The old man kept his head down and didn't speak, but he smoked even more heavily, the swirling smoke blurring his aged face.

"Grandpa?"

“I can’t make that decision myself; you’ll have to ask the village chief.” The old man stood up, put his hands behind his back, and walked hunched over toward the village. “Come with me.”

The four people exchanged glances and then followed behind the old man.

In the courtyard, a man with a kind and honest appearance and a strong build, who looked to be in his thirties, was sweeping snow. When he saw Xia Linyin and the others, he dropped his broom and ran into the house, stammering, "A-A-Dad, there's...there's...someone's here."

A man in his fifties or sixties, with strands of white hair mixed in with black hair, walked out of the house with his hands tucked into his sleeves.

The old man saw him and said, "Old Li, a few people have come from outside and gotten lost. They want to stay in the village for the night. You can decide what to do."

"Village Chief, we'll only stay one night and then leave. We won't trouble you for too long," Xia Linyin said.

The village chief waved his hand, "It's alright, it's alright, please come in and sit down."

The four people sat around the stove, and the village chief brought over several bowls of ginger soup. "I don't have anything good to offer you here. Drink some ginger soup to warm yourselves up."

"You're too kind." Xia Linyin quickly stood up and took the bowl from the village chief's hand.

Steam rose from the ginger soup in the blue-and-white porcelain bowl. Xia Linyin sat on a small stool, holding the hot ginger soup but not taking a sip.

The other three people just held their bowls without drinking the ginger soup.

The four of them had walked for so long in the forest, and they were cold, tired, and exhausted. In this state, they came across a village and were fortunate enough to be taken in by the village chief. It was freezing cold outside, but the house was warm and cozy inside.

The warm-hearted village chief prepared ginger soup for them to ward off the cold. Holding such a bowl of hot ginger soup, they felt grateful and happy, and their psychological defenses dropped to the lowest level. Under normal circumstances, they should have drunk the ginger soup in the bowl without any suspicion.

But having played so many games, they're no longer newbies. Better safe than sorry. Regardless of whether there's something added to the ginger soup, being cautious is always the right thing to do.

"Why aren't you drinking?" the village chief asked, puzzled.

"Warm your hands."

"Yes, haha, this soup is hot, let's warm our hands."

“If you want to warm your hands, I have hot water bottles in my room. I’ll pack a few for you later. This ginger soup should be drunk while it’s hot, otherwise it won’t taste good when it gets cold, and it will also hurt your stomach.” The village chief said, turning around and walking into the inner room. “Please sit down, I’ll go pack a few hot water bottles for you right away.”

After the village chief left, Xia Linyin and the other three quickly poured out the ginger soup. When the village chief returned, they pretended to have just finished drinking the soup and wiped their mouths.

Yin Yichen yawned. "I'm sleepy."

Old Zhang also stood up. "My body isn't as strong as yours, young people. I've been walking all day, and my back and waist are killing me. Village chief, I'm going to sleep now. I really can't take it anymore."

"It's alright, go to sleep, the beds have already been made for you." The village chief nodded.

As night fell, all was quiet.

In the darkness, a small flame, no bigger than a bean, ignited, its flickering light gradually brightening.

"Father, can...can that girl...be kept?"

The village chief glanced at his son and knew what he was thinking. "You want to keep her as your wife?"

Shi Tou nodded heavily. "Yes, wife, I...I'm already thirty-two, and I still...I still don't have a wife."

"How dare you say that? You didn't want Cuihua's daughter, otherwise she would have given birth to a big, healthy boy long ago."

"Too, too, too fierce! This is good, this is good."

The village chief said nothing more, took the oil lamp and went into the room. He looked at the unconscious person on the bed, the lamplight shining on his face, making it dim and unclear.

Xia Linyin heard the commotion outside the room and thought that there was indeed something wrong with the bowl of ginger soup. She lay on the bed without moving. This was a plan that the four of them had discussed beforehand. If there was something wrong with the ginger soup, they would play along and see what the village chief wanted to do, so as to trigger the issuance of the mission.

Based on past experience, this mission is pending. Before the mission is announced, they should follow the game's storyline. Disrupting it in advance would only cause them to lose the initiative.

Xia Linyin heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and then silence returned outside. She frowned in confusion.

After a while, once she was sure no one was outside, Xia Linyin got out of bed and pushed open the door to the next room. The bed was empty; Yin Yichen and the others were gone.

The village chief and his son were not in the house either, leaving her alone in the entire old house.

"It's freezing cold! This damn weather is freezing! The village chief is really something, insisting on opening the altar tonight. He could have waited until the snow melted in a couple of days to perform the ceremony."

“I heard from the village chief that these four are a bit different from the people who came before. He suspects that there is something wrong with them. To avoid any complications, let’s just take care of them tonight.”

"Why does my eyelid keep twitching? My heart is pounding, and I'm really panicking."

"Don't overthink it. Let's finish the ceremony sooner so we can go back to sleep."

“I’m a little worried. In the past, we only held a sacrifice once a year, but now we hold sacrifices whenever outsiders come in. I’m afraid that if the evil spirits below drink too much blood, we won’t be able to suppress them anymore.”

“Your concerns are valid, but what can we do about the village chief… Sigh, never mind, we’ve arrived at the altar.”

Xia Linyin was wearing a floral cotton-padded jacket, with a tattered headscarf covering her head and several bandages around her neck that obscured most of her face, blending into the crowd.

Yin Yichen, John, and Lao Zhang were tied up and thrown onto the cold stone platform. In front of them was a groove that led to a crooked, worm-like ravine.

Looking down from above, these grooves form a complex pattern.

Marble pillars stand around the altar, carved with runes and filled with cinnabar. However, perhaps due to their age, the runes are not only faded but also peeling off in many places.

Black chains are wrapped around the stone pillars, and upon closer inspection, one can see that these chains are also engraved with intricate incantations.

Several villagers, carrying torches, walked onto the stone platform. Their faces were covered with ferocious and frightening masks. After lighting the large pot with the torches, they began to perform a shamanistic dance while chanting incantations.

Besides the villagers jumping rope, some villagers were blowing trumpets and ringing bells on the side, making a lot of noise like a funeral procession.

The village chief stood in the center of the stone platform, kowtowed three times with three incense sticks in his hand, and said to the stone, "Son, let's begin."

Shi Tou spat twice on his hands, rubbed his palms together, took out the pig-slaughtering knife, sharpened it on the whetstone a few times, and then walked towards Yin Yichen and the others.