The sun sets, dusk arrives.

Yesterday evening, the village was empty, but today, because of the upcoming funeral, the villagers all came out of their homes and walked towards the east of the village under the leadership of the village chief.

They held identical candle trays in their hands, with unlit candles placed quietly on top, as if waiting for the arrival of the night.

The deductionists were also sandwiched in the middle, surrounded by the villagers. They, who knew the truth, felt like prisoners being escorted, accompanying a group of terrifying things to the execution ground.

Sigh, I have a good relationship with candles... Yu Xing thought as he walked. The last time he deduced a corpse party, it was a group of corpses lighting candles. What kind of indescribable fetish is this?

He followed the crowd, with Xiao Xuechen walking beside him, vigilantly observing the surroundings.

Suddenly, she seemed to catch a glimpse of a figure in the corner of her eye.

In the next moment, the figure quickly hid behind a house. Although it was fast, she still caught it.

It definitely wasn't an illusion.

Xiao Xuechen pulled Yu Xing's sleeve and whispered, avoiding the villagers around them, "There seems to be..."

A villager looked at them suspiciously.

"Hush." Yu Xing gently pressed his index finger against Xiao Xuechen's lips, not touching them, but effectively stopping her from speaking.

"Isn't it normal to have blood?" Several words similar to bugs that were common in his mind were quickly passed over by his quick reaction, leaving only one word that was abnormal elsewhere.

Sure enough, when the villager heard that Xiao Xuechen wanted to talk about blood, he turned his face back with an uninterested expression.

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"Don't worry, Missie. There will be a good show." Yu Xing blinked at Xiao Xuechen, whose face had turned red, and Wei Fan on the side couldn't bear to look.

What kind of world is this?

Has a miracle happened?

If it weren't for the fact that deduction games couldn't be mentioned to ordinary colleagues in reality, he really wanted to announce to the world and tell his male colleagues in the company that the usually indifferent Xiao Zong blushed at other men!

He's an extremely rare young and fresh meat, you can't compare!

Yu Xing retracted his hand and intentionally or unintentionally glanced at the place Xiao Xuechen had pointed to earlier.

The corners of his mouth slightly curved up. He knew that there was a surprise he wanted to see hidden there.

Ten minutes later.

The crowd was like a vast sea, and a large group of people finally arrived in front of the ancestral hall. The ancient building stood quietly there, appearing so small in front of the number of villagers.

Yu Xing stepped on unknown weeds and keenly felt the coldness emanating from the ancestral hall in the dusk.

Clearly, when he came here last night, it was just a slightly eerie small building. But in the glow of the setting sun, that aura was like a whirlpool, as if it wanted to devour all future visitors.

This place undoubtedly triggered the negative state within him. His legs felt a bit stiff, and his complexion, which had become pale, was already accustomed to it.

"It's happening again..."

Thanks to his special constitution, based solely on the degree of weakness in his body, he could judge how much connection there was between the things around him and the supernatural and ghosts.

It seems that some kind of power has awakened in the ancestral hall where the funeral is about to take place.

Feeling uncomfortable, Yu Xing took a breath and waved off Xiao Xuechen's concern, continuing to follow the crowd.

"Save me..."

In a daze, Yu Xing seemed to hear Zhou Yongsheng's plea again.

He looked around, and everyone else had the same expression. It seemed that they hadn't heard it. Yu Xing concentrated and tried harder to listen, but the voice was too weak and never appeared again.

"It's not that it didn't appear, it's that I can't hear it..." he sighed softly in his heart.

If it were before, not only could he hear it, but he should also be able to see it.

Unfortunately... forget it.

A group of people stood in front of the ancestral hall, and they all turned to look at the village chief, waiting for further instructions.

"Since you are Little Sheng's friends, please stand in the middle." The village chief smiled and pulled a few deductionists over, placing them at the entrance of the ancestral hall.

The other villagers dispersed on their own, forming a formation where they surrounded them like stars surrounding the moon, leaving no gaps.

The village chief stood in front of Yu Xing, giving him a mysterious look. On the other side, the village chief's wife touched the scar on her eye and also stared at him with a strange gaze.

Yu Xing felt like he was being targeted by two poisonous snakes, but fortunately, this human and ghost had no deterrent power over him. He couldn't muster any interest in teaching them a lesson. He just quietly surveyed the ancestral hall.

What's different here?

Where is that uncomfortable power emanating from?

"The funeral begins!" Seeing that he ignored him, the village chief became bored and once again put on the enthusiastic smile he had when they first met. He made the deductionists wait in place, then turned around and shouted loudly at the villagers.

The noisy sounds along the way suddenly fell silent, and the villagers closed their mouths, their gazes following the village chief's movements.

The village chief slowly stood in front of the black coffin and knelt down in front of the rows of blank memorial tablets, separated by the coffin. The other villagers followed suit, and suddenly, a large area in front of the ancestral hall was filled with kneeling figures."The departed do not linger, neither extinguished nor destroyed beyond life and death. With the eyes of the living and the breath of the dead, witness the return of the soul..." The village chief's deep voice returned to the oldest dialect of Guanjia Village, almost making it difficult for the deductionists to understand what he was saying.

This dialect was difficult to recognize, with elongated tones resembling ancient sacrificial incantations. The rising and falling rhythm evoked a mysterious power that bewitched the heart.

"Do we have to kneel too?" Wei Fan hesitated and asked.

"Heh, I don't think it's necessary." Xiao Xuechen looked at the group of moving corpses, a flash of pride and coldness in her eyes.

Make her kneel? For these ghosts? How ridiculous.

She turned her head and Xu Hong and Xu Yuan exchanged glances, shaking their heads simultaneously.

Then she turned her head again... Huh!?

Xiao Xuechen happened to see Yu Xing lowering his height. Her heart skipped a beat. Could it be that he's...

Oh, she was overthinking.

In the next moment, she saw Yu Xing sitting cross-legged on the ground, casually supporting his arms at his sides. His relaxed and indifferent appearance interrupted the sentence that Xiao Xuechen hadn't had time to form in her mind, scattering it into a mess.

She was foolish, truly.

She could never guess what the boss was thinking.

Noticing the gaze of others, Yu Xing raised his head and asked in confusion, "I'm tired, so I sat down for a rest. Why are you all staring at me?"

"..."

Fortunately, the villagers around them didn't pay them any attention. They all prostrated on the ground, showing great respect for the ancestral hall.

As the village chief chanted his words repeatedly like a song, the sky gradually darkened.

Here, the alternation between light and night was so brief. When the warm colors in their sight were gradually eroded and finally enveloped by cold tones...

Swish—

Inside the ancestral hall, the symmetric candle holders on both sides began to shake violently. In the next moment, the candles inserted on them automatically ignited, illuminating the area with flickering flames.

At the same time, the candles in the hands of the villagers were also lit by an unknown source, and the scattered candlelight flickered in the dark night. This untimely exclamation from Yu Xing caught everyone off guard:

"How beautiful..."

Hey, hey, hey?

Xiao Xuechen watched this change unfold before her eyes, and suddenly heard this sentence in her ears. The uneasiness in her heart instantly disappeared.

While Yu Xing was exclaiming, a chilling sensation continued to torment him.

He sat down to conserve his energy, otherwise, he would probably have already blacked out by now.

In this situation, fainting and leaving the mortal world should have no substantial difference.

Hoo...

A cold wind blew from all directions. Strangely, even though there were no caves or narrow spaces around, the wind still blew with a mournful and eerie sound.

So cold... Yu Xing couldn't help but tremble, covering half of his face with his hand.

Cold sweat seeped out of his body, and he took a deep breath. Suddenly, his heart thumped, reaching the peak of coldness. His mind went blank for a moment, and a desperate roar exploded in his ears:

"Stop him!"

It was Zhou Yongsheng's voice!

Biting his back molars, Yu Xing stood up amidst the dizziness. He looked up and saw that the village chief had finished his long chant and was placing an unlit candle on the black coffin.

This candle holder was the one used by the woman in the kitchen, but this time the candles in it seemed a bit special.

They were made of white wax, but they were not brand new. Although they were not lit, many drops of wax tears had already solidified on the sides of the candles. The candle body was engraved with the character "Lu."

Some of the wax tears had flowed into the dish, becoming a non-solidified liquid.

That liquid was the color of fresh blood.

"Now, I invite the guest who has come from afar to open the coffin with me." The village chief did not hear Zhou Yongsheng's shout. He looked at the candlelight around him, nodded in satisfaction, and his gaze, full of ill intentions, stopped on Yu Xing.

"It's you... It seems you have a good relationship with Xiaosheng."

Ah, they've targeted me with their hatred. But it suits me just fine.

Yu Xing smiled, trying his best not to show any weakness. He ignored Xiao Xuechen and Wei Fan's words of "be careful" and confidently stepped forward to the village chief.

"We can't open it!" Zhou Yongsheng's voice appeared in his ears again. The bone-chilling coldness surged through his body, making Yu Xing's face as pale as paper, even paler than the white candle.

His ink-black pupils were even deeper than usual, exuding a sickly aura.

"Come on, open the coffin with me." The village chief, sensing his fear, smiled triumphantly and urged him.

"Village chief..." Yu Xing curled his lips into a smile, his lips devoid of color.

Seeing this smile, the village chief suddenly felt a chill down his spine, a sense of danger spreading to his limbs.

Yu Xing's fingers trembled, but his voice was steady, as smooth as a demon that had turned cold-blooded, as if the pain in his body couldn't affect his emotions at all. "I don't want to open the coffin with you. Let's make a deal and change the person, shall we?"

"Change the person?" Although the village chief realized something was wrong, he couldn't figure out what it was. "Heh, heh, as Xiaosheng's friend, are you unwilling to do this little favor for him?""Fool." Yu Xing chuckled softly, "It's not me being replaced, it's... you."