Chapter 1 A Bone-Chilling Scream

A shrill scream echoed in the night, highlighting the solitude and the terror.

Run?

In this situation, listening to the scream played by the Cat King speaker, Zhang Yuanqing felt his scalp tighten and a chill run down his spine.

He never expected the Cat King speaker to give such a warning. This was definitely not good news.

Zhang Yuanqing waited silently for a moment, and when the Cat King speaker didn't "speak" again, his heart sank. He slapped it:

"Hey, you don't want to stay in this ghostly place forever, do you? If you have any ideas, tell me quickly. We can only leave together if we work together."

But this time, the Cat King speaker didn't respond, even when he took out the Bloodthirsty Blade.

So, its only suggestion was to run?

Seeing that he couldn't get reliable information from the Cat King speaker, Zhang Yuanqing quickly calmed down and used his advantages to analyze the situation.

He first sorted out the known information and found that when the old man mentioned the paper doll, he only said that it would appear during the second watch of the night, without describing it in detail.

But when he mentioned the ghost doll, he said that it would demand to play a game.

"So, it seems that the paper doll and the ghost doll are different. The latter can be avoided by following rules, but the paper doll can't. We have to face it head-on; there's no shortcut."

"The Cat King speaker's warning is to run, which is very telling. That paper doll is probably even more dangerous than the ghost doll. This is a dungeon; if I could run, I would have run already. Why would I need your reminder?"

"There's too little information about the paper doll. To defeat it, I have to figure out its weaknesses first. Fortunately, I'm always cautious and asked an extra question."

He had asked the old man where the rouge box was.

The answer he got was that it was still in Mr. Xu's house.

So, the next goal was very clear: find Mr. Xu's house and find the rouge box.

At that time, he should be able to get a lot of useful information.

"It's been about half an hour since the ghost doll left. There are two hours between the first and second watch of the night, so I have another hour and a half. This village isn't small, and finding Mr. Xu's house in an hour and a half will be a bit difficult."

Zhang Yuanqing looked out at the deep night, pondered for a few seconds, and had an idea: devour the spiritual bodies of the villagers to get answers.

Wang Xiaoer was an important NPC and couldn't be devoured, but the villagers should be fair game, right?

He led Undead No. 1, chose the nearest stone house, and broke in. "Hoo-hoo..."

Hearing the noise, the eyes of the two Yin corpses in the house flashed with brutal bloodlust, and they pounced with bared teeth and claws.

Undead No. 1 strode forward, his right leg swept out like a whip, kicking the head of the female corpse into pieces. Then, using the inertia of the whip kick, his body rotated half a circle, driving his right arm, and he punched the male Yin corpse's head, smashing it.

Flesh and bone fragments splattered like rain.

The two headless Yin corpses staggered forward a few steps before collapsing to the ground.

Black energy surged in Zhang Yuanqing's eyes, filling his sockets, and he devoured the remaining spiritual bodies in the two Yin corpses.

Fragments of broken images flashed by, and he quickly found Mr. Xu's residence from the mixed memory fragments. The schoolteacher lived in a courtyard by the river on the west side of the village and was the most cultured person in the village.

Knowing Mr. Xu's residence, Zhang Yuanqing was no longer in a hurry. He sat cross-legged on the spot and closed his eyes to rest.

In his current physical condition, he couldn't cope with unexpected events at all. Instead of wandering outside, it was better to seize the time to heal his injuries and restore his strength.

In the silence, he couldn't feel the passage of time. Zhang Yuanqing put his left fingers on his pulse to calculate the time.

The surrounding Taiyin (lunar) energy was rich, nourishing his injured body, repairing broken bones, and restoring his strength.

After 1800 pulse beats, Zhang Yuanqing opened his eyes, his eyes bright, and his listlessness disappeared. The broken bones had been rejoined and fully restored, and his physical strength had returned to 70% of his peak.

"When my physical strength recovers to about 90%, I can use Howl of the Moon again. It's a pity there's no food, otherwise I would have recovered to my peak state by now."

He no longer hesitated and led Undead No. 1 away from this place, heading to the west side of the village.

A dozen minutes later, Zhang Yuanqing, walking on a narrow village path, heard the sound of a cheerful stream. Turning past an earthen house, he saw a small river three meters wide running between the stone houses.

The water flowed quickly but not urgently, with a light, cheerful sound.

Walking along the river for a few more minutes, he finally arrived outside Mr. Xu's small courtyard.

At this time, there was still more than half an hour before the second watch of the night.

For safety's sake, Zhang Yuanqing planned to let Undead No. 1 go in to explore, while he stayed outside. Considering that Yin corpses didn't have the ability to see through the darkness, he draped the Yin-Yang Daoist Robe over Undead No. 1.

Undead No. 1 pressed its palms against the courtyard door and exerted force silently. In the sound of creaking hinges, the courtyard door slowly opened.

The Yin corpse, unafraid of the dangers in the darkness, quickly entered the small courtyard.

Whenever this happened, Zhang Yuanqing lamented that he had the foresight to start preparing to refine Yin corpses after level three. Otherwise, in this kind of dungeon full of dangers, if he let his main body go to clear mines, he didn't know when he would explode in place and return to the Lingjing Xingzhe world.

Passing through the courtyard and pushing open the lattice door of the main room, Undead No. 1 stopped outside the threshold and spread its palm.

Whoosh—a fireball rose, dispelling the darkness and bringing light.

The furnishings in the main room came into view: a round table facing the doorway, with round stools placed around it, and calligraphy and paintings hanging on the wall.

To the left of the door was a large wooden carved bed with a gauze curtain hanging down, and to the right was a bookshelf and a rectangular desk.

No paper doll, no corpse.

It seemed that the villagers had buried Mr. Xu's body after discovering his death.

The paper doll wasn't here, which was good... Zhang Yuanqing breathed a sigh of relief and immediately stepped over the stone threshold of the courtyard door, not forgetting to close the courtyard door, passed through the small courtyard, arrived outside the main room, and joined the Yin corpse.

The paper doll was different from the ghost doll. As long as it had a physical body, it couldn't ignore physical obstacles. Closing the courtyard door wasn't to block the other party, but to serve as a warning "bell."

The man and the corpse entered the main room, closed the door, Zhang Yuanqing extinguished the fireball, saw the darkness as nothing, first checked the bed, opened several boxes containing quilts and clothes, and didn't forget to bend down to look under the bed.

After confirming that the paper doll was really not here, he walked to the desk and examined the objects on it.

The first thing he noticed was a small, exquisite rouge box, half a palm-sized and one finger high, made of silver, composed of a box bottom and a box cover, carved with exquisite auspicious clouds and floral patterns.

Zhang Yuanqing reached out and picked up the rouge box, waiting silently for a few seconds, and the item attributes appeared: 【Name: Blood Rouge】

【Type: Cosmetics】

【Function: Spirit Attachment, Bloodlust】

【Introduction: It is said that this rouge is made from the blood of eighty-eight young girls and will never dry out or fade for thousands of years. It is a boudoir item that all women dream of. After the owner's death, it became a burial item, buried deep underground for a long time. The resentful spirit in the box is nourished by Yin energy and becomes more and more fierce. Applying the rouge to the cheeks or lips can attract the resentful spirit to possess you. The resentful spirit has a strong desire for blood, and only sacrificing enough blood essence can appease it.】

【Note 1: If you don't kill others, you will kill yourself.】

【Note 2: In the next ten minutes, a certain skill of the body will randomly die.】

【Note 3: Among the dead girls, there is a bewitching demon, so be careful of its bewitchment.】

"The rouge box is indeed an item, and it's of extremely high quality. Even if it hasn't reached the Saint realm, it has the quality of the peak of the Extraordinary realm. It feels like it can be compared to top-quality equipment like the Yin-Yang Daoist Robe.”

Zhang Yuanqing had a thought and was about to put away the rouge box. 【Ding, this item cannot be collected.】

He knew there was no such cheap thing... Zhang Yuanqing muttered in his heart. As far as he knew, all the items in the Lingjing Xingzhe world were unique and would not respawn. Once taken, they were gone.

According to the reduction and increase of items, the Lingjing Xingzhe world would adjust the difficulty level on its own. If the rouge box could be taken away, the Devil Monarch would have taken it long ago and wouldn't have left it here. Without the paper doll, the difficulty level of "Mute Village" might decrease. "According to the explanation in Note 3, Mr. Xu should have been bewitched by the rouge box, which is why he put blush on the paper doll, released the resentful spirit in the rouge box, and died a unnatural death.

While Zhang Yuanqing was thinking, he checked the other items on the table.

A few books related to the Ming Dynasty and a hand-drawn, simplified map.

The contents of the books were in classical Chinese. Zhang Yuanqing flipped through them casually and threw them aside, turning to pick up the map and examine it carefully.

In the map, simple lines outlined "houses" and "mountains," and at the bottom was a note:

"Location of the ancient tomb: southwest of the back mountain, twenty-three *li*."

Zhang Yuanqing combined the map with the books at hand and immediately understood that Mr. Xu was analyzing the location of the ancient tomb and the identity of the tomb owner.

He saw that Wang Xiaoer had obtained treasures from the ancient tomb, so he became greedy and wanted to enter the ancient tomb to make a fortune?

"But that's not right. Wang Xiaoer and the wandering Taoist priest spent the whole night in the mountains before finding the entrance to the tomb. It's impossible for Mr. Xu to analyze it out of thin air while sitting at home. It's possible that he obtained information from Wang Xiaoer by buying the rouge box..."

Zhang Yuanqing immediately put this question aside. It didn't matter how Mr. Xu knew the location of the ancient tomb.

He shifted his attention back to the "Blood Rouge" item information.

"According to the old man's description, Mr. Xu died from being sucked dry, which is consistent with the Blood Rouge's item description. Mr. Xu died, but the villagers next door didn't die. That night, the paper doll only killed Mr. Xu..."

Suddenly, a faint "creak" sound came from the courtyard, interrupting Zhang Yuanqing's thoughts.

The sound was very subtle, but in the silent night, any sound would be amplified.

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly raised his head and looked out the door, his body tensing up reflexively. After becoming a Night Wanderer, Zhang Yuanqing hadn't felt this kind of scalp-tingling horror for a long time. The last time he had this feeling was in the Mountain God Temple, when he, as an ordinary person, relied on his survival instinct to hold on.

Otherwise, he would have been scared to death by the weirdness and horror in the Mountain God Temple.

And now, he had rediscovered that long-lost feeling...

Zhang Yuanqing didn't grab his weapon and rush out to fight the paper doll to the death. Instead, he took Undead No. 1 and swiftly ran toward the bed, silently hiding under the bed.

He pressed on Undead No. 1's shoulder and entered Night Wander.

Night Wander could shield his aura and hide his figure. The paper doll shouldn't be able to find him. Zhang Yuanqing planned to observe first and then consider whether to retreat or launch a sneak attack.

Just as the man and the corpse hid under the bed, the door of the main room was pushed open a crack. Then, a foot wearing a red embroidered shoe stepped over the threshold. Then another foot wearing an embroidered shoe.

During this process, Zhang Yuanqing heard a faint "rustling" sound, which was the sound of paper rubbing.

It's the paper doll!

The pair of feet wearing embroidered shoes stopped by the round table after crossing the threshold.

They stood there without moving for a long time, like a real paper figurine.

Zhang Yuanqing observed the paper doll and sensed a strong, deep Yin energy from it, far surpassing the ghost doll's Yin energy.

He moved a few centimeters outward, widening his field of vision, to facilitate his observation of the paper doll's full appearance. Darkness couldn't affect the Night Wanderer's vision. He stared intently, and saw the appearance of the paper doll: a paper figurine wearing a bright red dress, like a shadow of blood in the dark.

Its face was made of white paper, so pale that it was frightening, but its cheeks were smeared with blood-like bright red, its lips were scarlet, and the most frightening thing was that there were two streaks of scarlet in the paper figurine's eye sockets.

Pale white and bright red appeared on a dull, stiff face at the same time. Anyone who saw this face would panic.

...Zhang Yuanqing silently retracted his head.

At this time, the paper figurine, which had been standing still for a long time, walked towards the desk with a strange gait. Its walking posture was very strange, as if its knee joints couldn't bend. It was walking in a stiff goose step, and the distance of each step was the same, and the interval between steps was also the same.

Humans could never walk with such accurate and regular steps.

From the round table to the desk, a distance of four or five meters, it took more than ten seconds, and finally it stopped by the desk, its head drooping stiffly, as if looking at something on the table.

What is it looking at on the desk?! Zhang Yuanqing's heart trembled. He quickly recalled everything and confirmed that he had put things back in place before he breathed a sigh of relief.

The paper doll stayed by the desk for a moment, turned stiffly at the knee joints, and walked toward the bed.

...Zhang Yuanqing's relaxed spirit tensed up again.

"Rustle..." The paper doll was very light, and its footsteps were also very light.

Zhang Yuanqing's eyes stared fixedly at the embroidered shoes, watching them approach step by step with a stiff goose step, and finally stop by the bed.

Although he was in Night Wander state, Zhang Yuanqing still held his breath.

After the paper figurine came to the bed, it began a long period of standing still again. At this time, Zhang Yuanqing's Night Wander time was only half a minute left.

At this time, the embroidered shoes were less than fifteen centimeters away from his face.

After a suffocating silence, the paper doll turned stiffly and walked out with light "rustling" steps.

It's finally gone... Zhang Yuanqing really wanted to breathe a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, the paper figurine suddenly stopped, its back facing the direction of the bed, motionless.

Zhang Yuanqing's field of vision was blocked by the edge of the bed, and he could only see the paper figurine's calf position, and he couldn't see the parts above.

Why isn't it moving?

Zhang Yuanqing wondered, and he who always paid attention to the paper figurine, then saw a terrible scene.

The paper figurine facing away from him slowly bent down, lowered its head, and looked under the bed from between its legs.

Zhang Yuanqing saw the pale face without the breath of a living person. The paper doll also saw him.