Ji Heng focused on him for a few seconds, and what he said gave Su Er a faint sense of relief.
“Ghosts can’t target humans for no reason.”
Behind every life-and-death struggle, there’s always a trade backing it. Looked at another way, Su Er must also have received some sort of benefit.
After a few moments of thought, he picked up his discarded clothes and inspected them carefully. Finally, on the shoulder, he found a peach blossom petal. He shook the clothes hard, but strangely, the petal clung stubbornly, as if glued there.
When he tried touching it with his fingers, however, he plucked it off with ease.
Su Er: “Ever since entering the instance, every single thing seems to be tied to peach blossoms.”
Ji Heng brought up Deception again.
Su Er glanced at him and muttered thoughtfully: “One of the clues back then was—beware of parasites.”
Combined with Xu Fan’s manner of death, it faintly echoed something. As he thought of this, he lightly rolled the petal between his fingers, then steadied his expression: “Could it be related to this thing?”
Jian Heng didn’t answer, only said: “Take some time to soak in the hot spring.”
Su Er nodded.
With the temple’s disciples sent away for now, no one was cooking, so at noon they made do with instant noodles.
Princess Camellia sent a message in the group chat, saying he was going to nap and they didn’t need to wait for him.
“How full of himself,” Su Er shook his head. “As if anyone cares.”
He had barely said this when another message popped up: [Bicker spirit, mute yourself.]
Su Er froze. And it wasn’t just him—other players looked around warily, but no sign of the host could be found.
Su Er’s throat moved: “He put surveillance on me?”
Ji Heng: “Maybe he just made a reasonable guess.”
“......”a
Since talking while eating only slowed things down, the only player not distracted at the moment was Zhu Yu. While the others were still chewing, she wiped her lips with a tissue and said: “Information exchange?”
Jia Kanhua raised a brow: “Again?”
Zhu Yu: “One person’s strength is always limited.” She glanced outside the window. “Besides, tonight no one will be able to escape.”
Once night fell, the temple would likely turn into a place of rampant spirits.
Jia Kanhua’s eyes swept across the others.
Su Er: “No objections.”
Ji Heng also nodded.
Xu Yangyang said awkwardly. “I didn’t really find anything.”
Zhu Yu: “Then you owe one.”
Xu Yangyang froze, not expecting her to be that lenient.
But Zhu Yu’s tone was light as a breeze: “If you don’t repay with a useful lead within two days, we’ll isolate you.”
“......”a
He hadn’t even finished being embarrassed when the others had already started grouping together to share.
Su Er pulled up the photo: “From the side of Wencheng Hall you can get to the photo spot. At least two female ghosts there. The ghost in the hot spring can manipulate the water flow—if it gets you, the odds of drowning are high. Outside the hot spring, there’s also a wooden plaque with a minor ghost on it—not strong, but likes to sneak up from behind…”
Since he didn’t have a concrete lead, most of what he shared was about avoiding risks. He rattled off a long list in one go, lips going dry.
When he looked up again, aside from Ji Heng, everyone else was giving him rather odd looks.
Xu Yangyang: “If I’m not mistaken, we’ve only been apart for a little over an hour.”
Su Er checked the time and reported precisely: “One hour twenty minutes.”
Xu Yangyang’s eyes filled with sympathy. So during this whole time, he’d done nothing but run into ghosts?
Zhu Yu broke the sudden silence by tossing a wooden wishing plaque on the table. Written on it were the names Lu Lanxin and Zhao Bo, with a heart drawn between.
“I found this with Liu Lang. We already confirmed with the abbot that the person who used to do the temple cooking was named Zhao Bo.”
Jia Kanhua: “Didn’t we already know that this morning?”
During the first round of information exchange, Su Er had already talked about Lu Lanxin and her boyfriend.
Zhu Yu: “We only heard one side of the story. He also only heard it secondhand.”
Jia Kanhua thought Su Er would be displeased, but when he turned his head, he actually saw agreement in his eyes.
“Lu Lanxin might have fabricated parts of her story,” Su Er glanced at the plaque. “But this at least confirms their relationship as a couple was real.”
Jia Kanhua thought it over and agreed, then added: “I went to Zhao Bo’s old room and found a few magazines of foreign celebrities.”
As he said it, he gave everyone a knowing look.
Zhu Yu frowned deeply: “If he resigned, he should’ve taken those things with him.”
Xu Yangyang agreed: “Exactly. Ever since entering this instance, I even deleted hundreds of gigabytes of videos from my hard drive.”
In case one day he died in the game, and when his family reported him missing, the police checked his computer.
“......”a
After everyone had spoken, Ji Heng finally opened his mouth slowly: "Zhao Bo resigned voluntarily. The abbot said when he left, he was in the middle of looking for his next job."
Jia Kanhua rubbed his chin: "Could it be that something happened to him during the resignation process?"
Unfortunately, apart from Zhao Bo himself, no one could give a definite conclusion.
Haste makes waste—judging from the signs, tonight wouldn’t be easy. After lunch, everyone went back to their rooms to rest.
Half-asleep, half-awake, Su Er suddenly caught hold of a thought in his mind. He opened his eyes and saw Ji Heng staring at the calligraphy character “Silence” hanging on the wall.
“Not sleeping?”
“Just ate, can’t fall asleep.”
Su Er turned to his side: “The ghost that ambushed me—its clothes and hairstyle were all from the last century. It must have been dead for quite a while.”
Ji Heng turned his head toward him: “You want to pry open that female ghost’s mouth?”
“She probably knows quite a lot.”
Ji Heng thought for a moment: “When you wake up, we’ll go take a look.”
Su Er quickly fell asleep.
An hour later, the alarm rang. Because he had been chased by evil spirits in his dream, the moment he woke he actually felt a sense of relief.
On the way to the small grove, Su Er’s bathrobe looked rather out of place. A gust of wind lifted one corner of it, revealing two straight, pale legs.
The shaded path was narrow. Walking behind him, Ji Heng couldn’t shake the odd feeling that he was taking advantage somehow.
Before the strange atmosphere had time to settle, a faint fluttering sound came from the air. Ji Heng’s gaze turned cold; he stopped, and with a slash of his dagger through the air, a strip of white satin drifted lightly to the ground.
The red-clothed female ghost in the tree froze. She couldn’t understand how anyone could cut apart white silk forged from yin energy.
Without even glancing upward, Ji Heng asked, “Is it her?”
Having already suffered at the hands of this ghost once before, Su Er sneered: “She’s begging to be finished off.”
“......”a
Pursuing benefit and avoiding harm was the instinct of ghosts as well. If some old rival had secretly fanned the flames, coupled with these two standing before her, she would gain nothing by resisting.
The red-clothed female ghost shifted her stance, waved the half-strip of white silk in her hand, and raised it like a white flag of surrender.
Su Er pulled up a group photo on his phone: “Have you seen these two people?”
The photo was clearly taken under the peach tree. To deny it would be an outright lie. The red ghost rolled her eyes, then nodded.
Su Er pointed to the man in the photo, asking about Zhao Bo’s whereabouts.
The red ghost made a shhh gesture: “Can’t say.”
Just as he was preparing to press her, a faint sigh drifted over. A pink-clad female ghost appeared beneath the peach tree: "If I speak, I’ll be scattered into oblivion."
Ji Heng quietly reminded: ‘The rules.’
Su Er felt a trace of regret.
Looking at the pink-clad female ghost, Ji Heng asked: “Before us, has anyone else come asking about his whereabouts?”
The pink-clad female ghost’s expression stiffened.
Su Er feigned a low murmur: “Anyway, there are two ghosts. We could kill one to intimidate the other.”
The two female ghosts’ faces immediately darkened. Finally, the pink one opened her mouth and squeezed out a few words: “A government department.”
The red one cursed, "Bitch,"—she had stolen her answer—then added: “And a folk organization, led by an old Taoist priest.”
Su Er pulled out the peach blossom petal: “What’s the use of this thing?”
Both ghosts said in unison: “Can’t say.”
As they turned to leave, Ji Heng suddenly said, “Never let down your guard around ghosts.”
Before the words had even faded, his fist swung backward. The sheer force, far beyond the critical threshold, caused a slight distortion in the air. The red ghost, who had tried to launch a sneak attack, screamed as her soul was shredded into fragments.
The pink ghost trembled, unspeakably grateful she hadn’t acted first.
Passing a pavilion, they entered one after another and sat down.
The group chat buzzed with a new message:
[Princess Camellia: Two hours left until nightfall.]
Followed by three candle emojis.
Su Er’s eyes dimmed.
Ji Heng spoke gently: “Feeling something’s off?”
Su Er: “Too much noise.”
The last one who had been this restless was that bratty host.
After a pause, he said, “Your dead-end game won’t be simple. Since he was chosen by the game to be the host, he shouldn’t be so impatient.”
Ji Heng’s smile held a touch of irony: “Hosts’ names always hint at something about their nature.”
This was something Su Er knew all too well—for example, Mister Rose hated lies, Mister Sea of Books was obsessed with reading, and so on.
“Princess Camellia…”
Su Er mouthed the name a few times but couldn’t taste any meaning in it.
Ji Heng only said, “Until the situation is clearer, best not to have too much contact.”
A breeze stirred. Not far away, leaves, petals, and willow fluff tangled together, spinning as they drifted across the ground.
The two of them chatted in the pavilion. At one point, Ji Heng left briefly, then returned with a bathrobe and towel in hand.
Su Er: “Hot spring?”
“Safer in the day than at night.”
Perhaps because of Princess Camellia’s earlier intimidation, this time entering the hot spring area they didn’t encounter any violent ghosts.
As his body slowly sank into the water, Su Er let out a satisfied sigh.
The water was crystal clear. Most hot springs open to the public now were artificial, but the temperature here was perfectly suited for people.
They soaked for a while, and even the hot spring ghost didn’t come to stir trouble. Su Er wondered if Ji Heng had secretly cleared the danger away… Countless thoughts flitted through his mind, but he was too exhausted to chase them. A deep weariness swept over him.
He clung to a last shred of reason, thinking: so this is what those who almost drowned must have felt.
Drown?
The word alone was sobering.
He struggled faintly—no result. So Su Er switched tactics, using his Charm status to blindly draw in whatever was around him. A few strands of yin energy were caught, seeping into his bones. The biting cold jolted him awake instantly.
Exhaling in relief, he belatedly noticed his waist was tight. Looking down, he found several bathrobe sashes knotted together—one end tied around his waist, the other fastened to a tree behind him. Even if he had fallen asleep, his life wouldn’t have been at risk.
No need to guess whose handiwork that was. Scanning the area, his gaze finally landed in the tree above.
Ji Heng jumped down, holding some white, fluff-like matter in his hand.
“What’s that…?”
Ji Heng opened his palm before him and cautioned. “Don’t get too close. Easy for it to blow into your eyes.”
Su Er brushed it lightly with a fingertip. They were all tiny white spheres, each with a dark speck inside.
Good thing he’d studied biology—he quickly judged: “Dried insect eggs.”
Thinking back, he realized they’d occasionally drifted through the air along the way. At first glance, he’d thought they were willow fluff. His expression turned grim: “Don’t tell me they can parasitize humans?”
“I just tested on a bird,” Ji Heng said. “Once they enter a wound, they survive only briefly, dissolved by mucous membranes. But the bird’s spirit grew noticeably weak for a short time.”
Su Er: “Nerve paralysis?”
Ji Heng nodded, eyes fixed on the dense forest ahead. As the sun crept westward, the white fluff grew more abundant.
“Tonight will be extremely dangerous.” His expression was solemn. “If unavoidable, this stuff will impair basic motor control.”
At that moment, the group chat chimed again.
[Princess Camellia: Only one hour left before nightfall.]
This time, the candle emojis had doubled.
Su Er’s brows had been slightly furrowed—now he smiled: “How about we go be guests somewhere else?”
Their eyes met. Ji Heng stood on the bank: “As you wish.”
When Su Er opened the tablet, he nudged Ji Heng with his elbow: “Share the hardship.”
Ji Heng obliged, posting nonstop online. He wrote about child traffickers stealing kids that night, embellishing it with dramatic words.
“Netizens will definitely think you’re making stories up.” Su Er tilted his head, admiring the distant scenery. “But once the authorities see it, they’ll likely lock onto your IP right away.”
With big data, countless online remarks were keyword-searched. Specialists would then review whether citizens were spreading illegal information. If what the female ghost said was true, higher-ups should already be paying close attention. Words like ‘child traffickers’ and ‘famous orphanage’ might already be in priority searches.
For a while, the two of them spammed posts like mad. Su Er clapped back at netizens, boasting of explosive inside news, even attaching a photo of a corner of the hot spring.
Once finished, he flashed an "OK" gesture: “Done.”
At dusk, the last glow of sunlight spread across heaven and earth before night fell. Shrouded in green shade, the temple exuded an aura of Zen.
Dong. Dong-dong.
Knocks broke the temple’s tranquility.
The abbot opened the door in confusion. Seeing uniformed men outside, he swallowed the words “closed to guests today.”
From the way they moved, it was obvious—these weren’t ordinary police, but more like highly trained soldiers.
Ten minutes later, Ji Heng and Su Er, still in their bathrobes, were taken away.
Princess Camellia stood at the doorway, his voice deep: “Comrades, is there some kind of misunderstanding?”
The man at the front had a scar on his face. When he spoke, his tone carried menace: “The two of them are suspected of fabricating and deliberately spreading false information.”
At this, Princess Camellia offered a genial smile: “There must be a mistake. They’re all my friends, here at the temple only for cultivation and peace of mind.”
The scarred man sneered: “When we arrived, they were still posting. Caught red-handed.”
“......”a
The next moment, Princess Camellia’s gaze slashed toward Su Er like a knife.
Su Er theatrically wiped at his eyes: “Though we agreed to stay in a Zen room, I never imagined reality could be this cruel… Seems tonight we’ll have to spend it in a detention center.”
Shoved toward the exit, just as he stepped over the threshold, he suddenly looked back: “Cha Cha(Princess Camellia is Cháhuā gōngzhǔ), are you just going to watch us get dragged away like this?”
His tone was tragic, but the corners of his eyes crinkled with suppressed wrinkles—each fold silently accusing: ‘As the host, why don’t you practice what you preach?’ ‘Where’s the boldness you had in the daytime?’
In short, even the other players who rushed over could read volumes from his expression.
Xu Yangyang was floored, blurting the truth without thinking: “I want to be taken too.”
Brothers, take me with you!
The temple was far too unsafe. Staying behind tonight might very well mean game over.
“......”
The scene froze into suffocating awkwardness.
Zhu Yu whispered a reminder: “Say less.”
Couldn’t he see the host was about to explode on the spot?
Xu Yangyang peeked carefully at Princess Camellia, only to find his face so dark it seemed ink would drip. Xu Yangyang immediately backed off two steps and shut his mouth.
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