The little boy glanced at the severed arm in surprise, then casually tossed it aside. His left hand shot out, and he suddenly appeared on the examinee’s right, grabbing the man’s right hand.
"You’re courting death!" The examinee gritted his teeth against the pain. He twisted his right hand around and grabbed the little boy’s arm. Channeling his True Essence, he prepared to lift the boy and slam him down.
However, the boy didn’t budge. The examinee stared, completely baffled.
"Make a bow and shake my hand, you’re a good friend of mine!" The little boy let go and giggled as he ran a circle around the examinee. Then, he cupped his fists and bowed like a little adult before grabbing the examinee’s hand again.
"Everyone, stay calm! This situation is highly unusual. Do not act rashly. We must use our wits!" Vice Minister Zhang Shoucheng’s voice rang out once more.
Almost everyone gave up on escaping or struggling, allowing the children to hold their hands.
The children began to let go of the examinees’ hands. They ran in circles around them, clapping and singing ’Find a Friend.’
All the examinees, Li Qingxian included, stood in place, clapping their hands and singing the off-key nursery rhyme.
"Looking, looking, for a friend, / I have found a brand new friend. / Make a bow and shake a hand, / You’re a good friend of mine!"
After the song ended, each child stood before an examinee, cupped their fists, and bowed.
Seeing Han Anbo rapidly shaking his cupped fists in his peripheral vision, Li Qingxian had a flash of insight. He hurriedly copied Fangfang, cupping his own fists, bending at the waist to bow, and then proactively extending his hand to shake hers.
At the same time, they spun around, switching places.
Game complete.
"Brother Ye Han, you’re so nice. That means we’re good friends now!" A smile rippled across Fangfang’s pale, round little face.
Li Qingxian glanced around the examination grounds. All the other examinees were standing rigidly in place. As far as he could see, no one else had completed the ’Find a Friend’ game with a child.
’The one person playing a game with a Deceit Child... I must look especially strange.’
Li Qingxian looked toward Han Anbo.
Han Anbo nodded emphatically and gave him a thumbs-up.
The children in the lead had already made friends with more than thirty thousand examinees, but more children still came running out from behind, giggling all the while.
Instead of seeking out the examinees, they gathered around the main gate, split into different groups, and started playing various games.
The sounds of all sorts of nursery rhymes, some familiar and some strange, began to fill the air.
"Drop, drop, drop the handkerchief..."
"One, two, three... wooden statues..."
"Malan flowers bloom on the twenty-first, two-five-six, two-five-seven..."
"Butterflies are flying, who’s coming to chase..."
Han Anbo kept gesturing and winking toward the children, and Li Qingxian nodded firmly. He then released his Life Disc, expending Magical Power to forcibly memorize all the games they were playing.
Before long, another group of children rushed out, each holding a bouquet. They lined up on both sides of the gate, their faces smeared with garishly red blush. They held the flowers high and waved them vigorously.
"Welcome, welcome, a very warm welcome..."
"Brother Ye Han, it’s time for us to go play. I’ll tell you a little secret..." Fangfang suddenly gave Li Qingxian a mysterious look, cupping her hand around her mouth.
Li Qingxian hesitated for a moment, but then, remembering his experiences in Deceit Village, he slowly squatted down.
Fangfang leaned against Li Qingxian, getting close to his ear. She covered the shell of his ear with her small, pale hand and whispered, "If you see any little toys, you have to secretly take them. Like little pinwheels, paper butterflies, things like that. But you absolutely can’t tell anyone else, okay?"
Li Qingxian nodded gravely, committing her words to heart and inscribing the matter as Magic Text upon his Spirit Platform.
After she finished speaking, Fangfang’s body suddenly distorted for an instant before returning to normal.
"Hee hee..." Fangfang took Li Qingxian’s hand and skipped forward, cheering and singing nursery rhymes just like the other children.
"Let’s go! Enter the city gate, walk through the gate, enter the Imperial City, be a loyal minister..."
Pulled along by the children, all the examinees moved involuntarily toward the great gate.
Li Qingxian observed the others as he walked, deep in thought.
Many examinees looked back helplessly at the grounds outside the arena, some toward the examiners, others toward their families.
"Help..." some were still shouting.
Outside the arena, the examinees’ families were either shouting, wailing inconsolably, or had fainted dead away.
The scene was utter chaos.
Zhang Shoucheng looked toward the escaped Fate Masters of the Celestial Fate Sect and sneered, "Come back to the capital with me. You can explain this to the Emperor!"
"This has nothing to do with us!" the Fate Masters panicked.
"The Celestial Fate Sect opened the Myriad Phenomena Map, and a Deceit emerged. You say it has nothing to do with you? Then are you suggesting we’re responsible? Let’s go. The Holy Emperor will be the judge of all this."
Inside and outside the Grand Arena, everything was a chaotic mess.
The great gate stood tall in the center of the Grand Arena, a monstrous mouth leading to the Underworld, swallowing every last examinee.
After the examinees were gone, the children continued their endless games around the gate.
Everyone watched the children, their gazes filled with terror.
However, a few people in the crowd frowned.
"Look, that girl playing hopscotch over there... doesn’t she look like your uncle’s child, the one who went missing in Depu? Your aunt took her to the market that day, and they never came back. She’s even wearing the same clothes."
"Hey! Isn’t that our Little Qi? It is! It has to be!"
"That one... isn’t that my big brother? Why does he still look seven years old...?"
More and more people rushed to the barriers, trying to break into the Grand Arena, but an invisible force blocked their way.
They screamed frantically at the children beyond the barrier, breaking down into sobs.
The children paid them no mind, continuing to play their games and laugh with glee.
Han Anbo stood stunned for a long moment. Then he began to pace frantically along the barrier, his eyes scanning the playing children as if searching for someone.
Li Qingxian stepped through the pitch-black gate. Before him lay a deserted, hazy gray path. The dense woods and wild grasses on either side were the same dim, gray color.
After walking for some time, the view suddenly opened up. He somehow found himself on a flat plain, surrounded by the other examinees, each one led by a child.
In the distance, a vast, hazy gray wilderness stretched to the horizon. Even further beyond, mountains stood like a rolling line of shadows, resembling silent giants.
Directly ahead, a magnificent city wall rose from the ground. It bore a resemblance to the Divine Capital, though its walls were not as tall.
Half the children began to sing in unison, "City gate, city gate, how many feet high?"
The other half answered, "Thirty-six feet high."
Then, all the children sang together, "Eat your porridge, swallow a pepper, walk to the gate, and take a tumble."
Li Qingxian’s heart tightened, but he saw that nothing had happened.
Suddenly, two giant, translucent figures of children appeared at the city gate. They were over thirty feet tall, the same height as the gate itself.
The two children stood on either side of the gate, clasped their four hands together, and raised them high, their arms forming an arch.
The two giant, translucent children chanted in unison, "Golden lock, silver lock, KA-CHA, iron lock!"
After their chant, the two children lowered their arms.
There was nothing between their arms.
"Big lock, small lock, empty as can be!"
The two children giggled, raised their hands again, and repeated the rhyme and the motions of lifting and lowering their arms.
Li Qingxian immediately recalled that this ’Lock the City Gate’ game was one of the games he had seen being played outside.
In that version, two children would form the lock with their arms held high while the other children lined up, singing the rhyme and passing underneath.
When the two children’s arms dropped, anyone caught between them would lose and have to become the new gate.