"Alright, alright," Sui Feng's gruff voice rang out. "By the way, aren't you guys tired?"
"Instead of wasting time being sentimental here, you should go back and get some sleep. Besides, look at me..."
Sui Feng lowered his head and sniffed himself, showing a disgusted expression: "I don't know if it's the stench of a corpse or something, it's almost suffocating."
Xiao Jin also lowered her head, then her expression froze.
Even a grown man like Sui Feng couldn't stand it, let alone the two girls, Wang Zixuan and Sui Ying. Besides, there are men who are germaphobic and clean.
Exhausted, the players quickly descended the mountain, not daring to waste a single moment.
As I passed the village entrance, the old woman who presided over the funeral yesterday was drying mushrooms.
She greeted everyone warmly: "Young men, you're up so early! Breakfast is warming up on the stove!" Her apron, still stained with blood in its folds, swayed in the wind, revealing the mortise needles tucked into her waistband.
"Since you're all here, let's take the food back together!"
The players exchanged glances.
"Okay, then I won't trouble you, Mother-in-law," Wang Zixuan said with a smile as she stepped forward.
The other players figured that since they were the ones who took the items back themselves, they didn't know whether the NPCs would eat them or not.
Just find a secluded spot to dump it later!
Several players stepped forward and helped Wang Zixuan carry the food away. After saying goodbye to the old woman, the group headed towards the guesthouse.
Under the porch of the guesthouse, the village chief was replacing the gauze on the lanterns hanging from the eaves.
Upon seeing everyone, he smiled with relief: "The funeral last night went very well, and Da Long's family is very satisfied."
He lifted the lantern's veil; the candle inside wasn't burning, but the player still felt a strange sensation.
The village chief glanced at the food the players behind him were carrying and said with a smile, "After you finish eating, take a good rest. Come to my house after your afternoon nap, and I'll teach you how to make lanterns."
"Making lanterns?" one player wondered.
"Why are you making lanterns?" Feng Hao asked directly.
"It is a guiding lamp used in the divine sacrifice. Legend has it that only by holding the guiding lamp can one's soul not be scattered by the divine breath."
"I see..." The players were skeptical.
………………
When Xiao Jin slowly woke up, the sunlight outside the window was already slanting down, and the clock hands quietly pointed to one o'clock in the afternoon.
She stretched lazily, then rummaged through her storage space and found some food.
After returning to the guesthouse, Xiao Jin took a shower and went to bed. At that moment, her stomach was empty, and she was so hungry that she felt like she could eat someone.
On the table, there's a bowl full of fragrant spicy beef noodles, several skewers of spicy and savory chicken in a clay pot, a plate of golden and crispy Orleans-style roasted chicken wings with an enticing sweet and spicy flavor, and braised prawns that are sure to make your mouth water.
Xiao Jin ate a hearty meal without any hesitation.
At this moment, a notification sound came from the system backend. Xiao Jin opened the panel, and the message sent by Sui Ying jumped into view.
She told Xiao Jin that she and Sui Feng and others had already visited the village chief's house, and asked her to come over as soon as she woke up.
Xiao Jin smiled slightly, then quickly straightened his clothes and set off for the village chief's house.
About three minutes later, Xiao Jin arrived at the village chief's courtyard.
However, the scene before Xiao Jin made him feel quite uncomfortable. At this moment, the village chief's house was even more gloomy than the mourning hall in the forest behind the mountain.
Three skinned animal carcasses hung under a persimmon tree, their blood dripping and pooling around the tree roots.
As Xiao Jin stepped across the threshold, she even felt icy fingers brush against the back of her neck. When she turned around, she could only see a dark shadow on the ground.
"Xiao Jin!" Sui Ying poked her head out of the room: "Come in quickly, we've been waiting for you for ages."
Sui Ying didn't lower her voice at all when she shouted.
Wang Zixuan looked like she knew it, while the other ordinary players, apart from those who knew Xiao Jin, all looked like they'd seen a ghost.
Who? Who are you talking about?
Despite the intense gazes from all around, Xiao Jin walked into the house without changing her expression.
The air was thick with the smell of rotting wood and mildew, and many players sat around a long table. Opposite them, besides the village chief, sat his daughter-in-law—the woman who always covered her right cheek with her hair.
The woman was demonstrating how to bend thin bamboo into a lantern frame. Her movements were frighteningly skillful; the angles at which her knuckles bent were unlike those of a living person.
"Ahem~" The village chief, hunched over, said, "Making lanterns isn't difficult; you can learn it with a little instruction."
His thin fingers traced the items in the basket: "However, I don't have enough materials here, so you'll have to find them yourselves."
"But village chief, what kind of materials are these? Where are we supposed to find them?" Sui Ying asked, blinking her eyes.
The village chief's smile was strange.
"It's very simple: dog bones, cow tendons, and... rabbit skin."
"What materials are you missing... cough cough... the village has them all."
"Find them yourselves?" Xiao Jin frowned, stopping Sui Ying who was about to ask another question: "Village chief, such a big village, can't you even gather enough materials for a few lanterns?"
The old village chief's eyes suddenly turned to the side room.
Following his gaze, Xiao Jin saw a locked camphor wood chest, from which a dark red liquid seeped, forming the number "three" on the ground.
The village chief smiled but remained silent.
Seeing this, Xiao Jin decided not to press the matter further.
After leaving the village chief's house, the group gathered together.
"These conditions are too vague, no... too simple." Feng Hao stroked his chin.
Although these three things are somewhat strange as materials for lanterns, rabbits, cows, and dogs are all extremely easy to obtain in the village.
"Hey, hey, hey, how is it easy?" Sui Ying didn't think so.
"If you just say you want your dog and your old ox, do you think the NPCs will kick you out?"
"Then buy it! Then exchange it!"
Shao Siyuan shook his head: "It's not that simple."
"What do you think?" He looked up at Xiao Jin.
Xiao Jin lowered her eyes, her mind racing, and after a moment she uttered a sentence that astonished everyone.
Are the animals the village chief mentioned really the same animals we imagine?
"this……"
Sui Feng: "Tsk~ Troublesome."
"How about this," he said, "Let's split up and search. Since the village chief has given us a task, there must be some clues."
"That's the only way!"
Half an hour later.
Xiao Jin and Shao Siyuan squatted outside the fence of Widow Li's house, looking solemnly at the woman chained up in the yard.
At that moment, she was gnawing on her left hand, and blood dripped from the corner of her mouth onto her chest, soaking her coarse cloth shirt into a dark red color.
Even more terrifying were her eyes—they had completely transformed into canine vertical pupils, gleaming with an eerie green light in the dim courtyard.
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