He really loved how this person was alive, yet so cold and lifeless.
For a moment, Yin Xiu, whom he was looking at, seemed to appear as a hazy dream, as clear as a bubble, making him dizzy.
But the screams of the townspeople next door woke him up the next second.
The town mayor suddenly realized that Yin Xiu should be hiding at this time. Why was he still calmly standing there?
He turned his head, and the noise at the door gave him the answer.
Just as the townspeople stormed out of their houses, ready to rush inside, something howled and lunged out, grabbing the townperson at the front of the line.
The eerie blue spirit, billowing with black smoke and resentment, hurtled towards the townspeople standing before the house. Filled with hatred, it swiftly killed those who rushed at it, then furiously hurled its twisted body into the crowd. Blood splattered as the corpse crashed heavily to the ground, making the scene even more gruesome.
"What is that?!" The townspeople retreated in panic, instinctively scattering after being startled.
They stared in disbelief at the twisted corpse on the ground, then at the pale, resentful faces floating by the doorway.
What... what is this thing? Why is there a ghost in the mayor's house? And it's a vengeful spirit with extremely strong resentment and aggression.
"Don't go! The offerings are inside!" someone shouted, drawing the crowd back, but they still refused to give up, facing the entrance to the house.
Facing the eerie spirit at the door means death, and not preparing offerings means being killed by the woman, which also means death. They are caught in a dilemma and can only grit their teeth and rush into the house with their weapons, trying to fight back.
But faced with a spirit filled with resentment and immune to physical attacks, they mustered their courage and rushed forward, but apart from a large number of screams, almost none of them managed to get in.
In just a few minutes, many townspeople were killed or injured, and the cries of agony were heart-wrenching.
The entire house is filled with spirits. Even if you enter the main hall and go up to the second floor, how can you bring Yin Xiu out?
The mayor stared blankly at the faces crammed at the doorway, twisted with hatred, before finally snapping out of his daze.
Those are paintings, and they all depict the people he is trapped inside them!
How could it be...? Is it that man?
That man actually released all his treasured possessions!! They were the culmination of years of hard work!!
The mayor glared at Yin Xiu, who was staring at him from the second floor, his emotions a mixture of excitement and sorrow. He now understood why Yin Xiu had taken those paintings that afternoon; it was all preparation for this moment that evening. He hadn't thought of it at all back then.
He was excited by Yin Xiu's resistance, who dared to release the vengeful spirits from his paintings to defend himself, yet he was also saddened that his collection of many years had been wiped out in one fell swoop.
The desire to frame Yin Xiu in a painting intensified.
"Mayor! We can't get in!"
"So many people are dead! Mayor, why are there so many vengeful spirits in your house?!"
"It's over, we're all over, we won't get the sacrifice... we're all going to be killed by that woman."
In the blink of an eye, the townspeople were killed or injured in droves, and the ground was covered in corpses and blood, a truly horrific scene.
The spirits were all guarding the door, their faces crowded together, glaring angrily at the people outside. Anyone who went in would inevitably be attacked, and killing someone would be a matter of moments.
They merely defended against the townspeople's intrusion, but the presence of the mayor made their distorted faces even more frenzied, all wanting to rush out and kill the man.
At this moment, a misty white fog rose over the square.
A low, guttural laugh echoed across the chilly square, sending shivers down the spines of a group of townspeople.
"She...she's here...the time for the sacrifice has come..."
"It's over...our town is doomed!!"
The townspeople turned back to the square in despair. The woman's figure appeared in the hazy white mist. She dragged her lame leg and walked out of the mist step by step, with drops of blood flowing down her path.
The townspeople and the mayor were caught in the middle. On one side was a woman who came to kill the townspeople, and on the other side was a spirit that wanted to rush out and kill the mayor. Either way, the townspeople and the mayor were trapped in a dilemma from which they could not escape. No one had time to care about Yin Xiu, the sacrifice.
"Finally... finally I've found my chance." After the woman appeared, she ignored the townspeople and stared intently at the mayor, her eyes bloodshot.
"Die… I'll kill you… I'm going to kill you…" The spirits inside the house began to wail, lingering in front of the door, desperately trying to squeeze out and kill the mayor, but not a single spirit could get out.
"This has really gotten me into a lot of trouble..." The town mayor slowly took a step back as he faced the two menacing sides.
Fortunately, Yin Xiu shifted the trouble to him, so he won't die tonight.
Unfortunately, Yin Xiu dumped a really big problem on him, the kind that's deadly.
As the woman slowly approached, the mayor could only take a step back, then turned and ran into the darkness.
"Don't go!!" the woman screamed, lying on the ground as her contorted figure darted out to catch up with the town mayor. The two figures disappeared into the white mist.
Downstairs, the spirits couldn't follow them out and could only continue blocking the doorway. The townspeople wanted offerings but couldn't get in. The spirits also resented the town mayor's silent tolerance of their actions and would absolutely not let them into the house.
After witnessing the commotion, Yin Xiu lazily yawned.
Alright, the mayor isn't in the house, and the townspeople can't get in, so this place is absolutely safe now. Who has the time to care about this offering now?
"Come with me to the basement." Yin Xiu turned around, beckoned to Li Mo, and then opened the door and left.
When Li Mo arrived at Yin Xiu's room, Zhong Mu had no choice but to go to the room next door with the little girl. Once the door was opened, there were no other figures in the corridor except for the spirits, and they could go anywhere without any hindrance.
The players heard Yin Xiu open the door and walk downstairs, but when they looked out through the peephole, all they saw were spirits standing quietly on both sides of the corridor. No one dared to provoke them, especially after hearing the screams of countless townspeople dying tragically downstairs.
Yin Xiu didn't care, after all, he was the one who released these spirits. Even if they killed indiscriminately, they would still be afraid of Li Mo behind them.
He wandered down to the lobby on the first floor, pausing briefly as he passed the pillars engraved with regular patterns.
Hotel rule number six: Do not go to the basement.
After carefully studying the rules, Yin Xiu discovered that the dungeon survival rules were designed to constrain players; violating the rules would result in the player's death.
The mother's note is meant to restrain the little girl; if she breaks the rules, the little girl will die. The reason why the player dies is simply because their rules include the little girl's life and death.
The rules of the cemetery town are partly imposed by the female ghost on the townspeople; if the townspeople do not follow the rules, the female ghost will kill them.
The hotel he's in now belongs to the town mayor, and the rules are naturally set by the mayor to govern the guests.
The rule against going to the basement is the mayor's way of restricting the residents and preventing them from knowing the secrets of the basement. If anyone violates this rule by going to the basement, the mayor will kill the offender.
It's not a dungeon, not a female ghost, and not any other being; it has to be the town mayor, because that's the town mayor's rule.
Rules are independent of each other as long as they are not interconnected.
But what if someone goes into the basement when the mayor is unable to issue a punishment?