"Greed"-Still Not Enough Clues
"These villagers have stockpiled a lot of wine and fruit. Judging from their appearance, they seem to be slaughtering chickens, fish, pigs, or other livestock in a couple of days. There's no happy occasion or festival in the village, yet they're making such a big fuss. Plus, those things are usually used for sacrifices or offerings. I guess the villagers are planning to perform some kind of sacrifice or offering in the next few days."
Hearing this, everyone felt even more confused.
"Who are you offering sacrifices or prayers to? It can't be Awang's mother, can it?" the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap guessed casually. "Preparing offerings for Awang's mother while secretly hiring someone to exorcise evil spirits?"
"The village chief told us we should finish the exorcism within three days, because they might start the ritual in three days." The Man in a Suit seemed to agree with this guess.
Seeing that the guy in the hoodie next to him didn't seem inclined to speak, the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap recounted their discovery in the wheat field and the conversation between the villagers.
"Does 'How could anyone do that' mean watering wheat fields with blood? Does 'wanting to die' prove that the person who did that has already met with an accident?" The Young Woman in a Long Dress thought for a while and then gave her analysis, though her tone wasn't very certain.
The Curly-Haired Woman also looked thoughtful. "Another half month... Three people died half a month ago. Does the village chief's delay of half a month mean he doesn't agree to the sacrificial ceremony? He's said to be a 'good old man,' so what could be wrong with this ceremony that the village chief finds unacceptable?"
"Do you think one of those three people might be the owner of that wheat field?" The Young Man in a Duckbill Cap's eyes lit up; the more he thought about it, the more likely it seemed.
The Man in a Suit nodded. "Maybe."
"'Don't go out at night, and don't pay attention to knocking on the door.' Who could be knocking on the door tonight? Awang's mother?" The Curly-Haired Woman suddenly brought up these two pieces of advice.
The information gathered by the group was extensive, but it was too fragmented and almost impossible to connect.
After discussing it for a while, the group still couldn't come up with any deeper clues.
The Man in a Suit interrupted their conversation, "It's getting late. Let's go check on Awang's house first, and try to get back to our respective places before dark."
Villagers explicitly warned them not to go out at night, and of course they wouldn't risk their lives, at least not for the time being.
The six of them walked towards Awang's house.
According to Village Chief Zhu, after the fire, Awang's house was basically destroyed, but Awang refused to move out. So, he asked a few kind-hearted villagers who didn't like to gossip to help rebuild it.
They could tell that the house in front of them was indeed newer than the other villagers' houses, and it looked quite normal. The afterglow of the setting sun even gave the whole house a hazy feel when it shone on the eaves.
It doesn't look like a place where anything strange happens.
The Man in a Suit stepped forward and gently knocked on the courtyard gate.
Soon after, a boy opened the door a crack.
If Awang was 7 years old three years ago, then the boy should be 10 years old now. However, when the group looked at the boy, whose body was only partially visible through the crack in the door, they saw that he was clearly malnourished, thin and weak, and even shorter than the village chief's grandson.
"Who are you?" The boy's expression was full of vigilance, and anyone could hear the wariness in his words.
The Man in a Suit tried to make his expression appear friendly. "We are relatives of Village Chief Zhu..."
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the courtyard gate was slammed shut without warning.
Man in a Suit: "..."
He knocked on the courtyard gate again, but there was no response from inside.
With a sigh, the Man in a Suit turned around and said, "Looks like we're stuck here today, getting the cold shoulder."
The Young Woman in a Long Dress suggested, "Let's go back to our accommodation first; it's getting dark."
Everyone else agreed.
Awang refused to open the door; they couldn't stay there indefinitely.
The three houses that Village Chief Zhu allocated to them were not far away, with a certain distance between them.
Needless to say, the two girls naturally lived in the same house.
Of the remaining four men, the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap stood next to Xu Xi: "I'll stay with this guy."
Xu Xi glanced at him but didn't say anything.
It doesn't matter to him who he lives with.
Seeing that the Man in a Suit Young Man in a Duckbill Cap had approached the quietest young man in the group, the Young Man in a Hoodie turned to the last person in the line and asked, "Shall we go together?"
"Either is fine." The Tall, Thin Man nodded casually.
Xu Xi chose the house on the far left.
The basic items in the house all looked new, and there wasn't much dust on the floors, so it seemed like it had been cleaned recently.
There are two bedrooms, one for each of the two people.
After closing the door, Xu Xi first looked around the room and, finding nothing unusual, sat down on the edge of the bed.
He listened attentively to his teammates' discussion, but he mostly only guessed and made guesses.
The information was so disorganized and chaotic that Xu Xi didn't even know where to begin organizing it.
After thinking for a moment, he decided to start with the wheat field he had discovered that was abnormally ripe.
The entire field was a dark red color, and coupled with the pungent, fishy smell, the first conclusion he and the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap reached was that the wheat field was growing so fast and so vigorously because it had been irrigated with blood.
This is impossible in the real world, but anything is possible in Dungeon.
As for whether the blood was human or from other sources, such as animals...
Etc.
Xu Xi suddenly remembered something.
He remembered that the land wasn't very wet, but it wasn't dry either; it didn't look like it hadn't been irrigated for a long time, proving that the wheat field was still being taken care of.
If it were human blood, given the villagers' avoidance and "I'm tired of living" remarks on the edge of the field today, the owner of the wheat field is most likely dead. Would any villagers really risk their lives to regularly irrigate that wheat field?
If it's the blood of other creatures, then what's the purpose of watering that wheat field with blood?
We wouldn't actually eat it, would we?
And why did they choose that particular location?
If, as the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap guessed, the owner of the wheat field was one of the three villagers who died half a month ago, was the cause of death that the villager died because he used his blood to water the wheat field?
But what was so special about this death that it didn't even leave a grave?
How did the other two die?
This two-week timeframe also occurs quite frequently.
Three people died two weeks ago in a very unusual manner, completely different from the previous sixty-three deaths. The villagers panicked and planned to perform rituals, but the village chief has been delaying for two weeks and refuses to agree.
The reason for the delay is unclear, but judging from the term "good old man," something must have crossed the village chief's line of understanding or bottom line.
The village chief told them they should successfully exorcise the evil spirit within three days, meaning he didn't want the ritual to proceed?
And is it a simple ritual or is it to worship something... like Awang's mother?
Xu Xi rubbed her temples.
We're still missing clues.