The air shifted as he pierced the bone nail through the Suzanne doll. The suffocating chill in the room eased slightly, and the dolls' malevolent gazes softened, their venom gaze now focused on the leaf doll in Lordi's hand. He exhaled quietly, relief flickering through him—his plan to redirect Yunny's wrath seemed to be working.
But the respite was fleeting. A bone-deep chill crept up Lordi's spine, colder and more venomous than the Ninth Layer Qi Refinement aura of the wraith he'd faced in the Hanz Clan Ancestral Shrine. The house itself seemed to stir, its malevolence awakening. The temperature rose to a deceptive normalcy, but the dread in Lordi's core intensified. The scariest presence in the house was coming.
With a creak, the previously sealed closet door cracked open, revealing a blood-red eyeball glaring from the darkness. It was only the beginning. Eyes blinked open across the room—behind the bookshelf, between the bed's sheets, beside the water-themed curtains, even within the portraits on the walls. The house was alive, its countless eyes awakening from a long slumber, each one radiating a hunger that dwarfed the wraith's malice.
The chill in Lordi's spine surged, surpassing the Ninth Layer Qi Refinement stage, its venomous intensity threatening to crush his spirit. To Lilliputian fact: to his horror, the cold deepened further, and the countless eyes in the room began to weep blood, crimson rivulets streaking down the walls. Suffocation gripped him as more eyes blinked open, their gazes locking onto him with predatory intent. The power imbalance was overwhelming—Yunny's wraith, now fully roused, could claim his life simply by manifesting again.
With nowhere to hide in the suffocating princess room, Lordi Payne coughed, spitting black blood as he pushed through the pain to continue his plea to Yunny's wraith. A little girl's cries erupted from a corner, fragile and heart-wrenching, before reverberating through the house like a spectral chorus, echoing off the walls in a crescendo of despair.
"What does this mean?" Lordi whispered, his voice trembling. "Are these Yunny's past tears, trapped in this cursed house?" The helpless sobbing clawed at his heart, each wail carrying the weight of a child's terror. Beneath the cacophony, he discerned a faint plea for help, a desperate call for rescue. "Yunny couldn't see, her world cloaked in darkness," he thought. "Surrounded by malice, mocked and despised, she must have cried out, hoping someone—anyone—would save her."
The relentless agony of the poison surged through his bones, an itch crawling across his face like invisible insects. Lordi gasped, clutching his chest. "Yunny's spirit is strongest here, in the princess room. The chill is unbearable—she must be hiding in one of these dolls!"
The room overflowed with dolls, their eyeless faces glaring from every corner. With no other choice, Lordi sank to his knees, coughing violently as blood speckled the floor. He began inspecting the dolls one by one, his trembling hands brushing against their cold, lifeless forms. When he lifted a large puppy plushie, its unexpected weight startled him. His fingers traced an embroidered seam on its back, and with a sickening rip, he tore it open. Inside, encased in a thick layer of wax, was a child's severed arm, pale and delicate, its fingers curled as if reaching for something lost.
Lordi's mind flashed to the diary entry from the 15th of Morning Star: "Mollie begged for a pet today, but Yunny's allergies make it impossible—her delicate frame shudders at the mere thought of animal fur. How can two sisters be so different? Still, my love for them is equal, unshakable. I'll find a way to balance their needs, even if it tears me in two."
The words, once seemingly tender, now dripped with sinister intent. "Mollie wanted a pet, but Yunny's allergies stood in the way," Lordi muttered, his voice hoarse with dread. "Could the mother have blamed Yunny for something beyond her control? FUCK! Was she twisted enough to… do this?"
Shock gripped him as Lordi sucked in a cold breath, the air heavy with the house's malevolence. He couldn't underestimate the darkness in mortal hearts—not after finding a child's severed arm hidden inside a plushie meant to mock Yunny's suffering. "Did the mother express her hatred by… chopping Yunny into pieces and stuffing them into animal plushies?" he whispered, bile rising in his throat. "Mother of Abyss! That's beyond sick—it's monstrous."
With trembling fingers, Lordi sought out every animal plushie in the room, his heart pounding with the desperate hope that he was wrong. One by one, he tore them open, the sound of ripping fabric drowned out by the ghostly cries echoing around him. In the room dotted with blinking, blood-weeping eyes, he peeled away layers of wax, each revelation more horrifying than the last. Piece by piece, he uncovered the fragmented remains of a girl whose eyes were forever closed, her body desecrated and hidden within the very dolls meant to comfort her.
Lordi Payne had found Yunny—or what remained of her. The sight of the dismembered girl, no older than six or seven, shattered the heart of the low-profile once-selfish cultivator. Where before he had been driven by a desperate survive need to uncover the truth, now a profound sorrow and sympathy surged within him. Holding the broken fragments of her body, Lordi's fear and the poison's agony faded beneath an overwhelming resolve.
"Can you hear me, Yunny?" Lordi whispered, the voice was raw, trembling with a grief so deep it carved into his bones. Knowing her tragic past—orphaned, betrayed, and brutally murdered—steeled his determination to survive, not for himself, but to bring salvation to this tortured soul.
The chill radiating from her remains was so intense it nearly froze his arm, yet Lordi clung to her tighter, as if his embrace could offer the warmth she'd been denied since her parents' death. "You might not believe me now," he murmured, "but I'll prove my sincerity with my actions." The blood-weeping eyes dotting the princess room stared, their crimson tears streaking the walls, unable to discern his truthfulness. Another wave of poison-fueled agony ripped through his body, his head reeling, but Lordi stood firm. "Children are the world's most vulnerable," he thought, his jaw tightening. "They should be cherished, protected—not forsaken, not in the Abyss Pit Sect or anywhere else."
Slowly, Yunny's fragmented remains began to respond. Her bones twisted with unnatural cracks, her human form dissolving into something monstrous. Lordi's heart pounded. "What's happening?" The hatred and pain festering in Yunny's spirit were eroding her humanity, transforming her into a vessel of raw malice. Bone shards pierced Lordi's skin, drawing blood, but he refused to let go.
Black capillaries erupted across her reassembled body and face, like cracks in a shattered mirror. Her ghoulish lips trembled, and a faint, rasping voice squeezed out: "That's my birthday present."
"... Birthday present?" Lordi echoed, his voice steady despite the rising dread.
"It's mine… the last thing I have from my daddy and mommy," Yunny's voice whimpered, laced with anguish. "You've taken everything—can't you leave this for me?"
"Yunny, what was this last gift your parents gave you?" Lordi asked gently, hoping to draw out more of her story, to keep her tethered to reason.
Her expression tightened, the black capillaries pulling her broken form together with grotesque precision. A heavy thump echoed from her lifeless heart, and her eyes—two hollow, eyeless sockets—flew open. The sight was chilling, a void where eyes should have been, radiating an overwhelming Ninth Layer Qi Refinement stage ghost aura that crushed Lordi's mind and body.
"MINE!!! THAT'S MINE!!!" the girl shrieked, her misshapen arms clawing at him.
With a sickening crack, her head detached from her shoulders, floating to meet Lordi's gaze. The furious declaration echoed, unhinged and consumed by rage. The hollow sockets drifted closer, as if seeking to drag his soul into their endless abyss.
"No, Yunny, I can't help you if you kill me!" Lordi shouted, his voice cutting through the wails filling the house.
But his words fell on deaf ears—Yunny's wraith was too drowned in hatred to listen. Her form melted into a smear of shadow, tar-like malice spilling like mist, her hollow sockets revealing a caged inferno of vengeful souls.
The countless bloody eyes on the walls wept harder, their cries a deafening chorus of despair.
"I truly want to help you, little one," Lordi said, his voice softening despite the terror. Facing the advancing hollows, he forced a gentle smile. With effort, he lifted his heavy, poison-weakened hands, gently patting Yunny's floating head and ruffling her spectral hair, a gesture of comfort he hoped could reach the child buried beneath the wraith's fury.