Although she was left with a bad taste in her mouth, she quickly calmed down. She didn't expect anything more from Izzy. May herself had no intention of joining such a suspicious group as the Mage Support Group. The only thing she had in common with mages was her mother's ancestry. However, she was a cultivator herself and had no regrets about it.

  “Is everything okay?” Peng asked, seeing her pensiveness.

  Recently, their relationship had improved somewhat. May no longer asked about his sister. Of course, that didn't mean she had forgotten about the whole thing.

  Zu Chen herself had also started attending all her classes regularly and looked much healthier. There was no sign that she had returned to her pills. She had even made a few friends. However, May couldn't fully enjoy this, as the thought that her cousin's murder had improved her condition was swirling around in her head.

  According to Peng, Zu had started taking her “medicine” again. Therefore, she shouldn't feel or look any better. Despite this, her condition was much improved.

  “Yes, everything's fine... I was just thinking about what to do for the Hua Tang alchemy test,” she replied, half-truthfully.

  “You still don't have any ideas, huh?” he asked.

  “It's not that I don't have any ideas. On the contrary, I have many,” she replied musingly. “But none of them seem right.”

  “I think I understand...” he replied. “But I'm sure you'll figure something out. With your talent, you should have no problem becoming Hua Tang's disciple!”

  May laughed. His optimism was childishly touching.

  “Well, yes. But never mind that. How are the preparations for the club going?” May asked.

  May decided to start a chess club. Her main goal was to grow the business and sell chess boards. Officially, however, it was supposed to be for fun and to develop mental abilities.

  Peng Chen fell in love with the game, so May had no problem convincing him to join. He was eager for anything that involved having a good time. And so he became the vice president of the chess club.

  With his fame, he had no problem inviting a few influential people.

  May prepared a few chess sets. Some were made by craftsmen, and some were purchased by the system.

  She started a company called “Forest Pearl Carpentry.” It wasn't a very good name, but it was sufficient. Starting a company was simple for cultivators.

  It was a failing family business, so May simply took over the infrastructure and didn't have to worry about the details. Their quality wasn't the worst, but their problems stemmed from their hopeless location outside the city and fierce competition.

  May had customers, and they had hands to work. Unfortunately, she had to invest a lot of money in it. More than half of her current funds went to reviving this business.

  Of course, she knew that chess alone would not bring her much profit, but she had a few other ideas. Besides, the carpentry shop could always make other wooden products when the demand for chess was lower.

  “It's just a shame I have so little time...”

  “You have a lot on your mind... I'm exhausted from my classes alone, and you're still playing around with opening a business, a chess club, and then there's the Hua Tang test...” he said, shaking his head. “I don't know how you do it.”

  To tell the truth, she was barely functioning. She didn't have a moment to spare. From the moment she got up, she was either working or studying. She slept little, only a few hours a day. The only reason she hadn't died of overwork yet was because her body was more resilient thanks to being a cultivator.

  “Yes... But I only have to survive this month, then it should get better. At least, I hope so.”

  “Hmm, that would be nice. To be honest, you don't look any better.” He said gently, but May knew he was right.

  Her eyes were tired and her skin was pale because she rarely went outside due to her heavy workload. She had also lost a lot of weight recently because she sometimes forgot to eat while working...

  “I'd like to rest, but it's impossible,” she replied, shaking her head. Just one month, just this one month.

  “If you say so... I hope you know what you're doing,” he said uncertainly. May knew he was worried about her. “Anyway, will you be at the chess club meeting today? I know you have a lot on your mind, so I can take care of it...”

  May shook her head. It wasn't out of the question in the future, but it wasn't an option right now.

  “It's the club's first meeting,” she said, trying to stifle a yawn. “It would look bad if the founder wasn't there.”

  “You're probably right, but...”

  “No buts. I'll be there, and that's final.” She said, dismissing him. “I know you're worried about me, Brother Chen, but I can handle it.”

  “All right, then... I guess.” He replied. “Anyway, I invited about twenty-three people. Do I have enough chessboards?”

  May blinked a few times. She couldn't believe what she had heard. She remembered him saying he would invite a few people.

  “How many?”

  “Around twenty-three, maybe more.”

  May didn't know what to say.

  “Umm... If I may ask, who exactly did you invite...?”

  “Oh, mainly people from the ‘Pulse’ Club. Many people were interested, but I rejected most of them... As for those invited, including Su Rong, Qi Lifen, Liao Baozhai...”

  May listened as he listed the names... and came to the conclusion that all the invitees were top-notch! Adding to that the people May invited... The number of people in the club would be over thirty!

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  “Peng... I don't have that many boards. Even with the new ones, not even half of the people will be able to play...”

  Maybe I should quickly buy more boards from the system...? They're pretty cheap, but I preferred to avoid spending money for now, until the ones I ordered paid for themselves...

  “Well, most people don't know the rules anyway, so they can just watch at first...” he replied.

  “Besides, don't worry about there not being enough chessboards, I'll keep them busy so they don't get bored!”

  May had to admit that Peng Chen was extremely useful in such situations. His extroverted soul had something about it that attracted others. The perfect mascot to lure customers!

  “Thank you, I really appreciate it,” May replied with a smile. Suddenly, she remembered something. “But speaking of the Pulse Club... Won't being in my club conflict with that?”

  Peng shook his head and shrugged.

  “The Pulse Club... It's mostly talking, eating, and having fun for the elite kids from the upper classes. It's not very demanding, so belonging to another club is not a problem.”

  May was happy to hear this news. Having Peng as vice president of the chess club took a lot of pressure off her.

  “In that case, I'll see you tonight,” said May. “Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go.”

  “All right, see you later, May.”

  ───── ??☆?? ─────

  May stood alone in a garden full of roses. She watched intently as a bee landed on one of them. There was something calming about it.

  She didn't know when she had ended up here. She probably needed a break and decided to spend it alone in the garden.

  The sight of nature calmed her down. Although she grew up in the city, she always felt drawn to the countryside. Of course, she realized that she had an idealized view of the countryside, from the perspective of vacations, rather than actually living there.

  Still, she loved the fresh air, and especially the colorful flowers.

  She reached out her hand to one of the yellow roses and lifted the flower slightly to smell its sweet fragrance.

  “Ouch!” she hissed.

  The rose thorn pierced her finger and blood began to flow. She put her finger in her mouth, trying to stop the bleeding, but the blood wouldn't stop flowing.

  She tried to let go of the rose, but it wouldn't fall, clinging to her hand, its thorns digging deeper and deeper into her palm.

  “Damn it!” she shouted, trying to pull the rose out of her hand, but it was relentless, and every movement only made the pain worse, and its thorns dug deeper and deeper. “What is...?”

  Finally, she noticed a change.

  “Come to us...” She heard a voice. It was neither male nor female, but rather a mixture of different voices. It was somewhat reminiscent of a choir, but much more distorted. She trembled.

  She tried to break free, but the roses came to life and began to wrap themselves around her legs. She fell over, and the thorns dug into her feet, slowly rising and piercing dozens of thorns into her knee and then her thighs.

  She felt every single prick. Her entire feet were pierced so that she could no longer move even a finger. The thorns were stuck in at a short distance, a centimeter apart. Blood was pouring out.

  “Aaa!! Damn it!” She could only scream as the roses began to approach the upper part of her body. More rose thorns pierced her body.

  She could smell the beautiful scent of flowers. White, yellow, and pink roses had already turned red with her blood.

  Because of the pain, she didn't even notice that the weather was no longer sunny, but stormy. As the needles began to reach her neck, rainwater poured down her entire body. She writhed in pain in the mud as more roses came closer and closer to her.

  She could no longer move. The roses pierced her neck. She felt her whole body throbbing, but she couldn't even say a word.

  However, the roses stopped, they didn't reach her head. May didn't know what was happening. She lay there motionless for a few minutes, wanting only to die.

  Why am I not dying?! Why!?

  The pain was unbearable. She had lost so much blood, and the spikes were stuck so deep... Even a cultivator shouldn't be able to live this long with such injuries.

  Finally, she noticed a silhouette above her. Someone was standing over her. She couldn't utter a word.

  This thing didn't look like anything specific. It had the silhouette of a human, but she couldn't remember its face or body shape. She didn't even know if it was a woman or a man. It was as if something was impeding her vision.

  No... That's not right.

  She could see the face of this thing, but it was impossible to describe it in any specific way. It looked ordinary. Like a human being. No one in particular, just a random passerby.

  It reached out its hands. It grabbed her by the neck and began to strangle her. May couldn't even move. It strangled her very slowly. As if it enjoyed it. A shrill laugh rang in her ears.

  Finally, she died. It killed her.

  “Damn... Again...” She woke up from another nightmare this week.

  She rubbed her eyes and shivered, still feeling the pain. She knew it wasn't real, but the pain was.

  “May...?” She heard Minnie's voice. “Don't tell me you had another nightmare.”

  These nightmares didn't happen every day, but they happened too often. May didn't believe in coincidences, especially not this one. She was certain that something bad had attached itself to her. Of course, the dreams themselves were not harmful, but...

  “I did. And once again, I died in a painful way.” She replied, covering herself with a blanket. “Once again, how much does it cost to find out what's causing these nightmares?”

  “One million [mu].”

  May laughed quietly to herself. One million just for the information... That spoke for itself. It was something dangerous that haunted her in her dreams.

  “But I don't have to buy that information from the system to know what caused it...”

  Devil Hole. That personality test they used to give before joining the academy... That was when the dreams started haunting her. To be honest, she was terrified. Whatever was causing these dreams seemed to be the greatest threat she had ever faced.

  “May... I know the system's help is expensive, but you have to do something about this!” Minnie said.

  “I know. I thought about reporting it, but...”

  She wasn't sure. According to the leader and Elder An, it was supposed to be completely safe.

  In addition, May had heard rumors. Although they hadn't officially received their personality test results... there was a rumor that May was being closely watched. She suspected that this test might be the reason. She didn't know the results, but she knew she was abnormal.

  “This shouldn't have happened...” she said quietly to herself.

  Was telling someone the truth a good idea? May wasn't sure. She lacked information.

  First of all, I need to find out what that place was... And what's causing these nightmares! Minnie, how much would it cost to get rid of this problem?

  “Ten million,” she replied gallantly. “However, if you purchase removal for a week, for example, the price will be lower... 500 [mu] for one day. If you buy for the whole week, you'll get a discount and it will only cost you 3000 [mu]..”

  May sighed. If the system wanted so much money, it meant that the problem was not minor. She even doubted that anyone in the sect would be able to help her with it.

  However, that doesn't mean there are no benefits...

  Normally, you had to climb to the top of Junlin Mountain and have the permission of the Sect Leader to use the Devil Hole... The nightmares were painful, and one would suffer a terrible death there, that was true. However, they enhanced the strength of the soul!

  Whatever this means... May was still unsure what enhanced of soul actually meant.

  That said, May didn't have to do anything, and the nightmares were making her soul stronger.

  Suddenly, Minnie interrupted her thoughts. “True, according to them, nightmares improve the soul... But they said that too many nightmares can also be dangerous... They can damage it.”

  May had to admit she was right. She felt fine for now, but... Who knows what will happen in the future? The damage of soul didn't sound too good. She had to keep a close eye on her condition.

  Suddenly, however, she was jolted out of her thoughts when she saw the sun setting.

  “Damn, I'm going to be late!” May realized that she had accidentally fallen asleep due to exhaustion. And the chess club meeting was supposed to start in just a few minutes...