Chapter 315: Will She End Up Hurting Me, or Will She Help Me?
Because Robert, the representative of the Vatican in this round, had performed so outrageously, some murmurs and whispers started to stir within the Vatican.
It was late at night, and the Pope had already retired for the day. After all, he had a heavy workload every day and was getting on in years—he couldn’t keep up with the young folks and stay up all night watching every single horror tale unfold. Basically, he would just watch the replay when he woke up and had some free time the next day.
So, in the main hall of the Vatican, only the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, paladins, and others specifically in charge of the Horror Tale World were still pulling an all-nighter, closely monitoring Robert’s movements.
Since the Pope wasn’t there, and Gregori was just one of the Pope’s successors, gossip and rumors naturally started to circulate.
Those lower-ranking archbishops and bishops only dared to whisper among themselves.
Some of the higher-ranking cardinals even went so far as to question Gregori right to his face, asking if he had deliberately fed Robert false information just to get him killed. After all, if Robert died, Gregori would basically have no rivals left for the position of Pope.
Gregori found these accusations utterly ridiculous. Truth be told, he had absolutely no interest in the papal throne. He wasn’t very popular within the Vatican to begin with, so it wasn’t surprising that his colleagues didn’t respect him.
But when they started talking like that, he couldn’t just let it slide.
You can doubt my character all you want, but Sidney was there too. Surely you trust him, right?
Gregori and Sidney weren’t even close friends, but Sidney was willing to clear Gregori’s name, so the other cardinals dropped the subject. Without any solid evidence, there was no point in creating unnecessary conflict.
Everything would have to wait until the Pope woke up the next morning to make a final decision.
Don’t let the current Vatican fool you into thinking it’s bursting with talent and perfectly stable. Their foundation rests entirely on the Pope. If anything happened to him, the entire Vatican would crumble.
Because the Pope had temporarily sent Gregori to the Holy Temple for the baptism ritual, it basically meant he intended to pass the papal succession to him.
But before that, Robert had been the Pope’s designated heir. Many had already accepted that fact and had been building good relationships with him.
Gregori had always been an oddball among the cardinals, with very few friends. Now, suddenly becoming the Pope’s successor and expecting everyone to start sucking up to him? They weren’t having it.
Plus, the Vatican’s resource allocation had always been somewhat skewed, which had bred a lot of discontent over time. It’s just that the Pope’s authority was so immense that no one dared to voice their grievances openly.
Sidney could also see that Gregori might not really be cut out to be Pope. His way of handling things was just too unconventional—he couldn’t inspire the same trust and confidence in people that Robert could.
If that continued, the conflicts would only grow. Even if Gregori did eventually become Pope, many of the Vatican’s core members would likely leave the Papal Palace and go elsewhere.
Suddenly, Sidney remembered something: lately, the Pope had been arranging for him to study under Gregori, putting Gregori in a position of favor over him. Could it be that the Pope was secretly asking Sidney to help Gregori secure his position?
As one of the paladins with a decent reputation, if Sidney threw his support behind Gregori, then Gregori might still be able to keep the Vatican under control.
But should he really do that? Sidney was torn.
This was the kind of internal flaw that plagues all major powers.
Over at Dragon Tiger Mountain, things weren’t all that different. When Zhang Yangqing first took over as Celestial Master, there were plenty of people who weren’t happy about it either. Of course, the old Celestial Master was still alive back then, so no one dared to speak out openly.
Some of the senior elders were already advanced in years, having long since withdrawn from worldly affairs—many were wandering far away, and no one even knew if they were still alive. Others simply felt that, given their age, they shouldn’t have to answer to a young upstart like Zhang Yangqing, so they left Dragon Tiger Mountain in protest.
That’s precisely why, in this generation, Su Muyu was considered the one with the highest seniority at Dragon Tiger Mountain—because all the older generation were already gone.
Similarly, if Gregori inherited the papacy, a lot of the Vatican’s core members would probably leave too. But he was different from Zhang Yangqing. Zhang Yangqing either just coasted along and found someone else to take over, or, when he actually put his mind to it, he could make everyone fear and respect him.
Gregori, on the other hand, was this headstrong guy who’d been buried in his research on the Horror Tale World—he didn’t even have the same kind of thoughts as Zhang Yangqing. He didn’t seem interested in anything outside the Horror Tale World, which was exactly why Sidney wasn’t too keen on helping him out.
Just imagine: Gregori would be running off to the Horror Tale World every single day, while Sidney would be stuck at the Vatican, exhausted from handling all the administrative nonsense.
And right at this moment, Gregori—who couldn’t care less about the office politics—noticed something was off.
“Is the Pope keeping something from me? There’s something wrong with Robert.”
Inside the Horror Tale World, if anyone else had been injured the way Robert was, they’d be feeling down and panicked inside, desperately trying to figure out how to treat their wounds. But Robert’s actions struck Gregori as highly suspicious.
After clearing out the creepy kid, Robert just slowly started tidying up the fallen shelves, neatly arranging the scattered goods, and then, with a completely blank expression, picked up the candlestick, walked back to the counter, and went back to waiting for more customers—completely ignoring the wounds oozing black smoke all over his body. He didn’t even bandage them.
That was just bizarre—it felt like he had become a different person entirely.
That originally cheerful, sunshiney, well-respected cardinal now had a face dark and gloomy enough to rival the creepiest customers, shrouded in black smoke like he was one of the monsters himself.
This completely threw Gregori for a loop. He didn’t know Robert’s background—didn’t know what Robert was capable of. In fact, he didn’t even get along with most of the other Vatican staff.
At a total loss, Gregori had no choice but to switch over to the Dragon Country’s big screen.
What he saw there made things click for him.
For Zhang Yangqing, he’d definitely triggered a “speak-and-answer” rule. It wasn’t that he couldn’t have predicted it—he just didn’t care.
When the upper body of the pale, female ghost suddenly spun 180 degrees, a loud SMACK echoed through the general store.
The little kid in green had been all set to give Zhang Yangqing a good scare, but just as he turned around, all he saw was a blur of a palm—and before he knew it, he’d been slapped right back to where he came from.
It was like he’d used his own face to catch Zhang Yangqing’s slap.
That one sharp smack not only left the creepy kid totally stunned, it also made the female ghost’s upper body swivel back to its original position. The precision of that slap was incredible—just the right amount of force.
With that single slap, Zhang Yangqing was sending a clear message: I’m giving you a chance. If you want to buy something, you’re still a customer. But if not, I’m sending you to keep that guy in yellow company. You don’t stand a chance against me.
This time around, Zhang Yangqing was seriously playing his role as a shop assistant—he needed that sales revenue. And more importantly, he figured that if he knocked things over, he’d have to clean up the mess, which would be a huge pain. Plus, using his Lightning Method and Golden Light to scare off other potential customers wasn’t exactly ideal either. Otherwise, that creepy kid wouldn’t have gotten off with just a single slap.
“How much ghost money do you want?”
Zhang Yangqing continued talking to the kid as if nothing had happened at all. In the entire Horror Tale World, he was the only one bold enough to chat so casually with a green-clothed ghost.
“Oh! Here, I’ve got some money. See how much this can buy, and I’ll take that much!”
Got to hand it to the kid—he was pretty sharp. After getting slapped back, he quickly realized two things: the power gap was just too huge, and this big-shot clerk wasn’t killing him because he wanted to make a sale—after all, he’d asked how much ghost money he wanted. So, since the big shot was giving him a second chance, the kid was going to do right by him and support his business.
That’s why he pulled out all the money he had.
Zhang Yangqing was very satisfied with that. Good kid. Smart move—worth letting you live.
Watching Zhang Yangqing handle the situation so effortlessly, some viewers still couldn’t quite understand why, in the Dragon Country Celestial Master’s Horror Tale World, the ghosts always seemed so reasonable and polite, while in other worlds, the chosen ones were dealing with nothing but vicious monsters.
Soon enough, someone gave a great explanation: When you get slapped across the face the moment you show up, you quickly learn that this world actually is open to reason.
That comment left the audience shaking their heads in amazement. Yep, when it comes to ghosts, all that talk about reasoning is hollow—it’s a good, solid slap that really gets the message across.
From this point onward, Zhang Yangqing’s sales started pulling ahead of the other chosen ones.
After the creepy kid left, a lot of the other chosen ones let out huge sighs of relief.
There were just way too many traps here. Rahman was seriously considering duct-taping his own mouth shut—better to keep quiet as much as possible to avoid triggering any rules and getting attacked.
Many of the chosen ones probably passed that stage without even realizing just how dangerous those yellow- and green-clothed guests really were—and frankly, they didn’t want to know.
The next few customers were ordinary ones; the wind chime didn’t ring loudly. Rahman handled the transactions normally, without any extra chit-chat—he barely even spoke. He just nodded or shook his head, like a mute.
Another half hour passed. Business seemed pretty slow at this hour—not a single customer came in.
And of course, it was precisely during these boring, drowsy stretches that you had to stay extra alert.
Because the traps in the Horror Tale World were just so bizarre that one tiny slip-up could get you killed.
Ding-ling!
The wind chime jingled. And as expected, trouble was probably on its way.
This time, it wasn’t loud. The person who walked in wore black.
But many of the chosen ones took a sharp breath, eyes locked on him, waiting to see what he’d buy.
Even if he was a black-clothed guest—someone you could talk to—those who’d already stumbled into multiple traps weren’t about to take any chances. They’d keep conversation to an absolute minimum—preferably none at all.
But then something weird happened: this guest just kept wandering around the store, not buying anything, not leaving.
Then the wind chime rang again, and a few more guests walked in.
Two of them wore gray, one wore yellow.
And this was where the next big trap lay. The chosen ones could clearly see that the two in gray were male ghosts, while the one in yellow was female.
They were all near the shelves, when one of the male voices called out to the counter: “Hey boss, where are your white candles? I can’t seem to find them—could you help me grab some?”
By this point, the surviving chosen ones had learned their lesson. No way they were falling for that.
After all, one of the guests was in yellow. Even if she looked female, what if the voice had come from her? If they answered, wouldn’t that be breaking the rules?
Rahman even cracked a faint smile—he was starting to get familiar with these traps. His expression practically screamed, “Is that all you got?”
It was like he’d seen right through the Horror Tale World’s tricks.
But fate had other plans. When he walked over with the candlestick, he found that it was actually the gray-clothed guest who’d called him.
It felt like he’d just been mentally patting himself on the back, only for the Horror Tale World to slap him right in the face.
Even so, he didn’t let his guard down—his mind was already running through two possible scenarios:
First: What if these people had walked in wearing normal clothes, but had changed outfits inside? Maybe the gray was just the outer layer, and underneath, the guest was actually wearing yellow.
Second: These two gray guests would keep trying to chat him up, and the yellow guest would mimic their voices to suddenly cut in, hoping to catch him off guard and make him respond.
If that happened, he’d be violating the rules.
After all, in the Horror Tale World, anything was possible.
So he decided to keep his mouth shut, playing the mute—just gesturing to the guests.
While the male gray-clothed guest was bagging his own candles, Rahman kept sneaking glances at the collar of his shirt, trying to see if he was wearing yellow underneath.
But then, the gray-clothed guest seemed to notice Rahman’s staring. He suddenly straightened up, clapped a hand over his collar, and shot Rahman a look of angry embarrassment.
“Hey boss, what’s your deal? Let me make this clear—I’m just here to shop. I mean, you’re pretty good-looking and all, but I’ve already got someone I like.”
Rahman: “…”
Wait—hold on. Let me process this!
That one sentence nearly short-circuited Rahman’s brain, and he was supposed to be one of the smart ones.
In just a few words, that guy had dropped a whole truckload of bizarre implications.
I was just trying to check your damn collar—don’t go adding your own plot twists!
The first half seemed to imply that the male gray-clothed guest had mistaken Rahman for someone who liked guys. That was already pretty wild, but Rahman had to admit—staring at someone’s collar was pretty rude, so it wasn’t totally crazy to jump to that conclusion.
But then came the second half: “you’re great, but I’ve got someone I like.”
At that, Rahman suddenly glanced at the guest’s other hand.
Where it was interlocked with the other gray-clothed guest’s hand, five fingers entwined…
That image left Rahman frozen on the spot.
He wanted to explain himself—but he couldn’t speak.
And if he didn’t say anything, wouldn’t that be the same as admitting he did like guys?
Who could possibly understand this kind of frustration?!
Just as he was about to gesture an explanation, the other gray-clothed guest pulled the first one behind him and snapped at Rahman: “You rude little clerk! This is clearly not a proper shop—we’re never coming back here!”
And with that, he dragged the other one out of the store.
Before they left, Rahman could’ve sworn he caught a wink from the guy being pulled away.
Because that first comment had really sounded like he was interested in Rahman. It had that whole “I’ll be back, handsome” vibe, and it gave Rahman instant goosebumps.
Dude, please don’t come back—I’m not into guys.
And just like that, Rahman, who thought he was so clever, lost two sales in one go.
He was also the only chosen one to trigger this particular scene. Even Zhang Yangqing didn’t get it—which just goes to show that Rahman, as a SSSS-level chosen one, was so ridiculously “talented” that even the experts outside couldn’t figure him out.
The expert panels from various countries were busy analyzing how Rahman had known those two were a couple, and how he’d somehow figured out this specific method to trigger that scene.
If Rahman knew they were analyzing all that, he’d probably be screaming: Please, for the love of god, stop analyzing—I did that completely by accident!
As for what happened next—whether that gray-clothed guest would come back or not—Rahman had no idea, and honestly, he couldn’t even think about it.
Because right now, the yellow-clothed female guest was standing right in front of him.
And she gave Rahman a very ominous feeling.
Unlike the other guests, Rahman could clearly sense a cold, sinister aura emanating from her. She was wreathed in a ghostly haze, her face twisted with anger—like she was about to make a move.
And that completely baffled Rahman. His candle was still lit, and since the three of them had walked in, he hadn’t said a single word. So how had he broken a rule?!
Just as panic started to set in, the yellow-clothed guest spoke up:
“Boss, could you do me a favor…”
She was holding one specific item—the Blood Bone Jade that was listed in the inventory.
Her request was this: when a guest with a cross-shaped claw mark on his face comes in looking for the Blood Bone Jade, don’t sell it to him.
If Rahman agreed to her request, she would give him a token of hers. When the time came, he could use it to call her, and she would appear to help him out of a jam.
In other words, she wasn’t there to buy anything—she was there to ask him not to sell something to another customer who was coming later.
But this came with a reward: if he refused the sale, he’d get one free favor from her.
Rahman adopted a thinking pose, gesturing that he needed to consider it.
The yellow-clothed guest didn’t rush him, but urged him to decide quickly.
Rahman was weighing the pros and cons.
Because the rules here were incredibly vague—take Rule 10, for instance.
[Rule 10: Not every guest will harm you, and not every guest will help you.]
This rule probably applied directly to this situation.
The question was: Will she end up hurting me, or will she help me?
If he agreed, and the guest with the cross-shaped claw marks showed up asking for the Blood Bone Jade, and he refused, that would definitely piss him off—and what if he blew out the candle?
What if he just hid all the Blood Bone Jade and told the claw-mark guest they were out of stock?
But that would also break a rule—Rule 3 explicitly stated:
[Rule 3: Please keep the shelves as fully stocked as possible. Guests get very upset if they can’t find what they want.]
And besides, what if the incoming guest was even more powerful, and Rahman couldn’t handle him?
Since the rules were spelled out like this, Rahman decided to shake his head and refuse. He was just a sales clerk—if you’re not buying anything, why would he help you? That made no sense.
Even if the yellow-clothed guest got furious, it was still a reasonable refusal from a shop assistant.
It’s not like she’d kill him just because he wouldn’t help, right? I mean, what if she asked him to take out a red-clothed guest and he couldn’t? Would she kill him for that too?
Wouldn’t that be a guaranteed death sentence?
Since that kind of situation existed, the Horror Tale World would obviously give ordinary chosen ones a way to survive.
And sure enough, not agreeing didn’t trigger any rules. The yellow-clothed guest angrily dropped the Blood Bone Jade and stormed out.
“Fine, leave—but why drop my stuff?! Now I have to pick it up myself. Geez…”
Rahman grumbled internally, but didn’t dare say it out loud.
However, a few chosen ones had a different approach from Rahman’s—they decided to agree first, and then wait to see what happened when the claw-mark guest showed up.
This group consisted of those who’d been offending people left and right from the start and still weren’t dead yet.
The representative was the chosen one from Maple Leaf Country—basically, they’d committed to going down one path: after pissing off the first one, they weren’t afraid to piss off the second.
And ironically, by stacking those death flags, they stumbled onto a possible way out.
Because they’d been constantly antagonizing the creepy guests, right? Retaliation was almost guaranteed.
The only question was when it would come.
But this yellow-clothed guest was no pushover. In the end, she might just be the one who helped them survive this round.
For the other chosen ones who’d been playing it safe, this was a major trap. But for these troublemakers, this event might just have been the Horror Tale World throwing them a lifeline.
When the expert panels from various countries analyzed this conclusion, the audience was stunned: Wait—that actually works?
