Chapter 121 The Sound of Suona Brings Joy and Sorrow, Fourth Sign of the Mountain of Sorrow and Joy: Small / The King of Qin's Three Jumps...
The next second, the dead man's face disappeared.
Then came the sound of the rocks collapsing inside. After the collapse, the "fragments" continued to flow, making a rustling sound like sand. For no reason, Xue Chao thought it was the sound of a corpse turning into sand and crumbling.
He broke through the rocks and dug open the buried cave, where he found a set of clothes crumpled in the red soil, along with a feng shui compass, a dice cup, and a few fresh banknotes wet with snow.
Snow and red soil flowed down into the cracks, but the body was surrounded by red soil, with no trace of snow in sight; it was stained by the red soil.
He rubbed a little red soil, and it would indeed leave color on his fingertips, especially the soil next to the corpse, from which red liquid could be squeezed out.
He surveyed the pale, white mountains. What exactly were those red soil crystals beneath the snow-capped peaks? What nourished these mountains?
There were three dice in the glass bowl, for playing a game of sic bo. Xue Chao picked up the dice and then studied the compass.
The disc is embedded in a glossy square of redwood. The magnetic needle of the central agate celestial pool spins erratically in the directions of "east, south, west, and north," as if it were being disturbed. The inner disc is densely engraved with characters, ranging from the Eight Trigrams to the degrees of the celestial sphere.
However, while a normal compass is smooth and flat, the inner edge of this one is raised and slightly flared inward, forming an inset structure, as if something else should be placed inside the compass.
When Xue Chao cracked the mechanism, he rotated the outermost ring of the inner disc, which was blocked by the inner copper plate. Once this ring was rotated, not only did the entire inner disc rotate at the same time, but multiple rings rotated along with it, causing the whole thing to be affected by the movement of one part.
He searched around and dug out a small iron bead from the red soil, which fit perfectly into the inner rim. There was also a cheap copper ring in the corpse's sleeve, with a small section of it being a magnet.
Is this used to deceive people by pretending to be a charlatan, or to cheat in gambling?
He dug for a long time in the "hillside" and found six sets of "clothes": four adults and two children. The children had nothing on them, while the adults each had a compass and a die.
There are twelve dice in total, just enough for the number of players.
The host has found all the dice.
Player teams can enter the secret realm.
【00:44:44】
Once the game system notification arrived, Xue Chao left. After leaving the East Gate, the pointers of the four compasses returned to normal. As for the trapped ghosts and spirits, he no longer participated in the players' tasks.
It's perfect as a "starter for the story".
The remaining time is for players to enter Xibei Mountain and find Baitou Village.
The east gate collapsed, but there were still three gates to pass through. Xue Chao wandered around, intending to check the other two gates as well, to kill time and take advantage of the host's time to gather more information.
There were many houses to the north. On the way to the north gate, Xue Chao encountered many villagers returning from the south. His striking new face attracted a lot of attention.
Some people just found it novel and took a second look, while others were wary and resistant to such an incongruous tall man. Some were enthusiastic and even guessed at a glance what he was there for.
"You must be a master too? This is the first time I've seen someone so young. You must be exceptionally talented to be able to make a living like this! What sect are you from? A monk? You don't look like one with hair. A Taoist? Or a feng shui master, a demon hunter, or something that specializes in? Judging from your demeanor, you seem like someone who went to school in the city. Is it some kind of foreign thing? Or some trendy Protestantism? What do you use for fortune telling? One of those sticks that can shoot fire? You sound like someone from the Taoist sect."
Xue Chao was warmly pulled along by the older woman sweeping the snow in front of the door, unable to get a word in edgewise. After listening to her, he felt a little confused, thinking he must be a localized magician who graduated from a prestigious university and could tell fortunes. He could only ask her the key questions he needed.
"My skills are not good enough, so it would be embarrassing not to say it. I was trapped in the mountains by heavy snow. I didn't expect there to be a mountain village here. I am very grateful for everyone's kindness in taking me in. What, are there always people from the Xuanmen sect here?"
"They don't come all the time, but they have the perseverance to come to this rare place of ours. They must respect the spirits and gods. Our mountain is truly sacred!"
The older woman smiled and held up a bamboo stick that read, "Ninety-seventh stick - Buying a minister to become rich and noble at fifty - Gui Geng - Auspicious," then placed it in the divination tube in front of the door. "When I came back from washing the God of Wealth, I saw the Red and White Gods congratulating me! Isn't that amazing?"
Seeing her radiant face, Xue Chao knew that his older sister had won a lot of money at the gambling game at the God of Wealth Temple that night.
"Congratulations, you're having a lucky streak! But all the money you lost is hidden at the bottom of the box, so where did you get the winnings?"
"Yes, it's all hidden at the bottom of the box, but the God of Wealth only takes back ill-gotten gains. We'll go back at dawn, and the remaining money in the box will be divided among the winners!" the older woman said. "We just came back from the God of Wealth Temple!"
No wonder many villagers came back from the south; he missed them when he went to the east gate.
The eldest sister's smile vanished as she glanced at someone. Xue Chao followed her gaze and saw another woman holding a fortune stick, weeping and bowing towards the village chief's house. Her grief was mixed with boundless gratitude, which sent chills down his spine.
Before Xue Chao could ask, the elder sister sighed and said, "Her son was buried at the East Gate. Alas, what a pitiful person... I got back faster than her and saw her fortune slip. It's auspicious, and she can set up a memorial tablet for her son today."
It seems that not only will the snow stop today, but the souls trapped in the snow will also be freed. Xue Chao recalled the joy of the village chief seeing him... that must be because the players will break the game's opening later.
But he thought it was "taking the body home", how could it be "setting up a memorial tablet at home"?
When he arrived, there were two corpses lying in the ground. Was this just another "common occurrence"?
Sure enough, the answer was: "They were buried in the mountain, which means they were taken away by the mountain god! They've become minor priests, no longer mortals. What better place could they be? They can leave a memorial tablet at home, and the minor priests, remembering that they were born here during their tribulation, will also bless this family. It's all thanks to the grace of the Red and White Gods!"
The older sister kept saying goodbye and muttering "Don't blame me, don't blame me," as she apologized to the mountain god on behalf of the outspoken stranger. Xue Chao, the person involved, stood by and watched. The scene was strange no matter how you looked at it.
He pondered his older sister's words. Did this mean that every family had its own "guardian spirit"?
It wasn't just this one family; six people had died. Xue Chao continued walking and saw someone bowing towards the ancestral hall, seemingly both crying and laughing.
There was a blacksmith's shop where he saw a familiar compass next to the bellows. He asked around and learned that all the compasses were made there, some were scrapped and some were brand new.
The blacksmith was the father of one of the dead. He spoke sorrowfully about how honest and filial his son was. However, Xue Chao overheard something: his son was the leader of the group of charlatans who went to town to pretend to be religious figures.
With this compass "skill," he actually made some money.
But for some reason, these feng shui compasses I made broke easily. After going to town a few times, the pointer on the compass would lose its orientation and just spin around randomly, so I had to replace them frequently.
There were more than twenty of them, good and bad, and most of them were kept in his son's room.
Xue Chao also saw some strangely shaped tools. He pointed to a tool he had seen in the red soil of Dongmen. It looked like an iron rod, but it was two meters long, with cotton tied to one-third of it, which was probably the end that people held.
The blacksmith said it was for snow removal. On the way here, some people were clearing the snow in front of the gate. The snow hadn't stopped falling yet, and there weren't many people, but it was difficult to walk. They cleared a path using snowplows and snow shovels.
So this thing is specifically designed to clear snow off rocks.
Time was limited, so Xue Chao took a look and left. He then encountered a family bowing and weeping, but he didn't look any longer and headed towards the North Gate. As he passed by, he heard "My daughter!" and stopped in his tracks.
There were no women among the six who died.
Judging from their clothes, the two children also look like boys.
He turned around and looked at the couple supporting each other. He realized something was wrong. Other families cried while clutching auspicious divination slips, their tears mingling with smiles, expressing gratitude to the mountain god for taking their children to become little immortals. But this couple was simply overcome with grief.
He walked in just as the woman was crying so hard she couldn't hold the bamboo slip properly. The slip fell to the ground, and he saw that it read "Eighty-eighth slip: Gao Wending in distress, Ren Xin, very auspicious". He was even more puzzled. He didn't know how to interpret the slip, but "very auspicious" must be a good sign, right?
The woman dropped the skewer and hurriedly squatted down to pick it up, but Xue Chao had already picked it up and handed it to her.
"...Thank you." The woman's voice was hoarse from crying. Her husband, supporting her, also said "thank you," but his voice was hoarse, as if he had been silent for too long.
They were like two fragile branches, drained of their moisture, unable to bloom for the rest of their lives. They could only intertwine like this, supporting each other a little, so as not to collapse into the mud.
"Did your daughter also die in the landslide at the East Gate?" Xue Chao asked softly.
The woman's tears, which she had just held back, started flowing again, and she sobbed uncontrollably. This time, even her husband couldn't hold her back, and the two of them fell down together. Xue Chao quickly tried to catch them with one hand, but they still slipped down.
The woman clung desperately to the hem of his coat, while her husband slumped to the side, staring silently at the snow, completely bewildered.
"My A-Yun, my A-Yun, my poor child... how could she disappear..." Xue Chao was dragging the woman's arm, but she couldn't get up and could only crawl and cry out, "I look for her every day, I hope she comes back every day, why won't she come back? If she died in the landslide, it's because the gods took her away, but who took my A-Yun away... She appeared to me in a dream, she died outside! She was abandoned in the snow! She cried and begged me to take her home!"
Her daughter went missing before the landslide at Dongmen, and the couple searched the entire village but couldn't find her.
Xue Chao didn't dare to pull hard, so he squatted down and patted the woman's back. He knew that words would be ineffective at this moment, so he simply remained silent.
The woman gradually recovered, looked at him with her still blurry eyes, and realized that he was a stranger from out of town.
Instead of rejecting him, she felt a surge of hope and grabbed him, asking, "You're a master! People like you who know your stuff are the most willing to come to our mountains. No wonder we got a lucky fortune slip today! My daughter told me she needs a corpse driver, someone who can bring her back. Are you a corpse driver?"
Xue Chao didn't say whether it was true or not: "Even if there are corpse-drivers, they still need to know where your daughter is..."
"North, it must be to the north. I have Brother Wang's compass, and ever since A-Yun disappeared, it has always pointed to the north, so we come here every day!"
The couple actually lived in the east, but they traveled north every day to find their daughter. A family in the north saw how hard they were working and lent them a room.
Xue Chao tried to comfort them, but he didn't intend to help. He took the couple back to their house, confirmed the location of the north gate, and then went to the west gate.
Near the West Gate, the population thins out, because the West Gate is bordered by a row of pointed, monument-like mountains.
The entire Baitou Village looks like it was built against this mountain wall.
Outside the West Gate, take a few steps and stretch out your arm, and you'll touch the cold mountain. The narrow mountain paths stretch out to the left and right, and walking through them is like walking through a dark and endless place.
The door is barely visible from a distance unless you look closely, as if it were a hidden door in a place where no one would ever visit.
But there was a family living there.
There were a few scattered houses on the west side. Perhaps because the west gate was too close to the mountain, everyone was afraid of a landslide. Unexpectedly, the east side collapsed.
But this was the only house near the west gate, and it turned out to be a large mansion.
It wasn't as grand as the village chief's house, but it still had two courtyards.
The secret realm is in Xibei Mountain, but the instance is in Baitou Village. Once you enter any of the doors, you can't leave. So Xue Chao turned back and explored the door of this house.
The door was locked, and no one answered when I knocked; it was like a gloomy, empty house.
The game was about to start, and Xue Chao wasn't going to cause any more trouble, so he turned back, thinking about which door the three teams would come from, which one he needed to deliver the dice to in advance, who the prediction machine would be given to, and which of the three teams were actually after the "key".
When he met a villager, he casually asked about the house on the west side. He learned that people used to live there, but they kept the door locked because it was inconvenient to receive guests.
When he asked why it was inconvenient, they hesitated and stammered, as if it were a taboo subject.
As he passed by the village chief's house again, a fortune stick suddenly fell out of the container on the pillar. He paused... There was no one around except him.
He picked it up, and the fortune slip read, "Fourth fortune slip, minor / King Qin leaps three times over the ravine, Jia Ding, worst of the worst."
The system then immediately issued a notification:
【00:10:00】
The game room is now ready.
[Verifying team information...]
[All teams have reached the secret realm]
[Should we change the room name?]
Just as Xue Chao was about to click "Yes", the host panel suddenly froze and displayed a string of garbled characters.
【%3I (Verification%!@#￥ Team 8T……】
[Recheck team information...]
[Guild "chronic problem" activates designation rights]
【Guild "Chronic Problems" █████
[...]
[The guild's "chronic problem" has been added to the room]
The room, which was originally divided into three sections, now has an additional colored section, as a new guild has temporarily joined.
Three guilds suddenly became four guilds, and twelve people became sixteen.
Xue Chao's face darkened—Marco Polo's real trick was right here!
[#￥% Error R*（*（6） Error……]
The host has not yet found a set of dice to match the number of players.
[The game is temporarily unavailable]
【00:09:21】
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