disappeared or had their memories altered. If this went on, Lu Chuan felt that sooner or later, he would either vanish himself or be assimilated.
If all of his memories were rewritten into someone else’s, would he still be the same person?
Lu Chuan had no choice left.
“If I could, I really wanted to play along with your little house game until the end,” Lu Chuan said sincerely to Xi Jiangyuan. “Just pretending to be clueless, calling you ‘Captain,’ and then leaving this dungeon safely under your protection — that would have been the most cost-effective way for me. Unfortunately, you still went after the others. Lilus was made to disappear by you; Messiah and Shen Li had their memories changed. I can’t stand by any longer.”
“Lilus? I didn’t go after him — he came to me,” Xi Jiangyuan replied lightly.
Two days earlier – the night of Day 6
That night, the one targeted by the whistle was Shen Li.
At this time, aside from Shen Li and Xi Jiangyuan, everyone else was frozen in place.
Perhaps because Lilus had already successfully evaded one attack, or because his right arm had recovered and the half-NPC blood in him was working, he actually regained a trace of consciousness.
At the same moment, Shen Li was probing Xi Jiangyuan — doing almost the same thing Lu Chuan once did — trying to divert the white arms toward Xi Jiangyuan.
Xi Jiangyuan rather admired Shen Li.
He forgave Shen Li’s maneuver and even invited him to simply settle down as his teammate.
“Even though you haven’t contributed much to this team, it’s because of you that Lu Chuan, Lilus, and Starry Shasha can get along in peace. Someone like you is an indispensable anchor in any squad. I admire you. Would you consider staying?” Xi Jiangyuan asked.
“…We’re missing someone from our team. Did you kill her?” Shen Li didn’t answer, instead asking a different question.
“Edith? Sorry, I can’t answer that.” Xi Jiangyuan shook his head. “If you’re willing to stay for her sake, then I’ll give you my answer.”
“You hear that nonsense?!” Lilus suddenly woke fully. “I remember now — damn it, this guy is our target!”
His right arm had completely healed, and he once again looked like the slightly brooding young man he used to be.
“Heh, Lu Chuan can’t move right now. Looks like I win — I recovered first.” Lilus swung his right arm. “Shen Li, don’t listen to his excuses! Have you forgotten what situation we’re in? Let’s grab him first, then interrogate him slowly. He’ll spill everything.”
Xi Jiangyuan looked at Lilus in surprise.
“Huh? Your aura’s changed… you’re not entirely human?”
“Sorry,” Lilus sneered, “by you old-timers’ standards, I’m a half-breed. Let me see what a so-called former legend is worth.”
Lilus struck without restraint.
He knew full well that someone like Xi Jiangyuan — a once master-ranked master-rank player, who could still create such a powerful dungeon after his death — was anything but harmless.
He had never planned to hold back; he fought with everything.
Unfortunately, the gap between a master-rank player and someone below that level was absolute.
Lilus barely lasted three minutes before Xi Jiangyuan.
“Wait!” Seeing Lilus about to be killed, Shen Li had to plead. “If you wanted to kill us, you could’ve done it long ago. Let’s talk. Lil’s still young; he shouldn’t die here. And you’ve seen it — his background is special, isn’t it?”
Back to the present
“That’s pretty much how it went.” Xi Jiangyuan smiled faintly. “Then on the seventh day, that girl Vivian also didn’t learn her lesson. She told me many things about myself — even some I couldn’t remember — all crystal clear. She must’ve studied me for a long time.”
“Vivian belongs to the Ocean Heart guild,” Lu Chuan said without surprise. “Naturally, they’ve researched you a lot.”
Vivian hadn’t acted with the group; clearly, she’d been confident in herself.
What she hadn’t expected was how thoroughly memories would be altered after entering the dungeon. Even with preparation, it was useless.
And Vivian’s team wasn’t as strong overall as Lu Chuan’s — they’d already lost two members early on.
Before their memories could return, half her team was gone, making it much harder to clear the dungeon.
Lu Chuan sighed.
That’s how dungeons were: no matter how well you prepared, unpredictable changes could always happen.
Meanwhile, in the real world – Ocean Heart Guild
Many members hadn’t gone home for days, holding meeting after meeting about how to handle Xi Jiangyuan’s dungeon.
“Cracks have appeared in the dungeon. Vivian’s group entering this time may be their last chance,” the vice guildmaster sighed. “When His Majesty the Sea Emperor handed us the key, he warned us: this dungeon has a limit. The more we go in, the more it will awaken Xi Jiangyuan. I didn’t expect it to happen even sooner.”
“Vivian’s team is just too strong,” another senior said. “Shen Li is a master-rank player. Lu Chuan and Messiah aren’t yet, but they’re close — especially Lu Chuan. He’s beyond common logic, no weaker than Cynthia of the Resurrection guild. He’s never challenged the rankings, but he probably has his own reasons.”
“And the rest — even if they’re not master-rank yet, they’ve got the potential. A team like that entering would inevitably stir Xi Jiangyuan’s remaining rationality.”
Ant bites don’t hurt much — but what if the ones who entered were tigers?
Some had even believed Lu Chuan’s group might just clear the dungeon outright and erase the anomaly.
Reality had slapped them hard.
Veteran master-rank players were still on a whole different level from near-master-rank ones.
Two Ocean Heart players’ life signals had already vanished completely.
Vivian’s signal flickered faintly — her life hanging on Xi Jiangyuan’s whim.
If that were all, it might be acceptable.
But yesterday, the Sea Emperor sent another message: “The Executors have entered Xi Jiangyuan’s dungeon.”
Just those few words had left the senior members sleepless.
As old, long-lived dungeon dwellers, they knew best: once the Executors moved, enormous variables followed. They had to keep close watch on this dungeon.
“Also, the vice guildmaster of the Abyss guild sent word — he’ll arrive soon,” someone said casually. “The Abyss guild may not say so, but they clearly have their own thoughts on Xi Jiangyuan. If their VP is coming personally, maybe he’ll share some secrets from back then.”
A high-ranking master-rank player had died mysteriously, leaving behind a mutated dungeon.
Instead of purging the anomaly and reclaiming his legacy, the Abyss guild ignored it and even struck Xi Jiangyuan off their rolls. Strange indeed.
What secrets lay behind it all? They were very interested.
The world of Evil World was far bigger than they’d imagined.
Ordinary players only needed to worry about clearing stages and leveling up.
But guild executives had to consider much more: how to fight the game itself, gather intelligence, even stop it — tasks consuming immense time, manpower, and resources.
“Then waiting a little longer won’t hurt,” one senior said quietly. “I want to know what really happened thirty years ago.”
—
Number 18 was excited. He and Number 9 could finally start infiltrating the dungeon.
If they waited until the Whistle dungeon ended and Xi Jiangyuan completely lost his mind, they wouldn’t be able to take him alive.
Yes, Number 18 still didn’t dare openly defy Number 9; at most, he would sneak a bite or two.
Sigh, Number 9 seemed unhappy ever since entering this dungeon.
By the time Number 9 and Number 18 entered, it was already Day 7 of the dungeon.
They suppressed all their aura and power, carefully acclimating before slowly releasing strength — lest restoring their full forms at once tear the dungeon apart and complicate matters.
They walked through the small town, and with every step they took, everything around them turned strange.
But the strangeness was limited.
Because less than a tenth of the residents remained.
The ones still alive were nothing but husks, more dead than alive.
In their memories, those who had disappeared no longer existed. But in their emotions and subconscious, the impressions remained.
They were afraid, terrified, and eventually grew numb.
This once-prosperous town had now become desolate, eerily empty.
Lonely, bleak, terrifying—That was the first impression the town gave.
Number 18, however, admired the atmosphere. “Wow, if we release this dungeon, it’ll definitely draw a lot of the evil gods’ followers. Then we can just sit here and fish for prey.”
His thoughts were always simple and blunt. He instinctively knew this town could serve as the perfect bait. These broken townsfolk, their minds and souls ravaged, crying to escape, crying for release—their suffering was the finest delicacy for evil gods.
They would serve as bait, luring evil gods—who would then run straight into Number 18 waiting beside the hook.
Number 18 was practically drooling at the thought.
“They’re nothing more than the wandering souls trapped in Xi Jiangyuan’s dream,” Number 9 said after glancing at an old man slumped at a shop’s doorway. “They’ve long since lost human emotion and memory, mutated into monsters they themselves don’t even recognize. All they do now is repeat the past inside Xi Jiangyuan’s dream, over and over.”
Because they were already monsters, even when they saw Number 9 and Number 18, they didn’t change further. Fear held them back, kept them from approaching.
From this perspective, Xi Jiangyuan really was impressive.
No wonder the Main God had marked his case as a first-class mission, worth a full 5 merit points.
Normally, even the more dangerous dungeons only awarded 0.5 points at most.
As a human, Xi Jiangyuan had awakened powers during the gods’ invasion, and through his entanglement with them, gained the ability to invert cause and effect.
While he lived, he could barely suppress it. But once he died, everything erupted uncontrollably.
The Main God System’s intention was clear: deal with Xi Jiangyuan quickly and brutally, erase him outright.
But Number 9 refused to do that.
So he blocked the other Executors from taking the mission.
“Senior, your ingot is reacting,” Number 18 said excitedly. “That player you marked earlier—he’s just ahead. Do you think he’ll be thrilled to see us?”
“No,” Number 9 answered with certainty.
“No? But every other player we meet gets excited.” Number 18 was baffled. In his mind, Lu Chuan would be excited too.
Number 9 only gazed quietly up at the sky over the town.
“The dungeon is about to collapse.”
What had Lu Chuan done to make Xi Jiangyuan lose control of his reason?
—
At that very moment, Lu Chuan and Xi Jiangyuan were facing each other again.
“When did you recover your memory?” Xi Jiangyuan asked curiously. “You’re a pure human. You shouldn’t have remembered so quickly.”
“I haven’t recovered everything,” Lu Chuan admitted, “but even a fragment was enough to guess the rest.”
He was confident in his mind.
“By now, I’ve remembered most of it. I think it’s because you no longer see any reason to maintain the dungeon. Or perhaps I’ve already cracked its underlying worldview. That’s why my memories returned.” Lu Chuan smiled at him.
“Xi Jiangyuan, we were never truly inside a dungeon, were we? That earlier ‘Whistle’ scenario was just a replay dungeon—formed from your memories, your dream. We’ve been inside your dream this whole time. In the dream, there was another Xi Jiangyuan. You are the other one.”
Thinking it over, the two Xi Jiangyuans really were different.
At first, Xi Jiangyuan acted as if he were just another character in the dungeon, displaying all the care and reliability of a good captain—human, genuine.
But later, he became strange.
When did the change begin?
It must have been when they decided to enter Xi Jiangyuan’s dream to confront the one behind the Whistle directly.
After leaving that dream, Xi Jiangyuan began to change.
“You’re right,” Xi Jiangyuan admitted at once. “Normally, by the eighth or ninth day of the ‘Whistle’ dungeon, you’d finally notice your numbers dwindling. Then you’d try entering my dream to find a way through. By then, only one or two players would remain. Even if their memories returned, they’d be forced to play dumb, accompany me to the end. That way, the Xi Jiangyuan in the dream was always the former me.”
“But you noticed the discrepancy on the second day.”
“And you demanded entry into my dream, to face the whistler directly,” Xi Jiangyuan said evenly. “In that dream, none of you saw what that white arm in the sky truly was. But the me in the dream did.”
The white arm had shown half its body.
And the dream’s Xi Jiangyuan recognized it.
It was his own body.
The monster blowing the whistle, stealing people into the earth, altering their memories—It had always been himself.
The player had become the dungeon boss. Using his power, he replicated the System’s dungeon.
The dream’s Xi Jiangyuan broke down.
And so, the real Xi Jiangyuan had to reconstruct his body anew.
But once the real Xi Jiangyuan entered the dungeon to meet the players, it meant Lu Chuan and the others had formally gained entry into the true dungeon.
That was why Lilus and Vivian had disappeared, but not died.
Because once Xi Jiangyuan’s true body appeared, they gained eligibility.
And with that, the Main God System’s restrictions prevented him from killing players who hadn’t yet officially begun the dungeon.
“So, I can still save them.” Lu Chuan smiled as well. “Otherwise, why would I reveal everything to you now?”
In fact, the Whistle dungeon’s mechanics were very similar to Xi Jiangyuan’s ability.
Only in a dream could those endless white arms exist, burying people in the ground, rewriting their memories.
When the whistle blew, they couldn’t move—because they were asleep.
When it stopped, they woke.
Lu Chuan wasn’t certain if his theory was right. But if he wanted to save people—if Shen Li and the others were still alive—his only option was to lay his cards on the table with Xi Jiangyuan.
Shen Li, Lilus, Messiah… they’d bought houses from him. They could even become business partners in the future.
Their existence meant limitless wealth for him.
So of course he had to save them.
That was what Lu Chuan told himself.
Just moments ago, he had heard the Main God System’s chime.
[Congratulations, player [Arrival of the God of Wealth], on officially entering Xi Jiangyuan’s Mutated Dungeon]
Yes. Only now had he truly entered the dungeon born from Xi Jiangyuan’s death.
Everything before was merely Xi Jiangyuan’s dream, his memories.
The earlier players had never truly entered Xi Jiangyuan’s dungeon. They hadn’t even passed his simplest test.
That was why they gained nothing of value.
At the same time, Lu Chuan finally reconnected with #888 in his mind.
“It’s been a while, System. Sorry for worrying you.”
[Waaah! Host, you finally reached me! You couldn’t remember me, couldn’t hear me—I was so worried!] #888 immediately broke into dramatic sobs. It really hadn’t had it easy.
From the moment the dungeon began, it had been calling for Lu Chuan. But deep down, Lu Chuan believed himself to be Xi Jiangyuan’s teammate. He had sealed away his own identity, blocking #888’s signal. No matter what it said, he couldn’t hear.
Only when they entered Xi Jiangyuan’s second dream, with a filter layer of power, could #888’s voice reach him again.
This dungeon was terrifying.
#888 had never imagined the sheer panic it would feel if its host truly forgot it.
They were still bound—but if the host couldn’t recall it, how was that any different from being unbound?
“Don’t worry, System. I remember now.” Lu Chuan whispered comfortingly. “Sorry for making you worry.”
Finally, #888 stopped crying.
Xi Jiangyuan studied Lu Chuan with newfound respect.
“Which guild are you from? Since you made it in here, was it the Abyss Guild that sent you? Or are you one of them yourself?” Only now did Xi Jiangyuan truly recognize Lu Chuan as an opponent.
“Of course not. I’m a player of the Star Guild.” Lu Chuan declared his identity openly. “When you died, your mutated dungeon formed. The guildmaster of Ocean Heart got the key. We paid dearly to enter.”
He had debated whether to tell Xi Jiangyuan the truth of his death. But after a moment’s thought—surely he already knew. After so many waves of players had come, could he really not guess?
The situation was stronger than the man. At this point, honesty was the best choice.
Xi Jiangyuan’s expression stayed calm, as though he’d long since known he was already dead.
“How long have I been dead?” he asked with a faint smile.
“Thirty years,” Lu Chuan replied quietly. “This is the thirtieth year after your death.”
Hearing that, Xi Jiangyuan’s smile deepened. He turned his head and said in another direction, “So I’ve been dead for thirty years. You Executors are a bit slow—why only come to retrieve me now?”
