NFM Chapter 75

“I know you’re not ordinary people,” Ying Xia replied, avoiding the question. “You… should stop investigating and leave this place. We are not like you. You can leave, you can go back, but we… we can only stay here. Only by staying here… can we survive.”

He paused.

“What if I say we must continue the investigation?” Chu Tianshu asked.

“…Then I can’t stop you,” Ying Xia said softly. “I don’t want you to die. You are good people… truly good people.”

“You don’t want us to die?”

Ying Xia pursed his lips tightly and didn’t answer.

“Then let’s ask an easier question,” Chu Tianshu said, looking up at him. “Last night, you went up the mountain with an umbrella. What were you really doing? Were you coming to find us… or were you planning something else?”

Ying Xia’s head snapped up.

“I smelled blood, coming from inside the temple,” Chu Tianshu said. “Why did you go to the temple in the middle of the night? To save us, or to deal with something?”

The two of them stared at each other in silence. After a while, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the village.

Then, the sound of a woman crying.

“…What are you talking about? I don’t understand,” Ying Xia slowly smiled. “Are you suspecting that I’m the Ghost?”

As he spoke, he spread his hands: “As you can see, I’m standing here, while on the other side, someone was just killed by a Ghost at the village chief’s house. I have neither the time nor the motive to commit the crime—I just went up the mountain and ran into you. I didn’t do anything. I’m just a well-meaning outsider—”

“How do you know that person was at the village chief’s house? And what about this handwriting?”

Ying Xia’s throat tightened.

In Chu Tianshu’s hand was a black-covered notebook: “This is Ren Chun’s notebook, found in Ren Qiu’s house. The notes at the two victims’ houses match your diary’s handwriting. And in your old house, there are items with Ren Chun’s actual handwriting—what’s going on?”

Ying Xia’s face twisted. He finally shed his cold mask, his eyelids trembling violently. After a long while, he let out a dry laugh: “But what does that prove? That I’m a Fierce Ghost? But take a good look at me, I’m unmistakably human…”

“It proves you’re the Fierce Ghost’s accomplice,” Chu Tianshu said calmly. “You’re the one who left the note that killed Ruan Tian, incited Yan Chuchu and Ji Nanquan to fight, lured Ji Nanquan and Liao Guan up the mountain, and ultimately caused their deaths in the temple, right? Yan Chuchu has already told us everything. You wanted us to kill each other?”

Ying Xia lowered his head, biting his lip hard. After a long while, he finally laughed: “Yes, it was all me.”

“I forged the notes in Ren Chun’s handwriting, I incited the players to kill each other, I led Liao Guan and Ji Nanquan up the mountain so they would die in the temple… Yes, I was the one hunting the players,” Ying Xia said coldly. “Three years ago, I already knew that this was all just a Game. I’m an NPC… and you, you’re the so-called players. It was Chen Du who told me all this.”

Chu Tianshu’s eyes sharpened. Ying Xia continued: “I know your mission. For three years, it’s remained the same. Mission one is to protect four villagers, the so-called NPCs. Mission two is to find the ultimate culprit and eliminate it, right? Actually, six years ago, I met Ren Chun and fell in love with her. That’s why I can’t let you kill her. Yes, the final two culprits are me and her…”

His voice cut off abruptly as another figure appeared at the end of the alley.

“…Du Xiaoran has already told us everything she saw,” Lin Huai said. “The so-called joint reversal is the back view. The girl’s figure is the slightly longer hair. You kept checking the clock to confirm the time. The hand-in-hand paper dolls are twins. And what Ren Chun wanted to attack wasn’t her brother, but the thing on the back of her brother’s head. The real Fierce Ghost, the person you’re trying to protect is—”

“Ren Qiu.”

Ying Xia’s head snapped up. In his vision, another boy, led by Lin Huai, stumbled out from the corner. He was utterly exhausted but was barely keeping his eyes open. After hearing the horrifying truth, he clutched his face.

“So, I…” he slowly looked at his hands, “So I’m the Ghost…”

All the confusion was answered in that moment. Why every night at ten, he would feel drowsy, lose consciousness and memory, and wake up the next morning to find himself lying in different places in the house. Why his mother had a mental breakdown, kept cutting out strangely shaped dolls, and screamed when he got close. Why his sister, after leaving the grave, first thing she did was attack him…

It turned out, on the back of his head, hidden under his hair, was the Fierce Ghost.

Memories from long ago flooded back. He remembered when he was a child, his father had accidentally discovered the old temple and made a wish for “wealth” to the statue. He remembered after his sister left his side to work in the city, his mother entered the temple and made a wish to the statue, hoping his sister would “stay”…

“That temple is really effective,” he heard his parents say. “But it’s strange, it seems like no one except our family can see that temple…”

So, after his sister died unjustly, with tears in his eyes, on her birthday, in the heavy rain, he climbed up to the temple on the hillside, knelt in front of it, and made a wish for “revenge for my sister.”

‘If there really is a Fierce Ghost in this world…’ the feverish boy thought vaguely, ‘then I beg her, to avenge my sister…’

‘Our family has never done anything wrong in our lives, why did this happen to us?’

In the midst of the high fever and the pouring rain, he heard a strange laugh and a “Yes.”

When he woke up the next morning, he found himself lying in bed, wearing a brand new set of clothes. The villagers were fearfully discussing an incident: someone had been killed by having their heart dug out.

Next to the body, written in blood, was a phrase: “Not a single one will be spared.”

He looked at the body from afar, a twisted sense of pleasure and extreme fear surged in his heart. He clutched the back of his head, as if hearing that strange laugh again.

It said: “Yes.”

“…And Ying Xia, you must have found Ren Qiu’s blood-stained clothes, right?” Chu Tianshu said slowly. “To protect him, you followed him from afar at night, clearing away any possible obstacles for him, you…”

“Yes, you can accuse us because you’re players, and we’re NPCs! So it’s only natural, it’s justice for you to kill us. But even the devil about to be killed by you has friends. If players can kill NPCs indiscriminately to survive, to complete their mission, why can’t NPCs kill players to complete our mission?!” Ying Xia’s emotions flared up, he took a step forward. “You want to survive, so you treat us as Instances, as characters in a Game. Then why can’t the characters in the game want to survive and kill you?”

“You come here as if we are some heinous creatures. Just because we’re Ghosts, everything we do is wrong. Every single one of you, for your own mission, wants to kill us… Then why can’t we—” his voice gradually choked up, “Even though we are the ones who have always been… abandoned… harshly treated… Ren Chun did nothing, yet she was drowned in the lake. Ren Qiu wanted to do nothing, yet he was possessed by a Fierce Ghost… Is this also our fault? Just because of this, it’s only natural for us to be killed?”

He looked straight at the two of them, his blood-red eyes filled with stubbornness.

“I won’t accept this!” he said.

“Ren Qiu,” Lin Huai’s voice rang out, “Come here.”

Ren Qiu was pulled by him and stumbled. The next moment, an arrow brushed past him, landing right where he had just been standing.

Ren Qiu’s head snapped up. In his vision was Zhang Mingge, holding a bow. Behind him was a white-bearded Taoist priest he had never seen before.

This old Taoist… Lin Huai had just taken a stance to attack when he was blocked by someone else.

“Taoist Priest! It’s them!” Wang Zhanpeng shouted excitedly. “Quick, kill them. It’s them who have brought disaster to Jiang Village…”

The white-bearded old man must be the long-secluded Priest Qingxu. He looked at the group and said to Zhang Mingge: “Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life. Just kill the boy possessed by the Specter. As for the other one, he’s just been misled by the Nether Being. Detain him and teach him well…”

“Chu Tianshu, step aside,” Zhang Mingge pointed at the man standing in front of everyone. “The three people behind you, they are—”

“They are my secret treasures,” Chu Tianshu said.

“…” Zhang Mingge’s hand holding the bow trembled. “What are you trying to do?”

“I just suddenly feel that compared to the bespectacled archer, the white-bearded Taoist priest, the prodigal rich second generation, and the murderer, the handsome man, the handsome guy, handsome boy number one, and handsome boy number two, are more like the side of justice in terms of appearance,” Chu Tianshu shrugged.

Zhang Mingge: “…If you don’t leave now, I really will shoot you.”

“Don’t say such obscene words, the chapter will be locked…” Chu Tianshu raised his hand. “I’ll count to three, two, one—”

“Three, two, one—” the next moment, he grabbed an umbrella out of thin air, holding it in front, “Run!”

At the moment the arrow left the string, arrows like a storm of pear blossoms shot towards Chu Tianshu’s direction. Ying Xia gritted his teeth, grabbed Ren Qiu’s hand, and ran towards the mountain.

The white-bearded Taoist priest’s eyes sharpened. He flew up, about to fly towards the two boys. However, another figure in a red suit flew up even faster.

“Your opponent is me,” Lin Huai said coldly. “Speaking of which, why am I always the villain who blocks the righteous characters…”

While complaining, he pulled out a blood-red long sword from his hand.

“Lin Huai!” Chu Tianshu’s voice came from the other side. “You go first, I’ll handle this!”

Lin Huai turned his head and saw Chu Tianshu already holding the long umbrella and rushing over: “Go find them, Ren Qiu still has the ghost face… Don’t worry, I’ll catch up soon, I’m super strong!”

As he spoke, he gave Lin Huai a thumbs up.

“Alright,” Lin Huai didn’t think anymore. He took one last look at the people surrounding them and turned to leave.

Ying Xia held Ren Qiu’s hand and ran swiftly in the desolate autumn night. Gradually, the streets and alleys of Jiang Village were left behind. He was like a galloping river, like a free wind, rushing through the past, future, and present. What finally appeared before the two of them was a golden wheat field under the moonlight.