"Don't worry, it's just a hypothesis," Zhang Yuanqing said, steadying the team's morale. He did not think Guan Ya's reasoning was correct. The Demon Lord had said they must resist the temptation of sensual charms and the urge to slaughter, and their test of the latter had already proven successful.
The Demon Lord had not lied.
Following normal logic, when facing a widow, was it not men who had to resist sensual charms?
How could triggering the widow's trial rely on a female walker?
Because of that, Zhang Yuanqing was not flustered. Guan Ya's hypothesis was nine times out of ten wrong.
"Still, this really is a good way to verify the trigger condition." Zhang Yuanqing looked at the Earth Monster, Chi'ou. "Go bring Queen back."
This was an opportunity to test the trigger condition. If Chi'ou went missing while Queen returned, it would prove his reasoning was correct. Conversely, Guan Ya's deduction would be the right one.
The slightly chubby young man nodded. Utterly obedient to his captain's orders, he immediately strode out of the alley.
Three minutes later, neither Chi'ou nor Queen had returned.
"Damn it," Huode Xingjun said in a heavy voice. "Something happened to them."
Going out specifically to fetch someone was a clear-cut objective—quick out, quick back. Three minutes was more than enough.
Since he had not returned by now, either Chi'ou could not find her, or both of them had run into trouble.
Lili Yuanshangcao frowned. "One of them is a Level 3 Water Ghost and the other is a Level 2 Earth Monster. Even if they encountered danger, they'd have enough ability to resist. It shouldn't be this quiet."
Everyone turned to Zhang Yuanqing, seeking their captain's opinion.
"This Yinyang Town is uncanny through and through. They might not have had a chance to resist—just like how we turned into cats earlier before we could even react," Zhang Yuanqing said. "Standing around waiting won't do any good. Let's go look for them together."
The group dashed out of the alley and sprinted in the direction Queen and Chi'ou had gone. Within a dozen breaths, they reached the riverbank.
The river wound along, and the street paved with green bricks stood empty, silent and deserted.
Chi'ou and Queen were gone.
Two living people, vanished into thin air?
"This is bad. We must find them as fast as possible. Every second of delay could be a matter of life and death." Li Chunfeng's face looked grim.
This brought back memories of being slaughtered instantly by the giant cat.
If Queen and Chi'ou had run into a crisis of that caliber, they might already have met a grim fate.
Anxious and impatient, Huode Xingjun darted about like a headless fly, calling out for Queen and Chi'ou.
Lili Yuanshangcao furrowed his brows, glancing left and right as he searched their surroundings.
Guan Ya frowned as well, finding the situation thorny.
She had completed far more instances than Zhang Yuanqing, but none had been particularly difficult. This was her first time in an A-rank instance, and her experience handling high-difficulty instances was inferior to his.
"Don't panic. The weirder it is, the lower the actual danger tends to be; otherwise, the instance's difficulty balance would collapse." Zhang Yuanqing, who had endured the trials of an S-rank instance, remained the calmest of all. Speaking rapidly, he said, "At least we've confirmed one thing: we have to separate to trigger Widow Xu's storyline. And I don't think separating means acting alone; it means separating men and women.
"Right now, we need to enter the storyline, or Queen and Chi'ou will genuinely be in fatal danger."
His reasoning was clear, swiftly steadying their morale.
Huode Xingjun's agitation subsided slightly.
Guan Ya spoke up: "I'll stay here. You guys head back until we lose sight of each other."
Zhang Yuanqing gave her a deep look. "Be careful! Stay right where you are and don't move. If I find that we still can't trigger the plot, I'll come straight back for you."
As he spoke, he silently exhaled a wisp of yin qi, leaving Little Doubi behind.
That way, if necessary, he could see Guan Ya through Little Doubi's vision, using him like a security camera.
To make Chi'ou and Queen vanish without rhyme or reason—among the classes Zhang Yuanqing knew of, only a Night Wanderer's seduction or an Illusionist's illusions possessed such ability.
Whichever it was, Little Doubi could prove useful as a spirit servant.
At the very least, he could serve as an observer ward. Having been upgraded, Little Doubi now possessed rudimentary combat and escape capabilities, so Zhang Yuanqing had some confidence in his spirit servant.
Guan Ya smiled radiantly. "I know. Don't worry."
Immediately, Zhang Yuanqing led his three teammates in a sprint back the way they had come.
Soon, the four men ran back to the mouth of the original alley. Zhang Yuanqing did not stop; he merely slowed his pace, looked around at the houses flanking the street, and called out once more:
"Xiu'er! Xiu'er, where are you..."
Suddenly, a second-floor window of a street-facing house on the left pushed open, and an exquisitely sultry voice answered:
"Are you gentlemen... looking for me?"
The voice drifted into the ears of the four men, tingling and numb, like a lover whispering at their ears, melting half the marrow in their bones.
"Yes, yes," Zhang Yuanqing blurted out toward the window.
"Yes, yes," the other three echoed in unison.
The voice murmured delicately, "I am upstairs. Why don't you gentlemen come up for a chat?"
Zhang Yuanqing, Huode Xingjun, and Li Chunfeng unconsciously moved their feet toward the house.
Inside the open window lay deep darkness, radiating an indefinable gloom.
The somber, quiet Wood Demon youth suddenly shivered. He remembered a detail: the moment the window opened, they had noticed it immediately, yet there had been no one beside the window.
It was as if the window had opened on its own—or an unseen entity had opened it.
The few wanton thoughts in Lili Yuanshangcao's mind rapidly retreated, and he hastily grabbed his companions' arms.
Zhang Yuanqing snapped awake with a jolt. He lowered his voice to scold Li Chunfeng and Huode Xingjun, "Haven't you two ever seen a woman before? Have you lost your minds to a ghost?"
Huode Xingjun and Li Chunfeng showed expressions of shame.
Lili Yuanshangcao glanced at the righteous captain and curled his lip.
Zhang Yuanqing cleared his throat and called out loudly, "Lady Xiu'er, could you poke your head out and let us admire your fair countenance?"
Hearing their captain's shameless words, the other three felt a sense of relief, as though having someone else handle the shameless work took a load off their shoulders.
The sun shone brightly, yet the darkness within that window seemed to swallow the light. The sultry, bone-melting female voice came drifting down again:
"You gentlemen are awful, teasing a poor woman like this. Come on up~ don't keep me waiting..."
The voice dripped with raw allure, making the hearts of the men below pound fiercely.
Zhang Yuanqing put on a solemn face and lowered his voice. "Looks like she won't come down. We'll have to go inside, or the story can't move forward."
His three teammates nodded. Huode Xingjun hesitated. "I've got a bad feeling about this. This trial might be brutal—we might even flip our boat in a shallow ditch."
"Why?" Li Chunfeng frowned.
Huode Xingjun replied, "Because I'm a horny bastard."
What a coincidence, me too... Zhang Yuanqing grumbled inwardly.
Huode Xingjun whispered, "Guan Ya and Queen are gorgeous enough, right? Killer figures, too. But the most I ever do is admire their beauty. Yet hearing Widow Xu's voice just now, all I could think about was sleeping with her."
What a coincidence, me too... Zhang Yuanqing thought.
Li Chunfeng looked troubled; his feelings were identical to Huode Xingjun's.
Huode and Yuanshi both seem unreliable. The one least swayed by feminine charms is Lili Yuanshangcao, but his combat strength is far below theirs. I need to find a way to keep Yuanshi and Huode from being seduced... Li Chunfeng's eyes flickered, and he gave two dry coughs to draw his companions' attention.
"Actually, resisting sensual charms is very simple. The reason men lust is because physiological reactions govern the brain. It's just like when your stomach is empty, you must eat, or when the bacteria in your gut want sweets, you crave sweets. So from a certain perspective, human thought is controlled by the body, which is why many men can't control their lust," Li Chunfeng expounded with ease.
"We can't consciously stop physiological reactions because you can't prevent your body from secreting hormones. But we can influence the brain through alternative methods to suppress hormone secretion."
You sure know a lot... Zhang Yuanqing and Huode Xingjun stared blankly.
Huode Xingjun asked hurriedly, "Then how do we suppress hormone secretion?"
Li Chunfeng explained, "It's simple. You just have to keep telling yourselves inside that no matter how beautiful a woman is, she still has to excrete waste. If she doesn't bathe, she'll smell sour and rank. She picks her toes, maybe even has foot odor. It's best to picture those exact scenes in your minds... In addition, you can imagine even more repulsive scenarios, like the bloat stage of a rotting corpse..."
"Stop, don't say another word. I'm already completely purified of worldly desires." Zhang Yuanqing had visualized it for a second and shuddered.
"All right, let's go in. Sensual charms are nothing special after all." Huode Xingjun strode toward the house.
By the river, Guan Ya waited quietly, vigilantly guarding her surroundings.
A surprised cry suddenly came from behind:
"Guan Ya?"
The mixed-race beauty's heart tightened. She spun around swiftly, assuming a defensive posture.
Running out from the alley behind her was a young woman in light clothing and capri pants, wearing smoky eye makeup. Bright and glamorous, it was Queen.
Her emotions held joy, panic, and helplessness, but no hostility... Her running gait was unsteady, with no signs of gathering force; she wasn't approaching for an ambush... Her aura carried a thick Water-attribute spiritual energy. She truly is a Water Ghost, not an illusion or a disguise...
A faint white light flickered in Guan Ya's pretty eyes—the sharp vision of a Scout calmly observing Queen.
Even though she confirmed that this was indeed Queen, Guan Ya felt no joy or relief. In her sight, Queen's once-rounded face had grown gaunt, her eyes turbid and exhausted, her complexion dull, and her spirits utterly drained.
Having parted for only ten minutes, she had become so haggard, as if her essence and vitality had been completely sucked dry by something.
"Guan Ya, why are you here? Where is everyone else?"
Queen looked pleasantly surprised, glancing around for the others.
"They went elsewhere to search for you." Guan Ya stared at her haggard colleague and asked, "Why did you suddenly disappear? What did you run into?"
Hearing this, Queen's face darkened, and she whispered:
"After fetching water, I planned to head back, but I realized I was lost. I couldn't find you no matter what. I tried shouting, but you never answered. Then... then..."
Queen cast several fearful glances behind her, terror in her expression. "I heard a child's laughter behind me. No matter where I ran, the laughter followed me. But whenever I turned around, the laughter stopped. When I ran again, it started up once more. I couldn't find it anywhere..."
A child's laughter?! A rich white light flared in Guan Ya's eyes, covering her pupils.
Now she saw more: reaching out from behind Queen was a small, dusky-blue hand resting on her shoulder.
The next instant, an infant with dusky-blue skin poked its head out. It had an ugly face with wrinkled skin, its eyes wide open—not the innocent black buttons of a child, but eerie white pupils.
Guan Ya's heart sank. "It's right on your back."
Zhang Yuanqing and the others arrived before the front doors of the street-facing house. They were retro double wooden doors, the twin door knockers covered in rust.
Huode Xingjun was the first to push the wooden doors open. With a creak, the doors, sealed by dust for years, swung inward.
The light inside was dim, and the damp, musty stench unique to old houses wafted into their faces.
Past the entrance appeared to be an outer hall, simply furnished with a few tables, chairs, and wooden cabinets—crude and plain.
Crossing the outer hall led to a small skywell courtyard. In the center lay a small raised platform bathed in sunlight spilling from the skywell, where several bamboo drying racks stood.
Surrounding the platform were an inner hall, side rooms, and a narrow staircase leading to the second floor.
The four exchanged glances. Zhang Yuanqing looked toward the dimly lit wooden stairs. "Stay close to me."
He took the lead up the stairs toward the second floor.
The stairway was cramped and dim, the ancient wooden steps creaking under every footstep.
Finally, they cleared the relatively short flight of stairs and arrived on the second floor.
The second floor was a lady's boudoir, furnished everywhere with items for female use. Directly facing the top of the stairs sat a large carved wooden bed draped with red gauze curtains, covered with fresh bedding embroidered with gardenia flowers.
On a wooden table beside the window stood a bronze incense burner, from which a faint, lingering fragrance drifted.
Beside the window was a vanity table, before which sat a naked woman, clad only in a gossamer veil as sheer as cicada wings. Her silhouette possessed graceful curves, and half of her moon-plump buttocks, pressed against the wooden stool, appeared all the rounder.
The brightly polished bronze mirror reflected a face that looked charming whether in joy or anger, unspeakably alluring.
Her figure and features were beyond reproach, but what drew people most was her aura—indescribable, spellbinding to behold, leaving only two words screaming in their heads: **.
The four men's gazes were glued to her shapely body like magnets, unable to pull away.
Huode Xingjun, Lili Yuanshangcao, and Li Chunfeng wore infatuated expressions, their earlier vigilance and caution melting away without a trace.
Thump-thump, thump-thump...
Zhang Yuanqing heard the violent pounding of his own heart. A surge of lust flared in his lower abdomen, rushing downward and filling him with hot, swollen blood.
Chapter 131