The Misplaced Puppet

A maze is a maze. With the gatekeeper ghost chasing them, Yu Xing and Carlos couldn't possibly try every path one by one; they could only choose randomly.

The gatekeeper ghosts were able to keep up because they made too much noise.

However, Yu Xing was not worried about getting lost, because he had memorized all the paths he had taken. If he reached a dead end, he could simply turn back. Even if the gatekeeper was right behind him, he was not afraid. After seeing the gatekeeper with his own eyes, he had a clearer assessment of the gatekeeper's strength.

It shouldn't be a problem to exchange glances.

The Mingzhu were scattered throughout the passageway, making the interior quite dark. With no one else around, Yu Xing leaped up, kicked the wall, and used the recoil to glide around a corner at great speed.

Carlos quickly caught up. The Magician's physical abilities were unexpectedly strong. As he ran, his jacket fluttered in the wind, like a bunch of colorful blocks dancing wildly.

Even as the surroundings grew colder, producing white mist with their breath, their bodies gradually warmed up from the vigorous exercise.

"San, don't you think this place is too big?"

What does it mean to build an underground maze? How much manpower and resources would that require?

"Of course it's huge." Yu Xing panted, his stamina was only at a normal level, and he probably wouldn't be able to run any longer. "The maze isn't just a maze, it's a formation. Everything we perceive now isn't necessarily real."

Carlos was just making conversation. "Hey, you..."

Before the words were finished, the gatekeeper roared, the sound piercing their minds, making them feel as if their brains had been hit by a heavy hammer, buzzing.

Both of them stumbled. Yu Xing had gone too fast and couldn't stop in time, accidentally crashing into the wall in front of him, his arm aching.

He was forced to stop. Carlos glanced at him, stopped as well, and tugged at him. "Don't stop!"

"Don't rush." Yu Xing straightened up slowly and looked at the approaching gatekeeper ghost.

The gatekeeper's long robe sleeves were in the way, and he raised his withered hand, his toothless mouth splitting open to reveal a disgusting and chilling smile.

It seems to know that two living people are no longer able to move, which means it can take back its Ghost Controlling Seal!

Yu Xing glanced at the time absentmindedly; there were still five and a half minutes left in the ten-minute countdown.

The chain on the gatekeeper's wrist came crashing down on him like a meteor hammer. He narrowed his eyes, turned his head to dodge, and casually rummaged in his bag.

"Carlos, do me a favor."

Yu Xing got what she wanted, then rolled away from the gatekeeper's chains. "Hold it off for thirty seconds."

Carlos immediately knew what plan he had come up with, and replied, "Okay, only thirty seconds. I'll be running if it's longer."

Yu Xing ignored him, moved aside, and with a flick of her wrist, revealed what was in his hand.

A dirty incense burner.

Yu Xing didn't pay attention to how Carlos stalled for time. He simply shook the incense burner, took out three incense sticks, opened the lid, and inserted them into the messy incense ash.

The incense sticks ignited spontaneously as soon as they were inserted. Yu Xing knelt down and placed the incense burner steadily, then smelled the incense.

This is one of the two tools he can use; its purpose is... to appease the ghostly corpse.

He remained kneeling, moving the incense burner between himself and the gatekeeper ghost, making it appear as if he were offering sacrifices to the ghost.

Having done all that, thirty seconds had passed. Carlos blocked the chains with a dagger, not even turning his head. "Are you done yet!?"

"Alright, move aside," Yu Xing said.

Carlos quickly retreated, leaving only the gatekeeper ghost standing there.

Strangely, the gatekeeper ghost was no longer as agitated as before, as if it had truly received some kind of ritual. Its ferocious aura gradually subsided, and its hands fell to its sides.

Carlos breathed a sigh of relief as he watched this scene. He knew he shouldn't speak or disturb them at this moment, and then he noticed the Ghost Controlling Seal that Yu Xing had casually placed on the ground beside him.

Yu Xing was kneeling, and it was unclear whether it was a forced requirement to use offerings or props. Carlos's gaze lingered on the Ghost Controlling Seal, and he tiptoed past Yu Xing's line of sight, attempting to steal it.

"You really want it that much? While I'm dealing with the gatekeeper ghost?" Just as Carlos bent down, his fingers about to touch the Ghost Controlling Seal, Yu Xing suddenly laughed.

He broke the silence with his words, but the gatekeeper didn't react; it seemed he had been appeased quite well.

Carlos froze. "Wasn't this stolen through skill?"

"Oh, then you give it a try." Yu Xing's eyes crinkled with a smile, which made Carlos hesitate.

The phrase "Then you try it" is usually used in threatening statements, isn't it?

Try it and you'll die.

"You're bluffing me," Carlos said firmly.

Yu Xing's smile deepened, "I'm not kidding you, take it."

"Do you think I'm easily scared?" Carlos clicked his tongue, picked up the Ghost Controlling Seal, and then quickly retreated.

He thought Yu Xing would take some action against him, at least verbally express her disappointment, but Yu Xing remained unmoved.

The incense burned shorter and shorter, Yu Xing saw that another layer of ash had accumulated in the incense burner.

Perhaps because the gatekeeper ghost was still very strong, the incense seemed to be consumed, burning several times faster than normal incense.

When only a small section remained, he pretended to put the incense burner away.

The gatekeeper ghost has completely calmed down. The [dirty incense burner] item can only be used three times, so it is very effective.

Yu Xing is the user of the prop, and he can get feedback. In his perception, the gatekeeper ghost should go berserk again in about ten minutes.

During this time, he could have quietly left without the gatekeeper finding him.

"Carlos." Yu Xing put away the incense burner and called out to Carlos.

Carlos toyed with the small token of the Ghost Controlling Seal between his fingers, tilting his head. "Hmm? It might be a little too late to snatch it back now. There are only two minutes left."

"That's not what I wanted to tell you. I wanted to say..." Yu Xing looked up, glancing meaningfully at the ceiling, "Something's here again."

The gatekeeper ghosts were appeased, but the things that were originally in the maze had been drawn in by their prolonged stay in the same place.

That was a huge pile of hair.

No one has ever said that the maze is safe except for the gatekeeper ghost. Even ordinary tombs are full of dangers, let alone the demon daoist tomb that is full of eeriness.

I don't know when it started, but the corners of the winding corridor have been filled with hair. They spread and wriggle like worms, yet they are silent.

Carlos only noticed the hair after Yu Xing reminded him. He looked up following Yu Xing's gaze and saw a strand of hair hanging down on his head, almost reaching his forehead.

The top of this strand of hair was tied in a knot, making it look like a hanging rope.

Carlos felt a chill run down his spine. The danger was so close, and he hadn't even noticed!

It seems this hair ghost is very good at interfering with people's perception. Even though he saw the dense stream of hair coming towards him, his brain couldn't process it, as if his brain was uncontrollably ignoring it.

An ordinary person standing here would probably only realize they were surrounded by a bunch of hair that shouldn't be there, until the hair got around their neck and they felt suffocated and in pain.

Yu Xing was also surrounded by strands of hair, which swept over him like waves. He lowered his eyes, put on his backpack, and drew his Tang sword.

A tuft of hair climbed up to the top of his head, forming a noose that hung down in front of Yu Xing.

He would simply walk forward normally and then personally put his head in.

A flash of silver light appeared, and the knotted rope fell lifelessly to the ground. Yu Xing sheathed his sword and walked forward with a calm expression. Carlos had already walked a long way ahead to avoid the knotted hair, and there was no more hair coming out.

Once back in Carlos's sight, Yu Xing paused for a moment. "I've calmed the gatekeeper ghost down. Let's get out of here as quickly as possible, before it regains its senses, and then you can use your paper doll to find them."

"Hmm." Carlos opened his mouth, then suddenly his pupils contracted. "Wait..."

Yu Xing seemed oblivious to the knot of hair hanging down in front of her, and headed straight for it without even trying to avoid it.

In an instant, a thought flashed through Carlos's mind.

It's not that "if he dies here, no one will fight me for the Ghost Controlling Seal," but rather...

"This guy just warned me about other ghosts appearing, but now he's pretending not to see them. Is he testing whether I can be ruthless towards him before deciding whether to take the Ghost Controlling Seal back?"

In a split second of weighing his options, he not only shouted "Watch out!" but also immediately used his dagger to cut the knot in front of Yu Xing.

This type of hair is plentiful and not very tough; it's the kind that's easy to cut.

Yu Xing's "crisis" subsided, he looked into Carlos green eyes, and the countdown on the Persona Mask panel reached its final twenty-odd seconds.

"Stop testing me with such a idiotic act, okay?" Carlos twirled the Ghost Controlling Seal between his fingers in annoyance. "Anyone with a brain and the ability to react in a crisis wouldn't believe you."

I wasn't testing your attitude, I was just testing your intelligence.

Carlos never expected Yu Xing to say such shameless things. As they spoke, they had already escaped the area bound by the hair knot and arrived at a completely new area they had never seen before.

With five seconds left, Yu Xing raised her hand and handed Carlos a gold plaque covered in an unknown substance. "Take this."

Carlos: "?"

He took the sign, and his first thought was that Yu Xing steal things. He had managed to steal the Ghost Controlling Seal back without anyone noticing, and he, as a top Magician, hadn't even noticed. How carefree!

However, the next second, he touched the Ghost Controlling Seal he had taken earlier, and the small token was still in his pocket.

This indicates that Yu Xing gave him and what he took away were not the same thing. Upon closer inspection, the two are different; the former is covered by a semi-transparent substance that is smooth and concealed, and cannot be seen at all without careful observation.

The latter, however, has a darker, blackish appearance, like normal gold that has been stored for a long time.

Five seconds later, the system countdown abruptly stopped.

[Time's up, and after assessment, the Ghost Controlling Seal is not in your possession.]

[Mission failed]

[Mission Penalty: A scripted assassin will arrive within 30 minutes. Survival chance is 50%. Please be prepared.]

Three notifications flashed through Yu Xing's mind, indicating his rare mission failure.

Unlike Yu Xing.

Carlos received a notification that the mission was complete, then belatedly realized, "You made a fake Ghost Controlling Seal? When? How did you have the time?"

"I don't need to do it. Didn't you see? There are plenty of them on the gatekeeper's belt." Yu Xing was impressed with her own cleverness. The gatekeeper's belt was simply a deceptive item. It had golden plaques that looked like scales on it, deliberately made to resemble the Ghost Controlling Seal. The Ghost Controlling Seal would be hard to find if it were mixed in with other items.

It's likely that the demon daoist had this very plan: to make the tomb raiders think the Ghost Controlling Seal was on their belts, and after searching for a long time, they would overlook the location of the long tongue at the root of the tongue.

"But... since you were so cunning and managed to fool me with the fake one, why give me the real one?" Carlos couldn't understand. This was a plot-driven death with a 50% survival rate, the level of danger equivalent to a targeted attack in the later stages of a normal scenario. Yu Xing just handed over this safe opportunity like that?

Not to mention the crucial clue that was part of the mission reward.

"I saw you take the fake one without a second thought, and I even wondered if you had a problem with your intelligence." Yu Xing glanced at him. "But then I thought about it for you. You hadn't examined the Ghost Controlling Seal carefully, so it's normal that you couldn't recognize it. Besides, maybe you're not good at identifying real from fake. So, I decided to test you from a different angle."

"It turns out you have a very accurate grasp of human psychology."

"So what does this have to do with you helping me?" Carlos raised an eyebrow.

"You've proven yourself to be a valuable teammate. Relatively speaking, you're more important than a 50% survival rate." Yu Xing, who could potentially face a scripted death at any moment, waited with a secret sense of satisfaction. "For me, a 50% mortality rate is too low; it's not that important."

"I'm impressed. You should have said so earlier. I wouldn't have been so worried about myself." Carlos was both surprised by Yu Xing's tolerance and respect for his teammates, and speechless at Yu Xing's usual quirky sense of humor.

Whether a 50% mortality rate is low or not is hard to say; many experts would definitely think it is low, but Yu Xing has resurrection items.

Carlos still remembers the resurrection he witnessed in Coffin Village. Carlos had only ever heard of such a powerful sacrifice, never having had the chance to obtain one.

"What's the point of saying that already? I wanted to see your reaction first," Yu Xing said with a smile, leaving the rest of her sentence unsaid.

After watching it, I must say that Carlos is like an unruly wolf cub, but he is very talented in some areas and deserves attention.

The two men slowed their pace, and after more than five minutes, they had turned five or six corners and could no longer hear the gatekeeper ghost's frequent cries.

Without a moment's silence, Carlos walked next to Yu Xing and nudged Yu Xing with his elbow.

"Do you have any other questions?" Yu Xing asked before he could speak.

"How did you realize it was the hair ghost?" Carlos stood there, completely oblivious, while Yu Xing, crouching there, was still focused on the gatekeeper ghost. How could she multitask like that?

"Simple, because I saw something that shouldn't be here in that corridor just now," Yu Xing replied matter-of-factly. "It was on the ground, something left behind by modern people. The people from Oster Company didn't open the gatekeeper's coffin. If that team hurriedly left something behind, why would they do that? I can only guess that there are other dangers in the maze."

"Thinking about this made me snap out of it and I noticed the hair."

He pulled a tiny, palm-sized doll from his pocket. The little boy in the black suit looked at him with hopeful eyes. "This is it."