Chapter 517 [(*^▽^*)]

The villager NPC spoke in a very calm tone, as if he were talking about something trivial. Good heavens... it turns out that everyone in this village is a heartless scoundrel!

Guo Xia then asked, "Do you know how many stone coffins there are so far?"

"I know that. I saw it when I went to the mountain god temple before. After all, if nothing unexpected happens, I will be the next village chief, so I should know some of these things."

"Phew... I was quite surprised when I saw so many stone coffins. I counted them, and including Fu Qingqiu's, there were exactly eighty-eight stone coffins."

Eighty-eight stone coffins, one every ten years, that's eight hundred and eighty years. This year marks the eight hundred and eightyth anniversary of the founding of Haitang Village!

What does this time have to do with Fu Qingqiu turning into a vengeful ghost?

"So, no one in the entire village helped Fu Qingqiu? Not even one person?"

The other party seemed a little guilty about the question. "When the time comes, someone has to be chosen from the village. If we help him, who knows if it will be our turn? So even if everyone disagrees, they won't help."

After all, this way he can protect himself. Although even if someone else changes, it might not be his turn. But who can say for sure?

In the past, if no one was willing, then it was all done by drawing lots. If you were drawn, even the village chief himself would become a sacrifice, no questions asked!

"So do you think that if Fu Qingqiu returns as a vengeful ghost, he will really kill everyone? Is there anything he still cherishes in the village? Or perhaps people, or perhaps the place itself?"

He remained silent for a long time. "Well... I don't know either. Fu Qingqiu is a member of the Fu family after all. You can go and ask them."

"By the way, speaking of which, what exactly is going on with the Fu family... They seem to be alright so far, does Fu Qingqiu still have any family ties?"

The players huddled together and discussed, "Family ties... I think Fu Qingqiu, now a vengeful ghost, would never care about family ties. He probably plans to save them for last for fun."

"There's one more thing..."

The players all looked at the village chief's son again, who was startled and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's about the mountain god temple. In the past, when people were ignorant, there was a reason to hold such sacrifices, but now... everyone has received modern education, so why do they still believe in these supernatural things? Don't they know that murder is illegal?"

To everyone's surprise, without even thinking, he blurted out, "We didn't kill anyone!"

The players were stunned by his self-righteous demeanor, and even Zhou Nanyue, who had been pretending to be invisible in the corner, was taken aback.

He's a bad guy, but murder is murder. He won't deny that he killed someone, but what about these villagers? Just because they didn't kill him doesn't mean it's not murder, right?

"What...what do you mean by that?"

The other party still spoke with self-righteousness, "We only offered him to the evil... mountain god. It was the mountain god who took him away. What does it have to do with us?"

"Yeah, yeah! We didn't kill them, so why should he seek revenge? Why is he treating us like this? It's outrageous... If you want to find someone, go find the mountain god. What power do we have..."

He became somewhat incoherent at this point, but everyone noticed that he had just used the word "evil," followed by "mountain god." Putting these together, it seemed to be... an evil god?

The so-called mountain god is not a mountain god but an evil god, and all the villagers seem to know that they are worshipping an evil god... because they know that, they chose to sacrifice living people!

Good heavens, it's amazing that such a village has survived until now without anyone rebelling, or perhaps all those who rebelled are dead...

Guo Xia's gaze swept over the villagers twice. To be honest, such things had happened even in some isolated mountain villages in the real world. He had heard his colleagues talk about it before.

But I never expected to encounter something similar in the dungeon... no, it was exactly the same thing, except that the villagers who were sacrificed in the dungeon turned into vengeful ghosts and came back for revenge.

Do you really think you're not wrong?

He was agitated, "What did I do wrong? Why should I be wrong!"

"Since you think it's right, why don't you go yourself?"

He wanted to say something more, but after hearing Guo Xia's question, all the words he was about to say got stuck in his throat, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't say them.

Yes, so what if he has objections? Guo Xia's short sentence left him speechless. If he thinks there's nothing wrong with doing this, then why shouldn't he go?

Zhou Nanyue glanced at Guo Xia with some surprise. She didn't expect that even in an A-level difficulty dungeon, there would still be such a pushover. But... there's no shortage of good people everywhere, as long as they don't interfere with the mission.

"I...I..." He stammered, unsure of what to say, and finally just shut up.

At this point, another player asked, "Do you have any ideas on how to deal with him? That Fu Qingqiu."

He shook his head. "I don't know, we've never encountered anything like this before."

"Tell us more about Fu Qingqiu. There must be something I haven't told you yet, right?"

"Didn't I already say? I don't know any more details, you should ask the Fu family yourselves!"

Guo Xia said calmly, "In that case, let's go and take a look at the Fu family."

For players, the best thing is to obtain as much information as possible in the shortest amount of time. The life or death of this family is not really that important. After all, to complete the side quest, one must have a certain grasp of the main quest. Given the current situation, their first priority is to find more information about Fu Qingqiu.

The other players naturally agreed with this, and even Zhou Nanyue got up to leave with everyone. At this time, the village chief's family members who were still awake came over to stop them.

"Oh dear, why are you leaving already? It hasn't even been an hour. Didn't you say you'd be staying here tonight?"

"You can't leave! We agreed to stay overnight. What will we do if you leave?"

Guo Xia frowned slightly. He really didn't want to protect someone like that. He had decided to leave after completing the main quest and would never touch the side quests!

So without saying a word, he turned around, opened the door, and walked out. The NPCs didn't even have time to stop him before Guo Xia had already strode away. Soon, the other players also left the village chief's house one after another.

The NPCs initially wanted to stop them, but seeing their aggressive demeanor, they all retreated. They didn't have the guts; they were already terrified.

The last player to leave left them with the words, "Come to the village entrance first thing tomorrow morning, and we'll help you take the village chief's body down. He's your father, after all; he can't be left hanging in the tree forever, right?"

After saying that, he politely closed the door and jogged to catch up with the person in front of him. "Why are you walking so fast? Wait for me!"

Lin Leyou and his companion then killed another family, a total of five people, leaving only one to show Xue Rui their soul-extraction talent. To be honest, it looked very simple: Lin Leyou placed his hand on the person's head and extracted the soul. The extracted soul would immediately turn into a ghost with dull and lifeless eyes, essentially a puppet ghost under Lin Leyou's control!

At this moment, two ghost henchmen followed behind Lin Leyou, looking dull and not very intelligent.

On their way back, they noticed the ten players coming out of the village chief's house, and they saw that they were heading towards the Fu family's house.

Xue Rui: "He's quite smart."

Lin Leyou didn't say anything at this moment, but just watched quietly.

Xue Rui's gaze fell on Lin Leyou.

Lin Leyou then said, "It wouldn't hurt to go and take a look and listen."

They slowly approached the Fu family's residence, keeping a distance to ensure their presence wouldn't be detected by the players' items before stopping.

Xue Rui said, "They came out of the village chief's house earlier, and I don't know what information they found out."

Lin Leyou said, "Judging from their head towards the Fu family, they're probably trying to find out about Fu Qingqiu."

Xue Rui's expression shifted. "There's a sound coming from inside."

Among these players were Guo Xia and Zhou Nanyue. Xue Rui and Lin Leyou both knew these two. Zhou Nanyue was alright, but Lin Leyou couldn't reveal to Xue Rui that he knew Guo Xia.

These players tried the same trick again in front of the Fu family's house, and were quickly welcomed inside by the Fu family.

Lin Leyou raised an eyebrow. "That's interesting. They're offering to stay and protect you for one night in exchange for the information they want."

Xue Rui, "I guess they want to ask about Fu Qingqiu..."

Lin Leyou and the others waited outside for a while, and then they heard conversations coming from inside. Ordinary people would not have been able to hear anything, given the distance.

But they are different. They can sense movements from hundreds of meters away, let alone ten meters away!

"You want to ask about Fu Qingqiu?"

Lin Leyou recognized the voice as that of Fu Qingqiu's father.

"That's right. After all, it was definitely Fu Qingqiu who became a vengeful ghost. He surrounded the entire village for revenge, and no one could leave. We were like caged beasts. If we didn't find a way to kill him, we would definitely die at his hands."

Then Lin Leyou heard a deep sigh, "We were indeed wrong in this matter, but what's done is done, and even if we regret it, it's no use."

"Don't you know that Fu Qingqiu will die if he is sent to the Evil God Temple?"

Upon hearing the words "evil god," the NPC visibly panicked. "You... how did you know..."

Guo Xia's voice said, "We just went to the village chief's house and talked to them. We know what we need to know, so there's no need to be shy. We're all from the same village, so what's there to hide?"

Although the Fu family was flustered for a moment, they were soon calmed down by this explanation. Since even the village chief's family was not avoiding the issue, what else could they not say?