Chapter 100 Witch 4

Thanks to Xia Qi’s backing, Xiao Ou was finally able to get away.

Xiao Ou pulled off the tangled threads wrapped around his waist and hurried out of the courtyard.

The two had a short conversation as they walked out of the path. Since Xiao Ou didn’t participate in the Gua Bianbian Field event yesterday, his window hadn’t been tapped on last night, and he didn’t even encounter the bloody figure at the shady window.

Xiao Ou sighed and began to mutter again, "Apart from encountering ghosts and people, how’s your mom? Is she forcing you to work?"

"She’s fine," Xia Qi casually replied, "I didn’t do anything."

He was much more relaxed than Xiao Ou. As soon as he arrived, he lay in bed and even earned two meals, living idly, as if he came to this dungeon to recover.

"Is that all?" Xiao Ou looked at Xia Qi in disbelief.

It was Xiao Ou's first time entering such an unpopular dungeon. Especially with his mom’s fervent teaching attitude, he always had the illusion that he was some ancient culture’s inheritor. This morning, during the brocade weaving lesson, his mom even said that this brocade technique was passed down exclusively from mother to daughter, sounding like it could apply for intangible cultural heritage.

Xia Qi glanced at him and said indifferently, "That’s it."

"Damn! Why do I have to work as soon as I arrive! This is unfair!" Xiao Ou covered his face, stomped his feet, and said, "Why do I have to work? I’m so envious of you."

Seeing Xiao Ou acting like this, Xia Qi shook his head, realizing that Xiao Ou had reverted to his old self. In the last underground temple dungeon, Xiao Ou had returned to normal, but in this dungeon, he had become the whiny Ou Imperial Noble Consort again.

"By the way, in this dungeon, there might be powerful players again," Xia Qi reminded Xiao Ou as they walked out of the alley, "We need to stay vigilant and not be controlled by them."

Xia Qi's reminder made Xiao Ou recall Plague Master from the underground temple dungeon, who could manipulate people’s minds.

Xiao Ou immediately straightened his expression and said seriously, "Got it."

After the two walked out of the alley, Xiao Ou’s mom seemed delighted to see Xia Qi’s ‘best friend’ Xiao Ou and even enthusiastically took Xiao Ou’s arm. She warmly instructed him, "When you go to the Gua Bianbian Field later, you have to give A Qi a hand."

Hearing this, Xia Qi asked, "We’re participating in the same Gua Bianbian Field, so why does he need to help me?"

"It’s because you’re a bit timid, and I’m worried you’ll panic," his mom said, blinking at him with a somewhat evasive look in her eyes.

Hearing his mom’s vague response, Xia Qi thought that fortunately, Xiao Ou’s mom had provided him with a lot of information about shamans and shaman priests; otherwise, he would still be in the dark.

However, because of Cha Gong's presence, even though he knew there was something wrong with the dungeon, he still intended to continue.

The three of them walked on the main road, and as they approached the central plaza, more and more people began to appear nearby. Since the central plaza was a location for men and women of the village to meet for matchmaking, there were many peach trees in bloom nearby, with pink, red, and purple blossoms clustered together, creating a spring-like ambiance.

As Xia Qi walked, he noticed that the NPCs passing by were very friendly towards him. Each one greeted him as if he were a rare creature, and their eyes, like Xiao Ou's mom's, were filled with curiosity and a hint of secret envy.

Along the way, they even encountered a patrol team. The patrol team checked Xiao Ou and finally nodded to Xia Qi as if to complete a task before letting the three of them go.

After escorting Xia Qi and Xiao Ou to the plaza, Xiao Ou’s mom left.

The central plaza was like an altar, decorated with colorful embroidered banners of Heaven and Earth, dragons, and phoenixes. There was a long table filled with fresh fruits and food, and a censer in the center.

Near the long table, there were many formations set up. The closest one was a bridge made of knives, with about a dozen two-foot-long blades evenly tied to two bamboo poles, clearly not something a person could walk across. Near the knife bridge, on the trees, red rune-painted cloth strips hung from the branches, fluttering in the wind, accompanied by a melodic chime.

Xia Qi had originally thought there would be a statue of a shaman or something related to the shaman, but after standing below for a while, he found no traces of anything related to the shaman.

Although it was still early, many men and women were already waiting there.

Xia Qi carefully observed everyone on the plaza and found that among the crowd, there were both NPCs and players. Including the two of them, there were a total of 18 people.

In this game, there were still more male players, resulting in almost all the NPCs participating in the Gua Bianbian Field being "female." Apart from Xiao Ou and one actual female player, seven female NPCs were added.

Xia Qi remembered the lit windows from last night. Apart from his window, nine other windows were lit, which should represent the nine women participating in the walking marriage ritual.

If we include him, that would make 10 people, but unfortunately, there are only 8 male players present. Even if we add the male player who was skinned yesterday, there are still only 9 males.

Sensing that the balance between male and female players didn’t seem to match up, Xia Qi thought for a moment longer.

A moment later, it hit him. As long as his spot was considered separately, the numbers would align. Excluding himself, there were 9 females and 9 males, including the skinned player. Today, there were 18 participants in the game, both players and NPCs.

So, in the end, he was still that unique case.

Xia Qi couldn't help but ask Xiao Ou in a low voice, "Why did the other players choose to be male?"

"Uh..." Xiao Ou paused, then turned his head, looking at him with confusion. "Could it be that you overslept and didn’t select a gender when entering the game?"

Xiao Ou chose to be female to slack off because in many games, there were more males than females, and being female allowed one to take advantage of various perks. However, this time, he had made a big mistake.

Unexpectedly, the game automatically bypassed this step, leaving Xia Qi at a loss for words.

Well, whatever. Even if the system had let him choose, he definitely wouldn’t have picked female.

Apart from the players and the NPCs here for the matchmaking, there was an old woman sitting on the ground near the long table in the central square. The old woman wore exaggerated, colorful clothes, and a hood covered most of her face, making it impossible for Xia Qi to see her expression. Judging by how still she was, it seemed like the old woman was asleep.

At her feet, there was a burlap bag. On the ground beneath the bag, Xia Qi unexpectedly noticed some bloodstains.

At that moment, a man suddenly brushed past him. The man was quite tall, pale, and had short hair.

However, for some reason, Xia Qi found this man strange. His appearance looked like a player, but his demeanor and movements matched the style of the ancient village, making him seem like an NPC.

Have players gotten so good at acting that they can pretend to be NPCs so naturally now?

Since he was pretending to be an NPC, why didn’t he cover his head more completely and smear some ash on his face?

Just as he was puzzled, the only genuine female player raised her hand and, in shock, called out to the man, "Liu Feng, how are you still alive? Weren’t you...?"

"Miss, who is Liu Feng?" The pale man looked confused for a moment, then replied in a thick accent, "I’m Ah Jiang. Miss, you must have mistaken me for someone else."

Seeing the man who looked exactly like Liu Feng, the female player was stunned for a moment.

"I... I clearly saw you with my own eyes..." The female player’s eyes turned red, and after a few sobs, she suddenly swallowed the rest of her words.

"Miss, what do you mean?" Ah Jiang looked puzzled and moved closer, seemingly wanting to chat with the female player a bit more.

As he moved closer, the female player quickly backed away, grabbing the hand of a nearby male player. She trembled as she said, "Don’t come over. I’m... I’m talking with this brother here."

"Oh, so you already have a sweetheart." Ah Jiang scratched his head, regretfully stepping back.

After hearing the exchange between the female player and Ah Jiang, Xia Qi frowned. He felt something was off about the female player, especially the NPC named Ah Jiang.

"Should we go up?" They had been standing nearby for a while, and Xiao Ou reminded Xia Qi in a low voice.

Because there were too many female NPCs, Xiao Ou had now become a hot commodity among the male players.

After standing there for a short while, Xiao Ou had already received many begging glances, and several male players were competing silently with each other through glances.

It was easy to guess the male players’ thoughts. It was better to matchmake with other players instead of NPCs; players were easier to handle.

"Let’s go up," Xia Qi said. He planned to ask the female player a few questions.

Xiao Ou walked ahead of Xia Qi, and as soon as he climbed onto the front plaza, two male players approached him to engage in conversation.

Xiao Ou, with a grin, watched the male players compete for the chance to team up with him. For the first time, he felt that choosing a female character was a smart move.

Xia Qi was walking towards the female player when a familiar figure approached him.

Cha Gong's right hand was behind his back, and as he came near Xia Qi, he blocked his path.

With a flattering smile still hanging on his lips, Cha Gong said, "Xia Qi, you've come really early today."

Xia Qi didn’t even look at him. Was this still considered coming early?

He and Xiao Ou were the last to arrive at the scene. Cha Gong was standing on the altar lying through his teeth; wasn’t he afraid of being struck by lightning?

"By the way, to express my apologies, I picked you a bouquet of flowers this morning... They call it ‘Shu Sha’ here, guess what kind of flower it is?" Cha Gong still had his hand behind his back as he spoke to him with a smile.

Xia Qi didn’t even lift his eyelids and replied dryly, "I’m not interested."

"It's peach blossoms!" Cha Gong, like a self-proclaimed Casanova, continued shamelessly, "I'm giving it to you to symbolize that our relationship can return to what it once was. What do you think about that?"

Xia Qi let out an annoyed sigh and rubbed his temples, realizing he really couldn’t listen anymore. Truth be told, he didn’t even know how he ended up with Cha Gong in the first place. That day, after taking his medicine, he became drowsy. The next morning, Cha Gong showed him a recording of his kneeling confession, claiming that Xia Qi had agreed to be with him.

Now, Xia Qi suspected that the recording might have been forged. There was no way he would have been interested in someone like him.

"By the way, Xia Qi, I have one more thing to tell you..." Cha Gong continued to babble like an annoying fly buzzing around Xia Qi.

Unwilling to listen anymore, Xia Qi turned to leave, but Cha Gong suddenly rushed forward, pulling out a bunch of twigs from behind and shoving them into his arms. "It's okay if you're not ready to accept me, but at least take my apology gift!"

Xia Qi frowned and looked down at the bare twigs in his arms, unable to help but scoff. "This is your apology gift?"

Leaving aside Cha Gong's attitude, just the fact that he had shoved this bunch of branchless sticks at him, which had nothing to do with the ‘Shu Sha’ or peach blossoms, was infuriating.

"Eh? That’s odd!" Cha Gong quickly pulled the bouquet back, staring in confusion at the wilted branches in his hand that looked like firewood. "There were plenty of beautiful flowers just now; where did they go?"

As Cha Gong was puzzled, Xia Qi suddenly felt a wave of dizziness.

What was happening? Was he feeling dizzy again?

Fortunately, he was standing near a pillar in the front courtyard and steadied himself by gripping it.

"Ah!" Cha Gong stumbled and fell to the ground.

Watching Cha Gong land face-first on the ground, Xia Qi's eyelid twitched. So, it wasn’t him feeling dizzy; it was an earthquake.

"Why is there an earthquake?"

"Damn, is there going to be a landslide in the hills?"

As the earthquake affected a wide area, players and NPCs nearby fell to the ground. Xia Qi held onto the pillar for a while, trying to keep himself steady.

"Divine punishment has descended—an ominous sign!"

After the ground had shaken for a while, the old woman who had been seated near the altar suddenly jumped up. She trembled as she raised her cane, ignoring the trembling ground. As she crawled, she spread her arms and shouted mystically towards the sky:

"I feel the wrath of the Witch God! Everyone, help me set up the altar and perform the ritual to appease the Witch God!"