Chapter 304 [(*^▽^*)]

The fire here has been extinguished, so there's no point in them staying any longer. Gradually, many villagers dispersed, went home, and went to sleep.

Lin Leyou and Xue Rui stayed behind, standing there just like the other couple who hadn't left.

"Masters, are you coming back with us?"

Lin Leyou said, "Wait a minute, I have some questions to ask them. You guys go back first, we'll go back later."

They exchanged a glance, unable to refute the two, and finally nodded, "Well... we'll go back first. You can come back anytime. We'll leave the small door on the side of the first floor open for you. Remember to lock it when you come back."

Lin Leyou: "Okay, no problem, thank you for your help."

Their attitude is really good now, completely different from before. The couple was a little surprised, but they left quickly, after all, old habits die hard.

After everyone had left, Lin Leyou and Xue Rui slowly walked to the vicinity of the burned-down house. This action naturally attracted the attention of the guards who remained there.

"Masters, is there a problem?"

Lin Leyou smiled and said, "It's nothing serious, I just wanted to ask how your fire started?"

They generally assumed that the five people who had escaped earlier had returned to secretly set the fire in revenge, but how could they tell Lin Leyou and the others about this?

"It's possible that someone accidentally threw a smoldering cigarette butt into the haystack, which caused it to catch fire. Or it could be that something spontaneously combusted because of the hot weather..."

Lin Leyou and Xue Rui felt the coolness of the night and couldn't understand what kind of fire could spontaneously combust at a temperature not exceeding 25 degrees Celsius.

But there's no point in saying all this now, Lin Leyou continued, "We want to stay and help."

He looked at the charred ruins and sighed, "It must take you a long time to clear such a large area. Let us help."

They quickly stopped the two, saying, "Hey! No need, no need, we can do it ourselves. How can we trouble you two masters? You have your own things to do, you don't need to waste your time on such a small matter."

Lin Leyou blinked. "But... even if we don't help, other villagers will come to help during the day. Anyway, it has to be dealt with. We don't have anything to do right now, so we can stay and do some small things."

Just kidding, how could we let these two truly skilled masters help us here? What if they discover an underground altar?

There are still eleven masters trapped below. If they are seen, won't they go crazy?

These people tried their best to stop Lin Leyou and his companion, saying, "It's already very late. If you two really want to help, you should come during the day. You can see things more clearly during the day."

"Yes, Master, it's easy to get injured here at night."

They all chimed in, saying that it was inconvenient to do this or that at night, so Lin Leyou and his companion didn't insist any further. "In that case, let's go back first and come back during the day."

It's certainly good that they think that way.

After seeing the two large Buddha statues off, they finally breathed a sigh of relief and gathered together to discuss the matter.

"What about the people below? Moving them to a different location would be too troublesome, and they would be easily discovered. There are quite a few of them, and the altar definitely cannot be moved."

“Of course I know that, the question is where are these people hiding? Are they going to stay hidden down there? That entrance will be seen! What if they find a staircase leading down when it's opened…”

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

"There's only one way left. We'll clean up the entire entrance area at night and pile some miscellaneous items on top of it. That way, even if a lot of people come to help us later, they won't have to clean up a place that's already been cleaned."

"After that, we'll find another opportunity to finish the ritual. Once everything is successful, we'll destroy that place and rebuild the house. What do you think?"

"Hmm... I think we should go ask them first."

Everyone remained silent for a long time.

"But Dad's asleep now, is it really okay for us to go see him? Besides, he's staying at someone else's house right now, so there are a lot of things we can't say directly, right?"

"Then tell me, what should we do? Are we going to make our own decisions now?"

"Let's pack up first and talk to him tomorrow. We can't afford to hesitate now. There's no time to lose. We've been fighting the fire for several hours already. If we keep dawdling, it'll be dawn soon!"

"That makes sense, let's get started then."

So, under the cover of night, these people cleaned up the area around the entrance, and even piled some things on the clean ground, making it look neat and tidy.

No one would have imagined that there was another entrance below, leading to an underground sacrificial site.

As they all breathed a sigh of relief, they suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, how long do you think the masters down there can hold on? Especially the one who's seriously injured..."

"Holy crap! If they die down there, wouldn't that be incredibly unlucky? It could really disrupt the sacrificial ceremony! Dad'll be furious!"

"Should we move these things away now and send someone down to check on them? Ideally, we should apply some medicine and give these people something to eat, so they don't all starve to death..."

"It's so troublesome. The time was already calculated, so there was no need to feed or give them water. We just needed to perform the sacrifice at the set time, and everything would be much more convenient."

"But there's nothing we can do about it, it's already happened."

"Don't let me catch them, or they won't even be qualified to perform the sacrifice. I'll just burn them alive. Don't they like using fire? They should like dying like this too."

They grumbled and vented their dissatisfaction, but still dutifully moved the things that had been placed there earlier. After opening it, only two people got off, while the rest remained on top, looking around.

It's different from before. Now the house is all burned down, and the surrounding area is full of charred wooden ruins. If anyone is nearby, they can easily see what's going on here.

Fortunately, the villagers were exhausted from fighting the fire for several hours, and they went home and fell asleep immediately, so they didn't have time to come here.

After the two went down, they saw eleven people bound and kneeling before the altar. The one who was seriously injured was indeed about to die, and the remaining ten were also in bad condition because too much time had passed.

"Ugh, what bad luck! If it weren't for this fire, the sacrificial ceremony would have been completed already, and we..."

"Alright, what's the use of complaining now? Let's hurry up and finish this so we can leave. The sacrificial ceremony can only wait until tomorrow night."

They gave these masters a simple treatment, just enough to ensure they could live for another day; they didn't care about anything more, since they were all going to die anyway.

There are still some mechanical spiders here. In fact, earlier, some of the mechanical spiders went over and helped cut the ropes binding several players.

The reason these players are unconscious is probably known: they were poisoned, and the poison... is the candle that was burning in this underground space.

As for why the village chief's family members didn't faint, they all carried the antidote, so naturally they wouldn't faint. When the two of them came down, they were probably too tired, so they didn't notice that the candles that were originally lit had now gone out.

They were busy doing their own thing and chatting, completely unaware that two players behind them were slowly opening their eyes.

The opportunity is right in front of them. If these players still can't seize it, then they can only blame themselves for being too useless!

Lin Leyou and Xue Rui could simultaneously see the images the mechanical spiders were seeing, and gradually it wasn't just two, but a third, a fourth, or even a fifth...

The first thing they did upon waking was not to move around, but to exchange glances, and then to use the items to restore their mobility.

They then discovered that their bodies appeared to have been cut off, but the cuts were so well hidden that neither of the two NPCs noticed.

In that case, don't blame them for being impolite.

The players behind the NPC quietly untied the ropes binding them, then slowly stood up, rubbed their wrists and arms, and loosened their muscles.

When it was almost time, he went behind them and slapped the two NPCs hard on the neck.

They collapsed to the ground without uttering a sound, and were completely still; of course, they weren't dead.

"I wonder if killing him will earn me points."

"Let's give it a try. They're just two small fry anyway. It doesn't matter if they die. Besides, we've already broken ties with the village chief."

"That's right, let's try killing him then."

As it turned out, killing two NPCs did indeed reward points, though each only awarded 50 points, which wasn't much, but better than nothing.

"Hey, there's another one over there who's seriously injured. Looks like he's about to die. Shall we send him on his way?"

"Great, I can earn 200 points too."

"Then...who will do it?"

Everyone looked at each other, and finally decided to play the simplest game of rock-paper-scissors. After all, there must be NPCs guarding the place. If they started fighting down there, wouldn't that be a waste of internal resources?

The player who ultimately won reaped the 200 points, but fortunately, the other players didn't really care much about those 200 points.

They now need to quickly find the quest items, get a general idea of ​​the truth, and finally escape Yaoshan Village.

In this way, you can get several thousand points by clearing the level, which is much better than these 200 points, right?

"As for quest items, shall we loot this place?"

Everyone had the same idea, but the village chief just sent people here to move things. All the really useful things have been moved away and put in the dilapidated old house at the back.

"There's nothing here. There aren't any quest items?"

"Really?"

"Hey, do you guys think this altar counts as a quest item?"