Wu Yang thought for a moment and said, “Miss Gu is right; that barefoot doctor indeed wasn’t lying.”
According to the barefoot doctor, children are prone to “Lost Soul Syndrome” and require Bone Ghost Herb for treatment. This is because children have lighter souls, making them more susceptible to being lured away by the Mountain Ghost.
The Mountain Ghost, the curse-bringer of Qingshan Village, doesn’t just capture children’s souls but also targets adults. However, because the villagers used Bone Ghost Herb to treat children’s Lost Soul Syndrome, their souls weren’t taken by the Mountain Ghost, enabling them to break free from its curse. This explains the existence of this cloth doll.
This cloth doll wasn’t affected by the Mountain Ghost’s curse and is different from those cursed adult dolls turned into ghost dolls.
The barefoot doctor’s words indirectly clarified things for them.
Skinny concluded, “So, the ghost dolls that attacked Mr. Wang and Miss Gu these past two nights are adult souls cursed and transformed. They harbor immense malice toward players. Conversely, the cloth dolls transformed from children’s souls seem to be on our side and won’t actively attack us?”
“Yes,” Wu Yang confirmed.
After listening to Wu Yang and Skinny’s analysis, Lin Dandan, Wang Peiping, and Fatty all looked enlightened.
Following Wu Yang’s earlier suggestion, they would gather every evening to share information, minimizing knowledge gaps between them and making it easier to figure out the right direction. With even a basic level of intelligence, they could connect the dots.
Fatty looked at his comrades, then at Gu Jiu and Lu Ji, unwilling to admit he was the dim-witted one.
Wang Peiping and Lin Dandan had stopped speaking by now.
Wu Yang and Skinny were one thing, but why were Gu Jiu and Lu Ji, both newcomers, able to figure this out too?
Fatty suddenly noticed an inconsistency and hurriedly said, “Wait, if the village children escaped the Mountain Ghost’s curse thanks to Bone Ghost Herb, why did their souls still become cloth dolls?”
Lin Dandan and Wang Peiping were equally startled, and even Skinny found it hard to respond.
Wu Yang replied, “Probably because, while they escaped the Mountain Ghost’s soul luring, they still ended up dying.” He paused and added, “But that’s just my speculation.”
For now, it was an unresolved mystery.
Lin Dandan asked again, “Brother Wu, if the souls of the 57 village children also turned into cloth dolls, where are these dolls?”
There were 238 ghost dolls in Granny Wang’s house, all adults’ souls cursed and transformed. So where were the dolls transformed from the children’s souls?
“I don’t know,” Wu Yang replied, looking at the cloth doll in Gu Jiu’s hand. “Maybe it knows.”
Everyone’s gaze fell on the cloth doll, which looked back at them with an innocent, childlike smile, though its eeriness persisted. Despite that, it carried a hint of the carefree purity of a child.
Lu Ji looked at Gu Jiu, a thoughtful expression on her face.
The child who gave this cloth doll to Gu Jiu had said something back then, asking her to help them with something. Could it be they wanted her to help find the other cloth dolls transformed from their souls?
Skinny raised a crucial question, “Now that we know the curse’s origin, how do we escape the cursed village?”
They were certain the villagers had died long ago, with their souls cursed by the Mountain Ghost and transformed into ghost dolls. Following the usual rules in this game world, if they wanted to clear this level, the ghost dolls made from adult souls would be their biggest obstacle and might even kill them.
Wu Yang’s expression faltered slightly, and he said, “If my guess is correct, finding the cloth dolls transformed from the children’s souls might lead us to the way out.”
Instantly, everyone’s eyes shone as they looked at the cloth doll in Gu Jiu’s hands.
“Let’s hurry up and look for them,” Lin Dandan said excitedly.
Wang Peiping urged them as well, eager to leave this ghost-infested place.
Fatty threw a bucket of cold water over them. “Do you know where to look?”
The two excited people were momentarily stunned, then Wang Peiping quickly suggested, “Could it be at Grandma Wang’s house? Should we go back and check?”
“I don’t think so,” Wu Yang analyzed calmly. “Yesterday, Grandma Wang already mentioned that the doll Miss Gu holds wasn’t made by her. She said that all her dolls are marked. This indirectly shows that the dolls created from adult and child souls are different in nature. Since Grandma Wang has dolls made from adult souls, she wouldn’t have any made from children’s souls because they oppose each other.”
The brothers agreed with Wu Yang’s analysis. NPCs in game worlds rarely lie, especially in this D-level game world, where the difficulty isn’t high, so NPCs wouldn’t deliberately trick the players.
Lin Dandan suggested, “Why don’t we go house by house? We can avoid the villagers and sneak in to search.”
The village had 66 households in total. Searching one by one wouldn’t take too long, though it was the simplest and most direct approach.
Wang Peiping immediately objected, saying excitedly, “These villagers are all ghosts! If they’re like the three ghosts from the Old Li family, won’t we be walking into a ghost den?”
This remark made everyone alert.
The number of villagers outside was decreasing, showing that many were like the three from the Old Li family, unable to move around outside, confined to their homes in ghostly form. If they went inside to search, they would likely encounter these ghost villagers, making escape difficult if trapped by them.
Fatty looked troubled. “So, what do we do?”
At this moment, Gu Jiu stood up and said, “Why not let it guide us?”
Everyone looked at the doll in her hand, thinking it was a good idea. But could it really lead them?
“We already know that these dolls and ghost dolls are opposites, indicating that their situation isn’t good, so they came to us for help,” Gu Jiu casually shook the doll in her hand. “Since it wants our help, it should show us the way.”
The doll kept smiling but didn’t respond.
Lin Dandan and Wang Peiping looked skeptical.
So, they left the village entrance and headed back toward the village.
Since Gu Jiu was holding them back, they still moved slowly, with Fatty enthusiastically greeting villagers they met along the way.
Wang Peiping couldn’t take it anymore and whispered, “They’re all ghosts, and you still dare to greet them.”
“But they don’t look like ghosts right now,” Fatty argued. “Besides, I feel like as long as they don’t reveal their ghostly side, they aren’t really ghosts.”
Wang Peiping was speechless, wanting to argue but not knowing how.
“Fatty is right,” Wu Yang agreed. “This is a game world. As long as the villagers aren’t aware they’re ghosts, we don’t need to worry too much. I have a theory. Once these villagers fully turn into ghosts, Qingshan Village will become very dangerous. We must clear the game and leave before that happens, or we might not be able to escape.”
This made everyone tense.
Recalling the villagers they’d encountered today, the number wasn’t even a hundred. Once these hundred villagers stopped appearing during the day, Qingshan Village would turn into a den of ghosts. Could any living person survive in such a place?
Even the optimistic Fatty couldn’t stay optimistic now.
Gu Jiu looked down at the doll, occasionally fidgeting with it.
When they passed the village chief’s house, the doll’s smiling face turned into a bitter expression.
Lin Dandan and the others, who had been watching the doll, got excited. Fatty whispered, “Its face changed again. Could it be that the dolls made from the children’s souls are at the village chief’s house?”
“I think it’s possible,” Wang Peiping was also thrilled. “The chief is the head of the village, the highest authority here, and the NPC we interact with most frequently. He even gives us helpful hints every day. They might really be hidden in his house.”
“That statement is both right and wrong; it sounds baseless.”
Fatty and Lin Dandan were undecided.
Skinny remarked, “Your analysis has no foundation whatsoever.”
“But its expression changed!” Wang Peiping insisted.
“It changes its expression often,” Gu Jiu retorted, adjusting her glasses. “Whether at the ancestral hall, the Old Li’s house, or when we were attacked by the ghost dolls at night, its expression kept changing. It seems that whenever it encounters something supernatural, its expression changes.”
Wu Yang nodded slightly. “Miss Gu is right.”
Wang Peiping, feeling refuted by the group, was a bit disgruntled but stubbornly suggested, “Why don’t we go into the village chief’s house and check? Besides, it’s almost lunchtime.”
This time, Gu Jiu didn’t object and patted her stomach. “Alright then.”
When the seven entered the village chief’s yard, they were greeted by the aroma of cooking; clearly, the chief’s wife was busy preparing lunch.
The chief wasn’t home.
They peeked into the kitchen, seeing the chief’s wife absorbed in her cooking, unaware of what was happening outside, so they split up to search the place.
Gu Jiu and Lu Ji stayed in the courtyard.
By the time the chief’s wife finished cooking, they still hadn’t found anything.
Lin Dandan, Wang Peiping, and the brothers were visibly disappointed, while Wu Yang and Skinny seemed unsurprised.
At lunch, the village chief returned, urging them along with his wife to eat heartily.
Wang Peiping, Lin Dandan, and the brothers ate sparingly, finding the food unappetizing at the thought that they’d been eating meals prepared by ghosts these past few days.
In contrast, Wu Yang, Gu Jiu, and Lu Ji appeared unaffected: Wu Yang ate quickly, always efficient; Gu Jiu, though a bit picky after days of farm-style food, still didn’t neglect her appetite; and Lu Ji ate slowly, calm and composed.
“These three are practically werewolves,” Fatty muttered.
“How can you still eat?” he asked in a low voice.
Wu Yang, aware of their thoughts, smiled and said, “Don’t worry. The ingredients are normal. The game world wouldn’t go as far as making players eat something harmful or non-standard. Food is safe here.”
Reassured by the veteran who’d completed four game levels, Fatty finally filled up without worry.
After lunch, they continued searching for the doll around the village.
Eventually, they reached the Old Li’s house.
“There shouldn’t be any here, right?” Fatty murmured. “After all, the three members of the Old Li family have always existed as ghosts.”
Since they arrived in the village, they’d seen the other villagers in human form, but the Old Li family had never appeared.
Just then, Gu Jiu’s doll’s smiling face twisted into an angry expression. Its eyes glared, nose wrinkled, and mouth opened slightly, revealing faintly visible ghostly teeth—a fierce, wrathful look.
Fatty was startled.
“Wh-why is it angry?” Lin Dandan stammered.
Gu Jiu didn’t answer but looked toward three tightly closed rooms on the first floor of the Old Li house.
Wu Yang, deep in thought, said, “We went into the room on the left this morning; there are still two rooms we haven’t checked. Why don’t we open them?”
“Brother Wu, maybe not?” Lin Dandan and Wang Peiping murmured hesitantly, worried they’d encounter ghosts in broad daylight, which would be terrifying.
Gu Jiu, however, agreed. “I think it’s worth a try.”
Being decisive, Wu Yang stepped forward to the middle door, pushing it. Then he gave it a strong shove and finally kicked it hard.
Yet the door didn’t budge, remaining firmly shut.
It looked old and fragile, but the door was surprisingly sturdy and wouldn’t break open.
He then turned to the door on the far right and kicked it open easily, revealing a storage room filled with stale air, but nothing unusual.
Only the middle room remained inaccessible.
“It must be here,” Gu Jiu said confidently, her face softening with a gentle smile, making her look even more composed.
Seeing her smile, Fatty felt a bit uneasy, worried that this delicate lady might impulsively act.
Wang Peiping and Lin Dandan were equally frightened, but for a different reason. “Are the dolls with the spirits of those children really here? Right under our noses?”
The thought was chilling—they were practically staying in a haunted nest.
Wu Yang frowned. “It seems this door won’t open during the day.”
He carefully recalled the village chief’s daily warnings after dinner, filtering through all the information, and finally reached a conclusion. “I understand now. We can only escape Qingshan Village at night.”
“What? At night?” Lin Dandan and the others were even more frightened.
Fatty shivered. “There are mountain ghosts at night. If we try to escape…”
If a mountain ghost claimed a player’s soul, they’d die in the game.
Gu Jiu said, “That’s the game’s rule. Players can only leave the village at night.”
But escaping the cursed village at night would mean facing every ghost trying to stop them, increasing the danger significantly.
Wu Yang’s expression was solemn but quickly turned resolute. “We’ll leave tonight.”
Now that they knew the way to clear the game, retreating out of fear wasn’t an option; the only way forward was to face the danger head-on.