Yu Xing glanced at the woman's expression.

The woman just smiled, showing no other emotions. He patted Xiao Xuechen's stiff shoulder and said to the woman, "We slept well last night, thank you for your concern."

Xiao Xuechen reacted and gave a smile that Yu Xing considered to be quite skilled. She said, "Yes, I have a good constitution and I'm not afraid of the cold."

Then she pulled Yu Xing's fluffy sleeve and said, "Let's go out and see what happened!"

"Okay." Yu Xing nodded at the woman and walked out with Xiao Xuechen.

The woman stared at their backs, her smile gradually fading. When they left, she touched the scar on her eye with her hand.

The scar was obvious to the touch. She walked slowly to the table and looked down with her uninjured eye.

There were two bowls of millet porridge on the table, one was still full and the other was mostly empty. Without anyone touching it, the sticky white porridge gradually turned red and started bubbling with blood.

...

Based on the villagers' reactions, Yu Xing easily determined the direction of the incident. After Ju Lan left their house, she should have run towards the entrance of the village.

On the way, they met Wei Fan, who was also heading towards the incident location. This middle-aged man in his thirties didn't look like he had slept well last night. There were faint dark circles under his eyes, and he looked tired.

Wei Fan greeted the two of them, and Xiao Xuechen approached him and asked in a low voice, "Where are Xu Hong and Xu Yuan?"

"They stayed in the house to study feng shui. I couldn't understand what they were talking about anyway." Wei Fan replied, then glanced at Yu Xing a few steps away and quietly asked Xiao Xuechen, "Are you both okay last night? Nothing unexpected happened, right?"

"It's a long story, but overall we're safe." Xiao Xuechen didn't want to explain everything to Wei Fan at the moment, it would be a waste of words.

Yu Xing's ears twitched, and he heard everything that the other party wanted him to hear and didn't want him to hear.

He smiled and, with a playful look in his eyes, he saw a group of villagers gathered together in the distance, so he walked past the two talking and quickly went over.

Passing through the thin human wall, he saw a petite figure.

It was Ju Lan.

She was lying pale on the ground, her body covered in bloodstains, with numerous wounds all over her body. Many of the wounds were deep enough to see the bones, with flesh turned out, looking extremely miserable.

Unexpectedly, they found a corpse early in the morning, but these people did nothing and let the body lie there.

But... what was that?

Beside Ju Lan's head, there were several large fragments.

The fragments were white, and judging from their shape, they should be pieces of a mask.

A persona mask?

Yu Xing quietly observed the villagers and found that they seemed unable to see the shattered mask next to the corpse.

Could it be that only deductionists could see it?

"An outsider died... What should we do? Throw it on the mountain to feed the dogs?" At this moment, someone among the villagers said, immediately followed by many agreements.

"Of course, we can't bury it!"

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"Feed it to the dogs. This little girl was quite cute, but she doesn't look good after death."

"Why did only one person die..."

..." Yu Xing put his hands in the pockets of his tight jeans and glanced at the people who were talking.

Those people felt a chill down their spines and instinctively closed their mouths, rubbing their arms in confusion.

"Village chief, who should go and dispose of the body?" After a while, a relatively young man looked at the village chief in the crowd and asked.

The village chief stretched his voice, seemingly considering, "This... "

"On this point, I'm afraid it can't be as you wish." Seeing that these people were discussing so enthusiastically, as if they could dispose of the body as they pleased, Yu Xing sneered, and a fierce look flashed across his face.

He had wanted to see the villagers' reactions before he came, and now that he saw them, his speculation about this game grew.

Actually, last night was a death node in the entire game. If he and Xiao Xuechen hadn't found the ancestral hall, hadn't received the prompt, how many people would have gone out because of the specter's deception or their companions' pleas?

Without a firm guard, the probability would probably be high.

Seeing that only one person had died, these villagers seemed disappointed.

Yu Xing walked to Ju Lan's body and squatted down as if protecting her. "No one is allowed to touch her."

While no one was paying attention, he quickly touched the fragments of the mask. Immediately, a deduction prompt floated into his mind.

[Obtained information: Persona Mask • Lan • Fragile, irremovable sacrifice]

After the prompt appeared, the fragments seemed to have weathered away, dissipating like smoke.

So, after a deductionist dies, the mask will appear, and it seems that it can inherit the sacrifice embedded in the mask.

A conclusion flashed through Yu Xing's mind, and he raised an eyebrow.

The villagers looked at him, all surprised. "Oh, when did you come? I didn't notice just now."

"Young man," the village chief saw that both he and Xiao Xuechen had arrived, so he stood up, "You've seen the situation. How do you think we should handle your friend's body?"

Yu Xing smiled and thought to himself: They're just going to handle the body directly, without even mentioning finding the culprit. It seems that in this village, there is no concept of crime at all, or rather, there are no human rules here.

Wei Fan wanted to step forward, but Xiao Xuechen held him back and shook her head, as if her eyes were saying something.

Xiao Xuechen's gaze signaled: Don't disturb the boss while he's working.

Wei Fan understood this as: Let's see if San steps on a landmine first, and then we'll take a look.

So he dismissed the idea of stepping forward and silently observed the situation.Yu Xing looked around and spoke politely but with an unquestionable tone, "She is our companion who came with us. Let us take care of the body. You don't need to worry too much."

Last night, he didn't feel guilty despite Ju Lan's pleading. It wasn't his fault, so he shouldn't bear the responsibility.

But as fellow deductionists, and half companions, he couldn't let these people treat Ju Lan's body disrespectfully.

She looked so young, it was unfortunate for her to become a deductionist.

Moreover, in the village, after the seventh day of a person's death, there would be a funeral. But for an outsider who died, they weren't even worthy of a burial. How should one put it... the distinction was clear.

When San made it clear, Xiao Xuechen nudged Wei Fan's arm with her finger.

Fortunately, Wei Fan understood this time and took a few steps forward.

"That's right, we came together. Let's bury her." Since Wei Fan was the only man present who seemed to have some strength, he took the initiative to bend down and carry the somewhat terrifying body, leading Ju Lan away from the villagers.

The villagers seemed restless, but the village chief waved his hand and suppressed them.

"Outsiders are not worthy of burial!" Someone quietly protested, and Yu Xing heard it before he had walked far away.

Hmph... his gaze darkened, and a feeling of disgust churned in his heart.

That statement didn't sit well with him.

Since it had ruined his mood, then... something had to be paid as a consequence.

For now, without launching a retaliatory action, Yu Xing and Xiao Xuechen walked alongside Wei Fan, passing through the village and entering the mountains.

This wasn't the mountain where the ancestral hall was located. They didn't know if there were any taboos in that area, so to prevent any unfavorable changes, they unconsciously guided Wei Fan to another place.

The plants near Guan Village were all withered. Whether it was the small mountain to the east of the village or the other mountains, the trees were withered, and the grass was desolate, always exuding an unshakable sense of death.

Even though Wei Fan had good physical strength, carrying the body on the mountain road had exhausted him.

"Where is Carlos? Why haven't we seen him?" After reaching a place far enough and concealed enough, Wei Fan, who had disappeared last night, finally put the body down. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and looked at the bloodstains on his clothes, envy in his eyes as he looked at Yu Xing.

It's great, these good-looking people don't have to do any physical work!

"Carlos disappeared last night, and we didn't see him in the village just now. I don't know where he went." Xiao Xuechen explained, taking one of the two shovels that Yu Xing had quickly passed by the village chief's house.

Yu Xing was the one digging the hole, and Xiao Xuechen was of little help on the side. After a while, Yu Xing, feeling very tired, finally finished digging a usable hole.

Next was the burial.

The three of them weren't afraid of the body. Wei Fan put the body into the pit and used the shovel to fill it with soil.

"Goodbye, Ju Lan."

Yu Xing wasn't interested in saying anything sentimental to the body. He sat aside and rested.

"San." Xiao Xuechen suddenly sat down next to him.

"What's the matter, Missie~"

"Did you receive the information from Ju Lan's mask?" She straightened her sleeves, gathered her curly hair behind her head, leaving a few strands of curls on her temples. "I'm just curious, did she have any life-saving offerings? If she did, she wouldn't have been so powerless to resist..."

Ahaha~

Yu Xing moved his fingers a bit. The little lady had good conversational skills. She didn't want to show her doubts about me taking the mask's information, but she wanted to confirm if I had obtained Ju Lan's life-saving offerings.

But she revealed quite a bit of information in her words. At least it proved that it wasn't a small probability event for deductionists to leave behind their masks after death, but rather a certainty.

Otherwise, Xiao Xuechen wouldn't have directly asked so naturally.

Yu Xing's lips curled up, very satisfied with this little lady.

Competent, obedient, intelligent, not a burden, skilled in conversation, and knows how to act appropriately.

He liked it.

...She had the potential to become a teammate.

"You guessed right, Ju Lan didn't have any life-saving offerings." Yu Xing's thoughts surged in his mind for just a moment. He seamlessly answered Xiao Xuechen's question, then started thinking about something else.

Were life-saving offerings really that hard to obtain?

Ju Lan had participated in investigator-type deduction games before, indicating that she had already completed the four mainline tasks and possibly even more deduction games afterwards.

After so many deduction games, she really didn't have a single life-saving offering. Moreover, Xiao Xuechen didn't show any surprise.

Coincidentally, he hadn't contacted that person since becoming a deductionist. After this game ended, he should ask that person about information regarding absurd deduction games...