Ten Day Ultimatum

"What…?" Qi Xia turned his head, gazing at Jiang Ruoxue with a calm, tranquil expression.
"Though I don’t know your reasons, I’m not foolish," Jiang Ruoxue replied with a smile. "If you were afraid I’d stop you, why leave me alive?"

Qi Xia pressed his hand against his wound, his complexion growing increasingly pale.
"Let me guess: you want me to inform the other {Adherents of Judgment’s Domain}, making everyone believe that {Qi Xia has already given up}. Isn’t that why you chose to save me?"
"Judgment’s Domain?" Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze exchanged puzzled glances, clearly bewildered by her words.

"You are indeed clever," Jiang Ruoxue acknowledged with a nod. "But you’ve miscalculated one thing: I have no interest in whether you collect all three thousand six hundred {Dào}. I won’t stand in your way."
Qi Xia's expression darkened; he hadn’t expected all his thoughts to be laid bare so easily.
"Although I am an {Adherent}, each of us has different pursuits," Jiang Ruoxue said, pulling a hair tie from her wrist and gathering her disheveled hair into a bun. "Some are keen on sabotaging the competition, others enjoy destroying {Dào}, and some masquerade as indigenous inhabitants. But I am different."

"What makes you different?" Qi Xia asked.
"I revel in experiencing various games and observing the intricate web of human deceit," Jiang Ruoxue replied candidly. "Though the {Adherents of Judgment’s Domain} are a bunch of lunatics, con artists, and gamblers, each one of them protects this place in their own way. My method of safeguarding it is by inciting ordinary souls to partake in games."
"So... you’re a {shill}?" Qi Xia asked pointedly.

"Shill...?" Jiang Ruoxue pondered a moment, then nodded. "By your reasoning, I suppose I am indeed a shill—even though no one is compensating me for it."
Qi Xia found himself at a loss for words, his mind racing with one persistent question—what exactly is {Judgment’s Domain}?
"So what about you?" Jiang Ruoxue asked. "Are you really going to give up?"

"What do you think?" Qi Xia released his grip on his wound and showed Jiang Ruoxue the bloodstains on his fingers. "Can you completely heal me?"
"I can't do that," Jiang Ruoxue replied, shaking her head. "I can’t grasp the {logical relation} of healing you; otherwise, I would certainly save you… after all, you did spare my life."
Noticing Qi Xia and the others still watching her with suspicion, Jiang Ruoxue ceased her futile attempts at humor. With a languid stretch that emphasized her alluring curves, she challenged them, "Are you all planning to kill me? If not, I’ll be on my way."

The trio, though not inherently malicious, found no justification for such drastic action. As they considered their predicament, it struck them they hadn’t even given her a reason to linger.
"I'm really leaving, okay?" Jiang Ruoxue confirmed once more.
When silence followed, she shook her head in exasperation—just as a distant bell began to toll.

Hearing the resonant sound, Qi Xia could no longer contain his curiosity. "What does the bell signify?"
Jiang Ruoxue turned back, pausing to think before answering, "Given that you saved my life, I’ll make an exception and answer a question. But you must answer one of mine in return."
"Fine," Qi Xia nodded.
Upon hearing his agreement, Jiang Ruoxue began, "Currently, there are only two known situations that cause the bells to ring: the first is {hearing a Reverberation}, and the second is when the {Reverberation fades}."

"What is a {Reverberation}?" Qi Xia asked.
"That’s the second question," Jiang Ruoxue replied, shaking her head. "Are we on such friendly terms?"
Qi Xia clutched his wound, his expression darkening.

Jiang Ruoxue seemed to feel a twinge of compassion. "Qi Xia, I’ll extend another exception and answer one more question. {Reverberation} is rather abstract; some people never grasp it, while others may understand it but struggle to wield its power. Today, I was lucky enough to invoke my {Reverberation} twice—which is why you’re all still alive."
Suddenly, Zhang ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Chenze seemed to recall something. "Sure enough… the man who was killed with the glass shard—it was you who manipulated the circumstances..."
"If your understanding is still stuck at {manipulating the circumstances}, you’ll never grasp {Reverberation}," Jiang Ruoxue declared, turning to leave. After a few steps, she paused, as if remembering something. "Qi Xia, don’t suppress your sorrow. It’s in extreme emotions that one can hear {Reverberation}."

With that, she pushed open the hotel door and stepped out onto the streets.
"Hey, don’t you have a question to ask me?" Qi Xia called out from behind.
"Leave it for next time," Jiang Ruoxue replied without looking back, merely waving her hand.

Her words left everyone in confusion, but Qi Xia felt he had grasped a clue. {Reverberation} seemed to be some form of supernatural ability. This power manifested randomly in certain individuals, heralded by the tolling of a giant bell, accompanied by the screen displaying the message: {I hear a Reverberation}.
In essence, each instance of the bell tolling meant that someone had acquired the ability known as {Reverberation}, while the second toll signified either that the user had hidden their power—or that they had died.
"Officer Li was a {Reverberatee}…" Qi Xia murmured.

"Officer Li?" Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze turned toward him in unison.
"Before Officer Li died, the bell rang for the first time. After his death, it rang again," Qi Xia explained, attempting to connect Li’s strange actions to the supernatural ability. "That implies he gained the power right before his demise. But his behavior was… peculiar."
Qi Xia retrieved the old metal lighter from his pocket and said to Lin Qin and Zhang Chenze, "He appeared almost like a magician—producing cigarettes from an empty pack and a lighter from a vacant pocket."

"What?" Zhang Chenze replied, brow furrowing in confusion. "Didn’t those two items belong to you?"
"No," Qi Xia shook his head. "At the time, I was worried your attention might get too focused on this, so I chose not to mention it. But thinking back now… he briefly acquired this supernatural ability."
"So you’re saying…" Lin Qin gestured with her hand, "this ability known as {Reverberation} lets a person conjure things out of thin air?"

"No," Qi Xia said, shaking his head. "If we carefully consider Jiang Ruoxue’s words and combine them with what’s happened, we can make a bold guess… This ability called {Reverberation} comes in various forms, and each person’s power is different. The known types include {Beckoned Calamity}, {Adversity Shift}, and Officer Li’s {remote object retrieval}."
Zhang Chenze nodded and added her observation. "Jiang Ruoxue’s ability seems different from Officer Li’s… She appears to have the power to manipulate the {logical relations} of a situation."