Seeing that particular topic seemed to have passed, the Long Dress Girl began to recount the information she and the Curly-Haired Woman had gathered from the villagers.
"The villagers are currently making offerings to a deity said to be a mountain god... um, a divine being? The sacrifice to be held in the village three days from now is to pray for the mountain god's protection, and the one presiding over the sacrifice is a particularly famous spirit medium in the village."
"This spirit medium holds a very special status in the village. It's said she was the one who first communicated with the mountain god. After she led the villagers in making offerings to the mountain god, the rate of people dying in the village greatly decreased."
"Those villagers looked very respectful when mentioning the spirit medium, and even more reverent when speaking of the mountain god."
...How did we get tangled up with some mountain god out of nowhere?
That was everyone's first thought after listening.
"No wonder those villagers don't seem too worried about Ah Wang's mother causing harm. Turns out they invited a mountain god to suppress her," the Curly-Haired Woman said, her tone quite meaningful.
The baseball cap young man raised an eyebrow. "Then why did the village chief still hire us to exorcise evil spirits, and why didn't he tell us the village was making offerings to a mountain god?"
The Suited Man looked thoughtful. "It should be that this particular sacrifice is different from before. The village chief doesn't agree with this sacrifice, but if he disagrees, it's equivalent to offending both the spirit medium and the mountain god. The mountain god might then withdraw its protection of the village."
"So the village chief hired us 'experts,' hoping we could eliminate the root threat to the village, which is Ah Wang's mother, before the sacrifice in three... now two days, to prevent the sacrifice from taking place," the Long Dress Girl continued softly. "Having us pretend to be Auntie Cuifen's relatives was probably also to avoid drawing the spirit medium's attention."
For now, this was the most reasonable speculation.
The Curly-Haired Woman put down her chopsticks and glanced at everyone. "So the question returns: what exactly is the problem with this sacrifice that makes the village chief so opposed to it, even to the point of dragging it out for half a month under pressure from so many dissatisfied villagers?"
The players hadn't gathered any clues on this aspect, so they definitely couldn't make an accurate inference.
"Speaking of which, we seem to have overlooked a key figure who has existed from the very beginning," the Suited Man rubbed his temple. "We forgot to pay attention to the cause of Ah Wang's mother's death."
"If this instance was created from the resentment of Ah Wang's mother, then how did she die, and why does she have such resentment? These should all be very important clues."
"For example, how did that fire start? And why did Ah Wang's mother choose to take revenge on the village?"
"We need to understand the truth to figure out how to clear this instance."
Right.
Everyone suddenly realized their focus had unknowingly shifted to the strange aspects of the village, almost overlooking the true core of the instance.
After reminding the others, the Suited Man turned to look at the tall, skinny guy beside him. "Did you find anything on Ah Wang?"
The rest turned their gazes toward the tall, skinny man.
Xu Xi also looked curiously at this man with a gloomy demeanor.
"Ah Wang fed the chickens in the yard in the morning, then went to his mother's grave to place a handful of wildflowers. After that, he went to the foot of the mountain to pick wild vegetables all morning. After returning, he started washing vegetables and cooking. Beyond that, nothing else."
The tall, skinny man seemed unaccustomed to speaking so much at once, his expression somewhat unnatural. He paused before adding.
"The only thing that could be considered unusual is that Ah Wang's mother's grave was probably buried by him in a spot he found himself. It's quite simple, even the tombstone is made of thin wood planks, with crooked handwriting on it. If nothing unexpected, Ah Wang carved it himself."
"..." Recalling the thin, small boy they had seen earlier, everyone fell silent for a moment.
After a while, the Suited Man finally spoke with a light sigh. "It seems we won't get any useful clues from Ah Wang for now."
He thought for a moment, then summarized the current information. "First, we need to figure out what exactly happened three years ago that caused that fire, and why Ah Wang's mother chose to take revenge on the entire village after her death."
As for the claim that Ah Wang's mother was unfaithful, and Ah Wang's father burned her to death in anger, that was simply too absurd.
It seemed more like an attempt to cover something up.
"Second, why did the three people who died half a month ago die in ways different from previous villagers? One died by swallowing gold, what about the other two? They likely share some commonality."
"Third, how did that strange wheat field come about? Who was its original owner? Why does it need blood to irrigate it? And who is currently irrigating that wheat field? The villagers say the wheat field is related to Ah Wang's mother, but what exactly is the relationship?"
"Finally, why does the village chief disagree with the sacrifice two days from now? What is special about this sacrifice?"
After listening to the Suited Man's clear summary, Xu Xi felt the originally complicated information suddenly became much more organized.
The Long Dress Girl thought for a moment and said, "Judging by the current situation, those villagers still hold back a lot from us strangers. It will probably be difficult to get more clues from their mouths."
"The villagers advocate for the sacrifice, while Village Chief Zhu strongly opposes it. As 'experts' here to 'exorcise evil spirits,' our stance is naturally aligned with Village Chief Zhu's. So now that we've hit a bottleneck and can't complete the exorcism in time two days from now..."
Everyone understood the implication of the Long Dress Girl's words.
They could go 'request' Village Chief Zhu's help to obtain more information.
The Suited Man's eyes lit up. "We can indeed try that."
His gaze lingered for a moment on the Long Dress Girl, who looked gentle, soft, and quiet.
Her thinking was quite sharp.
The others also agreed to give it a try.
Xu Xi, who had been a transparent person the whole time, secretly marveled. Why did he feel like his teammates in multi-player instances were getting more and more impressive each time?
After finishing lunch, everyone went to the kitchen.
Village Chief Zhu wasn't there now. Since he had said earlier that if needed, they could have his grandson go find him, the group went to the kitchen to ask the boy to go find his grandfather.
The boy, whose body was sturdy like a little bull calf, agreed under his grandmother's urging.
However, after leaving the kitchen, he didn't immediately run off to find Village Chief Zhu. Instead, he stood in front of the players, looking at them awkwardly and fidgeting.
The Suited Man smiled impassively and asked, "What's wrong, little friend? Do you also not know where your grandfather is?"
The boy shook his head, then nodded. "No, I know where Grandpa is, it's just, just... are you the masters Grandpa hired to eliminate Auntie Mei Chan?"
Auntie Mei Chan?
Everyone instantly caught the key term.
The Suited Man smiled but didn't answer directly. "Why do you ask?"
The boy scratched the back of his head and stammered, "Um... can you please save Ah Wang?"