45. The Ghost Village Worships Gods (11)

Not human blood

Soon, he saw several other players who had also been startled by the noise and hurriedly came out to check the situation.

The beams of flashlights intertwined in the darkness, eventually converging on Qin Fu'an.

"What happened?" Li Fubiao asked sleepily.

Qin Fu'an countered, "Was anyone inside when you came out?"

Upon hearing this, the players who hadn't paid any attention froze on the spot.

The moment they understood, they all felt a chill run down their spines.

Guo Shulin shuddered and said in horror, "It seems... we didn't hear anything. When we came out, the villagers' houses were unusually quiet."

“…I saw the village chief’s daughter-in-law lying on the bed, but…” Cen Tian’s pupils shrank slightly, as if she belatedly realized something horrifying. Her teeth chattered, and she said with tears welling up in her eyes, “She was lying stiffly on the bed. I didn’t notice at the time, but now that I think about it…it looked like a corpse lying on the bed.”

The more she recalled it, the more she felt she could remember that moment when the other person's face was deathly pale under the flashlight and their body was cold and stiff.

Hearing her say that, the three male players trembled and dared not move forward.

They had originally intended to knock on the door to check on Liu Yu and Liang Ping, but they all withdrew their hands. Finally, they all turned to look at Qin Fu'an, the person who made them feel the safest.

Boss, I'm scared, please help!

"Ignore them," Qin Fu'an said calmly. "The blood pact is in effect; they won't die."

The group: "..."

Oh, I see.

So Xie Yunhuai really is a special NPC, right?

"So what do we do now?" Guo Shulin asked cautiously.

They can't all just go back to their own homes, can they? In this situation, if everyone sleeping in their homes is a corpse, who would be so bold as to go back?

"Brother Qin, are you planning to go to the Mountain God Temple?" Zhong Hao asked first.

After Qin Fu'an nodded in confirmation, he rubbed the goosebumps all over his arms and made up his mind, saying, "Then I'll go with you. My skill is a group area control that can cause the target enemy to fall into a state of mental confusion for a short time, lasting about two seconds."

Previously, no one was foolish enough to proactively reveal their skills and items, but now this dungeon is becoming increasingly unpredictable, and Qin Fu'an is clearly the most capable among them. Zhong Hao is a smart man, and he knows very well that following Qin Fu'an might allow him to complete the main quest faster.

“I’ll go too. I don’t have such powerful skills, but I can probably handle seven or eight of the guardians in the mountain temple.” Cen Tian stepped forward and added, “Before entering the game, I was also an extreme sports enthusiast and practiced some Taekwondo and other martial arts in my daily life.”

After entering the game, she received attribute point bonuses, and now she can easily take on ten opponents at once, and seven or eight is an understatement.

“…We have group control, we have combat, add me too.” Guo Shulin stepped forward timidly and mumbled, “I have a blue item that can perform basic healing, and I also have some self-defense capabilities.”

“I’m not very useful, I’m just good at running away… but since everyone else has gone, I’ll go with you too, and I’ll try not to hold you back.” Li Fubiao looked around and then stepped forward as well.

Thus, the five players, including Qin Fu'an, finally formed a small team. After getting to know each other briefly, they didn't waste any more time and headed towards the mountain god temple with flashlights.

When Qin Fu'an reached the village entrance, he paused.

The people following behind him also stopped and looked at him with suspicion.

"There's something there." Qin Fu'an turned on his flashlight, the moving beam shining above their heads.

In the pitch-black night sky, the moment they stepped out of the haunted village, countless white or yellow paper money began to fall, resembling a grand funeral that started precisely on time.

"...What does this mean?" Li Fubiao's voice tightened, and he subconsciously turned to avoid the fluttering paper money and joss paper.

Not only him, but everyone else was also trying their best to avoid these things that looked particularly ominous.

Should we continue walking?

This idea spontaneously came to everyone's mind.

Hesitation, unease, panic...

I have a feeling that the moment I stepped out of the haunted village, I embarked on the path closest to death.

"Let's go," Qin Fu'an said calmly.

The group looked up in surprise, only to see him neither flinch nor dodge, letting the coins of the dead fall freely onto his head and shoulders, then gently fall with his steady steps.

Watching his retreating figure, Cen Tian took the lead and followed behind him.

After that, the others followed one after another, and no one really hesitated to stay in the haunted village.

"Should we turn off the flashlights?" Guo Shulin asked cautiously in a low voice, "Won't we be spotted if we go up with flashlights on?"

Zhong Hao answered him, looking up at the endless stream of yellow and white paper money in the sky. He sighed and said helplessly, "I think it's probably not necessary. Just like the night we came to the haunted village, perhaps we already knew everything the moment we stepped out of the haunted village."

Therefore, turning off the flashlight has almost no effect other than affecting one's own side.

“…Okay, you have a point.” Guo Shulin muttered, casually shining the beam of his flashlight around, ready to guard against any strange creatures that might suddenly leap out from the dense vegetation.

Occasionally, a beam of light would inadvertently pass by Qin Fu'an, who was walking at the front, and he would always pause slightly, because he could sense a sense of security from the other person's back.

Strangely, he sought a sense of security from someone younger than himself, someone he had offended.

With a clear goal in mind, there was no need to hide anything along the way, and the players reached the Mountain God Temple much faster than before.

But matching their speed was a mountain covered with paper money and joss paper, and a thick, soft, and eerie carpet of paper money under their feet.

"Wait a minute." When they were halfway up the mountain, Cen Tian noticed something was wrong and called out to stop the group.

"Look, isn't there something extra on this?" She tore off a leaf, folded it, and picked up a yellow ghost money note through her fingertips. The flashlight beam pierced through it, illuminating the mottled, old bloodstains on it clearly and glaringly.

"Is it human blood?" Zhong Hao asked in a hoarse voice.

Qin Fu'an reached out and took it, examined it for a moment, then brought it to his nose to sniff it before frowning and saying, "It's not human blood, it's most likely the blood of some animal."

His certainty in his words relieved the others, but then plunged them into new doubts.

"If it wasn't human blood, why are these banknotes stained with animal blood? There don't seem to be any animals in the haunted village, do they?"

So where did the people of the eerie village, or the beings scattering these paper money, get so much animal blood from?

What secrets lie hidden within this that they need to investigate further?

After a brief pause, Qin Fu'an casually tossed the paper money aside. "Let's go, let's go up the mountain and take a look."

The journey was smooth, except for the thick layer of paper money accumulating underfoot like snowflakes, and there were no other dangers encountered.

But the higher they climbed, the closer they got to the mountain god's temple, the more bloodstains appeared on the paper money beneath their feet. In the end, the originally clean paper money turned into dark red paper money soaked in blood.

Eerie, ominous, and eerie, each piece was filled with a nauseating, fishy stench.

The group had already covered their mouths and noses with the contents of their backpacks, but every step they took felt like sinking into bloody mud. With each step, the thick layer of paper money beneath their feet would seep out even more concentrated blood.

The barrage of comments had already increased when the group stepped out of the haunted village.

[Wait... Having watched the walkthrough video, I need to think about this.]

[I... just posted the link on the forum too, I guess there will be new walkthrough videos coming out soon.]

[The Riddler? What does that mean? Didn't previous players complete the game this way?]

[...I tried posting it, but got a warning. Oh well, whatever. *shrug*]

[Good luck, streamer! If you can successfully complete the level, I'll follow you and give you a big tip!]

[...]

Qin Fu'an had no interest in watching the live stream, and the viewers were already used to self-service live streams, so after the initial chaos, they quickly held their breath and watched the dungeon progress.

As a large number of viewers flooded into the live stream through certain links, several players happened to arrive at the mountaintop.

"Damn! What the hell is that?!" Zhong Hao's flashlight accidentally shone on something, startling him so much that his hand trembled and he almost dropped the flashlight.

The group looked over and simultaneously gasped in surprise.

"Holy crap..." Cen Tian's voice cracked with fright as she backed away behind the group, her face full of confusion as she asked, "What the hell is that? It can't be what I'm thinking of, right??"

The scene was probably too terrifying, because the beams of their flashlights swayed back and forth for a long time, but none of them could steadily illuminate what it was.

Qin Fu'an steadily shone the flashlight beam over.

Under the bright light, the statue hanging upside down under the eaves had a strange expression, and its originally blurry features were painted with clear features using blood.

With bloodshot, lifeless eyes and a gaping, blood-red mouth, it hung upside down under the eaves, staring straight at them with a wide grin.

Qin Fu'an's expression turned slightly cold. While the other players hesitated to step forward, he took the lead and looked directly into the empty eyes of the mountain god statue.

The root of Xie Yunhuai's suffering has been found.

[Author's Note]

There's one more chapter, I'll update it tomorrow during the day. From now on, I'll split 6,000 words into two chapters (it's hard for me to control the pace when updating in one chapter, and it's easy for the plot to drag on).

Thank you, my darlings, for the nutrient solution! My goal for the new month is 6,000 words a day, and I won't miss a single update for a whole month!!!

Love you all~

.

Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:

25 bottles;

20 bottles of Florage and Evening Primrose Oil;

Ni, Ten Years a Lifetime, Linglingling 10 Bottles;

5 bottles of Qing-Dynastie;

4 bottles last year;

2 bottles of Yuanyuan;

Su Muzhe, Le Ran, Mu Le Ge Chu, ftugfj, Mu Chuan Hui 1 bottle;

Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!