Chapter 42

Gu Yi'an was about to lose her grip on the prop in her hand, but someone was faster than her.
The female player, Sixth Sister, threw a punch directly.
The hanged ghost's head slammed into the door, bouncing twice.
Third Brother then stepped forward, holding a prop in his hand, and covered the hanged ghost's head with it. The hanged ghost was instantly sucked into the prop.
The older brother, who had been preparing to act, watched the scene unfold. Like Gu Yi'an, he silently put away his prop.
The newbie male player had initially rushed toward the side window but, upon seeing this, calmly turned back.
The newbie male player couldn't help but sigh, "I thought we could only run. I didn’t expect you veteran players to have so many tricks up your sleeves."
The first time the hanged ghost appeared, the veteran players had scattered in all directions, leading the newbie to believe they had no means to deal with ghosts.
Now, it seemed they weren’t lacking in methods, they just hadn’t intended to use them earlier.
Third Brother, holding the prop that had captured the ghost, said, "The ghost has been subdued. Let’s head to the ancestral hall."
His expression was somewhat puzzled as he looked at his prop; he hadn’t expected the hanged ghost to be so weak.
If it was this easy to subdue, their earlier escape seemed almost laughable.
Seeing how easily the hanged ghost had been captured, Gu Yi'an didn’t feel relieved.
Why was this ghost so easy to deal with?
Could it be that the real challenge lay only with whatever was in the ancestral hall?
Gu Yi'an’s gaze inadvertently fell upon the coffin placed in the room.
The lid seemed off.
It wasn’t fully closed!
A sudden realization struck her.
She immediately said, "Quick, release the hanged ghost."
Third Brother was taken aback. "What?"
Even as he asked, his hands moved without hesitation.
He still held a certain level of trust in Gu Yi'an, the one who had dared to ask a ghost to unlock her phone.
The hanged ghost was dumped out.
The other players followed Gu Yi'an’s gaze to the coffin in the room.
Just as the hanged ghost was released, a sigh echoed from inside the coffin, and then the lid shifted visibly, sinking slightly.
The newbie male player blurted out, "Does this mean if we capture the hanged ghost, all the ghosts in the coffins will come after us?"
No one answered him.
Given the situation, that seemed to be the case.
After being dumped out, the hanged ghost lay listlessly on the ground, likely needing some time to recover.
This gave the players a window to escape.
Sixth Sister pushed open the main door, her eyes still filled with lingering fear, but she remained rational. "Let’s go quickly."
The other players instinctively looked at Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an said, "Let’s go."
She followed Sixth Sister’s lead.
The remaining players quickly followed suit.
The five players stepped onto the main village road, with only one option left: head to the ancestral hall.
Gu Yi'an was extremely wary of the ancestral hall.
They were being forced to enter it, and there was definitely something strange about the place.
She picked up her phone to check the live stream.
The stream was blacked out, it had been shut down.
Perhaps the paper phone from the hanged ghost had somehow disappeared.
On the way to the ancestral hall, Third Brother recounted his experience in the courtyard, warning the others to use their trump cards without holding back.
As the five players discussed their strategy, they arrived at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
Third Brother reluctantly tossed a human-shaped wooden plaque onto the ground.
Big Brother reminded the newbie male player to stick close to him or to Seventh Sister later on.
Seventh Sister was the nickname they had given Gu Yi'an.
Given that, since the start of the game, Gu Yi'an had made almost no mistakes in judgment, except for possibly the decision to go to the ancestral hall, everyone had immense confidence in her.
In truth, Gu Yi'an didn’t have much confidence in herself. Her current understanding of the phrase "no one survives" was purely literal.
None of them would make it out alive.
After Big Brother finished advising the newbie, he asked, "Shall we go in now?"
Gu Yi'an glanced at the plaque above the door, which read "Ancestral Hall," but there was nothing particularly unique about it.
She was the first to approach the door of the ancestral hall.
Before she could push it, the door swung open as if someone had pulled it from the inside, yet she saw no one behind it.
This was clearly different from what Third Brother had said about needing to push it open themselves.
Gu Yi'an looked at the seemingly harmless courtyard inside and said to the players behind her, "Since we’re being invited in, let’s go in."
She stepped across the threshold.
The other four players exchanged glances and also entered the ancestral hall.
After all the players had stepped inside, the door closed on its own.
The sound of the door shutting pierced the silent night sky.
In the distance, the Hanged Ghost heard the noise. It pulled out a new paper phone and blew on it.
As the paper phone lit up, it glanced toward the direction of the ancestral hall and couldn’t help rubbing its head.
"Ghost King, I’ve finally managed to deliver the sacrifices to you. Oh, my head hurts."
It slowly drifted toward the ancestral hall, muttering as it went, "Ghost friends in the livestream, your Hanged Ghost is back. I sacrificed myself to successfully deliver the Ghost King’s sacrifices. Now all I have to do is wait outside, guarding the place.
You’re not happy? Well, there’s nothing you can do about it. Who knew that girl would be so clever and let me out again? You all want to come out? No chance! Besides, if I let all of you out, what would I eat?"
The Hanged Ghost drifted to the entrance of the ancestral hall and spotted the human-shaped wooden plaque on the ground.
"What’s this?"
With a wave of its hand, the wooden plaque floated into its grasp.
Snap.
The wooden plaque shattered into pieces.
The Hanged Ghost, having crushed the plaque, drifted over to the rooftop of a nearby bungalow and lazily waited for the players to leave the ancestral hall.
The moment the Hanged Ghost crushed the wooden plaque, the male player known as Third Brother in the courtyard suddenly bent over, clutching his chest.
His abrupt movement inevitably struck the other players as odd.
But no one paid him much attention, as they were all on guard against the vines Third Brother had mentioned.
Ever since they entered the ancestral hall, their paper phones had lit up, providing ample illumination.
Yet, not even a shadow of the vines Third Brother had mentioned could be seen.
Third Brother forcefully thumped his chest a few times and straightened up again.
Gu Yi’an didn’t pay much attention to Third Brother’s actions. Walking at the front, she had already reached the entrance to the main hall of the ancestral hall.
She had a vague premonition that something inside the ancestral hall was waiting for her, that it was the very reason she had been summoned here.
Since it wanted her to come, she had come.
Once Gu Yi’an decided to do something, she never hesitated.
As she approached the door, it swung open automatically, as if inviting Gu Yi’an inside, completely unlike the scenario Third Brother had described.
Gu Yi’an felt it wasn’t just her imagination; something in the ancestral hall truly was waiting for her.
The other players hesitated slightly upon seeing this, keeping some distance from Gu Yi’an.
Staring into the pitch-black interior of the main hall, Gu Yi’an pondered: if the door only opened for her, then the other players likely weren’t meant to enter.
She turned back to the group and said, “Be careful. We might be separated.”
The other players were somewhat puzzled, unsure what Gu Yi’an had noticed to make such a statement.
Gu Yi’an turned back around. Having warned the players, she had no further concerns and stepped into the darkness without hesitation.
The other players watched as Gu Yi'an strode resolutely into the main hall of the ancestral hall, the hem of her coat fluttering, lending her silhouette an inexplicable air of elegance.
Then, without any warning, the door slammed shut tightly before their eyes.
“Damn, the vines are here,” Sixth Sister was the first to notice the vines creeping across the ground.
The novice male player hid behind Big Brother and said, “We have to get out. This ancestral hall only wants Seventh Sister. It won’t let us in. Let’s hurry and leave.”
His reasoning made sense to everyone.
Otherwise, how could they explain why the ancestral hall behaved so differently after Gu Yi’an entered, opening and closing on its own?
Sixth Sister glanced reluctantly at the main hall but, forced by the circumstances, chose to give up.
They quickly retreated to the entrance.
Big Brother, Third Brother, and Sixth Sister each used their own methods, employing tools to fend off the vines.
The only unoccupied novice male player hurriedly yanked at the door.
Creak,
The door swung open so easily that the novice male player nearly stumbled and fell.
“How could it open so quickly? Is there something even more dangerous outside?” he wondered aloud.
Big Brother said, “Stop talking nonsense and get out.”
The novice male player replied, “We can’t rush. Let me check for any dangers.”
He quickly scanned the surroundings outside.
The reason the veteran players protected the novice male player was simple: he was clever. They’d help him when they could, and abandon him only if necessary.
Fortunately, the novice male player proved his worth once again.
He saw the long-necked hanged ghost.
"That ghost has caught up."
The hanged ghost realized that the newbie male player had spotted it and no longer bothered to hide. It floated overhead, letting out a sinister laugh. "You're out. Finally, I can catch someone."
"Damn! Run!"
The players, who had just banded together, scattered in all directions.
Each of them began their desperate escape.
Gu Yi'an's situation was different from the four players playing hide-and-seek with the hanged ghost.
She now stood inside a pitch-dark ancestral hall, relying only on the light from her paper phone to illuminate her surroundings.
She spotted an altar table ahead, on which there seemed to be something resembling an envelope.
Nothing emerged from the darkness.
Gu Yi'an approached the altar table and used the light from her phone to illuminate the words on what appeared to be an envelope.
Three words were written on it: "Confession of Sins."
Gu Yi'an picked up the confession, found the opening under the phone's light, and pulled out the letter inside.
She began to read its contents.
It seemed to have been written by a highly respected elder in the village.
He recounted how they had committed sins, offering human sacrifices to an evil god in exchange for wealth and prosperity.
The evil god responded to them, and initially, they indeed obtained immense riches.
But wealth blinded them. The villagers, controlled by greed, began turning on each other.
Soon after, the punishment they had invoked from the evil god manifested, they became neither human nor ghost, their bodies gradually repulsed by sunlight, and eventually, they started feeding on raw flesh and blood.
As for those who had died earlier, their souls remained trapped in their bodies, finding release only when their remains were cremated.
Gu Yi'an deciphered the words on the letter, fully aware that this confession was undoubtedly withholding information.
The writer did not explain why they had written this confession, nor how they had learned of the evil god's ritual, and made no mention of how they later dealt with the villagers' transformations.
This confession seemed deliberately placed here as a clue for the players to discover.
After carefully storing the confession, Gu Yi'an surveyed her surroundings again.
It was pitch black all around.
She could hear no sound other than those she made herself.
The presence behind the scenes should have arrived by now.
Gu Yi'an waited a while longer. In the dead silence, she stood there alone, motionless, as if entirely unaffected by her surroundings.
Something was watching her.
Gu Yi'an was acutely aware of this fact.
She could feel the sensation of being observed.
Since that presence wanted to play a waiting game with her, Gu Yi'an decided to oblige.
She opened the livestream on her phone and tuned into the Hanged Ghost's broadcast.
An exceptionally unpleasant voice echoed in the space.
"...Shh. We need to be quiet. I smell a human presence. She's in this house. I know she's watching the stream."
In the livestream, the Hanged Ghost was slowly drifting toward the entrance of a single-story house.
The lights inside the house were on, but no shadows moved within.
Just as the Hanged Ghost approached the main door, it suddenly swerved sharply and charged in the opposite direction.
The paper phone couldn't keep up with the Hanged Ghost's abrupt change in direction.
The livestream screen shook violently for a moment before stabilizing, the camera quickly refocusing.
The screen showed the Hanged Ghost bursting through a door, and the shocked expression of the female player, Sixth Sister, came into view for the audience.
The Hanged Ghost laughed triumphantly. "Did you think I was stupid? I knew you were actually across the way."
Gu Yi'an stopped watching.
Because in the darkness, a chill was emanating from one spot.
She exited the livestream and looked in that direction, asking, "Evil God?"
Gu Yi'an speculated it might be the Evil God recorded in the Confession Scroll.
No one responded, as if tacitly accepting the title.
Darkness encroached upon her.
The screen of the paper phone, which had been her light source, went dark.
She could see nothing now; the only thing she could feel was the cold.
An icy aura enveloped her.
A male voice, tinged with a hint of pleasure, whispered softly by her ear.
"You're a sacrifice I like."
Gu Yi'an immediately realized the "sacrifice" referred to her.
Maintaining her composure, she asked, "You need a sacrifice?"
The cold aura surrounded Gu Yi'an, making her unconsciously purse her lips.
The voice answered her.
"I need a toy. You'll do nicely."
There was laughter in the voice, but its words sent a chill down her spine.
Suddenly, Gu Yi'an felt something as cold as ice touch her face, tracing over her eyebrow.
She only had time to retreat half a step.
"Why aren't you happy?"
The voice held a note of confusion.
"I saw how much you enjoyed tricking that little ghost."
Hearing this, Gu Yi'an finally understood how she had caught this being's attention.
It was probably when she tricked the Hanged Ghost into activating the paper phone for her.
Maybe this being was also a viewer of the livestream, or perhaps this land was under its watchful eye.
Gu Yi'an treated it as encountering another lunatic and calmly inquired, "What do you need a toy for?"
Even though she didn't want to be alone in the same room with this unknown entity, she knew the current situation didn't allow for resistance.
She had to figure out its intentions.
Her question seemed to stump the other party.
She didn't get an immediate response.
Suddenly, Gu Yi'an felt her wrist, the one that had been holding the paper phone, being grasped.
An extreme chill spread from her wrist as she was pulled forward.
Gu Yi'an could only guess that she was being led deeper into the ancestral hall.
She could see nothing and was unable to resist, forced to follow the other forward.
Gu Yi'an felt as though she wasn't stepping on solid ground.
The surface beneath her feet was hard and smooth, without a single grain of sand, and it made no sound no matter how lightly she tread. Logically, even the softest footsteps should have produced some noise.
This was not real ground.
Gu Yi'an had no idea where this evil deity was taking her.
The surroundings were silent.
Gu Yi'an deliberately paused to test her situation, only to realize that even if she stood still, she was still being pulled along to another place.
Resigned, she stopped struggling.
About two or three minutes passed.
In the endless darkness, a soft beam of light suddenly appeared.
It was as if the black fog in Gu Yi'an's world had lifted, finally revealing reality.
A magnificent underground palace appeared before her eyes, with paper servant guards stationed at the entrance.
Shortly after, several paper maids floated out from the wide-open palace doors, kneeling gracefully in her direction.
Gu Yi'an sensed something and glanced to her side.
The evil deity had released her wrist at some point. He was clad in what resembled the armor of an ancient general, wearing a helmet that concealed his face.
Gu Yi'an had a vague suspicion, she might have been brought to an underground tomb.
She looked up at the sky, where countless starlike specks of light were embedded overhead, resembling a real night sky, though the moon was missing.
The evil deity's form dissolved into a black mist and entered the palace.
Gu Yi'an found herself surrounded by several paper maids. Their facial features were all painted on, giving them an eerie and stiff appearance.
The paper maids remained motionless.
Seeing that the evil deity had left her behind, Gu Yi'an didn't dare make any rash moves.
The two sides stared at each other for a while.
Gu Yi'an tentatively took a small step toward the palace.
One by one, the paper maids drifted in an orderly fashion behind her.
Were they asking her to enter the palace?
Clutching her phone, Gu Yi'an thought of her teammates who were still being pursued by the hanging ghosts and felt as though she had triggered some bizarre event.
Her situation was completely different from what her teammates were experiencing.
Gu Yi'an stepped onto the brick path leading to the palace.
As she crossed the threshold, the gazes of the paper servant guards on either side swept over her.
Their eyes were actually lifeless, but Gu Yi'an felt a sudden surge of danger in her heart.
Gu Yi'an maintained her composure and continued walking inward without changing her pace.
As she entered the palace, the sense of danger vanished.
Two paper maid servants gently approached, guiding Gu Yi'an further inside.
None of them made a sound.
Gu Yi'an could only hear her own breathing and footsteps.
She walked down a long corridor before reaching the steps of the main hall.
It seemed oil lamps were lit inside the hall, their overlapping flames flickering in the dim light.
At this point, Gu Yi'an could see what was inside the main hall.
She saw a jade coffin.
The jade coffin appeared translucent under the lamplight.
Another coffin.
Gu Yi'an had a foreboding feeling, and she readied the small coffin prop in her hand, prepared to use it at any moment.
As she expected, the paper maid servants led her right beside the jade coffin.
Then, one of the paper maid servants suddenly moved closer to her.
Gu Yi'an was about to strike with the small coffin when she noticed the paper maid servant holding a paper chair that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
The paper maid servant placed the chair behind Gu Yi'an and then retreated.
Gu Yi'an stared at the paper chair in silence for a moment, then glanced at the other paper maid servants who seemed to be arranging something else.
She tentatively sat down.
The paper chair held firm.
Gu Yi'an settled into it.
She was completely unable to fathom the intentions of this evil deity.
She had thought the paper maid servants were going to kill her to feed whatever was in the jade coffin, but it turned out she had overthought it.
The one in the jade coffin must be the evil deity, and it seemed it couldn't stay out for too long.
Gu Yi'an recalled the moment when the evil deity had abandoned her and transformed to enter the palace, guessing that it must not be easy for it to emerge.
While Gu Yi'an was lost in thought, the paper maid servants finally finished preparing what they needed.
An object resembling a liquid crystal display, half the height of the main hall, appeared directly in front of Gu Yi'an.
A paper maid servant waved its hand, and the screen lit up from where it gestured, illuminating the entire display in an instant.
Gu Yi'an immediately recognized the scene on the screen as an aerial view of Daguang Village.
A familiar, unpleasant voice echoed from it.
"This woman's flesh is mediocre, quite sour, not particularly tasty. Ah! Ghost King, Ghost King, you've come to watch my live stream again."
A ghostly face with white eyes suddenly appeared on the screen.
It was the Hanged Ghost.
The Hanged Ghost tossed aside a severed human arm it had been gnawing on and said, "Since the Ghost King has come to watch my live stream, I, the Hanged Ghost, can't let anyone escape again."
So it was the Hanged Ghost's live stream.
Gu Yi'an saw the bloodstains on the Hanged Ghost's teeth.
Someone had been caught.
Gu Yi'an averted her gaze, her eyes unconsciously drifting to her own wrist.
A ring of blue and purple bruises had appeared on her left wrist.
That was where the evil deity had held her earlier.
Gu Yi'an touched the bruised area, feeling no pain, or rather, no sensation at all. She had lost feeling there.
A cold aura suddenly emanated from her side.
A wisp of black mist drifted into Gu Yi'an's field of vision.
It coiled around her wrist, circled once, and then drifted away.
What reappeared before Gu Yi'an was her wrist, intact and without a single mark.
The Hanged Ghost's chattering voice continued to emanate from the front.
Gu Yi'an glanced at the sealed jade coffin, then turned her attention to the live stream directly in front of her.
Earlier, when Gu Yi'an had asked the evil god what purpose the toy served, He had brought her here.
She now understood the evil god's intention.
"Do you need the toy to watch the live stream with you?"
Gu Yi'an remembered that when the live stream had just started, the Hanged Ghost had excitedly announced that the Ghost King had arrived.
Was this evil god the Ghost King the Hanged Ghost had referred to?
Gu Yi'an added the title and cautiously asked again, "Ghost King, do you need the toy to watch the live stream with you?"
Are ghosts really this bored?
Could it be that this god had simply put on the guise of a Ghost King to play in this game world?
Based on Gu Yi'an's understanding of gods, her speculation was highly likely to be true.
After a short while, Gu Yi'an received a response.
A voice, swirling above the jade coffin, spoke.
"As a sacrifice that pleases me, whatever wish you have, I can fulfill it."
His voice was gentle and carried a tone of indulgence.
Gu Yi'an sensed a trap in those words and asked, "What do I need to do in return?"
"You only need to stay here."
Stay here?
Remain here indefinitely, accompanying this evil god? Staying with the being known as the Ghost King?
The title "Ghost King" didn't sound benevolent in the slightest.
Gu Yi'an chose to refuse.
She said, "I wish to leave this place."
The other party chuckled softly. "Quite bold, aren't you?"
Hearing this, Gu Yi'an remained composed.
She was betting that the Ghost King wouldn't harm her, after all, He had expressed satisfaction with her as a sacrifice.
As long as her request wasn't excessive, it should be granted.
Gu Yi'an was also testing the Ghost King's limits, trying to see how far He would go to fulfill her wishes.
"Wait a little longer, and I will take you out," the Ghost King promised Gu Yi'an.
Gu Yi'an looked at the jade coffin, pondering. Her earlier speculation was likely correct.
The Ghost King couldn't stay away from His coffin for too long; after some time, He needed to return to rest.
"Thank you for your generosity."
After saying this, Gu Yi'an redirected her gaze to the live stream.
The Hanged Ghost was frantically darting around above the village entrance, making the live stream footage chaotic and blurry.
Gu Yi'an was somewhat puzzled as to why there were no comments in the live stream.
The paper maid standing nearby seemed to have noticed her thoughts and walked over to touch the display screen.
Bullet comments immediately appeared on the screen.
Many ghost viewers were praising the hanged ghost, noting that its suffocated head still had some use, it knew how to deceive human sight.
The hanged ghost drifted aimlessly above.
The people hiding in various houses below, even with their paper phones, couldn’t guess where the hanged ghost would go. Because the hanged ghost didn’t give them a chance to figure out its intentions.
Suddenly, the hanged ghost dove downward toward one location.
The paper phone paused for a moment before being pulled rapidly downward.
The house in the footage grew larger and larger.
With a loud crash, the door was smashed open by the hanged ghost, and the slightly panicked face of a novice male player holding a paper phone appeared in the live stream.
Realizing the hanged ghost had barged in, he swiftly raised his other hand without hesitation and swung it at the approaching ghost.
A head fell to the ground.
The novice male player stared blankly at the head on the floor, utterly bewildered by what he held in his hand.
Gu Yi’an took a closer look at the object in the novice player’s hand, it was a hatchet.
Possibly even a rusty one.
Where had the novice player gotten a hatchet?
Gu Yi’an felt a surge of doubt.
Meanwhile, the live stream exploded with reactions to the novice player’s actions.
The bullet comments were filled with excited remarks from the ghost viewers.
"Finally, we can come out.”
"It’s my turn to play."
"At last, I get to have some fun."
This was bad, the ghosts in the coffins were about to emerge.
Gu Yi’an realized the situation had shifted.
In the live stream, the novice player also understood the change. Staring at the headless body of the hanged ghost that hadn’t disappeared, he gritted his teeth and said, "This was a deliberate decoy! Everyone, run!"
This last sentence was directed at the paper phone, meant to alert the other players watching the stream that the circumstances had changed.
The novice player immediately raised his hatchet, facing the coffin directly, and quickly backed toward the door.
His figure vanished from the live stream’s view.
But in the footage, the coffin placed in the center of the room shifted slightly, and the lid was pushed open.
A man with an eerie, almost demonic appearance, whose age was impossible to discern, stood up from the coffin.
"Finally, it’s our turn to take the stage," the man said, his voice brimming with barely suppressed excitement.
Watching the man in the live stream, Gu Yi’an’s heart sank.
The ghosts in the other coffins must have emerged as well.
"After watching for so long, do you like him?"
The Ghost King’s voice sounded beside Gu Yi’an.
She looked up toward the side.
A handsome young man in ancient attire was thoughtfully observing the man in the live stream. Noticing Gu Yi’an’s gaze, he turned to look at her.
It was then that Gu Yi’an noticed his unnervingly dark eyes, eyes that reflected no light whatsoever.
Gu Yi’an shook her head in response to his earlier question.
The handsome ancient-dressed man smiled and patted her head as if she were a pet. "Good girl."
Gu Yi’an pretended not to see or hear his words.
Calmly, she stood up and asked, "Ghost King, could you send me away now? My companions are in danger."
The Ghost King did not respond.
A dark mist, seemingly from nowhere, enveloped her.
When the mist cleared, Gu Yi’an glanced around and found herself standing at the entrance of the ancestral hall.
And the Ghost King stood right beside her.
Unlike the ancient attire from before, He was now clad in armor.
Gu Yi'an heard commotion coming from afar.
Ahhh, I'm going to die!"
That sounded like the voice of the novice male player.
"Help! Help!" Still the voice of the novice male player.
Hearing him so full of vigor, Gu Yi'an realized his situation might not be as dangerous as she had imagined.
Gu Yi'an intended to go check on the players' current state.
But as she took a step, she found herself blocked by an invisible wall of air, unable to leave the vicinity of the ancestral hall.
It must be the Ghost King's doing.
Thinking this, Gu Yi'an concealed her other emotions, only revealing a hint of confusion as she looked at the Ghost King.
The Ghost King's voice remained indulgent. "Be good, let's watch the show together."
Gu Yi'an: "???"
The Ghost King reached out and patted Gu Yi'an's head. "Listen, how delightful their screams are."
Gu Yi'an: "..."