The three of them quickly buried the body and returned from the mountains. It was still morning, and there was still a long time before Zhou Yongsheng's funeral, which was being discussed in the village.

In fact, by now, it was already clear that there were small groups among the deductionists. Apart from the missing Carlos and the deceased Ju Lan, the Xu brothers from the Xu Family had little interaction with Yu Xing and the others, and it was unknown if they had found any clues.

After entering the village last night, they had dinner separately and had not integrated any information until now. Yu Xing thought this was foolish. This group of people had a rigid mindset and only worked with familiar and trusted individuals, completely failing to utilize their numerical advantage. They were like scattered sand.

Only Carlos seemed to have the awareness to gather information, but no one knew where he had gone to do his own thing.

Yu Xing felt that Carlos was definitely fine. This blue-haired magician seemed to have something up his sleeve.

In any case, the deductionists in this game lacked experience. Otherwise, even people with conflicts would exchange information cautiously, as deducing the truth and surviving were common goals that could not be shaken.

At this moment, under the strange gazes of some villagers, Yu Xing proposed a suggestion to Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan.

It was still early, and the key point of the game was likely tonight. They should use this blank period to gather more information about the various aspects of Guanjia Village.

They would investigate separately and then gather to integrate and analyze the information and clues.

Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan had no objections. It was not a big deal to act separately. They were not in a horror movie, and unlike the unfortunate protagonists in horror movies, they had the ability to confront specters to a certain extent. Moreover, it was daytime, and the types of incidents they could encounter were limited, so it wouldn't be too difficult to deal with.

Although the houses in this small village were dilapidated, the overall layout was quite regular. After Yu Xing acted alone, he quietly climbed over the walls of several houses and found that almost every house had one or two empty rooms. It was unclear what they were originally used for.

In addition, he also paid special attention to whether these villagers had coffins in their homes. After all, it was a coffin village, and it would be embarrassing if there was only one coffin in the ancestral hall.

As an eye-catching outsider, it took him some effort to investigate various matters without being noticed.

They didn't have lunch at noon. After last night's incident, Xiao Xuechen, Wei Fan, and the Xu brothers all claimed to have no appetite and didn't go to the village chief's house to eat. Even Yu Xing, who had a great appetite from start to finish, directly said he didn't want to eat.

In the afternoon, Yu Xing leaned against a wall and took a breath. His originally snow-white shirt was dirty from the actions, and there was dust on his palms from climbing over the walls.

He had basically finished investigating... and there were indeed some things that made him feel uneasy, broadening his train of thought.

For example, these villagers never visited each other's houses. If they wanted to chat together, they would go to the open space outside the houses. It was as if each house had strict rules and couldn't accommodate too many people. Coupled with the rules that bound them deductionists at night, he vaguely felt that this was an important clue.

Another example was the hunchbacked old man they encountered when they entered the village. Yu Xing had almost observed every house, but he didn't see the old man again.

The old man seemed to have appeared out of thin air and disappeared into thin air.

And the most unscientific point was that this village had no farmland, and there was no one responsible for going out of the village to buy supplies. Where did the villagers get their meat and vegetables for their daily meals?

And... there was no cemetery. Where were the people who died in the village over the years buried?

Yu Xing had arranged to meet Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan at four o'clock. Just after three o'clock, he went to Ju Lan's room.

He stepped through the window and calmly observed the room.

In the corner of the room was Ju Lan's backpack, and two wooden beds were placed side by side with an aisle in between. One of the beds had obvious signs of being slept on, and on the other bed...

The blanket was lifted, and in the center of the bed was a small paper figure.

Yu Xing couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. It was obvious that Carlos had intentionally placed it here. This magician seemed to always have these small paper figures, which was quite interesting.

He walked over and, based on the scene, deduced that Ju Lan had woken up in the middle of the night, got off her bed, realized that her companion was missing, lifted Carlos's blanket, and discovered the paper figure. Then she walked all the way to the door.

She must have been persuaded by something to open the door... and then, things took a turn for the worst.

After a simple deduction, Yu Xing ruled out the possibility of Carlos intentionally harming them due to their different tasks.

Carlos was a person, not a ghost. He was certain of this, so if Carlos wanted to kill Ju Lan, he wouldn't need to go through all this trouble.

He shifted his gaze back to the paper figure and picked it up to take a closer look.

Carlos's paper figures were all three-dimensional, made of paper mache, not just paper cutouts.The paper person is only the size of a palm, and what's strange is that the originally pure white paper person is still covered in bloodstains, with half of its head missing and several cracks on its body.

"These injuries... are the same as Ju Lan's. Could it be that the paper person is a substitute for Carlos, bearing the curse of the rules at night?" Yu Xing narrowed his eyes, and at this moment, a voice suddenly appeared in his mind.

【Discovering traces of the offering, determining】

【Your level is lower than the opponent's, information retrieval failed】

"Ah, so this is the offering?" Although he had already guessed it, hearing the confirmation from the system still piqued his interest.

Whether it was Zhao Yijiu's knife from before or Carlos' paper person now, they both had some attraction to Yu Xing.

Because... he himself had an invisible and intangible offering on him. He vaguely knew what it was, so he needed to come into contact with more offerings to study things he couldn't touch before.

Yu Xing held the small paper person that looked already dead, and muttered to himself in a low voice, "Hmm... no, this shouldn't be the offering. It's just a manifestation of the offering's ability, and it's also residual."

Last night, when Carlos came to exchange information, one of the paper person's heads was split open on the spot for the "magic show," so Carlos definitely had more than one paper person on him.

The real offering was probably carried by Carlos himself, and the one on the bed was just one of the ways to use it.

Looking at the room without even Carlos' backpack, it was probably taken away when he left.

Yu Xing: "Could it be that Carlos left Guanjia Village and went to the town on the other side of the mountain?"

This was a new train of thought. The mission only required them to attend the funeral, but it didn't say whether they could leave before the funeral.

In fact, no one stipulated that they had to stay in Guanjia Village until the funeral started, so they could leave at any time as long as they returned before the funeral began.

This was Yu Xing's first time playing this deduction game, so he didn't think of this at once. Now his eyes lit up.

He learned something new and opened a new door!

In future deduction games... his thinking would definitely be more divergent!

Hope the ghost is okay.

The discoveries in Ju Lan's room were just these. After coming out, Yu Xing took a detour and arrived in front of the house where the Xu brothers were. This family's yard was a bit smaller than the village chief's, but only an old lady lived here, so the remaining two empty rooms were given to Xu Yuan and Wei Fan.

According to Wei Fan, these two brothers were ultimate otakus who never left their rooms.

Only a fool would sit and wait for death, which was inconsistent with the deductionists who had to use their brains in every deduction game. Otherwise, these people wouldn't have survived until now.

So the Xu brothers must have a way to obtain information.

This time, instead of climbing over the wall or crossing the window, Yu Xing straightened his clothes, knocked on the door of the old lady's house.

Twenty seconds later.

"Creak—"

The door had clearly been around for many years, making a sharp sound. A short old lady leaned on the door with one hand and held a cane in the other, her wrinkled face showing no emotions.

She hoarsely asked, "Who are you?"

Yu Xing had never seen her outside because the old lady had difficulty moving, and other villagers wouldn't come in either. In other words, this old lady was in a state of information blockade, except for the three outsiders the village chief let in last night, she probably didn't know anything.

"Hello, grandma. I came to play with the people living in your house." Yu Xing blinked innocently and didn't mention his name.

"Guests from outside... come in." The old lady made way unsteadily, and Yu Xing walked in easily.

This yard was really run-down, with some weeds growing tall. It seemed that the old lady had difficulty cleaning up.

Yu Xing thanked the old lady and walked towards the room where the Xu brothers were.

The door of the room was tightly closed, and faint conversations could be heard from the soundproof room. Unfortunately, these two seemed to be experienced, so he could only hear the voices but couldn't make out the content of their conversation.

He raised his hand and knocked on the door twice.

"Who is it?"

"It's me, San."

The one who opened the door was Xu Hong, who was wearing black clothes. He glanced warily at Yu Xing behind him before asking, "Oh, it's you. Do you need something?"

"You said before that this village is strange, and now I believe it." Yu Xing started with a logical connection of roles, innocently spreading his hands, "Last night, I saw something very scary, and Ju Lan died today. I've been thinking about it, you two feng shui masters must know what's going on, right? Sigh..."

"I'm just a painter with no real skills, so I came to exchange ideas with you. I wonder if you two can help me?"

While Xu Hong was still hesitating, Xu Yuan inside the room had already understood what he meant and shouted, "Brother, let him in."

"Come in." Xu Hong invited him in after hearing that.Yu Xing gratefully smiled and stepped into the dimly lit room.

After entering, he quickly and silently scanned the room. The sun was shining brightly outside, but the Xu brothers had covered the window with a gorgeous cloth, making it difficult for light to penetrate.

Xu Yuan was sitting cross-legged on a hard wooden bed, with a piece of sheepskin paper spread out in front of him. Beside him were a pile of odd and miscellaneous items. His gaze followed Yu Xing's movements, and then he said, "We have indeed calculated some information about Guan Family Village. However, it's useless for you people to know. It's better for you to leave as soon as possible."

Not bad for a character's logic... Yu Xing glanced at the content on the sheepskin paper, which seemed to be a hand-drawn map. The map was surrounded by mountains, with a dense grid in the middle.

Strangely, when he approached the sheepskin paper, the cold sensation appeared again, but it was weaker than the candlestick in the village chief's house and had no obvious effect on him.

Suppressing his discomfort, Yu Xing took another look and then shyly smiled, "I didn't understand before, but I promised the village chief to stay for the funeral. If I want to leave halfway, who knows what will happen? Brothers, I know you are experts in feng shui and some secrets cannot be revealed to outsiders. However... human lives are at stake, and I have some additional information that I might be able to exchange with you."

That's what he was waiting for.

Xu Yuan glanced at his brother and then nodded, "In that case, it's fine."

...

Half an hour later, Yu Xing left the Xu brothers' room.

He saw the old lady sitting alone in the courtyard, looking lonely. After thinking for a moment, he walked over with a smile.

The old lady's cane tapped the ground irregularly as she stared blankly at the sky above the courtyard.

"Old lady, are you alone?" Yu Xing sat directly across from her, not caring whether she agreed or not, and started chatting, "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking... at the outside world." The old lady didn't lower her head, still staring blankly.

A cunning glint flashed in Yu Xing's eyes as he tentatively said, "If you want to go out for a walk, I can help you."

"No, not outside, but... the outside world." The old lady showed a hint of sadness. In fact, she was the only elderly person Yu Xing had seen in the village besides the old man at the entrance.

"What is the outside world? Do you mean... outside the mountain?"

"Yes... When I was young, I went out too." The old lady's eyes filled with nostalgia, and perhaps because she hadn't talked to anyone for a long time, her words flowed easily with Yu Xing's prompting.

"Our villagers have all tried their luck outside, some for studying, some for working." The old lady spoke clearly, and her words were easy to understand.

"But in the end, we were all pulled back and stayed in the village forever..."

Yu Xing sneered inwardly: Huh, just like Zhou Yongsheng?

This novel is available on "pawread.com".

He was studying well outside, but after returning, he was strangled to death.

He wanted to ask the old lady why everyone came back, but she didn't seem to know much about it either, and didn't say anything more after going around in circles.

So Yu Xing changed the subject, "Grandma, do you know an old man in the village? My friend and I saw him at the entrance of the village when we arrived. He was also leaning on a cane and looked very old."

"An old man?" The old lady was puzzled for a moment, "I should be the last old person in this village. Oh, did you see him by the locust tree?"

Yu Xing nodded, "Yes, that's right."

"He... he was the previous village chief. After Zhou Fugui returned from the town, he buried him under the locust tree. He... has been dead for a long time!"