Chapter 2 — Death Exam

02

The days in Tan Gia Kho were very miserable, but the good thing was that I was still alive. Every day, empty the potty, scrub the toilet, and wash the underwear that never gets finished. My hands quickly became unbearably rough, and my fingertips, which were originally soft, were now covered in frostbite. But I don't feel miserable at all, on the contrary, I feel like this is a disguise. Unfortunately, my "turtle painting" is too famous. That perverted emperor didn't know what was going on, but he framed my exam and hung it in the Imperial Library as a joke. Half a month later, a holy edict was transmitted to Tan Gia Kho. The Emperor summoned "the fool who drew the turtle". The little eunuch just looked at me, smelling of feces and urine, and covered his nose in disgust: "Quickly go take a shower, the emperor is having a banquet at Tuoc Tinh Lau, there's one less person to entertain." Turns out she's not a concubine, but a clown. In my heart, I laughed coldly, but on the surface, I pretended to be favored and happy, gesticulating and following him. This is the first time in this world that I have met the emperor — Ta Canh Hoa. Tieu Tinh Lau is located at the highest position in the royal palace, it is said to be so that "hands can pick stars from the sky". But as soon as I got close, I smelled a very faint smell of blood, so faint that it was almost hidden, but it was impossible to hide. That smell mixed with expensive ambergris, became even more spicy. In the main hall, gold is splendid, wine flows in streams, meat is piled up in forests. Ta Canh Hoa sat on a high dragon chair. He is very beautiful, gentle like jade with extremely strong deception. His shirt is as white as snow, his hair is as long as ink, and he holds a transparent glass cup in his hand. If you didn't look into his eyes, you would think he was a fairy coming from a painting. But there was no temperature in his eyes, like a dead puddle, bottomless, with occasional flashes of cold, inhuman light. In the middle of the main hall, kneeling and sitting were several elegantly dressed women. That was the second "time travel" group recruited.

"Your Majesty, this is the 'soap' I created, used for bathing, making your skin as soft and smooth as silk." A woman in a pink shirt gently offered a bar of pink soap.

"Your Majesty, please read this poem - 'The time of the bright moon, the wine and the clear sky', was written by my concubine last night watching the moon and touching the scene of love." A woman in a blue shirt refused to give up.

There was an even better person who directly drew pictures on the ground: "Your Majesty, this is the sketch of a 'steam engine'. With it, I can travel thousands of miles every day without a horse in Dai Wei's armored cavalry!" The girls compete to show off, just like elementary school students showing off their talents, impatient to be praised by the teacher. Ta Canh Hoa was fascinated when he heard this, a gentle smile hung on the corner of his lips: "My dear concubine is truly a goddess coming to earth, I am very relieved." He slowly stepped down from the dragon chair, walked to the woman and presented the "steam engine" drawing.

“Do you understand things?” His voice was as soft as a whisper between lovers.

The woman was so excited that her face turned red: "Understood! University concubine... no, a profound scholar, specializing in mechanical manufacturing!"

“Mechanics… good, very good.”

Ta Canh Hoa's finger gently placed it on top of her head, as if caressing a rare piece of porcelain, "In that case, your mind is definitely very useful." The woman was still smiling shyly: "Your Majesty is too complimentary..." In the next second, that gentle hand suddenly turned into claws. Without any warning signs, Ta Canh Hoa's hand was like a surgical knife, instantly piercing her heavenly spirit!

“Phew —”

It wasn't the sound of bones breaking, but the dull sound of something soft being forcibly pulled out. Her smile froze on her face, her eyes immediately melted, she didn't even have time to scream, her body fell limp as if all her bones had been stripped.

“Ah!!!”

The time-traveling girls next to them let out shrill screams.

"Devil! Murdered!"

"You're not human! You're a devil!"

The girls scattered in panic, but in this Tuoc Tinh Lau, which was as tight as copper and iron walls, where could they run to? Ta Canh Hoa waved his hand in disgust, splashing the drops of blood on his hand to the ground, his gentle face instantly became distorted and fierce.

“It's so noisy.”

He lightly flicked his sleeve. In the darkness surrounding the main hall, countless black tentacles suddenly rushed out — no, those were not tentacles, but black lines of code materialized! Those lines of code were like living snakes, tightly wrapping around the necks of the remaining space-traveling women.

“No… don't… I'm the heroine… I can't die…”

"System! Help me! System!"

The girls cried and struggled. But as the black code tightened, the girls' cries gradually turned into the "wheezing" sound of their throats being crushed. I knelt in the corner outside the temple, my whole body stiffened, I forgot to even breathe. I saw with my own eyes, those black code lines crawled into their bodies, greedily sucking up something. As they were sucked, their bodies quickly withered, as if their souls and flesh and blood had been squeezed clean, and in the end only hollow human skin remained. On the large screen behind the long lean-to, the originally stationary painting of mountains and water suddenly disappeared, replaced by lines of chaotic characters that only I could understand. Those characters were jumping frantically, like a monster eating and drinking, emitting silent pleasure. [Error Warning: Logic Loop repaired…] [Energy Input: High-Level Soul Detected…] [System Upgrade Progress: 98%…] I was dumbfounded looking at those dancing lines of characters, my heart almost jumped out of my throat. That's… code. This emperor, or whatever is controlling him, is swallowing the souls of time-travelers to fix system errors! Why does he have to select elites? Why does he have to be "intellectual?" He doesn't need technology at all, he needs "raw materials"! We - the time-travelers, because our souls come from the high-dimensional (modern) world, carry an amount of information and logical capacity far beyond that of the aborigines, so we become the best "patch" and "battery" for this collapsed system. The main hall was finally quiet. Only the ground was filled with fresh blood and a few human skins. Ta Canh Hoa closed his eyes, took a deep breath, as if he had just finished enjoying a delicious meal. A moment later, he opened his eyes, those eyes like dead water accurately locked on me in the corner of the palace.

“Have you seen enough?”

His voice penetrated the air, carrying endless coldness. My whole body trembled, this was the life-threatening question.