Chapter 81

Despite the fact that they burned the coffin along with Hu Daniu's house, neither Xia Tianqi nor Leng Yue was confident about whether this action would be effective.

As for why they returned to Chen Laoda's house in time, it was mainly because they considered that the female ghost might come back to attack them at any moment, and also because some of their equipment and supplies were there.

Exhausted, they rushed into the courtyard of Chen Laoda's house. Xia Tianqi and Leng Yue didn't bother to check on Chen Cong and directly returned to the room they had stayed in before.

Two large travel bags were prominently placed on the table. Each of them opened one and took out compressed food and mineral water, starting to eat on their own.

Compared to Xia Tianqi's exaggerated eating, Leng Yue still maintained his elegance, or rather, he didn't eat much, just two packs of beef jerky and drank some electrolyte water.

"We can't stay in a relatively enclosed environment for long. Eat quickly, and once we're done, we'll leave."

After replenishing some food, Leng Yue looked much better.

"Um, I don't know what's wrong with me, I'm so hungry, the more I eat, the hungrier I get, the hungrier I get, the more I want to eat."

Xia Tianqi chewed the food in his mouth and said indistinctly.

"It's probably related to your evil spirit constitution and the curse of that vengeful ghost."

Xia Tianqi naturally knew they couldn't stay too long, so after listening to Leng Yue, he stopped eating and swallowed the food in his mouth, slung the travel bag on the table onto his back, and said:

"Let's go."

Following Leng Yue out of Chen Laoda's house, Xia Tianqi suddenly felt at a loss about where to go. He glanced at Leng Yue and found that Leng Yue also looked bewildered.

"We can't just stand here until morning, I'm almost frozen."

As he spoke, Xia Tianqi couldn't help but shiver, feeling extremely cold.

"There's no choice. If that vengeful ghost still exists, staying in an enclosed environment is like courting death. To be honest, I don't have many ways left to hold it off."

Through this period of interaction, Leng Yue's strengths and weaknesses were already clear to Xia Tianqi. Ignoring Leng Yue's occasional excessive kindness, his strength in handling events was his ability to use magic, which could provide a certain level of protection and resistance against ghosts.

His weakness, however, was that he rarely thought things through and didn't know how to be urgent.

So, when it came to what they should do next, he felt he was wrong to bring it up, as he should have figured it out himself.

"Just standing here isn't a solution. Let's go over there and analyze this incident again."

Leng Yue seemed to have gotten used to Xia Tianqi's role as the strategist and nodded, walking forward alongside Xia Tianqi.

"Chen Laoda and the others have probably all been killed by the ghost. Logically, the vengeful ghost's resentment should have been eliminated. But because of our interference, we might have become its new targets of hatred.

This can be seen from the fact that our honor table has shown no reaction."

After each incident, the honor table would give a rating, so this could indicate whether the incident had been resolved.

"Since we haven't received a notification that the incident has been resolved, it means that burning the coffin had no effect on the female ghost. We still need to stay in this cursed place.

So, the question is, what do we rely on to survive here?

It seems that our handling of this incident has returned to the starting point, where we can't defeat it head-on and can't resolve its resentment. But compared to before, we now understand the background of this incident."

Leng Yue showed strong agreement with Xia Tianqi's analysis, nodding in agreement. Xia Tianqi didn't ramble this time and continued to analyze seriously:

"So what we need to do now is to base our actions on the results of our investigation and find a way to resolve this incident.

What did I risk my life for the past two days? Wasn't it to understand the background of this incident and know the grudge between Xiaoli and Chen Laoda?

And now, we have understood all of this."

Hearing Xia Tianqi's words, Leng Yue finally spoke:

"Although we have learned the whole truth, it doesn't seem to help us resolve the incident."

"It won't be without help, I think we just haven't discovered it yet."

Xia Tianqi didn't agree with Leng Yue's view and, after some thought, said:

"Our situation is actually very dire, because if we don't find a way to resolve the vengeful ghost's resentment, we can't survive. We can't kill it, but it can kill us. Reality is harsh."

"I can feel its killing intent is very strong. If we let it continue, I think everyone in Hulu Village will be killed."

After saying this, perhaps fearing that Xia Tianqi wouldn't believe him, Leng Yue added awkwardly:

"This time it's real."

"Did you lie to me before?" Xia Tianqi's expression became strange.

"No, I never lie," Leng Yue said seriously.

"You just like to feel things, right?" Xia Tianqi rolled his eyes and didn't dwell on it, saying:

"If what you say is credible, then our situation is even more urgent, and we need to find a solution as soon as possible."

As he spoke, Xia Tianqi suddenly thought of a possibility and, patting his head, asked Leng Yue:

"Is there something you don't find strange?"

"What?"

"Xu Chong's death."

"What's strange about it?" Leng Yue looked at Xia Tianqi in confusion.

"How many households are there in Hulu Village? How many people? How big is the place?"

Xia Tianqi asked Leng Yue three questions in a row, which left Leng Yue a bit confused:

"How would I know these things? What are you trying to say?"

"I'm saying that Hulu Village is such a small place with so few people. Could the disappearance of a living person go unnoticed?"

"No," Leng Yue shook his head. "But the villagers might think he went outside."

"Outside?" This time, Xia Tianqi shook his head:

"We almost visited every household and asked about this, but did you hear anyone mention someone going outside?"

Leng Yue didn't say anything this time because, when they visited every household, they had asked about this, but the villagers were very traditional and had no intention of leaving Hulu Village. They also hadn't heard of anyone recently missing or dead.

But this made the situation very strange because Chen Laoda and the others had clearly killed someone, but no one had noticed.

After explaining his confusion to Leng Yue, Xia Tianqi asked:

"How do you think they could have hidden this so that no one noticed?"

Hearing this, Leng Yue fell into thought. After a while, he looked surprised and said uncertainly:

"Could the person who was killed still be 'alive'?"