Trying to divert their attention, everyone analyzed the information in Zhou Qi’an’s words.
Suddenly, everything seemed to click, including the cause of death of the Little Red Riding Hood members. However, the previous mention of “no eye contact” prevented them from looking at the Village Chief, who was now intently staring at them.
Only Zhou Qi’an, as if nothing was wrong, looked back at the Village Chief.
As long as he didn’t make eye contact with the tumor-shaped Priest, it was fine. The Village Chief couldn’t suddenly shed his clothes. So, his tone was relaxed, making it impossible for anyone to imagine that less than an hour ago, the two had engaged in a life-and-death struggle.
“We’ll be careful,” Zhou Qi’an replied to the Village Chief proactively. “Thank you for coming all this way to inform us. Good…”
He was about to say “goodnight” and send the Village Chief off when he suddenly noticed Shen Zhiyi’s gaze turn cold.
The next second, Shen Zhiyi said in a casual, conversational tone, “After stepping on him last time, you’re still going to tell him goodnight?”
It was almost as if he had “Why are you being so nice to the Village Chief?” written all over his face.
Everyone else: “…”
Again, if you have something to say, why can’t you say it in private!
The Village Chief left.
He probably would have ignored everything and killed someone if he hadn’t left then.
The moment the Village Chief turned around, everyone immediately lowered their heads, afraid of accidentally making eye contact with the Priest.
Perhaps it was the psychological impact of knowing the truth, but when the night wind carried the Village Chief’s scent, they all felt a decaying smell.
The Saintess was from Fengshui Village. As the Village Chief, he couldn’t have merely been a bystander when the Wicked Shaman was executed back then.
Using the flesh and blood of the wicked to devour others’ life force for rebirth.
The Priest’s terrifying and perverse methods secretly alarmed the players.
Zhou Qi’an rubbed his arm and stood up: “I’m tired. Didn’t get enough sleep this afternoon, so I’m going back too.”
Damn Candle Ghosts. Thankfully, it was his arm that was briefly invaded by “ghost fire,” not his leg.
As long as it didn’t affect his escape during crucial moments, it was fine.
His wrist was suddenly gripped by cold fingers.
Instantly, a chilling sensation spread from his vital point, steadily rising. The strange cold actually dispelled the after-effects of the evil fire.
Zhou Qi’an’s eyes deepened.
He looked at Shen Zhiyi, trying to deduce his abilities from various angles. Due to his fear of his mother and superior, he dared not, nor had the chance, to ask them more.
But Shen Zhiyi’s performance was too unique, far beyond what he understood as special.
When he returned this time, his old mother would probably be released from the station. He could then subtly inquire about the abilities of these early deviants.
“Goodnight,” Shen Zhiyi said almost soundlessly, as if he hadn’t seen the thoughts flickering in those eyes.
Zhou Qi’an inexplicably felt a sense of déjà vu, of nothingness.
“Goodnight,” he replied a second later.
Before he resumed his steps, across from him, Ying Yu, who had been in deep thought, suddenly mouthed to Zhou Qi’an: Beware of word traps.
Zhou Qi’an paused slightly, then nodded.
The moment he turned, his gaze darkened.
Actually, the moment he confirmed the Priest’s location, a very bad hunch had lingered in Zhou Qi’an’s mind.
Kou Tuo noticed Zhou Qi’an’s micro-expressions, not understanding the sudden reason for his grim face.
He didn’t pay too much attention to it either; the existing information was already sufficient. Only one crucial piece of information was missing: knowing the exact location of the corpse-raising ground.
Thinking of this, Kou Tuo stared at the female teacher’s shadow under the moonlight. His initial 80% killing intent rose to 100%. He knew he wasn’t alone in this, because a flicker of contemplation also crossed Xu Gui’s face.
The Priest couldn’t parasitize the Village Chief forever, just as Zhou Qi’an said, there would always be a time when the “fruit” ripened.
Based on his understanding of the game, it was highly likely to happen the moment they found the corpse-raising ground, or even when they discovered the wooden stakes, just a tiny step away from completion.
The Priest would suddenly “be born” at that crucial moment, leading to a party wipe.
“However, the advantage will soon be ours…”
Beneath Kou Tuo’s refined exterior, his mind was filled with the law of the jungle. Once the female teacher died, they would save a lot of time.
Wrapped in an invisible killing intent, the female teacher ran into the nearest house at top speed, locking the door tightly.
The two courtyards were only a few meters apart.
Zhou Qi’an had already returned to his room and was lying down, deep in thought.
After a long while, it was late at night, and a knock suddenly came from outside.
He got up and opened the door.
Opening the door for someone late at night, the female teacher was almost startled by him.
When she came to her senses and was about to enter and speak, Zhou Qi’an coldly glanced at her: “In the middle of the night, if you enter this room, aren’t you afraid of the rules deeming it co-ed, and drawing ghosts into my room?”
The female teacher was speechless. She urgently needed to find someone to cooperate with, so she couldn’t care about such things.
The dungeon allowed for hiding one’s strengths, but not hiding oneself entirely. If one kept hiding in one place, they would die quickly and miserably. Relying on hiding wouldn’t evade those people.
Zhou Qi’an had the nickname “AOE,” but he was a newcomer, and newcomers lacked items and points.
“I can…” The female teacher was about to state her terms.
Zhou Qi’an suddenly looked at the courtyard wall, where the young girl and Kou Tuo had successively jumped down.
Kou Tuo patted the dust from his hands and said, “It’s windy at night, Mr. Zhou should rest early.”
His implication was that Zhou Qi’an only needed to stand by.
The punishment for killing would naturally be borne by him, or more precisely, by the young girl. The latter had already killed the square-faced man, so killing another person wouldn’t matter.
The young girl’s hand was very small, trembling slightly as she held the dagger. “…I’m sorry, I just want to live.”
Meeting those extremely black and white eyes, the female teacher felt goosebumps crawl all over her body.
She suddenly realized that this young girl was the most terrifying, even more terrifying than Kou Tuo. All of her expressions were genuine: weakness, pitifulness… and a true desire to kill.
Two against one, the female teacher almost gave up hope. The instinct for survival made her cast a final pleading look at Zhou Qi’an.
Zhou Qi’an hummed a tune, his voice indistinct in the night. Everyone listened carefully:
“Unity is strength~”
The female teacher was stunned.
A few meters away, Kou Tuo narrowed his eyes. He didn’t act rashly. The feeling Zhou Qi’an gave off was really hard to evaluate.
“Zhou…”
“Call me ‘Mood Booster’.” After saying that, Zhou Qi’an’s tone suddenly changed, losing its playful edge: “Sister Zhao could transform from fragmented corpse pieces into a vengeful spirit. Do you think killing teammates is reliable?”
He could vaguely feel the entire village’s aura changing.
That stagnant atmosphere was incredibly uncomfortable. In such a situation, perhaps there was no need to throw corpses into the well; terrifying vengeful spirits could still be born.
Kou Tuo, of course, knew this and was prepared.
Changing the subject, Zhou Qi’an said, “If we absolutely have to kill someone, why not kill the Village Chief?”
Kou Tuo said coldly, “Are you kidding?”
Zhou Qi’an wiggled his index finger, shaking his head and saying, “Just a test. I have a very bad hunch that needs confirmation.”
If it were anyone else, Kou Tuo wouldn’t listen to their nonsense.
But Zhou Qi’an emphasized the word “very,” so Kou Tuo hesitated slightly and then followed up, “What hunch?”
Zhou Qi’an walked up to him and slowly said a few words.
Kou Tuo’s face instantly turned pale. The young girl next to him had exceptionally sharp ears, and her body also started trembling slightly.
For a moment, the female teacher even forgot her fear, curious about what he had said.
Zhou Qi’an suddenly turned his face. The moment his gaze swept over her, the female teacher involuntarily shivered.
The moonlight above was dim, but Zhou Qi’an’s smile under the moonlight was bright, “You’ve never contributed to the team’s value. Now it’s time to work hard.”
He gathered a few people around the stone table. In just a few minutes, the small courtyard, which was supposed to be a scene of infighting, took on a different appearance.
Everyone carefully planned the details of assassinating the Village Chief.
After discussing enough, Kou Tuo couldn’t help but look at Zhou Qi’an: “What about your assassination part?”
Zhou Qi’an: “I’ll do the talking. When you go to kill him, I’ll try to stay far away.”
“…”
Before Kou Tuo could open his mouth, he casually tossed the pendant to Kou Tuo: “This thing has some restraining effect on Candle Ghosts. You’re welcome.”
“…” He was caught off guard and completely predicted and manipulated.
Everything was silent. After meticulous arrangements, several shadowy figures stealthily infiltrated the night with the wind.
It didn’t take long for them to reach the west side of the village.
The fire was mainly concentrated on the outer wall; the inner courtyard was just a bit messy, so the Village Chief was still living in his house. Picking locks and climbing through windows were already second nature to experienced players.
The first to enter the house was the young girl, followed closely by Kou Tuo and the female teacher.
Zhou Qi’an had already scouted the place and told them the layout beforehand. The inner room only had a carved wooden bed and a relatively concealed, unadorned spirit tablet.
Due to the tumor, the Village Chief slept on his side, slightly prone, his heavy breathing echoing in the room. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and the tumor was facing the door.
After climbing through the window, the first thing the young girl did was to blindfold herself with a piece of cloth to avoid making eye contact with the Priest.
She was undoubtedly professionally trained and could determine positions by sound. Moreover, she was confident in the dagger in her hand and was sure she wouldn’t touch the tumor.
According to the previous distribution, the female teacher, who had a skill to weaken presence, and the young girl were responsible for the assault, with Kou Tuo providing assistance.
“Do it,” the young girl whispered.
She moved like a light swallow, seemingly floating across.
Monsters were highly sensitive to human presence; approaching them undetected was almost impossible.
They only had two seconds, the monster’s reaction time, to work with.
The moment the young girl approached, the tumor on the bed suddenly opened its eyes.
On the other side, the female teacher always kept her gaze on the ground, but she could feel a terrifying aura locking onto them.
The moment the tumor woke, the Village Chief also immediately woke up.
Several candles by the spirit tablet automatically lit up, but the temperature in the room grew colder and colder. They were surrounded by invisible ghosts.
The young girl’s teeth chattered with cold, and she reminded the female teacher: “There’s light now, use the shadows to judge the situation and avoid eye contact.”
She was almost breaking through to reach the Village Chief.
The tumor actively approached. If it could make skin contact with the girl, the latter would surely die.
The young girl didn’t dodge or evade, continuing her attack forward. At the same instant, countless ants crawled up the side of the bed, climbing onto the Village Chief’s body, covering the tumor itself.
The small ants died quickly, but a second wave immediately followed. Kou Tuo was a summoner, which was one of his reasons for daring to come.
“You… deserve to die…”
A dense, itching sensation spread throughout their bodies. The voices of the Village Chief and the Priest appeared one after another, overlapping, their rage almost burning.
The pendant Zhou Qi’an had given earlier now appeared in the young girl’s hand.
Using the ants and the pendant, she successfully restrained the surrounding Candle Ghosts for two seconds. The girl raised her dagger high.
She didn’t aim at the fleshy mass. With so many death rule hints, the Priest certainly couldn’t be killed by such physical means. The Village Chief was the host body; theoretically, killing the Village Chief directly would cut off everything.
The sharp dagger glinted coldly, descending vertically. Success seemed imminent.
At the last moment, the young girl surprisingly withdrew her hand.
She quickly retreated, and the female teacher immediately used an acceleration item to frantically back away.
Just one step away from success, they ran. This scene was completely unexpected by any monster in the house.
By the time the monsters reacted, the few players had already retreated outside the door.
The Village Chief seemed about to give chase, but suddenly, he paused. By the door frame, another figure had appeared at some point.
Zhou Qi’an stood with his back to the house, his most vulnerable spine directly facing the enemy.
He took off his glasses and wiped them. “Just as I thought. Our Priest, who once served the Lord, is truly a deceiver.”
Those words made the Village Chief’s face change dramatically.
As for the Priest, that still slightly misaligned face was ghastly. The candle flames silently moved forward, seemingly symbolizing light, yet actively eroding everything in front of them.
Zhou Qi’an seemed to have eyes on the back of his head and sighed, “If you do this, I can only run. Let’s talk instead.”
Do not cut the Priest’s umbilical cord, this is taboo.
Since it didn’t emphasize death like the previous two points, he thought it might be a way to restrain the Priest.
But after what happened this afternoon, Zhou Qi’an gradually became suspicious.
Cutting the umbilical cord might not necessarily lead to death; it could also lead to new life. A baby needs its umbilical cord cut at birth.
Just as Ying Yu reminded him: Beware of word traps.
The three pieces of information were very likely all descriptions of death rules.
“You deliberately sent the Village Chief to find me this afternoon, there was a hint of intentionality,” Zhou Qi’an said. “That trick of suddenly deceiving people into turning their heads would at best fool others.”
The others present: “…”
The purplish-red mass of flesh wished it could immediately control the Candle Ghosts to tear this young man’s mouth apart, but with four people present, the Candle Ghosts couldn’t wipe out all these uninvited guests.
“Also, as the ‘host body,’ you didn’t hinder the Village Chief whether he had food poisoning or was hit by a brick.” Zhou Qi’an smiled. “That doesn’t sound like the way you’d treat a precious host body.”
“So, it’s all a scam, isn’t it?”
“You made the Village Chief intentionally leak the Saintess’s story, and the information from the villagers, all to trick people into cutting the umbilical cord.”
“Even if we hadn’t come today, once we found a way to dispel the curse, the Village Chief would have appeared, forcing us to act against him.”
Earlier, Zhou Qi’an had Kou Tuo and the others test the veracity of this conjecture.
If it were true, the Village Chief would definitely be easier to kill than imagined.
And it was true. Just three players working together almost took down a key figure in a four-star dungeon. Wasn’t that ridiculous?
“Ah…” Zhou Qi’an, imitating the tone of Western opera, dramatically sang to the moon: “Praise the lying Priest! You truly should go proselytize.”
The twisted mockery in his tone was evident even to a fool.
Silence, more than once, had fallen tonight.
After a brief stillness, the first to break down was surprisingly the Village Chief.
“Why?!” Ten withered hands clutched his face tightly, as if he wished to tear it off: “Why didn’t you kill me just now? Why?!”
The Wicked Shaman back then yearned for life but couldn’t get it. Now, he yearned for death but couldn’t die.
The Priest watched him every day. He had to pray to the Saintess, kneel and repent before the Saintess’s spirit tablet. Suicide had become a luxury.
He had finally seen a chance for death, and it had so lightly slipped away.
“Let’s make a deal.” Zhou Qi’an liked to play with his cards on the table.
Ignoring the Village Chief’s wails, his address, from beginning to end, was directed only at one NPC: “You went to great lengths, which means only outsiders like us can help you detach from the Village Chief.”
He guessed a more precise phrasing should be: Only living people can do it.
Aside from the players, there were no living people left in the entire village. Fengshui Village’s water was problematic; the local environment fostered local monsters, and the villagers had long undergone mutations.
“The process of removing the Saintess’s curse will undoubtedly be fraught with danger. We may not survive.”
“But nothing is absolute. If we win, I can deliver you before we leave.”
By then, the mission would be complete, and as players, they would be safe. The trouble would be left for Ms. Shen.
Completely unlike the Village Chief, a bone-chilling and slightly childish voice sharply questioned, “What do you want?! Why should I trust you?”
“You will trust me.” Zhou Qi’an said faintly, “Because what I want is very simple.”
All of the Priest’s organs were still underdeveloped. His eyes were covered with a morbid white film, his vitreous humor was extremely cloudy, and his eyes were filled with turbid blood.
At this moment, those eyes, seemingly devoid of any light, stared intently at Zhou Qi’an.
The Priest was cunning and had already made his decision. No matter what the other party said or wanted, he would not agree. His willingness to listen was only to deduce their next course of action from what they demanded.
Not to mention the Priest, Kou Tuo and the others were also very curious about the answer.
What exactly did this meticulous and unfathomable young man want?
“I want money,” Zhou Qi’an said, standing with his hands behind his back, his words ringing out clearly.
“…”
All the players were stunned for a moment. What did he want money for?
But Zhou Qi’an seemed very confident, and calmly emphasized to the Priest: “I only care about money.”
It didn’t necessarily have to be currency; valuable items would also do.
A minute ago, the Priest, who had resolved to refuse all deals, fell silent for a moment, then agreed happily.
Several busy figures appeared in the night.
Fengshui Village had once been connected to the outside world. The Village Chief hadn’t been poor, but later the village became isolated, and these things were put away, never to see the light of day again.
The Priest had no reason not to agree, it wasn’t his savings anyway.
In the current Fengshui Village, money was the least valuable thing.
Earlier, Zhou Qi’an’s direct exposure of the deception had somewhat shattered the Priest’s confidence. He had to face these people, subconsciously imagining the worst outcome, and then leaving a backdoor.
Zhou Qi’an smiled: “You won’t regret it. I always keep my promises.”
The players who came with him were still guessing Zhou Qi’an’s intentions, subconsciously thinking about clearing the dungeon and the possible role of wealth in clearing it.
After talking a few more sentences with the Priest, Zhou Qi’an knew the true location of the Village Chief’s hidden treasures and clapped his hands: “Go to the side room and move the stuff.”
“…”
There was also a very small room opposite the warehouse. Zhou Qi’an and the female teacher stayed behind to prevent any unusual movements from the Village Chief.
As for Kou Tuo and the young girl, who were supposed to go on a killing spree tonight, they rolled up their sleeves and started moving things.
The moment Kou Tuo, who considered himself good at calculations, lifted a mahogany box, a hint of confusion flashed across his face.
Who was he, and what was he doing?
As for the money, it was actually hidden in a small jar next to the kitchen. No wonder they hadn’t found it after several searches.
Zhou Qi’an personally retrieved this.
The moment he touched the coins, a system prompt appeared: [Obtained blood-stained冥币 (ghost money)].
Zhou Qi’an’s eyes lit up.
Demanding items was to help Ying Yu. The same items, if crafted with materials from the dungeon, would have a vastly different effect.
Ying Yu sometimes didn’t even spare tree bark, clearly looking for the most common and easily found materials in the dungeon, to facilitate large-scale mining later. He guessed that the laboratory had a rather large team doing this.
Perhaps Ying Yu was further analyzing the elements and attempting to manufacture imitation elements.
Research was beyond Zhou Qi’an’s capabilities. He was only responsible for transport and wouldn’t think too much about it. Zhou Qi’an now wanted to verify the value of money more.
Would the money in the dungeon, regardless of its age or style, be uniformly categorized as [blood-stained ghost money]?
Judging from the previous function of ghost money, there were currency transactions between NPCs. Obtaining money might allow them to try bribing NPCs in the future, or even directly purchasing items from NPCs without going through the game mall.
The young girl’s panting came from the courtyard: “It’s all out.”
Zhou Qi’an nodded and waved his hand: “Alright, let’s go back.”
“!!!” Why aren’t you carrying anything yourself?!
But they couldn’t complain, worried it was related to clearing the dungeon. Trying to ignore the Priest’s seemingly omnipresent gaze, the young girl tentatively asked as soon as they left the courtyard: “Are these things important?”
They felt like just some well-made art pieces, which was the fundamental reason for the players’ confusion. If Zhou Qi’an only wanted money, they would connect it to personal gain, but transporting these things, other than dealing with the dungeon, they couldn’t think of any other possibility.
Zhou Qi’an: “Yes.”
But they’re very important to me.
Not hearing the hidden meaning, everyone immediately carried the items with enthusiasm.
__
The author has something to say:
Zhou Qi’an: These materials enrich all of humanity, and this money enriches myself. That’s a win-win.
The huffing and puffing porters: #￥#……￥%#
