At this moment, Yue Qi also walked in from behind. He seemed to have been aware of the scene before him all along.
"Let's go take a look."
Walking along the path, she unexpectedly came across a low-ceilinged monk's cell. Yan Qing then realized why she had been unable to find the monks' quarters in the temple; it turned out to be here.
A young couple stood at the door of the monk's cell; they must have been the little girl's parents.
Sure enough, the little girl skipped over and hugged the young woman's leg.
"Mom, I brought my older brother and sister back!"
The couple both glanced at Yan Qing, then the wife knelt down and said gently,
"Sweetie, how about Mommy takes you to play? Daddy has something to say to your older brother and sister."
Yan Qing and Yue Qi exchanged a glance and simultaneously became more vigilant.
Seeing their tense expressions, the young father actually laughed.
"Don't worry, if I wanted to harm you, I probably would have done it on the first day. Why would I save you a second time? How about we make a deal?"
Yan Qing had calmed down considerably by now. "What kind of deal do you want to make with us?"
The young father gave a wry smile, pointed to himself, and asked, "Have you noticed anything different about us?"
Upon closer inspection, his face was pale and weak, as if he had just recovered from a serious illness. Yan Qing recalled that when they first arrived here, almost all the shop owners had a pale and ashen face.
"Could it be that you are sick or something?" To be on the safe side, Yan Qing pretended to know nothing.
The young father gave another wry smile. "We'd rather it were an illness. But alas, it isn't."
He looked at Yan Qing and the other woman, "I know you are adventurers from elsewhere, and I have a way to get you out of here. But you have to do me a favor."
Yan Qing didn't refuse directly, "You have to tell us the truth."
The young father sighed again, and then slowly told them a story.
“Yongning Lane suddenly started to change two years ago. It used to be a bustling commercial street.”
“Our family of three was away visiting relatives for several months. When we returned, we found that most of our neighbors had fallen ill with a very unusual disease.”
"When a sick person is sick, during the day they are at most pale and weak, and irritable. But at night, they become incredibly strong, and their movements gradually become stiff, much like the zombies in legends."
“This situation lasted for several months, and we found that our once familiar neighbors began to gradually lose their minds and memories, eventually becoming completely controlled monsters.”
As the young father spoke, he gradually became grief-stricken and indignant, "I know perfectly well that they are becoming less and less human, but there's nothing I can do... I can't save them..."
Yan Qing interrupted him, asking pointedly, "Then how come you, the three of you, are alright?"
That's a very good question. Yes, everyone else is under control, so how come they're unharmed? That doesn't make sense.
The young father wiped away his tears and rolled up his sleeve. His entire arm was covered in bruises, exactly like the faces of the men in white outside.
Yan Qing gasped. "Were you controlled too?"
“Strictly speaking, we are nothing more than offerings to an evil god. The little monk you saw today is one of the evil god’s manifestations, and also the evil god’s first host.”
"So what exactly is this evil god?" Yue Qi suddenly interjected.
The young father glanced at Yue Qi as if he had seen a lifeline. Yan Qing then realized that the person this family of three was really looking for was Yue Qi.
"Your Excellency, you must have realized it as well, right? This so-called evil god is actually just a failed underworld messenger incarnation. Some people are obsessed with dying and want to forcibly defy fate to take their lives, and they are willing to sacrifice everyone in the alley for it."
Your Excellency? Yan Qing was also startled. How come she didn't remember the male protagonist in the book having any other identities? But the young father in front of her was clearly very certain.
She glanced at Yue Qi, but honestly couldn't see anything special about him. However, since he'd already said so, having some status was better than having none, right?
Yue Qi neither denied nor explained anything; he was more concerned about the matter of the spirit medium at the moment. Yan Qing heard him continue talking to the young father.
"The spirit messengers of the underworld crave souls, and those who offer them sacrifice half of their own souls. As a villager, you should know who is secretly offering sacrifices to the spirit messengers of the underworld, right?"
This question truly stumped the other party; even the young father only had a slight guess.
"The main reason our family of three survived is because of Xiao Tao—my daughter. She was born with the body of a medicinal spirit, and her blood has the ability to heal. The Yin Messenger Child's physical body is incomplete, so Xiao Tao's blood has a very good healing effect on it. It is also because of this that our family has been able to retain our minds."
This reason was quite unexpected for them, but conversely, it was also a good thing. In Yongning Lane, regardless of who worshipped the Yin Messenger Child, at least the Yin Messenger Child that "it" created had gone astray.
After the young father's explanation, Yue Qi successfully connected the dots. He thought for a moment and asked:
"This ghost messenger's monthly bonfire parties were probably for absorbing people's souls. The coffins in the temple are incredibly heavy; they must be the legendary soul-nourishing coffins."
At this point, he turned to Yan Qing and said, "Do you remember when the underworld messenger came to find you in the middle of the night? For some reason, the body of the underworld messenger that was offered up was incomplete. And you should have something on you that would be very helpful to it."
His words were so certain that Yan Qing became even more worried, because she didn't know what about her that someone had their eye on.
After all, the wealthy Miss Yan has indeed bought quite a few valuable items!
Moreover, since no one had any spirit coins when the strange tales of rules first appeared, her advantage was obvious.
So, in the end, she still replied very sincerely, "As a wealthy tycoon, I don't know what the underworld messenger wanted from me."
These words, so reminiscent of Versailles, left Yue Qi speechless for a moment. He then turned to look at the young father.
"Go on with your guesses."
The young father hadn't expected this beautiful girl to be such a hidden talent. He composed himself before switching back to his previous expression.
"Of the shops in Yongning Lane, only the seven of us currently have employees. However, apart from the three of us, the others are deliberately there to mislead people."
"Although most of them retain their senses, it's only during the day; at night, they're no different from zombies. However, in my observations over the past two years, I've discovered some clues."
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