"Let’s be clear—we’ve scrambled all twelve slips. Not a soul knows where ‘Death’ hides."  

    The muted tap of suede boots underscored He Zhi’s derisive snort. His wind-tousled curls framed eyes sharp enough to flay flesh. "Your tricks remain conveniently invisible," he spat, seizing a hovering slip. Across the quivering air, Shi Yi’s composure held like cracked porcelain—only the convulsive twitch beneath his serpentine eyes betrayed turmoil.  

    The earth shuddered. Whispers coiled through shadows as four remained: Shi Yi, Yu Yi, Su Luan, Rhine.  

    "I’ll claim first draw." Shi Yi’s robes billowed, revealing a phantom crucifix bleeding into the air. When the hem grazed Rhine’s wrist, the boy’s shadow crucified itself against stone—a vision Yu Yi alone witnessed.  

    "The Lord’s light guides." Shi Yi pressed prayer hands, golden threads materializing like divine puppet strings. Yu Yi traced their glow to Can Yin’s conspiratorial pupils—proof of collusion.  

    As Rhine reached out, every slip ignited crimson. "Death warrants for all?" Yu Yi’s blade became silver lightning, pinning cursed slips before piercing Shi Yi’s palm into bronze. Blood seeped across zodiac carvings. "Since you adore death decrees," he hissed, "why not draft your own?"  

    Rhine clutched a blood-crusted pendant—his mother’s last breath preserved in silver. Three heartbeats of silence ruptured as Yu Yi’s collarbone scar burned alive, etching ’01’ like Lin Yi’s cursed collar.  

    Su Luan’s sharp inhale dissolved into glacial calm, half her face drowned in shadow.  

    The third altar lamp shattered beneath Yu Yi’s boot. Sacred oil fused with barnacle slime, birthing primordial flames. "Let’s all burn," he grinned through the system’s glitched scream: **[NARRATIVE DEVIATION CRITICAL!]**  

    "Choose," Yu Yi breathed against Shi Yi’s ear—venom made syllables. "Martyr or kindling?"  

    Mother-of-pearl barbs erupted from Shi Yi’s fingers—the merfolk’s damned legacy. Chaos erupted as the attendant’s fangs gleamed. **"TRIAL SUSPENDED! HERESY DETECTED!"**  

    Through screeching iron gates, Rhine stared. "You knew."  

    "Did I?" Yu Yi’s hand hovered—a mockery of comfort sparking where Su Luan’s electrified hair had grazed him.  

    "Yu Yi."  

    Su Luan stepped through warping Möbius strips, her kaleidoscope eyes reflecting infinite deaths—all her own, all frozen at 3:21. Behind gilded strands, star-flecked fissures pulsed. "I’ve hunted you across epochs, Arbiter."  ——