Eat Up, This Fish Is Edible

Carlos watched him, completely engrossed in the role, with a complicated expression, almost unable to distinguish which personality was the real San.

He was happy to watch the show and didn't intend to expose Yu Xing's disguise. Just like he had told Yu Xing before, they were all predictors, and these NPCs were ultimately from a different world than them. There was no need to offend other predictors, especially those with whom they had a good relationship, for the sake of the NPCs' position.

The team finally returned. Yu Xing didn't block the door; after exchanging a brief greeting with them, she went back into the ancestral hall. Carlos and his teammates also went inside, and the small ancestral hall suddenly became somewhat crowded.

"Is this how you treat my paper doll?" Carlos picked up the small paper doll, which had been shriveled by the water, from the ground, raised an eyebrow, and looked at Yu Xing with a half-smile.

Yu Xing glanced at the paper figure, then lowered her head in apology. "No, on your way here, that fish went berserk again, stirring up the water. I wasn't paying attention, and your paper figure got splashed."

He would never admit that he was just bored and wanted to tease the strange fish, so he used the paper figure as bait to dangle on the water's surface.

Anyway, Carlos didn't see it.

Carlos didn't see it, but he didn't believe Yu Xing's explanation. When he lost contact, the paper figure was next to the black coffin, and now? Now it's next to the hidden door!

The paper figure in his hand was still barely recognizable and usable. Carlos held the paper figure between his fingers and sensed the information it conveyed.

"You're really something." He chuckled, not angry at all, but he glanced meaningfully at Yu Xing's fingers.

When people lie, even if they can control their facial micro-expressions, they usually don't pay attention to the disguise of their finger movements. If a person's fingers are particularly stiff and don't move when they are speaking, they are probably not telling the truth.

Carlos has studied magic for so many years, and his fingers are his most sensitive tool. He has always used this method to discern the truthfulness of others' words and has never made a mistake.

Yu Xing noticed his gaze, smiled, and shrugged, "I'm sorry, it's my fault."

Wow, those finger movements are so natural.

Carlos knew all along that Yu Xing wasn't telling the truth; he just wanted to see if he would make the same mistake as others, and sure enough, Yu Xing didn't disappoint him.

Furthermore, this practiced way of admitting mistakes is just too much!

Shi Jiu glanced at the interior of the ancestral hall; she had been on her way and had not entered the hall before.

After looking around, she murmured, "This place is almost identical to the other ancestral halls, except for this... pool?"

"It's a secret door." There was no point in hiding it, so Yu Xing explained to her, "This is a secret door mechanism I found after I arrived. Below it is an underground river, and there's a very scary fish in it."

"I've already told Shi Jiu and the others about that fish." Carlos first dissuaded Yu Xing from going through the details again, then lazily looked at his teammates. "It's here. Don't be fooled by the inconspicuous secret door; that fish is really ferocious. Anyone who doesn't believe me can try luring it out themselves later."

Ash said confidently, "Sure, I've been wanting to go fishing for ages."

"Don't blame me for not warning you, that fish is several times more terrifying than the half-resurrected ones that injured Unica. If you want to play around, don't end up killing yourself," Carlos jokingly reminded him.

He couldn't do anything about Ash; Ash was always eager to do anything, whether it was fighting or causing trouble.

"I know, I know, don't you trust me?" Ash's spoken English had a poor accent, but overall he was quite fluent in Chinese.

The group found a place to sit and rest. They retreated without stopping, worried about any unexpected troubles along the way, so they didn't rest until dark.

Now, we've finally arrived at a safe place. Originally, this place wasn't safe because of the presence of hunchbacked people, and no one dared to approach it.

However, Carlos had already described to them the latter part of the scene Yu Xing killed the hunchback. While they were shocked by the amazing hidden strength of the painter San, they were also delighted by the death of the hunchback.

It can be said that no rest was allowed on the second half of the journey, and everyone persevered with the belief that "keep going, we can sleep when we get to the ancestral hall."

When the moon is high in the sky, it's the time for most people to sleep, and some begin to feel tired after a brief period of excitement.

Yu Xing understood them; he didn't care how much longer he had to stay in the ancestral hall, so he let them decide.

Now, these people are setting up their pots and pans, planning to cook a good meal before bed.

"A pot?" Yu Xing stared at what Carlos had taken out, somewhat surprised.

Brother Sun's team only brought dry rations, compressed biscuits, and at most canned food. Compared to Carlos's team, Brother Sun immediately looked incredibly poor.

"Yeah, haven't had a hot meal in ages, have you?" Carlos said with a grin, shaking the pot as if to show off, before setting it on the rising fire.

"Haha, our team always eats hot food to ensure we get the nutrition we need so we don't run out of energy later. Now that you've joined, I'll have to cook for one more person." The oldest man in the team was almost fifty, with a beard and slightly long hair; he was a very classy-looking middle-aged man.

He was probably the best cook and was in charge of the team's meals. He snatched the spoon from Carlos's hand, which Carlos was playing with, and glared at Carlos as if he were looking at an unruly son.

Carlos didn't care about being glared at. He pointed to the uncle and introduced him to Yu Xing: "Uncle Zhang, don't let his job as a cook fool you, he's actually our team's Doctor. He's incredibly skilled. Look at Unica, her intestines were pulled out, and Uncle Zhang was able to put them back in."

Just a heads-up, this app is really great, worth installing. It has a huge library of books, a wide selection, and updates quickly!

Yu Xing's gaze drifted to Unica, who was reclining to the side. Meeting her alluring eyes, he lowered his gaze slightly.

Unica's abdomen was wrapped in thick bandages, but not a drop of blood seeped out, indicating that she had been treated very well.

Yu Xing Unica's attempt to blow her a kiss, Yu Xing turned around and cheerfully called out, "Hello, Uncle Zhang ~ Thank you, Uncle Zhang."

Uncle Zhang smiled faintly, wanting to chat with Yu Xing again and try to get some information, but Shi Jiu sat down next to him and sent Uncle Zhang off to cook.

Shi Jiu was probably the most exhausted person here. She hadn't rested much in the past few days, and she was so hungry that she decided she wouldn't sleep without eating meat.

Because once she falls asleep, she won't wake up until morning.

To combat her sleepiness, she came specifically to chat with Yu Xing.

Then Yu Xing saw this woman with a ponytail, quite dashing and unrestrained in Brother Sun's team, her eyes drooping from sleep, her head nodding slowly as she persistently searched for a topic to talk about.

"San, you're such a master of deception. I actually thought you were... ugh... a painter who can't fight, and I always thought of you for the easiest things."

During the Shi Jiu yawned, and Carlos laughed at him, saying, "You're so sleepy, anyone would think you're going to eat someone."

"Shut the hell up, I'm not eating anyone. Damn it, don't talk to me about food." Shi Jiu frantically scratched his hair, his eyes involuntarily glancing towards Uncle Zhang's pot, or rather, Uncle Zhang's pot.

Carlos ignored her and resumed his role as the introducer. "Nineteen, like Ash, she's a mercenary. Nineteen is also the only female mercenary I can find right now. She's very capable, but she has a bit of a temper."

Yu Xing nodded to indicate that she had remembered, and then said, "Why don't you just introduce everyone?"

These people were so happy to enter the ancestral hall that they did not formally introduce themselves.

"Okay, besides me, Uncle Zhang, Shi Jiu, and Ash, Unica is a historian... That's right, although she's a foreigner, she studies her own country's history and is very knowledgeable about it."

"And then there's this one over here..." Carlos pointed to the young man with black hair leaning against the side, feigning sleep, "On the surface, he's a geography major, a top student, but actually his family is a family of feng shui masters. He's quite capable."

"This is for learning divination."

"And over here, a few people from a family of tomb raiders."

"That's true, but they all have some ability to fight ghosts, so there's no need to worry about their strength. This team has no leader; everyone is a friend and partner, and decisions require the approval of a majority to be effective."

Carlos gave a brief explanation, and Yu Xing followed along, recognizing each face one by one, before tilting her head slightly.

"How come there are only eleven people, including you?"

Carlos paused for a moment. "It was originally an eleven-person team."

Yu Xing responded with an "Oh," but didn't say anything else, as if it had just been a casual question.

He crossed his arms and tapped his sleeves rhythmically with his fingers.

But what he said next was anything but casual.

"When you arrived, I counted your numbers from a distance; there were twelve in total, but your group only has eleven. One of the people I saw wasn't a person, is that what you mean?"

Twelve, one more than eleven.

What that extra figure was was a question that hardly needed explanation on Heavy Yin Mountain.

Carlos's first reaction was that Yu Xing had miscounted because she was far away. Then he realized that, given Yu Xing's personality, she wouldn't have brought it up with him like that if Yu Xing wasn't sure.

Moreover, Yu Xing's eyesight should be quite good, so there's probably no possibility that he miscounted.

In other words, when their team entered the ancestral hall, there was indeed one extra person in the group!

Shi Jiu, who was dozing off, suddenly woke up with a start. "What?"

The distress in her eyes vanished almost instantly, replaced by a sharp glint that was impossible to ignore.

Yu Xing felt honored to be an alarm clock.

Carlos's heart raced slightly, but his expression remained unchanged as he subtly glanced towards the team.

One, two, three... nine, ten, eleven.

That's right.

"That's right now." Carlos lowered his voice, so that to others it would look like he, Shi Jiu, and Yu Xing were chatting idly. "You really saw one more person?"

Yu Xing said, "There's no need to be too nervous."

Carlos: "What do you mean?"

Yu Xing: "It's nothing more than a ghost that can evade your senses and sneaks into your team. It's not a big deal."

Shi Jiu: "Are you serious?"

Carlos: "... Don't make sarcastic remarks, this is your team now too."

Hmm, that makes sense.

Yu Xing turned his head to look at the others. When he was counting people, he was too far away to see their figures and clothes, but not their faces.

Aside from Carlos's brightly colored clothes and Unica's blonde hair, which allowed him to identify them at a glance, the others were not easily recognizable. The extra ghostly thing took advantage of this and quietly blended in among them.

"It's gone now, but since it infiltrated your ranks unnoticed, it means it had the ability to go undetected. Nobody knows how long it had been following you before this." With Shi Jiu present, Yu Xing analyzed the situation with utmost seriousness, diligently fulfilling his role as San.

The matter was somewhat frightening to recall, but Yu Xing had overlooked one point, which Carlos himself quickly realized.

Carlos's tense back relaxed slightly. "But like you said, it's not a big deal. If its goal was to kill us, why didn't it attack us along the way? It's probably because it didn't dare. There are too many of us, and we're not weak."

"We didn't discover it before, but now that we do, there are many ways to find it, so there's no need to panic."

This is the confidence of an experienced tomb raiding team.

Soon, Uncle Zhang finished cooking and called everyone to eat. Yu Xing also joined in and was given a stainless steel bowl.

Tonight's dish is fish, fresh fish, sourced from a small river in front of this road.

The team had caught about ten fish, intending to eat them for dinner. Ash, the most enthusiastic member, carried them in a fish basket. Then they encountered danger, and most of the fish died, but Ash managed to save five.

The fish were quite large; five were enough for twelve people, but they still wouldn't be full.

Although there were other vegetables, Ash wasn't happy. He looked at the fish in his bowl for a while, then suddenly asked, "Can we eat the fish from the river inside the compound?"

Yu Xing recalled the strange fish's layers of sharp teeth and nodded, "Edible."

"Eat my ass!" Carlos quickly stopped Ash, who wanted to fish on the spot. "It's the fish that'll eat you!"

Ash was hungry and wanted to eat more, and with Yu Xing's encouraging look, he stood up. "I'll give it a try."

Seeing Ash actually walk towards the hidden door, Yu Xing silently turned to the side, turning her back to the hidden door to protect her food.

Two minutes later

With a loud splash, accompanied by the sound of water hitting the ground, teeth clenching, and Ash uttering a foreign language swear word, water sprayed everywhere. Everyone's first reaction was to hold their food close to their arms, while turning to look at Ash with concern.

Ash fell flat on his backside. The mercenary's reaction speed was amazing; he perfectly dodged the monster fish's attack, but his front was soaked through with water.

All the others could see was a glimpse of fish skin hidden behind the concealed door. Carlos, seeing that Ash was alright, gloated, "See? Are you eating the fish or is the fish eating you? Do you still want to eat it?"

"I'm not eating anymore, I'm not eating anymore!" Ash scrambled to his feet, his face still showing fear, then chuckled sheepishly. "I think I can eat my fill without it now."

He then looked at Yu Xing: "You're such a bad person."