"Get out of the way!"
Xiao Jin suddenly threw out the Shadow Dagger from his waist. The weapon instantly pierced through the eye socket of the skull next to Yun Ye's leg, pinning it to the ground.
As soon as Yunye jumped away, he looked up and noticed that all the surrounding skeletons were shaking.
As arms and legs flew wildly, several more arms burst forth from the ground, trying to grab Xiao Jin and the other person.
Xiao Jin unfurled her blue wings and floated in the air. Yun Ye, on the other side, also used a flying device. The two looked down at the scene before them, a spectacle of a hundred ghosts emerging.
"Xiao Jin, look over there." At this moment, Yun Ye pointed in the direction where the Shadow Assassin was.
"Um?"
Xiao Jin looked closely and quickly understood the meaning behind Yun Ye's words.
Where the Shadow Thorn pierced, instead of the sand and yellow earth Xiao Jin had imagined, lay a dilapidated and mottled stone tablet.
Immediately afterwards, blood beads seeped from the inscription, and the withered hands around it recoiled back into the soil as if they had been scalded.
Taking advantage of the situation, Yunye grabbed a skull, which was still speaking as it appeared in mid-air: "...a...stand..."
"substitute?"
Xiao Jin and Yun Ye murmured these two words repeatedly, their eyes thoughtful.
What stand? Who is the stand?
Is it the owner of the skeletons here, or these players?
Xiao Jin slowly descended. She walked to the stone tablet and pulled out the Shadow Thorn. This time, the surrounding skeletons did not move.
She crouched down to examine the stone tablet, but unfortunately, there was nothing about the dungeon on it.
"Let's go, let's go take a look ahead," Xiao Jin said, standing up.
Just as she took off, she spotted a tall locust tree growing in the center of the mass grave.
There seemed to be something else beneath the locust tree.
"Hmm." Yunye had no objection.
Soon the two arrived at the locust tree in the center of the mass grave. Only then did Xiao Jin realize that what he had seen in the sky was actually seven new coffins.
Xiao Jin used a knife to pry open the nearest body, and a stench of decay hit him.
The coffin was lined with a thick layer of mycelium, and on top of it lay a paper figure wearing a red bib, with a peach wood nail inserted into its chest.
"This is..." Yunye lifted the paper figure's clothes, revealing densely packed talismans underneath. The most striking feature was a miniature mountain god temple drawn on its abdomen, with the word "substitute" written in blood on the temple gate.
Xiao Jin suddenly remembered something and pulled out the yellow paper she had obtained from the ancestral hall. When she pressed the paper against the coffin lid, the talismans automatically rearranged, revealing text previously obscured by blood:
"Seven soul-guiding lamps are needed on the night of the sacrifice; if the lamps go out, a substitute will be formed."
"This is..." Yunye was very surprised.
Xiao Jin waved his hand: "I found it under the coffin in the mourning hall when I left yesterday. Nobody noticed it at the time, and I didn't know what use it was, so I just left it there."
"Then you are very prescient." Yunye praised Xiao Jin: "Out of so many people, only you noticed it."
The two then looked at the coffin.
Yunye: "This Soul-Guiding Lamp is indeed no good thing."
"Hmm." Xiao Jin replied calmly, "I'm afraid that after the ritual begins, players will need to protect the soul-guiding lamps in their hands from going out."
Once all seven lamps are extinguished, the substitution formation will be completely successful.
"But there aren't enough lights."
Yes, Yunye is right.
Xiao Jin and his group of five did not proceed with the usual material gathering, nor did they seek out the village chief to make lanterns. Currently, there are eight players in the instance, but only Wang Zixuan and two others possess lanterns.
The quantity clearly did not meet the requirements.
Xiao Jin remained silent: "I haven't figured it out yet, but I have a feeling that the ghost lantern will end up in our hands sooner or later..."
The two then took a picture of the characters that the talisman had transformed into, intending to show them to Shao Siyuan and the others when they got back.
With nothing more to do here, Xiao Jin and Yun Ye decided to head back home.
The two walked in the direction they had come from. Although they couldn't see the familiar village, Xiao Jin already had a way to get out.
About five minutes later, Xiao Jin stood in front of the stone tablet again.
That's right, this is the way out she found.
This time, Xiao Jin held back, using all his strength, and suddenly raised his long sword and slashed down.
'Bang!'
With a loud bang, Xiao Jin and Yun Ye's vision blurred for a moment, and when their vision returned, they had already left the mass grave and returned to the real mountains and forests.
"Let's..."
"Aaaaaah!!"
Xiao Jin was about to talk to Yun Ye about returning to the guesthouse when he was interrupted by a scream.
Upon hearing that familiar voice, Xiao Jin's pupils constricted—it was Sui Ying.
Without time to think, they exchanged a glance with Yunye and the two of them ran towards the sound of screams.
When Xiao Jin arrived, she saw Feng Hao use his longsword to cleave the head of a rotting corpse in two. Beneath the corpse lay a tattered diary; when Sui Feng snatched it out, the cover was still wriggling.
Around them were at least dozens of rotting corpses of various sizes.
"We've been attacked!" Sui Ying clutched her bleeding leg, and was so moved when she saw Xiao Jin and the other person that she almost cried.
Shortly after Xiao Jin and Yun Ye left, the three of them felt bored staying in the guesthouse, so they decided to go out for a walk.
Sure enough, as soon as they arrived, the sharp-eyed Feng Hao noticed that something was wrong with the mound of earth on the ground. After a quick discussion, the three of them started digging.
As he dug, Sui Feng found a small backpack, and the diary was inside it.
The three were initially very excited about what they had gotten their hands on; since it was hidden so well, it must be some kind of hidden clue.
Just as they were about to open it to take a look, they were surrounded by a group of suddenly appearing rotting corpses. During the fight, Sui Ying was caught off guard and injured in a sneak attack.
Seeing that the team's star player had arrived, Sui Ying wasn't so flustered anymore.
She grinned and complained, "If a pair of hands hadn't suddenly reached out from the bushes, I wouldn't have been hurt so easily!"
With the help of Yunye and Xiao Jin, the group quickly cleaned up the rotting corpses.
Sui Feng helped Sui Ying to the side to apply medicine, while Xiao Jin held the diary and flipped through it with Shao Siyuan.
Xiao Jin opened the notebook and read ten lines at a glance.
It's less of a diary and more of a personal notebook. It's not very long, just a page or two in total.
But even just the content on these one or two pages is already very important.
The first page depicted a magic circle, but Xiao Jin didn't understand the specifics of it, so she couldn't quite make it out.
As Xiao Jin pondered this, she subconsciously thought of the Song Dynasty. If this guy were here, she might even recognize him.
The second page details the steps for making a "substitute lantern" using a living person.
That's right, it's the 'soul-guiding lamp' that Wang Zixuan and the others have.
On this page is also a yellowed photograph: it shows seven villagers standing in front of a mountain god temple, each carrying a lantern made of human skin.
Xiao Jin stared at the mountain god temple for a long time without saying a word. So this was the real place of worship!
She had assumed the so-called 'divine sacrifice' was held in the ancestral hall where the funeral had been held before, never expecting there to be such a hidden location!
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