Chapter 126: This Is The Price
Lu Jinzhao didn’t mind using the deepest malice to speculate about the Parchment, but even so, she doubted that her own malice was deep enough.
She calmed the waves stirred in her heart by the speculation, and calmly asked the Parchment: “Since you don’t want me to do that, then tell me, did you threaten it?”
“Can you ghosts communicate with each other?”
【Communication?】
【You can think of it that way too.】
【Do I need to threaten it?】
【What is it?】
【Your soul, your body, will ultimately all be my possessions. It is only fearing me.】
The Parchment answered her question.
This also confirmed one thing: the Parchment indeed already had the concept of “shame.”
And from its response, there was indeed a means of communication between ghosts, but it seemed different from humans, more like animals, more purely determined by “power” to decide the superior and the subordinate, with the superior holding absolute discourse power.
The Parchment’s tone was full of contempt for the Wooden Box, and it didn’t conceal this at all. To it, this was a matter of course, and the Wooden Box’s reaction was the same—it feared the Parchment’s existence because of the Parchment’s power, so it submitted.
The Parchment tried to devour her soul and occupy her body, so the Wooden Box didn’t dare to actively collect the price from her anymore.
But the Wooden Box was not a “loyal subordinate.” It still retained the ghost’s instinct. Even after being made into a Supernatural Item, it instinctively wanted to devour human flesh and blood and life. So, when Lu Jinzhao set aside the Parchment and actively transacted with the Wooden Box, it was willing, even eager.
There was no loyalty or emotion whatsoever between ghosts.
“You’re way too confident.” Lu Jinzhao wasn’t angry, just somewhat indifferently said.
【Confident?】
The Parchment’s bright red Blood Script crookedly and sloppily floated in front of Lu Jinzhao, like the font depicted bit by bit by a child who had never learned to write like this, using a finger dipped in bloodstain.
【You can’t have failed to notice what that mere one-third soul transaction brought you.】
【You think there won’t be a next time, right?】
【I’ve disrupted several times and failed to make you transact again. You think I’m out of ways, right?】
【No problem.】
The words in the air twisted, appearing faster and faster.
【I think very highly of you. Very highly. Soon, after a few more missions, you’ll become a First-class Passenger, right?】
【First-class Passenger… then you’ll have a chance to go to the death place.】
【Oh, you humans call that place the Death platform.】
【A very fitting name. A place even I can’t touch too much.】
【I’ve already seen your future. You will die on the first Death platform you go to.】
“I don’t believe it.” Lu Jinzhao’s attitude was very firm.
“You even have the ability of Foresight? Since you do, you should’ve switched to someone else long ago, instead of being bound to me.” Lu Jinzhao deliberately stimulated the Parchment.
Her attitude seemed very contemptuous, but her heart was exceptionally grave.
Because, in these days of getting along with the Parchment, it was evil, cunning, stupid, vicious, but it wouldn’t tell this kind of lie.
【Foresight? Of course I don’t have that ability.】
【But the first time I ate your soul, I saw it—I saw the scene of your death.】
【Anyway, you won’t live much longer. Why not just give up? Offer your entire soul to me, and you can die easily, without suffering that pain. How about it?】
There was no change in the expression on Lu Jinzhao’s face, even though her heart was indeed gradually sinking because of the Parchment’s words. To probe for more message, she deliberately said:
“The Death platform comes on average once every half year, not to mention it’s ongoing now, so the next one probably won’t appear for a long time.”
“Moreover, even if I become a First-class Passenger, a newbie who just leveled up—how could I encounter the Death platform so easily?”
After she finished speaking, Lu Jinzhao seemed to hear a few laughs coming from the depths of her soul, carrying sarcasm, mockery, and malice that couldn’t be described.
【No, no no no】
【Others will stay for a period of time. The Train will give them a certain adaptation period, but not you.】
【Chao Chao, poor Chao Chao, have you forgotten that you transacted with me?】
【Your soul has long been tainted with my aura.】
【Haven’t you ever doubted it? You clearly possess such a powerful “Supernatural Item” like me, but whenever I’m not causing trouble, your platform difficulty seems normal.】
【That shouldn’t be the case.】
【Hee hee】
That laughter appeared again, this time also carrying schadenfreude.
【As for you… as soon as you get the qualification to enter the Death platform, you’ll immediately, immediately be selected by it.】
【This is the price of your transaction with me.】
One-third of the soul was just the beginning.
Once she transacted with it the first time, Lu Jinzhao could no longer escape.
Just like falling into a swamp, only continuously sinking until death.
In that instant, Lu Jinzhao once again felt the Parchment’s malice like an Abyss.
No matter how stupid or impotently furious it usually appeared, Lu Jinzhao never forgot that this was a ghost, a ghost with absolute malice toward her.
Every time it revealed its own malice, it made Lu Jinzhao feel chilled to the bone.
Even though Lu Jinzhao had now experienced much, at this moment, she was still shocked by this malice.
But she didn’t feel fear because of it.
“This is just what you think.” she said.
“If everything went according to your thinking, your imagination, I should’ve transacted with you several times by now, long ago given you my entire soul, and let you occupy this body, right?”
The Parchment, which had been speaking nonstop earlier, fell silent again.
After a while, it sneered.
【Struggle in your death throes.】
【I’m willing to watch such a good show, to appreciate your ugliness before death.】
【That will make me feel pleasure.】
As it spoke, it seemed to suddenly remember something.
【You don’t want to die, do you?】
【You definitely don’t want to die. No one wants to survive more than you. You’ve lived so hard, but you still have to die.】
【You should’ve died long ago.】
Lu Jinzhao surprisingly tasted a bit of resentment from these lines of text.
It seemed her constant struggle to stay alive and refusal of the Parchment’s transactions had indeed made it very unhappy.
But what did that have to do with her? She would live on, live well, and it would be best if it died of anger, that ghostly thing.
Lu Jinzhao inexplicably felt some resentment too, a bit competitive. She felt she must become stronger, live longer, and not transact with the Parchment even once, to show it that all its bullshit threats wouldn’t come true.
In the following days, Lu Jinzhao studied with great enthusiasm, her efficiency much higher than before, until once again, she felt the Train’s summons.
Although it was interaction, it was actually the main line.
Also, although the Parchment was just a piece of skin, if it had to be given a gender, it would be a girl, an evil little imp, really bad! Not fake bad!
