The passageway was still.
Zong Jiu had the Soul Devouring Bell in one hand, the corpse chaser’s talisman in the other, as he locked eyes with Zhuge An, who had suddenly uncrossed his arms and straightened up from the wall.
And further off the other side, Yi Ruisi, with his wide black eyes, turned on his heels, hopping off and disappearing out of the mourning hall.
The scene was submerged in awkward silence, with only pale white light streaming in from the back of the mourning hall.
AD
Did this count as being caught in the act?
“Let’s go. Don’t dawdle.”
The man in black was about to turn around when he saw that the white-haired young man still wasn’t moving. “Hm?”
Zong Jiu deliberated on his diction. “By this, are you intending to cast your lot with the enemy?”
He couldn’t be faulted for thinking so. Zhuge An leaning against the wall and asking “all taken care of?” gave him the distinct impression of best bros in harmonious brotherhood, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, doing evil deeds together in a small gang. One man did his crazy stuff inside, clapping his hands as he came out, then saw the other man lounging outside and keeping a lookout, even asking him what took him so long.
The other gave a thin, farce of a smile. “I thought you already knew.”
While he didn’t say so directly, Zong Jiu could read from his face the “why hasn’t this guy wrapped his mind around it yet” type of derision.
“I’m the only mole in this instance.”
“Yeah,” Zhuge An said breezily. “But my heart rejected it, the mole card is my calling. Is it not okay for me to play the lawful renegade?”
As expected of a man with the epithet “Zhuge the Old Wily”. He even jumped ship with such timeworn familiarity!
Zong Jiu was amazed.
He felt that if he said “no can do”, Zhuge An would whip out the Taiji Eight Trigrams in the next second and bring him to justice.
So, after sizing up the situation, Zong Jiu chose to lie through his teeth. “…Sure, that’s fine, of course.”
Well, No. 3 bigshot, whatever makes you happy.
The live broadcast audience erupted.
Everyone had just watched the Magician escape from a vicious monster’s murderous rampage, then use a corpse chaser’s talisman to reenact a scene of “I won’t let you off even after death” like an evil capitalist exploiting people from the shadows. They were still not yet over their shock of “the mole is actually him”, spamming the screen with their comments. But little did they expect that there would be another plot twist, bringing even more shocking developments that were lying in wait for them.
[WTFWTFWTF? What’s going on? I feel dumb.]
[You’re not the only one, I don’t understand what just happened either. Gathering from the conversation between the Magician and him, could Master Zhuge really be intending to hop over to the mole camp?]
[??? What’s No. 3 thinking? There are no incentives whatsoever for the normal folks to assist the moles. It’s not worth it to jump over for a taste, got it? There are actually people jumping ship in this type of roleplaying mode where the identity cards are already dished out from the start? He’s bonkers.]
[Fuck, hold up! So when Master Zhuge intentionally brought up all that about moles, he was actually acting as a screen for the Magician and sending intel over?]
[Master Zhuge is actually working with someone else, I don’t know who this man is anymore.]
[God yes, I wanted to say that too. Master Zhuge has always acted alone, but now he’s actually seeking to cooperate with someone else. I don’t know who this man is anymore +1]
[The man was once proud and aloof. Now, for a white-haired beauty, he actually willingly jumps ship, steers and protects the ship, becoming the wing that keeps out the wind and rain~ I’m feeling emotional.]
Ktfrf qfbqif kfgf qfbqif ktb tjv fzqfglfcmfv atf tbggbg bo yflcu reypeujafv ys Iteuf Cc olgra-tjcv.
Lf tjv wjvf tlr wjgx yjmx lc atf V-gjcx lcrajcmf, atf Jegrfv Zjrx, lcvlrmglwlcjafis vfmflnlcu atgff qbkfgoei uelivr. Rba bcis vlv tf ufa bea ecrmjatfv ja atf fcv bo la jii, yea tf tjv fnfc wjvf j xliilcu, mjerlcu remt j vlraegyjcmf atja jii atgff uelivr qeiifv tlw lcab atflg yijmxilrar, lcrajcais frajyilrtlcu tlr cjwf lc fnfgsbcf’r wlcvr.
Unfortunately, Zhuge An was a lone wolf.
After all this while, everyone had only heard of those hoodwinked by this bigshot cursing him as Zhuge the Old Wily. Never had they heard of Zhuge An being willing to bend over backwards to work with others.
Until now.
Seeing that the white-haired young man still wanted to speak, the man spoke mildly, “I know that you have a lot more to ask.”
“But that man is in this instance. Now’s not the time to talk about such.”
Who that man was, was self-explanatory.
“Do you mean that you intend to work with me?” Zong Jiu raised his eyebrows.
“You can interpret it as such.”
Zhuge An spoke calmly, “As I said, I will never stand against you.”
“—but I won’t be helping you as I did in the first instance. You need to prove yourself to me with more of your strength, that you have what it takes for me to answer your questions.”
While never standing against him remained up for debate, it wasn’t a bad idea to establish a temporary cooperation in this instance. Not offering help wasn’t a dealbreaker; cruising through instances like he did in the first instance would be too uninteresting.
Zong Jiu didn’t really expect much from Zhuge An. The only thing he expected was for the other not to stand against him and stir up trouble, and that would do. After all, it would be unpleasant to have such a man as an opponent.
Zong Jiu extended a hand. “Then, once again, shall we have a pleasant cooperation?”
This time, holding the white-haired young man’s slender fingers, Zhuge An finally gave a proper handshake back.
“So. About that previous topic, do you have your suspicions on anyone?”
They began to converse about an insider topic that only the two of them could understand. The bullet chat could only listen on with stupefied cluelessness written across their faces.
“No.”
The cooldown for the tarot deck only refreshed once every twelve hours. For such a precious item, would Zong Jiu really waste it on ferreting out who was the Devil’s puppet when he could use it to get clues?
Besides, the first four threads of the Devil’s puppet strings only had an indirect influence on the person being controlled. As long as No. 1 wanted to, he could also choose to only implant two or three strings, such that the person controlled could retain their own mind, remaining oblivious to the fact that they were being controlled.
Zhuge An’s brows pinched together as he fell into thought.
For some reason, Zong Jiu was suddenly reminded of the first time he cooperated with Zhuge An in the Mental Asylum. The general situation now was essentially a carbon copy of that time, aside from their changed attitudes.
Back then, he had relied on his golden finger of knowing the plot to take the initiative to approach. Although Zhuge An agreed, it was still with a calculative intent and an unignorable hostility.
Including Las Vegas, and even at the opening of the Famine Mountain Village, his arrogance had not diminished by a smidge.
Granted, there was that piddling prophecy. But Zong Jiu felt that with the other’s pride, he most certainly wasn’t the sort that would believe in fate.
So what exactly was it that had caused his attitude to take such a drastic 180-degree turnaround?
Zong Jiu pondered over this, his hands by his sides as he followed Zhuge An out of the passageway.
By the time they returned to the temple together, their group had pretty much returned.
The others didn’t suspect anything when they saw the two of them. After all, when the groupings were formed at the start, Zong Jiu had grouped him and Zhuge An into the same group. As such, everyone unconsciously assumed that they would move together; it would be more surprising if they hadn’t returned together.
“How was it? Any results?”
Xu Sen hurriedly said, “Yesyesyes.”
If memory served, Xu Sen should have been the one who followed the villagers to check out what was happening there with the captured woman.
Zong Jiu nodded, gesturing for him to speak.
“We followed behind Wang Shou and found that they had already captured the woman. They are holding her in the empty woodshed at the north end of the village.”
At this, a trace of wrath entered Xu Sen’s expression. “There are villagers standing guard outside. That bastard Wang Shou took his men in and closed the door, giving her a thrashing.”
The others in their group showed similar expressions of rage.
They had gone with Xu Sen and had all heard exactly how wretched that situation was.
“You stinking whore! After marriage, you belong to our village, yet you still dare to flee back to your parents. I won’t be letting you off today!”
One stroke after another, the woman ceaselessly screamed for mercy, her shouts growing increasingly feeble. However, the sounds of abuse never stopped.
The trainees outside couldn’t bear to keep listening. They wanted to go up to stop those scoundrels abusing the woman, but the villagers guarding the door beat them back with hoes, causing a small skirmish to break out.
Ultimately, they were all still mindful of the ironclad law of not harming NPCs. Although they were completely incensed on the inside, there was no real fighting.
Even so, their behavior caused the villagers to be greatly wary and dissatisfied towards the refugees. Xu Sen’s tone took on a note of chagrin as he recounted the story.
Compared to the other newcomers, he was a C-rank with a lot of experience in instances.
Veterans knew better than to get too emotionally invested when in a horror instance.
It wasn’t unheard of for contenders to fall in love after thawing a ghost in a red dress in the infinite loop. Unfortunately, humans and ghosts walked different paths, and the contenders were also bound by the system. The lovebirds eventually met their star-crossed end.
They were no more than temporary travelers passing through these horror instances. After finishing their tasks, they would forever bid farewell to this place. Therefore, whether the people in the instances lived or died, whether they were good or bad people—what did it matter to them? It would neither give them any additional survival points nor a higher system rating, let alone bring any personal benefits.
“Don’t worry, I would have done the same too.”
Zong Jiu waved a hand, indicating that this problem could be overlooked. “What happened after?”
“When we were blocked off, that bastard Wang Shou probably heard the ruckus. So he stopped and ordered for the woodshed to be firmly locked. But I heard him tell others that when the human traffickers arrive at the village tomorrow, they will sell her off to the city.”
Zong Jiu and Zhuge An exchanged a look. “How’s the guard on the woodshed now?”
Xu Sen hesitated. “There are around four or five guarding the front and back. It would be a little challenging to get past them.”
“Okay, got it.”
The white-haired young man touched his chin, considering. “Based on this, that woman is highly likely to be one of the breakthrough points for this instance. We’ll wait for night to fall before going over whilst their guard is slack. If we’re able to save her, then we should give it our best. Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda, even in a horror instance. It’s nothing difficult.”
Seeing everyone nod, Zong Jiu then turned his attention towards Xu Su. “What about your end, did you manage to find anything?”
Xu Su, “There wasn’t anyone at the market because all the villagers went to the temple today. So, we went to the wall that surrounded the bodhisattva temple and secretly took some bodhisattva soil.”
With that, he pulled out the dirt wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket. It held a pocketful of deep crimson bodhisattva soil inside.
Zhuge An stared at that soil, his brows creasing.
Zong Jiu didn’t notice the subtle change in his expression, nodding. “Put it away for now.”
They had spent quite a while here. It was around noon, yet they hadn’t seen a single trainee from the other group.
Meanwhile, Zong Jiu paid special attention to inspecting the spirit tablet at the foot of the clay bodhisattva. However, the tablet was completely devoid of any identifying text. It was only inscribed that the tablet belonged to someone who had once watched over the bodhisattva soil, successfully gathering enough merits.
According to the words of the village head, this spirit tablet was set up by the villagers for the elderly woman who had died of hunger.
While Zong Jiu mulled over it, a clacking sound carried over from the back of the temple hall.
The village head walked ahead, limping against his walking stick, coming out of the dark passageway beneath the clay bodhisattva.
It was clear that the old man had something lingering on his mind, leaving straightaway without sparing them a single glance.
Draped in a long black robe from head to tail, Grandma Yin followed behind him, slowly stepping out of the darkness.
Although the face wasn’t visible under the hood, the Yin energy around her hadn’t dissipated in the slightest.
After a few moments of silence, a shrill voice spoke.
“Lies, lies everywhere…”
Zong Jiu raised his gaze sharply.
“The night of the full moon three days later will be the prime time for the mortal world to be linked to the nether world.”
Grandma Yin lowly uttered a Dharma name. “Nameless outsiders, if you encounter danger, do feel free to come to the temple. This will be the last place of refuge.”
“You must be careful in the days to come. For the human heart is capable of… turning demonic.”
The passageway was still.
Zong Jiu had the Soul Devouring Bell in one hand, the corpse chaser’s talisman in the other, as he locked eyes with Zhuge An, who had suddenly uncrossed his arms and straightened up from the wall.
And further off the other side, Yi Ruisi, with his wide black eyes, turned on his heels, hopping off and disappearing out of the mourning hall.
The scene was submerged in awkward silence, with only pale white light streaming in from the back of the mourning hall.
AD
Did this count as being caught in the act?
“Let’s go. Don’t dawdle.”
The man in black was about to turn around when he saw that the white-haired young man still wasn’t moving. “Hm?”
Zong Jiu deliberated on his diction. “By this, are you intending to cast your lot with the enemy?”
He couldn’t be faulted for thinking so. Zhuge An leaning against the wall and asking “all taken care of?” gave him the distinct impression of best bros in harmonious brotherhood, arms slung over each other’s shoulders, doing evil deeds together in a small gang. One man did his crazy stuff inside, clapping his hands as he came out, then saw the other man lounging outside and keeping a lookout, even asking him what took him so long.
The other gave a thin, farce of a smile. “I thought you already knew.”
While he didn’t say so directly, Zong Jiu could read from his face the “why hasn’t this guy wrapped his mind around it yet” type of derision.
“I’m the only mole in this instance.”
“Yeah,” Zhuge An said breezily. “But my heart rejected it, the mole card is my calling. Is it not okay for me to play the lawful renegade?”
As expected of a man with the epithet “Zhuge the Old Wily”. He even jumped ship with such timeworn familiarity!
Zong Jiu was amazed.
He felt that if he said “no can do”, Zhuge An would whip out the Taiji Eight Trigrams in the next second and bring him to justice.
So, after sizing up the situation, Zong Jiu chose to lie through his teeth. “…Sure, that’s fine, of course.”
Well, No. 3 bigshot, whatever makes you happy.
The live broadcast audience erupted.
Everyone had just watched the Magician escape from a vicious monster’s murderous rampage, then use a corpse chaser’s talisman to reenact a scene of “I won’t let you off even after death” like an evil capitalist exploiting people from the shadows. They were still not yet over their shock of “the mole is actually him”, spamming the screen with their comments. But little did they expect that there would be another plot twist, bringing even more shocking developments that were lying in wait for them.
[WTFWTFWTF? What’s going on? I feel dumb.]
[You’re not the only one, I don’t understand what just happened either. Gathering from the conversation between the Magician and him, could Master Zhuge really be intending to hop over to the mole camp?]
[??? What’s No. 3 thinking? There are no incentives whatsoever for the normal folks to assist the moles. It’s not worth it to jump over for a taste, got it? There are actually people jumping ship in this type of roleplaying mode where the identity cards are already dished out from the start? He’s bonkers.]
[Fuck, hold up! So when Master Zhuge intentionally brought up all that about moles, he was actually acting as a screen for the Magician and sending intel over?]
[Master Zhuge is actually working with someone else, I don’t know who this man is anymore.]
[God yes, I wanted to say that too. Master Zhuge has always acted alone, but now he’s actually seeking to cooperate with someone else. I don’t know who this man is anymore +1]
[The man was once proud and aloof. Now, for a white-haired beauty, he actually willingly jumps ship, steers and protects the ship, becoming the wing that keeps out the wind and rain~ I’m feeling emotional.]
Ktfrf qfbqif kfgf qfbqif ktb tjv fzqfglfcmfv atf tbggbg bo yflcu reypeujafv ys Iteuf Cc olgra-tjcv.
Lf tjv wjvf tlr wjgx yjmx lc atf V-gjcx lcrajcmf, atf Jegrfv Zjrx, lcvlrmglwlcjafis vfmflnlcu atgff qbkfgoei uelivr. Rba bcis vlv tf ufa bea ecrmjatfv ja atf fcv bo la jii, yea tf tjv fnfc wjvf j xliilcu, mjerlcu remt j vlraegyjcmf atja jii atgff uelivr qeiifv tlw lcab atflg yijmxilrar, lcrajcais frajyilrtlcu tlr cjwf lc fnfgsbcf’r wlcvr.
Unfortunately, Zhuge An was a lone wolf.
After all this while, everyone had only heard of those hoodwinked by this bigshot cursing him as Zhuge the Old Wily. Never had they heard of Zhuge An being willing to bend over backwards to work with others.
Until now.
Seeing that the white-haired young man still wanted to speak, the man spoke mildly, “I know that you have a lot more to ask.”
“But that man is in this instance. Now’s not the time to talk about such.”
Who that man was, was self-explanatory.
“Do you mean that you intend to work with me?” Zong Jiu raised his eyebrows.
“You can interpret it as such.”
Zhuge An spoke calmly, “As I said, I will never stand against you.”
“—but I won’t be helping you as I did in the first instance. You need to prove yourself to me with more of your strength, that you have what it takes for me to answer your questions.”
While never standing against him remained up for debate, it wasn’t a bad idea to establish a temporary cooperation in this instance. Not offering help wasn’t a dealbreaker; cruising through instances like he did in the first instance would be too uninteresting.
Zong Jiu didn’t really expect much from Zhuge An. The only thing he expected was for the other not to stand against him and stir up trouble, and that would do. After all, it would be unpleasant to have such a man as an opponent.
Zong Jiu extended a hand. “Then, once again, shall we have a pleasant cooperation?”
This time, holding the white-haired young man’s slender fingers, Zhuge An finally gave a proper handshake back.
“So. About that previous topic, do you have your suspicions on anyone?”
They began to converse about an insider topic that only the two of them could understand. The bullet chat could only listen on with stupefied cluelessness written across their faces.
“No.”
The cooldown for the tarot deck only refreshed once every twelve hours. For such a precious item, would Zong Jiu really waste it on ferreting out who was the Devil’s puppet when he could use it to get clues?
Besides, the first four threads of the Devil’s puppet strings only had an indirect influence on the person being controlled. As long as No. 1 wanted to, he could also choose to only implant two or three strings, such that the person controlled could retain their own mind, remaining oblivious to the fact that they were being controlled.
Zhuge An’s brows pinched together as he fell into thought.
For some reason, Zong Jiu was suddenly reminded of the first time he cooperated with Zhuge An in the Mental Asylum. The general situation now was essentially a carbon copy of that time, aside from their changed attitudes.
Back then, he had relied on his golden finger of knowing the plot to take the initiative to approach. Although Zhuge An agreed, it was still with a calculative intent and an unignorable hostility.
Including Las Vegas, and even at the opening of the Famine Mountain Village, his arrogance had not diminished by a smidge.
Granted, there was that piddling prophecy. But Zong Jiu felt that with the other’s pride, he most certainly wasn’t the sort that would believe in fate.
So what exactly was it that had caused his attitude to take such a drastic 180-degree turnaround?
Zong Jiu pondered over this, his hands by his sides as he followed Zhuge An out of the passageway.
By the time they returned to the temple together, their group had pretty much returned.
The others didn’t suspect anything when they saw the two of them. After all, when the groupings were formed at the start, Zong Jiu had grouped him and Zhuge An into the same group. As such, everyone unconsciously assumed that they would move together; it would be more surprising if they hadn’t returned together.
“How was it? Any results?”
Xu Sen hurriedly said, “Yesyesyes.”
If memory served, Xu Sen should have been the one who followed the villagers to check out what was happening there with the captured woman.
Zong Jiu nodded, gesturing for him to speak.
“We followed behind Wang Shou and found that they had already captured the woman. They are holding her in the empty woodshed at the north end of the village.”
At this, a trace of wrath entered Xu Sen’s expression. “There are villagers standing guard outside. That bastard Wang Shou took his men in and closed the door, giving her a thrashing.”
The others in their group showed similar expressions of rage.
They had gone with Xu Sen and had all heard exactly how wretched that situation was.
“You stinking whore! After marriage, you belong to our village, yet you still dare to flee back to your parents. I won’t be letting you off today!”
One stroke after another, the woman ceaselessly screamed for mercy, her shouts growing increasingly feeble. However, the sounds of abuse never stopped.
The trainees outside couldn’t bear to keep listening. They wanted to go up to stop those scoundrels abusing the woman, but the villagers guarding the door beat them back with hoes, causing a small skirmish to break out.
Ultimately, they were all still mindful of the ironclad law of not harming NPCs. Although they were completely incensed on the inside, there was no real fighting.
Even so, their behavior caused the villagers to be greatly wary and dissatisfied towards the refugees. Xu Sen’s tone took on a note of chagrin as he recounted the story.
Compared to the other newcomers, he was a C-rank with a lot of experience in instances.
Veterans knew better than to get too emotionally invested when in a horror instance.
It wasn’t unheard of for contenders to fall in love after thawing a ghost in a red dress in the infinite loop. Unfortunately, humans and ghosts walked different paths, and the contenders were also bound by the system. The lovebirds eventually met their star-crossed end.
They were no more than temporary travelers passing through these horror instances. After finishing their tasks, they would forever bid farewell to this place. Therefore, whether the people in the instances lived or died, whether they were good or bad people—what did it matter to them? It would neither give them any additional survival points nor a higher system rating, let alone bring any personal benefits.
“Don’t worry, I would have done the same too.”
Zong Jiu waved a hand, indicating that this problem could be overlooked. “What happened after?”
“When we were blocked off, that bastard Wang Shou probably heard the ruckus. So he stopped and ordered for the woodshed to be firmly locked. But I heard him tell others that when the human traffickers arrive at the village tomorrow, they will sell her off to the city.”
Zong Jiu and Zhuge An exchanged a look. “How’s the guard on the woodshed now?”
Xu Sen hesitated. “There are around four or five guarding the front and back. It would be a little challenging to get past them.”
“Okay, got it.”
The white-haired young man touched his chin, considering. “Based on this, that woman is highly likely to be one of the breakthrough points for this instance. We’ll wait for night to fall before going over whilst their guard is slack. If we’re able to save her, then we should give it our best. Saving a life is more meritorious than building a seven-floor pagoda, even in a horror instance. It’s nothing difficult.”
Seeing everyone nod, Zong Jiu then turned his attention towards Xu Su. “What about your end, did you manage to find anything?”
Xu Su, “There wasn’t anyone at the market because all the villagers went to the temple today. So, we went to the wall that surrounded the bodhisattva temple and secretly took some bodhisattva soil.”
With that, he pulled out the dirt wrapped in a handkerchief from his pocket. It held a pocketful of deep crimson bodhisattva soil inside.
Zhuge An stared at that soil, his brows creasing.
Zong Jiu didn’t notice the subtle change in his expression, nodding. “Put it away for now.”
They had spent quite a while here. It was around noon, yet they hadn’t seen a single trainee from the other group.
Meanwhile, Zong Jiu paid special attention to inspecting the spirit tablet at the foot of the clay bodhisattva. However, the tablet was completely devoid of any identifying text. It was only inscribed that the tablet belonged to someone who had once watched over the bodhisattva soil, successfully gathering enough merits.
According to the words of the village head, this spirit tablet was set up by the villagers for the elderly woman who had died of hunger.
While Zong Jiu mulled over it, a clacking sound carried over from the back of the temple hall.
The village head walked ahead, limping against his walking stick, coming out of the dark passageway beneath the clay bodhisattva.
It was clear that the old man had something lingering on his mind, leaving straightaway without sparing them a single glance.
Draped in a long black robe from head to tail, Grandma Yin followed behind him, slowly stepping out of the darkness.
Although the face wasn’t visible under the hood, the Yin energy around her hadn’t dissipated in the slightest.
After a few moments of silence, a shrill voice spoke.
“Lies, lies everywhere…”
Zong Jiu raised his gaze sharply.
“The night of the full moon three days later will be the prime time for the mortal world to be linked to the nether world.”
Grandma Yin lowly uttered a Dharma name. “Nameless outsiders, if you encounter danger, do feel free to come to the temple. This will be the last place of refuge.”
“You must be careful in the days to come. For the human heart is capable of… turning demonic.”
