68: Chapter 68: The Festival of Sacrifice (Thirteen)

Turning to the last page, it read: "Daddy played hide-and-seek with me and told me that if he couldn't find me, I wasn't allowed to appear."

What was written after that was messy, carrying the writer's emotions: "I watched Daddy fall before my eyes, but Daddy said he hadn't found me, I can't..."

Further down, the paper was soaked with blood, leaving a dark red stain.

"Hahahaha..."

"Giggle..."

"Big Sister found my little secret."

"Big Sister~"

"Daddy isn't here, play hide-and-seek with Yueyue, okay~"

"Heehee~ Big Sister, count to ten, Yueyue is going to hide now~"

Upon hearing this, Meng Yu and Tai You quickly huddled toward Qianye, looking around vigilantly.

"Heehee~ The game is about to start, are you ready~"

"Ten, nine, eight..."

Qianye closed her eyes seriously and counted the numbers one by one. The next second, the sound of dense, rapid footsteps and hiding could be heard in the room.

As the voice fell, the sounds stopped as well.

"The game has started, you must be good and not move around."

Qianye's little leather shoes made "tap, tap" sounds on the floor as she walked through every corner of the room.

"Heehee... Big Sister is so silly..."

"I can see Big Sister..."

Hearing this, Qianye went cold for a moment, her eyes darting, and she smiled slightly, "You are really amazing."

"Heehee, Big Sister, you're so silly!"

"I'm right beside you!"

"Look!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Big Sister, come play with me!"

Suddenly, from the left, a hand lunged out, attacking Qianye's back. A red umbrella blocked the attack in mid-air.

Qianye turned and saw the entity attacking her; it was a Little Girl with a black line around her neck, hollow eyes, and stiff hands, still relentlessly attacking Qianye.

"Caught you!"

Qianye curled her lips, reached out with her backhand, and grabbed the whole person.

The girl, who had been staring at her triumphantly a second ago, now had a look of shock in her eyes.

"Why can you catch me?" The Little Girl tilted her head, her eyes full of confusion. Many people had come, but none could touch her. Everyone who failed the hide-and-seek game, hehe, became her nourishment.

She had always succeeded, but suddenly she had suffered a loss against Qianye.

"Impossible, impossible!"

"How can you touch me?"

Qianye raised an eyebrow, "That's cheating, you know. You know others can't touch you, yet you still want to play hide-and-seek!"

"Heehee, I like it."

"Daddy said that if we do this, we'll have lots of delicious things."

"Ah, Big Sister, I'm so hungry, Yueyue is so hungry."

"Daddy still hasn't come back..."

Tai You swallowed hard, "She, the daddy she mentioned, couldn't be that black mist outside, could he?"

As soon as he finished speaking, rapid "tap, tap, tap" footsteps came from the stairs.

"Daddy!"

The Little Girl grabbed by Qianye's eyes lit up, struggling and trying to attract the attention of the movement outside.

Qianye did not stop her. The Little Girl quickly ran to the side of the man at the doorway.

Qianye turned her gaze to the person beside the Little Girl—a man with a decent appearance, a square face, full of dignity, holding the Little Girl tightly in his arms, with black mist radiating around him.

"What do you want to do?"

"Or rather, what do you want to know?" The man's tone was unhurried.

"Will you tell us?"

The man paused for a moment, "I have two conditions."

Qianye nodded, "Oh."

Then there was no follow-up. The man was still waiting for her to speak, but there was no sound.

For a moment, the room was silent.

It was the first time Qianye had encountered such a reasonable NPC, and she wasn't quite used to it.

Every NPC she encountered before either wanted to fight or was delaying her on the road by fighting.

"Don't you want to know what happened in Changsheng Village?"

"Oh."

"Aren't you curious about who we are?"

"Oh."

"Don't you want the treasure?"

Qianye, who was about to say "Oh" subconsciously, paused, "treasure?"

The man's expression finally changed, a flash of contempt crossing his eyes. Sure enough, countless people still wanted to obtain the treasure.

"Yes, aren't you here for the treasure?"

"That's impossible! April of every year is a season of trouble; countless outsiders want to enter Changsheng Village, just to find the secret of immortality."

The next moment, he stared at Qianye and the others, his tone filled with a hint of temptation, "The treasure~ I don't know how many years the treasure has been there, everyone is looking for it!"

Looking at Qianye, who remained indifferent, the man became somewhat exasperated, "Are you not interested at all?"

"The treasure!"

"That's the treasure!"

Qianye lifted her eyes lazily, "Are you trying to say that you villagers all know there is a treasure, but haven't found it until now?"

"Or are you saying that for so many years, this treasure has just been waiting for outsiders to find it?"

Not knowing which point of Qianye's words hit his sore spot, the man's face instantly became twisted, and the black mist around him surged non-stop.

"Heehee, come on, let's talk about your two conditions first."

After Qianye finished speaking, the man's face changed immediately, becoming twisted and hideous.

His eyes stared fixedly at the person on the ground, "I... want... her!"

"Mmph, mmph, mmph..."

The Old Woman didn't know what she was saying; there was a rag in her mouth, and no one could understand what she was saying.

Qianye kindly removed the rag from her mouth.

The Old Woman's face was pale, her eyes looking as if they were soaked in poison, staring fixedly at the girl beside him, "Hehehe, what a pity..."

"Just a little bit..."

Hearing her speak, the man's black mist surged instantly, "You really deserve to die!"

The next instant, the man turned into black mist and rushed straight toward Old Madam Zhou, countless wisps of black mist crazily stabbing into her body.

"Ahhh..."

"It's all... you..."

"My poor daughter..."

"My whole family was ruined by you."

"Even grinding you into dust wouldn't be enough to compensate."

The deep male voice grew more and more angry with each word. The black mist scoured her body over and over again, and her body was eroded away bit by bit.

"No..."

Flesh and blood were devoured, and finally, only a skeleton remained on the spot.

Meng Yu wiped her tears, and Tai You huddled next to Qianye. My god, it was terrifying.

"Hahahaha hahahaha..."

"Finally, finally killed this damned woman!"

The next moment, the black mist returned to normal, transforming into human form. He came to the Little Girl's side, bent down, his eyes filled with gentleness, his hand tracing her features, "Look, look, what a well-behaved child..."

"Daddy~"

"How cute!"

"How cute, why, why..."

"Even such a cute one, you weren't willing to let her go!"

"I, I clearly hid for so many years!"

"Just a little, just a little!"

"It's all this damned woman, she discovered Yueyue's existence..."

The man was in a state of madness, speaking incoherently.

Qianye lowered her head in thought. From these fragmented words, she seemed to have caught a glimpse of the general problem.