Chapter 258: Wraith (Part Five) Observing Monsters Under the Lamp

Legend says humans walk the Human Path, and Ghosts walk the Ghost Path.

During the day, the living walk among the heavens, earth, mountains, and rivers; under the sun, all evil retreats.

Once night falls, the Yin energy thickens after sunset, the living retreat, and a hundred Ghosts emerge.

If a person wants to compete with the Ghosts for time at night, they might as well light a Lantern.

With light, one can clearly see people, things, and the road.

Humans carry Lanterns for illumination; Ghosts also carry Lanterns, for guidance.

Lonely, Wandering Ghosts who died away from home must follow the Soul-calling of relatives and friends to return home; souls who died unjustly and roam the human world must be locked into the Underworld by Yin Messengers and Ghost Generals.

Some seek reincarnation, others seek to return to their bodies. They jostle and crowd along the Ghost Path, needing a Green Lamp lit ahead to guide them so they don’t go astray.

That guiding Green Lamp is what people commonly call Will-o’-the-wisp, flickering faintly in the dark night, drifting away with the wind.

Travelers journeying at night must borrow the Ghost Path and be careful not to offend the traveling spirits, or they might unknowingly wander onto a side road and become disoriented.

Too bright a flame is a form of “offense.” If the light is brighter than the guiding Will-o’-the-wisp, the confused Ghosts will no longer see the Will-o’-the-wisp, only the lamp lit by the human.

They follow the lamp, not knowing where they are going. Once they realize they have taken the wrong path, they will turn into Vengeful Spirits rejected by Heaven and Earth.

Therefore, travelers carrying a Lantern must, firstly, not light the Lantern too brightly, and secondly, always pay attention to the color of the candlelight.

If the flame suddenly turns green, it means they are being followed by a traveling Ghost.

That lamp is no longer a lamp of the Mortal World, but has become the Green Lamp guiding the Ghosts.

The Lantern carrier must promptly guide the Ghost to its destination, or they will be haunted by a Vengeful Spirit for the rest of their life… Qi Si leaned against the bed, flipping through the tattered, ripped, and incomplete Underworld Record.

Lin Chen sat beside him, wrapped in a blanket, craning his neck to curiously read the records inside.

“No wonder the Lanterns in our hands are so dim at night. Is it because they’re afraid we might offend the Ghosts?”

He offered a guess, then immediately denied it: “No, I remember the Lantern’s brightness was normal in the mountain forest outside the town. I could even read text clearly using the light.

“It only became too dim to even illuminate text after we entered Yanghua Town… Could it be that the density of Ghosts in Yanghua Town is particularly high?”

After the players loaded into the instance, they appeared in the mountain forest outside Yanghua Town late at night; after entering the town, the time changed to daytime, and then rapidly dimmed again within just a few hours.

Humans mostly need contrast to form concepts of light and darkness. With the natural light constantly changing, it would be difficult for an ordinary person to judge the change in the Lantern’s brightness.

No one knew exactly when the Lantern’s light dimmed; at most, they knew they could read outside the town using the Lantern light, but not inside the town.

Qi Si looked down at the book in his hand and said lightly, “If I’m not mistaken, the moment we entered the town, the Lantern in my hand seemed to become lighter. I wonder if you felt anything similar.”

Lin Chen subconsciously began recalling the scene when they entered the town.

He hadn’t paid attention at the time. Trying to recall now, he only had a vague impression, but he couldn’t confirm whether the Lantern had actually become lighter.

But since Qi Si said so, it must be true, right?

Lin Chen looked at the lamp on the bedside table and said uncertainly, “I did have a strange feeling then, but I can’t recall the specifics. This Lantern… it does seem a little different.”

Qi Si nodded in understanding, his expression solemn and noncommittal.

Lin Chen shifted his gaze from the Lantern to the window.

As his thoughts reached a certain point, he grew uneasy: “Brother Qi, do you think the residents of Yanghua Town might have all turned into Ghosts long ago? Could those things outside… be their corpses?”

“Perhaps.” Qi Si turned his back to Lin Chen. “Let’s go ask the townspeople tomorrow morning; maybe we can gather some information.”

“Mhm! But… what if they refuse to tell us anything?”

“So what? The core of our mission is the tiger called the ‘Mountain God.’ It doesn’t have much to do with the Lantern, does it?”

Qi Si’s voice was muffled and faint, as if drifting from a dream.

Lin Chen saw him suddenly sit bolt upright, facing the window with his back strangely turned toward the wooden door. Lin Chen couldn’t see his face or expression, only the back of a figure in red robes with loose hair.

The young man picked up the Lantern from the bedside table, held it in his arms, and judging by the sound, he was dismantling the outermost Paper Lampshade to take out the candle inside.

He was thin with a narrow waist, but fortunately, his robe was loose and wide enough to block Lin Chen’s view.

Lin Chen sat on the bed near the door, staring at his back, completely bewildered… In the room on the right side of the second floor, Qiu Xin and Tang Yu had nothing to say to each other and remained silent, like gourds with their mouths sawn shut.

After the two searched the room and observed the surroundings, they each got into bed, placing their Lanterns on the bedside tables.

The Lantern light maintained a dim, twilight brightness, casting a dark yellow filter over the entire room, flickering with shifting shadows.

Not only did it fail to dispel the darkness that easily breeds fear, but it instead gave rise to eerie associations.

Qiu Xin opened the lampshade and took out the entirely milky-white candle inside.

The candlelight, which looked orange-yellow from the outside, was exposed to the air and instantly turned bluish-green, flickering precariously like the legendary Will-o’-the-wisp, the guiding candle of the Underworld.

“This lamp is strange, be careful.” Tang Yu glanced at the green Candle Flame and stated the obvious conclusion.

Qiu Xin ignored him and blew a breath toward the candle.

The Candle Flame shook twice, showing no sign of going out, and when it stabilized again, it burned slightly higher than before.

Qiu Xin reached out to fan it.

This time, the flame didn’t even waver, standing firm and unique, as if existing in a different dimension from the players, unable to be disturbed or touched.

“Hey, don’t mess with that Lantern!” Tang Yu quickly tried to stop her, seeing that Qiu Xin was about to press her hand onto the candle wick.

“We carried the Lantern when entering the town. To be safe, let’s keep it. Who knows if there’s a rule like ‘if the Lantern goes out, you can never leave’?”

Qiu Xin shot him a sidelong glance and said coldly, “The light is too bright, I can’t sleep. It wouldn’t be so bad to stay here forever.”

“My Grand-Aunt, where did you pick up this pampered young lady’s temper?” Tang Yu was almost laughing in anger. “We’re in the Eerie Game. Just make do with sleeping, or don’t sleep at all. Why be so fussy?”

Qiu Xin wasn’t angry after being scolded; she was already used to more excessive remarks in her daily life.

She nodded slightly, finally letting go of the candle, and put the Paper Lampshade back on.

As soon as the bluish-green Candle Flame went back under the lampshade, it reverted to orange-yellow. It was unclear if this was a problem with the candle itself or a visual effect caused by the lampshade.

The two beds in the room were placed horizontally, one against the door side, and one against the window side.

Qiu Xin sat on the bed near the window, her back to Tang Yu, her purple Ruqun and long, flowing hair concealing her movements and expression.

Outside the window was a towering Pile of White Bone Corpses, the highest point easily reachable by hand.

Both of them had observed the situation outside after entering the room.

Tang Yu originally felt awkward letting a girl sleep too close to the dangerous area and intended to volunteer to sleep by the window.

Unexpectedly, Qiu Xin insisted the spot near the door was too noisy and simply sat down on the window-side bed, refusing to move.

Tang Yu wasn’t familiar with her, so he didn’t insist further and chose the bed near the door.

He sat on the bed and quietly complained, “Seriously, Grand-Aunt, what do you do in real life? You look half-dead.”

“Doctor, still interning,” Qiu Xin said concisely.

Tang Yu clicked his tongue: “With your mental state, you better not accidentally kill anyone you treat.”

“I won’t,” Qiu Xin shook her head. “What about you? I feel like you’ve killed someone.”

“In the game, yes. In reality, I’m just a Small Police Officer. Although I have used a knife and a gun, and even been injured…”

“Oh, understood.”

“By your tone, you don’t believe me?”

“No.”

Amidst the “bang-bang” Sound of the Night Watchman’s Drum, Qiu Xin lay down.

Tang Yu also lay down, turned over, facing the wooden door with his back to Qiu Xin, and covered himself with a blanket.

After a day of turmoil and killing two NPCs, he was exhausted. The moment he hit the bed, he closed his eyes, and his consciousness quickly drifted into a daze.

Qiu Xin held her breath and quieted herself. Only when Tang Yu’s breathing behind her became steady did she slowly open her eyes.

In the upper right corner of her system interface, a small card depicting a skeleton in blood-red robes was conspicuously suspended.

【Your Identity: Wraith】

【Identity Effect: When you are alone in a room with a single person, and the distance is no more than three meters, you may choose to kill them;

In any location, you may kill a person by directly touching their shoulder;

You must kill one person every day, otherwise your soul will scatter and you will turn into Nothingness.

If you mistakenly kill a ‘Wraith,’ you will be eliminated by the Mountain God.】

After listening to all the game rules and studying the structure of the room, Qiu Xin had already figured out a way to break the deadlock.

Although the Residence door was locked, the window could be easily opened. She could completely climb out the window and find an unlucky townsperson to kill.

According to the Scholar, other Wraiths would only appear after Zi Hour.

The townspeople’s vigilance shouldn’t be too high before Zi Hour. She might be able to knock on one or two doors and find someone alone.

As long as she seized this Window of Opportunity and acted quickly, the crisis would be easily resolved.

Of course, Qiu Xin would not tell anyone these details.

The larger the instance, the more important it is to leverage external forces. Yanghua Town’s area was large enough, and there were enough NPCs, meeting the basic conditions for leveraging forces.

If a player exposed her identity to the townspeople and used them to eliminate her, things would go badly.

While one should not harbor malicious intent, one must not be without guard against others.

Qiu Xin would rather risk venturing out at night than harm other players, but she would never trust anyone easily or recklessly expose her identity.

“Drip, drop, drip, drop…”

The Sound of the Water Clock lightly echoed in her ears, marking the passage of time.

Qiu Xin retrieved an Incense Burner from her inventory and silently placed it beside her.

【Name: Calming Incense】

【Type: Item】

【Effect: Within the range covered by the fragrance, players who fall asleep will not be easily awakened, except when encountering important plot points or death crises.】

【Note: Light an Incense Burner and dream the Yellow Millet Dream. Only with good rest will you have the energy to complete the mission~】

This was one of the daily necessities heavily promoted on the second page of the Mall, mainly used to help players with poor mental fortitude maintain good sleep within the instance, and also to some extent deal with Beginner Dungeons like Rose Manor that require sleeping at night.

Qiu Xin considered her mental fortitude to be good and had no intention of entering Beginner Dungeons to ‘Gank,’ yet she still bought this item.

The wide-range calming effect could help randomly matched teammates fall asleep, saving a lot of trouble.

Qiu Xin forced her eyes open, silently counting the seconds in her mind.

Only when she estimated Tang Yu was fast asleep did she quietly sit up and get out of bed.

She picked up the Lantern, walked to the window, and reached out to push the Paper Window open.

“Drip, drop, drip, drop…”

The Sound of the Water Clock continued ceaselessly.

Qiu Xin smelled a thick scent of blood, and her feet kept slipping on something she had stepped on.

She lowered her head and used the Lantern to illuminate the floor beneath her feet.

A puddle of liquid seemed to have accumulated on the wooden floor. It was sticky and looked like semi-congealed fresh blood, mixed with grease and minced flesh.

Qiu Xin thought of rotting corpses, her breathing quickened, and phantoms of various death scenes flashed rapidly before her eyes.

Emaciated patients lay on beds, white sheets covering them inch by inch, yet their pale faces suddenly transformed into the image of her elderly grandmother in one instant.

A weak voice penetrated the dust of memory, softly sounding at the back of her mind: “Xin’er, my dear granddaughter, live well… No, you should come with me. Life is just suffering…”

Qiu Xin closed her eyes, habitually reaching into her pocket, but found no pills.

She raised her hand to cover her mouth, her gaze tracing the source of the liquid upwards.

There was a hole broken along the top edge of the window, and viscous blood droplets flowed in from outside, falling onto the windowsill one after another.

The pool of blood on the windowsill snaked down the wall and accumulated on the floor, making a continuous dripping sound.

“Drip, drop, drip, drop…”

This dripping sound did not belong to the water clock; it was blood dripping in from outside the window.

Qiu Xin raised the Lantern toward the window.

A blood-red eye was pressed against the hole in the window, peering into the room.

Half a corpse hung upside down on the window, its bony claws gripping the window frame, looking as if it could smash through the window at any moment… “Actually, there is another saying about why Lanterns shouldn’t be lit too brightly at night…”

In the middle room on the second floor, Qi Si turned another page of the Underworld Record in his hand, reading the inscription and recounting the tale slowly.

It is often said, “Observe a Beauty Under the Lamp,” because in the dim light of night, with the shadows blurring, it is hard to see facial imperfections, making everyone appear beautiful.

“Observing Monsters Under the Lamp” is similar.

A hundred Ghosts emerge at night, humans and Ghosts intermingle. In the dim Lantern light, figures flicker, and one cannot tell how many of them are living people.

Looking around, occasionally catching a glimpse of a human face in a glass bead, a phantom in a mirror, or a Specter under the moon, are all common occurrences.

If you carry a dim Lantern to illuminate things, you cannot clearly see the details of the faces of those passing by, and naturally, you cannot spot the flaws in a Ghost disguised as a human.

If you talk to them, they will assume you are one of them, and the interaction will pass confusedly.

If the Lantern is too bright, you instantly see that certain entities are not human, and they also see that you are not a Ghost.

Being scared is a small matter, but startling the Ghosts and getting haunted by them is troublesome.

Qi Si closed the book and smiled at Lin Chen: “I once read a story. A Scholar married a beauty, but the beauty had a strange habit: she would only sleep with the lamp extinguished at night, and she forbade the Scholar from lighting it midway.

“One day, the Scholar wanted to play a trick on his wife, so he lit the bedside candle while getting up at night, only to see his wife lying in bed transformed into a green-faced, sharp-fanged monster. Seeing her identity exposed, the wife had no choice but to eat the Scholar and rush to the next city to deceive another Scholar.”

Qi Si’s face flickered in the lamplight, half of it obscured by his long hair, his contours softly illusory.

Lin Chen, having heard a head full of ghost stories, felt stiff all over.

He swallowed and tentatively asked, “So… this dimness of the Lantern is a form of protection for us, preventing us from seeing things we shouldn’t?”

“I was just chatting with you; you can take it or leave it.” Qi Si chuckled softly, his laughter sounding chilling in the current atmosphere. “We don’t even know if the brightness of this Lantern has anything to do with the instance. It might just be a natural change…”

As he spoke, he glanced down at his Pocket Watch, and when he looked up, his expression softened: “Lin Chen, time’s almost up. It’s time to sleep.”

Lin Chen looked at the young man in front of him, utterly confused, only feeling that his expression was full of malicious intent.

The next second, Qi Si pressed a mechanism on his wristband, twisting out a Small Awl. The smile on his face was extremely genuine: “If you can’t sleep, perhaps I can help you.”