35. The Ghostly Village Worships Gods (1)
"The Mountain God will forever protect every believer in our haunted village."
Seeing its arrogant little face glaring at Dou Dou, Qin Fu'an couldn't resist and gave it another pat.
"Whose surname do you want?" He decided to give the little one some freedom in naming.
The little phoenix tilted its head in confusion, blinking its round eyes, and asked blankly, "Can I take another demon's surname?"
How many parents do I actually have?
The little phoenix, less than two days old, was confused by one sentence from Qin Fu'an.
Qin Fu'an's mind flashed with Xie Yunhuai's image, and he chuckled softly, "You can take your biological parents' surname, or you can take the surname of the parents who raised you."
Although Xie Yunhuai himself is still a young man who has just grown up.
Although Qin Fu'an and Xie Yunhuai have never explicitly expressed any romantic feelings for each other.
But Qin Fu'an couldn't let Xie Yunhuai run away so secretly. Even if he was a ghost, he would have to be a domesticated ghost that Qin Fu'an took back to his den.
"Oh..." Little Phoenix was dizzy from listening, her already not very bright head was completely tangled up like a ball of yarn.
It knows its own parents.
Its father, who raised it, was also nearby.
That……
"Dad, where is my mom?" The little phoenix suddenly realized that the thought of possibly having a sweet and soft mother made it excitedly flap its short wings and jump wildly in Qin Fu'an's palm.
The next second, Qin Fu'an pinched the chirping bird.
"Don't shout randomly." Qin Fu'an flicked its little fleshy wing and reminded it, "You only have one mother. The other one... when you see him in the future, remember to call him Dad."
Little Phoenix: "...?"
ah?
I have three fathers??
The little phoenix tilted its head, looking at Qin Fu'an with a dazed expression, and after a long while, it nodded dumbly: "Then when will you take me to see your other father?"
It has three dads? That's so cool!
When it makes a lot of friends in the future, it will definitely bring out a dad every day to show off, so that no one dares to mess with it!
It's a pity her biological father is gone, otherwise the little phoenix feels that her demonic life would be even more arrogant and rampant.
When asked about his expectations for the little one, Qin Fu'an's response brought the topic back on track.
"Whose surname do you want?" Qin Fu'an placed it in the bird's nest in front of him.
The bird's nest is woven from paulownia wood and is a "legacy" left to the little phoenix by its parents and clan. Although the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is thin now, with this paulownia nest, at least there is no need to worry about the little cub dying young.
"I want to have four surnames!" Little Phoenix exclaimed, surprising everyone.
It hopped back onto Qin Fu'an's lap, its short, fluffy wings spread across its round, chubby waist, and declared in a childish voice, "Daddy, I want to take my mother's surname, my dad's surname, your surname, and also my other dad's surname. That way, if I go out and beat up other demon children, I'll give them different names and scare them to death!"
Adults make choices, but a two-day-old baby should have it all!
Qin Fu'an: "..."
Okay, he understood. This little brat was already planning ahead so early. If he got into trouble in the future, he would just give his name according to the severity of the trouble, so that someone would always clean up his mess.
That's quite a dream.
But Qin Fu'an did not reject its whimsical request and actually gave it a name that could accommodate four surnames.
"Then let's call him Xuan Yu."
Qin Fu'an has no talent for naming things; to be precise, the entire demon race has no talent for naming things.
Just like Kong Yu, his name is a homonym for the peacock race and feathers.
Kong Li, that little girl, was born because her mother was born under a pear tree.
Now it was Little Phoenix's turn. Qin Fu'an didn't put much effort into naming it according to its species.
Phoenixes are birds, and birds have feathers. I hope the little one doesn't grow up to be a bald little phoenix. What a wonderful meaning!
Qin Fu'an was very satisfied.
Little Phoenix pondered for a while, then asked the last father what his name was. He added all four surnames before the name and read it aloud several times. Although he wasn't entirely satisfied, he couldn't think of a better name, so he could only reluctantly accept it.
"I'll take you to the Demon Management Bureau to register your household tomorrow." Qin Fu'an tossed the little brat off his lap.
But he underestimated how troublesome the little one was.
After learning what a household registration was, the fluffy little phoenix fluttered up and landed on Qin Fu'an's head, asking, "Dad, how should my name be written on the household registration? Is it Qin Xuanyu, Feng Xuanyu, Luan Xuanyu, or Xie Xuanyu?"
Qin Fu'an wanted to use tape to wrap the little chatterbox's mouth shut.
"Whatever you want." Qin Fu'an said while sending a message to Kong Yu, telling him to prepare in advance so that it could be done tomorrow without wasting time.
As soon as he finished speaking, Kong Yu's video call popped up.
Qin Fu'an pinched the little phoenix's chattering mouth, easily disciplining the little guy, before calmly answering the call.
"Little Qin, you're not kidding me? You're making Little Phoenix call you 'Dad'?!"
Kong Yu's expression was extremely strange.
Qin Fu'an raised an eyebrow: "What? I raise it, so it can't call me 'Dad'?"
"...That's not it. It's just that, you know, once you become a guardian, you can't be irresponsible, right?"
It's no wonder Kong Yu was surprised. Although Qin Fu'an had extensive experience in raising cubs, according to the age of the Tengshe clan, Qin Fu'an had only recently come of age...
So although Kong Yu always dumped those little pandas that were on the verge of dying on Qin Fu'an, he was still very conscientious. No matter how many rare and precious materials Qin Fu'an used, he would try his best to make up for it elsewhere. Just like this little phoenix, Kong Yu would also give it basic living expenses. He would never really let Qin Fu'an raise it on his own.
It is important to know that a thousand years ago, the Tengshe clan only had Qin Fu'an left as a cub. Like the Phoenix clan, the Tengshe clan paid a great price to protect Qin Fu'an. Fortunately, Qin Fu'an was determined and survived the past thousand years. Not only did he survive, but the half-grown cub could also help help other demon cubs from time to time.
If all the children raised by Qin Fu'an could call him "Dad," then probably most of the young demons would be serving Qin Fu'an now, even though some of them actually grew up before Qin Fu'an did...
"It's calling me 'Dad,' can I just throw it away?" Qin Fu'an sometimes really wondered how Kong Yu became the director of the Demon Management Bureau.
Hesitant, indecisive, vain, and narcissistic, all the shortcomings of the peacock clan are concentrated in Kong Yu.
"Then bring it over tomorrow." Seeing Qin Fu'an's disdain, Kong Yu immediately became decisive.
If he didn't agree soon, he was afraid that Qin Fu'an would really change his mind and abandon Little Phoenix.
After hanging up the phone, Qin Fu'an looked down and met Xiao Fenghuang's teary, beady eyes.
"...Why are you crying? Did you hurt yourself?" Qin Fu'an let go of her hand.
The little phoenix sniffed, shook its head, and fluttered into Qin Fu'an's arms: "Dad! I swear, there will never be snakes on my menu again!"
Qin Fu'an's face darkened.
He picked up the rebellious brat upside down and casually tossed him over the courtyard wall.
If the Phoenix Clan dared to put the Teng Snake in their menu, the two clans would probably have fought to the death in ancient times. Would it be possible for Kong Yu to entrust this little guy to him?
Phoenixes and dragons are inherently incompatible; to provoke another one would be to risk the continuation of the race for too long.
Outside the courtyard wall, Little Xuan Yu flapped its little wings, trying to land steadily. When it turned its head, it found a human staring at it with bright eyes.
"Chirp?" The little phoenix remembered its father's teachings and knew that when going out, it should speak bird language.
"Shh~" The human crept closer, his eyes shining like light bulbs, staring intently at it, muttering to himself, "Holy crap, holy crap, this must be a rare species! It doesn't match any of the bird chicks I remember. If I could discover a new species of bird, wouldn't my whole clan be rich? Maybe from now on, all the birds in this family would be named after me..."
This time, it was Little Phoenix's turn to have a dark expression.
It was by nature arrogant and impatient, and after listening to this human chatter on and on with so many impolite things, it was almost at its limit.
So when the human raised the strange black frame and pointed it at him, the little phoenix opened its mouth and breathed fire on his head.
You filthy human, if I don't teach you a lesson, you'll really think I'm some little sparrow that can't fly?!
When Qin Fu'an came out after hearing the screams, he saw his little brat standing on a flower branch with his little paws raised, hands on his hips, looking down at the humans who were panicking and covering their heads, at a loss for what to do.
Upon discovering that Qin Fu'an had emerged, Little Phoenix instantly composed herself, and tears quickly welled up in DouDou's eyes.
"Chirp! Chirp chirp chirp~"
Dad! He bullied me!!!
Just as the fluffy little Xuan Yu was about to pounce into its father's arms, the huge father standing in front of it suddenly vanished into thin air.
Xiao Xuanyu stumbled in mid-air and fell solidly to the ground with a thud.
When it stood up, still dazed, it realized that not only was its father gone, but the human from before... was gone too?
"Chirp?"
father?
Where's my big dad?!
-
Just like the first time he entered the instance, Qin Fu'an was suddenly pulled in.
But this time, before entering the dungeon, the dungeon shop's purchase panel appeared in front of him first.
There's a 5-minute countdown in the upper right corner of the panel; this should be the time limit before purchasing and entering the instance.
Qin Fu'an frowned as he examined the panel, wondering if the little phoenix had been brought into the game. If even the two-day-old cub had been brought in, he probably wouldn't let this so-called bizarre game go so easily.
They certainly wouldn't let that bastard who suddenly started playing the game outside their own courtyard get away with it.
A clear killing intent flashed in Qin Fu'an's eyes.
He rarely got truly angry, but being unexpectedly tricked into the game twice in a row made even Qin Fu'an feel the malice hidden beneath the capriciousness of fate.
He thought of his character panel, where his luck stat was the lowest among all the stats.
Perhaps that's the reason? That's why they've been implicated time and time again.
While I was thinking, the countdown in the upper right corner had only three minutes left.
Qin Fu'an simply abandoned all distracting thoughts and quickly browsed the dungeon shop.
The mall had many items, and even the most basic necessities were cheap, but what Qin Fu'an really cared about were the items with the highest prices at the very top.
New Energy Flashlight - White: 150 Ghost Coins (for use in this instance only)
Hiking Backpack [Full] - Yellow: 500 Ghost Coins (for use in this instance only)
Incense and paper money - Blue: 1000 Ghost Coins (for use only in this instance)
Three white, yellow, and blue items that can only be used in this instance.
Qin Fu'an didn't have any issues with not having enough points, so he didn't hesitate to order all three items, including three sets of the most expensive incense and paper money.
After he bought them, the stock levels for the three items appeared below.
Looking at the rapidly decreasing inventory, Qin Fu'an roughly knew how many players were in this instance.
7 people.
It has fewer initial players than the beginner dungeon "The Haunted High School".
According to what Nan Zhu said at the time, the number of players in the dungeon would correspond to the difficulty level, so this dungeon should not be more difficult than "The Haunted High School".
After the 5-minute countdown ended, Qin Fu'an saw that the inventory quantities of the three items were 0, 3, and 4 respectively.
This means that, apart from Qin Fu'an, no one else bought incense, candles, or paper money.
It's probably because they don't have enough points; otherwise, something so obviously important shouldn't have gone unsold.
Therefore, even before entering the game, Qin Fu'an had a general idea of the quality of the players in this instance.
With 10 seconds left in the countdown, Qin Fu'an heard the familiar system notification from the live stream.
[Player detected entering dungeon. Live stream will start shortly. Please prepare for the live stream.]
[The player was detected to have entered the dungeon through an irregular process. The livestream shop will be forcibly closed and will reopen after the dungeon ends.]
[Current instance name: "The Haunted Village's Reverence for Gods"]
[Current instance type: Survival-Multiplayer-Normal.]
"The Mountain God will forever protect every believer in our Ghost Village."
[Dungeon teleportation in progress—]
It was the familiar darkness and dizziness again. After recovering from the initial slight discomfort, Qin Fu'an began to look around at his current environment.
It must have been on a narrow and steep mountain path, with people in front and behind. One side was pressed against the mountain wall, and the other side was a bottomless cliff. The mountain wind at night was as sharp as a knife, giving people the illusion that the entire mountaintop was shaking.
After Qin Fu'an looked around, someone in front suddenly screamed in disbelief. In the chaos, someone even instinctively shook and reached out to grab the backpack strap of the person in front.
At first glance, they were all courting death at the extreme.
Fortunately, the person leading them up the mountain seemed to be very experienced. When the first one or two screams came, he calmly stopped these troublesome behaviors and even had time to turn around and reach out to steady the unfortunate guy who was almost pulled off the cliff.
"We've walked this far already, what's all this fuss about?" The man at the front turned around, staring fiercely and displeasedly at the boy who had screamed first.
“Follow me and keep going up. It’s getting dark soon. If we don’t get to the top before it gets completely dark…” he said, giving the group a sinister look before sneering, “then don’t blame me for watching you all die!”
"Third brother, stop wasting time talking to them and hurry up. Once it gets dark, you won't be able to leave even if you want to." The man at the back of the group urged loudly, his words, like those of the third brother, showing no regard for the group of players.
"What exactly is going on..." someone asked in a trembling voice, fearfully hoping to find out the answer.
But apart from him, everyone else seemed indifferent and quiet enough to follow the guide, who was called "Third Brother," without saying a word. Before it got completely dark, they finally managed to squeeze into a narrow mountain cave.
The only new player in the team was already showing signs of exhaustion, but no one paid attention to him. Even in Qin Fu'an's live stream chat, few people showed him any sympathy.
[Compared to the previous dungeon the streamer experienced, this one is practically a normal mode, right? If this player can't even last until the very beginning, they probably won't last long.]
[Why is the streamer suddenly back in the game? Isn't it mandatory to start the next game only after seven days? It's only been less than a day...]
[I don't know why, but I felt like the streamer wasn't in a very high mood this time. Is it because Xiao Xie wasn't in this instance?]
[Hahaha, the person in front, knowing full well that some things shouldn't be said, you still insisted on provoking them. Is this what they mean by "like attracts like"? Same kind of annoying person!]
I've seen this dungeon many times; it's actually quite simple. However, the other players seem to be only so-so in terms of skill...
[Okay, I got it. Maybe it's another game where the streamer carries the team. After all, last time a streamer single-handedly carried the entire school in a dungeon.]
[(whispering) Then they lost Xiao Xie~]
[How dare you!!]
Qin Fu'an still had time to pay attention to the comments from viewers who came to watch after receiving the broadcast notification, but in front of him, someone had already been so frightened by turning around that their heart skipped a beat.
Damn it, how did this person get in here?!
Does this game even have radiation?!
Guo Shulin forcibly suppressed his pounding heart, and could vaguely smell the burnt smell of his hair.
He never dreamed that a strange bird would almost burn his head bald!
The fire was even stranger; no matter how he tried to extinguish it, it only burned brighter and couldn't be put out at all.
If he hadn't intuitively sensed the danger of being burned to death, he wouldn't have forced himself to enter the game when he had no other choice.
Anyone with a brain knows which choice to make: to die immediately or to survive until death.
But he didn't expect to bring the bird's owner in too!
Even if it was just a fleeting glimpse in the chaos, Qin Fu'an's face and aura were unforgettable, so the moment Guo Shulin turned around and saw him, he knew he was in trouble.
He might have inadvertently provoked something even more terrifying than that bird.
Therefore, he kept his head down and walked forward the whole way, never looking back even once.
If he could, he even wanted to buy himself a mask from the mall and wear it...
Unfortunately, the in-game store cannot be accessed after the game starts.
In the narrow and rugged cave, even the sound of everyone's footsteps was amplified and echoed. Every now and then, the sound of the wind rushing in through the cave tunnel howled and wailed, sounding just like the wailing of ghosts.
"Third Brother." Finally, one of the players spoke up, addressing the guide ahead, and asked, feigning curiosity, "How much longer do we have to walk?"
As he asked, he very tactfully handed over a cigarette that looked expensive.
"What's the rush?" Third Brother was satisfied with his attitude. He took the cigarette, lit it for him, and casually put it in his mouth. He glanced at the group and sneered, "I've never seen anyone as eager to die as you guys. That ghost village isn't a place for ordinary people. Don't blame me for not warning you. Once you're in the ghost village, it'll be hard to get out."
As soon as "Third Brother" finished speaking, the main quest notification for the dungeon started rang in the ears of all seven players at the same time.
[Congratulations, player, on successfully triggering the main quest: Enter the Mysterious Village and Uncover the Mystery of the Mountain God.]
It seems they are still in the early stages of officially starting their mission, and haven't even seen a trace of the haunted village yet.
"Third Brother, you must be thirsty after walking for so long, right? Why don't you have some water and rest for a bit, and could you tell us a little about the situation in the Ghost Village?" Another observant player offered a can of energy drink, and didn't forget the other person behind him, showing that he was considerate of everyone.
His approach to building relationships was direct, but very effective.
The guide actually led them to a slightly more spacious area in the cave to rest for a while, and told them about the eerie village he had seen.
“No normal person would want to go to that village. If it weren’t for the money you offered and some kind of… archaeological certificate, my brother and I wouldn’t have wanted to take you there at all.”
As he spoke, he exhaled a thick cloud of smoke in the darkness and said in a deep voice, "The ghost village is built deep in the mountains. It's difficult for us to get in, and it's also difficult for them to get out. But it's best not to provoke the people living inside, whether they are old or young, men or women."
This was meant to be a well-intentioned reminder, but everyone who heard it felt a bitter taste in their mouths.
That's a lie. If it weren't for the game's requirements, who would want to mess with them?
The name "ghost village" alone is enough to send chills down your spine.
But what can they do? They're players who have no choice but to court death...
“When you get to the village, there’s one more thing you need to remember,” another man suddenly said, his voice dark and menacing. “Don’t touch the shrines they have in their homes. If you want to live a good life, it’s best to stay far away and pretend you didn’t see anything.”
The enshrined deity?
"Do you know what that divine position is?" The players all thought of the dungeon's name.
"The Ghost Village Worships the Gods".
"Who knows what kind of god it is?" Third Brother spat. "It's definitely not a good thing. What kind of god would require the entire village to sacrifice their lives to protect its people? If you ask me, it's an evil god. This village is full of strange ghosts. Maybe what they're worshipping isn't a god at all, but some wicked demon!"
Judging from his tone, one could already imagine the strangeness of that village.
They hadn't even reached the haunted village yet, but at this very moment, the players were already filled with apprehension towards the so-called "god."
As expected of a main quest, this so-called god is probably the final boss of this dungeon.
"Alright, everyone get up and keep going." Third Brother, still feeling unsatisfied, threw his cigarette butt at the ground and crushed it out. Then he said to the others, "The haunted village is just a short walk from this cave. If we can get there before 10 p.m., they should be very welcoming."
For some reason, the more he said that, the more terrified the players felt.
It feels like I'm being packaged up and sent to feed the wolves...
The journey continued, and after walking through a short section of the cave, they finally caught a glimpse of flickering candlelight below in the forest.
"We've arrived." Third Brother cautiously stopped.
[Author's Note]
I only got a really bad ranking this week, so sad I'm crying~
.
Thank you to the little angel who threw the landmine:
One "Close Your Eyes When It Gets Dark" message;
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:
30 bottles of Cangyou;
20 bottles of walking calamity;
Qingyu Guzhou, Tangyuan, Ling, Shengshuo_Guihua Zaijiu, Muchuan Hui, Maomao Jiu 1 bottle;
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
