Chapter 276: Wraith (23) – The Distant East-West Road

“You should already know by now—I am a Wraith,” Qiu Xin said calmly, sitting on the wooden bed and looking around at everyone.

The old man who managed the Residence had come up to check once and then left. The Scholar stood in the lobby downstairs, quietly guarding the food box and the wine jar.

Qiu Xin only entered the Residence after the old man left, gathering with the players in Luo Haihua and her husband’s room on the second floor.

She conveniently closed the door, ensuring their discussion couldn’t be heard from outside.

Having reunited after a long separation, no one wasted time on idle chatter.

Tang Yu relayed the information regarding the Scarecrows, the Tiger Demon, and the fire to Qiu Xin, including some deductions about the world-view and their subsequent plans.

Qiu Xin listened quietly before continuing, “The information I’ve obtained is a bit more than yours; much of it consists of clues exclusive to the Wraith faction.

“First is the relationship mentioned in the initial prompt between ‘Ghost’, ‘Zhan’, and ‘Nothingness’. My preliminary judgment is that players in the ‘Wraith’ faction are ‘Zhan’, while players in the ‘Human’ faction and the townspeople are ‘Ghosts’. Both can turn into ‘Nothingness’ through certain means.

“Among them, ‘Ghosts’ fear ‘Zhan’, and ‘Zhan’ fear ‘Nothingness’—just as ‘Humans’ fear ‘Ghosts’, but to a more severe degree. If frightened, their souls will directly dissipate.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Tang Yu interrupted. “We aren’t afraid of you at all when we see you. And the Nothingness that Teacher Luo and the others turned into are right here in this room, yet you don’t seem to have any reaction.

“If the three types of spiritual bodies—Ghost, Zhan, and Nothingness—counter each other, wouldn’t all the townspeople be wiped out just by you taking a walk down the street?”

“It’s not that simple,” Qiu Xin shook her head and explained. “Neither you nor the townspeople believe yourselves to be ghosts, so naturally, you don’t fear me. Only if I pat your shoulder and startle your soul will you have a momentary thought of that nature.

“The reason I can sit here perfectly fine is not because I’m not afraid of Nothingness, but because I cannot see them or sense their existence. Once I can see and sense them, I will be afraid.

“According to what you’ve said, Nothingness generally manifests as an image in a mirror. I heard from a child in town that after the townspeople catch a Wraith, they have the Scholar escort them to look in a mirror until they are literally scared to death. The situation matches, which indirectly corroborates my hypothesis.”

Tang Yu thought it over, combining the known clues, and nodded in agreement. “Looking at it this way, the Scholar is a special existence in this instance. He’s responsible for both receiving players and executing Wraiths. He probably knows quite a lot.”

This was a consensus among the players. After all, since entering the instance, much of their understanding of Yanghua Town had been instilled by the Scholar.

Lin Chen thought of something and muttered in response, “Knowing too much leads to being silenced, doesn’t it… The ghosts corresponding to the identities are always being swapped around; that should also be to prevent any single ghost from knowing too much, right?”

“Wrong.” Qi Si, who had been standing quietly by the door, suddenly spoke up. “A single Scarecrow contains all the memories associated with that identity. Simply rotating the ghosts won’t achieve the effect of keeping secrets.

“If it were me, and I wanted to curb the spread of information, I would only do my best to weld a certain ghost into that position to ensure he is the only one who knows the secret.”

Lin Chen thought for a moment and asked again, “Could it be because no one can control which specific ghost possesses which Scarecrow, so it can only be completely randomized?”

“Random?” Qi Si smiled, a smile of ambiguous meaning. “After one night, the Scholar just happened to become the old man destined to die at the hands of a Wraith. That is quite a coincidence.”

Tang Yu caught his subtext and clicked his tongue twice. “This labor is even single-use—killed off as soon as they’re done.”

Lin Chen fell silent. Qiu Xin lifted her eyelids to glance at Qi Si before lowering her gaze again.

Right on time, the Scholar’s urging came from downstairs: “Noble warriors, why don’t you come down and sit for a while? Let us discuss the matters of dealing with the Tiger Demon together, so that I may know your plans.”

Their exchange of information was mostly complete, and no new content had appeared on the paper on the nightstand. Lingering upstairs any longer would serve no purpose other than stalling for time.

Everyone looked at Qiu Xin in unison.

Some NPCs knew she was a Wraith. If she went to look for the Tiger Demon with the other players and was recognized on the way, it would be very troublesome.

Qiu Xin said indifferently, “Just worry about yourselves. I’ll go out through the window and follow you from a distance, then meet up in the Bamboo Forest. If I’m spotted by townspeople, I have ways to escape.”

In this instance, Wraiths were at the top of the food chain. Even if she were truly surrounded by townspeople, she had ways to get away by relying on the identity effect that allowed her to easily kill them.

The players no longer hesitated. After bidding farewell to Qiu Xin, they pushed open the door and went downstairs in groups of twos and threes.

The Scholar was very talkative this time. Seeing the players come down, he hurriedly filled several bowls with wine and said with a smile, “Our Yanghua Town has suffered from the Tiger Demon for a long time. If you noble warriors can rid us of this great scourge, you will be the great benefactors of our thousands of townspeople. I wonder, do you have a plan?”

“There’s even wine; this really has become ‘Wu Song Fighting the Tiger at Jingyang Ridge’…” Tang Yu sneered and looked at the Scholar. “I recall what your Master Meng agreed with us yesterday was not like this. He only said to let us stay for a few days with good food and drink, and when the day comes, he would send us out.”

The Scholar’s movements stiffened. He feigned hesitation and said, “You may not know, but since the townspeople learned you could remove the tiger threat, they have been extremely happy. They’ve spontaneously agreed to come and see you off.

“The word has already been spread. If you go back on your word, they won’t know how sad to be. I’m afraid it won’t be easy to settle.”

This was a subtle form of moral kidnapping, carrying an implicit threat.

Qi Si seemed not to hear the underlying meaning, only looking at the Scholar with a half-smile. “We’ve walked all this way and stayed for these few days, and we only feel that you all live and work in peace. It doesn’t look like you can’t survive without getting rid of the Tiger Demon.”

The Scholar put down the wine jar and sighed. “That may be so, but if one could live freely and as one pleases, who would want to live in a forbidden domain of fear and despair?”

Qi Si stared into the Scholar’s eyes. Two seconds later, he gave a bright smile. “I understand. We will go and see that Tiger Demon today.”

The Scholar nodded, a bright red smile hanging on his pale face, with the straw beneath faintly visible. “Then follow me. Don’t make them wait too long.”

The players had already agreed last night that they had to go to the Bamboo Forest no matter what to see the Tiger Demon before formulating a subsequent plan.

The verbal sparring with the Scholar was just a small interlude. It would be best if they could bargain for more benefits, but failing to do so wouldn’t cause any harm.

The group followed the Scholar out of the Residence. A hazy light poured down from above, as if the sun had suddenly come out on a cloudy day.

Townspeople dressed in various colors emerged from every corner, peeking at the players’ group and casting grateful and eager gazes.

New townspeople kept joining the crowd, huddling together into an ocean, surrounding the players in their midst. The level of enthusiasm momentarily gave Qi Si a hallucination of the army of players watching Fu Jue in the Ruins of the Sunset.

“Thank heavens, someone can finally get rid of the tiger threat.”

“That’s wonderful. No one has to die anymore.”

“You all are truly noble warriors…”

The townspeople discussed animatedly, not sparing any words of praise.

The Scholar turned to look at Qi Si and asked, “Do you intend to go directly to the Bamboo Forest to find the Tiger Demon’s lair, or would you like to walk around the town some more?”

His voice was chilly, sounding for all the world like he was letting the players take one last good look at the world while they were still alive.

Qi Si smiled nonchalantly and said, “I’ll walk around nearby first.”

He walked straight in the direction he remembered. The townspeople crowding around him automatically made a path, like seawater being split by a ship.

Lin Chen didn’t understand why, but he still obediently followed behind Qi Si. Tang Yu followed suit.

The three crossed the main street that ran east to west, rounded several dark alleys on street corners, and stopped at a corner covered in shadows where no light could reach at all.

A corpse in black clothes was curled up quietly. The exposed skin under the fabric was pale and bluish, with the color of moldy straw. It looked as if it had been lifeless for a long time.

Tang Yu stepped forward and laid the corpse flat, revealing a familiar face—it was exactly the Scholar from the first day, the Night-Watchman from last night.

Last night, neither Qi Si nor Qiu Xin had laid a hand on him, yet he had died anyway, as if it were a predetermined ending that would not change according to anyone’s will.

Today’s Scholar led the large group of townspeople following the players’ footsteps and also saw the corpse on the ground.

He stood still beside the corpse, bowed slightly, and said in a tone of compassion, “He died at the hands of a Wraith at the Zi Hour last night. By rights, he was to be a sacrifice for that Tiger Demon, but I believe with you noble warriors here, that rule will be changed in a few days.”

Qi Si turned his head to look at him and asked with a smile, “Was he really killed by a Wraith?”

The Scholar was visibly stunned for a moment, then gave a bitter smile. “He could only have been killed by a Wraith. Whoever harms people is a Wraith.”

Qi Si nodded solemnly and said word by word, “I understand.”

“The Undertakers have arrived, everyone please make way—”

Shouts resounded from afar, passed along in succession by the echoes of the townspeople.

Funeral paper effigies riding Paper Donkeys drifted over unsteadily.

They maintained the same posture as yesterday, swaying as they floated to the ground. After hoisting the corpse, they sat back on the Paper Donkeys and headed out of town.

The Paper Donkeys jolted up and down, and the paper effigies swayed back and forth, singing solemn words in high-pitched, thin voices.

The crowd parted to both sides, standing along the path and shouting in response:

“All must die; may they rest in peace in the earth—”

“Clear the way for the deceased—”

In the solemn atmosphere, Lin Chen’s voice sounded softly through the transmission of the Soul Leaf: “Brother Qi, is the Scholar really destined to die because he knows too much?”

“Who knows?” Qi Si’s gaze scanned the crowd, landing on an old man also dressed in black—his aged face was clearly visible, seventy to eighty percent similar to yesterday’s Scholar.

He said with a touch of humor, “It seems now that all Scholars are single-use NPCs. Guides by day, Night-Watchmen the next, and killed by a Wraith according to the rules. Their residual value is squeezed quite clean.”

Lin Chen was silent for a long time before murmuring, “I’ve heard that during the Great Purge in the early days of the Federation, black crosses would be painted on the doors of those sentenced to death, and they would be mowed down with machine guns when they went out.

“The humanoid Scarecrows in this instance should be like those black crosses, serving to mark those about to die. Players in the ‘Wraith’ faction, driven by faction quests, can easily become executioners without knowing it, killing those townspeople possessed by humanoid Scarecrows.”

He made his judgment, lamenting with no small amount of pity, “The powers behind the scenes who can manipulate the instance mechanisms use the players’ hands to eliminate dissidents. This is, in a sense, ‘Acting as a jackal for the tiger’…”

After listening to Lin Chen’s speech, Qi Si narrowed his eyes and smiled. “So now I’m very curious. If we really kill the Tiger Demon, how will that fellow over there, with nowhere left to shift the blame, wrap things up?”

“Ki… kill the Tiger Demon?” Lin Chen’s eyes widened. He truly hadn’t expected the goal to escalate from ‘taking a look at the Tiger Demon’ to such an exaggerated extent.

Qi Si’s smile didn’t fade, as if he were just making an ordinary joke. “Maybe we’ll succeed? After all, your luck has always been good, hasn’t it?”

While the two chatted, the figures of the Undertakers had already disappeared at the furthest point of their vision. The shouts dissipated in the wind, making it difficult to hear the specific words anymore.

The Scholar walked up to the players and said, “It’s getting late. I’ll take you to find the Tiger Demon’s lair.”

The spectacle was over, and the send-off process had been completed. The townspeople gradually dispersed, and the originally packed street returned to a width where people could walk.

The group didn’t linger, heading back toward the Residence. They passed directly through the first-floor lobby and ducked into the hidden door in the back wall.

Behind the hidden door, a large area of flat ground was piled with corpses like mountains. The boundless mountain of corpses felt even more shocking when looked up at from its base.

The Scholar acted as if he couldn’t see those corpses, walking between the piles with a normal expression.

The players could no longer detour like they did yesterday. They could only suppress the discomfort in their hearts and walk through the passage between the two mountains of corpses.

The semi-decomposed skeletons on both sides were like a set from hell, lining the path to welcome the players from afar into the domain of death.

Qi Si slowed his pace, walking at the end of the line. He picked two relatively intact corpses and performed a rough inspection.

One died of knife wounds, the other of fire. Both died violent deaths, but neither had perished in a tiger’s mouth.

“It’s just ahead.” The Scholar stopped at the edge of the corpse piles, pointing from afar to the Bamboo Forest shrouded in mist.

Pure white pebbles extended from the forest path, trailing a short distance outside the Bamboo Forest as if inviting people in.

The Scholar stood rooted to the spot, refusing to take another step forward no matter what.

They had already come this far; there was no reason to turn back. The players simply bypassed him and walked into the Bamboo Forest in a line along the winding path.

After the players entered, the already thick mist in the forest became even denser. The three had only walked a few more steps forward when they looked back to see the white fog had blocked the way they came.

The hazy milky-white color shifted in density, rendering the entire scene with a dreamlike sense of unreality.

Densely packed bamboos crossed and slanted, making the path ahead confusing and blurry. Looking around, they could only see large patches of eerie green, with no telling what was hidden behind them.

“I’m here.” Qiu Xin’s voice sounded from far ahead, marking the direction.

With Tang Yu in the lead, the players followed the guidance of the voice, stepping on the fine white stones on the ground as they continued deeper into the forest.

Drip, drip…

The sound of water droplets pattered. A thick scent of blood hit them, mixed with the stench of fermented animal saliva.

The players looked up and saw a corpse with its half bitten off hanging from a bamboo tip. It swayed without wind like cured meat, dripping deep red fluid downward.

Qiu Xin, dressed in purple, stood by the corpse. She turned and waved to them. “Come over here. The Tiger Demon’s lair is over there.”

Tang Yu didn’t doubt her, walking a few steps to Qiu Xin’s side and looking in the direction she was facing.

Human bones with bits of meat still attached were scattered here and there. Some were half-buried in the ground, and some were hanging high on the bamboo.

Ghastly white skeletons were strewn about, long-covering an entire small path that led into the depths of the mist-steaming Bamboo Forest.

An icy, bone-chilling demonic wind blew the sounds from the deep forest, echoing over the rare small patches of open ground.

Crunch… crunch… the sound of human bones being chewed was clear and distinct.

“Roar—”

The tiger’s roar was high and loud, causing the earth to tremble and making eardrums throb.

In just a few seconds, various sounds capable of inducing fear merged into one, rapidly approaching the players along with the ‘rustle’ of a heavy object crushing bamboo leaves.

The players dared not be careless. Each took out their life-saving items, ready to activate them at any moment.

Lin Chen opened the black umbrella in front of him, his eyes fixed on the trembling deep forest.

Rustle, rustle… The white mist was scattered by the turbulent airflow, and a giant head poked out from the fog, baring sharp, blood-stained teeth.

It belonged to a tiger.