For Yan Wei, this was just another peaceful night waiting in the academy.
But for Geng Liang, it was a long story.
These Players, when they loaded into the instance, their identities and locations were all related to the Shen Estate. He took the opportunity to infiltrate and spent a few days doing missions with the opposing faction. As someone from the Guanyin Academy faction, he was aware of both sides’ progress—the Guanyin Academy faction was slightly ahead of the Shen Estate.
Geng Liang naturally welcomed this outcome and sometimes deliberately slowed down his own faction’s progress.
These past two days, Zhuo Xidong and Lin Qing had returned together.
Zhuo Xidong quickly gained the recognition of everyone in the Shen Estate faction after verifying with them and secured an absolute leading position. Geng Liang couldn’t do anything about it—Zhuo Xidong was indeed formidable.
He hadn’t heard of this person before, and even the high-level veteran Players had no impression of him. But whether it was his strategic planning, data analysis, or instance experience—things these veteran Players prided themselves on—no one could surpass Zhuo Xidong.
Shortly after Zhuo Xidong arrived, the Players from the Shen Estate, who had been wary of each other, reluctantly united under his leadership.
Later, Zhuo Xidong learned about the Guanyin Temple incident from Lin Qiao, disguised himself as Lin Qing, and ambushed Yu Zhengqing to sow discord.
At the time, Geng Liang wasn’t sure what to do either. While working with the opposing faction, all he could think about was how to inform his own people about Zhuo Xidong’s presence. But before he could come up with a good plan, a group of Players returned from their mission and immediately confronted Zhuo Xidong.
It turned out that one of the Players, while separated from the group, was attacked by two individuals with the same skill and nearly captured by the opposing faction. One of the attackers was Lin Qing, and the other, whose face was concealed, moved exactly like Lin Qing.
What were the odds of a third person in this instance being able to mimic Lin Qing’s skill?
Naturally, it was extremely low.
Geng Liang had been with Zhuo Xidong from the start and knew it wasn’t him who had made the move. Without much thought, he realized—there really was a third person. And his true faction had used Zhuo Xidong’s tactics against him, throwing the problem of discord back into Zhuo Xidong’s hands.
The Shen Estate faction was in chaos, and by nightfall, the situation had escalated to its peak. The Players who had been working with Zhuo Xidong insisted he was innocent, while the group that had been attacked firmly believed he might be the problem. The two sides clashed directly.
Some were even seriously injured in the fight.
Geng Liang, never one to shy away from stirring trouble, joined in the fray, enjoying the chaos. But suddenly, a few people attacked from the shadows. They had no specific target, simply picking off the weakest links.
—And Geng Liang was one of those weak links.
It wasn’t that he lacked strength—he had it, but could he use it? The person he was fighting against was someone he knew to be on his own side. If he went all out, wouldn’t that mean he was fighting his own people?
But while he held back, his opponent was relentless.
Before Geng Liang could react, he was tied up in the blink of an eye.
By the time he could speak again, he found himself in his current predicament.
Geng Liang: “…”
He had many things he wanted to say on the way here, but now, he felt that nothing he could say would be right—“I’m a spy”? “Don’t hurt me, I’m useful”? “Let me go back to continue my undercover mission”?
“.”
The young man in front of him, who had been slightly leaning forward, waited for a moment. When Geng Liang remained silent, he chuckled softly. “I’ll get straight to the point. The reason I had you brought here is to find out about the situation with the Players in the Shen Estate, as well as your missions, progress, and any instance-specific Items you’ve obtained. It might seem like a lot to ask, but I’m not one to show mercy to my opponents. While Players can’t kill each other, there are many ways to make you wish you could talk.”
Geng Liang: “…”
He wanted to speak, but what could he say?
“Lin Zhen,” the clear voice now carried a frosty edge, “soak your dagger in saltwater—”
“Wait, wait, wait—!!!”
Geng Liang hurriedly shouted.
Though he couldn’t see, his perception was linked to his senses, and he clearly heard the young man in front of him pause. Despite his decisive demeanor, he didn’t seem like a cold-hearted person.
Since Lin Zhen had captured him and brought him directly to this person, this must be the core of their faction, right? Someone who had swiftly countered Zhuo Xidong’s scheme, turned the tables, and taken advantage of the internal strife in the Shen Estate to capture someone for the latest intel… Although he didn’t recall seeing this person among the high-level Players, he had experienced firsthand the man’s capabilities.
Zhuo Xidong’s tricks probably seemed like child’s play in the eyes of this young man.
Before entering this instance, Geng Liang had been one of the high-level Players in the Tower World, someone everyone fawned over for his instance records. He had his own pride, but he also admired those who could effortlessly turn the tide in their favor.
Faced with such a coherent strategy today, Geng Liang was completely convinced and willingly placed this person in the role of the overall commander.
In front of someone like this, trying to play games was pointless.
He sighed. “Everything I’m about to say is the truth. I’ll tell you everything about the Shen Estate. Even if you hadn’t captured me, I would have told you—because I’m on your side. I just happened to load into the instance in the Shen Estate, so I took the opportunity to infiltrate their faction.”
Geng Liang spoke quickly, his tone urgent. “I know my words alone aren’t enough. I can repeat the prompts all faction members heard, and I can provide all the clues I know as proof. Beyond that, I can’t offer much more evidence. If you have any methods of verification, I’ll fully cooperate. But please, you must believe that I’m on your side. There’s even a spy among you—possibly one of you two. I don’t want my presence to cause additional problems for our faction. Please, you must believe me…”
Lin Zhen: “? Huh? What are you talking about?”
“Lin Zhen.”
“Huh?”
“When you went there tonight, did they start fighting? What was the scene like? What about Song Cheng’an and the others?”
Geng Liang was confused—how had the conversation suddenly shifted to these questions?
Lin Zhen, however, didn’t overthink it. He scratched his head and said, “They were fighting. By the time we made our move, they were almost done, and two people were seriously injured. After I took this blind guy away, Zhuo Xidong had pretty much resolved the issue and reorganized their faction’s Players. So my brother and the others stayed behind to cover our retreat. They should be back soon.”
Yan Wei’s brow twitched slightly, and he stopped speaking, his gaze fixed on Geng Liang.
After a moment, Geng Liang opened his mouth to say something, but Yan Wei had already reached out and untied the Item binding him.
Lin Zhen: “?”
Geng Liang: “???”
The trust came so quickly that even after being untied, Geng Liang remained seated on the ground, his expression still bewildered.
“Get up,” Yan Wei said. “Since that’s the case, quickly tell me about the situation in the Shen Estate faction. We’ll need to figure out a way for you to go back and continue your undercover mission.”
Geng Liang hesitated. “You believe me just like that?”
He slowly stood up, his perception spreading out as he felt for the chair in front of him and sat down across from Yan Wei.
“I haven’t provided any proof yet,” he said.
Though he couldn’t see, he could sense the young man in front of him shake his head. “You’ve already given it. Only someone who is absolutely certain that the numbers on both sides appear balanced would be this nervous, this worried that we wouldn’t believe you. And when Lin Zhen captured you, even though people were injured, you were taken back without a fight. The enemy wouldn’t have shown you mercy. You’re one of us.”
Geng Liang was stunned.
All the explanations he had prepared in that brief moment were unnecessary. He had thought this would be the biggest challenge he’d face in this instance, but it had been resolved so effortlessly.
And clearly, the person in front of him had chosen to believe him without a shred of doubt.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Geng Liang snapped out of his thoughts. “I was just thinking that I might have overestimated things earlier. When Zhuo Xidong returned, I roughly counted the numbers on both sides and weighed the strength of each faction. I thought I was halfway into the grave this time. But now I feel… Zhuo Xidong doesn’t seem so impressive after all.”
The young man didn’t quite agree. “He’s still much better than you.”
Geng Liang: “…” Fine.
Lin Zhen was even more confused. “What’s going on? Wait, I’m not so stupid that I can’t count, right? We already have eight people here. Little pet, your judgment has never been wrong, but with this blind fool added, we have nine people now.”
“Who are you calling a blind fool??”
Yan Wei simply said, “First, tell me what’s going on with the Shen Estate. Stop arguing.”
As soon as he spoke, both men fell silent.
This sense of respect and inability to retort came instinctively. Geng Liang hadn’t thought much about it. He didn’t even know when this person had entered the high-level ranks, what his name was, what organization he belonged to, or how many instances he had experienced. But he still instinctively followed the man’s words.
Lin Zhen was clearly the same. He “hmph”ed a few times, crossed his arms, and leaned against the door.
Geng Liang couldn’t help but sit up straighter and said seriously, “I loaded into the instance in the Shen Estate and have been doing missions and investigating clues with them up until now, so I know everything about what’s happening there.”
As soon as he said this, Geng Liang felt like a minion trying to curry favor. Even if it were Song Cheng’an in front of him, he wouldn’t have acted this way. How had he ended up being so cautious in front of a Player who sounded much younger than him?
This person must be a veteran Player who had entered the high-level ranks even earlier than Zhuo Xidong!
He made this judgment in his heart and spared no effort in his explanation. “Regarding the events in Guanyin Town, all Players in this instance should already know. Since you’ve found the Shen Estate, you must also know about Squire Shen. The strange occurrences in Guanyin Town are indeed related to Squire Shen. The origin of all this is that five years ago, Squire Shen caused the death of a woman named Jiang Jingyun.”
“Squire Shen has… cough, certain… proclivities. He often buys women whose lives are as cheap as grass to abuse. Many girls have died at his hands, so when Jiang Jingyun died, he didn’t think much of it. He just followed his usual method of sealing the body in a coffin and having it thrown into the sea for a water burial.”
But before the day of the water burial arrived, strange things began happening in Guanyin Town.
The townspeople were terrified, saying that a ghost was haunting them. But no living person in their right mind had seen what the ghost looked like, so naturally, no one suspected the Shen Estate.
But Squire Shen knew very well—it was the vengeful spirit of Jiang Jingyun!
Because on the day the strange deaths began in the town, black mist began seeping out of Jiang Jingyun’s coffin, like resentment rising from the depths of hell, killing anyone who touched it. Squire Shen panicked, suppressed the matter privately, and hurriedly hired people to throw Jiang Jingyun’s coffin into the sea.
But the moment the pallbearers lifted the coffin, they stopped breathing.
The coffin seemed to suck the life out of anyone who touched it.
Squire Shen couldn’t move Jiang Jingyun’s body and could only hire a priest to perform rituals to slightly suppress the coffin’s evil aura, sealing it in the backyard of the Shen Estate.
From then on, the sea in Guanyin Town began turning blacker and blacker. People in the town kept dying mysteriously, and the entire town became increasingly paranoid. The townspeople, unaware of the truth, only knew that a ghost was haunting them. They claimed it was a monster in the sea, and no one knew that the Shen Estate was the source of the “monster.”
The priests Squire Shen had hired earlier couldn’t completely dispel the evil aura from Jiang Jingyun’s coffin. They could only give Squire Shen some protective talismans and occasionally reinforce the seal suppressing the resentment in the backyard of the Shen Estate.
Squire Shen’s nature was hard to change. Over the years, while living in constant fear, he became even more brutal in abusing the girls he bought, using their suffering to mask his own terror.
About two months ago, the priest who had been helping Squire Shen suppress the coffin’s resentment died in the backyard of the Shen Estate, his body covered in corpse spots, just like the other young men who had died. Squire Shen had no other choice and somehow found a new method to suppress the evil. He hired some people, obtained some talismans, and even had someone steal three artifacts from the Guanyin Temple.
These people were the Players of the Shen Estate faction.
“So their mission is actually the same as ours—to suppress the resentment in Guanyin Town and resolve the issue of the Black Sea. Each of them has an Item, with one or two duplicates, which is why my Item didn’t stand out. The suppression method involves arranging these Items around the coffin, sprinkling Guanyin’s Purifying Water on the coffin to temporarily dispel the life-draining black mist, and then sealing Jiang Jingyun’s head with a Coffin Seal Talisman to trap her inside the coffin. But I don’t have the specific steps for the array—Zhuo Xidong has hidden those.”
Yan Wei wasn’t too concerned. “They have it, so naturally, we do too. Mr. Bai arranged for a servant to meet with us tomorrow for a detailed discussion. He’ll probably give us a similar suppression method. But this Guanyin’s Purifying Water…?”
Yan Wei hadn’t heard of this Item before, and no one in their faction had it.
Geng Liang said, “Our faction doesn’t have it? I thought as much. The Players in the Shen Estate faction don’t have it either. Without Guanyin’s Purifying Water to temporarily dispel the coffin’s resentment, and without the Coffin Seal Talisman to place on the vengeful spirit, the suppression can’t be completed. The area around the coffin is filled with black mist, so they can’t open it. But with the female ghost wreaking havoc all over Guanyin Town, it’s hard to say whether Jiang Jingyun’s spirit is even inside the coffin. So their current plan is to find this Guanyin’s Purifying Water and capture Jiang Jingyun’s spirit.”
Yan Wei’s fingertips rubbed the edge of the coin in his hand, the cold, rough texture stimulating his thoughts.
“We might have to do the same thing,” he said.
There’s only one vengeful spirit causing havoc outside, but two factions want to capture it.
And this Guanyin’s Purifying Water…
Yan Wei felt there was a high chance there was only one.
As for how to use these things, Mr. Bai likely had a method as well.
Yan Wei lowered his gaze, his brow slightly furrowed, and murmured, “I understand. Lin Zhen, take him away for now. The Players from the Shen Estate will probably try to come over and rescue him later. Don’t overdo the acting—just let him be rescued when the time is right. Don’t tell anyone about capturing a spy. If Lin Qing and the others ask, just say he was rescued.”
Lin Zhen was baffled. “Huh? Not even my brother? If this blind fool really is on our side, doesn’t that mean we have an extra person? Shouldn’t we find the spy?”
Though the “blind fool” didn’t want to admit he was a blind fool, Lin Zhen’s question was also on Geng Liang’s mind—their faction seemed to have nine people now. Shouldn’t they be looking for the spy?
And…
He couldn’t see the young man’s expression, but his perception could sense that the man’s mood had been declining. Earlier, when he was captured, this person had been calm and composed. But now, even after learning so much information, he seemed… unhappy?
Knowing there’s a discrepancy in numbers, aren’t they going to find the spy?
Having learned about the Shen Estate faction’s information, isn’t he pleased?
Yan Wei’s expression shifted slightly, his lips curving downward, his eyes filled with deep worry. He said nothing, only, “There’s no need. We don’t have a spy.”
