Setting down the yellowed photograph in his hand, Ning Qiushui felt his heart pounding wildly!
Who had been watching him all this time?
Even... even the Mist World couldn't stop them from spying on him!
He sat on the sofa, and it took a long time before Ning Qiushui finally came back to his senses.
After a moment's hesitation, he sent the information to his friend, Mole.
Mole soon replied:
"Great, we haven't even figured out the last letter, and now there's another... All right, don't worry. I'm not too busy these days. I'll find a way to help you. If all else fails, I'll contact that woman..."
At the mention of that woman, Ning Qiushui visibly paused. After a moment, all he said was:
"Thank you."
After hanging up, he slumped onto the sofa as though all the strength had been drained from his body.
One morning a few days later, Ning Qiushui was brushing his teeth when he suddenly sensed something.
He quickly rinsed his mouth, went to the window, and looked downstairs.
Just as he'd expected.
Thick fog had risen throughout the residential complex.
A battered bus was parked below their building. There was no fog within ten meters of it, as though that area had been sealed off.
Ning Qiushui opened his front door.
The entire building was silent.
It was as though he were the only person left.
Ning Qiushui sighed, went back inside to get the Blood Jade he'd brought out from behind the first Blood Gate, and headed downstairs.
As soon as he boarded the bus, he heard a familiar voice cry out in delight:
"Buddy!"
Ning Qiushui looked up and froze for two seconds before realizing... it was Liu Chengfeng.
It was just that Liu Chengfeng seemed to have tidied himself up after returning this time, shaving off his full beard.
Without his beard, Liu Chengfeng looked much cleaner and fresher, though he still had a rugged air about him.
"Just us?"
Ning Qiushui sat down beside Liu Chengfeng.
"Probably."
Liu Chengfeng sighed.
Although he was still as easygoing as ever, Ning Qiushui noticed the dark circles under Liu Chengfeng's eyes.
Clearly, he hadn't slept well these past few days.
"Still having nightmares?"
Ning Qiushui asked.
Liu Chengfeng nodded, unscrewed his bottle of water, and swore:
"Fucking hell, that ghost woman... she shows up in my dreams every night. Scares the shit out of me."
Ning Qiushui teased him:
"She really must be deeply in love with you. As they say, fate ties lovers together even across a thousand miles. You'd better cherish this opportunity..."
Pfft!
Liu Chengfeng, who had been drinking, couldn't help spitting out a mouthful of water.
"Buddy, that's going too far!"
"Since you know so much about cherishing her, why don't you go give her some love yourself?"
Ning Qiushui shrugged and said regretfully:
"I'd love to, but she's not interested in me. She's never visited my dreams, not even once."
At that, Liu Chengfeng's face grew even paler, and he muttered a few curses about how being handsome brought nothing but trouble.
Then Ning Qiushui suddenly remembered something and asked:
"Right, you still haven't told me why you stuck with me behind the first Blood Gate."
When the question came up again after several days, Liu Chengfeng's eyes shifted, and he said with a mysterious air:
"Buddy, let me ask you something... do you believe in fate?"
Liu Chengfeng's question caught Ning Qiushui off guard.
He thought it over carefully, then shook his head.
"No."
Liu Chengfeng chuckled.
"I do."
He turned his palm over, revealing three Square-Hole Coins.
They were threaded with fine cords of red, yellow, and blue, respectively.
"Behind that Blood Gate, I cast three hexagrams in total."
"In the end, I found that the other two were both death hexagrams. Only the one I cast for you was different."
"Buddy, yours was... the team's only life hexagram."
Ning Qiushui's eyes flickered, and he smiled.
"Liu Chengfeng, you really can tell fortunes."
Liu Chengfeng sighed:
"Can't help it. Making a living isn't easy these days. When you're out in the world, an extra skill never hurts!"
"Why didn't you tell me before?"
At Ning Qiushui's question, Liu Chengfeng looked wary:
"Buddy, our line of work has its rules, too-"
"First, you mustn't tell your own fortune. Read others, never yourself; read yourself, and death is certain!"
"Second, you mustn't knowingly tell the fortune of a fellow practitioner!"
"Third, you mustn't tell the fortune of the dead!"
"Besides those three things we mustn't read, there are two things we mustn't say-"
"First, you mustn't reveal everything to the person whose fortune you're telling. The more you say, the more years you lose from your life."
"Second, you mustn't reveal anything with far-reaching consequences. If you're only saving one person or helping them avert a disaster, the effect on the fortune-teller is actually limited. But if that person's life or death is tied to too many other things... then the diviner mustn't interfere lightly, or they may suffer heaven's punishment!"
Ning Qiushui understood.
"So once everything is over, telling me won't affect you anymore, right?"
Liu Chengfeng nodded.
"Of course."
"Once something has already happened, it doesn't matter what you say about it."
The bus drove into the mist. No other passengers boarded, and the two arrived at the familiar Haunted Lodge. As soon as they entered, they saw four people sitting in the lobby.
They seemed to be discussing something important, but their conversation stopped the moment the two entered.
"Looks like we came at a bad time."
Ning Qiushui spoke half-jokingly.
Liang Yan replied calmly:
"The Haunted Lodge is our home, and yours, too. You can come home whenever you want. There's no such thing as a bad time."
"By the way, your second gate is about to open. Are you ready?"
Ning Qiushui sighed.
"If we're not ready, does that mean we don't have to go in?"
An inexplicable silence fell over the lobby.
Bai Xiaoxiao stood up.
"Come on. Let's go to the third floor."
She had changed into a fitted athletic outfit, which gave her a more youthful, energetic look, without the sultry allure she'd had in her nightdress.
The two followed her up to the third floor of the Haunted Lodge.
In the center stood the same wooden door, still radiating an aura that chilled them to the bone.
Several new lines of bloody writing had appeared on its surface.
[Task: Survive the temple ritual on the village's seventh day.] [Clue-] [The kind bled dry and became life-giving rain; the merciful cut off their heads and bestowed peace; the innocent closed their eyes, begging for rain and peace to come. They waited and waited, waited and waited...]
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