Star Trace Gate

Kan room.

In a dark secret room, Ren Ye and the other two stood in front of a long table. Looking at the flickering white candles and Xiao Yuan's portrait, they suddenly felt their scalps tingling and their whole bodies feeling unwell.

The bed was covered with blood, pieces of meat stained with feathers, and a rooster's head on the pillow. The ground was also covered with yellow paper money and millet... All these details made it seem as if that "enthusiastic person" had held a funeral for Xiao Yuan last night.

“Look…!”

At this moment, Fatty Tan suddenly pointed to the side of the portrait and reminded, "There are gold coins and a fragment there."

After he said this, the Little Bad King also discovered that there were two items placed next to the portrait, one was ten gold coins, and the other was a torn card.

He recognized both of these items. The gold coins were the rewards given by the Heavenly Dao Society for completing a small task, while the broken cards were fragments of the autobiography, which also required continuous tasks to be completed before they could be collected.

The three of them looked at the two items with serious expressions.

"In this room, there is the smell of a ghost, and also the smell of Xiao Yuan's body." Yin Hu thought for a moment and said, "I am very sensitive, I can't be wrong."

"That Xiao Yuan... is really dead." Ren Ye stared at the fragments of the autobiography and the gold coins on the long table and whispered softly, "Sense of ritual...!"

Fat Tan reached out and picked up the candle, lighting up the surroundings of the secret room: "But the person is dead, so where is his body? Why is there no body?"

Yinhu thought for a moment and reached out to pick up the two items.

"Come here, the woman has fainted...!"

At this moment, the voice of the old cadre suddenly sounded outside.

The three of them immediately turned around and stared. Ren Ye said, "Let's go and take a look together."

As soon as they finished speaking, they ran out of the Kan room together and saw that the old cadre, Brother Hong, and Xiao Shuai had already carried the ordinary-looking woman out of the Dui room.

"How is she? Is she okay?" Fat Tan asked anxiously.

"She looks like she has fainted." The old cadre put the woman on the long table and looked up and asked, "Where's Xiao Yuan? Have you found her?"

"He...he seems to be dead." Ren Ye replied with a frown.

As soon as these words were spoken, Brother Hong and the others froze in place, obviously very surprised.

At this moment, Ren Ye looked down at the woman lying on the long table. Seeing her pale face and purple lips, he couldn't help but murmured, "If I remember correctly, Xiao Yuan should live in the Dui room, and the woman should live in the Kan room. But why now... the woman fainted in Xiao Yuan's room, and Xiao Yuan died in the woman's room?!"

When everyone heard this, they all reacted.

"Yes...why is this woman in Xiao Yuan's room?" Yin Hu looked at her with cold eyes.

"Did they change rooms privately?" Xiao Shuai asked instinctively.

"Wake her up first." Brother Hong said, "Ask her, and you'll know what happened, right?!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the old cadre reached out and pushed the woman, shouting, "Fang Ying, Fang Ying, wake up!"

After calling out more than ten times, the woman showed no response.

Yin Hu suddenly raised his arm, threw a small porcelain bottle onto the table and said, "Xinghai Detoxification Pills, take two pills, and wait a moment."

"it is good."

The old cadre nodded, lifted the woman's head slightly, and stuffed two pills into her mouth.

Everything was ready, and everyone sat in their chairs with serious expressions, waiting quietly.

"Uh……!"

After about ten minutes, the woman groaned in pain and slowly opened her eyes.

Everyone looked at her instantly, but their expressions were unfriendly.

……

five minutes later.

Ren Ye, Tan Pang, Hong Ge, Yin Hu, Xiao Shuai, and the old cadres all sat on the south side of the second-floor hall, while the woman sat alone on the north side.

After the two sides looked at each other, the woman couldn't help but ask: "What on earth are you going to do?!"

"Xiao Yuan is dead, and his body is missing." Fatty Tan looked at her and said soothingly, "Don't panic, we have something to ask you."

"Dead? You mean... Xiao Yuan is dead?" the woman repeated with obvious surprise.

Fatty Tan nodded slightly: "We are all curious about one thing. Why did you appear in Xiao Yuan's room?!"

"I……!"

The woman was stunned for a moment, as if she was lost in her memories, her expression a little dazed.

"Is there any need to think about this?" Brother Hong asked with a frown.

Yinhu's eyes looked even colder as he looked at the woman, as if he had found his prey.

"Don't hesitate, just say it directly. This concerns everyone's trust in you." Fat Tan reminded with a kind face.

The woman came back to her senses and immediately said, "I remember. Last night... after you all went back to your rooms, I was about to go back to my room, but Xiao Yuan suddenly found me and said he wanted to talk."

"Then what?" asked Fat Tan.

"Then, we went to the first floor." The woman responded softly, "He told me that he had clues about Pan Lianrong, but everyone is a little repulsive to him now, so he wanted to go with me and the stationmaster and cooperate with each other in the future. I think that although Xiao Yuan's behavior was a bit excessive on the morning of the first day, he took the initiative to reveal the clues at night, which can be regarded as sincerity. In addition... this one more clue will be more efficient, so I communicated with him for a while and told him that this matter must seek the consent of the stationmaster, after all, we decided to cooperate on the first day."

At this moment, the webmaster interrupted in a very cold tone: "I didn't know they were communicating with each other. If I knew... I probably wouldn't agree to Xiao Yuan joining in."

The woman glanced at him with a slightly surprised look, but said nothing.

Fatty Tan paused for a moment and asked, "What next?"

“After that… my memory is a little fuzzy.” The woman raised her hand to her forehead, her expression a little dazed: “I just remember that we were chatting next to the bathroom on the first floor, and that’s all we said. I was very sleepy at the time, and I was a little dazed… After that, it was like I had a blackout, and I have no memory of what happened afterwards.”

"Bullshit!!"

Brother Hong didn't believe it at all: "You are a level 3 player, right? How come you suddenly have no memory of what happened later? Even if a master attacked you, or poisoned you, you should have reacted. Who could make you fall asleep quietly?!"

"Everything I said is true!" The woman frowned and emphasized, "I really don't remember what happened afterwards."

"This is unconvincing." Fatty Tan shook his head and frowned, "You have to understand now that Xiao Yuan died in the room you originally lived in! And he was chatting with you at the end. Who would believe you if you said you had no memory of it?"

"But his death really has nothing to do with me!" The woman faced the six people's questioning, and her voice was only slightly excited. "I am a level three player, but you should know that Xiao Yuan is also a level three player! According to what you said, if I wanted to harm him, how could he not react? When we were talking, the lights were still on, so how come you didn't hear any movement?"

After that, everyone fell silent again.

At this moment, Xiao Shuai turned his head to look at Ren Ye and the other two, frowned and asked: "The question now is, are you really sure that Xiao Yuan is dead?"

"He is dead." Yin Hu said, "After half past eight, the door cannot be opened. The strangeness has come. The room is decorated like a mourning hall. This obviously triggered the death mechanism of this secret place. It is not a trap that anyone can set. And the most important point is that there is the smell of Xiao Yuan and the smell of the dissipated ghost in that room."

Xiao Shuai was silent for a while, then frowned and said, "I don't mean to target anyone. I'm just talking about the facts. This is too weird. Xiao Yuan originally lived in the Dui room, but he died in a woman's Kan room, and the person he talked about at the end was also a woman. Just saying that I don't remember this matter is not enough to convince people."

"Yes." Brother Hong stared at the woman, his eyes full of distrust: "In the end, there are only two of you left. There is a lot of room for maneuver."

While they were talking, everyone's eyes were on the woman, with unfriendly and suspicious expressions.

The woman was a little panicked at this time. She tried her best to explain: "Everyone knows that I live in the Kan room. Even if I wanted to cause trouble, I wouldn't leave such obvious clues and motives, right? How stupid is that!"

"It's not important. What's important is that there is no evidence." Yin Hu retorted calmly.

At this moment, Ren Ye suddenly asked the woman: "What time was it when you talked to Xiao Yuan?!"

"It was around 8:15. I don't remember the exact time." The woman recalled and said urgently, "I really don't remember! I want to know why I fainted more than you do."

"You are dangerous." Yin Hu looked straight at her and commented concisely.

"Wait a minute." Ren Ye suddenly waved his hand and said, "I think, ha, this happened so suddenly, we all overlooked an important thing."

Everyone turned to look at him, and Fatty Tan asked, "What?"

"He died at half past eight." Ren Ye looked at him and said faintly, "The mechanism. We overlooked the mechanism of the Star Gate."

Everyone fell into deep thought after hearing this.

"I have two things to say. First, I heard a very light door closing sound around 8:25, which means the last person to enter the room was probably at this time. Second, we need to make clear a key point, which is that Xiao Yuan must have died in the Kanzi room during some kind of ceremony, and was not killed by a player."

"What evidence do you have?" asked the old cadre.

"This is obvious." Ren Ye spread his hands and said, "After 8:30, the lights in the secret room were turned off and the door was locked. Until 6 in the morning, the door could not be opened. This is the rule of heaven, and players cannot fight against it. In other words, the layout of the mourning hall and the ceremony in the room are not something that players can complete. In addition, Xiao Yuan's body disappeared. Everyone came out as soon as possible after 6 in the morning, so no one had time to transport Xiao Yuan's body away. And the chicken, this thing is not something that anyone can bring in."

"It can't be that someone killed Xiao Yuan before 8:30, hid the body outside, and never let him go back to the room?" Xiao Shuai asked.

Ren Ye looked at everyone and said, "Let me ask you. Apart from the woman and Xiao Yuan, who was the last person to return to the room?"

"It should be me." Fat Tan thought for a moment and said, "I should have returned to my room after 8:15."

"That's right." Ren Ye looked at everyone and asked, "Who can set up the mourning hall, the ceremony, and kill a chicken in fifteen minutes without attracting anyone's attention?"

Everyone was silent.

"So I said, Xiao Yuan died in the mechanism." Ren Ye said bluntly: "He died at half past eight... This is the killing mechanism of this star gate. After Xiao Yuan returned to the room, he encountered something strange, which triggered the death mechanism. That's why there is a mourning hall, a ceremony, and the body disappeared."

"So what you mean is... there will be such a mechanism every night from now on?" Xiao Shuai's hair stood on end instantly.

"Yes."

Ren Ye looked at everyone with a sullen expression, and suddenly remembered that Song Mingzhe had to prepare sacrificial items almost every day: "One every night."