Thriller TraineeCh51 - He really was a good child

Oh-hoh.

Zong Jiu narrowed his eyes. Ue79W

He casually tossed the apple to Anthony. “Truce.”

When the apple flew over, the latter was still looking at him unkindly and, thinking that it was some kind of sneak attack, unconsciously raised a hand to block it, only for his fingers to unexpectedly pierce right into the flesh of the fruit with a solid crunch.

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“What do you mean by this?” Splattered with a handful of apple juice, the half-vampire’s expression appeared even more foul.

The white-haired young man waved his hand, a weary look on his face. “Got tired, don’t feel like fighting anymore.” Cm63zs

Hearing this, Anthony’s rage instantly rose a whole notch higher.

His red eyes bored holes into Zong Jiu’s back. He had to keep warning himself to stay calm and not to forget His Lordship’s orders.

But it had to be said… Although Anthony was hesitant about what Lin Guoxing told him in the mud house, all his hesitance ultimately vanished like smoke in thin air upon glimpsing the glistening yellow corner of the talisman paper.

As it turned out, the Magician really was the mole.

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As long as more than five people accused the same person of being a mole, after passing the system verification, they could ally with other trainees to kill the mole. When the mole died, any trainee who participated in this hunt would be rewarded with survival points corresponding to their contribution level as well as a higher rating coefficient.

If that was the case, even if Anthony turned against His Lordship’s orders, he could attribute it to them being in different camps, thus completely extricating himself from blame.

Gazing at the apple in his hand, then at the young man walking away, Anthony’s eyes flashed in thought.

On the other side, Zong Jiu found a random wall to lean against, and started to think. VIJ78l

He felt that it couldn’t be that simple.

Since the Devil was the instructor, he enjoyed near supreme authority in this game.

In such a situation, the question of what exactly his objective was became particularly intriguing.

After lunch, everyone started to feel a haze of drowsiness fall over them. Y8iJv5

The villagers were still making a ruckus outside, but it was somewhat muffled through the doors.

“Got a clue?” Zhuge An sat on the ground.

Zong Jiu said bluntly, “Yeah, keep an eye on Lin Guoxing.”

This couldn’t exactly be called a difficult instance as among the current trainees, only one, Yi Ruisi, had died. AZeJ7Q

But at the same time, it couldn’t be called easy either, for a slight misstep could result in a mass wipeout, without any way of turning the situation around.

They didn’t manage to get any information out of Wang Shou’s wife the previous round, let alone participate in Grandma Yin’s Yin walking.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

What would happen tonight was anyone’s guess. It was possible that there would be more clues.

Zhuge An didn’t ask him how he knew this. xIiDS8

Just as he was about to speak, another disturbance suddenly came from the pitch-black passageway under the clay bodhisattva.

Several veterans came streaming out in a single file, carrying a child with them.

No one was unfamiliar with this child. It was the one who had followed behind Wang Shou.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Qf kfgf atlcxlcu bo ojgwlcu qblcar ys ulnlcu atf wbegclcu tjii j ub, yea kf fcvfv eq olcvlcu atlr xlv rcfjxlcu bnfg atf kjii, rb kf mjeuta tlw jcv ygbeuta tlw bnfg.” AYG8CF

[Behind the mourning hall? Oh, I just remembered, isn’t the mourning hall behind the temple an open-air venue?]

[It is open-air, but it’s situated on a cliff precipice. While the terrain is riskier, I guess it’s possible for a child, whereas it’d probably be a bit slower-going for adults.]

[They should hurry to seal the mourning hall, else they’d be screwed if the villagers climbed in.]

Ktfgf kfgf abb wjcs wsrafglfr reggbecvlcu atlr lcrajcmf. Lbkfnfg, atfs bcis tjv atgff rtbga vjsr ab ecfjgat atfw, jcv bcis atbrf ofk tbggbg fcmbecafgr obg atfw ab mtjiifcuf. GoBXY6

When the instance restarted, every trainee’s evaluation rating uniformly lowered by a rank. Unlike the newcomers who were just trying to survive, the veterans had ambition and a mind to climb the ranks. Since their evaluation was lowered, they had to make up for this in other areas.

At a time like this, taking risks in danger zones was the only option.

In any case, the village was a hodgepodge of malice and everyone knew that Yin energy would gather at mourning halls. The newcomers were aware of their capabilities and all the more knew that they were walking on thin ice. When Grandma Yin put them to work, they obediently stayed and busied about in the temple.

On the other hand, the few veterans had nothing to do at hand and also wanted to maintain their current standing. After a discussion, they decided to try their luck together, but they didn’t expect not to meet any evil apparition at all, but catch a child instead. FXAJqy

“How did a child scale the wall of the mourning hall?” Zong Jiu frowned.

When saying this, he purposefully swept a look towards where Lin Guoxing was. When he found that the other had already disappeared from that spot, warning bells instantly began blaring in his mind.

At his question, a few of the veterans hurriedly said, “We asked him this too, but he refused to speak, it’s as if he’s mute.”

Everyone knew that a fruit was no more than a meal’s worth; it wasn’t as if they didn’t have to eat anymore after that last meal. In the face of this man who held their stomachs in the palm of his hand, they couldn’t afford to offend him and tried to please him as best they could. qhdlVc

Just then, mentally chanting a scripture, Grandma Yin slowly spoke. “The doors of the passageway can be shut. Once they are, the villages can’t get through.”

“Okay.”

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Zong Jiu nodded. “Is there anyone not here yet? If there is, hurry up and call them over.”

Everyone was worried about this, and they agreed in unison. JpR1UG

A veteran scratched his head. “What should we do about this kid.”

“Just leave him to me.”

Zong Jiu nodded at him.

Right at this time, Black-Robed Azan, who had been standing to the side with his eyes closed meditatively, also spoke, “I’ll go with your team.” VQrDhX

As his injuries hadn’t healed yet, Black-Robed Azan hadn’t spoken much all this while, but was seizing the time to heal and recuperate.

But if there were villagers who did slip in, it would be hard for the few veterans to stop them.

Now with a powerful S-rank volunteering to help, the other veterans were naturally surprised and delighted, thanking him profusely.

Zong Jiu watched the few of them return to the passageway before turning his gaze to the child. IY8zm5

The child who was being held up by his collar practically hid behind the white-haired Magician being let down.

“Don’t be afraid, it’s alright.”

It was a first for Zong Jiu to have a child approach him with such zeal; at that moment, he was a little frazzled as to where to place his hands, fumbling about uncertainly.

During this fumbling about, he didn’t forget to pat the child’s head to check for any strange strings. m2XCcu

Hm, none.

Not bad. He was a good child.

The white-haired young man patted the child’s head, in passing drawing out a piece of candy from the Black Box and giving it to him, smiling even more radiantly.

He crouched down. “Little boy, can gege ask you something?” DQkYlm

There were some things children knew that adults might not necessarily; it was hard to say if he could get more clues from this child.

Despite still being a little wary at first, after eating Zong Jiu’s candy, the child was instantly won over. He nodded, gazing wide-eyed at him.

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What Zong Jiu had given him was the most ordinary cube of brown sugar. The items that he could take out from the Black Box had to fit the background of this instance, so he couldn’t whisk out any fancy treats. But it was obvious that even this sweet sugar in a famine age was a luxury that was impossible to get no matter how much one begged; those in the city couldn’t get such things, let alone the folks in a typical remote village.

“Gege wants to ask you if you still remember an old granny who lived in the house behind the old locust tree three years ago?” bctMSK

The child said timidly, “Yes. Granny was very kind to me. She often gave me yummy food to eat.”

Bingo.

Zong Jiu and Zhuge An exchanged a look, then continued to patiently guide the words from the child’s mouth. “Why did granny disappear?”

At this, the child’s face scrunched up in deep thought. TKo9w4

“Daddy says that after granny ate the Sacred Herb, she went to a place we cannot find.”

After the child said this, he realised that the brother in front of him shouldn’t know what the Sacred Herb was, and hastily explained, “The Sacred Herb is… after eating it, we don’t have to go hungry and can live forever. As long as we eat the Sacred Herb, we don’t have to eat meals; we only need to eat a tiny bit of bodhisattva soil to be full every day and we won’t go hungry anymore!”

The tremendous amount of information contained in these two sentences instantly caused the fragmented clues in Zong Jiu’s mind to branch out.

One was a rosy picture that a villager had fabricated to conceal the truth from a child; the other painted a horror story with the most unsettling of endings imaginable by the human mind. wgoVB3

After this, no matter how much more he asked, he wasn’t able to get many more clues.

Zong Jiu patted the child’s head again, offering him more candy. “Just play in the temple, okay? Don’t go out, it’s dangerous outside.”

The child looked at the candy, then at him, then he obediently nodded, running off like a streak of smoke to squat under the clay bodhisattva, watching the flickering candles there.

The white-haired young man released a long breath, standing up from the ground. 4N0lGA

Zhuge An raised his brows. “So?”

His tone was indifferent, appearing as though he already had a firm grasp of the situation.

“Err on the side of caution. Let’s wait for Grandma Yin to transverse to the nether world before deciding what to do.”

Zong Jiu glanced at the child’s side profile and the childlike innocence radiating off him, and he slowly smiled. “But I’m now completely sure how those holding the normal identity cards failed their main task.” rnGa10

The main task of the normal identity cards was to protect the villagers.

However, in actuality, the people of this village were no longer human. Too many of them had warped into demons wearing human skin, which was why the colour of their eyes would sink pitch-black as they went about their day-to-day lives.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

What the normal identity cards needed to do was to protect the regular villagers. In other words, protect regular humans who hadn’t degenerated into demons.

It wasn’t only Zong Jiu who came to this answer, but Black-Robed Azan as well after the exchange of information. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have voluntarily offered to follow the veterans to see if there was anyone trailing behind. hdEUz3

If he continued to follow the clues down this train of thought, then the perfect corpse that the mole identity card needed was most probably—

In the split second that Zong Jiu was thinking, the flame of every white candle in the temple hall was suddenly and immediately swept out.

A cold, foreboding breeze curled up, making the white veil that hung down whip around madly, the visual assaulting their senses.

Someone noticed that something was wrong. “Wait, where are those who went into the corridor to check if there’s anyone left behind?” MnikQB

The passageway under the clay bodhisattva was still pitch-black and deadly silent, without even the slightest sound of footsteps.　

The colour of Zong Jiu’s face was the first to change. Poker cards instantly appeared in his hands, and he stared intently at the entrance of the passageway.

In the blink of an eye, a mutilated dark shadow was flung out of there, landing directly to the ground.

Behind it came Black-Robed Azan, wearing a dark expression on his face. wHKPrd

One of his hands was tightly gripping onto the arm of a veteran who was drenched in blood from head to toe, his other hand waving the Spirit Summoning Streamer. He roared, “Shut the doors!”

The trainees who were shocked by this scene reacted then, rushing up in a swarm to close the wooden doors flanking the corridor.

When the doors were locked, the dull thuds of hoes striking flesh, splattering blood everywhere, could be heard. Someone in the passageway let out a wrenched howl of pain, the sharp cry breaking, gradually falling back to silence.

“Th-there’s still someone behind the doors?” mHgtu5

The newcomers looked horrified.

Black-Robed Azan put down the person, lowering his head and spitting out a mouthful of blood. “One of them got his foot hoed off in a moment of inattention; he wasn’t able to keep up.”

Without a foot, it was naturally impossible to walk.

The only outcome for falling behind was obvious as can be. LCAvO5

Everyone was silent.

Just a moment ago, they were walking through the passageway towards the mourning hall. Halfway through, Black-Robed Azan was the first to discover that something was wrong.

Chrysanthemum Garden.

It was too quiet.

The whole passageway was so quiet that not a single sound could be heard. UDV63p

Those in front turned on their torchlights, trembling in trepidation, only to be greeted by the sight of distorted ashen-white faces bearing inky black eyes in the darkness. 

Half a dozen veterans had left. Only three returned, and among them, one had half his arm chopped off by the villagers with a hoe. Enduring excruciating pain, he had staggered back through the passageway, using the thrust from props to push himself out.

Also, it was difficult to determine the chances of survival of the veteran that Black-Robed Azan was supporting by the arm.

As No. 4, it went without saying that Black-Robed Azan had immeasurable strength. He had led the walk through the passageway, and even fended off most of the attacks later; it was truly a feat that he had managed to save this many people in the face of that many supernatural entities. Oysi9h

However, Zong Jiu’s focus wasn’t on this.

He turned his gaze to the veteran whose whole body was practically stained in blood and riddled with wounds.

Lying there was none other than Lin Guoxing.

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Edited by snoflakesun JqmAvO