Chapter 218
Chapter 218
Everyone turned to see an extraordinarily horrifying, absurd sight.
Fang Jing’s once curvaceous body visibly shriveled. Tiny shoots emerged from her blood vessels and skin, swaying in the wind.
Miao Jie covered her mouth and pulled Chang Qing backward. Qin Musong’s expression turned cold. Taking a broom from nearby, he prodded Fang Jing’s body.
Only some shriveled flesh and a skeleton remained. The sight of grass shoots growing from a corpse’s pores was especially unsettling.
“Is this a tree deity or a tree spirit?” Song Guoqiang, who had been helped outside by Wang Yang, was badly frightened. He muttered the question, but nobody answered.
Exactly. This didn’t look like the work of a proper deity.
Everyone stared at the pile of remains, lost in thought.
By the time Cheng Miao and the others who had gone out returned, Fang Jing had become a dense clump of grass.
If not for a few pieces of clothing, they wouldn’t have recognized that it had once been a person.
After hearing Lin Zhu and the others explain what had happened, Cheng Miao wasted no time. She took people with her to fetch the Village Head.
He was bewildered at first, but his expression changed when he saw the human-shaped mound of grass on the ground.
“This… what happened?”
His alarm didn’t seem feigned. Cheng Miao spoke in a steady voice. “This was one of our companions. Her mental state had been strange these past two days. Today, she ended up like this.”
She didn’t mention the conflict between them. The Village Head stamped his foot. “Did she disrespect the Tree Deity?”
Cheng Miao chose her words. “She… didn’t really want that grass bracelet. She wanted to throw it away.”
He slapped his thigh. “Then that explains it.”
The Village Head considered them companions. Now that something like this had happened, the village bore some responsibility, whatever the circumstances.
Although none of them looked grief-stricken, he still lowered his voice. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
Licking his dry, cracked lips, he added, “You may not understand the deities of the mountains. This isn’t an orthodox deity. They all have tempers.”
“So there are taboos, and they do get angry. Things like this have happened in the village before.”
Declining the stool Qin Musong brought him, the Village Head crouched on the ground and recalled, “There was a young man who came back after working away from home. His parents believed deeply in the Tree Deity, but he thought it was a scam.”
“Young men have hot tempers. He denounced the Tree Deity at the entrance to the shrine. The next day, he became a clump of grass.”
Looking at their grim faces, the Village Head added obliquely, “Mountain deities reward and punish. That’s how they gain followers.”
Cheng Miao looked at him in surprise. After several encounters, he seemed like someone who had received some education.
He believed in the Tree Deity, but also knew it differed from an orthodox deity.
“Now someone’s died, you should go home soon. What research matters more than your lives?” He stood, patting his clothes, and addressed everyone.
The players felt bitter. They wanted to leave too, but leaving would prevent them from completing the instance task.
“She brought it on herself. We won’t do that.” Chang Qing was now a perfect example of the effects of combining kindness with intimidation.
First, his improved health had convinced him the Tree Deity had manifested. Then Fang Jing’s horrible fate had frightened him, bringing his faith in the deity to a new level.
Whoever else left, he had no intention of going now.
Cheng Miao glanced at him, then turned and nodded to the Village Head. “Village Head, this research is important. We can’t leave yet. We’ll be careful and won’t cause you any trouble.”
He rubbed his hands. “It’s not trouble we’re worried about. It’s just… someone’s died. Here in our little village, a death is no big issue. But you’re from the big city. That’s a serious matter.”
Ma Yang glanced at Zhu Cong’s expression and added, “Before coming, we all knew accidents were possible. We signed liability waivers.”
“Oh… oh.” The Village Head didn’t know what a liability waiver was, but he understood roughly that the village wouldn’t face a lawsuit.
Then they could do as they wished. He couldn’t exactly drive them out.
After warning them repeatedly, he shook his head and left.
Cheng Miao glanced at the darkening sky and reminded everyone, “You’ll probably dream again tonight. Try hard to remember.”
Those who had received grass bracelets nodded. Zu Gehan didn’t care. His little robot had already finished cooking and was bringing the food out.
Without looking at Fang Jing’s remains, he sat down to eat.
Everyone hastily ate. The others took out dry rations given to them by villagers and ate enough to get by. Once darkness fell, they all returned to their rooms.
Lying in bed, Cheng Miao counted. This was their fourth day in the instance, and only two people had died.
One had brought it on herself.
The other…
Had brought it on himself too.
So far, the instance’s only show of its vicious side was Fang Jing’s gruesome state after death. But her circumstances were too unusual. Nobody else would be as brainless as she was.
They still couldn’t be sure how the instance would unfold.
Taken together, though, the clues suggested it might make the players ill.
That was a serious problem. It would effectively weaken the players’ fighting strength. The longer things dragged on, the harder it would be to get out.
The best solution was to find the source of the Tree Deity and destroy it in one stroke.
Or answer the questions.
Neither was very realistic at the moment. One impulsive move could leave them like Fang Jing.
Cheng Miao fell asleep amid her tangled thoughts.
She seemed to have dreamed. She had no memory of it, but woke feeling exhausted.
It took her only a few seconds to become fully alert. Calmly, she felt her wrist.
Sure enough, a prickly, brittle grass bracelet had inexplicably appeared on her hand.
She immediately turned to look at Qi Jiajia and Qiudong. Propping his head on one hand, Qiudong watched at ease as Cheng Miao lifted his other hand and inspected it closely.
Seeing that both he and Qi Jiajia had received grass bracelets, Cheng Miao exhaled.
Her deduction was right.
There was another, more troublesome issue. Lin Zhu and Qin Musong were sicker.
Lin Zhu’s face was a little pale, and his head felt muddled and dizzy.
Qin Musong wasn’t as bad, but his coughing was much more frequent than in previous days.
She had no discomfort for the moment. Qiudong was completely unchanged from usual.
She looked at Qi Jiajia, whose face was a little flushed.
Testing her temperature by touch, she found it higher than normal, though not high enough to count as a fever.
Her heart sank. She went out for a basin of cool water and wiped Qi Jiajia’s face.
After she’d been busy for some time, the others got up too.
Nobody spoke. Everyone who hadn’t received a grass bracelet before had received one last night.
This proved that Cheng Miao’s idea was right. It also proved they were about to follow in the first group’s footsteps.
“Well? Does anyone remember what they dreamed last night?” Cheng Miao looked at everyone hopefully, only to receive an answer that chilled her.
They all said they hadn’t dreamed yesterday.
Zu Gehan drank some well water, his throat moving. When Cheng Miao looked at him, he nodded. “I really didn’t dream.”
She turned to Mini Lin. “Did anything come into our room last night?”
Mini Lin shook his head firmly.
No!
He had kept watch all night, and there had been nothing!