Chapter 43 Carnivore (15) Locust Tree

It took another full half hour before the collapsed players gradually recovered, shakily climbing up from the ground.

The injury on the thin man’s left arm had stopped bleeding, and he had recovered from his blood-fainting state.

He helped Zhou Yilin, who was beside him, to her feet and removed the jacket covering her head.

Seeing the tragic scene before her, Zhou Yilin’s already red-rimmed eyes instantly turned even redder: “Wuwuwu… I should have stayed at Granny Su’s place, I shouldn’t have come over…”

Zhao Feng sneered, baring his teeth: “If you didn’t come over, you expected us to take the risk and bring the God Meat back for you? How can you be so delusional?”

At this moment, only eight people remained standing in the courtyard.

Alan’s head was stranded in the mucus, his thin layer of facial skin looking like floating grease.

The moment the sunlight shone in, his living traits vanished along with the tumor, leaving only a pile of foul-smelling, sticky dead meat, dried out as if drained of all moisture.

He had no last words, no groans, and didn’t even show an expression of unwillingness; he just stared upward with wide eyes, his gray-blue irises bleached white by the sunlight, his dilated pupils covered in a haze like fly wings.

Yang Yundong walked over silently, bent down, and placed his rough, calloused hand over the corpse’s young face, gently closing the shriveled, wrinkled eyelids.

He stood in silence for a moment, then turned his head to look at the Tattooed Woman leaning against the door: “Yilina, are you okay?”

“Yilina” was the Tattooed Woman’s name; she had only mentioned it casually during her initial self-introduction, yet Yang Yundong had actually remembered it.

The Tattooed Woman had also been unable to resist eating some of the mucus earlier; now, the right side of her face was in a semi-fluid state, dripping flesh-colored mucus.

Noticing Yang Yundong’s gaze, she raised her hand to cover the abnormality on her right face and shouted exaggeratedly: “It’s nothing, just a small injury, it’ll be fine once we leave the instance, I’m not that delicate!”

Indeed, injuries in the instance would not carry over to reality. But could she really hold on until she left the instance?

Qi Si could see that the mutation on the Tattooed Woman’s face was spreading at a speed visible to the naked eye; by now, half of her neck was also starting to drip mucus, and she looked like a melting candle, trickling down wax tears.

He put on a concerned expression and said cautiously: “From what the village head said, we can infer that eating the God Meat will stain us with sin, and eating that mucus will bring retribution early.”

“He also said that worshipping at the ancestral hall can atone for sins, and his expression at the time didn’t seem fake. It looks like we need to change our itinerary.”

“Fine, we’ll split into two groups later.” Yang Yundong nodded.

He took off his coat, turned and walked into the main room, wrapped up the puddle of white gel on the bed that was indistinguishable from the God Meat, tied it in a knot, and tossed it to Zhang Licai.

“Zhu Ling and I will take Yilina to the ancestral hall, while Zhao Feng, Chang Xu, Zhang Licai, Zhou Yilin, and Lu Keliang will go to the village history museum. We’ll meet back at Granny Su’s place before dinner. If we don’t return, don’t come looking for us.”

This was a very sensible arrangement.

Splitting up was theoretically the best plan; otherwise, if they encountered another situation like the one at the village head’s house, there was a high probability they would all be wiped out.

As an important location involved in the instance’s atonement mechanism, and with the probability of encountering Granny Su, the ancestral hall was bound to be fraught with danger; it was most appropriate for two veteran players on their third instance to lead the exploration.

If these two veteran players were lost, it would also serve to send a message to the other players: stop thinking about the ancestral hall, just wash up and go to sleep; whether you survive or not depends on luck.

Anyway, the God Meat reserves were already sufficient, and for the remaining days, the players could just hole up in Granny Su’s residence and wait for death.

Well, waiting for death in the true sense.

Zhu Ling showed a hesitant expression and shook her head with difficulty: “Brother Yang, I think we should all go to the ancestral hall together. Everyone has touched the mucus, who knows if something will happen? To be safe, we should all go to the ancestral hall to worship first so we can be at ease.”

In a prisoner’s dilemma, no one could fully trust the other, refrain from playing dirty tricks behind their backs, or avoid concealing key clues.

Since that was the case, they could only choose the way that was most beneficial to themselves, which was to advance and retreat together.

With everyone in one place, considering the minimum death count mechanism, it might actually be safer for the veteran players.

Qi Si timely gave Zhao Feng a wink, and the latter hurriedly chimed in: “What’s the point of going to the village history museum? It’s just to flesh out the world-building. I’m definitely going to the ancestral hall; I need to survive first before thinking about other things.”

Qi Si lowered his eyes and smiled: “Zhao Feng makes sense; I also suggest everyone acts together. That way, if something happens, we can look out for each other, right?”

Yang Yundong pondered for a moment and nodded: “Fine, we’ll all go to the ancestral hall.”

Zhou Yilin timidly made a hand-raising gesture: “I… do I have to go too?”

Everyone said in unison: “Of course!”

This time, Yang Yundong still led the way, and the eight players walked towards the ancestral hall along the direction indicated by the map.

Shallow footprints were imprinted on the muddy village road, leaving behind spots of blood like lacquer.

The sun was already slanting west, and under the vast white sky, the residential houses on both sides were dilapidated; the further they went, the more decayed and old they became.

Weeds submerged the crumbling mud walls, and bits of broken bricks and tiles were scattered in the mud. Wisps of white fog wove a net between the roads, condensing into crystalline dew upon touching the blades of grass.

“Let’s walk faster; once the fog gets thick, we won’t be able to get through.” Yang Yundong said in a deep voice, picking up his pace.

The others also quickly followed, including the Tattooed Woman, whose half-face had turned into mucus, and the weeping Zhou Yilin. A few people even started jogging, crowding close to Yang Yundong, inseparable.

The weeds ahead grew taller and taller, submerging half of the players’ bodies. Yang Yundong held up his plain blade, hacking away with broad, sweeping strokes. The vegetation snapped with a “swish, swish” sound, falling to create a small path wide enough for three people to walk side by side.

The sky grew darker and darker, as if time had been accelerated. They didn’t know how long they had been walking when a tall, towering locust tree came into view, its branches and leaves lush, its gnarled roots coiling.

Qi Si said softly: “Outside the ancestral hall, beside the locust tree, set up a big pot to cook meat and taste it. The locust tree is here, so the ancestral hall should be in this area.”

“What if there’s more than one locust tree in the village?” Zhang Licai looked around: “My eyes are wide open, why can’t I see any sign of the ancestral hall?”

The fog around them was already very thick, a milky white that felt substantial, coating most of their field of vision. Players just a few steps away were blurred into light-colored silhouettes, and people and objects further away were completely invisible.

Against the vast, white background, the pitch-black locust tree was embedded in the center of the scene as vividly as a rip, as if it were the only thing in this world, with nothing but boundless void beyond it.

“Everyone, hold the hand of the person in front of you, don’t get separated!” Yang Yundong said loudly, “According to the clues in the nursery rhyme, the ancestral hall must be nearby; we’ll search for it inch by inch!”

Qi Si had long since sidled up to Yang Yundong, while Zhao Feng had been closely following him, this “official member of the Sera Guild.” At this moment, Qi Si directly took both of their hands.

He believed that as a reserve member of the Jiuzhou Guild, Yang Yundong would certainly not abandon him; and in order to join the Sera Guild, Zhao Feng would also do everything in his power to protect him.

He just didn’t know what kind of expression Zhao Feng would make when he found out everything was a lie.

“Zhao Feng, my combat power isn’t high, I’m quite fragile; if something happens later, I’m afraid I’ll have to trouble you more.” Qi Si smiled sincerely, which in Zhao Feng’s eyes appeared to be a sign of encouragement and testing.

Zhao Feng knew that most large guilds required a “letter of introduction,” and if you didn’t risk the child, you couldn’t catch the wolf; having just ruthlessness wasn’t enough, he had to demonstrate strength to match it.

He immediately raised his left hand, which was wrapped with a cross, to show his loyalty: “Brother Chang, no problem! If it weren’t for the rules, I’d kill every ghost in this damn place as they came!”

The players heard this and only felt that Qi Si was unfathomable; he looked completely ordinary, so why could he make someone like Zhao Feng, who didn’t submit to anyone, obey him so readily?

A few players silently removed Qi Si from their reserve list of “trial-and-error tools.”

The relationship between “Chang Xu” and Zhao Feng seemed unusual; if anyone killed him, heaven only knew if Zhao Feng would suddenly go crazy and take a few people down with him as offerings.

Everyone held hands in a single file line, starting from the locust tree, and advanced forward step by step.

Perhaps it was an illusion, but clearly they had been walking for a while; yet every time they looked up, they could still see that large locust tree embedded in their field of view, neither far nor near.

The wind picked up, the leaves of the locust tree rustled, the sound of flutes and bells swirled and echoed in the air, and the scent of meat drifted from afar.

“Ah! Who… who touched my hand?” Zhou Yilin cried out, her voice filled with palpable fear.

Zhang Licai, standing next to her, hurriedly shook his head: “Big sister, I’m holding your hand properly, everyone is holding hands like this… and I’m carrying such a big bag of God Meat, I’m in no mood to grope anyone.”

“No… it wasn’t you…” Zhou Yilin trembled, “That hand was very cold, very thin, like bone…”

Zhang Licai panicked: “You… don’t scare me, I’m timid, I’m really going to wet my pants…”

While the two were bickering, Yang Yundong, who was at the very front, dragged his plain blade, turned back while holding the front of the line, and looked in one direction with a frown: “There’s someone.”

Qi Si followed his gaze and saw a young girl in a plain white burial shroud walking out of the fog.

The girl’s face was pale, and bloody tears flowed from her gouged-out eyes, staining her delicate face. The arms beneath her clothes were pale and slender, clearly hand bones that had been stripped clean of flesh and skin.

She grinned, smiling hollowly at the players: “Today is the Wax Sacrifice, the ritual is about to begin, let’s go participate in the ritual.”

Without waiting for the players to answer, she turned and ran away.

The thick fog dissipated, bounded by her footsteps. Under the dark sky, a large copper pot was set up beside the locust tree, the soup boiling, and smoke and fire filled the air.

Pitch-black figures surrounded the pot in a circle. The flames leaped, the air surged with flickering waves of light, causing the figures of the people to tremble as well.

The girl was gone, and a bloated, pale face drifted up from the rolling thick soup…