Chapter Twenty-Three: The Divine Game of Mind Calculation (3)

What exactly was hidden within Mieying? What allowed her to exist outside the rules of the Heavenly Eye Trial?

No trial participant was ever allowed to have their assigned number revealed during the game. If someone discovered it, it meant instant elimination.

Tianji deliberately announced her number—making it so that everyone in the cave now knew Mieying’s code. Even if Mieying had told others her number before entering the Divine Mind Calculation, Huasheng himself hadn’t known it; in fact, this was his first time seeing her.

The changing numbers on the cave wall confirmed that a participant had indeed been eliminated—at least one person knew Mieying’s true number.

By rights, Mieying should have withdrawn.

Yet, she remained.

Not only did she remain, she was now intent on destroying the trial’s colored ring and ending the Heavenly Eye Trial.

At some point, the cavern had fallen into silence, save for the feathers still drifting through the air. It was as if, within this Divine Mind Calculation, only Mieying and Tianji remained at the center of it all.

No one dared to make a sound. Everyone, as if by tacit agreement, held their breath in anticipation.

If Mieying destroyed the trial’s colored ring, everyone would be released from the game. If Tianji bested her, he would continue to hunt down the remaining participants, eliminating them one by one.

For the others, there was nothing to do but watch and wait.

This trial had become a duel between two. Their choices would decide the fate of all within this game.

Hiding behind a rock, Huasheng lowered his voice and asked Xuanwen beside him, “What secret is Mieying hiding?”

Xuanwen replied, “When you first arrived in the cavern, most participants had gathered around Tianji. Did you notice anything odd about the scene?”

“Odd?” Huasheng tried to recall his first impression upon entering; his mind was hazy at the time, and though he’d seen many disciples encircling Tianji, the confusion and his own attempts to evade the others’ spells had kept him out of sight behind a rock—he hadn’t observed closely enough to spot anything amiss.

It was Taishang Xiaojun who spoke up, “Now that you mention it, something was off. If all the participants had been present, the numbers seemed a bit low.”

He thought for a moment and confirmed, “The screen said there were thirty-six participants, but there didn’t seem to be that many. But with all the chaos, we didn’t notice anything strange at the time.”

“If there weren’t thirty-six, does that mean the participant count was off?” Huasheng asked.

Xuanwen shook his head. “The count was correct. But what he said was true—you only saw just over twenty people.”

Huasheng pressed, “So some participants were hiding?”

“No. They were all in the center of the cave.”

“Invisible, then?”

“No, not invisible, exactly. But in fact, you couldn’t see some of the participants.”

Huasheng was at a loss. “What do you mean? There were nearly ten people who advanced from the Candlefire Battle by snuffing out their flames, and now they’re here in this cave, yet we can’t see them?”

“That’s right.”

Huasheng grabbed Xuanwen’s arm, almost shouting, “Then where did they go?”

“You really are a pest, you know that?”

“Fine, fine! I’m a pest! Just tell me what’s going on!” Huasheng let go, admitting defeat.

Xuanwen relented. “Remember I said Mieying was the youngest of nine sisters, all of them highly skilled in the arts?”

“Yes! What are you getting at?”

“Those eight sisters were also winners of the Candlefire Battle. Each snuffed out a candle and made it to this trial.”

“What? You mean all nine sisters entered the Heavenly Eye Trial together, and none were eliminated in the first round?” Huasheng felt sweat trickling down his brow. “So is this person in front of us actually one of Mieying’s sisters?”

“No, this is Mieying herself.”

“Then where are her eight sisters? Didn’t you say they’re all here?” Huasheng began to sense something strange.

“No way… Could it be?” Taishang Xiaojun suddenly looked enlightened.

Huasheng urged, “What is it? Did you figure it out?”

Taishang Xiaojun turned to Xuanwen: “You mean Mieying has nine separate numbers in the Heavenly Eye Trial?”

“Exactly.”

Huasheng’s mind went blank. “Wait, I thought each participant could only have one number! Could her sisters have given their numbers to her?”

“Of course not,” Taishang Xiaojun said. “Unless Mieying’s sisters are actually Mieying herself.”

Huasheng felt cold sweat drip onto his hand. “What do you mean? How can her sisters be her?”

Xuanwen spoke slowly, “This was told to my father by the Firewheel Heavenly King, Nezha. When Mieying’s mother was pregnant with the nine girls, she carried them for three years and six months. At birth, the eight older sisters were all stillborn. When the family had lost all hope, they discovered the youngest, Mieying, was still alive, though she seemed on the verge of death, and was born severely deformed.”

“Severely deformed?”

“Yes. When Mieying was born, her face had no features and her body was just a trunk, without limbs. It was a terrifying sight. Because she had no features, she couldn’t breathe and turned completely purple. Her family was nearly driven mad. To save her, they cut open her windpipe with a knife, allowing her to breathe, and then slit her esophagus to feed her milk through a bamboo tube. Mieying came into this world amidst agony and blood.”

Huasheng listened, heart tightening, unable to imagine what the family endured.

Despite all that, because she felt no pain, Mieying’s infancy was a d