Chapter 44: Zero-Frame Initiation, the AK Faith

“WTF, bro! You mean the ‘solution’ to keep them from hurting me is for me to volunteer as a sacrifice?” Wu Xiaoyou was utterly baffled.

The two of them were assigned by the old village chief to stay in an empty house near the ancestral hall.

This place was normally used to host honored guests.

Although Yin Yuan Village had little contact with the outside world, it wasn’t completely isolated.

After all, children with scholarly talent still had to be sent to school; you couldn’t let the next generation rot away in some mountain village’s private academy.

The other villagers were buzzing with gossip.

They never expected an outsider to enter the village during the Yin Yuan Great Ritual—and be lodged in the highest-status accommodation.

It had never happened in all this time.

“Didn’t I say I was going to sacrifice you?” Wu Wang raised an eyebrow and pulled out a handful of sunflower seeds, crunching them loudly.

“?”

Wu Xiaoyou was now completely stunned.

You’ve been brought here already and you’re still arguing?

If not me, then you?

“Oh right, you guessed correctly—I plan to sacrifice myself, just to see what the Yin Yuan God really is.” Wu Wang glanced at the stream of thoughts hovering above the other’s head.

The Deep God was activating again.

Before Wu Xiaoyou could react in shock, Wu Wang continued: “But I could sacrifice you too—if you’ve got a personal craving for it, I’ll do my best to accommodate.”

“...”

Wu Xiaoyou was now utterly speechless.

She suddenly realized why the villagers called him “Little Crazy”—there might be some reason to it.

His mental state was definitely off.

Who voluntarily offers themselves as a sacrifice?!

Oh wait—he would.

“You don’t think I’m joking, do you?” Wu Wang’s tone grew colder: “You’ve got two choices. Either tell me who you are and why you came to Yin Yuan Village—or get sacrificed alongside me. I’ve wanted to die for a long time.”

“!?”

Zero-frame initiation—Wu Xiaoyou was caught completely off guard.

She never imagined the little beggar who’d protected her all day would turn on her so suddenly.

The killing intent and chilling aura she felt from him now were even stronger than when she’d been chased by the female ghosts in the forest.

He really meant to kill her!

So bringing her into the village wasn’t for protection—it was to prevent her from escaping?!

“I… I don’t remember…”

Click-click—

Before she finished speaking, Wu Wang reached behind his back and pulled out a homemade AK-47.

He loaded the magazine and chambered a round with practiced ease.

The cold, black muzzle pressed against Wu Xiaoyou’s forehead—its icy touch made her certain this wasn’t a toy.

This guy actually had a gun!

“If I haven’t heard your reason for being here in five seconds, I’ll shoot off your limbs and wait here with you until sacrifice day—we’ll leave together.” Wu Wang held the gun with one hand, the other still chewing on snacks: “Don’t worry—I’ll treat the wounds. You’ll live long enough to be sacrificed, even with all four limbs gone.”

No one can resist the charm of AK.

If someone can, it’s just not powerful enough.

Suggest switching to an RPG next time.

Wu Xiaoyou tried to argue further.

“I really—”

“5!”

“You’re not joking?”

“4… 1!”

“I’ll tell you! My name is Wu Xiaoyou, I live at No. 225, Xingfu Community, Huichuan Avenue, Mingyang City. My parents are alive, I have an older sister and a dumb younger brother. I came here to find my origins—I and my sister were both adopted from an orphanage!”

Inside, she was already cursing wildly.

【Fucking hell, was that five seconds? It went from 4 straight to 1! Does this bastard even know how to count?!】

【Shit! This mystery of my origins is getting messier—first ghosts, now a lunatic!】

【That damn fortune-teller! If I make it back, I’m going to kill him!】

【If I even survive this…】

Wu Wang silently watched the cascade of thoughts above her head.

His own heart was also unsettled.

It’s real…

This second sister is real.

Five years ago, when our family’s plane crashed, my second sister was traveling alone—she survived. I never imagined she’d come here searching for her origins!

She’s connected to Yin Yuan Village!

That’s why she could command the female ghosts to stop—not coincidence, but something deeper?

“What about that fortune-teller?” Wu Wang slightly lifted the AK’s muzzle.

Wu Xiaoyou blinked. “How did you… never mind. I met an old blind fortune-teller under a bridge. He immediately recognized I was an orphan and pointed out my abnormalities.”

“He told me if I wanted to know the truth, I should come to this mountain range and find a place called Yin Yuan Village. Then I happened to get caught in a landslide…”

The rest doesn’t need explaining.

Zhang Sanfeng found Wu Xiaoyou unconscious and accidentally brought her into Yin Yuan Village.

Wu Wang zeroed in: “What’s your abnormality?”

In his memory, his second sister was a simple-minded fool—but not so foolish she’d be lured by some fortune-teller’s words into this remote mountain range.

What exactly did the man say?

“I… since I was a child, I’ve been able to see ghosts.” Wu Xiaoyou’s voice grew dull and heavy. “At the orphanage, no one believed me except my sister. But that fortune-teller just… said it outright. And the key thing was…”

“He actually pulled a ghost out of his gourd—proved he could see and capture these things too.”

Wu Wang: “?”

He hadn’t considered this possibility.

Before he gained 【Immortality】, if someone told him they could see ghosts, he’d just mock them with his own “ghost head.”

“So back in that ruined house?”

“Yeah. I could see them—and I felt an inexplicable familiarity, like I actually knew them.” Wu Xiaoyou laid it all out.

Not bro!

I need the Deep God just to see them!

My second sister actually has a natural gift?!

The real-life second sister who was always cheerful and clueless—she had this hidden side?

“OK, sleep. Tomorrow we’ll go chat with your ‘good friends.’” Wu Wang paused, then said.

Now that he confirmed she was the real second sister, he had no objections.

Zero-frame initiation again.

One second he was possessed by Death.

The next, he’s calling me “bro.”

Let’s pretend nothing just happened.

Wu Xiaoyou stared blankly.

“Wait! You just interrogate me? What about you? Who are you?” She was slightly indignant.

Wu Wang blinked. “I’ve got a gun. Do you? And I’m the crazy one! How the hell would I know who I am? Asking a lunatic who he is—you’re the one with mental issues!”

With that, he turned over and fell asleep.

Wu Xiaoyou: “?”

Hmm… that actually made sense.

But something still felt off.

She was, by nature, stubborn—but right now, her principles were held at gunpoint.

Caliber is justice. Range is fairness. Power is democracy.

At this point, she had nothing left to say.

Quietly climbed onto the other bed, pulled the blanket over herself, and lay down. As the tension of the entire day slowly eased, sleep crept over her.

The moon bright, stars sparse, the sound of snoring in her ears.

————

The next day, clear, the sun rising in the east.

Wu Xiaoyou was still half-asleep when she heard Wu Wang talking with the old village chief at the door.

The content jolted her awake instantly.

“Old Biden, I want to visit the place where past Yin Yuan Holy Maidens were handled.”

“Oh, by the way—she’s not here to be sacrificed. The sacrifice is me. If you so much as touch her, I can’t kill you—but tonight, I’ll slaughter every last person in this village. You believe me, right?”

"Without Yin Yuan Village, are you still the village chief? Will the Yin Yuan Great God spare you?"

"By the way, do you recognize this?"

"Its full name is Kalashnikov."

"Shortened to AK-47."

Click-click—

Chamber a round! AK faith!