Chapter 86

Chapter 86

A chill rose within Cheng Miao and the others. They had thought the villagers’ murder of innocent young women for profit was already the limit of their depravity. Once the dead returned for revenge, surely they should have felt regret and remorse.

Instead, they had learned nothing. Everyone in the village continued down the same wicked path. If it meant saving their own lives, they would feed even more victims into it.

Zhang Qiao’s final muttering had been right. The village was rotten to its roots. It could not be saved.

Lin Zhu and Su Shuang talked over one another as they shared their earlier clues with Qin Wen and Qin Wu. Qin Wen smacked his lips, thought for a long time, and finally responded with a single vicious curse.

Lian Ge returned sometime after four. She did not mention her lantern and looked nothing like the wounded Qin brothers or Su Shuang. She entered at an unhurried pace, as though returning from a leisurely trip to the market.

After hearing everyone’s clues, Lian Ge merely nodded, her expression unchanged.

The Village Head arrived soon after, looking displeased. He glared viciously at Qin Wen, who stared earnestly at the sky as though he saw nothing.

The Village Head turned to glare at Lian Ge, only to meet eyes both alluring and icy. He shuddered and looked away.

“Watch yourselves. Whatever else may be true, you’re guests of this village. You should show your hosts some courtesy.” His face was livid. Cheng Miao immediately understood how Qin Wen had obtained his information. He had probably used force on a villager.

As for Lian Ge…

Cheng Miao had little interest in what clues she had extracted. Lian Ge was a veteran player. If she said nothing, her information probably overlapped with what they already knew.

What Cheng Miao really wondered was whether the villager Lian Ge questioned was still alive.

No one answered the Village Head. The corner of his dry eye twitched. Before he could continue, Cheng Miao frowned impatiently. “Are we truly guests? Your villagers don’t seem to agree.”

The Village Head’s heart lurched. He could not tell how much those villagers had revealed. With the ceremony so close, nothing could be allowed to go wrong.

He forced his shameless old face into a perfunctory apology. Cheng Miao’s group also had no desire to openly turn against him yet. They did not want to defend themselves from villagers as well as ghosts.

The group returned to the old house beneath a pall of tension. As the players ate inside, the Village Head warned ominously before leaving that all three rooms must remain occupied.

Watching his hunched back, Cheng Miao thought he had stopped pretending entirely and was now issuing direct demands.

Only eight players remained, so they had to rearrange themselves among three rooms.

Qin Wen, Qin Wu, and Su Shuang took one. Cheng Miao ordered Qi Jiajia, Qin Musong, and Lin Zhu into the final room. All three objected.

“If anyone should stay alone, it should be me. I have the greatest combat power.” Qin Musong looked down at Cheng Miao, his disapproval plain.

“I’m planning to go out tonight.” Her statement shocked everyone into staring.

Cheng Miao rubbed her brow. She possessed the Friend of Ghosts buff. The village was too busy during the day, but if she went out at night, she might discover something.

The three fell silent. Cheng Miao was worried that opening the door might place them in danger.

She turned to Lian Ge, who looked beautiful even leaning sideways against a wall. “I’m going out tonight, so I’ll definitely open the door. You’d better choose another room.”

Lian Ge’s lovely eyes rested steadily on Cheng Miao. Then she broke into a radiant smile. “Interesting. I’ll share your room.”

Lian Ge’s smile dazzled Cheng Miao into a momentary stupor. When she recovered, everyone else was staring too, while the beauty responsible had already put away her smile and begun daydreaming with her chin in one hand.
That night, Cheng Miao watched the time and switched off the light. Rustling came from outside. Someone had arrived to light the lanterns.

Once she estimated that they had finished with all three rooms and left, Cheng Miao looked toward Lian Ge, who was also waiting beside the door.

This was no joke. Li Fei had died horribly after opening the door at night.

Cheng Miao had refused the handgun Qin Musong offered her. She was not accustomed to firearms and might shoot herself before hitting a ghost.

Instead, she tightened her grip on the Fishbone Dagger. After its upgrade, it now had a true blade. It could cut through iron like mud and looked far more elegant.

In the pitch-black room, the dagger radiated faint white light and cold. Its handle had changed too, no longer wrapped carelessly in hemp rope.

The comfortable black material was impossible to identify. It seemed to adhere to her palm, making the dagger difficult to lose.

Cheng Miao gripped it and nodded to Lian Ge beside the door. An oil-paper umbrella appeared in Lian Ge’s hand in an instant.

Cheng Miao could not see clearly in the dark, but she was certain the Item was nowhere near as harmless as it looked.

She gently lifted the bar, then pushed the door open without making a sound.

Zhangjia Village lay outside, as silent as a cemetery. Not a single household had a lantern or even a trace of light.

Only the old house where the players stayed blazed with three bright red lanterns.

Lian Ge stepped outside lightly. She made no effort to sneak and strolled as leisurely as though crossing her own courtyard.

She opened the oil-paper umbrella, which was painted with a misty Jiangnan landscape. One gentle sweep extinguished all three lanterns.

Cheng Miao noticed that tonight, all three had become human-skin lanterns identical to the one Zhang Qiao had given her.

She stored them in her Space Backpack. She tried to signal Lian Ge to take one, but Lian Ge stood gracefully stroking the umbrella handle, her gaze as tender as if she were looking at a lover, and ignored Cheng Miao completely.

Forget it. Cheng Miao felt a little defeated. They could not light lanterns at night anyway. She would give Lian Ge one in the morning.

As the two studied Zhangjia Village at night, Cheng Miao suddenly felt a chill press against her back. Lian Ge’s pale hand twitched beside her, and Cheng Miao hurriedly caught it.

Under Lian Ge’s baffled gaze, Cheng Miao clenched her free hand until her nails bit into her palm. The pain kept her calm.

She was not as frightened as before, but she was still afraid.

Searching for ghosts in the middle of the night, Cheng Miao silently wept for herself.

“Miss, I know you’ve been wronged. We’re here to help you.” The moment Cheng Miao spoke, Lian Ge’s elegant brows drew together. A hand, bonelessly soft and unnaturally cold, settled on Cheng Miao’s shoulder.

It was extraordinarily slender, as though it possessed no flesh, only a skeleton. Its fingers clamped tightly around her shoulder.

Cheng Miao gripped the Fishbone Dagger in her right hand and told herself to wait.

She counted the seconds. One, two, three…

At fifteen, the hand vanished. A cold breeze brushed past, as though someone were guiding Cheng Miao elsewhere.

She knew her Friend of Ghosts buff had activated. The sensation was strange. Something about her seemed different, yet she could not describe exactly what.

After preparing herself, Cheng Miao turned at Lian Ge’s casual signal.

A row of blood-soaked women with indistinct faces stood behind her, each resting a hand on the shoulder of the woman ahead.

Long hair covered the first woman’s face, and blood continued dripping steadily onto the ground.

Only white bones remained of her hands, wrapped in scraps of tendon. Those skeletal fingers carried a bright red lantern.