Chapter 37

It was late at night.

The old locust tree's canopy floated in the dark blue and purple sky, making it look even more out of place in the bloodstained sky.

A cold wind blew by, causing the long strip hanging from the canopy to sway back and forth like an abandoned gunny sack.

After a while, someone spoke in a trembling voice.

"That, that's a person?"

Zong Jiu frowned. "Should be. It looks like he's been dead for a while. "

The bullet screen broke out in cold sweat.

[It's not just been dead for a while. If it's any longer, he'll probably be weathered away … His arms are hanging down to his ankles, oh my god.]

[Yes, people who are hanged will hang down according to gravity. This corpse should have been dead for a few days, or else his tongue wouldn't be so long.]

[I didn't see such a big person when the camera turned here, and he's been dead for a few days? Exciting.]

[We've only been in the dungeon for a while, and a horrible thing has already happened. As expected, this dungeon isn't easy. Amazing.]

The white-haired youth turned around and asked, "Did anyone notice this tree when we first came out?"

The others shook their heads.

Everyone had looked carefully before entering the house. It was impossible not to notice such a big person hanging from the canopy.

From the time they entered the house to the time they left and came back, it took less than an hour.

The old locust tree was more than ten meters tall, and its trunk was straight. There were no protrusions or points on its body that could be used for force. It was impossible to run up to the canopy in just half an hour.

Not to mention that it was a hanged corpse. The difficulty of the operation was obvious, and it was almost impossible to fool people.

No one dared to stay in the mud house while they were collecting firewood. Everyone followed them out.

After such a thing happened, no one dared to go near the eerie house. So, one group waited there while the other went to find the villagers.

When everyone worked together to use a hemp rope to hook the corpse down, everyone was stunned.

The villagers who had been cursing earlier scrambled back to call for help, leaving the trainees looking at each other.

The white-haired youth took a step back and picked up a branch from the pile of firewood that the trainees were holding. He bent down and turned over the corpse's head.

On the soil was a face that was a mixture of green and purple. One of his eyeballs had fallen somewhere, and his face was ferocious and stiff. He had died with his eyes wide open.

At the same time, a notification from the main system rang in his ears.

[Non-main mission item submission failed]

Zong Jiu looked down, deep in thought.

It seemed that if he wanted to complete the main mission, he would have to personally check if each corpse was the perfect corpse that the necromancer was looking for.

Xu Su exclaimed, "Isn't that the person who led us earlier?"

"But, but …"

Someone said with a trembling voice, "Didn't they say that this corpse has been dead for a few days? Then the one who led us here is …"

Dead silence.

The time of death did not match the time Lao Qiang had given them.

It was obvious that either this corpse was fake, or … the person who led them here was not a human at all!

The sky was getting darker and darker, the mountains were silent, and the people's faces were like frightened statues in the darkness.

At this moment, the villagers who had rushed back also came over with torches in their hands.

"What are you all doing here?"

When Wang Shou arrived, he was still holding a bowl and chopsticks in his hands. Someone must have called him over from the dining table.

When he got closer, he was so scared that he sat back and the bowl in his hand fell to the ground.

Zong Jiu stood to the side and secretly glanced at the bowl that he had knocked over.

Dark red mud wrapped around a piece of white meat and rolled out of the bowl.

It was strange to eat soil as rice, and dark red soil was even rarer. However, it was strange to see a piece of meat on the side.

If they could afford to eat meat, how could they not have rice to eat?

Just as Zong Jiu was about to move closer to take a closer look at the piece of meat, there was a huge commotion among the villagers.

"Quick!" After seeing the corpse, Wang Shou screamed at the top of his lungs, "Call, call my father here!"

Because of the commotion, another group of people who had handed in their food came out of their houses and gathered around to whisper. Their words echoed in the silent night, and words like "mole", "villagers", and "something happened" could be vaguely heard.

"It must be a mole." Yi Yuesi stood behind Anthony and said angrily.

Just a moment ago, just like the teams who hadn't handed in their food, the teams who had handed in their food quickly chose a leader.

Azan in black didn't say anything, so the A-rank half-vampire, Anthony, was chosen. After all, as the right-hand man of the No.7, Anthony, who was known as the Barbarian, was not only famous within the vampire community, but also among the ordinary survivors. It was understandable that he would be the leader.

It made sense. The reason why the mole card was different from the normal card was because of the conflict between their main missions.

Protecting the villagers was the normal card's mission. Now that a villager had died, it was uncertain if there was a mole behind the scenes. But the corpse was found on the old locust tree, so it was more likely that someone else was the culprit.

Anthony's team was mostly made up of old people, and it wasn't hard for them to survive with a special item in their hands. Compared to that, their most important goal was to complete more dangerous challenges, complete random missions, and improve their system rating.

In the silence, two figures, one big and one small, suddenly appeared in the night.

The old man was limping with a cane, and he was holding a skinny child's hand.

When the child saw Wang Shou sitting on the ground, he let go of his hand and ran over, calling for his father.

[This dungeon is really difficult. Even the children are so skinny that they're just skin and bones.]

[Yeah … The ones who suffer are always the people at the bottom. Sigh, they can't even fill their stomachs, how pitiful.]

"Village chief!"

The villagers with hoes opened up a path for him.

The village chief held a cigarette in his hand and nodded. His murky eyes slowly looked at the shriveled corpse on the ground.

Maybe it was because of the night, but for a moment, Zong Jiu felt that the other party's eyeballs had turned completely black.

Wang Shou pulled the child behind him, looking flustered. "Father, Lao Qiang was still following me about an hour ago."

The other villagers gathered around, waiting for the village chief's decision.

"Granny Yin is right."

After a long time, he took a puff from the long cigarette. "I'm afraid it's true this time."

"Then what do we do?"

The villagers were in an uproar. "Are we just going to wait for death?"

"Yeah, if it's really like what Granny Yin said, then wouldn't our whole village —"

"What's the rush, can we eat rice if we're anxious?"

The village chief tapped the cigarette handle impatiently. "Go back, it's already dark. We'll go to the temple tomorrow morning to find Granny Yin to think of a solution. Besides, that old woman is so weird every day, maybe it's just a coincidence? "

Obviously, his words were quite persuasive, and the uproar gradually subsided.

Hearing this, the other villagers were also convinced, and one by one, they went back with their torches.

The surrounding trainees looked at each other in dismay.

They suddenly felt that the villagers of this village were too calm, so calm that it didn't seem like they were witnessing a tragedy.

Someone had already died, so according to normal logic, shouldn't they quickly find a way to find the murderer? No matter how they looked at their expressions, it seemed like they already knew who the murderer was.

Besides, this person had just shown them the way, and in the blink of an eye, he was drained of his blood and hanged to death. The time difference in between didn't allow them to think about it carefully. Under such strange circumstances, the villagers of Tong Bai Village were still so calm. Even if they were used to seeing dead people during the famine era, it didn't make sense.

Things were definitely not that simple.

Many experienced elders were well aware of this. Especially the black-clothed Azan, whose eyebrows were tightly knitted together.

At this point in the dungeon, the probability of it being a spiritual-type dungeon was very high.

Since it was to protect the people in the village, it meant that the entire village was being targeted. Deducing, even if it wasn't an evil spirit with strong resentment, it was still an extremely terrifying curse, so it could affect the entire village.

Generally speaking, there must be an unknown story behind such a situation.

Only by figuring out what had happened in the village could they better protect the villagers.

While pondering, Xu Su asked in a low voice, "Then, what should we do tonight?"

The house assigned to them was behind the old locust tree. It was impossible to say that they weren't afraid of the murder scene in front of them. Not only was the mud house eerie, but the walls were also covered in scratch marks, which made their hair stand on end.

"This is a horror dungeon, so those anomalies can't be so coincidental."

Someone laughed dryly. "I think for safety's sake, we should find a way to change the location, or just camp outside. Anyway, there's a fire, so it's not too cold if we gather in a circle."

The white-haired youth pretended to think and said, "I think that's a good idea. Safety is the most important thing right now, so let's stay away from that mud house. "

No one wanted to get close to the mud house, so this suggestion was exactly what everyone wanted. Other than the black-haired man in the straw raincoat who glanced at the youth, everyone else raised their hands in agreement.

Zong Jiu pretended not to see this gaze.

In fact, the biggest variable in this dungeon might be Zhuge An. Zong Jiu was confident that he could use all kinds of psychological tactics and acting skills to fool others, but he couldn't do anything about Zhuge An, who didn't play by the rules.

However, Zhuge An did give him a lot of clues in the first dungeon, and it was the same in Las Vegas. As a smart person, this was already a clear sign of goodwill.

Just like what Zhuge An said, it was up to Zong Jiu to believe it.

Unfortunately, Zong Jiu only believed in himself.

Therefore, the team members who didn't hand in the food casually picked an empty space around the house and poured the firewood on the ground.

After the preparation work was done, everyone's eyes drifted to the S-rank No.7 who was standing on the side doing nothing.

Everyone was curious, curious as to how he was going to light the fire. When they turned around, they saw Zhuge An slowly taking out his Tai Chi Eight Trigrams.

[I'm dumbfounded, what is he doing?]

[Why, why did he take out an S-rank item, is there a supernatural presence around here?]

The trainees were shocked and looked around vigilantly, as if every tree and bush was an enemy.

Zhuge An didn't even lift his eyelids as he spun the Tai Chi Eight Trigrams in his hand.

In the direction the Li Hexagram was facing, the firewood lit up with a "whoosh".

The bullet screen came to a realization. [I know, I just went to search for popular science, so the Eight Trigrams also represent the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If that's the case … it's not incomprehensible to light a fire, but it's a bit of a waste of cooldown time (kneeling)]

Everyone else: "…?"

Although we all understand the logic, isn't it a waste to use an S-rank item to light a fire?