"Oh, damn! If that's true, we missed a great opportunity!"
The bespectacled man gritted his teeth and slapped his hands together.
"Spirit Medium Ruan came to the guesthouse this afternoon... If we'd known, we should've tied her up!"
Ning Qiushui said slowly:
"You shouldn't feel disappointed. You should feel lucky."
"If you'd known about this then and attacked Spirit Medium Ruan... you would most likely have been the one in trouble."
He described what had happened in the village that afternoon, and the others immediately understood why Luo Yan had ended up like this. Spirit Medium Ruan had to be behind it!
"Why... why did she turn Luo Yan into that?"
After hearing about Spirit Medium Ruan's uncanny abilities, the bespectacled man, who had just been lamenting their missed chance to attack her, felt cold sweat break out across his back.
If they had returned a little earlier, they might have fallen victim to Spirit Medium Ruan too, reduced to walking corpses just like Luo Yan!
"I think... it might have something to do with Tang Jiao's death."
Bai Xiaoxiao spoke.
"Tang Jiao was a pawn in Spirit Medium Ruan's hands, used to force or lure us into doing certain things. Now that her pawn is gone, she has to act herself..."
As she spoke, Ning Qiushui suddenly seemed to realize something. A trace of excitement entered his voice:
"I finally understand. This is the key!"
Everyone immediately turned toward him, confusion and curiosity on their faces.
"What did you figure out, young man?"
Looking at their puzzled expressions, Ning Qiushui slowly uttered words that made their scalps prickle:
"From the moment we entered the blood gate, we were all misled by the instructions. The Temple festival doesn't begin four days from now... In fact, it began the day we arrived!"
As his words fell, a deathly silence settled over the room.
"Remember the task on our blood gate?"
"Our task was to survive the Temple's sacrificial ritual on the seventh day. That doesn't mean the ritual only begins on the seventh day!"
"Now, back to what we've been experiencing-"
Ning Qiushui spoke faster and faster, his thoughts growing increasingly clear.
"The Spirit Medium approached Tang Jiao first, promised to let her survive, and worked with her to lead us to our deaths... Those people who secretly went up the mountain under Tang Jiao's guidance, those who visited the different attractions... the Spirit Medium had planned it all!"
"To us, those attractions might contain clues to survival... but to the Spirit Medium, they're all places where [offerings] are sacrificed!"
"Fangcun Pond, the Binding-Evil Shrine, the Everlasting Well... even the guesthouse where we're staying-the Misty Rain Temple-has terrifying vengeful ghosts roaming through it!"
"The people in this village... have been trying every possible way to sacrifice us to these dead people from the moment we arrived!"
"That's precisely why, after Tang Jiao died, the Spirit Medium suspected that someone among us had discovered all this. Instead of finding another accomplice, she chose to act in person!"
As Ning Qiushui laid out the truth, word by word, everyone felt a chill spreading through their entire bodies...
"The festival... had already begun?"
The bespectacled man murmured to himself.
Once Ning Qiushui voiced this theory, everyone suddenly remembered something that had been happening all along, yet that they had consistently overlooked.
-People were dying every day.
Yes.
If they were offerings, would the villagers and the Spirit Medium have let them die so easily before the festival began?
Obviously not.
The room was deathly still.
Everyone fell silent.
The festival they had thought would begin in four days had actually begun two days ago.
"Damn it!"
"We should've realized this sooner!"
The bespectacled man couldn't hold back a curse.
At that point, Bai Xiaoxiao, who had finished eating, set down her chopsticks.
"All right, it's getting late. None of you should go out again today."
"The village isn't safe anyway. Also, when you return to your rooms, remember to check every corner. If you see a wooden plaque with 'Ruan' written on it, throw it out immediately!"
Everyone returned to their rooms with heavy hearts.
Ning Qiushui inspected the room and, after making sure he hadn't missed anything, locked the door.
Night fell quickly in the village. Before long, it was completely dark outside.
They had done quite a lot that day, and Ning Qiushui's thoughts were still a little jumbled. He sat on the bed and began sorting through them.
Although we've guessed the broad outline of what happened back then, plenty of details remain unclear-the deaths of Guang Xiu's family, and why that Compassionate One looks like a monk... But the Spirit Medium is already deeply wary of us. Investigating every one of these things thoroughly probably won't be possible now...
Most of the people still living in the village were under seventy. Ning Qiushui had been paying attention to that ever since they arrived.
In fact, given the village's medical facilities, these villagers were lucky to live past sixty.
So the people still alive couldn't possibly know everything about what had happened a century ago.
They might genuinely not know some of the finer details. They had probably only heard a few important things from their elders and knew that Guang Xiu's family had been wronged.
Looks like our way in... still has to be through the Spirit Medium!
Ning Qiushui's gaze sharpened.
Although they were very reluctant to confront the Spirit Medium directly, it now seemed unavoidable.
With the wooden plaques gone from their rooms, none of them encountered Guangchuan that night.
Perhaps because of its hatred, it seemed to have no interest in them, focusing entirely on finding wooden plaques bearing the word "Ruan."
The next morning, Ning Qiushui got up for breakfast, only to discover... Bai Xiaoxiao was missing.
P.S. Time to get to work. Three more updates to come.
Before you continue