It's late at night.

Chapter 25 Burning Evil

"Why is it a coffin? Should we bury it back?"

Chen Qi shrank his neck and took a few steps back, clearly terrified of the thing.

"A stone guardian deity is used to ward off evil spirits; what's buried here is definitely not something good."

The ghost caused the car to go out of control and crash into the stone guardian, clearly intending to use them to open the small coffin.

Xia Yao, however, had a different thought: "Could it be related to that substitution ritual to ward off evil spirits?"

The reason the ghosts targeted them was because they were under a spell, and the ghosts mistook them for enemies.

The sooner we crack it, the less danger they will face.

Lu Qifa came here first with this idea in mind.

"Let's open it and take a look, just in case."

As Lu Qifa spoke, he was already looking for tools to get started.

Luckily, there was a screwdriver on the sightseeing bus, so I used it to wedge the coffin in the seam and carefully pried it open.

Soon, a crack was pried open in the coffin, and a musty smell seeped out.

"Could this be a corpse? Maybe we should leave."

Chen Qi tried to run away, but Zhou Ze'an glared at her and said, "If you want to leave, then leave by yourself."

Chen Qi naturally wanted to leave, but she didn't dare. Liu Lili had run away on her own, so wasn't her fate obvious?

Soon, the cover was pried open, revealing the whole thing.

Inside the small black coffin was a blue work uniform.

The clothes were old and faded, with some stains that couldn't be washed off.

These are very likely the old man's clothes, which the developer brought here to bury as a form of suppression.

In the empty space above the coffin, there were eight scarecrows, each about the size of a palm.

Yellow paper was pasted on the scarecrow, and two sets of eight characters were drawn with vermilion bloodstains.

Red ropes were wrapped around the necks of each scarecrow, as if to strangle them.

"Found it, this is it."

Lu Qi slapped his thigh hard, his eyes brimming with barely suppressed excitement.

"Our birth dates and times were probably written with the blood of those important figures and pasted on the straw effigy. It's like we're bound to them, so the ghosts can't find the rightful owner and will instead find us unlucky scapegoats."

"Add to that the relic used as a vengeful spirit, and the stone guardian used to suppress evil. The resentment can't escape, so it will naturally press down on this straw figure, forming a cycle. Wouldn't we be utterly dead by then?"

Lu Qifa's explanation was clear, and it also made people see the true nature of these beasts.

"These bastards are too wicked; they must be executed!"

Xia Yao cursed, then returned to the main topic.

"Now that we've found the formation, how do we break it?"

"Use cinnabar to cleanse the evil spirits, untie the birth chart and paper effigy, and then burn them. That's how you break the curse."

As Lu Qifa spoke, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bag of cinnabar.

"So, once you become a ghost, will you stop targeting us?" Chen Qi asked impatiently.

Lu Qifa shook his head.

"I don't know. Strictly speaking, even if we break this formation, the ghosts will just stop mistaking us for those people."

"But we are still invaders, still standing on the land he would risk his life to protect. There's no guarantee he won't still be hostile towards us."

Silence. But it's too early to talk about these things now. We need to disrupt things first.

With the help of Xia Yao and Zhou Ze'an, Lu Qifa performed surgery on each of the scarecrows.

First, they smeared cinnabar all over the scarecrow's body, and then tore off the yellow paper with the character "八" (eight) pasted on the scarecrow's head.

The red string was tied too tightly, and since there were no scissors, it wasn't dealt with further.

"Burning this item signifies the termination of this contract; the wronged will have their culprits identified, and the debtors will be held accountable. Let each return to their rightful place!"

Lu Qifa shouted at the two piles of scarecrows and the figure-eight, as if it were some important announcement, but no one could hear him.

The lighter was pulled down, and a bright yellow flame appeared.

The flames quickly engulfed the straw figure and yellow paper, and a strange, acrid smell filled the air, like burnt meat.

The blood-written words on the yellow paper seemed to twitch and writhe in the flames before finally turning into black ashes.

A gust of wind blew by, stirring up the ash and scattering it.

The group breathed a sigh of relief, feeling inexplicably much more relaxed.

Zhou Zean glanced around, and finally a hint of disappointment flashed in his eyes.

"The fact that there was no exit from the game indicates that destroying the substitution ritual was not the final step in ending the game."

Lu Qifa dusted off his hands. "Then the only option is to find evidence and expose the unscrupulous developer."

After finishing their business, the group walked back to the hotel.

While in the corridor on the seventh floor, Xia Yao keenly sensed a bloody smell in the air.

I don't know if it's because of the damp weather, but it's coming from 703.

They didn't dare to look around in the darkness and quickly returned to their rooms.

As for Chen Qi, having been marked by Orange, she naturally didn't dare stay in her own room. She took Lan Yuanshan's room card and went to the room where he had originally been.

Perhaps because they had broken the harmful feng shui arrangement, they slept exceptionally soundly that night, more so than any other night.

After Xia Yao got up, she thought about going to find Zhou Ze'an to get her camera back, just in case she needed it later.

As I passed by 703, the stench of blood from last night was still strong.

Xia Yao glanced over and saw a bright red stain under the door of room 703.

How come there's blood here? The body was by the window; the blood shouldn't have reached here.

Could it be that Chen Qi, did something happen to her last night?

Despite her doubts, Xia Yao did not rush in. Instead, she knocked on each room door and called out her teammates.

What puzzled Xia Yao was that Zhou Ze'an, Lu Qifa, and Chen Qi were all present.

Xia Yao didn't explain much, but simply pointed to the crack in the door of 703, and they understood immediately.

Zhou Ze'an stepped forward and gently pushed the door open.

But when the door was pushed halfway in, it stopped moving; something was blocking it.

The door was half open, revealing a carpet with even more blood, which was also more intense.

The group carefully moved into the house, and were all shocked when they saw what was inside.

Liu Lili, who disappeared after running away last night and was replaced by a ghost, is currently behind the door of room 703.

Her head was smashed open; the horrific wound was too painful to look at.

Blood stained clothes and carpets, and even his signature silver nail polish was stained.

He was pressed against the door in a contorted posture, as if trying to brace himself against it.

But that thing didn't need to enter the door to kill her.

"Liu Lili, why are you here?" Xia Yao asked, puzzled.

Zhou Ze'an also looked solemn. He shook his head and remained silent.

The first man with the ponytail to die died in room 703 because he encountered a ghost in the room.

The second Lan Yuanshan encountered a ghost in the Rose Maze, so he died not far from the maze's exit.

From this perspective, it seems that if you encounter a ghost somewhere, you will die there, right?

Why did Liu Lili appear in 703?

Did she manage to get ashore successfully, even avoid that brutal NPC, and return to the hotel before being murdered?