Everyone Is Not On The Same Timeline

It's no wonder Lin was surprised; Yu Xing and Carlos had already discussed this matter privately, and their thinking was definitely much clearer than those who had discussed it.

"Something's off about Unica from the moment she appeared. A clerical worker, let alone how she managed to keep going with such severe wounds, she's not only incredibly agile, but her historical research also contains logical inconsistencies."

Yu Xing's words invigorated Master Li, Lin, Carlos, and Shi Jiu was listening through the microphone.

Quite coincidentally, all five people present knew that there was a ghost who had "sneaked in" into the group.

Master Li turned his gaze away from the gruesomely dead bespectacled man and said, "Tell me what you think."

"First, my initial suspicion of her came in front of the Gatekeeper's coffin. She knew the legend of the Gatekeeper very well; even Uncle Zhang couldn't find any omissions in her account to fill in the gaps. This shows that Unica's research in this area was quite in-depth. Under such circumstances, how could she be completely ignorant of the Ghost Controlling Seal, which almost all of you tomb raiders have heard of? It would be more reasonable if she even had an impression of the name."

"That's right." Master Li nodded. These were all obvious points of suspicion, but what was frightening was that no one had noticed them before. "Anything else?"

Of course there are more, but before Yu Xing could speak, Carlos interjected, "Of course, think about it, but so far, who was the last person the dead and missing met?"

Ash disappeared, and the last person to see him was Unica.

Uncle Zhang disappeared, and the last person to see him was Unica.

The bespectacled man died... needless to say.

"That woman, Unica..." Lin pursed his lips.

"Actually, you've started to suspect her too." Yu Xing looked at Lin, "After entering the maze, your attitude towards her changed drastically."

"Well, because I'm much more perceptive than usual when I'm doing calculations, I noticed some strange things." Lin seemed a little upset as she said this, as if she'd swallowed a fly. "I realized that I don't have any feelings for her, but before this, I really felt like I had some kind of connection with her."

"That's right, when I was listening to gossip in the ancestral hall... I heard that half of the men in this group had some private conversations with Unica." Yu Xing looked at the three men present besides himself, "But then I thought about it, and we didn't have enough people."

Including him, there were only ten men in his team, maybe eleven.

Uncle Zhang, Master Li, Carlos, Will, and the bespectacled man had never shown any extra attention to Unica, and now Lin was saying the same thing.

So it's very likely that the idea that "Unica has a relationship with the men in the team" exists in everyone's mind, but the person they're having a relationship with isn't themselves.

After they finished speaking, they fell silent for a moment, as if they understood, yet they were still shrouded in a thick fog.

Because it's still very strange.

Yu Xing hadn't been able to definitively confirm that Unica was the ghost who had infiltrated the shrine because there was something he couldn't quite explain: he clearly remembered that when he stood at the entrance of the shrine and watched Carlos's team approach, the first thing he noticed was Unica's blonde hair and Carlos's distinctive clothing.

The person who missed counting back then... couldn't have been Unica.

In other words, besides Unica, who has already been exposed, there is another ghost in this team, but that shouldn't be the case... the number of people doesn't seem to add up.

It seems that no matter what you do, something is wrong; all logical conclusions are blocked.

"Forget it, let's find Unica first. If she's a ghost, we'll definitely be ambushed by her again." Carlos scratched his gray-blue hair, a little helpless. "Now let's check what clues the glasses have left, and then solve the problem of the Ghost Tongue Flower. I just realized they're not mimicking our speech anymore."

Indeed, after everyone came out, they should have heard the ghost-tongued parrot mimicking their words, but these big white flowers were as dead as ever, showing no reaction at all.

"Perhaps something is suppressing their instincts, like their owner," Yu Xing guessed. Since Unica had just been there, the Ghost Tongues had only just learned the name of this big, stupid flower, and that's why they kept quiet, lest their attempts to speak reveal what Unica had done to Uncle Zhang and the bespectacled man.

He approached the bespectacled man's body, intending to examine whether there were any other wounds besides being pierced by the trap, when Shi Jiu spoke up in Carlos's microphone, "His camera is still useful. If possible... take it off and take it with you."

Carlos hummed in agreement, and was about to repeat it to Yu Xing when he suddenly felt a strong sense of unease as he spoke.

The sense of unease had arisen many times since he entered this simulation, which he had always attributed to the ability of a certain ghost to alter memories. But now, an arrow seemed to be pointing at everyone standing here.

Yu Xing had seen many corpses, including his own, so although the bespectacled man's death was rather gruesome, he wasn't particularly moved.

Ignoring the uniform, knife-stained wounds, he turned the body over, trying to take the opportunity to confirm whether Unica was armed.

Upon searching, he indeed found a smaller penetrating wound on the bespectacled man's shoulder. The diameter of the wound was clearly different from other wounds, indicating that it was caused by a separate weapon.

The wound has stopped bleeding, so it doesn't seem to be a very new wound, but it hasn't scabbed over yet, and there are signs that the surface has been soaked and rotted.

Yu Xing's lips curled into a smile as she narrowed her eyes and began to calculate more carefully.

Given this length, wound angle, and depth... only...

Yu Xing: "...?"

As Yu Xing was calculating, Yu Xing suddenly realized that the size of the wound looked familiar.

It seems similar to his Tang sword?

Good grief, the investigation has led to their own downfall.

He remained silent for about ten seconds, then silently drew his Tang sword and compared it to the object. Seeing this, Lin immediately stopped him. "What are you doing? Are you going to dissect it?"

"No... I just feel like, did I stab him with my sword?" Yu Xing didn't hide anything, and the doubt in his tone didn't seem fake, which made Lin's eye twitch.

"Don't you know whether you stabbed him or not? Doesn't he know either?" Lin, fearing Yu Xing was under some kind of spell, slapped him. "During the long time he was with us just now, if you really harmed him, he would have told Master Li long ago. It's not your place to ask."

"The scary thing is, he doesn't even know he was stabbed by me." Yu Xing looked at the wound, the marks from being soaked particularly glaring. Seeing Lin's blank expression, he smiled. "After I went into the tomb, I stabbed a living creature. You should remember, the Water Ghost that attacked me when I first reached the stone platform outside the tomb's main gate."

That's right, according to Yu Xing's calculations, the location of this wound should be roughly the same as the spot where he stabbed the Water Ghost that was clinging to his leg.

An unexpected injury led him to discover a very interesting secret.

If the bespectacled man was the Water Ghost from that time... then why was the bespectacled man alive later on?

Moreover, the Water Ghost and the bespectacled man on the shore appeared at the same time, but Yu Xing did not dive down to see the Water Ghost's face.

"What do you mean? You mean one of the glasses turned into Water Ghost, and the other one is still a person who followed us here and was killed by Unica?" Shi Jiu, who was in the earpiece, also heard Yu Xing's words. She was surprised, and then she and Master Li thought of Will's divination results.

Will killed Will.

In both cases, more than one version of oneself appeared.

Carlos was startled awake by the sound of Shi Jiu's questioning voice.

"Wrong!"

His unease, which had been building up, suddenly erupted, like a ray of light piercing through layers of fog. "I remember now, aren't our cameras and microphones distributed incorrectly?"

Carlos spoke incredibly fast, not waiting for anyone to react. "I remember when we went underwater, there were only three cameras, given to Glasses, Ash, and Master Li. Shi Jiu said she saw Unica's terrified expression on Uncle Zhang, so... where did Uncle Zhang's camera come from?"

A flicker of confusion crossed his eyes. "What's even more inexplicable is, where did my camera come from?"

He then looked at Yu Xing: "Everyone should have communication equipment, and the microphone on Glasses' corpse wasn't there, so it could be said that it was taken. San, where's your microphone?"

Yu Xing tilted his head, then belatedly realized that he should have a microphone and could hear Shi Jiu's instructions directly, instead of needing Carlos to relay them.

I don't know when things turned out this way.

This goes beyond just being bizarre; it's as if everything is different from what they remember.

Shi Jiu said, "Calm down! This is too strange. You were separated in the tomb, so it would make sense if something was tampered with because of that. But I was on the shore watching the monitor the whole time, and I didn't even notice that the subject of the camera feed had changed. They even continued to talk to you naturally. It seems like I was also..."

"Shh," Carlos stopped Shi Jiu, whispering, "Shi Jiu, judging from this situation, there's another ghost on the shore, right beside you."

Only four people remained after entering the tomb. Master Li and Lin could be trusted, Unica was some unknown ghost, but the truly unnoticed ghost was definitely a "male".

Carlos said, "Maybe it's watching the monitor with you right now, or even trying to get closer to hear what the person in your earpiece is saying."

This sounds like a ghost story.

Shi Jiu on the shore felt uneasy, and she knew the seriousness of the situation. Without confirming her own safety, she chose to stop this undisguised communication to avoid being discovered by the ghosts mingling with her.

However, Carlos's voice was very persuasive; Magician can easily make people believe what they say. Shi Jiu subconsciously turned her head.

With that turn, she almost bumped into Will, whose ear was close to hers, before he could back away.

Will raised his hand, his thumb and forefinger spread apart, next to Shi Jiu's neck, in a position where he could grab her neck at any moment.

Shi Jiu: "..."

After so many years as a mercenary, Shi Jiu felt a chill run down her spine for the first time, experiencing a complete stiffness and icy coldness.

She flashed a flawless smile, "Will, what are you doing? Getting so close to me, I almost kissed you."

Will glanced back at the three members of the tomb-raiding family who were gathered together, focused on the monitor, and casually withdrew his hand, returning Shi Jiu's faint smile, "It's nothing, I just kept hearing you say that Glasses is dead, and Uncle Zhang and Unica are missing. I wanted to hear the details too."

Shi Jiu shook his head. "Things aren't quite clear yet. I'll let you know once they've sorted things out."

Will hummed in agreement, straightened up, and walked around to stand behind the three members of the tomb-raiding family.

Shi Jiu broke out in a cold sweat. She pretended to be nonchalant and looked away, just as Carlos said, "Will? He didn't do anything to you, did he?"

Shi Jiu and Wine whispered, "If I'm not mistaken, he's been eavesdropping silently for a long time. If I hadn't turned around in time, he would have strangled me."

Carlos: "..." Hiss, that's terrifying.

A chill ran through his body. He relayed Shi Jiu's words to the other three, and Lin and Master Li also involuntarily got goosebumps.

Carlos cautioned, "Be very careful, don't let anyone be alone with Will."

Shi Jiu's reply became extremely concise, as if afraid Will would overhear something he shouldn't. "I know."

"The ghost on the shore is Will." Yu Xing stroked his chin, and after receiving this new information, a question arose, "If it's Will, why would he expose the clue that Will killed Will? Or, like Glasses, was he still alive when he did the divination...?"

Now he's a ghost.

In an instant, a flash of inspiration struck.

With so many conflicting clues converging, Yu Xing managed to find a thread that could connect everything.

"I have an idea." He looked up and took two steps forward. "It might be a bit unconventional, but it's the only path I can think of right now."

Master Li chuckled, as if mocking himself. "Young man, speak up. We old folks aren't out of touch with the times. On the contrary, I've seen far too much. There are many things in this world that are unimaginable to ordinary people. I won't dismiss anything you say outright."

"Alright, I'll say it then." Yu Xing said in a slightly deep voice, "Could it be... that from a certain point in time, all of us are no longer on the same timeline?"

"Let's start by showing the timelines of Master Li, Glasses, and Ash using the three cameras as the initial timelines. Carlos wearing a camera might be something that happened in the second timeline, Uncle Zhang wearing a camera might be something that happened in the third timeline, and I didn't even bring a microphone, so it's very likely something that happened in the fifth, sixth, or seventh timelines."

The other three, including Melley's Shi Jiu, found these words difficult to understand.

Yu Xing put it another way. "For example, suppose in a certain timeline, Glasses drowned while testing the corridor in the water. The rest of us thought it was impossible to enter and left Live Tail Lake, leaving Glasses in the water as a Water Ghost. Later, time resets, and Glasses successfully stepped into the tomb palace during one of his dives. Our group arrived at the entrance of the tomb palace, and at this moment, I was grabbed by the Glasses man who died in the lake in the first timeline, and I stabbed him."

This explanation was much simpler, but it contained so much information that it left the group speechless.

Because this defies common sense.

Yu Xing didn't realize there was anything wrong with his thinking; on the contrary, his tone became more and more certain as he spoke, "After entering the tomb, we're not actually from the same timeline, but rather we've come together from different timelines. For example, if I don't have a microphone, I'm definitely not the original me."