Chapter 35: There Is Something Unclean in the Village!

"...That is the situation."

"If you are discovered by anyone else in the village, things will become quite dangerous."

"I am going to buy some oranges; you stay here and do not move about," Wu Wang said sternly after explaining her current dire predicament.

The best-case scenario was that the "Spirit Disaster Game" had constructed this dungeon world based on reality, and the girl before him was merely an AI version of Wu Xiaoyou.

As for the worst-case scenario—

This was the past from five years ago.

Anything he did here would affect the true reality. If this girl version of Wu Xiaoyou died in this wretched village, the second sister who bickered with him at home every day would also cease to exist.

Regardless, Wu Wang could not afford to take that gamble.

"Eh? Do I know you?" Wu Xiaoyou asked, looking at the little beggar who was standing up to leave, feeling somewhat uncertain.

This person gave her an inexplicable sense of familiarity, even a feeling of safety and comfort.

Even after the stranger had just blurted out a series of seemingly absurd things upon meeting, she found herself not doubting him at all, choosing to believe him subconsciously.

"I have a common face. Some people imitate my face, some people imitate my looks, but none of you can imitate my flavor."

With that, Wu Wang leaped high into the air.

To avoid damaging the wooden door, he chose to use a double jump to flip out through the hole in the ceiling.

Wu Xiaoyou, lying on the bed to rest, was dumbfounded.

What the hell! What was that?

Mom, I just saw someone use light-body techniques!

Is this guy actually the reincarnation of Zhang Sanfeng?

Once outside the thatched hut, Wu Wang immediately observed his surroundings.

The Yin-Yuan Village was quite large, estimated to have over a hundred households, and the houses were arranged in an orderly fashion, unlike the scattered structures common in rural areas.

No, rather than orderly, it looked more like the entire village layout had been deliberately designed into a specific pattern, though he could not discern the details of the layout from his current position without an aerial view.

The eerie part was that only one dark brown building directly opposite was on the hillside like his thatched hut. All other structures were at the foot of the mountain.

He couldn't help but admire the auntie for climbing such a high mountain path every time she brought food to "Zhang Sanfeng."

After noting the suspicious layout, Wu Wang sprinted down the mountain at an extreme speed.

He was so fast that he caught up with and overtook the auntie who had been walking down slowly, accompanied by a scruffy, unkempt middle-aged man.

The double jump allowed Wu Wang to move as if on flat ground.

He avoided their attention and reached the bottom of the mountain ahead of them.

When he was about to reach the village entrance, the skin on his face suddenly began to melt. His figure became slightly plump, no longer resembling the reed-thin little beggar, and his features shifted into those of the middle-aged auntie who had just delivered the bread.

Since he already admired her, he might as well borrow her face for a while.

Fortunately, the auntie's figure had not deviated too drastically, or his tattered, rag-like clothes might not have held up.

"Yo, Auntie Li, back from bringing food to that little madman again?" A bare-chested man at the village entrance, who was in the middle of slaughtering a pig and draining its blood, called out to the "Auntie Li" disguised by Wu Wang.

"That's right, can't bear to see the poor child go hungry."

Wu Wang’s tone was incredibly natural.

Such a seamless, excellent performance was all thanks to a period in his life when he had intensely attended hotel wedding banquets, as well as the occasional funeral or housewarming banquets that popped up in streets and alleys.

Because the province where Mingyang City was located had a severe culture of excessive feasting—where every minor or major event required a banquet to collect gift money—Wu Wang despised such behavior.

To "protest," he had spent an entire month walking into hotels with "Happy Wedding" signs on the doors at every mealtime, or slipping into funeral banquets where people were dressed in mourning clothes.

He would lie, claiming to be a relative of one of the parties, find a seat, and start eating.

If anyone struck up a conversation, he would spin wild tales about distant aunts and uncles, weaving a story so complex that it gave others the illusion that "this person seems to exist."

To this day, he had never been caught or kicked out.

"You have such a kind heart. Go back and prepare the offerings; it's getting late," the man said cheerfully, his movements in bleeding the pig precise and swift—a veteran butcher.

Wu Wang seized the opportunity to ask, "What offerings are you preparing for this year?"

The man chuckled, patted the pig's back with his knife, and said, "The usual three! Two of each—pig, cow, and sheep! But Auntie Li, your crop harvest doesn't seem too good this year. Don't fail to prepare enough offerings and make the Great Yin-Yuan God unhappy."

"No worries, you keep busy."

Wu Wang brushed it off and slipped into the village.

A few minutes later, the real auntie and the scruffy man walked down the mountain.

Seeing the man busy slaughtering, they called out, "Knife, not done yet?"

The man was wiping sweat with a towel.

He responded subconsciously, "Yeah, Auntie Li, you're back down after delivering food... wait? Hold on, didn't you just go back?"

He rubbed his eyes with the towel and blinked hard at the auntie, his expression filled with confusion and bewilderment.

Something was wrong! Auntie Li and Uncle Li had indeed come from the direction of the front mountain.

Then who was the person he had spoken to earlier?

Was he seeing ghosts in broad daylight?

The man shivered involuntarily, feeling a chill run down his spine, especially since these were the special days leading up to the Great Yin-Yuan Sacrifice.

He was genuinely afraid of encountering something unclean.

"What's wrong, Knife? You look like you've seen a ghost," Uncle Li joked.

To his surprise, the man’s face turned as sour as if he had swallowed a fly as he nodded.

"Uncle Li, I think I really did see a ghost."

"..."

The man recounted what had just happened.

He asked Uncle Li to help him finish the butchering so they could go into the village and ask the elders about the situation.

Such an occurrence on these special days was truly unsettling.

They wanted to know if any strange incidents had happened during previous Great Yin-Yuan Sacrifices.

However, once they entered the village, they noticed that most of the villagers they saw had strange expressions on their faces.

Some couples who were usually extremely affectionate were screaming at each other, as if they had completely fallen out.

This left them baffled.

"What's wrong with everyone? Why are you all acting like enemies?" Uncle Li stopped them to ask.

One young man replied, "Sister-in-law says she saw Brother Wang go into a widow's house and stay behind closed doors for a long time; Brother Wang says sister-in-law was flirting with Dr. Chen; Sister Zhang says she saw her own child talking to thin air in the open space; Elder Hu's eldest son also says his dad beat him for no reason, but his dad was helping set up the venue at the square at that time!"

"In short, many people have seen their family members appear in places they shouldn't be."

"Uncle Li, do you think we've been haunted?"

"..."

Uncle Li and Knife looked at each other.

Their scalps were tingling.

It seemed that what happened at the village entrance wasn't an isolated incident; it was happening all over the village!

They discussed it and decided to go find the village chief, as he was old and knowledgeable.

Unexpectedly, just then, a young man ran over from the direction of the ancestral hall with a head full of bumps, crying, "Grandpa! Grandpa! Stop hitting me! I didn't do it!"

After inquiring, the crowd's expressions became even more subtle.

This was the village chief's grandson.

People at the ancestral hall revealed that this kid had just walked in and started spouting nonsense to the village chief.

The content consisted of only two lines:

"Grandpa! Since it's the Great Yin-Yuan Sacrifice, can you grant me a wish?"

"I've been calling you 'Grandpa' for so many years, why don't you call me 'Grandpa' just once so I can hear it?"

The entire Yin-Yuan Village fell into silence.

What kind of unclean thing had infiltrated the village?