Silent Town, shrouded in a gray mist, was still quiet today.
In a silent courtyard, the leader of the Whalers’ Association sat quietly at a stone table.
On his left sat the young woman who had tricked Zhou Qi’an with an illusion last night. On his right was a young man with a slightly chubby baby face. Half of the young man’s face was covered by a golden mask, a thin layer of gold plating that seemed to have merged with his skin.
At this moment, the young man’s eyes were tightly closed, and the veins on his forehead bulged slightly in anger.
In one morning, they had lost four companions in a row. Even a damaged relic couldn’t completely finish off Zhou Qi’an. Was this person a cat? With nine lives!
The three of them each had their own thoughts.
The young woman was a true relic and didn’t care about the lives of others at all. She just looked at the leader of the Whalers’ Association, her beautiful face showing strong dissatisfaction.
He had promised that he would definitely kill the person last night, then dig out his heart and lungs to find the source of the powerful aura emanating from his body and give her half.
Now, they hadn’t gotten a single hair.
Despite her dissatisfaction, the young woman was aware of the man’s strength before her. She did not immediately lash out, but a gloomy aura gathered between her brows.
In the extremely tense atmosphere, the leader of the Whalers’ Association finally made a move.
On the stone table was a prop similar to an electronic screen, which could be used for typed communication. The man calmly typed a line of words:
‘Last night, our goal was to survive with the help of external forces. Today, we won’t have such good luck.’
‘…My member will pull him into the relic world.’
Zhou Qi’an would not have a second death-substitute item.
Hearing this, the young woman glanced at the young man with the golden mask, a look of disdain in her eyes.
‘With him?’
What can he do by pulling someone into a relic world?
He’s not even as strong as I am.
The masked young man was not angered by the slight. He responded calmly, ‘The Divine Bird Golden Mask I wear, its true form is a phoenix.’
Even if the core of the relic world was destroyed, he would only suffer a certain amount of trauma.
Unfortunately, the side effects of the Golden Mask were significant, invisibly devouring the host’s life force. He had made many efforts to counteract this, but all had failed. If he could obtain the thing inside Zhou Qi’an’s body, even a small part, it might help his body achieve balance.
The young woman smiled mockingly, still not very optimistic.
The leader of the Whalers’ Association suddenly stood up slowly. The young woman immediately became vigilant.
The leader was not about to attack. His large hand, covered in deep scars, picked up the electronic tablet from the table and walked towards the house.
The young woman hesitated for a moment and chose to follow.
After the house door was opened, the young woman who followed behind had a slight change in expression.
On the dirty floor, twenty to thirty straw mats were laid out haphazardly. The not-so-large space was almost filled with corpses that had died惨惨.
Every corpse died with their eyes open. Some had half their heads split open, their eyeballs half-hanging from their sockets, and some had incomplete limbs.
The yin energy in the room was so thick it had almost solidified. The low temperature had killed the flies and maggots before they could hatch on the surface of the corpses. Despite this, a strong smell of decay still permeated the air.
As the stench grew stronger, the young woman couldn’t help but take a step back, frowning slightly.
She looked at the leader of the Whalers’ Association: ‘This is?’
The man’s long fingers typed a few sentences on the screen:
‘Some of the tourists who died at the hands of Zhou Qi’an’s teammates yesterday.’
‘Tonight, as soon as he comes out of the relic world alive, you immediately cast an illusion. At the same time, I will secretly manipulate things to ensure that after the corpses reanimate, they will launch an attack on him.’
A relic world, an illusion, and nearly thirty reanimated corpses.
With three high-risk factors superimposed at the same time, Zhou Qi’an had absolutely no chance of escape.
If it weren’t for the fact that it took some time to cultivate the resentment of the corpses after forcibly sealing them, these corpses could have been used last night.
The man felt some regret. After his gaze fell on the corpses, it turned into a sinister smile.
Yesterday, for the sake of tickets and cultural product clues, these players had tried to besiege Zhou Qi’an and the others, only to be counter-killed. The hatred and unwillingness they felt before death would allow them to erupt with even greater power after reanimation.
Even though they were on the same side, the masked young man couldn’t help but marvel at the leader’s ruthlessness and meticulous planning after hearing this plan for the first time. Not to mention the young woman, who now had a bit more fear in her eyes.
No one could escape such a siege. Now, all they had to do was wait for night to fall.
Thinking of this, the young woman couldn’t help but look up at the sky. Unfortunately, there were still several hours until night, and the daylight was disappointingly shining on the land.
Just as she was about to lower her eyes, the young woman’s gaze suddenly sharpened.
In the distance, large dark clouds were rolling in like a tide, wave after wave.
The sky had been forcibly darkened in another way.
It never rained in Silent Town, and dark clouds would not normally pass over the town.
Outside the small town, the caws of crows, several times hoarser than usual, came from afar. The screams echoed in the empty streets, sending shivers down one’s spine.
The abnormal natural phenomenon made the few people waiting for nightfall frown. The cloud layer was still continuously stacking up, with a blood-red color mixed in with the dark gloom.
Something was wrong.
This didn’t seem like a natural landscape that could be manipulated by humans.
The young man wiped his face, and the golden mask briefly disappeared, revealing skin with an unnatural yellow crack.
‘I’ll go out and take a look.’
The leader of the Whalers’ Association nodded. To avoid any possibility of revealing his identity, he would not go out easily.
The wind was fierce, and the door was almost impossible to push open on the first try.
The young man barely managed to walk outside the courtyard against the strong wind. The strange natural phenomenon had made some of the town’s residents feel that something was wrong, and they also came out to check the situation.
With more people coming out, he didn’t have to worry about being too conspicuous. The young man simply walked to a place with the most residents and looked up to observe.
The blood-red light in the dark clouds intensified. Not just him, but the relics in the small town who usually killed without blinking now felt an inexplicable unease. The thick and vast cumulonimbus clouds had a common feature: they all floated in from the west.
The west.
The young man pondered. The west was the back mountain, and on the mountain…
He was suddenly stunned. Could it be that something had happened to the powerful ghost sealed in the back mountain?
Almost as soon as this thought occurred to the young man, birds and beasts in the distance began to flee madly down the mountain.
In the back mountain, skeletons that were originally only active at night and rooted in the soil now all broke through the earth, as if to open up new territory for someone. Rusted sharp weapons also flipped out from underground.
They formed a grand army of skeletons, marching down in a menacing formation.
Behind the army of skeletons was a terrifyingly tall, blood-red figure.
The blood-red figure was dressed in a golden thread jade garment. Its height far exceeded that of an ordinary human. With every move, it exuded a strange noble air.
Thousands of jade pieces were strung together with gold thread. As the blood-red figure walked, every side reflected a bloody light. A golden thread jade garment was originally a burial suit that only the ancient royal family and high-ranking nobles could wear after death, but this one alone was strung with ominous blood jade pieces.
Within the thousands of jade pieces, it was as if living human blood had been injected. The bloody light was brilliant. The powerful ghost’s face was completely wrapped in the blood-red golden thread jade garment. It held a large halberd, stirring up a bloody storm of disaster.
Wherever the blood-red, golden-threaded figure stepped, it was like a plague of locusts. With a swing of the halberd, rats, snakes… no matter how agile the animal, it was difficult to escape death.
This was a vicious weapon that could drink blood. The hooked horizontal blade easily devoured the flesh and blood of animals.
Its master was even more so.
The golden-threaded figure was like a beast that had been hungry for a long time. It didn’t even spare the vitality of the plants along the way. The lush weeds under its feet instantly withered, and the trees dried up in an instant, their leaves turning yellow and falling.
Some of the leaves blew to the feet of the small town residents, and all their faces changed dramatically.
The powerful ghost sealed in the back mountain had actually been released!
How was this possible?!
However, they had no time to think carefully. After being locked up for so long, the golden-threaded figure needed a large amount of energy to replenish its losses. It soon became dissatisfied with the current situation and stopped halfway.
The boots wrapped in thick blood jade pieces stepped firmly on the ground. The next moment, the golden-threaded figure actually jumped up like a zombie and directly entered the small town’s domain.
Cannibalism among the same kind was a perfectly normal thing for monsters. Silent Town instantly became the powerful ghost’s dining area.
“No—”
A relic closest to the back mountain was the first to suffer. A long sword hacked at the jade pieces, leaving only a slight mark. The relic was sucked dry of its life force by the golden-threaded figure.
Under the strong wind, the withered body of the small town resident instantly crumbled into dust.
The young man, who had come out to secretly observe, was horrified at the sight.
He was also quite close to the golden-threaded figure’s position.
What he feared came true. The golden-threaded figure’s head moved slightly.
The association members who had transplanted relics were mostly weaker than the small town residents. Picking the softest persimmon, the golden-threaded figure first locked onto the young man’s aura.
Run!
Only one thought remained in the young man’s mind. He abruptly turned and fled, the Divine Bird Golden Mask’s inherent acceleration ability making his speed momentarily comparable to that of the fleeing birds in the sky.
However, with every move, the golden-threaded figure could leap several zhang.
The army of skeletons followed it blindly. Even if they couldn’t harm the town residents, they were more than enough to slow down these relics.
The scream of another small town resident came from behind.
The streets were filled with bloody light. Anyone who ran a little slower could have their flesh and blood sucked dry, leaving only a layer of skin. Any relics that foolishly tried to hide in courtyards were all dug out by the army of skeletons in the first instance.
The tranquility of the past was completely shattered.
Under the intense sense of crisis, the golden mask on the young man’s face flickered in and out of existence. It was at this moment that he saw an unexpected figure also running.
This person had also been on their assassination list before. The association had even used the other’s name and birth characters to send him to the Cyclamen Instance—
Ying Yu.
How could he be in the small town?
Suddenly, the young man thought of a possibility.
The powerful ghost in the back mountain couldn’t have just run out on its own. Could it have been released?
The more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed. Just then, as if sensing the prying gaze, Ying Yu turned his head.
Their eyes met. The young man sensed a hint of calculation in the other’s expression.
His mind worked quickly, and he almost immediately understood. Now everyone was subconsciously fleeing towards the town’s exit, but unlike players, once NPCs left the small town, their strength would weaken to varying degrees.
The mask marks on his face were very obvious. The other party should have guessed his identity.
Once out of town, Ying Yu would most likely seize the opportunity to hunt him down.
“What a vicious plan.”
The young man cursed inwardly. They risked releasing the powerful ghost, letting it and the town residents kill each other. Even if he was lucky enough to escape, their people might be waiting in ambush outside.
The young man felt he was still missing something.
But under the life-and-death crisis, where did he have the time to analyze bit by bit? A shadow had already loomed down from mid-air. It was the golden-threaded figure!
It was about to catch him.
The hair on his body stood on end. The young man felt the signs of his life force draining away. At the critical moment, he thought of a way to survive.
Aiming at Ying Yu’s running figure not far away, the young man’s eyes hardened… Want to run? It’s not that easy.
In an instant, a large amount of red light radiated from his body. Ying Yu, who was running, seemed to stiffen slightly under the light, his running speed also slowing down. In a short while, he would be forcibly pulled into the relic world.
It was only a matter of a few seconds. The golden-threaded figure that arrived a step later was blocked by an invisible barrier.
The masked young man stood motionless, a strange smile frozen on his lips.
—As long as the rules were not violated, when a player was viewing a relic, irrelevant personnel could not approach.
Using this point, the powerful ghost could not get close to him.
The golden-threaded figure tried to break through the barrier several times but failed, and had no choice but to change its target.
This red light was like a signal flare, briefly illuminating the sky.
After seeing this red glow, other members of the Whalers’ Association in different locations all thought of something—
Someone among them was using the method of viewing a relic to temporarily escape the siege of the golden-threaded figure.
That meant there must be a player in the town.
This book’s players rarely acted alone. As long as they found one, there was a way to live!
As one small town resident after another was sucked dry, the members of the Whalers’ Association desperately dodged the golden-threaded figure while searching for player figures.
The entire small town was thrown into complete chaos.
In a relatively hidden corner, the leader of the Whalers’ Association stood as if in a separate, isolated space. The army of skeletons that had dug three feet into the ground actually did not see him.
Not long ago, the man had wanted to stop a member of the association from acting, but it was too late. When he rushed over, he watched helplessly as that member forcibly pulled Red Cloak into a relic world.
Two more red lights flashed in the sky in succession, representing that there were still players being pulled into the relic world.
A crack finally appeared on the calm expression of the leader of the Whalers’ Association.
Back then, they had only designed a small part of this Instance before being laid off. Besides some harmful mechanisms, they had never paid any attention to the other naturally existing NPCs.
Everyone has inertial thinking. Zhou Qi’an had it, and so did he.
No player had ever actively released a powerful ghost. Under normal circumstances, everyone would avoid it if they could, not to mention this naturally existing powerful ghost was only useful in the ghost identification segment.
The man guessed Zhou Qi’an’s plan.
The others should have been schemed against.
Zhou Qi’an wanted to use the powerful ghost to force out all the remaining members at once. The other party seemed to have absolute confidence that his teammates left in the small town could kill them.
“Are they crazy?” The man’s eyes were filled with gloom.
The powerful ghost’s killing spree would never stop. The more it killed, the stronger it would become. If this continued, wouldn’t the other party also be doomed to die?
And his teammates, even if they came out of the relic world alive, would immediately face a greater crisis.
Suddenly, the leader of the Whalers’ Association thought of something, and a chill ran down his spine.
…
The Silent Museum.
Zizi…
Zizi…
The game kept sending crisis warning alerts.
The sheep-headed man, who was still drooling over Zhou Qi’an, its rectangular pupils constricted directly.
“Staff member of Instance 56007, please note, one of the core components of the Instance, Silent Town, is suffering irreversible damage. Please deal with it immediately.”
“Staff member of Instance 56007, please note, a large number of NPC deaths have occurred in your work area. Please handle the crisis immediately.”
The system prompts came one after another. The sheep-headed man abruptly looked in the direction of the small town. In the distant sky, a large number of unusual blood-red clouds were floating.
Some crows had even fled from the small town to the museum.
Something had happened in the small town!
A crow that had barely managed to fly out suddenly fell to the ground with a thud, splattering into a mess.
Half of its body was shriveled, and a part of its internal organs was missing, as if its life force had been forcibly wiped away.
Only one monster could do this.
“The powerful ghost from the back mountain.” Someone had released the powerful ghost from the back mountain.
Most of the players were at the museum. If there was someone who wasn’t… The sheep-headed man abruptly turned its head. Zhou Qi’an, who was happily playing with fish by the well, was smiling at it.
The sheep-headed man gritted its teeth. “It was you.”
The deathly aura was replaced by killing intent, and its special pupils seemed to have turned dark red.
“How did you break the seal?”
How dare you break it!
Zhou Qi’an stood up and proactively walked over. His funeral director’s black clothes made his skin look snow-white.
As he walked, he spoke, his voice even more eloquent than an ordinary museum guide:
“GJ-0041-Blood Coffin, the coffin of Zhao Mo, the Zhenbei King of the Zhao Kingdom. In X32 AD, Zhao Mo’s rebellion failed. The emperor ordered him to be dressed in a golden thread blood garment and buried alive in a special coffin with a large number of treasures. He also had the state preceptor lock the coffin, turning him into a powerful ghost who could never be reincarnated, forever falling into darkness with the status and wealth he pursued…”
Zhou Qi’an was reciting the information of the Blood Coffin relic.
When he first saw the coffin in the back mountain on the first day, the character ‘Mo’ on it had made him suspect that the coffin came from the Silent Museum.
Later, when he heard that the Ridie Pavilion specialized in displaying artifacts for subduing demons and monsters, this thought deepened in Zhou Qi’an’s mind. So this morning, he had specially gone to confirm this point.
Sure enough, he found the introduction label for the Blood Coffin there.
To be absolutely sure, Zhou Qi’an went to the data repository to update the relic’s information. After entering the code, he was not retaliated against by the relic and even got a more detailed introduction.
“This missing relic from the Ridie Pavilion is far away in the back mountain of Silent Town. Naturally, it can’t fly over to retaliate.”
After thoroughly confirming his conclusion, Zhou Qi’an did not hesitate to have his teammates release the powerful ghost, causing chaos, with the intention of counterattacking the Whalers’ Association.
“The powerful ghost should be on a killing spree in the small town now.”
He told the sheep-headed man everything he had done, bit by bit, without reservation.
Step by step, as his voice fell, Zhou Qi’an arrived right in front of the sheep-headed man. Under the gaze of those devil-like eyes, he looked up and met its gaze.
The atmosphere was extremely tense for a moment.
The killing intent on the sheep-headed man was so strong that even the sheep pulling the cart couldn’t help but bleat and tremble.
But Zhou Qi’an calmly took out a bone.
The weight of the [Death Curse Bone] was reassuring.
“The game once sent a server-wide notification, so you definitely know what this is… The Death Curse Bone. When the target of the curse is a monster, it, like the Holy Relic, has a one hundred percent mortality rate.” Zhou Qi’an maintained his smile. “As long as I write the two words ‘Zhao Mo’ on it, the powerful ghost will die, and Silent Town will be saved.”
The sheep-headed man stared intently at the ominous Curse bone.
Zhou Qi’an raised his eyes and said sincerely, “But if you want someone to help, you have to show some sincerity. Are you going to take out something that can move me, or…”
He tilted his head. “Are you going to kneel and beg me?”
