Tang Jiao's screams had echoed for a long time last night.
But no one had dared to check on her from beginning to end.
No one knew what she had endured in that room.
Only the next morning, when sunlight streamed into the guesthouse and dispelled the sinister chill throughout the building, did the newcomer Tang Jiao had brought into the Blood Gate dare to carefully push open her door and check on her.
One look inside was all it took-the young newcomer was so terrified that she wet herself on the spot!
Generally speaking, adults had some capacity to withstand psychological shocks. Encounters with such bizarre, horrifying things might leave lasting trauma, but it was rare for someone to lose bladder control from sheer terror.
There were exceptions, though.
Especially when someone had a full bladder first thing in the morning.
The young woman's piercing wails drew everyone to Tang Jiao's doorway.
They cautiously peered inside and found Tang Jiao lying twisted on the floor. Shreds of flesh and blood were scattered everywhere. She no longer looked human...
"Did you all hear her screaming last night?"
The bespectacled man asked in a trembling voice.
Bai Xiaoxiao looked at Tang Jiao's body on the floor without a trace of pity in her eyes.
"She was screaming so loudly. Of course we heard her."
"Then... then why didn't anyone go save her?"
"You heard her too. Why didn't you go save her?"
"I... I didn't dare. We're all newcomers. We don't have any items that could save our lives..."
Bai Xiaoxiao sneered.
"Life-saving items are precious. Every Ghost Artifact brought out of a Blood Gate has a limited number of uses, whether it's powerful or not. And that number never exceeds three!"
"Why should I waste a precious item saving someone who has nothing to do with me?"
The bespectacled man fell silent. So did everyone else.
Only the young woman sprawled on the floor continued to sob.
The air was thick with the stench of blood, mixed with faint traces of urine.
The young woman's name was Luo Yan. She was a recent arrival at Tang Jiao's Haunted Lodge and seemed to be on good terms with her. Now she knelt on the floor, crying bitterly.
Liu Chengfeng felt sorry for her and was about to offer some comfort, but Luo Yan suddenly raised her head and berated them.
"You selfish people! You had life-saving items, but you wouldn't save Tang Jiao!"
"Now look! She's dead, and the clues are gone. None of us are getting out alive!"
"Waaah..."
Bai Xiaoxiao folded her arms, supporting her breasts, and said lazily:
"She's dead, yes, but that doesn't affect our search for a way to survive at all..."
"After all, this veteran of yours, Tang Jiao, had been lying to everyone from the start. And she definitely had more than one life-saving item. My guess is that she got too careless last night and didn't even keep them close at hand... She knew how dangerous this Blood Gate was, yet she still acted so recklessly. She deserved to die!"
As soon as Bai Xiaoxiao finished, the bespectacled man seemed to realize something and immediately asked:
"Bai Xiaoxiao, you just said... Tang Jiao had been lying from the start. What did you mean?"
Bai Xiaoxiao replied:
"Some of it is speculation, so I won't go into that. I'll tell you something... I can prove she lied about."
"Namely-Tang Jiao never went to Fangcun Pond."
"All that aggression was just a bluff!"
The moment she said that, Luo Yan, who had been kneeling on the floor and sobbing, reacted like a rat whose tail had been stepped on.
"You're lying! Tang Jiao did go there!"
"I went with her!"
Her eagerness to clear this up wasn't about defending the dead Tang Jiao's innocence. Luo Yan knew that once everyone learned Tang Jiao had never visited Fangcun Pond, they would naturally conclude that she, Tang Jiao's little follower, hadn't been there either.
After that, she would likely face one of two possibilities-
First, everyone would abandon her and shut her out of any clues to survival.
Second, she would have to visit the remaining attractions alone, obtain clues, and share them with everyone.
The second option wouldn't originally have been all that difficult to accept. But after Ning Qiushui told everyone about their experience yesterday evening, Luo Yan had completely panicked.
Even before that, Tang Jiao had hinted to her that those attractions were extremely dangerous and that unclean things might be lurking there!
"Oh? You went with her? Are you sure?"
Although Bai Xiaoxiao was usually easy to get along with, her seductive manner tinged with warmth, she could become intensely intimidating when her demeanor changed.
That simple question alone left Luo Yan speechless for quite a while.
Eventually, her face flushed scarlet, she stubbornly replied:
"I'm sure!"
"Tang Jiao really went there!"
Bai Xiaoxiao shook her head.
"You don't even know how to lie."
"I'm not lying!"
"All right. If you can answer one question, you can prove you're not lying."
"Wh-what question?"
Bai Xiaoxiao gave a seductive smile.
"None of us have been to Fangcun Pond, so I won't ask you to describe it. Nobody else would know whether your description was true anyway."
"I'll ask you just one question... Since you and Tang Jiao supposedly went to Fangcun Pond, tell everyone when you went."
At Bai Xiaoxiao's question, Luo Yan suddenly felt her heart clench.
At first, it sounded like a question she could brush off with any answer.
But in reality... she couldn't.
This was their third day in the village.
At noon on the second day, Tang Jiao had sworn to everyone that they had visited Fangcun Pond.
That meant Tang Jiao could only have gone there before noon yesterday!
With that in mind, Luo Yan was about to say they had gone to Fangcun Pond in the morning. Then she suddenly remembered that it seemed to be the attraction farthest from here, and she instinctively blurted out:
"We went on the afternoon of the first day."
"Right after we entered this Blood Gate. It was three in the afternoon, and since it was still early, we thought we'd take a look at one of the attractions. We might discover something..."
The moment Luo Yan blurted that out, everyone could pretty much tell that the two of them had been lying.
"Then when did you get back?"
Bai Xiaoxiao sneered.
Luo Yan swallowed.
"I... I forgot."
"It was already very late when we got back. I didn't check the time."
Bai Xiaoxiao kept pressing Luo Yan, whose voice had begun to tremble.
"You didn't check the time? Even with a digital watch with a backlight on your wrist?"
Luo Yan shuddered. Perhaps her emotions had finally reached their breaking point. She abruptly stood, glared furiously at everyone, and all but screamed:
"I told you, we went to Fangcun Pond! On the afternoon of the first day!"
"Believe me or don't!"
"What's so impressive about all of you ganging up on a newcomer?"
With that, she pushed through the crowd and ran back to her room without looking back.
Bang!
The door slammed shut.
Bai Xiaoxiao seemed utterly unbothered.
"Xiaoxiao, weren't we a little too harsh?"
Liu Chengfeng leaned close and asked her quietly.
Though he despised evil, he was exceptionally forgiving toward innocent people.
Bai Xiaoxiao said coldly:
"No snowflake in an avalanche is innocent."
"Tang Jiao wouldn't have told her anything important, but there's no way she knew nothing. Yet she chose to stay silent and watch it all happen."
"You think she's a good person?"
Liu Chengfeng fell silent.
"This woman, Luo Yan, may be timid, but she's got a few schemes of her own... If she had the ability and the nerve, she might be even more ruthless than Tang Jiao!"
After saying that, Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly yawned.
"I'm sleepy. I'm going back for some more beauty sleep."
"Last night was so annoying. All that howling in the middle of the night-I couldn't get a decent night's sleep..."
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