Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 124

In this world, animals are regarded as spirits that communicate between humans and the other world. Whether it’s the Kingdom of Words or the Land of Silence, people from both countries know how to communicate with animals, only that the former prefer to keep dogs, while the latter favor birds.

Therefore, by logic, Innkeeper Tartar should know how to communicate with dogs. To protect themselves from a possible visit from the Red God, every household values dogs highly and would specially treat them to meat soup before the festival as a reward.

Why doesn’t the inn have dogs? 

Isn’t Tartar afraid of the Red God’s visit?

He Xiaowei whispered immediately, “Could she be the Red God herself?”

Zhou Qian leaned against the head of the bed, yawned, and said, “I don’t know.”

He Xiaowei: “So, what do we do now…”

Zhou Qian said, “Wait.”

“Wait? But what about the issue with the glass color—”

“Didn’t they say it’s best for each of us to have a room? Maybe the fire can only protect within a limited range. So, let’s go back and wait for now. I’ll come to find you if there’s any news. As for the color of the glass, just keep observing for now.”

Sure enough, people began leaving the room one after another shortly after.

Yin Jiujiu took two people’s worth of ore and divided it into two baskets. She didn’t return to her room immediately but knocked on Yun Xiangrong’s door with the baskets in hand.

Yun Xiangrong opened the door, exchanged glances with her, and took one basket.

“Thank you.”

“No thanks,” Yin Jiujiu didn’t leave immediately after speaking but stood in the corridor without moving.

Seeing that she had something to say to her, Yun Xiangrong stepped aside to let her in.

Once the door was closed, Yin Jiujiu looked at Yun Xiangrong and said, “I didn’t have time to say much just now. What I want to tell you now is that I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Yun Xiangrong replied, “Understood, you’ve made up your mind. You refuse to cooperate with me.”

Yin Jiujiu shook her head, frowning. “It’s not that I refuse to cooperate with you. It’s that I literally don’t understand what you’re saying. I don’t have any revenge to seek. What cooperation? What do we need to cooperate on?”

Yun Xiangrong didn’t respond but looked thoughtfully at Yin Jiujiu. “As far as I know, you were once a gambler. You want to avenge your player.”

Yin Jiujiu had already turned around to reopen the door.

“There’s no such thing. I don’t know where you heard this, but it’s definitely false. Finding suitable teammates in this game is rare. I trust Zhou Qian and the people around him. Your boyfriend, Gao Shan, used to be a tank, and he’s dead. Now, I will mainly play as a tank. I just want to join this team.”

Halfway out the door, Yin Jiujiu’s wrist was grabbed by Yun Xiangrong.

“What else do you want to say?” Yin Jiujiu turned back to look at the cold beauty behind her with tightly knit brows.

Yun Xiangrong asked her, “Do you know Situ Qing?”

Yin Jiujiu narrowed her eyes and shook her head again. “I don’t know her.”

Yun Xiangrong said, “What you said is strange. You refuse to cooperate with me or acknowledge the real reason you came to this instance. There are many ways, but why would you say you have no revenge to seek? Even saying you don’t know Situ Qing at all?”

“Wasn’t your best friend killed by her? In ‘Flower of Evil’, you did everything you could, not caring about the possibility of dying yourself, just to kill her for revenge. Have you forgotten?”

“I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Yin Jiujiu gave Yun Xiangrong a strange look and pushed past her to leave.

After Yin Jiujiu left, Yun Xiangrong actually felt somewhat astonished.

She had watched the video playback of Zhou Qian passing ‘Flower of Evil’ with Priest and knew what Yin Jiujiu had done.

Before coming to this instance, Priest told Yun Xiangrong that after investigation, he found that Yin Jiujiu had shifted her hatred and had a new target.

If Yin Jiujiu’s target was Zhou Qian or someone around him, according to Priest, Yun Xiangrong could help her, cooperate with her, or use her. In any case, as long as it served to weaken Zhou Qian’s forces.

Priest understood Yin Jiujiu so well, and with his skills like hypnosis, Yun Xiangrong naturally thought that Yin Jiujiu was Priest’s insider. Her hatred towards people around Zhou Qian was also induced by Priest’s hypnosis.

But Priest was always flawless in his actions. If he really did such a thing to Yin Jiujiu, he shouldn’t have left such a big loophole.

Otherwise, if Zhou Qian and others casually chatted with Yin Jiujiu and she revealed she doesn’t remember Situ Qing or even knows her, they would definitely suspect she was being controlled.

Furthermore, if Yin Jiujiu indeed clearly remembered everything, she wouldn’t have told such a poor lie.

So, in her consciousness and memory now, she indeed went through ‘Flower of Evil’, and knew Zhou Qian, Qi Liuxing, and others who had cleared the instance with her, but she uniquely didn’t know Situ Qing.

Yin Jiujiu’s memory must be incorrect.

However, whoever was behind her, making such a flawed person appear here, was too strange.

What was the purpose of the person controlling her?

And who exactly is that person?

Yun Xiangrong was puzzled.

Being watched by Priest, she was completely unable to inform Zhou Qian of her suspicions at this time and could only continue to move forward.

“Never mind. It’s nothing.” That was all Yun Xiangrong said in the end.

Yin Jiujiu didn’t say anything more, pushing away her hand and leaving.

At this moment, Zhou Qian lay in the room, doing nothing but silently staring outside the window.

The window glass was still blue, making it hard to clearly see what was outside.

The Bone Fire in the fireplace was burning, and because the bones were covered with salt ores, the flame remained yellow and didn’t illuminate the outside through the window.

As for the little dragon, due to excessive energy consumption, it had reverted to a scale and rested inside his backpack.

Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou both wore private chat devices, but the distance between them was obviously beyond the effective range of the devices, preventing instant communication.

After sending the information he had gathered to Bai Zhou through the team system in as concise a manner as possible, all Zhou Qian could do was wait.

The person, or soul, he was waiting for was currently above a graveyard.

It was the place targeted by one of the three skull statues.

This person had a transparent body, invisible to ordinary people.

It was Gao Shan.

He had been busy tonight, first sneaking into various homes to create a bit of ghostly chaos, successfully coaxing out the addresses of Tara and Braga, then, with the little dragon’s help, letting the dogs of those two households escape.

Meanwhile, as Zhou Qian and the others were playing games in the square, chatting with NPCs, and searching for the temple on the mountain, Gao Shan had been observing the changes in the color of the statue’s eyes.

At this moment, according to Zhou Qian’s instructions, he was exploring the graveyard that the players hadn’t yet investigated.

The graveyard was on a small hill and covered a large area.

A cloud passed overhead, dimming the moonlight slightly but still enough to illuminate the tombstones.

As Gao Shan passed in front of them, he could clearly see the inscriptions on each.

Earlier, in order to find the homes of those two key NPCs, Gao Shan had wandered around the village, hearing many villagers’ names.

Now, those names he had heard appeared one by one on the tombstones in front of him—

“Ab”, “Braga”, “Tara”, “Awei”… all were among them.

The night was deep, and the moonlight shone softly, with rows of tombstones neatly arranged.

After roughly counting the number of tombstones in both directions and performing a simple multiplication, Gao Shan realized there were over 400 tombstones.

This meant… it seemed the entire village was dead.

If they were dead, then who had played the handkerchief game with them just before?

Checking the time and with midnight approaching, considering the festival of Samhain might affect him, Gao Shan didn’t have time to think further or check all the tombstones and quickly turned back towards the Tartar Inn.

Moments later, inside the inn on the second floor.

Guessing it was about time, Zhou Qian took out the Rib of God.

Before long, the Rib of God moved slightly.

Seeing this, Zhou Qian took out the dragon scale to summon the little dragon.

The little dragon exhaled a bit of life force, and purple mist spilled out, revealing a human shadow. The shadow slowly condensed into form, allowing the semi-transparent Gao Shan to be seen by Zhou Qian.

Seeing Gao Shan, Zhou Qian quickly sat up and asked, “How did it go?”

Gao Shan, temporarily unable to speak, used paper and pen to write down his observations. At the end, he posed a question: “Does this mean everyone is dead and this place is like hell or another realm? Are we in another world?”

“Not quite,” Zhou Qian shook his head, then asked, “Did the color of the statue’s eyes change?”

Gao Shan nodded and continued writing: “Yes. The statue facing the graveyard had yellow eyes. As for the others, no change. The one facing west still had blue eyes; the one facing this inn had no color.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian sat on the simple bed and thought for a while, then a smile appeared on his lips. “I understand now.”

Gao Shan gave him a questioning look.

Zhou Qian explained, “That group of statues is made of three skulls. Considering the mythological use of the number three, its associated meanings can be interpreted through the constructs of life or through space and time.”

What Zhou Qian was referring to was the conclusion he and Bai Zhou had discussed before.

Humans, ghosts, gods, are classifications of life forms.

Heaven, earth, hell, are spatial divisions.

Looking at it from a temporal perspective, it’s past, present, future.

Zhou Qian looked at Gao Shan and continued, “Now that we’ve confirmed the statue’s eyes have three colors, red, yellow, blue. Seeing so many dead, logically, yellow corresponds to the future.”

Gao Shan quickly caught on.

—So, if they weren’t in hell but in reality… according to Zhou Qian, the statue opening its yellow eyes saw into the future. Therefore, what he saw in the graveyard was a vision of the future. This meant… nearly the entire village will die one day in the future.

“Right.” Zhou Qian nodded. “What we’re still uncertain about is what the red and blue correspond to. Besides…”

Zhou Qian glanced at the blue glass and smiled. “So, why the glass on the second floor changed color is quite interesting.”

At this moment, there were only three minutes left until midnight. He Xiaowei from next door came knocking.

Zhou Qian opened the door to let him in, hearing him ask, “Qian’er, have you figured anything out?”

“Weren’t you supposed to keep an eye on the glass?” Zhou Qian said, yawning as he closed the door.

He Xiaowei spread his hands. “I’m really too sleepy. What if the glass changes color while I’m asleep? Look, Qian’er, if I die, who’s going to heal you? Who’s going to share their mana with you? Our skills match well.”

Zhou Qian looked at him for a long moment and nodded. “So, when you encounter a problem, you come to me instead of your master?”

He Xiaowei replied, “You know how cold my master is.”

Zhou Qian raised an eyebrow. “Oh, is that the only reason?”

After a three-second pause, He Xiaowei had an epiphany and confidently praised Zhou Qian. “Because you’re awesome! That’s why I came to you.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian laughed and then shook his head. “You’re still not there yet, Xiaowei Ge.”

He Xiaowei: “…?”

“You can go back to sleep,” Zhou Qian said lightly.

“No way!” He Xiaowei was panicking. “Then, can I sleep in the same room as you?”

Zhou Qian immediately refused. “That won’t do. Zhou Ge will get jealous if he sees. Besides, these small rooms in such a rundown inn are cramped even for one person.”

“…” He Xiaowei said, “Ah, this… No, I’ll sleep on the floor! I absolutely won’t disturb you!”

Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. “So, you mean you sleep, and I stay up all night watching the glass color?”

“No way.” He Xiaowei waved his hand. “We’ll take turns!”

Zhou Qian stopped teasing him. “Go back to sleep. It’s really nothing. Just make sure there’s enough salt mineral in the fireplace. The glass won’t change color for now.”

“Why?” He Xiaowei couldn’t help but ask.

Zhou Qian glanced outside the window, his expression suddenly becoming somewhat unfathomable.

He said, “From the moment we entered the inn, to the moment we left, the statue directly facing here had no color in its eyes. Thus, the space-time of the inn has not changed.”

“Meaning, the change in the color of the glass on the second floor is unrelated to space-time. Therefore, its change can only be related to magic.”

After a pause, Zhou Qian continued, “We went to the rooftop, and a stone tablet appeared out of nowhere with the third prohibition written on it. We went to the Prayer Temple, and when we left, the fourth prohibition against killing birds appeared on the grass. This clearly shows that someone is hinting at the prohibitions that could kill us.”

He Xiaowei finally got it. “So… the color of the glass, someone changed it to blue!”

“Right,” Zhou Qian said. “Therefore, I need to revise my earlier deduction.”

“The glass turned blue, and the white bone sacrifice just so happened to emit blue light through the blue glass… At first, I thought this was caused by changes in space-time, and the person implementing the prohibitions, namely the magician named Flowing Water, had predicted everything, including that the inn would have blue glass, in order to kill us.”

“But now, it seems that the unexpected change in the color of the glass was actually a hint given to us by someone to make us think of a solution from the perspective of color.”

“Someone has been helping us.”

At this point, Zhou Qian fell silent, continuing to stare out the window as if pondering something.

He Xiaowei also fell into thought.

He decided to start trying to ask less and think more, to see if he could come up with anything on his own.

He had always been go-with-the-flow and had exerted an effort that was neither outstanding nor terrible in instances. But this time, being in the same instance as Qi Liuxing, who was much younger and so hardworking, He Xiaowei felt somewhat ashamed and decided to be stricter with himself.

After all, Zhou Qian was so picky. What if he was abandoned for not making progress?

Both fell into silence for a while until Gao Shan looked towards Zhou Qian, picking up a pen to write: “Zhou Qian, I think… I need to see Yun Xiangrong and tell her about some of our deductions. I want her to have a good night’s sleep tonight.”

His handwriting was rushed, showing his urgency.

“No.” Zhou Qian immediately objected. “Right now, she’s someone who wants to kill me.”

“She won’t!” Gao Shan quickly wrote these words.

Picking up the pen, he seemed to want to write more, but after starting, he stopped, as if reconsidering.

Zhou Qian said, “You left me a dying message once, asking me to persuade her not to go down a path of no return. See, I told you I couldn’t persuade her.”

Gao Shan frowned.

“Anyway, you can’t go.” Zhou Qian was decisive. “She doesn’t trust me at all, nor does she believe that this bone can revive you. She thinks that by letting you live this way, I’m torturing you.”

“If you go see her and the two lovers meet, what if you take her side? You’re sleeping in my weapon. If you wanted to kill me, wouldn’t that be easy? So, you definitely can’t see Yun Xiangrong alone.”

Hearing this, He Xiaowei immediately felt Zhou Qian’s approach was a bit harsh.

Everything that happened in “Last Wish” was still fresh in his memory. How difficult was it for that girl? Now that Gao Shan could appear in this form, what harm could it do to let them meet?

Qian’er is really cruel!

Looking at Zhou Qian, as He Xiaowei was about to speak, he thought better of it and swallowed his words.

No, Qian’er wouldn’t be like this without a reason. Was he plotting something else?

With this thought, He Xiaowei looked back at Gao Shan.

Sure enough, Gao Shan’s expression was off, and suddenly, he turned to run, seemingly determined to see Yun Xiangrong despite everything.

Then, Zhou Qian simply grabbed the Rib of God and used his ability, forcefully pulling him back into the bone.

Sighing softly, Zhou Qian put away the Rib of God and looked at He Xiaowei, appearing somewhat tired. “You see, having a bone spirit is actually quite troublesome. It’s a double-edged sword. I could very well end up killing myself.”

He Xiaowei was taken aback, then felt he had made progress.

Maybe, just maybe, Qian’er was really acting?

“Cough. I’m going back to sleep then. Oh, by the way, that innkeeper—” He Xiaowei stopped at the door to ask, “Have you figured out what she is?”

“She doesn’t keep a dog. Does that mean she doesn’t need such means to communicate with the Red God?” Zhou Qian counter-asked, then said, “If we look at it from this angle, she’s very suspicious.”

“She doesn’t need a dog… She can communicate directly with the Red God…”

He Xiaowei thought for a moment, his eyes widening. “Then she… I got it! Those bone soups should have been at the square, attracting all the ghosts there to feed, satisfying them so they would leave, ensuring our safety! But the innkeeper just cooked some here… Could she be waiting for the Red God?!”

“You’re absolutely right.” Zhou Qian’s expression was more serious than ever. “If she’s waiting for the Red God, it means the Red God will come to the inn tonight. Then… who is the ‘Red God’ that was playing games with us outside?”

Would Bai Zhou be in danger?

Zhou Qian immediately opened the system panel, trying to message Bai Zhou.

At this moment, midnight arrived.

He found that he couldn’t send the message.

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