Mind-Losing Gu (8)

"Wh-what do you mean? What's a chai ghost?"

This was beyond Li Yunlong's knowledge, but she seemed to be telling him that A Feng wasn't the one who had put a Gu on him. Otherwise, she wouldn't have said, "Anyone who isn't faithful will be eaten by the chai ghost."

A Feng had no intention of explaining. She walked on without waiting for Li Yunlong, then suddenly said something else out of nowhere. "You need to find..."

A Feng's last words were faint and airy, as elusive as mist, almost as though they had never existed. Li Yunlong was too far away from her to make any of them out.

Li Yunlong frowned. "Find who?"

But A Feng refused to say any more. She shook her head gently and looked toward a stilt house in the distance.

There, a woman dressed in Miao clothing sat on the wooden railing. Her gaunt figure swayed precariously, as if she might fall from that height at any moment.

Perhaps sensing someone watching her, she raised her bowed head and turned to look at A Feng and Li Yunlong in the distance.

Her skin was loose and aged, wrinkled like dry tree bark deprived of nourishment.

Coarse, dull white hair threaded through her elaborate Miao headdress.

She looked like an unremarkable old woman, but she had a pair of striking, unnerving scarlet eyes.

When Li Yunlong met her gaze and saw those eerie scarlet eyes, alarm bells immediately rang in his head.

The company president named Gu Yanze had explained that Gu Ghost Women all had scarlet eyes and usually appeared as elderly women.

The white-haired woman before him clearly matched that description, and their second task was to "kill the Gu Ghost Woman hiding among the Miao women."

So all he had to do was tell the others that he had found the Gu Ghost Woman, and the eight of them could join forces and kill her. Wouldn't that do it?

At that thought, delight crossed Li Yunlong's face. He turned to the melancholy-looking A Feng and asked, "Who is she?"

"A... very pitiful woman." A Feng's tone was mild, with a barely perceptible trace of sadness. "Only the chief can enter that stilt house. None of us are allowed near it, so I don't know her name. You can't go there either."

Li Yunlong agreed outwardly, but he had no intention of obeying. He was convinced that she was the Gu Ghost Woman they were looking for. Once he went back, he would bring the other players here.

When they gathered at noon, Li Yunlong told them everything he knew. So far, he had learned that A Feng wasn't the one who had put the Gu on him, and he had found the white-haired woman in the stilt house.

"A Feng said that woman was very pitiful, and only the chief was allowed near her."

The white-haired woman's presence seemed deeply mysterious. Otherwise, why would only the chief be allowed to approach her?

Chu Qingjiu considered this, then asked a different question. "Did any of them ask you why you chose her?"

Everyone else said they had been asked, but only two had given definite answers. Most had been cautious and offered vague replies.

Li Yunlong looked panicked and regretful. "Huh? Doesn't that mean I'm in danger?"

He hadn't thought much of it at the time. He had only wanted to sweet-talk A Feng and see if he could get any more information out of her. He hadn't expected that it might trigger a death condition.

"Then what should I do? Is there any way to avoid it?"

The speaker was the other person who had given a definite answer, a tall man dressed in motorcycle gear.

The others looked at Li Yunlong and the biker helplessly. After all, those two had given definite answers because they hadn't been careful enough. They had only themselves to blame.

Seeing that no one was speaking, the biker's heart sank. He immediately stood up and said in a panic, "Then let's go kill that Gu Ghost Woman now! Once she's dead, we can leave right away."

He seemed overwhelmed by fear, almost frantic.

Chu Qingjiu didn't even look up. He merely found the noise irritating and absurd.

The second task was rated extremely dangerous. How could they possibly complete it so easily? If that were really possible, the survival rate wouldn't have been below twenty percent. Only half a day had passed since they started.

Although Chu Qingjiu considered the plan unworkable, he still said nothing. He quietly listened to the other players discuss it, looking cold and detached.

Gu Yanze knew that both the biker and Li Yunlong were terrified. They needed to be calmed down and given some hope first.

He looked up at the panicked biker and asked evenly, "But how are we supposed to get out?"

After spending time with the Miao women, they had been locked back inside the communal sleeping room. Even lunch had been brought in, as though their captors were afraid they would escape.

"Tonight... didn't they say we'd be staying with the Miao women tonight? We should have a chance then. Nobody dies on the first day. We just have to move faster!"

The biker spoke, clinging to hope.

Since no players would die on the first day, it didn't matter that he had given the Miao woman a definite answer and drawn the Scorpion Ghost's attention. He just had to leave the instance before midnight tonight.

Li Yunlong agreed with him, but the other players didn't immediately voice their support.

Li Yunlong gave a bitter smile. He knew perfectly well that only he and the biker would be in trouble tonight. The others were safe, so naturally they would stay out of anything that didn't concern them.

"It's all right. I'll take you to that stilt house tonight, and we'll kill her."

Li Yunlong patted the biker's shoulder, trying hard to act normal.

It looked as though only he and the biker would be going tonight, but there was nothing they could do about that. They had to take their chances.

After Li Yunlong said that, the atmosphere in the room turned cold. No one spoke for a while. All eight players remained silent, each occupied with their own thoughts.

Soon, afternoon arrived, and A Feng and the other women took them back to the chief's stilt house. This time, the chief had prepared a tiny, pitch-black insect for them. They couldn't tell what it was.

Chu Qingjiu paid no attention to the insect. Instead, he focused entirely on studying the chief's appearance.

He stood beside the chief and could see the chief's profile simply by turning his head. He noticed a black mark shaped like a plum blossom behind the chief's ear, resembling some sort of seal.

He withdrew his gaze, deep in thought.