Loss of Control and Rot

After Yu Xing's explanation following his apparent resurrection, everyone basically understood the truth of the matter.

Zhou Yongsheng and Zhou Facai had fundamentally different stances. Zhou Facai saw Zhou Yongsheng as an ordinary young man and planned to hold a funeral like any other villager.

But Zhou Yongsheng knew this and didn't want his freedom restricted. His resistance was in vain, and after being strangled, he transformed into a ghost and began plotting other insidious schemes.

First, he happened to be classmates with Zhou Qinghai, so after dying, he sent a text message to lure Zhou Qinghai to town, preparing to kill Zhou Facai.

Then, he summoned his two "idols," the painter San and the Magician Carlos, along with two feng shui masters and two investigators, and a girl who came on her own to find her boyfriend, intending to turn them into his nourishment.

Every villager, every corpse, every funeral would have innocent outsiders tricked into staying, then their lives would be consumed by ignited special candles, granting the corpses in the coffins living characteristics.

The more people there were, the stronger the corpse's power would be after the funeral.

This was why Zhou Yongsheng gave Yu Xing and Xiao Xuechen hints, allowing them to escape the misfortune of the first night—it wasn't out of kindness; he simply didn't want his nourishment to be intercepted by other villagers.

And now, with the candles destroyed by Yu Xing, he had to personally kill the outsiders before the funeral ended.

As Yu Xing's plan was exposed piece by piece, Zhou Yongsheng's already terrifying face grew even more sinister.

"Since you're so eager to die first, I'll grant your wish!"

He finally stopped pretending to be a victim, leaped up, and sprang towards Yu Xing's location.

He looked just like a Jiangshi from folk legends!

Yu Xing nimbly dodged, holding his dagger defensively in a reverse grip.

"Go extinguish the candles!" he shouted to the others.

"Which ones?" Wei Fan asked.

"All of them." Yu Xing didn't need to answer; Xiao Xuechen already had the answer. She calmed down and spoke rapidly, "Zhou Yongsheng mentioned the candles' origin twice, so let's cut off their source. All the candles present, including those on the sides of the ancestral hall and in the villagers' hands, must be extinguished."

"Okay!" Wei Fan trusted Xiao Xuechen's words almost unconditionally. He immediately went with the Xu brothers, who were also acting, to the candle stands behind the cushions.

Zhou Yongsheng's eyes widened suddenly, almost shattering. "No! Die!"

He changed direction and lunged at Xiao Xuechen. Yu Xing glanced coldly and snorted, sidestepping to block him and simultaneously stabbing a dagger into its forehead.

Ghostly creatures couldn't be killed directly; the correct method had to be found. But one good thing was that attacks could delay and disrupt them.

Normal people would be at a disadvantage facing a ghostly creature and easily lose their lives, but capable deducers were different. They could use their own Sacrifices to devise various offensive strategies to buy time for others.

Clearly, at this moment, Yu Xing chose to be the one to block the ghostly creature.

The dagger left a hole in Zhou Yongsheng's head. There was no blood inside, only something indescribably disgusting. Yu Xing closed the distance, circling behind Zhou Yongsheng, twisting the blade, causing Zhou Yongsheng to howl in pain.

"Hmph." Xiao Xuechen, seeing Yu Xing block the attack for her, smirked. A black, miniature pistol suddenly appeared in her hand.

She aimed at Zhou Yongsheng's head, exposed by Yu Xing, and decisively pulled the trigger.

Bang!

The gunshot's roar deafened Yu Xing's eardrums and drew the attention of others.

"Sacrifice?" Yu Xing murmured, sensing a unique aura from the gun, similar to the Xu brothers' parchment.

Zhou Yongsheng's head was shot, and wisps of black energy emerged from the bullet wound. The black energy, as if sentient, formed into chains and tightly bound its head.

Instantly, Zhou Yongsheng's screams weakened, and its movements slowed considerably.

It can restrain ghostly creatures? Yu Xing's eyes lit up, and he became somewhat interested in the gun.

But Zhou Yongsheng wasn't easy to deal with either. It was, after all, a boss-level existence in the game. In just two seconds, the chains shattered and dissipated. It grabbed Yu Xing with one hand, its hardened, deformed hand reaching for Yu Xing's chest. Yu Xing kicked out, his strength unlike that of a normal person, sending Zhou Yongsheng flying back two meters. Its fingernails narrowly missed its intended target and sliced across Yu Xing's arm.

The fluffy shirt was torn open, revealing two bloody gashes on Yu Xing's firm arm muscles. Yu Xing felt the pain and casually glanced at the wound.

This injury... wasn't fatal.

And for him, a non-fatal injury...

The next second, as Zhou Yongsheng landed, these two gashes had already begun to heal.

He was careful not to let others see the condition of his wounds.

A necessary death was the most he could show in front of others; he could conceal it with the limited functions of his Sacrifice.

But if others discovered that his injuries healed so quickly... he'd be in trouble.

The dagger in his hand reflected the flickering light, and Yu Xing's expression turned excited.

While he and Xiao Xuechen were directly confronting Zhou Yongsheng, Carlos hadn't been idle.

"Zhou Qinghai, tell those villagers not to move." Seeing many villagers starting to rise and move towards them, Carlos commanded Zhou Qinghai.

Zhou Qinghai replied fearfully, "H-how can I tell them not to move?"

"Just tell them."

"Oh, okay, that!" Zhou Qinghai stretched his neck and shouted to the villagers kneeling outside the ancestral hall, "You all, don't, don't move around!"

The villagers looked at each other with dissatisfaction, but out of respect for the village chief as their leader, they complied.

Carlos ran among the villagers, holding a small knife, and sliced at the burning wicks.

Snip.

With a small sound, the candle was extinguished.

He glanced at Zhou Yongsheng, Yu Xing, and Xiao Xuechen, then immediately continued his actions. One by one, pinpricks of candlelight flickered out.

The candles on both sides of the ancestral hall were also being rapidly extinguished by the Xu brothers and Wei Fan.

It seemed the situation might end peacefully.

But Zhou Yongsheng would not let his plan be ruined so easily. Seeing that Yu Xing was even more inhuman than himself, and that Xiao Xuechen was too far away to kill, it used its positional advantage to return to the side of the black coffin.

It placed its hands on the coffin wall and repeated the words Zhou Facai had recited earlier, its voice hoarse and indistinct: "The departed shall not linger, beyond life and death, unextinguished, unquenched..."

An inexplicable sense of dread rose in the hearts of all the humans present.

When the coffin lid had been flung open earlier, the tray holding the special candles had also fallen to the ground, spilling candle tears everywhere. The tears, separated from the tray, quickly solidified, leaving scars on the floor.

As Zhou Yongsheng chanted, the candle tray and the black coffin began to tremble, as if reaching some kind of resonance.

Xiao Xuechen's second shot was ready, but suddenly her hands and feet turned ice-cold. Her vision uncontrollably drifted towards the candle tray, making it impossible to concentrate.

Moreover, the flesh on her forearm inexplicably began to soften, as if it were about to rot away.

This situation startled her greatly. She knew she had been cursed and immediately activated the first ability of the [Eye of Life], drawing 15% of her blood to create a shield invisible to everyone.

Instantly, the speed of her flesh's decay slowed. Enduring the dizziness from blood loss, she gritted her teeth, raised her gun, and fired again.

The shot inevitably went wide, hitting Zhou Yongsheng in the leg. Unfortunately, Zhou Yongsheng didn't need to move at that moment, and the sluggishness in its leg did not interrupt its chanting.

Carlos's hand, gripping the knife, faltered, nearly stabbing himself. His emerald eyes deepened slightly as he stopped himself just in time, then reached out and took out a new paper effigy.

He whispered, "To ward off disaster..."

As soon as the paper effigy appeared, it waved its arms erratically for a moment before rapidly decaying into a pile of ash.

"Control, disruption, and decay?" After sacrificing the paper effigy, Carlos's body returned to his control. He didn't waste a second, more rapidly pinching the candle wicks.

The villagers whose candles were extinguished became inhuman in the darkness, their malevolent intent growing. Fortunately, most of them still obeyed Zhou Qinghai and did not attack.

But one or two, their will broken by the power from the black coffin and the candle tray, got up, threw away their candles, and ran towards the living.

The actions of the others were more or less affected, their efficiency greatly reduced. Xu Hong was a bit unlucky; he was positioned very close to the outside of the ancestral hall. Because he lost control of his body, he accidentally fell to the ground, right into the grasp of a berserk villager. Instantly, pain pierced him.

Several villagers surrounded Xu Hong, their hard claws leaving bloody holes all over his body. Xu Hong screamed, drawing a heart-wrenching roar from Xu Yuan: "Brother!!"

He pulled a talisman from his small bag. The talisman began to burn fiercely, causing unbearable pain to his hand.

Xu Yuan endured the intense pain, forcing his movements, and flung the talisman towards the villagers.

The villagers seemed to fear it, releasing Xu Hong. Xu Yuan seized the opportunity to pull his brother away. Seeing his brother covered in severe injuries, he lost his composure, not even noticing that his own neck had begun to rot.

Only three candles were still lit on their side of the candle stand.

Yu Xing flicked his wrist. After Xiao Xuechen fired her second shot, he had already caught up behind Zhou Yongsheng.

Dedicating some attention to others, he had already realized the situation was dire. His leg also showed signs of decay, but it was constantly being repaired by his body. The decay and healing repeated, causing him more pain, but at least it didn't inflict any substantial damage.

And that control and disruption... had no effect on him.

He had to hurry.

Wei Fan was unexpectedly steady. The indiscriminate attacks from the black coffin and the candle tray seemed to cause him less damage. He quickly pinched the candle wicks, and the candles on one side were about to be completely extinguished.

Zhou Yongsheng watched all this with a smug look and continued its chant: "With the eyes of the living, the breath of the dead, bear witness..."

"Witness the correctness of solving the problem from the root." Yu Xing swung a dagger at Zhou Yongsheng's head, causing its already broken spine to lurch.

Then, instead of continuing to attack, Yu Xing rolled to the candle tray on the ground and picked it up.

"It's mine now." He gripped the candle tray, successfully breaking its resonance with the black coffin, forcing the invisible curse to halt.

An undeniable chill entered his body from the candle tray, and a wave of weakness washed over him.

He trembled and looked around.

The last candle outside the ancestral hall was extinguished by Carlos at that very moment.

The candles on the right side of the ancestral hall were all extinguished by Wei Fan.

But...

On the left candle stand, Xu Yuan and Xu Hong were clearly in a bad way. One was severely injured, likely stabbed in a vital spot, the other had decay on his neck, also fatal. Furthermore, several villagers, having broken free from the burning talisman, were lunging towards the two.

Three candles remained.

"Die, hahahaha..." Zhou Yongsheng looked at the chaos around them, feeling victory within reach.

It leaped towards the candle stand, guarding the last three candles.

Now, it just had to wait for the twins to die first. The villagers whose consciousness it had disrupted were now its to command. After killing the outsiders, its power would increase, while the others' combat effectiveness would be greatly reduced due to decay and loss of control, making escape impossible.

Its funeral would be perfect.

However, someone it had overlooked made its laughter abruptly stop.

Zhou Qinghai had, at some unknown point, appeared in front of the Xu brothers, holding a cattail fan.

His identity was "village chief," and he was protected by the rules here. Zhou Yongsheng's curse had no effect on him whatsoever.

Facing the attacking villagers, he shouted, "Ahhh, die for me!" while wildly swinging the fan with his eyes closed.

Although his strength was no match for the villagers, he did manage to buy the Xu brothers a little time to survive.

Yu Xing's lips curved into a smile. "Not bad."

He darted to an advantageous angle, raising the dagger in his hand. It flew out, straight towards the three candles, under Zhou Yongsheng's horrified gaze.

He was currently on the extension line of the three candles; this dagger could very well pierce all three!

Zhou Yongsheng roared and lunged, finally swatting the dagger away before it could reach its target.

"Fuck that son of a bitch!" Wei Fan, who witnessed this, cursed in frustration. But in the next moment, all three candles were extinguished simultaneously!

What happened?

Deprived of the light from the last three candles, the ancestral hall plunged into darkness. In the dim space, everyone only saw something slash through the air in a wide arc, flying back and forth.

Yu Xing reached out and caught the cold object. He looked at the candle holder, which he had used as a boomerang, in a good mood.

The dagger was a diversion. The moment he threw the dagger, he had tossed the candle holder using a different technique, accurately hitting the candles along its trajectory.

Plan successful.

Zhou Yongsheng's face was filled with disbelief, gradually freezing under everyone's expectant gazes.

...Having lost its "path," it had become a true, inactive corpse.

And those villagers all collapsed onto the ground.

[Funeral Interrupted]

[As the funeral cycle has been broken, the Coffin Village curse is lifted, and all corpses have returned to normal]

[Rest for one night and depart Coffin Village at 8 AM tomorrow]

Several consecutive deduction prompts appeared in everyone's minds. The mission was declared complete.

But... the injuries had not disappeared, and some were still hovering on the brink of death.