At this point, things became more and more confusing.
Kou Dong looked at the villager. The villagers acted normally, and there was nothing wrong with it at all—just looking at the surface, he was just an ordinary person from head to toe.
Only the photo tightly held in his hand reminds Kou Dong that this is not just an ordinary person.
Among them, there must be other connections, but he still hasn't discovered them yet.
Kou Dong stood there thinking for a while. Immediately, he whispered to Ye Yanzhi, "I think we have to go to the temple again."
Ye Yanzhi had no objection to this.
"A ghost also died..." Kou Dong said, "I want to see if the lights behind will change."
He still remembers the oil lamps with the names of the villagers written on them.
It was not easy to avoid the eyes and ears of the villagers. Fortunately, there were some disputes between the Nuomian on the street and the villagers who came back from the funeral, and there was a lot of trouble. The few people who guarded the temple during the day couldn't help but look there, hesitated for a while, and left temporarily with their footsteps.
Kou Dong took this opportunity to secretly push the door open a crack, and got in without hesitation.
The temple during the day is not the same as it is at night. Now the red cloth on the hood has been pulled down, and under the sunlight, the statue sits on the throne with a majestic face. Behind the layers of banner cloth, there is a curl of white smoke coming out, covering the fog that obscures the scene in front of you.
It's just that he is by no means benevolent like an ordinary god, but instead has a cold and unkind taste. Kou Dong passed under the eyelids of the statue, always feeling that the painted black eyeballs of the statue turned downward and stared at him firmly.
He didn't answer, walked straight back, reached the lamp, and reached out to count the number.
One, three, five...
Before he could finish counting, Ye Yanzhi calmly reported the number, "One hundred and fifty-seven."
His speed was far faster than that of Kou Dong.
Kou Dong paused.
"The last time we came, there were still one hundred and fifty-eight."
When the ghost is dead, the lamp is gone.
Ye Yanzhi didn't speak.
Kou Dong was silent for a while, and gave a conjecture that made his scalp tingle: "The ghosts hidden in the Nuo face...are all dead villagers?"
This thought really makes people shudder.
Kou Dong doesn't like to associate people and ghosts together. He reached out and flipped through the lights, his heart sinking heavily.
The white mist is misty, and the nose is full of sandalwood.
Ye Yanzhi said, "It's time to go out."
Kou Dong nodded, and walked around to the front door from behind. But before he got close to the door, he suddenly heard voices—the villagers who guarded the temple just now had gone back and stood in front of the door again, guarding the door.
One of them put his head close to the door and looked inside suspiciously.
"..."
Kou Dong's footsteps stopped suddenly, and he hid himself in the darkness of the corner.
"It's over," he whispered, "I can't get out..."
He didn't want to bump into these villagers face to face. No one can guarantee what these people will do when they catch him trespassing on the temple.
But it will never be anything pleasant.
I don't know if it was his illusion, but the expression of the idol became cheerful, and the corners of its lips raised slightly, as if it was smiling.
Kou Dong glared at him angrily, thinking that you must be laughing.
a neuropathy.
"It's okay," Ye Yanzhi said calmly, "Entering the temple during the day is guarded, so it shouldn't trigger anything. — Unsurprisingly, the trigger condition is at night."
At night, the idol comes to life and catches trespassers.
Kou Dong has already lost a paper figurine here, he hesitated, "Then let's stay inside first?"
Ye Yanzhi affirmed his thoughts, "Stay inside first."
He understands these potential rules better than Kou Dong.
Anyway, being locked inside, Kou Dong simply walked around the whole temple again. Taking advantage of the daylight at this time, he carefully examined the painted walls and pillars in the temple.
The painting is like a banquet for the gods. The gods ride horses and lead oxen, each showing their magical powers, and head towards the ethereal heaven. Kou Dong saw a familiar face in it, Zhong Kui, Land, Erlang God...they all had faces painted on Nuo's face, with clouds under their feet.
He finally knew where the patterns on the Nuo face came from, and it turned out to be the copied mural.
Kou Dong watched as he walked. In the innermost part of the temple stands the wall. The mural depicts the scene of the goddess scattering flowers. The goddess stands on her toes, her posture is beautiful, and she moves like a proud crane.
Kou Dong's footsteps stopped.
He stared at the painting in front of him suspiciously, and then glanced at the other ones—the theme of this painting seemed to be somewhat different.
Halfway through, Ye Yanzhi suddenly leaned down and reached out to touch the wall in front of him.
Kou Dong said, "What?"
The villain put his hand on the painting, then frowned and said, "This wall is not level."
"...?"
Kou Dong recalled it. He also pressed his hand on the wall, and felt a slight bump under his hand, which was not obvious, but it didn't seem to be caused by the strokes of an ordinary paintbrush either.
More like something is hiding behind the mural.
Kou Dong turned his head and looked at his cub.
"dismantle?"
Ye Yanzhi nodded.
"dismantle."
Kou Dong began to grope around the edge of the wall. When he felt close to the ground, he found the interface.
He used some strength to uncover the interface bit by bit, being careful not to make too much noise with his hands.
With a slight "stab", the mural was completely torn off by him, and what was behind came into Kou Dong's eyes.
"..."
Kou Dong suddenly took a deep breath and took a step back.
Surprisingly, it was still a painting. In the painting, there are auspicious clouds and celestial beasts on the side, and the god in the center has a clear face, with a smile on his lips, holding a flower in one hand, and a sense of compassion and peace from his brows and eyes.
In his pitch-black eyes, all the living beings bowing down to him were reflected, seeming to be sympathetic or sympathetic. Compared with the statues enshrined on the stage today, he is more like a real god who cares about the world.
But what really surprised Kou Dong was not this.
He stared at the face in the portrait, and couldn't help reaching out to touch his own face, muttering: "...me?"
The god in the painting is clearly Kou Dong himself!
At the same time, his eyes suddenly became dizzy, and the white mist in the temple filled indistinctly, blocking most of his sight.
He heard the voices of the crowd.
"God, please..."
"Please bless your people..."
He heard himself asking.
"What do you want?"
Someone in the crowd walked a few steps on his knees and kowtowed to him. It was the village chief. He was much older than when Kou Dong saw it now, and he hit his forehead heavily on the ground again and again.
"Bless you—"
He finally raised his bloody head.
"We want eternal life."
…
"Eternal life!"
"Eternal life!!"
Kou Dong was at a loss, and even felt that he was the god being prayed for. Listening to the tsunami-like pleadings from the gods, he was a little at a loss. After a long while, he murmured a word, "No..."
The face of the village chief on the ground changed.
"what did you say?"
Kou Dong heard his own voice and replied: "Life and death are permanent—"
After saying this, the kneeling villagers stopped moving. They slowly lifted their faces up, and the raised ones were not human faces - blue faces, fangs, hideous and ugly, they were clearly ghost faces!
"Gods who can't protect us," they hissed, "gods who can't protect us..."
They rushed towards Kou Dong. Countless hands pushed and smashed him, as if they were going to push him into an endless hell. Kou Dong gradually couldn't breathe, and all he could see were the villagers who had lost their minds, and their faces were filled with deep-seated hatred and jealousy.
He heard the sound of something breaking, and he lowered his head to realize that it was his feet.
He turned out to be a statue.
A voice suddenly sounded in his ear, someone said to him: "Go!"
As soon as the words fell, a hand suddenly penetrated the white mist and entered the scene, reaching out to him. Kou Dong subconsciously felt that this person had no malice towards him.
Without thinking, he put his hand firmly on it, and was grabbed by the man tightly, pulling Kou Dong out. Kou Dong opened his eyes, and met the villain's frowning face, Ye Yanzhi seemed to grit his teeth, and said, "Whatever it takes..."
Kou Dong blinked, still in a daze, completely unable to understand what happened.
"Xiang has a problem." Ye Yanzhi said briefly, "He dragged you into his dream."
Kou Dong was a little dazed, and murmured, "Is that a dream?"
He looked at the mural in front of him. The him in the painting is exactly the same as the him just now.
All the people admire and all worship.
Ye Yanzhi held his face with both hands, and said without doubt: "It's a dream. Even if it's the reality that happened in this world, it's not the real you. Don't fall into his trap."
As he spoke, the villain glared at the statue again.
"I've known for a long time that this is not a good thing."
The god who was scolded for no reason: "..."
Huge injustice.
After scolding the idol, Ye Yanzhi waited for Kou Dong to recover before asking him, "What did you see?"
Kou Dong described what he saw in the dream to him. After Ye Yanzhi listened, he was thoughtful.
Kou Dong asked, "What will happen to this god?"
Ye Yanzhi's expression turned serious, he looked at Kou Dong hesitantly, and finally told the truth, "I will die."
Kou Dong was surprised.
"How come!" he said, "God—"
"Gods will never die," Ye Yanzhi cut off his words, and said calmly, "Do you want to say that?"
The youth nodded.
"That's false." Ye Yanzhi said, "Since a god is a god, it is all supported by faith. If one day, he is no longer the belief of believers, naturally this god will be useless."
He paused, and his expression became sarcastic again, "Those villagers probably don't know, so they are jealous."
Everyone has to go through life and death, but God doesn't. They enshrine the god of immortality every day, how can they not feel jealous in their hearts
Therefore, I also want to beg the gods to grant them immortal life.
But God couldn't do it. So they destroyed the statue, thinking it was just to teach the god some lessons—who knew, they actually killed the god.
The god who truly protected them left, and the one who replaced them was the evil god in front of them. Since then, the village has become his game field, and both people and villagers have to be reduced to pawns in his chessboard.
But there was one more thing that Kou Dong couldn't figure out.
"In that case," he whispered, "why would he want me to see this?"
Ye Yanzhi couldn't answer this question, so he remained silent.
Kou Dong raised his head to look at the statue, and unexpectedly saw a little sadness on his face.
His dark eyes drooped, as if looking straight at Kou Dong, staring at him for a long time, full of sorrow.
After the villagers guarding the gate left, Kou Dong was finally able to open the temple gate and sneak out. Eight o'clock is approaching, and there is still no Nuo noodles on the chair.
Kou Dong sat first. He waited for a while, and saw the figure of Erlang God appearing from the side of the road, and then sat beside him.
"There are few people today." Erlang Shen said lightly, and looked to the right, "The others haven't come yet?"
Kou Dong opened his mouth to say yes, but suddenly sucked his nose lightly. A few seconds later, he smiled slightly behind the mask and replied, "You came early today."
Erlang Shen said in a low voice: "The villagers' house over there... well, they won't let me in no matter what they say."
Kou Dong remained calm.
"So there was a fight?"
"Did you see that?" Erlang Shen seemed a little shy, "These people just have a bad temper, and they wouldn't want to go in and sit for a while..."
She began to complain endlessly about how impolite these villagers were. Kou Dong turned his face towards her, and seemed to be listening attentively.
After a while, scattered Nuo came in front of him.
Today, there are only nine chairs with Nuo noodles. There were fewer and fewer people, and even Erlang Shen was a little anxious.
Ye Yanzhi said: "This number is correct."
There were eleven more yesterday, one person died in the first round of identification, and one ghost died in the second round of identification.
So someone must have had a problem on the first day.
Kou Dong: "So, it can only be the one in the cemetery."
After all, they didn't personally verify whether the person was really gone. But looking at the movement at that time, I was afraid that if he didn't die, he would be seriously injured-but all the Nuomen at the scene were walking as usual, and they didn't look injured at all.
Ye Yanzhi stretched out his hand, stroked the young man's cheek, and slowly spit out his conjecture, "Could it be that after his death, he didn't quit the game, but turned into a ghost directly?"
Makes sense.
Kou Dong nodded slightly.
In this way, there is only one way to completely disappear people or ghosts from this identification game.
It was lost in the identification at night.
"We have to be ready for battle—" He narrowed his eyes and said in a low voice, "Let's see what happens tonight."
This night, the host still identified the idol. After being taken advantage of by Kou Dong, Bai Nuo Mian never came again, apparently intending to block the bug from the source.
Kou Dong still feels a little regretful about this, but teasing Bai Nuo Mian is actually quite interesting.
But the Nuo Mian at the scene obviously couldn't find it interesting.
In the first round of identification, No. 4 Yang Ren was selected, and No. 7 Niu Jing was identified.
He identified the other person as a person, and after removing the mask, Number Seven was indeed a person.
Under Niu Jingnuo's face was a middle-aged woman with a pale face and tears streaming down silently. But there was no one who could help her. Number four walked around her, without any sign of guilt, and even revealed joy.
Kou Dong saw the problem at a glance. If someone had identified someone, it would obviously not be the reaction.
There is only one conclusion, No. 4 Yang Ren is a ghost.
This surprised Kou Dong. He refreshed his cognition in his mind - in the lottery, ghosts can also be drawn.
Ye Yanzhi seemed to see what he was thinking, and whispered: "It seems that the situation of ghosts and humans is the same, and they have to identify the correct person."
In order to gain people's trust, all ghosts are pretending to be people. Under the premise of fairness in the game, ghosts obviously don't know who their companions are, so they can only identify people based on their contact during the day.
If he accidentally identified a ghost who was disguised too well, he would also be burned to death on the spot.
Kou Dong nodded and continued to watch.
In the second round, the Kitchen God was selected by lottery, and the Judge was identified.
The judge stood up, but trembling. Kou Dong stared at him closely, and found that he was muttering something all the time, as if he couldn't believe it.
But Ye Yanzhi looked at the corner of his clothes and said, "He is the laughing monk from yesterday."
Kou Dong was taken aback, and asked, "How do you know?"
He hadn't seen the judge today, and when he bumped into him on the road occasionally, the judge kept his mouth shut and said nothing, obviously not wanting to reveal his identity.
Ye Yanzhi said, "Something else was stained on his clothes."
After listening, Kou Dong looked in his direction. Sure enough, on the back of the judge's robe, there was a small mud mark—as if someone's finger was stained with mud and pressed it.
Almost at the first sight, Kou Dong thought of the fish spirit who was identified by the laughing monk yesterday.
He lay on the ground for so long, always behind the laughing monk, and he could easily leave a mark on the laughing monk who was ecstatic at the time.
Ye Yanzhi said softly, "The Nuo mask has been changed, but the clothes have not."
The laughing monk revealed his identity when he didn't even know it.
Kou Dong shifted his gaze to the standing Kitchen God, thought of something, and said, "The Kitchen God... didn't hesitate at all when he identified him."
He never hesitated between several exorcism faces.
If there is no entanglement with strangers, they should at least show some hesitation. But looking at the Kitchen God, Kou Dong felt that there was more joy in him—as if he wanted to send the person in front of him to hell immediately.
Ye Yanzhi's voice was a little cold. He said: "There are two explanations. First, today's Kitchen God is a good friend of yesterday's Yujing, and the Yujing left a mark on the laughing monk, so that he can be found even if he changed his face. Kitchen God wants to be a friend. Revenge, so choose to designate him."
Kou Dong: "There should be no team players."
In a game of guessing identities, group cooperation is obviously not conducive to the fairness of the game.
Ye Yanzhi said calmly, "That's the second type."
He also looked at the Kitchen God, and said calmly: "He himself—is yesterday's fish spirit."
Kou Dong shivered slightly.
The selected Laughing Monk walked into the arena and couldn't help but collapsed.
"No, no—" he said incoherently, "Don't choose me—"
As soon as the voice came out, Kou Dong confirmed it. This is the laughing monk who killed his benefactor yesterday.
He glanced at Erlang God next to him, Erlang God sat calmly, as if he didn't notice anything at all.
The Kitchen God on the opposite side did not answer. He just walked up to the laughing monk and pressed his head firmly.
The laughing monk's voice was full of frightened crying.
"Don't choose me—not me!"
"-It's you."
The Kitchen God said cheerfully, using even more strength with his hands, "It's you!"
This voice made the scene a little restless, and many people recognized that it was the fish essence.
The mint who was successfully identified yesterday and should have died in the middle of the night.
Why is he back in the game again
The laughing monk also heard it. His body shook violently, and he raised his head in disbelief.
"No, it won't..."
The Kitchen God, no, it was the dead fish spirit who laughed hahaha. He twisted the laughing monk's head vigorously, and said to the statue, "He's a man! He's a man!"
The idol looked at the scene in front of him indifferently, without any reaction.
The fish spirit took off the laughing monk's Nuo mask, and the man behind the Nuo mask had a pair of small eyes, reminiscent of a mouse when he twirled around. Only this time, he suddenly let out a wail, and his face was covered with tears.
"Don't kill me," he said tremblingly, "Don't kill me..."
No one took pity on him, the scene where the fish essence was identified yesterday, I still remember it clearly.
Kou Dong suddenly turned his head to Erlang Shen.
"What do you think," he asked, "Didn't you also hope that the fish spirit would fight back yesterday?"
Erlang Shen looked at the scene in the arena, and there was a little smile in his voice.
"Yeah," she whispered, "that's what makes it interesting."
After the two rounds of identification were completed, the Nuomians dispersed. The laughing monk and the identified Niu Jing were still sitting on the ground, and neither of them felt lucky.
They all heard the wailing last night, and knew that the same bad luck would befall them at night.
Both Yu Jing and Yang Ren stood aside. They stared at each other, as if they were waiting for the night.
Kou Dong also stood up from his seat, but he still felt something was wrong.
He discussed with his cub in a low voice: "A dead person can return to this game again.—But how? Judging by the fish spirit's posture, it seems to be returning as a ghost."
Ye Yanzhi affirmed his answer, "It must be a ghost."
Otherwise, the mint essence wouldn't stay there too. Later, it will be a live version of ghosts eating people. If he is also a person, he may also be in danger.
Kou Dong: "That's wrong. The number of people is wrong."
According to this statement, only one of the twelve chairs should be empty, that is, a ghost that has been burned clean. But now, there are three empty chairs.
They walked forward slowly along the path, groping logic in low voices as they walked, and suddenly saw a door open ahead, and the child inside poured a basin of water out, and went back in again.
Kou Dong said casually, "Whose child."
After saying that, he suddenly felt cold, thinking of something.
When the villagers were buried for the first time, he also saw the children of the deceased. At that time, he only felt that the child looked familiar.
But when today's incident happened again, Kou Dong remembered where he had seen him when he thought of the identification.
—The child's eyebrows and eyes are almost exactly the same as the ghost identified on the first day...
This thought made Kou Dong stop suddenly.
Ye Yanzhi asked, "What?"
Kou Dong was silent for a while, before finally saying, "Our thinking may have been wrong from the very beginning."
Ye Yanzhi frowned.
"for example?"
"For example," Kou Dong licked his lips, "I always thought that these villagers were looking for someone to die for them. But what if, after the death of the first god, they were already killed by the new god? "
Ye Yan was taken aback.
"what do you mean-"
"So they are all ghosts," Kou Dong whispered, "Do you know hide and seek?"
In hide-and-seek, the selected ghost can only change back into a human identity if he desperately finds the next person to replace him.
In the same way, the ghost hidden in the twelve Nuo noodles can only become his villager if he successfully eats people in the game.
Therefore, those villagers are so happy when they bury people.
Of course they will be delighted.
What was buried was just clothes, and their families, after eating innocent strangers, no longer had to wander around in white robes with Nuo masks every day.
They can become human again.
Kou Dong closed his eyes, strode forward, and suddenly knocked on the door of the family who was doing the funeral for the first time.
A man's voice came from inside the door.
"Who is it?"
Kou Dong didn't make a sound.
After the door opened with a creak, he clearly saw the face in front of him—it was the face that ate the player in front of them on the first day.
It was Qin Tong from the first day.
The author has something to say:
Let's revisit the logic:
The villagers accidentally killed Kou Dong in order to live forever—the npc avenged Kou Dong and turned everyone into ghosts—ghosts can only become villagers again if they successfully eat people in the game, but they are no longer human.