Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 125

At the entrance of the village, there was a statue composed of three heads.

One faced the square and most of the village houses, another directly faced the inn, and the third one looked in the direction of a fountain, farmland, and graveyard, respectively.

Zhou Qian’s conjecture was that each statue’s eyes, besides their normal limestone color, could display red, blue, and yellow states.

When the statue’s eyes didn’t change color, space-time remained unchanged.

However, when the statue’s eyes did change color, they illuminated the area they were facing in different space-times.

As for why the glass on the second floor of the inn changed color, Zhou Qian initially thought it was related to space-time shifts.

It was possible that the glass was colorless for a period and was redecorated with blue glass by someone in the future.

Players moving in and out of the inn saw the color of the glass change because the eyes of the statue facing the inn changed color, transporting them from the past to the future.

But now Zhou Qian found that the eyes of the head facing the inn had always been colorless.

Thus, he had to discard this possibility.

Since this was a world filled with magic, the color change of the glass was likely related to magic.

The person who changed the color of the glass with magic might have been trying to remind players to avoid prohibitions from the perspective of fire color. Now that the reminder had been given, there was no need to continue changing the color of the glass.

Therefore, unless something unexpected happened, players didn’t need to worry about the color of the glass tonight. They just needed to ensure that the fire in the fireplace was always yellow, as it would never shine through blue glass.

So, for the time being, players neither had to worry about the prohibitions nor fear being possessed by spirits, as the fireplace, always lit with fire, was enough to drive away ordinary spirits from the other world.

With these two problems out of the way, the only concern for players now was the innkeeper Tartar suddenly starting to cook meat soup in the middle of the night.

What exactly is her intention?

During the coming of Samhain, the gates between the worlds open, plunging it into chaos. The Red God could travel from the other world to the human world. However, despite this, they couldn’t communicate directly with people and needed dogs as intermediaries.

Every household in Nameless Village kept a white dog to communicate with the Red God.

Tartar should also understand animal language, but she didn’t have a dog.

There were two possibilities behind this. The first was that she was the Red God herself, and at the same time, she must be a particularly powerful Red God who wasn’t bound by time and could freely travel between the human world and the other world, even outside of Samhain. She could disguise herself as a human without being detected by dogs. Moreover, she could communicate directly with villagers and players without the need for animals like dogs.

Zhou Qian thought this possibility was relatively small because he hadn’t found any clues supporting Tartar was the Red God, nor had he found any descriptions that powerful Red Gods could break many restrictions, such as communicating directly with humans.

Therefore, Zhou Qian leaned more towards the second possibility—

Tartar wasn’t the Red God, but she must have some special identity that allowed her to communicate directly with the Red God, and she was preparing these soups tonight to welcome the Red God’s arrival.

The spirits from the other world enjoyed feasting, and to welcome their arrival and let them leave satisfied and without harming people, the square was prepared with a lot of food offerings in addition to the Bone Fire.

Furthermore, Zhou Qian had received information from Bai Zhou—in the other world, every Red God had an inn where endless food was supplied to the spirits, usually pots of meat.

This suggested that Tartar cooking meat in the middle of the night was likely to entertain the Red God.

Tartar had a special identity, and she was preparing to entertain the Red God tonight. With such a conclusion, Zhou Qian had ample reason to worry about Bai Zhou’s situation—

After all, the Red God was a “great ghost”, equivalent to an official spirit in the hell world understood by Easterners. Their number wouldn’t be large.

Moreover, according to the information previously provided by Bai Zhou, Nameless Village had been troubled by only one Red God for years, who needed to consume humans each year, with an upper limit of 32 and an uncertain lower limit. It was for this reason that Nameless Village held the handkerchief game on the eve of Samhain each year.

Therefore, the Red God plaguing the villagers in Nameless Village was likely just one—the same one Bai Zhou and the others went to meet.

But if this Red God needed to select who to consume this year by playing games with the night watchmen, would they have time to visit the inn as a guest?

With such concerns, Zhou Qian frowned slightly when he discovered he could not contact Bai Zhou.

Beside him, He Xiaowei temporarily interrupted his thoughts. “But what exactly is the identity of the innkeeper? Why does she want to meet the Red God?”

After a moment of silence, Zhou Qian said, “Let’s solve the problem by thinking in groups of three. The present, future, past represent time and space; red, yellow, blue are the three primary colors; regarding humans, ghosts, and gods, we are still missing ‘god’.”

“Human refers to the villagers,” He Xiaowei said. “Although the Red God has ‘god’ in its name, it is actually a great ghost from another world. The Red God is a ghost. So, we have humans, we have ghosts, as for gods…”

Something clicked, and He Xiaowei’s eyes lit up. “Damn, I really feel like I’ve made progress! The only god we’ve seen… is that golden statue in the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers!”

Zhou Qian nodded. “Correct. Difu. If we speculate using the trinity thought process, the innkeeper is likely Difu.”

According to the information found by the players in the temple, Difu was locked in the temple by Vels, the God of Imprisonment, who loved her. There was a chain around the statue’s ankle.

The king of the Land of Silence lost a golden feather, entered the temple to make a wish, and inscribed a curse on a stone tablet. He suspected Amei had stolen the golden feather, wished for its return, and cursed that disaster would befall Amei’s hometown before it was found. If the feather was found, as a reward, he would unlock Difu’s chain.

Judging by the unlocked chain of the statue, the king had found the feather, and the magician Liu Shui used the “Key of Freedom” to release Difu from her bindings.

From then on, the temple became a movable temple.

So… what about the temple’s master, Difu?

Although that golden statue was in the temple, where was her real body or soul?

She likely turned into the innkeeper Tartar and came to Nameless Village.

Realizing the key point, He Xiaowei immediately said, “The Goddess Difu helped fulfill the king’s curse. The king found the golden feather, allowing the magician Liu Shui to restore her freedom…”

“Can we understand that Difu and the Land of Silence are on the same side? If the king and the magician want to kill us with a ban, then the person who has been helping us by hinting at the existence of the ban, definitely cannot be Difu!”

“The one who hinted at the existence of the ban to help us, is not Difu, I agree with this. As for whether she still stands with the Land of Silence now, it’s hard to say. To put it bluntly, the story of the Temple of Prayers is just a transaction. But what can be seen is that Difu’s attitude is quite subtle,” Zhou Qian said. “Difu turned into Tartar, the innkeeper. Someone magically changed the color of her glass. We noticed this, and she definitely did too.”

“If she really was on the king’s side, she could have simply changed the glass back. Once the glass is transparent, the color trick doesn’t work anymore. Any color of fire we light could be seen through the clear glass.”

“Therefore, in my view, it’s still hard to judge her stance.”

“Heh… so, Difu isn’t on the king’s side, and she doesn’t necessarily want to kill us,” He Xiaowei said. “She has no obvious malice towards us.”

“So this means—” Zhou Qian said, “maybe we have a chance to see how she hosts the Red God.”

As he spoke, Zhou Qian walked towards the room’s door. “Let’s go. Call Xiao Qi and the others. Let’s not just stay in the room. If possible, let’s all meet the Red God together.”

He Xiaowei: “Damn, but Tartar said not to go out at night?”

“She told us it’s best to stay in separate rooms and not to wander around at night… She probably just wanted to prevent us from seeing her meeting with the Red God,” Zhou Qian said. “But I must know the content of their conversation. I must meet this Red God.”

“Are you serious, Qian’er?”

As Zhou Qian was already out the door, He Xiaowei immediately followed him into the hallway. “As I understand it, the Red God is the boss we have to fight this time, right? Are you rushing to fight the boss?”

When He Xiaowei said this, Zhou Qian was already knocking on Qi Liuxing’s door.

Qi Liuxing, hearing this, opened the door and looked towards He Xiaowei in the hallway, and immediately said, “Xiaowei Ge, isn’t this just Zhou Qian’s style?”

“What do you mean? You’re going to mess around with him?” He Xiaowei asked.

Zhou Qian, standing in the hallway and having pushed the door wide open, looked towards Qi Liuxing inside the room and, with a meaningful pat on his shoulder, shared the insights and observations from the mountains.

Finally, Zhou Qian said, “So, all the villagers will die in the future, maybe killed by the Red God. Don’t you want to save them? Can you bear to watch them just die like that?”

Qi Liuxing: “I…”

Zhou Qian: “You won’t abandon them, right? You’re not that kind of person.”

Qi Liuxing: “……”

Zhou Qian: “Then come with me to meet the Red God.”

Qi Liuxing: “…………”

He Xiaowei: “Damn, count me in! I suddenly feel fired up, just like when we fought the S army together last time!”

Moments later, everyone except the two girls had gathered in Qi Liuxing’s room.

The door was left ajar, allowing sounds from the hallway and even the downstairs hall to be heard.

This was especially easy for Hidden Blade, given that a Rank God player’s senses were much sharper than those of ordinary people.

At 12:10 AM, it was indeed Hidden Blade who first made a silent gesture to everyone, saying, “Someone’s knocking on the downstairs door. Someone has arrived.”

He Xiaowei quickly perked up his ears and indeed heard some talking.

He could clearly tell that two women were speaking.

However, to his surprise, both voices sounded very strange, almost like static. It was like the noise a radio makes when it’s not tuned to the right frequency—

One female voice said, “Buzz buzz buzz…”

Another female voice said, “Squeak buzz gargle…”

“What the heck is this bird language,” He Xiaowei couldn’t help but blurt out.

Zhou Qian simply said, “Perhaps this is why beings from the other world cannot communicate with humans.”

One of the female voices must belong to the Red God visiting the inn, who was unable to communicate directly with people, leaving the players to hear only static noises coming from her mouth.

The other female voice should belong to the innkeeper Tartar, or rather, Difu, the Goddess of Prayers. It seemed that she wasn’t only capable of communicating with humans but could also communicate with the Red God without any barriers, not needing to use a dog for communication.

If he sent out the little dragon, could it understand their conversation?

Wait. They had a fox here.

Zhou Qian turned his head and looked at Hidden Blade.

Indeed, Hidden Blade wasn’t standing near the door with his ears perked like the other players; instead, he sat far away on the bed’s edge, frowning slightly, appearing to be listening intently. It seemed he indeed understood the conversation between the two women.

“Hey, Hidden Blade, you’re also white. According to this world’s setting, you can communicate with ghosts. How about it—” Zhou Qian whispered to him, “Great Fox Immortal, can you translate?”

Hearing this, Hidden Blade gave Zhou Qian a look that was hard to describe.

Zhou Qian added, “Right, I suddenly remembered, Zhou Ge praised your intuition.”

Hearing this, Hidden Blade blinked a few times, seemingly incredulous. “Did the boss really… praise me?”

“Yes, he did,” Zhou Qian said earnestly. “So, what does your intuition tell you? Which side is Difu on, and which side harbors malice towards the players?”

Hidden Blade thought for a while and said, “I don’t feel any malice from the Red God towards us. As for Difu… my feelings towards her are more chaotic.”

“Chaotic?” Zhou Qian frowned.

“Or perhaps a better word would be… tumultuous?” Hidden Blade said, “In any case, I feel many elements related to evil in her. As for malice towards the players, it’s not particularly noticeable.”

Zhou Qian didn’t continue to inquire but simply asked Hidden Blade to translate again.

Hidden Blade sat calmly on the chair by the bed and truthfully relayed what he had heard.

The senses of Rank God players were far sharper than those of ordinary people. Every sound downstairs was clearly transmitted to his mind through his ears, even automatically forming vivid images.

There were three knocks on the door downstairs.

Then Innkeeper Tartar said, “Please.”

Next, Hidden Blade didn’t directly hear the sound of the door opening, leading to the assumption that the Red God appeared directly inside the room and sat down.

The innkeeper served her a large bowl of meat soup with an iron spoon. “Eat as much as you like. You can also take it over there for them.”

“Thank you for this year as well,” the Red God said.

“There’s no need to be polite. It’s not easy for people to meet each other,” the innkeeper said.

The Red God paused for a moment before continuing, “I’m no longer human now.”

The innkeeper smiled and said, “But you once were.”

The Red God didn’t speak. She merely slurped the meat soup, saying, “The annual slaughter in this village is quite fun. The curse I placed in the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers really worked. Speaking of which… I should thank you.”

“You’re welcome. Listening to the curses of humans, listening to the curses of ghosts… this might just be my fate,” the innkeeper said. “Every god exists for a reason. My purpose is to fulfill your curses, as long as you are devout enough.”

“I’m certainly devout. Otherwise, things might not have gone so smoothly. If it weren’t for the curse… how could I have become a Red God? And how could I have used the power of the Red God to take revenge on these villagers?” the Red God said. “So, I really want to thank you. My power was bestowed upon me by you, the Goddess.”

“I can feel that you went to the temple again,” the innkeeper said. “But I haven’t gone back yet. What is your curse this time?”

The Red God said, “I once cursed myself to become the Red God, forever unable to return to the human world or become human again. Of course, this was because I thoroughly hated humanity. They betrayed me.”

“But over these years… I’ve actually grown tired of it. So, now I directly curse that all the villagers of this Nameless Village will die out.

“I want the four families of Sun, Moon, Star, and Cloud to forever disappear from this world!”

……

On the other side, in the mountains.

After midnight arrived, the moonlight became exceptionally bright.

Bai Zhou stood alone on a mountain path, watching as the thirty or so people he had killed reappeared before him, as if unaware they had been killed by him, continuing to invite him to meet the Red God.

Bai Zhou held the Breaking Dawn Tang sword in his right hand, keeping his composure, pretending not to notice anything, and said to Village Chief Ab, “Okay, lead the way to the Red God.”

Village Chief Ab smiled slightly and indeed led everyone towards the west.

But just a few steps out, Bai Zhou heard a complex set of footsteps coming from further west.

He wasn’t sure if these resurrected people, or rather souls returned to the mortal world behind him, could hear those sounds. However, as a Rank God player, he heard them exceptionally clearly.

One of the voices was Alayne’s, but surprisingly, another was Village Chief Ab’s.

Alayne was heard asking, “Lord Abu, where are you taking me?”

---

The author has something to say:

Because a little angel said they didn’t understand yesterday, I took some extra effort at the beginning to smooth things out for everyone~

Should be okay now, right?

Actually, the story being told now is from Amei’s perspective. She married into the Land of Silence as requested by the king of the Kingdom of Words and the four major families. Her purpose was to steal the golden feather, which she indeed managed to do, healing both the villagers and the king of the Kingdom of Words. However, when the golden feather was lost, the Land of Silence came to retaliate, and the Kingdom of Words pinned all the blame on Amei. Amei was turned into a horse as punishment, and afterwards, she went to the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers to curse herself to become the Red God after death. So, Zhou Qian and the others now believe the innkeeper is the temple’s master, the Goddess Difu.

So now, after Amei died and indeed became the Red God, she believes she was betrayed by the villagers, hence her revenge on the villagers.

Zhou Ge is a dragon, capable of communicating with the Red God, Amei.

Additionally, during a conversation between Zhou Ge and the Red God, it was mentioned that he believes the one who hinted at the ban to the players (deserters) was likely Amei.

The players became deserters, betraying the Land of Silence, because they helped Amei, so Amei would help them.

That’s all.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

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.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 123

In the game. Inside the semi-open instance of Zone 0.

Apart from a few trees, a patch of green grass, and a small lake, there was nothing here.

A square blanket was spread on the grass in front of the lake, where someone was sitting against a big tree on this blanket, with a few pieces of biscuits in front of them, seemingly in the midst of a picnic.

He looked very leisurely and composed in his demeanor. However, his pale complexion ultimately betrayed a hint of illness.

Besides the food, there was also a tablet on the blanket, displaying scenes of Bai Zhou in “The Red God’s Banquet”.

Suddenly, a drop of blood fell on the grass nearby, and a person with two heads materialized from the blood. It was the Blood Demon.

Following that, a whirlpool appeared in the lake. The whirlpool slowly approached the shore, and a turtle emerged from it. After the turtle swam to the shore, the shell on its back miraculously opened up, and a drowsy girl climbed out and sat on the turtle shell. This newcomer was, of course, the Turtle Fairy.

The Blood Demon and Turtle Fairy respectfully greeted the man on the blanket, then curiously joined him to watch the situation of Bai Zhou in the instance for a while.

After seeing the dialogue between Bai Zhou and the Red God, Xiao Xue yawned out of boredom. “He’s become long-winded.”

Xiao Mo agreed. “Agree. 100% agree.”

Xiao Xue: “NPCs are meant to be killed, just tools for the trials. For Rank God players, the more you kill, the more attributes you gain. Why waste words on NPCs?”

Xiao Mo: “Because of love, he’s become soft. Oh, this damned love.”

Xiao Xue: “You’re sick.”

Xiao Mo: “Is that how you talk to your sister?”

Xiao Xue: “Fuck. I’m your brother!”

“You’re both wrong. The path I take isn’t about killing NPCs…”

As the two were arguing, Turtle Fairy said this, yawned, and then suddenly started bleeding from her nose. Then, with a tilt of her head, she collapsed to the side.

Just before hitting the ground, the man on the blanket put down the tablet and caught her. Holding her wrist, he continuously infused his spiritual power into Turtle Fairy’s body.

This scene somewhat alarmed the Blood Demon, causing both heads to speak in unison. “Master, you’ve only recovered recently. Be careful. Let us do it—”

The one called “Master” by the Blood Demon was indeed the man named Shao Chuan.

Years ago, he had approached a young man daydreaming outside a hospital building, extended a hand, and said, “Hello, my name is Shao Chuan. I’m sorry about your illness. However, it’s not incurable. Would you like to talk more with me?”

At this moment, Shao Chuan, with a serious face, shook his head at the Blood Demon and continued to infuse spiritual power into Turtle Fairy.

After a long while, the girl in the white dress opened her eyes. She rested her hand on the turtle shell and looked dazedly into Shao Chuan’s eyes. “I, I…”

Shao Chuan said, “What did you see? Tell me. It’s okay.”

“The Peach Blossom Legion has already started to move. Blue Harbor City is about to…”

After saying a few words to Shao Chuan, the Blood Demon’s face changed dramatically, while Turtle Fairy started bleeding from all orifices.

Shao Chuan placed two fingers behind Turtle Fairy’s neck, and she gradually fell into a deeper sleep, slowly closing her eyes. Even so, she was still trembling.

Gently patting her shoulder, Shao Chuan said, “Don’t be afraid. According to Taoism, before ascension to godhood through cultivation, one must endure tribulations. It seems the laws of all things are interconnected. The moment has come. I believe he can get through it.”

As for Turtle Fairy, her last words before closing her eyes were, “What I saw… cannot be changed. It’s too terrible. But I can’t change it… I…”

Simultaneously, within the instance “The Red God’s Banquet”.

Amei also said, “Do you know? What has happened, cannot be changed.”

This was after Amei suggested the game was no longer fun.

Bai Zhou looked straight ahead, not looking at her, as if he completely didn’t think Amei would harm them.

The reason behind this was simple—

Why did they become “deserters”? Was it because they had once helped Amei, becoming criminals in the Land of Silence, forced to flee?

The magician Flowing Water had set a ban on them, aiming to kill them.

Thus, it was very likely that Amei was the one giving them hints.

After all, it wasn’t yet midnight, and the festival of Samhain hadn’t officially arrived, meaning the gates between worlds weren’t yet open. However, Amei’s appearance indicated she wasn’t restricted by the gates and had already arrived in this world.

Thus, Bai Zhou simply said, “We are not the targets of your game. The villagers are. You should have already been satisfied with this year’s quota.”

“But do you know?” At that moment, Amei said to Bai Zhou, “In our faith, what has happened, has happened and cannot be changed. So—”

“Maybe everything will start over.”

Under the moonlight, Bai Zhou’s expression remained calm, as if he didn’t take Amei’s words to heart.

He simply lowered his head and sent a message to Zhou Qian. “The true purpose of the golden feather is related to healing and recovery.”

Bai Zhou knew that Zhou Qian would also try to find out the story. The version he found would most likely be the same as what Bai Zhou had heard.

Zhou Qian, being so smart, would surely understand the truth upon seeing this message—

A woman who had saved the four great families, the king, and even the entire Kingdom of Words. Yet, they ruthlessly betrayed her, handed her over to the Land of Silence to preserve their own lives, and fabricated a series of stories to tarnish her reputation, portraying her as a villainess.

However, Bai Zhou’s message wasn’t sent.

The system panel showed he could not contact anyone at the moment.

Glancing at the time on the panel, it displayed exactly midnight—Samhain had arrived.

The voice of Red God Amei echoed from afar and near. “The gates between worlds are open. The moment of chaos has come. This is a segment of time that doesn’t exist. I hope you can get through it smoothly.”

“1 or 31, indeed, I did say that. Kill 31 people, and you survive. I will keep my promise and will not kill you. However, I don’t have much of an appetite tonight and can’t eat that many souls.”

“Young man, there’s something you don’t know. No one dares to kill on the eve of Samhain. Why did they bring you to shed blood, instead of killing you themselves?”

“Now let me tell you. In this chaotic moment, those you kill will all come back as spirits to claim your life!”

“They betrayed you. But you indeed betrayed them too. And I—I detest betrayal the most.”

“When the chaos fades, maybe I’ll take you to my inn in another world.”

“For now, please enjoy this moment of chaos. The feast has just begun.”

Fog rose on the mountain road, and the Red God with her red will-o’-wisps disappeared into the mist.

Immediately afterward, Bai Zhou heard footsteps behind him.

Turning his head, he saw a group of people holding torches slowly approaching.

Before they got close enough for Bai Zhou to see clearly, from their conversation, Bai Zhou already recognized them—they were Village Chief Ab and the villagers.

“Thank you all for your sacrifices.” Ab’s voice was slightly choked. “Nameless Village will always remember your deeds! And I, I will give everything to find a way to counter the Red God! I hope such a tragedy won’t happen again next year!”

Saying this, Ab quickly came up to Bai Zhou.

Behind him were the losers in the game—the Sun Family and the Star Family.

Upon seeing Bai Zhou, their eyes unanimously turned curious.

Ab first asked Bai Zhou, “How come you’re here?”

They seemed completely unaware that they were already dead, let alone that it was Bai Zhou who had killed them.

……

On the other side, the Tartar Inn.

When Zhou Qian and the others returned to the inn from the square, there was still some time left until midnight. Before entering the lobby, Zhou Qian specifically noticed the color of the windows on the second floor and the color of the eyes of the three-skull statue—they were all blue.

Under the guidance of Innkeeper Tartar, each room on the second floor, whether occupied or not, was equipped with items for burning white bone rituals and jack-o’-lanterns.

The players also put on strange costumes and wore ghost masks.

According to Tartar, in case some formidable ghost broke in regardless of the white bone ritual, they might still be able to avoid a disaster by wearing the masks.

After all the preparations were done, the innkeeper instructed the players and then went back downstairs.

Once she left, all the players went to Zhou Qian’s room, except for Yun Xiangrong.

Before going to Zhou Qian, Yin Jiujiu specifically asked her, “Really? Tonight might be very dangerous. You and him… I don’t know what happened between you guys. But now is not the time for revenge. At least, wait until we’ve figured out the conditions for passing the level.”

Yun Xiangrong simply said, “Going to Zhou Qian’s room is just to get the ore. The ore that He Xiaowei and others found contained a large amount of salt. Nothing else. Just help me get a piece. Thanks.”

“But you…” Yin Jiujiu still wanted to persuade.

Yun Xiangrong calmly met her gaze. “Actually, we are the same kind of people.”

Yin Jiujiu frowned. “What do you mean?”

Yun Xiangrong said, “The legion I belong to is very powerful. It can help me find a lot of information. So, of course, I know about you. Your purpose here is actually the same as mine.”

Yin Jiujiu was left stunned, watching Yun Xiangrong’s back as she left the room.

Yun Xiangrong looked at her and continued, “Maybe because of a mistake, or maybe because of greed… we accidentally entered this game. We want the gods to fulfill our wishes. But whether the gods exist or not, and whether our wishes can be fulfilled, nobody knows.”

“At least I have never seen anyone who really got something through this game. So—”

With a bit of choking in her voice, Yun Xiangrong said, “Wanting to revive the people we care about and love, the hope is slim. But avenging them is something we can actually achieve.”

“I have my own revenge to seek. You have yours. So I say, we are the same kind of people. We can cooperate, right? Even if we don’t cooperate, you don’t need to persuade me. Just help me get some ore. I don’t want to see them. Thank you.”

Thus, except for Yun Xiangrong and Bai Zhou, all other players were in Zhou Qian’s room at that moment.

After distributing the ore to everyone, Zhou Qian went to the window and specifically noted the color of the glass again. “There’s one thing we haven’t solved before midnight. How this glass changes color.”

Zhou Qian was worried that the glass might suddenly change color in the dead of night.

The problem he was pondering was also on the minds of the others, and everyone fell silent for a moment.

During this time, He Xiaowei suddenly sniffed like a dog, immediately ran out of the room, and after a while, ran back in, saying, “The innkeeper has started stewing meat soup again!”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian gave He Xiaowei a meaningful look.

He Xiaowei immediately understood, stepped forward to close the door, and then looked at Zhou Qian. “Qian’er, what’s up?”

“Is there something you guys find odd?” Zhou Qian asked.

He Xiaowei: “Hmm? What’s that?”

Zhou Qian: “Every household has a white dog. Why doesn’t the innkeeper have one?”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 122

At 11 p.m. sharp, all 32 watchmen were present.

They lined up in an orderly manner, waiting for the next instructions from the village chief.

Many had traces of tears on their faces; from the end of the handkerchief game, leaving the square to return home, to regathering at the square, was their time to say goodbye to their families.

But clearly, not everyone was prepared to die nobly. Many were clenching their fists tightly, showing a reluctant demeanor.

They were unwilling to die, simply lacking the courage and means to resist authority.

Bai Zhou stood quietly at the end of the line, almost silent throughout. His noticeable height made him stand out in the crowd, easily spotted by anyone.

He hardly glanced sideways, as if indifferent to the reactions of those around him.

A moment later, the village chief arrived. He had just started speaking, about to lead everyone to the place where they would play the game with the Red God this year, when suddenly a few barks were heard.

A small white dog entered the crowd, ran around the village chief once, then circled everyone, continuously barking.

Then, from the outskirts of the square, a villager came looking and shouted a few times. “Qiqi, come here! Why did you run over there! Come back! Don’t disturb the village chief’s work!”

Hearing this, the small white dog barked a few more times, then ran back to the person’s side.

The person sighed. The tense expression on his face finally faded, and he quickly took the dog home.

It seemed that “Qiqi” was the name of this white dog.

At first glance, this all looked like a family’s dog had gotten lost, and the owner anxiously came out to search, finally finding it in the square and taking it back home before midnight.

The small white dog came and went, as if nothing had happened.

But if one looked closely at the people in the square, they would notice a subtle change in their expressions—they became calmer, and a few who could not hide it even showed joy in their eyes.

From reluctantly being watchmen to appearing ready to die nobly, their mindset changed silently.

However, Bai Zhou, at the end of the crowd, seemed to have seen nothing.

He appeared to be indifferent to the others and the situation, thus noticing no signs, just following the village chief’s arrangements.

After waiting a while, Village Chief Ab explained a few precautions again and then led the group towards the mountain.

About 15 minutes later, they arrived at an altar.

The altar was circular, with various runes made of stones.

In the center of the altar was an ancient stone tablet, faintly stained with dark blood, as if a tragedy had occurred here.

Village Chief Ab asked everyone to stop here and then addressed the crowd. “This year, I will accompany you to the place where the Red God demands we play the game—”

He was interrupted before he could finish.

“Lord Abu, you cannot go. You are the strongest warrior here. Not everyone can learn the techniques of all four branches. For years, you have been the only one. You must stay alive to protect everyone. Let us handle the game.”

“Yes. Leave it to us.”

“We are willing to sacrifice everything for the village, even our lives!”

At this point, the selected night watchmen showed a righteous determination, and the night atmosphere unknowingly became more tragic.

Not long ago, they were competing desperately in the game to avoid being night watchmen.

But at this moment, they abruptly became heroes willing to die nobly, without regrets.

Hearing their words, Village Chief Ab looked both saddened and moved. Through the torch he held, one could see his eyes were slightly reddened.

Facing everyone, he said, “Don’t worry. To solve this dilemma we face every year, I’ve thought of many ways… As you’ve seen in the past days, I’ve been in contact with a medium from a neighboring village. Now, she has found us a good solution!”

“She has cast a spell on this altar. As long as you drip your blood on the stone in the middle, the spell will protect everyone! If the Red God tries to harm you, it will instead be harmed by the spell!”

“That’s great!”

“Thank you, Lord Ab!”

“You are the hero of our village!”

Ab waved his hands to quiet the crowd, then said, “But let’s not be careless. This is just an attempt. Such an attempt has never been tried before, so I can’t guarantee that we can kill the Red God this way…”

“Please forgive me. For being cautious, I still decided to hold a competition and chose you. If anything happens… I hope you won’t blame me. You are all heroes of Nameless Village. Your names will be recorded and forever praised by future generations!”

After Ab finished speaking, one by one, the villagers went to the stone tablet, took out a knife, cut their index fingers, and pressed their blood against the tablet, in a unified action.

Finally, it was Bai Zhou’s turn.

He approached the stone tablet like everyone else but hesitated to make a move.

The moon was high in the sky.

At this moment, everyone’s gaze was fixed on his back, waiting for him to cut his finger and let the blood drop. So focused were they that they almost held their breath, and the air was filled only with the sounds of the wind and the chirping of insects.

Suddenly, the sound of metal slicing through the air was heard—it was the sound of the Breaking Dawn being drawn.

This Tang sword had no sheath, for it was too sharp, almost guaranteed to draw blood whenever unsheathed. Except for being able to be stored in a space capable of holding it, there was almost no sheath in existence that could withstand its sharpness.

Raising the Tang sword with his right hand, Bai Zhou poised the blade over the tip of his left index finger.

Time seemed to stand still. Illuminated by the light of the torches, everyone behind him was intently watching his finger and the sword poised above it.

Their gazes gradually became greedy and bold, as if they had reached some sort of agreement in silence.

In the next instant, Bai Zhou turned around, facing them with eyes as deep as ancient wells, and finally said, “There’s no need for blood. I have a way to save all of you.”

The villagers were stunned.

Looking at Bai Zhou, Village Chief Ab swallowed hard, then managed a strained smile. “Come on, hurry up, and drip your blood. It’s almost midnight. Only by dripping blood can your safety be assured! Look, we’ve all done it!”

Bai Zhou ignored his words and slightly lifted his chin towards the people standing next to the altar. His gaze settled on a group of people. “You share the same roots and are closest to Alayne. Though you are disappointed in her actions tonight, her talent remains. With continued practice, she will surely help you win victory next year.”

“In such a case, sparing her life tonight is also a way of protecting your family. Do you agree?”

Bai Zhou was addressing the members of the Sun Family, who were part of the handkerchief game and had been positioned on the west circle.

Hearing this, the remaining 15 night watchmen from the Sun Family all looked at him. Then, one of them, who held a slightly higher status, stepped forward and said, “Ah, of course, we agree. We’re grateful to you.”

Another immediately echoed, “Right! We did blame Alayne… It was just because we lost the game and were emotional. But actually, we care about her a lot. Not just that. Essentially, all four major families are one family. We shouldn’t… shouldn’t let a momentary win or loss…”

“You see me as a benefactor, yet insist on me dripping blood?” Bai Zhou asked again.

The members of the Sun Family quickly began to persuade him, “We truly are grateful to you, that’s why we want you to drip blood. Only then can the medium’s spell protect you!”

“Yes! We’re doing this for your own good!”

“We’re considering your safety, benefactor!”

“There’s not much time left. Please hurry and drip your blood!”

Bai Zhou gave a slight nod. “It seems there’s no room for negotiation.”

The village chief sensed something and looked at him. “You, you…”

Bai Zhou didn’t look at him but recalled a message he had seen on the system panel from Zhou Qian not long ago. “The people here can understand animal language and can communicate with dogs.”

Looking up at the village chief, Bai Zhou said, “Why do the people of the Land of Silence dare not easily set foot here? Because there are curses everywhere to deal with them.”

“I am a deserter from the Land of Silence, with the blood of the Land of Silence running through my veins. So, it’s fine if your blood spills here. But if it were mine, I would die, right?”

He, he has seen through our plan?

But how did he see through it?

When everyone gathered in the square, my subordinate left the square, passed the message to a white dog named Qiqi, and then Qiqi relayed the message to everyone. But at that time, he didn’t react at all!

He shouldn’t be able to understand what that dog was saying!

How did he guess…

A myriad of doubts passed through Village Chief Ab’s mind, but at this moment, he no longer had the luxury to consider how Bai Zhou had guessed it. He could only go all out and forcibly take a drop of Bai Zhou’s blood first!

Immediately, Ab raised his voice and instructed others. “Our ancestors have always been the elite of the Kingdom of Words, and our parents were guards of the king. We are skilled in martial arts. Dealing with him together won’t be a problem!

“Everyone, follow my lead! Even if we can’t kill him at once, it doesn’t matter. As long as he sheds a drop of blood here on the altar, he will die from the curse!”

“Charge!”

“Go—”

More than thirty people immediately surrounded the altar, drawing their weapons and aiming at Bai Zhou.

Bai Zhou was instantly surrounded by intense murderous intent, but he just looked at Village Chief Ab and said softly, “No need.”

“No need? No need for what? Stop being stubborn on the brink of death!”

Ab’s eyes were filled with murderous intent, and at his command, everyone raised their weapons and attacked Bai Zhou. In an instant, the altar was filled with the light of blades and swords, almost completely engulfing Bai Zhou’s figure!

But Bai Zhou took a half step back with one leg, slightly bent, and then held his sword in both hands, aiming the blade at Ab, and said, “No need to bother taking my blood—”

“Because to kill you all, I only need one strike.”

As soon as his voice fell, several blades clashed together because Bai Zhou’s figure suddenly disappeared from the spot, catching the villagers off guard and almost causing them to injure each other. In a critical moment, they hastily stopped their momentum, almost stumbling before barely stabilizing.

Sensing something, they all looked up into the sky, and in that instant, the moonlight, blade light, and the firelight around the altar illuminated their terrified eyes—

Bai Zhou rose into the air, wielding his sword to make a circular slash.

At that moment, the blade light was like snow, whiter than the moon in the sky.

Without leaving any room for maneuver, the circular blade light swept down with an unstoppable momentum, covering the entire altar!

“No, don’t…”

“Please spare us…”

“Who are you, really…”

A mix of panicked cries and wails erupted from the crowd, then abruptly stopped at the same moment—the circular blade light came down, and all their necks were sliced with a fine wound, and then they all fell to the ground, ceasing to breathe.

The figure in mid-air vanished into thin air, reappearing on the path to the mountain top.

There was no firelight to illuminate his way, but it didn’t hinder Bai Zhou’s progress as he quickly navigated the mountain paths, moving so fast it was almost impossible to catch him.

However, he hadn’t gone far when suddenly a round of applause came from behind him.

Bai Zhou stopped in his tracks, and in front of him, several strands of dark red firelight appeared. They floated in mid-air and among the grass, rising and falling continuously, like a young girl’s dancing red dress.

But in this world, no one who saw such firelight could still smile—red firelight, that was the symbol of the other world. Their appearance meant the Red God had already arrived!

Glancing at the system panel, it showed there were still three minutes until midnight.

Bai Zhou said, “As expected, even though Samhain has not officially arrived, you can still come to the human world from the other world.”

“Ah, ah, ah—”

A pleasing and somewhat enchanting female voice came from behind him.

But her next words seemed to come from behind a bush in front of him. “Killing so many people, you’re quite cruel.”

“This is exactly what you wanted to see, isn’t it? 1 or 32. These were your very words,” Bai Zhou replied.

“You have good ears. When Ab was discussing with the people, you were so far away…” the Red God said with a laugh. “Yet you heard everything? Hmm… But what you heard doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you understand the meaning. Ah—”

The Red God’s sigh seemed to come from the edge of the sky.

She continued, “The villagers kindly took in you deserters from the enemy country. Your actions now, have you betrayed them? Although I love watching betrayal unfold. However… ugh, you’re really quite cruel!”

“I killed them for self-defense and, secondly… to avenge you.”

“They got what they deserved, right, Red God?” Bai Zhou said, slightly turning to look in a certain direction. “Or should I call you—Amei?”

……

An hour ago.

Bai Zhou had escorted the young girl, Alayne, back to the residence of the Sun Family. When they approached the ancestral hall, they were immediately surrounded.

The other 15 who were supposed to participate in the night vigil weren’t present, having gone back to their homes to say their final goodbyes to their families. Now, surrounding Alayne at the ancestral hall were all the elders of the clan.

The leading elder stepped forward, holding a whip in his hand, and addressed the young girl. “Alayne! You have failed the hopes of the entire clan! Do you admit your punishment? I want you to kneel in front of our ancestors inside the ancestral hall and accept your punishment!”

Alayne instinctively wanted to kneel and beg for mercy, but as she began to bend her knees, she vaguely thought of something and looked at Bai Zhou for help.

Bai Zhou nodded at her and then stepped forward.

Sensing something, the elder said to Bai Zhou, “Young man… We appreciate your help for Alayne, but this is an internal matter of the clan, and we hope you won’t interfere!”

Another person said, “Why appreciate him? If it weren’t for these deserters helping the Cloud Family, we might not have lost.”

The third elder looked at Alayne. His beard was white with age, giving him an imposing demeanor. “Alayne, it’s the people around you who caused your loss. How can you hide behind him! Come out and accept your punishment!”

Bai Zhou, pretending not to hear, took a stick from his bag and held it in his hand, though he didn’t draw his Tang sword.

Pointing the stick at the people, he calmly said, “No one is allowed to punish her.”

His words obviously angered the crowd. The elders immediately took a stance, each drawing a sword, showing they possessed high martial skills, not merely villagers.

“Our clan respects martial prowess,” the leading elder said. “If you want to stand up for Alayne, that’s not impossible. Choose an elder to challenge.”

Bai Zhou lifted the stick in his hand and said calmly, “All of you come at me together.”

“What an arrogant tone!”

“Boss, let’s all go at him! See how powerful he can be!”

“Exactly! Let’s do it!”

All seven elders, who were once guards of the king, indeed all attacked at once. Engaging Bai Zhou, they launched one attack after another, their killing intent growing.

Bai Zhou faced seven opponents, retreating and fighting with ease.

After a quarter of an hour, Bai Zhou was surrounded by the seven, who mercilessly thrust their swords at him.

But not only did they all miss, but before they could react, they were each hit hard on the neck with the stick, subsequently all falling to the ground.

Alayne watched in astonishment.

Bai Zhou didn’t look at her again, simply holding a wooden stick and moving among the people.

He tapped one person on the leg with the stick and said, “You, your right leg’s movement is very slow and clumsy. Have you been seriously injured? Broken a leg before?”

Without waiting for an answer, he continued to the next person, this time tapping on the shoulder. “You broke your shoulder.”

These words were shocking enough.

But Bai Zhou continued. As he walked forward, he mentioned each person’s old injuries. “Were you shot near the heart?”

“Your lungs have issues. You’ve inhaled some kind of poisonous substance.”

“Both of your legs have been broken.”

……

After completing a round, Bai Zhou said, “You are certainly not ordinary villagers. When you joined forces against me earlier, not only was your coordination seamless, but you also knew how to deploy troops and strategize. You must have a military background.”

“Clearly being soldiers, yet you hide your identities and farm in such a place, it seems you have committed crimes.”

“Therefore, it’s best if you tell me your story. Otherwise, even if I don’t kill you, spreading the story of you hiding here will leave you no way out.”

“I am a deserter from the Land of Silence. What about you? Deserters from the Kingdom of Words?”

“Fuck you! We, we are not deserters!” An elder, his face turning red with anger, couldn’t help but retort.

“Then tell me the story,” Bai Zhou said. At this point, he noticed a new message from Zhou Qian on the system panel, his lips curving slightly into a smile. However, when he looked back at the villagers, the smile quickly disappeared.

He continued, “For instance, who is Amei?”

After about ten minutes, Bai Zhou had listened to their story.

The version he first heard was naturally identical to the one Zhou Qian heard.

After hearing the story, Bai Zhou asked, “According to you, all of you elders were guards serving alongside the king of the Kingdom of Words. Then, since there was never a war between the two countries, how did you get such serious injuries? You must have clashed with people from the Land of Silence.”

Hearing this, everyone’s expression changed instantly.

It was a while before the eldest elder spoke up. “We didn’t clash with the Land of Silence, but we did clash with others! There are more countries surrounding the Kingdom of Words. The king has more than one enemy!”

“Why stay silent for so long then?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Because Amei is a criminal! We are truly ashamed to discuss everything she has done! She was unfaithful and unfilial—”

“Enough.”

Bai Zhou suddenly interrupted them, seemingly unwilling to listen any further.

Having been in this game for seven years, he had already heard far too many similar lies.

Glancing towards where the families lived, he noticed that some of the 15 people keeping watch had left, apparently preparing to head to the square. Bai Zhou didn’t want to waste any more time. He grabbed the eldest elder by the shoulder, forcing him to stand up, then pulled out a dagger and pressed it against his throat, speaking in a calm but undeniable tone. “Everyone, follow me to the ancestral hall.”

With the respected elder in Bai Zhou’s grip, the people had no choice but to follow his command and enter the ancestral hall.

Bai Zhou had Alayne close the door behind them, then pressed the dagger closer to the elder’s throat until blood was drawn.

The sight of blood made Bai Zhou appear extremely cold and ruthless.

With eyes that seemed to be tinged with blood, he indifferently looked at the remaining six elders.

“Explain the story of that year within three minutes. Otherwise, he dies after three minutes.”

……

Time returned to the present.

Under the moonlight, a girl in a full red dress appeared on the mountain path in front of Bai Zhou.

The ink-colored grass brushed past her bare, smooth ankles as she stepped forward, bathed in moonlight. Her beauty was otherworldly, more like a heavenly maiden than a spirit from another world.

“They got what they deserved… Ah, you are right about that,” Amei said with a pleasant voice.

As she walked, she lifted her dress with her hands. Her steps were light and graceful, with a hint of absent-minded cuteness in her reminiscence.

“They forced me to part from my lover and forced me to marry far away in the Kingdom of Silence. They made me seduce its king, to steal the golden feathers. All because… the king of the Kingdom of Words was gravely ill, and because the people from the four great families had previously fought against the Land of Silence and lost, suffering heavy injuries.”

“To save this country, I did as they requested. I stole the golden feathers back, healed the king, healed them all.”

“But when the king of the Kingdom of Silence came to settle the score, what did they do? They handed me over.”

Looking at Bai Zhou, Amei said with a smile, “Such heartless scoundrels, handing me over wasn’t enough. They felt guilty inside, afraid of being exposed… and so they concocted a lie for the whole world, making everyone believe I was born malicious, so vain that I would harm even my parents.”

“Of course. I guess there was also some jealousy from women envious of my looks, adding fuel to the fire, making my reputation even more vile…”

“But luckily. I had talent in life, and after death, I could become a Red God. So, how about it? Do you find the game we’re playing amusing?”

“They once betrayed me. Now, of course, I must let them taste the bitterness of betrayal,” Amei said. “I was treated like a horse for ten years. They thought I wasn’t fast enough, whipping me daily while chanting—’Run faster, horse, run faster.’ Now, it’s only natural for me to let them experience the consequences of not being able to run fast.”

Clapping her hands a few times, the Red God Amei said, “Ah, drop the handkerchief. This game is so much fun, isn’t it?”

Her gaze flickered, and she tilted her head to look at Bai Zhou. “But you’ve somewhat spoiled the fun of my game. What do you think should be done about that?”

---

The author has something to say:

Zhou Qian: My Zhou Ge is so cool~

Although the young couple isn’t together, they’re still coordinating well~ Ah heh.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 121

Half an hour later, Zhou Qian led a group of players back to the square. Surprisingly, three NPCs hadn’t left yet: Tartar, Brega, and Tara.

Among them, Tartar was the most relaxed, merely yawning out of boredom. She stayed for one reason only—Brega and Tara hadn’t found their dogs yet, and she hadn’t managed to deliver their two portions of bone soup.

“Why not tell the story of the past?”

“If you don’t tell it, they won’t inform you about the whereabouts of your dogs.”

“Yes, I didn’t expect the deserters of the Land of Silence to be so capable. But there’s nothing to be done now. Just tell any story. Let’s get the dogs back first!”

“Even if you can’t find them, can you at least take the soup back? I have things to do back at the inn!”

These were the words Tartar said to the two, overheard by Zhou Qian and his group upon arrival.

As she was speaking, she looked up at the deserters who had returned to the square, finally showing a pleased expression. “You’re back at last! Why did the village chief give me such a tiresome task? Unfortunately, I’m not from here. To stay, I must work tirelessly, serving the villagers. Who else here can cook meat as deliciously as I?”

Zhou Qian smiled and greeted Tartar before turning to look at Brega and Tara. Before heading to the temple, Zhou Qian had asked Tartar about Nameless Village and the two countries.

Unfortunately, as a non-local, Tartar knew little. Then, Zhou Qian planned to use the fact that the dogs hadn’t been found to threaten Brega and Tara. These two were obviously elders of the village, likely knowing many secrets.

However, as Tartar warned, the word “Amei” was taboo here. The moment Zhou Qian hinted at asking about her, the two retreated, running off to search for their dogs again.

The reaction of these two NPCs further confirmed the significance of Amei.

Zhou Qian was about to split up with Hidden Blade and Ke Yuxiao to follow up when he received a message from Qi Liuxing.

Considering the symbolism of the three skulls, the color-changing glass, and the vanishing stone tablet with the third prohibition, and realizing many clues in this instance might be fleeting, Zhou Qian decided to visit the Temple of the Goddess of Prayers first.

Now that they had returned from the temple and the two NPCs were back in the square, from Tartar’s words and their ashen faces, it was clear they hadn’t found their dogs yet.

Their disappointment made Zhou Qian smile, who immediately approached and asked, “You care so much about your dogs, it must be important for tonight. Just like the indispensable fire. I’m curious, how do beings of the other world know every household has a fire?”

To safely spend the night, players must light a fire. Due to the prohibition, players had to play with colors to conceal the fire from being seen outside.

However, if the Red Gods or ghosts from the other world couldn’t see the fire, the players’ color tricks would be useless—the ghost wouldn’t see the fire from outside and might enter the houses to harm people.

The game surely wouldn’t have a no-win scenario, meaning ghosts perceive fire differently. The prohibition likely only prevents villagers from seeing the firelight.

That’s why Zhou Qian raised this question, seeking confirmation before the real Samhain festival.

Tara responded, “The other world beings are so powerful, what don’t they know? They know everything. As long as there’s fire, they won’t enter the houses!”

“Since there’s fire… why the need for dogs?” Zhou Qian asked again. “I heard dogs can communicate with the other world beings, providing warnings against danger. But they’re not essential, right? Since fire can ward off the other world beings, you just need to stay indoors. So why the need for dogs?”

Brega, with a grim face, said, “Because fire only repels ordinary otherworldly beings. They come to this world to consume us. The bone sacrifices in our homes can drive them to this square. You see, besides burning bones, we also burn lots of grains and meat! Thus, being driven to the square and seeing the food we sacrifice, they can be satisfied too! They’ll leave at dawn! Overall, they are easy to deal with! But if the Red God comes… that, that’s dangerous!”

“If the Red God appears, ordinary food won’t suffice. He will demand something extremely precious from us. He wants to trade with us. At such times, we can’t communicate directly with him—only through dogs or some sentient animals.”

Zhou Qian, having received a message from Bai Zhou, naturally understood what the Red God was. It was a simple and crude understanding—it was akin to a powerful ghost or demon from hell.

With this understanding, as Brega explained, it became clear—if the Red God appeared and there was no dog to mediate, the villagers wouldn’t know what the Red God demanded, and failing to satisfy him could lead to their direct demise. However, if there was a dog to relay messages, they could promptly fulfill the Red God’s demands.

Curiously, Zhou Qian asked Brega, “So, people here can talk to animals?”

This was indeed a very magical instance.

“Yes! Every one of us can!” Brega said angrily. “So can you return our dogs to us?”

“No.” Zhou Qian’s expression appeared very innocent. “You haven’t told me the story of Amei yet.”

Brega couldn’t suppress his anger any longer. “You need to understand, you’re deserters! We are the ones sheltering you! Don’t go too far. We can drive you out at any time!”

Zhou Qian looked at the pattern on his clothes. “You’re from the Moon Family. Without our help, you might have been sent to guard the night. And you—” Turning to Tara, he continued, “You’re from the Cloud Family. We are on the same side as you. There’s no need to burn bridges so quickly. At worst, we get driven out, but what about you? Without your dog, you might not survive the night.”

“So, why the hassle? I just want to hear a story. Let’s start with…” Zhou Qian smiled, stared into Brega’s eyes again, and said emphatically, “The ‘Golden Feather’ story.”

Zhou Qian’s mention of the “Golden Feather” seemed to hit a nerve.

In that instant, Brega and Tara, who were from opposing families, made a coordinated movement—they looked at each other and then unconsciously moved a bit closer.

This was like two villagers in internal strife, feeling a common threat against them, instinctively uniting against an external enemy.

“Ah, the Golden Feather is important. Amei’s story is indeed related to it. She stole it, causing the conflict between the two countries, right?” Zhou Qian said with a smile. “So you see, I already know the gist of the story. It’s just the details…”

Hearing this, Tara and Brega exchanged glances again, then both glanced at Tartar.

Zhou Qian, noticing the hint, turned to Tartar and said with a smile, “If you don’t mind, I’ll talk to them first. Thanks for your hospitality. We’ll help you bring these pots back tonight. You don’t have to wait here.”

Hearing this, Tartar readily turned to leave. “Fine. I’m happy to have the help. But you need to come back before 10:30. I have some things to tell you. Otherwise, you’ll face danger tonight!”

Zhou Qian nodded and then turned to Tara and Brega. “Now, can we talk? What exactly is the story? What’s the significance of the Golden Feather? And what did Amei really do?”

“You must swear that you will never tell this story to outsiders! Otherwise, you will turn into a bird and never be able to become human again,” Tara said sternly. “This is our scandal, not to be known by those outside the village!”

“Alright. I swear. I won’t tell outsiders,” Zhou Qian said solemnly. He didn’t show any peculiar expression, but this didn’t mean he hadn’t noticed the peculiar coincidence—why did the oath also involve “birds”?

Without dwelling on the matter of the birds, Zhou Qian quietly waited for the two people in front of him to react. Clearly, this instance was filled with magical elements, and the inhabitants took oaths, prohibitions, and curses very seriously, believing these elements could truly limit one’s actions.

Thus, after Zhou Qian solemnly swore, the expressions on both their faces relaxed considerably, seeming ready to tell the story. Of course, they were only willing to share with Zhou Qian, who had taken the oath. After sending the other players to wait outside the square, Zhou Qian stood alone in the center of the square, finally hearing a complete story.

About sixty or seventy years ago, the Day, Moon, Star, and Cloud Families didn’t reside here; they were all part of the guards of the king from the Kingdom of Words, albeit in different branches. From the beginning, the four branches, each marked by a different symbol, swore to loyally serve the Kingdom of Words’ royal family until death. They were intimately connected with the royal family and even intermarried.

Amei was born into the most prestigious family of the Cloud branch. Her father was the king’s most valued subordinate, and shortly after her birth, she was taken in by the king as an adopted daughter, becoming a princess.

However, it was said she was so ugly that the prince of the Kingdom of Words felt disgusted just by looking at her. Otherwise, based on the relationship between the king and her father, she would be betrothed to the prince instead of just accepting her as an adopted daughter.

Due to her appearance, Amei lived in contempt from a young age. She was indeed pitiable, but what she did later was inexcusable—

She either made a wish to some god or sought the help of an evil magician, and suddenly became beautiful, becoming the most beautiful woman in the Kingdom of Words, but at the cost of her parents’ health.

The moment she became beautiful, her parents’ health declined rapidly, and they died within three months.

Afterward, conflict erupted between the Kingdom of Words and the Land of Silence, and war was imminent.

During the peace talks, the king of the Land of Silence mentioned that he had seen a portrait of Amei, fell in love at first sight, and was willing to marry her to unite the two countries and avoid war.

The king of the Kingdom of Words asked Amei’s wishes, and she gladly agreed. Her decision was not out of consideration for the Kingdom of Words or its people, but because she could no longer stay with her family.

Everyone spoke of her as selfish, heartless, and the direct cause of her parents’ deaths.

When Amei, this disaster, was sent away, the four major guard divisions that knew her true nature were all too happy.

But no one expected the story to end there.

In the wedding procession was a young man named Beilan, born in the Star branch of the guard.

On the way to the wedding, he and Amei fell in love.

For many years afterward, Amei appeared to be a respectful wife to the king of the Land of Silence, but in reality, she was secretly meeting with Beilan.

Beilan quit his job in the guard, left the king his family had served for generations, and became a merchant, traveling between the two countries to meet with Amei.

If not for an accident, perhaps they could have continued like this.

But an accident did occur.

During one of Beilan’s returns to the Kingdom of Words, it happened to be the Samhain festival.

The passage between the worlds was opened, and the Red God came to the human realm. He wanted to experience human life again, so he possessed Beilan’s body, banishing his soul to another realm and turning Beilan into a wandering ghost in that world.

Thanks to a spirit-communicating white dog and villagers who could communicate with the dog, everyone learned of Beilan’s fate. Somehow, Amei heard about it and naturally wanted to bring Beilan back, or at least see him again.

But with the divide between the living and the other world, conversing with a lover in another realm wasn’t easy.

It’s said that Amei was so worried that her hair turned white.

The people of the Kingdom of Words communicate with spirits through white dogs.

As for the people of the Land of Silence, they rely on birds.

Animals are considered spirits by the people of this world, serving as their channel to communicate with other worlds.

It’s said that the king of the Land of Silence had a particularly precious golden feather, which fell from the most powerful bird spirit.

With the help of this feather, one doesn’t need to wait for Samhain to open the passage between worlds to talk to beings from other realms.

Thus, Amei stole the feather from the king to communicate with the other world and find Beilan.

After stealing the feather, Amei dared not stay in the Land of Silence, so she fled back to the Kingdom of Words.

With his most precious golden feather stolen, the king of the Land of Silence waged war in rage.

As the army approached, the Kingdom of Words found Amei, investigated everything, understood the situation, and returned her and the golden feather to the Land of Silence.

The crisis of war between the two countries was averted once again, and Amei returned to the Land of Silence.

Amei, having harmed her parents, was unfilial; rashly stealing the treasure of the Land of Silence, she disregarded provoking the Land of Silence and endangering her people, showing disloyalty. Moreover, as a wife, she was unfaithful by having an affair…

These terrible reputations followed her back to the Land of Silence.

As a result, Amei received the hatred and curses of thousands of people from the Land of Silence.

So, what was the outcome?

What was the fate of this unfaithful, unfilial woman who nearly caused a war between two countries?

Zhou Qian thought this and asked.

Tara replied, “The king of the Land of Silence asked us if he could dispose of Amei as he wished. By then, everyone in both countries knew what Amei had done. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t hate Amei. Our king, her foster father, even said that she could certainly be disposed of by the Land of Silence as they saw fit!”

Brega added, “So later, the king of the Land of Silence had a magician turn her into a horse.”

“A horse?” Zhou Qian was somewhat surprised.

“Yes,” Brega said. “She was assigned to guard the city gates. Whenever distinguished guests visited the king, they could ride her to the palace. The king said, after all, his woman liked being ridden.”

Initially reluctant to talk about Amei, considering her a disgrace, both men became excited when discussing her punishment. Tara couldn’t help but speak up without waiting for Zhou Qian to ask, “Besides being turned into a horse, I heard… the nobles could order her around to carry goods. Sometimes, when they overloaded her and she ran slowly, the nobles would whip her!”

“What a pity. I would have been happy to see that scene. Without this woman, we would still be in the guards, enjoying wealth and honor! But now? We were implicated and considered criminals! We were sent to this remote place… only to farm and mine, never to enjoy wealth and honor again!”

“When we left the royal city, I was 7 years old. I remember there were specially delicious candies there. But since leaving the royal city, I’ve never tasted them again. It’s all because of that woman! She really deserved to die!”

Tara said, “Yes. But compared to being executed, living in disgrace probably suited her better. I heard that many nobles who visited the king rode her, shouting ‘Run, horse, run… run…’ while riding her. Hahaha, that was really too funny.”

“It seems like she died after about ten years.” Brega sighed. “It’s probably from exhaustion. What a pity. She should have suffered a few more years!”

……

After gathering the information he wanted, Zhou Qian left the square.

The ones who came to the square afterward were the 32 people who were to be sacrificed tonight under the guise of a vigil.

The people hadn’t all arrived yet, and the village chief was personally counting the numbers while pacing back and forth, seemingly waiting anxiously for something.

A moment later, a subordinate ran over.

The moonlight revealed his pale, anxious face.

Seeing this, Village Chief Ab sensed something was amiss and asked him, “What’s the situation?”

The subordinate looked around, noticed the people were still far away, and whispered to the chief, “The medium from the neighboring village really helped a lot. She used a secret technique to send her soul to the other world and found the Red God who oversees our land. That Red God leaked his demand for this year!”

“What demand? Speak up!” the chief urged anxiously.

“He said one sentence—” the man swallowed. “1, or 31.”

The chief’s face turned completely dark. “What does that mean? He’ll either take one person or 31?”

“Perhaps that’s what it means. Anyway, that Red God only said one sentence to the medium.”

“Can’t the medium be clearer! How much did we pay her? Just for one sentence? She really is…” The chief couldn’t help saying, “Why can’t we have mediums or magicians who can communicate between the two worlds here!”

“She’s only human, after all; she can’t stay in the other world too long. According to her, finding that Red God was already not easy. Although the Red God is ferocious, the deals he makes with people always come through. He never reneges. So I think…”

He pointed towards a corner of the square.

Following his gaze, Village Chief Ab looked over and naturally saw that person.

It was Bai Zhou.

At that moment, he was quietly leaning against a pile of unlit bones.

The moonlight became a bit brighter, casting his shadow long. The silver moonlight and the ghostly blue of the bone pyre interwove, making his stern face appear even more expressionless.

“You’re thinking of using him?” Village Chief Ab frowned.

“He loves playing the hero, standing vigil for Alayne. Let him do it.” A hint of ruthlessness flashed in the speaker’s eyes.

“But we promised Tartar. She bought him as labor.” The chief frowned. “Tartar knows many people. If our affairs get out…”

“She wants money. We’ll just pay her off. Otherwise—” the man narrowed his eyes. “The medium from the next village… has ways to get rid of her! After all, she’s an outsider!”

---

The author has something to say:

Qian Ge! Someone wants to kill your husband!

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

---

Chapter 120

At the same time, He Xiaowei and Qi Liuxing were walking together.

After asking for directions to the quarry, they headed up the mountain path with flashlights in hand.

Qi Liuxing, holding the flashlight in his left hand and gripping the sword hilt tightly with his right, walked ahead of He Xiaowei, ready to face any enemy.

Along the way, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say, “How can I let a younger brother stand in front of me?”

Qi Liuxing replied seriously, “What matters now is capability, not age. If anything happens, just support me.”

He Xiaowei chuckled. “Indeed, in a team… the support has the highest status!”

Qi Liuxing glanced back at him but said nothing.

He Xiaowei continued, “You are too serious. There’s no need to always appear so deep and solemn. At your age, trying to be serious just seems like a youth unaware of the sorrows of the world.”

Qi Liuxing remained silent.

He Xiaowei then reflected, “On the contrary, Qian’er is like that. He’s always smiling, but he has a lot on his mind. He’s only 22, not yet 23, right? How did he become like this? Who is born loving to scheme? I guess he must have gone through great hardships.”

“No way.” Qi Liuxing frowned. “He went bankrupt, but his family is quite wealthy.”

“Does he seem like the kind of young master who doesn’t know the hardships of life?” He Xiaowei asked.

Qi Liuxing shook his head.

“Of course not.”

“That’s it then,” He Xiaowei said. “Although I can never see through what Qian’er is scheming, I can tell… he has suffered a lot. So, Brother Sword God, when you reach Qian’er’s state, you’ll start remarking, ‘ah, the coolness of autumn*’.”

*This is a line from Ugly Slave – Writing on a Wall of the Way to Boshan by Xin Qiji. The poem is a reflection of the poet’s loneliness and isolation. He wants to express his feelings, but he finds himself saying this line, “Ah, the cool autumn!” instead, unable to communicate his true feelings. || In this context, basically, He Xiaowei is remarking that Zhou Qian has reached a state where he can no longer say what he truly feels and instead, like the poet, would say something entirely different from what he truly wants to express.

“I understand what you mean,” Qi Liuxing said while scanning their surroundings and continuing to walk ahead. “I haven’t experienced much, so I can only pretend.”

He Xiaowei laughed. “Well, that’s not entirely true.”

“Your words are rough, but the logic is sound. I understand. Those with deep experiences naturally show it in their demeanor without having to force it…” Qi Liuxing said with some embarrassment, “I indeed lack such experiences and can’t pretend. Well… I just think it’s okay to be casual with you guys, but facing enemies, being a bit serious can intimidate them.”

“Xiao Qi, you’re actually doing great,” He Xiaowei suddenly said.

Qi Liuxing: “Hm?”

“Young people want to mature and grow up fast, not knowing adults wish to return to their youth. Many people envy you. Youthful innocence is precious. Why must one have experiences or force oneself to become deep and complex?”

He Xiaowei patted his shoulder. “You’ll miss your youth once it’s gone.”

Hearing this, Qi Liuxing looked at He Xiaowei and smiled. “Xiaowei Ge, I suddenly realize you might be what they call… ah, I remember the word—’cleverly disguised as a fool*’.”

*(大智若愚) Idiom referring to someone who is very intelligent but doesn’t show it, which makes them seem foolish at times. However, their true wisdom is revealed through their actions and their ability to achieve great things. 

He Xiaowei snickered. “You’re not the first to compliment me like that!”

People like He Xiaowei got along well with everyone.

As they talked and climbed to the quarry halfway up the mountain, the atmosphere was relaxed and pleasant.

Unbeknownst to them, Qi Liuxing’s “youth” was about to come to an abrupt end, not due to time but a sudden change in mindset.

Soon, they arrived at the quarry.

He Xiaowei took out a fire-starting device, eager to try. “Qian’er said the glass would likely have the three primary colors. If we encounter a flame that burns with a purple light… Red and blue make purple, so we can’t use a purple flame for red or blue glass, but it can work on yellow glass. Anyway, let’s look for all colors!”

“I specifically bought a lighter that emits a colorless flame from the trade shop, perfect for burning rocks to test the flames!”

After trying several rocks from different areas, they found rocks that burned with a purple flame, likely containing potassium.

They also found rocks that produced a green flame, indicating the presence of ions like copper, lead, or thallium. During the process, Qi Liuxing used a device to detect harmful substances, which didn’t sound any alarm, suggesting the rocks were likely copper ore.

During the experiments, both wore gas masks to avoid inhaling harmful gasses. Within an hour, they had collected enough ore and packed it up.

As they were about to leave, He Xiaowei shone his flashlight towards the mountain top. “Eh, there’s a path leading to the top. Shall we check it out?”

“We have almost 4 hours until midnight, so I think it’s feasible. Didn’t Qian Ge also say to explore around?” Qi Liuxing said. “But we should report our location first, just in case something happens, and he doesn’t know where we went.”

After messaging Zhou Qian, they followed the mountain path upwards, quickly reaching the peak, and indeed made a discovery.

At the top was a peculiar triangular structure, somewhat like a pyramid but made of much cruder material and smaller, resembling a simple mound of earth.

They exchanged glances and walked to the front of the structure, which had “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer” written on it.

“In this instance, there are humans, ghosts, and now gods have appeared,” He Xiaowei commented.

Qi Liuxing immediately frowned. “After ‘Apple Paradise’, I’ve become wary of any god related to wishes.”

“Shall we go in?” He Xiaowei suggested.

“Wait—” Qi Liuxing raised his left wrist and looked at his wristwatch. “Qian Ge replied. He’s taken our stuff into his pack. He came over and suggested we wait for him.”

“That’s probably better,” He Xiaowei said. “A temple like this could be dangerous. It’s better with him around.”

They didn’t wait long before Zhou Qian, Hidden Blade, and Ke Yuxiao arrived, followed by Yun Xiangrong and Yin Jiujiu.

Qi Liuxing took another look at the ladies, then turned to Zhou Qian and asked, “You said you’d come as soon as I mentioned we found a temple. Do you know something?”

Zhou Qian just smiled and didn’t answer directly, merely stating, “The village chief sent stuff, and I’ve collected it for you. The things you two need tonight are with me, not Hidden Blade or Ke Yuxiao. I think it’s better if I keep them.”

Qi Liuxing and He Xiaowei: “?”

Hidden Blade and Ke Yuxiao: “…”

“Let’s go check out that temple,” Zhou Qian said, walking towards the temple.

The “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer”. At first, one might imagine a scene commonly found at scenic tourist spots—ancient trees covered in red silk ribbons with various wooden plaques hanging, bearing people’s wishes. Whether such rituals fulfill anyone’s wishes is debatable, but they add to the ceremonial feel, and at a small cost, they’re just part of the fun.

Before entering the temple, this was what came to everyone’s mind. But after walking in, everyone’s previous notions were shattered.

The temple was devoid of any festive atmosphere; instead, they felt an intense chill, not of fear but of discomfort and innate repulsion.

The cause of this feeling became clear once they saw what was inscribed along the walls of the corridor—this temple’s chill wasn’t about ghosts and gods but about the evil in human nature.

Walking into the temple entrance, the first thing they encountered was a pitch-dark corridor.

Both sides of the corridor were lined with one stone tablet after another. Engraved on each tablet were symbols written in some kind of unknown script, somewhat resembling magical incantations.

As for the symbols below, the content and handwriting on each stone tablet differ from one another. The commonality among all the tablets, aside from the spell-like runes, was one more thing—all the inscriptions were various kinds of curses.

“I hope my wife dies soon so I can marry Alain next door.”

“Neighbor Ann stole my favorite flower. I hope it consumes her!”

“Jul’s wife is pregnant, but I know she’s unfaithful. I adore Jul, yet he married her… She’s ungrateful and betrayed such a good man. I curse her to give birth to a monster that will devour her!”

It became apparent the “Temple of the Goddess of Prayer” wasn’t for fulfilling benign wishes like “I want to be beautiful” or “I want to leave forever” but was filled with malevolence.

“This isn’t a temple for granting wishes.” He Xiaowei noted. “Maybe curses made here are particularly effective, which is why many come to inscribe their curses.”

“Perhaps we’ll find out more as we go deeper,” Qi Liuxing suggested.

Slowly walking down the corridor, curses of all kinds still filled both sides, while the path became narrower and narrower, until it was only wide enough for one person.

The seven players lined up in a long queue, moving forward one by one, and finally entered a temple through the end of the corridor.

The temple wasn’t large, and its floors and walls were covered entirely with various curses and inscriptions.

The furnishings here were simple, with candles burning around, and in the center, there was a statue of a goddess made of pure gold.

The statue was naked, displaying full breasts and a slender waist, with absolutely captivating curves. Her face was also very beautiful, as beautiful as a night-blooming cereus that appears briefly and then vanishes.

The moment Qi Liuxing saw her, he subconsciously turned his head away.

Next to him, Ke Yuxiao noticed his reaction, patted him on the shoulder, and led him to explore the side of the temple with a smile.

He Xiaowei’s face turned red immediately as well. Glancing at Zhou Qian, who was carefully examining the statue, he quickly whispered, “That’s not appropriate of you.”

“It’s only twisted if you think twisted. Appreciate it with an artistic eye.”

Zhou Qian joked with He Xiaowei and examined the statue several times from top to bottom, his gaze finally landing on her ankles.

The goddess’s smooth ankle had a chain on it.

But now, the lock on the chain was open, as if she had been locked up by someone before, and then someone else came with a key to unlock it for her. The person didn’t take the lock away, but let it fall to the ground.

After examining the goddess statue, the players scattered to study if there were any special inscriptions here.

After a while, Yun Xiangrong’s voice came from somewhere. “There’s a rather special inscription here. It mentions the Kingdom of Words, and also mentions a woman named ‘Amei’.”

Hearing this, the players quickly gathered to check the stone tablet.

Walking up to the stone tablet and reading the text, Zhou Qian also felt it was special.

It was still a curse tablet, but the content written down sparked more imagination—

“The golden feathers must have been stolen by that woman named Amei! She took it back to the Kingdom of Words! I curse the people of her hometown to encounter disasters, and for many people in her hometown to die each year until she returns the golden feathers!”

“My most revered Goddess of Prayer, Difu, I request that you make my curse come true and also ask you to help me find the golden feathers. As a reward, I am willing to offer the ‘Key to Freedom’ to you!”

“I heard that Vels, the God of Imprisonment, admires your beauty and, to keep you here, trapped you with the ‘Shackles of Eternity’. I have the most powerful magician who will use the ‘Key to Freedom’ to liberate you, as long as you help me realize the curse!”

Zhou Qian, Hidden Blade, and the others could understand this text. But Qi Liuxing and He Xiaowei didn’t. The two asked in succession, “The Kingdom of Words? Amei? What are these?”

Facing them, Zhou Qian then shared all the information he had obtained from Innkeeper Tartar.

After listening, He Xiaowei was stunned for a moment, before saying, “Qian’er, didn’t you say there’s a very powerful magician in the Land of Silence? The ban on us was imposed by him. He’s called Flowing Water, right?

“Look, the person who carved this curse stone tablet here also claims they have a magician. So…”

“Hiss… then this curse stone tablet we’re seeing… was written by the king of the Land of Silence! It’s him, no doubt!”

Suddenly, he thought of something, clapped his hands together, and said, “I got it. Everything matches up—”

“The most beautiful girl in the Kingdom of Words, Amei, married the king of the Land of Silence, and then stole his golden feathers. Hence, the king came to the temple of the Goddess of Prayers, asking her to cast a curse, persecuting the people of Amei’s hometown.”

“This strange ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ game in the Land of Silence, is probably related to this curse. The people selected to keep the vigil die in large numbers, fulfilling the curse’s content about many people in Amei’s hometown dying each year!”

“Hmm. Sounds quite reasonable. Xiaowei Ge is getting better at making up stories. But there’s a problem behind this.”

Zhou Qian looked at He Xiaowei. “The person in the curse said, if the golden feathers are found, he will help the Goddess of Prayers unlock the shackles. Look at that statue. The shackles on her ankle have indeed been unlocked. This indicates that the golden feathers must have already been returned.”

“Ah, I see what you mean, Zhou Qian. You have a point,” Ke Yuxiao said. “The curse says that Amei’s hometown will keep suffering deaths until the feathers are returned. So, since the feathers have been returned, the tragedies in Nameless Village should stop. But why… is the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ still going on?”

This peculiar stone tablet indeed revealed very crucial information. Perhaps by clarifying a few more details, they could further understand the full story of this instance.

Promptly, everyone engaged in an in-depth discussion about it.

Yin Jiujiu didn’t join the discussion. She was just listening while moving to another corner of the temple.

After a moment, she suddenly said, “Come over here and look. This stone tablet is also very interesting. It’s a very new one. Because the letters on it are exceptionally clear, it’s barely weathered.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian was the first to walk over and look at the stone tablet. The content on this stone tablet was indeed very interesting.

“My stepmother always mocks me for being dumb. I hope she becomes a big idiot,” was the first sentence written on it.

However, what was interesting was the following sentence—”It’s said that you, Goddess Difu, come and go without a trace, possibly disappearing at any moment. It’s such a pity. I hope you’ll come back because I want to bring my friend over. His stepfather is also very annoying, and he wants to curse his stepfather to turn into a big black pig.”

“Hiss… the goddess comes and goes without a trace…” He Xiaowei, after looking at the stone tablet, this time turned back to look at the ankle of the goddess statue in the temple center without blushing or skipping a beat. “Could it be…?”

“This passage, indeed, resolves another doubt in my mind.” Zhou Qian took over the conversation.

“Which doubt?” He Xiaowei asked him.

Zhou Qian said, “The Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words were on good terms, but after Amei married into the Land of Silence and stole the king’s golden feathers, returning after, the two countries began to harbor ill will towards each other. The curse stone tablet just now, indeed, was written by the king of the Land of Silence. I agree with this conjecture.”

“According to Tartar, both countries regard Amei as a criminal. In Nameless Village, it’s even taboo to mention her name. It seems many people in this village died because Amei stole the golden feathers. This information corroborates each other, and there should be no doubt about it. But—”

Frowning slightly, Zhou Qian continued, “The king of the Land of Silence hates betrayal, letting the magician Flowing Water impose the ban in an attempt to have us deserters die. But he didn’t send any troops after us.”

“This shows that, for some reason, people from the Land of Silence absolutely will not set foot on this land of the Kingdom of Words. So, if that’s the case, how did the king come to this temple to inscribe the curse?”

“Ah! I got it!” He Xiaowei’s eyes brightened. “This, it’s related to this lock, right?”

“Right. I think this temple originally wasn’t in the Kingdom of Words, not on this mountaintop. It must have been in a place where many people could reach.”

Zhou Qian said, “The king of the Land of Silence came to the temple to set a curse. Later the curse might have been fulfilled, or maybe not, but he must have found the golden feathers; hence, he let the magician unlock the goddess’ shackles. Since then—”

“The goddess was freed, no longer needing to stay in one place.”

“The temple thus became a moving temple, appearing sporadically somewhere.”

“This is also why the relatively new stone tablet that Yin Jiujiu found, mentioning the goddess, could disappear. This person entered the temple to write this stone tablet after the golden feathers were returned to the king, and the magician unlocked the goddess’ shackles.”

Just as Zhou Qian’s voice fell, the various inscriptions around them, the pure gold goddess in the center of the temple, the deep corridor, and the dark ceiling and ground—all began to fade, becoming transparent.

—The temple disappeared from their sight.

In its place was a green, grassy slope. The grass, illuminated by the stars and moon in the sky, reflected a silver hue, waving in the wind, creating layers of silver waves that connected with the distant starry sky, forming the Milky Way above.

Looking up at the bright moon and stars, Zhou Qian lowered his head and noticed a straight path in front of him. After pushing aside the grass and walking along the road for ten steps, he found that the road had turned a corner.

Having an idea, Zhou Qian summoned the little dragon, which carried him up into the sky.

Seeing him like this, He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say, “Wow, it reminds me of the dragon I saw in ‘Last Wish’! But yours is much smaller.”

Zhou Qian just curled the corner of his lips, not saying a word, just commanding the little dragon to continue flying upwards. When the dragon reached a sufficient height, Zhou Qian looked down and found that his judgment was correct—the small path he had seen in the grass was actually strokes of characters.

Just like the mysterious crop circles, when you’re in the middle of the field, you can’t see anything, but from an aerial view, you can discover the enormous anomaly. At this moment, with the help of the little dragon, Zhou Qian saw a line of text.

“Never kill birds.”

—This was the fourth prohibition related to deserters.

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<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 119

“Actually, it’s not about standing vigil at all.”

After a moment, Alayne suddenly spoke up. “This is… a complete sacrifice.”

“To whom?” Bai Zhou asked.

“The Red God,” Alayne said. “People from the other world… like red. The moment Samhain arrives, the world turns upside down, and they take the opportunity to come over.”

“Are all people from the other world Red Gods?” Bai Zhou asked again.

Alayne shook her head. “No. As far as I know, they are not. There are many Red Gods… Each of them owns an inn, and all the inns are red. Hence, the owners of the red inns are called Red Gods.

“The inns are used to attract passersby. I’ve heard there are countless delicacies and endless banquets held there. Every guest who enters the inn can eat unlimited food. The other world is actually a good place, but only for the people there. For us, going to the other world means death, saying goodbye to our loved ones now…”

Inns? Unlimited food?

Bai Zhou remembered that the owner of the Tartar Inn, Tartar, had said that everyone could freely eat the meat in the seven pots at the inn’s entrance.

So he asked further, “Is Tartar related to the Red God?”

“Tartar?” Alayne blinked, then shook her head. “Oh no… Of course not. She runs a legitimate inn. The inns in the other world should be quite different from here.”

“Then back to standing night watch. What did you mean by sacrifice?” Bai Zhou said.

“Although the Red Gods run inns, providing selflessly for those from the other world, or ghosts… It seems, they are good people, but that’s only towards ghosts. They are not kind to humans. They will consume us to gain energy, to nourish those spirits.”

Alayne said. “I’ve heard our village offended a very powerful Red God. He wasn’t an ordinary visitor from the other world, who could be scared away by the Bone Fire, or by every household’s lights. That Red God is powerful, and if angered, the entire village could be destroyed.”

“Every year… that Red God consumes people from our village. 32 is his maximum demand. Exactly how many he consumes each time depends on his mood.”

“At most, he consumed all 32 people, and at least, he only ate 8. Anyway, these 32 people will be sacrifices. We use their lives in exchange for the safety of everyone else.”

Alayne suddenly paused, then looked at Bai Zhou and asked, “So… are you fast?”

“Being fast can improve the Red God’s mood and avoid death?” Bai Zhou countered.

“I’ve heard the Red God likes to play the ‘Drop the Handkerchief’ game. If someone can outrun the Red God and catch up with him, that person will be spared by the Red God. But…” Alayne said, “Who can outrun a ghost that comes and goes without a trace?”

After saying these words, Alayne looked up at Bai Zhou again.

“I’ve told you everything I know. I was practicing running for my parents, for my clan, but now… it’s your turn to answer me.”

Alayne asked him, “If you’ve had my experience, have you ever lost? Tell me, what should I do?”

As the twilight deepened, the outline of the crescent moon became clearer.

Corresponding to it were the torches around the square and the huge fire in the center.

The flames fluttered like a flag in the wind.

The central fire gradually lost its yellow hue, turning into a ghostly blue, like will-o’-wisps dancing in the night—that was the color of the Bone Fire.

Bai Zhou’s tall figure stood against such a backdrop, his expression hidden in the darkness, away from the firelight.

“I haven’t lost, and I won’t lose. Someone like me can’t afford to lose.”

After a long while, Bai Zhou spoke gravely.

“I don’t understand.” Alayne frowned. “You just said it, didn’t you? It’s not fair. Why do we have to bear such a burden from birth? Everyone is just using us. When we’re useful, they praise us. Once we lose and become useless, they discard us and even blame us…”

Bai Zhou looked at her and said, “But your mother didn’t do that, right?”

Alayne frowned and didn’t speak.

Bai Zhou continued, “As long as there are people in this village you want to protect, what you do still has meaning. You’re fighting for your mother and for yourself. My situation is the same.”

“But I’ve already lost…” Alayne said. “What should I do at a time like this?”

“This time, I will stand guard for you. You must survive. As long as you live, there’s a chance to win. Then, next, you just need to become stronger.”

“When you’re strong enough, no one can hurt you. When you’re strong enough, the father who hurt you and even the rest of the villagers will only kneel on the ground, begging for your protection. Talent may burden you, but it also brings you power.”

Alayne thought for a moment, then asked him, “Begging me? Like… like begging a god?”

“Exactly. Just like begging a god.” Bai Zhou nodded.

Alayne said, “If one day the god becomes useless to mortals, will they still beg him? If people abandon the god, would the god be disappointed? Would the god be cursed?”

Bai Zhou continued walking forward.

“When you become a god, you won’t care anymore about how so-called mortals view you.”

Watching Bai Zhou’s back, eight-year-old Alayne fell into deep thought.

—If she truly became like a god, indifferent to all mortals… would she still know how to protect her mother? Would she even forget her mother?

Suddenly feeling something, she looked down and saw a red lotus blooming in the palm of her hand.

……

On the square, Zhou Qian, after a long wait, finally managed to get two offerings for burning for himself and He Xiaowei.

The villagers were lined up to receive the offerings, then went to the side to get the meat soup for the dogs.

The voice of Innkeeper Tartar kept ringing. “I remind you to bring bowls, so don’t forget them. The iron bowls I have here aren’t enough to share with you all.”

After receiving the offerings and meat soup, the villagers began to leave one by one.

Of course, Zhou Qian didn’t leave. Besides him, the remaining players included Hidden Blade, Ke Yuxiao, Yun Xiangrong, and Yin Jiujiu. Bai Zhou had ventured off to explore the night watch line, and Qi Liuhuang, not quite at ease leaving He Xiaowei alone, had gone with him to find flammable minerals and wasn’t present either.

Eventually, even Village Chief Ab temporarily left, leaving only Tartar as the NPC who hadn’t departed. She seemed thoughtful as she looked at Zhou Qian, then scooped out two more bowls of meat from the pot.

Then Tartar said, “You don’t need to take these. There’s plenty more in the inn. It’s just… two families haven’t come to collect yet. I wonder if they haven’t found their dogs yet.”

Naturally, Tartar was referring to Tara and Brega.

Zhou Qian had managed to send them away in the game, as they were looking for extremely important dogs and hadn’t returned yet.

Speaking of which… the deserters from the Land of Silence were under three prohibitions.

Who issued these prohibitions?

Why does it seem specifically targeted at the deserters?

In an instance that clearly involves magic and undead, such prohibitions seem unusual, almost like a curse.

With a vague guess in mind but still unsure of the specifics, Zhou Qian turned to Tartar and said, “We seem to have lost our memories during our escape. Other than the fact that we come from the Land of Silence, we know nothing else.”

Tartar smiled, seemingly not understanding the purpose of Zhou Qian’s question. “So?”

“So, we’ll stay here with you, waiting for those two to return. But just waiting is so boring.” Zhou Qian smiled. “We could chat.”

Tartar threw Zhou Qian a coquettish wink. “Chat? It’s boring to chat here. Maybe you want to date me? I’m free all day tomorrow.”

Before Zhou Qian could respond, Hidden Blade, who was standing by, was taken aback—damn, the god just left, and he’s already moving on? No, as a brother, he couldn’t stand by and watch the god be cuckolded.

With a cough, Hidden Blade stepped forward. Contrary to the tumultuous waves in his heart, his face was cold and almost rigid. He said, “I’ll accompany you! How do you want to date?”

Zhou Qian looked at Hidden Blade in surprise, then back at the innkeeper. “I’m in a hurry. Can’t wait until tomorrow.”

Hidden Blade: “……”

Zhou Qian had a slightly malicious smile in his eyes. “With so much meat and soup in the inn, they’ll still be useful, right? I’m really worried my pet might knock them all over…”

The innkeeper’s expression changed. She looked at Zhou Qian with a somewhat angry gaze. “Are you threatening me?”

“Getting angry makes you age faster, which isn’t attractive. I’m not threatening you. I genuinely want to chat with you,” Zhou Qian said. “You dared to let us stay in your inn, so you must know something about us, right?

“I guess, you don’t want to say because you might want to use our background as leverage later, to make us do more work for you?”

“Don’t worry. We’re very diligent and won’t slack off.”

Seemingly hit by Zhou Qian’s guess, Tartar’s expression fluctuated for a while before she finally said, “This is Nameless Village, which belongs to the Kingdom of Words. People from the Land of Silence certainly wouldn’t dare come here.”

Hearing this, all the players present exchanged glances.

The “Silence” of the Land of Silence and the “Words” of the Kingdom of Words expressed completely opposite meanings.

Is there a story between the two?

“I learned about you from a horseman in the Land of Silence. You are deserters. He took your money and sent you through a secret channel to me. From now on, you’ll be doing manual labor for the villagers, and I’m supposed to get a cut. You’ve made an agreement with the horseman about this, so don’t think about reneging. As for why you’ve lost your memories…”

“I think it was probably the work of a powerful magician,” Tartar continued. “He’s called Liu Shui, always working for the king of the Land of Silence. The king, of course, is furious about deserters, so he would definitely send a magician to punish you.”

“The king probably wanted Liu Shui to kill you. But magic that kills brings backlash, and the conditions are very strict, especially over such a distance. It would be difficult for Liu Shui to directly kill you with magic.”

“So, I think, besides making you lose your memories, the magician also placed other restrictions on you. If you break those restrictions, you will die.”

Tartar’s words indeed answered many questions related to the players’ identities.

At the same time, the origin of the prohibitions was also explained.

The three prohibitions were set by Liu Shui for the players, or rather, the deserters.

He predicted that the deserters would be in the Nameless Village of the Kingdom of Words but couldn’t come to execute them himself. So, he placed a curse of prohibitions, hoping they would violate them and thus die, fulfilling the task given by the king.

This meant he had enough understanding of the customs of the Kingdom of Words and even Nameless Village—

Firstly, he knew that the inn’s glass would turn blue at night, and the bones the village chief asked the deserters to burn would emit blue flames, perfectly visible through the blue glass.

Secondly, he knew about the game of “Drop the Handkerchief” held here at night.

Lastly, he was aware of two villagers named Brega and Tara.

Beyond this, there were other issues.

First, of the three prohibitions related to the deserters, two were obtained by Zhou Qian in the matching center of Blue Harbor City, considered external hints.

If they ignore external hints, where in the story of the instance were the other two prohibitions hidden?

Second, in this instance, players directly saw only one prohibition related to Brega.

It was discovered when they investigated the second floor of the inn and went up to the roof, where the prohibition was inscribed on a stone tablet.

But who was responsible for this?

Likely, they were helping the deserters. But why would they help the deserters, and how did they know about the prohibitions placed by the magician Liu Shui?

Thinking this, Zhou Qian immediately took out his binoculars to look at the stone tablet, wondering if Tartar knew when it had appeared there.

But then he found—the stone tablet was gone. Where the stone tablet used to be, there was now just a wheat field.

The magician Liu Shui from the Land of Silence hadn’t succeeded, so there might still be other prohibitions to be imposed.

Perhaps there was still a chance to find this NPC, who seemed to be helping the players by alerting them to the existence of the prohibitions.

As Zhou Qian was contemplating this, he saw Ke Yuxiao approaching the innkeeper, politely asking, “I want to ask. Are the Land of Silence and the Kingdom of Words enemies? After all, magicians from there don’t dare to come here. We, who have completely betrayed the Land of Silence and are deserters, dare to come here to hide, thinking that people from the Land of Silence won’t come here looking for trouble, right?”

“Yes. They are indeed enemies now. But before… it seems these two countries had a good relationship,” Tartar said. “I’ve only been in this village for two or three years, so I’m not clear about the past. I’ve only vaguely heard that the Land of Silence once married the most beautiful girl from the Kingdom of Words.”

Ke Yuxiao quickly followed up. “Who was that girl?”

“It was a girl born in this Nameless Village. Her name was Amei. Amei, the most beautiful flower of the Kingdom of Words.”

Tartar’s gaze showed a hint of longing.

But soon, that longing turned into a sigh. “But later, she became a criminal in both the Kingdom of Words and the Land of Silence.

“Don’t ever mention this name in front of the villagers. I’ve heard they all deeply hate this woman.”

As Tartar said this, Zhou Qian heard footsteps coming from behind him. Putting away his binoculars, he turned around and saw Tara and Brega. They were hurriedly running towards the square, both looking as pale as if they hadn’t found their dogs.

Of course, they hadn’t been able to find it. Zhou Qian thought to himself—the little dragon was still playing with the dogs.

Observing them closely, Zhou Qian noticed that this man and woman weren’t young. Perhaps, then, more of the village’s stories could be learned from them.

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 118

“Alayne, what’s wrong with you?”

Someone from the Sun Family stood up and asked loudly.

“I-I don’t know what happened. My handkerchief is gone! It was just in my hand a moment ago!”

This was the response from the little girl named Alayne.

At this moment, the last glimmer of the sunset was about to burn out.

Traces of a crescent moon had already appeared in the sky.

Many people had gathered in the center and around the square, but because of a sudden accident, there was silence all around, a profound stillness. Only the cries of the little girl in the center were heart-wrenching and pitiable.

However, it seemed that no one actually pitied her.

Those from the Cloud Family in the north circle, closest to her, all showed smiles of relief.

As for her own family in the east, they either showed fear or clenched their fists and stood up, looking at Alayne with anger and disappointment, as if she was a demon who would doom them all.

Zhou Qian sat calmly in his place, his gaze sweeping around, passing over everyone. He first looked intently at the innkeeper Tartar, who was standing not far from the meat-filled iron bowl, quietly watching everything happening in the center of the square, with a mysterious smile on her face.

Then, Zhou Qian looked towards the village chief, Ab, who had rarely left the side of the sacrificial offerings, and walked towards the Cloud Family, all the way to behind Zhou Qian—where the little girl, Alayne, was crying.

Walking up to Alayne, Chief Ab whispered a few questions to her, then summoned one of his men and said something. The man then went to the edge of the square and brought a woman over.

This woman was clearly Alayne’s mother.

The moment she saw her, Alayne immediately knelt down. “Mother, I’m sorry. I… I have let down our family…”

The woman sighed deeply, walked up to her, and after carefully checking her several times, confirmed that the handkerchief was indeed not in her dress, and tears fell from her eyes.

Then, she also knelt down, but unlike her child, she faced the direction of the village chief.

“Lord Ab, please. This… The game has just started. This doesn’t count! Please allow something else to substitute for the handkerchief. We…”

“This is the sacred judgment handkerchief left by the Prophet of Dreams! Only this handkerchief can select the true warrior for us! It is sacred! Now that it’s gone, there’s really no point in continuing the game…”

Chief Ab said sternly and without mercy, then announced to the rest, “The game is over. Now, I will announce the selections for tonight’s vigil—”

“The east circle Sun Family has the lowest score in the game. All 16 participants in the game must take part in the vigil.”

“Of course, these 16 people aren’t enough. We need to go back to the initial rock-paper-scissors stage of the game. The final round was between Awei from the north circle Cloud Family and He Xiaowei from the south circle Moon Family. These two families don’t need to participate in the vigil. But the losing sides must. Among them, the east circle Sun Family has already been determined to participate, and likewise, the west circle Star Family, which also lost, must join the vigil!”

In this game, the Star-Cloud alliance formed by the north-west circles was against the Sun-Moon alliance formed by the south-east circle.

Zhou Qian’s premature end to the game directly led to the instant dissolution of both alliances—

Star-Cloud was disbanded, and so was Sun-Moon.

Now Star and Sun became the losers, needing to participate in the vigil.

While the winning sides became the previously opposing Cloud Family and Moon Family.

As soon as Chief Ab announced the results, people wearing clothes adorned with stars ran to the Cloud side and punched an elder of the Cloud Family hard.

“It was you! The sacred judgment handkerchief is missing! It must have been you! You knew we were falling behind in the rock-paper-scissors game and likely to be sent directly to the vigil… and yet you did this! You betrayed us! You betrayed our alliance!”

“Is that so…” The elder of the Cloud Family wiped the blood from his face yet smirked mockingly. “The deserters from the Land of Silence… It’s said that they are the eight who can’t fight at all on the battlefield. We strongly opposed their joining us, opposed them fighting alongside us, but everyone thought they could participate. When it came to voting… your Star Family voted in favor, didn’t you? So—”

“Will your Star Family really fight with us forever? Probably not. The little girl Alayne is a master, and she was secretly trained… You knew about it all along. Why did you only tell us after the game had started?”

“This, this, this isn’t…” The man from the Star Family was suddenly at a loss for words.

The elder from the Moon Family punched him hard in retaliation, effectively taking revenge, and then said, “Can’t speak now, can you? Ha… It’s your own fault that things ended up this way.”

“Our deserter from the Land of Silence, He Xiaowei, thought that the youngest girl would be the weakest, which is why he targeted her. If you had told us earlier that she was actually the strongest, would we have let him throw the handkerchief behind her? If we hadn’t thrown the handkerchief to her, would she have lost it?”

“So, it was your Star Family that kept secrets first, harboring the intention to betray! How dare you come and question me?!”

The villagers’ conversation was all overheard by the players.

He Xiaowei scratched his head, feeling somewhat emotional. “Losing handkerchiefs, indeed the handkerchief ‘got lost’. Qian’er, this must be your time magic at work, right? Just now, seeing that little girl cry so miserably, I initially felt quite guilty, thinking it was us who caused her trouble. But now, it seems…”

“If you don’t want to be the butcher’s knife, then you can only become the fish*. Besides, they are just NPCs.”

*It’s a metaphor referring to one’s fate being in the hands of others. In this context, he’s alluding to the idiom of becoming the knife (taking charge of your fate and not allowing yourself to be at the mercy of others) or else become the fish.

Zhou Qian stood up, looking towards the other three families. “It seems the Star-Cloud alliance is quite fragile. This way, although we’ve avoided the vigil crisis, we and the Moon Family will inevitably become enemies with the other three families. Plus, there’s the vigil side—”

Before Zhou Qian could finish, Bai Zhou squeezed his wrist.

Turning his head to look at him, Zhou Qian said, “What?”

Bai Zhou said, “Someone needs to watch over the movements of the three families. Moreover, there must be a story behind the vigil. Leave it to me to investigate.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian clasped his hand back, his expression momentarily indecipherable.

Seeing something in Zhou Qian’s expression, Bai Zhou, holding his hand, asked through the private chat tool in a low voice, “What are you thinking?”

Zhou Qian honestly replied, “Thinking about you.”

“Worried about my safety?” Bai Zhou asked.

“Not just that,” Zhou Qian said.

Bai Zhou asked further, “What else?”

Zhou Qian exhaled softly. “Never mind. Saying it out loud makes me seem too sentimental.”

Bai Zhou: “?”

Zhou Qian gave him a deep look. “It’s nothing. Go ahead. This is still a sub-instance of Blue Harbor City. Your abilities will be limited. So, pay attention to your safety. In case of danger, contact me anytime through the intended teammate feature. I can use that butterfly wings thing to find you.”

Meanwhile, the girl named Alayne was still crying on the ground.

Her status in the family had been very high due to her exceptional talent and the training she had received, which made her unbeatably fast and able to secure a chance of survival for everyone.

Because of her talent and diligence, her parents’ status in the family had also risen significantly.

But now her situation had taken a drastic turn for the worse. She was raised high by her clan, only to be harshly let down.

A few people from the Sun Family had already run over to her on the outskirts of the square, throwing cabbage leaves at her and hurling verbal abuse, until the village chief’s men came to maintain order and barely managed to pull them away.

Eventually, Alayne’s father also arrived.

Presumably, everyone recognized him as Alayne’s father, so no one stopped him as he approached.

But what no one expected was that the most harm would come from her own father.

He stepped forward and slapped her hard, knocking her to the ground.

Seeing this, her mother rushed over and hugged her husband’s legs, trying to stop him from approaching their daughter any further. “It’s not Alayne’s fault! What has she done wrong?!”

But the next moment, she was kicked away by her husband. “I’m ruined because of you and your daughter! From now on, I won’t be able to lift my head in the clan!”

Zhou Qian, who was closest to Alayne at this moment, walked over and coldly said, “A grown man pushing his own eight-year-old daughter into this dangerous vigil reserve squad is already cowardly enough. How do you have the face to blame her for your inability to hold your head up? Why didn’t you participate in the handkerchief game yourself?”

The man retorted, “You, a deserter from the Land of Silence coming here, will have to rely on us to live! Watch your mouth!”

At this point, Zhou Qian wasn’t in a hurry to retort, and upon noticing the sudden shift in the atmosphere, he promptly grabbed Bai Zhou’s wrist, then turned to look at the man.

The man’s words had revealed a crucial piece of information—deserters had to depend on the villagers to survive. Zhou Qian was curious to hear if, in his anger, the man would continue to speak without thinking and reveal more critical information.

However, the man soon stopped talking to Zhou Qian, probably realizing he had misspoken. Then, he turned back to continue berating his wife and daughter with harsh words.

“The most useless are men who berate their wives and children!” He Xiaowei couldn’t hold back and blurted out, “Bastard!”

The man no longer paid attention to the players and tried to punch Alayne again. Just as his fist was about to hit Alayne’s face, someone held it back.

It was Bai Zhou.

“You—” He was about to curse at Bai Zhou, pointing at his nose, when Bai Zhou pressed down on his hand, and the man’s wrist was immediately dislocated, causing him to cry out in pain.

Bai Zhou ignored him, letting him fall to the ground, then walked over to the little girl, helped her up, patted her shoulder, and carefully removed the cabbage leaves from her head.

From behind, Bai Zhou’s actions seemed extremely gentle.

Seeing this, Zhou Qian nudged He Xiaowei next to him. “Xiaowei Ge, do you know one reason why I never made things clear with Zhou Ge before?”

He Xiaowei: ???

Zhou Qian: “When we were in school, he wasn’t as indifferent to others as he is now. Generally, he got along well with classmates since he was the class monitor. Although he was probably special to me, he was also friendly to other classmates. So, I wasn’t sure if he was only gentle towards me…”

He Xiaowei thought for a moment. “Oh, so you’re saying… the game has hardened him?”

Zhou Qian: “…………”

He Xiaowei: “Qian’er, I can’t guess when you speak in riddles. But this scene looks like you caused trouble by bullying the girl, and then the God Level boss comes to clean up your mess.”

“…? Me? Cause trouble? Xiaowei Ge, are you confused about something? Who just saved you from the danger of the night vigil?”

“Eh, eh, eh, not that! I’m just making an analogy!”

“Hmm?”

“Damn, Qian’er, don’t glare at me. I’ve decided to follow my master’s advice and talk less!” He Xiaowei hurriedly made a zipping motion across his mouth.

On the other side, Bai Zhou gave Alayne’s mother a tube of ointment and another tube to the girl as well, then led her to the village chief Ab, who was still in the center of the square.

Seeing the chief, Bai Zhou said, “Chief Ab, I’ll keep vigil in her place.”

He stated it directly.

Hearing this, Ab looked at him meaningfully but didn’t object. “You volunteer to keep vigil, contributing to the village… That’s good.”

Bai Zhou asked, “What does keeping vigil entail?”

Ab replied, “As the village chief, I also have the duty to keep vigil. Just follow me tonight. You’re free until one hour before midnight, then please gather here.”

“I’ll take Alayne home first.” Bai Zhou nodded to Ab, leading Alayne past the north circle area, and continued outwards.

Passing by Zhou Qian, he stopped, looked towards Hidden Blade, not far away, and said, “The output position here is yours.”

“Don’t worry,” Hidden Blade said. “I can still help everyone with my intuitive talent at that time.”

Bai Zhou nodded, then asked, “Are you willing to follow Zhou Qian’s arrangements?”

Hidden Blade smiled. “You still don’t trust me? Not to mention my personal experience in the last instance. Just watching his previous videos, I’m fully convinced by his arrangements.”

Actually, Hidden Blade knew that Bai Zhou’s question wasn’t doubting him but needed him to publicly express his support for Zhou Qian, especially in front of the uncertain positions of Yun Xiangrong and Yin Jiujiu. This way, even in Bai Zhou’s absence, with the God Level player Hidden Blade vouching for Zhou Qian, others would think twice before acting against Zhou Qian.

Thus, Hidden Blade looked towards the two girls and emphasized, “I absolutely support every one of Zhou Qian’s plans, all the way!”

Zhou Qian glanced back and forth between the two, smiling and squeezing Bai Zhou’s hand. “Be careful.”

“You too,” Bai Zhou replied, squeezing his hand back, then turned to lead the little girl out of the square.

The gamblers outside were a bit confused.

[Are they really in love? I don’t buy it.]

[Let’s say, it’s like an emperor who falls for a general, and has to send that general to battle. How would the emperor feel?]

[The emperor would definitely be worried and conflicted. If I were the general, knowing my loved one sent me to the most dangerous tasks, I’d be upset!]

[So, their situation isn’t suitable for a relationship. Career is career. Feelings are feelings. They shouldn’t mix! Otherwise, conflicts are inevitable, and it won’t last long.]

[My view is different.]

[How so?]

[In this situation, only 137 is most suitable for the task. Anyone else wouldn’t match up in ability and would easily fail. If Zhou Qian didn’t assign the task to 137, how could he convince the others?]

 [Right, others might think he’s showing favoritism, which would undermine team cooperation in the future!]

[Not just that, others might think he’s blinded by love. How could someone as rational as him assign someone unsuitable for the task?]

[Oh, so 137 not only doesn’t mind but also volunteered to go… There’s also a sense that he didn’t want to put Qian Ge in a difficult position. I think I understand what Qian Ge meant now.]

[Fuck, 137’s feelings for Qian Ge… that’s really something.]

[Damn, no wonder Qian Ge became bent. I’m impressed.]

[?? Something’s off with you upstairs.]

Inside the game, the square inevitably saw some disturbances, likely between those assigned to the night vigil and those who could go home, hurling insults at each other. Eventually, the village chief intervened to calm the disturbances. Then, he lit a part of the pyre made of animal bones, known as the Bone Fire.

Since the pyre was surrounded by wood and straw, which acted as kindling, the flames were still yellow.

The large yellow flames, in contrast with the torches around the square, looked quite spectacular in the night, as if a phoenix might emerge from the fire at any moment.

“The fire here will burn all night, in hopes that the people from the other world will be satisfied…” The village chief told everyone. “Now, those on the night watch may leave temporarily. Please gather here an hour before midnight. As for those who can go home… Everyone from each household, please line up to receive the distributed offerings. Remember, after you take what I give you, light it in your fireplace before midnight. Otherwise, you might be devoured by beings from the other world!”

“Also, I must remind everyone, don’t draw your curtains, or block your windows with anything! I’ll send people to patrol. If the patrollers don’t see the light, they’ll think something’s happened to you and will enter your house. If there’s nothing wrong, wouldn’t that just cause unnecessary trouble? So, please be careful!”

Finally, the village chief looked at Zhou Qian and his group. “Those of you staying in the inn, join the line and take an offering for tonight’s burning.”

The village chief’s men once again maintained order, and people, as if accustomed to this annual event and to accepting death and the departure of loved ones, didn’t make much noise or show excessive sorrow but lined up in an orderly manner.

Looking closely at their faces, villagers who had family members on night watch were silently crying; others who could go home, especially those from the Cloud Family, seemed relatively happy.

The offerings that needed to be burned distributed by the village chief were mainly bones, with small amounts of ordinary firewood and grain.

Seeing this, He Xiaowei became very serious and immediately leaned towards Zhou Qian. “Qian’er, without you, I’d really feel like I’m in danger. Who knows what those animals ate? If their bones contain a lot of phosphorus, the burning could produce blue flames! The designers of this instance are too cunning!”

“The chief also said not to draw curtains or block windows, or they’ll think we’re in danger and just barge in. Then, seeing the light in the house, our little trick with the color would be completely useless.”

“As expected, the method I proposed at the start is ineffective… Being reckless, we’d either die at the hands of ghosts, or we’d violate the order and probably die anyway!”

“Indeed. There’s only a little grain and ordinary firewood, which will burn out quickly. But a large amount of bones can burn for a long time. What we actually need to trace back to is… who exactly issued these prohibitions.” Zhou Qian said, “I hope Zhou Ge can come up with some results.”

“Qian’er, you line up here. My master will protect you.”

He Xiaowei glanced at the long line ahead and rubbed his hands. “I’ll go talk to others and see if there’s a quarry or something. I’ll look for some fuel of a different color. The more, the better.”

Here, a crowd of villagers lined up, one by one, to receive the flammable offerings from the village chief for protection against ghosts at night.

On the other side, Bai Zhou let Alayne lead him towards the gathering place of the Sun Family.

At this moment, Alayne had wiped away her tears, her expression obscured in the darkness away from the firelight.

“Actually, you don’t need to take me back. You and the people from the Cloud Family somehow stole my handkerchief. You will be hated by the entire clan. Once you take me home, they might not let you go.”

“If that’s the case. They wouldn’t let you go either, right?” Bai Zhou said, “It seems I should go even more.”

“Why are you willing to help me?” Alayne wiped her tears again and asked him.

Bai Zhou said in a deep voice, “You should think about one question: why were you born with such a talent, to the point that you had to take on such an important role. When needed, everyone treats you as if you are the moon held in their hearts. But once you disappoint them, everyone will hate you to the bone, trample on you, even wish to kill you.”

Taking a deep breath, Alayne said, “The questions you just mentioned, I have indeed thought about them. It’s not fair. Why would fate be imposed on us like this? Why…”

“I barely slept in the past year. I practiced desperately, just to protect the people of the clan. I did it for them. Now, I didn’t want this result! I didn’t want to lose. But, but why—”

Her angry words abruptly stopped, and then Alayne looked at Bai Zhou. “It sounds like you’ve had a similar experience? What about you? Did you lose?”

Bai Zhou was very tall.

Alayne had to stretch her neck to see his face.

But in the darkness, his expression was inscrutable, and Alayne couldn’t make anything out.

All she could see was the Bone Fire burning in the square behind him, stretching far into the distance, seemingly endless, which outlined his figure as especially lonely and indifferent.

Bai Zhou looked down at her and said lightly, “If you want to know the answer, let’s make a deal.”

Alayne asked him, “What kind of deal?”

Bai Zhou said, “Tell me what you know about the secrets of this village. For example, what exactly happens during the night watch?”

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 117

The color of an opaque object is determined by the light it reflects, while the color of a transparent object is determined by the colored light that passes through it.

The reason blue glass appears blue is, simply put, because it absorbs all other colors of light, or “eats” them.

Yellow fire cannot pass through blue glass, so from the outside, one would only see a dark shadow, which does not constitute the “light of fire” as prohibited. Thus, the problem is easily solved.

After frantically recalling the optics knowledge he had learned before and thinking carefully, He Xiaowei finally figured it out.

However, he quickly thought of a problem and hurriedly asked, “Qian’er, just one question. The last sentence—”

“I still feel something is not right! When we entered the room, everything outside looked normal! Logically, looking from the inside of the room through the blue transparent glass, the houses and fields in the village should also appear black!”

“You’re right, so at that time, the window was still in its normal transparent state. It was when we left the inn that I noticed the glass of the window had turned blue. Not only did it turn blue, but one of the eyeballs of the statue at the entrance of the inn also turned blue,” Zhou Qian said. “Anyway, it’s always good to have some salt ready. After all, it’s the most common and easiest to obtain. Of course, from a more cautious perspective, we should also prepare more minerals that can produce different colors of flame when burned. After all, the color of the glass might change again.

“In fact, I had the little dragon search for this. On Shan Ge’s side, I’ll check his status. If he can still temporarily leave the Rib of God and move within a certain range, he can also help find materials for burning.”

“I got it! I’ll pay more attention too! That… um!”

He Xiaowei glanced back and forth between Zhou Qian and Bai Zhou, then stood up and walked away. “I’ll go ask about my master’s situation!”

As soon as He Xiaowei left, Zhou Qian turned back to Bai Zhou and nudged him with his elbow. “Zhou Ge, any thoughts?”

Bai Zhou said, “Many myths feature the ‘Trinity’ or ‘Three as a Group’ phenomenon. The number three is widely used in various legends and scriptures.”

“The Tao Te Ching* mentions, ‘Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things. Even from ancient times to present day, there have been three divisions concerning man, ghosts, and gods, or the legends of heaven, hell, and earth.”

*A Chinese classic text and foundational work of Taoism traditionally credited to the sage Laozi. It is central to both philosophical and religious conceptions of Taoism and has had great influence beyond Taoism as such on Chinese philosophy and religious practice throughout history.

“Furthermore, Christianity has the Holy Spirit, the Son, and the Father; Hinduism has Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva; ancient Egypt had Osiris, Horus, and Isis; Greek mythology frequently features the Three Fates, the Three Graces, the Three Furies…”

As Bai Zhou spoke, he noticed Zhou Qian looking at him with a smile.

“What?” he asked.

Zhou Qian smiled and said, “Zhou Ge reads a lot of books, huh.”

Bai Zhou stared into his eyes, and the corners of his mouth slightly curled up. “Not as diverse as your reading.”

“Are you implying I have a bad taste in novels?”

“No. It’s a good hobby.”

Zhou Qian was amused by Bai Zhou’s response, then thought for a moment and added, “The number ‘3’ is indeed interesting. Following this angle, blue is actually one of the three primary colors. Also, when I first came here, I saw the eyeball color of the west-facing statue head was red.”

The strange statue made of three heads near the entrance of the village and the inn were facing different directions.

When the players first logged into the instance and before entering the inn, Zhou Qian had specifically observed that the west-facing head’s eyes were red.

He initially thought the material of the eyeball was special, able to be reddened by the setting sun. Later, when he left the inn, he saw the eyeball turn blue, realizing things weren’t as simple as he initially thought.

As for the other two heads on the statue, their eyes didn’t have any special color and matched the grayscale of the statue itself.

Zhou Qian continued, “The three primary colors are red, blue, and yellow. I have seen the statue’s west-facing eyeball display red and blue. So, we could infer from this—”

“Perhaps the eyeball will also turn yellow. Maybe the glass on the second floor of the inn could also turn yellow…”

“When that happens, adding salt to the fire won’t work anymore. So, we do need to find other burning materials. Haa—”

“The night gameplay of this instance wouldn’t be about us watching the window and guarding the fire all night, adding objects to produce different colored flames, would it? That would be really boring.”

Bai Zhou reminded him, “Besides colors, there might also be metaphors related to the number ‘3’.”

“Right… The combination of humans, ghosts, and gods is quite clear in this instance, with humans and ghosts already present but no information about gods yet. Also, how did the glass change color?”

Zhou Qian raised an eyebrow and continued, “No one has come to change the glass, so if we don’t consider magic for the moment, it means there might be an issue with time and space.”

Bai Zhou nodded. “Exactly. Past, present, and future. This is also a classic combination of three elements.”

Zhou Qian smiled. “Now it’s getting interesting.”

As they talked, the sky turned a deeper shade of red, edging closer to dusk.

Many torches were lit in the square, as if trying to extend the daylight.

During his conversation with He Xiaowei and Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian was also paying attention to the situation around them—

The strong man named Awei who first threw the handkerchief was from the south side, and He Xiaowei was the second person to throw a handkerchief. However, he didn’t throw it back to the south side out of revenge but to the east side instead.

This move was quite smart, serving as a way to test where the people from the east side would throw the handkerchief next.

He Xiaowei specifically chose a frail-looking little girl who appeared to be only eight years old, thinking she would have the least physical strength and be the slowest.

Unexpectedly, the little girl moved as swiftly as the wind, more agile than ordinary people. Without the little dragon’s help, He Xiaowei would have continued to lose.

Thanks to the little dragon’s assistance, the little girl ultimately lost this round of the game. Afterward, she slowed down, as if hesitating about who to throw the handkerchief to.

During Zhou Qian’s conversation, she slowly walked back to the east side, seemingly to consult with someone managing her family about something, and then slowly walked towards the north side again.

The choice of the little girl was undoubtedly interesting—

It meant that their side would also deal with the north side.

In this way, the Sun Family and Moon Family represented in the east and south were targeting the Cloud Family in the north.

What about the Star Family in the west? Would it also be hostile to the Cloud Family?

It shouldn’t.

After all, the vigil needed 32 people, but the Cloud Family only had 8 people. Including the player count, it would only total 16. The people from the north side weren’t enough to make up the number of people in the vigil. Since the people from the two southeastern families had already formed a conspiracy, the 16 people from the Star Family would probably choose to cooperate with the Cloud Family.

Just as he thought of this, Zhou Qian saw a person with a star adorning the hem of his skirt in the periphery run over and go to the ear of a man from the Cloud Family diagonally across from him and say something.

The face of this male villager from the Cloud Family instantly became somewhat grave.

Then he looked at the crowd and said, ”The situation isn’t good. This little girl is an expert that the Sun Family has secretly trained this year. None of us are her match.”

“Everyone, listen to my advice. In a moment, no matter who is thrown a handkerchief, just give up. No need to chase her. Just conserve your stamina. If we lose this round, we’ll just deduct two points. We can still win it back again in the next round! So, it’s more important for us to save our stamina and fight to win the next round so that we can still have another draw!”

The information related to this little girl with extremely fast body skills was provided by someone from the Star Family in the west.

With this, the relationship between the four great families was considered completely clear to Zhou Qian.

—The two families, the Star in the west and the Cloud in the north, were in the same wave and were considered to be the Star-Cloud Alliance; the Moon in the south and the Sun family in the east could be the Sun-Moon Alliance.

After seeing that Star Family person leave, Zhou Qian retracted his line of sight and saw that the incredibly fast little girl had officially arrived at the north side and was located right behind Yun Xiangrong, who was across from him.

Immediately afterward, the two people’s gazes collided.

However, the little girl’s gaze quickly shifted away. She didn’t look at Zhou Qian anymore, but rather looked towards the others.

This move of hers, however, backfired and seemed deliberate.

It seemed that after secret training, her footwork was indeed formidable, but her shrewdness was a bit worse.

“Zhou Ge—” Zhou Qian raised half of his eyebrows upward and smiled. “It seems like she’s going to charge at me. That shouldn’t be the case. I’ve been through two very difficult trials, and my agility has clearly improved a lot.”

“I’ve already let the little dragon go to find something. It’s a bit exhausted in the past few waves, so it’s not good to call it back. In this way, I…”

“I’ll give you something.”

Bai Zhou tapped his finger on the system panel and said to Zhou Qian, “Alright, take a look at your traveling bag.”

Bai Zhou traded something directly to Zhou Qian through the teammate system.

As such, Zhou Qian tapped on the traveling bag system and saw that there was one more very interesting prop.

[Item: Never Drunk Butterfly Wings]

[Function: Sprinkle pollen on the tracked person. No matter where he goes to the ends of the earth, you will be able to grow butterfly wings, and when you want to see him, flash your wings and instantly fly to his side]

[Remarks: One-time prop. Please cherish them; in-game only. Cannot be used for different instances]

[Grade: S, extremely rare]

Glancing up at the little girl not far away, Zhou Qian took that prop out from his traveling bag.

It was a translucent glass bottle filled with pollen.

He just needed to dump out the pollen and sprinkle it on someone, then keep the bottle. When he wanted to see that person, all he had to do was break the glass bottle, and he would transform into a butterfly for an instant transfer.

Zhou Qian had just unscrewed the cap of the bottle to take a glance at the pollen inside when he realized that Bai Zhou had spread his palm towards him.

Zhou Qian immediately understood what he meant—the speed of that little girl opposite him had clearly accelerated. It seemed that she would soon be running behind everyone on the north side, leaving only afterimages, aiming to make them realize a little later who exactly she had thrown her handkerchief to. Zhou Qian would most likely not be able to sprinkle the pollen. If the pollen fell to the ground, the prop would be wasted.

Raising his gaze to Bai Zhou, Zhou Qian’s eyes narrowed a little. “I’ll do it myself.”

Vaguely sensing something, Bai Zhou was just about to open his mouth when Zhou Qian had already unscrewed the cap of the bottle and then poured all the pollen inside onto Bai Zhou.

“Zhou Qian?”

“Such a good prop, of course it can only be used on you. Does it have an enhanced version? If there is, I should have used it seven years ago.”

Zhou Qian smiled a little, and then looked at the field—

At this moment, that little girl’s figure had indeed completely turned into an afterimage. She swept past behind everyone like the wind. No matter how vicious their eyes were, the Cloud Family couldn’t identify where she left the handkerchief, and no one even knew whether or not she was still in the north side.

He Xiaowei’s cleverness was in testing out whether the people in the east side would also want to attack the north side; but the youngest and skinniest girl he had chosen also had the most powerful footwork.

At this moment, he had returned to Zhou Qian’s side, and couldn’t help but say, “Crap, how did she—”

Zhou Qian was calm and relaxed, patting He Xiaowei’s shoulder. “This incident teaches you one thing: don’t be sexist.”

He Xiaowei: “Injustice! I didn’t! I-I-That was at most age discrimination.”

Zhou Qian laughed, looking very relaxed, completely unaware that the gamblers watching were already anxious.

[What is Qian Ge up to? That pollen …… doesn’t seem necessary! That’s an extremely rare prop, ah!”]

[I’m so worried. That little girl is too powerful. Our Qian Ge is very strong, but he also has a weakness. He really can’t beat the little girl in terms of speed.]

[I told you he’s in love. We can’t see him in Blue Harbor City. But he must be in love.]

[Love… It really misleads people! Qian Ge is still too young.]

[It’s true that young people are easily overwhelmed by love!]

[Wait, is Qian Ge trying to delay the time?]

[That’s unscientific. The game hasn’t even started yet. It’s not worth it to use up so much mana now, is it?]

At this moment, within the game.

At the moment when everyone didn’t react, Bai Zhou whispered rather seriously in Zhou Qian’s ear, “She’ll be behind you in a second. At her speed, it will only take a mere 3 seconds for her to return to her position in the east.”

“Very good.” Zhou Qian slowly finished these two words, timing them just right.

The moment the words fell, he unleashed his skill with the Rib of God in his hand—

The wind stopped blowing, the white clouds stopped flowing, and the setting sun no longer gradually disappeared…

because time had been frozen.

Zhou Qian stood up and turned back. Just as Bai Zhou had said, the little girl who was incredibly fast had appeared behind him.

Time completely stood still, and unlike Zhou Qian, she was not able to stand outside of time, so she had no knowledge of what was going on around her and just stood frozen in mid-air, as if she had been turned into a stone statue.

The game would continue until midnight, which was still five hours away.

However, due to the unity of the various families and the preparations made, these 5 hours were completely insufficient to completely distance the scores of the 64 people. Ties would exist in large numbers, and many people would have the same score.

In this case, how would the 32 people with the lowest scores be selected?

Zhou Qian guessed that, at the end of the day, it could only be calculated by the total family score.

The family shared the honor, so it would be calculated by adding up the scores of the south-east and north-west. On the losing side, the entire family would be asked to keep the vigil together.

This was why there would only be 8 of the Cloud Family left to compete. It would also further explain why the various circles would be so united.

“Hmm… This handkerchief is really something. It’s got very intricate charms drawn on it and it’s encrusted with gold thread. For this village that doesn’t look wealthy, it should only have one, right?”

Zhou Qian walked in front of the little girl and didn’t care if she could hear it or not, quickly jerking the handkerchief away from her hand.

“I don’t want to waste five hours of my time on this boring game. After all, there are many other preparations I need to make before midnight. Otherwise, ushering ‘Samhain’ straight into the night would be tantamount to death.”

“Besides, I’ve gathered enough information about this ‘Drop the Handkerchief’.”

“So little girl, this game of you chasing me ends here.”

When time resumed its flow, Zhou Qian had already sat back down and was talking and laughing with Bai Zhou.

In the place behind him, the little girl was stunned for a moment before suddenly crying out in shock—her handkerchief was gone!

This meant that she had lost!

She lost by two points, and she could still regain it… But the handkerchief was gone, so the game couldn’t continue!

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>

Author: 木尺素 / Mu Chisu

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

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Chapter 116

After hearing Zhou Qian’s words, He Xiaowei was still uneasy. He felt that Zhou Qian might still be observing something through him.

However, without Zhou Qian, he would have been dead long ago. With this thought, He Xiaowei no longer hesitated. After swallowing his saliva, he prepared to walk towards the three NPCs. But before he could get there, Zhou Qian suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

“Wait,” Zhou Qian said.

“What’s up?” He Xiaowei asked.

“My son is back,” Zhou Qian replied, then fell silent for a moment.

As He Xiaowei turned around to ask what he meant, he saw a deep blue little dragon standing on Zhou Qian’s shoulder, whispering something to him. After a while, Zhou Qian looked up at He Xiaowei and said, “Paper, rock, scissors, scissors, paper, rock. For the first six rounds of rock-paper-scissors, follow this sequence.”

He Xiaowei’s eyes lit up. He rubbed his hands together and asked in a low voice, “So, what does this mean? Will I win or lose with this?”

“The final outcome, as I said before, is up to you. But start with these six rounds to buy some time,” Zhou Qian said.

“Just… to buy time?” He Xiaowei frowned.

“Yes. I just need a little time to figure out what’s going on with this game,” Zhou Qian explained. “We still don’t know how many rounds this game will have. No matter who wins or loses at the beginning, eventually there will likely be a need for the players to run around in circles. Just buy some time and leave the rest to me.”

Although He Xiaowei sometimes liked to verbally spar with Zhou Qian after getting to know him, it was all in jest during inconsequential moments.

At this point, he had come to trust Zhou Qian completely in every respect. He immediately memorized the sequence Zhou Qian told him, and as the village chief began to hurry them, he moved towards the final showdown arena.

The other three winning NPCs consisted of two men and a woman. With He Xiaowei joining, it became a rock-paper-scissors game with three men and one woman.

He Xiaowei followed Zhou Qian’s advice for six rounds, and indeed, in these six rounds, rock, paper, scissors all appeared simultaneously.

In the blink of an eye, the seventh round started.

He Xiaowei wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but he felt the gazes from the two men and the woman on him were somewhat abnormal.

He swallowed another gulp of saliva and looked back. The sun had set a bit more, and amidst the bustling crowd, he couldn’t spot Zhou Qian at that moment. He had no choice but to follow Zhou Qian’s advice—just play it by ear, win or lose, and leave it to fate.

In the seventh round, He Xiaowei and a muscular man both threw scissors, while the other slim young man and the only woman both threw paper. Thus, in the eighth round, it came down to a duel between He Xiaowei and the muscular man.

Before throwing, He Xiaowei swallowed his saliva for the third time, his hands shaking with nervousness, until he remembered Zhou Qian’s confident, glowing eyes in the sunset right before joining the final match. This helped calm his nerves somewhat, and he threw his hand simultaneously with the muscular man—

Meanwhile, Zhou Qian went to look for other clues while He Xiaowei was buying time.

The reason Zhou Qian could instruct He Xiaowei to throw accurately and buy time was, of course, thanks to the little dragon.

The little dragon’s gaze, memory, and agility were all quite impressive.

Earlier, during the initial rounds of rock-paper-scissors, Zhou Qian had the little dragon roam around to memorize. It actually managed to remember the throwing habits of the three winners.

Zhou Qian could then predict their next moves and direct He Xiaowei accordingly. His goal was indeed just to create ties and buy time, not necessarily to make He Xiaowei lose or win.

Thus, it wouldn’t matter if those people suddenly changed their habits midway. Because when throwing, the first two choices among rock, paper, scissors are usually fixed. So, the time bought by these two ties was almost enough for Zhou Qian to make use of.

After instructing He Xiaowei, Zhou Qian patted the little dragon’s head and said with a smile, “My little dragon is really impressive. Is it because your dad is just that great, right?”

After saying this, Zhou Qian turned back to meet Bai Zhou’s gaze not far behind.

“I was praising the little dragon. You’re the big dragon.”

With this tease, Zhou Qian noticed the movements of the innkeeper, Tartar, and made a silencing gesture to Bai Zhou with his index finger, then turned around to walk towards her.

Not long ago, at the start of the in-group rock-paper-scissors competition, Zhou Qian had been keeping an eye on Tartar’s movements. He noticed Tartar speaking to three villagers who weren’t participating in the game, seemingly instructing them on something before they headed towards the inn.

Zhou Qian approached Tartar because those three people had returned from the direction of the inn.

Each of the three people was pulling a wooden cart with wheels, bringing three different things.

The first person brought a cart full of Jack-o’-lanterns. The second was hauling a cart with peculiar costumes and monster masks. The third brought over a large pot of meat. His cart not only had a pot of meat but also many large iron bowls that wouldn’t break easily.

When Zhou Qian and the others first arrived for the game, they had seen seven large iron pots for stewing meat at the entrance of the inn. It was presumed that the meat came from those pots. But… who was it for?

Recalling his journey from the Tartar Inn to the square, in addition to noticing the head statue facing west turning blue and the glass on the second floor of the inn also shimmering blue, Zhou Qian remembered another detail—all the households in the village had dogs, all of which were pure white.

When Zhou Qian had a guess in his mind, he happened to see Tartar taking down large iron bowls from the third cart, neatly arranging them at the edge of the square, then using a large iron spoon to ladle the meat into the bowls, one by one.

Walking a few more steps forward, Zhou Qian made his way through the crowd to stand before innkeeper Tartar.

With a smile, Zhou Qian asked, “Beautiful innkeeper, may I ask you something?”

Tartar, seemingly pleased to be called “beautiful”, scooped some meat into a bowl in front of her and asked Zhou Qian, “What is it?”

“Who is this meat for?” Zhou Qian inquired.

Tartar smiled without speaking. Zhou Qian then asked, “The villagers are very kind to dogs. Is this for them?”

Tartar gave Zhou Qian a meaningful look before finally saying, “The villagers believe that animals are spirits that can lead humans into other worlds. The purer the animal’s fur color, the stronger its spiritual power, allowing it to communicate with beings from other worlds.”

Zhou Qian asked, “You’ve taken great care of the white dogs, specially stewing meat for them tonight, so they can communicate with beings from other worlds and thus protect you? So, they are important.”

Tartar said, “Dogs, Jack-o’-lanterns, and these costumes are all very important. Dogs can help us identify beings from other worlds through communication, warning us in advance if there is danger. The jack-o’-lanterns and peculiar costumes can make us appear as beings from other worlds, serving a certain deterrent effect. I’ve already prepared some in your rooms. Now take them, and you won’t have to be afraid on your way back to the inn later.”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian’s gaze shifted from Tartar back to the people in the four circles on the square.

If at first he hadn’t noticed anything, now he was increasingly feeling a sense of foreboding.

When he first arrived, everyone was sitting, including men, women, the elderly, and the young, and nothing seemed amiss at a glance. But since the start of the rock-paper-scissors, for the game to proceed smoothly, these people had started to stand up and move around.

From this, Zhou Qian realized one thing—their speed of movement was very fast.

Even the seemingly frail young boys and girls, or the elderly with white hair, moved quickly through the crowds to watch others’ matches. Taking advantage of this time, Zhou Qian discovered that not only were their movements exceptionally swift, but they were also very agile.

Zhou Qian took special note of an old man, so old his back was hunched, who, to get a better view of a neighboring circle’s final match, did a somersault, jumping over three to five people. His movements weren’t clumsy at all; like a gust of wind, he had moved a distance in an instant.

The same was true for the three NPCs currently competing in rock-paper-scissors with He Xiaowei.

When Zhou Qian looked over, coinciding with the defeat of the man and woman, leaving He Xiaowei and a muscular man for the final. The man and woman each returned to the eastern and western sides of the crowd, with the man disappearing in a blink, running back at great speed. As for the woman, she jumped and immediately returned to the west side.

Before noticing this anomaly, just like the unresolved debate between He Xiaowei and the two girls, no one knew whether it was better to lose or win the handkerchief game. Zhou Qian also didn’t know.

But after observing these traits of the NPCs participating in the game, Zhou Qian could undoubtedly make an inference—these people want to win the game.

Therefore, it was highly possible that the “vigil” the losers of the game would face was extremely perilous.

In the center of the nearby square, the final showdown between He Xiaowei and the muscular man was about to unfold.

At this moment, the chaotic crowd returned to their original positions, forming four circles again.

Everyone looked towards the final round with curiosity, excitement, and nervousness, yet their gazes also carried a hint of peculiarity and eeriness.

As the final round was about to start, Zhou Qian didn’t immediately return to his seat.

The reason was that he had noticed something unusual—through the brief movement when those people stood up, Zhou Qian discovered that their clothing had distinctive features.

On the east side, the hem of the men’s shirts and the corner of the women’s skirts were all adorned with a sun.

On the west side, the same parts of the clothing bore stars. The south side had moons, and the north side had clouds.

The groups associated with the sun, stars, and moon each consisted of sixteen people, enough to form a complete circle for the handkerchief game. But the cloud group only had eight people, and it was only with the addition of eight players, or rather, “refugees” from the Land of Silence, that they could make up a circle of sixteen.

Seizing the last moments, Zhou Qian asked Tartar, “Are people from different circles from different families?”

“Yes. The Day Family, Moon Family, Star Family, Cloud Family. These are the four major families in the village,” Tartar responded with a smile, looking at Zhou Qian. “Everyone from each family wishes to win the game to bring glory to their family.”

After saying this, Tartar continued to ladle meat soup, saying nothing more. At this time, Zhou Qian heard the village chief declare, “Alright, let’s congratulate Awei for winning!”

Awei referred to the muscular man.

In the final round, He Xiaowei threw scissors, and the muscular man threw rock.

Moments later, under the village chief’s guidance, everyone returned to their places and sat down. The muscular man named Awei received a snow-white handkerchief from the village chief and then began to walk slowly around the crowd, starting with someone on the east side.

He was from the southern circle, so this time he was circling the southern circle.

“Now, the person throwing the handkerchief is a burly man. Who will he give the handkerchief to? Oh, the anticipation…”

The NPCs began clapping and singing a song. During this time, Awei slowly moved from the south to the north. The northern circle was where the eight members of the Cloud family and the eight players were located.

He Xiaowei, noticing the man’s actions, felt his heart beat like a drum, whispering to Zhou Qian beside him, “Qian’er, I feel like he’s coming for me!”

“Yes, I think so too. Under normal circumstances, you won’t be able to outrun him. These NPCs move strangely fast,” Zhou Qian said.

He Xiaowei: “Fuck, what do I do then? Can I just give up?”

“Losing this time doesn’t matter. The game has just begun, and there’s still a chance to change the score. Losing just means having to do the vigil, which might be very dangerous, but it doesn’t necessarily mean death,” Zhou Qian said. “What you really need to be wary of now are the bans.”

“Yeah. If this muscular man, Awei, throws the handkerchief to me, I’m bound to lose under normal circumstances. Then I have to be the next one to throw the handkerchief. Damn it… How do I know how to run when it’s my turn to throw?”

Sweat dripped down He Xiaowei’s forehead as the muscular man approached closer. He couldn’t help but ask, “What happens if we break the bans?”

“The specific consequences are unknown for now but given that we received this warning before entering the instance, it must be important,” Zhou Qian said.

“We are refugees here. Perhaps these are some restrictions imposed on us by the villagers to prevent us from causing trouble. This instance seems to have a lot to do with magic and mythical legends. Curses, prohibitions—these are common elements in such myths, so we must not take them lightly.”

“I think, after getting through the current three bans, we may encounter other bans later.”

Hearing Zhou Qian say this, He Xiaowei became anxious. “What should we do about this ban?”

Zhou Qian turned back, his gaze sweeping over the village chief in the center of the square and then Tartar, who was standing on the outskirts among the spectators.

By now, she had filled all the iron bowls with meat and soup and was watching the game with a smile.

Zhou Qian retracted his gaze and adjusted his wide sleeves, revealing a glimpse of the Rib of God to He Xiaowei. “You’re using a weapon?”

Zhou Qian nodded. “Yes. I just asked Shan Ge to help with something. He’s in spirit form now, invisible to others, but he can use the life force I shared with him to manifest physically when needed and interact with objects in the real world.”

Their voices were very low, and amidst the hustle and bustle of the crowded square, it was hard for others to overhear their conversation. However, Yun Xiangrong was particularly sensitive to the words “Shan Ge” and immediately frowned at Zhou Qian. Zhou Qian met her gaze with a raised eyebrow but didn’t say much more.

At that moment, he could see Awei approaching the northern circle, and his speed visibly increased. About 10 seconds later, he started moving at an extremely fast pace around the 16 people in the north, leaving almost just an afterimage behind. By the time most people realized what was happening, the afterimage was almost gone.

Just then, an elderly woman sitting opposite He Xiaowei shouted at him with frustration. “It’s you! Hurry up and chase! By joining our group, you represent our group’s honor! Awei is afraid of the color red. Find something red to scare him with! When he sees it, his speed will slow down!”

He Xiaowei hesitated but then immediately chased according to the game rules.

Meanwhile, all the people in the northern circle from the Cloud family began to frantically wave a piece of red cloth, hoping to scare Awei into slowing down as soon as he glanced their way, allowing He Xiaowei to catch up.

After He Xiaowei left, Bai Zhou was sitting to Zhou Qian’s left, and one seat over to the right were Qi Liuxing and Ke Yuxiao, who were discussing something in low voices. Seeing this, Zhou Qian pulled Bai Zhou over one seat to listen to their conversation.

Qi Liuxing spoke first. “Awei threw the handkerchief behind Xiaowei Ge, and Xiaowei Ge was a bit slow to react. The NPCs here immediately reminded him, and everyone helped him against Awei…”

“I think I understand the true essence of this handkerchief game. When the village chief announced the rules, mentioning the final ranking of the 64 participants, plus the preconceived notion of the handkerchief game making us think we’re each fighting alone, it seemed like that. But it’s not actually the case!”

“I think, later, if it’s Xiaowei Ge’s turn to throw the handkerchief, when he throws it into another circle, the people in that circle will also remind each other… and provide ways to catch up with him, just like the people in the northern circle are doing with the red cloth now!”

“Right, Xiao Qi. I completely agree with you.” Ke Yuxiao nodded in agreement. “Within each circle, people are cooperating with each other. So, the final win or loss is likely determined by the circle as a unit, not by individuals. It’s a team game. This means… there might be danger during the vigil. They all don’t want to do the vigil.”

Zhou Qian suddenly interjected, “Then let me test you two further. Besides these points, what else can you deduce?”

Qi Liuxing was reminded of the tense moment in “Apple Paradise” when Zhou Qian calmly questioned him while facing monsters across the lake.

As if not wanting to disappoint Zhou Qian or show that he hadn’t improved, Qi Liuxing crossed his arms and thought hard before speaking. “That old woman knew Awei’s weakness very well… It’s very likely that they have been holding this competition for many years. Also, um, and…”

“And—?” Zhou Qian’s expression became more serious. “Why are there only 8 people in the northern circle?”

“Could it be…” Qi Liuxing frowned tightly. “Maybe, for example, last year, each circle also had 16 people, and the people from the northern circle lost last year. They were assigned to do the vigil, and then… 8 people died last year, so this year they only have 8 people left.”

Zhou Qian indeed had the same guess.

The people from the four major families, competing individually in the “handkerchief” game, sent participants with special skills in speed, agility, and dexterity, hoping to win the game for their family.

No family wanted to lose because the vigil posed great risks. The Cloud Family only had 8 people with special skills left because the rest died in previous games.

Zhou Qian turned his head and squinted at the chase between He Xiaowei and Awei, saying, “However, we can also see something advantageous for us.”

“What’s that?” Qi Liuxing asked curiously.

Zhou Qian said, “This means that standing watch is a risky task, but it doesn’t necessarily lead to death. Therefore, we shouldn’t be too worried about this handkerchief game.”

“I get it now!” Qi Liuxing said. “Taking the vigil is risky, but it’s not restricted by the bans related to windows and firelight, so… in the handkerchief game, winning or losing, for now, doesn’t really matter.”

“That’s how it is for now. Let’s see how this instance plays out. We still don’t know how to clear it. Let’s see how Xiaowei Ge is doing—”

Turning his head, Zhou Qian saw that the Moon Family from the south had temporarily taken the lead.

The Cloud Family from the north had taken out something red to counter Awei. However, Awei was well-prepared and didn’t look back once while running. His speed was too fast, and despite He Xiaowei’s best efforts, drenched in sweat, he couldn’t keep up.

Therefore, the village chief announced that Awei gained two points, while He Xiaowei lost two points.

The next round of throwing the handkerchief fell to He Xiaowei.

He Xiaowei didn’t dare to move. Looking across the crowd and the pile of bone offerings in the center of the square, he looked towards Zhou Qian, waiting for his help.

With the bans against walking clockwise around Tara and counterclockwise around Brega among so many people, he really didn’t know who was who and naturally didn’t dare to run randomly.

Before Zhou Qian could answer him, he shouted out in an attempt to save himself, “Is there anyone here named Tara or Brega?!”

“Don’t say irrelevant words!” Village Chief Ab rebuked him, his tone slightly harsh. “Moreover, it’s not allowed for strangers to inquire about the ladies’ names so casually!”

With that, the village chief completely cut off He Xiaowei’s direct approach to asking names. Besides, whether or not they agreed, it seemed it wouldn’t have worked anyway—if those two people really existed in the game, he wouldn’t dare to run in any direction!

He Xiaowei instinctively looked towards Zhou Qian again. Zhou Qian nodded at him, and soon after, he received a message from Zhou Qian. “Just walk straight ahead for now. Don’t circle around. Buy some time. About half a minute should do.”

Steadying his nerves, He Xiaowei stepped carefully, ensuring he walked in a straight line. And after half a minute, he was indeed saved.

Suddenly, from the periphery of the square, there came the sound of metal falling to the ground. Looking in the direction of the noise, He Xiaowei saw a bizarre scene and quickly realized what had happened—

Two pure white dogs, chasing an extremely agile, deep blue little dragon, ran from somewhere in the village towards the center of the square.

As they passed the peripheral area, the little dragon swiftly flew over a row of iron pots, not lingering at the contents. But the two dogs that followed were different; they rushed over like hungry wolves, knocking over the pots along with the soup.

Just as the dogs bit into the meat on the ground, before they could enjoy their meal, the little dragon returned. With a flick of its tail, two bones flew hundreds of meters away towards the other end of the square. With another flick of its tail, the dragon disappeared from the spot.

The dogs, furious, barked angrily and chased ahead, either to settle the score with the little dragon or in eager pursuit of the meat bones.

People from all four families, regardless of their participation in the game, suddenly erupted in panic.

“Oh my God! The white dogs have run away!”

“Whose white dogs have escaped…”

“Let’s hurry back and check, shall we?”

At that moment, Zhou Qian smiled, pulled out a megaphone from his bag, and shouted through it, “I know whose dogs these two are. They belong to the Brega and Tara families. You two better go chase your dogs now! Otherwise, you might be in danger tonight.”

Zhou Qian’s words immediately calmed the commotion. After all, most people were thinking—just as long as it wasn’t their own dog that had escaped.

In the gaming circles on the field, indeed, one man and one woman from both the east and west sides stood up, their faces pale and panicked, and chased in the direction of the two white dogs.

Even though the village chief looked displeased, he said, “Getting the white dogs back is more important. The rest of you, continue with the game!”

Brega and Tara had run off! The two bans could now be avoided!

He Xiaowei immediately rejoiced and glanced at Zhou Qian. The setting sun cast a red glow on Zhou Qian’s face.

Noticing He Xiaowei’s gaze, he raised his head and smiled distantly at him.

He Xiaowei gave a thumbs up and shouted, “Qian’er, you’re really so cool!”

Hearing this, Zhou Qian’s smile brightened even more. However, soon he could no longer see He Xiaowei, and vice versa—Bai Zhou’s body subtly moved to stand between them.

Zhou Qian narrowed his eyes slightly, tilting his head before continuing to look at Bai Zhou with a smile, “Zhou Ge, are you jealous?”

Bai Zhou smiled, reached out to tousle his hair, and simply said, “The sun shining on you looks particularly beautiful.”

As he said this, the sunset cast Bai Zhou’s eyes a deep red. Zhou Qian, hearing this and looking into his eyes, felt his heart skip a beat.

……

He Xiaowei casually threw the handkerchief onto someone nearby and was about to run when the little dragon, likely due to Zhou Qian’s previous instruction, suddenly appeared in front of him and quickly carried him back to the original northern circle. With this move, He Xiaowei won a round and quickly squeezed next to Zhou Qian to sit down.

“Oh, Qian’er, really, thank you. What would I do without you—” He Xiaowei couldn’t help but say. “By the way, what’s with the salt? Can you tell me?”

Zhou Qian didn’t answer.

He Xiaowei turned his head and saw him staring blankly at Bai Zhou.

“Um, Qian’er? Salt? Sodium chloride?” He Xiaowei tapped his shoulder.

After a moment, Zhou Qian turned his head to look at him and said in a somewhat unkind tone, “Simple. It’s an optics problem.”

He Xiaowei, clearly not good at reading the room, continued to ask, “Optics? Physics, huh?”

Zhou Qian quickly and coldly explained, “Yes, optics. The glass on the second floor of the inn is blue. Sodium ions burn to produce a yellow flame. Transparent objects only allow light of the same color as themselves to pass through. So, if you add a lot of salt to the fireplace, it will produce yellow light, which cannot pass through the blue glass.”

“’You must not spend the night in a house where the firelight can still be seen from outside after sunset’—this ban is thus easily resolved.”

“Oh, so that means—”

“Stop talking for now.”

“Eh?”

“Go find your master!”

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The author has something to say:

Study your physics and chemistry well~

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