That night, the forest was not dark.
The forest was… colorful.
Yan Kesh jolted awake from his light sleep. Not because of a snapping branch, but because the atmosphere itself had changed. The gray mist that usually shrouded Black Mist Forest now glowed with a sickly pink hue, carrying the sweet, rotten fragrance of decaying peach blossoms.
Beside him, He Qiu was already standing.
But the young man was not looking at Yan Kesh.
He was staring at empty space, wildly slashing his sword through the air.
"Die! Don't come closer! My mother did nothing wrong!" He Qiu screamed hysterically, tears streaming down his face. He was fighting the ghosts of his own past.
"Illusion," Yan Kesh hissed. He immediately held his breath and tore a strip from his sleeve to cover his nose.
From within the pink mist, a figure stepped out casually.
A young man holding a folding fan, dressed in silk robes far too clean for such a filthy place.
Yu An. A heretic disciple of the Thousand Faces Sect.
"Pathetic," Yu An said softly, watching He Qiu hack at the air. "Orthodox disciples always carry too many regrets. It's so easy to break their hearts."
Yu An then turned his gaze toward Yan Kesh, raising an eyebrow.
"And you… you're strange. You don't see your mother? Or your dead lover?"
Yan Kesh rose slowly. His face was blank.
"I have no one I cherish. So you have no material for your little games."
Yu An chuckled, snapping his fan shut. "An empty heart. Interesting. But your body… your body is full of wounds. You must be in pain, aren't you?"
Yu An flicked his finger.
Whoosh.
The pink mist condensed, forming ten long needles that hovered around Yan Kesh. They were translucent, unreal, yet their sharp aura pierced into the skin.
"This is the Ghost Needle Technique," Yu An explained politely. "They won't harm your physical body. They only stab your sensory nerves. You will feel the pain of dying, but your body will remain intact for me to turn into a puppet."
Yan Kesh did not move. He focused inward.
[Mental Attack Detected]
[Category: Sensory Illusion]
[Audit Status: Awaiting Input]
The ledger in his mind faltered. The Audit operated based on physical facts. If there was no physical damage, there was no transaction.
But when one illusory needle shot forward and pierced Yan Kesh's shoulder—
"ARGH!"
Yan Kesh groaned. The pain was real. Terrifyingly real. It felt as if molten lead had been poured into his shoulder. Cold sweat drenched his body.
Yet there was no blood.
No wound.
Inside his mind, The Audit reacted strangely. The ink on the page trembled, trying to write, yet hesitating.
Is this damage?
Nerves transmitting pain signals: Yes.
Body tissue destroyed: No.
Yan Kesh saw the system's hesitation. And right there, in the midst of unbearable pain, his calculating mind glimpsed a golden opportunity.
This was a loophole in the law.
If he could convince his own brain—and the Audit system—that this pain counted as real damage, then he would receive "credit" for payment.
But since the damage itself was fake, he would not have to pay the cost of physical recovery later.
This was counterfeit money.
"Again…" Yan Kesh challenged through labored breaths. "Is that all you've got?"
Yu An narrowed his eyes. "You want more? Fine."
Five needles shot forward at once, piercing Yan Kesh's chest, abdomen, and thighs.
Yan Kesh did not dodge. He accepted them all. His body convulsed and he dropped to one knee. The pain was so intense that it felt as though his life was being ripped out of him.
Inside his mind, he roared at The Audit:
"RECORD IT! THIS IS FATAL DAMAGE! LOOK AT THE PAIN! PAY ME!"
The system was deceived.
The overwhelming pain signals forced the Audit to approve the transaction.
[BALANCE UPDATED]
[Damage Received: Critical (Five Vital Organs Destroyed – Perception)]
[Available Credit: MASSIVE]
Yan Kesh grinned widely, his teeth chattering as he endured the illusory torment.
He had just obtained a colossal loan, backed by counterfeit collateral.
"Now…"
Yan Kesh lifted his gaze to Yu An. He spent all of that illegal credit on a single counterattack.
Not a physical attack. Yu An was standing too far away.
He would use the principle of Balance to reverse cause and effect.
Yan Kesh pointed a finger at Yu An.
[OUTGOING TRANSACTION]
[Payment: Critical Pain (Illusory)]
[Purchase: Sudden Cardiac Arrest (Real)]
"Die," Yan Kesh whispered.
Yu An's eyes suddenly widened. He clutched his chest.
His calm face turned purple in an instant.
"How… how is this—"
Thud.
Yu An collapsed face-first onto the ground. Dead on the spot.
With the controller dead, the pink mist vanished.
He Qiu stopped screaming and collapsed unconscious from mental exhaustion.
The ghost needles embedded in Yan Kesh's body disappeared.
The pain in Yan Kesh's body… vanished completely.
Because the wounds had never existed in the first place.
Yan Kesh lay on the ground, panting. He checked his body. Smooth. No needle holes. No organ damage.
He checked The Audit in his mind.
[AUDIT COMPLETE]
[Outstanding Payment Debt: NIL]
[Note: Damage source (Illusion) invalid. Transaction voided.]
Yan Kesh laughed. A chilling laugh that echoed through the silent forest.
He had just killed a cultivator for "free." He used illusory pain to purchase real death, and when the illusion disappeared, the bill was erased as a system error.
This was corruption on a cosmic level.
But as his laughter faded, Yan Kesh felt something else.
His hands trembled. Not from pain, but from trauma.
Even though the wounds were gone, the memory of that pain remained etched into his neural pathways. His brain still remembered what it felt like to be pierced by five needles. His mind had recorded that death.
He had fooled the system, but he could not fool his own soul.
"The debt is gone…" Yan Kesh murmured, clutching his throbbing head. "…but the scars have become ghosts."
He looked at Yu An's corpse. He did not feel pride. He felt fear toward himself.
Today, he learned that he could do anything to win.
Even destroy his own sanity, little by little.
Yan Kesh crawled toward the corpse and rummaged through Yu An's pockets with trembling hands, searching for loot as compensation for the trauma he had just inflicted upon himself.
"This world is fair," he said to the corpse. "You gave me false pain. I gave you real death. The change… keep it."