Chapter 33: The Insidious Qi-Wielder

Huan Xiao noticed that the number of coffin bearers on the bank had increased, and the coffins themselves had changed. The black coffins no longer bore black-and-white photographs. She counted them carefully and discovered there were nineteen.

There were twenty people still on the boats. Including the girl in the sun hat and Brother Qiang, there had been twenty-three people when the vote was taken earlier; three had fallen into the river, leaving twenty. However, if one were to exclude Huan Xiao, exactly nineteen people remained. Therefore, these were the coffins prepared for the other nineteen people, excluding her. This was Huan Xiao’s hypothesis.

The others were unaware of Huan Xiao’s unique nature; seeing the nineteen coffins did not lead them to this conclusion, but instead left them bewildered. Yet, they had no time to ponder why the photographs had vanished from the coffins. Their primary task was to evade the pursuit of their former companions, who had now become water ghosts.

"Wuwuwu, I was wrong! Don't come near me! I’ll burn more paper money for you when I go back, I’ll burn you a big house, I’ll burn you lots and lots of money, just let me go!"

Wen Su was so terrified by the horrifying face suddenly drawing near that she burst into tears. She watched in disbelief as the corpse of Li Yanshu reached onto the boat. The lower half of the corpse remained in the water, but its upper body was twisted into an arc no human could ever achieve. It bypassed Huan Xiao and stared face-to-face at Wen Su. The pupils of the corpse had vanished, leaving only the whites of its eyes. Wen Su could even smell the foul stench of rot emanating from it. A "drip-drop" sound echoed in her ears—the water falling from the corpse's clothes onto the boat. Wen Su felt her mind go blank; she sensed that she was finished today.

At that moment, the girl in the sun hat shouted a warning: "Everyone be careful! Do not leave the boat! Don't panic, the game would not provide a situation with no solution!"

Her own situation was just as dire. Two corpses circled her boat, their upper bodies twisted into a double-helix structure, staring at the people on board with two heads, their mouths curled into eerie, unnatural arcs.

Heeding the girl’s warning, Wen Su snapped back to reality. That was right; the game could not possibly present a total dead end. They must have a way to survive and row away from this place. Now was not the time to panic. She closed her eyes and racked her brain, desperate to find a path to survival.

"Hahahaha!"

Suddenly, Brother Qiang burst into loud laughter, though no one knew what he was laughing at.

"Brother Qiang, have you discovered something?" The red-haired man looked at the laughing man with pleasant surprise, so excited he wanted to jump onto Brother Qiang’s boat. If not for the rule of three people per boat, he would have done just that.

"Brother Qiang, you’re the best! Tell us, we’ll be your servants and do anything for you from now on!"

"As expected of a Qi-master, we’re saved!"

Seeing the Red Mansion drawing near and the water ghosts closing in, everyone’s hearts were in their throats. Right now, Brother Qiang was the only straw they had to cling to for survival.

Wen Su looked over with delight, even ignoring the highly decayed head of Li Yanshu, and said to Huan Xiao with a smile: "See? I told you Qi-masters are very strong. We’ll definitely be saved!"

But after the initial surprise, she saw the face of the water ghost pressing against the boat and couldn't help but turn away to retch over the side. "Ugh... so smelly, so disgusting. I’m going to go on a vegetarian diet for a week when I get back."

Huan Xiao did not speak, but instead watched the now-standing Brother Qiang with a calm gaze. For some reason, she felt that his mental state was not right.

"You want to know the way to survive?"

Brother Qiang stood up abruptly, causing the boat beneath him to wobble precariously. His two teammates scrambled to grab the sides of the boat to keep from falling into the river. Brother Qiang, however, was completely unfazed. He stood straight on the boat, laughing maniacally.

"Brother Qiang, be careful, we’ll hold you!" His teammates, viewing him as their only hope for survival, dared not question his sudden outburst and both grabbed his legs to help steady him.

"Brother Qiang, stop keeping us in suspense, please tell us!" The girl in the sun hat urged anxiously from nearby. Their boats were almost drifting into the wooden building of the coffin bearers, and the water ghosts in the river were becoming increasingly restless, as if they were about to strike at any moment. At this point, everyone could only fix their eyes on the man who seemed to have figured out a way to live.

"Fine, since you all look so pathetic, I’ll tell you." Brother Qiang looked down at the teammates smiling obsequiously at him, and at the expectant eyes of the others, a sneer curling his lips. "The way to survive is that there is no way to survive."

"What?!"

"Brother Qiang, don't joke around. We’re waiting for you to save us, quit playing games!"

"Brother Qiang, have mercy on us! As long as you tell us the way out, I’ll be your dog from now on!"

"Just tell us, Brother Qiang!"

Everyone could not believe that Brother Qiang would joke at such a critical moment. Wen Su trembled, her lips quivering as she said: "It’s over. These dead things will definitely attack us the moment we reach the building... Xiao Huan, what should we do?"

"I don't know." Huan Xiao shook her head. This place looked like a dead end; perhaps they had chosen the wrong path from the very beginning. The forest path might have been the correct one.

But now, no one dared to question if they had chosen the wrong route. Perhaps they truly hadn't thought of it, or perhaps they had, but were harboring illusions and refused to admit they were trapped here... Everyone was filled with a desperate longing to live.

"Hahahaha, you bunch of idiots!" Brother Qiang laughed outright, his voice frantic and deranged. "I brought you here on purpose to die with me! If I’m going to die, I’m taking a bunch of you to the grave with me!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the color drained from everyone’s faces, leaving them deathly pale.

The girl in the sun hat demanded sternly: "Brother Qiang, what do you mean by this? What benefit does our death bring you? Why would you say such a thing?"

"Can’t I do something even if there’s no benefit? I just enjoy doing things that harm others without benefiting myself, is that not allowed?" Brother Qiang’s mouth stretched into a wide arc. "I was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer at a young age; I have only a few months left to live. Since that’s the case, why shouldn't I die in the game?"

"Isn't it great to die in the game? Maybe after I die, I can become a powerful ghost, and in the future, I can torment the players who enter and the weak indigenous people here. This is a gift from the ghosts and gods!" His eyes were filled with madness.

The girl in the sun hat clenched her fists, raging: "You’re miserable, so you drag others down with you. You’re truly selfish!"

"And 'become a ghost'? You’re delusional! Someone as useless as you will probably only end up as food for a fierce spirit. Stop flattering yourself!"

Brother Qiang was not angered by her accusations. As a man on the brink of death, he enjoyed watching these living people get angry, and he enjoyed having healthy, living people join him in death.

*Hahahaha, just thinking about it makes me happy!*