Over there, a servant was gradually approaching Yan Mingguang, who hadn’t moved an inch. Yan Wei, hidden behind the bedding, had a grave expression on his face.
He wasn’t worried about Yan Mingguang. Not to mention this was just an ordinary servant from the Shen Estate, even if it were any other Player from the Shen Estate, none of them could possibly gain an upper hand against Yan Mingguang.
What he was thinking about was the death of Master Shen. Moreover, from the servant’s choice of words and attitude, it seemed that Master Shen hadn’t just died in the past couple of days, but had been dead for a long time.
When did he die?
Why didn’t Geng Liang know about this?
Master Shen had been dead for some time, yet the Shen Estate continued to operate as usual, even going so far as to buy girls from the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel to maintain the facade of normalcy. Who was covering all this up?
In an instant, clues from the moment they entered the instance flashed through Yan Wei’s mind. Everything seemed to follow a routine, yet it felt like they were caught in a whirlpool with no blind spot in sight. This feeling had occurred many times in Yan Wei’s past instance experiences, indicating that there was always a crucial point they hadn’t seen.
But he still couldn’t find it now.
The servant had already approached Yan Mingguang.
In the next moment, the man slightly raised his chin, his feet unmoving, and reached out to twist the servant’s upper arm, yanking it violently and instantly slamming the person onto the table.
The movement stirred a slight breeze, causing the white gauze hanging from the bamboo hat to flutter. Yan Mingguang’s face was almost buried in the flickering shadows of the candlelight, his profile softened by a layer of fine, cold frost. The man pinned on the table was about to scream in shock, but Yan Mingguang, with his other hand, pulled out a dagger from nowhere and swiftly threw it beside the man’s ear—
The man was so frightened he nearly lost his voice. The dagger pierced deeply into the wooden table right next to his ear, yet it just so happened to leave no wound.
Yan Wei rolled off the bed and walked to Yan Mingguang’s side. The servant, having long lost any lustful intentions, saw Yan Wei and, not knowing what was happening, realized he had stirred up trouble he shouldn’t have, and immediately began to plead for mercy.
Yan Mingguang gave him a cold glance.
Just one look, and the servant couldn’t even utter a word of plea.
Yan Wei glanced at Yan Mingguang, then turned and left the room to call for Lin Zhen and Zhong Bufan. By the time the three of them entered the room, Yan Mingguang had already tied up the servant. Although he hadn’t gagged the man, the servant dared not speak a word, standing there with a dagger in hand.
Zhong Bufan looked at Yan Mingguang in astonishment: “You took action in the room? I didn’t feel any movement just now…” “What’s so strange about that,” Lin Zhen said, stepping forward, rolling up the wide red sleeves of his robe, sitting down at the table, and pouring himself a cup of water to drink, “I didn’t feel it either, let alone you.”
Zhong Bufan had no time to banter with Lin Zhen.
He was secretly amazed that Yan Mingguang was stronger than he had imagined, and Yan Wei wasn’t as easygoing and harmless as he appeared on the surface. Even this seemingly unstable Lin Zhen sometimes seemed like a pure first-timer in the high-level instances, yet occasionally revealed some unexpected strength. The people from Blackbird this time were all so unexpectedly formidable!
No wonder it was an organization personally built by V.
He walked up to Yan Wei, smiled, and said, “Why did you capture this ordinary servant? Do you need my help to get some information out of him? You’ve had the upper hand the last couple of times, but this time I’ll show you that when it comes to understanding V’s problem-solving methods, I’m definitely not inferior to you.”
Yan Wei simply gave him a blank stare.
Zhong Bufan’s words received no response. Yan Wei slowly squatted down in front of the bound servant and chuckled, “Speak.”
Although dressed in the rough hemp clothes of a servant, his fair complexion and gentle features were impossible to hide. Even though his eyes reflected the glint of the dagger in Yan Mingguang’s hand, this smile still managed to ease some of the servant’s fear.
The man stammered, “Who… who are you? What are you doing here? I… I didn’t mean to, I didn’t know—”
Yan Wei chuckled again, and the man instinctively stopped speaking.
Yan Wei said, “Finished asking?”
“Finished…”
“Good, I let you finish, but I didn’t promise to answer. Now it’s my turn to ask—what exactly happened to Master Shen?”
The previously panicked servant turned completely pale this time, unable to utter a word for a long while.
Zhong Bufan rolled up his sleeves and walked forward, dragging his skirt, “Let me! Let me interrogate him!”
Yan Wei: “…”
“I already know,” he said.
“Huh?”
Lin Zhen sighed, “You understood again.”
Beside them, Yan Mingguang didn’t even ask, just knocked the servant out with a single strike.
Zhong Bufan almost drew a question mark on his face: “He didn’t say a word, did he? You just asked a question, and then you understood??”
Yan Wei walked to the table and gestured for everyone to gather around. Once Yan Mingguang sat beside him, he said, “His silence was his answer. There’s no such thing as a mage’s notebook. Zhuo Xidong was certain the Guanyin’s holy water was in the Shen Estate because Master Shen himself said so, but the Guanyin’s holy water wasn’t in any of the places they searched.”
Lin Zhen threw up his hands, completely giving up: “Forget it, I don’t understand anyway. Just tell us, what do we do?”
“I understand…” Zhong Bufan murmured to himself.
If something truly sinister had happened in the estate, the servant would have been bound by them. To the NPCs in this instance, they might seem like reckless intruders who could take lives at any moment. In such a situation, no matter how terrifying the supernatural events were, could they be more terrifying than losing one’s life?
Knowing they could kill at any moment, the servant was still too scared to speak, indicating that whoever was keeping him silent had even more terrifying methods.
Master Shen was already dead. If the female ghost wanted to do something, she could have just killed or driven people mad. Who else could it be?
Naturally, only the Players from the Shen Estate faction.
It was likely that some of the first Players to arrive at the Shen Estate, believing that Jiang Jingyun’s death was related to Master Shen, or that something else had happened which was now untraceable, had directly killed Master Shen. But they found that killing Master Shen didn’t resolve Jiang Jingyun’s resentment. Guanyin Town was still shrouded in eeriness, but they needed to continue their actions in the Shen Estate and deceive the opposing faction—Zhong Bufan and Yan Wei.
So the Shen Estate continued to operate as usual, still buying girls from the Ten Thousand Flowers Brothel. But these girls were probably given to the servants for their pleasure. After making enough commotion, the girls’ bodies were taken away, creating the illusion that Master Shen was still alive. And these servants were undoubtedly threatened not to reveal this secret, including other Players from the Shen Estate faction.
Players had far more methods than the Ghosts and Monsters in the instance. The servant feared death, but feared a painful death even more, so naturally, he dared not speak.
Zhuo Xidong and a few informed Players must have reached a consensus to conceal this matter, falsely claiming they had learned the location of the Guanyin’s holy water from the mage’s notebook, when in fact, Master Shen had told them before he was killed.
Zhong Bufan had also overheard the conversation of the two Players passing by earlier. Combining this with the current deductions, everything finally connected into a coherent line.
Except for a few Players, most didn’t know that Master Shen had been killed by their own people, hence the complaints about Zhuo Xidong being too stubborn. Zhuo Xidong and his group knew very well, which is why they searched again after the first unsuccessful attempt.
If the servant had said anything, whether true or false, Master Shen’s death would have been related to the instance itself. But his silence made everything even clearer.
Zhong Bufan narrowed his eyes, looking at Yan Wei. The confusion in his gaze gradually turned to understanding, but more than that, there was curiosity about Yan Wei and a bit of admiration he wasn’t quite willing to admit. He didn’t want to admit it, but he had to acknowledge—this unfamiliar face from the high-level instances had genuinely surpassed him.
He sighed, glancing at the bronze mirror in the room, unwillingly admitting, “…I’m just a bit prettier than you.”
Hearing this, Yan Wei: “…”
He wasn’t particularly interested in comparing appearances here.
“Sure,” he said, “you’re the prettiest.”
Zhong Bufan: “…” Something feels off.
He said, “Before entering this instance, I only admired V. But now, well, it feels like there’s going to be one more person.”
Yan Wei showed no sign of being pleased by the compliment. Upon hearing this, the young man actually frowned and said, “What’s so admirable about V…”
He didn’t finish, but Zhong Bufan could sense the disdain in Yan Wei’s tone. This time, he couldn’t agree and immediately retorted, “Even you, who imitates his problem-solving methods, can’t see from his instance records what kind of person he is? In the world of the Tower, there are countless capable people, but those with conviction are rare. To be both capable and convicted is one in a million.”
“So what? He still failed.”
Before Yan Wei’s words fell, under the table, Yan Mingguang beside him suddenly grabbed his hand. In the flickering candlelight, he couldn’t quite see Yan Mingguang’s expression, but he could feel the man’s fingertips lightly tracing on his palm, writing words that were light yet carried immense weight.
【This time, we won’t fail.】
Unconsciously, Yan Wei’s lips curved into a smile.
Zhong Bufan said, “What if he failed? Besides, he’s just missing; it’s not certain he died in an instance. Anyway, in my heart, V is the most admirable Player in the world of the Tower, and his instance records are the most worth repeatedly studying and pondering. You’re just a young lad, it’s understandable you don’t get it.”
Yan Wei: “…” Can’t be bothered with this chatterbox.
He brought the focus back to the holy water: “If that’s the case, I have a rough idea of where the Guanyin’s holy water might be. But if I’m not mistaken, we need to head to the two courtyards in the east.”
“Tsk, those two courtyards, are we going to fight Zhuo Xidong and his gang directly? Let’s go then, my bow’s almost rusting.”
Yan Wei laughed helplessly: “There are more than a dozen of them. Even if they’ve lost at least three members, we only have three fighters. Even if we’re going to confront them head-on, it can’t be now when we’ve gained nothing.”
Lin Zhen wanted to scratch his head but, upon lifting his hand, touched the woman’s bun on his head and had to put it down, puzzled: “Then how do we get there? No matter what, there will always be Players from the Shen Estate staying there, right? If we go, we’ll have to fight. It’s not like they’ll all suddenly disappear.”
“Why not?”
“Huh?”
Yan Wei turned to look at Lin Zhen, examining him from head to toe, his gaze lingering on the dark red dress he wore. Under the night’s candlelight, the dress’s color darkened further, adding a touch of eerie beauty.
He raised an eyebrow: “What if the Shen Estate is haunted?”
Zhong Bufan slapped the table: “Jiang Jingyun’s ghost body is the target for all of us, so it’s not an exaggeration to say they’d all come out.”
Yan Wei nodded.
Lin Zhen fiddled with the red sash hanging from his arm, confused: “Ah, right. Wait, little pet, if it’s haunted, don’t we want to catch her? If we can find Jiang Jingyun’s ghost body, it’s not like that Zhuo-what’s-his-face would get a chance. Where would the haunting Jiang Jingyun come from?”
As soon as he finished speaking, three pairs of eyes simultaneously turned to him.
“Why are you looking at me?”
