Village Chief Zhu wasn't a fool either and quickly understood the implication from the Suited Man.
"The experts mean that the villagers who died over the past three years weren't because of Ah Wang's mother's curse, but..." Village Chief Zhu's voice trembled slightly, "but because of this poisoned well water?"
"Very likely," the Suited Man nodded, then immediately shifted his tone, "However, this is just our speculation. We still need you, Village Chief, to continue verifying it."
Village Chief Zhu was silent for a moment. When he spoke again, his voice was noticeably hoarser, "Alright, please wait a moment, experts. I'll go fetch a few more chickens."
The Long Dress Girl added a reminder, "Please try to avoid being seen by others as much as possible."
Village Chief Zhu acknowledged.
If someone really was poisoning the wells, he certainly couldn't make a big fuss about it. Otherwise, if the perpetrator realized they were using chickens to test the water quality, who knew what else the culprit might do.
After Village Chief Zhu left, the baseball cap young man couldn't help but speak up, "Then do we still need to stop the sacrifice?"
If the over sixty people who died in Ninghe Village over the past three years all died from poisoning, then Ah Wang's mother's revenge was naturally nonsense.
The supernatural beings knocking on doors and the abnormal wheat fields could also be confirmed as the price paid after villagers made wishes to the Mountain God.
As for the live sacrifice two days later, it seemed to have no connection whatsoever with the well water being poisoned.
The Curly-Haired Woman played with her hair. Her mood hadn't been good since returning from the Mountain God Temple, and now she remained silent.
The Suited Man could see what the baseball cap young man was thinking, but he held a different view, "The Mountain God sacrifice and the poisoned well water aren't necessarily unrelated. Don't forget we previously speculated about the possibility of someone staging it themselves."
For the Spirit Medium to make the villagers believe in the Mountain God, she might have poisoned some villagers' wells, creating the false appearance of Ah Wang's mother's posthumous revenge to frighten the remaining villagers. She might even poison a few villagers periodically to consolidate their reverence for the Mountain God.
This possibility was very high.
"So, I think we still need to target the Spirit Medium herself. She is the true key figure in this instance."
Xu Xi was listening intently to his teammates' analysis when he suddenly felt someone watching him from the side. Turning his head, he saw it was the tall, skinny guy from the previous instance—the one who fed him candy when he was about to die, whom he considered a good person.
Just as Xu Xi was wondering why the man was looking at him, he saw the man walk towards him.
"The Mountain God's favor probably makes you particularly noticeable to those supernatural beings," the tall, skinny man said softly.
Xu Xi was momentarily stunned. Seeing that the man seemed to have come over specifically to remind him of this, he said, "I understand. Thank you for the reminder."
Actually, he had been thinking the same thing.
But as for why he was inexplicably favored by the Mountain God, Xu Xi himself didn't know, and he guessed the tall, skinny man probably didn't know either.
[Two masters who don't like to talk are actually conversing?]
[Where's the prophet from earlier who said receiving the Mountain God's favor would make you die faster? Quick, eliminate them.]
[Looking at Master Xu Xi's completely unchanged expression, it's obvious he already knew.]
[It would be abnormal if Xu Xi didn't know.]
[I've followed Master Cheng Xu through several instances. Honestly, I'm a bit emotional. A sunny name, a gloomy temperament, but with a personality that's outwardly cold yet inwardly warm.]
[LOL, so the personality strings together the name and the temperament, right?]
——
The six of them waited for a while and soon saw Village Chief Zhu return, carrying two chickens in each hand.
Under Village Chief Zhu's lead, they tested the well water from two more households of deceased villagers. The result was that this well water was indeed poisoned too.
"Who in the world could be so heartless!" Village Chief Zhu cried out in anguish.
Originally thinking it was an evil spirit causing trouble, it turned out someone was deliberately poisoning people.
Seeing that it was getting late, the Suited Man could only comfort Village Chief Zhu a few times, instructing him not to publicize this matter for now to avoid alerting the perpetrator, before sending him back.
Suddenly shifting from exorcism to detective work, the danger level seemed to drop considerably, but no one dared to be careless.
After agreeing to probe the Spirit Medium the next day, everyone returned to their respective lodgings before night completely fell.
Xu Xi was about to enter his room when he heard the sound of the baseball cap young man closing his door just ahead of him. His footsteps paused for a moment.
Since they returned from the Mountain God Temple, both the baseball cap young man and the Curly-Haired Woman had become much quieter.
Xu Xi closed his door, no longer dwelling on these two's unusual behavior, and instead began pondering another matter.
Did this instance harbor some unknown malice towards him?
Otherwise, he really couldn't understand why he, perfectly fine, would suddenly receive the Mountain God's favor.
Out of six players, it couldn't just be that his luck was the worst and it randomly landed on him, right?
If the reason the old man knocking on the door was particularly fixated on him was due to the Mountain God's favor, then what was the reason he absolutely couldn't get the wedding candies?
It was as if some invisible force was influencing him.
Could it be that the God Hunt game had finally discovered he was a bug and was starting to eliminate him?
Surely not.
Yet, the more Xu Xi thought about it, the more he felt it was indeed the God Hunt game targeting him.
What else could it be? Aside from having the reload ability, he was just an ordinary player.
So this day had finally come.
Xu Xi wasn't too surprised by this. After all, dying and reloading was indeed overpowered. If there were no usage limits, he'd be practically immortal within instances.
Straight-up invincible.
No matter how he thought about it, he didn't believe the God Hunt game would allow such a massive bug to run rampant through instances.
However, he wasn't sure how many more times he could reload anyway, and now the God Hunt game had slapped him with a misfortune-like buff.
Xu Xi suddenly had the illusion that his days were numbered.
Thinking about it further, he felt this sensation wasn't wrong.
The misfortune buff might accelerate the consumption of his reload uses, and consuming reload uses would accelerate his death rate.
By the day his reload uses were completely exhausted, he probably wouldn't be far from true death either.
Lying on the bed, Xu Xi's heart held little fear.
He was even considering that since he was already marked by the God Hunt game, why should he meticulously calculate his death count in each instance?
He'd die sooner or later anyway.
As for the possibility that reload uses might be unlimited...
Then he had even less reason to conserve them.
Patting his head, Xu Xi felt enlightened.
Although he'd been given a misfortune buff, thinking about it this way, it wasn't really different from before.
[What is Master Xu Xi thinking about? His expression is so serious.]
[Probably thinking about how to clear the instance.]
The live stream comments had no idea their master was actually pondering the source of that mysterious force on him, and that his thoughts had consequently become even more radical.
If they could find out, they would absolutely grab Xu Xi by the ears and shout: No! It's all The Glittering Play targeting you!