Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 114
The wind was blowing—not too strong, but with a biting chill.
Yun Xiangrong’s hair had been cut short, just reaching her shoulders. The wind lifted her hair, making her figure appear even more slender and gaunt. At the moment of eye contact with her, Zhou Qian felt the knapsack move on its own.
He guessed that it was Gao Shan inside the Rib of God sensing something.
Zhou Qian patted the knapsack, barely soothing the Bone Spirit, and then, without saying anything for the moment, turned and led the way to the inn.
As Zhou Qian walked, Bai Zhou naturally followed closely behind.
Shortly after, all eight players, under the system’s guidance, entered the Tatat Inn together.
The innkeeper was a middle-aged woman wearing a white long dress draped with a woolen plaid shirt, currently sitting in front of the fireplace knitting a sweater.
Upon seeing the eight guests walk in, she looked up, smiled at them, and said, “You can choose your rooms. It’s almost festival time. I’m very busy, so please make your choice within ten minutes. I advise each of you to choose a room; it’s best not to crowd together, as there’s only one bed per room.”
Festival?
The fields had already been harvested, and the foliage was showing signs of withering yellow, indicating that it was deep autumn.
What festival could the people in this instance, in this season, be celebrating?
Zhou Qian looked carefully around the inn’s lobby, noticing dried meat, corn, and chili hanging near the door.
Particularly unusual was the seven large pots placed near the entrance, all simmering with meat, the aroma filling the entire lobby.
In fact, the players had already smelled the meat before even entering the inn.
However, the combination of meat and the inn inevitably led to associations with rumors of cannibalistic eateries, and thus, no one dared entertain the thought of coveting that meat.
Turning back to the innkeeper, Zhou Qian asked, “What festival is it? Is this meat prepared for the festival?”
“Yes. There will be banquets these next few nights. Everyone can eat as much meat as they want.” The innkeeper smiled at Zhou Qian. “Eat as much as you like.”
He Xiaowei, beside Zhou Qian, obviously swallowed. “That meat smells so good. But I dare not eat it. How can you eat meat randomly in such instances?”
“That’s not necessarily the case. Don’t the game designers like to play with people? The more it seems you can’t eat, the more likely you can.” Zhou Qian laughed and walked towards the second floor. “Anyway, let’s find rooms first.”
He Xiaowei sighed. “Qian’er, although I’ve been playing games with you for so long, many times I still can’t tell if you’re joking or serious.”
“Really? Then can Zhou Ge tell?” While walking upstairs, Zhou Qian nudged Bai Zhou with his elbow, asking very pointedly.
Bai Zhou glanced at Zhou Qian, grabbed his hand, and before he could reply, He Xiaowei, following behind, added, “Don’t always ask others. Reflect on yourself!”
“Hey, He Xiaowei—”
He Xiaowei couldn’t continue, as he was knocked on the head by Hidden Blade.
“Master, why did you hit me?”
“Trouble comes from the mouth. Focus on choosing a room.”
“Does it matter which room we choose?” He Xiaowei asked.
Hidden Blade: “You forgot that—”
“Oh right, I remember now…”
He Xiaowei didn’t finish his sentence as Zhou Qian’s hand covered his mouth from behind.
Then he heard Zhou Qian tell the two girls. “Ladies first. You choose.”
By this time, all eight people had already made their way up the stairs to the second floor.
Realizing something, He Xiaowei paused, a bit unclear about Zhou Qian’s intentions.
What is he doing? He surely doesn’t mean harm to the two girls, right?
This Yin Jiujiu had a falling out with everyone last time, and she is somewhat naive and impulsive, but her enemy is Situ Qing. She hasn’t intentionally caused trouble for others. She doesn’t really have a grudge against us. At the beginning of the game, would they really just eliminate her so simply and crudely?
As for Yun Xiangrong, she’s even more of a pitiable girl. Zhou Qian shouldn’t be harming her, right?
What is he trying to do?
Noticing He Xiaowei’s gaze, Zhou Qian roughly guessed what he was thinking but didn’t explain much. When he looked at the two girls, his gaze even carried intentional mockery.
When their eyes met, Yun Xiangrong seemed to understand the provocation and mockery in Zhou Qian’s eyes. She immediately turned colder and said with a mocking tone, “I received that prohibition too—’one must not stay overnight in a house where one can still see the firelight from the window after sunset’. You don’t need to try using the asymmetry of information against me.”
Hearing this, Yin Jiujiu’s gaze shifted back and forth between Yun Xiangrong and Zhou Qian. “Do you two have a grudge?”
She then looked at Zhou Qian and asked, “But Zhou Qian… you won’t trick me, right?”
“You misunderstood. Of course, I’m not tricking you,” Zhou Qian said with a smile to Yin Jiujiu, then walked a few steps closer to Yun Xiangrong, staring into her eyes. “I really thought you didn’t know this information, which is why I let you two choose first.”
“But what I’m doing is not to harm you. I just wanted to play the hero who saves you after you trigger a crisis due to lack of information.”
Yun Xiangrong nodded and continued mockingly, “Oh. A familiar tactic. In the instance where Shan Ge died, didn’t you do the same to Situ Qing? How is it, you played a tactic and won her heart at that time… But after you used her and left the instance… You seemed not to care about her?”
“You two are, of course, different. She was indeed an enemy trying to kill me at that time. But at least you were once a teammate I could trust. This time, it’s just a little trick I played to express my goodwill towards you. Now that you know the prohibition… fine, I can’t play this trick anymore. There’s nothing more to say. But…”
Zhou Qian said seriously, “I want to tell you that Shan Ge has become my Bone Spirit now. He has the chance to be revived. And only I can truly revive him.”
“So, what you should do now is immediately leave the Peach Blossom Legion and come join me. You’ve seen it. My team is growing stronger. My people and I can completely protect you.”
“Is that so? Would you give me your weapon then?”
Yun Xiangrong coldly curled her lip, extending her hand towards him. “Give me your weapon, then I’ll believe you.”
“Rong Mei, that’s not fair. What if I give you my weapon and you turn to kill me?” Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes. “I haven’t forgotten. You said I was your first target for revenge.”
“Besides, without the Rib of God, I have no skills. All my skills depend on it.”
“So you see… you dare not give me your weapon.”
Yun Xiangrong turned back, walked into the corridor, randomly opened a room, and walked to the bed, looking through the window at the village outside. “I knew you weren’t sincere.”
“You’re being unfair now.”
Zhou Qian said, “The real insincere one is the Peach Blossom Legion. Can’t you see they’re testing you? If they really wanted to help you kill me, they wouldn’t let you face so many of us alone.
“They’re testing the real relationship between you and me. They want to see if I would harm you in this instance, to eliminate you as a future threat. After all, I have never spared my enemies. So Yun Xiangrong—”
“If I let you go this time, those who want to kill you after we leave this instance might be them.”
Zhou Qian said this was partly a performance for the “traitorous gambler” to watch and for the Peach Blossom Legion to see.
On the other hand, he was genuinely persuading Yun Xiangrong, wanting her to completely abandon the path of being a traitor. After all, the Peach Blossom Legion clearly didn’t trust her, and sending her this time had sinister intentions—
It wasn’t a good opportunity to kill Zhou Qian in this instance. There were eight players, with six on Zhou Qian’s side, and two of them were Rank God players.
The Peach Blossom Legion sending her was obviously testing Zhou Qian’s attitude towards her.
Under such circumstances, she would either die at Zhou Qian’s hand or, due to the fact that Zhou Qian let her go, the Peach Blossom Legion might consider her to be pretending to defect but actually still standing with Zhou Qian and thus choose to kill her.
Thus, no matter the path, Yun Xiangrong seemed to have only one way out—death. Unless—
Unless there were two other possibilities.
The first possibility was that, for some reason, Yun Xiangrong had indeed defected to the Peach Blossom Legion.
In that case, her daring to come here or the Peach Blossom Legion daring to send her here might just be because they calculated that Zhou Qian would let her go. Perhaps Yun Xiangrong’s purpose in coming here was only to get some important special reward from the instance, and she and the legion didn’t plan to kill Zhou Qian in this instance.
The second possibility was that the Peach Blossom Legion still wanted to kill Zhou Qian, but they had other pieces in play, such as Yin Jiujiu, or among the five people with Zhou Qian, there might be problems.
In Zhou Qian’s view, except for Bai Zhou, he trusted no one else.
It wasn’t that he easily doubted his teammates’ character. But someone like He Xiaowei, who was usually less guarded, could be controlled without knowing, which wasn’t impossible.
Zhou Qian was aware that the direct methods of the Peach Blossom Legion had failed, and of course, they would turn to the people close to him that he trusted.
Numerous thoughts flashed through Zhou Qian’s mind when he heard Yun Xiangrong say, “What exactly does your Rib of God do, and what exactly are the souls it produces? It’s still unclear. Maybe you can’t revive Shan Ge at all; you might just create a monster.”
“Shan Ge is a living, thinking, and perceptive soul, but now he’s trapped in that bone day and night. If it were me, I can hardly imagine what that feels like…”
At this point, a brief poignancy appeared in Yun Xiangrong’s words, followed by a sudden icy look in her eyes.
After a while, her gaze continued out the window, showing a bit of yearning as she continued, “But in the Peach Blossom Legion, I’ve seen it with my own eyes… That’s the real power of resurrection. Don’t you have two Rank God players by your side?”
She glanced back at Bai Zhou and Hidden Blade, her eyes shimmering with a certain brilliance. “You’ve heard of the Peach Blossom God, Xie Huaying, right?”
He Xiaowei, standing behind the group, quietly asked Hidden Blade, “Master, who is the Peach Blossom God?”
Hidden Blade replied, “It’s said she was one of the first players to enter this game and achieve godhood. I have indeed heard… she could resurrect people. Not just in the game, but in real life as well.”
“But she hasn’t appeared for a long time. Some say she never existed, and the legend is just a ploy to lure us into training. Others say… she has long been dead.”
“Ah? Did they say when she died?” He Xiaowei asked.
“She disappeared about six years ago,” Hidden Blade replied. “I don’t know the specifics.”
Six years ago?
Wasn’t that a year after Bai Zhou entered this game?
Does he have anything to do with this?
Hearing this, Zhou Qian inevitably linked the matter to Bai Zhou.
From the moment they entered the instance, he and Bai Zhou were equipped with props that allowed them to chat privately without being heard by other players or even the gamblers.
With doubts in his mind, Zhou Qian turned to look at Bai Zhou.
Catching Zhou Qian’s gaze, Bai Zhou guessed what he wanted to ask.
Without waiting for him to speak, Bai Zhou immediately said in the private chat, “I’m not involved in this matter. But I heard from Shao Chuan that he killed Xie Huaying and another Rank God player I don’t recognize years ago. It was also because of that incident he suffered severe injuries.”
This news was somewhat surprising to Zhou Qian.
However, with only ten minutes at his disposal, he had to first solve the first puzzle—”choosing a room” before considering anything else.
The inn was a square building, with the second floor built around a corridor precisely aligned with four directions.
There were four doors on each side, making a total of sixteen rooms.
Four of the rooms were at the corners, slightly larger, each with two windows facing different directions. The remaining twelve rooms each had only one window.
As per the innkeeper’s instruction, now the players had to choose eight rooms to stay in.
Zhou Qian first asked his teammates to quickly open every room door. After taking a glance in each to get a rough idea of the structure, he began to enter the rooms for a detailed inspection.
One thing was clear: all sixteen rooms contained a fireplace, plenty of firewood, and candles. The village had no electricity. If lighting was needed at night, candles would have to be used.
After checking several rooms, He Xiaowei was the first to say, “I have an idea… This puzzle might not be related to which room we choose. We just don’t light any lights!”
Right then, Zhou Qian pulled open the simple wooden wardrobe in one of the rooms, then patted He Xiaowei’s shoulder.
“What’s up?”
He Xiaowei turned his head and saw many odd costumes in the wardrobe, each more bizarre than the last—some with skull and ghost patterns, others with red blood stains.
Suddenly, Zhou Qian picked something from the wardrobe and threw it to He Xiaowei, who caught it only to be startled by what it was—a pristine white skull!
“Don’t panic, Xiaowei Ge.” Zhou Qian stepped forward and picked it up. He tied a plastic rope on the back around his head, donning it, and then, with hands outstretched like grabbing something, he stepped closer to He Xiaowei.
Only then did He Xiaowei realize it wasn’t a real skull but just a skull mask.
Still, He Xiaowei retreated step by step until Zhou Qian had him cornered against the wall.
He Xiaowei, trying to invoke some intervention, said to Bai Zhou, who was rummaging through something on the large bed, “Hey… aren’t you going to do something? Let me tell you, I’ve been in love before, so I have experience. If you don’t intervene now, later he’s going to walk all over you! When it comes to love, whoever lowers their stance first will have a harder time raising their status later on!”
Before he could finish, He Xiaowei saw Bai Zhou also take out a yellow head from under the covers, then looked down at it silently, as if measuring something. Then he turned to look at He Xiaowei. “You want to play with this?”
He Xiaowei: “…………”
Deciding to no longer follow Zhou Qian and giving up on seeking help from Bai Zhou, He Xiaowei turned to find his master in another room.
Just as he reached the door, a chill ran down his back as if someone had blown on him, causing his heart to race.
With a surge of courage, he turned back, only to find a yellow ghoulish face right in front of him.
Unable to hold back, He Xiaowei screamed, “Ahhh, a g-ghost—!”
Then, the yellow head lowered, revealing a white skull mask behind it, which was then removed to reveal… Zhou Qian’s face.
It turns out both ghosts were Zhou Qian.
Somewhat frustrated and feeling wronged, He Xiaowei complained, “Qian’er, you know I’m scared of this!”
“Take a closer look at what this is. You can smell it.”
Picking up the skull again, Zhou Qian didn’t wear it this time but set it aside.
Then he raised something else in front of He Xiaowei, who cautiously sniffed it and recognized it was a hollowed-out pumpkin.
Carved with facial features, it looked somewhat ghostly. But at its core, it was still just a pumpkin.
Pumpkin heads, skull masks, odd costumes…
He Xiaowei suddenly went to the window and looked out.
The sun hadn’t set yet. In the light of the setting sun, he could see many grains, pigs, and sheep, as well as many bones that seemed to be from animals, arranged in circles as if for some ritual.
“This, this…” He Xiaowei suddenly found himself at a loss for words.
Zhou Qian said, “Actually, you should be able to easily associate this with a Western festival.”
“Halloween!” He Xiaowei said. “Odd costumes, skull masks…these are for a costume party, right?! And there are also pumpkin lanterns! Do we need to prepare candy? Will kids come knocking on the door at night to ‘trick or treat’?”
“Halloween, November 1st, the timing does indeed fit. However, the costume party of Halloween can be traced back to an even older festival—Samhain*.”
*A Gaelic festival on November 1st marks the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter or “darker half” of the year. Often associated with Irish mythology, early literature says great gatherings and feasts marked Samhain when the ancient burial mounds were open, which were seen as portals to the Otherworld. Some of the literature also associates Samhain with bonfires and sacrifices.
Zhou Qian continued, “Some believe November 1st is the beginning of the new year, and on the night of October 31st, before November 1st arrives, there is a period of transition between the old and new—a time that doesn’t exist. During this time, the gates between the worlds of the living and the dead open, and Death and ghosts return to the mortal world to find replacements.”
“To avoid being recognized by Death, people would dress up as ghosts and ghouls. Besides that—”
“People welcoming Samhain would light various offerings at sunset, including burning animal bones to appease the spirits. This is what’s displayed in the square.”
“Not only in public areas would offerings and bonfires be burned, but every household must also keep their fire burning. On the night of Samhain, one must light the fireplace at home to prevent ghostly disturbances. So Xiaowei Ge, do you see the contradiction in the solution you just proposed?”
He Xiaowei realized it.
The prohibition related to the players was that they couldn’t stay overnight in a room where firelight can be seen from outside.
He initially thought that not lighting a fire would suffice.
But now it seemed this plan wouldn’t work. If they didn’t light the fireplace at night, they might very well die from ghosts returning from the other world.
“Damn it.” He Xiaowei couldn’t help saying, “So I’ve come to the instance I fear the most… This time, there really are ghosts.”
“We can’t say that for sure. It’s just one possibility,” Zhou Qian said.
“How should we choose the rooms then?” He Xiaowei pondered and suggested another idea. “Why not just completely block up all the windows with bricks and cement!”
“That would indeed be quite a drastic solution. But what if something unusual happens outside the house? Then you won’t be able to see it at all,” Zhou Qian said.
He Xiaowei was at a loss. “Yes. If we can’t see the information, we might miss a lot of it. So what should we do?”
But he heard Zhou Qian say, “Let’s just choose randomly for now.”
He Xiaowei: “?”
“There’s not enough information at the moment, so just choose randomly.”
He Xiaowei saw Zhou Qian smiling and saying, “The prohibition mentioned ‘overnight’, which means as long as the night isn’t truly over, not until the last moment, we’re not considered to have broken the prohibition. So the consequences of breaking the prohibition can’t take effect.”
“Wow… right. Then we can just keep moving!” He Xiaowei said.
“Right. Although the proprietress reminded us, it’s best for each person to have a room and not to stay together. There’s probably some reason behind it. But there’s no specific prohibition saying we must stay alone. So…”
Zhou Qian walked out of the room, just in time to see the two girls coming out of their rooms. They both seemed serious, probably also thinking about how to avoid the prohibition.
Zhou Qian then said to them, “At the beginning of the game, follow my lead. There are eight of us, so every two people will choose a room in one direction. We can adjust as the situation changes later. You two ladies can choose rooms in two different directions for easy support.”
Everyone agreed to Zhou Qian’s arrangement and chose their rooms. With a few minutes left of the innkeeper’s time requirement, they didn’t immediately go downstairs to report but continued to search the second floor.
After a while, Qi Liuxing found a room with a problem with the ceiling. After testing it, he found that several bricks were loose and could be removed.
After removing some bricks, a large hole appeared in the ceiling—large enough for someone to climb onto the roof.
After finding out, Zhou Qian was the first to follow Qi Liuxing. Bai Zhou and Ke Yuxiao followed behind, and the four of them climbed onto the roof together for a better view of the entire village.
After a round of observation, Zhou Qian could clearly see a rather tall stele in the west.
Being so far away, the words on the stele couldn’t be read, so Zhou Qian took out binoculars.
Beside him, Qi Liuxing glanced at him and couldn’t help saying, “Did you use this binocular back when you were like the ‘waiting for your husband stone’?”
Zhou Qian: “……”
Qi Liuxing rarely got a chance to tease Zhou Qian. Seeing him not responding, he mimicked Zhou Qian’s pleased smile.
But soon, he felt that deliberately smiling like that made him feel awkward, almost as if his facial muscles were twitching, so he stopped and just looked up at the stele.
At that moment, he felt a gaze that one couldn’t ignore—a spine-chilling gaze.
Turning his head, Qi Liuxing met Bai Zhou’s eyes.
In that instant, as if enlightened, Qi Liuxing responded, “The person he’s waiting for is probably you.”
“Brother Sword God, have you been hanging out with Xiaowei Ge too much? If you talk too much, you’ll lose your coolness, and your Sword God persona will collapse,” Zhou Qian immediately cautioned him.
Qi Liuxing calmly replied, “Doesn’t matter. My persona has already collapsed a million times in front of you.”
Zhou Qian: “…………”
Then Zhou Qian saw Bai Zhou walk up beside him, seemingly with a smile in his eyes, looking at him.
Zhou Qian didn’t look at him. His ears were tinged red by the setting sun.
Then he cleared his throat and said, “The stele is inscribed with the third prohibition: Do not circumnavigate Brega clockwise.”
……
The ten minutes for choosing rooms ended.
The eight players went to the first-floor lobby to inform the innkeeper of their decision.
The innkeeper put down the sweater in her hands and smiled at them. “Good. Now please come with me to the square. The evening’s festival activities are about to start. I’ll take you to the first one.”
He Xiaowei couldn’t help asking, “Do we need to prepare candy?”
He was still thinking about the “trick or treating” of Halloween.
“No need.” The innkeeper smiled. “Do you like sweets?”
He Xiaowei seemed to realize—so, tonight’s festival is indeed the ancient Samhain?
After a while, Yun Xiangrong asked the innkeeper, “May I ask what the first activity tonight is?”
“A little game. Similar to Drop the Handkerchief*. It’s very fun.”
*It’s a children’s game that’s similar to Duck, Duck, Goose. It involves a group of children sitting in a circle, facing inward. One child is designated as “it” and walks around the circle holding a small handkerchief. As they walk, they drop the handkerchief behind one of the seated children without them noticing. Once the handkerchief is dropped, “it” continues to walk or run around the circle. The child who discovers the handkerchief behind them picks it up and chases “it” around the circle. The goal is to tag “it” before they can sit down in the vacated spot. If “it” is caught, they must perform a task, a penalty, or continue to be “it.” If not, the child with the handkerchief becomes the new “it.”
The innkeeper said, “There are rewards for the winners of the game and penalties for the losers.”
Drop the Handkerchief?
The kind where a group of people play in a circle?
Zhou Qian immediately caught on to something.
Without waiting for him to ask, Yun Xiangrong seemed to realize too and immediately asked, “So… how many people will participate? Also, what is your name?”
The author has something to say:
- Do not walk counterclockwise around Tara
- Nor circumnavigate Brega clockwise
- Do not stay overnight in a room where firelight can still be seen from outside after sunset
All three prohibitions come from: Instructions from Nimueh to King Conall of Cornwall. The story behind seems interesting, but I haven’t found it. I’ll organize the information and tell everyone later~
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