The cries of the infants were so piercing that Li Zhi felt a wave of nausea in her stomach.
She watched the pile of burning firewood and suddenly remembered running into Butler Chen at the gates of the Jin Mansion when she returned from town yesterday. At that time, he had been directing the servants to move firewood into the house. Now, as she turned to look again, the firelight cast flickering shadows on Butler Chen’s face, revealing a twisted calmness beneath the surface.
The fire burned for a long time, until the entire sacrificial altar, along with the infants, had turned to ashes. A slight, barely noticeable relief appeared in Butler Chen’s eyes.
He glanced at the players nearby, who appeared to be in a daze, and then resumed his composed and aloof demeanor. “The black dog’s blood and the hundred-year-old sandalwood you requested have been delivered. Should they be sent directly to your lodgings?”
He acted as if nothing had happened, unperturbed. A player, close to Song Chengzhou, let out a wail and charged at him with a raised fist. “Was it you? Are you behind all these strange occurrences?”
Before the player could get close, a servant by Butler Chen’s side stepped in to stop him.
Butler Chen frowned slightly and coldly remarked, “You are all practitioners of the Tao. You should be used to such strange events. Why are you so surprised?”
His gaze swept over the group, sharp and commanding. “But now I must ask you—Madam is about to give birth. Are you sure your methods will work? Because your behavior over the past two days has been far from reassuring. If anything goes wrong, you’d better think carefully about the consequences.”
It was clear that causing conflict with an NPC at this moment was a bad idea. Their mission objective was still here, and if they were kicked out, they wouldn’t be able to complete the mission or clear the game.
A few people hurried forward to pull their companion back. Zhao Luan stepped up and apologized, “I’m sorry. He’s just struggling to accept the reality of his fellow disciple’s death. Please have the items sent to our lodgings. Once we are ready, we’ll set up the formation in Madam’s courtyard to ward off any evil spirits.”
Only then did Butler Chen leave, satisfied.
The servants cleaned up the pile of ashes, but the strange smell of burnt bones lingered in the air. Everyone’s faces were grim. They knew something was wrong with this mansion, but they couldn’t leave. They had no choice but to stay until Madam safely delivered her child.
Song Chengzhou’s death was mysterious, and no one knew who would be next. The feeling was like a slow, painful death by a thousand cuts.
The group dragged their heavy steps back to the courtyard, where the black dog’s blood and hundred-year-old sandalwood had already been delivered.
Turning a piece of sandalwood as thick as a thigh into ashes would keep them busy for a while.
After witnessing such a bloody scene in the morning, no one had much of an appetite at noon. They quickly grabbed a few bites and went back to work on making the incense ash.
Not everyone was needed for this task. Zhao Luan, eager to prove himself, took over. Li Zhi didn’t argue with him and let him handle it. She sat on a long bench under the eaves of the courtyard, lost in thought as she held the talisman pouch in her hand.
Tian Mingjie had been watching her for a while and was about to ask her something when Chi Yi pulled him back. “Don’t disturb Zhi Zhi when she’s brainstorming!”
Tian Mingjie sighed. “Alright.” Then he turned to Chi Yi, “Yi Yi, what do you think triggered Song Chengzhou’s death? We’ve been moving as a group the past few days, so why was he the unlucky one?”
Chi Yi pouted. “Maybe it wasn’t even a ghost that killed him. Ghosts need specific conditions to kill people, but if the murderer was human, there wouldn’t be any need to follow those rules.”
Tian Mingjie shivered, remembering Feng Zhenghao, who had been dragged into the pond and drowned. Drowning could still be explained as a human action, but the sight of ghost infants crawling out of his body and sucking him dry—that could only be the work of something supernatural!
Just as they were talking, another scream echoed through the courtyard.
They were all too familiar with that scream—it was the same as the one they heard earlier in the day. Everyone froze and quickly turned to look.
In the courtyard, one of the players who had been making incense ash with Zhao Luan clutched his stomach and collapsed to the ground. His expression and posture were identical to Song Chengzhou’s, and what followed was exactly the same as what they had witnessed that morning.
Seven or eight bloodstained infants crawled out of his stomach, and the body quickly shriveled into a dry husk.
The identical death and scene greatly shook the players’ already frayed nerves. Finally, someone couldn’t take it anymore and broke down, fleeing the courtyard in terror. Li Zhi tried to chase after them but lost sight of the player almost instantly. Instead, it was Butler Chen who showed up again with his servants, calmly capturing the ghost infants.
Li Zhi observed Butler Chen’s calm demeanor. It seemed less like he was reacting to the commotion and more like he had been waiting for this moment, just as the firewood had been prepared in advance yesterday. Everything felt premeditated.
“What exactly is happening? Why is this happening?! Am I next? Are we all going to die here?!”
The courtyard was filled with cries of panic. Including the player who had run away, only eight of the twelve who had originally entered the instance were left.
Each of them had brought tools they had earned in their previous beginner instance, which had given them some confidence going into this one. They had survived the beginner instance without experience or tools, so there was no reason to believe they would fail now, with more experience and items on hand.
But at this moment, the malicious unpredictability of the system felt like a cruel joke, nearly breaking their confidence and mental resolve.
Their tools were useless, their companions were dying one after the other, and they didn’t even know why. In their previous instance, there had been patterns to follow, but here—what were the rules of this instance?
Even Zhao Luan, usually fearless, showed signs of fear. He could face ghosts and monsters head-on, snapping their necks without flinching, but he was helpless against this unseen, intangible force of evil lurking in the shadows.
Li Zhi could sense that the group was on the verge of breaking. If one more person died, the fragile thread holding them together would snap.
At that point, the killer wouldn’t even need to act—the players would self-destruct.
With this in mind, she jumped down from the long bench and strode to the fire basin used to burn the sandalwood. She called out, “Chi Yi.”
Chi Yi immediately ran over. Li Zhi said, “Give me your talisman pouch.”
Without hesitation, Chi Yi handed over the talisman pouch she had been keeping close. Li Zhi, holding both her own and Chi Yi’s talisman pouches, tossed them into the fire without a second thought.
“Hey!!” Tian Mingjie cried out in shock. “Sister Zhi, what are you doing? If you burn the talismans, what will we do if the female ghost shows up?”
Li Zhi calmly looked up at the others. “I suspect these talismans are the real culprit. They’re not for protecting us from the ghost—they’re some kind of marker that attracts the ghost infants to us, using our bodies to be reborn.”
As she spoke, a thick sandalwood scent wafted from the fire, but amidst the fragrance, a familiar smell reached their noses.
It was the same strange odor that had emanated from the burning ghost infants earlier that morning.
The expressions of the group shifted. Zhao Luan frowned. “Do you have any proof? Things are already bad enough—if you’re wrong, we’ll have to face the female ghost tonight as well.”
Li Zhi’s face remained calm. “No proof. It’s just a guess. If you trust me, throw them away. If not, keep them.”
The players exchanged uncertain glances. Tian Mingjie, after a moment of hesitation, was the first to act. Gritting his teeth, he threw his prized talisman pouch into the fire. “I trust Sister Zhi!”
With him taking the lead, two other players who had been following Li Zhi also tossed their talismans into the flames. The fire flared up, and the sandalwood scent grew stronger and stronger, until the courtyard was left with only Zhao Luan and another player who had supported him since the start.
Their expressions were conflicted, and the audience watching from outside the screen grew anxious:
【Listen to Li Zhi! Zhao Luan, what are you even thinking? Let the smart ones handle this!】
【But it’s just a guess. If Li Zhi is wrong, we’ll be in even deeper trouble.】
【I’d rather be strangled by the female ghost’s hair than be sucked dry by those ghost babies.】
【So, we’re picking our preferred way to die now? Alright, everyone, cast your votes!】
…
In the end, Zhao Luan decided to throw his talisman into the fire as well. Perhaps he felt that facing the ghost head-on was better than dealing with this unseen, sinister force.
All eight players threw their talismans into the fire. After a period of intense sandalwood fragrance, the scent began to turn foul, becoming even more nauseating than the stench from burning the ghost babies earlier that morning.
Everyone pinched their noses and retreated to the shelter of the porch. Li Zhi turned to Zhao Luan and said, “You keep working on the incense ash.” She then addressed the other two, “Come with me.”
Zhao Luan felt a bit dissatisfied with Li Zhi’s authoritative tone, but given the current situation, he had no better ideas and could only go along with her plan.
The group followed Li Zhi outside the courtyard. Across from them, about ten meters away, stood a pavilion atop a raised stone platform, roughly the height of a two-story building.
Standing on the stone platform, Li Zhi said, “You guys give me a boost. I want to climb up and take a look.”
Although they didn’t know what she was planning, she was the team’s best hope at this point. Two strong men each grabbed one of her legs and lifted her up high. She reached out, grasping the edge of the pavilion’s roof. With a strong push from her arms, she hoisted herself onto the sloping roof.
The roof of the pavilion was angled, but Li Zhi steadied herself and grabbed onto a sharp decorative sculpture at the top for balance. She turned to face the courtyard where they had been staying.
From this height and angle, she had a perfect bird’s-eye view of the courtyard.
On the first day they arrived, she had felt that the layout of the guest rooms was odd—completely out of sync with the symmetrical beauty typical of traditional Chinese architecture. But back then, it was just a strange design, and she hadn’t given it much thought. Now, with everything that had happened over the past few days piecing together, she began to understand.
In this instance, their enemy wasn’t ghosts—it was humans.
Could it be that from the moment they stepped foot in Qingyu Town, they had walked right into a carefully laid trap?
Under the overcast sky, the six guest rooms stood silently. Ignoring the distracting exterior decorations, Li Zhi squinted her eyes and studied the arrangement carefully. Gradually, a character appeared in her mind: “咒” (curse).
The rooms, which seemed haphazard and asymmetrical, were actually arranged to form the shape of the character “咒.”
And the room where Feng Zhenghao had been staying was positioned right at the center—like an eye.
Feng Zhenghao, the first to die, had likely been the sacrificial offering to activate this “eye.”
From this elevated vantage point, Li Zhi used the opportunity to scan the surrounding area. Her search yielded a significant discovery.
Near a small wooded area used for landscaping beside the courtyard, Butler Chen stood with several people, glancing in the direction of the courtyard as if they were waiting for something to happen.