Chapter 23

Aunt Hua left, and Zhan Mu pushed the door open the moment Lu Chao's kiss faded, his face terribly gloomy. He didn't seem annoyed, but he just looked deeply resentful.

Lu Chao was a little confused. He came out immediately and clearly noticed that Zhan Mu's back revealed alienation and anger.

Zhan Mu actually asked: "Why did you kiss me?"

"Why?" Lu Chao laughed dryly, also filled with anger and confusion. "I was going to ask you, why do you ask why? Zhan Mu, are you gay?"

Zhan Mu closed his eyes tiredly. He opened his mouth to refuse, but then he felt that he could also be the one, so he replied: "I just hate the way you're so familiar with others... Oh no, I think you're frivolous, yes, that's it."

He rubbed his brows irritably as he finished speaking, sneering, "You don't understand. You might think a kiss is no big deal, or even that falling in love is just a matter of words, but, but, I don't think so."

"You..." Lu Chao was a little anxious. He was about to stand in front of him and say a few words, or look at Zhan Mu's expression or something.

Unexpectedly, the footsteps sounded again. The paper figure of Concubine Hua did not go far away, and seemed to be coming again!

Zhan Mu whispered that he would not talk about this for the time being, and then he pulled Lu Chao's hand to leave, but he couldn't move him. Turning around, he saw his face with resentment, embarrassment, depression and grievance.

Aggrieved? Zhan Mu thought he had seen it wrongly and blinked. The emotion Lu Chao revealed turned into shame and anger again.

"You're so fucking stupid..." Lu Chao started to speak angrily, but he swallowed the rest of his words before he could finish.

——Inhumane.

At the same time, he took out the demon-subduing pestle from his body and threw it, or more accurately, smashed it, at Zhan Mu as a way of returning it to him.

With that said, Lu Chao rushed out on his own, and the duo team was defeated again.

Zhan Mu took the demon-subduing pestle and really couldn't understand it. He felt that the young master's emotions changed faster than turning the pages of a book. The young master was sick and difficult to serve.

"Whatever you want." Zhan Mu was also annoyed, so he immediately said goodbye to the demon-subduing pestle and went out. He didn't see Lu Chao, so he turned around, and ended up meeting Aunt Hua with her face right next to her.

But it was of no use. The moment Aunt Hua touched him, she was bounced away by an unknown mysterious force!

The words appeared: You have used the protection of glutinous rice wine.

Was it the incident in the utility room? Zhan Mu realized it and immediately got up and ran. He looked over and saw that the paper figurine Hua Yi Niang was indeed chasing him tirelessly.

It turned out that Zhan Mu was even more directionally challenged than Lu Chao. He walked around for a long time and saw the vase on the roadside in the corridor no less than three times. He finally saw an unfamiliar door and rushed in immediately.

Zhan Mu tripped over something and immediately lost his balance and was about to fall. Unfortunately, when he looked up, he saw Lu Chao's face with a curled lip next to him, which looked like he deserved a beating.

Just when he thought that he would either be stabbed to death by Concubine Hua or killed by Lu Chao... his hand was empty and Lu Chao took the demon-subduing pestle. He immediately used the prop to stab Concubine Hua!

Aunt Hua roared viciously, her voice sharp and piercing, and said, "It's you! It's you who harmed me! It's you who ruined my life! My future!"

Then, Aunt Hua turned into ashes.

Zhan Mu quickly stood up and stood in front of Lu Chao. He met his cocky face with a raised eyebrow, and seemed to have let bygones be bygones. He tossed the demon-subduing pestle with one hand and replied, "She will respawn and revive later."

"You..." Zhan Mu hesitated to speak, not knowing how to face him.

"Do I look like a stingy person who will never have anything to do with the person he likes again after failing to confess his feelings?" Lu Chao smiled and regained his calm and relieved look.

Zhan Mu froze. Facing Lu Chao's seemingly casual but serious attitude, he was really confused.

What did he like about a poor guy like me? Besides being handsome.

"But, I don't understand. Actually, you are quite handsome." Zhan Mu took a long time to come up with these words. He didn't say it directly, but the implication seemed to be: You have to be gay no matter what kind of person you are.

Who wants to be gay? Seduction! Do you understand?

Lu Chao wanted to slap him twice—Isn't it because I became a digital life and need help? You bastard, you heartless man! You said you'd do your best to help me, why are you making excuses?

Lu Chao held back, and continued to be gentle and calm. He took Zhan Mu's arm like a little wife and said softly, "You are very special, really. Countless people have passed by me in the vast sea of ​​people, but you are the only one willing to help me and encourage me."

Zhan Mu looked at him in confusion.

Lu Chao maintained his pretense, but he felt miserable and downcast. He had lived alone in this game for decades, talking to himself all day was suffocating.

After finally catching a nice guy who was a sucker, he had to cling to him tightly. As long as he could coax Zhan Mu into buying him another identity card worth 68,000 yuan, there was nothing he couldn't give up.

Come on, Lu Chao, it’s all for freedom.

Actually, Zhan Mu is not a bad person, so it won’t hurt to talk too much a few times.

Lu Chao withdrew his thoughts. Zhan Mu also cleared his throat and suppressed the corner of his mouth that was raised. It was obvious that he was in a much better mood. He asked, "What do we do next?"

"Why don't we go to that headless corpse again?" Lu Chao pondered and withdrew his affectionate gesture of holding him. He didn't notice that Zhan Mu was stunned for a moment, and then he returned the same way based on his memory.

"Lu Chao, since you're connected to big data and all that, you should be omnipotent in this game," Zhan Mu said casually. "Just like that time in the fluorescent forest."

"I'm not omnipotent. I can break through some firewalls, but I don't have the authority to do so in most cases." Lu Chao smiled bitterly.

After a few twists and turns, the path in front of him became familiar, and Lu Chao actually remembered it. Zhan Mu followed him back to the ancestral hall. The headless corpse was still curled up quietly there.

Lu Chao looked at the demon-subduing pestle and thrust it into the headless corpse. A golden light flashed, and the headless corpse let out a final wail, saying, "I've devoted my life to the Song family. I've followed the old man for most of my life... You're a rotten piece of shit, you're a corrupt and immoral bastard. I shouldn't have supported you as the head of the family..."

"This NPC should be the butler." Zhan Mu said.

"You can move now, take it." Lu Chao stuffed the demon-subduing pestle back to Zhan Mu and squatted down. As he had expected, the corpse was holding something in his arms, which looked like a white jade Buddha.

"Could it be because he was holding a Buddha statue that he didn't get cursed by the evil Taoist priest and turned into a paper man?" Zhan Mu said, and then sighed, "It's so annoying. The white snake is gone, otherwise we would have found the master's room long ago."

"Glasses is talking about the villagers cursed by Aunt Hua." Lu Chao was puzzled. "I always feel that this sentence is worth digging deeper."

He took out the white jade Buddha, and words appeared: You need to place the Buddha back into the shrine and burn incense.

"Let me burn incense to the Buddha." Lu Chao smiled, looked around, and actually found a small square in the corner.

He adjusted it, but it was of no use because there was no incense. Zhan Mujianzhi cooperated with him and immediately went to search the altar in the ancestral hall. He found three half-burnt incense sticks that could be taken away and lit them with his lighter.

Click, bursts of mechanical sounds came from under the altar in the ancestral hall. Zhan Mu and Lu Chao looked at each other and lifted the tablecloth. They saw a long dark path that went straight down.

It's very small and narrow, and you can only crawl down on your stomach.

"Let's go, keep going, it's almost 40 minutes." Zhan Mu said, practicing the concept of the brave going first, and immediately lay down and moved forward with difficulty using his elbows, without any delay.

Lu Chao did the same, and followed him closely at first. His legs almost kicked him in the face several times, so he simply slowed down and stayed away from Zhan Mu.

Who knew this dark road was so long!

Lu Chao was crawling patiently when he suddenly heard a startled cry from Zhan Mu in front of him. It was very vague, and it sounded like the empty gurgling sound drowned in the water.

He was startled and climbed faster, and he actually encountered water. Fortunately, the narrow path became wider as he went down, and now it was wide enough for him to half-squat and hunch his head down.

Lu Chao adjusted his posture and was about to call out to Zhan Mu when he heard him exclaim in amazement and admiration from the other end: "Amazing! Lu Chao, come and see it quickly. It's really shocking."

The end must be very big, his voice was empty and even echoed.

Lu Chao walked forward, and the water became deeper and deeper, until it finally reached above his neck. He had no choice but to adjust his posture and start swimming. After a while, he saw the same magnificent scene that Zhan Mu also saw.

It looks like a tree, but more like a pillar, towering and huge, majestic and shocking, a cone that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, made of bronze machinery, with messy elephants painted all over it.

The most important thing is that there are wooden plaques hanging under the layers of bronze circles, with many, many of them looking like birth dates.

Zhan Mu stood on the bronze platform, looking at the nine-square grid with worry. Lu Chao approached and saw a familiar Qimen Dunjia.

It is a movable stone slab. I don’t know if Zhan Mu moved it. Anyway, it is filled with unfamiliar terms, such as Tengshe, Tianfu, Jingmen, Ji, Ren and so on.

"I don't understand it at all." Zhan Mu sighed.

Before Lu Chao could think about it carefully, he suddenly saw a red flying butterfly coming towards him. He immediately pulled out the demon-subduing pestle from Zhan Mu's waist to block it and break it.

Aunt Hua appeared again!

Unbeknownst to him, a black eel appeared on the platform and approached Zhan Mu, trying to bite and kill him.

"You fight, I'll break the deadlock!" Lu Chao roared, wielding his demon-subduing pestle to drive away a certain eel. Zhan Mu nodded, and the two of them exchanged positions in perfect harmony, each immediately taking up their respective roles.

Lu Chao was also worried about this strange gate, because he knew about it, but didn't know how to use it or solve the problem.

Just as Zhan Mu killed a swimming eel with another swing and stabbed Aunt Hua again to make her quiet down, Lu Chao looked at the wooden sign hanging from the bronze trumpet and suddenly realized something.

Glasses said that the villagers cursed by Aunt Hua were clearly set to be evil Taoist priests, and he hadn't completed the level yet, so could he be wrong?

He didn't study the Qi Men Dun Jia anymore. It seemed that Aunt Hua had turned into ashes. After she was killed by the Demon-Subduing Pestle and disappeared, she was resurrected on a nearby platform the next time.

And the wooden sign above the head will light up.

Lu Chao thought quickly and guessed that the wooden plaque falling from the board was probably the birth date of everyone, including the villagers. The villagers outside had also turned into paper people. Every time they died and resurrected, the wooden plaque above would light up.

I understand. Aunt Hua is the breakthrough point, the real problem lies in the wooden sign!

He shouted, "Zhan Mu, is there any way to attack these wooden signs?!"

Zhan Mu uttered an "Ah?" but didn't have time to turn around. Lu Chao continued, "This Qimen Dunjia is just a trick. There's no need to break it. As long as these wooden signs are gone, the villagers won't be paper figures anymore!"

"I see." Zhan Mu understood immediately. He turned around and looked at the wooden sign. It was really far away from the tree. With their current height, it would be difficult to reach it even if they jumped up.

"Wait, wooden sign." Zhan Mu remembered something again and looked at the plate of Qi Men Dun Jia. There were red words on it. He curled his lips and smiled and rushed to grab it.

Those red words all belong to fire.

Zhan Mu threw it up and said with a smile: "Brother, watch carefully!"

When those little blocks of characters were thrown up, they really seemed to generate heat from friction and turned into small firecrackers. When they ignited, they made a huge explosion.

One after another, all the wooden signs burned instantly, shining like fireworks, sparks flying everywhere. Lu Chao was startled and rushed to Zhan Mu and jumped into the water in front of him to avoid disaster, so as to prevent him from getting hurt.

They both fell into the water. Zhan Mu was slightly startled and let Lu Chao hold him tightly. He had no breathing and no heartbeat, but Zhan Mu felt something from such an intimate action.

He took the game so seriously that he even forgot at that moment that I was a player who would never die.

Text appears: Congratulations, you have successfully lifted the curse of the paper villagers.

Zhan Mu didn't even have time to be happy about completing the game. His mind was full of complicated thoughts. He thought, could he really like me?