Chapter 516 [(*^▽^*)]
Lin Leyou also thought of the unlucky player whose soul he had extracted; he guessed that the only powerful item he had was that golden stone. "Looks like we're quite rich."
This wasn't the first time he'd had this thought. Perhaps it was because he could always see the items in his inventory, plus the presence of top players like Xue Rui, that he subconsciously felt these players were also very powerful. However, there was no downside to it; thinking of the enemy as slightly stronger could prevent him from failing miserably.
Xue Rui said, "Let's go find the players."
After searching around, they couldn't find any lone players. It's unclear whether these players figured out the ghost's behavior, but they all formed temporary teams. But then again, there's strength in numbers.
Lin Leyou sighed as he floated in mid-air, "It seems there won't be any good opportunities tonight, so this is the last day."
Xue Rui, "Should we stay here?"
Lin Leyou: "Of course, let's see what these players are planning. Maybe they'll reveal their plans as they talk."
Xue Rui said, "Speaking of which, we don't have any fixed followers for this instance."
Lin Leyou blinked, suddenly thinking of the five elite monster minions he had as the BOSS in the company instance. Although one of the minions tried to seize power, he failed.
"Yeah, why don't we, as the vengeful ghost bosses, have any minions in this dungeon?"
Wait a minute, it's not like he doesn't have any underlings. Lin Leyou's gaze fell on the ghost behind him.
"I have a lackey. Look at this one, isn't this a lackey? Although he's a bit slow and dull, he's still usable. He's good enough to be a cannon fodder lackey."
Xue Rui looked at the ghost. This was a minion created by the vengeful ghost Fu Qingqiu through his talent of soul extraction. So, the minions in this instance need to be created by themselves?
"Xiao You, your Soul Extraction talent has a 24-hour cooldown. It's almost time for it to expire, isn't it?"
Lin Leyou glanced at it. "Hmm, that's about it. We still have a little over half an hour. What? Want to give it a try?"
Xue Rui: "Yes, I want to see it with my own eyes."
Lin Leyou said, "Let's just grab a villager and see. These players are all gathered together, so we can't make a move right now. Even if we do, it will expose us, which would be a loss."
Xue Rui: "Okay."
Lin Leyou looked around. Although these players were in a team and moving around in the village, the villagers were all terrified and were hiding in their homes, all crammed into one room.
So none of the villagers saw the player secretly strolling around the village, and of course, the player has not found any valuable clues so far.
Aside from the fact that every house had its lights on, I didn't hear anyone talking. Even when someone did speak, their voice was very soft, or they were stopped halfway through their sentence.
This has resulted in them gaining nothing so far.
“I said that we’ve been wandering around the village like this, and it seems like we haven’t gotten anything out of it.”
"How about we take the initiative?"
"Take the initiative? How do we take the initiative?"
"I just went to the villagers and told them that I could protect them at night, and then chatted with them. I think the villagers nowadays would definitely not refuse to have more people in their homes."
"That makes sense..."
"In that case, let's give it a try. Which one should we go to?"
"Let's go to the village chief's house. Although the village chief is dead, his family must know a lot."
"Let's go, let's give it a try. It's better than flying around like headless flies."
And so, the group of ten arrived at the village chief's house. Inside, all the lights were on, indicating that the village chief was very afraid of dying.
They knocked on the door, but there was no response from inside. They had no choice but to call out a few times, which finally elicited a response from inside – a rather bold man.
When the other party came out and saw them outside, they were startled. Of course they were scared to see so many people outside their door so late at night. But thankfully, they weren't ghosts. As long as they weren't ghosts, it was fine.
"What are you... what are you doing out so late?"
"It's nothing. We were just a little worried about the villagers, so we thought we'd come and check on them. By the way, if you don't mind, we can stay at your house tonight, how about that?"
The other person paused for a moment, initially a little suspicious, but he was genuinely afraid. After considering it, he nodded in agreement, "Alright, then come in."
The village chief has two sons, both of whom are married and have grandchildren. They are both over twenty years old, and there are nine people in the family. In addition to the children and grandchildren, there is an old woman sitting there anxiously.
"This is……"
"Mom, it's okay. They'll stay at our house tonight. It's safer with more people around. You're too old to stay up late, so go to sleep now."
The players were quite understanding, saying, "You guys can sleep if you want. We grown men can take turns keeping watch, no problem at all!"
"Besides, there are almost twenty of us here. With so many people and so much positive energy, even if there are ghosts, they probably wouldn't dare to come. Don't worry."
Perhaps seeing ten more people, the people in the room relaxed. "That's right, even if there were ghosts, they wouldn't dare to come with so many people."
The old woman was the first to give up and quickly closed her eyes and fell asleep. After all, she was exhausted during the day, and if she had to stay up all night, she might not even be able to wait for the vengeful ghost to come and kill her before she herself collapsed and died.
After everyone who was supposed to rest had rested, one player couldn't hold back any longer and whispered to the village chief's two sons, "Let's talk about something? It's so quiet, it's kind of creepy."
Upon hearing this, both of them subconsciously rubbed their arms. Indeed... there was no sound at all. Even with the lights on and the surroundings bright, they still felt a little scared.
"Then... what do you want to say?"
"Just say whatever comes to mind, anything to make it less quiet."
"Alright then, just say whatever comes to mind..."
"By the way, is it really okay for your father to just stand there like that at the village entrance? Should we go help him get down tomorrow? It might be dangerous to leave him hanging like that indefinitely..."
"This...this can't be helped. Everyone was terrified and dared not go near, afraid that if they touched it, they would be targeted by the vengeful ghost. We...we..."
Logically speaking, it's not a problem if others are too scared to go, but for these two sons to abandon their father's body out of fear is somewhat unreasonable.
However, no one thought much of it. After all, these are extraordinary times, and nothing else matters when it comes to their own lives. What is filial piety anyway?
"Is this vengeful ghost really that powerful? It hasn't dared to show itself yet. It's just a cowardly little ghost. Maybe there's nothing to be afraid of."
"this……"
Hearing the players say this, they were all shocked, but they didn't know how to refute it. They all looked nervous, as if they wanted to say something but had reservations.
"Is there anything we can't say? Knowing yourself and your enemy will ensure victory in every battle. If we were more familiar with him, we might be able to find his weaknesses."
"Weakness? Does finding a weakness mean you can kill them?"
The player knew there was hope. "Who knows? But... finding a weakness will always help. Maybe if we find it, there'll be a glimmer of hope. What do you think?"
“You…you make a good point, but…but we don’t know what his weaknesses are.”
"Then tell me in detail what exactly happened."
"Sigh... To be honest... we don't really know the details about this either. Logically speaking, this sacrificial ceremony is a custom that has been passed down for hundreds of years. There haven't been any problems since the village was founded, but we never expected..."
He remained silent for a while before continuing, "I never expected that such a problem would arise this time. Fu Qingqiu has actually returned as a vengeful ghost! He wants to kill everyone."
The player was puzzled, "Can you tell me what's going on with him?"
“Fu Qingqiu… he has excellent grades and will be going to university soon after graduating from high school. I don’t know much about this, and I don’t know how good that university is. I only know that people in our village usually stay in the village after graduating from high school. Even if they go to university, they go to one nearby and never go far away.”
"But Fu Qingqiu is different. After his college entrance exam results came out, he actually applied to a university that was very far away. Originally, Fu Qingqiu only told his family about this..."
The player squinted and asked, "The Fu family felt that their son had betrayed the village, so they went to the village chief, who is also your father, and told him about it. Soon the whole village knew about it?"
“That’s right, that’s exactly how it was. It was exactly ten years ago, and we had to offer sacrifices to the mountain god. My dad was worried about how to choose someone, and Fu Qingqiu had angered everyone, so he was pushed out by a group of villagers to be the sacrifice this time. They kept it a secret from him. The Fu family acted as if nothing had happened and drove him to town to catch a bus, but in reality, he couldn’t leave the village at all. The Fu family drugged him in the car and brought him back.”
“We put him in the stone coffin. The person who nailed the stone nails around the coffin was Chen Jian.”
The player paused slightly, "So Chen Jian, the first one to die, was the one who nailed the stone coffin shut. No wonder he was the first to be killed. It's not hard to imagine that the second one to be killed was the village chief..."
"In that case, who will Fu Qingqiu target next? The coffin bearers, or his family members who betrayed him?"
Upon hearing this, Guo Xia asked, "What does 'ten-year period' mean?"
"What? You asked about ten years? That means this kind of sacrifice is held once every ten years."
Everyone frowned slightly. In other words, every ten years, this village had to choose one person to kill as a sacrifice to the so-called mountain god. No, it wasn't about killing!
He just said that after knocking Fu Qingqiu unconscious, he threw her directly into the stone coffin, sealed the coffin, and sent her to the mountain god temple. In other words, the person was still alive and died of starvation, thirst, or even suffocation in the stone coffin.
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