Altar

Bo Shuo had fought him before, so he naturally knew this wasn't his full strength.

The reason he could so easily restrain him was simply because the person before him indulged him with a perverse sense of amusement.

Based on the combat power Xi Guici displayed, he should have been in a higher-level exam room.

Besides, the Proctoring System wasn't a pushover; it wouldn't choose an expert player like Xi Guici for this exam.

That left only one possibility: he had come to this exam room deliberately.

Faced with such sharp questioning, Xi Guici spread his hands, his long lashes obscuring his light gray eyes, the shadow cast by them appearing exceptionally harmless. "Mr. Bo, you've misunderstood. I don't have any malice."

"Especially not towards you."

He chuckled, a flicker of eager excitement in his eyes. "You must already know what happened in this Instance."

What happened in this Instance?

Bo Shuo's gaze slowly swept over the corpses on the ground.

Preference for sons over daughters, sacrifice, Ghost Marriage, a village with low literacy suddenly producing a woman who knew how to write.

Bo Shuo wasn't stupid; he had the basic ability to process information and could naturally see the root of it all.

Kidnapping.

"Women who died unjustly were casually discarded on cliffs, and newborn girls were used as sacrifices to appease grudges. This cycle repeated generation after generation, with hatred and resentment growing stronger."

Candles were lit in the cave, their flames flickering and casting an ethereal yet eerie glow on the man's handsome face.

A slow, deep voice echoed in the cave, sending chills down one's spine.

The wind around him seemed to pick up, blowing through tiny crevices, as if someone were weeping by his ear, each word steeped in blood.

At the same moment, all the examinees' task windows vibrated.

The Proctoring System issued a new assessment task.

(Detected examinee Bo Shuo approaching critical information, faction war commencing)

(Assigning assessment tasks--)

(White Faction: Assist the village in completing the sacrifice and resolving the female ghost's resentment)

(Black Faction: Assist the wronged souls in seeking revenge and preventing the sacrifice!)

(Detected inclination for this exam, congratulations on being assigned to the Black Faction.)

(Faction teammates: Bo Shuo, Sang Yu, Zhang Hu, Zhao Yunyi...)

(Score for this assessment: 50 points)

This completely divided the examinees into two irreconcilable opposing sides.

This single task accounted for 50 points, and anyone who failed to pass by the end of the exam would be directly eliminated.

If the task failed, apart from Bo Shuo, who would receive bonus points, the entire faction of examinees would perish here.

But Bo Shuo soon thought of a more troublesome matter.

After staring at the names of his faction teammates for two seconds, he turned to look at Xi Guici.

"You've been assigned to the White Faction."

Xi Guici's name wasn't among his allies, a self-evident answer that didn't require much speculation.

"Yes," Xi Guici nodded. He seemed to have endless patience with Bo Shuo, pushing up the glasses on his nose. His light-colored pupils looked incredibly sincere. "If you don't want me to participate, I can directly forfeit."

007 exclaimed, "Such a flexible bottom line, Host. He truly loves you."

"Is that so?" Bo Shuo remained noncommittal. "He's just interested in the persona I've presented."

Anyone who often befriended perverted lunatics knows this.

When a lunatic shows extraordinary indulgence and doting towards someone, it doesn't necessarily mean they have strong feelings for that person.

It's a form of interest.

For this sliver of interest, a lunatic might casually shift their bottom line.

But for the person being indulged, this is not a good thing.

On the contrary, it's a potential calamity.

You can't predict how long his interest in you will last, nor can you be sure if his attitude towards you will always be like this.

Perhaps one moment he's treating you gently, and the next he's lost interest, smiling as he stabs you.

These types of people act without restraint, driven solely by their moods.

As for why Bo Shuo knew this.

It was because he had played such roles in the learning space, meticulously dissecting every psychological aspect :)

In other words, Bo Shuo was the person who understood these types the most.

Perhaps it was because he had played these roles for so long, their auras and magnetic fields attracting each other, that he easily drew the attention of lunatics and perverts.

Xi Guici, completely unaware that he had been labeled a lunatic, stood at the cave entrance, paying no mind to the young man's coldness, distance, and obvious hostility.

Xi Guici's peach blossom eyes, framed by gold wire frames, curved slightly, carrying a captivating allure. Half his face was cast in shadow, making him appear particularly eerie. "Someone's coming from outside."

Someone's coming?

There was no sound from outside. Not even the slightest rustle of footsteps, and even the wind was quiet, with no hint of anything unusual.

Bo Shuo glanced at the map and indeed saw a green dot approaching their location.

It was Sang Yu.

Sang Yu, who had been lingering on the periphery, held a dagger and cautiously explored her surroundings, keeping her movements light and her presence almost nonexistent.

This result was not unexpected for Bo Shuo, as Sang Yu's skills were of the shadow escape type.

Bo Shuo completely ignored Xi Guici, his lips holding the rubber band as he half-tied his long hair with his other hand.