The ancestral hall was shrouded in an eerie aura, even though the sun was still shining in the sky and the evil energy was noticeably weaker in this place. It simply felt creepy.
Feng Rui stopped in front of the large wooden doors, now slightly ajar.
There was no one.
Despite the scream he had heard, only he and his assigned guard had come.
'No one?'
A terrible suspicion formed in his heart.
"Did you hear a scream?"
The guard blinked in confusion.
"I didn't hear anything, young master."
'Shit, was it a ghost scream?!'
Feng Rui swallowed hard before stepping inside.
What was he supposed to do if he encountered all his ancestors at once? Would they recognize that his soul was different? No, impossible, right!?
A disturbing sight greeted him.The ancestral tablets, which were usually arranged neatly on the altar, were now scattered across the floor—broken.
Feng Rui almost had a heart attack.
'If they blame me for this, I'm done for.'
He glanced at the pale-faced guard.
"If you dare say anything different from what we're seeing right now, you know what will happen, right?"
"I would never lie, young master Feng," the guard replied with a respectful bow.
Feng Rui clicked his tongue.
He could already picture his stepmother scheming to pin this on him.
The incense burners had been overturned, their contents spilled across the floor. The cushions were torn open, their stuffing spilling out. Every decoration in the hall was in a similar state of disarray.
He advanced cautiously, avoiding stepping on the shattered remains of the tablets. What was least missing now was a horde of angry ghosts behind him.
And at the center of the hall, lying in a pool of blood...
... was Lin Xian.
"Lin Xian!?" Feng Rui rushed forward, but before he could reach he, an invisible barrier stopped him in his tracks.
The malignant energy in the hall surged, forming eerie shapes that coalesced into shadowy warriors.
"Step back, young master Feng. This could be dangerous," the guard warned, stepping in front of him.
But he didn't react to the shadows.
He didn't even seem to see them.
"What are you doing?! Can't you see—?"
Feng Rui stopped mid-sentence.
The guard wasn't panicked. Maybe slightly puzzled at the sight of the wounded servant, but… he also looked strangely accustomed to it.
"Young master Feng, please inform the other guards. I will stay here."
Feng Rui looked past the guard.
The shadows loomed like silent sentinels, the malignant energy swirling only around Lin Xian's body.
'A trial… just for players?'
He recalled his previous trial in the crypts.
An automatic safeguard.
A mission where an 'NPC' wouldn't be able to interfere.
Feng Rui clenched his jaw.
'Were all the missing servants actually players?!'
The guard remained in position, unmoving, so Feng Rui had no choice but to turn back.
And then he hesitated.
What if the guard disappeared?
What if something happened to him?
Wouldn't he lose his only witness?
Wouldn't he be blamed for the destruction of the ancestral hall?
Could he make up an excuse? No, no—the other servants had already seen him running in this direction.
He didn't want to take risks
"Come with me. Open the way." He ordered.
The guard looked surprised but obeyed. Maybe the young master Feng was scared...
As they stepped outside, Feng Rui saw the guard calling for reinforcements, and soon, a small crowd had gathered.
Strangely, none of them stepped beyond the invisible barrier—none of them even acknowledged it.
'They… don't see it?'
Shortly afterwards, the doctor who was in charge of the guards and servants arrived.
And almost at the same time—
Lin Xian's body moved.
He was waking up.
Pale, weak, and grievously injured.
But alive.
Feng Rui exhaled, finally allowing himself to relax.
Now he was just curious about what had happened.
The butler ordered immediate treatment and an interrogation.
Feng Rui joined in, claiming that as the young master of the family, it was his duty to ensure the safety of such a key witness.
He waited until Lin Xian was conscious enough to speak and handed him a low-quality elixir to accelerate his recovery. He didn't want to waste the few personal resources he had. After all, players could access them more easily than he could.
Lin Xian's eyes fluttered open.
His breathing was shallow, his skin cold.
But he was awake.
Feng Rui leaned closer. "What happened?"
Lin Xian swallowed weakly, his voice barely above a whisper.
"The mission… was a nightmare…"
Feng Rui narrowed his eyes.
Lin Xian was careless, but careless enough to tell him the truth? That was why he had added a root of White Morning Lily and a few drops of Purple Mist Condensate to the elixir. Just a little extra help to make him speak freely.
"What kind of mission?"
Lin Xian's fingers twitched. He took a slow, trembling breath before speaking again.
"It was part of the Han Clan's legacy. Every ancestor… gave me a trial. Riddles, puzzles… and then battles… so many battles. I had to fight them, one after another. I lost count of how many times I almost died…"
Feng Rui stiffened.
He remembered his battle against zombies, after the first 30 he was already more dead than alive.
"Why did you go alone? We had a plan, do you remember?"
Lin Xian's lips trembled as he responded.
"I… I was just following the flow… and before I knew it, I was already inside."
Feng Rui's expression darkened.
'Following the flow…? Don't tell me this was a forced event?'
His grip tightened.
'A mission that triggers itself once a player steps inside?'
Then that meant—
'There might be more.'
'Was the clan massacre caused by these events? By the alleged resurgence of the celestial demon? Or, on the contrary, was it because of what he was about to do next? As a successful prediction of the future. '
Feng Rui exhaled sharply.