ICSST CH78: Troublemaker

When Zhou Qi’an saw the remains, he found it very strange.

The game wouldn’t leave behind a player’s corpse for no reason. If it were meant to show how the player was taken, the watery footprints and the wine-red hair on the window would have sufficed. And if the goal was to scare them traditionally, even tossing in a severed hand, foot, or eyeball would be more noticeable than two thin slices of flesh that were easy to overlook.

Sister Zhao’s corpse, displayed high up, wasn’t just a reminder that they could kill each other—it was also an incomplete offering.

As always, going after the first group of experts who turned into skeletons yielded nothing, while messing with their own people always came with traps.

A young girl nervously asked, “Is that all of it?”

Zhou Qi’an shook his head. If it were any more incomplete, this wouldn’t be a four-star difficulty.

The last scraps of flesh were thrown into the well.

Plop—the sound of something falling into water echoed, and Zhou Qi’an’s expression turned cold and grim.

The door was about to be broken down!

The female teacher kept glancing toward it. “We’re running out of time.”

The mission hadn’t said to find a corpse, just a person. If full-on reanimation was required for the mission to be complete, who knew how long Sister Zhao would take to “revive”?

“What if we hide back in the room?” someone suggested.

The room was small, easy to defend—at the very least, they could buy some time.

Zhou Qi’an was silent for a few seconds before raising his voice abruptly, “We can’t keep hiding here. What if they set the place on fire? We’d be trapped!”

The players were stunned.

His voice wasn’t loud, especially over the banging, but somehow those villagers—scarier than any heretic—seemed to hear him. Outside, things went quiet for a moment. Then came the village chief’s ragged, broken laughter.

Heh—

Heh heh—

Like the sound of an old bellows falling apart, followed by hurried footsteps leaving the area.

Silence returned to the world.

The players, instead of relaxing, tensed up even more. Everyone knew not all the villagers had left. Sure enough, soon after, the footsteps returned.

“Honored guests,” the village chief’s face—furrowed and aged—flickered with murderous red light in the firelight. “Following the guidance of the Saintess, filthy bodies must be purified by flame.”

Piles of dry branches and twigs were stacked around the courtyard. The chief’s expression was icy as he threw his torch onto the pile.

The sound of burning branches made everyone’s scalp tingle. The young girl tried to climb the wall earlier, only to discover that the back courtyard was lined with villagers—expressionless and holding weapons.

She clenched her fists and glared at Zhou Qi’an. “Great. You just had to remind them about setting a fire. Are you insane?”

“The insane one is the village chief.” Zhou Qi’an said calmly, “Have you ever seen someone so excited to burn down their own house?”

“…”

The eerie laughter stopped abruptly. A few seconds later, the shouting became so furious it almost sounded distorted.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Even without seeing his face, they could imagine how completely unhinged the village chief must look now.

If they were caught alive, they’d be tortured beyond belief. Burning to death might be the easier end.

The female teacher shuddered and kept rubbing her arms, trying to calm the goosebumps rising on her skin.

“With flames this big…” Zhou Qi’an finally spoke without adding to the gloom. He looked at the billowing smoke outside the courtyard. “It’s basically a signal flare.”

Everyone knew who “he” referred to: Shen Zhiyi—still missing.

Hope lit up in their eyes again.

It would take time for the fire to truly engulf the place. Compared to the door, which was about to collapse, they might just be able to hold out. Meanwhile, Shen Zhiyi still had the village children with him—he could easily “leverage the emperor’s children to command the villagers.”

The well was the only source of water—but with a corpse floating in it, no one dared use it.

Cough cough. Once fire starts, it only grows.

The smoke was too much. Zhou Qi’an covered his nose and mouth, letting out a few restrained coughs.

As everyone crouched low and held their breath, a resentful, hoarse scream echoed faintly from the bottom of the well.

The young girl’s eyes lit up. “Sister Zhao reanimated!”

Faster than expected.

They all rushed to cover the well.

The sky, moments ago still showing daylight, suddenly began to drizzle.

The rain carried a slight metallic scent and grew heavier by the second—soon turning into a torrential downpour.

Outside the village chief’s house—

The sudden intensity of the rain made Shen Zhiyi, just arriving, pause in his steps. The rain here suppressed fire far more effectively than in reality. His hair quickly became soaked, falling softly to cover his eyelashes.

The villagers knelt in the rain, worshipping the storm—unaware that one more person had silently joined them.

An old man in the village removed his mask, voice trembling as he said, “Village Chief, this rain may be the Saintess’s will. We still can’t…”

Can’t kill the outsiders yet.

Standing in a blind spot, Shen Zhiyi watched and chuckled quietly.

Honestly, this was unexpected.

He had thought Zhou Qi’an was the one who set the fire.

But it turned out to be the chief.

Compared to his own act of kidnapping the children, Qi’an really was… much kinder.

A loud wailing broke his train of thought.

“He made me burn down my own house! He tricked me!” The village chief’s lips trembled with rage. “He must not be spared!”

The village elder uttered two words: “The offering.”

That brought the chief back to his senses.

Right.

These people were meant to be sacrifices at the altar—the key to the village’s survival.

“Anything else is fine, but that man—I’m going to tear him apart!” The chief growled through clenched teeth.

From the shadows, Shen Zhiyi coldly observed everything. He knew exactly who the village chief hated.

He seemed to be calculating something. His gaze toward the village chief grew more and more intrigued. Just as Shen Zhiyi’s entire aura subtly shifted—

Clack.

The front door suddenly swung open.

The mission was complete. The young man stepped out voluntarily, holding a black umbrella. His defined fingers gripped the handle. He was strikingly beautiful.

The courtyard was a wreck.

Once the best-built house in the village, it now stood with blackened walls, a desecrated well, a crooked door, and an interior in complete disarray.

Earlier that noon, Zhou Qi’an and Shen Zhiyi had rummaged through the house together—and just now, Zhou Qi’an had gone back to borrow an umbrella.

A place ravaged by bandits wouldn’t look like this.

Zhou Qi’an had put back on the shoes and socks he’d previously stashed in his bag, his clothes meticulously arranged.

The torrential rain came fiercely and left just as quickly, the sun reemerging from behind the dark clouds.

He tilted his face slightly upward, as if basking in the light.

“Village Chief…” The two people behind him hurriedly restrained the elder, who was on the verge of another breakdown.

Zhou Qi’an took the initiative to approach the village chief, bending slightly with a tone full of concern. “Have you seen our companion who stayed in the village? He’s missing, and I’m very worried about him.”

An entire village’s children were gone, and someone had the audacity to play the victim!

The village chief’s eyes bulged with rage.

Leaning against a large tree, Shen Zhiyi squinted at the same sky. He knew Zhou Qi’an’s words were meant to provoke the village chief, but the concern in his tone still felt oddly satisfying.

The village chief’s gaze suddenly fixed on Zhou Qi’an’s backpack, as if something occurred to him. With a twisted expression, he said, “I’ve lost a pendant. I trust you wouldn’t mind if I…”

Zhou Qi’an frowned.

At that moment, a cold voice came from behind. “What, is something on fire?”

Seeing the newcomer, Zhou Qi’an, who had been thinking of a way to deflect, raised an eyebrow.

The moment the village chief saw Shen Zhiyi, he froze, no longer concerned about the pendant.

The villagers reacted similarly, swarming toward this “beast in human clothing” like ravenous wolves. Some had removed their masks, others still wore them—whether green-faced or white, their expressions were ferocious in alternation.

“Where did you take the children?!”

Shen Zhiyi’s hands hung loosely at his sides, shoulders relaxed, the rain lending him a touch of dishevelment.

“I don’t know,” he said, his expression tinged with confusion. “I told them I was going into the mountains to pick some oranges and to stay put.”

“When I came back with the oranges, they were gone.”

“…”

Shen Zhiyi’s casual explanation seemed to pause the world for a moment.

As part of the same team, the other players felt embarrassed, avoiding the villagers’ expressions. The female teacher silently recited the famous essay Back in her head.

Earlier, Zhou Qi’an’s words had left the village chief trembling with rage. Now, his mouth literally twisted, his speech incoherent: “*&%@#…”

No one could make out what he was saying.

Shen Zhiyi suddenly asked earnestly, “Could the kids have been playful and followed me into the mountains?”

His bewilderment didn’t seem feigned.

As the initial fury subsided, cooled by the rain, the villagers gradually calmed down.

Seizing the moment, Zhou Qi’an stepped forward with a sincere apology. “We saw what looked like our companion’s body in the church and got scared, so we ran out…”

He swallowed hard, feigning terror. “What’s going on? How could you harm someone? I’ll call the police!”

The villagers exchanged glances.

Frankly, they looked down on these outsiders.

With their numbers and the village’s remote location, they were confident these deceived “experts” couldn’t escape.

The remains on the altar were proof. Their children, blessed by the Holy Maiden, possessed extraordinary “power” and couldn’t possibly have all been harmed or abducted by an outsider.

Zhou Qi’an continued issuing nervous warnings. Since the village chief’s mouth was still askew, an elderly villager stepped in to smooth things over.

“Not long ago, we found someone who unfortunately died in the mountains, attacked by wild beasts. We moved them to the altar for blessings and salvation.”

The elder was an even better actor, sighing with a hoarse, smoke-scarred voice. “We didn’t know it was your companion. Such a tragedy.”

Thick-skinned.

Zhou Qi’an’s gaze was icy, but his face lit up with realization. “So that’s it. Then the fire was…”

The elder sighed again. “It was for your own good. When you disrupted the blessing ritual, everyone thought you were possessed and needed exorcism…”

“No worries,” Zhou Qi’an cut in. “It’s not like you burned my house.”

The village chief, just starting to recover, swayed again.

The charred ruins were right there, and he nearly passed out from anger again.

The village chief was supported away to rest. The villagers, valuing their ritual objects, had gotten soaked in the rain. They took their candelabras and ceremonial tools back to dry and prepare for offerings.

Once the villagers were out of sight, everyone let out a long breath. The female teacher leaned against a scorched wall. “Tonight’s gonna be rough. Not only do we have to deal with ghosts, but also crazy villagers and… our own teammate playing dead.”

Zhou Qi’an calmly ruled out one concern. “No villagers.”

Shen Zhiyi nodded. “Right, they’ll be heading into the mountains later to look for the kids.”

Silence fell.

A mountain breeze blew through, chilling their damp clothes.

Zhou Qi’an pulled a clean jacket from his bag and put it on, even offering one to the others. Their eyes twitched—how much had this guy scavenged?

Suspicious glances lingered on him briefly before shifting to Shen Zhiyi.

Surprisingly, the first to speak was the refined young man, Kou Tuo. Soaked by the rain, the birthmark on his forehead stood out vividly. “I wonder how Mr. Shen managed to get those kids to go into the mountains?”

When Guozi Lian was around, Kou Tuo rarely spoke, happy to let the self-proclaimed clever fool stir the pot. Now that Guozi Lian was dead, he had to confirm some things himself.

Kou Tuo was well-informed in the game and had vaguely heard of Zhou Qi’an. But Shen Zhiyi? Never heard of him. Someone with such remarkable ability shouldn’t be unknown.

Shen Zhiyi gave him a faint glance. “Even if I told you, you couldn’t learn it.”

Kou Tuo smiled and said no more.

Ying Yu’s peripheral vision flicked toward Shen Zhiyi, his gaze carrying a hint of scrutiny and deeper meaning.

Zhou Qi’an was curious too but didn’t ask publicly.

Unlike his mother and boss, who tore through monsters with brute force, Shen Zhiyi was always understated. Zhou Qi’an had yet to see him act directly.

As everyone harbored their own thoughts, a familiar mechanical voice announced rewards.

“Main Quest 1 completed. Congratulations, players, for earning Report *1.”

Risking life and limb for clues, no one hesitated, immediately diving into the report’s details.

[Report Excerpt (1):
After forming the expedition team, we arrived at Fengshui Village. The main goal was to collect water and soil samples for detailed lab analysis.]

[Report Excerpt (2):
After arriving, we suffered from acclimatization issues, feeling thirstier the more we drank. The older experts in the team were particularly listless. We planned to leave the same day, but before departing, the village chief invited us to visit the church.

It’s hard to imagine a church in such a remote place, which piqued our curiosity.]

[Report Excerpt (3):
The village chief shared the church’s history. Yongxi Township once faced years of drought, and to pray for rain, they executed a suspected witch by exposure.]

Zhou Qi’an frowned. “Exposure witch?”

What’s that?

Shen Zhiyi: “A custom. They’d seize a woman suspected of being a witch and let her die under the scorching sun to beg the heavens for rain.”

Zhou Qi’an realized he wasn’t uncultured—just extremely niche in his knowledge.

The female teacher added softly, “It’s recorded in the Book of Rites. During a drought, they’d expose a witch to the sun, hoping the heavens would take pity and send rain.”

Everyone fell silent.

Such barbaric customs were nothing new to them, but burning someone alive under the sun was excessively cruel.

Kou Tuo, unmoved by the story, had already finished reading the entire report. He nudged the others, pointing out that the interesting part was further down.

The group continued reading.

[Report Excerpt (4): After the exposure witch’s death, strange occurrences plagued Yongxi Township. The township head even evaporated into a husk in broad daylight. Amid widespread panic, a foreign man arrived, claiming to be a missionary pastor offering to resolve the township’s calamities free of charge.

The executed witch hailed from Fengshui Village, and under the pastor’s guidance, a church was established there.]

Zhou Qi’an let out a “whoa,” finally catching the intriguing detail Kou Tuo had mentioned.

After the church was built, the strange events did indeed decrease.

But then the pastor declared that to fully eliminate the threat, ancestral protection was needed. They had to exhume the bones of their forebears and hang or stack them in the church to suppress the witch.

“Blending traditional and foreign cultures—could this pastor be a genius?”

“…”

Unsurprisingly, the proposal was rejected. However, soon after, deaths resumed in the township, sparing neither locals nor those who had left.

[Report Excerpt (5): Faced with harsh reality, they finally followed the pastor’s advice, digging up graves to suppress the witch…

Rain began falling normally around Yongxi Township! The pastor gently assured everyone that droughts would never return. The suppressed witch, purified by the church, had become a Holy Maiden. As long as they worshipped her regularly, she would protect them forever.]

Zhou Qi’an recalled the dead town they’d passed before entering the village, raising an eyebrow.

He wasn’t the only one to make the connection—the people of that town had vanished as if evaporated.

Yongxi Township was gone, leaving only Fengshui Village clinging to existence.

Kou Tuo sighed. “This ghost’s gone on a killing spree.”

The other players’ expressions grew heavy. A monster’s power grew with its death toll. The unjustly killed woman from Fengshui Village—who knew how far she’d evolved?

They didn’t even dare to think about it.

Kou Tuo shifted gears. “At least we’ve figured out the big picture.”

Overhead, dark clouds loomed over the group.

Past five o’clock, the sky was already darkening, as if day and night could swap places on the dome at any moment.

In the intermittent silence, Xu Gui suddenly strode back toward the direction they’d come from, apparently intent on re-exploring the dangerous church.

Kou Tuo thought it over and decided to revisit the church too.

With the villagers gone, it was a good opportunity.

The female teacher and others, preferring caution, planned to check the fields together.

Zhou Qi’an, unusually, stayed put, skipping map exploration to join Shen Zhiyi and Ying Yu at their brick house.

Once the door was shut and eavesdropping ruled out, the three began exchanging detailed information.

Zhou Qi’an mentioned the previous night when he came looking for them but got no answer despite knocking. Shen Zhiyi paused. “This village is steeped in death rules…”

After a beat, he added, “There’s another key issue.”

All three looked up, simultaneously thinking of the same thing: Where did the pastor go?

The report didn’t mention the pastor’s ultimate fate.

Zhou Qi’an’s fingertips chilled, and he closed his eyes. “The pastor wasn’t here to save these villagers. He was more like an avenger for the wronged dead.”

The woman who died was a local, unlikely to use foreign culture for revenge.

So they had to be two separate entities.

At this realization, Zhou Qi’an took a deep breath. If his theory held, they weren’t just facing one vengeful ghost but possibly a hidden pastor coldly observing the village from the shadows.

He even felt a creeping sense of being watched.

Difficulty: Doubled.

Noticing Zhou Qi’an’s unease, Ying Yu changed the subject, glancing at Shen Zhiyi. “What about the village kids?”

“They went into the mountains,” Shen Zhiyi said, not lying to the villagers about this. “Normal kids wouldn’t get far, but those little monsters have extraordinary stamina. They’re probably long gone by now.”

Addressing their skepticism, Shen Zhiyi offered a pre-prepared explanation. “My skill is… unique.”

His gray-white eyes seemed to glint with a faint scarlet thread. “My initial species evolution path is whale.”

“???”

Shen Zhiyi didn’t notice the odd shift in Zhou Qi’an’s expression.

There were no whale-species evolvers in the game, but in recent years, a mysterious Whalers’ Association had emerged, giving him a convenient excuse.

Shen Zhiyi crossed his hands, resting them lightly under his chin, sitting in the dimmest corner, adding to his mystique. “My skill, Deep Sea Ethereal, uses whale song as a sonic medium to guide a target group into a dreamwalking state for a set time.”

His posture, his lie, his explanation… It even fooled Ying Yu.

Using a whale species as a cover was all risk, no reward. The Whalers’ Association was so enigmatic that even Ying Yu had barely interacted with them.

Shen Zhiyi awaited the others’ reactions.

Having shared his “biggest secret,” he expected reciprocity.

Most players hid their species to avoid being targeted, but it wasn’t exactly a deep secret.

Shen Zhiyi was particularly curious about Zhou Qi’an’s evolution path, which he’d never mentioned and couldn’t be observed.

Just as Ying Yu was about to speak, Zhou Qi’an raised a hand to stop him, giving Shen Zhiyi a half-smile. “Are you a fast man?”

Like me.

“Hm?”

Zhou Qi’an’s expression turned cold in a second.

If you’re not fast, why pretend to be a whale?

Ying Yu, witnessing this, adjusted his glasses and stayed silent.

Zhou Qi’an switched topics. He walked to the window, gazing at the half-set sun outside the narrow frame, and mused, “We need more information. I have a small suggestion.”

Opportunity was at hand.

---

As time ticked by, the players who’d gone to different locations returned with their findings.

Church.

Xu Gui emerged from the church, one sleeve stained with blood, clearly having faced danger. Still, she seemed to have gained some intel and looked relatively satisfied.

Kou Tuo followed unhurriedly. “Miss Xu.”

Xu Gui’s cool eyes fixed on him. “Something up?”

Kou Tuo smiled. “I found some things, and I’m sure you did too. Care to team up? I can…”

“I have a teammate.”

Kou Tuo wasn’t surprised. “That Zhou Qi’an guy?”

His observation was sharp. Back in town waiting for the bus, Zhou Qi’an had scanned the players with a searching look, clearly looking for someone.

Seeing Xu Gui didn’t deny it, Kou Tuo said, “Pardon my bluntness, but after leaving the church, he won’t have as much intel as we’d have combined.”

And he wouldn’t later either.

The instance’s difficulty would escalate over time. The church’s two side quests had already been claimed by them. After tonight, anyone sneaking into the church would face high-risk danger.

Their conversation carried them near the village’s edge.

Mid-sentence, Kou Tuo froze for some reason.

Xu Gui followed his gaze. On the narrow, winding path at the village’s edge stood several all-too-familiar figures.

“Mmph. Mmph…”

On the rural path, Zhou Qi’an pushed a cart piled with wriggling burlap sacks, the contents thrashing and gasping inside.

Beside him, Ying Yu calmly held a brick.

Zhou Qi’an noticed the two first, freeing a hand to wave.

Kou Tuo hurried over, barely regaining his voice. “What are you…”

“The village chief and others just went to the back mountains to find the kids,” Zhou Qi’an blinked. “Probably worried we’d escape, they left a few people to watch us, so I nabbed them.”

Times have changed.

The old Fengshui Village belonged to the villagers; now, with them out searching, it was his Fengshui Village.

“…”

Zhou Qi’an looked at Kou Tuo and Xu Gui. “We’re off to… interrogate—no, dig for clues. Catch you later.”

Kou Tuo and Xu Gui’s expressions were nothing short of spectacular.

Kou Tuo’s brow twitched. “How do you plan to clean up this mess? What if the other villagers return…”

Shen Zhiyi, silent until now, glanced at the sacks and said, “I’ll tell them the others didn’t return, so these villagers went into the mountains to look.”

“…”

Like the gourd brothers saving their grandpa—one after another.

What, is the back mountain some kind of vanishing hotspot?!

By the time they processed this, the trio was already gone.

Under the half-dark sky, Zhou Qi’an, with a burst of core strength, gleefully pushed the cart, his steps swift on the muddy post-rain path.

__

Author’s Note:

Zhou Qi’an: Why risk searching for clues when there are perfectly good villagers right here? [WhaleShock.jpg]